High-Tech PR Blog >> Beyond the Hype

As one chapter closes, a new one begins for Deni Connor

For 10 years, I was one of many who read what Deni Connor wrote regularly for Network World.  She was always one of, if not the first, to break major news items from many of the leading storage industry players. In fact, rumor has it that some of the PR community avoided briefing her in advance for fear she'd scoop the news. Still, Deni persevered and always had relevant insight and perspective on the technologies and trends customers cared about most.  She developed an impressive Rolodex and many, including me, were fortunate to work with Deni for many years.

As the media community continues to change and evolve, and print publications look for ways to differentiate themselves from online media outlets, Deni decided now is as good a time as any to take her passion for reporting on the latest storage and datacenter technologies and trends, to analyzing them.

This week, Deni officially announced the formation of her new analyst firm, Storage Strategies Now.  In an email announcing the new firm, Deni explained that she will now "apply knowledge acquired during my 25-year career working with technology firms and publications, to provide expertise in the services of strategic analysis."

I'm sure Deni will bring the same passion and enthusiasm to the latest technologies and trends impacting storage and the datacenter today as she did as a senior editor at Network World.  For those of us that enjoyed reading her byline on Network World, we'll still be able to read it each week as she writes the Storage Alert Newsletter.

Perhaps John Dix, editor-in-chief at Network World, summed it up best in a quote Deni highlighted in her e-mail announcement...

"Deni is fearless. As a reporter, she never failed to objectively cover the prickliest issues.  As an analyst, we expect her to be one of the best."

Nasdaq's Internet Index -- What does it tell us?

Tuesday's announcement by Nasdaq that it has created a new "Internet Index" caught my eye right away, but not enough to blog about -- until today based upon more information I've seen.

My immediate thought was, why do we need this separate index?  Given how Nasdaq describes what types of companies the index covers -- "Internet access providers, Internet search engines, web hosting, website design, and Internet retail commerce" -- I'm not sure how that is any different than the broader "tech-laden" Nasdaq index itself and why there would be a need for a separate measurement.

Indeed, looking at today's comparison charts, doesn't help me see the differentiation.

In addition, with yesterday's post by Richard MacManus revealing the list of companies that make up the index, I was struck by how Bubble 1.0 it seems, with companies like Ariba, ATG, ICG, Interwoven, Navisite, priceline.com, Vignette seeming to predominate the list.  Certainly the current Internet bellweathers like Amazon, Google and Yahoo are on the list, but as Richard points out, Microsoft and News Corp. are not.  Which leads me to conclude that it doesn't feel to me, anyway, that it's reflective enough of where the Internet is going (social networks, semantic web, search, etc). 

I'll be following this going forward to see what kind of value this index has -- or the insight it gives.

Apple doesn't think differently about PR in new ad

A few of us here came back from Thanksgiving break buzzing about the newest Apple Mac vs. PC commerical. In this instance, PC has hired a public relations "Lady" to explain in "PRese" the problems with Windows Vista.  Like all the commercials they are amusing, helped along by the clever banter of Justin Long and John Hodgeman.  But while Apple and Steve Jobs excel at PR, I have to say I am disappointed with the sterotypes they propogate about PR folks.  We are not all women with dark hair who wear dark suits (OK I am), and we never say "no comment".  Maybe I'm being too sensitive?

Take a look and see what you think.

The Facebook Debates

I continue to be intrigued by the ever-changing role of the social web in the Presidential race.  We saw a first earlier in the epic debate season of how the YouTube community played a role in the campaign.  Unlike many who felt that CNN chose the wrong questions from the hundreds submitted by citizens via YouTube, I viewed the event as a great step towards representing the true concerns of the electorate.

Now comes the announcement by ABC News that it is making Facebook the centerpiece of a debate in New Hampshire on January 5.  This is part of a larger partnership between ABC News and Facebook to allow members to interact with reporters and follow much more closely the coverage of the campaigns.  ABC News also has a profile page, and I agree with Erick Schonfeld that it should use this page both to collect questions from members to ask candidates, as well as vote on which questions actually get asked. 

There also is a great opportunity for debate and discussion to take place during the actual debate and for the best of the Facebook-based discussion to be shown during the televised debate, via the usual bottom-of-the-screen ticker.  This would be a very powerful way to integrate the two channels in a way that makes a real impact in terms of informing voters.

Giving Thanks

It's that time of year when we all eat too much rich food and reflect on the things that truly make us grateful.  In that spirit, I'd like to list some of the things us agency PR types are thankful for in late 2007:

We are thankful for the great human beings we have gotten to know in our client base who have been clients many times and have transcended that relationship to become lifelong friends.

We are thankful that some people are still writing in complete sentences.

We are thankful that our friends in the trade press are working hard to adapt to the current social media climate, which we know will make them more valuable to their loyal readers.

