I normally let my colleague Mark handle the political posts but I couldn’t resist this one.

Turns out Gordon Brown is interested in what I have to say. He’s following me on Twitter. I don’t think he’s looking for a new PR advisor but Twitter Karma is always welcome, particularly from Number 10. 

156 early adopters are currently following the Number 10 political Twitter feed which I picked up from Steve Rubel’s feed.  

However, the Daily Telegraph claims that the Prime Minister got lost at Sarkozy’s state banquet yesterday. Clearly there’s more to this story than first thought.  I’m convinced he was busy twittering!  

Just had a tip that Jerome Armstrong has been appointed to run the web strategy for Brian Paddick’s London Mayoral campaign.

Jerome runs a hugely influential Democrat blog called MyDD and played a big part in putting a little known Governor called Howard Dean within an ace of being the Democrat nomination for President in 2004. The lessons of this campaign - talking to people on eye-level, in their language not in sound bites and being prepared to have a two-way dialogue - have influenced politicians across the globe. He co-wrote a superb book called Crashing The Gate that lays out the lessons for the political establishment.

UK politicians have so far responded in terms of trying to use clever gadgets rather than the basic lessons of talking to people differently. Jerome working for Paddick raises the prospect that UK politicians might finally ‘get it’. Once one Party starts doing it properly and reaping the dividends, then the rest will follow suit. Very exciting and I’ve no doubt that Mark Pack, the mad scientist who looks after all things web at Lib Dem HQ has his fingerprints all over this!

One odd thing is that it seems Steve Webb, Lib Dem spokesperson on the Environment, one of the only politicians to use Facebook properly, wasn’t involved as he’s one of the few that understands this is all about reaching voters on their terms and using their language, not whizzy technology. 

I recently filmed a very revealing interview with Steve Webb btw.

WPP’s chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell has told everyone in PR that we’re fine. We’re firing on all cylinders. He can’t recall a time when PR has been so strong. Why? We’re recession-proof. We’re annoying the advertising industry. As one over-muscled cartoon character once proclaimed: WE HAVE THE POWER…of editorial publicity.

“Something has changed and the reason for the change is online activity, where personal recommendation and personal communication have become more important. And it’s clearly editorial and it’s clearly not advertising based.”

 We’re good aren’t we? Let’s all go to the pub to celebrate. I’ll get my coat.

Sorry? What was that AdAge? A survey of attendees to your Digital Marketing Conference you say? And they said what??

Where should social media lie? Audience poll: 53% in marketing, 5% say in PR, 9% say customer service and 33% say some new division.

But this was just marketeers right? We’re still great…aren’t we?

Well no. Judging by the comments on Adrants, if PR isn’t playing second fiddle to ‘marketing’, it’s picking up bronze behind a ‘new division’ which is yet to emerge.

How did we fall so far behind? Social media is all about communication as is Public Relations. It was ours for the taking but somehow we’ve let it slip through our fingers. Were we all out to lunch, sipping champagne and smoozing? I doubt it. Maybe we’re too afraid of technology. All that typing could break a nail!

Seriously, I’m worried by the number of PRs who don’t just understand this area but who are too afraid to even experiment. I’m not suggesting they should take a multi-million pound client, stick the CEO in front of a camera, hit record and see the response on YouTube. I mean writing (or commenting on) a blog, listening to podcast, watching a webchat. Even a little twittering wouldn’t go amiss. It seems the furthest most PRs have strayed into social media is with a Facebook profile. It’s a start right?

Based on the the social media conferences we attend with speakers from a variety of backgrounds (bloggers, financial institutes and yes PR agencies), it seems there is a theme running throughout which is that PR (agencies and in-house) should be doing…something. We’re not going to tell you what it is but we will point you in the direction of the web and watch you worry. We can’t give too much away because we want to maintain that competitive edge. But we don’t mind throwing stats at you and watching you have a panic attack safe in the knowledge that you should be doing…something.

So who’s role is it to take ownership of this area? Who in PR is going to help educate the industry? The industry bodies clearly need to step in and provide the much needed training. Actually telling PRs how to do it. Seminars such as the CIPR one hosted by Rob Brown, soon to be MD of Staniforth (Full discolsure: I work for the agency) at Manchester University. Social Media is the future of PR but I’m concerned after looking at the CIPR list of upcoming events for 2008. Just five events based around social media planned for the rest of this year. Is that really enough for PR to take ownership?

