So we thought we would help here, to get you started Bond-i has set up its new Bondcast service, driven by our very own Neville Hobson, who has got to be one of the most experienced podcasters on the planet, having presented a show called “For Immediate Release” for four years and also co-written the definitive book on Podcasting. Corporate podcasting should be an integral part of any organization’s PR mix, it’s a valuable medium for communicating your message to a targeted audience - whether that’s customers, prospective staff, media or other key influencers. So listen up, podcast your message……now, you may be heard and eventually seen by the people you want to influence.

So just take the “news” release for what it is, a release of news to everyone. Craft it carefully so your key words and phrases are included and get it out online. so when a real journalist or blogger is researching your field, they find you by hitting on the content you created. And don’t just do one release a month, write more short pieces, even very week, just updates on your company, comments on the market, agenda setting thoughts on your sector. Also make sure your international offices get them too so that it gives ideas they can adapt and amplify locally. But don’t send them unsolicited to journalists, just the online news sites, journalists deserve the personal approach. So create the buzz, then you may get the bang.

And that made me think about how much our choice of words matter.  Hidden meanings can communicate a message completely different from that which we wish to convey.  As a PR person, I ensure our client’s message is received in the way it was intended, and help to “translate” the words to diverse cultures outside of the client’s comfort zone.

And yet here I was, making a mess of naming our furry friend and insulting a number of my not-so-furry friends in the process.

I originally chose the name Aisha because I love the song by Algerian Rai artist, Khaled, called Aicha. I’ve always been attracted to Arabic culture, fascinated by the Islamic religion, and when living in Paris I fostered very close and dear friendships with some wonderful Muslim people.  Naming my dog Aisha was – in my mind -  a show of respect and honor, as our family pet is very much a revered part of the family.

When a Muslim friend of mine expressed her surprise, saying I shouldn’t name my dog Aisha because it’s a girl’s name, not a dog’s name.  I thought it’s just because it was a little silly, the equivalent of naming a dog Tom or Susan.

What I didn’t know was that it’s relatively unheard of for Muslims to even have a dog as a family pet.  Canines are considered not just unclean but downright vile and contaminated.  It is said that angels do not enter a house which contains a dog.  Calling someone “a dog”, while odd in Western culture, is amongst the worst insults you can give to someone (up there with throwing your shoes at someone’s head ).

Not only that, but Aisha was the favorite wife of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad’s, and referred to as the “Mother of all Believers”. Amongst the most prominent of Muhammad’s wives, Aisha became an educated spokesperson for the teachings of the Prophet and has been revered as a role model by millions of women.

 Had it not been for that lovely Parisian taxi driver, I never would have known how offensive my innocent act was perceived in the very culture I was intending to honor.

A useful reminder of stuff I already know (but apparently need to be reminded of!):

Know your audience. Know the cultural translation of the words you chose to use.

Words matter.

Ana aasif !

During a 10-day period, a groundswell of commentary and opinion about Kryptonite locks spread from enthusiasts talking on bike forums to the mainstream media, to a product recall that ultimately cost parent Ingersoll Rand $10 million.

CNN Money has a good summary and created the graph that shows what happened in such a short time (click to see larger size in new window or tab)

What’s not factored into that dollar figure is the cost to reputation.

Wind forward four years to this past weekend and an online storm that has erupted over Motrin, an over-the-counter painkiller sold in the USA, and an advertising video produced by the brand owner McNeil that very quickly offended some mothers.

The storm of protest that has embraced so many different online communication channels – from blogs to video and especially to social networking micro-channels like Twitter – has already prompted an apology from McNeil on the Motrin website and the withdrawal of the video from that website.

And all this has happened in less than 48 hours.

So what’s this all about? Well, take a look for yourself – the pulled video is on YouTube and plenty of other places (including links from blog posts like this one).

What’s most compelling to me isn’t the video that McNeil produced. It’s not especially remarkable: it’s a good example of a marketing message in audio-visual form, nicely produced and quite watchable.

What’s really compelling is the content angry mothers have created themselves, using tools and channels that largely weren’t around four years ago – YouTube, for instance, and definitely Twitter – but today are accessible and easy to use by anyone with an internet connection.

