Day: April 27, 2005

Credit where it’s due.  The folks at Opera Software compete in a very demanding marketplace.  When they’re not fighting the might of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, they’re faced with the momentum of Mozilla… and to top it off they actually sell an Internet browser for money.

For the latest release of their eponymous browser, the company’s CEO, Jon S. von Tetzchnerat, told staff that if the downloads topped 1 million within four days of it’s launch he’d (ahem) swim from their headquarters in Norway to the US….

Guess what? The target was met.

So into the water went the CEO (with his trusty PR executive in a rubber dinghy) and low and behold the dinghy sank, the CEO had to “save” his PR colleague and the attempt was cancelled 🙂

Fantastic PR. A great use of humor and proof that clever thinking can reap rewards without the need for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Further reading

• The (ahem) official account.
• Opera boss makes good on pledge to swim to America
• Media Stunt ends in “dramatic rescue at sea”

 

 Kevin Dugan has documented an interesting example of competitive blog relations.  Forrester analyst Charlene Li’s blog covered some new developments on Google‘s personalized search services and Yahoo‘s PR team were quick to respond. 

 Pete Shinbach points to an interesting NPR report on how Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew used his uncle’s theses to create effective Public Relations techniques.

 Jim Horton has published an interesting paper on the conflicts between marketers and PR consultants…

 Jeremy Pepper has an interview with Al Golin, chairman of Golin Harris.

“Too many young people are not in touch with today. That�s why I am still in the business, because I am very curious. I always want to continue to learn, and being curious is one of the most single important things in PR. I love it when a young kid asks me a lot of questions. I hate it when people don�t ask questions. I rather have too many asked, than not enough.”

 Stuart Bruce offers some thoughts on RSS, in particular on the need for localized, segmented RSS feeds to address different audiences.

 The Red Couch, a project being led by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble, has an interview with Jonathan Schwartz on Sun’s blogging efforts.

 I meant to post this story a while back.  If you want proof, for once and for all, that PR’s value is linked to it’s lack of control, here’s a great example.  Siebel‘s PR folks did a great job promoting the achievements and vision of their CEO Michael Lawrie.  They secured excellent profiles and got him on the cover of a number of magazines, including Information Week and EWeek, the week of April 4. The stories were positive, demonstrated good vision, had good third party support, then just over a week he was fired by the board….  You have my sympathies. Don Tennant at Computerworld has some observations on the matter.

 

The widespread adoption of e-mail caused a lot of people to get lazy.  Rather than calling someone or setting up face-to-face meetings, people started using e-mail for tasks it is not suited to – just because it was easier.

For example, think of all the executives who have blasted their management team via an e-mail, only for their communication to make it outside the firewall and harm their business.

I am hoping we’re not going to see a similar trend with blogging.

Steve Rubel points to some recent examples of interviewees who were unhappy with the quotes attributed to them following media interviews. They both decided to highlight the perceived errors on their weblogs.

Now I don’t have any particular issue with that, after all blogs provide a great platform for opinions, however we shouldn’t view this practice as an end in itself.  It’s also important that if you’re (justifiably) unhappy with the result from an interview you should contact the journalist and discuss it.  That’s what building relationships is all about and that is the cornerstone of good communication.

Let’s look at an example. 

John Battelle was unhappy with the quotes attributed to him in a New York Times story on Google by Saul Hansell:

I now see the Times piece. Well, it sure makes me out as anti-Google. I did say everything that I am quoted to say, however the context is off on the first section.

However, Saul posts a response pointing out that the comments were in fact in context and John recants.

Now there’s nothing wrong with using a blog to put forward your side of a story or your opinions, but just because it’s an easy way to respond doesn’t mean it’s the right way. 

There’s no question that transparency is a two-way street and in that vein, I believe that the journalist deserves a right of reply, contact them and raise your concerns in a constructive manner, often you’ll discover that you were incorrect, often you’ll discover they were wrong but at least you have closed the loop and are free to post your side of the story.  Of course the positive aspect of the Battelle-Hansell episode is that there is a conversation taking place.

I would however recommend that before you decide to post about how you were misquoted, you think about the best, most beneficial way to address your percieved injustice.  Good communication isn’t a one way street.

Footnote:

In Steve’s original post he states:

“I can see a day coming soon where other senior execs will say, “Mr. Reporter, send me your interview questions and I will post my responses on my blog.” This won’t fly for everyone, but it will for those who have been burned and are powerful enough to exert such control.”

My view is that it’s highly unlikely that any journalist would ever agree to such terms.  I also fervently hope that if any executive was stupid or ignorant enough to try it, that the journalist, in the spirit of transparency, would post the executive’s request in a prominent position in the publication or website or blog… Executives demanding control over media content isn’t about the new era of transparency, conversation or openness. No folks that’s old fashioned control.

 

Issues Dynamics has launched a new blog practice or should that be a ‘blogger relations’ practice.

While it’s good to see a PR firm embracing blogs – though I’d strongly argue that blog relations should be part of the agency and not a seperate entity – this is not exactly breaking news given the number of new blog relations practices that have been launched over the past year, but what’s very impressive is that Issue Dynamics have been performing blog relations since 1993, now that’s vision….

From their press release:

“Issue Dynamics, Inc., pioneers in blogging and Internet services since 1993, has launched a formal Blogger Relations Practice”