Engineer Jeremy back here again, a little late pulling into the station. Sometimes, the cluelesstrain is on time, sometimes it's not. Other times, there are just so many things you read online that make you think that Sparky should either jump on the tracks, or that we need to reserve a bunch of seats for people today. So, just wave to today's passengers, and don't get too close - it might be catchy! And the train says "Sparky, don't jump on the cluelesstrain!" First on board: Arizona State University . The University has a pretty good business school . It's not top 10, but it does quite well for itself. But, apparently it has decided to target online universities in its latest billboard advertising campaign - the Phoenix metro area is home to both ASU and University of Phoenix - with a statement to get a "real MBA" that implies the online MBAs aren't worth anything. This made no sense - when you make comparisons, you compare up, not down. ...

PR Face2Face is a special series of interviews with the top public relations and publicity professionals in the country, as well as with people involved in the public relations world. The eighth installment is Al Golin, Chairman of GolinHarris. A veteran for almost 50 years in the public relations industry, Al Golin is chairman of Chicago-based GolinHarris . In addition to handling the McDonald's account for more than 45 years, GolinHarris represents such companies as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Coors Brewing Co., Florida Department of Citrus, Levi Strauss & Co., National Peanut Board, Nestlé, Nintendo of America, Owens Corning, Sprint, Texas Instruments, Toyota Motor Sales of America, and Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. As a consultant to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Al's work centered on a major public relations awareness program for U.S. companies on the benefits of exporting to help our economy, increase employment, and reduce the balance of trade deficit. Al is a member of the board...

While I straddle the fence on blogging - is it the end-all be-all, is it just a communications tool to be used (and sometimes abused), has it jumped the shark with the Business Week article - this is pretty cool to me. For the Target manager/senior manager of media relations job for Target, one of the requirments is "Strong knowledge for Internet journalism, e.g., blogs" - think about that for a minute. The fact that one of the largest retailers in the country - and, personally a favorite of mine - is doing this is quite interesting. Think of all the online shopping that goes on at Target.com, the past issues with Amazon/Target and the items for sale . Now, they are actually proactively looking for someone to deal with blogs, including the crisis communications that is sometimes needed when things are unleashed in the blogosphere. This is a major shift in corporate awareness, understanding that online media and blogging are part of the communications mix, and need to be ...

Yes, I know that this really does not fit the theme of my blog, but I received this email today, and it was so sad. I called the woman - to verify the story - and her dog was stolen from her front yard, while she was tending to her horse. And, then she started crying on me, and if any of you have a dog, you know that special bond between a dog and its owner. Stolen Pickles A 7-month old Jack Russell was stolen around 6 p.m. last night on April 20, 2005 from the owner's front yard. It was during broad daylight and a couple in a yellow H2 Hummer with a bike and bike rack on the back called Pickles, who is a typical friendly puppy, and the dog went up to the couple. They grabbed the dog, took off down Dynamite Boulevard, near Scottsdale Road . The woman has set-up a reward to reclaim her puppy, and is asking for people's help. If you live in the Phoneix area, and see a Yellow Hummer H2, call the Scottsdale Police, who have taken a report. Look for a blonde woman with long hair - ...

In a turnaround from its recent stories on public relations, the New York Times takes a look at how Wendy's has been handling its crisis . This is a great case study of how Wendy's public relations team - and Ketchum , who is helping with the crisis ( according to an O'Dwyer's story ) - are handling the event. In the article, it is noted that beyond Wendy's having to deal with a decline in business, Wendy's has had to weather some 20 copycats around the country who claimed to have found everything from fingernails to a chicken bone in their Wendy's food. Wendy's is reaching out, though. To quell the problems and try to rebuild the company's reputation, Wendy's decided to offer free milkshakes this weekend in 48 Bay Area stores as a sign of customer appreciation. Mr. Lynch flew to San Jose on Tuesday to help coordinate the effort. The company has also decided to send coupons to residents in the area around the restaurant. Next month, Wendy's w...

The Cluelesstrain has had a long run in the past five years. First, the train had to pull into the Online Practice in 1999. Then, in 2001, the train pulled into the Homeland Security Practice station. In 2002, the station was the Sarbanes-Oxley Practice. The Cluelesstrain is tired, but thankfully it has a stop in the Blogging Practice station for the next year. Engineer Jeremy is here to help you understand the point: just like most agencies dropped online practices in 2000, and Homeland Security and Sarbanes-Oxley practices disappeared the following years, Blogging Practices will be either swallowed up or killed in the next year. Cluelesstrain Express. Next stop: PR Blogging Practices Here is why. Most firms realized that the differences between online and print media was moot. If the online team pitched a WSJ.com reporter, but the article showed up in the Wall Street Journal, who took the credit? Sadly, some agencies still split the practices , but most agencies get that an inte...

Recently, I wrote that it was all about content , and that no matter how great the content is, unless it is being pushed out in a way for people to read, it's not going to matter. Here's taking that idea one step further - content is great, you need to get it out to the right audience, but it's not just about being online. Blogs are a great form of communications, but they are just a tool in the communications mix . So, here are two examples of blogs being used to enhance the public relations campaigns. The first is Steven Phenix 's father and colleagues; the second is English Cut and David Parmet 's work on the project. When The News Went Live is a blog written by four old-school journalists , and how their lives changed the day of the Kennedy shooting down in Dallas. The blog was set-up to support the public relations campaign for the book of the same name the four had written together, and has lead to more press and more public appearances for the four. Via e...

