Murphy's Law

Greetings. Just a short post to let you all know that I am alive and well.

I’m in start-up mode in the new job and when you couple that with various family events etc. it means it’ll be a little while yet before posting returns to normal.

A couple of people have asked if I plan to blog around my experiences in Microsoft. The short answer is no. I’ll talk about Microsoft in the same way I talked about Cape Clear – if it’s relevant. However this blog remains a blog about PR so I’ll be sticking to my knitting :-).

Usual service will be resumed, hopefully sooner rather than later!

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to get in touch via e-mail or the comments section, I’ve been overwhelmed with good wishes, it’s much appreciated.

I will probably get blogging again at the weekend.

Thanks again!

Thanks to everyone for their kind wishes and I *think* the comments section is now fixed…

Good afternoon.

Just a short post on a personal matter that might explain the erratic postings on the blog over the past few weeks. After four and a half very enjoyable years with Cape Clear Software, I am moving jobs. From this Wednesday I’ll be joining Microsoft here in Ireland, looking after PR.

Postings may continue to be a little erratic as I settle in!

For crying out loud. Why is it that PR people can’t do the very basic elements of electronic communication properly?

Sending press releases by e-mail is NOT hard. I’m sure a moderately intelligent wild chimp could probably manage to send an e-mail correctly.

Seriously.

This week one of the spam press releases I received was formatted in HTML (as far as I am concerned that alone is a big no-no – always cater for the lowest common denominator – plain text will work fine thanks).

The press release was unsolicited, untargeted and was at best only tangentially relevant to this blog – at a stretch.

Of course, because they decided to sent it as HTML the formatting was broken, you could barely read the press release – if you wanted to.

So this morning I receive another version of the press release, this time its in plain text format with a general disclaimer that this version was technically revised to solve incompatability issues….

Oh Lord… Look, this e-mail stuff is fairly straight forward. If you’re interested in more common sense on using e-mail check these links out or search the web:

• Some useful E-mail advice
• More good e-mail advice

Barbara French from Tekrati was in touch to tell me about a very interesting new research report they’ve released looking at the alternatives to Gartner, post their META Group acquisition.

The report interviews representatives from Forrester, IDC, AMR Research, Burton Group, Info-Tech Research, The 451 Group and The Advisory Council.

They are also welcoming comments and debate on the report on their weblog.

• David Philips, a UK practitioner has launched a new (well since June)blog called LeverWealth. David’s been busy posting a lot of interesting content.
• I’m a big fan of Tekrati which is a great resource for anyone working with technology industry analysts. They’ve launched a new blog aimed at providing more news, links and a forum for discussion on relevant analyst issues.

• These days I find it increasingly hard to be shocked or surprised at the stupidity of some of our “colleagues”. [Thanks to Alice Marshall for the link]
• George Beres writes in the Oregon Daily Emerald that PR has no place in Journalism school…
• There’s some disagreement going on about how effectively Fedex handled a recent “rogue” website. [Allan Jenkins, BL Ochman, Steve Rubel]
• As covered widely elsewhere (I include it here only for archive purposes!) a recent survey by Nielsen/NetRatings found that five percent of blog readers use RSS…
• Some more additions to the world of corporate technology blogs. Adobe and BMC Software are now upping their efforts. [Thanks to Constantin for the link]
• Weber Shandwick have published an article offering advice on how to navigate the world of industry analysts. [Via Duncan Chapple]
• Mike Manuel ponders whether the future of PR (and business in general) is a blurring of lines between departments and disciplines (e.g. PR and customer service). It’s an interesting discussion that deserves more time and reflection than I am giving it at this moment. We shouldn’t forget that history teaches us that organizational change is inevitable, albeit typically slow and incremental…
• The Hobson and Holtz Report #59 is now awaiting your iTunes.
• Steve Rubel reports that Cisco‘s PR team is now podcasting PR content such as industry discussions and events.

It’s been a little quiet here over the past few days due to pressures at work, normal service will be resumed shortly.

Has anyone else noticed a major surge in spam volume? My business e-mail account, along with my personal e-mail accounts are under constant barrage these days – not to mention to volume of comment and trackback spam I’m getting on the blog…

On a housekeeping issue, a couple of people have been moaning about the use of the term “PR Miscellany” for my usual link round-ups as it’s non-descriptive. Some have suggested I try and summarize the content in headline… I’m thinking about it. 🙂

Finally, I was talking with a tech PR agency (West coast) recently and they estimate 50% of their agency clients are somewhat engaged in blogging – it’s interesting, though I imagine that 50% is disproportionately high.

Quiet enough out here today…

• Tim Dyson, CEO of Next Fifteen (Bite, Outcast, Text 100) believes we’re going to see a number of mid-sized tech PR firms hit the wall…
• Jim Horton has found a story from USA Today that must be a mini-nightmare for any PR person… it turns out that your client was telling porkies to one of the world’s largest circulation newspapers…
• Stuart Bruce has written an introduction to RSS for PR people.
• Susan Getgood has some tips for PR people thinking of pitching blogger…
• The fifty-eighth installment of the The Hobson & Holtz Report is now online.