Archive for January, 2007
Things not to do in a PR crisis…No.1
January 31st, 2007
It appears GoDaddy, the US Hosting and Domain provider has kicked off a chain of events that will shortly be gracing the case study examples of PR presentations around the world.
Allow me to elaborate on this fictitious scenario:
Slide 5: How not to respond in a crisis…
If your company withdraws its services, in this instance a domain registration, even with arguably honourable intentions,* do not be tempted to respond to resulting criticism like this:
“GoDaddy reserves the right to terminate your access to the services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever.” GoDaddy General Counsel Christine Jones.
Crikey, I really hope the PR team had nothing to do with that statement, maybe the resulting debate will bring that point home.
As Shel Holtz points out: Is anybody counseling this organisation on the PR ramifications of this position? “Register your domain with GoDaddy. You’ll never know why or when we might shut it down.”
* GoDaddy suspended a domain name based on the content of the site. The suspension resulted from the discovery that SecLists.org was publishing MySpace user names and passwords on its site. However, it appears the list of user names and passwords had already been published in a variety of places. Webpronews.com overviews the full story.
January 30th, 2007
UK blog network Shiny Media has today secured a landmark $4.5m worth of investment from Bright Station Ventures, a new fund set up by City figure Dan Wagner.
Ashley Norris, co-founder, makes no attempt to hide his delight on Shiny’s blog:
“I don’t have a great deal to say at this moment other than to state the bleeding obvious that we are hugely excited about how we can use the cash to develop Shiny.
We started Shiny with nothing other than some great ideas and a passionate belief in the potential of blogs. We now attract almost three million readers each month to our 22 sites, employ over thirty bloggers (some full-time, some freelance) and regularly attract big name advertisers.”
According to Vecosys, Shiny may have sold up to 50 percent of the business, but even so, the deal sets a marker for the commercialisation of blogs in the UK.
Read here about how Shiny Media plans to spend the money.
Forrester searches for blogging ROI
January 26th, 2007
Forrester has published a report on the ROI of blogging, summary here and case study here.
It has received mixed reviews so far, here are two examples from Steve Rubel and Dennis Howlett.
The report was researched and written by Charlene Li, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester and Chloe Stromberg. Charlene’s blog, containing further insight, can be found here.
There have been questions raised about metrics and methods, as you would expect, most notably the use of advertising equivalency values to evaluate editorial coverage will be concerning to PR audiences. However, there seems to be some excellent insight and information contained in the report, judging by the summary.
Forrester’s three-step process to calculate Blogging ROI:
Although this report will probably cause more arguments than it will settle, it should have a positive affect in the boardroom. In other words, If this report helps to improve the knowledge and standards of organisations looking at, or involved in, the blogosphere, then I think it is a triumph.
Google Mapping local government
January 25th, 2007
The number of uses for Google Maps seems infinite.
Business ideas newsletter Springwise reports that one local government in Amsterdam is trialing an online tool that allows residents to pinpoint neighborhood problems on Google Maps (see above). After filling out an online form, a marker is placed on a Google map of the area, along with information on how the complaint is being dealt with.
The local government is claiming that this is motivating local maintenance crews to keep the map as empty as possible, with around 90 percent of issues being resolved within two days.
It’s nice to see local government being so social media savvy!
Social Media release battle rages on…
January 23rd, 2007
In years to come, it will be this past weekend that many will cite as the pivotal moment in the future of the social media release.
If, like me, you’re coming in late to this ‘discussion’ allow me to bring you up to speed.
Last week, the Third Thursday event took place in the US, which was focused on ‘Social media in marketing and PR’. What followed stirred up an ongoing conversation around the purpose and future of the social media release, which has uncovered some extremely interesting opinions, facts and the odd attack.
Shel Holtz, VP Marketing at Crayon, not only has an excellent summary of the issues, he was also on the original panel discussion.
I’m not going to go over the twists and turns in the debate, i’ll leave you to review that for yourself. You may need some time, check out Stowe Boyd and Chris Heuer as the focal points for the opposing views.
My reason for linking to this debate is simple, it offers one of the most interesting overviews of the social media release debate, and from a PR’s point of view, gives real insight into both sides of the discussion.
For what it’s worth, I agree press releases in traditional format do not translate well to social media. At Liberate Media we feel there is a requirement for a simple, fact-based news release format, accompanied by relevant links and feeds, which can be easily digested in a social media environment.
I am sure there are many ways of achieving the perfect social media release template, but in my mind we should begin with a clean slate, rather than adapt what we already know. It will be interesting to see the impact this has on traditional press release writing also.
Happy reading.