Holtz Communications + Technology

Todd Defren, principal of SHIFT Communications, has launched a new blog he’s calling The Good Pitch Blog. He tips his cap to Kevin Dugan and Richard Laermer and their Bad Pitch Blog, noting, “You are free to suggest that the idea was “ripped off” from those guys, but if things go as I intend, our paths will diverge soon enough.”

Kevin and Richard have insisted they…

In a preliminary post to the employee communications blog at the IABC Communication Commons, I reiterated my oft-stated view that employee communications is the most important communication effort a company undertakes. I have too often seen a dynamite marketing campaign undermined by employees who didn’t buy into the message or understand the vision. Conversely, I believe engaged employees can overcome the…

The Communication Commons is up and running.

I’ve been working on the Commons with IABC staff—notably Publications VP Natasha Spring and CTO Chris Hall—for many months, and it’s gratifying to see something online. Now we just need to content to start flowing!

The idea behind this latest online effort from IABC is based on the traditional definition of a commons—some land near town to which all the villagers…

I’ve been reading more and more bloggers assert that the blogroll is a bankrupt idea and should be deleted from blogs. Back in November, Shel Israel noted in his Naked Coversations blog that blogrolls were once popular, but “That was then This is now.”

Back then, we were all struggling to discover new writers who appealed to each of us. It seems to me that now,…

The whole idea of an organization participating in the conversation is alien to those of us who grew up in the one-way top-down era. Younger communicators often find themselves applying the principles naturally, without necessarily knowing they’re doing something strategic.

Such was the case with a twenty-something member of the Public Relations staff at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. (GPTMC). (Disclosure:…

Patrick Cahill was not a happy camper. The Smyrna, Delaware city councilman wanted to sue a blogger who had branded him “paranoid,” among other things. He went to the anonymous blogger’s ISP—Comcast—in an effort to learn his identity so he could sue. Comcast notified the blogger, who filed an emergency order to keep his identity hidden.

The case went to the state’s highest court—and there it ended.…