There is a movement to push PR forward . The movement has been happening for a while - and been working - with the smaller agencies, the boutiques, the individual practitioners and the agencies that do get it. So, it's not just a small agency or individual practitioner thing - it happens everywhere, including the big multinational agencies. Just look at Richard Edelman , and his blogging boy . Or KPM . Or, Shandwick 's Robert Ricci who has been blogging behind the firewall for more than a year, and then had his coming out this month . For some people, though, the industry is not moving fast enough . I'm not really one of those people, but I do believe that PR can be better, and needs to improve to make sure we get a seat at the corporate table, and keep that seat. But, the Wiki was closed , and the reindeer games were closed to those agencies with more than 15 people ... the number of God, but I doubt that's the reason it was capped at fifteen. This might be the reason ...

No, not the Webby's - those are more like the Daytime Emmys , but with less prestige and with an award that looks just like the Simpson's Olympic episode mascot, Springy . What I'm talking about is the new, updated Scoble blogroll . I admit it. I read Robert Scoble's blog . While too many blogs out there tend to be about blogs, and are navel gazing, I find Robert's blog to be an interesting read that covers a vast array of topics. And, well, I made the blogroll . Like getting an Oscar. Or, something. It was pretty cool and interesting to see my blog up there. Scoble blogroll speech: I would like to thank all my readers, my friend Kyle for getting me into blogging, the other PR people out there that are working to make blogs and PR a better place, the Auburn students for being fun, and all those special people I didn't mention. Technorati Tags: PR public relations communications Scoble

Here's a simple lesson in public relations, thanks to BusinessWeek . It's a great tale to show to clients, to show that even working with a reporter on an article does not ensure that your client is going to get press. Now, this is purely conjecture, but reading the article on Wikis , it makes me think that the reporter must have worked with a PR firm, PR person, PR something or other. It's too perfect a hit. Read the article. It is well written and explanatory about Wikis and why/how they are changing companies email usage. Well, Wikis and Collaboration Software. The article has great background on the subject. The article talks to companies using Wikis. The article refers to large corporations that are using such collaboration tools, and extensively interviews the managing director at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein with a great descriptive opening paragraph on how he's trashed his Blackberry . Someone in PR set this up. Just a guess, but it sounds too much like the f...

I had a conversation today with a reporter, and was commenting to him about the few comments I had received on my blog post on Dennis Hastert and his blog . His response "I'm starting to think it can't be a blog if it doesn't allow comments. And moderating comments is also bullshit, as name redacted exemplifies so well." I noted that I have had issues with moderated comments for a while, particularly as it is quite easy to notice that some moderated comment bloggers tend to sit on comments that the blogger does not like. Come on - a day to post a comment, when others appear immediately, depending if they agree or disagree? His response? "Eunuch blogs. It's true, though. Most politicians don't allow comments on their blogs. It's crap. Orrin Hatch has a " blog " also. It's just talking points with no feedback." At least Seth Godin - while he does not have comments - has trackbacks. I am not sure if he moderates those, and how l...

Why don't they try to use their students first? Scottsdale Community College - most famous for its mascot, Artie the Artichoke - just paid Cramer-Krasselt close to $12K for a new logo . It is not a bad logo - also nothing that creative that a student could not have come up with the same thing - but whenever I read about a college doing a quick logo redesign, I wonder why the college does not go to the students. It's not like we are talking about a massive PR push or adverising campaign, but rather a rebranding with a new logo. And, who better to know what would embody the spirit of a community college better than its own students? I did check out the college's Website, and they do offer graphic design and art at the school. Now, do I think that every campaign should be handed to classes? No, not at all. Do I think students should have a voice in the branding and logo of their schools, yes. Technorati Tags: PR public relations communications marketing SCC branding logo

A nice A-list circular post about how Audible has missed the target on it's Podcast announcement , and what the PR should be. To me, though, this is funny - isn't public relations about, well, the public? I asked it last October , but I'll ask again. The whole thing is over media relations - that dreaded mainstream media - and blogger relations (step-child of media relations?), and how both are different audiences, and have differenct reactions. But, so much for actually doing any P in that assessment. Media relations, and it's step-sibling blogger relations ignore the greater public relations. You think the general public cares about this issue? The product is geared to advertising agencies, who are looking for a simple measurement tool for Podcasts. Podcasters, who have an interest in this, are upset about the .AA format, and it has been mishandled in that community. But, forget the public ... they just don't matter. And, likely do not care about this issue. As...

While many people applauded Dennis Hastert beginning to blog , this pretty much says he's unclear on the concept. Sending out a press release to announce he has updated the blog.

They do , if they are Riya . They also buy too much swag , which really does not seem to be Web 2.0. Well, it is actually not just the launch party and swag that has me scratching my head in confusion - it is that the launch party seems to represent a return of a dotcom mentality in the Bay Area. My first thought about the launch party was "wow, you guys should have it on a rooftop, invite someone from Industry Standard to be cohost, and then you'll have a total dotcom feeling there." I bet they hand out T-shirts as well. It all comes back to what is Web 2.0. I have wondered about that for a while, if it is just a marketing term for dotcom sites with a community feeling to them and use some Ajax, and are pretty cool. I look at this as an outsider, in a state that does not have any Web 2.0 companies. When I worked in the Bay, though, I also looked at things as an outsider during the dotcom era - realizing that there was more than just the 7-by-7 mile chunk of land, but...

