Murphy's Law

These days it’s nice when a posting on a blog makes me smile.

Shanti Bradford has done just that. Commenting on the propensity of certain bloggers to make sweeping generalizations on the impact of blogs, with no research, no proof points, no knowledge, Shanti is declaring that:

Let’s just get it clear right now. I’ll say it first.

Everything Is Dead.

Everything. Is. Dead.

Blogging killed it all. Blogging is the mass murderer of branding, advertising, corporate image, corporate communication, corporate ideology, mission statements, public relation, press releases, marketing, blah blah etc etc.

Hurrah! Blogs, smlogs. 

Let’s add some reality to this subject, please.

 

Footnote:

Thanks to Constantin for the link and the nice birthday wishes (though it was October 20!)

Trevor Cook has penned an interesting article for Australia’s Walkley magazine on PR and blogging which looks at the impact of blogs.

“In my view, the real long-term usefulness of blogs for public relations is as a way of getting information into the public arena without having to go through the media gateway. The trade-off, of course, is that information distributed in this way doesn�t come with the third-party validation of an independent media. Bloggers will have to replace this validation over time by building their own reputations for credibility and fairness.”

I hadn’t come across Fullrun prior to my post on the e-consultancy story.

Fullrun provides lots of news and resources for marketing and PR professionals in the technology and telecoms sectors in the UK.

There’s a 30-day trial available at no cost.

 

The e-consultancy in the UK has an interesting article on how blogs, e-mail and other online tools are giving stories, casual comments and online discussions a life of their own….

“Well, we’re about to find out what will happen with this trend. In particular, media insiders in the form of PR people are starting to get very keen on blogging…. Which throws up an interesting quandary – the first rule of PR is don’t become the story. But will PR bloggers be able to resist, as they take on blogging for themselves?”

Footnote:

Links from the above piece: 

• The post in question on Siliconvalleywatcher.
• Drew’s post on the matter.
   

Burson Marsteller has announced that Thomas Nides will take over as Chief Executive Officer next month, replacing existing CEO Christopher Komisarjevsky, who is retiring after ten years in the hot seat.

A new site, Communintelligence has launched as the “Communications and PR Knowledge Portal”.

It’s promoted by an Iowa based marketing communications company:

“Communitelligence.com is a new knowledge-sharing portal built and supported by communication leaders, associations, schools and businesses. Our goal is to help improve organizational and human communication by giving Communication, PR and Marketing professionals instant access to expert-led knowledge communities, learning events, resources, associations, schools and businesses. The site uses leading-edge self-publishing technologies to allow topic experts and members to build comprehensive, ever-evolving, wisdom-sharing communities on key communication topics, from internal communication to intranets to visual literacy and writing.”

It’s worth a look.

Footnote:

I see a certain PR blogger’s firm is a featured listing on the site!

 

Mike Manuel points to a new PR blogger Giovanni Rodriguez from Eastwick Communications.

I have come to the conclusion that my parents didn’t spend an inordinate amount of time debating what to call me.  I mean ‘Tom Murphy’ isn’t exactly exotic or unique.

A cursory search on Google brings up PR people, politicians, software developers and playwrights.

Earlier today I came across a blog from another Tom Murphy called “Representative Press” which covers motives for 9/11 and attacks on President Bush.

There’s no biographical details, but just in case you thought I had a side line on political intrigue… I haven’t.

Back in August I took a look at a whole host of different tools that can help with your day-to-day productivity.

The release of the beta Google desktop adds yet another tool to the mix.  There’s been a lot of comments on the new search tool, here’s my two cents.

First up, to dispel a myth, Google desktop works with Firebird/Mozilla just fine.

As a search tool, Google desktop doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of X1 or DT Search but it doesn’t matter in my opinion.

The advantage of Google desktop is that it’s fast, works as part of your daily browsing habit and doesn’t take over your computer.

I’m already a fan. When I am researching something I primarily use Google, when the results come back, at the top of the page, are results from my hard drive. This has already saved me a lot of time.  It only searches Outlook/Outlook Express e-mail, Office documents and Text files but for my purposes that’s perfect.  It also keeps a record of previous websites you’ve visited (you can turn it off) which is a real productivity feature if you’re browsing a lot.

X1 and DT Search give you more powerful features, but if you’re looking for a tool that will save you time finding information in Microsoft Office and Outlook then I recommend this tool.

It is fast and sits nicely with your existing work practices.

Footnote:

Google have also just released an SMS search facility for US mobile phone users.

Jeremy Pepper has posted a story on Robert French, professor of Public Relations and multimedia at Auburn University in Alabama.

Robert requires all his students to blog as part of their course.  That is a great initiative to get students understanding the dynamics of online communication.

Take a look.

Footnote:

Happy birthday to Jeremy on Thursday. I beat him by a day!