Wouldn’t it be great to have a good handle on what will happen this year to make sure you could plan around it? asks Mitchell Levy, CEO and executive editor of Happy About, a US publisher of books for corporations. In his latest book, Knowing What to Expect in 2005: Predictions from Over 50 Executives, […]
Category: Business
New social network focuses on building trust
A new business networking service hopes to set itself apart by de-emphasizing the friends-bringing-in-friends strategy of many social networks and, instead, matching up people according to their professional affiliations and interests. InternetWeek reports on new entrant Common Network, which launched in February, and its plans to grow by partnering with larger organizations as a private-label […]
Business cards that gape the void
Great! I’ve just received my repeat order for business cards featuring this Hugh McLeod cartoon on the back. I first ordered these cards just before last Christmas. Just like that original order, this repeat order exceeds my expectations in terms of good-value quality work, reliability of the vendor (StreetCards in London), and simply great and […]
Edelman and Intelliseek highlight the growing influence of blogs
A newly-published white paper on blogs from PR agency group Edelman and marketing intelligence firm Intelliseek explores the importance of blogging for public relations and marketing, and provides a first-of-its-kind directory of influential bloggers, segmented by industry. The report, Trust MEdia: How Real People Are Finally Being Heard (22-page PDF available for download from both […]
It’s all happening in France
In February, I wrote about what some French newspapers are doing with blogs – Le Monde with its reader blogs and Libération with its journalists’ blogs. Last month, there was news that VNU France launched a consumer blog portal, following its launch of blogs for its journalists across Europe. Tech publisher 01Net also launched a […]
Hardly a gap between Windows and Linux
Most US businesses say there is very little difference between the cost of maintaining a Windows versus a Linux-based corporate computing environment, according to a new study from IT industry analysts, the Yankee Group. A Reuters report via eWeek quotes Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio saying that the main cost difference is determined by the […]
GM: Poster child for the executive blog
Since General Motors began the GM FastLane Blog in early January, it’s attracted considerable attention from business communicators. That attention has been sparked by who the bloggers are – senior corporate executives, starting with GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. The blog’s been under a continuous spotlight with a great deal of ongoing commentary and opinion […]
Content plagiarism – is extra exposure worth going along with it?
Constantin Basturea writes that excerpts of postings from PR blogs are republished, with new permalinks, on a website with pages featuring Google ads and asks, Do their authors know about and approve this practice? The website in question is called PR Blog Watch, part of a website called 101 Public Relations. Constantin’s post lists 18 […]
Podcasting: ‘Significant growth by 2010’
Now that Pew Internet’s data on how many people listen to podcasts has been roundly trashed as untrustworthy, would you trust any numbers from anyone else on projected growth in podcasting? Well, Forrester Research is widely regarded as a trusted source for IT industry analysis. In a press release yesterday, Forrester included this forecast on […]
Scoble’s boss moves to Skype
Via Constantin Basturea, news that Robert Scoble‘s boss at Microsoft, Lenn Pryor, is leaving the company to join Skype. In a post in his blog yesterday, Pryor talks about his reasons for leaving Microsoft and what he’s expecting to see at Skype. He concludes his lengthy post with these words: […] I can’t wait to […]
GM blog stays on track
Yesterday, General Motors announced its financial results for the first quarter this year, reporting a net loss of $839 million compared to a net profit of $1.2 billion for the same period last year. It’s interesting to see the focus in media reporting about yesterday’s announcement – “GM posts worst results in 13 years”, “GM […]
Do people hate Oracle?
In an analysis in The Register, Philip Howard of Bloor Research discusses the database market and how vendors like IBM, Computer Associates and Microsoft are targeting Oracle and seeing weaknesses in the latter’s marketing (among other things). He says: […] Is it because [competitors] (and others) see weaknesses in Oracle? I don’t see how Oracle […]
Volkswagen monitors auto industry trends with blog tool
Techdirt has published a case study on how they have worked with the Electronic Research Lab of car maker Volkswagen to provide them with a customized, private blog of news and analysis concerning a variety of technologies and trends that impact the automotive industry. VW need to stay on top of all kinds of new […]
Telling the business world about blogs
Now it’s getting completely mainstream. Business Week’s cover story in the 2 May edition is all about blogs. You can’t miss this one – just look at that cover! It looks like it’s the main feature story in all Business Week editions, not only the US edition. So wherever you are in the US, Europe, […]
Why every company should blog
I’ve just been reading the drafts of the four interviews that Shel Israel posted in the past few days on The Red Couch, the blog that’s the focal point for developing the book on blogs that Shel and Robert Scoble are writing. Those interviews are with Jonathan Schwartz, COO of Sun Microsystems; Bob Lutz, Vice […]
Top brands on the net
BBC News: eBay is the top brand name on the net, according to calculations by net monitoring company Envisional. It scored the highest in terms of how positively it is perceived on the net, compared to McDonald’s which had the most negative perception online. Envisional says the top ten brands – selected from the FTSE-100 […]
Podcasting is disruptive for radio advertising
Fast Company: Podcasting is the newest disruptive technology threatening traditional radio — and making the satellite guys nervous, too. Intro to a well-written short piece in Fast Company on the threat podcasting presents to radio, which also says: Podcasting has the makings of an audio version of the blog phenomenon, allowing any bum with a […]
More shake up in the enterprise market
Hundreds of developers at Microsoft and SAP will work together on a new product designed to link together their business software in the most significant leap forward in their 15-year partnership, according to a report by eWeek. The new product, code-named "Mendocino," will link SAP process functionality such as time management, budget monitoring, organizational management, […]
Tips and tricks for corporate blogging
The cover story about blogs in last week’s Business Week (magazine cover date today, 2 May) has been widely commented on in blogs around the world. For instance, a Technorati search of blogs that link to the cover story shows over 170 blog posts so far. Even more interesting, though, is seeing the conversation thread […]
Integrating blogs with PR and marketing
First there was Business Week featuring Steve Rubel in their cover story on blogs last week, complete with full-page photo. That feature evangelizes blogs, exploring the business perspective in quite a different way to other recent mainstream media reporting, and in a far more relevant way for the business reader. Today, the Wall Street Journal […]