This week’s PRobecast, Alison Raymond, Tony Sapienza, Amy Krigman and Renatta Siewart talk California’s bill that makes it illegal to impersonate someone on the Web, cardless check-ins at the gym, business logos and more. Here are the issues we covered:

CA Bill says it’s illegal to impersonate – California recently passed a bill that makes it illegal to impersonate someone else on the web – and this means person or corporation. While instances like the whole Phoebe Price bullying case, would make me want to agree with this bill. What happened to freedom of speech?

Fingerprints at the Gym – An article in DailyFinance talked about a gym in the Silicon Valley installing fingerprint scanners at their front desk – as part of their national cardless check-in program. So gym-goers will scan their right and left index finders and the machine would keep in on file. The article brings up a good point, identity theft is already a problem but at least you can get a new account number. You can’t get a new fingerprint. Would you scan your print so you didn’t have to remember your card?

What to Consider when Creating a Business Logo – A mashable article talked about the 4 key things to consider when creating a logo and these included: Make sure your logo gives a good impression, Make your logo “sticky” – meaning non-changing, Find a great designer and introduce yourself into the social marketplace. I think this article brought up a good point – logos really need a good first impression. If it doesn’t look good, your audience will likely look elsewhere. And, secondly – introduce yourself to the social sphere, but think about where you want to go. Don’t spread yourself too thin. You want to make sure you have a plan as to what you want to accomplish and then proceed to do so.

Firefox 4’s Beta 4: Hello, Sync and Panorama – Mozilla just released its beta version of Firefox 4 which includes 2 features: Panorama and Sync. Panorama is a visual tool that allows you to see all of your open tabs in a group. It has a drag and drop interface so you can more easily manage them. Which is helpful for the tab-fiends. The Sync allows users to synchronize all their bookmarks, history, passwords, etc. across multiple computers. What are your thoughts on these new features

Could ‘Social Network’ hurt Facebook? – There’s a film coming out in October called “The Social Network” that is supposed to be about Mark Zuckerberg and how facebook was created. Apparently Zuckerberg didn’t have anything to do with the film and the film casts him in some bad light. If true, do you think this is going to effect how people will think of facebook?

Lindsay Lohan’s Potential New Radio Gig – Lindsay Lohan just got out of rehab and there is talk of her calling the East Coast home again. A radio show in Long Island is now offering her and her mother Dina $1M to host the morning radio show and talk fashion, tips, etc. Do you want tips from Lindsay

The Most Dangerous Celebrities to Google – McAfee recently put out a top 10 list of the most dangerous celebrities to Google. The Top 3 being Jessica Biel at 3, Julia Roberts at #2 and Cameron Diaz being the top dangerous celebrity. According to McAfee, the risk is greater when you include “nake” or “nude,” which isn’t really surprising. This really just goes back to the fact that you have to be careful what you click on, whether it’s a link that was sent to you or on Google.

The 15 Most Bedbug-Infested Cities in the US- There was a recent study of the top 15 bedbug-infested cities in the US and Boston came out as number 11. Gross! What are your thoughts on this epidemic?

Lastly, this week we are starting a PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which we go around the room and everyone votes on what story did the best job PR-wise. This week’s winner is Terminix who released the study on the top bedbug-infested cities. Not only does this story have the “yuck” – it also grabbed a lot of attention.

So, Congratulations, Terminix!

Hope you enjoyed PRobecast, Topaz Partners’ loosely edited weekly podcast!

Let us know what your thoughts are on these matters!

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This week’s PRobecast, Alison Raymond, Amy Krigman, Ann Dalrymple and Renatta Siewert talk the evolution of social media and what’s to come, facebook’s “dislike button,” Buick’s new image and more. Here are the issues we covered:

Social Media Revolutionizing Business/Customer Relationships – In this economy, most businesses – in all industries – have changed their business models. The “social media revolution” that has happened really force businesses to take a step back and see not only who their messages are going to – but the need to analyze what kinds of messages they are sending. While you can promote your business (sell) via these online channels, you also need to offer information of value – so you giving your audience information they want so they’ll continue to look at you favorably.

