Search Engine Reputation Management

I constantly implore my boys to take their online profiles very seriously. A month doesn’t pass without my asking them to expunge from their Facebook pages any obscene wall posts and photos in which their “friends” tagged them in some state of unseemly debauchery, e.g., beer pong games or dubious attire.Fortunately, compared to others in…… Continue reading Search Engine Reputation Management

Pitch-Optimized Gmail

As someone who’s endured more than his share of misguided PR pitches,e.g., think inane dot-com come-ons, The New York Times’s intrepid NY-based tech reporter and “Bits” blogger Saul Hansell definitely deserves a medal for his fortitude.It’s a wonder to me that he still works with so many PR people, let alone has the time to…… Continue reading Pitch-Optimized Gmail

But is It Optimized for Search?

As Yahoo! threw out its last lifeline to prevent it from falling into the arms of the boys from Redmond, Google was there to save the struggling online enterprise. Few at the time thought, or rather played up, how much turbulence such a Google-Yahoo ad partnership would generate from the regulatory authorities both here and…… Continue reading But is It Optimized for Search?

Cruise Control

People often ask me where PR is headed. (Now there’s a million dollar question.) In taking a page from the PR playbook, I try to keep the answer simple and stupid. After all, it’s not the number of syllables, but rather the quality of the connection that separates the good communicators from the not-so-good. The…… Continue reading Cruise Control

Hollywood’s Lament

Control. What a concept! As the media splinters at an alarming rate, alarms sound among Hollywood’s PR set over their commensurate loss of control. The phenomenon has thus far eluded the big MSM entertainment outlets like People and US, ET and Access where command and control remains an art…akin to blackmail.It’s those pesky, journalistically challenged…… Continue reading Hollywood’s Lament

ZR1: Green for Green

Love that post from Gawker’s Jalponik in which the venerable Motor Trend is outed for allegedly gaming Google’s organic results. Here’s how it went down.The first 2009 600-hp ZR1 Corvette sold at auction over the weekend, and a search on Google for “ZR1 road test” had Motor Trend in the poll position atop the results…… Continue reading ZR1: Green for Green

Fire and Water

A quick review of the smoldering media coverage emanating from California invariably leads to comparisons between the disasters in New Orleans and San Diego. Yet each city is as different as, well, fire and water. New Orleans is big on Dems; San Diego is big on Bush. New Orleans is a true urban city, while…… Continue reading Fire and Water

De-Optimizing Strategies

MSNBC.com’s savvy Internet-watcher Bob Sullivan today dissects a company that apparently sat in on one of Converseon founder Rob Key’s* presentations at a search strategy or WOMMA conference.Mr Key pioneered much of what’s happening in the booming area of “search engine reputation management,” if not the term itself.Of course, the company on which Mr. Sullivan…… Continue reading De-Optimizing Strategies

Socially Optimized or Optimally Socialized?

Ahhhh. The news release. That poor, beleaguered PR tool that has died a thousand deaths, only to be reborn — optimally and socially speaking.This morning I was greeted with a text message from media maven Lisa Kovitz who tipped me to our friend and mediabistro.com doyenne Laurel Touby’s answer to the myriad unsolicited (and misguided)…… Continue reading Socially Optimized or Optimally Socialized?