Month: April 2005

Via bisonblog I find an interesting article by Nicholas Ind about employee branding. The article is published on PR agency Springtime’s webpage and it touches upon a subject that is highly relevant in the professional services industry. It may be a cliché but nevertheless, our employees are our most important asset and probably the single most important vehicle for promoting our brand values.

I liked the simple example about how Nike used job applications to convey their brand values.

Nike responds to job applications with a thank you and this very brand driven message: ‘Use your imagination. If you are sure about what you want to do, you’re halfway there. There are no limits. Everyone at Nike has a dream.

Apparently most companies are either neglecting the issue or handling it poorly. Ind writes:

Research among Swedish companies by TEMO (2002) found that 31% of employees did not believe in their employers’ vision and values; a Gallup study of US workers (2003) found that 70% were either not engaged or were actively disengaged at work […]

There’s been a lot of different opinions about when the real breakthrough of blogs will occur in Sweden. I claimed it happened in November last year because of a significant increase in the number of blog articles in traditional media that took place that month. The last week however, blogs seem to be everywhere in Swedish media, culminating today with two events, one being that Internetworld named Sweden’s 50 most popular blogs (see previous post). This has been reported today in most Swedish media via news agency TT Spektra.

The second event is a quote from EU Commissioner Margot Wallström’s blog which the news agency TT has picked up. The blog post is about the EU constitution. Among other things Wallström says: “Now we all look at France with hopes and fear.” The fact that TT picks up blog posts from a leading politician without any further explanation to what a blog is, and it then finds its way to, currently 25 Swedish papers, is nothing short of a landmark. I don’t think we need to wait for a blogger to bring down a journalist or a politician. Blogs are already established.

I must be Sweden’s worst PR man, having 150 subscribers to my blog feeds in Bloglines alone, I only managed to muster 16 votes in Internetworld’s survey for Sweden’s best blog. And that included one vote from myself – how pathetic. At least I’m better than the entire PR firm JKL (right Billy 😉

Liberal debater Johan Norberg won comfortably with more than 10% av all the 2029 votes. Here’s the top 50 list (212 blogs got votes) and my blog is at #29.

1. Johannorberg.net (220 votes)
2. Copyriot (184)
3. I hjärtat rebell (142)
4. PiraZine (123)
5. Manolo (86)
6. 456 Berea Street (85)
7. Annica Tiger (63)
8. The Broken Face (57)
9. Annas blog feat Mel E (47)
9. The Jet Set Junta (47)
9. Veckans Streetartfunderingar (47)

12. Beneath a steel sky (46)
13. Mymarkup (39)
14. Karin’s style blog (36)
14. Stambord – The Stockholm Spectator blog (36)
16. Blind Höna (33)
17. Blog.attac.se (31)
18. Internetbrus (28)
19. Bajs.se (26)
20. Biblioteksrelaterat (26)

21. Subjektiv (23)
22. Tesugen (21)
23. How to learn Swedish in 1000 difficult lessons (20)
24. AdLand (19)
25. Hegdehog in a storm (18)
25. Issambre (18)
25. Margot Wallström (18)
25. Researcher.se (18)
29. Media Culpa (16)
29. Torstensson (16)

31. Mine (15)
31. Yukio (15)
33. Dagens Agnes (14)
33. Henrik Alexandersson (14)
33. Idas blogg (14)
33. Steffanie Muller: Nästa Bandhagen (14)
37. Gärningsmannaprofilen (13)
38. Entrepenörsbloggen (12)
38. Frihetspropaganda (12)
38. Stationsvakt (12)

41. Det progressiva USA (11)
41. No illusions – Chadies NU-blogg (11)
43. Opposition (10)
44. P-blog (9)
45. Hakank blogg (8)
45. Kommenterat (8)
47. Deeva (7)
47. JKL Blog (7)
47. Svensson Svensson (7)
50. Superblog!! (6)

The new Pope Benedict XVI has already got his domain kidnapped by a Belgian and a blogger in Florida. BenedictusXVI.com and BenedictXVI.com are both taken. As is thepope.com, hisholiness.com, popebenedictxvi.com and josephratzinger.com. Seems like a pop(e)ular guy.

Technorati tag: pope

How kind of Dick Erixon to label me a part of the leftist establishment. I’ve always wanted to be part of an establishment. And the left – that’s really something. He writes, about the Observer report:

”I rapporten framkommer också kritik mot bloggarna, talande nog mest från dem som tillhör etablissemangen på vänsterkanten.”

Well, Erixon misunderstands me entirely and I think we can agree on many things in the report. The report that I’m quoted in says:

För politikerna kan bloggarna bli märkbara. De kommer att granskas i större utsträckning än tidigare. ”Partiledarna kommer att nagelfaras som aldrig förr av sina meningsmotståndare. Meningsmotståndare som inte bryr sig om journalistiska dygder som saklighet, källkritik och opartiskhet”, sager Hans Kullin…

This is not criticism against blogs per se. It was a comment about what politicians probably will have to face in the next election campaign, namely a variety of bloggers ranging from the serious, professional opinion leaders with well-documented texts, references and so on, to the fanatic lunatic fringe on both ends of the political spectrum who stop at nothing to get their opinion out. There are pros and cons with blogs, but the positive effects outnumber the negative many many times.

But I am not as positive as Erixon that I dare say that only the serious ones will have an audience. If Ny Demokrati managed to get into the Swedish Parliament, I’m sure enough moonbats will be online to stir up a debate also on the not-so-nice blogs.

Erixon lists a number of positive effects blogs will have on the election campaign and I agree on all of them.