The Future of Public Relations and Social Media – Mashable recently ran an article discussing how social media is changing the face of PR. Press releases are now incorporating a social element with more links, video and audio – making these releases more interactive and interesting to editors. Even social media platforms in general have changed the way PR pros are “doing” PR – offering new platforms for PR pros to reach out to journalists, etc. While, we are embracing social media the best we can, we should also expect to see adaptations to these platforms to make using social media even easier. This would include, finding the right audiences easier, knowing what data to accept or reject, more aggregation, etc. What do you foresee changing social media-wise?

The Facebook ‘Dislike Button’ is a Scam – If you’ve recently seen in your friends’ status’ that they have a “dislike” button – do not click through. It’s the latest Facebook scam and it’s spreading rapidly. If you do click though and follow the installation process, you grant the app permission and it’ll run the same status on your page – and it could be charging you.

Is the Buick the Fastest Growing Car Brand in America? – Buick recently has changed their design and marketing plans shifting to focus their efforts on a new younger audience. Incorporating new social media strategies and with the launched of momentoftruth.com, Buick is really stepping up and trying to step back from the “grandfather car” image it previously had. In doing so, General Motors Co. sold 137% more Buicks in July of 2010 than it did in July of 2009. What do you think of this recent marketing shift?

JetBlue Passenger Goes Whacky, Causes Plane to be Diverted – Just after last week’s JetBlue flight attendant incident, an incident occurred on the other end of the spectrum – the passenger. A passenger was having an “anxiety attack” and started acting out, hitting and even spitting on a flight attendant. She had to be tied down to a seat until she was calm. What a month JetBlue is having!

What are your thoughts on this week’s topics?

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This week’s PRobecast, Alison Raymond, Mike Sapienza and Tony Sapienza talk why companies need to connect with their PR agencies right away, the Flipboard app, and much more. Here are the issues we covered:

Flipboard turns social media feeds into digital magazine – Flipboard is an application for the iPad that can turn the content from your social networks – Facebook, twitter, etc, into a digital magazine. It can actually let’s you set your preferences based on your interests and will pull from Twitter feeds published my media companies. If you had an iPad, do you think you would upload Flipboard?

Google Flips Thoughts on Net Neutrality – Google recently pulled a 180 and flipped its support for net neutrality, which ensures that all people have equal access to the internet. Google is pairing up with Verizon and now would like to pay Verizon a fee for their browsers to exclusively use Google, enabling them to charge advertisers more money for the large demographic of users. Do you think this is something that will be passed? What does this mean for smaller news providers?

The value in a strong connection between clients and agencies – An article on PR Week offered tips to businesses to ensure they are maximizing their relationship when signing on with a new agency. It brought up a lot of good points – Set expectations, communicate frequently, and give the team access to key execs. Why do you think it’s important to have a strong client/agency relationship right off the bat?

Twitter’s launch of the Tweet Button – According to Mashable, Twitter is coming out with an official Tweet Button that is supposed to fill the void companies face when it comes to being able to track tweets. This button is designed to count tweets and retweets across the entire Twitter network. Do you think this will solve a lot of clients fears about the value of Twitter?

Will Wyclef Jean run for President of Haiti – Wyclef Jean is going from multimillionaire recording artist to potentially running for President of Haiti, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. If elected president, he is going to encourage donators to invest heavily in education, farming, mining and to promote tourism. There are a couple things that may possibly stand in the way; including requirements that those running for President must have never renounced their Haitian citizenship by holding another countries passport – which I’m sure is not the case for Wyclef. However, his people will argue that he is a Haitian ambassador at large (he was appointed in 2007). What do you think? Do you think he can pull this off? Is this too big of a thing to turn around?

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