Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 28, 2010 under Opinion | 
David Cameron - Policy
Is “Time for Change” really a good public relations message for the Conservatives? For me, it begs the question ‘a change to what?’
When Tony Blair brought Labour to power he did so by creating New Labour and claiming the middle ground. Now David Cameron is trying to do the same and win over moderates by appealing to middle-class swing voters.
It is no surprise that David Cameron has tried to soften the party’s image and has talked up lots of “social” and environmental policies. They were known as the Nasty Party, after all.
There was a time when you could say that the Conservatives stood for something obvious: the free market, law and order and anti-immigration and euro-scepticism.
Now under David Cameron, the party’s values appear woolly, albeit a bit more appealing to moderate leftists.
The reason why Conservatism works is that its values are obvious, even to the most uneducated person. Low taxes, small government, euro-scepticism and an immigration are concepts that can be grasped, in some way or another.
Now David Cameron is playing around the edges of moderatism. This is a political space full of nuance where policies can be difficult to comprehend. On some issues there are no discernable policies at all.
At a time when the Labour party is at its weakest, his communications are not hitting home because they are not clear. If the public are to vote for change, they need to know what the change will mean for them and what it stands for.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 27, 2010 under PR |
Have you ever wondered what your media consumption says about you?
Public Relations profesionals have lots of tools to provide insight these days. For example, with TGI Data and all the other metrics on media consumption, you can pretty much pinpoint a persons beliefs and behaviours.
Or can you?
When I next get a chance I’m going to undertake the following exercise to check the data’s accuracy. The test shall be: according to my media consumption, who am I?
A typical working week involves the following media consumption:
BBC 6 Music
BBC Breakfast
The Today programme (Radio 4)
Guardian iPhone app
Twitter
TV 5 Monde
BBC News
Rednews.co.uk
Mashable
TechCrunch
BoingBoing
Kottke.org
Popurls.com
Newswipe
The Daily Show
Newsnight
Sky Sports News
There are other titles and media outlets that I consume professionally, (hundreds of them) but these are the ones that I would say, influence me personally.
God knows what the data will say about my media consumption, but I can guarantee that it will probably be broadly right in some respects, and horrifically wrong in others.
I suppose what I am trying to say here is that despite there being huge amounts of data on media consumption, relying just on research alone can result in strategist creating rather disasterous PR and advertising campaigns.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 26, 2010 under Media |
BBC 6Music
The BBC are going to scrap BBC 6 Music . I wake up to this station everyday at 6.30am, I cook to it, and generally love everything about it. Losing this radio station is, in my view, a disaster.
Here are three reasons to save the station.
1 – BBC 6 Music is the broadcasting equivalent of John Peel. When John Peel died, BBC 6 music filled the void
2 – No commercial station could ever do what BBC 6 Music does. The pressures are too great to plug artists backed by big record companies (with large advertising budgets).
3 – Large parts of BBC 6 Music are produced in Manchester and the station supports bands from outside of London
To make a complaint about the proposed scrapping of BBC 6Music visit this page at the BBC
you can also join the Facebook group.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 25, 2010 under Facebook |
An interesting debate is rumbling about Facebook and its role in news. Some voices are evangelical about the social network, while others doubt why news organisations are putting Facebook at the heart of their digital strategy.
Earlier this week, Techcrunch recently criticised US news agency Associated Press (AP) for diverting Twitter users to their Facebook page. The blog couldn’t comprehend why AP would want to drive traffic to Facebook and not to their home page.
Of course, you need to understand this story in the context of TechCrunch’s on going dispute with AP. The two parties are not the best of friends.
To the common onlooker, diverting their users to Facebook and not your home page, does seem a little odd. On the other hand, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Social media, Steve Rubel, thinks that Facebook could soon “swallow the internet!” There is data to show that Facebook is now the number one source of news on the internet, greater than Google News.
Facebook news traffic
He sees a day when there could be a “siteless” internet and thinks AP’s move is ‘visionary.’
In the short term, it is the role of the Public Relations professional to decide how best to integrate social media, such as Facebook into PR campaigns. While Facebook is a great tool for brands, using it to make news sharable can be seen as more difficult than using Twitter, Digg, Reddit or other such sites.
However, in the future as more and more realtime services are integrated into Facebook, the changes Steve Rubel talks about could become a reality.
