Back in 2007, Palm, makers of the beloved Palm Pilot, announced a device they called the “Foleo“. It was basically an early “Netbook” — you know, those tiny little laptops that cost $300-700? Very light, very small.

At the time Palm announced the Foleo, a great outcry went out amongst the nerds of the Internet. From the depths of their parents basements, unkempt and filthy dorm rooms, and secret lairs, nerds proclaimed “It’s too expensive!” and “It’s underpowered and doesn’t even run Windows!”. Even Engadget got into the act, perhaps even leading the pack, with Peter Rojas penning an open letter to Palm basically begging them not to release the Foleo. Palm heard and obeyed.

(continue reading…)

I wrote this well over a year ago, but it’s just as valid today as it was then. Don’t ever forget to maintain your professionalism when dealing with bloggers, and treat them like royalty. I do have one new golden rule to add to this list:

Thou shalt not make enormous list of bloggers and spam them. Make short lists and customize content instead.

Yes, that’s the trick everyone. Take your list of hundreds and boil it down to the top ten most important, then write them individually. You’ll increase your chances of coverage and build a great relationship at the same time. But now, on with the original post.

(continue reading…)

Oh the annual reports I’ve seen. Long ones, short ones, colorful ones and more — not the kind of thing you’d want to read in the bathroom, savvy? Well, Stardock, purveyors of fine Windows operating system visual tweaking tools and video games, have seriously made the right moves. They created an annual report for their customers. OH MY GOD! RUN FOR THE HILLS! SOMEONE HAD A GREAT IDEA!

Yes, Stardock is privately owned. They don’t tell anyone how much money they make or have — they don’t have to. So they created a document that talks about their products. It gives everyone a rundown of what the product does, how well it has done…and what’s wrong with it, what’s being done to fix it or improve upon it, and so on.

Brad Wardell, man of steel
Brad Wardell is Stardock’s founder, president, CEO, caesar, etc. I’ve lusted after his products since I flipped through a magazine dedicated to IBM’s OS/2 operating system and saw his first (or one of his first, I’m not THAT much of a fanboy) product, an application that sexied up IBM’s drab interface. AND I DIDN’T EVEN USE OS/2!

Because of my lust, I’ve followed him and the growth of his company for years. Through his blog, in his interviews, he’s always told it like it is. If I was his PR person I’d simultaneously have fits and drop to the floor in ecstasy. And in this report to his customers, he’s just extending that attitude and personability. It’s gelling with his customers, me among them. Stardock’s games are awfully successful and generating more and more buzz as the years go by. Stardock is very much in touch with what its customers (who, according to the report, are almost all adult males and dedicated to PCs) are looking for.

My takeaway
I’m not too proud to steal a great idea when I see one. You can bet I’m going to be looking for opportunities to use this kind of document with the companies I work with. In the meantime — Brad, if you’re reading this, I salute you.

And thanks to Spencer Scott for posting a link to the document on Twitter.

Over the past few months I’ve been in touch with hundreds of public relations and marketing professionals. Through some great discussions about how social media is affecting their work and business, I’ve learned two very important things. I’ll go into detail on them, below, but the reason I bring these up is because I’ve developed a very short, very friendly social media primer. It’s a .PDF file, and you can get it by clicking here: Social Media Primer.

The first big pain point

“There’s so much out there, I don’t know what to focus on.” No kidding! The only way I can keep up is by constantly reading technology news sites, blogs, message forums, leading Twitter users…and then spending time to think about what I’ve just read.

I can do that because I love this stuff and am glued to my computer. Other people aren’t quite that passionate — they have things like stamp collections, dogs, and children. My suggestion? Read my primer, and then go out there and pick a social media strategist blog to read. Like mine.

Pain point number two

“There’s no single source of information that gives me just the very basics so I can get started.” There is now! Again, snag my primer, above. But I feel your pain. What I recommend is that you find a single source you trust and stick with them — they will eventually cover just about everything you need. No need to try to take it all in at once. You can of course read me, but check out my blogroll, off to the right there — I follow all those folks, and ProBlogger is my favorite source for news.

Ultimately, you can always write to me! I’m happy to help.