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	Phil's Blogservations Tuesday, February 28, 2006 Posted by philgomes 7:35 PM Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. I'm in Silicon Valley this week. I'm going to be speaking at the New Communications Forum. It's kind of like camp, but not really. No mosaics made out of macaroni and Elmer's glue, for example, though I might make such a suggestion to the conference organizers. You can hear me talk about my job in this interview with Eric Schwartzman. He let me ramble. Kind of like you let me ramble, Mom, but I'm sure you're the better cook. Here's the MP3. Dad will explain to you what that means. No, I still haven't figured out how to explain my job to the rest of the family. This podcast won't help matters either. I'll just let them keep saying "Philip works in computers," having given up on the issue some time ago. Yes, Mom, I'm still eating well, even while on the road. Yes, Dad, I'm leaving three seconds worth of road space between my rental car and the car in front of me when I'm driving on the freeway. See you on Friday. Love, Your son Technorati Tags: podcasts, newcomm forum, eric schwartzman, phil gomes Monday, February 27, 2006 Posted by philgomes 6:56 PM Edelman Launches TalkShop; Changes At Blogservations Edelman Launches TalkShop; Changes At Blogservations Some changes are afoot here that will affect what you see and read here on Blogservations. Basically, I'm proud to announce the introduction of a new blog in Edelman's "Speak Up" stable: Talkshop. This will be a team blog, hosted by yours truly, that dicusses word-of-mouth and the issues and technologies surrounding it. You'll not only see posts from me, but you'll also see contributions from New York's Elizabeth Lee, Chicago's Rick Murray, Sacramento's Josh Morgan, and others. I'll also continue to host earSHOT. I'm proud to say that our "content bench" for the next few episodes is looking very good. I'm aiming to inform a lot of it at the NewComm Forum. The Talkshop Flickr account will take on the majority of the Edelman-related photos. Watch this space for photos from the New Communications Forum this week, as well as my day-to-day musings from the conference. My personal photojournal will still stay up, of course. So, look for content here to lean more toward the personal side of "perso-professional." Posts like this and this, for example, are probably best served by going under edelman.com. Of course, I'll continue to talk about PR and related topics here on Blogservations. As you might guess, my tendency to render some of my strongest opinions somewhat severely and with unusual metaphors might not necessarily fly under the edelman.com domain. This blog will remain that "release valve." One thing I'm not going to do: Close down this blog. I made that mistake before and, as such, I'm now prevented from reposting some of my best work here. Fortunately, Constantin Basturea has pointed us to this cure for web-rot. More news as it develops, gang. Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, marketing, womm, word-of-mouth, edelman, podcasts Friday, February 24, 2006 Posted by philgomes 8:12 AM This Is A Test This Is A Test Okay... First, this post disappeared from my front page index. Then, this post indicating the above disappeared. Let's see how long it takes blogger.com to lose this one. Seriously... Is anyone else having this issue? Technorati Tags: blogger.com Thursday, February 23, 2006 Posted by philgomes 5:45 PM We Have A Winner! We Have A Winner! We have a winner for the caption contest. The submissions — stripped of names — were passed to a number of non-PR individuals, who put hashmarks next to their favorites. Here is the winner, who gets the gift certificate. Here is the runner-up, who almost got a gift certificate. Thanks to all who participated! Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, edelman Thursday, February 16, 2006 Posted by philgomes 9:27 PM The First Welcomes The Biggest To The Best The First Welcomes The Biggest To The Best Steve... A welcome from the Edelman network, and congrats from everyone else. Welcome aboard, Steve. We'll have a little fun along the way. Technorati Tags: steve rubel, edelman, pr, public relations Tuesday, February 14, 2006 Posted by philgomes 8:54 PM Heading To SF Heading To SF Going to some meetings. Recording some interviews for earSHOT. Crashing some Web 2.0 party. Going to a wedding. Hanging out with friends and family. Flying to Chicago. Posted by philgomes 7:53 PM Why I Hate The "A-List" Mentality Why I Hate The "A-List" Mentality A whole bunch of people are talking about this article from a magazine I don't read. Reminds me of something that started early in my career. Something I called "Wall Street Journal Syndrome." Even as a junior employee, it astounded me how a PR team could pole-vault over every expectation and every conceivable measuring stick, only to allow themselves to get beaten up for not getting a "hit" in the corner office's favorite elite publication. Wow, Johnson. Our share-of-mind is up. Our competitors are de-positioned. We are the perceived leaders in our market by a country mile. Inbound inquiries based on our announcements are incontrovertibly tied to gains in revenue and customer retention. BUT YOU DIDN'T GET ME IN THE STRATEGIC JOURNAL-TIMES, SO YOU HAVE FAILED!! I thought things would've changed. I mean, the advent of social media is what kept me in PR, even when people were looking at me as if I grew a member on my chin after reading my early writings. Nope. You see, these days, we have the so-called blogger "A-list," a desire to achieve same, and, as Henry Rollins once said, it's just a case of the mouthwash swishing over to the other cheek. Sure... On one hand, people who "get it" say that it's not about pitching "elites" and such but, on the other, there's just so much energy about "A-listers" or "influentials" or what-have-you. Compound that with some fairly insincere denials that such status matters, and you've got a recurring cerebellum-itch that vexes this funny-looking bald man to no end. Communicators love to say that they have a word-of-mouth strategy. They love to say that they "get it" when it comes to blogs. Oh, but if only the prevailing philosophy — to say nothing of the execution — came anywhere close to these lofty ideals. It's the Blog Fairy Dust, or "Flavor Aid" to some. It's the magical stuff that lets you and an uncritical audience believe that you have a "Web 2.0" strategy based on horizontal, open, word-of-mouth principles when — in reality — all that you're doing is taking the elite-based strategies you learned in traditional PR and trying to shoehorn them to online communities. Here, the fact that the publishing mechanism is a blog and not a printing press has changed little insofar as the philosophy of your approach is concerned, but you'll still tell your client/boss that you have a "blog strategy." Make no mistake: You're still doggedly focusing on elites, which is fine in some PR scenarios but insufficient here. The fact that the "influential" you're communicating with has a self-funded blog rather than a paycheck signed by Dow Jones does not mean that you're suddenly cluetrained. If we hide behind euphemisms, we will never improve our industry's perception, capabilities, or real value and we will indeed end up saying that the BL Ochmans, Dave Taylors, Tom Foremskis, and Russell Beatties were right all along. So, hear it from Mr. Technorati-Rank #19,520: The day you start caring more than two squirts of whizz about your ranking or A-list status is the day you have lost control of your blog — and, with it, your online identity — since that desire to achieve and maintain status will inevitably color what you write and how you write it!!! And there's no Easter Bunny either. Before some of you start running around thinking that I've just written the most career-limiting thing of my young life, hear me out. I know that people pay for PR, in large part, because they desire higher visibility. Seeking to achieve A-list status is certainly part of this. I have no quibble with that. But, is who you are and what you write about — your credibility — worth changing in order to achieve this? Because that's what is at stake if you ever think to yourself "I believe [X], but I'll be less popular if I write it. The best thing to do is [Y], but people will hate me and I'll never be an A-lister EVER!!!" Is it not enough to be a resource for your particular community, however small it is? (Jaffe's got the right idea: "I don't need Jaffe Juice to be considered anything other than a trusted and respected resource with high value content.") Most of all... Can't you do it for fun? Of course, visibility and credibility are not mutually exclusive variables. It's perfectly reasonable to consider that someone became visible because he or she was credible in his/her domain of expertise. However, the converse — credibility coming from visibility — is a fallacy. Happy Valentine's Day. Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, blogging, a list, wom, word-of-mouth Monday, February 13, 2006 Posted by philgomes 5:29 PM Another EdelBlogger Another EdelBlogger You might've missed Marilyn Mobley in Edelman's Atlanta office. Technorati Tags: edelman, public relations, pr Posted by philgomes 1:59 PM Contest Deadline Contest Deadline Was IM'ing with Bill Pealer, who reminds me that I didn't put a deadline on the caption contest. You all have until 12:01 a.m. PST on Friday, Feb. 17. So far, so good. Friday, February 10, 2006 Posted by philgomes 10:40 AM Tag... Pre-emptive Strike Tag... Pre-emptive Strike You people were going to get to me eventually. Four Jobs I’ve Had Plant nursery waterboy Assistant sysadmin of a library Hard-drive backup geek for my Dad's company Loading-dock clerk and register-jockey at a bookstore Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over Army Of Darkness Clerks This Is Spinal Tap Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Kahn Four TV Shows I Love to Watch The Twilight Zone Law & Order: Crimes Below The WaistSpecial Victims Unit CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Sledge Hammer! Four Places I’ve Been on Vacation Kennedy Meadows Portugal Italy Yosemite Four Favorite Dishes My "Drunken Master" Jack Daniels/Teriyaki chicken recipe Carnes vinho d'alhos The way my mom makes buttered noodles The ritualistic spicy-sausage-and-tomato-soup that my best friend Richard and I make. Four Websites I Visit Daily Blabbermouth The Superficial (I'm in LA, after all.) Digg Memeorandum Four Places I’d Rather Be Chicago, Ill. Oakland, Calif. Portland, Ore. Kennedy Meadows, Calif. Four Bloggers I am Tagging John Wagner Mike Manuel Neville Hobson Blake Barbera Posted by philgomes 9:48 AM Edelman's New Practice? Edelman's New Practice? Oh, my... That gave me a much-needed chuckle this morning. Let's have a contest... I'll send a $20 Amazon gift certificate to the person who puts the best caption in the comments. Hat-tip to the cameraphone-wielding Neville Hobson. Wednesday, February 08, 2006 Posted by philgomes 12:54 PM Random Thoughts -- 02/08/2006 Random Thoughts -- 02/08/2006 An Edel-colleague of mine works on the Burger King business. This means she gets an email address with the "whopper.com" domain which, for some reason, I find kind of cool. Trillian Pro is great. I'll say that for free. It's a godsend for IM crackmonkeys like me — Yahoo, AOL, Google, MSN, and counting. I just wish webcam support was a little better. Am I missing something? I've already gotten it to work under MSN Messenger, but not Trillian. When it comes to old-school videogames, Chopper Command beats them all. Finally took the SoloSub route. (See sidebar.) Tuesday, February 07, 2006 Posted by philgomes 8:18 PM NewComm Forum: Wanna Be Within "earSHOT?" NewComm Forum: Wanna Be Within "earSHOT?" I'll have my podcast-recording deck with me at the NewComm Forum, so if you perhaps have a really good idea for the Edelman earSHOT podcast, send an email to my Edelman address: phil~dot~gomes{at}edelman~dot~com. Listen to the first episode to find out the kind of thing we're into. Being somewhat of a stickler, please know that I turn down more ideas from Edelman employees than I let in, so please don't be too bent if I decide to pass on your idea, for whatever reason. Pitch away. Same rules apply, though I'm obviously only looking at the first four bullets of that list. Be warned that Kevin Dugan and I correspond frequently, particularly regarding his latest project. Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, newcomm forum, edelman, podcasts, earshot Posted by philgomes 7:51 PM Help Me With My NewComm Forum Speech Help Me With My NewComm Forum Speech In March, I will be delivering a talk to the New Communications Forum in Silicon Valley. The conference, of course, is put on by the Society For New Communications Research, of which I am a proud member. My topic revolves around the following questions/observations. Ruminate on them a bit and please leave your thoughts in the comments area. Of course, you can also trackback to this post as well. Credit will be given where due. The site for the conference has a description of my talk. Cribbing from there, here are the general questions