With technology changes on the horizon for the healthcare industry, Dell launched a social media site to generate ideas and solutions that would improve the improve the “delivery, efficiency, and quality of healthcare using IT,” the company said on April 6.

The site, called IdeaStorm for Healthcare and Life Sciences, is a branch of IdeaStorm, a brainstorming site which was launched in 2007.

Kerry Bridge, head of digital media communications for Dell, told PRWeek that the site is targeted at large healthcare organizations as well as influencers and key stakeholders in the healthcare blogging industry.

“It’s a huge social media community, specifically looking at healthcare IT,” she says. “And these are the people we want to be talking to, share ideas with. Dell would like to be a valuable member of that community.”

Dell plans to promote the site within healthcare social media communities, on its blog and company Web site, and through the newsletters that the sales force distributes.

“It’s definitely a stake in the ground,” she says. “…[to show] that we’re committed to the healthcare industry.

Blogs and Twitter are abuzz with , the coined after several books were removed from the ranking system on Amazon.com. The books, largely with homosexual themes, included Brokeback Mountain, Ellen DeGeneres: A Biography, and Heather Has Two Mommies. It seems ranks have now returned to some titles, but some blogs are keeping track of those that were affected.

Mark Probst, the author of gay romance book The Filly, first noticed that his book was de-ranked and contacted Amazon. After receiving a response saying it was due to a policy where “adult” materials were not included in rankings, he blogged about it. But when consumers pointed out that some heterosexual “adult” materials were still included in rankings, Amazon said the original de-ranking was due to a .

The news has quickly spread through social media like Twitter, and some groups are urging a of the retailer. Amazon does not have a press release up on its Web site and representatives from the online retailer and its PR agency OutCast Communications have not yet returned PRWeek’s calls for comment.

UPDATE: Patty Smith, director of corporate communications for Amazon, replied to PRWeek with a statemtn via email, saying “This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.”

A new report from the National Defense University offers some social media tips for government folks - ones “that actually makes sense,” writes Wired’s DangerRoom blog. The aptly named “Social Software and National Security,” report is expected out early next week, Wired says, but the blog provides a sneak peek at the four tenants the paper suggests:

• Inward sharing
• Outward sharing
• Inbound sharing
• Outward sharing

Hmm…

An excerpt under the “Outward sharing” headline reads:

The 2005 natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina is now a textbook example of the need for multi-agency, multi-government, multi-media engagement in an ad hoc and constantly evolving manner.  More recently, people using social software have been able to make useful contributions during real world events such as flooding in Bangladesh, the California wildfires, and Hurricane Gustav…

Who’s winning on Twitter in the political sphere? Left or right? One blogger on the right’s use of to build a conservative movement on the microblogging site.

Much of the chatter in the media has been that the left, via its awe-inspiring, marathon-length successful campaign for Barack Obama has spawned the first tech presidency. But Blog P.I.’s William Beutler of New Media Strategies argues the right is harnessing at least one channel better - Twitter.

These new conservative projects are often built around Twitter itself. Sometimes this results in really annoying tweets, but at this point the right is doing more interesting things in this space.

Thoughts from others? From TweetLeft?

Paul Levy, president of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, tried to improve the prognosis of The Boston Globe on April 6 by organizing a blog rally in support of the newspaper. The Globe’s owner, The New York Times Co., has threatened to shut down the outlet if its unions don’t agree to concessions.

About 30 Boston-area bloggers participated in the rally, said Levy, who blogs at runningahospital.blogspot.com.

“Those of us who are involved in civic affairs in this town understand that unless you have a vibrant investigative entity in the community, the government and the corporations will not be held accountable,” he tells PRWeek.

Kayak.com’s review for an AOR is nearing completion, with two agencies set to present on Tuesday, April 7, according to Kellie Pelletier, Kayak.com’s VP of communications. Stay tuned for more exclusive coverage the week of April 6.

Sears launched a new tag line - “Sears. Life. Well spent.” - that will more strategically align the company’s branding efforts with consumers’ increased interest in quality of life and thoughtful consumption. The new tag line reflects consumers’ changing ideas about the American dream and how Sears’ products fit in with these values, said Tom Aiello, division VP of PR for Sears Holdings. Euro RSCG Worldwide PR will provide PR support.  “As we move ahead, you’ll see strategies and tactics come out that really bring the tag line to life,” Aiello said. One example is the Heroes at Home program, which provides support to service members and their families. Sears will be expanding the scope of this program’s reach to include other “everyday heroes,” such as teachers, police officers, and fireman. Projected to begin this expansion in the fall, these changes will “bring focus into local communities,” says Aiello.

On Wednesday evening, I attended a panel on online marketing for books. The NYC Chapter of the Women’s National Book Association hosted Getting the Word Out: Marketing Your Book on the Web, held at the Jefferson Market Library in New York. The well attended event focused on topics including being authentic when using social media, how blogging and social media translates to book sales, and ().

Susannah Greenberg, principal of Susannah Greenberg PR, moderated the panel, which included several authors and book publishing insiders: Fauzia Burke, founder and president of Internet marketing firm FSB Associates; Peter Costanzo, director of online marketing for Perseus Books Group; Ron Hogan, founder of Beatrice.com and senior editor at MediaBistro’s Galleycat; Kelly Leonard, executive director of online marketing at Hachette Book Group USA; and Abby Stokes, author of Is This Thing On?: A Computer Handbook for Late Bloomers, Technophobes, and the Kicking and Screaming. Read more after the jump.
Read more »

The PR for new online community Daughters.com focused on what the site offers: advice and an interactive community designed to help families raise girls ages 8 to 15.

New Moon Girls Media, the company behind New Moon Girls magazine and Web site, worked with Cahill Media Group on the March 10 launch, reaching out to mommy and grandparent bloggers, telling them of the “parent to parent” discussion board, searchable collection of articles about raising girls, and ways they can submit questions to experts. Additionally, the PR campaign targeted traditional media nationwide.

Founder and CEO Nancy Gruver contributes to one of several blogs on the site and said in a statement, “After nearly 17 years of creating groundbreaking communities for tween and teen girls, we’re thrilled to provide parents and caregivers with the first place they can visit 24/7 to find answers to all of their questions about raising daughters.”

Asked about blogger-payment programs conducted by what many believe to be a growing number of communications professionals, Don Bates, professor at George Washington University, told PRWeek via e-mail that such efforts aren’t controversial, or new. Said Bates: “A minority of PR firms has been using paid advertising and paid media for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been around the business for more than 35 years.”

“Paid media is a reasonable extension of PR services, and to my way of thinking, something that should be considered, especially in this era of digital communications when so much is moving to the Wild West of online,” he said.

However, Bates added, the practice “is not for the uninitiated.”

“It may look easy but it isn’t. The required research, art, copy, placement, billing, administration – all are different than their counterparts in PR,” he added. “Then there’s the potential impact on your media relations work. Once you start advertising, the media will start to treat you like an ad agency with potentially negative consequences for your client’s or employer’s press coverage.”