PR Face2Face is a special series of interviews with the top public relations and publicity professionals in the country, as well as with people involved in the public relations world. The seventh installment is Lord Chadlington, Chief Executive of the Huntsworth Group. Lord Chadlington is the chief executive of the Hunstworth Group . He has spent his entire working life in communications, as a journalist after graduating from Cambridge University and later in public relations both in-house and consultancy. He founded Shandwick in 1974, establishing it as the largest PR consultancy in the UK within seven years and holding that position without interruption for the next 17 years. He built the firm overseas and it was sold to The Interpublic Group of Companies in 1998, forming the group that became the largest PR consultancy in the world. Lord Chadlington is a former director of Halifax plc and has written and lectured extensively on communications, politics and public relations. He was...

Welcome to the Cluelesstrain , a weekly post on things that will just make you scratch your head. While it will be a Thursday feature, here's a sneak-peak into what the Cluelesstrain will bring! We've all heard or read about the Cluetrain . It's a very big, hot-button term for the blogosphere. It's a holdover from the dotcom era - check out the Wikipedia post on it - and pretty much part of the famous buzzword bingo. Go to any Web 2.0 style conference, and you will be sure to hear at least half the companies use a bunch of buzzwords that have no real meaning. Think longtail, and you can develop your own Web 2.0 drinking game . So, in honor of the Cluetrain, I have decided to debut the Cluelesstrain . All aboard, as I pull back the curtain on clueless issues. All Aboard the Cluelesstrain! (Apologies to Wesley F.) The first cluelesstrain leaving the station is this week's New York Times article on blogs . And, no, it's not the New York Times that needs to ge...

Public relations, PR, communications, marketing communications. No matter what term you use, it always comes down to one thing: content. You can have the perfect story, but if the pitch does not work, no one will bite. The pitch is your content. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if you cannot articulate why it's great, no one will care. That articulation is content development. You can have the prettiest blog in the world, but if the content is lackluster, no one will read it. You can be the greatest corporation, but if your press room does not have the right content, reporters and analysts will go away with no pertinent information. It's been a while since anyone has written about the state of online press rooms. Back in October 2003, Tom Murphy had a couple of posts on the Vocus study and the former MediaMap's recommendations for the online press room . And, Ben Silverman crowned Apple as the king of online press rooms on his PR Fuel Bl...

PR Face2Face is a special series of interviews with the top public relations and publicity professionals in the country, as well as with people involved in the public relations world. The sixth installment is Jeffrey Sharlach, Chairman and CEO of The Jeffrey Group. Jeffrey Sharlach founded The Jeffrey Group in 1993 after spending 15 years in New York at top international agencies. He was Executive Vice President for International Operations at Rowland Worldwide, Vice President and Client Service Manager for Burson-Marsteller, and Vice President and Worldwide Creative Director for Carl Byoir & Associates. Trained as both a journalist (BSJ, Northwestern) and an attorney (JD, NYU) he has developed and managed communications programs for many multinational clients throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. In 1995, he was honored as a “Public Relations All-Star” by Inside PR Magazine in the field of international PR, recognizing the success of The Jeffrey Group in Latin America. Jeff c...

As a participant in the first Global PR Blog Week , I was able to interview a great group of PR professionals , which was somewhat the impetus for the PR Face2Face series. Well, Constantin Basturea is taking the reins again - with the same core people - and driving Global PR Blog Week 2.0. I have yet to decide on how I will participate - or if I will participate - in GPRBW 2.0. The first event was amazing, with a collection of PR bloggers that brought a variety of viewpoints and information to PR people worldwide. But, in that year, the PR blogosphere has exploded, and this event will likely be even bigger. But, if push comes to shove, I have one idea of aggregating various comments and quotes from the PR Face2Face series on PR and blogging. So, it'd be a compendium of views across various public relations professionals. Take a read, get the information, and participate in this year's event. Global PR Blog Week 2.0 is Coming!! WHAT : The Global PR Blog Week 2.0 is an onl...

After posting the PR Face2Face interviews with the IABC chairmen , Neville Hobson has been on my case to get a trackback system installed. I like Blogger . I like its ease-of-use, I like that it's been around for awhile, that I have most of my posts here already. I don't like that it has no trackbacks. So, I finally broke-down and installed Haloscan trackbacks, after too much work to install it. Not a really easy way to to do it, unfortunately. And, I think it slows down my blog loading time. But, the masses (okay, Neville) called for trackbacks....

PR Face2Face is a special series of interviews with the top public relations and publicity professionals in the country, as well as with people involved in the public relations world. The second part of the fifth installment is Warren Bickford, the incoming chairman of IABC. Warren Bickford, Vice President of Gryphon Reputation Management , has worked for more than 20 years in fund development, public relations and communications in the not-for-profit, public and private sectors. He is the incoming Chairman of IABC , and is also a Past Chair of the IABC Research Foundation. Warren is also actively involved in his home community having served on the boards of Volunteer Regina, the Hospitals of Regina Foundation and the Children’s Health Foundation of Saskatchewan and currently on the board of the MacKenzie Art Gallery. He has also served on the boards of the Healthcare Public Relations Association of Canada and the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy. Warren Bickford, the incoming I...