I'll be exploring: What advantages can PR professionals realize by blogging -- both within the company's subdomain and externally? Most PR blogs are professionally focused. Far fewer, have a personal concentration, while some combine the two. Where are the boundaries? Journalists, analysts and influencers can learn more about a company's PR representatives when they blog. What are the advantages/disadvantages of this? PR is now "part of the story" to a degree that it never has been before. Is this a good thing? Some other items to look at that perhaps speak to my biases: I'm currently very much of the opinion that PR was never meant to be "part of the story." Sometimes, the client work is what ends up suffering. (Imagine an article on semiconductors where an industry-specializing firm's thinking is featured, but its fee-paying chip clients are not.) However, today it is part of the story and in a big way. Is this "transparency," or self-promotion? What do you think of what's being called "PR" these days? I'm specifically referring to recent pay-to-play scandals that the boss has pointed out. My notes are due in mid-February, so comments left after Feb. 17 probably won't make it into the talk. Have at it! Technorati Tags: public relations, pr, edelman, newcomm forum, sncr Posted by philgomes 1:41 PM I Feel Old I Feel Old No one here remembers the hits from the Greg Kihn Band. Thursday, February 02, 2006 Posted by philgomes 3:14 PM "Put Your Soul In My Hand And Your Money In My Pocket" "Put Your Soul In My Hand And Your Money In My Pocket" From a colleague in Atlanta: BTW, I read about a big church that has started providing Podcasts of its preacher’s sermons. They call it Godcasting. Posted by philgomes 11:50 AM Random Thoughts -- 02/02/2006 Random Thoughts -- 02/02/2006 Thanks, Jeremy. (And congrats!) You're forgiven, Dee. The claim "PR companies that 'get it' have senior staff as bloggers," while that happens to be true in my company's case, is a rhetorically unsound premise, Tom. My official endorsement in the Ochman v. Pepper Battle Of The Ad Blogs race? How about "less time on your hands?" Congrats, Eric. This is a great coup for On The Record...Online. Technorati Tags: pr, public relations Posted by philgomes 10:28 AM E3 And Booth Babes On E3 And Booth Babes Matthew Podboy laments the E3 tradeshow's new anti-booth-babe policy. Reminds me of a funny story from my first E3 (2004): DMG sent me there because two of our clients had component-level technologies that had strong applicability in games. As I was walking around the show floor, I took note of the long lines for autographs. (I was this close to getting something signed by Stan Lee, but he stopped signing at about three people before he got to me. Drat.) I noticed one line that was simply gigantic. It twisted and turned around booths; breaking to allow for the aisles, only to continue snaking around the hall. Keep in mind, being a video game conference, the lion's share of the attendees were guys. (This is important later.) The line was no different. I tapped one guy on the shoulder. "What's this for?" "The guy who created Cowboy Bebop is signing autographs!" Not being a fan of the anime cartoon, despite a former roommate's cajoling, I wasn't all that interested. I did walk to the front of the line, though, just to check out what was going on. Middle-aged Japanese gentleman. Comb-over hair. Thick glasses. Sign, smile, nod, next. Sign, smile, nod, next. I moved on. Previews for the new Silent Hill were going on in the Konami booth, after all. A while later, I was in another section of the LA Convention Center. I noticed another line. It was pretty long, but yet only a fraction of the one I saw for the Cowboy Bebop creator. Again walking up to the line at about the halfway point (Is that drool? I wondered), I tapped a guy on the shoulder. "What's this line for?" Glassy-eyed pause. "Playmate... Victoria... Silvstedt... is... signing..." Sure enough, she was. As I moved on to the next booth, it hit me. Game conference... Mostly teen-to-twenty-something guys... And the line to meet a Playboy Playmate was far shorter than the one for a middle-aged bald guy! I called my boss from the airport. "I have seen geekdom! You have no right to call me a 'geek' ever again!!" Okay... Well... I thought it was kind of funny, anyway. Technorati Tags: e3, pr, public relations, playboy HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.