pr-media-blog.co.uk

I recently came across Jezebel, a blog which, as the raunchy name suggests, is aimed at women and focuses on celebrity, sex and fashion, ‘without airbrushing’. 

My first thought was – hmm, another feminist website. Turns out it’s much more than that. Churned out by Gawker Media since 2007, it’s clocking up on average nearly 1 million visits per day and has an impressive following on social networking sites and other blogs. Yesterday I noticed a twitter conversation about an intern position at the site, which went something like this, “Dear Jezebel, I will sell you my soul for an internship.” 

Why all the hype? I decided to monitor the blog to find out and have to say I’ve been very impressed. Most blogs aimed specifically at women have never appealed to me as they seem to focus on recipes or similar, not particularly exciting subjects. Jezebel, on the other hand, with a fiercely direct and analytical attitude, takes on not only women’s mags, but also newspapers (Daily Fail, as they call it, being one of the most favourite whipping boys) and offers tens of witty articles every day on pretty much every subject a modern woman might be interested in. How about: Daily Mail Finds Rare Childless Woman Who Is Not Miserable? 

The blog positions itself as the rebel, sick of the lies perpetuated by the women’s media, from airbrushing and shallow predictable celebrity interviews, to must-have products that journalist’s themselves don’t believe in.  

For this reason, from a PR perspective, however, Jezebel is almost an impossible win – they simply won’t read PR pitches and seem to have a grudge against the PR industry as such. Having said that, if you come up with a spectacular idea, perfect for the audience, I think you can chance it. Also, their FAQ section offers a very interesting insight into how a professional blog is run. 

A more general realisation though is that in today’s world where citizen journalism is on the rise, getting your news story printed is not the end of the story. Increasingly, it is then taken apart and analysed by ever more powerful and media savvy groups and blogs all over the world.  

All in all, Jezebel is a much-needed breath of fresh air in the tired space of women’s websites and magazines, which at the moment still follow the same traditional format – Wednesday’s launch of the Stylist is a prime example.  

“Black goes with everything and you probably don’t need any more assistance going broke!” shout Jezebel’s editors in unison. And the reason Jezebel is on the rise with an army of active commentators, whilst many women’s magazines are dying out – passion and edginess!   

It seems the power of the PR ‘stunt’ to gain coverage is still well and truly with us - as the story of Winston the pigeon is anything to go by.

Winston was challenged to get a  4gb data stick from the offices of Unlimited IT in the town of Howick to Durban quicker - one hour and eight minutes -  than a transfer by an internet connection from the country’s biggest ISP Telkom.

Unsurprisingly, Winston’s pigeon post won delivering the data stick whilst just 4% of the data had arrived electronically.

The object of the exercise was to demonstrate just how slow broadband connections are in South Africa and give some profile to the IT company.

However perhaps this ‘stunt’, which gained global coverage, was timely as qualification games were taking place across the world and people were thinking about South Africa.

Today’s tournaments are so heavily reliant on the internet that the’ stunt’ offers a wake up call to the authorities and tournament organisers that its communication  network needs to be able to cope with the demands of the modern World Cup.

The last thing you want is a meltdown while the world’s media is in your back yard. Now where is that crisis management plan……

A famous global PR company used to give clients three pieces of advice on press conferences…”don’t do them, don’t do them and don’t do them”.  They are hard to get right, open to risk and in the digital age what is the point of a press conference? Well, it is the same as it always was - to fuel the buzz.  I don’t think anyone today does it better than Apple.In fact Apple, which has a conference scheduled for tomorrow, 9 September, has achieved what most companies can only dream of, a flood of coverage before they have announced a thing.  They can do this because they have great products and a charismatic head honcho in Steve Jobs.  They also succeed in creating drama and intrigue.  So what is the buzz about this time?  There is so much speculation that it hurts but here is a quick summary of the hum on the wires:

• Will Steve Jobs host?  He is recovering from a liver transplant but back at work. Will tech’s greatest showman be hosting the show?
• Is the much talked about tablet ready to roll? The keyboard free netbook, the love child of the iphone and the macbook is hotly tipped.
• The Beatles are going on iTunes.  Spotify has seized all the headlines lately and Apple must be keen to get its download service back in the spotlight.
• Time for a new Touch?  The iPod touch is set for a facelift but it has the capacity to be big news.  If as is rumored there is a microphone on board plus an app for VOIP phone calls the big phone operators might finally start to flinch in the face of web based calls.