We are thankful for the real journalists who have become bloggers who adhere to journalistic standards of objectivity and fact-checking.

We are thankful for people who still use personal salutations in e-mails rather than "hey there."

We are thankful that Hank Aaron may not have to give up his home run title just yet.

We are thankful that the writer's strike in Hollywood and New York is getting the attention that the true creators of the entertainment industries deserve (as well as a competitive wage).

We are thankful to live in a country in which a former First Lady can be taken seriously as a front-running presidential candidate.

We are thankful that clients no longer ask to be on the cover of Fortune magazine. (Realistic expectations make us truly grateful.)
 
We are thankful for an economy that is treating our client base well.

We are thankful for new PR professionals entering the work force who inject enthusiasm into everything they do for our clients. They keep everything energized and fun.

We are thankful that the industries on which we focus (high-tech and life sciences) continue to be so dynamic and disruptive.

We are thankful to have so many championship-caliber sports franchises to root for.

We are thankful that A-Rod is going to continue to fail in New York.

We are thankful that social media has created so many opportunities for companies to engage and interact directly with customers.

We are thankful that we were not doing PR for the following clients this year:

Heather Mills
Don Imus
Michael Richards
Britney Spears
Paris Hilton
Lindsay Lohan
O.J. Simpson

And last, but not least, we are thankful for our smart, dedicated and talented employees and alumni who have been THE most important part of our success.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our great clients, employees, alumni and friends!

If you didn't come to party, don't bother knocking on the door

Yes, it seemed like it was 1999 again at the very fun Boston TechCrunch MeetUp on Friday night at the Estate. There was free booze, food (which is at odds with my previous post regarding Web 2.0) and lots and lots and lots of people. In fact, this is the first Boston networking event in long time where I ran into mobs of people I knew -- from clients to media to VCs to even one of my neighbors (okay, he is a VC).

Several companies displayed their Web 2.0 offerings including mypunchbowlcom and the National League of Poker, which had quite a crowd in their back room.

While there was some grumbling here and there about the overuse of the words "Facebook" and "social network", for the most part there seemed to be an atmosphere of excitement and enthusiasm about high tech.  I hope this is a positive sign for the market as we head into 2008.

IR Person, Protect Yourself

I If you are holding a pen or pencil or poised at a keyboard while reading this blog post, please cease and desist for your own good.  That definitely seemed to be a primary message to the Boston NIRI (National Investor Relations Institute) chapter from Donald Stern, former U.S. Attorney and currently partner at Bingham McCutchen and executive fellow at Bentley College.

Stern's topic was business ethics and since he was talking with a group of corporate communications and/or IR professionals, his focus was on how this group potentially could be affected if the executives of their respective firms were charged with any ethical transgressions or straying from strict Reg FD regulations. 

"You have to think that whatever you write down is discoverable," Stern said.  His law colleague added, "as a general rule, I advise that you don't take notes, but don't follow this rule woodenly." Stern told the crowd that "email is just the thing the goverment will go for.  I believe that is where the gold mine of information is."  Interestingly, there is a piece in Law.com from late October that talks about an Oracle issue related to discovery.

In recently unsealed documents, a federal insider trading and shareholder fraud suit alleges that hundreds of e-mails and financial records, and even audio interviews with Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison, vanished or were improperly withheld from plaintiffs.

Lawyers for Oracle have strenuously denied the accusations, contained in thousands of pages of documents unsealed at the request of The National Law Journal.

Now, a showdown over the plaintiffs' request for default judgment as a sanction for alleged document destruction, as well as motions on both sides for summary judgment, looms in a Nov. 16 hearing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Stern said that it's probably a good practice to make sure IR people are included in Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance policies that companies take out to protect their executives against legal liabilities.  This not only protects the company, but also can provide for the individual IR counselor to have separate legal representation in case he or she feels the need to veer from the corporate strategy to handle the government investigation.  Despite the advice regarding no note-taking, I saw a lot of pens moving around me recording this advice.

In the Q&A session, one of the IR people asked how to handle rumor-mongering on the Internet, particularly if the rumors are true.  How does an IR person protect him or herself from being fingered as a source?  Stern recommended keeping a record of who you talk to and what they ask to make sure you have proof that nothing was deliberately leaked.

So it's all about the type of notes.  Think of it as mindful note-taking.  Or a new version of the old joke about the tree falling in the empty forest.  If a company did something wrong, but no one recorded anything about the wrong-doing anywhere, did it really happen?

Bulls vs. Bears

It's interesting that -- as the talk continues about whether we're in another bubble, when it's going to burst, or whether we're seeing the start of a downturn -- the bulls are in Silicon Valley, while the bears are in the East.  Late last month, the talk heated up with a couple of New York-based commentators talking of an unhealthy frothiness in the industry, as well as the danger of sky-high investment and valuation levels.  Meanwhile, Silicon Valley bloggers got all worked up over during speculation of Facebook's ad strategy, with one stating confidently that it would give the company not a $15 billion valuation but $100 billion!

