PR

1.  Identify audience

Identify who it is you are trying to influence.  Once you've defined them, start to gather data about them.  Your potential data sources include, but are certainly not limited to:

Of course, even if Dell was active in the blogosphere, who's to say that they would not follow The Pathology of Business Bullshit.

Empathetic Customer Service 

Life is customer service Jeff Jarvis, Buzz Machine has a post on Craig Newmark (Craigslist) that gets to the heart of why customer service sucks in most organizations.

Bullshit doesn't work in the blogosphere. So how do you negotiate the terms of your own surrender when you screwed up or do you let the blogospsher do it for ya?. In the case of Ketchum, a PR Brand Management agency, they got b-slapped in an nyc sec by the blogosphere. These guys didn't learn much since they were just coming off of the Armstrong Williams mess. Huh, I wonder if they are advising the Press Secretary Scott McLellan these days.

Blogs are the New Press Releases by Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion offers his thoughts on press releases and wants to know yours. Judging by the comments on his post, I think Steve effectively demonstrates his third point on feedback.

1) RSS Will be Everywhere - By 2007 RSS will be considered an official disclosure point because you will instantaneously reach everyone at once. Today we all have a free wire distribution service on our desktops, thanks to RSS

The New Yorker, Financial page, IN CASE OF EMERGENCY by James Surowiecki, The term “crisis management” may seem like little more than a euphemism for “snow job,” but there is an art to it. Spin alone won’t do the trick. ...unrealistic optimism, insofar as it’s a byproduct of self-assurance, assertiveness, and conviction, may be a handy trait for those seeking success in business. It will come as a surprise to no one that in most surveys executives are found to be consistently optimistic and overconfident."

This matters. In CMO Magazine, Fred Hapgood, offers up a well-rounded artical, Blog to the Future. Nice that we are starting to see more uses and applications for blogs other than PR and marketing.

"Another is to encourage a wide range of employees to start blogs. Sun Microsystems has taken that road, and so far close to a thousand employees have accepted the company's invitation. One group of these blogs is tied directly to existing Sun products, such as Solaris or Java."

A year ago, many people would have been hard pressed to describe a weblog, but today the impact of blogging is felt across our society. Whether it's the latest news leak, a new outlet for more traditional media, or a discussion about politics, technology, business trends, or a global occurrence, blogs are rapidly becoming an important part of online and in-person discourse. The fact is corporate blogs are finding a place in this growing online community.