When Employees Blog…
Interesting look at the ethical issues associated with employees blogging… Brad Rawlins also has some interesting research looking at how much attention stakeholders deserve. More to come…
The Age Gets It…
The Age has hired big blogger downunder, James Farmer, to run its community initiatives. Great move by The Age and good move for James. Congrats. James has been a huge help to me in getting content distributed to the Education audiences I frequently speak to.
Edelman Gobbles Up A&R Partners
A&R are one of the most highly regarded independent PR agencies in the Valley. At least one part of that statement stands, but not the independent bit. Edelman is the new owner, completing a much needed strengthening their tech capabilities that makes them a real force now in the Nth American tech market. Bizarrely the story is running on PRWeek and on Steve’s blog, nothing on Edelman or A&R.
Edelman’s tech footprint also includes Zeno with long-term clients like Oracle. So it’s now Next Fifteen with brands like Bite, Outcast and Text 100 pitted against Edelman with Zeno and A&R. Are we looking at the two break-away holding company brands in tech worldwide?
While Edelman will have to deal with the inevitable integration issues that come with any merger(retaining clients and staff, and dealing with conflicts – the big three), what it looks like they are going to do is similar to Next Fifteen – that is, keep the brands independent and fuel their growth. Merging Edelman’s tech group into A&R solves another issue – the conflict with Microsoft.
More than anything though, this looks to be about fueling growth through talent acquisition. I meet with plenty of agency heads and they are all saying the same thing. Can’t find great talent, can barely find good talent. This is a talent starved market.
Good move by Edelman.
Ah, The Peace & Tranquility Of The Blogosphere…
One of the things I enjoy most about Nicholas Carr’s blog is his honesty. No punches pulled there.
And this morning he slammed a post by Edleman blogger, Steve Rubell on comments by Yahoo bloggers on stuff that buggs them about their products… Steve says:
I like companies and products that have the guts to say “we suck” or something close to it. It’s very un PR. It says to me, “hey, we want a best of breed product and we’re going to work our butts off to give it to you.”
Nick says:
Do companies actually pay for this kind of knuckleheaded advice? The last we thing we need is companies getting in touch publicly with their inner suckiness. Just give me something I want to buy and shut the hell up. I have enough friends.
Frankly, I don’t have the time to hang about reading companies navel gazing on their own products. As Steve says at the end of his post, actions speak louder than words. And, as a Yahoo shareholder I’d rather see focus on execution than dissent. Just cause Microsoft is doing it doesn’t mean it is right for others.
The problem with this kind of internal activism is it mostly points to problems and not solutions. In fact, they probably can’t even speak to the solutions. All this has done is encouraged me to stick with iLife for all my personal stuff and not continue to play with Yahoo 360. Is that what Yahoo wanted – Less participants?
At the end of the say I’m OK with a company talking about its shortcomings so long as it is talking about what it is doing about them and not whineing. Make your ‘bitch lists’ action lists and we would all be thrilled. The tone and nature of this kind of dialogue is rich and important to internal teams – IMHO, it adds little externally.
I’m glad Steve feels better for it. I feel worse, worse for Yahoo – a company with products I really like.
Okay Dave…
For me, this is the benchmark for all brand consultants self promotion activities. Brilliant.
