Category: General

Things have been quiet on the blog recently.  There’s an easy explanation – I was on vacation and have been trying to get back on an even keel since I returned.  Of course what happened the day before I went on vacation was far more stressful than coming back to a full in-box…

Friday before vacation was the usual rush to make sure everything was done, handed off, prepared etc. I had meetings all morning and when I checked my muted mobile phone for the first time at around 1pm I spotted about seven missed calls from Sorcha – not a good sign.

I transpired that my son and heir (aged 2.5 years) decided that it would be a great idea to investigate how keys can lock doors and he managed to lock Sorcha in our bedroom.  That would’ve been OK, except that her mobile and the cordless home phone were downstairs.

A full half hour tutorial on how to unlock a door followed, but the little man was unable (or unwilling) to complete his training, got bored and decided to go into the bathroom, put the plug in the sink and see how long it would take for the water to reach the overflow hole – not long as it transpired.

Meanwhile, Sorcha is hanging out of our bedroom window trying to attract the attention of passers-by. No luck. An hour later he’s back at the bedroom door telling Mum he’s a little wet but is going downstairs.

Then the electricity in the house goes out.

Half an hour later, Sorcha manages to grab the attention of a lovely man driving a truck, who kindly throws his mobile phone up to Sorcha, who is then able to call someone (not the errant husband who has his mobile on silent, but that’s another story) to let her out.

Meanwhile the bathroom is under water, the electricity is blown and the kitchen has become a wet room with a destroyed ceiling and walls. But on the plus side has a fantastic internal waterfall feature – think a rainforest in your kitchen.

Junior is alive and well, so when you consider the potential outcomes I think we got off lightly.  For parents – remember to keep the keys away from the toddlers….  oh and if your mobile is on silent – check it from time to time….

I found out today that David Stewart, an Irish journalist and blogger passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer. He was only 46 years of age.

My thoughts go to his family, he’ll be missed.

May he rest in piece.

I’ve been in Copenhagen for the past few days and have finally managed to catch up on some of my RSS reading and podcast listening.

Here’s some stuff I found interesting…

• Elizabeth Albrycht has an article in PRSA tactics on the use of RSS.
• Episode 172 and 173 of the ever excellent For Immediate Release.
• John Wagner: PR isn’t changing, it’s evolving – Hear Hear!
• Leo Bottary of Hill & Knowlton offers a series of posts for people new to PR [Hat tip to Kami Huyse]
• Speaking of Kami, I missed the recent PR meet up in Second Life.
• Lynne Truss of Eats, Shoots & Leaves fame is bringing her message to the kids. [Hat tip to Richard Bailey]

 

 

Tivoli, Copenhagen

There were a lot of great questions and observations at the event in Edinburgh last week, but two particular questions struck a chord with me.

1) Are blogs ready for every market?

Although there’s no empirical data that I’ve seen or would stand over, I think it’s fair to say that common sense tells us that the size and maturity of blog readership differs from one geography and market to another. 

For example, in the US technology industry, blogs are mature and influential, however, in a given UK market the immediate influence and first-hand readership is probably significantly lower.

First-hand is the key term however.

A less sophisticated Internet user doesn’t know or care if they’re using a blog.  They just see a website.

They probably find information using one of the better search engines* and whatever relevant results arrive they navigate to. It’s unlikely they’ll add your RSS feed (yet) but that doesn’t matter – what matters is that they’ve found and are reading your content or opinions. 

Using blogs to deliver this content is a powerful tool in itself.  The combination of the blog’s SEO friendly format with the power of modern search engines means that your content can be incredibly valuable even if the current readership is small.

Information overload is always going to limit the number of feeds you monitor (without more sophisticated intelligence) so the “long tail” effect is a powerful one – particularly in the, as of yet, nascent online community. Of course first-hand readership is important – but it’s not the only measure.

 

2) But surely some subjects are just too boring to blog about?

Are they? In practically every sector around the globe there is an ecosystem of producers, suppliers and customers. That presents some opportunities from a blog creation perspective.

When this question was posed it was in relation to a drinks manufacturer who had started an (inane) blog about its products.  The blog content was appalling – blowing it’s own trumpet – with no value for the reader. The result is a blog that will never deliver the results its creators were aiming for.

But does that mean that certain companies or sectors will never have suitable content for a blog? Nope.

