PRAM Central Station

This blog is closed.

2005-07-28T09:55:00.000-05:00

Hi. Thanks for stopping by.

We have discontinued this blog. Shawn Lea's blog on associations and public relations, The Big Picture, can be found here. For a list of public relations blogs that PRAM Central follows, visit www.pramcentral.org.

Report: Search Results Hurt Companies -- Blogs Help Them Fight Back

2005-07-07T17:03:00.000-05:00

A white paper from MarketingSentinel suggests that corporations should borrow some techniques from bloggers to temper the impact of negative consumer-generated content on search results.

For example: put Dell Tech Support into Google and six of the first 10 results are blog posts about how bad the service sucks. If Dell PR knew what they were doing, the search results would be different.

For the full story from BL Ochman, click here.

Will earning an MBA enhance your career prospects?

2005-07-06T15:31:00.000-05:00

The reasons to pursue an MBA. are numerous. But some are better than others. Some are downright misguided. There's no one good reason to get an MBA. -- but the more good reasons and the fewer ill-advised notions you have, the greater the likelihood attending business school makes sense for you. Will earning an MBA. enhance your career prospects? This assessment examines some of the factors that bear on the value that an MBA. affords a professional's career and why. Review each factor. Which statements apply to your situation? There's no scoring. The exercise is meant to help you assess whether you have a sound basis for attendingb-school.

Complete the assessment from The Wall Street Journal's Career Journal (scroll down to quizzes and tools). (via SHSMD's e-Connect)

The press release is dead

2005-07-06T15:30:00.000-05:00

The press release is pretty much dead as a piece of the strategic communications arsenal. Think about it. As a society, we've gone from the era of mass production, mass merchandising and mass marketing to one where customization is king. In this environment, press releases are to PR professionals what the 30-second television commercial is becoming to the advertising industry. As far as most reporters and editors are concerned, they are overproduced, they lack differentiation, they generally aren't relevant and the vast majority just aren't worthy of coverage.

Read the full article from MarketingProfs.com (free registration required). (via SHSMD's e-Connect)

Making the Most of Your Exhibit Opportunity – 10 Do’s and 10 Don’ts in Staffing Your Exhibit Booth (and Outside Your Booth As Well)

2005-07-06T13:46:00.000-05:00

Tradeshows and exhibits are great ways to increase company visibility and, ultimately increase sales. However, the cost of travel, shipping, time away from the office, booth rental space/supplies can be significant. It is imperative that you maximize your limited time in the booth to get the best return on investment. This article covers some of the key points to keep in mind as you staff your booth.

Stronger Sales in Just 28 Minutes

2005-07-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

Done right, a good pitch really pays off. That's why mainstream firms are lining up to learn the art of the effective infomercial.

Companies Tap Into RSS

2005-07-05T11:27:00.000-05:00

Real simple syndication, better known as RSS, is moving from weblogs to the Fortune 500. The technology, designed to let users subscribe to blog newsfeeds, is being co-opted by corporations to keep employees and customers informed -- alerting systems administrators when a server goes down, for instance, or sending lists of recent credit card purchases to a customer's Treo.

The simplicity appeals to companies because monitoring data takes too much time and e-mail updates clog inboxes. RSS, on the other hand, can issue customizable alerts more quickly than e-mail. "RSS will be adapted by corporations really fast," predicts Ray Valdez, an analyst at the Gartner Group. Startups are already eyeing the nascent market. Ottawa-based Serence has clients ranging from FindSavings.com, which alerts shoppers about new coupons, to a law firm that's using RSS to monitor patents. Big companies, too, are getting into the game. Computer Associates's (CA) Security Advisor RSS service provides updates on the latest viruses and worms to corporate IT departments. Real simple, indeed. (via Business 2.0)

The A.M.-P.M. Billboard

2005-07-05T11:21:00.000-05:00

In 2002, Cincinnati's WCPO-TV was a ratings blip; now it's the No. 3 ABC affiliate in the nation. One big reason? A digital billboard on a local freeway. In a groundbreaking trial with Lamar Advertising in 2003, WCPO promoted different programming depending on the time of day. When early-evening news was plugged during the afternoon, ratings often spiked. For the full story from Business 2.0, click here.

Logo Trends 2005

2005-07-05T11:15:00.000-05:00

Graphic Design USA has published its analysis of Logo Trends 2005, and the results are insightful. Among this past year's trends: folly stars, amalgams, cmyk, flames, wicker balls, puffies, line dots and swirlys. (via Fast Company's blog)

Butler Snow Releases Mississippi Business Legal Guide

2005-07-05T10:13:00.000-05:00

The attorneys of Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens and Cannada are pleased to announce the release of Doing Business in Mississippi: A Legal Guide.

The guide provides useful information for the formation, structure and operation of various business entities and can be a useful tool for businesses seeking to relocate or expand into Mississippi as well as established in-state businesses.

To download the Acrobat document, click here.

