Supply chain partners’ practices could make your company a target

Greenpeace learned its lesson well.

Back in March 2010, in response to YouTube’s removal of a Greenpeace-produced parody TV commercial, the advocacy organization launched a campaign against Nestle that ultimately forced the powerhouse consumer products company to seek a new source for its palm oil. Palm oil from non-rainforest sources is more expensive and Nestle was taking its time trying to find an alternative, but the pressure—much of which targeted the company’s Facebook page—led them to switch suppliers much sooner.

This time around, Greenpeace didn’t wait for a trigger like company lawyers forcing YouTube to remove its video.… Read More »

Business be nimble, business be quick

The real-time dimension of social media has challenged businesses to rethink their slow, deliberative processes in order to address the speed with which their brands can be damaged. Every minute it takes to hold conference calls, sit in meetings, get legal review and wordsmith offical responses is a minute in which thousands of uncomplimentary messages can be distributed to millions of consumers.

Today, Delta Airlines has shown how it can be done.

Yesterday, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert O’Hair uploaded a quick-and-dirty video to YouTube expressing unhappiness with Delta. The video, shot on board a flight from Baltimore to Atlanta… Read More »

Think Quarterly is a case study in how to become a media company

Google’s Think Quarterly magazine is the latest example of a company recognizing that, regardless of whatever else it is, it’s a media company.

Google, of course, is a media company on a number of levels. Its primary business helps people find stuff. Its YouTube operation is all about letting people share video. The company produces scads of media, from apps (like Google Earth) to the videos it produces to help promote and explain its various offerings. There are Google blogs, which are media, as are the doodles that frequently replace the logo on the Google.com page.

But until Think Quarterly, Google hasn’t been known as a print… Read More »

Are penalties really more effective than bonuses?

One of the problems with research studies is the tendency of some leaders to see the headline and skip the actual study, especially when the sound bite version of the study’s conclusion supports the leader’s views.

So it was with dismay that I read about a study conducted by the University of Nottingham’s School of Economics. The sound bite to which a lot of leaders will undoubtedly be pointing is, “Penalties for slacking improve productivity more than bonuses.” Another sound bite sure to lead to some very bad business decisions: “Bonuses actually encourage employees to be less productive.”

The study, reported on the University’s… Read More »

Logo Twitter accounts are fine if they meet your audience’s needs

At a recent conference, I heard a highly-respected (and respectable) PR professional argue that Twitter accounts should always—always—be a real person with a real-person avatar. Logo accounts, he said, shold be avoided.

It’s not the first time I’ve heard this argument. In Shel Israel‘s book, “Twitterville,” Department of Defense consultant Mark Drapeau is quoted (from a Mashable.com post) saying, “Twitter is about people sharing information with other people. So how do one-dimensional organizational brands fit into the mix? When you think about it, they don’t.” Drapeau concluded: “Ban them altogether.”

Drapeau told Israel that real… Read More »

10 reasons businesses should keep on (or start) blogging

It’s funny how The Pew Internet & American Life Project can release results of a study in December, but a late-February article about one of the study results published in The New York Times can create such an uproar.

The Pew study offered a broad overview of how members of different generations use the Net. Among many other things, the study revealed that teen and Millennial blogging have declined. Half as many teens said they worked on their own blog in 2009 as did in 2006 (a drop from 28% to 14%) while Millennial blogging has declined by 2%, from 20% in December 20089 to 18% in May 2010.

From the Times’ perspective, that spells… Read More »

Page 3 of 41 pages  < 1 2 3 4 5 >  Last ›