A stunning post by Jason Calacanis on Silicon Alley Insider. His philosophy of PR is summed up in six words: be amazing, be everywhere, be real.
Follow his first ten tips on how to do PR for your startup.

1. Be the brand
2. Be everywhere
3. Always pick up the check–always.
4. Be a human being
5. How to bond with a journalist
6. How a CEO should e-mail a journalist
7. How a CEO should speak to a journalist
8. Invite people to “swing by” your office
9. Attach your brand to a movement
10. Embrace small media outlets

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Many PR agencies in Vietnam are far behind the development of new media, especially social media scene. Some agencies’ websites are even nearly invisible to search engines. Early 2007 when Vietnam stock market was at the peak of bubble, Thienviet Securities company, a member of Galaxy Group, got stuck into a scandal about the relationship with Goldman Sachs. At first the news broke out across online forums in order to boost the hype of Thienviet Securities’s share price, and the newspapers came in. Galaxy Communications, a sister company of Thienviet in the Galaxy Group, used to boast itself the top PR agency in Vietnam, could not handle crisis management. Price of Thienviet shares on the OTC market had fallen overnight and investors had boycotted Thienviet. In the marketing, PR service industry, Galaxy lost much credit. If Galaxy understood the power of social media it could manage its image and clients’ brand better. Nowaday many clients could ask “Is your PR agency social media savvy?”

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According to Nielsen Online, Google still keeps moving ahead other search services in the US with 60% share in July 2008. While Yahoo gained nearly a point from 16.6% last June to 17.4% in July, MSN/Windows Live Search lost more than 2% from 14.1% of searches to 11.9%.
There is no data for Vietnam market yet.

Technorati Tags: Google, MSN, Yahoo

Finding convenient hotels in new destinations is a regular job of travelers. Hotels with reasonable rates and near desired locations are within circle of interest. Travelers should ask their friends first if someones available there. Now with Internet service everywhere in major cities in Vietnam, they can search for the hotels. The popular keywords are name of location + hotel. If the hotel is not listed in hotel directory services or local review websites, it still can be found through search engines like Google, Yahoo. A friend from HCMC came to Hanoi looking for a small hotel that near National Stadium for his business purpose. We tested with Google search with keyword location + hotel and found some small hotels. Our friend booked a hotel in the recommended list, but the following day when he went out of the hotel, he discovered that some hotels nearby are better located but they are not in the search engine result. If the hotel manager/owner understand the benefits of SEO he can get good ROI. Spending small amount of money and time his hotel could stand out from surrounding hotels with better location in search engine results.

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I came across a Digg clone site in Vietnamese with celebrity gossip and entertainment news using Pligg CMS, The featured post is about beautiful girls and bikini along with Google Adsense showing a dating site and ……. Vinacapital, the leading investment bank and asset management fund in Vietnam. Google Adsense is a contextual ad network with relevant keyword mechanism. How investment banking matches up with bikini? Or the guys who lead the PPC campaign at Vinacapital was watching Fashion TV while picking keywords for the campaign?
Click below for larger picture.

Technorati Tags: Vinacapital