Welcome to another edition of CustomScoop’s PR PodJots, our weekly rundown of the best of the PR and marketing podosphere.

It’s
another busy podcasting week leading into next week’s holiday—and I
know you’ll all be disappointed to learn there will be no new PodJots
next Friday, the 23^rd, as I will likely be fighting my way
through hordes of Black Friday shoppers (I can never resist joining
in!).  Never fear, we will post a super-sized edition the following
week to ensure we don’t miss any of your episodes.

On to the Jots!

New Comm Road – Multimedia Conference Blogging

Bryan
Person discusses using blogs to help guide your multimedia conferences.
Bryan emphasizes that keeping a blog for your conference is important,
but keeping it updated throughout the conference is just as vital. He
cites a couple of recent conferences succeeding at blogging, including PRSA International and the much-discussed UGA-Connect Conference
held recently, where participants kept the “viewers at home” abreast of
conference events with constant blogging, Tweeting, Flickr streams and
other methods.

The “event blog” is only as good or informative
as the organizers make it—if you set up a blog with the bare bones
information that is better than nothing, but why create a blog in the
first place if you’re not going to jam it with as many juicy tidbits as
possible? Bryan gives the “Road Map” for creating the best possible
event blog, including using your conference blog as the “information
hub” during the conference and encouraging the use of tagging so
particpants can easily sort through everyone’s thoughts.

Also discussed:

• Setting appropriate goals
• Using a multi-author format
• Monitoring visitors using Google Analytics or a similar tool

PRobecast – Whole Foods Smackdown

Doug Haslam and Adam Zand revisit the Whole Foods
PR gaffe from earlier this year, in which CEO John Mackey posted under
a false name to online message boards. Whole foods has responded
(poorly) by banning top executives from blogging or participating in
social media at all. Doug and Adam point out that it shows a
fundamental lack of trust between the company and its executives, and
wonder why it took the board so long to make the decision. Adam also
points out that this may be a first amendment issue. 

While I
certainly understand the reasoning behind this move, I wish it didn’t
come off as such a heavy-handed afterthought. Rather than tightening
the leash on their executives, why isn’t someone form the Whole Foods
PR team engaging them in appropriate social media education? Cracking
down is certainly one way to avoid something like this reoccurring, but
wouldn’t everyone be better served by guidance rather than restriction?
This is a blown opportunity.

Also discussed:

• The PR Roundtable
• Yahoo! and China
• Prince hates his fans?

Around the PR Podcast Horn (in alphabetical order):

Disruptive Dialogue – Jeff Taylor on LinkedIn –
With all of the social networking options out there, it is refreshing
to see how-to podcasts that will make life a little easier for those
that want to get involved. In this podcast, Custom Scoop CEO Chip
Griffin and Fleishman-Hillard Senior Vice President Jeff Taylor take a
close look at the business-oriented social network LinkedIn. As Taylor
notes, LinkedIn can frustrate some initially, but is an invaluable tool
for those that engage in the community. The two agree that people can
effectively use the service in different ways, but it is important to
go into it with a strategy in mind.

Forward Podcast #35 – The Young PR Community –
Luke and Paul tout Young PR Pros (YPRP), a growing community for young
PR professionals that started as a Yahoo group and has branched out
onto a number of social networks. The bulk of this week’s podcast is
Luke’s interview with Kevin Barry, the group’s moderator across four
social networks. They explain how the groups serves as an excellent
support tool for those that are new to the profession, moving to a new
town, or even old pros.

For Immediate Release – #292 and #293 – On Monday’s show (recorded on Sunday), Neville praises Personal Branding’s “A Brand You World – 2007 Global Telesummit” that he participated in and notes that the content is posted as podcasts.  Shel encourages listeners to read and update the New PR
calendar for upcoming new media conferences.  On Thursday, the pair
mentions that Facebook has the added feature of creating secondary
pages.  Shel announces that the duo will be launching an advertising
campaign to gage the effectiveness of communicating and networking on
Facebook.

Inside PR – The Art of Conversation – Relationship
building being the basis for good public relations, David and Terry
discuss an important element as their main topic of discussion this
week: the art of “critical yet collegial conversation.” Blogging and
other forms of social media sometimes lend themselves to disagreements,
and learning how to keep your head and be reasonable when your back is
against the wall is important to keeping good relationships, and
clients for that matter.

Managing the Gray – C.C. Goes to Emerson – C.C.
Chapman reflects on his resent Q&A session on social media at
Boston’s Emerson College and takes additional questions from callers.
Chapman touts the benefits of social media in general and the
importance of participating and experimenting even if the potential
benefits are not immediately clear.

Marketing Martini – Domain Name Leasing – This
week, host Bill Sweetman talks domain name leasing with Jonathan
Boswell of LeaseThis.com. In the short interview, they discuss the
concept of leasing domain names, something I’d never considered. But if
you think about it, domain names can be every bit as expensive as a
car, so if leasing is a more affordable option, then why not?

Marketing Over Coffee – Ride the Wave – In
a special evening edition of Marketing Over Coffee, Chris and John
discuss (among their usual wide variety of topics) the idea of “email
wave campaigns,” conducting a series of several marketing emails using
different subject lines to determine which subjects best result in
getting the email read. He also wryly notes that email has become an
“old school” method in marketing, as it is celebrating its 10-year (at
least) anniversary.

The Rundown – The Bad Pitch Bloggers – Kevin Dugan and Richard Laermer, the bloggers in charge of the grade-A blog exposing bad PR pitches, The Bad Pitch Blog,
sit down with Luke Armour on the Rundown this week. They discuss the
recent Internet fracas involving bad PR, the history of their blog, and
how best to educate students and professionals alike on good social
media practices.

Six Pixels of Separation- Website Guidance – Aside
from touching on the issue springing up this week regarding who will
ultimately “win” ownership of social media tools, Mitch Joel plays
another interview he conducted at PodCamp Boston 2. This time he spoke
with Jared Spool from User Interface Engineering
about how to develop and nurture your website. Jared gives the “six
points” this week, including how to use SEO to your advantage, as well
as the importance of good design and (of course) link love.