This week on PRobecast, Tim Allik, Wendie Larkin, and Glen Zimmerman discuss:
How uncool is Cuil? The new search engine launched with the best buzz money could buy - but landed with a thud. The PR lesson learned? Terrific PR just isn't enough without a great product or service behind it.
Corporate blog relations. Friday's New York Times covers the trials and tribulations of blogger Brandon Dilbeck, who gripes about Comcast on his blog - and then complains when the company emails him to ask if they can do anything to work things out. Earth to Brandon, you can't have it both ways. If you want to keep your thoughts to yourself keep a personal diary. Otherwise, prepare to engage. And kudos to Comcast for reaching out.
Help a Reporter Out. At www.helpareporter.com, Peter Shankman's effort to distribute reporters' request for sources is taking the PR world by storm, with 20,000 subscribers to the service in just a few months. Are the folks at Profnet quaking in their boots? They probably should be, because HARO is free. D'oh! Our panelists float and consider a related idea: Could PR folks create a aggregated list of PR pitches (protecting embargoes and anonymity, of course) that could then be distributed on a regular basis to reporters? What do you think?
Is the press release dead? Before you start yawning in the face of the age-old question, consider our experience at Topaz with our client Language Weaver, a leader in statistical machine translation. We distributed a press release that linked to a podcast with one of the company's founders. The release itself was interesting enough for famed inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil to link to it from his website, www.kurzweilai.net. The one element missing from this equation? A reporter.
You can send your feedback to probecast@topazpartners.com. You can also call your feedback into 781-404-2409. Or leave a comment on our blog!
PRobecast’s opening music is “Junk In A” by Pat Zelenka, available on the Podsafe Music Network. Our closing music is “Chase Me On A Bike” composed by our own Rob Capra.
There are lots of good examples of B2C social media successes out there (you have to dig, but they're out there).
But try looking for B2B examples. They're few and far between.
We're trying to put an end to that. We're therefore launching a PRobecast series that will highlight the B2B social media examples and (hopefully) successes.
You can send your feedback to probecast@topazpartners.com. You can also call your feedback into 781-404-2409. Or leave a comment on our blog!
PRobecast’s opening music is “Junk In A” by Pat Zelenka, available on the Podsafe Music Network. Our closing music is “Chase Me On A Bike” composed by our own Rob Capra.
As I sit at Podcamp Boston 3 absorbing day one’s learnings, I am constantly reminded of how important the face-to-face aspect of social networking is.
Think about it. Deep down inside, you just don’t feel like you really know someone until you’ve met them in the flesh, no matter how much they may blog about their life. It was this reminder that I shared with the Boston Herald’s small business columnist Jennifer Heldt Powell, who wrote a story for today’s paper on the importance of online networking.
I’ve been more social in the four years I’ve been actively engaged in the social media community that I ever was before, even in college. Getting engaged online is just a catalyst for quicker and better interpersonal and business relationships.
Do you have some social networking advice? Share it on the Herald site–they take comments!
For the record, in reference to my shirt, I actually rarely deny friend requests on Facebook. If I don’t really know you, I’ll only give you access to my limited profile. All you’ll get is my email address and a few other harmless bits of relatively useless information.
