The Sounds of Silence from John Henry's Office

One of the most interesting moments in the painful September saga of the Boston Red Sox's collapse was owner John Henry's surprise visit to the 98.5 The Sports Hub radio sports show. Without entourage, he just showed up and accepted an interview, in effect indicating he was tired of hearing all of the criticisms their on-air hosts were hurling his way regarding his role, and wanting to give his side of the story. It wasn't a great interview, but it...

May the People's Pledge against Attack Ads Spread and Prevail

Major kudos are in order to U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Scott Brown and his Democratic rival in the upcoming election, Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren. They recently made an agreement that Brown has dubbed a "People's Pledge" to work to limit attack ads by outside groups during their Massachusetts Senate race. As reported by the AP, "Under the terms of the deal, each campaign would agree to donate half the cost of any third-party ad to charity if that ad either...

Here’s One Save Thomas Can’t Make

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.” ~ Warren Buffett In a city consumed by sports excellence over the past decade we have become accustomed to fending off criticisms and low blows from fans and media in other markets. Yet we were ill-prepared yesterday when one of our hometown sports heroes, Bruins net minder Tim Thomas, delivered a cheap shot of his own. By...

Six Rules for Announcing "Solutions" in Today's Communications

"In the world we live in, somewhere between 80 percent and 95 percent of new product introductions fail. It’s not that hard to postulate that you must do virtually everything right to successfully launch new products." Jack Gordon, CEO of AcuPOLL Research Inc One of the greatest challenges solution providers face is how to package and present their new offerings in a way that will generate interest from the media. Historically, the media has tended to focus on products rather...

Zappos Explaining How They Got Zapped

It's one of those emails you really hate to receive, so I'm sharing parts of it with you, along with my reactions: "First, the bad news:" [Don't you hate it when an email starts like that?] "We are writing to let you know that there may have been illegal and unauthorized access to some of your customer account information on Zappos.com, including one or more of the following: your name, e-mail address, billing and shipping addresses, phone number, the last...

Time Magazine Gives Austin the Clean Tech Crown

I spent a good part of my childhood living in New Mexico. My parents use to make fun of how obnoxious the neighboring Texans were, who visited nearby ski resorts every year. My Dad, in particular, complained about the loud Texans, skiing down the ski slopes in their colorful, brand-spanking new oufits, singing their Texas songs, all the while, bailing down the slopes (his theory was they can't ski). I'm not sure why it drove him so crazy to see...

In the Real World, Who Cares about Search Plus?

This week's announcement by Google of "Search Plus Your World" was one of those times where Silicon Valley is great spectator sport. In case you missed it because you're at CES, or getting ready for NRF, or heads down after the holidays, Google rolled out its deepest level of integration of Google+ -- content and social signals from Circles, +1's and reshares -- to core Google search results to date. The bottom line, as Danny Sullivan put it, is that...

Are Your Messages Ready for 2012?

The activities to finish up 2011 strong are all completed, and planning for 2012 from a communications standpoint is in full force -- often combined with sales kickoff meetings around the globe. We're looking back to see how we all did, what we need to do next, and how that stacks up to what we expect the competition to do. If done right, much of the planning hinges on taking a look at messaging. For all of us communications professionals...

5 Resolutions for 2012 for PR and Social Media

Well, it is that time of year for reflecting on 2011 and looking ahead to 2012. If 2011 proved anything, it was that social media has crossed the chasm into the mainstream -- worldwide. (Tip of the hat to Geoffrey Moore.) From the democratic revolutions of the Arab Spring to the Occupy Wall Street Movement to the Japanese tsunami to the death of Steve Jobs, social media played a central role in not only communicating the news, but also being...

The Best and Worst PR Moves of 2011 : Part II [#WorstPRMoves]

We've already given you the #BestPRMoves of 2011. And, as is always the case, our list of the #WorstPRMoves is always longer and, frankly, a lot more fun to compile. Let's see if our list matches your memories of the year's communications faux pas. Best in Class Individual #WorstPRMoves of 2011 This gets a split vote this year. It was a closely fought race between sitcom star cum rabble rouser cum new sitcom star Charlie Sheen, and the "what was...