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.
@jwspaceinvader The boy is doing well. Check him out: http://j.mp/aqQ2ae . How is life, love and romance with you and Jess? #13 mins ago
@jwspaceinvader Hi John. I used your 'i want to give you the opportunity to contribute' line on my dad to get him to pay for my wedding.... #18 mins ago
@jamesbarley Oh, and Carl Craig's Papercliip People is up there with the best. #12 hours ago
@jamesbarley I'm with you on that. I just dug out some Beltram today. Energy flash. #12 hours ago
@jag4091@parlourchorlton Moi aussi (apart from the house mate). Just had three pints and fish & flips for lunch. Ace. #13 hours ago
I work in Public Relations (PR) and while faffing around with digital media I often find links that I like to share. These are the links that I found interesting this week:
This is a brilliant post on social media. There is so much utter crap spouted about what Web 2.0 can do. How it will reinvent the way we work, interact and exist as human beings.
The post is below:
http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/03/the_social_media_bubble.html
Don’t get me wrong, social media is great and really useful, but it isn’t the cure for cancer. Let’s use and enjoy it but be aware of it’s limitations. The end.
Whether you are a public relations professional, a journalist, or just downright nosy, this guide into digital media for journalists has some interesting findings and recommendations. It was created by the Society of Professional Journalists, which is an American organisation, so some of the content is irrelevant for Europeans.
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA – There is a new social media tool called Stickybits, which I think could be big and has implications for both B2C and B2B PR and marketing – along with anyone who likes messing around with the interweb.
The premise is that you can attach videos, music, text, PDFs, Zips or anything to a given barcode. The idea sounds a bit bizarre at first until you consider when, how and by whom it can be used. Stickybits is currently receiving lots of hype on the blogs and also in the mainstream media with the LA Times among others writing about the service.
B2B PR and Marketing
Imagine you are an office products manufacturer and you want people to be able to access your product manual, a message from your Managing Director, good reviews about your product, feedback from other consumers or, well, pretty much anything. All this content can be attached to a barcode. No longer does a consumer need to turn to the internet and make a search about your brand. Instead this can all be shared via your barcode.
B2C PR and Marketing
Again, much like B2B, user generated content can be attached to your brand. This could be brand ambassadors or fans of your product waxing lyrical. Or, more likely, this could be activists making complaints about your products and services, or campaigning against you. Imagine if a complaint was the first thing that a customer finds when researching your brand? Not ideal!
Importantly, the first person who scans your product has veto over what else can be uploaded against your product. Imagine if this person is someone with a vendetta against your products. Simply put, someone else would have control of your brand’s presence.
Here is an example that I created for a Beer called Red Angus, so you can see the kind of content that can be attached to a bar code. (Excuse the use of my son in the video, any excuse to show off Armand. The content is somewhat daft too, but a guy has to have fun when blogging hey?)
As well as attaching content to existing code, you can print your own barcodes and stick them on anything. Here is an example barcode which can then be printed off and attached to anything. Their bar codes look like this:
There are some interesting examples of what to do with Stickybits here on their wiki.
Of course, it is still early days for Stickybits, but it is backed by people with proven track records in social media. There is also a limit to the popularity of Stickybits because use of it is largely limited to iPhone and Android phones. The app is currently available on iPhone and Android here.
This public relations video discusses the Toyota crisis, how Microsoft handled their corporate reputation when Bill Gates took his role part time, and corporate reputation in general. It’s a long video and I’ve only watched the first half hour, but the content is first class.
Here are links and stuff that I found useful this week for PR professionals and anyone with an interest in public relations or social media.
Instapaper – one for the readers
I tend to find lots of articles online which I simply don’t have the time to read at that given moment. I have previously used Delicious, to bookmark content but have since found Instapaper. Now I feel that Delicious is for archiving relevant sources for work purposes, e.g. some data I want to use in a pitch, while Instapaper is just for anything I want to read in the short term, e.g. when I am on the move or a travelling. It also has a really brilliant iPhone app, which makes reading on the go incredibly simple. It ensures the text instantly readable. I imagine Instapaper is brilliant with a Kindle.
Foursquare business tools
I have written a lot about the pros and cons of Foursquare, such as this article for the Citypress blog. Now the controversial and popular geo-location game has added metrics for businesses, which would want to try and use Foursquare more strategically for marketing.
Social media cheat sheet
This diagram has been knocking around for a few days now, but I found it so useful that I filed it for safe-keeping on my posterous blog.
SOCIAL MEDIA – Flavors Me might spell flavour badly, but it’s a pretty good website. It is perfect for people like myself, who don’t really work in HTML or CSS, but want a website.
Users can pay for the advanced package to access greater functionality. However, I think you will agree that it is a handy tool, especially for small businesses, or anyone wanting to use RSS feeds to curate content on the internet.
Sites like this and Ning are really great ways to get content out their quickly and cheaply!
PUBLIC RELATIONS – Here are some links which tickled my whistle this week. Let me know if you find any of these useful.
My blog is now listed on the PR All Top. All Top is Guy Kawasaki’s project, which aggregates the internet. I’m chuffed!
Twitter voicemail tool.
An interesting tool, but still a little irrelevant if you are the only person to use it. (Plus, I’ve not tested it yet)
More WordPress Plugins
I use all these apart from the last navigation plugin, which I will be test driving later this week.
How Small Business is using Social Media
I don’t normally link to Mashable as the likelihood is that if you are reading this post then you probably read Mashable religiously. However, statistics on small business are as rare, which is bizarre seeing that 90 per cent of companies are SMEs, so I thought I would point this post out.
PUBLIC RELATIONS – The proposed Red Knight takeover at United is an interesting story.
United fans are hungry to depose the Glazer family and have organised a high profile ‘green and gold’ campaign to make their views known.
As a United fan the idea of ensuring United are placed on a strong financial footing is appealing to me, as is the concept of the fans owning the club. However, from a PR perspective the communication to date puts forward an interesting public relations question.
Is the proposed deal from Red Knights a tangible fan led operation, or does the Red Knight group mean another debt backed acquisition, similar to the last one?
The following paragraph from The Times both worry and excite me. Surely a takeover of this nature means more debt and more fees paid out of the club to deal makers, or does it mean a Barcelona style fan owned scheme?
“Their plan is to use their contacts across the world to find a number of “super-investors” who could raise the money — estimated at a minimum of £1 billion — needed to make a bid to buy the club from the Glazers.” (does this mean more debt?, which currently stands at £700m)
Or…
“They hope that some of that money would come from supporters’ groups, who would in turn be offered a “golden share” and the prospect of some representation in any new regime.” (does this mean a fan owned club?)
From a PR perspective these two paragraphs show the importance of communications and PR. Both markets and fans like stability and clear and concise communications.
Over the coming days and months the details of the Red Knights’ deal will come to the fore. However, in the mean time ambiguity will surround the story, while the fans will no doubt get be roused by the scent of revolution and thoughts of deposing the Glazers.
It’s a brilliant story from both a footballing and PR perspective. If you want to join the Green and Gold movement you can do here.
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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