By Jeremy Pepper
Expert Author
Article Date: 2006-03-25
I like Skype. I like the woman that initially launched the service via PR, and she did an amazing job.
She understands mainstream media, I got her to work with bloggers and consumer generated media (or whatever you want to call it) after a lot of ignoring her requests ... but she's no longer with them, so I feel I can write this without any contradictory feelings...
Skype is blowing it, particularly in the public relations department. Yahoo! recently beta launched Yahoo! Messenger with Voice ... and nothing really came out from Skype or its PR department or firm. While that might not be true in the mainstream press - and, well, I do read that as well - it was the blogs that first broke the Y! VoIP news, particularly Om Malik, and I read no messaging or statements from Skype. Instead, just radio silence. And, it was the blogs that made Skype ....
Now, Skype is being sued using the RICO Act ... something usually reserved for Mafia, drug dealers and other undesirables.
Granted, this story just broke ... but I wonder how silent Skype PR is going to be this time around. Now that they are part of eBay, they are using a firm that - through personal experience - either does not understand, or is afraid, of blogs.
What do I expect to see - well, when you are sued under RICO, what can you really do? Skype does have a group of blogs, and could launch a crisis communication blog ... but that will really be up to eBay. But, if the silence on Yahoo!'s VoIP product is any indication, the silence on this issue will just be as deafening ... and for a voice product, that speaks volumes.
He authors the popular Musings from POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy's opinions and views - on public relations, publicity and other things.
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