After reading the article I was surprised when I searched a couple coffee company Web sites to find neither of them shared the possible health benefits of that delicious cup of Joe! I couldn’t help wondering which coffee company would be the first and this morning I received an answer to my question.

No matter what, word-of-mouth is out there.  How you choose to use it, can work to your advantage. 

If you didn’t watch the Sopranos last week I am sure you at least heard about the controversial series finale, leaving fans and bloggers alike with questions and mixed feelings.

HBO series ended with a blank screen and made viewers, like myself, feel unsatisfied … until I got on my computer only hours later.

Making it on the CNN homepage and hundreds of blogs, the real scoop was announced. 

This is a true test to word-of-mouth and what the power of blogs can do.  Once logged into the blogosphere I learned what the ending truly represented, and a light bulb went on.  “It all made since.”

Was this what the creator, David Chase, wanted to happen?  Did he want us to feel like we needed more information to the point where research for closure was a must?  Did Chase want us to tap into our new social resources to find out what everything meant?

I would like to believe yes.  I think it’s great that the show is now over but the word is still out.  People are still Googling and blogging about what it all means.  This series finale took advantage of the tools of the 21^st century and caused more of an uproar than ever before. 

Between freaking out thinking my cable went out at the exact wrong time, to feelings of relief and satisfaction when my research led me to the bloggers with answers.  This gave me more of a roller-coaster ride with my emotions than my past relationships — I loved it!  -  Molli Megasko

I am certain everyone has heard by now that paying $1,000 for a pizza is no joke.  There is such thing as a Luxury Pizza, and people are eating it up; well, at least one person is.

Nino Selimaj, the owner of Nino’s Bellisima Pizza in New York, tops his pizza with fresh lobster, different kinds of caviar, and some of the world’s best cheeses, making each of the slices of pie worth $125.  Selimaj says he came up with this idea more than a year ago, and is claiming that it is not a publicity stunt.  He truly believes there is a demand for this Luxury Pizza.

For the past few days I could not turn on the TV or go on the Internet without hearing of this $1,000 pizza.  With hits on CNN, Bill Maher, Late Night, an endless amount of stories and news releases, I would call this PR campaign a success.

So regardless of whether or not Selimaj is telling us the truth, he knows the concept of word-of-mouth.  And I wish him the best of luck on selling these extravagant pies. 

All I know is that if I were to spend $1,000 on a pizza, it better be topped with diamonds. — Molli Megasko

I’m certain most of you have seen the latest company under fire regarding PR spin.  Microsoft recently hired market researcher Gregory Kohs to fix inaccuracies in technical articles on Wikipedia.  And then they came under attack by several journalists about the ethics behind it all.

New Zealand PC World Magazine

It makes the content of Microsoft’s own Encarta encyclopedia highly suspect.  After all, if they’re prepared to pay contributors to create FUD (acronym for fear, uncertainty and doubt) in other publications, what do they get up to when they control the whole thing?

Neowin.net

It’s a free encyclopedia; freely written, freely edited, and freely read. It’s not a place for paid spin and PR doctors.

But the question remains:  Why is it so bad to pay someone to write accurate information about your product, service, or company? 

I recently was interviewed by Ann Meyer at the Chicago Tribune about word-of-mouth marketing.  I touted this blog and talked about how important it is that we are ethical in all our dealings with new media and word-of-mouth marketing.

Ann called me a few days later and called me out on our ethics.  She said she’d been to the Shoes by Marky MySpace page and discovered that some of my team were friends of hers, but it was not clear they work for the PR firm.

Clearly, we changed that and now are clear about the fact that Marky is a client and we’re not friends with her just because we like her and her shoes…a lot!

But that led us to wonder where the ethical lines are drawn.  My team didn’t feel like they’d done anything wrong.  After all, their employer was listed as part of their descriptions on the site.

Last week, the Washington Post ran an article about unmasking word-of-mouth marketing.  It announces that the Federal Trade Commission is involved and that “companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships.” 

It’s a good thing Ann called us on the MySpace page and we continue to be able to get on our soap box about ethics in PR. 

But the bigger reason to be over-the-top ethical, if you don’t believe in the Fight Against Destructive Spin, is you can get in some real trouble with the FTC:

The FTC staff said it would go after violators on a case-by-case basis. Consequences could include a cease-and-desist order, fines and civil penalties ranging from thousands of dollars to millions of dollars.

Ann Meyer’s article is going to be printed in the Tribune tomorrow.  Positive or negative, check back to see what she said about our ethics.