It’s what we tend to label today with the impersonal phrase “user-generated content.”

For instance, check this video out:

I don’t know about you but I can’t help but feel almost overwhelmed by the emotion expressed in these images and the words shown in the various Twitter messages.

And look at what you get if you do a Google search on the brand name “motrin” as I did early today.

The first result is a link to a Google News page where this story has already made the mainstream media across the US and beyond.

You’d expect the brand website to be the first result in a Google search – and I’m sure it was before this storm broke out.

Remember Kryptonite’s 10 days? This has happened for Motrin in less than 2 days.

As with Kryptonite, this eruption of critical opinion hasn’t been formally organized: it’s happened spontaneously, enabled by technology that gives you the means to very quickly and easily articulate and share an opinion on a scale and with a speed that was unimaginable as recently as even a decade ago. Clay Shirky would be proud.

It’s the scale and speed that still takes many people in the PR business by surprise, used as we still generally are to things developing at a more leisurely pace (let’s call it “analogue speed”) attuned to the traditional news-gathering and reporting cycles of traditional print and broadcast media.

Those days are gone. We no longer have that luxury. As communicators, we must enable our attention all day every single day. And that includes the weekends, something it seems the Motrin communicators weren’t doing.

Of the many blog posts published by communicators and pundits with opinions, one of the best I’ve seen comes from Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang and lessons learned:

• Always test your campaign with a small segment first
• Always have staff on hand to be prepared to respond during the weekend
• Don’t launch a campaign right before the weekend unless you’re prepared to respond
• The participants have the power, so participate
• For better or for worse, more influencers are talking about Motrin than ever before

I’d add one in the middle:

• Ask yourself: what is our plan of action if a viral effect develops around our brand/product/service, especially out of our normal business hours?

But it’s the last two of Jeremiah’s bullet points that are especially important.

What these angry mums represent – and as this is America we’re talking about, it’s ‘moms’ of course; more specifically, MotrinMoms – is an enormous self-organized focus group, providing the brand owner with amazing feedback on their product.

My podcasting partner Shel Holtz and I discussed this Motrin storm in yesterday’s FIR #398 podcast. We’d love to know your opinion about this kerfuffle so do contribute a comment after you’ve listened to the show.

Meanwhile, I hope McNeil are paying very close attention to all the commentary out there. They’ve already apologized. Now they can grasp a golden opportunity to listen and engage.

One beneficial side effect, as it were, from a travellers’ point of view was free travel during the times that Oyster cards didn’t work.

Now comes news that Transport for London (TfL) has fired Transys, the consortium that developed and manages Oyster in London, and will seek a new contractor from 2010 to manage the card system.

Or perhaps better said as a card system as according to The Times’ report, Transys owns the intellectual property rights to the Oyster brand and there seems to be some confusion as to whether the Oyster name will continue:

[...] A Transys insider said: “If we can’t come to an arrangement with TfL, they will have to issue a complete set of new cards.”

However, TfL sought to play down those fears, insisting that any transition to a replacement contractor would not affect Oyster users.

It said that as part of the contract, it had a licence to the intellectual property behind Oyster, which would continue even after Transys was replaced.

Shashi Verma, TfL’s director of ticketing and fares, said: “As far as our customers are concerned, they should notice no difference before and after Transys.”

However, sources at the contractor said that, while TfL had some ongoing rights to the cardless technology, it would have no rights to the Oyster brand.

The headline in The Times’ report assumes the Oyster brand name will disappear  - en route to history, The Times says - as a result of the forthcoming end of the business relationship between TfL and Transys.

Why should that be assumed? Conflicting statements aside - including this one from TechRadar today - the issue of whether TfL can continue to use the Oyster brand from 2010 onwards undoubtedly would be a negotiating point between the two parties.

I would imagine that TfL in particular will be considering the value of Oyster’s brand equity as they look ahead to a new travel card system for London.

They’ll likely want to research opinion among commuters, other travellers and other interested groups about the Oyster brand as part of gaining a credible view of how the brand is perceived. They’ll want to assess its overall reputation in light of any issues including last month’s problems.

Weighty PR-related issues for TfL and their advisers, especially with the London Olympics taking place within two years of any new travel card system being put in place.

Whatever it’s called.