Edelman is a huge, international, independent public relations firm. They say they are the largest in the world. The CEO and president Richard Edelman is a big believer in the power of blogs, and was recently the subject of a little media contraversy in the US, after he made statements to the effect that blogs have given PR professionals a direct communication channel that bypasses the traditional media.
Edelman writes a blog himself: it’s called 6 A.M., a name that I suspect was chosen to convey that he gets up and starts working a lot earlier than you do.
Recently, Edelman concluded a deal with blog search engine and directory Technorati. From Edelman’s press release:
Technorati to Develop Blog Search in Five Languages for the Use by Edelman Teams Worldwide; Sites Will Be Widely Available to the Public in 2007
Edelman … and … Technorati have formed a relationship to enable Edelman multinational clients track global conversations about their brands, protect their corporate reputation and form insights that help them participate in a compelling way.
Technorati will develop for Edelman localized blog search tools in Chinese, Korean, German, Italian and French. The agency’s global account teams will retain exclusive worldwide use of these sites until early 2007. Edelman staff will be able to use the data to provide insights to clients, and facilitate a sustained dialogue. At that time, they will evolve into more robust public-facing tools that complement Technorati and their Japanese affiliate, Technorati Japan. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Note: Technorati’s website is blocked in China, so they will have to come up with a new solution for the PRC if this new product is based on data from their public access blog search engine.
Disclosure: Your correspodent’s day job has previously involved work for Edelman in China.
- Richard Edelman 6 A.M.: The Edelman Technorati Deal; Why This Matters for Companies.