Is it over yet? May 12, 2008
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Public Relations, Social Media , add a commentI think the “PR spam” snafu is finally subsiding.
Thank goodness.
Back to the real world…
Geoff Livingston has posted a short video interview with Ford’s Whitney Drake on how they are using social media (and interestingly how they used Twitter to address a crisis).
More on PR Spam-gate (last post on this..) May 10, 2008
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Public Relations, Social Media , 3 commentsFor the record a couple of other posts on this snafu:
Phil Gomes points out the issue was that people were using her PERSONAL e-mail address. [I hadn’t spotted that myself]
Jeremy Pepper pipes in on the same factoid, but makes a broader point about PR people not being trained in good practice in this area - and like Damien bemoans the lack of focus on relationships.
Susan Getgood suggests that blacklists just don’t work…
Are PR people arrogant about Web 2.0?
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Public Relations, Social Media , 3 commentsDamien Mulley has posted a very interesting and thought provoking comment on my post regarding PR spam.
I think it raises some interesting points….
The sheer arrogance from PR people on this matter speaks volumes. If what you’re pitching is so important to this blogger then shouldn’t they be coming to you?
Just because you have done some research and you are now highly targeting someone does not mean it’s not spam. It’s targeted spam. See? Still spam. It’s also a bit arrogant, yes you worked harder for that pitch, your work has value but it’s rich if you think you deserve respect and airtime from a stranger just because you worked hard.
Would you walk up to someone that just gave a speech and shove a press release into their hand or would you introduce yourself, say what you do, hand over a card and ask permission about sending something to them that may interest them?
Don’t pitch if you contact a blogger, ask can you pitch and explain why the pitch could be of value. No sell at all in an initial email/intro. “Hey Gina, this is what you do, this is what we do, any interest if *I* send you on some stuff from time to time or maybe you can dip in and out of my blog where I talk about these things?”
So PR community. What’s your view?
Update:
Jeremy Pepper makes a similar point.
The PR spam victims bite back… and the response… May 9, 2008
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Blogs, Media, Online, Public Relations , 9 commentsBad or irrelevant PR pitches are nothing new.
Many of us, in our more quiet moments, will admit to probably not investing the time and effort we should have from time to time (a long time ago obviously 
).
The key thing is to remember your mistake and learn from it.
We’re seeing more journalists and bloggers publishing lists of PR firms they are blacklisting. [Ref: Chris Anderson last October]
Now a guy called Matt Haughey is doing something similar as has Gina Trapani.
See here and the PR Spammers Wiki for more details.
(For the more evil minded among you, although it’s a Wiki, you won’t be able to edit it without the right log-in. You could always ask, but I get the feeling you won’t get a favourable hearing )
Todd Defren, whose firm is on the list, has posted an “open post” (I am assuming that’s the correct blog equivalent…) to Gina.
I like it. It’s conversational.
Brian Solis, whose firm is also on the list takes a different tack. (I have to admit I came away thinking about meat more than anything else and I’m not sure that was the objective!)
I hope that before any “holier than thou” PR person starts to crow, they stop and realize that we all live in greenhouses on this matter.
We should strive for best practice, reinforce the right and wrong way to communicate (online and offline) and reflect that sometimes mistakes happen, and sometimes people are more or less forgiving.
That’s not to say that I am adopting a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil stance on this matter. To be honest, even this little blog receives a lot of “PR” pitches that don’t make the mark.
If you’re going to engage online, then for the love of jebus do some research. That’s what Internet browsers and search engines are for…
On a related note, Alice Marshall offers some advice on the importance of being proactive before an issue arises rather than hiring shady companies to try and out rank negative blog posts.
Hear hear…
Web 2.0 needs to move towards quality… May 8, 2008
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Social Media, Technology , 4 commentsI was catching up on my RSS and podcasts consumption when I found myself getting very stressed.
Listening to “For Immediate Release” (Episode #341) there was a listener comment from Mitch Joel, who raised the issue of how are we supposed to manage all this information, links, networks etc.
Mitch used Twitter as an illustration:
Currently, if you look at my Twitter profile page, there are 1577 followers, while I’m following only 545 people. It used to be the same number, but I’ve become a bit of a Twitter Snob. I found it increasingly difficult to follow many different topics of conversation from people I did not know, who were talking to (or about) other people I did not know on topics that were of no immediate interest to me.
It’s a real problem.
For most people* all this stuff is in addition to the “day job”.
The growth in smeedia content from blogs, to RSS, Twitter, social networking etc. hasn’t, in most cases, been accompanied by a growth in the tools and technologies to manage that content.
Success is often portrayed as connecting to thousands of people or having thousands of people connect to you. But the noise generated from these connections can also make them practically value-less.
Conversation is a term often bandied about concerning Web 2.0. But conversation isn’t about trying to hold or understand the commentary of 25,000 people.
Often volume is the most lauded feature. Don’t get me wrong, volume has its place. But I do find that the work generated by trying to manage Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. can be stressful and have a questionable ROI.
