PR Social Networks

Back in March I kicked off the Online PR social network over at Ning.

We’ve billed it as the "lazy person’s" social network – there’s no peer pressure to get involved etc. It just sits there quietly.image

There are now 63 members.  Now, while I agree it’s not exactly Facebook or MyRagan (which now has over 10,000 members??), it’s sufficiently impressive given the promotions budget and the effort that’s been put into promoting it.

Now, in the interest of true social networking, and taking into account my laziness, all group members can become administrators and drive it anyway they wish.

I don’t expect a lot of e-mail 🙂

Travel just got a little easier…. for me

Greetings from Seattle.

A few hardy souls may remember a post from long ago about the difficulty I usually have travelling through Heathrow due to the fact that my parents didn’t spend a lot of time coming up with an imaginative first name – and the fact that many others share that same name combination.

So it was with some trepidation I ventured through Heathrow on this trip earlier today.

My hope was that UK authorities were up-to-date on recent developments regarding members of the Murphy clan and I’m delighted to report that it appears they are.

For the first time in a long time I encountered no "personal" delays on this trip.

So that’s a good start to the week.

Fake blogs, Useful blogs and blog relations…

 

  • Listening to For Immediate Release yesterday I picked up on news of a new EU directive concerning unfair commercial practices.  As Neville writes:

The Directive is due to become part of EU members’ national laws in early 2008. Social media channels such as blogs – and fake blogs in particular – are included, according to The Register..

Excellent, some good legislation for the consumer at last (well in theory).

 

  • According to a research report from the Arketi Group journalists are increasingly viewing blogs as an important research tool:

84% of journalists participating in the study said they have or would use blogs as a primary or secondary source while researching an article.

 

Now that’s scary! [Via Mr. Holtz]

 

Update:

Fake blogs: Damien Mulley has kindly pointed out that Ireland already has this consumer protection in place.

PR: Charity and the Media

Today, I received an e-mail from Emma Wickenden regarding a UK charity project called VAMU (Voluntary Action Media Unit) which was set up with the aim of:

…researching and improving the relationship between charities and the media.

We want to encourage debate about the place of voluntary sector stories in media coverage. Through our research we hope to develop strategies that will radically change the voluntary sector’s media profile and the effectiveness of its volunteer recruitment campaigns.

It’s a very interesting project.

image

They have created a contacts directory for media to find spokespeople in the non-profit sector called: askCHARITY.

They also have a blog and have released an interesting report that tracks the experiences of two organisations trying to secure media coverage.

Definitely worth a visit.

Footnote:

Interestingly Emma found me through the Getting Ink blog which is also worth a visit.

Has PR really come to this?

Silicon Alley Insider reports on a reputed disagreement between two US PR firms.

Please tell me it ain’t so…

NO ONE wins from this.

Well, no one except the voyeurs out there….

Well that’s probably most of us….

And to think we were all worried about poor blog pitches last week…

You see it’s all relative.

[Via Getting Ink]

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Pictured: Representatives from two New York PR agencies discussing differences of opinion earlier today.

Why is everyone surprised about bad blog relations?

Over the past week there’s been a lot of discussion about the paucity of good PR practice online. 

The recent Chris Anderson and Marshall Kirkpatrick episodes have created a lot of hand wringing across the world of blogs on how PR people "don’t get it".

Quelle surprise!

If you’ve ever listened to a journalist offload their feelings on the quality of engagement they get from PR people in the traditional media world, then the news that there’s a lot of examples of blog relations malpractice shouldn’t come as a surprise.image Should it?

What has changed is that poor practice is now quickly and easily published and shared online.

There’s loads and loads of great advice available online about how to conduct effecting "blog relations". 

The core tenets are pretty simple:
1) Understand these are bloggers not journalists

2) Spend time understanding what the blogger writes about and if they are willing to engage with you or your client

3) Engage with the blogger, don’t spam them.

That’s boiling it down to the bare bones, Todd Defren’s guide will give you more detail.  But the key point here is that good media relations practice is very similar to good blog relations practice.

Therefore the fact that media relations is often so poor, should prepare us for the news that blog relations is equally poor.

Of course blog relations is only the snow crystals on the summit of the iceberg.  There’s a lot more to online communications than blogs.

Recently I’ve been doing some talks with PR folks on the question of Web 2.0 and Public Relations and there’s no question that practitioners have identified this as an important professional issue.

I’ll provide my recommendations on how to get started in a subsequent post, but the best place to start is by reading some of the knowledge that’s already online.  You can’t lick this off a stone.

 

 

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PR People: Beware the list of lists

Since the dawn of PR our profession has a proud history of using lists.

