Blogs and Libel - or Damn, NKK!

Okay, sometimes things just pop out at you that scream to be mocked or questioned. One came across Skype IM today, and well, it really got me thinking.

But, hey, with one of the posts today, you can win an iPod mini!!

How fitting - photo by Jem

Trylon Communications must really like my blog - despite hearsay that the founder is skeptical blogs - to keep resubscribing me to their newsletter. I tried once to unsubscribe via the form, and gave up and just called and was unsubscribed, hopefully. And, if you ask how do I know I have been subscribed to it, rather than me subscribing? Well, I dont use my info@poppr.com email address for anything. And, yep, that's the email they are using. Come on Trylon, get with the program and at least offer this newsletter via an RSS feed and I'll be happy to subscribe to it. Update: I stand corrected, Trylon does have an RSS feed (thanks Constantin).

Are PR people like cockroaches? Apparently so, if this Profnet Experts Round-Up is any proof. The attorneys make sense. The professors make sense. The PR executives? Um, give me a break. Or, as a friend put it: I am appalled, and damn PR sucks. Is this what we have become? I'm just shocked that I didn't see a "blogging expert" chime in via Profnet that Michael Jackson should have set up a blog.

Ketchum recently launched a blogging practice. Yes, I have mocked blogging practices before, and did not jump in on the Ketchum thing because it was covered enough. One of the bigger complaints was that Ketchum did not have a corporate blog. Now, they do, if you can call it a blog: no comments, no links, no trackbacks. Well, at least it has RSS. In essence, it is just a soapbox for them to talk to clients. The worst part is that the contact and apparent lead is the vice president of business development of Ketchum - not the eKetchum team that does independently blog - but someone fishing for new business. The site notes that it's "One Good Idea a Day. One Valuable Month." We can only hope that it does end June 30, and that this isn't for the blogging practice because it is embarassing. But, hey go check out the blog and win a chance at an iPod mini! And, then go read David Parmet's take on it.

Update on June 22: The site has been updated, and it notes that KetchumIdeas is a service from the Chicago office, and is a month-long project on explaining the blogosphere and other offshoots to clients and the public that might not be involved in it yet.

If you are in PR, you know the pitfalls of being misquoted. Peter Shankman was qouted in an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and as noted on his statement on his Website, he was misquoted. That's fine - one misquote, in a paper, stays there. The bad thing is that there are now bloggers that can find such a thing, jump on it, and republish it - particularly if they are John Paczkowski, who looks for fun quotes for his newsletter nee blog, Good Morning Silicon Valley. What I don't understand is why Peter hasn't addressed the issue on his blog - welcome to the bandwagon - where it could have been trackbacked to the post on GMSV.

Homestead has a job posted on HotJobs right now for a PR Manager. Part of the requirements to apply to the job is to setup a site on Homestead. Yes, that's a good idea for PR people or PR firms: get to know the product and use the product. But, in the process of PR people looking for a job, and then asking them to pay money - because, well, you would want to keep the site up longer than the one-week free trial - seems like a money making venture on the hopes and dreams of job hunters. One idea, though, is to just make the Homestead site your portfolio and resume, so it would have some value post-Homestead job application.

And, last but not least: Golden Palace. I have written in the past about the online casino, wondering if stunts translate to sales. And, well, there is one doozy of a comment there now, which makes me wonder how closely the online casino is tracking blogs. But, they did launch the Golden Palace Blog, initially with the help of InsideBlogging, who soon parted ways as noted on InfOpinions. To quote Simpsons Comic Book Guy, Golden Palace Blog has to be the worst blog ever. It is poorly written. It has no photos - come on, the casino buys crap that is photo-cenric, and no photos. It's just plain not interesting. This is a great example of how not to do a corporate blog.



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