public relations

I love that we can all consider ourselves “talent.” It’s like we need that great team for that next killer project. Well, our killer project is building the social media and word of mouth marketing global practice inside one of the world’s best brands - Ogilvy.

At WOMMA 2008, I attended two leading brand breakout sessions- Hershey’s and McDonald’s.  Each presented a case study on how they successfully used word of mouth marketing to launch a new offering to their customers.

At WOMMA 2008, I attended two leading brand breakout sessions- Hershey’s and McDonald’s.  Each presented a case study on how they successfully used word of mouth marketing to launch a new offering to their customers.

“I use Twitter to follow key journalists all the time… never to pitch them.” That’s a note my colleague Luca Penati, who heads up our global technology practice, sent me following last week’s Twitter Bootcamp for PR webinar. That, in less than 140 characters, gets to the heart of how Twitter should be used to conduct media relations.

Last week, I hosted one in a series of round table discussions focused on public relations, social media, and academia. A packed room of students, professors, and practitioners gathered to talk about where our industry is headed and the impact of social media in undergraduate curriculum.

During past downturns, layoffs were mostly a private affair. Big companies tended to issue vague news releases filled with jargon about "downsizing," and startups often gave people the pink slip without telling the world anything at all.

Not anymore. In the age of transparency, the layoff will be blogged.

Elon Musk, chief executive of the electric-car company Tesla Motors in San Carlos, California, said he had no choice other than to blog about the Oct. 15 layoffs at the company, even though some employees had not yet been told they were losing their jobs.

Computers are far from being truly clean machines, but Dell Inc. and other PC makers are trying to make their own business operations greener.

Dell said Wednesday its facilities worldwide are now carbon neutral, a goal the Round Rock, Texas-based company had set to achieve by the end of 2008.

Dane Parker, its director for environment, health and safety, said Dell buys renewable energy -- including wind, solar and methane gas -- directly from utilities to fulfill one-fifth of its energy needs.

Many employees -- frustrated that their companies are unwilling to pay for the laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices that they want on the road -- are spending their own money to get them.

Nearly 40 percent of professionals recently surveyed by researcher In-Stat paid for a laptop that they regularly carried. Cell phone users often picked up their bill. And company-provided personal digital assistants (PDAs), cameras and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are relatively rare, says the survey, released today.

Lawyers on both sides of a shareholder lawsuit over Yahoo Inc.'s board's handling of Microsoft's $47.5 billion (EU30.37 billion) takeover offer are accusing one another of turning it into a public relations battle.

A Delaware judge weighing the shareholders' request to make their complaint against the company public held a private phone conference with lawyers for Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo and dissident shareholders Tuesday morning.