"...We built a brand online....We did IT!" (Dora on the Net)

2005-06-27T13:55:00.000-05:00

Great story in Slate about the birth of the Dora the Explorer brand. There's a great case study here about using the Internet to generate the brand:

Nickelodeon also saturated its airwaves with ads for Dora, particularly during Blue's Clues, the then-cornerstone of Nick Jr., its branded programming block for tykes between 2 and 5. The ads touted an interactive online adventure: Viewers were urged to visit the Nick Jr. Web site and "help Dora make it from her online area to their televisions in time for her debut." Parents who helped their children log on discovered that the Nick Jr. site was tailored as much for adults as for children, with advice on kid-friendly travel destinations and ideas for successful play dates. The Dora adverpuzzle attracted 50,000 unique visitors per day at its peak, and the Dora premiere was the most-watched series launch ever for Nick Jr. (via JupiterResearch Analyst Weblogs)

Public More Critical of Press, But Goodwill Persists

2005-06-27T11:39:00.000-05:00

Public attitudes toward the press, which have been on a downward track for years, have become more negative in several key areas. Growing numbers of people question the news media's patriotism and fairness. Perceptions of political bias also have risen over the past two years. For the full story from Pew Research, click here.

The FAQ - revisited

2005-06-27T11:37:00.000-05:00

How can the humble FAQ contribute to learning, decisions and knowledge sharing? (via Corporate PR)

Junior Blogging

2005-06-27T11:27:00.000-05:00

Okay, so the title is meant to imply that junior staff has taking up blogging as well - whether as students in public relations, those beginning their careers, or those that have targeted their blog to entry-level PR people.

Maurice Levy: How to be a great leader

2005-06-27T11:02:00.000-05:00

CNN Financial Editor Todd Benjamin speaks to Maurice Levy -- President of Publicis, the world's fourth largest advertising company -- about what makes a great leader.

Microsoft Crashes the RSS Party

2005-06-24T16:58:00.000-05:00

The software giant will include reader technology in the coming Longhorn operating system -- and make it available for free

Your Focus Group Is The Blogosphere

2005-06-24T13:29:00.000-05:00

An ad company demonstrates to a wireless carrier how it can market better by reading its target audience's blogs.

PR Compensation & Job Satisfaction Survey

2005-06-17T11:20:00.000-05:00

Ian Lipner, of YoungPRPros, has launched a compensation and job satisfaction survey for North American public relations practitioners. Survey respondents will receive the full results of the survey-free of charge. Everyone else will get an executive summary. ALL responses will be completely anonymous and individual responses will NOT be shared with anyone.

And do not let the name YoungPRPros fool you. Lipner is looking for responses from all levels of experience. As a member of YoungPRPros, I can tell you a full range of folks participate.

The more responses, the more accurate the results. So be sure to take the survey. (via WebProNews)

Florida Red or Moody Blue: Study Looks at Appeal of Off-beat Product Names

2005-06-16T11:40:00.000-05:00

From Chubby Hubby ice cream to Trailer Park red nail polish, marketers using ambiguous or surprising descriptions for new flavors and colors are likely to win sales by making consumers go through the effort of understanding an off-beat name, according to recent Wharton research.

Boosting returns on marketing investment

2005-06-14T16:26:00.000-05:00

The golden age of advertising is over, so marketers must now work harder to reach buyers. Distracted consumers and the proliferation of media and distribution channels are also undermining the traditional approach: set objectives, develop messaging, and measure results. While some marketers have responded by turning to quantitative solutions such as marketing-mix models, today's challenges call for more.

Read the full article in the McKinsey Quarterly (free registration required).

10 Commandments for The Era of Participatory Public Relations

2005-06-13T15:34:00.000-05:00

Steve Rubel today give us the 10 Commandments for the Era of Participatory Public Relations.

In case of emergency

2005-06-13T11:34:00.000-05:00

James Surowiecki, in his "Financial Page" feature in the current (June 13 & 20) New Yorker, discusses the subject of crisis communications.

Is The Market Pumped For PR?

2005-06-13T09:15:00.000-05:00

After years of getting short shrift from financially stressed clients and marketers, PR services are on the upswing, according to the third annual "Public Relations Generally Accepted Practices Study." The study, published by the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center, says 2004 was a "bounce-back" year, revealing strong growth for the PR profession. "Trends emerged last year that began to be validated this year," says Daniel King, senior project leader at the Center for Strategic PR. "The purpose of this is to take the pulse of the industry and, in response to the seismic events of the past year, CEOs are taking serious counsel and are taking notice of PR."

The study also says the CEOs of hundreds of senior-level PR people believe PR is the No. 1 contributor to organizational success, ahead of marketing, financial and legal, for example. Although just 347 senior executives out of 10,000 responded, King says, "Three years allows you to track the trends, and that is why this is so pronounced." (via PR News)

2005-06-04T15:46:00.000-05:00

John Bell, SVP/Creative Director at Ogilvy, is blogging. The blog, the Digital Influence Mapping Project, focuses on what influences us and how we influence others.

Boeing launches 2nd blog

2005-06-04T15:44:00.000-05:00

Boeing has launched their second blog, a Flight Test Journal for the 777-200LR Worldliner. As the first post notes, “flight test activities are rarely publicized.” The blog allows readers to follow the progress of the program as it completes 500 flight hours and 300 ground hours leading up to the February 2005 rollout. (via Blog Business Summit)

TV advertising must evolve

2005-06-02T16:23:00.000-05:00

Is the standard 30" commercial becoming obsolete? Newsweek has an interesting article on the future of Tv advertising. More and more brands think it is becoming too expensive and, most of all, the results are difficult not only to measure but also to reach. Once again, the point made in the article, is that advertisers (and advertising agencies) need to adapt to the advance of technology and also to the changes in consumers media consumption. Tv advertising not dead, and is not going to die in the next future, but it needs to evolve and find new formats to resist to the competition of emerging technologies (TiVo and dvd recorders, for examples) and of different advertising channels. (via Adverblog)

Web ads will grow in 2005

2005-06-02T16:22:00.000-05:00

According to Goldman Sachs the online advertising industry is expected to increase by 28 percent to reach $12.3 billion in 2005.

