Final thoughts on PR 191

PR 191 opened my eyes on new topic. I did not pay attention to blog from before. Following a blog during the semester was challenging and made me realize that this is the new trend in business. Blogging is becoming more important than ever, even businesses use it to polish their company’s image like in “Sun” case.

But, the problem resides in who is behind the blog? Who is writing the blog?
We saw in Walmart case that Walmart hired secretly people to start blogging in its favor. Blogging can confront unethical problem.

Overall PR 191 was a challenging class, looking back, I feel that I learnt a lot of valuable information whether in doing position paper, annual report, a direct mail package or blogging.

Again Moore in Trouble

Treasury Department is investigating Micheal Moore, the Academy Award-Winning filmmaker’s trip to Cuba for possible violations of the U.S. trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba.
Moore, took along with him about 10 ailing workers from the Ground Zero rescue effort in Manhattan for treatment in Cuba, and to help him in his upcoming health-care documentary “Sicko.”
After receiving the letter, the first thing Moore did is to place his documentary “Sicko” in a safe place outside the country so the government won’t get hold of it before the scheduled airing on May 19 in Cannes Film Festival.
What kind of surprise Moore has for the world now? We shall know soon.
Read more

Sarkozy For a Change

Finally, the French people said their word. They elected Sarkozy hoping for some serious interior reformation in the country.
Sarkozy, son of Hungarian immigrant promised to lower the unemployment rate and to be tough on crime and control immigration.
Sarkozy announced after his election, his support to USA even though some opinions may contradict.
Will the American – French relations witness closer ties than ever?
Days to come will decide.

Germany Galcier Is Melting

According to ZUGSPITZE, Germany (Reuters), the glacier is melting despite the Herculean efforts to save it.
Frank Huber, the manager of cable car and skiing operations on the 2,962-meter peak in the northern Alps is very sad that the glacier is melting and he can’t do anything for it.
He regrets that his children may not see it and enjoyed it as he did when he was little boy.
Scientists blame it on global warming and on the change in the climate.
What do you think? Should the weather be blamed for the melting glacier?

Wal-Mart did it again

Wal-Mart cut down the price of a top brand name—the 42-in. Panasonic high-definition TV—by $500, to $1,294. Wal-Mart’s low prices policy has caused many electronic stores to suffer. In fact, Circuit City after closing down 70 stores, they laid off 3,400 employees and put its 800 Canadian stores on the block on March 28. ff 3,400 employees and put its 800 Canadian stores on the block. Tweeter Home Entertainment Group is closing 49 of its 153 stores and dismissed 650 workers and Dallas-based CompUSA is closing 126 of its 229 stores.
Is it good PR for Wal-Mart? Of course, it is. But, how about the other businesses?
I believe that Wal-Mart is giving other businesses more causes to hate the giant retailers and to seek its destruction.
What do you think?

Read More

Blogging Can Lead to New Opportunities

I came across a story from the April 10th edition of the Wall Street Journal. It was a story about How Blogging Can Help You Get a New Job. It has a long, I mean, a long list of PR bloggers that have got new jobs simply from blogging. They also point out which social media skills have helped them make that transition happen.

I thought this was really interesting for those of you who do blog regularly. I have to admit that before this class, I never really ever blogged before. Now, I am more comfortably blogging and actually enjoy it.

But just note that if you are currently working for a company as a blogger, you might want to be careful not to publish anything that hints that you are planning to leave your company. If that is the case, you might suddenly find yourself without a job.

One person, one ticket

Beijing Olympic tickets went on sale in the Chinese capital on the basis of one ticket per person.
"Limiting tickets to one per person is a problem for sure, but there are just too many of us Chinese," said Wang Wei, secretary general of the Beijing Organising Committee.
"We've taken this policy to ensure many more people can watch the games." he added.
More than 7 million tickets will be available to the public, 75% of the tickets will be reserved for the Chinese people.
Tickets will be sold via the internet and at 1,000 branches of the Bank of China.
Officials are hoping to make $140m from tickets sales.
The Olympic Games will begin on 8 August 2008.

Blog Bubble Bursts And Leaves A Big Mess

The book "The Cult of the Amateur" is giving MSM (mainstream media) journalists a platform to condemn all bloggers as morons, idiots and worse, amateurs. The author, Andrew Keen, argues that the bloggers are filling up the Internet with so much junk that it is burying all useful information or creative thought under a mountain of garbage that is negatively impacting the culture.

There are now more than 55 million blogs, or 175,000 new blogs created every day, or two new blogs every second, according to Technorati. But not all of them are useful! Professional and responsible bloggers are needed, just like the other mainstream media. We need more blogs that are useful to us!

Sources: PR Blog News

NO WAY OUT

It is heartbreaking to know that we,the American people are aware of the wrong decisions our government is making.
However, we feel handcuffed and immobilized. Our objections and demonstrations are not paying back.
I came over this video on youtube. I couldn’t but share it with you. Please click here.

It is sad but true.


Enjoy it................

CRM is replacing public relations or what?

Did you know that Cause-Related Marketing or CRM serves as public relations. CRM generates lot of publicity and media towards a firm. CRM benefits the organiztion in many ways:

-Increased sales
-Increased visibility
-Increased customer loyalty
-Enhanced company image
-Positive media coverage

Cause-Related Marketing is when a well- known company teams up with a non-profit organization to generate money for it through the company products.
An example of a successful CRM is the one Lee company created. Lee company teamed up with The Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer research. Through a good marketing, Lee launched Lee National Denim Day to fund the breast cancer association.........


Read more about Lee's campaign on Lee website

Who is Amanda Chapel?