It’s not the blog that’s the problem it’s the content creators.  Think how and why your blog could be interesting.  It could be supporting your community efforts, covering company news or views.  The alternatives are endless.  The lazy option is to blow your own trumpet – the successful option is researching what your audience would value.

tags: PR, Public Relations, blogs, SEO

 

*Cut me some slack, it’s the search engine I use 🙂

Unfortunately this post was delayed much longer than I’d hoped but at least now I’ve more content to link to!

Last week’s event in Edinburgh went very well.  There was great engagement from the audience and, as always, it was fantastic to catch up with Chris, Elizabeth, Neville, Philip and Stuart.

• Listen to Neville’s podcast with a number of the delegates including Andrea Conway, Scott Douglas, David Connor and Adrian Mahoney.
• Listen to Neville’s MP3 of a brief closing discussion with himself, Philip, Stuart and myself.
• Read Neville’s post on the event.
• Read Philip’s post.
• Read Stuart’s post.

Just as we’ve finished Edinburgh we’ve agreed to do one final event in the “Delivering New PR” series.  It’ll take place in London on Friday, November 10th 2006 in the Marriott Hotel, Regents Park.  Following that event we’re going to review the event, content and format with a view to launching a follow up series in 2007.  The event is being organised by the ever efficient Nicky and Andy at Don’t Panic Projects.

You can find out more here.

Questions and hopefully some answers… (L-R: Philip, Stuart, Tom, Elizabeth and Neville)

tags: PR, Public Relations, Edinburgh, Delivering the New PR

Tomorrow I’m off to Edinburgh for the latest installment of the “Delivering the New PR” conference which looks at the intersection of PR with all those new fangled blog things.

It’ll be great to catch up with Chris, Elizabeth, Neville, Nicky, Philip, Stuart and the gang.

I’ve always been impressed, that for a group that Philip pulled together via our blog personas, we get on incredibly well and always have a very enjoyable, albeit short time together.

The Sunday Herald published a preview of the event last weekend with some commentary from Neville and Stuart. And I see Stuart has reached the zenith of online chic with a name check in The Register!

I have an affliction.  I am one of those poor unfortunate moths attracted to the bright light of the new new thing. There’s nothing more I love than a new download or unwrapping a nice piece of new hardware.  However, even with this predilection I have a problem.  Time.

One of the latest online wonders is Second Life. [See Neville Hobson, Gary Goldhammer, Jeremy Pepper and Text 100 to link but a few]. It’s a new online virtual environment where you can meet and interact with other virtual visitors – I realize that’s a very basic description but it’ll do for the moment.

Regardless of my love for the new new thing, I haven’t dabbled in Second Life. I’m not sure I can fit it in.  This is a growing issue. 

There’s so much great innovation taking place, there are new services, channels, applications and content, but from a PR perspective, how will your audience manage all this information?

The modern world is a crazy, complex place. Let’s look at a tech-savvy sample audience member. What does their day look like?

• They have a home phone – and voicemail
• They have a mobile phone – and voicemail
• They have a work phone – and voicemail
• They travel to work accompanied by advertising hoardings 
• They have personal e-mail
• They have work e-mail
• they have mobile e-mail
• They have instant messaging
• They probably use text messaging
• They receive post
• They receive faxes
• They have conference calls
• They have meetings
• They are subjected to drive-by meetings when trying to concentrate
• They listen to the radio
• They watch television
• They read a newspaper
• They visit websites
• They subscribe to newsletters
• They subscribe to RSS feeds
• They browse the Interweb using Search Engines
• They participate in social networking
• They have a job
• They have a family
• They have friends
• They have pets
• They have chores
• They have interests

This list isn’t complete. 

How do we manage all these media elements?  How do we communicate through the noise?  What tools should we use?  How will our audience manage the complexity? These are pressing questions. 

Right now, contrary to the hype monkeys, people still rely in the main on traditional media, but as media becomes more fragmented, how do you communicate via vast varieties of channels?

It’s fair to say that we, as a profession, currently do a poor job of communicating with journalists in a relevant manner.  One of the most common claims is “irrelevant pitches”.  Now, if we can’t even manage simple information preference from a relatively small group, how will PR participate in “conversations” with millions of individuals – all with their own preferences?

This is a big question and one that will probably only be answered in time.  We can of course make guesstimates that tools such as RSS provide a great way of aggregating content and therefore may become a very popular tool for navigating the huge volume of news and noise – but what content will be aggregated?

In my opinion, the one thing that is for certain, is that consumers are developing increasingly advanced filters.  These filters will ensure that only relevant, interesting information that’s delivered when and where they want it, will be received and processed.

