Hi. I am James Crawford, a PR man. Media relations is my specialism, but public relations is changing and the internet is at the heart of it.
I'm a Manchester dweller and lover of the media. I have too much music, support Manchester United and adore all things French.
I currently work for a Citypress, Manchester's biggest and best PR consultancy, but all the thoughts on here are my own and nothing to do with my employers.
(gratuitous opportunity to show Moscow penalty miss)
The John Terry super injunction story is more proof that celebrities or organisations should turn to PR professionals and not lawyers when dealing with a media crisis. Only public relations professionals have the tools to ensure that a story such as this one can be kept under control.
A super injunction can work, sure. However there is no plan B.
Once the injunction is made public, what was a negative story is amplified tenfold. The whole affair seems more sordid. He is now on the front of five national newspapers. This is a massive fail, nearly on the same proportions of his penalty miss in Moscow (Viva John Terry – bit of Man Utd gloating there…).
Of course PR isn’t 100 per cent fool proof, far from it, but media relations would have been a better strategy, rather than litigation. John’s PR consultant could have negotiated and traded other content, tried to kill the story and prove it to be incorrect, or managed the story, so the coverage was minimised.
Most people wouldn’t be that surprised about John Terry behaving this way, so really taken on its own the story of a footballer trying to impregnate someone is fish and chip paper. We’ve already seen him urinating in bars, fighting and taking cash in hand payments from journalists for tours of the Chelsea training ground. So really this story is not that newsworthy. John has made it newsworthy, thanks to his legal advice.
I have been banging on about the importance of having a Google Profile for some time now, as it means that your blogs, images and other content can be profiled in your contacts’ Google Search results.
For the past few months I’ve been asking colleagues and friends if they’d noticed their contacts’ social content (e.g. blog posts or Flickr images) appearing in Google searches. No one had noticed anything.
Yes, people had seen Twitter results appearing in Google, but no one had seen personalised content from their own networks.
I had read about Google Social Search and thought that it was a great idea, but there was little evidence of it working and Google’s plans for when and where to roll it out were sketchy to say the least.
There were very few blogs on the subject. That was, until yesterday, when Mashable posted on the subject.
Google Social Search is brilliant as it is validation for any marketer who is encouraging their company or clients to use social media, as it means that once any given person connects with someone else, that their content will appear in their contacts’ search results. In other words, Google Social Search provides you with another incentive to connect with people because as long as you are linked, your blogs, tweets and other content will be front of mind, all thanks to search.
Fifteen years ago this month, Manchester United’s Eric Cantona was sent off at Selhurst Park and proceeded to kung fu kick a Wimbledon fan who abused him.
Arguably this is one of the biggest sporting news stories of the 1990s.
This story was huge! I can’t believe that it happened and equally I can’t comprehend that it took place fifteen years ago! It seems like yesterday.
Oh to have been a Press Officer for Manchester United. I’d love to get their take on the story.
The demonstration yesterday in Trafalgar Square, London, against the ill-conceived anti-terrorism laws has resulted – ironically – in some really great images.
The law aims gives police powers to ban photographers from taking pictures in public, as they could supposedly present a terrorism threat.
Public relations and especially media relations are brought to life with great photography. I’ve already posted on this event and here is more excellent imagery, which will change over time depending on what is uploaded to Flickr.
I would add that although there are some excellent examples of photography here, the resulting press coverage wasn’t that impressive, especially as the media has a vested interest in stopping this law. Maybe these photographers should have enlisted a few public relations professionals to help out?
Here are some interesting links which I came across this week that will be coming to a public relations campaign near you soon!
Seesmic Live Event – Seesmic
I must find time to play with Seesmic again. The latest developments look of great use for PR people.
Top Tools For Tracking Topics on the Web
I’ll be testing all these tools out soon. I’d be interested to see if anybody has a particular favourite, especially from a media relations / blogger engagement perspective.
60+ Tools To Enhance Your Flickr Experience | Tools
Flickriver is my personal favourite. If anyone out there is a Flickr expert let me know as I want some clever toad to link the API of Twitter to the tag cloud of Flickr to make a visual representation of trending news (!)
4chan
A bizarre little forum with all sorts of odd content on it (some of it rude!). What I like is how you don’t need to sign in to use it. It creates a unique user experience.
I stumbled across this some time ago, but subsequently forgot what it was called. Now I have found it again and saved it for prosperity.
Newsswipe is a satirical look at the media, from angry, shouty Guardian journalist, Charlie Brooker. This video is from the last series, therefore it’s “old news” but still amusing in the extreme. The new series is funnier still because it benefits from greater topicality. It’s on BBC4 at 10pm every Thursday. Sky Plus it!
This photo was published on Flickr yesterday. It tells the sad story of Woolworths which closed down this time last year. (Time flies huh?)
Today there was another story that was way down the media agenda and is currently about 8th or 9th on the BBC. It is a ‘good news’ story: Unemployment fell for the first time since summer 2008
Read about it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8469648.stm
So why does good news like this get buried? I’ve not got enough time to begin an explanation.
Bad news always makes headlines and this ‘rule’ is one of the first things you learn when working in public relations or journalism.
Is Obama suffering from raising the expectations of a nation?
His campaign was heralded as an incredible success by the public relations industry, but were the American people expecting too much?
Without a successful strategy to follow through on ‘brand’ promises, be they ones of policy or business, a media relations or social media campaign can fall flat on its face.
The best campaigns of public relations are those which are so closely intertwined with its subject that communication messages and the client are inseparable.
This meant, in Obama’s case, he should have created a messaging framework which adapted to the changing narrative of the nation. As expectations shift so should the communications.
Of course all this falls down if a client can’t deliver against its promises.
Hi. I am James Crawford, a PR man. Media relations is my specialism, but public relations is changing and the internet is at the heart of it.
I'm a Manchester dweller and lover of the media. I have too much music, support Manchester United and adore all things French.
I currently work for a Citypress, Manchester's biggest and best PR consultancy, but all the thoughts on here are my own and nothing to do with my employers.
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