There is strength in numbers, but only if those numbers join together.  The U.S. has about 26 million small business owners (defined as having under 500 employees) but there is very little in common between these businesses.  Of the 26 million, most (about 20 million) were solo businesses, with no employees.  That is a lot of one-person businesses!
The average income for these solo small businesses is under $10,000 in annual receipts.  Not a wealthy group, by any means.  Small businesses struggle in the best of times, and these certainly aren’t great times for business.  And it is difficult for small …read more

You may have heard that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevech has hired a publicity firm to help him deal with all the media attention he’s getting, since he was arrested for corruption when he (allegedly) tried to get some kind of compensation to fill  President Barak Obama’s Senate seat.
Hiring good PR counsel when you are facing a major problem is a good idea.
But I am not sure if this firm is really working on Blago’s reputation, or perhaps doing some major spin doctoring.
The public relations agency actually send out  a press release announcing the Governor’s media schedule for today. Huh? Since …read more

How do you create news when it’s the slow season for your business?
Ask Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream gods.
They used a major PR tactic, called piggybacking. I talk about piggybacking on Startup Spark’s Monday Media Marketing Minute and at my other blog: The Power Publicist.
The folks at Ben & Jerry’s created a new ice cream flavor in honor of Obama’s inauguration. Called “Yes Pecan,” it pays homage to the president-elect’s battle cry, “Yes, we can.” Plus, they added a bonus, proceeds go to a charity that helps people get involved in the politcal process.
You may think it’s silly. But …read more

The Canadian Autoworkers’ Union is appalled that GM is closing factories that produce trucks and performance cars.
Their showdown with management fizzled recently when the courts ruled they couldn’t blockade GM offices and plants just because they don’t like decisions made by management.
How utterly lame.
CAW head Buzz Hargrove was patting himself on the back a couple of years ago, when GM announced they would be producing Camaros in Canada.
Was the company’s increasing reliance on the high profit margins of SUVs, power cars and pick-up trucks a good long-term direction for the company?
Let’s see, gas prices steadily rising. Concern for …read more

Worth reading:
NowPublic and Who’s Doing Whom a Favour? – The consumer-generated news site responds to a complaint about the process for approving the use of photos. DarrenBarefoot.com
Prentice’s Staff Scrubbing Copyright Controversy from Wikipedia – Copyright advocate Michael Geist does some detective work to show political staff editing of a Wikipedia entry about their minister. Geist goes on to critique the Canadian government’s new copyright legislation.
Weezer Viral Attachment – Chris Wilson wonders why more companies don’t link themselves to successful viral campaigns, rather than trying the crapshoot of seeing their own efforts go wildly viral. Brendan Hodgson looks at video …read more

Lawyers are often very good at helping organizations achieve their goals. But when it comes to plotting effective public relations moves, they too often forget how that legal action can be seen as aggressive overkill to the average person.
Case in point, the chill effect attempted by lawyer Clifford Shoemaker on behalf of his clients, who are suing to prove the generally disproved theory that mercury formerly used in vaccinations may have caused autism. Their son was diagnosed with a form of autism.
(I work for a health care organization and have an autistic son. Writing that last paragraph without adding five …read more

A student of public relations can see a belligerent pattern in the Chinese government’s reputation defence during the past year.
Accusation: producing unsafe productsDefence: blame sloppy manufacturing specs provided by clients.
Accusation: human rights abuses in TibetDefence: allege Dalai Lama’s of conspiracy to cause deaths of ethnic Chinese
Tactic:  Olympic Torch Relay protestsDefence:  glorify noble athletes standing up to rude, violent protesters

Paradoxically, what is a PR disaster for China’s international reputation is turning into a rallying cry for nationalist sentiment in the world’s most populous country.
China is right about one thing: there is a conspiracy to shame them during their …read more

Talk about having your symbolism hijacked. The Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee have seen the usual positive tenor of the international torch relay degenerate into a platform for political protests over human rights.
The challenge now is to pretend that the torch is being peacefully passed from hand-to-hand with the world looking on with respect.
With creative camera work, video editing and computer-generated imaging, this shouldn’t be a problem for China.
As long as no one watches any newscasts, reads a paper, hears a radio report or checks out the Internet.
Photo-illustration by Mike Licht.
Technorati Tags: china, olympics, torch relay, protests, …read more

After my send-up of the dangers of Earth Hour last week, I got pinged about an excellent critique of the world-wide event.
The source – a high school in Australia – was a bit unexpected, but the quality of commentary is excellent. Here’s a quote from Greenwashing – Raising Awareness or Breeding Complacency?, by Jimmy Yan, a member of the Glen Waverly Secondary Eco-Committee:
“Only promoting less consumption as an individualized act misses the point. Earth Hour although promoting less energy consumption, still indirectly promotes the idea that we can bring about change through our individual consumption. Instead of looking at …read more

Whether you’re a social director on a cruise ship, a union organizer, or a catalyst for online action, the role of organizer requires patience.
A certain streak of zealotry seems to be a requirement, if you’re going to make it through the endless work of encouraging and prodding people to support whatever cause you’re working for.
Jess Kutch highlights a few truisms written by California farmworkers’ organizer Fred Ross Sr. (who inspired Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta to launch the United Farm Workers Union):

An organizer is a leader who does not lead but gets behind the people and pushes.
Don’t …read more