Archive for September, 2008
Charlotte Searches for Its Soul Amidst Wachovia’s Looming Departure
My colleague Lisa Hoffmann likes to refer to Charlotte as a FisherPrice city — a town built with pre-fabricated blocks, devoid of identity. And, boy, is she right.
Sure, we’ve got a few enclaves of cultural flavor. Distinctly southern restaurants like Mac’s BBQ and Price’s Chicken Coop come to mind, and neighborhoods like NoDa and Dilworth [...]
How to Use Twitter as an RSS Reader
I use TwitterFeed to automate the publishing of my PRstore blog posts to Twitter. Unfortunately, many of my favorite bloggers haven’t set up their Twitter accounts with Tweets for new blog posts. If you’re tired of flipping back and forth between Twitter and your RSS feedreader of choice, here’s a way to get those RSS [...]
9 Objections to Social Media…and How to Overcome Them
1. Nothing Relevant Happens via Social Media
Is professional development relevant to our company? What about recruiting? Or keeping up with best practices in our industry? Or building brand awareness?
These are all key parts of our operations. Social media tools make it possible to decrease costs, access new resources, speed up operations and get things done [...]
Plumber’s Crack, Sadists and Con Men
Crisis Response — Is Your Message Believable?
Editor’s Note: Turns out Wachovia wasn’t being totally forthright. The company was bought today by Citigroup and shares fell to 94 cents in pre-open trading. Surprise, surprise.
Wachovia is worried about the financial meltdown’s impact on its customer base. That’s the message I got, anyway, when I read this letter from CEO Bob Steel.
Now, I’m a [...]
Should You Trust Your PR Firm with Your Social Media Program?
The Downsides of Corporate Blogging
Corporate blogging may sound like a cushy gig, but it’s not all cupcakes and lemonade. Most companies don’t pay employees to blog (PRstore included). In fact, most make it clear that blogging is “extracurricular” and shouldn’t interfere with other work (PRstore included).
To be fair, writing a blog on company time has its perks. You get [...]
Good Search Engine Strategy is About More Than SEO
Wordle – Because Even My Words are Boring Without Pictures
I recently discovered Wordle.net, a nifty little site that lets my copy and past any block of text and spits out a word-collage sort of thingie (yes, that’s the technical description).
Of course, I’m probably the last person to discover Wordle, but who cares? The point is I can turn my ho-hum press release about PRstore’s [...]
Hold Thy Tongue, Knave!
Customers or clients have you seething? We’ve all had that urge to put someone in their place. But President Abraham Lincoln had a better approach, as recalled by Paul Boller, Jr. in Presidential Anecdotes:
One day Secretary of War Stanton complained to Lincoln of a major general who had accused him of favoritism in extremely abusive [...]
Scott Hepburn is a veteran PR and marketing professional. He blogs here about marketing, PR, advertising, journalism and social media.