Whatever is waiting in the wings one thing is certain; the press conference is a core part of the Apple PR strategy and it will be rewarded with a media deluge.

It isn’t often that we opt for introspection on this blog but we think that being shortlisted for a hotly contested award is cause enough to briefly break the habit.   PR Media Blog has been shortlisted in the ‘Best Use of Social Media’ category in the 2009 CIPR Pride Awards.  It is up against some very tough opposition but we are all proud to have made the final cut. Congatulations to all the contributors listed on the right.

Staniforth, the PR agency behind PRMB picked up three awards in last year’s event and is shortlisted for five this year with campaigns for Smokefree NorthWest, Chill Factor^e and two for Kellogg’s completing the line up.  The results are announced at a ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester on 16 November.

The relationship between journalists and PR people is privileged, even if it can be somewhat strained at times.  It was never more so than with the embargo, the implicit agreement between press office and journalists that they won’t publish until a given hour, if it no one else does.  Social media has essentially seen the death of the embargo but some PR people seem to want to dig it up, rebury it and dance upon its grave.   

PR organisations are handing out press releases with embargoes and then breaking the story themselves.  Kris Vire the Theater Editor for Time Out Chicago magazine recently posted “PR firm asks for 11am embargo, then posts/tweets its news itself at 10:55. Why am I even here?”.  There is no reason PR firms can’t break stories but this is about trust - if you make an agreement stick to it.  It is essential for your relationship with the media both on and offline. 

Control of the flow of information, whether embargoed or not, has changed.  The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) sent e-mails yesterday to all the entrants in the CIPR Pride Awards informing them as to whether or not they had been shortlisted.  Within minutes the wires were alive with PR people tweeting about their own fortunes, before the CIPR posted the list and presumably before the media had the information.   We have to be circumspect about the objectivity of PR people posting news about their own successes.  I couldn’t help but notice the agency which announced that it had been entered just five categories and been shortlisted in all five, only to proudly confirm later that they’d been shortlisted in a sixth category.

I love travelling and hiking and treasure hunt used to be one of my favourite childhood games, so weirdly enough I only found out about geocaching a few days ago.

If you also missed the ‘in the know’ boat, it’s basically a high-tech treasure hunt – a brilliant combination of the old-fashioned game and new technology, with Internet and social-networking added to the mix. Geocachers hide and seek small trinkets (caches) at different locations all over the world with the help of GPS gadgets and then log clues and photos on the Internet for other gamers.

Some tourism companies and national parks have already tapped into this growing craze. Brecon Beacons National Park, for example, helps visitors set up caches within the park and also offers special Geocoins with unique tracking ID codes to promote the park.

And with over 700,000 registered caches around the world and a huge following online (abundance of support groups on Twitter and Facebook – the largest one has nearly 14,000 members), I can see why.

New technology is developing fast (the iPhone 3G is great for geocaching), and could open up some interesting opportunities for experiential marketing and PR in many areas, not just travel. Imagine finding keys to a new car in a cache, instead of the usual trinkets? Or bringing your local geocachers together to regenerate parks in disadvantaged areas?

Of course, as with anything new there are potential pitfalls, from someone walking into a lamppost or being arrested for shady behaviour (you might look a bit odd walking down the high street with a TomTom) to the more serious issue of a bomb squad carrying out controlled explosion of your branded treasure cache (read ‘suspicious package’).