A very sad story that Geoffrey Frost, executive vice president and Motorola's chief marketing officer suddendly died today at 55 . Here, however, is the problem with automatic ad networks. The ad accompanying the story in AdWeek is from AARP , and their campaign that life does not end at 50. Bad placement, bad choice ... makes you wish that there was more oversight. My condolences extended to Motorola and the Frost family.

Transparency is an issue I have tackled on my blog, and then questioned on others . For me, it is pretty simple. We are communicators. As communicators who blog and are counseling clients to blog, we need to lead by example. That does not mean by just having an About page that says who your clients are, instead of disclosing in the post, that you are excused. That does not mean posting about clients and projects without noting they are clients and projects. That does not mean you can take the line that "well, if they click through, the reader will see I'm quoted in the article." That does not mean you even need to link to articles, because that is just whoredom. That isn't real transparency; it is a 'polyester' ... tacky and out-dated. What brings this on? Two great posts from Northeastern University 's Advanced Organizational Communication course. The first was on Synthetic Transparency , and the second was responding to issues raised by the first post...

With the relaunch of the Jolly Green Giant by Saatchi & Saatchi , the obvious question is ... where is Sprout ? Now, I have a free suggestion for Saatchi - with the relaunch of Jolly Green Giant, have Sprout come back as a character blog. Yes, a character blog. I am in the minority, as I like character blogs and think they have their place. But I'm also a realist - that as blogs become more and more prevelant, more and more character blogs will be launched, and the blogosphere just needs to accept that reality. Does mean that the purists have to like it? Of course not, and they won't. On another blog, I have stated and reiterated that I would love to see a Jack in the Box blog, because if it was done half as well as the commercials, it would be pretty good. But, some people just cannot accept that character blogs have their place, and can be a good thing. Or, heck, that even regular blogs are sometimes character blogs, as people are characters behind their computers. Now...

Yesterday, I was on a panel for the AMA Phoenix meeting on " Leveraging B2B Marketing Technologies. " What it really came down to was blogging, podcasting, Wiki/collaborative technology and permission email marketing. I was the blogger on the panel, and the AMA chapter in Phoenix is going to post video, so I will be able to post that when I write a bigger piece. Two things that I want to highlight, though. The last question to each panelist was "in 60 seconds, what is the takeaway for your area?" I said just three words: Pubsub , Technorati and Blogpulse . Then, went on that while it is not necessary for a company to blog (or podcast or video podcast), it is extremely important that they know what is being said out there about the company, about the executives. That if you are not taking part in the conversation, at least know about the conversation. After the panel, though, I was talking with James Peggie from Elexir Systems ' Search Engine Marketing Blog - ...

Mary Mapes goes on a rampage against everyone ... letting everyone know that she's partially infallible, but is the best reporter that has ever walked this green Earth. From the article comes this doozy of a quote: "I'm a human being; I do things wrong from the first breath I take in the morning," Mapes said. "I don't in any way feel I am without responsibility in this. . . . I probably shouldn't have been as pliable or as malleable as I was" when her bosses were finalizing the story. "This is a huge shortcoming. I didn't know how to say no. . . . I was trying very hard to please them." Now, maybe I am being naive, but reporters are not supposed to be human ... well, they are not supposed to make mistakes, and if they do, are they not supposed to own up to them? The article - and I'm sure the book - are amazing reads. Here is a woman that is able to find a conspiracy against her around every corner, and yet does not own up to anyt...

A piece of news from Topix , that they are adding blogs to their mix . It's an interesting topic, as they do not ask if blogs are news, but if all blog posts are newsworthy. And, it is a good subject to debate, but one for a future date for more journalistically inclined people than me. But, this one part of the post that came up for me was How did we judge which blogs to add? We started by crawling about 1M blogs, and then began automatically filtering and ranking these using our NewsRank algorithms -- which consider a variety of factors, such as blog posting frequency, writing style, type of reference, popularity, and so forth. We ended up adding the top 15,000 sources that passed these tests. This seems arbitrary, but I could not comment on the post because there's no trackback or commenting. Seems like a cardinal rule that certain people have touted has been broken, but that rule must depend on the day of the week. I am about to hit submit on a letter to them - the same w...

When I was younger, I loved the cheesy "When Animals Attack!" television shows that were the standard fare on FOX . Well, sometimes Bloggers can act like animals, attacking others when their young (the Blogs) are attacked. Case in point: Forbes ' article on blogs , which does take a page from FOX. The bloggers attack on Forbes pretty much proves Forbes' point: attack if you don't agree . The articles in BusinessWeek and Fortune were fawning articles, very pro-Blogs. Probably too pro-Blogs from two publications that are known for presenting both sides of an issue. Now, we get the other side from Forbes, and Bloggers can't take the criticism. While the article does take a negative tone, there are points that needed to be addressed, very valid points. But, the attacks on Forbes? Give me a break. The issue here is that Forbes is right. When Nick Denton was interviewed by the New York Times in May, he noted that blogs are inherently negative. Hmm, somewhat t...