Category: General

A welcome new addition to the PR genr�Greg Brooks has started a PR-related weblog.

Also Alain Jourdier has a marketing blog here.

MediaMap’s ExpertPR newsletter typically delivers a very rich source of opinions on a variety of PR issues and the latest issue doesn’t disappoint.

 Richard Laermer on the idea of PR Licenses – he’s not an advocate… I’m not so sure.

 Marc Hausman on Competitive Positioning.

 Alan Caruba on Internet-driven PR.

 Naseem Javed on the importance of a well chosen corporate image.

 B.L Ochman on tips for pitching blogs.

 Corinne Brinkley and Rachel Volante on the differences between print and Web media.

 Finally Ashley Elpern shares some of the useful lessons from a MediaMap webinar on high-tech media relations held with Mitch Wagner and Larry Walsh.

Now that should be plenty of on the job reading for your commute / coffee break / lunch etc.

The UK IPR has released a 78-page report entitled “Unlocking the Potential of Public Relations: Developing Good Practice”.

The report, which was funded by the IPR and the UK Department of Trade and Industry, surveyed 812 professionals, of whom over 50% worked in-house and over 40% in agencies.

It’s a weighty tome and although it is specific to the UK, I think it makes interesting reading for practitioners in any country.

Thanks to the ever vigilent Richard Bailey for the link.

Today’s UK Guardian has an article on the inter-relationship between journalists and PR people.

The article won’t surprise anyone who has read any of the previous Journalist vs PR pro pieces, though the quote from the UK Sunday Times last May is a little on the shocking side:

“Hacks still naively pursue something they like to call the truth. Their problem is that it no longer exists. For truth has been destroyed by public relations executives, or ‘scum’ as we like to call them.”

The author, who is from the PR side of the argument addresses this view and comes to the conclusion that:

“But the uneasy marriage between PR and journalism is far from over. We need to spend more, not less, time together, and remember why we need each other in the first place.”

Which does make sense.  However I do wonder if we need to continue to highlight the extreme views on either side of the PR-Journalism debate.

Yes there are unprofessional, incompetent PR people

Yes there are ‘difficult’ journalists

Yes some industries do as a rule attempt to manipulate the media more than others (think Politics, “A-List” celebrities etc..)

However, the simple fact is that for all this hysteria, we have to work together. Everyone of the PR side of the house has to work harder to ensure we provide what journalists need and that we (and our colleagues) perform professionally. That’s the job folks.

(Thanks to Joanne Coffey for the link)

CNN has a short feature on how blogging is being adopted by businesses.  Some interesting quotes 😉

As Weblogs continue their lazy progress across the Internet there has been a lot of new research appearing that looks at the number of blogs or weblogs and what the biggest new trends are.

These research reports are interesting, though not something I’d hang a business plan on.

But what’s more interesting is actual numbers.  Rather than taking a sample and extrapolating the Internet, there are some interesting stats emerging that are based on actual numbers.

David Sifry is the brains and the brawn behind Technorati – the web service that allows you to track the hot topics being covered in blogs and more importantly for bloggers the sites that are linking to your content.

Anyhow, David has some really interesting statistics on blog growth:

• November 2002: Technorati was adding 2,000 – 3,000 new blogs a day
• March 2003: That figure had grown to 4,000 – 5,000 new blogs per day
• November 2003: Technorati is adding 8,000 – 9,000 new blogs daily
• They are currently tracking in excess of 1.2 million weblogs (1,229,516  to be precise)
• Based on their figures a new weblog is created every 11 seconds and a weblog is updated every 0.86 seconds

Now that’s growth!

[Link courtesy of Boing Boing]

Business 2.0 has an interesting look at United Airlines’ viral campaign around the launch of its new low-cost airline, Ted.

Not much more to say on that particular item…

Just to let you know, the anti-spam product I wrote about yesterday, Qurb, has stopped over 600 spam messages so far with a 99% accuracy rating.

Phil Gomes, PR Firm G2B Group’s resident blogger and RSS advocate broke some new ground recently by undertaking a client pitch via RSS and his blog.

He invited any journalists who were subscribed to his RSS feed, of which there are quite a few, whether they might be interested in meeting with executives from Cornice Inc. a client of his.

I’m not sure of the take up for interviews, but Phil has been in receipt of a lot of plaudits from some major journalists. Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News and Mark Jones of Infoworld have both been singing his praises.

Mark Jones comments that:

“…the media, would love to see more PR people publish product and company news via RSS. Ultimately I’d like to see PR companies offer RSS feeds for specific technology categories. For example, Scott Tyler Shafer could use an RSS news reader to subscribe to networking, storage and processor press releases from the PR firms he knows.”

Just think about that for a second, because that nicely sums up the huge opportunities RSS offers to every PR professional.  If journalists are subscribed to your PR RSS feed it opens a whole new type of communication.

Kudos to Phil Gomes and a plug for Cape Clear, we’ve been offering our press releases over RSS for ages 🙂

If you don’t have a clue what I am talking about, or have never come across RSS before you can read a 101 Guide here, read Phil’s thoughts on how RSS and PR collide here and read other RSS and PR related topics here.

That should keep you going.

 

I’m a regular reader of Good Morning Silicon Valley (GMSV) which is a fantastic mix of the topical and the off-beat in the world of technology.

In today’s issue, GMSV’s Editor, John Paczkowski points to a misquotation on Microsoft’s press site for Windows Media Player (read anti-Apple site).

Microsoft’s PR team have a quote purported to be from Paczkowski on the limitations of Apple’s iTunes service. So far so good eh?  Well it was until it turns out that the quote is actually (very very clearly) from a Microsoft spokesperson in a story Paczkowski wrote. Tut tut tut.

The original story is here and in case Microsoft pull the quote, which is highly likely, they include the entire quote from the story but remove the Microsoft spokesperson. This is either: a) an honest mistake or b) some very lame attempt at “spin” in its worst form.

The latest issue of GMSV should be posted here later today.  The referring story is entitled “I’m a Microsoft mouthpiece”.