Inside the world of Rob Mclean, Author

So I use to follow RSS feeds through Outlook. It was an easy way to stay updated on feeds given I spend most of my time in Outlook. The only problem though my Outlook program started becoming very slow. After a little research I figured out that it was a result of Outlook refreshing my RSS feeds. Once I removed the RSS feeds from Outlook the refresh lag went away. FeedDemon screenshot I'm now using FeedDemon for my RSS feeds and I have to say, the switch has been a pleasant one. The last thing I wanted was yet another application to remember to use, but what can you do. I'd say right now I have about 30 applications that I use on a regular basis. It strikes me that there's a huge opportunity for someone to converge all these information applications in to a single Web-based interface - twitter, RSS feeds, flickr, YouTube, FaceBook, podcasts, news alerts, etc. Google has tried a little bit, but to be honest Google Reader doesn't have a pleasant interface to us...

So Rogers has a new on-line, on-demand marketing campaign . Basically they are pitching the ability to watch tv shows online now. I've talked a lot about this phenomena and how we are entering a new age of how people get their digital content. Basically the carriers are switching to making their money from data transmission as opposed to the traditional cable to your television model. With Rogers, their extreme package gives you a cap of 80 GB per month. Every gig you go over costs you $1.50. So essentially they want customers using up as much bandwidth as possible, because that will translate in to increased internet charges. It's funny, Rogers use to throttle bit torrent - meaning you couldn't really use bit torrent because the speeds would be so slow it was pointless. They have since lifted that throttling, because they've reversed their position and want their customers using bandwidth. This whole phenomena is another great example of the difference betwee...

So a woman is suing McDonald's because she says that the toys they include with their happy meals are making her kids want to eat at McDonald's all the time and they won't listen to her when she says no. This is a great situation to discuss PR in the real world. Let's take a logical approach to this. If this woman has a problem saying no to her kids, and her kids don't listen to her when she says no and harass her to say yes, it would seem to me that her problem is not McDonald's but rather the parental relationship she has with her kids. Perhaps she needs to learn some new techniques for asserting an authoritative (not authoritarian mind you) style that her kids respond to. But can McDonald's come out and say something like that?  Can they come out and say 'Hey, it's not our fault that your kids harass you, maybe you should look at your parenting technique instead of blaming us for their behavior. It's just a 25-cent plastic toy for heave...

Really, Time's Person of the Year is nothing more than who garnered the best PR in a year. This year Mark Zuckerberg got the honors. What I find fascinating about this is not that he won - let's face it, his story is an interesting one, including giving $100M to help Newark schools and pledging to give away most of his wealth to charity in the long-run. Elliot Schrage, VP Global Comms, Facebook Rather, what I find fascinating in all these types of high-publicity situations, is just how quiet the PR folks are who make it all happen. Elliot Schrage is the VP of Global Comms for Facebook, so one would have to assume he's had a pretty big role in all this, but to be honest, prior to today I hadn't heard of him.  The story we never hear is about the PR folks behind the scene making all this publicity happen, or at the very least, managing a brand and how it's seen in the public arena. And that's the way PR folks would have it, after all, the job is to ga...

A couple interesting developments in the WikiLeaks phenomena. First a group of hackers in support of WikiLeaks attacked Mastercard (among others) and shut their Web site down. Then Russia of all countries comes out in support of WikiLeaks and actually suggests that Assange be considered for a Nobel Peace Prize . So what exactly is going on? What we are witnessing is a total bypass of traditional media and an embracing, if only by a minority at this time, of truly independent (some might say rogue) journalism. I hate to say this, but this has come about as a result of the mainstream media failing to live up to the expectations the public has of them. Now, being a reporter is a tough job. Half your job is being a detective and the other half is writing compelling narrative - both these skills are by no means easy to master. Toss in an endless cycle of deadlines and you've got one heck of a stressful job. That being said, the reality is that the media isn't what it was ...