Apple’s social media policy is just as closed as the rest of the company

Back in 2005, when IBM first encouraged its employees to blog publicly about their work, the company explained the initiative in part by noting that no marketing campaign could evangelize the company’s work better than its own employees.

In recent years, it has become more and more common for organizations to find ways to get employees into the social media space to represent the company. Coca-Cola has a certification program. Dell has its Social Media and Communities (SMaC) group. Sprint has its Ninjas. And virtually every social media policy you see—hundreds of which are posted publicly—includes a clause instructing employees… Read More »

Sweeping out the dark, ugly corner of Public Relations

I work in public relations.

In one form or another, I’ve worked in PR for the last 34 years. It’s a profession I love. It’s an outlet for creative expression. It lets me see projects through to completion and assess their effectiveness.

In my three-and-almost-a-half decades in PR, I’ve met thousands of dedicated professionals who also work in communications. I’ve been fortunate to work with many of them.

I am proud to work in this field. I cannot imagine one in which I would feel more fulfilled.

And yet there are times I weep for my chosen field. The night before last, I watched an outstanding documentary on HBO. Hot Coffee… Read More »

Duke Nukem escapade exposes blacklisting as a common practice that must stop

One of the more distressing aspects of the recent Duke Nukem Forever dustup had nothing to do with Jim Redner‘s ill-advised tweet threatening to blacklist those who penned what he deemed particularly savage negative reviews.

Between Redner (who lost his biggest client as a result), New Media Strategies (which was fired from the Chrysler account over a similarly misguided tweet), former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner (who resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives over tweets he should never have sent) and a Ketchum Communications exec who tweeted his distaste for the City of Memphis after landing there for a client meeting (a… Read More »

The PR industry must condemn massive, automated sock-puppetry

The use of software to automate the deployment of armies of fake social media accounts is, to me, the most disturbing trend in the social space. It’s disturbing on its face but even moreso because public affairs organizations are among the most likely to supply these services. And few would be surprised to find PR practitioners behind such dubious efforts.

I don’t personally know a single public relations practitioner who would support such a tactic. But it’s a big industry that requires no licensing and is bound by few regulations. That makes it easy for those who are lazy, corrupt, unprofessional or just downright evil to make big… Read More »

Trust and transparency take center stage as new law rewards employees for whistleblowing

For some time now, I’ve been advancing the idea that hiring a warm body to fill a vacancy is no longer a viable staffing strategy. Organizations need to hire people they feel they can trust, since trust is the foundation of employee engagement. When arguing against blocking employee access to social media, I point out that it sends the same message to everyone in the organization: “We don’t trust any of you as far as we can throw you.” Why would any employee want to give discretionary effort to a company that has such little respect for its staff?

Still, I’m told repeatedly that hiring trustworthy employees is simply unrealistic.

… Read More »

FIR Interview: Andrea Weckerle, Founder and President, CiviliNation

Andrea Weckerle has fulfilled a longtime ambition by establishing CiviliNation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to “foster an online culture where every person can freely participate in a democratic, open, rational and truth-based exchange of ideas and information, without fear or threat of being the target of unwarranted abuse, harassment, or lies.” In this FIR Interview, co-host Shel Holtz discusses with Weckerle the organization’s origins, its goals and how Weckerle hopes CiviliNation can make a difference.

Get this podcast:

• Download the MP3 file (11.4Mb, 28:30)
• Get the show on iTunes
• Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS… Read More »

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