coComments related to dspark

Funny you caught that dialogue

2009-10-22T18:12:43.254+02:00

Funny you caught that dialogue. Let me explain my theory as to why I don't see myself as a PR person. 1. I've never actually performed a single function that a PR person officially is supposed to do. I don't write press releases. I don't represent companies for the press. I don't "get them placement" in places. 2. I DO though WORK with PR firms. In a nutshell, what I do is custom publishing. My feeling is every organization should be its own media network. By creating your own media, and not relying on traditional press or bloggers to tell the story for you, then you get your own tale out there. I'm not against PR, it's just not what I do. I get companies to publish and tell their own story. Read this article I wrote that goes into much greater length of what I was saying on TWiT. "Why Corporate Blogging is Like Selling Uncut Cocaine" My feeling is once you're telling your own story, then there's a source for you to go back to. If you haven't already seen the story about the "TSA Agent Took My Son" you should read it. "A great quick appropriate response to blogger outrage" And George, thanks for the props!

Those iPhone walking zombies n

2009-08-28T03:29:13.207+02:00

Those iPhone walking zombies need the Email 'n Walk application. It turns on the iPhone's camera as you write emails so you can see the ground below. http://www.simonblog.com/2009/05/16/email-n-walk-iphone-app-lets-you-email-while-walking/

Michael: I have to admit that

2009-08-24T16:03:19.960+02:00

Michael: I have to admit that Beth Brody's comment on my blog and the multitude of other blogs about starting a blog of her own and learning from the mistakes is kind of pat. She obviously copied and pasted the same response to multiple blogs. And her lack of genuineness is really showing through. Her opening line of her first and only blog post is "I appreciate all the many wonderful and wise people who have offered me good advice and tactics for being a better communicator." The last thing I would do is call the people who responded "wonderful." She's obviously smiling as she grits her teeth. With all that said, she does have a lot to learn. But that still doesn't excuse the onslaught of cruelty that the bloggers and journalists gave her. One other mistake she made that nobody mentioned (including myself) is that none of her links in her email actually pointed to the book she was promoting. They simply went to the business site. And on the business site there was no mention of the book.

Wow Michelle. Thanks so much f

2009-08-22T15:21:59.530+02:00

Wow Michelle. Thanks so much for the nice comments. As for not naming people, that's all of a situation of where they are in development. If they're an early startup, or a young company, then there's really no reason to trash them publicly. They made a mistake, let them learn from it instead of putting a mark on the Internet for them to have to erase. Although, in this case I did contact the company and the guy who gave the demo directly and he completely ignored me. I'm sure he was furious. Although my feeling is he should have been thanking me because the next guy won't be nearly as nice. As for organizations that screw up that aren't startups, I have no problem naming names of public companies.

Agreed as well Tim. We've see

2009-08-21T20:39:35.732+02:00

Agreed as well Tim. We've seen these "Reply to All" fiascoes happen again and again, yet for some strange reason, nobody seems to learn, or that's what we think. I think you're being far too kind. My belief is everyone who hit Reply to All knew exactly what they were doing. They were just puffing up their chests and showing their social media clout. It was friggin' obnoxious. They all should have known better. And I know you've read this, but for your readers, here's my take on the same story. Social Media "Gurus" and Bloggers are Egotistical Jerks http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915

Yep Al, you hit all the issues

2009-08-21T18:07:51.326+02:00

Yep Al, you hit all the issues I hit as well. I think it comes down to the fact and this hasn't changed in a while that people feel more comfortable attacking people via email then they do in a face to face conversation. For all the people who said negative things in "Reply to All" and also via blogs and Twitter, I'd be interested if they'd have the cojones to say it to her face. Here's my full take on Brodygate. Social media "gurus" and bloggers are egotistical jerks http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915 Also, if you want a real PR fail story, read this one. It's a two parter where the client comes in with a completely obtuse move at the end. Hey PR, bloggers are not tools to be used http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=497 UPDATE: Bad PR experience story. PR firm’s client is obtuse. http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=514

Whenever you're sending out a

2009-08-21T17:27:58.072+02:00

Whenever you're sending out a mass mail you have to be extra careful. This woman wasn't. Also, she didn't use a mass mailing program like Campaign Monitor or Constant Contact. Regardless, I think the response was completely inappropriate and that's why I wrote this post: Social media "gurus" and bloggers are egotistical jerks. http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915 Also, if you want a real PR fail story, read this one. It's a two parter where the client comes in with a completely obtuse move in the end. Hey PR, bloggers are not tools to be used http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=497 UPDATE: Bad PR experience story. PR firm's client is obtuse http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=514

Whenever you're sending out a

2009-08-21T17:27:24.237+02:00

Frank: I agree with you 100%.