Technology has been leading the way in social media for some time. I’m not talking about your PC, Mac or handheld device that allows you to poke your friends any time of the day or night. I’m referring to the way big tech brands, such as Dell and Nokia, have invested in social media marketing campaigns.

This is, no doubt, due to the incredible growth in tech bloggers during the early days of web 2.0. Where it’s usually the automotive industry who receives great acclaim for pushing the boundaries of marketing, tech was in there first this time. Of course they had an unfair advantage by playing on their own, familar ground without even having to move from their desks.

Despite the incredible growth of this area, some have risen to the dizzy heights of what could be classed as mainstream. Blogs such as Boing Boing or Gizmodo attract huge audiences along with recognised authority in the blogosphere. So what happens when you make one mad? They tend to be quite vocal about it as 118 118 have just discovered following the recent ’padded lamposts’ PR stunt. Ok, maybe not mad. More embarrassed for falling for such a stunt. But don’t worry TechDigesters, you weren’t alone. Even ITN thought it was 1st April.

I am working for Staniforth, the North West’s biggest PR agency. There is a great deal of excitement at the moment due to the imminent arrival of our new MD, Rob Brown. We are starting to carve out a niche for ourselves in digital PR, understanding that audiences want a different way of being spoken to by brands and other institutions they deal with. 

Rob did a great session at the CIPR North West on Thursday night. Its often hard to know where to start when explaining the essence of online PR but he used two adverts, one from the 1950s and one from the present day to sum it up. 

Online PR isn’t about flash technology it’s about talking to people at eye-level and being prepared to talk back. This blog, amongst other things, will discuss relevant issues that can be applied to communicating with audiences in this way.

Sunny Hundal is a social media player. He’s intelligent, energetic, innovative and very passionate about fighting for what he believes. In the old days he might have been a fiery Labour councillor or the editor of a subversive magazine but in the modern era he’s using social media to marry together grass-roots support with key opinion formers to get the mainstream to take notice of the causes he is fighting for. He is currently campaigning against government plans to extent pre-charge detention past 28 days.

In addition to raising awareness of this issue on the blog and using tools like Facebook (nearly 5000 people joined their group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8018032131), in Saturday’s Guardian there was a letter signed by 35 important names saying that the government has failed to make the case for extending this period and it should withdraw its plans.

There was also a story about the letter in the newspaper.

This is a great example of how social media is replacing the gaps that are appearing where trade unions or freethinking backbench MPs used to be. They haven’t disappeared but they are less in number and the media are looking for alternative sources of grassroots opinion. Who would’ve thought that Tim Montgomerie of Tory blog ConservativeHome would be used as a spokesperson for ordinary Tory members on the Today programme, Newsnight or last night’s BBC News? 

We can sometimes over-do the decline of traditional media. It’s true that newspaper sales are flagging but the Saturday market is often overlooked. Saturday is the biggest selling day for many nationals and the amount of supplements contained within them rivals Sundays for the propensity to give your paper boy chronic backache. 

The broadsheets often put a big hitter into the editor’s chair in charge of the Saturday edition and a de facto number two to the big boss and the Telegraph did just that today by appointing Richard Preston as Saturday editor. I’ve dealt him a fair amount in his current role as Comment Editor at the DT and I look forward to seeing how he’ll develop the paper and build its Saturday personality.

  News reaches us of an online soap opera about the Manchester PR scene. According to HowDo…. Spinning Jenny, as it is set to be called (a big, shiny ‘well done’ to the first to spot the Manchester link), is currently in development at Silk Press Productions and will have its own website www.spinningjenny.tv as well as appearing on the increasingly popular www.manchester-live.tv site.Jenny – auditions are taking place next Monday (17 March) for the central role – will be a young girl in her early 20s working at one of the city’s leading PR firms… Brazen to be precise.Online video is the big story for 2008 as far as PR is concerned. People, especially the under 35s, like short video that they can snatch while surfing at work or at home in the evening. It is often more accessible than text and there is a high incentive to pass on to friends. Websites like it as it’s ‘sticky’ and the advancement of broadband make it easy to download. However even the biggest sites, let alone bloggers, lack the resources to produce enough video to satisfy demand. There is a role for PR to produce content to make them useful to their online networks. It can’t be corporate guff, the usual rules apply – know your audience, know your media, be transparent. Some agencies have dabbled in their own version of reality TV. Agency.com’s ‘fly-on-the-wall’  of the Subway pitch prompted a number of mash-ups but I think it’s a great decision by Brazen to allow access to the filmmakers and some of the stardust may rub off. But don’t confuse this with a PR agency that understands how to navigate properly through new media. Wonder if Jennifer O’Grady, who recently left Brazen to start a new media agency, will be auditioning?

