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Matsos bottling a dressing that’s selling in 25 states
Economic survey: Job losses to bottom out in first quarter
Ohio gas up 12 cents from last week
SCORE offers wide variety of workshops
After 30 years at the helm of Akron Children's, Considine still looks to future
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Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Does it work? Test team returns to try out new products advertised on television
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Sunday Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns sick after sick loss in Detroit
Akron Zips:
Zips advance to Sweet Sixteen
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Post-game defensive quotes
Kent State Sports:
Kent State defeats Rochester College, 63-44
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Sunday Sanity Challenge
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Faye Dunaway to be Evicted?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Personal Rant – You are All Wrong About Jobs, or the Lack of Jobs, Being the Reason People Do Not Live in NEO
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
'Don'ts' include criticizing competitors and writing infrequently
By Margarita Bauza
Detroit Free Press
Published on Sunday, Jun 08, 2008
Corporate blogs have gone through some growing pains.
Chief executives and their employees have used pseudonyms to attack critics or defend their company on forums. Companies have created blogs meant to look like they were started by fans of their products.
The highest-profile case of a CEO-blogging faux pas involved Whole Foods Chief Executive John Mackey.
Mackey was exposed by the Wall Street Journal last summer for using a pseudonym to post anonymously for eight years on a Yahoo Finance forum, in which he cheered Whole Foods and critiqued his competitor Wild Oats, which Whole Foods ended up acquiring.
Mackey tried to defend himself on his company blog after he was outed, but ended his blogging when his board told him to stop while the Federal Trade Commission considered the pending purchase.
Mackey resumed blogging last month, saying he made a mistake in judgment but defending his right to express his opinion.
Also last month, two Burger King employees were fired for participating in unauthorized activities on public Web sites that the company said did not reflect the company's views and violated company policy.
Burger King did not identify the employees.
According to an Associated Press report about the firings, a Burger King executive used his middle-school-age daughter's screen name to attack a migrant-worker-rights organization with
which Burger King had a dispute about farm worker wages.
Burger King also stopped using a security firm whose employees were posing as students interested in helping out in order to gain access to the workers-rights group.
Another corporate blog blunder involves what's called a ''flog,'' or a fake blog. It typically involves a company helping to create a blog that appears to be written by an individual who is enthusiastic about the company's products.
High-profile flogs in the past have involved Coca-Cola, which used a blog to promote Coke Zero, and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart's public relations firm paid a couple who were traveling across the country in an RV and spending each night in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The couple then wrote about happy Wal-Mart employees on their blog.
But the most common blunders involving chief executive bloggers are not scandals. They involve using ghost writers without revealing it or writing infrequently, says blogging consultant Debbie Weil.
''It usually isn't saying something inappropriate,'' added Weil, a corporate blogger and social media expert. ''Most of these people are media trained. It's that they're perfectionists. They want to do something so well, they don't understand that it can just be a short comment.''
Corporate blogs have gone through some growing pains.
Get the full article here.
