Ready, Aim, Reach - Latest Comments

Re: When in a crisis, objectivity and speed are your friends

Julie Wright — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:45:03 -0000

Let's you and I both hope for a nice quiet week starting now!

Re: When in a crisis, objectivity and speed are your friends

eriksr — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:11:31 -0000

You're darn' tootin'!

Re: When in a crisis, objectivity and speed are your friends

eriksr — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:58:09 -0000

Haven't read your link yet Julie, but just wanted to drop my thoughts quickly -- things happening over the weekend are nasty because, typically, the watchdogs are resting. So yes, social media HAS changed the way we manage and deal with crisis, and you've got to be vigilant. Unfortunately, that means working during the weekend.

Setting up Google news alerts, keyword searches in your RSS feeds, and just plain old snooping around are practically necessities now, sad to say, but will help minimize the amount of time you need to be on guard (when you should, by rights, be recuperating).

Re: When in a crisis, objectivity and speed are your friends

Julie Wright — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:40:57 -0000

I read this with interest because I was thinking about and blogging similar issues yesterday. And I agree that putting out bad news going into the weekend is a common practice in traditional damage control but with regards to social media, I took the opposite view.

See the post here for an explanation: http://wrightoncommunicatio...

I'm interested in your thoughts? In the two recent examples where a crisis broke in social networks, it actually happened over a weekend, and therefore wasn't adequately managed or responded to. Therefore, has social media and today's hyper-connectivity changed the way we think about and prepare for a crisis. In the two cases I was thinking about, the weekend was not friendly to Motrin or the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Re: TechCrunch taught me why sometimes bloggers are wrong

eriksr — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:33:09 -0000

Thanks for the considered response, Peter. You make a very valid point about the Foleo's capabilities. I must admit, I felt the same way towards Palm at the time. I don't entirely agree with your thought about the Foleo being the wrong product to enter the market with, though.

It is a poor product, no doubt, but it would put their foot in the door and be compared to smartphones more so than proper laptops. When netbooks started to ship and began kicking the Foleo's butt, Palm would have an opportunity to respond and so the market would unfold. Now the netbook market is commoditized and its not worth getting into unless you have an extensive chain built up to build things like this cheaply -- there's no hope of them getting into the game. They are stuck with Treo's, which PalmOS or WinMobile powered are basically outdated and outsexed by everyone else, and no one is buying PDAs anymore.

I'm afraid Palm will die a slow, painful death, now. I think I would have preferred that they gambled their future on a possibility, however weak, than go out this way.

Re: TechCrunch taught me why sometimes bloggers are wrong

Peter Rojas — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:21:54 -0000

First off, my open letter to Palm wasn't about the Foleo. It was a long list of things the company needed to do to turn itself around and improve the Treo. Ditching the Foleo was one small part of that, and the basis of the argument wasn't that it didn't "run Windows" (which I didn't even mention), but that it was a poorly executed product that took Palm's focus off of what it really needed to do, which is revitalize its smartphone line.

But that said, you have to understand that despite the superficial resemblance the Foleo was no netbook, and I say this as one of the few who actually has used one. It wasn't designed as a standalone device like a netbook is, it was intended as companion to the Treo, and as such you couldn't fully take advantage of it without one. It also was incredibly underpowered, even by netbook standards. It was also expensive for a netbook (you can pick up an eee PC for less than $300, while list price for the Foleo was $600), and it run what was essentially a proprietary OS (despite being built on Linux) that made it unlikely it would ever attract a significant developer base. The Foleo actually did less and cost more than a regular netbook, and resulted in Palm spending hundreds of millions of dollars that should have been used to help the Treo keep pace with the iPhone, G1, Xperia X1, BlackBerry Bold, etc.

Trust me, no one would be happier than me to see Palm bounce back, but if they were going to enter a new market like this being first wasn't going to be enough -- it's not as if being first in the smartphone market has made a damn bit of difference -- they needed to create something great. And they definitely did NOT do that with the Foleo.

Re: TechCrunch taught me why sometimes bloggers are wrong

eriksr — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:57:48 -0000

LOL. Nice story, I've never heard of the REDfly I'm sad to say. Looks like a
lovely device except for the whole Windows Mobile aspect.