2009-08-21T17:19:52.416+02:00

Frank: I agree with you 100%. The reaction was completely uncalled for. I loved your school bus analogy. Right on target. I think you'll appreciate my post on the subject. Social media "gurus" and bloggers are egotistical jerks http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915 Also, if you want a real PR fail story, read this one. It's a two part story with a completely obtuse move at the end. Hey PR, bloggers are not tools to be used. http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=497 UPDATE: Bad PR experience story. PR firm's client is obtuse. http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=514

Frank: I agree with you 100%.

2009-08-21T17:19:42.866+02:00

Frank: I agree 100% with you.

2009-08-21T17:05:56.036+02:00

Frank: I agree 100% with you. The reaction was completely uncalled for. And I loved your school bus analogy. Right on target. I think you'll appreciate my post on this subject. Social media "gurus" and bloggers are egotistical jerks http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915 Also, if you want a real PR fail story, read this one. It's a two parter where the client comes in with a completely obtuse move at the end. Hey PR, bloggers are not tools to be used http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=497 UPDATE: Bad PR experience story. PR firm’s client is obtuse. http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=514

Frank: My sentiments are the

2009-08-21T16:58:52.987+02:00

Frank: My sentiments are the same. I'm not in PR, but I thought the reaction was completely wrong. And your school bus analogy was right on target. You should definitely read my post: Social media "gurus" and bloggers are egotistical jerks http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915 Also, if you want a real PR fail story, read this one. It's a two parter where the client comes in with a completely obtuse move at the end. Hey PR, bloggers are not tools to be used http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=497 UPDATE: Bad PR experience story. PR firm’s client is obtuse. http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=514

Frank: My sentiments are the

2009-08-21T16:58:09.845+02:00

From your post I don't know if

2009-08-21T16:44:31.806+02:00

From your post I don't know if you're referring to the Brody PR debacle. Because in that one she accidentally didn't use the BCC list. And if you do use the BCC list there's no way you can hit "Reply to All." But this isn't bad PR, it's email marketing. And some people do it well, and some don't. And to do business you HAVE to send out mass mails. In that case, the woman made a series of mistakes, the most egregious was the fact that she didn't use the BCC list. My irritation was the behavior of the people who responded. They just wanted to be malicious. And I feel via email people have no problem being malicious. They wouldn't do the same things face to face. Here's my take on the responses in the Brody PR case. Social media "gurus" and bloggers are egotistical jerks http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915 Also, if you want a real PR fail story, read this one. It's a two parter where the client comes in with a completely obtuse move at the end. Hey PR, bloggers are not tools to be used http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=497 UPDATE: Bad PR experience story. PR firm’s client is obtuse. http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=514

John: Yes, this was a failure

2009-08-21T16:38:17.330+02:00

John: Yes, this was a failure. But the mistake that was made was small. The way people responded compounded the fact. Why would you hit "Reply to All" to be unsusbscribed from a list when you KNOW that the only one who can unsubscribe you is the sender? I thought it was purposefully obnoxious by all the people who did it. I have a full account of it on my post here: Social media "gurus" and bloggers are egotistical jerks http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915 I should note that there was another mistake that nobody talks about, and that is the fact that none of the links in her post actually linked to the book she was promoting in her press release. Also, if you want a real PR fail story, read this one. It's a two parter where the client comes in with a completely obtuse move at the end. Hey PR, bloggers are not tools to be used http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=497 UPDATE: Bad PR experience story. PR firm’s client is obtuse. http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=514

Tiffany: I followed up Ken's

2009-08-21T16:31:13.443+02:00

Tiffany: I followed up Ken's blog post with a post of my own. BTW, Ken was being a little overdramatic about 90% of people responding. It was actually a much smaller percentage. Most people did behave themselves. Unfortunately, people who should have known better, that we all respect, did not. Here's my take on it: Social media "gurus" and bloggers are egotistical jerks http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915 Also, if you want a real PR fail story, read this one. It's a two parter where the client comes in with a completely obtuse move at the end. Hey PR, bloggers are not tools to be used http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=497 UPDATE: Bad PR experience story. PR firm’s client is obtuse. http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=514

