Posted by jameswdcrawford on May 26, 2010 under Media | 
I am sure I am not the first Public Relations person to trot out the old cliché that talent borrows and genius steals. With this in mind I thought I would share a few PR blogs from which I have learn so much over the past few years.
Firstly let’s get the big two out of the way:
• Steve Rubel is a PR giant and runs one of the most authoritative public relations blogs on the planet http://www.steverubel.com. This PR blog gives clear and concise advice on all things online, without the usual jargon and “social media guru” nonsense
• Brian Solis is another giant of the internet and a leader in PR 2.0 thinking.
• Bridging the gap nicely from the US to the UK PR industry is American expat Fernando Rizo with his blog. Too many PR people fall into the Chris Morris / Nathan Barley school of idiot, but I have met Fernando and not only is he a well rounded human being, he also knows his stuff. His blog is free of the usual pretention which litters public relations
• Litman Live is an exceptional PR blog authored by public relations’ man Mike Litman . His blog is a lifestream of all the great stuff he finds on the web, along with his own posts
• Adam Vincenzini ‘s PR blog is superb, although I prefer his Posterous blog, which is rougher around the edges but full of rebloggable insight
• PR Squared is always worth a nosy
• 72 Point is a UK news agency used by PR professionals throughout the UK. Their hatred of PR spam and crap press releases is always refreshing to hear, especially for any newbies to our industry
• Mark Borkowski is famous as a stuntster and maverick. His public relations blog is at its best when discussing the murky world of celebrity PR
• Citypress is Manchester’s best PR agency and although I am culpable for not writing a post for it since April – gulp – it is worth keeping an eye on it for occasional works of genius
• We shouldn’t forget the young either and Ben Cotton’s PR blog is a great example to ‘new breed’ practitioners of public relations who are trying to enter the world of PR. His blog screams employability as does Kat4pr which is the blog of Katerina Hejralova.
• And finally, who can forget PR Week and its blogs?.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on November 8, 2009 under Media |
Could British Libel law be forcing British media out of business and creating a boom in blogs hosted by ISPs in countries which are not under UK court jurisdiction?
This article in today’s Sunday Times about libel media law in the UK, and how it could force American publications out of the British market, is just one of a number of recent stories which have stood out.
Then there was the story on BoingBoing.net about British law firm Wragg and Co, which the blog believes is being tasked with targeting internet forum posters and whistle blowers. It is great for the UK to be a leading centre of excellence, but this is one industry which if left unchecked verges on the sinister.
We also have libel tourists flocking to the UK, as explained in this story in The Times. Surely a surefire sign that the law is getting out of hand.
On the positive side, libel is no longer a criminal offence in the UK but this is a rare positive story.
Are strict libel laws pushing already hard up ‘old media’ print outlets out of business? Not solely because of the cost of litigation, but because blogs and online titles will be willing to take bigger risks? Will I turn to print media for my news or will I go to a blog which has the better stories? The answer is obvious: BLOGS. This is especially so of those blogs which are hosted in other countries which are out of British jurisdiction and can publish largely what they want.
Just look at the BoingBoing story over the Ralph Lauren scandal which I covered a few weeks ago (click here). Would this story have been publishable in the UK?
Posted by jameswdcrawford on November 2, 2009 under PR |
If you blog, have you joined NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month)? The idea is that during the month of November everyone who joins NaBloPoMo has to make at least one post every day during the month of November.
Yes it is a bit prescriptive and I’m a believer in quality over quantity when it comes to blogging, but that being said I am going to take part in NaBloPoMo because… well… it just caught my attention.
Actually there was a little more to it than NaBloPoMo appealing to my whimsical side. The community on the site looks quite interesting (have a look at my profile by clicking here). Perhaps the community might generate some additional traffic too?
In addition to the community, if I can find a few more interesting blogs to read in the process of taking part in NaBloPoMo then the exercise has been productive.
Looking at the community there are already quite a few people from Manchester already signed up and there are thousands of blogs to discover.
If you are really NUTS you can also enter NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month!
If you want to find out more about NaBloPoMo, you can do by clicking here.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on November 1, 2009 under PR |
The curious point raised in my mind over the coverage of Stephen Fry’s decision to leave Twitter was concerning the level of coverage it received.
In old media decisions are made over whether a story is newsworthy or not – or they should be anyway. This is an intellectual decision based on the editorial values of the media outlet.
In new media (e.g social) it is very easy to see appealing trends, and along with trends come traffic. Therefore media outlets want a piece of the traffic and can decide to divert eyeballs to their own media space by running a trending story, such as Frygate.
This is what happened yesterday. The ‘Stephen Fry exit’ saga started to trend and other media outlets wanted to take this traffic. The story really was a none story, e.g man decides not to use website, then changes his mind shock.
Of course this sort of populism has been happening for a long time in old media too. It is just more transparent now that, through Tweetdeck, users get a live feed for the most talked about stories of the day. It goes back to the old argument of whether media has a mission to deliver news or provide eye balls to advertisers.
So, the Stephen Fry story is not a story, but perhaps an indication of how social media is changing editorial decisions.
From a PR point of view – I think my clients can learn a thing or to from this episode. Beg, steel and borrow your audience* from where ever you can (without doing a Habitat!!), but do it in a plausible, subtle and tasteful way. Do it well and your online profile will be boosted. Do it badly and you are toast (so hire professionals to advise).
For example, by writing this post I too am joining in on the feeding frenzy and getting a share of the Stephen Fry traffic. The only difference is that I am not a news channel set up to provide our nation with news.
Some might say, it’s not appropriate for brands to do divert traffic in this way, especially in the corporate or business to business marketplace. Well, they’d be wrong. Yes Frygate is not the right topic to use but corporate brands can borrow traffic from other places. Simply by identifying industry trends and then tapping into the online communities in which they operate or want to target. Yes the traffic will be lower, but much more targeted and a better match. For example a technology client should tap into the hot topics on Techcrunch and then into the billions of technology blogs that are in the blogosphere.
*sorry Fernando, I’ve stolen your concept
(Excuse any typos. I wrote this on my Blackberry. It was only meant to be a short post but I got carried away)
Tags: B2B, blogosphere, blogs, business to business, corporate, editorial, Frygate, Media, News, search, Social Media, Stephen Fry, traffic
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.
