Gearheads: The Sterling Communications Blog

Free Speech, Blogs and Your job

Earlier this week, I got a GoogleAlert for ColdSpark. The Alert took me to a personal blog written by a software developer who had just taken a job with ColdSpark after considering offers from two other companies, including -- in a bizarre, worlds colliding coincidence -- BT Exact. He went into the pros and cons of each company, particularly how working for each one might impact his family. Ultimately, he said flattering things about ColdSpark, but made a point of saying how far they'd gone to hire him. The blog was also noticed by lots of people at ColdSpark. Now it's no longer freely accessible (which is why there's no link to it here). Without going into ColdSpark's rationale, this incident raises some interesting questions about where someone's personal life stops and professional life begins. How much control should your employer have over your public speech? How wise is it to publicly post information that can be seen by your employer? What's the best way for companies to manage the outside communications of their employees?

Clean Tech. A new SCI market?

VCs are spending lots of money on clean tech companies around the world. Might be a great area to look for new clients.

Dell 2.0?

Interesting story about Dell's new social media site, Ideastorm. Dell is hoping to use social media as way to reverse the slide in its customer satisfaction and sales numbers. The idea is to get customers to provide ideas for new products and services and, in turn, generate more interest in the company. But what happens if Dell's customers make lots of suggestions that Dell isn't comfortable with? This is a real-time case study of what happens when a company takes the conversation with its customers public. Stay tuned.

Worst PR Pitch Ever?

"Anna Nicole Smith Would Be Six Feet Under If She Had" [redacted].com. Something about online safe deposit boxes helping families avoid ugly legal hassles.

So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet

The story behind Horny Manatee is, in fact, an interesting lesson in creating a dialog with your audience and building buzz.

Lost in Translation

From one of the worst worst instruction manuals ever written, according to David Pogue's review of a camcorder:

“Use only DZ-HS303A/HS300A to record/dub or finalize a DVD-RW (VF-mode)/DVD-R/+RW recorded or dubbed on this DVD video camera/recorder but not finalized: Using any other device could damage the data recorded on the disc.”

Homeland Insecurity

The Department of Homeland Security today launched a Web site to help travelers wrongly stuck on no-fly lists and other issues that keep them grounded or subjected to special scrutiny from airports screeners. The only hitch? DHS provided a Web address that didn’t work.

Pogue's Flack on Flacks

Angry and defensive comments to David Pogue's post about his pet peeve about PR. Pogue eventually responds:

However, i never HAVE expressed a dislike of PR people! PR people make my job possible.
* They bring cool new products and trends to my attention.
* They actually tell me who their RIVALS are, so I can do a more complete roundup of the product category.
* They make themselves reachable nights, weekends, in sickness and in health, to help me get questions answered and problems solved.
* They remain available after the column comes out, even if they got a savaging review, to answer followup questions from readers.
* With very few exceptions, they are forthright, professional, and honest even about their product’s failings.
That doesn’t mean I can’t consider executive interviews a waste of everyone’s time.

Head Case

And in other news....

The Power (and Peril) of Praising Kids

Praising smarts rather than effort induces kids to lower their standards, lie more often and give up more frequently according to research reported in The New Yorker. A child deprived of the opportunity to discuss mistakes can’t learn from them, while a child praised for a specific effort is better prepared for more difficult challenges and less likely to become a "praise junkie."