Online advertising is growing, but it's also getting more and more complicated as Bambi Francisco explains: "Successful online advertising isn't just about a clever campaign; it's about mathematical computations". (more at Adverblog)

Web Copywriting: New Free Guide

2005-05-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

Nick Usborne has just published a free 35-page guide to copywriting for the web. You get a free copy of this guide if you sign up for Nick’s e-mail newsletter.

Nick explains how web copywriters can:

Help every visitor avoid getting lost.
Write for the company, visitors, AND the search engines.
Earn visitors’ trust.
Write every page as a landing page …or not.
Make content pre-sell.
Make the sale before it’s too late.
Learn that web designers are not always on the writer’s side.

(via Contentious)

How to formulate marketing messages

2005-05-17T16:39:00.000-05:00

The following three approaches typically determine the key messages for successful marketing programs.

Portray your product as an antidote to a problem
Highlight the strength within your product's weakness
Attack the weakness within your leading competitor's strength

Using these approaches, you should be able to identify several possible messages. You then need to select the messages that will have the most impact in your marketing programs.

Read the full article from MarketingProfs.com (free registration required).

Buzz, Blogs, and Beyond

2005-05-17T13:50:00.000-05:00

Experimental research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and BuzzMetrics suggests that political bloggers can make an impact on politics, but they often follow the lead of politicians and journalists.

A report released May 16th, entitled “Buzz, Blogs and Beyond: The Internet and the National Discourse in the Fall of 2004,” employed new word-of-mouth tracking and cross-media correspondence techniques to examine the impact of online buzz on the national agenda during the last two months of the 2004 presidential election.

It is available for downloading here.

Analysing corporate websites for competitive intelligence

2005-05-17T10:21:00.000-05:00

You've found your competitor's site (and the chances are that youdidn't even need to Google it - you guessed or knew the domain name).Now what? Well, obviously you want to visit as much of it as you canto vacuum up any tidbits of information that will tell you about theirstrategy, their values and what they want to tell the world. At thesame time you'll be aware that much of the information is there tosell the company and may not be 100% reliable: 'brochure-ware' is aterm sometimes used.

Yet is this all that can be done?

Is there more that could be found if you just knew how?

The answer is usually yes! (via ResourceShelf)

PRWeek's 2005 Marketing Management Survey

2005-05-17T10:11:00.000-05:00

In an environment in which marketers are increasingly looking for alternatives to traditional consumer outreach, PR stands to reap the benefits.The third annual PRWeek/MS&L MarketingManagement Survey assesses attitudes and opinions about thevalue of PR from the perspective of senior marketing executives.

Blogs Are Great For Google SEO

2005-05-16T16:33:00.000-05:00

The most recent Google results reveal, whether involving incoming links, Google PageRank levels, or positions in the search engine results pages (SERPs), there is one common denominator.

Survey finds PR rising in marketers' eyes

2005-05-16T15:49:00.000-05:00

The PR industry has seized the challenge posed by a rapidly changing marketplace and is gaining ground as a go-to for marketers seeking better ways to reach consumers using nonmainstream tactics. For the full story from PR Week, click here.

Recent Data on Blogging Growth Reveals Why You Need the Right Business Blogging Strategy If You’re Going to Get the Results You Want

2005-05-16T15:42:00.000-05:00

What’s the dirty little secret buried in a recent blogging report, and why is it so vital for your success with business blogging?

Well it’s not revealed in the press release itself, but rather in a post at the BlogPulse Blog Here’s the key quote related to blog activity that caught my attention:

According to our statistics, 31% are active within the last 30 days, 44% are active within the last 60 days and slightly more than half (51%) are active within the last 90 days. “Active” means a new post has been added.

Only one-third of these bloggers are posting on a monthly basis, and more than half have not posted in 90-days! That means they’re abandoned for all practical purposes. They might as well be a regular web site with that type of updating frequency. No relationship building with consumers, and certainly no benefits what-so-ever in search engine rankings. For the full story from Advanced Business Blogging,

The Next Great Retail Idea: PR?

2005-05-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

Public relations can drive business owners nuts. If they decide to spend money on PR at all, they often feel (and get) sidelined in favor of bigger clients. That's what Mike Butler noticed when he headed a traditional public relations agency. "We knew a small-business owner didn't get very much attention and his budget wasn't very big, but his needs were just as real," Butler says. He's launched PR Store, a storefront marketing and PR firm for small businesses, in hopes of solving the problem.

PR Newswire's monitoring service adds blogs to the mix

2005-05-14T10:48:00.000-05:00

From the press release:

PR Newswire's eWatch(TM) monitoring service has upgraded its Web Pubs service by adding hundreds of the most influential and visited blogs on the Internet, it was announced today. This enhancement follows the recent addition in February of more than 10,000 print sources to eWatch(TM) and marks a significant evolution of the service from Internet to print and now blog monitoring.

What CEOs Want From Marketing

2005-05-14T10:42:00.000-05:00

Down the Avenue has an interesting post about what CEOs want from marketing - and she also touches on the turnover in the CMO position and why the position is rarely chosen for CEO grooming.

