Walls have the same bad reputation on the web as they do in history. They work for a while, usually to someone’s benefit and someone else’s dismay, and then they come crashing down.
A walled garden often serves as a safe haven to rapidly grow a business. In the 90s and early 2000s, we saw AOL [...]
Category Archives: Social Media
Is the glue of credibility strong enough to hold together a walled garden?
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On FTC’s blogging guidelines, ‘clearly and conspicuously’ is what everyone should be talking about
It’s been a little over two weeks since the FTC announced they were going to start watching blogs. Since then, there’s been healthy discussion and debate. Bloggers have had pretty much the same reaction as advertisers did when the FTC first came after unscrupulous ads. It’s great. It’s a sign that social media is coming [...]
Also posted in Ethics, Public Relations, Technology 2 Comments
The farming game craze, from Harvest Moon to Farmville to Happy Farms
With everyone excited about wizards and vampires these past few years, one would expect magic or brooding bloodsuckers to be the focus of popular social games online.
But nope, look elsewhere: It’s farming, of all things.
A succession of popular farming games has hit Facebook this year, starting with myFarm, with the crowds seemingly then jumping to [...]
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Embrace the trolls
Todd Defren wrote last week to ignore the trolls, and it’s a post I’ve been thinking about for a few days.
After mulling it over, I can’t help but think it’s bad advice. Here’s why.
The wisdom of crowds
We will often handwave the mindless comments from naysayers, only to turn around and happily embrace the equally mindless [...]
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How to customize the look of your social media release
Every now and then we do a post on a Presskit’n feature. Today we’re going to look at how to customize the look of your social media release. Here’s a recent IvyLees release using the default theme:
We decided not to use the IvyLees theme (that would be trite, right?), instead opting for something a bit [...]
Also posted in Branding, Presskit'n, Technology 1 Comment
Conversation vomit: Why aggregating everything everyone says is a stupid idea
You’ve seen it at the bottom of some blog posts. It’s a long stream of “So-and-so said this on so-and-so site” with every retweet on the subject clogging up the flow of discussion.
It’s conversation vomit. It’s when an aggregator eats everything around the Internet about a blog post, comes back to the blog post, and [...]
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United breaks a sweat over breaking guitars
If you’re a big fan of PR debacles, then you’ve probably already heard about the United Breaks Guitars music video on Youtube.
If you haven’t, here’s a summary: Guy watches guitar get broken by baggage handlers. Guy gets nowhere with customer service. Guy makes suspiciously-high-production-value music video on Youtube complaining about his treatment.
And the crowd goes [...]
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Shills down my spine: 3 ways to kick off the fight against online marketing evil-doers
There seems to be an accepted reality in online marketing: Writing fake, positive reviews for products is something everyone does. It’s the only way to be competitive.
Does this smell like bullshit to anyone else?
I’ve looked around the net for statistics on just how many online, on-site (i.e. sites like Amazon or Newegg) reviews are real, [...]
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Presence: the best place to start with your public relations
Here at IvyLees, we’re big on Do-It-Yourself public relations. We’re building apps that help everyone get into the game, on even footing.
Every now and then, someone tells us, “But you’re not helping with this!” (Or that. Sometime’s it’s that.)
Well, I assure you: We’re planning on it. Right down to the iHandshake, an app for the [...]
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What we can learn from Twitter Tracker: You can be mediocre. It’s okay now.
One of the fastest ways to elicit an eye-rolling from a public relations practicioner is to bring up the dreaded “new hire” press release. Nobody wants to read them. Even less want to write them. And certainly nobody ever ever would write about them (Unless you’re an Apple or a Microsoft). Yet clients still ask [...]
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