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I can’t keep it in any longer!! Speaking at a conference fairly recently, I was asked a question from the floor that near left me speechless…in a room full of PR professionals, someone basically challenged the validity of my assertion that Social Media would become/is becoming increasingly influential in issues and crisis management campaigns. The person said (and I precis) “How is a blog different from a website and why would anyone in business or an organisation bother with one?” I think I bristled and sounded irked when responding. But how can modern comms practitioners not know the whats, whys and hows of the blogosphere????

I welcome any other pearls of wisdom you blogtypes may have heard of late…?

 

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24556017-601,00.html

Much embarrassment for Aussie Liberal wing-woman Julie Bishop and publishers, Melbourne University Press, that her essay contribution for a book about the future of the Liberal Party was cribbed from a ten-year old speech by a New Zealand businessman Roger Kerr. A Libs senior Media Adviser Murray Hansen has fallen on his sword/pen admitting it was all his doing/fault. From The Australian Murray says…”he had written the essay and forgotten to send footnotes in time for publication…Asked how footnotes could have given credit for words that are not in quotation marks in Ms Bishop’s essay but blended through, he said: “I knocked it together very quickly. If I’d formatted it and put direct quotes, it would have alerted her much more quickly to the fact that I was taking large chunks out of someone else’s ideas and speech.” Author writes: A major published book; representing an MP; knocked together very quickly!!! In late September, Ms Bishop was accused of plagiarism for lifting material from The Wall Street Journal for a speech.

Standing in court the other day, corporate PR Greg Baxter, ex PR Head at James Hardie says he didnt insert the words “fully funded” into a 2001 press release about the firm’s asbestos compensation trust; with an amnesia onset, he’s not sure who did, either. Surely tho, as the head of PR he would’ve been aware of the weight of this statement and the PR/reputational implications of it? Strangely, as Crikey reports, this story hasnt played strongly in News Ltd newspapers where Baxter is now Head of Corp Affairs…aaaahhh, dontcha just love media transparency and ethics?
http://www.watoday.com.au/national/hardies-minutes-fail-to-jog-memory-20081015-50xm.html

Writing in The Guardian, Malik Fareed claims that the Chinese government is payrolling opinion shapers and influencers 50 Chinese cents or five mao per blog post, to refute and replace negative online coverage about China and related issues (better rates than blogging for Fairfax then?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/22/chinathemedia.marketingandpr
While astroturfing is seen by some as ethically dubious, it is still growing in popularity, thanks, in part, to the ease with which web 2.0 technologies - the likes of Twitter, Wikipedia and YouTube all feature heavily - can be employed to sway public opinion using the elusive power of word-of-mouth marketing.

For those of you who’ve been eagerly awaiting the news, Shelley my Euro-based book agent tells me copies of my best-selling PR text ‘PR Disasters’ (printed in Vietnam language version) are running hot off printing presses. Question is; how does a linguistically-challenged (only smatterings of French and Spanish) PR  veteran proofread this one? Suggestions/offers of help appreciated

Sunderland fan (hands off McGeady) Philip Young links to YouTube cast where the PRSA defends its members against some journalistic anti-PR broadbrushing. Well done Jeffrey Julin!!

Professor Jerry Swerling of the Annenberg School for Communication at University of Southern California in one of my favourite cities - Los Angeles - (it’s as gritty as Glasgow with mucho mas ‘bling’), sent me info on his school’s study of best (US) PR practices. Look at numbers 5 and 6; it’s Digital PR and Issues Mgmt which I’ve long advocated are inextricably linked.
If you can cut-thru the jargon and buzzwords, here’re Jerry’s toplines:
GAP V STUDY PR/COMMUNICATION BEST PRACTICES
1. Maintain a higher than average ratio of PR budget to gross revenue (GAP PR/GR Ratio).
2. Report directly and exclusively to the C-Suite (Chairbody Chief Exec, CEO).
3. Optimize the C-Suite’s understanding of PR’s current and potential contributions to the success of the organization as a whole.
4. Establish an effective social responsibility strategy for your organization.
5. Establish an effective digital-media strategy for your organization.
6. Establish an effective issues-management strategy for your organization.
7. Optimize integration and coordination of PR/Communications, both within the PR and Communications function, and with other organizational functions.
8. Encourage highly ethical practices across the organization, beginning with communication.
9. Encourage the organization-wide adoption of a long-term strategic point of view, beginning with communication.
10. Encourage the organization-wide adoption of a proactive mindset, beginning with communication.
11.Encourage the organization-wide adoption of a flexible mindset, beginning with communication.
12.Optimize the integration of PR and reputational considerations into top-level organizational strategies.
13.Measurably contribute to organizational success.
If you read this far and want to see the whole study, do the click thing…and click Gap V.
Thx Jerry

Seems not all Aussie editors are enamoured by the multi-layered social media release stylee!!
This month’s (Australia) Marketing magazine features a survey of several top editors advising press agents/publicists how to pitch/present stories. This snippet of sageliness acts as a free teaser on the Marketing mag blog:
“If you send a press release, make sure that I can get as much information from it as possible without having to click on attachments, follow links or make phone calls for more information.
A rather irritated editor slates ‘ PR persistence’ saying:
“Probably the thing that annoys me most about PR and marketing types is when they try to tell me they know my audience better than I do. I have a limited amount of time and a busy job, and someone pestering me in hopes they’ll convince me to cover something I don’t think my readers will be interested in can only do themselves, and their clients, a disservice.

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