Murphy's Law

Unspamming yourself…
If you put your e-mail address at the end of a press release, or if you are on mailing lists or have your contact details on a web site, you are, no doubt, getting spammed.

There’s nothing worse than coming into the office and spending half and hour adding another fifty addresses to your junk filter. At the same time you have to be careful, because as a communicator, any legitimate e-mail is important.

What are you to do? I’ve found Cloudmark and although not perfect, I have to say I am impressed by it. It’s easy to use, free (so far!), and has already caught all my existing spam and is very good at catching new spams as they arrive.

It works by monitoring the spams you are getting and matching those with the spam lists of other users. So without doing anything you are getting an always up-to-date spam net.

You can download it for free from the Cloudmark web site.

Different strokes for different folks..
If you ever wanted a graphical illustration of the diversity of the PR business, then the latest issue of the New Yorker is just for you. “This is going to be big” is a feature on Hollywood’s PR mavens. It’s an intriguing insight into a world of PR that doesn’t come close to the work and challenges I face every day – but it’s all the more interesting because of it, and you might even pick up something useful from it. It’s not available online, and it’s in the current issue (September 23, 2002). Recommended >

Audio Blogging….
It had to happen, Jeremy Allaire of Macromedia fame, tests Blogs you can hear.

Putting news on the wire…
How many of us have spent a lot of time evaluating the different newswires. Selection normally comes down to personal preference as the differences on the surface are hard to spot. Jon Boroshok takes a look at the different newswire services and wonders does it matter?

Care and feeding instructions….
“Like it or not, we need each other. You need us to cover the products you’re responsible for, whether they’re your own creations or you work for a public relations firm responsible for getting coverage for your company’s products. We need information from you in order to get our stories done.”

For anyone working with the media who hasn’t seen the Internet Press Guild’s guide to “The Care and Feeding of the Press” it’s definitely worth a read.

Flash Hall of Shame #21…Dogmatic
Words fail me

A time to stop and face the (shower) curtain….
Although far and few between, there are some occasions when a PR professional has to stop and evaluate is there any point fighting what is inevitably a losing battle. After all there are only so many times you can defend the indefensible.

I think PR representatives for former Tyco Chairman L. Dennis Kozlowski must feel they are looking down the barrel of a gun. Dennis’ personal expenses are no laughing matter – $6,000 for a shower curtain, $2,200 for a wastebasket, $1,650 for a (paper) notebook, a $17,100 traveling toilette box, a $445 pin cushion, $5,960 for sheets and the piece de resistance $1m of company funds for his wife’s birthday in Sardinia…. [more]

Searching for solace…

The reality of life online, and something that affects most PR people, is that the greatest source of web traffic (globally) for most web sites comes from Google. Although there are always exceptions, Google reigns the search engine world.

Of course we shouldn’t lose sight of the reason why Google is #1 – simply it’s fast, it’s easy and it’s accurate.

As with all market leaders, not everyone agrees that Google’s leadership position is such as good idea and Google has achieved the highest possible compliment – their own NGO! Google Watch’s mission is to “look at how Google’s monopoly…”. They have released their policy document: “PageRank: Google’s Original Sin“.

Doc Searls doesn’t buy the argument and IMHO until something better comes along I’d agree with Doc. If you need to find something in a hurry Google is the best means of filtering the Web. And of course you can do it by e-mail 🙂

Come together right now

Over the weekend I spent some time re-reading The Cluetrain Manifesto. I am sure that many of you have already read it, for those of you who haven’t I recommend you purchase it.

The Cluetrain has, in many respects, become a victim of it’s own success. For some people it has become part of the dotcom culture, but to dismiss it lightly would be a grave error. The Cluetrain Manifesto has a lot to offer communications professionals across all marketing disciplines.

Personally, my only (small) gripe with the book is that it can come across as a little too idealistic. It tends to ignore the realities of heavier workloads, increased pressure and less support.

But it excels at challenging you to evaluate how you are communicating, how you are trying to engage your audiences and the effectiveness of your efforts. The Cluetrain encourages you to step back from the usual (and familiar) corporate speak and to instead engage with people one-on-one. If ever there was a theme for PR on the Internet, this is it.

As it states in Thesis 26:
“Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of the markets.”

If you don’t have it, buy it. If you have it, read it again.

Finally I can’t finish without mentioning The Gluetrain Manifesto which takes a satirical look at the Cluetrain. In particular their version of the Cluetrain’s 95 theses always brings a smile to my face:
1. Markets are conversations. Conversations are markets. Markets are he as you are we and we are all together. – Indeed

Read on….

The Internet is dead, long live the Internet

It’s probably eight years since the Internet really began to infiltrate the mainstream. From its discovery by the masses to the hype and subsequent failure of the dotcom entrepreneurs, the Internet has rarely been out of the news. But now it no longer demands the airtime or column inches it once did.

This is probably the strongest single indicator that the Internet has successfully taken its place alongside our traditional media outlets. An air of realism has taken hold. It’s now clear that unlike the more outlandish visions of the pre-bust dotcoms, we won’t be spending all day in our bedrooms working and playing online. In fact we kind of like meeting people in person.

The early expectations for the Internet have been tempered by human behaviour. The Internet has revolutionized communications and as communicators we now have a whole new set of challenges and opportunities. But guess what, traditional face-to-face contact continues to be the most effective means of communication. People still buy newspapers, listen to the radio and watch TV. Just as in the past, the advent of radio didn’t kill print, the Internet has changed the balance of the media landscape but not removed the incumbents.

That said the Internet does have one other unique characteristic that makes it different to the incumbents. And this characteristic will continue to challenge Public Relations practitioners long after webvan, sock puppets and the Industry Standard fade from the memory. Innovation.

Working with TV, radio and print the major challenge is keeping on top of new contacts and programs or titles – particularly in the current media climate. But the Internet as a media hasn’t stopped evolving. There are continual new developments that affect how we reach audiences. And while we must remain cogniscant of new websites and online writers, the innovation I am talking about is more fundamental than that.

The popularity of the Weblog is a good example of Internet innovation that can positively or adversely affect our clients – and it won’t be the last. All PR professionals will need to keep on top of new technologies, channels and means of reaching audiences.

Adding further complexity to the mix, every industry is different, every vertical market is different. And these differences are not necessarily as simple as different web sites, because automotive suppliers may use the Internet differently to software developers. Different tools, channels and web sites.

Do you measure the success of your different tactics online? Do you know how people find your client’s site? More than any other media before it, the Internet demands we track, measure and evaluate activities closely. Not just in terms of PR’s performance and ROI – though that’s essential – but in terms of how and what your clients’ audiences are doing online.

The Internet has provided Public Relations with a dynamic media outlet, that offers more accurate data on the success (and failure) of PR campaigns than ever before. But it also presents challenges.

Get a head start and understand how your clients’ audiences are interacting online. Finding out and testing new techniques could be one of the most valuable exercises you ever undertake. [Comments?]