Quotes for the week ending 24 July, 2010

Resuming my snapshot of the best quotes from around the world on communications, marketing, media and social media.

“An increasingly addictive activity”

SocialMediaAtWork on a recent Experian study that says social networking may be addictive.

“The future of infographics will be about telling stories. Telling them in an interesting and compelling way.”

Charles Apple, on the use of info-graphics

“the journalist isn’t a writer; he is a technician.”

Jolie O’Dell in a gret long post on ‘How to tell a journalist from a blogger.”

“When people feel they have some kind of social relationship with others in the company, there tends to be greater collaboration between them.”

Human Resource Executive, on the potential and perils of social networking in the workplace.

“The $35 iPad lookalike from India”

The rage about the Indian tablet developed by the government of India.

Blurs the Lines Between Online and Offline.”

Guest post by Yael Davidowitz-Neu at Convince and Convert, on the ‘Six degrees of influence’ in C to C programs.

 

Quotes for the week ending 22 May, 2010

“If we get to that point, the business of e-commerce and m-commerce may get a huge jolt”

Ian Schafer in Advertising Age about the dawn of Facebook currency

“Writing in the voice of another.”

Mike Klein, responding to Steve Crescenzo‘s post at IABC Exchange, on the three kinds of writing communicators need to know.

“Front-load your subject lines.”

Doron Kritetz, on the four subject lines that grab readers

“We know some people are suffering because of this blockade, but we have to obey the court order in letter and spirit”

Najibullah Malik, secretary of Pakistan’s ministry of information technology, on why Facebook was banned this week in the country.

“I never started a Facebook page. I apologize to people of Muslim faith and ask that this ‘day’ be called off.”

Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris, who called for the ‘day’ to draw a cartoon of the prophet.

“If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation”.

Gary Pierce, Arizona’s Corporation Commissioner in an empty threat to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The spat was over several states and counties calling for a boycott of Arizona over its new immigration law. The law has promoted many cartoons and punch lines.

 

Quotes for the week ending 8th May, 2010

“In the Future, we’ll all have 15 minutes of privacy.”

Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford, on a post about Facebook’s latest move to connect to the rest of the web

“No one is laughing in Arizona. Do your job and secure the border.”

Governor Jan Brewer, in a YouTube video aimed at president Obama, who made a joke about the immigration Bill that Brewer signed into law.

“A lot of great stories are hidden within the public”

Manesh Nesaratnam, Malaysian film director of a movie, Your Grandfather’s Road, which is being crowd-sourced.

“That QR code on the left will even take your smartphone to my Twitter feed. And if you really liked this story, you can re-Tweet too.”

Kit Keaton, whose column in Fast Company, features this Quick Response code.

“A nastygram.”

Shel Holtz, referring to the letter Apple, which sent a nine-year-old girl a cease-and-desist letter after she suggested enhancements to the iPod.

“You gotta give him credit for his media manipulation skills.”

Pat Elliot, commenting on a post I wrote for ValleyPRBlog, about the value Sheriff Joe Arpaio holding a press conference to announce he is NOT running for governor.

“We are heartened by news reports that J.S.Tissainayagam appears to have been pardoned…”

CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists) in a statement on the presidential pardon for journalist J. S. Tissanayagam in Sri Lanka

 

Quotes for the week ending 30 April, 2010

The press release is dead, whether or not it’s optimized for social media. When was the last time you sent a release to a reporter who then replied with enthusiasm about covering your story?

Len Gutman, at ValleyPRBlog

Maybe it’s the term press release that is antiquated. Perhaps it should be called a fact sheet or project overview.

Holly Harmon, a reader commenting on the above.

“We are Wall Street. It’s our job to make money. Whether it’s a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn’t matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn’t hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone’s 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I’ve never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.”

An email circulating this week, written by someone supposedly form Wall Street

“An enraging piece of utter nonsense”

Huffington Post, commenting on the “We aren’t dinosaurs” email above

 

Quotes for the week ending 20 March, 2010

“We subscribe to the Woody Allen theory of social media — 90 percent of social media is just showing up.”

Scot Monty, Ford, on NPR’s Marketplace

“If you look position descriptions for companies that are hiring in their communications department, their marketing department. They’re all looking for social skills.”

Shel Holtz, in the same interview

“If your brainwave is picked as the ultimate green idea …you could win £100,000 for your favourite organisation to spend on its green initiative.”

Marks & Spencer, launching a campaign called ‘Plan A’ that seeks consumer-generated ideas as it seeks to be the ‘most sustainable retailer’ by 2015.