Still, I have a feeling geocaching’s here to stay – this week’s Time Out London has devoted a whole page to the subject, and I’ll keep my eyes out for the first big branded campaign.

Indy’s claim “we do not follow maps to buried treasure and X never, ever marks the spot” might be proven wrong after all!

Twitter users are growing by a factor of 10, so says web measurement firm, Hitwise. Not bad going for what was a niche, online tool with no clear use apart from giving other intrepid social media pioneers a running commentary on your day-to-day life - in 140 characters or fewer.

But now the BBC, according to correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones’ “Tweets”, is having meetings about its own reporters’ use of Twitter, surely it’s gone mainstream.

And so, social media is becoming part of the fabric of our lives. When your Mum and Dad are on Facebook - even if they are slightly bewildered by it - you sense a corner has been turned.

In the past 24 hours I have been involved - for the first time - in a new business discussion that began on a social networking site. A few hours later, it went offline and is progressing in a way you’d never expect after meeting someone in today’s equivalent of the infamous “chatroom”.

But it makes absolute sense. If you need a service, and you know that people looking to do business are gathering in particular places online, why not congregate? Not only can you get an insight into the background, knowledge and expertise of prospective business partners or customer (it tends to be spelled out in a clear chronology), you can open a dialogue and get a feel for the person you’re dealing with. Interacting on social media is disarming, so you should get a truer, more unvarnished view, free of marketing gloss.

This model, in my opinion, would serve the procurement of professional services such as PR and marketing very well, as it allows for a more natural evolution of understanding between buyer and seller, rather than the unnatural beauty parades that dominate the sector. Companies can be dazzled by a pitch, but does that translate to a long-term working relationship? Sometimes, but not always.

Social media is out there and - for business - it’s coming of age. Get with it, before your Granny beats you to it.

Update: Here’s what the FT has to say: “Social media…transforms a business if you use it correctly.” (Bob Pearson, Dell)

Just like anyone with customers, PR people have been guilty of atrocious customer service.

Leaving aside for a moment the client which actually pays the bill, the other main customer is the journalist.  Yet despite countless courses, internal mentoring from old hands and being shouted at down the phone by an irate correspondent on deadline, some PR consultants still get it wildly wrong with the media. And one of the greatest offences remains the unfocused, pointless and often desperate phone call to ask the journalist, pleading: “Did you get the press release I sent?”

So, as communications skills need to shift to meet the mores of Web 2.0, are PR people (not “PRs”, please - that’s just not good Inglish, rite?) behaving themselves?

The Independent’s Cyberclinic writer, Rhodri Marsden, seems to think not. In this week’s column - which suggests the populace give Twitter a go before believing, as the Daily Mail does, that it’s “boring” - he warns the reader to “Ignore the companies and PR agencies hell-bent on turning it into an advertising platform”.

PR Blogger Stephen Davies has spotted PR people using Twitter to pester journalists with the loathed “Did you receive my…” question and canvassed views via, well, Twitter. What might surprise Rhodri Marsden is the almost ”born again” response from the PR community, treating such practices with abject revulsion and suggesting the need for offenders to undergo a Twitter etiquette course. Maybe more PR practitioners than imagined have undone their evil ways and those persisting with naughty behaviour are being treated as a pariah minority?

But more surprising is the journalists’ response to Davies’ question. A fearsome critic of poor PR tactics, The Guardian’s Charles Arthur, comes out almost cuddly, saying: “I’m all for it” (on the proviso it’s in lieu of a phone call. The penalty for getting that wrong is inconceivable). And then @RobinBrown78 kicks back with “Relaxed about it - as long as it’s relevant.”

So, (some) journalists are virtually embracing Twitter free love, while PR people are mounting a Web 2.0 version of the Spanish Inquisition on their own. Clearly, the world has gone mad, but never - despite what the Daily Mail says - boring. 

*Update - the Daily Mail comes under attack from “Twitter vigilantes”. Oh Lord!