The New Career for People Under 30: Public Relations

2005-05-14T10:38:00.000-05:00

The good news? Those under 30 are much more interested in a job in public relations. The bad news? They have no true understanding of what public relations is.

Blogs and social networks and wikis, oh my!

2005-05-14T10:14:00.000-05:00

News.com has a cautionary crisis communications story about the Kryptonite bike lock, manufactured by Ingersoll Rand. Stories of the how to undo the supposedly indestructible lock with a Bic pen had made the rounds on the Internet for weeks - and was eventually picked up by The New York Times - before the company even knew about it.

Companies are fast learning that this blogging business is not just about writing. It's also discovering what others are writing about you.

Sprint Wireless Corporate Blog

2005-05-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

Straight up Slush - One Sprint Employee, Many Opinions located at http://businessblog.sprint.com/ is the wireless industry blog that uncovers the stories, conversations, and inside tales of Sprint mobile solutions.

The blog is written by Rob Slusher, Senior Marketing Manager for Customer Solutions at Sprint Wireless. A quick check of the archives shows the blog was created in March of 2005. (via Hyku and Constantin Basturea's Del.icio.us feed for PR practitioners, PR Digest)

The next generation of ad networks

2005-05-10T10:31:00.000-05:00

Jupiter's analyst Gary Stein blogs today about ABC and WorldNow which presented the "Local Media Network" (LMN) an ad network that will serve ads on 147 local television websites affiliated to the ABC, generating a traffic of over 20 million people. Basically the idea is to enhance (behavioural) targeting by sharing information about users. The larger the network, the better the ads served. (via Adverblog)

Rich Media Planning

2005-05-10T10:28:00.000-05:00

On Mediapost Joel Gehman (senior vice president of client services for Refinery) writes an interesting column about the role of rich media in online brand marketing. This week he turns his attention to a pair of reports that provide insight into the past and future of rich media spending. Overall, the numbers tell a story of media planning gone wrong. (via Adverblog)

Software helps marketers tweak sites, drive conversion rates

2005-05-10T10:03:00.000-05:00

To the daily litany of work tasks—check e-mail, answer voice mail, attend meetings—some marketers are adding a new drill: read Web analytics reports.

Software to Scan Blogs, Boards, and Posts to Capture Consumer Buzz Online

2005-05-09T15:04:00.000-05:00

A new category of software tools has emerged that uses search engine technology to find and organize consumer-posted thoughts and opinions contained in blogs and posts. These tools are here to help you as a small business owner and serious business blogger to help you keep an eye on what’s being said about you and your company. For the full story from Advanced Business Blogging,

Study: Print Ad Practices Work Online

2005-05-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

What works in print ads often also works on the web - namely, powerful images that grab attention and point it toward a message, according to a study of online ads, expected to be released today, reports MediaPost. The CNET Networks, Ignited Minds, and NOP World's Starch Communications study explored which type of ad images are effective on the Web, to help guide advertisers away from running annoying ads that drive consumers from sites, according to CNET Chief Marketing Officer Joe Gillespie. However, the study results may not be representative for the average Web browser; it relied in large part on the mostly male and tech-inclined audiences of Gamespot and CNET.com. (via MarketingVox)

Are customers letting your marketing in or shutting it out?

2005-05-06T10:35:00.000-05:00

Yankelovich, a consumer market research firm, has announced results of its 2005 Marketing Receptivity Survey, and it isn't pretty for advertising. For the full story from Church of the Customer, click here.

HP Execs Launch Blogs And Podcasts

2005-05-06T10:12:00.000-05:00

Interex reports that Nora Denzel, HP's senior vice president and general manager of HP's Adaptive Enterprise and Software Global Business Unit has launched an podcast she calls "Agility Radio."

They wrote... The page, which sits on the official HP Web site -- is the first instance of anything resembling "PodCasting" that we're aware of by a senior executive in technology. In her most recent posting, recorded this morning, Denzel talks about a few of her favorite books.

For the full story from WebProNews, click here.

Fight the Bull!

2005-05-06T09:52:00.000-05:00

Bullfighter is the epoch-defining software that works with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to help you find and eliminate jargon in your documents. It may look like a little toolbar with three buttons, but it's actually much more. Bullfighter includes a jargon database and an exclusive Bull Composite Index calculator that will allow you to see -- in an actual window, on your PC display, live -- just how bad a document can be.

The rumors were true. Bullshit now has a number. And you now have the power to calculate it, using the freeware originally produced by Deloitte Consulting but now distributed as a standalone product.

(But I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to download it. My theory is some bullshit just ain't worth knowing.) ;)

The business of blogging

2005-05-05T11:54:00.000-05:00

Small companies promote themselves through Web logs, a two-part story from the SF Chronicle (via Micropersuasion)

Dennis Woo had doubts at first when an employee asked to start a blog for GreenCine, his online DVD rental company. It seemed like a big and risky commitment for the small San Francisco firm, which at the time had a staff of about 10.

But Woo took the plunge and allowed employee David Hudson to start writing full time about film festivals and other news from the world of independent and alternative cinema. Now, two and a half years later, the GreenCine Daily blog (daily.greencine.com) draws about 80,000 visitors each month with its dispatches from film festivals around the world.

