Counting down to Cairo… June 29, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : He would say that , add a commentAs I mentioned last week, I’m working on the Imagine Cup World Finals at the moment. I fly to Egypt tomorrow and to get you in the mood I thought I’d share these photos that I received over the weekend. It’s the start of the construction for the World Festival on July 7th.
It’s shaping up to be a pretty memorable event 
Roll on Cairo….
Living in the woods.. June 26, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Personal , add a comment
So what have I been up to? June 23, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : He would say that, Public Relations, Social Media , add a comment
Greetings. Nearly four months since moving to the Pacific Northwest, and this blog has been very silent. But with good reason, I’m pretty busy at work and pretty busy at home!
From a work perspective, one of my major current projects is our global student competition – the Imagine Cup.
It’s a global student technology competition, which challenges students to use technology to solve many of the world’s toughest problems – namely the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.
This year over 300,000 students from every corner of the world registered to compete and after local and regional competitions, 400 students will be travelling to Cairo next week for the world finals which take place from July 3-7, 2009.
It’s an incredibly interesting PR program and with our opening ceremony taking place at the Citadel and the closing ceremony taking place at the Pyramids, it’s got to be one of the most stunning PR backdrops of the year
We’re doing a lot of work with both traditional and social media and you can follow the competition online via:
- Imagine Cup blog
- Imagine Cup on Twitter (imagine_cup)
- Imagine Cup on Facebook
Each year during the closing ceremony we announce the venue for the next year’s finals. To give you a flavor of what’s ahead in Cairo here’s the video from last year in Paris.
So if you’re in Cairo during the 3rd to the 7th of July give me a shout though I imagine I’ll be pretty busy…
Twitter Research: 10% of users account for 90% of Tweets… June 3, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Twitter , 1 comment so farInteresting blog post over on the Harvard Business Conversation Starter blog about the results of a piece of analysis on 300,000 Twitter users.
Of our sample (300,542 users, collected in May 2009), 80% are followed by or follow at least one user. By comparison, only 60 to 65% of other online social networks’ members had at least one friend (when these networks were at a similar level of development). This suggests that actual users (as opposed to the media at large) understand how Twitter works.
It seems men are more likely to follow other men and the 10% most prolific Twitter users account for 90% of the tweets.
Read more.
How about a “win-win” for both of us? June 2, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : He would say that, Humour, Public Relations , add a commentAs someone who has sat at both sides of the table, I found this pretty funny.
Of course given the side of the table I am currently sitting at, I would make the observation that this bears absolutely no resemblance to reality
But then I would say that wouldn’t I
Hat tip to Guy Clapperton via Twitter.
Better to keep your mouth closed… June 1, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Public Relations , add a commentWell I’ve been keeping rather busy lately (cars, houses, family) and my list of things to blog has been growing ever longer. Thankfully (in some cases) others continue to be more productive in hitting the publish button.
A wise women* once told me that the great thing about opinions was that anyone could have one, and the downside of opinions was the same.
I’ve been blogging since 2002 and I would love to know how many blog posts since that time have had the words dying, dead, doomed or extinct in the headline. Quite a number I’d imagine.
The interesting thing is that no many how times these posts appear (and are proved false), they keep coming.
On my list of things to blog last week was a rebuttal to Fuat Kircaali’s mindless post on the extinction of Public Relations.
Of course these posts always focus on the press release which (un)fortunately highlights the author’s lack of domain knowledge – but doesn’t stop them offering their opinion anyway.
For the record, Public Relations is all about helping individuals and organizations to connect and communicate with their audience. The continued acceleration on online media, tools and channels, along with the (shock) continued existence of traditional media, means that PR will be around for a long time yet. Sorry about that – we do seem to be an inconvenience for a lot of people based on the number of posts forecasting our demise.
Luckily there are people who are far more productive than I in translating “oh I must write about that” to actually doing it, so I am delighted that Mr. Shel Holtz beat me to it in his post: Bold predictions or just plain hubris?:
The post is as preposterous as a lot of Kircaali’s other assertions. For example, he suggests that 70% of today’s PR agencies won’t survive the “fast approaching media avalanche” because 90% of today’s PR firms are still in business because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not allow companies to communicate material information on websites.
I’d pay real money to know where Kircaali gets his statistic. I could have sworn all those agencies were out there helping organizations build and maintain positive relationships with constituent publics. How silly of me.
Further, Kircaali says there are only three kinds of agencies. Those using Ulitzer every day as a channel for their clients’ news, those who are using Ulitzer to publish bylined articles and tapping into its syndication features (these are the agencies, of course, that will survive), and those who are “horrified by the idea that their clients may actually find out about (Ulitzer).” Those must be the doomed 70%.
Preposterous just about sums it up.
