Have you visited the website of a PR agency lately? Some show off compelling content and design, while others leave much to be desired. Today, besides word-of-mouth referrals, an agency’s website among one of its top three new business drivers. What are five things every agency website should include? Click through to find out.

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New IBM research drawing from 1,700 chief marketing officers from 64 countries and 19 industries shows that while top marketing execs are well aware of the major shift taking place via social media, a majority of them are unprepared to adress the new social media world.

According to the IBM Global CMO Study, while 56 percent of CMOs view social media as a key engagement channel, only 26 percent are tracking blogs, 42 percent are tracking third party reviews and 48 percent are tracking consumer reviews to help shape their marketing strategies. Read more

What are your plans for this Labor Day weekend? Whatever they are, the The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) hopes that you’ll still be scanning Twitter and picking up on their worker’s rights campaign.

According to an announcement from AFTRA, “Throughout the weekend, union members who work in entertainment, sports and news media will tweet about the advantages of being a #unionmember for themselves and for workers in each sector of the economy.”

The organization developed a diverse group to help get the word out. Athletes and celebrities participating include Toronto Blue Jay’s right fielder and MLB home run champion José Bautista (@JoeyBats19); KCBS reporter Bob Butler (@BobButler7); actress Gabrielle Carteris (@TheGabrielle_C) of Beverly Hills, 90210;  Rosanne Cash (@RosanneCash); Baltimore Ravens CB Domonique Foxworth (@foxworth24); Breaking Bad actor RJ Mitte (@RjMitte); Philadelphia Phillies All-Star & 2007 NL MVP Jimmy Rollins (@Jimmyrollins11); lead guitarist for the Foo Fighters Chris Shiflett (@ChrisShiflett71); and others.

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One of the biggest headlines in tech this week is Google’s decision to buy Motorola for $12.5 billion, which is heat up the battle for the fast-growing mobile device and data market with arch-rival Apple.

According to Business Insider, Google circulated this online form to generate customer testimonials from its hardware partners to voice their support of the Motorola purchase. The form asks hardware partners, some of which may be wary about how the Motorola deal will affect their partnership with Google, to use the online form or warning them that their license “will be terminated.”

It’s a bit uncommon to see these kinds of PR tools live on the Internet for all to see. And it seems like it’s the real thing. What’s your take on this strategy?

What was certainly a historic announcement earlier this weekend was made even more historic, thanks in part to a major error by rating’s agency S&P, which led to new turns in the aftermath of its decision to downgrade U.S. debt from AAA status for the first time ever.

Not surprisingly with an announcement of this magnitude, PR played a major role. Read more

As AOL continues to evolve its product offerings and business model, the company is also evolving its social media strategy.

Matthew Knell, director of social media at AOL, was one of the featured speakers at the Community Manager Meetup, which took place this past Tuesday evening in New York. Knell is an experienced digital media strategist who also knows how to code (i.e. he can build things, too). His career has taken him from large companies such as JetBlue and MTV to start-ups such as CafeMom.

“AOL is a lot of things to some people, and nothing to others,” said Knell during the start of his interview with Katy Zack, PR manager for SapientNitro. “It’s an umbrella of brands, and is a lot like a TV network.”

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While some have questioned White House Press Secretary Jay Carney‘s job performance in the last few weeks, he was certainly very clear when communicating with one of the nations’ most well-known reporters on the Bin Laden news.

Politco’s Playbook provides us with this nugget from an upcoming story by Howard Kurtz in Newsweek.

“[NBC 'Nightly News' anchor] Brian Williams … was in his Connecticut kitchen … when White House spokesman Jay Carney called to say he should get to the chair: ‘Close hold: we got bin Laden. Tell no one.’ Williams threw on a suit, wiring up his earpiece to save time. He raced his Chevy SUV to Manhattan, shaving with an electric razor on the way…

Here’s an interesting follow up: how many other journalists got the direct call from Carney, versus a mass message, or a call from another member of the White House communications team?

1) Pulse – Pulse is a well-designed news aggregator app commonly compared to Flipboard, the wildly popular iPad app that has not yet made it the iPhone. It lets you add all of your top news sources and displays them in a visually appealing manner.

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Cashmore speaking to the crowd at last night's event.

Last night at Edelman’s New York offices, Mashable officially launched Mashable Follow, the site’s “new social layer” that will enable readers to find and follow their favorite topics, share stories to multiple social networks at once and follow other Mashable readers who are of interest, among other features.

Mashable founder Pete Cashmore addressed the crowd in attendance, and noted that the service had already added “thousands of sign ups” within the first few hours of launching.

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