Hello again and Happy New Year!

After a short hiatus, PR Media Blog is back on the beat.

And what better place to start than today’s Media Guardian, whch gives a pretty exhaustive forecast of the new world facing the media in 2009.

Here is a sample of the most interesting views from the massed media commentators. Have they got it right? PR Media Blog will be keeping an eye on things as the media circus rolls on into another year.

“Leading web thinker” Clay Shirky with his media forecast for 2009: “Newspapers are going to get more and less elitist…a small, niche publication that says: ‘We’re only opening our mouths when what we say is demonstrably superior to anything else on the subject.’ The populist model is: ‘We’re going to take all the news pieces we get and have an enormous amount of commentary. It’s whatever the readers want to talk about.”

Gareth McClean on TV programmes: “As money becomes scarce, ratings will become more important…drama finds itself under siege from light entertainment - and factual entertainment and anything else that’s cheaper, which is basically everything - like never before.”

John Plunkett on Radio: “If ever there was a time for commercial radio to strike back in the ratings war, then surely this is it…expect more commercial stations to go to the wall, expect BBC radio to be less sure of itself, expect uncertainty over DAB to continue - expect a bloody battle.”

Roy Greenslade on newspapers: “The importance of online journalism cannot be stressed too often. It is foolish to call it the future because the future is now…the fight that counts in 2009 is the one for online eyeballs seeking news and informed comment, not for the passive audience handed a freesheet with the minimum of journalistic merit or public benefit.”

Peter Wilby on journalism: “Mass market journalism - short, snappy news items alongside gossip, glamour and articulate prejudice - is by definition doomed…serious journalism will triumph by default.”

Oliver Luft on magazines: “Business publishers may look at greater innovation online to find revenue that goes beyond the blunt approach of either subscription or open access…consumer titles will focus on ways to deliver more audience to print advertisers they want to bring over to the web.”

Danny Rogers on PR: “PR helps organisations create ongoing dialogue with their audiences. The growth of blogs, social networking and Google made this essential if today’s companies, products, governments, celebrities and charities were to impress and thrive. And despite the current recession, this underlying trend remains.”

Jemima Kiss on Digital media: “One of the most powerful technology trends of 2008 was the shift from sites as destinations to open, sharing platforms…Big media needs to start thinking like this…it’s about being resourceful and flexible in order to survive.”

“As 2009 approaches, and the world economy is truly in freefall, what is your secret of success - or survival - for next year?”

 It seemed like a fair question to stick on LinkedIn before the festive bells start jingling and the chestnuts roast on an open fire.

This year has been social media year: as well as developing a serious Twitter problem, finding my way around cocomment and helping to keep this blog bulging like Santa’s sack on Christmas Eve, I’ve found LinkedIn starting to come into its own as a professional online networking community. Not only has it put me back in touch with people -without having to throw food or turn them into zombies, a la Facebook - it’s been a channel for some great ideas sharing.

Following last night’s question, here’s a selection of the best advice to come back so far…

Rob Ewanow: “Eliminating marketing/PR spend is short-sighted…those who continue to market will reap the rewards.”

Mark Shippe: “If you have a good product or service, you will always be busy and in demand.”

Derek Weber: “It is more important than ever to make yourself and your company more visible…this is the time really to go out and try picking up new clients.”

Karthik Mani: “Be visible…communicate your viability in addition to your value proposition.”

Bridgett Gayle: “Find your unique selling point, your special value-added (everyone has one) and lead with that.”

Phil Quimby: “Be indispensable, whether to your employer, or your clients/customers. Works in good times too.”

And, my current favourite has to be:

Chuck Bogardus: “Wait until 20 Jan 2009 when the major media will announce that everything has been fixed.”

That’s like Dallas, when Pam Ewing discovers supposedly-dead husband, Bobby, in the shower. And it was all a dream. 

Unfortunately, there’s nothing dreamy about multi-billion dollar bank bail outs.

Merry Christmas!