*Hello Mum
Leinster – Heineken Cup Champions 2009 May 26, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Personal , 2 commentsFollowing my previous post on the subject, it’s good to see that my absence is proving a catalyst for unparalleled achievement in Irish sport.
Whatever about an Irish grand slam, Saturday’s result with Leinster winning the European Cup proves beyond doubt that I am a talisman of doom for any team unlucky enough to be the subject of my affection…. I’ll have to stay away a bit longer
It’s also very bad news for the Mariners….
Interesting PR related online things… May 16, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Media, Public Relations, Social Media , add a commentWelcome to Friday, we even have sunny weather in this lovely part of the world.
A few things bounced across my browser, RSS reader and e-mail over the past couple of days that I thought I’d share.
Ford – Online Fiesta
Ragan has a really interesting report on Ford’s new US social media project to promote the new Fiesta car. They undertook an online recruitment program to find 100 “agents” to document their experiences with the new car via social media from Twitter to blogs and YouTube. According to the company they won’t censure the agents’ feedback.
Twitter..
Mashable has published a journalists’ guide to Twitter.
He often puts his questions on Twitter at the start of the day, and then his followers (more than 2,200) help him come up with angles, or chime in with their opinions. Rather than interviewing random people on the street, he’s able to get more targeted feedback from people with relevant life experience.
Tell your own story, your own way..
Not exactly breaking news, but in case you missed it… Chevron decided to address a critical 60 minutes report by going on the offensive.
Another approach to funding online media…
In an environment where publishers (online and offline) are working hard to drive revenue, Seattle’s TechFlash is taking a new option by providing sponsored posts. The posts are clearly flagged as “sponsored” and have a different colored background from editorial posts (see below) but appear in the “news flow”. I imagine we’ll see other approaches in the coming year.
Traditional media needs to take ownership of its future May 13, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Media, Public Relations , 2 commentsI have always been of the view that while traditional media is clearly under pressure, it is not going away, rather we are seeing a re-balancing of media consumption.
The oft floated idea that traditional media is “dead” and that all media will be ‘user-generated’ is flawed in my opinion because people are busy and therefore want trusted filters on what’s going on in the world. Oh and many of us are inherently lazy.
I believe that the traditional media can find a profitable future in that role, whether its in print, online or over the air waves.
However, to thrive they need to be focused on adding value to their audience. This can be through news gathering or great opinions and content amongst other things, but trust is absolutely key.
Any ten year old can cut and paste content off the web.
I’ve written about Wikipedia before, but if traditional media are going to lazily do an internet search, cut and paste what they find and publish it as editorial, then maybe the future of traditional media isn’t as healthy as I imagined.
Today I read about how the UK Guardian newspaper included a quote from Wikipedia in an obituary of French composer Maurice Jarre. The only problem was that the quote was made up by a 22 year old student in Dublin and posted online.
Siobhain Butterworth, writing on this snafu for the Guardian pointed out that:
Wikipedia editors were more sceptical about the unsourced quote. They deleted it twice on 30 March and when Fitzgerald added it the second time it lasted only six minutes on the page. His third attempt was more successful - the quote stayed on the site for around 25 hours before it was spotted and removed again.
She adds:
The moral of this story is not that journalists should avoid Wikipedia, but that they shouldn’t use information they find there if it can’t be traced back to a reliable primary source.
While I am a passionate advocate of “social media”, I am equally passionate on our society’s need for a strong traditional media. However, to survive and thrive, traditional media and journalists needs to take ownership of the value they can offer their readers.
Of course this was just a mistake, and mistakes happen, we’re all human, so let’s not blow it out of proportion, but I think it’s a great reminder of how important it is that traditional media focuses on the value it can deliver.
That “value”, in my humble opinion, isn’t mastering internet search and cut-and-paste.
How are PR budgets, people and agencies faring? May 5, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Public Relations , add a commentThe New York Times story below referenced a study by University of Southern California Annenberg Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center on the impact of the recession on PR budgets.
Clearing my inbox I realized that I had meant to blog about this study back in February… ahem!
There are some interesting findings on how PR is doing in the current economic environment….
Budgets
- 40% of the 200 organizations surveyed have had their current year budget reduced – with 27% reporting an increase in budget.
- 41% attribute this to the economic downturn (6% believe it has nothing to do with the downturn – they probably don’t read the papers);
- The average decrease was –18.8% the average increase was 16.2%
- 51% report year-on-year budget reductions (average –19.3%) – 18% report increases (average 14.2%)
- Overall PR budgets among the 200 companies have fallen 10.8%
Agency Spend
- 69% are planning to reduce agency fees and 28% have already done so
PR Staff
- 63% do not expect to reduce full-time headcount - 15% will increase headcount
Staff Compensation
- 93% do not expect to reduce compensation while 39% expect pay freezes
You can get a copy of the results at: