Murphy's Law

The Internet has provided unparalleled access to information all around the world. This reach provides all communicators with inherent challenges in keeping up with developments, managing issues, communicating with audiences etc.

But while this global network has unquestionable benefits, I have felt for some time that as the Internet becomes established, we will begin to see more local content as people expect local information on local events and services.

In effect, I believe we will see a two layer Internet.  The Global network we know and love and then a more specific part that deals with our own environment.

NetRamp, the creators of a new search engine, OffRamp.US seem to agree.

OffRamp.US enables locale-specific searches in the United States. While it isn’t heralding a new revolution, it is an interesting development particularly for tailoring PR for local markets.

The BBC has a story on how consumers find technology jargon baffling.

Nothing new there, except as new consumer-friendly technologies hit the market, such as MP3 players, their uptake is stifled by confusion – even though they have fantastic potential for consumers everywhere.

The research points out that jargon that has been around since the birth of Personal Computing, such as megahertz, still mean nothing.

It’s up to communicators (as it has been for the past twenty years) to break down the barriers for consumers. With the jargon in place, these new technologies remain in the hands of the few.  I wouldn’t like to explain to my mum how she needs a USB 2.0 port in her computer to use her MP3 player. I’ve tried similar experiments and it always ends in tears.

I am amazed a pioneer like Apple hasn’t taken a deeper look at these issues.  After all they have a massive opportunity to reach beyond the innovators into the entire consumer market.

The BBC story was based on research commisioned by AMD and was released as planned!

The occurences of unintentionally leaked information continue unabated.

The latest victim or culprit is AMD.  They accidentally sent reporters a summary of forthcoming press releases which included the launch dates of their next generation of microprocessors.

The more cynical amongst you will point out that maybe it was a clever ploy to stimulate press coverage, hype and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) however I don’t think so.

AMD have alerted their competitors (should that read competitor?) to their plans, giving them plenty of opportunity to put in place counter measures.  In addition, given AMD is a public company, it has also created an expectation that those dates will be met.

The nature of the Internet means that information can be distributed at the click of a button. We all know that.  What surprises me is that even though this is a real threat for every single firm, there has been little done in the way of safety measures.

It might be time to re-think how your client or employer moves information around the organization.

Maybe paper is best! 

 The Publicity Club of Chicago has an excellent report on a recent roundtable they hosted on Public Affairs and its impact on Public Relations. 

 A positive case study on how a South African supermarket chain successfully reacted to a crisis.

 Read how a new UK PR company focused on small business was inspired by (ahem) Oprah Winfrey. It’s called ‘The Editor’s Office‘.

 The Albuquerque Tribune has an interesting story on what PR is.

According to the UK Guardian, Financial Dynamics [FLASH Warning] has been bought in a management buy-out from it’s parent Cordiant for �26stg million.

The news hasn’t made it onto the Financial Dynamics news page.

up2speed have an interesting post on how Dave Winer’s Userland (whose technology enables this blog) have deleted John Robb’s weblog after he pre-announced he was leaving the company.

If that’s the case, it’s the best example I’ve found of why blogs will never replace journalism. Dave has defeated his own argument. While he argues blogs are this self-sustaining life force, the reality is that people have businesses to run and sometimes blogs run contra to what’s best for the firm.  I hope this experience will help him take a more pragmatic (and believable) view of weblogs.

By the way, Rick Bruner from up2speed has kindly commented on my response to Robert Loch’s posting on pay-for-placement blogging. He suggests Robert was kidding. I hope he was!

Is there anything harder in the world than sitting in a conference room and slyly looking through a presentation hand-out and discovering it’s a really long wordy presentation?  The lights dim, up comes the first slide and you know there’s fifty two to go.

An even worse scenario, and one that PR people have to face all the time, is a press tour where you know you’ll have to view the same slides time and time again, with probably the same jokes and asides.  By the third meeting you are mouthing along with the presenter.

Darren and Julie over at Capulet point to the fantastic article from the New Yorker which looks at the development of PowerPoint and how it has changed communication between business partners, workers etc.  It’s worth a read, and might even stimulate a change of heart for the most hardened ‘PowerPointer’.

We rarely use PowerPoints in press or analysts meetings anymore, because it’s simply not conductive to effective communication.  Find out what your audience is interested in and talk to them! I will accept in some circumstances, PowerPoint can assist communicating complex concepts or helping nervous speakers, but mostly it can be avoided. Now that’s a good thing.

 WorldCom is planning to launch a lobbying initiative to assist the company in it’s battles with Washington.  Interestingly many members of congress have returned the company’s contributions.  They certainly have a battle on their hands.

 The Huntsville Times reports that an Alabama school is seeking a PRO for $50K – $80K per annum.

 New York Times looks at blogging in the workplace. “But opening a pipeline to comments from employees can produce a torrent of information, essentially defeating the purpose of the tool. “You reach information glut very quickly,” Mr. Byrnes said.”

 Up2Speed offers some tips on optimizing your website for Google.

 Whilst Nike’s battles on free speech continue, Wired reports that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals  has ruled that “web loggers” (sic) can’t be held responsible for libel for  information they republish.

 Alan Weinkrantz And Company [Flash Warning] got a great hit on the AP about communicating on behalf of technology companies. 

It seems that what goes around, does actually come around.

Recently there have been a number of stories concerning over-zealous PR people working in the entertainment business, detailing how they are treating journalists in an appalling manner.

Gawker reports that B-list celebrities are now getting more air time because of a dearth of A-list celebs but also because magazines are unwilling to engage the aggressive publicists. More on this over at the UK Times.

Finally that business is making some sense to me!

Robert Loch over at up2speed has posted a response to my piece on Blog Relations… three chords and the truth and he disagrees with me:

“Tom also states that trying to pay for false promotion/buzz is a bad idea. Personally I disagree – placing advertising/marketing message on websites as editorial, and having it endorsed/advocated is a great idea – it is getting caught that’s the bad idea.”

Now respectfully, I have to point out this makes no sense to me.

The whole lesson from the Raging Cow episode, and the whole point of my post is that consumers aren’t stupid, you can’t fool all the people all the time. If you’re caught slipping a few bucks in return for “editorial” coverage, then that’s going to be a big negative for the medium (i.e. the blogger) and the message (i.e. the advertiser).

There’s nothing wrong with advertising on blogs but as soon as people can’t trust what they’re reading, well then blogging is no more than advertorial and we all know the value of that particular outlet.

As for it only being a problem when you get caught, well isn’t that the point? The Internet makes everything far more transparent. That’s how the Raging Cow issue arose.  They did get caught.

This isn’t the end of marketing.  It simply means that marketers need to think more carefully, need to innovate.  Throwing dollars at bloggers for surreptitious mentions isn’t exactly the brave new frontier of marketing thought is it?