Two Swedish Eyes on Media and Public Relations
Nicholas “IT doesn’t matter” Carr gives his seven tips for corporate blogging.
– Don’t do it. If you have no compelling business reason to get involved in the blogosphere, then don’t.
– Use blogs to advance your business interests.
– Stick to your goals.
– Choose your bloggers wisely.
– Assign blogging buddies.
– Be wary of allowing comments.
– Call in the lawyers.
Tag: corporate blogging.
Mark Kingdon has a set of good tips for corporate bloggers.
– Designate an editor.
– Don’t be too precious about it, but do have a purpose.
– Content is king.
– Develop a content engine.
– Have an editorial policy.
– Experiment, learn, and evolve.
– Make it a core part of your marketing strategy.
– Be patient and watch your audience grow.
Tag: corporate blogging.
Amanda Chapel’s Strumpette (the Gawker of PR?) is a brand new addition to the PR blogosphere and by the looks of the first post, is sure to stir up a bus load of controversy. And maybe this is just what the cozy family of PR bloggers needed, a storm in a B-cup, sorry, tea cup. Steve Rubel takes a beating in the first post here.
However, infOpinions senses there’s something fishy about the site.
“We all know that Strumpette is more likely to be a fat, fifty-ish, fool of a guy with a gut the size of his ego than some cute PR bunny.”
We’ll see about that. Let’s just say that anyone that registers a domain through Domains by Proxy isn’t exactly starting off with a bag full of trust.
I wasn’t going to comment on the Swedish study about antisemitism that was published in Dagens Nyheter on 14 March, but when DN for the second time publishes an incorrect phrase I think it’s worth speaking up. The study (pdf, 3MB) has been the subject of much debate since it was published and it made conclusions like “one out of four Swedes don’t want a jewish Swedish Prime Minister”. About 3,000 Swedes were asked a series of negative statements against jews in order to see how antisemitism is spread in Sweden. But I noticed that there was a slight difference between one of these questions in the survey and how that question was reported in the press. It may seem insignificant, but trust is in the details.
In the survey, respondents were asked whether they agreed or not with the following statement.
“Jews have too much influence in the world today”
“Judarna har för mycket inflytande i världen idag”
In the first article in DN, this question had now been changed to:
“Jews have too much power in the world today”
“Judarna har för stor makt i världen i dag”
But “power” is not the same as “influence”.
The same incorrect phrase was used this morning by Mats Bergstrand in DN. I would argue that the second statement sounds “worse” than the first, and in my view it is a careless (and hopefully not deliberate) use of information. Not reporting correctly opens a survey up for critisism, and like in this case, doesn’t help the important fight against antisemitism.
Footnote: the question can be found on page 125 in the report.
Swedish publication Internetworld has finally launched a blog of their own. There are some small bugs to fix though since comments do not work yet.
I read with great interest the story about the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK) that sent some angry lawyers after a pizza place that advertised for Olympic pizza (OS-pizza, OS being short for the Olympic Games in Swedish). SOK have been quick to file complaints with businesses that use “OS” in advertising, but I wonder if SOK really have all the trademark rights they claim.
Turns out that the SOK have registered the trademark “OS” in the following classes in Sweden: 6, 9, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25, 28, 30, 32, 37, 41, 42. The observant trademark specialist will notice that class 43 is missing. Class 43 includes “serving food and beverages”. (Utskänkning av mat och dryck; kortvarigt boende). They could possibly argue that a pizza would fall under class 30 (provisions, for example made from corn). Anyone out there that could enlighten us?
Worth noting is that the following companies also have registered “OS” as a trademark in Sweden in some form:
– OGAWA SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA (national)
– OSRAM Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (EU)
– The Secretary of State for the Environment t/a Ordnance Survey (EU)
– Organisation für die Sicherheit von Schleifwerkzeugen e.V. (oSa) (EU)
Here’s another example from the US, that includes four (!) olympic rings, very creative.
Update: The ad was from the US, not the UK.
Tags: advertising, public relations, IOC, olympics, trademarks.