 

Quotes for the week ending 14 March 2010

“China isn’t budging so perhaps Google will just bolt.”

The story this week about China’s attempt to censor Google.

 

Quotes for the week ending 27 Feb, 2010

“A severe breach of rules by staff”.

Message by British telecom company, Vodafone, apologizing for an offensive message posted to its Twitter account

“The BBC is the arm of MI-6 … We will settle accounts with them when the time comes.”

Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, Iran’s chief of police

“the security tracking software has been completely disabled”

Christopher McGinley, Superintendent of the Lower Merion School District in Phiadelphia. One high school was accused of secretly turning on the web-cams of laptops loaned to students to take home.

“Twitter Toppled Toyota!”

Devang Murthy, in Topnews.in

“Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007 … Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second”

Twitter blog, charting the popularity of micro-blogging that created a 1,400% growth spurt last year.

“That Wacky Mahathir!”

Headline of a post by the Hugh Downs School of Communications at ASU, on the statement by Mahathir Mohamed, former PM of Mayalsia (who said earlier this year of the US that “If they can make Avatar, they can make anything.”)

 

Quotes for the week ending 20 Feb, 2010

“This award celebrates the fact that, in today’s world, a brave bystander with a cellphone camera can use video-sharing and social networking sites to deliver news.”

Judges for the George Polk Awards in journalism who honored a work produced anonymously, in a new category (videography) the video, of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who was shot during antigovernment protests in Iran. This was the first time in the 61-year history of the awards that an anonymous person was recognized.

“You won’t be set up to follow anyone until you have reviewed the suggestions and clicked..”

Google. in a blog post on the buzz about Buzz. It said the company had heard the feedback –outcry, really– loud and clear about what Gmail users thought of the new social media feature. Google immediately changed the ‘auto-follow’ model to ‘auto-suggest’ and apologized.

“misleading, confusing and disingenuous,”

Plaintiff’s claim against Facebook’s new privacy settings –in a lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco

“My real apology to her will not come in the form of words; it will come from my behavior over time.”

Tiger Woods in his ‘press conference’

“Ask etymologists who work for any common language dictionary … and they will tell you that all dictionaries cannot Prescribe means, but instead only Describe meanings that are already being ascribed through common usage.”

“For those who don’t find that good enough or revealing enough at this point, well,  maybe they have their own issues.”

Michael Wilbon, sports reporter for the Washington Post about, commenting on Tiger’s apology, calling it ‘pretty powerful stuff.’

Russell-Oliver Brooklands, responding to a discussion in Melcrum’s Communicators’ Network (via LinkedIn) about the use of the word “fulsome”

 

Quotes for the week, ending 6 Feb, 2010

“People always clap for the wrong things.”

J.D  Salinger’s character, Holden Caulfield. Salinger died last week. He last appeared on this TIME magazine cover in Sept, 1961.

“Salinger never swallowed this capitalize-on-your-fame command that Simon Cowell and YouTube have turned into an American birthright.”

Author, and syndicated columnist, Mitch Albom, on Salinger’s attempt to not be famous.

“I might go to the bathroom during that ad,or make popcorn.”

Susan Estritch, commenting on the controversial ad at this year’s Super Bowl, about abortion and choice that will air among the predictable ones about job sites and Clysedales.

“The secular religion of global warming has all the elements of a religious faith: original sin (we are polluting the planet), ritual (separate your waste for recycling), redemption (renounce economic growth) and the sale of indulgences (carbon offsets).”

Michael Barone, on How Climate-Change Fanatics Corrupted Science

“It’s too early to tell if this round of Facebook changes will create a backlash, but at the time of this writing there were almost 3700 mostly negative comments on the company’s blog post detailing the new homepage design.”

PC World, on Facebook’s latest round of layout changes.

 

Quotes for the week ending 30 Jan, 2010

“Was he a talk-show host masquerading as a politician?  Or a politician masquerading as a talk-show host?”

Editorial in the Arizona Republic, on J.D. Hayworth, giving up his 3-hour slot on talk radio, to possibly run against John McCain.

“Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated.”

Barack Obama, State of the Union address, 2010

“Reverse Psychology: Chinese Knock-Off Firm to Sue Apple Over iPad”

Fast Company, on Shenzen Great Long Brother Industrial company claim that the iPad is a knockoff of its P88 model, presented six months prior at the IFA

“It’s time to find your voice and get an online printing press.”

Wayne Kurtzman, at MediaBullseye