Playing it out in the Press

Many times over the years our clients have come to us with situations in which they feel they need to sue a competitor over patent or copyright infringement or some other business or ethical violation and they often ask whether we should issue a public statement about this. They feel that right is on their side so they want the court of public opinion to support them via the media. We usually advise against this, as it is fraught with...

Will Social Media kill the Dept. of PR Prevention?

So what is the Dept. of PR Prevention anyway? I coined the term years ago, borrowing liberally from Monty Python's wonderful Ministry of Silly Walks skit. You know you are dealing with the Dept. of PR Prevention where any of the following are occurring: A "palace guard" approach to involving top executives in the PR program; A paranoid view of media A belief that it is better to do nothing and get no coverage than to have something wrong appear...

Creativity is great, but is it selling?

As I was sitting on a US Airways plane yesterday morning trying to prep for the meeting I was attending, I was bombarded by the in-your-face commercials for US Airways, Avis, etc. that were tacked onto the safety instructions on the monitors. We had not yet reached the point that I could plug in my noise reduction headphones, so I was held hostage by ads I did not want to see about vacation spots and car rental deals. Later in...

Late summer Friday fun

A lighter post today... I've watched this three or four times now and find it fascinating each time. I always think the same thing..."and I thought my job was tough!" Although, I'm not sure which one has it tougher, the person outside or the one in the helicopter. Enjoy! (And note that I tagged it About the "buzz." You'll see why.)

Green is the New Black - Even in IT

Since January, Lois Paul and Partners has been co-chairing the Austin Clean Energy Council, an organization founded in 2005 consisting of clean technology companies, universities, etc. that are based in Austin, Texas. I think it's fair to say that most people have been blindsided by how fast climate change has hit mainstream thinking. I was sitting next to one of the members on the council a few weeks ago, and he explained to everyone that the company he works for...

Community video

I've read a lot over the past couple of weeks about what SAP is doing to build community through social media. It recently held a summit with select bloggers to solicit input as part of its planning for the next year. Jeremiah Owyang posted tonight about how he has been to SAP three or four times, and remarks how open SAP has been to bloggers and community members But I found this post very interesting about how SAP has retooled...

Twitter's impact on media

My colleagues have written here about the impact blogs are having on "traditional" media, most recently how the evolution is seeing "consolidation" taking place. This underscores how integrated blogs have become within media properties, as journalists (and bloggers) leverage their immediacy and the freedom to offer more opinion to give readers more complete information -- on which they can comment. Of course, we've seen for a few years how publications have integrated podcasts and video into their content. Now David...

The "Me Generation" of Computer CEOs

Computer company CEOs lead the world in narcissism, according to a study by Penn State University, as reported in Network World recently. Several other publications like Forbes reported on the study as well, noting that it is coming out in January 2008. Some highlights to give you a flavor of the Network World article and the study itself: If you have a hard time getting your CEO’s head through the office door, you should prepare yourself and your company for...

The matter of control

Wired reported Tuesday about a new service developed by a CalTech graduate student that lifts the curtain on anonymous contributors to Wikipedia. The student, Virgil Griffith, created a database that connects changes made to Wikipedia entries anonymously to the organization from where the changes were made, based upon IP addresses. If you go to the site, Wikipedia Scanner (which is very slow now due to the deluge of hits from the Wired, Valleywag, US News and several other stories on...

Thought leader, conversationalist or a bit of both?

The term "thought leader" has been thrown around for a long time by many. But, I wonder if the term is outdated. Is thought leadership an empty term whose meaning has eroded over the years or is it still valid and distinguishable? What does thought leader mean to you? Wikipedia defines thought leader as: a buzzword or article of jargon used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among their peer mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the...