Woo credits the blog with helping double his company's sales in 2004. "When we started off, I was skeptical about whether it would be successful, but it is core to our strategy," he said.

Blogging 101 Resources

2005-05-05T10:42:00.000-05:00

Blogging 101 resources...courtesy of Debbie Weill

PR Digest, a Reader’s Digest for PR folks

2005-05-05T10:39:00.000-05:00

From Constantin Basturea's blog...

So, you don’t want to read 200+ PR blogs on a daily basis, but you want to get the best stories and postings of the day. Here’s a deal: I’ll scan the blogs and tag the postings using a del.icio.us tag named prdigest. You can:

browse the links
subscribe to the links via RSS: http://del.icio.us/rss/cbasturea/prdigest

Warnings: the selection of headlines and the comments are, well, mine (I don’t claim objectivity)
you’ll (also) get links to postings from outside the PR BlogLand, but relevant to PR you can expect something between 30-40 links/day.

Give it a try for a couple of days, then please let me know if you find it useful.

Big brands not so smart online

2005-05-05T10:33:00.000-05:00

Online advertising is perceived as important, but only a few brands do their best using new media channels. New Media Age (reg. req.) reports about a study by OgilvyInteractive, which surveyed big brands asking them to rate their performance with online marketing. Most of the surveyed marketers acknowledged they have to improve their online effort, finding a better integration with existing channels. (via Adverblog)

Do journalists read press releases? (and other press-ing questions)

2005-05-04T16:44:00.000-05:00

Last month, Ben Silverman embarked on an exercise. Using Bacon's database, he randomly selected journalists at daily newspapers to take part in a survey. He contacted 78 journalists and when it was all said and done, 50 responded to his survey (because he stoppef following up once he reached this magic number).

The Death Of The 30-Second Ad: What The Trend Means For PR

2005-05-04T16:42:00.000-05:00

Technology has given consumers control over the messages they will allow in their lives. They do not want to be marketed to, sold to, pitched to or talked at. It brings up some must-consider questions for public relations counselors.

Blogging Up

2005-05-04T16:33:00.000-05:00

Self-proclaimed "blogologist" Alex Halavais talks to Fast Company about how to career-blog without it coming back to haunt you. (via Micropersuasion).

Edelman Internal Communications Survey

2005-05-04T15:52:00.000-05:00

Edelman's Employee Engagement group is conducting a survey to gauge communicators’ awareness and trends of new communications tools for employees called "New Frontiers in Employee Communications." They are looking for people who have internal communication responsibility for their organization or for an agency to respond. If you fit the bill, go here to take the survey.

HP Surveys Nation's Small Businesses to Learn What Fuels the Engines of Today's Economy

2005-05-04T15:50:00.000-05:00

Survey respondents believe that technology is essential to the operations and success of their businesses. Eighty-one percent plan to increase technology spending in a variety of ways (for example, company websites, online services and weblogs) over the next two to three years. Small businesses that plan to increase overall technology spending anticipate doing so by 20 percent on average.

In addition, 68 percent of those surveyed reported that they plan to adopt additional technology products in the coming year. Small businesses are also leveraging the blog phenomena with one out of 10 reporting that weblogs are part of their marketing plans.

For the full press release, click here.

U.S. online marketing forecast: $26 billion by 2010

2005-05-04T15:21:00.000-05:00

Forrester Research Releases US Online Advertising And Marketing Forecast – Market To Reach $26 Billion By 2010

Almost half of marketers plan to decrease spending in traditional advertising channels like magazines, direct mail, and newspapers to fund an increase in online ad spending in 2005. Total US online advertising and marketing spending will reach $14.7 billion in 2005, a 23 percent increase over 2004. According to a new five-year forecast from Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR), online marketing and advertising will represent 8 percent of total advertising spending in 2010 -- rivaling ad spending on cable/satellite TV and radio.

You can find the official Forrester Research report here (available for Forrester clients only) or the official Forrester press release here which contains the major highlights and data points. Stories are also available at wsj.com, Click Z, and InternetWeek.

The product called PR

2005-05-04T11:13:00.000-05:00

There's a company the author encountered the other day that had just won a top 100 slot from a magazine. A press release on the company site announced the award-and quoted the company president: "This demonstrates our success as vertical enterprise experts in solving the essential challenges that are of vital nature to our customer's business." OK. You're the reporter-who-what-where-when-why-how tip-to-toe-who gets this release. Read it again. Not a Who What Where When or Why in the litter, is there? Just squealing blather with zero news value. Since it doesn't satisfy the basic requirements of any press item, how could it ever get picked up?
Read the full article from MarketingProfs.com (free registration required).

Integrating Blogs With PR And Marketing

2005-05-03T17:10:00.000-05:00

First there was Business Week featuring Steve Rubel in their cover story on blogs last week, complete with full-page photo.

Today, the Wall Street Journal reports that CooperKatz, the PR firm Steve works for, has begun a project with Vespa USA to develop two blogs that will be written by US owners of the Italian motor scooters.

But, this isn't the most significant news. The real news lies in a comment Steve makes in his post today about the new relationship:

[...] Vespa USA has contracted CooperKatz and Company, my employer, not only for blogging but for its comprehensive US public relations effort as well.

Integrated communications, folks.