Steve: You're right though th

2009-08-21T16:12:26.857+02:00

Steve: You're right though that you have to send a personal message when you want to unsubscribe. But honestly, I just hit reply with the word "UNSUBSCRIBE" and nothing else. I think people get it. And blas: Your situation seems so much worse. We had about 50 replies. 300 is insane. But I like that it spun out positively. I love the image of your gmail thread. :)

Thanks Maria. I didn't even pl

2009-08-11T04:59:09.693+02:00

Thanks Maria. I didn't even plan on writing this article, I was working on another piece (it will probably drop tomorrow - I'll link to it), but I started running into all these contest experts, so I just asked them to give me their top tips for creating a contest. And then I just compiled all their great advice. Thank them. :)

Oh yes, we've all failed in so

2009-08-06T02:44:53.772+02:00

Oh yes, we've all failed in social media. I would say the people have succeeded the most have probably also failed the most.

I actually attended the GTD Su

2009-05-11T07:30:32.913+02:00

I actually attended the GTD Summit in San Francisco in March and people are rather religious about David Allen's philosophies. I produced this video of the event where I asked people what were their bad habits before they adopted GTD. Here's the video. http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=557

Don't forget you can register

2009-05-02T02:06:12.872+02:00

Don't forget you can register for the event here: http://bit.ly/bdBU5

Remember, you can register for

2009-05-02T02:04:51.449+02:00

Remember, you can register for the event here: http://bit.ly/bdBU5

Brian Malow is one funny nerd.

2009-04-30T21:03:14.240+02:00

Brian Malow is one funny nerd.

That's hysterical Lori. Very f

2009-04-30T19:32:48.184+02:00

That's hysterical Lori. Very funny. Are you going to be performing that anytime soon?

That Microsoft store in the Me

2009-02-15T16:58:38.283+01:00

That Microsoft store in the Metreon I don't think actually sold anything. And I remember it behaved more like a museum than a store. The foot traffic on the second floor was essentially nil and I once walked through there seeing no one, not even staff. It was kind of eerie. But I'll also say that I think Microsoft can be hugely successful with a store if all they focus on is the customer experience, by heavily staffing the stores. And success could turn out to just be a positive Microsoft impression and not actual sales. They're not going to make huge money on these stores, but they will benefit hugely on putting a human face on Microsoft. Something the company has never had beyond the face of Bill Gates, and that's fading away. Now when you have a question or concern with Microsoft, they'll be a face you can connect it to. More here: http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=516

I would also say you can use T

2009-02-09T20:18:48.268+01:00

I would also say you can use Twitter to make a call out for coupon codes. Very few of your friends are going to be on the Coupon Freaks group. Although thanks for telling me about it! I actually saved $150 because a follower sent me a great coupon code for an HP computer. It's great. Read the entire tale here: http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=436

If they truly do launch tomorr

2008-09-01T22:35:06.456+02:00

If they truly do launch tomorrow as Kara Swisher predicts, and they make it easy to find and download, like on their homepage, there is no doubt this will be the single biggest one program download day ever. I don't think its Firefox that has to be scared. I think IE needs to be scared. Firefox users will probably use both, but a Google browser will get more converts than even Firefox did. Also, we need to realize that Google's "egalitarian" open source "we're giving back to the community" messaging is purely designed to feed its own business model. More eyes on the Internet for longer periods of time generates more revenue for them, especially if they make the browser.

I just interviewed Harry McCra

2008-08-29T20:38:20.494+02:00

I just interviewed Harry McCracken who started the blog Technologizer (http://technologizer.com) just about seven weeks ago and already he has thousands of people coming to his blog every day. He says that tech news is a commodity, but opinion is not. State a very strong opinion and that will elicit a response from your audience. Read/Listen to the interview here: http://bethevoiceblog.com/?p=18

Years ago I used to write a co

2008-08-29T20:32:53.226+02:00

Years ago I used to write a column for a now defunct magazine called "Axcess." The column was called Tek Freak and I would take the opposite side of every tech issue. Example: The V-Chip is bad for our children because they won't grow up on crappy television like "Dukes of Hazzard." And yes, parents have to monitor their kids viewing, but guess what, their children are my future too and I don't want my future raised on Masterpiece Theater. Think like you're on the debate team and you have to argue your point. It'll be entertaining for the audience and a challenge for you as a writer. To read that full article, go here: http://davidspark.com/vchip.html

Another stab at the cocomment

2008-08-28T07:43:10.816+02:00

Another stab at the cocomment system. Let's see if this works.

I'm testing out the Cocomment

2008-08-28T07:36:50.256+02:00

I'm testing out the Cocomment system. I hope to take advantage of this service. David