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Think you can control what people are saying about your brand? Not a chance. And why would you want to? “After all,” writes social-media marketer Clay McDaniel, “the biggest benefit of social media is to allow your customers to express their opinions and talk about your products and services among themselves.” McDaniel believes you can take steps to avoid, or “circumvent,” an online PR crisis. What do you think?

PR pros working from home may soon have access to a seamless and low-cost video conferencing tool for all those client calls. The Wall Street Journal   reports this morning that Cisco System is “preparing a consumer version of the high-end video-conferencing technology it sells to companies.” The system includes a video camera and a device that can connect users’ high-def TVs to the Web, according to WSJ . Cisco is expected to unveil the new product next week.  Related Th…

You’d love to take a week off, but these days it seems a little — risky. “And yet, vacation days must be taken,” writes former Ragan editor David Murray. “When we take them, we must show courage, and resist the temptation to simper.” Murray is referring to an e-mail, in which an employee at a small company explains why he’s taking a vacation, what he’s going to be doing, and who his co-workers should contact in his absence. (Admit it: We’ve all s…

File this under “social media is not a fad.” Citing a survey by the Red Cross, CBC reports that “about one in five adults in the U.S. say they would use Facebook or other social media to try to contact emergency responders in a disaster.” Respondents also stressed the timeliness of response to activity in social channels. CBC states, “Of those surveyed, 74 percent said they expected help to come less than an hour after their tweet or Facebook post.” Take that social me…

If this report by The Business Insider is correct, you will have lots more opportunities to pitch Forbes . The company is upgrading its WordPress blog, so that every reporter will have a blog, according to The Business Insider . That means many will be starting from scratch, which means they might be more open to your pitches. The upgrade, if The Business Insider is correct, will be finalized today at 4 p.m. Eastern Time.

A survey of 250 marketing directors and heads of marketing by Wildfire PR produced some relatively staggering results, most of which demonstrated a lack of confidence from marketing chiefs on who should control in-house social media. While less than one-third thought their PR teams should oversee social media efforts, approximately one in five thought the same power should rest with an internal IT department. “Twitter is not just about putting out ads, it is about building relationships,” Rob Dyson…

A watched pot never boils. OK, it does, but it definitely seems to take longer. And the same could be said for the reach of your newsroom’s Facebook page. The followers will come, but if you stand idly by, it’s going to feel like an eternity. So, if you’re tired of watching the clock, here’s a post from Journalistics offering  eight tips to not only help land you more followers, but also keep them engaged.

If you believe everything you read, Twitter can pretty much do anything (strangely, it still fails at getting me that date with Eva Mendes). A bunch of nerds in lab coats are now saying Twitter can map the nation’s mood. A team at Northeastern University in Boston is using “a form of ‘sentiment analysis,’ identifying keywords that indicate pleasure or displeasure, to work out how happy or sad” the nation is. Morning is apparently the happiest time of day. — Jackson Wightman

Find out at the next PR Daily webinar, WordPress blogging for business , in which instructor Pete Codella will show examples of Fortune 500 companies’ WordPress blogs and websites. Oh, but that’s not all — you will learn much, much more at this webinar. Take a look , and see what we mean.

Tired of defending the public relations industry to people who claim you’re just sloganeering or shilling for big bad corporations? The people at PR firm Praecere would like to prove otherwise. Praecare is the agency-of-record for the International League of Conservation Photographers, which parachutes photographers into endangered sites to show what’s lost if development projects go too far. “The other side of the coin is that PR can be used to protect the environment, help defend the r…

At the Cannes Lions ad festival, Diesel won the Grand Prix award for outdoor advertising for its “Be Stupid” campaign. “‘Be Stupid,’ a print-outdoor-Web campaign, played off the idea that to be stupid was to be daring and make mistakes and, frankly, live life much more interestingy,” reported Advertising Age . “The outdoor ads showed models living out the philosophy.” Gawker called the ads , “nonsensical, brain-assaulting, poor-excuse-for-porn.”…

David Pogue may be the most influential personal technology columnist in the world. And unlike other mainstream journalists, Pogue rarely disses PR people. In fact, many of his columns began as a pitch from a publicist, he told PR Daily last year. So how should you pitch him? Pogue prefers e-mail. Don’t bother pitching him over the telephone. Pogue said he receives about 150 e-mails each day, and — if the e-mail fits a certain criteria — he will respond. So what is that criteria? Join u…

Google was the most visited website in September, registering more than 146 million unique visitors, according to data from Compete.com . Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia rounded out the top five. Twitter ranked No. 29 on the list, between Weather.com (No. 28) and CNN (No. 30). Check out the full list .

Advertising mirrors society, right? You’ve got to take a look at  these ads that speak volumes — from overtly sexual to downright racist. I’m not sure I have a “favorite” on this list. Although a little “pep” is always good. Hmmm. — Susan Young

Zurich, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, is looking for an executive communications manager at its U.S. headquarters in Schaumburg, Ill. The successful candidate will be responsible for providing internal communications support for the CEO of its North America Commercial business, as part of the North America communications team.  Read more about this job.