- I've decided to go with Snippets rather than Miscellany. I like the word snippets. Almost as well as Bambi. Say it with me: Baaaaambi.
- Rock the vote ... doesn't really rock the vote. Apparently, the youth didn't really believe that P Diddy was going to kill them if they didn't vote.
- Blogs blow it with the election. Good piece from SiliconValleyWatcher.com, but with what I am going to guess is an unintentionally funny and ironic comment in a blog - Conclusion: Bloggers have some work to do if they want to be taken seriously as an alternative to professional journalists.
A point, naturally, best brought up ... in a blog.
- From NevOn comes news of Spin Bunny, which has a great piece on being a jackass to a reporter. Even better is that the ZDNet UK reporter writes about how an MD of the PR firm in the UK insulted him, then tried to play nice. ZDNet UK reminds me alot of the ZDNet of old in the US.
- Speaking of bunnies, one of the best Web sites on the Internet. Jennifer Shiman and her 30-Second Bunnies Theatre.
- Ketchum wins the $500K Domino's Pizza business for its "deep understanding of what Domino's is looking to achieve as a brand." Or, I guess, it's deep love for pizza and a 30-minute guarantee. I have a 30-minute guarantee, but that's a different story.
The story is on O'Dwyer's but you gotta be a subscriber to see it...
- Stupid pitching mistakes - a friend / reporter IM'ed me that he just received a "Dear X" pitch. People, if you are going to send out mass emails, at least mail merge! Worse, the pitch was badly written and he threw it out. And, it gets better (worse?) - the pitch came as an attachment.
Someone, bring me my blackjack. Now.
- Jupiter's Blogs are bringing in business. My big beef? No comments. Come on, Jupiter, add comments. To me, a blog is just not a blog without comments. It's just a Website where a person gets to pontificate in his or her own little world.
- Upset about the election? Well, Canada isn't really an option. They're making Americans go through the full immigration process.
- Profile on Peter Arnell of the Arnell Group. Good example of how thinking differently can help you land projects, and then steal clients, away from other firms. Mmmmm, stealing clients.
- Blog about a book you like, maybe you can get a review copy. From Poynter's Emedia Tidbits, Costa Tsiokos blogged about loving Opus (who doesn't love Opus?!) and was sent a review book. The commenter on Poynter does have a good point - if bloggers want to be seen as journalists, they have to abide to the same rules.
I, of course, am still waiting for my signed copy of Gina Smith's book. Hint, hint, Gina.
- Vonage's big marketing spend. The WSJ interviews Jeffrey Citron, the CEO of Vonage on how they are doing advertising outreach to the non-techy to get more customers, targetting women and the main masses. Om Malik - if you are in telecom, you gotta read his blog - wrote about the marketing dollar burn rate at Vonage. Not a pretty sight.
- The election is over. Best commentary I've read today on the election is from Anthurian.
- Polling doesn't fare to well. Not like I ever took it seriously, because people don't like to tell the truth to poll-takers. Or, they answer the questions the way they think the poll-taker wants to hear. Same reason I don't buy into focus groups - too easy to mess with. Keep that in mind, PR. Focus groups are for marketing people too afraid to go with logic, but need group think.
- Robert French of InfOpinions blogs on the Cornell.edu Redesign Weblog. The interesting take on the post isn't what Cornell is doing with their redesign Weblog - the University is rolling out a new logo and a new look - but that it's a good case study on how corporations can use a blog as a messaging tool to the public (hey, it's about the P in PR), as well as a collaboration tool, getting information and feedback from others in the community.
Think of other corporations that could be blogging like this - reaching out to the public to collaborate, brand, message.
- Are you pitching with NFB NDAs? One of my favorite PR bloggers, Tom Murphy, is looking for instances of PR people that are pitching to bloggers, and maybe using a Not For Blogging NDA. Go check out the post ... and ties well into the next posting.
- PR firms are beginning to notice blogs. In a "no shit" posting today in SiliconValleyWatcher - hey, they made it twice into Snippets - Tom Foremski notes that SV PR firms are beginning to notice blogs.
I guess Global PR Blog Week was an anomaly, and not part of the overall PR industry. I guess Edelman blogging isn't a sign that the large agencies are noticing blogs.
It would have been a better piece of Tom spoke to any of the PR bloggers, instead of a PR person that is all "baffled what to do" with blogs.
Here's a suggestion of PR bloggers that have pitched blogs and write blogs that would have had a better comment and actual insight: Jeremy Pepper (okay, me); Mike Manuel; Elizabeth Albrycht; Matthew "Podboy" Podboy; Ben Silverman - hey, Ben's a journalist / does some PR, so is the best of both worlds; Steve Rubel; or Shel Holtz.
Well, the first comment went off into the ether somewhere. So, here's the second attempt at a comment :o) with elaboration.
ReplyDeleteI laughed very hard re: "Apparently, the youth didn't really believe that P Diddy was going to kill them if they didn't vote." That was too funny. :o) I'm still laughing.
Maybe a message from a multi-millionaire trying to hold on to his 'street cred' doesn't sell so well anymore. I can here 18-29 year-olds now, "Oh sure, we'll buy your shirts, P Diddy, but register to vote? Please."
And, maybe that Honduran 'sweatshop labor' scandal didn't help, either.
Thanks for talking about the Cornell Redesign blog, too, Jeremy. It strikes me as a good case study.
Hi Tricia,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, and Snippets is a way for me to post daily, without indepth commentary, but still with some PR Value.
1. As for Vote or Die, I thought the shirts were pretty cool looking, but I wasn't going to spend money on one.
2. Yes, I was forwarded the pitch email, so I got to see it with my own eyes. It was an attached Word document, and it did begin Dear X.
The reason you NEVER attach a pitch to a reporter is because of the worry of viruses, plus some newsroom firewalls strip attachments. The only time you send an attachment is when it is requested (usually a photo JPEG). So, you write the pitch in the email, have your sign-off greeting, then cut and paste the full press release below your letter. The reporter should be able to gauge his/her interest from your short pitch letter, and have the choice to scroll down and read the rest of the release.
A Mail Merge is one of the great things of Word and Outlook. It's a way to take a database (I transfer all my contacts into Outlook and use Plaxo to keep up-to-date), and send personalized letters to each person. Instead of sending out a generic email with no greeting line beyond "Hello," because, well, that's boring.
3. I don't think blogging is supposed to replace journalism, but it is gaining traction as a source for news, information, and, well, gossip. There are many journalists out there that are also blogging, and there are bloggers out there that are just ... bloggers.
But, it's like anything you read online or offline - you take it with a grain (or box) of salt.
The irony was that a journalist nee blogger wrote that bloggers need to build credibility, especially since many were calling the election early, but noted it in a blog, not print paper.