Murphy's Law

Here are some personal picks from my most recent trawl of the RSS feeds…

What is PR?

• OK this is late (from last February) but worth a listen.  It’s a podcast from the BBC World Service program The Bottom Line, with some well known PR executives having a lively discussion on what Public Relations is. Recommended.

Traditional Media…

• I love this column, it is a great summary of the changing worlds of traditional and social media, do yourself a favor and read it: Gene Weingarten column mentions Lady Gaga.

• Interesting article on the present and future of journalism from the BBC.

Issues Management…

• Shel Holtz regularly talks a lot of sense about handling issues effectively.  He has an interesting take on the recent mobile phone antenna issue and I’d strongly recommend a read of his post on crisis communication fundamentals. [@shelholtz]

PR Skills…

• Liam Fitzpatrick has generated a lot of discussion with his suggestion that writing skills shouldn’t be prioritized over other communications skills. 

I’m not suggesting that a communicator should be allowed to get away with bad writing. All I’m saying is that it doesn’t make sense to prioritise writing over any other skill – if a single skill is all that matters why shouldn’t it be film-making, web design or spamming twitter?

Dave Fleet [@davefleet] and Shel Holtz don’t agree.

PR thinking….

You should listen to this interesting CIPR interview with Seth Godin for this quote alone:

“PR is a human form of spam”

 

[@andismit]

Great Storytelling…

Changing face of PR….

• If you’re working in PR, you really should spend some time on the PR on Facebook page. No really. You should.

• Neville Hobson reports that the press release isn’t dead. And so say all of us.  It isn’t, it still serves a purpose.

• Really interesting research from a HP study on Twitter and influence that found that the number of followers on Twitter doesn’t necessarily translate into influence.

• Josh Bernoff proposes a new model for PR and influencers. The problem of course is that people who would avail of this model are probably already doing a great job of reaching and engaging with folks.  The muppets sending irrelevant spam, well they’ll keep doing it.

An antidote for social media twaddle…

• If like me you get grumpy reading the twaddle many of our self styled social media gurus peddle on Twitter as expertise, then this is the site for you.  The URL isn’t for the faint hearted.

• This has to be my favorite t-shirt idea at the moment.  It’s from Despair.com via @johnkerrnz.

You also have to love these modern retro posters, via BuzzFeed.

Struggling with LinkedIn?

• Here’s a great intro from @krishnade.

Finally…

Have pity on those of us with a stationary problem.  For us this is real innovation.