Murphy's Law

For Friday…. The World’s Leading have a much more amusing post on Geri Denterlein’s article than mine. 🙂 PS: Maybe I should re-name this blog: The PR Leprechaun? I like it! 🙂

I’m bored.

No sorry, bored is the wrong word.  I am frustrated.

There are now over 670 PR blogs which should provide a rich, interesting ecosystem of thinking and opinion on the practice of Public Relations, yet it appears to me that we’re stuck in a never ending echo chamber focused on “Noun 2.0”.

As a full-time PR person, who has an interest in the emergence of online tools, I need more than that. Whether you like it or not, the practice of PR extends far beyond your web browser.

I think a good example of this limited horizon is the “#1 PR blogger”.  Steve has done a great job, but his blog has veered away from Public Relations – if it ever was in PR :-).

His latest snafu, which predictably spawned widespread “outrage” [folks – get a life and stop letting the green-eyed monster swamp your senses] is simply an indication that Steve is too close to the hype.

For the majority of PR people, online is simply one channel of many.

PR people have recognized its importance, but for most it’s a small part of a busy and complex day job – because that’s how our audience sees it.

Following a recent “he doesn’t get it” episode, I swopped some e-mail with an individual who firmly believes that if you are not adopting every shiny new thing, then your job in PR is history.

No honestly, he meant it.

Pur-lease.

PR is a broad church.  You must master all its tools and channels.  You must be pragmatic.

Use what works, watch what’s interesting and discard what’s irrelevant.

Taking that approach means you’ll continue to be successful and hold down a paid job. Otherwhise you will be history.

That’s the long and somewhat tortuous introduction for the subject of this post.

Mike Hofman pointed me to an article in the latest issue of his magazine, Inc.

It’s an open letter from Geri Denterlein, President of Denterlein Worldwide to her past, present and future clients about how PR works, how to work with an agency and how to increase your hit rate.

Read it.

It’s about real PR, not the Kool Aid.

There are a number of noteworthy events coming up…

The NMK Forum plans to address digital innovation and the digital business landscape.  It takes place in London on June 13th 2007 with a good speaker line up including; Dan Gillmor and Jason Calacanis. [Thanks to Simon Collister – the latest Edelman recruit…]

 

Postiecon, a conference focused on helping bloggers to build audiences, deliver better content etc., is taking place in Orlando on June 1st and 2nd and features a keynote from Mr. Scoble. [Thanks to Chris Abraham]

 

Finally for viewers in Ireland, the Interweb has finally arrived, and the PRII annual conference is entitled “New Era, New Challenges… A New Way of Communicating”. Speakers include Aedhmar Hynes from Text 100…

 

Postscript:

Sorry Joe.  Mea culpa. I did mean to include it.

BarCamp Dublin – This Saturday

BarCamp Dublin is taking place this Saturday at the Digital Exchange, which is part of the Digital Hub. Loads of great speakers including my own personal favourite Moose tickler. [Oh and Microsoft is a sponsor…]

Some things take time.

While the InterWeb has created the illusion of condensing time, the reality is that boring things like attracting and retaining audiences, which ultimately leads to value for the “publisher” and the “audience” takes a lot of time.

Now many of the “new world crowd” will tell you I’m a boring old fart and that these things don’t matter in the new shiny online world, but I disagree.

In Ireland, kids use Bebo.  MySpace is a distant second, very distant.  Why? Well because all their friends are on Bebo (most of my friends struggle with e-mail).

When you get a critical mass of people using or consuming a service then you have something incredibly valuable.

However, when you are operating in a world where every second day something “exciting” emerges and you have an audience (albeit small in the bigger scheme of things) hopping from one to another – there’s little value. 

This is one of the reasons why Second Life is making some money.  If you want to go into a Virtual World, chances are you’ll go there.

I see there’s now a new Twitter.

I’ll grab another coffee and watch what happens.  I’m not sure my conscience can take another orphaned online account.

Well we now have 28 live bodies signed up to the Online PR community which we are billing as the stress free path to social networking.

Sign up and that’s it.

Why not come and join, you never know one of these days we might actually do something.

You can click here and join.  It free – the ultimate Web 2.0 business model – and while Ning sites do have AdWords we don’t get a red cent.

To avoid boring my mother, this is the last time I’ll promote it here. 

However I may post a report on our progress.  Then again I probably won’t 🙂

I like Shel’s post a lot.  There’s a lot of hyperbole.  Let’s remain focused on what’s important to every communicator.  How people are finding and using information. The new tools are great and they are important but don’t forget that change takes time and traditional media, tools and expertise remain as important as ever – and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

That’s what matters. 

Two new additions to the Irish Times blog roll [In addition to John and Karlin]. 

Jim Carroll and Conor Pope are now blogging…

[Courtesy of Mr. Goldbach]

Well our PR social network is up to twenty people. 

We’re networking like mad.

Nah… only joking.  We’re incredibly busy doing very little.  It’s fantastic.

Warning:

There have been a couple of posts on the network. 

Don’t be scared, but do come along.

Isn’t it funny how a little web application can set the InterWeb all a flutter?

The bets are on, some people believe Twitter’s great, some people believe it’s a waste of time and some are making me laugh out loud.

However, I was somewhat surprised to see David Parmet’s post – as I have a lot of time for his opinions – who has taken exception to this post from Clive Armitage.

I actually disagree with the Rex Hammock post, that David references. Rex states that there’s no need for discussion on Twitter because you can ignore it.

The fact is that a lot people are falling all over themselves about it, so it’s equally valid for people to question if it’s as important as people are making out.

In fact they (or should that be “we”!) are doing everyone a favour by questioning the validity of the claims being made about Twitter.

[Disclaimer: I use Twitter by the way. But not every fifteen seconds.]

Earlier this week in Newcastle I had some fun with Jangles [a.k.a Neville] about his Twitter habits. 

Debate is good and healthy.

Where, in my opinion, David steps over the mark, is this:

The problem with most PR people and PR agencies in general. The “I don’t get it so I’ll just ignore it” syndrome that’s led many agencies down the road to extinction.

 

Whoa!

How can a post where someone offers an opinion that they don’t really understand what the fuss is about mean their on the “road to extinction”.

Give me a break.

So I’m a big old dinosaur as well am I?

It’s VITAL that we question the validity of this new stuff both for our clients and ourselves.

No one is going to be extinct because they don’t see the value in Twitter posts.

No one is wrong to promote or dismiss the validity of a bloody web applet.

Let’s keep this discussion in the real world. I’m only interested in how the new online world is going to effect the work I do for my client or employer.  If I disagree with the pundits who believe that a new widget is changing the world as we know it, my opinion is as valid as theirs.

I stand over my record on new technology – it’s well documented. I welcome debate, but I’ll call out something if I don’t see the value or understand the value and that doesn’t mean I’m stupid or becoming extinct.

It means I’m human.

It’s time we all came down off the moral high ground.

As a self-confessed gadget freak, thankfully counseled and managed by my better half, I have to admit that the FlipStart PC looks rather tasty.

Nope I don’t think I’d get away with that discretionary purchase….