Digg/shelholtz
Flickr/shelholtz
Facebook/Shel Holtz
Linkedin/shelholtz
Twitter/shel
YouTube/shelholtz
Del.icio.us/shelholtz
GMail/Shel Holtz
Technorati/shelholtz
MyBlogLog/shelholtz
Utterz/shel
§ Subscribe
§ Utterz
§ Podcast
- For Immediate Release
A weekly podcast for professional communicators from Shel Holtz, ABC and Neville Hobson, ABC.
Podcast Feed
Vote for FIR
§ PR Search
§ Places
- Shel's link blog
- Blogs I read
- Holtz Communication + Technology
- IABC
- Ragan Communications
- Society for New Communications Research
§ Dead Trees
- How to Do Everything with Podcasting
by Shel Holtz with Neville Hobson
- Blogging for Business
by Shel Holtz and Ted Demopoulos
- Corporate Conversations
by Shel Holtz
- Public Relations on the Net
by Shel Holtz
§ License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Richard Edelman goes on the record
A quick search of Technorati reveals not much awareness yet in the PR corner of the blogosphere that Richard Edelman gave a detailed interview to IT World on the recent brouhaha over the “Wal-Marting Across America” flog. In the interview, published yesterday, Edelman admitted that his company failed the basic transparency test that applies to all media, not just new media, noting that the failure occurred because “we have people who are insufficiently experienced in this.”
Edelman said that it’s up to him to ensure his employees are adequately trained in the morals of new media; he added that the company needs to rely more upon those who do understand the way social media works, pointing to the me2revolution team (which boasts well known names like Steve Rubel and Michael Wiley).
He also admits to frustration and anger when he learned about the flog, but got over it quickly in order to do what CEOs are supposed to do: address the situation. Edelman also rejects the idea that his company’s reputation has taken much of a hit, suggesting that its history of decent behavior is an asset that will see it through. He admits that he should have said something sooner than he did, noting it’s the only thing about the crisis he would have handled differently.
Thanks to Tony Hung for the email pointing me to the interview. Tony—a third-year medical resident who blogs about a variety of issues at ”Deep Jive Interests”—has written his own observations about the interview, expressing astonishment that Edelman would assign the plum Wal-Mart account to junior executives. That’s not what Edelman meant, though; in fact, I find that inexperienced 25-year-old PR newcomers (like Chris Clarke) get the blogosphere and its morals much better than 25-year veteran account executives with deep experience in traditional PR but to whom social media is an alien world.
In any case, I’m sure Edelman’s interview will be dissected and discussed over the next few days, especially by “the group of bloggers who don’t like PR people being in the blogosphere,” as referenced by Edelman in the interview.