Two things I found amusing about Edelman's newly released "Corporate Guide to the Global Blogosphere" report:

1. That the report is only available in pdf and some other hard to link, non-web-searchable version. Honestly, I wanted to shoot myself reading it.

2. This quote: "We are convinced that by engaging the blogosphere in a transparent manner, companies can have their viewpoints heard."

I don't know ... visions of Walmarting Across America come to mind?!?!?!?!

So, last week we looked at some of the top PR firms, to see how much mindshare they each generated online. Coincidentally, Strumpette just published the Alexa rankings of some top PR sites - a ranking we thought we'd amp up a bit.

Our mindshare calculation includes Alexa, but also includes Technorati and Google Page Rank (which, many would argue, provide even more reliable measurement of relevancy online).

The results have been superimposed on last week's rankings - and the new line-up follows:

...Not to hire this PR firm.

I kid you not - here's their take on how bloggers should have handled the Edelman/Microsoft Vista laptop-gate:

Bloggers: Be professional and human, don’t crucify a company for deeming you worthy of free products to review and own! You might want to mention professional reviews of technology are "loaned" products like MP3 players, TV's and electronics. They don’t get to keep them... they essentially are "on a tour" following the tech press circuit, like a rock-star. Honestly, if you’re a Blogger and you get to keep a product like that, the human thing to do is say thank you.

David Henderson of Making News expresses this concern in response to the same question I asked him and her: that when a major PR firm decides their client is better off flogging - er, fake blogging - chances are, the state of the firm's media relations is verging on piss poor (my words, not his).

His exact words follow:

I think we need to be cautious of turning meaningful marketing terms, like Mindshare, into the latest PR pop-hype.

...So says Kami Watson Huyse of Commmunications Overtones. She also recently cracked on Edelman and Microsoft for their handling of laptop-gate, concluding: I wonder if there will be as visible coverage of the Vista operating system as there was about the evaluation computers?

So, I decided to pose the same question to her: how do you think Edelman's PR stunt with Microsoft affected the quality of Edelman's mindshare online? And here's what she had to say:

Your question and some comments on my post about the Microsoft gift, got me to wondering how media companies, whose business it is to review items, handle this situation. I turned to the guidelines set forth by C|Net, one of the best-known tech review companies.

So, given that Edelman has such a commanding presence online, I decided to start asking some folks who've written on the Microsoft Vista laptop-gate a simple question: how do you think Edelman's PR stunt with Microsoft affected the quality of Edelman's mindshare online?

First up, Andy Lark, who recently placed blame squarely on Microsoft:

I'm not sure that Edelman had anything to do with the current Microsoft stunt although they've definitely been associated with it. This is a classic case of extending traditional PR tactics into the blogosphere. A very wrong move.

Voila! The second in the online mindshare series (the first, here).

This time, we examined some of the larger PR firms, looking at how they stack up against one another online. Presumably, clients seeking to generate buzz online would first want to know which of these larger firms proved capable of doing the same for themselves.

Not surprisingly, Edelman topped the list. But the firm's latest antics do raise all sorts of questions about the quality of their mindshare - questions I'll be exploring further later.

In the meantime, the results follow:

No matter where you fall on Edelman's recent public relations stunts, there's no arguing that the firm has adopted an aggressive culture of virtual experimentation. Question is, are the firm's clients better off for it? Many argue that they're not.

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Coincidentally, some like The Flack's Peter Himler are beginning to raise red flags, questioning the roles traditional PR companies should be playing online:

I certainly appreciate the goal of building a bigger digital footprint for our clients, but let's hope we don't byte off more than we can chew. In other words, let's focus on those service offerings for which our recognized core competencies and intrinsic expertise are directly indicated.

Asked to explain further, Himler added: