How many tools does it take to communicate? (And other PR Blog Jots)

Multiple Channels

Web Strategy by Jeremiah

Jeremiah posts the responses to his single tweet, asking “@everyone quick, count the many tools you’ve communicated over today. Twitter, FB, blog, email (personal and work), phone, cell =7.” The variety of tools we are using to communicate daily is increasing, and the responses to Jeremiah’s question reinforce this observation. He points out that his network consists of early adopters, but as such it raises the question: will this be overwhelming when these tools move from the early adopters to majority users?

Don't Label Me!

PR Squared

In a thoughtful guest post responding to Tom Foremski’s call to have all news releases labeled “Not for Distribution by News Aggregators,” Shift’s Chris Iafolla argues that this perhaps goes too far. In addition to challenging the notion that journalists are without any inherent bias, he hits the heart of the issue by pointing out: “I do appreciate the need to uphold ethical business practices.  But, Tom's intended goal (in his own words) is to "allow people to make their own judgment on the quality of the content."   By putting a disclaimer across the top that says our purpose is to promote a product, are we not cheapening the message contained in that release?  In effect, we would be removing any hope of allowing a consumer to judge the quality of the content because we are telling them up front that we have a hidden agenda.”

Just *don't* do it...

The Bad Pitch Blog

Kevin posts on the continued fallout from Wired’s Chris Anderson’s decision to publish the email addresses of PR practitioners who have sent him unsolicited releases. He encourages PR pros to learn from this, stating: “Follow the discussion this one post has created. Print out all of these posts. And the next time you are asked/told/encouraged/instructed to mass pitch, push this stack of vitriol across the table as just one reason you shouldn't mass pitch.”