Jason Calacanis gives some tips on generating your own PR, which is really useful for me trying to launch a company. The debate rages on as to what value a PR company can add. It looks like a few PR folks have joined this, trying to defend their patch! I’d love to find a few success stories, from those companies who have taken the DIY approach. Any suggestions? Even if you do engage a PR company, to help with the leg work and planning, I believe the founders and promoters have to have own PR.
Loic Le Meur takes this to start a discussion on the usefulness of giving “exclusives”. 5 Ways to Release News, whats yours?I would love your feedback on this here is the associated post I wrote about it:
http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2008/08/5-ways-to-get-y.html
I really liked the approach taken by Groundswell authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff in creating a model to segment users of social media - creators, critics etc.
Their colleague Jeremiah Owjang has been talking about how social media consultants are using scare tactics to encourage businesses to participate in social media. This got me thinking about how useful it would be to create a similar model to categorise the participation of brands and companies in social media; ranging from those who actively blog and run customer communities, to those that firewall blogs and other useful sources of insight about your brand or product and service. I suspect there is a correlation between the Groundswell model for users, and a similar model to measure a company’s engagement with social media. This would be a really useful way of monitoring change, by measuring the proportion of businesses in each category over time. I nice project for Forrester I think.
Came across this post. This is a tricky subject, but interesting to see that the three commentators are dismissing the possibility! The best argument seems to be Dave Martin’s suggestion that TV will be more interactive, which means that on-line advertising will turn up on TV. I don’t buy Larry Mann’s suggestion, that online is limited in what it can offer for “creative messaging”. I suppose convergence muddies the waters a little. Looking ahead, the value of the 30 second slot has to decline.
I arrived back in Dublin airport from a very relaxing family holiday on Saturday, only to be met by weather induced chaos! The 90min wait for bags was pretty frustrating, and should have been a good clue that things weren’t quite all they should be. There we are, family all dressed in shorts and sandals, not quite prepared for the 76mm of rain that had dropped on the airport in 24 hours.
So off we go to queue for a taxi, when we realise the queue is on to it’s third loop - so we’re not going anywhere fast. Next clue is there are no taxis - so the queue is growing by the minute. Quick thinking suggests let’s get a bus, and luckily enough we’re only a few miles from the airport. An hour or so later, we jump on the first bus going anywhere in our direction. The bus driver was great, suggesting we don’t put our bags on the floor, as they might get wet. So I pack all the bags, travel cot, buggie and make sure Mrs. Scott and the three little Scotts have seats. Off we start, but the water does look a little deep in places, and we see loads of abandoned cars, some with the driver casually walking away. But then the fun started - “lift your feet!” suggests the driver, followed a splish and a splosh, as a foot of water gushes up the aisle. Eldest little Scott is by no means amused by this, and the water level is enhanced by a few tears.
So we make it to Swords, jump off the bus, struggle to the taxi rank (with three kids, four bags, buggy and travel cot) and find the most accommodating taxi driver, ready to take on the worst of North County Dublin country roads. So all home safe. The 10 mile journey from the airport only took four hours!
I was a bit distracted to grab the camcorder, but this gives a little feel of what it was like.
I’d say I was going to talk about some of the better customer experiences, as well as highlight some of the clangers. I was recently switching health cover for the team, to Quinn Healthcare. This was painless, with a click on the website to say I was interested, a quick, helpful phone call to sort out details, followed by a quote with brochure etc. in my inbox. Fill in the details, reply and sorted. This was followed up with website login details to track details of cover. All in all, a really simple and helpful way to do business.
This was great, until I decided I wanted travel insurance (the equivalent of VHI Multi-trip). So I email Quinn to see if I can have this covered. Yes, but you have to phone a different number. So I’ve tried to get through on the other number, but my impatience means I gave up. They were doing so well.
A few days later, I go back to the website and click on a button for travel insurance and heh presto! So what was the run around for
