PR meets the WWW / Constantin Basturea’s weblog

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

Bishop Desmond Tutu (via)

• Video archive, presentations & transcripts of “Mastering New Media”, a panel discussion hosted by Edelman on June 30 in Amsterdam, featuring David Weinberger, Richard Edelman, and Fiona McDonnell (Forrester Research).
• A treasure :) of presentations from WOMMA’s Measuring Word of Mouth conference (July 13, Chicago).

“Although 95% of companies collect feedback, only 50% brief staff on its contents, a mere 30% use it, and a paltry 5% bother to tell the customer what action they took. Prime causes of this sorry state are poor cross functional collaboration and lack of information culture. But the main culprit is the disparate sources of feedback with no overall owner, plan or use.”

source | via

There are a lot of guides for business blogging out there, but what’s different about this one, just published by Jeneane Sessum, is that it presents an insider’s view: it’s written from personal experience. The advice is addressing real-life questions, and it will help your company to enter the blogosphere without becoming a laughing stock case study. Plus, when you read it, you can actualy feel that someone is talking to you, you know, like a person, not like someone who’s trying to sell you the 12-steps program for attaining corporate blogging Nirvana.

Long story short: I like it (yes, I’m biased). Judge for yourself:

(PDF, 17 pages) To Blog or Not to Blog?
Blogs help corporations answer the call to conversation

Happy ending! Shari has received a liver through UNOS, and her transplant operation has been a success! Wonderful news! Take care, Shari.

Updates:

• Update on Shari’s condition (July 27)
• Help distribute flyers for Shari
• From the Help Shari Kurzrok blog:
  

  We want to remind everyone that Shari needs a complete liver. As such, families who have experienced an immediate tragedy or have a loved one on life support can designate a liver to save Shari’s life. Potential donors must be Type A or Type O blood. Anyone wanting to help Shari with a liver transplant referral should call: (877) 223-3386 or email liverforalife@yahoo.com.

  (via John Bell, Ogilvy PR)

• Ogilvy is running a print ad for Shari. (via Rohit Barghava, Ogilvy PR)
• Jeneane has more information about what exactly Shari needs.

Liver transplant is needed

Shari Kurzrok, a 31-year-old VP at Ogilvy PR Worldwide, will die within days if she does not receive a liver transplant.

She was admitted to New York University Medical Center last weekend, and was told she needs an immediate liver transplant to save her life. Her illness is unexplained.

Ogilvy is reaching out to the PR industry on Kurzrok’s behalf.

The Great Neck, N.Y. native is to be married in October. She led Ogilvy’s “Save-a-Life-Tour” to raise the awareness of the need for blood donations in a campaign for the American Red Cross. That effort collected more than 3.2M pints of blood, and registered more than 38,000 new donors.

Information about a liver transplant referral for Kurzrok is at 877-223-3386.

(Source: O’Dwyer’s PR. Hat tip: Jeremy Pepper.)

What’s new in this interview:

• Ketchum will launch a blog for its KPM practice
• Jeremy Pepper got an iPod mini for suggesting Ketchum to add a disclaimer to their website, KetchumIdeas.com.

What’s not new: a lot of unanswered questions, and some “copy-paste” responses.

More comments a little bit later.

Neville Hobson & Shel Holtz, the PR podcasting duo

I’m probably the last one to congratulate Neville and Shel for the 50th edition of their podcast (but I hope they will forgive me :) Here’s to 500 more!

For Immediate Release is my weekly dose of PR/Comm podcasting; I’m a faithful listener, to the degree that I’m starting to freak out when the show’s file and notes are not posted online at the usual time. Yeah, it’s kind of addictive… try it for yourself and you’ll see.

If you’re already a listener, please take a minute to vote for Shel & Neville’s show in the Podcast Awards contest (the show is in the Business category, and you can vote once every 24 hours, until July 31). They deserve it!

{Photo credits: Neville Hobson}