The bears in New York have been a little more active lately with Henry Blodget, the former Merrill Lynch securities analyst very much associated with Bubble 1.0 and now a blogger, publishing a "Recession Watch."  His watch post today adds JC Penney's weak earnings to a list of data points that suggests the credit crunch is reverberating throughout the larger economy, affecting consumer spending, thereby hurting spending on retail ads and starting an overall downturn in online ad spending:

We continue to believe we may be in the early stages of a cyclical downturn for advertising and the Internet sector--one that could affect not only start-ups and second-tier players but majors like Time Warner (TWX), Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO), AOL, et al.  Such downturns do not begin suddenly, and they are not instantly obvious (except in hindsight).  Rather, as with the housing market, the environment changes gradually, over many months, with early signs slowly becoming a steady torrent of bad news.

Yet, TechCrunch, which has ridden the wave of the current tech boom (and in many ways helped create it) is getting ready to bring its "bubblicious" party to Boston for the first time tomorrow night (many of us will be there).  Tickets have sold out within two hours each time they been made available over the past month.  So, for tomorrow night anyway, the bulls will be out in Boston.

Where's Henry Higgins when you need him?

Interesting post on the online site of the NJ Star Ledger about CEOs who misuse the English language. An employee writes to communications coach/columnist Steve Adubato:

My boss continually abuses the English language. Specifically, he'll use words like "irregardless" and "supposably." He also starts almost every sentence with "so": "So, I'm looking for a new car," or, "So, I'm having a problem understanding this report."

The communications coach sympathizes with the employee, who worries about the perception the boss is creating with customers and prospects, but notes that once one reaches adulthood it is hard to change verbal habits like this. He also advises the employee that correcting the boss will be, in the vernacular of some of the young talent here at our agency, a CLM (career-limiting move).

Henry Higgins, in the George Bernard Shaw play, Pygmalion, did not share Adubato's pessimism about effecting change in communication style. He made the following bet regarding Cockney flower seller Eliza Doolittle:

You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the
gutter to the end of her days. Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a
duchess at an ambassador's garden party. I could even get her a place as lady's maid or
shop assistant, which requires better English.

It's all about perception and someone who is motivated to change the way they are perceived really can be viewed differently if they present themselves in a new light. They can speak differently, improving their use of the English language or even focusing on losing an accent. They can dress differently to convey more authority or even to take the issue of age off of the table, as we advised one of our young CEO clients recently. As a very wise presentation coach told me many years ago, it is not about changing the fundamental person, but it is about helping them realize their own unique personal best as a spokesperson or presenter. And that personal best may require some new approaches with regard to language, speaking style or look and feel. Verbal and visual impressions matter, whether we like it or not. The smart executive leaders we have worked with over the years recognize this and spend the necessary time sharpening how they present as well as what they present.

In an age of short emails, and even shorter IMs and text messages, it's no wonder that verbal communication has become sloppy in some quarters. It's something to keep an eye on, whether you're selling flowers in London or enterprise software in Silicon Valley.

Don't Be Stupid

This past summer, I was strolling through the Whole Foods' headquarters store in Austin, Texas and found myself in an aisle with a curly-haired, middle-aged man wearing a tie-dye t-shirt, khaki shorts and Tevas - the regular character that you'd find in the local grocery store that I end up visiting at least four times a week (I'm a big fan, I'll admit). I did a double take and realized he was John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods.  I wouldn't have recognized him, except it was during the time that his anonymous online postings about his competitor, Wild Oats, broke out into the news.

At the time, Lois Paul commented on how they handled the situation from a PR standpoint.

On. Nov. 2, Whole Foods amended its policy and now has banned company leaders (anonymously or under their name) from making posts on any non-company blog, chat room, message board, etc. without approval from the company. If there is a violation, it is grounds for dismissal. Apparently, companies are just starting to come to terms on how to approach this issue, yet I'm sure this will trigger a wave of new corporate policies.

Computerworld's article yesterday afternoon on the topic explored some of the other existing corporate policies to date, and I must admit I liked Microsoft's policy named "Don't Be Stupid". It's really a difficult call to make because company leaders are out talking to people about their company non-stop, so why aren't they able to talk about the company online, where there is a growing number of relevant discussions?

The larger point is, when an executive is talking to people - whether online or in-person - about their company, they simply need to retain their integrity and not misrepresent themselves or the company with inaccurate facts (I probably sound quite naive making this statement, but I promise I'm as cynical as the next person). Companies go to great lengths to find and hire the right executives to be real leaders, so if you hire them, then tell them they aren't trusted to go online, it seems the company is sending mixed signals.

Who knows, but I can see both sides and it's a tough call to make. I won't be surprised if federal mandates are put in place at some point.