Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 07:49 PM
Posted by Administrator
It is a growing trend. Company employees and even senior executives are contributing to corporate blogs. A recent survey showed that seventy-six of the Fortune 500 companies now publish blogs. Thousands of other smaller firms do the same. Blogging is a good way of humanizing a major corporation by building a closer relationship with the customers and marketing new products. Blogs also, however, pose a hidden danger that may not be fully recognized at this early stage.
Recently, I attended a program in which corporate bloggers were discussing their roles in corporate marketing and communications. The one thing that raised immediate concern was that the bloggers seemed to have little supervision as they placed thousands of words on the Internet on a company website.
In one instance, a blogger at a major corporation said that she was expected to know what was appropriate for the company blog. None of the bloggers indicated that their organizations had any written policy about blogging or that they had been briefed by the company’s legal counsel on the potential liability issues involving a blog.
Some of the issues should be obvious. At a public company, bloggers should not be making forward- looking statements concerning products, product development, earnings, or the price of the company’s stock. Some areas may be less clear. What if a blogger’s enthusiastic comments about a company’s product prove to be misleading or inaccurate? Can stockholders sue the company based on those comments if the highly touted product turns out to be a dud? What if bloggers disparage another company’s product or use the blog to promote their own social or political agendas? There is no question that most bloggers will use good common sense. But there are plenty of well meaning individuals whose actions leave their employers shaking their heads and plaintiff’s counsel jumping for joy.
Among the legal issues outlined in a recent article by the law firm of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin (www.howardrice.com) include:
• Defamation and Privacy Torts
• Intellectual Property Infringement
• Trade Libel
• Trade Secrets
• Securities Fraud
• Gun-Jumping
• Selective Disclosure
• Forward-looking Statements
• Employment Issues
• User Privacy
• Discovery
Robert Sprague, an assistant professor in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Wyoming, published an article* in the American Business Law Journal which provides an excellent discussion of whether bloggers’ work falls under the First Amendment or is more tightly regulated commercial speech. We have seen instances where aggressive state regulators have sued companies based on claims made in blogs and on the Internet, even in instances where employees were not directly making the product claims.
A prominent plaintiff’s attorney was recently quoted as saying that he loves to use company websites as a basis to undermine the credibility of corporate officials during depositions. We have found that it is not uncommon for websites to contain information and claims that have not been vetted by legal counsel and can be misleading or taken out of context.
It seems ironic that organizations that spend hours reviewing every word in a press release would allow bloggers to produce material that appears on a company website with little or no review and only informal guidelines.
Blogging isn’t going away. However, like any form of corporate communications, it needs to be controlled and monitored.
*Robert Sprague (2007). Business Blogs and Commercial Speech: A New Analytical Framework for the 21st Century. American Business Law Journal 44 (1)
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Public Relations Executive David Margulies Tells Dan Rather “Journalism Is Not Always a Contact Sport”
Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 10:42 PM
Posted by Administrator
I recently had the opportunity to hear former CBS News anchor Dan Rather address a gathering of the Bull Dog Reporter’s Media Relations Summit in New York. As a former investigative journalist, I understand the importance of an aggressive free news media that holds public officials accountable for serving the public interest. But after a career defined by Watergate and Vietnam, Rather continues to view his relationship with public officials as a contact sport. As a public relations executive who has worked with the media for the past 24-years, I believe Mr. Rather’s perception is sadly out of date.
Rather defines news as “something important the public needs to know and someone in power does not want them to know.” He says a reporter’s role is to be a “check on power; to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” If only it were that simple.
Every story is not Watergate and every president is not Richard Nixon. In today’s complex world it is far more important that journalists develop quality sources to help explain complex issues. A free press is supposed to provide the public with enough information so that they can make good decisions when they elect our public officials. It is little wonder that many public officials and business owners viewed Rather and other journalists who shared his perception of the world with deep suspicion.
It is a shame that Rather did not attend the entire conference of public relations professionals and media leaders. He would have learned that today reporters have far more sources of information and far more opportunity to produce content than he ever had with the 30 minute evening newscast at CBS. The Internet allows reporters and the public to perform original research faster and access thousands of sources not previously available to them. It provides an opportunity for the public to see and read entire documents instead of summaries edited by journalists. Imagine what would have happened had the Pentagon Papers been posted on the Internet.
The Internet has also allowed the public to hold journalists more accountable for their work, as Rather learned when he published his story on President Bush’s military service. The Internet provides a means for critics to question the authenticity of the story, something that was far more difficult to do in the past. For some bloggers, the mainstream media are considered the people in the position of power in need of afflicting.
Dan Rather is a brave man who was willing to risk his life covering wars and risk his career confronting politicians, some of whom deserved the media’s attention. But the good old days he longs for allowed only a small group of individuals to control the national agenda. Today millions of people have a say in what we know about important public issues. It may not be a perfect system, but some would argue it has the potential to be much better than the one Dan Rather pines for.
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There is no such thing as Free Publicity
Monday, May 4, 2009, 05:54 PM
Posted by Administrator
There is no such thing as “Free Publicity”
Getting something for nothing is always an enticing sales pitch. But falling for the lure of free publicity can cost money in the long run. It doesn’t matter whether you are Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or Joe the Plumber. We each have only 24 hours in the day and a certain amount of time we can devote to our business. Our successful clients focus their limited time wisely, leaving media relations activities to the experts. Publicity is a great marketing tool and helped build brands such as Google, Starbucks and Apple. But a public relations program has to be strategic. Anyone can get a story printed if their cat can meow the Star Spangled Banner or their child writes a bestselling novel. Most business stories require a well thought out marketing and positioning program that gets the clients key message in front of the right audience. For example, one organization recently received national coverage on CNN, but it was of little use to an organization that had only a few thousand potential customers in a well defined geographic area. One of our clients worked with us to develop a targeted media relations program that built relationships with their direct customers and end users. The result was a 4 to 1 return on their public relations investment.
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David Letterman should send Sarah Palin and her husband Todd a thank you note. They reacted just as he hoped to a tasteless joke about one of their daughters and Letterman began beating his opposition Conan O’Brien in the ratings. Letterman doesn’t care about the Palin family or their daughters. He needed to draw attention to his program before O’Brien finds his sea legs over at NBC. What better way to do that than to pick a fight with someone who will overreact and create a controversy that will bring his program to the attention of millions of people who don’t watch it every night. Letterman’s core audience isn’t likely to be offended. As he said tasteless jokes are how he makes a living. Should the Palins have jumped to the defense of their daughter and reacted to the joke. Not in this case. A better response would have been to tell the media that they didn’t see it because they were watching Conan O’Brien and think his show is funnier. Letterman is a comedian. If a bit works he repeats it. If he doesn’t get a positive response from the audience he quickly moves on to something else. That would be a much better lesson in life for their kids than an angry reaction that gets their antagonist higher ratings.
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