We have Top Ten lists, Bottom Ten lists, in fact we have PR lists covering practically every facet of human existence.

So in the spirit of "those who live by the sword…" it’s probably no surprise that those same lists are coming back to haunt us.

Over the past week I’ve identified three categories of such lists…

 

1) The "I don’t want to be on that list" list

Wired Editor-in-Chief and well known author Chris Anderson has clambered onto his high horse (I imagine it would have to be a high horse as I’m sure it has a LONG tail… sigh… sorry I couldn’t resist) and published a list of PR e-mail addresses that he is blacklisting from his Inbox.image

Now that’s probably a list you don’t want to be on.

However, before anyone climbs aboard their own pony I should point out the Greenhouse rule of blogging.

As Todd Defren manfully (should that person-fully?) pointed out recently, the moral high ground can often become a windy, lonely place.

Instead, a whispered "tut-tut" followed by a quiet "there but for the grace of jebus" is often the best response to such incidents.

2) The "I want to be on that list but it ain’t going to happen" list

There’s loads of candidates here obviously.

Many have words like "fastest", "millionaire", "guru", and "beautiful".

However I’m taking a simpler example such as Todd Andrlik’s Power 150.

Although I’d never admit it publicly (this is just between us OK?) and while I try to discourage it, I have a penchant for "vanity surfing" a couple of times a year.

You know what I’m talking about.

Every time I check the Power 150 list I’m falling further back (currently descending past #175).

By the way, this is a good validation of the list because I’ve been running this blog on fumes for a while now and the bloggers putting in the time and effort are climbing up while I slip and slip.

I just hope we move to the "Power 550" as soon as possible.

3) The "Who cares?" list

Finally we come to the list that no one should care about.

Here I am talking about the anonymous (and gutless?) malefemale PR blogger who "retired" recently after grinding more axes than a Canadian lumberjack, without adding one byte of value to the PR community.

"It" recently came out of retirement (after nearly a full week with its hooves up)to insult a range of PR bloggers whose only crime was to have expressed their opinions (without hiding their identities).

Many of these bloggers I know and respect, in any case we should shun cowardice on this scale – no link love from here.

We’ll miss "it" not…

Note: I’m not referring to "The World’s Leading" by the way, which actually does make me laugh from time to time and tars everyone with the same brush in an even handed manner… well kind of.

Update: I see The World’s Leading is hanging up it’s HTML editor as well…

The publicist..

If you work in Public Relations you probably have an incredibly enjoyable career with the odd bad day thrown in.

When you have those days, please remember, it could always be worse…

Courtesy of Trevor Cook.

PR's Death: A broken clock is right twice a day…

A gentle yawn, a quick stretch and then a long sigh.

Here we go again.

Once again I am failing in my preferred course of action which is to resist the  knee jerk post.

I am writing about the latest “wisdom” from our favourite self-appointed PR-industry guru Tom Foremski.

Tom has a long and proud track record of proclaiming the demise of “traditional” Public Relations.

This is just the latest.  But once again I’ll re-state my view that Tom is ahead of his (and everyone else’s) time.

PR isn’t dying or about to die. 

No agency or practitioner that is worth their salt or are serious about communicating effectively on behalf of its client is going to eschew traditional media and traditional PR activities for the bright shine of the new new online thing.

Yes PR is changing, but please, let’s try and keep some perspective.

Read Deloitte’s State of the Media Democracy.

It’s not about the tools.

It’s about the audience.

If your audience still (gasp) reads newspapers, then that’s still a valuable media. It may not have hype, it may not raise $400m in VC funding, but it’s bloody important.

In my opinion, Mr. Foremski’s post is pure rubbish – and I think five years writing on blogs about “New PR” and “Old PR” gives me some perspective on the matter.

I also work in PR which (shock) gives me a little more insight into the real world rather than the hyperbole and the mis-intended irony.

Mr. Foremski writer:

“Strumpette and Amanda Chapel tried to stir up changes in the PR industry and encourage a new form of PR, by openly discussing ethical issues, and all the unpleasant aspects of knowing how the sausage is made.”

Then with no trace of irony goes on to discuss Transparency.

Strumpette was the most opaque PR blog on the roll. 

Hiding (I suspect) his identity Strumpette didn’t try and champion change, instead it was purely an attack vehicle for someone with an axe to grind.  Don’t mistake a grudge for open discussion.

Contrast Stumpette with “The World’s Leading” which takes a wry look at the business (in the UK) but is at least funny and even handed – everyone’s a target.

I’ve written various posts that address this issue of PR’s death, but given people still keep writing them, I think it’s OK that I keep rebutting.

Update: Some other good commentary added

Foremski-link:

Strumpette-links: