2013-04-16
Posted on April 16, 2013 9:24 am by Shel Holtz
| Ethics
As a speaker, I process a lot of speaking invitations, so I was intrigued when I received one from a UK-based church that was hosting an event and wanted me to speak. Other organizations have brought me to international locations, so I responded to this one with questions. Bishop Allan Willson (who signed the email) responded with complete answers. I also asked a UK-based colleague to look into the church. He let me know it appeared to be a legitimate institution.
I got fairly far down the road with the engagement. Bishop Willson handed me off to Edward Smith, who identified himself as president of the event organizing committee.… Read More »
2012-11-02
Posted on November 2, 2012 3:59 pm by Shel Holtz
| Brands
(c) Can Stock PhotoThe weekend approacheth, but not before we look back on the last five days and the posts and articles that made an impression. If you’re interested in the pool from which these items were drawn, you can always dip your toes in at Links From Shel.
An algorithm for predicting Twitter’s trending topics
If somebody was going to come up with a formula for figuring out which topics will trend on Twitter 90 minutes before they do, you’d think it would be the quants at MIT. Indeed, researchers say their algorithm is 95 percent accurate, according to a Poynter Institute post. “Basically, it sounds like the algorithm learns… Read More »
2012-09-06
Posted on September 6, 2012 7:44 am by Shel Holtz
| Ethics
In the beginning, there was CREWE.
Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement is a closed Facebook group dedicated to a thoughtful, high-level discussion among organizational communicators and Wikipedia editors—known as Wikipedians. The goal is to find common ground between these often-adversarial groups’ efforts to ensure accuracyin Wikipedia business entries. The robust discussion has produced several documents, including a flow chart clarifying the process communicators should follow when seeking to correct an entry in which they have a conflict of interest.
Communication associations have also stepped up their… Read More »
2012-08-01
Posted on August 1, 2012 10:36 am by Shel Holtz
| Blogging
On Monday, I posted a call for certification in the PR profession to establish a basis on which to establish trust between clients, the media and practitioners. If there’s any evidence that the client-media-PR world of a decade ago has changed irrevocably, it’s contained in a 45-minute conversation hosted on Google+ Hangouts on Air today by Duct Tape Marketing‘s John Jantsch. I was honored to be included, along with David Meerman Scott, as a commentator for the debate between Ryan Holiday, author of “Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator,” and Peter Shankman, founder of HARO, one of the resources Holiday manipulated.
… Read More »
2012-07-30
Posted on July 30, 2012 12:36 pm by Shel Holtz
| Ethics
(c) Can Stock PhotoThe idea of certification or licensing of public relations and communications professionals has been around for decades. Edward Bernays, often referred to as the father of modern public relations, spent much of his life pursuing licensing as a means of elevating PR to “the level of a profession.”
Government control of professional standards through licensing is a bad idea for many reasons, though, so talk has shifted to certification, which is managed within the profession itself. Certification generally is required for professions that have very clearly defined and limited ways of doing their jobs. Certified public… Read More »
2012-06-20
Posted on June 20, 2012 7:21 am by Shel Holtz
| Crisis Communication
Back in 2009, when reporting on financial services company AIG’s image woes, MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow observed that AIG had retained PR agency Burson Marstellar to help with its problems. She then ran down a list of other unsavory organizations that had sought help from Burson, then concluded, “When Evil needs public relations, Evil has Burson-Marsteller on speed-dial.”
There’s a reason Burson gets these calls. Burson has a robust, well-recognized crisis practice. In the early 90’s, I worked with Al Tortorella, now with the crisis management practice at OgilvyPR Worldwide, to develop a crisis plan. I had heard Tortorella… Read More »
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