Superlawyer Denise Howell raises some good questions -- and I attempt to give a couple of answers -- over at Bag and Baggage in Denise's Mixed Media post. She asks:

If you're starting a new blawg or blog, why not do an honest to goodness press release about it, of the kind that gets picked up by Google News? That's what Stephen Holzer did to announce his new weblog on all things environmental law.

I've been blogging for so long now that I hadn't considered such a mix of traditional public relations tactics with the non-traditional "private relations" nature of weblogs. But it makes sense, especially now that there are advice and outlets to help bloggers in this regard.

nice, nice, nice. I love it best in those little places where the two worlds of traditional and non-traditional PR converge.

Everybody in the communications business is talking about Choicepoint, and the company's reaction--or lack of reaction--to their business crisis. In Atlanta, were we reside, the buzz is even greater. It's obvious the AJC is out to get the company, and I can't really I blame them. ChoicePoint has made a lot of textbook mistakes in mishandling this crisis. Everything from responding late, to failing to apologize, to downplaying the significance of the issue. But what I find most interesting are the little things. The little nuances that are raising the hairs on the back of journalists' necks and raising their ire in the meantime. There is an old saying among PR pros: it not only has to be right, it has to appear right. A few examples from the ChoicePoint situation:

1. Don't claim you were duped by a sophisticated ring of criminals while the wire services are flashing a picture of a grungy Nigerian who was operating out of a Kinkos in California. We've all gotten the Nigerian internet letters asking us to wire money to a foreign account. Sophisticated is not the word I would use for that approach.

2. Don't put out photos of your chief executive dresed in a faux varsity letter jacket sporting a full frontal shit eatin grin. Put the guy in a suit for god's sake. Make him look serious and inspire some confidence. He's dealing with people's private information. He may not think it's important, but they do.

3. For the first several weeks of the crisis, ChoicePoint's spokesperson was a guy with "marketing" in his title. That's a no-no. Marketing is about selling and spinning. Call him a corporate spokesperson or quickly make him VP of Corporate Communications.

Phil Venditti, who wrote Tips for Productive Business Writing for the Everett Business Journal a couple of years ago, does what anyone who is highly--and I mean highly--organized would do when meeting a new person or hearing a funny joke for the first time – he puts the information in a file folder.

“When you meet someone for the first time or find out something new about someone you already know, make note of what you learn. My own ‘People’ file goes back to 1987. If I ever decide to call up the librarian I knew in 1992 at Genesee Community College in Upstate New York, I can remind myself that his older son, Tom, used to live in an apartment with six Japanese tatami mats on the floor.”

Whoa.

What’s not to love about that?

Those who make folders with labels like “People,” “Humor,” “Quotations,” and “Readings” – and claim that such detailed organization makes for good story fodder and better writing – are probably right. I admire such organization, although I long ago gave up on it fitting my particular life or work style as a mom and a writer.

It is also likely that these people who make folders with such fodder dating back to 1987 don’t have a seven-year-old, diabolic, pen-and-paper, push-pin and paper-clip stealing daughter running around their "home" "office."

I could stuff folders with enough fodder for one hundred articles. But I know the contents would end up as campfire kindling, and the file folders as tents, for Barbie’s next camping adventure in the wilderness of our toy-cluttered living room.

Nonetheless, respect, Phil.

After reading Kate Muldoon’s article, The Art of Business Writing, I sat in front of my laptop screen feeling, well, offended.
According to the article, business writing can be summed up as “putting together a report or presentation that explains why you're doing what you've been doing.” I’m wondering, did the editors take liberty with Ms. Muldoon’s article – which may have been about, say, writing a good project report – to extrapolate her advice for all of business communications? Or does she really think that business writing is little more than drawing up project plans and reports?

The article mentions four things that business writing should be but seldom is:

1. Brief and to the point.
2. Organized.
3. Accurate.
4. Conclusive.

I’m left thinking that this isn’t what I would have offered. Often, business communication can’t be brief, although it certainly should be accurate. But meaningful and compelling are more important than "conclusive," I believe.

The call for "brevity" is rumbling across the communication tundra these days. I think I've made a call or two for "keeping it brief" myself. But I wouldn't mandate the short-form of business writing. Certain concepts – especially in technology – take time to communicate and simplify effectively. An certain formats -- say the white paper -- allow the space, and the expectation on the part of readers, that they will have to pay attention, at least for several minutes or more.

YES! Let's hear it for paying attention to what we read!

Some concepts take courting; persuasion is a journey as much as a destination. Some audiences take wooing. The writer must earn the audience’s trust, break the reader in, as he or she presents a story that is complex, but intriguing—-at least to the audience at hand.

Here's a secret: It's as much art as science. We communications professionals like to sound like we’re way smart by promising you a formula to good business writing. Some will tell you that you can follow a few simple rules and you’ll be cranking out copy like IBM.