The FAQ on the new VespaBlogs site describe how the blogs program will work and what it's intended to achieve, including this explanation on building buzz and driving traffic to the blogs: Piaggio USA plans to execute a small ad buy on both blogs and search engines to support the launch. In addition, since the online marketing and PR programs are tightly integrated, the blogs will integrate into the broader PR strategy as well. In addition, the VespaUSA.com site will link to the blogs once launched.

For the full story from WebProNews, click here.

Content Blogs Versus Syndicate Blogs?

2005-05-03T17:09:00.000-05:00

Scrivs takes a look at whether its best to write an original content blog or a syndicated (linking to others articles) blog.

My response: you need both - it's not an either/or necessarily.

Irrational Blogguberance?

2005-05-03T16:42:00.000-05:00

BL Ochman of the What's Next? blog answers a resounding YES! to Pete Blackshaw, CMO of Intelliseek, who asks in Clickz whether all the recent uproar about corporate blogging is "Irrational Blogguberance?" Blackshaw points out that a lot of blogs are abandoned - Ochman says because they are hard work.

But I don't think anyone in Mississippi will be accused of irrational blogguberance, more like blogophobia. I can't count on one hand the number of corporate blogs that I know of in Mississippi.

In the posting, Ochman collects the postings she has written on corporate blogging:

* Straight Talk About Blogs Do You Really Need One?Excerpt: Blogging caveats:- Blogs are writing intensive.- Maintaining a blog is hard work.- Blogs are no more of a "build it and they will come" medium than Web sites.- A blog that isn't well-written and frequently updated will simply be ignored.- A blog that is an obvious attempt at self promotion may be mocked by other bloggers. You could be a laughing stock of the blogosphere.
* Blogs Still Mystify: Ten Companies That Missed Great Blog Opportunities
* Everything You Need to Know About Business Blogging But Didn't Know Who to Ask
* What Could Your Company Do With a Blog? How Smart Companies Use Blogs for Marketing and PR Success and How You Can Too

Book Report: Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis

2005-04-30T18:07:00.000-05:00

No one likes to contemplate a crisis, but companies have been doing that more and more since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and corporate meltdowns like Enron. While the author agrees that operational plans are valuable for dealing with a crisis, he argues that it is even more important for organizations to develop a set of competencies, or IQs, that would make them stronger, calmer, and more flexible in the event of a disaster.

Negotiating What You're Worth

2005-04-30T18:04:00.000-05:00

Should you be the first to mention money? What is your main goal in negotiating a salary raise? How do you prepare for negotiation obstacles? A negotiation expert gives tips in this article from the Harvard Management Communication Letter.

Good example, Bad example

2005-04-30T16:44:00.000-05:00

I talked earlier of Robert Scoble being a good example of handling negative comments about your company via blogging. In our education, we all need the real-life bad examples too. No need to fret...Church of the Customer points us to a corporate blog of MeetUp.com, who recently switched from a free to fee set-up, in which Meetup's VP of Communications, Myles Weissleder, makes fun of the Seattle Blogger Meetup Group by posting a satiric message on the Meetup.com corporate blog calling the offending group "Belly'Achin Bloggers in Seattle."

The group posted some comical pictures from the meeting with snarky captions about Meetup's new fee plan. This making-fun-of-customers story is, of course, making its way across the blogosphere.

One of the Seattle bloggers provides good advice on working with bloggers:

Never, ever insult your customers, even in jest.
Think before you blog, especially if you're a corporate blogger.
Bloggers are the worst people in the world to insult, because they will tell the whole world about it.

Blogs as relationship marketing

2005-04-30T10:07:00.000-05:00

Wayne Hurlbert has an interesting post about the difference between traditional marketing and relationship marketing - and how blogs can fit into the marketing mix.

Blog search engine power explained

2005-04-30T10:02:00.000-05:00

Paul mentioned in his presentation about the innate search engine power of blogs. In a 30-minute presenation, you don't have much time to delve too deep into any topic, so here is an entry by Wayne Hulbert further explaining the how of blogs' search engine power. (In case you're like me and immediately ask Why? to anything someone says.)

Corporate blogging and negative comments

2005-04-30T09:40:00.000-05:00

When Paul Chaney, Radiant blogger, visited our chapter last week, the one question that was on everyone's mind: What do I do if I get a negative comment on my blog?

Rest assured, others are asking the same question at American Marketing Association seminars. It is the one reason that I have heard many say that they were worried to suggest blogging to their company.

My take on this? You don't get as many comments as you think you will, period. And of those you do get, they are not as negative as you think. And if you do get negative comments on your blog, you can address them directly - as opposed to that same person negatively commenting about your company to many others that you don't know about.

Paul used Robert Scoble of Microsoft geek blogger fame as an example of a well-known corporate blogger in his presentation. But Scoble's also an example of how negative comments addressed correctly can ultimately be a positive experience for both the blogger and the consumer. When someone does leave a negative comment on his blog, he addresses it immediately. He often contacts the person who left the comment and tries to get more information about the question or problem. And if there's nothing in the realm of God's green earth he can do to fix it, he lets us know. If there is, he lets us know too. Through blog comments, he controls the situation and acts as an emissary between the audience and Microsoft corporation.

PRAM Central has had this blog for quite some time. Not one negative comment. None. Nada.

At MHA, we have several news blogs with comments enabled: MHA News Now, MHA Executive Briefing, News Around the State, Help Wanted and our MHA staff blog. Never a negative comment. (Even on the staff blog - which many of you fear will turn into a public gripe forum.)

