The Rundown, With Shel Holtz – Stop Blocking Campaign
The Rundown host Luke Armour welcomed respected podcaster and half of the For Immediate Release duo Shel Holtz to the show this week. Shel appeared to discuss the Stop Blocking campaign, designed to prevent employers from blocking employee access to social networking websites. Shel argues that sites like these can be beneficial, and that if employers aren’t checking their workers for hard copy versions of things that may be distracting, then why should they discriminate against web-based content? Strumpette’s Brian Connolly called in to join the discussion, questioning Shel as to why any rules (such as speed limits and traffic signs) exist at all if most people aren’t breaking them.
I must agree with Shel on site-blocking. Most of us in salaried positions (versus employees paid by the hour) have spent plenty of evenings and even some weekend time devoted to work tasks. Whether it’s a big project or a new campaign, or an internal presentation, work can often encroach on our free time, particularly in the days of Blackberries, laptops, and home Internet access. Therefore, if an employee spends a little time on sites like Facebook each day, is productivity really going down as much as employers claim? Not to mention, as Shel rightly points out, blocking access to certain Internet sites shows a complete lack of trust between the employee and company. If you don’t trust your workers, why’d you hire them in the first place?
PRobecast – Live-Blogging Conferences
In a reference to his excellent article for Media Bullseye, Doug Haslam (joined by his Topaz colleagues Adam Zand and Tim Alik) discusses the Society for New Communications Research Symposium, which Doug spent live-Twittering and Seesmicing. He points out that live-blogging events used to be considered a faux-pas, but that through Twitter’s emergence at South by Southwest, things have changed. The Topaz guys debate the topic, with Tim and Adam a bit more skeptical that it’s possible to truly pay attention to a speaker while tapping away at a keyboard.
This debate is pretty interesting. On one level, you can argue that it is disrespectful to be focused on your laptop while someone (who probably spent at least some time if not a lot preparing for their presentation) is speaking. It’s also a distraction for those in the audience. On the other hand, for those of us who don’t have my boss’s grueling travel schedule, we’re not going to make it to 90 percent of the conferences that interest us. People live-tweeting or blogging an event can get the themes and interesting aspects of a conference out to the masses in real time. What are your thoughts?
Also discussed:
- Social Media Club Boston event
- The Blog Council
- Word of Mouth vs Viral
- Media Bullseye
- Facebook’s Beacon apology
Around the PR Podcast Horn (in alphabetical order):
10 Golden Rules of Internet Marketing – Jay Berkowitz features live interviews for WebmasterWorld’s PubCon 2007 in
The Client Side – In the second episode of a two-part discussion, Michael Seaton explores the elements of effective client-agency relationships. He looks at the idea of the Balanced Scorecard, which can help set appropriate expectations and both clients and agencies determine which measurements are the most important.
FIR #300 and #301 – Congratulations to Neville and Shel recording their 300th FIR podcast on Monday! To celebrate their milestone, the dynamic duo reflects on previous shows and offers updates on a number of hot topics covered on past shows, including corporate blogging, ethics, and Second Life. On Thursday’s show, the pair features a report from Eric Schwartzman of On the Record … Online podcast who discusses how traditional media sources are factoring in online searches when writing and titling articles.
Inside PR – In line with the spirit of giving during the holiday season, this week Terry and David discuss the benefits of pro bono work, and some tips on how to get a public relations firm on board with your philanthropic cause. Terry argues that doing pro bono work can be good for an agency, and that it gives them a chance to hone their PR skills and perhaps be used as an opportunity to make new contacts, develop employees, and even generate a solid case study.
Managing the Gray – CC Chapman continues his discussion on “little f” friends versus “capital F” Friends. That is, who do you really know, and who is just an online acquaintance? Managing relationships in real life is hard enough, but blogging and podcasting can cause an audience to think they know someone quite well, which a caller refers to as “one-way intimacy.”
Marketing Martini – Bill Sweetman reposts his inaugural podcast in which he discusses the importance of optimizing search engine search terms. Sweetman relays a humorous story of a client who was curious as to why the searches for “baseball videos” didn’t direct traffic to the client’s website, only to realize that there were no plural mentions of the word “videos” anywhere on the site. Sweetman recommends people use Google AdWords Keyword Tool to avoid common search term snafus.
Marketing Over Coffee – John and Chris offer up their usual robust blend (see what I did there?) of topics on this week’s episode, including a discussion of marketing automation (I didn’t know what it was either), Google Reader stats for Marketing blogs, and an excellent breakdown of web analytics tools such as Google analytics, Heatmap and Crazyegg.
On the Record – Eric Schwartzman goes “on the record” with Colin Farrington, General Director of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Farrington reveals that he has an aversion to blogs because blogging has not improved the political climate in
Six Pixels of Separation –
