PR Misc – January 26, 2005

Tom Murphy

The problem with going away for a couple of days is the backlog.  There’s been a lot of great content over the past few days, here’s a summary….

 There’s been some interesting new posts on the whole Ketchum affair. In no particular order of preference:

 The New Communications Forum kicks off today on the West coast.  There’s a great program planned and you can expect a lot of blogging from the conference.

 Trevor Cook has some interesting posts on What is PR? and some words to avoid in your communications.

  Elizabeth Albrycht tackles PR’s perception problems and there’s some excellent commentary and discussion following the post.

“My credibility issues with PR have nothing to do with blogging.

They have to do with usefulness.

I get 50 pitches from PR people every day. I get about a half-dozen a month I can use. So when I get a cold-call from a PR person, my first thought is, “This conversation is going to be a waste of my time.” Mitch Wagner

 Shel Holtz asks does the public need to be guarded against Public Relations?

“I know I�m beginning to sound like a broken record, but individual bloggers are not going to turn the tide. The profession as a whole�as represented by its associations�need to point out these failings and, where appropriate, take action. (Ethics policies, for example, provide for sanctions against violating members, including expulsion from the association.)”

  Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz have released their fourth weekly PR podcast, this week covers the new Boeing blog, PR and blogs and the Ketchum stuff.. 

  Bob LeDrew offers some advice on managing PR partnerships.

  Sally Saville Hodge over at MarketProfs offers guidance on using Op-Eds effectively.

“A single op-ed will not change the way you or your organization is viewed overnight. But combined with other related initiatives�from informational or tutorial bylined articles to systematic survey development and dissemination�they are an integral part of an expertise-oriented PR program that will help solidify your firm’s standing as an expert in its field.”

 Fredrik Wacka over at CorporateBlogging.info points to an interesting review by Michael Cote of how his company use their internal corporate blog.

What People Post

  • News stories in our industry and about our company.
  • Status of various test and performance clusters. So, instead of having to send out emails or answer phones all the time, you can say, “just subscribe to the performance cluster weblog. It’s always up-to-date with performance test status.”
  • Brain-storming about strategy, feature sets, and process.
  • Sharing customer visit/phone call notes.
  • The “I exist” posts. Like I said, a lot of people just post one initial, “I’m here!” post and then disappear.
  • Soliciting ideas/help. For example, one person recently posted the age old question, “when should I use wikis vs. weblogs?”
  • Off-topic posts, like pictures of stars (the space ones, not the Hollywood types) or what the frozen burgers in the freezer look and taste like.

     Mike Manuel points out an interesting blog from start-up Jambo networks on their preparation for the Demo event which will launch their product.

     Melody over at Mark Borkowski’s blog points to new research which finds that the UK public still believe that journalists make a positive contribution to life in Britain.