In other words, negative comments should not be what scares you away from blogging. Bad writing, maybe, miscommunication, perhaps - negative comments, not.

Bloggers blogging about blogging

2005-04-29T22:01:00.000-05:00

Paul Chaney, very fittingly, blogged about his opportunity to introduce our members to business blogging this week. Blog on, Paul!

Wendy's chili: Crisis communications in action

2005-04-29T21:31:00.000-05:00

Wendy's PR nightmare has a silver lining. The company's PR team has gotten high marks from the media and other PR profesionals in their response to the crisis.

The New York Times covered the story from a PR perspective:

For the 52-year-old Mr. Lynch, there was no time to prepare a sophisticated plan of action. The news media, he was informed, knew about the gruesome discovery, and wanted a statement.

And isn't that the way it always is?

Wendy

2005-04-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

IDI launches "blogger relations" program

2005-04-29T21:17:00.000-05:00

Issue Dynamics, Inc., known for its blogad campaign for the United Church of Christ, has launched a formal Blogger Relations Practice and a companion Web site.
More and more non-profit and corporate organizations are realizing that they ignore the blogosphere at their own peril. If not closely monitored, blogs can surprise an organization with a storm gathering around their issue or brand. At the same time, blogs provide an opportunity to reach so-called "influentials"—those members of society responsible for influencing mass opinion within their personal and professional circles.

The most interesting offering to me is "blogger training." As it becomes more popular there seems to be more and more of an impetus to "find" someone in your organization to blog (and blog well). But blogging for business is basically a mixture of corporate communications, copy writing and essay writing - find someone in house who can bring all three to the table and you've got it made.

Blogs The Latest Tool In Corporate Arsenals

2005-04-19T13:32:00.000-05:00

Blogs made it easy to share off-the-cuff opinions with a small or large number of readers. Blog entries can be posted on a Web site or distributed to interested readers via syndication feeds.

Now blogs are moving beyond personal musings and taking on a new role: corporate communications. A growing number of businesses are using the blog format to promote products, interact with customers and shareholders, conduct market research and distribute company announcements.

The muse always comes late

2005-04-16T11:44:00.000-05:00

A great posting by Kathy Sierra on Creating Passionate Users about creativity under pressure. HINT: When you must be creative, you can.

New Yahoo Local Feature Provides Free Sites For Small Businesses

2005-04-16T11:23:00.000-05:00

Yahoo announced a new feature on Yahoo Local that provides free Web sites for small businesses.

Corporate Blogging Rising

2005-04-16T11:22:00.000-05:00

Investor's Business Daily: Blogs are moving beyond personal musings and taking on a new role: corporate communications.

It's About Content, Stupid

2005-04-16T11:20:00.000-05:00

Public relations, PR, communications, marketing communications. No matter what term you use, it always comes down to one thing: content.

Measure to drive business outcomes

2005-04-16T10:42:00.000-05:00

Andy Lark on measuring communications effectiveness and impact with the aim of informing business strategy and outcomes.

Brand storytelling

2005-04-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

Todd S. at 800CEO-READ.com gives us the main points of May I Have Your Attention, Please?: Building a Better Business By Telling Your Story by Chris Hilicki, the author and founder of Dalmatian Press. She thinks that you should build your brand based on the history and experiences of the company (or the person). Her theory builds on all of the books we are seeing on the importance of storytelling in brand and marketing communications. To see Chris' Big 10 Brand Builders, click here.

Why the Caveman Loves the Pitchman

2005-04-13T15:04:00.000-05:00

A little celebrity and a shrewd marketing strategy can go a long way to sell a product. The key is understanding how the human brain really works.

Building the Nonprofit Brand: Case Studies, Trends and Do-Overs

2005-04-13T12:48:00.000-05:00

The following teleseminar is especially geared towards public relations practitioners in associations and other nonprofit organizations.

Building the Nonprofit Brand: Case Studies, Trends and Do-Overs
Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Time: 2:00pm ET
Duration: 90 minutes

An organization’s brand can be its most powerful tool. Far too often, though, the brand gets pushed aside in many associations and nonprofits due to a lack of resources.If your brand identity needs an infusion, listen in on this hands-on teleseminar to discover ways to improve your brand and take ideas to your elected leaders or top management. Get targeted branding advice along with take-away tools for organizations of all sizes and budgets.

You will hear from:
- Ron Fredman, APR, senior vice president, Hartsook Companies, Inc., Wichita, KS
- Chuck Husak, creative director, August, Lang & Husak, Bethesda, MD
- Christer E. Osterling, director of communications, Association Resources, Inc., West Hartford, CT

Moderator: Matthew Smith, teleseminar committee chair, PRSA Association/Nonprofit Section; director of integrated marketing & brand development, American Society for Surgery of the Hand, Rosemont, IL

Registration will be available soon here.

PR spam and RSS

2005-04-13T11:26:00.000-05:00

Natterjack PR points us to a quick way to check whether your press release will probably get through or be considered span is to use a free online service called spamcheck. Send your press release to spamcheck@sitesell.net.

Put the word "TEST" at the beginning of the subject line and you'll get an automated response in a couple of minutes rating the "spam-content" of your press release!

Pulling Punches

2005-04-13T11:17:00.000-05:00

CEO Lee Scott went on the record to fight Wal-Mart's bad rep. But his PR effort hit the mat.

