And just to show how with-it he really is, this message is from . . . the future. (No, really—it’s dated 16 May 2010.) For the 44th World Communications Day, the Supreme Pontiff noted the advancements in communications thanks to the Internet, and said (will say?):

Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

(Vocab lesson: evangelization: preaching the gospel; catechesis: teaching the doctrine.)

Naturally, of course, the 82-year-old pope must have a staff dedicated to maintaining these sites with videos and messages from the Bishop of Rome—and yeah, it was probably their idea. But hey, the Sovereign of the Vatican not only signed off but has continued to participate with his image and messages, and he’s the one urging local priests to become similarly involved.

Many priests and deacons are already active in the Catholic blogosphere, but the official impetus is new. In the end, reaching parishioners where they already congregate (well, outside of church ) is always a good idea. And it seems pretty forward-thinking for a church that old and that large.

What do you think? Will the Pope’s support of priestly blogging mark a change in the way local officials relate to their communities?

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Today, I see the story has made the New York Times. Yo, Target, is that traditional enough for ya?

“Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets,” a public relations person wrote to ShapingYouth.

“This practice,” the public relations person added, “is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest,” as Target refers to its shoppers.

Word of the exchange quickly spread and the blogosphere did not appreciate the slight. “Target doesn’t participate in new media channels?” asked the Web site for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Target “dismisses bloggers” commented the blog for Parents for Ethical Marketing. “Ahem! So bloggers don’t count!” Ms. Jussel chimed in on ShapingYouth.

Now it appears Target is “reviewing the policy.”

In Radically Transparent, we look closely at when to engage the blogosphere and when to step away from the conversation. While Target may not have had a policy in place to actively reach out to bloggers, it should at least have known something about how the blogosphere works. For example, what did Target think would happen, when it told a blogger, (paraphrasing) “we don’t talk to the likes of you?” Seriously? Couldn’t it have predicted that the blogger would feel slighted and that other bloggers would also feel belittled?

OK, so maybe Target didn’t see that coming–hindsight is 20/20–but surely it watched how the story spread in social media, right? Once the “blog storm” started, Target should have switched into “crisis communication” mode which should apply no matter what what the platform being used. If it had backtracked on its statement, contacted the original blogger, offered an interview, and generally treated them like adults, Target could have avoided this storm in a teacup from reaching the New York Times.

If Target spokesperson, Amy von Walter, would like to email me her office address, I’ll make sure she gets one of the first copies of Radically Transparent–courtesy of this “nontraditional media outlet.”

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Many companies still do not realize that there is a lot of potential to get hurt by things posted, and that you ignore the blogosphere at your own peril.

Kryptonite is quickly learning this, but not in a fun way. Just as kryptonite is Superman’s downfall, the Bic pen is the Kryptonite locks downfall.

I first read about Kryptonite’s bike lock problems in Business 2.0′s blog, and then read a very good take on the situation from Business 2.0 had posted a response from the Kryptonite PR person, which really has not cleared up the situation. Engadget also has an official response, albeit different than the one from Business 2.0.

PR Studies has a great post about how Kryptonite has mishandled its criticism, and Tom Murphy of PR Opinions blogged on the issue as well.

All point out one interesting point – that more than 400 people have been involved in the post on a biking board, and that it took quite a while for Kryptonite to respond. Kryptonite has a harder battle to win, now, to get people to trust their product. First, the expose was from a bike enthusiast site, then picked up by various bloggers. Second, the initial response was a non-response. Third, the company is not being upfront on whether or not they are going to fulfill any insurance claims filed for stolen bikes – one of the cornerstones of the Kryptonite locks.

Lexar Media is in the same boat, albeit the story has not exploded like the bike lock. If you are in technology public relations, you should be reading Slashdot. Recently, Slashdot had an article that the Lexar JumpDrive Password Scheme Cracked; in other words, the password protection that Lexar had been touting for protecting data on the JumpDrive is crackable. AtStake, a security consulting service, had posted a security advisory on the Lexar JumpDrive, that had since been picked up by Slashdot.

Just like the Kryptonite posting, the Slashdot community has now posted 562 comments on the issue. Some of them have picked up this part of the AtStake advisory:

08-05-2004 Vendor contacted via email to support. No response.
08-12-2004 Vendor contacted again via email to support, sales, Public Relations, Investor Relations, and general inquiry email addresses.
08-12-2004 Automated response from support received.
09-13-2004 No further response from vendor, advisory released.

Lexar did respond to AtStake with a comment on the 16th of September. A full month and a half after the first email was sent to support, and a full month after the first email to public relations. With any time-sensitive issue – and security is a time sensitive issue – the PR department can’t twiddle its thumbs. Or, in a crisis the team can’t bury its head in the sand and hope the issue goes away, which seems to be the case here.

Is the Lexar security issue going to blow up like the Kryptonite story? Most likely no. But, has Lexar just lost a key group of customers – the Slashdot community – that is very tuned into security and technology? Most likely, yes, those Slashdot readers are going to think twice before picking a Lexar product.

So, two cases of how not to ignore the blogosphere, and how important it is to respond quickly to criticisms, whether they are online or in print.

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