Month: February 2003

PR Opinions Hiatus…. 

PR Opinions will be on a well earned break until Monday, February 17th 2003 when normal service will be resumed

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Remember the boy scouts….  

One thing we all know about the Internet is that it provides a research resource beyond anything  previously available.  This has serious implications for communicators in all fields.  If you want to appear credible, you must be sure of your sources.  Any innaccuracies will be quickly tackled on line.

The discovery that a significant amount of the UK’s dossier on Iraq came from a tweleve year old dissertation prepared by a college student, probably doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the rest of the document.

Further proof (if it were needed) that on the Internet you should always be prepared. More here.

It must be newsletter week…..

No sooner had I finished my entry yesterday than a whole host of other newsletters arrived. One tip for anyone sending out these newsletters, make sure that you have a version available on your website. It’ll help your weblinks and it will also mean readers can use their browser rather than their e-mail client.

Vocus have published an article on PR and measurement of course you’d never guess from the article that they sell PR software that helps with measurement.  [I sent an information request to Vocus via their website about a month ago and I still haven’t had a reply or an acknowledgement – I hope they start using their own software soon!]

MediaMap’s monthly treasure trove is also out this week.  There’s a story on keeping a company’s news momentum going, there’s a primer on dealing with the media and and finally and article from a provider of online surveys on how online surveys can produce good PR (ahem)

Worldwide weblogs….

Over the past eight months we’ve had a lot of feedback on this weblog from countries such as USA, Canada, Ireland, UK, Australia and South Africa. Now we have another country to add – Iran.

Hossein Emami hails from Tehran in Iran and has his own award winning PR weblog  dealing with topics such as e-PR, journalism and the media. Hossein points out that there are now four PR blogs in Iran (which by my count makes them only second to the USA!).

Hossein has also created a corporate blog for his employer, the EDBI Bank.

Another example of an Iranian blog is Prof. Y. Shokrkhah who lectures on communications and journalism.

So you see the PR blogging phenomenon is a distinctly global matter!

PR promotions…

There are an increasing number of well put together newsletters for PR (and related) agencies on their specific business areas.  Fellow blogger Phil Gomes’ firm  G2B Group and Ketchum immediately spring to mind.  But there are others.

We’ve mentioned the Knowledge Capital Group before.  They produce a very informative newsletter on ‘Analyst Relations‘ every month.  It includes interesting and useful content. They sometimes push the AR agenda a little too hard but overall it’s a well crafted newsletter that a lot of effort has been put into. This month’s includes an interview with the CEO at AMR, a profile of Yankee Group and much more.

[As an aside, one interesting news story they have is that Gartner has changed the head of Vendor Relations.  Amen to that. I have never dealt with a more difficult process for setting up appointments in my life. KCG don’t agree with me but… have you any problems with Gartner’s vendor relations function or is it just me?]

PR firm, Environics’ newsletter also arrived overnight.  They’ve an interesting review of 2002 from a Tech PR point of view and a review of the now ubiquitous “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR”. There’s also some case studies and a look at how a local link can help when pitching your wares in Canada.

Snaring students…

Harris Interactive and 360 Youth have released a report revealing the top ten tips for marketing to students.

Did you send that e-mail?…

I’ve posted before about care when using e-mail.  It’s generally accepted that if you are communicating sensitive news, try face-to-face, but if you have to use e-mail, make sure you write it with external audiences in mind. In other words, think InternalMemos.com!

A blog I read this morning brought this to mind.  Many of us are required to follow up with journalists on stories they’ve written which either show our client/employer in a bad light or contain innaccuracies.  While we are all well versed in writing said correspondence, stop and think.

Maybe it would be better to try and call them.  At the very least make real sure that you are careful when writing an e-mail to a journalist.

Sean Gallagher is the technology editor for Baseline.  On his blog this week he posted an e-mail he received from Sun Microsystem’s PR team on an article he wrote in the January issue.  He describes it as a “PR love note”.

The note is fine, it communicates Sun’s point of view forcefully.  But have a read of it and review that e-mail you’ve written before you hit “send”.

Some PR reading….

A new organization that promises to provide a US national business development network for independent PR consultants has been launched. The group is called PR Connections.

Brand Week has an op-ed on PR versus Advertising written by Marc Hausman at Strategic Communications.

According to the Guardian, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas have retained Weber Shandwick for an impending court battle with UK magazine Hello!.

The Tennessean reports that a local school is considering an $125,000 year long PR contract to improve communications with parents.

Forta Patchie, the bronks* – and the inside story on Google… 

The Boston Globe magazine has a great feature on Google.  It includes an inside look at the company, how Google is changing our browsing habits and how our past can continue to haunt us with people we have never met.  It’s a wonderful article.

*”Forta Patchie” was one of the search terms that was displated when Neil Swidey, who wrote the feature, was in Google’s reception where a large screen shows all the latest searches, live. And before you check, there are no hits returned!

PR news round-up….

A new book called “The Influentials” aims to show the best means to identify and target early influencers.  According to the book blurb, “One American in ten tells the other nine how to vote, where to eat, and what to buy”.  The book gets a good, if short mention in the Washington Post. To be fair to Burson Marsteller I should point out that they’ve had their “e-fluentials” running for quite some time.

California PR firm FutureWorks has announced they are opening a new division to focus on PR for wineries and gourmet food.  PR expansion is good news. However, their Flash-rich site is a much deserved latest addition to the Hall of Shame!

The Seattle Times has more on yesterday’s story from the Holmes Report on that e-mailed internal memo. (Ouch!)

The New Jersey News has a story on how Public Relations will be the key battle ground for doctors and lawyers in their opposition to the growing number of malpractice suits.

Karlin Lillington has a link to the New York Times who reveal that Key3Media, the organizer of Comdex and JavaOne is seeking bankruptcy.

Not strictly PR-related, according to this story in ZDNet, software companies are increasingly using blogs to encourage feedback and ideas from customers in the development process.