Today, an increasingly transparent, direct, high velocity communications environment demands something new and better. Our mission is to provide the most cost-effective public relations and marketing communications solutions available.
Seems to me when PR people have nothing really important to say or do, many of them can't shut up. When they are needed to clarify a situation, they can't find their voice… and they apparently don't hear the phone.
Here's a story from The New York Times via Gregg Keizer of Computerworld about Best Buy's problem with infected digital picture frames it sold during the holiday season. The story has more questions than answers. What kind of virus was it, how many customers were affected, how did it happen?
So naturally, the writer called the public relations team at Best Buy seeking comment. Given this chance to defend Best Buy's pre- and post-sale behavior or to clarify the current or past situation and to otherwise generally put Best Buy's best foot forward, what did the team have to say? Nothing. I guess that Best Buy's best foot forward got lodged in their mouths instead and they were unable to speak? Reports the writer:
Best Buy's public relations team did not respond to a call for comment.
Best practice? Well, let's see? The public has a concern related to your business. You're in public relations to relate things like your company's position on things to the public. Best Buy? It seems as far as the PR team goes, it's more like Good Bye.
Here's a news release out of New York today, over PRNewswire, about a survey of Chief Communications Officers at some of the most admired and some of the not-so-much admired companies in the Fortune 500. Turns out, CCOs who worry most about reputation management are more often in the Most Admired Company category. And, guess what? The survey forecasts that among this top group, social media will be a focus in 2008.
Podcasting should have a place in every marketer’s budget - especially for lead nurturing and installed base customer communication. Why? The simple answer: easy to consume content anytime, anywhere – many listen to their favorites while exercising, driving, running errands, waiting in lines, and even while washing dishes. All of the information syndicated in a podcast is timely. Since users have the option to subscribe to daily or weekly feeds from sources that they choose, the information is looked at as more credible and consistent.
Recently I came across this slideshow from John C. Havens of Blogtalkradio.com which touches on some important points regarding what makes podcasting so valuable for corporate and business applications.
We endorse podcasting as a very low cost way for you to augment your installed base customer communications and lead nurturing campaigns with another mode of delivering thought leadership pieces. Keep the pieces to five to ten minutes max and use formats such as interviews with experts, short speeches by company executives, and practical tips for the week. The key is to deliver bite-sized content consistently, at least monthly if not more often, to your subscriber base.
