Holtz Communications + Technology

While I’ve been defending the idea of the social media press release, Jeremy Pepper reminds us that the traditional press release still has legs.

I knew this, but Jeremy’s point hadn’t occurred to me. On his always thought-provoking blog, Jeremy writes:

What people don’t get—especially non-PR people—is that, oh, the majority of PR is done at the local level, where people don’t care about blogs or RSS. The local level…

Shift Communications, home to social media advocate Todd Defren, was named agency of record for Novell, largely on the strength of Shift’s well-documented social media chops.

Social media like blogs can help make decision-making processes that were once conducted behind closed doors more visible to audiences like industry analysts. It was those analysts who questioned Novell’s direction, leading to CEO Jack Messman’s…

Many corporate communication departments operate in a silo. They take instructions from above and perform environmental scans, and prepare communications to address needs coming from both directions. This model worked fine when all messages between a company and its publics were filtered through the communications department.

In the era of social computing, however, employees are in direct contact with customers (take…

Nobody interacts on a more regular basis with your customers than your customer service staff. A great customer service experience will overcome the worst media campaign. Horrible customer service (which many customers believe is the norm for most companies they deal with) will undermine the most expensive and well-planned PR effort. With the growth of social media and consumer generated…

Earlier this month, I reported on coverage of a Kansas City councilwoman’s dismay that the city had spent $2 million on public relations. My point, based on my reading of the Kansas City Star article, was that the PR industry has done a lousy job of explaining its value. As a result, nobody is surprised when people like Councilwoman Becky Nace…

Kansas City Councilwoman Becky Nace isn’t happy that the city is spending $2 million on fees to four public relations agencies. She wonders if that money couldn’t have been better spent elsewhere, and she’s making noise about it. Nace’s dismay that a city would actually spend money on PR echoes the concerns of other civic leaders who have expressed similar outrage over their own cities…