But knowing what it takes and executing effectively are far from formulaic activities. They take, beyond talent, a real love of the way language
can shape meaning. And, quite honestly, a belief in the magic of connecting through language.

Ms. Muldoon warns would-be business writers of the benefits of brevity: “Most business writers tend to ramble. Long paragraphs are deadly. Nobody asked you for a book; they just want a quick summary of what's happened.”

I don’t know. I’ve had a few people ask me for a book.

In fact, it’s a project I should get busy on.

Thanks Kate.

Good writing (and thinking) can only take a spokesperson so far. Promoting your in-house expert is also important. However, it only works when certain criteria are met:

Your spokesperson must truly be an expert.

Your spokesperson must act as an unbiased resource--not someone that will detail the features of your product.

Your spokesperson must be available.

Your spokesperson must write well or be able to convey meaningful thoughts and ideas to others. A good spokesperson is a story teller, someone who can draw analogies to help the audience understand.

Your spokesperson must not be afraid to talk favorably about the competition.

Your spokesperson must be able to communicate complex thoughts and ideas clearly and simply.

Your spokesperson must be committed to their role as a long-term strategy.

Whether you're choosing a design firm, an ad agency, or a content provider, some tips can help you weed out the bad seeds. Here are some of our tried-and-true techniques:

1. Ask around. The old corporate kiss-and-tell. People are more than happy to talk about their experiences with agencies. (WARNING: This may produce an emotional outburst. Be prepared to protect yourself.) Make a short list of prospects.

2. Avoid the dog-and-pony show. (Cause the clean-up’s tough.) Call them in. Spend an hour or so talking to them about how they do business. See how they grasp the intricacies of your business. Feel the vibes.

3. Try a sneak attack. Stop by their office. Consider a surprise visit, but if you think that’s not fair, give them no more than an hour’s notice. Catch them with their pants down, so to speak. You might also want to peek in their refrigerator while you’re there.

4. Make them do something. Pick two or three agencies and pay each one to undertake a project. See how they respond. Reward the agency that does best with a commitment for more (or all) of your business. NOTE: Let No. 2 know they are No. 2, and keep in touch with them (you never know).

From the Dancing Baby to the Dean Scream, Yahoo's netrospective (in celebration of the company's 10th birthday) captures some of the net's most famous and infamous moments.

Of course, getting a free ice cream cone is another reason to stop by Yahoo today.

In keeping with the tradition of the blogosphere, watch as the circle of detraction begins: "Those were some of the net's lamest moments!" "An ice cream cone? The least they could do is a free laptop."

Ahhh. It's a good place to be.

From the ongoing (and going and going) discussion on business and blogs, The Wall Street Journal has a nice article today on how small companies are using weblogs to get intimate with their customers. And that's really the point, isn't it? That despite the distance between our physical selves and our customers' physical selves, the Net can be our liaison for intimacy.

While the discipline of Public relations is necessary and fundamental for building brand awareness, private relations are mandatory for engaging customers, employees, partners, enemies, fans, and (one hopes) enemies-turned-fans.

Some eight million Americans now publish blogs and 32 million people read them, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. What began as a form of public diary-keeping has become an important supplement to a business's online strategy: Blogs can connect with consumers on a personal level -- and keep them visiting a company's Web site regularly.

I have always preached that business people throw their business cards away when they're blogging. Don't blog from your business card title. Blog as a human being with genuine interests who happens to work someplace FIRST. And please, take some risks.

Stonyfield Farms' CEO Gary Hirshberg enjoys the closeness the company's weblogs provide. [[Check out baby babble, for example]]:

Communication through a blog is "as intimate and personal as somebody sitting in your kitchen," Mr. Hirshberg says. "It's a great privilege to be able to have that kind of dialogue."

Other good quotes:

"'It's a new way of communicating, rather than marketing,' says Charlene Lee, an analyst at Forrester Research. Like other forms of publishing, blogs attract the largest audiences when they avoid overt commercialism and deliver compelling and credible content, Ms. Lee says."

Except, Ms. Lee's name is spelled Li, and she blogs here.

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Doc puts it best in describing journalist-blogger-netzian-so-smart Sheila Lennon when he writes:

This all comes to mind as I think, If anybody deserves a blogging award, it's Sheila Lennon. Typically, her collection of Hunter S. Thompson rembrances is the best I've read, so far, and I've read a lot of them. I've said it before (though Google and I are having trouble finding exactly where); but that won't stop me from saying it again: If anybody deserves to be on everybody's blogroll, it's Sheila.

I echo Doc's thoughts. While so many others in the blogzone are writing about "grassroots journalism" and "weblogs and journalism" and "journalism by the people," and while academics debate big media v. lil-media, Sheila's been doing all of this and more.

Don't miss her reporting--as in, this is what reporting is now folks, and thank goodness--on Hunter S. Thompson.

If I could add one thing about Sheila to Doc's praises it would be:

Sheila Lennon practices what we preach.