O.J. All Over Again?
The brouhaha over Tiger’s Vanity Fair cover is heating up. Journalists, bloggers and critics are saying that the cover is reminiscent of the famous Time magazine cover of a doctored O.J. Simpson photo (read about its history here). Is that a fair assessment? You judge…
O.J. Simpson, Time Magazine, June 27, 1994
Tiger Woods, Vanity Fair, February 2010
RT @mfadegreedotcom “Tiger got the media involved.”
“Tiger got the media involved. When you are Tiger Woods, you can’t protest the scrutiny when it’s bad, because you get loads of free scrutiny when it’s good. The media is simply the messenger.” ~ Lawrence Ross, author/journalist/media producer (In response to someone who posted a comment on his Facebook profile.)
{Me thinks a publicist or PR practitioner should have said this first. Thank you, Lawrence!}
Free White Paper from BurrellesLuce: Effective Social Network and Micro-Blog Management
Effective Social Network and Micro-Blog Management
It seems that every marketing or public relations professional must maintain some sort of online presence if they want to stay ahead of the media relations curve. But with so many social networking and micro-blogging applications and only so many hours in the day, keeping track of it all can be daunting.
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Access white paper HERE.
Bulldog Reporter’s 7-Day FREE Trial to Media Pro Directory
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Facebook Institutes Page Verification Like Twitter
In pretty much the same manner as Twitter, Facebook has begun emailing the originators and administrators of fan pages to verify their brands: celebrities, personalities, businesses, etc. This is smart. I’ve actually known of individuals who repped celebrities but couldn’t start a fan page for them because someone else used a similar brand to start one. The downside of this issue is what if an actual fan created a fan page for their fave celebrity or product; how would you ask them to operate as non-verified or to give up the use of the celebrity’s name?
According to InsideFacebook.com:
It gives three different ways of certifying page ownership.
1. “Add a badge or a Fan Box widget to your website that links to your Facebook Page.”
2. “Add an email address that is officially affiliated with the entity of your Page to your personal Facebook account. You can also add the email address of a company authorized to manage your brand (e.g., management or PR firm).”
3. “Add another admin to your Page who has an email address that is officially affiliated with the entity your Page represents.”The latter two options are straightforward. The first one is more interesting, as it cleverly both proves that the page owner has control over their own web site, and gets the owner actively promoting the page (and Facebook itself).
The upside is that people who want to hold a celebrity or product’s name hostage will now have to come clean. As a publicist this is wise brand management.
InsideFacebook.com continues:
This new authentication form is hardly the end of the problem. Twitter, for example, has also recently rolled out a verification process for accounts, yet people continue to make fake ones. Facebook may now have more questions to answer, as the Lonely CEO guys note: “What legal obligations does this create for Facebook? Is Facebook suddenly responsible for the accuracy of pages? To what degree are these communities responsible for the identities they present? In addition, what will happen to abstract pages (like “Ice Cream” or “Pizza”)? Many legal and practical implications will continue to pop up as the issue evolves….”
Go here for the form. And read here for more information.
For information on verifying a Twitter account go here.
Spin: a Novel by Robert Rave (The publicist’s book.)
I cannot wait to read publicist Robert Rave’s novel, Spin. In fact, from what I’ve read Spin will most definitely be a movie. Watch the book trailer and visit his site.
New Discoveries: Web Tools for PR
There is no rhyme or reason for these choices other than I think they are pretty smart and could be useful in PR and publicity. Click on the logo or pic to go to the site. (Thanks to @rahsheen and @ABenton for some of these discoveries.)
If you have a client who has great content yet not enough for a book, this could be a great option to produce a specialized magazine. It could used for financial reports, highlighting your own business or even creating an event program that is slick. MagCloud enables you to make a magazine. Try it.
Screenr is great for creating screenshot presentations complete with voiceover recording ability.
This service enables you to record a memo from your phone or from other voice sources and have them transcribed into text. It is great for blogging or for writing out important thoughts that come to you at the spur of the moment.
I love Vokle. It provides a live stream publishing system that is unique and incredibly useful for hosting online gatherings of all sizes. Vokle’s special features include multiple screen streaming, a chat applet and Twitter stream. You can take calls from attendees. It’s pretty smart. Currently, it is in beta and not available to everyone. But I have it on good authority that it will launch on October 18.
I’m biased about this site, because I know the founder and creator of it. BlackWeb20.com and I use this site to communicate with discussion boards that are private. There is also a great online filing system for photo exchanges and storing other documents for a work group. This is a wonderful tool to use for client contact.
Robin Caldwell