Gearheads: The Sterling Communications Blog

Iraq 101

A primer on the Iraq war from Mother Jones:

All right, no more excuses, people. After four years in Iraq, it’s time to get serious. We’ve spent too long goofing off, waiting to be saved by the bell, praying that we won’t get asked a stumper like, “What’s the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” Okay, even the head of the House intelligence committee doesn’t know that one. All the more reason to start boning up on what we—and our leaders—should have learned back before they signed us up for this crash course in Middle Eastern geopolitics. And while we’re at it, let’s do the math on what the war really costs in blood and dollars. It’s time for our own Iraq study group. Yes, there will be a test, and we can’t afford to fail.

The Funniest Video in the History of Ever

The Landlord: 34,724,185 views and counting.

Michael Scott, PR Pro...

Any other "Office" fans out there? At the end of this clip from an upcoming episode, Michael give some, um, "helpful" advice on how to deal with the media.

Niche Social Networks Offer Target Practice

From Elke: While MySpace boasts that it generates the most page views of any site, some marketers such as Playskool and P&G are focusing instead on networks barely a fraction of its size to serve as marketing test beds. The obvious advantage of niche networks: advertisers are less likely to talk to the wrong consumers.

Embracing the Clarity of Measurment

From Elke: Here's a recent PR News column by Mark Weiner on communicating the value of public relations without relying on multipliers.

How to engage bloggers? You don't

"You can't think of engaging bloggers, you engage people," according to Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research. "Let's face it, this isn't 2003 and blogs aren't that novel anymore. There are fifty million or more blogs out there. Different folks, writing on different things for different audiences. You can't engage, market or otherwise try to reach them as whole. The key is understanding who the influentials really are and then adopting the proper strategy to engage. That's also where it gets tricky and a lot of folks will fail at this."

7 Ways To Learn If Your Clients Love or Loathe You

From Elke: To avoid the "here today gone tomorrow" syndrome, consultants must know how they're doing with their clients. While surveys can be helpful, there are quicker ways to find out whether you're on shaky or firm ground with your clients. Here are 7 fast and effective ways to rate your own client relationship.

The 50 best technology products of all time. Maybe.

PC World has come up with a list of the 50 best technology products of all time. Number 1? Netscape Navigator. Mmmmmkaaay...

EMI Dumps DRM

iTunes will sell EMI's music without copy protection software. Consumers who already purchased EMI tracks with Apple's FairPlay digital-rights management scheme will be able to upgrade them to the premium version for 30 cents. Full albums in DRM-free form can be bought starting in May at the same price as standard iTunes albums. Audiophiles take note: The higher sound quality of EMI's premium, DRM-free tracks is produced by increasing their bit rate, which translates to larger files with reduced compression, in the 256 kilobit-per-second AAC format. Two points I haven't seen anywhere else: (1) Whatever business Apple loses to competiting music players will most likely be gained in sales of new iPods with higher capacities to store the larger files. (2) The pressure is now on for iPhone competitors who's music downloads won't work off their phones.