Day: December 28, 2005

Some links, ramblings and facts for those who should be making better use of their spare time…

• Anyone who believes that there is any type of accepted uniform measurement system for PR is also probably shopping for a nice bridge. There are of course many approaches to PR measurement, some of them even make sense and add value. But the reality is that PR people are poor at measurement and the lack of an agreed measurement framework is holding the business back. Shel and Andy share their thoughts, while undoubted PR measurement guru K.D.Paine makes an unfortunate analogy between the availability of useful, relevant and accurate PR measurement and a mythical figure in a red suit…. There’s now a page dedicated to measurement on the NewPRWiki.

• Constantin Basturea is the go-to guy for a good summary of interesting PR posts.

• This is the 1,337th post to PR Opinions which has now been running for 46 months.

• My favourite Belgian, Serge Cornelus now has a blog.

• Stuart Bruce’s blog has moved to a new address http://www.stuartbruce.biz/

• If it’s true that those that can, do; those that can’t, teach, could the same be said about bloggers? 🙂

• The Bulldog Reporter provides some useful pitching tips. [Via Bob LeDrew]

• I believe the PR industry would be better served by less talk about new media and more action in the real world – you know, the one that pays the bills.

• As always the Onion hits the target, this time it takes aim at the overweight thirty something marketers whose goal in life is to pretend they’re not thirty something overweight marketers [Via Colin McKay]

• If you’re wondering why ‘you don’t get no respect’ check out CMO’s great press release quotes from 2005.
  “Some of my clients are searching online for different types of dog clothes. My job is to find one place to send them to. I’d like to discuss an arrangement with you about this.”
  [Courtesy of Andy Lark]

• I’m in two minds whether this is relevant or not, but it’s certainly interesting [More from Trevor Cook]

• Steve Lubetkin pens a very interesting post on PR’s continuing loss of credibility. I think it’s an important issue and until PR people recognize that we are in the communication business, it’s one that will continue to haunt us – probably forever.

• Shel and Neville continue to deliver the PR podcast goods with episode 96!

• Piaras Kelly is hosting an Irish PR Directory.

• As an unabashed fan of Dilbert, one of my favourite blog entries of 2005 is unsurprisingly from Scott Adams’ blog:
  “If you are new to the Internet, allow me to explain how to debate in this medium. When one person makes any kind of statement, all you need to do is apply one of these methods to make it sound stupid. Then go on the offensive.”
  [Via MS&L’s BlogWorks

• I couldn’t help but laugh at Satirewire’s interview with a Search Engine [Via DrewB]

• Irish journo John Collins paints a depressing picture of the Irish technology media landscape.

• 2005 PR blog launch award goes to Mike Paul. Out of hundreds of new PR blogs this year, PR Week chose to publicise Mike’s. Fair play…

• Laughter is sometimes the best medicine [Courtesy of Guillaume de Gardier]

• As a rule I don’t like anonymous blogs but Clogger is worth a visit.

• I’ve three speaking enagagements coming up in the next couple of months:
  January 23rd a talk on Technology and PR in Cork
  February 9th a Public Relations Institute of Ireland workshop on PR and New Media
  February 15th “Delivering the New PR” a follow up event to the recent conference in Sunderland with Elizabeth Albrycht, Stuart Bruce, Neville Hobson, Chris Rushton, and Philip Young. The event takes place at the Lancashire Cricket Club in Manchester

• Am I a bad PR blogger if I don’t bother to use Technorati tags?

Well belated Christmas greetings to one and all. As you can see from the most brief perusal of my date-based archives I am still struggling with the whole Work-Life-Blog balance and as a result posting continues to be lighter than I’d like, but that’s the way it is, for the moment anyhow.

The recent blog hiatus has provided me with some useful perspectives on the world of blogging in general and PR specifically. On the plus side the PR blog ecosystem continues to grow nicely and the new and existing PR bloggers are publishing some very interesting content and viewpoints. On the negative side there’s still far too much navel gazing going on. In my not so humble opinion too many people continue to be distracted by the shiny new new thing rather than getting on with life and using the tools already in place. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong keeping an eye of what’s going on, but if we’re in the business of public relations let’s start driving best practice on what we already have before running off like a child on Christmas morning.

That leads me to the to my second observation – nothing terribly new here but it should be re-stated – if bloggers want to assume the mantel of “citizen journalists” then they damn well better be willing to take the responsibility that comes along with it. It’s one thing to publish a stream of conciousness (I do it all the time) but it’s another thing to be reporting things as fact when the only research you’ve done is a quick Technorati or RSS scan. I have always maintained that the quality of online information will be self-regulating. If all bloggers do is re-print unfounded accusations, or give their opinion on something they know nothing about or haven’t bothered researching, then the wheels are going to come off the blog train sooner than you think. The problem with blogs is that everyone thinks they’re an expert and everyone believes their *views* represent the truth. They don’t. If you want to provide readers with your opinions, then the least you can do is a little research.

Man re-reading that I sound like the grinch! But at least I researched this post. I asked myself a number of questions and I then verified the answers with myself. So you see I do practice what I preach – unless I’m tired or bored. That’s my disclaimer.