Last week, Apple threw open the iPhone to developers, allowing them to create applications for the portable device. You can see the full presentation here.

The initial apps demoed at the event were impressive, expanding the useage of the phone/music player/web browser while targeting a variety of new audiences such as gamers (Super Monkey Ball), online socialites (AIM) and businesses (SalesForce).

So far the iPhone has led to a huge increase in mobile web browsing and it’s likely that the launch of apps in June will have a similar result.

We’ve already witnessed an explosion of Facebook applications (yes, we’re all a little tired of being bitten by our Vampire friends), but will we see big brands jumping on this opportunity and investing in the development of iPhone apps?

Based on the social media philosophy of always ensuring brand content created is either useful or entertaining, what better way is there to get a client into the pockets of consumers than with a high quality game or piece of software that actually assists them in their daily activities?

We’ve already witnessed brands developing content such as Cadillac’s Xbox 360 game or the IFA search engine from unbiased.co.uk and with the iPhone reaching out to new audiences, we look forward to an increase in brand-based applications specifically designed to be carried around 24 hours a day.

As a PR practitioner, one of the most important decisions you take when advising a client is how to tackle what can be given to the media ‘off the record’. It’s in both sides interest to be able to do this. It means the journalist gets more flavour and context for their story and the spokesperson can be more co-operative when freed from the ‘party line’.This dual interest means trust is important when knowing where to draw the line. I’ll touch wood when I say, I’ve HARDLY ever had a problem on this score but there have been mistakes when I was younger that I have learned from. I’ll tell you more another time! You may have seen that one of Barack Obama’s top advisers, Samantha Power, has been forced to quit over a remark made to a journalist at the Scotsman, where she referred to Hilary Clinton as a ‘monster’. According to the Scotsman’s political Ed, Gerri Peev the exact words were…“She is a monster, too - that is off the record - she is stooping to anything.” Peev added that Ms Power was “hastily trying to withdraw her remark.” I’m amazed that the Scotsman ignored that and published. The Scotsman have justifiably pointed out that the initial parameters were that the conversation was on the record and may be Power was mistakenly believing that the UK lobby followed the more deferent line towards politicians that is adopted by the White house press corps. But even so!Ian Stewart is The Scotsman’s ombudsman and this is his official view…..“The rules on what is and what is not reportable in exchanges between journalists and politicians are in my experience very clear. If a journalist makes it known that he or she is a journalist and asks a politician a question, then the response is on the record. If in a sit-down interview the interviewee wishes to go off the record then that is established at the outset so that both parties agree. It is usual that this off the record remarks or briefing takes place at the beginning of any interview, and it is clearly understood by both parties exactly when off the recode starts and stops. To have any credibility at claiming “off-the-record” status it has to be clearly stated before any remarks are made that the interviewee is going off-the record and this has to be agreed. I have never heard of an interview in which the politician can edit his or her remarks after the fact. That amounts to asking for editorial control of what is published and I know of no journalist who would agree to that. Some complaints said that we had betrayed journalism by publishing what we did. On the contrary we would have betrayed journalism and our readers had we not done. I“t was evidently Ms Power’s opinion but she realised immediately she should not have said it. It is our job to report what Ms Powers said as evidence of what she believed, not what she had wished to say and would have us believe.”

Media doyen, Roy Greenslade has the following response, which I agree with…. “Well, I’m afraid I’m not so certain as Peev, Gilson, Stewart and Martin about this matter. I do lots of interviews with the most sensitive people on earth - editors, journalists and newspaper managers - and many of them say suddenly “and that’s off the record”. Were I to break confidence and publish they would never speak to me again. End of source. End of briefings. End of stories. There are, of course, occasions when interviews begin with an agreement about the whole conversation being off the record. But there are plenty of times when interviews go on and off the record at will. (When I once interviewed the former Sun editor David Yelland in his Wapping days he went on and off the record so often that I took it as all off the record in the end). “  Although Peev probably thought that she could afford to upset Power, as she’s a US player without any role here, but what if Obama becomes President and Miss Peev climbs the career ladder. May be she will cost her future employer access to the White House. Also, will key contacts on this side of the Atlantic think twice about giving Peev any scoops?