As the noise grows and the media fragments the challenge of reaching individuals will become a more complex proposition.

If anyone tells you they know the answer, you should also ask them how much they want for the nice bridge they’re selling.

To quote Donald Rumsfeld:

“we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

That sums up the current PR conundrum very nicely.

It’s also one of the reasons I haven’t jumped into Second Life.  I only have the one life and there’s too much going on. That’s something I think we’ll find is a common refrain in the coming years.

Richard Bailey writes in defence of the blog following yet another swipe at the genre from CIPR chief Colin Farrington. I’m all for pragmatism.  I don’t buy the hype, but then I don’t buy the opposite argument either. 

Blogs are here to stay but like any good visitor they’ll stay alongside the original residents – in this case traditional media channels. [Aside: I abhor the MSM moniker]

I thought the comments to the post were quite interesting.  It appears there’s a few people around the blogosphere – no doubt rabid blog enthusiasts – who are dying for Edelman to fail in their new media experiment.  I don’t understand that.

Now don’t get me wrong, Richard Edelman’s recent preponderance for slipping into politics, name dropping or self-pontification isn’t something I support, but I think Edelman should be praised for their willingness to commit real resources into these new media opportunities.

They are one of very few firms that is taking the potential of online communication seriously.  Anyone working in PR and interested in online communication should applaud that – IMHO. [By the way it appears that many of Edelman’s greatest detractors are annonymous – my new policy is that there’s no link love for the annonymous]. Phil Gomes has an interesting look back at his first year at Edelman.

tags: PR, Public Relations, blogs, CIPR

As you are probably aware Trevor Cook and Paull Young in Australia have done some great work kicking off an anti-astroturfing initiative. [Kami Huyse has a new post on it.]

Watching television the other night, something I do less and less these days, I noticed a television ad for Nestle breakfast cereals that included prominent signage for “Brand Power” which seemed to be some third party endorser.  It set off some alarm bells. Now this may be well known to all of you – in fact there’s a lot of links on Technorati about BrandPower – but I’d never seen it before.

A quick visit to their site and you’re hit with the message “Brand Value – Facts and Value”. 

They describe BrandPower thus:

Brand Power is an advertising vehicle used by leading manufacturers to demonstrate the features and benefits of their products. We’re not an independent body – manufacturers pay to use our service. However, all claims made in a Brand Power commercial must be legally
substantiated to ensure that they are true.

Our objective is to avoid gimmicks and hype in the promotion of products. Instead we accurately articulate key reasons a particular product is worthy
of your attention when choosing at your local store.

Indeed. So it seems Brand Power (part of the Buchanan Group) does cheap infomercial type advertising for consumer brands.  It seems that the USP is that the production is cheap and cheerful and works on the premise that consumers are suitably stupid that the term “Brand Power” will make them think that this product is more reputable than you would otherwise.  “Wow that product is being advertised by Brand Power – I must purchase it.” Yep. That’s it.

So is it astroturfing? Nope.  Just crap marketing.

tags: astroturfing, pr, marketing,

[Cross-Posted from PR Opinions] The PR Opinions blog first emerged blinking into the bright lights of the Interweb in March 2002. In the intervening four years (and over 1,400 posts), this blog has witnessed some incredibly interesting developments in the world of Public Relations and it has helped me to meet and connect with like-minded practitioners around the globe.

However, it’s time to make a change.

When I started PR Opinions there were only three other PR blogs [Jim, Phil and Richard] and I started it simply as a way to store links to interesting online PR content – del.icio.us 2002 style if you like. Today there are over 400 PR blogs, generating an amazing amount of content and opinions on the PR arena. PR Opinions’ raison d’etre is no longer valid.

So it’s time for a change. I’m putting PR Opinions in mothballs and moving to a shiny new blog which will continue to discuss the finer elements of Public Relations, still moan at the hype, but will also cover more diverse subjects that take my fancy.

My mother’s already changed her RSS feed subscription so I imagine traffic levels will remain unchanged. I’ve migrated all the archived PR Opinions posts and comments to a WordPress blog at: http://www.tpemurphy.com/propinions/

I’ve already disabled the comments feature at natterjackpr.com due to the volume of spam.

If you’d like to make a comment feel free to leave one here.

Thanks to everyone who made PR Opinions so enjoyable, I hope you’ll stick around.

Tom Murphy

17th August, 2006

 

New PR Opinions Archive: http://www.tpemurphy.com/propinions

tags: PR, Public Relations, Murphy’s Law