Adding to the Murdoch News Empire (and Other PR Blog Jots)

MyNews

Simonsays

Rupert Murdoch purchased the popular social networking site MySpace last year for a tidy sum, and has now turned it into part of his ever-growing news empire. The launch of MySpace News combines some elements of both Google news and Digg, allowing users to rank stories. More importantly, according to Simon Collister, the service will eventually allow users to submit news stories themselves. “This is possibly the most significant piece of information about a MySpace News portal. With this, the site stops being a Google/Digg mash-up and starts becoming a potentially significant user generated news site.”

Learning From Past Mistakes

Media Guerilla

In complimenting Nikon’s recent promotion of their new D80 camera, Mike Manuel compares the product sample program (in which cameras were distributed to certain A-list bloggers to try out) to Microsoft’s similar program for their new Vista platform earlier this year.  Manuel notes that Nikon’s marketing department has clearly learned from the much-maligned Microsoft/Edelman program, and that theirs was a flawlessly executed program that may become the benchmark for future campaigns. “Too often we hear (and I write) about companies that are awkwardly stumbling through the new media landscape, each trying to find a marketing formula that works, only to find, sadly, that more damage than good is done to their brand in the process. Because of this we tend to hear and talk more about failures than successes these days … so thank you Nikon for taking a risk with this project and doing it with smarts and style.”

More Lessons from Virginia Tech

Bulldog Reporter Daily Dog

In a thoughtful post in today’s “Barks and Bites,” John Harmon notes that the tragedy at Virginia Tech this week will likely alter crisis communications at universities and other large organizations forever.  He points out that while most organizations have communications plans in place for communicating to the public, few make plans for communicating within themselves and to important stakeholders.  Social media will play a major role in internal crisis communications in the future, as students at Virginia Tech in particular used Facebook and other social networking to stay informed in the aftermath of the tragedy. “Crisis plans often focus on the mass media with inadequate thought paid to other important stakeholder groups. Every large organization's crisis plan should include rapid means of communicating with all stakeholders, in the manner most effective for reaching each group. Don't overlook social media, such as Facebook for today's university students; myspace for today's high school students; and likely something else altogether tomorrow.”