I think there is an ROI - which is why I continue to dip in and out, but volume isn’t everything (or the only thing).
For me, this proves we’re still at the early stages here and we’ve a long way to go.
There seems to be no end of individuals and organisations being able to ship volumes of content online, where it becomes compelling is where we get the tools to be able to mine, identify and use that data.
We’ll get there….
Footnote:
*This statement is not based on any fact or published research. It is a rash generalisation - but it’s mine
New to me: Live News Cameras May 7, 2008
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Media , add a commentAndrew Finlayson, news director at Fox News Chicago, dropped me (and I’m sure many others ) an e-mail regarding a new project from a group of journalists in Chicago:
http://www.livenewscameras.com/
The concept is pretty simple you can watch streaming news footage from different TV stations live on the web.
You can choose to grab streaming from the US and around the world. I jumped straight to RTÉ and watched the incoming Irish government cabinet receiving their seals of office.
Good performance and quality (the streaming, not the cabinet ), I also checked BBC World, Sky News UK, Sky News Australia.
Really interesting resource for tracking global news.
From their About page:
LiveNewsCameras.com brings together the resources of journalists around the world and makes live streaming video easy to find and use on your computer.
As of today, there are nearly 150 channels of live streaming video here - that number is growing every day.
You can preview what is on any given stream just by leaving the site open on your desktop - many of the thumbnail images will refresh automatically every minute or so.
A well built house starts with the foundations… May 5, 2008
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Online, Public Relations , add a commentI am a self confessed grumpy old man.
As a result I found myself absent mindedly nodding and grunting in agreement with Todd Defren’s post “Everything is Important“.
Ironically, people say, “Think Big Picture” when they want to coax you to forget about the details. But the more you think about The Big Picture, the more you realize: Everything’s Important.
Great results depend on good strategy, good understanding, creativity and great execution, but they also depend on getting the basics right. It isn’t the most exciting element, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important - it is.
Bonus link:
Todd has also published a guide to create SEO-friendly press releases.
Happiness is… April 19, 2008
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Personal , 3 commentsOff-line, no e-mail, RSS, conference calls, twitter, or blogging for a week
UK media research finds online media is a boon for PR :-) April 17, 2008
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Media, Public Relations, Social Media , 5 commentsNow I’m the first person to point out that the great thing about most research is that anyone can bend the findings to support their own opinions.
So indulge me here.
Some of my biggest issues with the prevalent Web 2.0/Smeedia thinking are:
- The belief that the demise of traditional media is a good thing for society - and that the media’s demise is a “fact” (it’s not)
- The acceptance of content that’s “good enough” rather than researched, reviewed and objective
- The online, self-styled, Web 2.0 experts, who have never practiced Public Relations in their life, but feel they are qualified to provide in-depth analysis on the impact of new online media and tools on our profession. (I’ll post more on that particular topic at a later date.)
The idea that sites like Wikipedia are a great thing - regardless of how accurate the content is - because loads of people collaborate, is flawed. I don’t like it as a citizen, as a parent, as a consumer, or as a PR practitioner. We must fight for standards ladies and gentlemen.
A report from UK media research firm Metrica [Flash alert], which included 3,000,000 articles from 700 UK media organisations over the past decade has some interesting findings.
It found that online coverage was far more likely to deliver “high message delivery” and a company spokesperson than traditional media:
Haste and paste: High message delivery and spokespeople mentions suggest the emergence of a copy and paste publishing trend in online media. Online featured the strongest message delivery of any media type with half of coverage delivering key messages, and an average of three message deliveries per article.There is also some indication of a similar trend amongst regional titles.
Now obviously as a PR guy that’s what the client is looking for. But as a citizen you want to ensure there is a strong media providing consumers with a balanced news agenda - after all if you’re getting fluffy coverage, so is your competitor.
- According to the research for 2007, not surprisingly, the UK daily and Sunday newspapers are the least favourable outlets, while regional TV, print and radio are the most favourable.
- The most favoured sectors are charities, trade bodies, media and leisure, and entertainment.
- The least favoured sectors are finance, government & public sector, retail, fashion, health & beauty and transport.
I accept that no research is perfect, but it presents an interesting view and perhaps presents a case why the survival of traditional media (whether in print or online) is important to society and business.
Read more at the Metrica blog.
Update:
Stuart Bruce has pointed to a site I’d never seen before, the Churner Prize
Smeedia shorts… April 16, 2008
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Blogs, Public Relations, Social Media , 1 comment so far- Thinking of starting a corporate blog? John Cass offers some practical considerations before you start.
- Todd Defren has an interesting post on how they managed bloggers at their client’s event, the RSA Conference.
- I was surfing (is that an old person’s term now?) around and found this post on PR Week: “Social media is crucial for an agency”, the post is a little ‘hype-ful’ but led me to the author’s blog which I hadn’t come across before: Adam Metz.