Friday, February 24, 2006

IABC Leadership Institute

I am currently attending IABC's Leadership Institute in Charlotte, NC. It concludes tomorrow. This is not a conference on great new communication skills, but how to run a thriving IABC chapter. You can see our pics on our IABC Photo Blog.

Blogging tips

Here's an article that includes some great tips on blogging.

Robert Scoble, Microsoft's best known blogger, and Shel Israel, a veteran consultant for start up companies, have teamed up to write Naked Conversations: How blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers, a book the authors say is intended to tell businesses of all sizes and in all places why they will benefit from blogging. The ZDNet article is an excerpt from the book.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Right Wing Podcasts

There was a Townhall column today by Jennifer Biddison on how political conservatives are using podcasts to supplement their dominance on talk-radio. The column includes a how-to section on getting started with listening to podcasts.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Rewriting history -- on a wiki

Check out this post from Computing Unplugged on how senatorial staff members have rewritten the bios of their bosses on Wikipedia to tone down the negative and highlight the positive.

This is the tricky part of wikis...if it's wide open to everyone, then anyone can change the facts as they see fit. In this case, they tracked down the culprits and resulted in some bad press (just what politicians need).

A Good Apology

It was slow in coming, but Dick Cheney's apology was refreshing and well done:

"Ultimately I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend, and that's something I'll never forget."

"The image of him falling is something I will never be able to get out my mind. It was one of the worst days of my life."


It's amazing that when he clearly points the finger of blame toward himself, editorialists and political opponents still claim that Cheney is blaming the victim. Huh? But that's for another blog. The point is that this apology is great. It's contrite, non-political, and accepts full responsibility. Kudos.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

"Smart" press releases

Bulldog Reporter has a nice article on the death of the stagnant "text only" press release, replaced by "smart" press releases that include multimedia: photos, video, and audio.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

"Quick Draw" Cheney (AKA "Slow Response" Cheney

The overhyped media story on Dick Cheney shooting his hunting buddy reveals a couple lessons:


  • At a time when Iran is working on a nuclear arms program, the media would rather spend all of their time pouring salt on the wounds of the Bush administration;
  • The Bush administration regularly cuts open wounds and holds out its arm for the media to pour salt on.
I'm a Bushie, I'll admit it--meaning that I agree with him on policy more than I disagree with him. But his communication team is the worst in presidential history. Why haven't they all been fired a long time ago? Ever since Karen Hughes went back to Texas and Ari Fleisher started making real money, it's been downhill. Let's face it, the Prez needs the BEST the communications industry has to offer to help him. He's not The Great Communicator by any stretch of the imagination.

But let's focus on the shooting incident. First of all, media people: get a grip! This is as non-news as you get. Fodder for Leno and Letterman? Absolutely. For CNN and the CBS Evening News? Maybe as a blip on the night after it happened. Do you really think anybody cares about it? It doesn't affect anything or anybody other than the poor lawyer who got some character added to his flesh. To me, this event highlights the elitism of the White House press corp...how dare we not find out about this story first? Yes, I think they should have been told first, but their hyped-up reaction when there are so many critical stories they SHOULD be investigating shows their true colors.

To the Bush "communications people" -- did you think nobody would know or find out? What were you thinking? You give your enemies (the media, of course) ammunition by not being forthcoming. You make a small story much bigger by trying to pretend it didn't happen. There wasn't a crime here (other than perhaps the lack of a $7 hunting permit), so why the cover up? There is at least a perception of a cover up. I know it's not his style, but Cheney should speak to the matter: "We were having a great time...the accident happened...I feel terrible that he was injured...I wish him the best." I probably wouldn't crack an Aaron Burr joke because it would be inappropriate and would be awfully contrived or scripted. But he is the 2nd most powerful man in the U.S. and he needs to say something to the American people about it. He should have issued a statement immediately after it happened.

One thing is sure...the "secrecy" thing in the Bush White House (created and implemented, from what I understand, by Cheney himself) needs to stop. Even if this IS a non-event (which I agree), get in front of the story!

