US press critic and writer Jay Rosen takes a hefty swipe at PR bloggers, with a blanket accusation that they have ignored a pay-for-promotion case in the US that has significant ethical implications for the public relations profession: Bloggers are supposed to be a little more curious than most. They are supposed to apply a […]
Category: PR
Blogs in crisis communication
I’m sitting in Shel Holtz‘ session on “The Blog’s New Role in Crisis Communication.” Some highlights from the discussion: Not practical to expect that the CEO of a large company will run a crisis blog. It will depend on the nature of the crisis – whoever is the best spokesperson for whatever the crisis is […]
Insights on GM executive blog
If you’ve been wondering who was behind The GM Fastlane Blog, General Motors’ step into the public blogosphere by executive blogger Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, Susannah Gardner at Buzz Marketing with Blogs has the details: The blog was result of an ongoing conversation between [PR agency] Hass [MS&L] and GM about blogs. It is run […]
Panel discussion: Blogging and branding
Highlight points from the panel – pictured, left to right: Anita Campbell, Evelyn Rodriguez, Dan Taylor, Andy Lark – moderated by Elizabeth Albrycht. The panel addressed the broad theme of how the connectedness of blogs and other networked media creates both threats and opportunities for corporate brands: Where are conversations occurring and how does this […]
Panel discussion: Blogging and journalism
Highlight points from the panel – pictured, left to right: Dan Forbush, Tom Foremski, Jeremy Wright, Heath Row – moderated by Dan Forbush. The panel addressed the impact of blogs on their work, their general view on the value of blogs as a communication channel, and how best to promote their blogs. Tom: Blogs are […]
GM executive blog and the role of PR
General Motors’ Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz, is not the only one blogging The FastLane Blog, GM’s executive blog. Last Friday, Tom Stephens, Group Vice President, GM Powertrain, joined Lutz as another senior GM executive blogger. This fits with the intent of this blog as this statement on 5 January says: The FastLane blog is your […]
Making Tablet PC evangelism wholly transparent
Having bloggers evangelize Microsoft’s Tablet PC is what Steve Rubel suggests as an answer to Robert Scoble’s vexation on the seeming invisibilty of the Tablet PC: So Microsoft, if you want to save the Tablet PC please take the hundreds of thousands of dollars you might be earmarking for a new ad campaign and invest […]
Comments fuel engaging conversations
The GM FastLane Blog is attracting quite a lot of commentary and opinion, with varying views being expressed on how effective it is as a means of engaging with GM’s customers. I’ve posted commentary, too, most recently on the role of PR in its development and some insights on how it started and how commenting […]
Upholding PR standards starts with the small things
"Will you join with me and other PR bloggers in a grassroots blogging campaign to help raise the perception of the public relations industry?" asked Steven Phenix of The Alliant Group in Austin, Texas, in an email yesterday. Happy to, I replied. PR’s been getting a lot of, well, bad PR lately, as illustrated by […]
Wiki repository of PR and related knowledge
I had the great pleasure of meeting Constantin Basturea at the New Communications Forum 2005 conference in California last month. Constantin writes PR Meets the WWW, his online learning journal with a focus on public relations and on how new technologies are changing PR practice as we know it. We have much in common on […]
GM experiments with podcasting
Not only is General Motors still at the leading edge with executive blogging by a Fortune 100 company, with their GM Fastlane Blog, but they’re also out in front in trying out other new communication channels. In a post yesterday GM offers two podcasts about the launch of two new car models at the Chicago […]
Business podcasting is taking off
It’s been interesting reading some of the reactions by business bloggers to General Motors’ first experiment with podcasting last week. This Technorati list has lots of blog commentaries, mostly positive, although most don’t discuss the podcasts from the specific communication point of view. Quick recap: GM produced two MP3 files that they mentioned in a […]
Microsoft press releases via RSS
For the past couple of years, I’ve subscribed to the Microsoft PressPass email newsletter which lets me know on a regular basis the top stories published in the press area of Microsoft’s website. I’ve unsubscribed now – one less email in the overall inbox clutter! – because PressPass now offers an RSS feed for those […]
An open conversation with General Motors
A few hours ago, Shel and I had the pleasure of an 18-minute conversation with Michael Wiley, Director New Media, GM Communications, at General Motors. We interviewed Michael for the 21 February edition of our bi-weekly podcast show For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report. In our conversation, we discussed the GM FastLane Blog, […]
Communicators give top marks to GM
On Monday, Shel and I interviewed Michael Wiley of General Motors in our bi-weekly podcast show on business communication and technology. During our conversation with Michael, we discussed a wide range of topics – the GM FastLane Blog, GM’s experiments with podcasting and GM’s plans for further developments with communication channels like blogs, podcasting and […]
CeBIT provides opportunies for engagement
A new wireless network roaming service will be available to visitors attending the annual CeBIT technology trade show in Hanover, Germany, from 10-16 March, InfoWorld reports. T-Systems International, the IT services arm of Deutsche Telekom, will provide a roaming service to subscribers of wireless network operators connected to its international roaming system, according to Christian […]
Nooked launches searchable directory of corporate RSS feeds
Nooked, the creator of an online RSS service for publishing and measuring corporate news in RSS feeds, launched the beta version of a searchable directory of corporate RSS feeds on Friday. The Nooked RSS Directory provides a free, easy way to search for corporate RSS feeds by keyword or category. It indexes RSS feeds in […]
There is no template for executive blogs
A story in the Financial Times earlier this week (title: “Why executives should steer clear of the blogosphere” – paid sub needed to read it) took a critical look at a few blogs by senior company executives, and mentioned a senior HP exec with a blog that I hadn’t seen before. The FT commented (some […]
An open conversation with Robert Scoble, Microsoft geek blogger
Yesterday, Shel and I interviewed Robert Scoble, the Scobleizer, in our bi-weekly podcast show, For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report. In a 38-minute conversation, we discussed a wide range of topics, including evangelism, anti-marketing, blogging, RSS and reading feeds, email mailing lists, relationships with colleagues, internal blogs at Microsoft, The Red Couch book […]
Cisco breaks new ground with government affairs blog
Networking company Cisco Systems launched their first public blog last month. It’s a very interesting blog as it’s not the type of blog that would immediately spring to mind. Called the High Tech Policy Blog, it’s owned by Cisco’s Worldwide Government Affairs department and clearly forms a key element of the company’s overall lobbying and […]