Yet more advice for communicators to pay attention to, from Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research: Blogs are rapidly becoming a mainstream technology, but there’s lot at stake when an individual or business begins blogging to the outside world. Some organizations have a culture that allows for blogging to take place with minimal disruption, and blogging […]
Category: Business
British Library wifi hotspot
Visitors to the British Library in London will be able to get wireless internet access alongside the extensive information available in its famous reading rooms. Broadband wireless connectivity will be made available in the eleven reading rooms, the auditorium, café, restaurant, and outdoor piazza area. A study revealed that 86% of visitors to the Library […]
The problem with marketing
Is marketing as a function or profession in crisis? According to a UK survey carried out by The Marketing Society and McKinsey, it is. The Financial Times reports on the survey and on the negative views of marketing held in many boardrooms: Not everyone will care if marketing is in trouble. However, since successful marketing […]
PR fudging
Imagine this. A company has a financial hole that’s $92.9 million big. As a publicly-listed company, they have to report it and issue a public statement, which they do. So this is how one newspaper, The Washington Post, reported the news yesterday: McLean technology consulting company BearingPoint Inc. said yesterday that its chief financial officer, […]
Europeans give mixed marks for corporate reputation
The best-known firms in Germany, the United Kingdom and France are largely homegrown, reflecting Europe’s still-fragmented local markets, according to a survey published last week in the Wall Street Journal. The comprehensive survey of corporate reputations among companies in the European Union’s three largest countries – carried out by The Reputation Institute and Harris Interactive […]
European business networking with OpenBC
Last week, a business friend introduced me to OpenBC, a sort of ‘European Linked In.’ From what I’ve seen of it so far, it looks like an excellent networking tool especially for European-based business people. I’ve been a member of US-focused Linked In since mid year and I can see that OpenBC has many similarities […]
Survey: The world’s most respected companies and leaders
Following the Wall Street Journal’s report last week on the most respected companies in three European countries comes the Financial Times and PriceWaterhouseCoopers with a much wider and in-depth report on the world’s most respected companies. Both the FT’s and PWC’s websites contain a wealth of detailed information from this 7th annual survey, which questioned […]
The free-falling US dollar
How much worse can it get? The Wall Street Journal says today: Skeptical markets drove the dollar to another all-time low Thursday against the euro, with the European currency climbing above $1.32 for the first time. The euro rose to a new high for a third consecutive day, breaking through Wednesday’s record of $1.3178. It […]
Target’s reality trip
So US retailer Target Corporation is offering marijuana for sale on its e-commerce website. Is this a pending PR crisis in the blogosphere? Steve Rubel thinks so. I’d be inclined to agree with Steve. Start with the blogosphere – as in Nathan Weinberg’s post at Inside Google with its headline “Taget [sic] pushes drugs” – […]
UK PR agency groups in merger talks
Chime Communications and Incepta, the listed public relations companies that own some of the UK’s best-known consultancies, have held extensive merger talks. The Daily Telegraph reports that discussions between the two groups took place earlier this month but failed to reach an agreement on the terms of a possible merger. However, the prospect of a […]
It’s about Target’s reputation
It has been interesting seeing the different reactions to the Target marijuana story during the past few days. Web Pro News has a good summary of events, including an explanation of how Target’s e-commerce website works as a front-end for Amazon.com. Whatever you see on Target’s website, they don’t really sell marijuana, it seems. Neither […]
Edelman: Our word is our bond
Richard Edelman’s latest post in his Speak Up blog is about ethics in PR. But this is no ordinary post, no yawning homily about what the PR profession should be doing to keep a clean house. This post speaks from the heart, it seems to me: Let me begin by recognizing that those who live […]
Easy customer relationship building
Add this one to your list of examples to use in answering the question, "So what can a blog do for enhancing my customer relationships?" Nick Bradbury, the developer of Feed Demon (RSS aggregator and reader) and TopStyle (HTML and CSS editor), has a bit of a problem concerning another software developer who has a […]
IBM getting out of the PC business
In today’s New York Times: IBM, whose PC in 1981 moved personal computing out of the hobby shop and into the corporate and consumer mainstream, has put the business up for sale, people close to the negotiations said yesterday. […] The sale, likely to be in the $1 billion to $2 billion range, is expected […]
The Red Couch is inspiring!
Such a great idea – write a book about blogging where a blog is the focal point for the two authors – Robert Scoble and Shel Israel – to interact, converse and engage with anyone who has an opinion and some ideas to contribute, and actually create the book’s content. Publishing rights will be auctioned […]
Oracle will carve up PeopleSoft
According to its president, Oracle has a clear idea of how it’s going to slice up PeopleSoft to retain the choicest assets and send the rest to the corporate rendering yard – it’s just waiting for the green light to hit it in the head with a sledge hammer so it can turn PeopleSoft into […]
A blog is a great CRM tool
Guillaume du Gardier recounts an experience in a post in the CEO Bloggers’ Club from meeting with the sales team of an international company in which blogging was discussed: The first reaction of the sale team was negative, as they are afraid to see their client talking about prices or problems they might have when […]
Getting interesting in China
China is high up in the business news headlines at the moment following the completion of IBM’s deal to sell its PC business to Lenovo, a Chinese computer manufacturer, for $1.75 billion. Lenovo will become the world’s third-biggest PC maker, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Here’s an interesting commentary from John Patrick, former VP of internet […]
The Red Couch outlined
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel have outlined how they see The Red Couch, the book on blogging they are planning (see my recent post). Highlight from the outline introductory segment: The Red Couch argues blogging is changing everything and businesses choosing to ignore it, face the same fate as the blacksmith who ignored the automobile […]
Search for the best search
CNET News: Google has launched a new feature that tries to guess what people are looking for as they type queries into a search box. Google Suggest quietly debuted this week on the company’s Labs site, CNET says, which showcases Google features that “aren’t quite ready for prime time,” according to a message on the […]