In a related item, Opinion Journal has a nice review of a book by a Pentagon spokesperson that should be a good read for anybody involved in high-stakes PR. "Lipstick on a Pig" by Torie Clark tells of the communications effort by the Pentagon during the Iraq war. The book tells tells "how to deliver bad news, defuse scandal and build trusting relations with constituents and customers." Give it a read.

UPDATE: Linda Chavez's latest column discusses the Cheney issue and reiterates my point in more detail.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Wanna Wiki?

If you would like to experiment with a Wiki and explore the possibilities in your organization, try StikiPad. Get started for free. You can collaborate on a document from within a browser.

From their web site:
Wikis have been around for years, but have been limited to either internal business communication or to tech-savvy users who have the know-how of setting them up. A wiki is a piece of software that allows anybody to edit pages and post feedback - it lets you communicate with however many people you wish, and keep communication all in one place. A wiki is similar to a public message board in that any user can register and post their comments. Where a wiki differs is the capability of creating an inter-connected database within its pages. In your StikiPad, you can make several pages and link them together - this keeps your data organized while still immediately accessible.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Employee Communication via RSS

Back to the subject of RSS:

How can it be used for internal communication? Many think of RSS as simply a way to allow people outside an organization to easily view new content that has been published. It is not yet used commonly on intranets, which could really improve internal communication. Probably most employees don't have their intranet set as their default home page--it's more likely to be ESPN.com or some other site that really delivers the stuff they crave every day.

Using RSS with your intranet enables employees to subscribe to content they are interested in, increasing the likelihood it will be read. Make it easy for them by providing a standard RSS reader that allows them to create their own personalized employee news outlet.

What kind of content should you publish via RSS? Here are some obvious ones:
  • Benefits updates
  • Corporate news
  • Department news
  • CEO blog
  • Community relations opportunities
Don't miss out on using one of the best tools ever available for delivering news and information in a manner that will increase readership.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Remember when...reflecting on the Dot-Com busts

Here's a blast from the past...with some great lessons on what NOT to do with building your online business.

Some wisdom gained by the dot-com busts:

From Webvan: even if you have a good idea, it's best not to grow too fast too soon.

From Pets.com: advertising, no matter how clever, cannot save you from a bad business concept.

From Kozmo.com: even if you're selling online, the cost of the sale needs to be less than the amount your customer is paying (duh!).

From Boo.com: being a global business means knowing the language (and the currency) from around the globe.

From MVP.com: celebrity endorsements ain't worth Jack (unless Jack Nicklaus is behind it...then maybe...) in the long-run.

I started in "high tech" PR during the height of the dot-com era, though never landed any of those companies who had so much money they had to blow it on PR guys like me. In fact, I recall the one dot-com company that seriously considered us. Our proposal would have given them a great campaign for four-figures, but they went with an agency that their VC funder liked for five-figures (a month!). Simply brilliant...and of course the company no longer exists.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

RSS Rules!

I've talked to several groups of student or professional communicators and I'm amazed at how few of them know anything about RSS (Really Simple Syndication), a tool that enables users to easily subscribe to and read or track content on web sites or blogs without having to "surf" (bop around from site to site to see everything that's out there). RSS is revolutionizing the way a message gets moved out there, and professional message movers aren't clueing in for the most part.

Simply put, instead of having to go to your favorite websites or blogs to see if anything new has been posted, you check your "RSS aggregator" which pulls in the RSS feeds to which you are subscribed.

If you're a content publisher, this is big news! RSS also allows you to distribute content to a host of sites that may subscribe to your site's content. This may make "hit counters" look less impressive, but the point is to spread the word rather than collective traffic statistics--right?

Try it out for yourself. Go download a news aggregator (also known as RSS Reader), such as www.newsgator.com, www.pluck.com, and www.feedster.com.

I'm going to get back to RSS in a later post (how you can use it for internal and external communications). Just spend some time experiencing it, and then let's reconnect on it.