You know it’s a slow news week when top stories include the president’s annual pardon of the Thanksgiving turkey and Facebook’s exclusion of “is” in status updates. Not that I’m complaining, I’ve caught up quite a bit this week! And Black Friday? How about the new trend, Cyber Monday? It is the rush of online shoppers the Monday AFTER Thanksgiving. It’s hard for the consumers to keep up if you ask me…

And while there may be 353 articles on Google News about G.W. Bush and his turkey, one piece of news seems to have (for the most part) quietly slipped by: Karl Rove has joined Newsweek as a commentator on the 2008 election. Rove’s debut column is called “How to Beat Hilary (Next) November” but if you want to read it you will have to search for it yourself because I don’t pass out link love for free!

Enjoy the holiday!

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Effective Communication, facebook, Karl Rove, Newsweek, Public Relations, Thanksgiving, turkey

Does Facebook breed questionable decisions? Or are questionable decisions just more visible due to Facebook? In a recent post on Valleywag, Kevin, an intern at Anglo Irish Bank called in sick to work (when in actuality he was partying in upstate NY) and was outed due to a picture from Facebook. Is Facebook the new Candid Camera? Big brother? Or just plain fun? Michael Arrington recently posted about a college student who couldn’t live without Facebook and wrote him for help. I personally use Facebook to keep in touch with my friends, as a networking tool, and just for fun. But with that said, I am hyper aware of what I post and what my friends post of me. For me, Facebook started as a college necessity (all my friends were on it, so I HAD to join) and has since turned into a serious networking tool. My friends may not get it, but in PR and Tech, Facebook is king.

I guess the moral of the story is watch what you put on Facebook because it can come back to haunt you (particularly when you lie to your boss to go party!)

candid camera, facebook, networking, Public Relations, Silicon Valley, Technology, valleywag

Yet another reason that you should attend the Black & Orange: you may end up on someone else’s blog! Chris Preimesberger of eWeek’s Storage Station blog enjoyed our party so much that he posted a little summary and included a list of media, clients, and Eastwick staff he chatted with. I was lucky enough to be included in the list, so thanks for the shout out, Chris!

Black & Orange, Chris Preimesberger, Eastwick, Effective Communication, eWeek, Public Relations, Storage Station

Earlier this week, I had coffee with my colleague, Rebecca and Stephen Shankland of CNET News. Stephen’s blog, Underexposed discusses digital photography, science, and open source software. I always enjoy sitting down with a member of the media, finding out how their beat or publication has changed, as well as thinking of ways that as a PR professional I can help them.

Speaking of conversing with the media, yesterday was our big party, the Black & Orange Bash which you can read about in the WSJ here or in a post by one of our illustrious guests, Chris Preimesberger. The B&O is our yearly ritual; a celebration including press, venture capitalists, clients, friends and the lovely Eastwick staff. Not to mention fortune tellers, caricature artists, and delish food all housed in the Triton museum which currently features the art of Bob Nugent. It was my first B&O and I’m very happy to say that it was a huge success! Maybe if you’re lucky, I can put you on the list for next year…

black & orange bash, Bob Nugent, Chris Preimesberger, PR, Public Relations, stephen shankland, Triton museum, underexposed

Sam Zuckerman of the SF Chronicle recently wrote on the profitability of blogs, using Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch as a prime example. Zuckerman also includes GigaOM, Gawker, Boing Boing, and the Sugar, Inc. blog network in his list. Bloggers could even be considered the new celebrities; just look at the 6 million hits that Perez Hilton gets nearly everyday (proceed at your own risk!) Feel free to check out PC Magazine’s 100 favorite blogs of 2007, so that you can make your own blogroll. (And if you don’t know what a blogroll is, definitely check out some user friendly blogging terms!) Happy hunting!

blogging, Blogroll, boing boing, gawker, gigaom, perez hilton, Public Relations, Sugar Inc., techcrunch

Last week, I went to a SF Tech Meetup event called SF Tech Rocks Out. It was my first Tech Meetup event and I recommend them to anyone. There were CEOs and CTOs from several music related tech companies who spoke and took part in a question and answer session. My favorite was Seeqpod, a playable online search engine (though I have been a Pandora fan for a few years now) which you can see in action below.

SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search

And for something a little different, eWeek just reported on presidential donations in the tech industry for the first 3 quarters of this year. Nearly 70% of all donations went to either Obama or Hilary. Does that mean all techies are dems? Doubtful, though the stat that of the 23 companies surveyed, only two contributed more money to Republicans than Democrats is pretty staggering. Happy Friday!

