Category: General

Utilizing the power of the blog….
Phil Gomes recently recieved feedback on his ExpertPR article on blogging asking has he ever actually used blogging for clients.

Well here’s an example of successful PR blogging. A couple of months ago, Google released the APIs to their search engine as a Web Service. Obviously this was very interesting to our company as a Web Services vendor. Some guys in marketing came up with an application for the Google API using Web Services… they created Googlemail 🙂 Now you can send an e-mail to google@capeclear.com with your search terms in the subject line and it will send you back the top ten results from Google.

Whilst not exactly changing the direction of the industry, it’s a nice example of how easily you can create useful Web Services and it actually has some useful applications such as the ability to store searches, access searches from handhelds etc. We promoted Googlemail through relevant weblogs and have had over 30,000 different people using it. It’s also generated quite a bit of ink. The fact that we contacted bloggers with an interest in this area, opened it to their readers and to other bloggers and quite quickly the word spread. It was an interesting and worthwhile exercise. Furthermore, some purists didn’t appreciate it and this created some excellent educated debate on the whole area.

Here’s a recent story from UNIX Insider that appeared on Googlemail.

So there’ s no question that in the networked world within which we live you can use weblogs to promote a product or message, however be careful. Your message must be relevant, your product must be relevant, you should be upfront about your agenda and you should know and understand a blogger’s interests BEFORE you get in touch. Do these guidelines sound familiar at all? Good PR practice is good PR practice regardless of the medium or the message.

[Comments?]

Brunswick Group get busy in TV land….
The WSJ also reports (guess who has been catching up on his reading!) that troubled celebrity Martha Stewart has turned to the Brunswick Group for assistance in her current stock scandal, and while that’s keeping their New York office busy, their UK office is helping the BBC in a bidding war for the now defunct ITV digital station.

PR and the national agenda…
The Wall Street Journal reports that Estonia is preparing for its inclusion in the Europe Union by launching “a slick but confusing public relations campaign called Brand Estonia. Created with the aid of London-based PR firm Interbrand, Brand Estonia includes such selling points as…numerous natural marshes [and] morasses.” The campaign also seeks to distance Estonia from the Soviets. Other key messages in the Estonia PR onslaght is “If you like your blondes abundant — but you know that Scandinavians can just be so boring and clinical, come see what a healthy dose of quirkiness, irony and experimentation in Estonia will do for you.”

When good analysis turns bad…and costs you your job….
Story today from the Register about how Apple’s Australian PR Manager has been fired for sending out favorable Gartner research on the superior usability of the Apple over Wintel-based PCs. Seemingly Gartner hadn’t approved the release and when the story got picked up world-wide they hit the roof….be careful out there!

The poor misunderstood press release….
It seems that everyone has decided that the poor unloved press release needs a good kicking. This is the latest rant from MarketingProfs. But while this article is billed as ‘standing up against the press release’ it’s not, it’s an article about the need for a rounded Public Relations program. That is good, but the press release is not the source of all evil.

I don’t mean to teach anyone to suck eggs but surely this is common sense to everyone and has very little to do with the usefulness of otherwise of a press release?

Of course PR is more than press releases. Of course spamming press releases with no news content is bad. But please don’t forget that today we live in a multi-dimensional media environment. A well written, targeted and relevant press release still has a lot of value to offer – not on its own – but as part of a program.

Smearing the press release is wrong. It’s a PR tool that sits alongside a wide variety of other tools that are valuable when used correctly. All this anti-press release stuff I’m reading recently is a little OTT. Watch the baby there….

PR, the Media and the Internet…
Recent story from O’Dwyers on some media views about PR and the Internet. Nothing too controversial in it!

More on the industry analyst conundrum….
Further to my earlier piece on industry analysts, the Wall Street Journal has a story today entitled “Glowing Report on Firm X Isn’t What You Might Think” (Subscription Required). The piece deals with paid research reports. However I think Lee Gomes (the author) is barking up the wrong tree. Vendors have been paying analyst firms to write research reports for years. There’s no hidden agenda here.

The real issue is the firms that HAVE a hidden agenda, who make decisions purely based on dollars – and that’s clearly NOT the case with firms in this piece. The issue is where an ‘analyst’ will only take a briefing if you pay. I’d love to name and shame those firms. They are all tiny. The established firms named in the WSJ have some of the best analysts on their books and they offer above board services – they are not the main issue IMHO – and my company doesn’t buy those services.

When communicators fail at communication….
It’s a difficult business environment out there. No question. So any new business activities are to be applauded. Recently I recieved quite a few new business pitches from PR agencies. Some were very impressive, and I have kept their details, some have been absolutely appalling.

Looking over the really bad pitches, you can’t help but marvel at the irony. Here are organizations seeking to win your communications business and they fail at the very discipline that they want you to pay them money for.

Here’s the latest example for you. Today I received two packages in the mail. (Sidenote: I think well put together, well targeted paper-based direct mail is increasingly effective in a time when most commercial messages come over the wire) One from a west-coast agency was targeted, followed up with a call, personalized, good quality relevant materials and it was obvious they have visited our site and done some research. [Details filed]

The second was paper spam from a New York agency. No personalization, just a job title, and they spelt the company name incorrectly (!) and included a range of typos in the letter. Now I had never heard of this company before, and to be honest it was more likely I’d use their services before I became aware of them! If they can’t even communicate, target, pitch a potential client effectively (or even professionally) how can I expect them to work with media, analysts, investors or staff? The mind boggles sometimes.

Flash Hall of Shame (#10)… How not to use Flash on a PR website 101…Ricochet PR (kindly submitted by Phil Gomes)

Flash Hall of Shame (#9)… McGrath/Power