Or, of course, a new unexpected technology might come along and change things again! Nothing in the world of web 2.0 happens as expected. However, it is worth keeping an eye on Facebook – it is not just a place to update your friends on what you had for lunch.
Interesting further reading:
You can create your own personal news channel in Facebook. I still prefer Twitter, but it is possible and people are using it
Slowly and surely Facebook is adding to its news functionality, such as this social search tool
How else is Facebook spreading news? The Daily Perfect is a classic example.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 19, 2010 under PR |
This post is the first in an occasional series, profiling movers and shakers within the PR industry – i.e. people I met along the way who I thought were talented people.
Helen Moore is an all round good egg, who I have worked with on and off for years. Now she is Managing Director of www.markettiers4dc.com. I’d like to claim her rise to fame had something to do with me, but alas this would be a lie. To celebrate the fact that she has officially “made it”, here is a brief profile on her.
• Name
Helen Moore
• Where do you work?
Specialist broadcast consultancy markettiers4dc
• What do you do?
I’m Managing Director of our editorial business so ultimately oversee all our client business / media output; provide direction for the business; keep the people in the agency happy and inspired (this thankfully tends to be reciprocal); provide guidance and broadcast consultancy for our clients. Have been known to make tea and encourage responsible drinking.
• What is the most exciting project that you have undertaken recently?
Our work across the Kellogg’s corporate and consumer account has been very interesting and varied.
We were also recently asked by McLaren to produce the live, online broadcast of the car launch from Vodafone HQ. We led the integrated production and introduced the latest digital satellite technology to make it happen. As a result, the tens of thousands of viewers who tuned in to watch the live broadcast enjoyed a first class experience. And we produced the first Meerchat with the charming Aleksander Orlov – interviewing Mr David Hasselhoff – for comparethemarket.com – much fun.
• What is the future for PR?
Well I’d suggest brands making better use of broadcast channels obviously. Creating their own brand funded content direct to consumers. This will also involve improving levels of engagement – shifting the focus from pure message delivery to eliciting a real response, with brand and public truly interacting.
• Tell me something funny
“So I was getting into my car, and this bloke says to me “Can you give me a lift?” I said “Sure, you look great, the world’s your oyster, go for it.’”
• Tell me something I don’t know
Tom Cruise ate his child’s placenta in a meat loaf. Nothing to do with broadcast but thought you might be interested.
Contact Helen at www.markettiers4dc.com
020 7253 8888
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 17, 2010 under Media |
I have always said that the major reason to avoid geo-location technology such as Foursquare is that it advertises the fact that your house is probably empty and ripe for a visit from the local burglar.
Most people get annoyed by Foursquare updates anyway, but actually Twitter and all sorts of social media can use geo-location technology too so need to be careful
Now some crafty chap has created this handy tool to drive this point home: http://pleaserobme.com/ This online tool is both amusing and fear inducing at the same time. I expect to see this website in the Daily Mail tomorrow.
(thanks to @fernandorizo for the tip)
Posted via email from jamescrawford’s posterous
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 16, 2010 under Blog |
My friend asked me how to install WordPress but the concept can get a little confusing, especially when you begin by explaining the hosted and self hosted concept! So, here is a handy presentation which explains it better than I could:
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 13, 2010 under Links |
My public relations links and tips of the week are below.
30 Twitter Hacks and Plugins to Spice Up Your WordPress Blog
I’ve not put any of these Twitter hacks to the test on WordPress. I shall do soon. Some good ones.
Facebook Largest News Reader?
Facebook, the biggest source of news on the internet. Well I never…
Lifehacker – Twitter Google Chrome extension
Again, bloody useful. Oh, isn’t the internet a wonderful thing?
Daily Perfect is a stunning new news curation tool
I’m addicted to this already. Could be a lot better, but give them time….
Foursquare will never catch on
I wrote this post for Citypress, the public relations consultancy which I work for.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 12, 2010 under Journalism |
I met with a journalist contact yesterday and he was saying that he thinks all journalists should blog and use Twitter. I agree and told him I would pick out some old presentations that I found on the subject matter. So, instead of sending them to him via email I thought I would share my post with you all.
There is some good stuff in this presentation too but some of it is a bit old hat now. It is still worth a scan though.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 11, 2010 under Media |
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.
