2008-08-15
Posted on August 15, 2008 5:54 pm by Shel Holtz
| Crisis Communication
I was embarrassed today during my presentation at New Media Expo in Las Vegas. John C. Havens, the co-author of my new book , and I were delivering a talk on the the theme of the book, “Tactical Transparency.” When discussing the notion of being transparent about business processes and problems, I used Apple’s Mobile Me as an example, showing a screen shot of the MobileMe Status page on the Apple website.
As soon as I started talking about it, a hand shot up. Allison Sheridan said the MobileMe status page was a terrible example.
I was confounded. After all, the inaugural post to the MobileMe status page made my point precisely:
…
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2008-06-30
Posted on June 30, 2008 8:54 pm by Shel Holtz
| Politics
On the one hand, Associated Press asserts that it wants to protect its content from abuse by bloggers. On the other hand, they’re willing to sell their content by the word to anyone willing to pay. All of which makes you wonder if the venerable AP has taken any issue at all with the manipulation of its content by one of its customers, the American Family Association.
The organization is using software to automatically replace the word “gay” with “homosexual” in all of the AP stories selected to appear on the organization’s news site, OneNews Now. (This has led to the renaming of Olympics-bound track star Tyson Gay into Tyson… Read More »
2007-11-12
Posted on November 12, 2007 7:43 am by Shel Holtz
| Politics
I lauded the Hillary Clinton campaign recently for the launch of The Fact Hub, a blog-based website designed to provide rapid response to rumors, inaccuracies, and factual misstatements. It’s only fair, then, that I call the campaign out for a communications gaffe made all the more egregious by the the fact that FEMA was all over the news recently for making a similar move. FEMA, you may recall, came under fire for putting on a fake news conference, with members of the FEMA staff posing as reporters and tossing softball questions. Now it turns out the Clinton campaign was planting questions for the candidate among members of various… Read More »
2007-09-26
Posted on September 26, 2007 6:59 am by Shel Holtz
| PR
Microsoft and global PR agency Burson-Marsteller are in hot water over a tactic that flies in the face of what we now about the nature of business and transparency in the era of social computing.
There have been enough instances of false-front organizations, funded by a client and operated by a PR agency, being outed by determined individuals to make you wonder: What in the world was Burson thinking?
The tale—as recounted in this Guardian story—begins with an email from Burson director Jonathan Dinkeldein promoting the Initiative for Competitive Online Marketplaces. The email, delivered to boad membes of several several top UK… Read More »
2007-08-27
Posted on August 27, 2007 9:23 am by Shel Holtz
| Business
Since Virgil Griffith launched Wikipedia Scanner, it’s been open season on organizations whose IP addresses are linked to changes made to entries on the popular DIY encyclopedia. For example…
- PRWeek’s UK edition notes that “PR agencies are flouting Wikipedia rules demanding they do not edit the site. At least six of the PRWeek top ten UK agencies have edited the site in the past year…FD is the biggest offender filing 25 edits, primarily concerning clients Russ DeLeon and Ruth Parasol—founders of the online gambling company PartyGaming.”
- Wired is taking and publishing submissions in a posting titled “Vote on the Most Shameful wikipedia… Read More »
2007-08-03
Posted on August 3, 2007 1:42 pm by Shel Holtz
| Blogging
Dell Computers may have a lot of problems, but transparency isn’t one of them. I learned on Jim Horton’s blog about a post on Direct2Dell from Consumer Product Group Sr. VP Alex Gruzen announcing a delay in shipment of a new Dell laptop. The post drew 189 comments as of today, most of them slamming the company hard for the delay.
Some of the comments chastised Dell for waiting until the last possible moment to announce the delay, which is not a shining example of transparency. But the blog itself could serve as a poster child for transparency, given the volume of negative comments the company seems to have no problem posting.
What’s… Read More »
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