Should the GM blog address layoffs?

Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2005 at 9:41pm in Blogging, Business, PR General | Leave a Comment

Shel Holtz is questioning if the credibility of the GM Fastlane blog is at risk due to it not discussing the 30,000 layoffs the company is planning on the blog. He also points to Debbie Weil’s and Dave Taylor’s disagreement over the issue. Saying that Dave thinks the GM blog is blowing it for not discussing the issue, while Debbie says to give it time.

Firstly, I think you would have to look at the blog itself - what is it used for? Is it to only talk about new products? Or does it cover a wide area of the business?

If it is only used as a feedback mechanism to talk about new products to customers and doesn’t cover the business overall, then no, it shouldn’t have to address the layoffs. Why should it? If it hasn’t in the past, why should it now?

If it does indeed cover other aspects of the business (which the Fastlane blog seems to do) then yes it should address the layoffs. Just like they would issue a press release, hold a press conference or make a statement by any other means.

But I also agree with Debbie asking people to have a little patience. Obviously it’s trying times for GM, and right now they’re probably working out the best strategy to cope with the issue. No doubt the blog will be involved in that strategy. Let’s hope so, because if they continue to not address it, then it could indeed put a big dent in the credibility of the blog.

Shel also wonders if they have been filtering the comments. He says: “But some reader must have offered a comment that read something like, ‘If you listened more to your customers, you may not have had to resort to a huge layoff to save the company.’ No such references appear. Has nobody; not one commenter used that word?”

Laurie Mayers from the Fastlane blog has commented on Shel’s post assuring that nothing is filtered.

In blog terms, it will be very interesting to see the outcome to this. What will happen if they do or don’t address it; what type of comments will they get? Will they respond? How will they respond? Will they filter?

Layoffs are a part of business and most companies are susceptible to them. But it’s what a company does and how it reacts to the issues that can determine the outcome. This is where good PR planning and skills come in. So all you ‘PR is dead’ dreamers take note, particularly Dave (after careful consideration I still think PR is dead) Taylor. Let’s see how the company handle their layoffs in the offline world as well as the online. PR works in both.

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Microsoft - the world’s most repected company

Posted at 1:56pm in Business | Leave a Comment

An eMarketer report is saying the Financial Times have commisioned a survey to find the World’s most respected companies, and for the first time ever, Microsoft was named number 1.

It says: “Microsoft was described as ‘fulfilling the needs of the society with their products and ability to grow’ and as ‘an innovative company (that) touches almost everything in our lives’.”

As well as this, Bill Gates also came second in the 10 Most Influential Business Writers or Management Gurus of 2005.

The report also goes onto say that Apple moved to ninth place from 42nd and Google is a new entry at 39th position.

The FT conducted interviews with over 1,000 chief executives in 25 countries around the world. In other words, the winners were the companies and CEOs that were most respected by their peers.

The World’s Top 10 Most Respected Companies of 2005

1. Microsoft
2. General Electric
3. Toyota
4. Coca-Cola
5. IBM
6. Wal-Mart
7. BP
8. Proctor & Gamble
9. Apple Computer
10. Siemens

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moblog test

Posted Monday, November 21, 2005 at 10:11pm in Blogging | Leave a Comment

This is a moblog test.
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Tools to get the job done

Posted Sunday, November 20, 2005 at 2:01pm in Blogging | 2 Comments

An idea for a post I’ve stolen from Steve Rubel. No doubt his gadget bag will now have new toys since his post is dated March.

What do you use to help you work and blog? Or in my case, work, study and blog. What necessary tools do you use to get the job done?

I have a humble Dell Inspiron 5160 that I use for work, home and occasionally uni. It is pretty much turned on 15 hours a day, seven days a week and have quite a few external and network drives connected to it. Take a look below. No Dell Hell problems with it so far.

Connected to that I have a Voip Voice USB Skype phone with a London SkypeIn number. Skype hasn’t any numbers for my area as of yet, so I just tell people it’s for the London office. ;) I usually have the SkypeIn number forwarded to my mobile.

I use a Planet 21 Smart and Versatile Deluxe Backpack to carry my lap top. In that I have an old (but still does the job) Pentax 330GS for taking occasional photos at work, a SafeCom wireless card for wi-fi at uni and an iPod Photo 20GB to listen to music and podcasts. I did try listening to audio books but don’t enjoy it as much as reading a real book.

My phone is a Windows Smartphone SPV c550. I use it to synch my Outlook contacts and calendar with my lap top, send and receive email using Gmail Lite when on the move, read my RSS feeds with FreeNews, chat occasionally on MSN Messenger Mobile, and take photos.

I’m planning on buying a 1GB storage card for it to listen to music and podcasts, which could possibly make my iPod unnecessary. Oh, and I use it to make calls too.

The main software I use is, WordPress for my blog platform, Firefox as my browser, FeedDemon synched with Newsgator for my RSS feeds, Gmail as my blog and personal email, Outlook using stephenNO@SPAMdavies.net to send out press releases etc, Word and Power Point for uni, and iTunes for music and podcasts.

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Yet more tips on writing content for your blog

Posted at 1:48pm in Blogging | Leave a Comment

I attended my journalism lecture this afternoon and today’s topic was about writing personal columns in newspapers. You know the ones, the red tops usually have some celebrity giving their opinion on recent issues in the news. The broadsheets tend to have specialist writers giving their specialist opinion. For example, Jeff Jarvis writes a specialist column for the technology section in the Media Guardian.

We were given a guideline hand-out on the style we should try to use when writing a personal column and I think a lot could be applied to blogging. I’ll post the list, but first I must stress that this isn’t my own work. I have taken it from a hand-out from university. So I can’t claim to have written any of it.

1. Don’t simply rant.
2. Good pieces of work are well written and have something important to say.
3. Don’t simply write what you feel but use it as a place to develop a simple argument.
4. Try to have a particular voice and an entertaining style.
5. Make your work built on careful reporting, analysing and assessment.
6. Focus on one subject.
7. Present new insights.
8. Stimulate readers to think and see subjects from a different angle.
9. Show rather than tell.
10. Use examples and stories rather than confront reader with bare opinions.
11. Focus on the issue and not the experience of the writer.
12. Emphasise intelligence and argument rather than emotion.
13. Always be consistent in tone.
14. Choose a voice and stick to it.
15. Remember. More than one mood will distract the reader

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