Hilary, networking, Obama, pandora, Public Relations, Seeqpod, SF Tech Meetup, Silicon Valley, Technology

There are a couple of interesting articles floating around the web today that address my last post. Both of them reference the start of the Web 2.0 summit, just a few blocks away from our lovely SF office.

Brad Stone and Matt Richtel of The New York Times write on the seemingly endless funds for Silicon Valley start-ups. They comment that often user interest can gauge investor interest using the example of Facebook, a company worth about half of Yahoo at a cool $15 billion, but with only 300 employees. The article also quotes Tim O’Reilly, creator of the term web 2.0, whose firm O’Reilly Media is one of the partners of the Web 2.0 Summit.

The second article could be considered more fun since Michael Calore of Wired’s Compiler blog includes a Web 2.0 BS generator created by his colleague, Rob Beschizza. Just hit refresh and start a whole new business, no funding needed!

And to add insult to injury, I am officially a web 2.0 participant, since I have completed my first wiki. I don’t know if I should be embarrassed or satisfied. Regardless, that seems to be where the world is heading…at least in the Silicon Valley!

facebook, PR, Public Relations, Silicon Valley, Technology, tim oreilly, web 2.0, web 2.0 summit, yahoo

Every day I try to do a quick news review, looking at what is going on for my clients and their competitors, as well as the industry movers and shakers. Mergers and acquisitions are a constant theme in the media and not only for tech based companies. There is always some big fish looking to increase their scope (or profit) by merging (or taking over) someone smaller. Just look at SAP’s recent acquisition of Business Objects, Oracle’s bid for BEA Systems or the constant interest in Facebook by heavy hitters Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft. Google alone has purchased 11 different companies this year! But with this said, what characterizes a successful partnership? This has been a popular subject in the past few weeks, particularly since there has been speculation that the market is headed for a downturn. Steve Tobak of CNET recently posted on failed mergers, highlighting 10 (often preventable) reasons why acquisitions can often be too idealistic to succeed in the real world. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to buy, but what’s the point if in the end profits don’t improve? I guess my question is, even with the market not headed in the most positive of directions, why is there still a new acquisition around every corner?

On a separate note, today is blog action day. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, please feel free to check out more information here. All the Eastwick bloggers are not only participating but Eastwick has pledged to give a dollar to the National Wildlife Federation for every page view we receive for the next 30 days. I am hoping to post quite a bit, so come on back, particularly since it’s such a great cause!

acquisitions, blog action day, Business Objects, facebook, Google, mergers, Microsoft, national wildlife federation, Oracle, Public Relations, Silicon Valley, Technology, Yahoo!

It seems like every time I turn on my computer there is another start up announcing its launch into the world of Silicon Valley. It makes me wonder where the motivation comes from. Do they feel their technology, service, or idea could change the world? Is it because they want to be picked up by a VC (venture capitalist for all you non-valley folk) or become the next youtube? Why is this phenomenon most successful here?

While this post has miraculously turned into rhetorical questions (I’m not exactly looking for answers) I just find the Valley as a whole incredibly interesting and exceptionally unique. Participating in this culture is somehow exciting. I love that I’m slightly “in the know” and am a self-professed valleywag, facebook, pandora, and meebo - aholic. But it makes you wonder what inspires these programmers, soon to be CEOs, cover of business week-dorks, to do what they do. Of course, not everyone is destined to be the next Kevin Rose or Mark Zuckerberg. So I guess my final question is, what makes start ups succeed and is this success tied to their presence in the Valley?

facebook, Kevin Rose, Mark Zuckerberg, meebo, pandora, Public Relations, Silicon Valley, start ups, Technology, valleywag

So it has been a little crazy in the Mountain View office the last few months, which I know is brutally obvious due to my lack of posts. I thought the summer was a time of fun and relaxation; I seemed to have missed the memo that it is also a very busy time for us PR professionals. And while I take full responsibility for this travesty, I do have to say that my job has shown me that summer is not always the time where the living is easy! (Not that I’m complaining, of course) Perhaps I finally understand what it means to be in PR? Maybe I am maturing to my full Eastwick potential? Could it be that all those networking events (thanks to Mimi and Denise!) are proving to be too much? Is my commute is getting me down? Whatever it is, I promise to be better!

So come back again, I promise to post again soon!

commute, Entry Level, mountain view, networking, PR, Public Relations, summer