Honestly, I'd really just like Palm to do well again. Pioneering a new
market -- painful lessons or not -- would have been a nice step for them and
cemented them as visionaries (I'm conveniently ignoring the fact that
Handspring was the visionary re: Treo...) :)

Re: TechCrunch taught me why sometimes bloggers are wrong

Mark — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:25:45 -0000

There has been a new device that's pretty much a Foleo for Windows Mobile - its called the REDfly and its made by Celio. Bloggers loved it. errr... I mean bloggers who got it for free loved it.

The rest of us? We bought netbooks. In spades. All the way from $300 to $500, we bought netbooks.

Meanwhile, Celio discounted the REDfly to $200 from $400. I still don't know many people who actually bought one, even on the internet. However, I do know plenty who bought netbooks.

Palm is probably thanking REDfly for vindicating their decision to cancel the Foleo.

Re: Is social media actually accomplishing anything? Yes, and here’s how you prove it to your boss.

Geoff Livingston — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:10:27 -0000

Glad you found the writing worthwhile. Hopefully, it will make a difference for you. Keep on blogging in the free world!

Re: Pitching in the clear: MicroPR

CloudSpark — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:14:16 -0000

If I can send it to the reporter via DM and not a Tweet, then I get around privacy. But I like the idea of short pitches and getting responses. However you as a reporter want to get it, I'll work my darndest to get it to you.

Re: http://readyaimreach.com/2008/08/13/a-rant-on-the-state-of-technology-and-communicators/

Cheryl Smithem — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:33:51 -0000

Yeah, I used to be in an agency where one of the key guys didn't understand how to use Word or how to create PowerPoint presentations. He kept trying to push his work onto those of us who were tech savvy. You're right about taking time to just start to fiddle with the program with the goal of accomplishing a particular task. Being task oriented is the way to learn new applications.

Re: Pitching in the clear: MicroPR

Anthony Farrior — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:28:57 -0000

I like the potential, but as said, privacy might be something not easily sacrificed...

Re: Pitching in the clear: MicroPR

eriksr — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:07:33 -0000

On the question of HARO -- Twitter would certainly elicit a fast response...and would also cut down on the fluff PR professionals can't help but throw into their correspondence.

How often have you referred to your client's product as "best of breed"? Or "industry leader"? This is fluff. It carries absolutely no weight with reporters and only further reduces their attention span. the 140 character limit of Twitter will cut that down. In that regard, it's bloody brilliant!

So that's great. But the question remains -- if you had to pitch a new product to a reporter, how would you do it in 140 characters while not giving away information of value to competitors YET keep it interesting enough for the journo to respond?

Re: Pitching in the clear: MicroPR

ArthurGermain — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:43:04 -0000

Brik,

I agree. I like the idea -- just seems a little difficult to manage. I may be wrong. As I understand it -- if a PR/corp. comms professional has a pitch, they tweet (hate that) @micropr. Reporters must follow in order to view -- other PR pros will certainly do so. I'm less clear how it works for reporters/writers pitching the other way. Why not use HARO?
ahg3
www.Brandtelling.com

Re: Link metrics, fast and easy

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:56:58 -0000

Thanks! glad you like it. I like chocolate chip and peanut butter, myself :)

Re: Small firms: You don’t need expensive mail servers

eriksr — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:07:43 -0000

Well, I'm a huge fan of Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Zappoman, but I don't think the Google Apps for Domains service is as mature as BlueTie or Zimbra. Google needs a dedicated file storage/sharing service that is fully integrated into its services, and it needs a proper Wiki.

When the Jotspot service they purchased oh so long ago comes back, I'll revisit my opinion. ;)

Re: Small firms: You don’t need expensive mail servers

zappoman — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 04:39:54 -0000

How would you compare these services to google apps for domains? gmail, calendar, etc.? Those being the two most important features in exchange of course.

Re: Why Windows Vista is like a ghetto Cadillac

Martin at Switch Blog — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 10:22:48 -0000

It seems like Ubuntu is becoming the de facto Linux distribution for human beings. I don't see many people comparing Red Hat or Debian to OS X and Vista.

I too am a Mac person, as you may have guessed.

Re: Does Dominos PR need a lesson in ethics?

Chuck — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:08:50 -0000

Domino's needs a new recipe for sauce and cheese. I wouldn't eat that pasty swill disguised as pizza if you held a gun to my head. In college they were the only option and I hate their monopolized asses to this day.

However, it snowed today so I might use the pizza to melt the ice under my tires.

Re: Vista laptops for bloggers, or Edelman being scuzzy?

Darren Strange — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 12:40:12 -0000

Good post. I'm the UK Office 2007 product manager - my take on this generated some good coments which you might find interesting.