Tuesday's quick reads: Apple, Staples, and the 70 most important words for 2010

1.) Is Apple in control of its PR? (A View From Silicon Valley) -- Blogger Tim Dyson explores why almost all the news we read about Apple comes from rumor sites rather than Apple itself.

2.) Staples using social media to leak holiday price cuts (Social Media Business Council) -- Staples became one of the first retailers this holiday season to use Facebook to leak “Black Friday” deals. The office supply company posted several deals on products, varying from flash drives to GPS units to laptops, and price cuts are as high as 50%.

3.) Banks narrowing their social media focus (American Banker) -- Though Twitter's service is designed to communicate with a vast, online audience, some financial companies are now using it to reach specific groups or even individuals, a sharp contrast to some early efforts that were more akin to e-mail spam.

4.) Seventy words of unconventional wisdom for 2010 (Harvard Business Review) -- What better way for business thinkers to celebrate the holiday season than with the gift of great ideas? As the year 2009 draws to a close, Seth Godin, the innovator, writer, and blogger extraordinaire, has persuaded 70 other innovators, writers, and bloggers to participate in a project he calls What Matters Now.

Monday's quick reads: Dan Snyder, PhRMA, and CEO reputations

1.) Banks put focus on conversation, not sale, in social media campaigns (Memphis Business Journal) -- Checking out Facebook friends or tweeting about a cool party you’re heading to is fun stuff, but can it get a bank more loans, increased deposits or improved return-on-capital? That question has yet to be answered definitively, but a growing handful of pioneering banks and credit unions, including several in Memphis, are having fun trying.

2.) PhRMA proposes FDA-approved logo for social media (AdAge) -- PhRMA is advocating for a universal safety symbol -- either the FDA logo itself or an FDA-approved symbol -- to indicate that a Twitter or Facebook mention links to a page that contains the pharmaceutical company's FDA-mandated risk information.

3.) Redskins: Snyder's PR "henchman" is both his guard and his safety (The Washington Post) -- As Dan Snyder's self-described public-relations "henchman," Karl Swanson, 59, has been tending to Snyder's image for at least a dozen years. When controversy calls -- as it repeatedly has since Snyder became one of the Washington area's most prominent citizens -- Swanson is close behind, ready to tell the boss's side of the story.

4.) Resetting CEO reputation (The Huffington Post) -- Since everyone -- President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Kurt Anderson and Jeff Immelt, among others -- is using the word "reset," I thought I would join the club by declaring that it is high time to begin resetting CEO reputations. If you did not know already, reset is the next fashionable business term that is rapidly gaining ground. Use of this trendy term has risen 67% from 2006 to date in the global business media, and BusinessWeek now offers a regular upfront feature on the Reset Economy.