Tech PR War Stories 18: CEO bloggers are great except when they're not

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was praised for entering the blogosphere two years ago but the buzz turned bad when it was revealed recently that Mackey had written anonymously about his company on Internet stock message boards. PR pros should take note, argue Paul and David. It’s great when the CEO blogs, but the very hint of deception can turn the community against you and end up doing more harm than good.

It turns out both our hosts have been spending time on Facebook lately and they really like it. Paul says Facebook is what LinkedIn should have been: a professional networking site with personality. David likes all the new applications that members can share. But they hesitate to call Facebook the winner in professional social networking. The market is too chaotic right now to predict who will come out on top. That’s no excuse not to dive into a social network and learn the style and lingo, the advise PR pros. Just do it!

In Cheers & Jeers, David roasts Sunrocket, a VOIP provider that went of business but didn’t bother to turn off its website, where you can still sign up for its non-existent service. Paul toasts Harry Potter, whose Internet success may keep the book series alive even after the author has stopped writing.

Download the podcast here. (15:06)

0 thoughts on “Tech PR War Stories 18: CEO bloggers are great except when they're not

  1. i also feel that CEOs write way too long posts and they are very vague. Vagueness and CEOs both go hand in hand. They should be writing about their leanring, employee motivation, in short short, simple, crisp and without any technical jargon. So that the employee’s wife and children can also read, without asking the question, “What does this ‘word’ meam?”

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