Category: General

Being the master of multi-media communications (part 2)…

The increasingly digital nature of information presents a lot of challenges for all communicators.  In particular it provides a more ‘interesting’ environment for Public Relations practitioners who have to track, monitor and manage all this information. While we all hope we can avoid mishaps, there are enough sobering episodes around to make us all re-examine how we view computers, e-mail and the Internet.

In the latest horror story, the Holmes Report  outlines how Shepardson Stern + Kaminsky, a New York-based advertising and public relations firm, inadvertently e-mailed confidential internal client documents to journalists. The firm is blaming it on a virus.

I’m sure we all sympathise with the victims, however here are some tips to help you avoid this happening to you:

1. Invest in up-to-date Anti-Virus software NOW – it’s not expensive and it will save these type of mishaps as well as data loss through infection of your computers.  Also make sure you update your virus checker at least once a week, but preferably daily – most of the latest packages will do this automatically for you.
2. Carefully consider the tools you use.  Remember that most viruses are written for the most popular operating systems and applications.  Today that means Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. A lot of us use Microsoft Outlook for contacts, calendering and e-mail.  Given the propensity of viruses for Outlook, consider alternatives such as ACT!, Goldmine, Organizer, or even a generic database such as Access or FileMaker.
3. Manage your files.  Rather than leaving files as attachments in your e-mail client, consider saving the file to your hard drive or network drive and deleting the e-mail.  This will reduce the size of your e-mail application, ensure all the files you need are in one place and increase the performance of your e-mail client.
4. Delay your e-mail.  In most e-mail packages you can send e-mail immediately or you can choose to store outgoing e-mail for a specified length of time.  Delay it!

Being the master of multi-media communications…

These days Public Relations professionals have to be skilled in a wide diversity of media.  We are no longer simply the owner of press releases and backgrounders.  Today we have to be able to write good online copy, use e-mails for sharp pitching etc.

A fundamental part of these skills includes an understanding of the best way to communicate online.  We need to understand that because the Internet consists of users with different PCs, different browsers and different quality connections to the Internet, the best approach to web communications is catering for the lowest common denominator.

PR people must also inherently understand that their audience want relevant information that is quickly and easily accessible.

Richard Bailey wrote on Friday of the sad demise of Gnash Communications one of the leading UK dotcom PR agencies (think Lastminute.com).  Gnash were an early entrant into our PR Flash Hall of Shame which showcases PR agencies who believe that advertising through Flash is the best means of communicating over the Internet.

I’ve added a few more new entries to the Flash Hall of Shame (you can see a full listing here).

Whenever I add a company to the list, I regularly get angry e-mails from the listee and as a result I have put together an explanation of why Flash is bad. I even point them to the creators of Flash who themselves warn against the use of Flash intros and if that isn’t enough I point them to the ever-enjoyable Skip Intro.

I’m also very happy to remove anyone from the Hall of Shame who repents and goes back to website design as it is supposed to be… HTML.

Responding with no response at all…

So your company is braving a difficult economic environment. Rumors abound about your senior management jumping ship, and who will replace them.  To make matters more complex, you are announcing your results on February 5th 2002 so you are in the “quiet period”.  What do you do?  Or what do you NOT do?

Well Sprint are in this very situation.  There are rumors everywhere about the company’s senior management, but the company is obviously under pressure because of the quiet period and most probably the machinations of the remaining senior management team. It’s not easy, but here’s what I don’t think you should do.

Don’t put out a press release entitled: “Sprint Responds to Current Speculation” and then write in the body:

“Sprint has declined to comment on media speculation regarding management succession.

As previously announced, Sprint will release its fourth quarter financial results on Feb. 5, 2003. The results for both the FON Group and PCS Group are expected to be consistent with the guidance provided by the company on Dec. 12, 2002. “

That’s it… Not exactly solving anything is it?  They would’ve been better off saying nothing.

The Kansas City Star has analysis here.

Measuring your reputation online…

According to a story in DestinationCRM, MediaMap the purveyors of online media databases, and latterly the providers of PR-specific CRM, have partnered with Cymfony to provide a means of analyzing online reputation through scanning magazines online, websites, discussion groups etc..

Cymfony themselves offer a “Brand Dashboard” product, which is I guess the basis of the MediaMap deal.  It looks impressive and runs through your web browser.

Pricing is on application.

PR Opinions now on http://www.natterjackpr.com 

Phew, after an evening spent tweaking FTP settings, exporting files and uploading and re-loading, PR Opinions is now up and running.  The reasons for the change from Blogger were many-fold but primarily performance and ease of use for me.

The PR Opinions RSS feed has changed as well.  The new RSS feed is: http://www.natterjackpr.com/rss.xml.

My contact details haven’t changed, e-mail me tpmurphy@addr.com

And for the record the Google page ranking is currently at 3…

The media landscape continues to be ravaged with more and more layoffs. But you know things have really got out of hand when an entire editorial team puts itself up for sale on eBay.

Although the eBay entry now says “Complete former staff of Z—- T— U—–” following some obvious legal wranglings, it originally said the “Complete staff of ZDNet Tech Update”.

The offer includes staff on the East and West coast including:Executive editor, Senior editor/producers (All San Francisco) Executive editor / columnist, Managing editor / copy editor, Senior producers, Senior editor / producers, Senior content management developer / Vignette programmer (All Boston).

The auction ends on February 5th and the current highest bid is $2.25….

THE AUTHOR OF “THE DEATH OF SPIN“, George Pitcher has an article on Corner Bar PR discussing how good public relations can’t substitute good business practice.

PR WEEK HAS AN INTERESTING story on the current health of technology trade shows.

BURSON-MARSTELLER HAS BEEN appointed as the agency of record for Stellar Internet Monitoring – whose products monitor the “misuse” of a firm’s Internet resources. ahem.

KETCHUM AND DDB (Omnicom siblings) have merged their French operations.

BROADGATE CONSULTANTS A NY BASED corporate communications firm has joined up with the global PR firm network Public Relations Organizations International.

THE PR MAESTRO AT leading UK football club, Manchester United, is grilled by the public online!

If you’ve any PR news or views let me know.

Can anyone spot the similarities between two Public Relations announcements (1, 2) made for two clients by the same PR firm? I’ll grant you there are some differences. 🙂

A colleague yesterday pointed out that weblogs will never become mainstream until people forget about how they work and what they offer and just use them. His analogy was the telephone and I thought he’s absolutely right.

However, given that weblogs have barely leaked outside the global community of technology enthusiasts we probably still have some way to go. Last week during a course I was giving to non-technology people, I polled attendees on who had heard of or used weblogs or blogs and the answer was 0.00%.

Now granted this isn’t a scientific study, but weblogs aren’t prime time…. yet.

There are signs they are getting there however. The Register has a story today on a guy in Washington who was fired for his blog. There’s proof, if it was required, that weblogs are growing in importance!

The New York Post stopped an article by Manhattan-based PR Jeff Barge in which Barge accused his industry of being in the “deception business”. The Post says they dropped the story becuase it was too “self-promotional”. Thanks to Deborah Branscum for the link.