Brand

2005-04-13T11:07:00.000-05:00

When the New Yorker reporter Jeffrey Goldberg asked Senator John Kerry whether the Democrats had a credibility problem on defense controversies, the party's titular leader replied without equivocation, ''Look, the answer is, we have to do an unbranding.'' As Kerry saw it, the political problem had to do with salesmanship: ''We have to brand more effectively. It's marketing.'' An editor on the linguistic qui vive titled Goldberg's article about the Democrats' need to shuck off the appearance of weakness ''The Unbranding.'' For the full story from The New York Times, click here.

The Coming News Crisis

2005-04-13T10:38:00.000-05:00

The percentage of people in their 30s who read a paper every day was 73 percent in 1972, and it's 30 percent today. The average newspaper reader is 53. More and more people, trained by the Internet, believe that information should be free, and so give-away daily tabloids are springing up in big cities all over. I realize that media professionals are studying this problem full time, but what does your gut tell you newspapers should do to remain vital and profitable in the digital age? For the full story from The Washington Post, click here.

E-mail Marketing FAQs For Beginners

2005-04-13T09:42:00.000-05:00

E-mail marketers want to understand consumer email attitudes, how to create relevance and grow lists, when to send, and what to measure. cmo magazine's answers to these concerns should help you increase the value of your email program provided your email strategy balances user needs with business goals.

Whaddya Know?

2005-04-13T09:41:00.000-05:00

Crunching numbers is easy compared with organizing and tracking the myriad marketing assets that crisscross your company. Here's how four marketers have addressed the knowledge management challenge.

Hey, Little Spender

2005-04-13T09:39:00.000-05:00

Kids say the darndest things about big-ticket products—and their parents are listening to them.

Landing an Internal Position Often Requires Extra Effort

2005-04-13T08:49:00.000-05:00

Being an insider doesn't guarantee you the inside track to an inside job. Assuming colleagues know you're terrific is among the most common mistakes made by inside applicants. It's hardly the only one, however.

Why The Public Doesn't Believe Spokespeople

2005-04-12T19:05:00.000-05:00

John Wagner has a great article here on why the public doesn't believe spokespeople - and how the food industry is responding to attacks similar to those on the tobacco companies earlier. (HINT: They seem to be reading the same text book as the tobacco companies.)

PR Face2Face: Jeffrey Sharlach

2005-04-12T14:48:00.000-05:00

Link - 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.

Your Crisis Communication Plan Is Due For Maintenance

2005-04-11T16:04:00.000-05:00

Shel Holtz says that any crisis communication plan that hasn't been updated in at least the last 18 months if fundamentally useless. If you haven't dusted off your plan lately, now's the time.

Chaos, Revolution, and Micro Media

2005-04-11T14:58:00.000-05:00

In this week’s Advertising Age, Bob Garfield examines what happens if the traditional marketing model collapses before a better alternative is established. In the “Chaos Scenario” piece, Bob joins our chorus in singing the exuberance for the “democratized, consumer-empowered, bottom-up” world of micro media. Read more at Brand Autopsy here.

Brainstorming Resource

2005-04-06T16:41:00.000-05:00

Need to come up with an idea for a billboard ad? Explore what others have already done first. The OAAA offers a "creative library" of outdoor advertising images, searchable by keyword (select a letter of the alphabet and choose from a dropdown menu), year, agency, advertiser and/or product category.

Commercial Applications of RSS in Travel Marketing

2005-04-06T10:58:00.001-05:00

Link - The travel industry has traditionally embraced new online technologies early on due to the fact that what they sell lends itself extremely well to online presentation and distribution. Online travel continues to be one of the top categories in terms of e-commerce with an estimated market of $54 billion in 2004. What we will look at today is some early application of RSS in travel and some statistics related to these implementations.

RSS and Crisis Communications

2005-04-06T10:58:00.000-05:00

Link - Several interesting post have been published over the last months on using blogs and RSS in a crisis communications context.

MDOT campaign takes first place at Keep America Beautiful Awards

2005-04-05T16:57:00.000-05:00

The Mississippi Department of Transportation, a PRAM Central member, led the nation by winning the First Place National Litter Prevention Award at the Keep America Beautiful Awards Ceremony, recently held in Washington, DC. MDOT ws recognized for its outstanding litter prevention efforts through the I'm Not Your Mama - Pick It Up Mississippi! educational campaign, according to state litter prevention coordinator Kathy Broom.

This national honor was shared with former First Lady Pat Fordice, who was featured in MDOT's I'm Not Your Mama commercial spots. Those ads paved the way for the additional public awareness and educational campaign components including Myrtle the Turtle School Program, outdoor advertising and Web site - that contributed to the first place national acclaim.

Anderson named assistant director of Mississippi Humanities Council

2005-04-05T16:54:00.000-05:00

Carol Andersen, a PRAM Central member, has been named assistant director of the Mississippi Humanities Council. Before joining the council, Anderson served as director of marketing and communications for the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits.

A native of Iowa, she holds a journalism and mass communication degree from Iowa State University and has worked in the communication and nonprofit fields for nearly 18 years.

Hornback named to Transportation Commission

2005-04-05T16:24:00.000-05:00

Amy Hornback, deputy director of external affairs for the Mississippi Department of Transportation and PRAM Central member, has been appointed to the Mississippi Transportation Commission as secretary. Hornback has been with MDOT since 2000. She graduated from Mississippi College in 1995 with a B.S. in communication.