The Washington Post tried to find out. Her bio says she's got loads of PR experience under her belt. Her scathing satire didn't sit well with many PR folks, last spring though. According to The Bivings Report she could be several people. But one thing's for certain, she offers harsh criticism of our industry and makes us think -- which is ultimately a good thing, in my opinion.

How To Be A Good Guest

I found those tips on how to be a good guest, on the PR blog that I am following and I want to share them with the class. Here are the tips:

-Always mention your company at least 3 times in a 15 minute interview.
Most Producers know and understand that’s why you’re on their broadcast in the first place. Most will never bring it up so you have to be a “used car salesman” and mention it.

-Be yourself!
Don’t try to be Rush Limbaugh or any radio announcer….it sounds phony and most
Producers can see it coming a mile away.

-Be concise
Summarize your main point in a crisp 3 minutes. That’s how long you will get when you’re on a TV program or a radio broadcast.

-Think before you speak
Speak slowly; I didn’t say dead. Speak like you talk and think before you speak.

-Offer your help
Offer the Editor or Producer help in ways to write or how to cover your story.
Don’t be pushy, but you can offer valuable insight into possible angles for the story.

-Always say thank you
Too many times a guest leaves without thanking the crew, the hosts, the producer.

Blogs don't write themselves-some blogging tips

I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel like blogging is extremely difficult. I find myself searching for a topic to write on for several days. After I find that topic, I'll analyze it to death until I think it's too boring to write about, or have no idea how to lay it out.

Then in my quest to find a topic, I stumbled over a blog like it was a kick to the head. "Tips on writing content for your blog" was published by Piaras Kelly in 2005, but thank goodness it's still up for people like me. My favorite tip is # 10- "Be controversial: Don't be a sheep, stand out and voice your own opinion." That was probably my biggest fear- that someone wouldn't like or that noone would care about what I wrote. But like Kelly said, "Who cares if nobody agrees with you?" I guess I won't!

PR Blogs

There are lots of websites out there that provide blogs with recent PR news. However, some of them are getting worse.

For example, the PR releases now running on Bloglines PR circuit … VP appointed here, SVP there, blah blah here and there. It used to be a very great source for ideas. But now the blogs are mostly about blah is being proud to lead blah and become the leader of the industry.

Google blog search for "public relations" yield for even better results and informational blogs than Bloglines do. For example, one of the results is today Arizona Venture Capital is sponsoring a conference that highlights use of social media by Arizona companies, featuring social media gurus Robert Scoble and Chris Heuer.

Sources: PR Blog News

Cisco-Apple settled at last......

The two Silicon Valley tech giants Cisco and Apple have settled their dispute over the "IPone" name after six weeks of legal battle.
According to Gene Munster, senior research analyst with investment bank Piper Jaffray & Co, Apple might have paid Cisco between $25 million and $50 million for rights to the name.
However, both company are not talking much about the deal but some are talking about possible partnership between the two tech giants in the near future.
Analysts said the deal was likely a longer-term strategy by both companies to reinforce their competitive positions in the fight to deliver digital content -- particularly video -- directly into consumers' homes.
The settelment gave the right for both companies to use the name "IPhone."

SJSU Technology & Emerging Media Club

If you'd like to get better at blogging and all things "new media," you might want to check out the new SJSU Technology & Emerging Media Club.

Organized by a group of JMC students who took Jour 163 - New Media in Journalism last semester, the club is open to all SJSU students...and their friends.

"There's a lot of interesting individuals on campus," said JMC student Andrew Venegas, one of the club's founders, "and we would like them all to be involved in this historic step towards new education using new techologies and media."

The next meeting is 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21, in Room 116 of the old Clark Library (now the Academic Success Center).

Here's the meeting agenda:

1. How to start a blog using the Blogger engine
2. What a tag is and how it can be used in a post
3. What an RSS feed is

You can also access a set of videos to practice or clarify the techniques discussed at the meeting, and join the club blog for updates and posts.

Since I believe this club could be very helpful to JMC students, as an added bonus I'm offering my students extra credit for participating in these meetings (5 pts./mtg., up to 15 points). Hope to see you there!

The Machine is Us/ing Us

In the above YouTube video, Michael Wesch creatively makes thought provoking comments about communication, writing and the Web. I agree with Kenneth W. Davis, our words are of the utmost importance in today's public relations context.

High security at Rio carnival

Rio De Janeiro annual carnival is escorted this year by extra police officers after recent violence that left Brazilian Samba star dead. However, the city mayor Cesar Maia is not worried of the effect of violence on the carnival "No, quite the opposite. I think that given these unfortunate events, Rio de Janeiro will work past these events to reaffirm its nature and identity as people who are calm, peaceful and happy.”


Read more at BBC

Public Relations a Social Science?

Mike Driehorst has some ideas about incorporating social science into public relations blogging. With the recent EU directive ordering a halt to businesses posting false reviews of their products in blogs, Driehorst encourages public relations practitioners to allow bloggers access to products for their own blog reviews. Common sense? I think so.

HP is digitizing the entertainment industry

HP is digitizing the entertainment industry through its
newly business called "HP Video Merchant Services."
According to HP web site, HP is providing the video-retailers with a multichannel distribution by allowing them to fulfill the requests of their consumers in a variety of ways, including digital downloads, DVDs manufactured on demand, traditional packaged DVDs and emerging video formats such as HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray discs.

Guess who was the first to adopt the new service?

WAL-MART . Yes, Wal-Mart online shoppers will have this accessibility. Customers can find now and purchase their favorite movie or TV titles by having the option of downloading a digital copy to their PCs, portable video player, and by having the option for mail delivery.

How interesting! What else to be digitized?