Morgan McLintic on PR

Blog Relations PR survey

Hugh Fraser and Matthew Lynn of Blog Relations have published the results of their recent blogging survey of 50 PR consultants. While the sample size is perhaps not representative of the entire industry and, as they say, skewed towards the more blog-savvy, there are some interesting headlines.

Six out of ten of the PR people taking part in the survey believed that a disgruntled employee or a dissatisfied customer could use a blog to damage a company’s reputation. But eight out of ten PR PROs also think that blogs, if used correctly can be a useful communication tool for businesses.

Meanwhile, although 56 percent of PRs say that they have never pitched a blogger, 46 per cent of those same people think that there are already a “good number of influential blogs.” Perhaps they could be doing more to get their message out to them.

Also interesting to note the differing results between the UK and US detailed here.

Notes from Blighty

Back in San Fran after a whistlestop tour to the UK. From those I spoke to the mood in the UK seems positive from an agency perspective with lots of companies looking for agencies and new positions and opportunities for staff opening up.

On the media side, The Guardian's revamp is still a hot topic. I like the new Berliner format and the fact is has color on every page, though I was less convinced about the half-size supplement, G2, which is now reduced to comic-sized format.

Meanwhile, The Evening Standard, a London daily tabloid and staple read for commuters on their way home, is going up-market. In the face of declining circulation (now at 344,145), it has taken on 20 more reporters and is aiming to boost its business content. The revamp also includes a redesign (though not a reformat) and the ditching of its pink pages which delineated its City pages (much to the delight of the FT no doubt). The Independent on Sunday has more here [subscription required].

And finally, joy at last for the relaunch of PRWEEK's online presence with specific industry sections and its RSS feeds. A much cleaner look and faster site (not difficult). This week coincidentally features my colleague, Andy Oliver, talking about disaster recovery for PR firms (in relation to the San Diego bush fires which drove the team from the office). All content is free until October 31, 2005 then the gates will come back down and you'll have to log in as before. Look out later this week for a technology email newsletter akin to the return of a brighter, better PRWEEK WorldWire.

Technorati Tags: Guardian, The Evening Standard

London

I'm off to London for a series of meetings and to renew some old acquaintances. I'll see if I can find out some new trends in PR and media from a UK perspective while there. If you want to connect while I'm in town, just let me know.

Global PR Blog Week 2.0

The Global PR Blog Week 2.0 starts today. It's an online event focused on how new communications technologies are changing public relations and business communication.

Expect lots of good posts and comments about blogging, podcasting, RSS etc at the site throughout the week. The agenda is here. My thanks in advance to all those who have taken the time to contribute their thoughts and advice. Great stuff.

Technorati Tags: Global PR Blog Week 2.0, podcasting, RSS

Under The Radar - Enterprise Technologies

The next Under The Radar event is coming up on November 16, 2005 in Mountain View, CA. This time it's focused on Enterprise Technologies. The call for companies was sent out recently, and there is still time to enter your company or your clients. The Advisory Board met on Tuesday, and ran through some interesting sectors which include wVoIP, mobile infrastructure, security, application development (AJAX etc), searching unstructured data and collaboration tools (wikis, blogs, comms). There are lots of hot start ups in these spaces, but if your entry doesn't fit neatly that's fine too - it would be well worth submitting at this stage so the categories are still being finalized. Let me know if you have any questions or want me to assist in putting your nominations forward.

Technorati Tags: Under The Radar

Entrepreneurs Foundation

I've started to help out in the marketing communications council for the Entrepreneurs Foundation, which promotes involvement by Bay Area companies in community programs. Participating companies donate a small amount of their equity to the Foundation which, once vested, goes towards charitable community projects. The Foundation also assists companies in building and running their social responsibility programs, which in turn helps with recruitment, staff retention and overall staff satisfaction. I believe that's called a win-win.

So check them out for your own company or your clients. More from me on them here. [See told you I was helping with the marketing...]

Technorati Tags: Bay Area, Community, Entrepreneurs Foundation, CSR

The Guardian gets $145m make-over

The Guardian newspaper, one of the UK national dailies, finally unveiled its new mid-size format today. As part of an estimated $145m overhaul according to BBC estimates, the paper has resized to a format between tabloid and broadsheet, common in Europe, known as the Berliner. The makeover also includes the introduction of color onto every page.

This revamp has been a long time in the making. The Times and The Independent went tabloid back in 2003. At the time, the Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger was less than enthusiastic about a similar move by his paper due to the populist impact it might have on the paper's journalistic approach. Now, bowing to waning circulation, the Guardian has followed the pack, but with a twist in the Berliner format:

“The challenge for us was to remain true to our journalism, now attracting a record worldwide audience online, while at the same time finding a modern print format for a new generation of readers in this country.

”We believe we've found it with the Berliner format, which combines the portability of a tabloid with the sensibility of a broadsheet.“

The paper has also designed a new masthead and selected a new typeface (Guardian Egyptian) as part of the the overhaul, which required Guardian Newspapers to buy three German printing presses to produce the new size.

Torin Douglas, the BBC's Media Correspondent, offers some insight into the challenge of the resize. He points out that since The Guardian is so strong in public sector and media advertising, to go to a traditional tabloid size would have created a book-sized tome of 250 pages on some days. Hardly the commuter's dream. Douglas concludes:

Having lagged behind its rivals in the past two years, and lost far too many sales for comfort, the Guardian has now given them a good deal to worry about.

The question now is whether it can translate its new look into new readers.

The UK Press Gazette has more on the story including an indication of a move towards the political middle ground for the left-wing paper. Perhaps this too will win more readers. Circulation in August 2005 was 341,698 - we'll see.

Technorati Tags: Berliner, Guardian, Journalism, Newspapers, Publishing

Adium - Multilingual IM for Mac

Many communications professionals now regularly use Instant Messaging to correspond with clients, reporters, partners and co-workers for those one-to-one urgent matters where emails might get lost or are too slow. Since IM networks like Yahoo, AIM and MSN don't interoperate, this can mean having several IM clients open at one time.

If you're a Mac user, you might like to try out Adium, which allows you to log into several networks from a single application. I came across it from Om Malik's 10 Mac Apps meme. It doesn't offer the voice or video capabilities of Apple's own iChat, and I've been told file transfer can be problematic, but it does cut down the number of open applications and have some fun extensions. It's a bit like Firefox for IM at first looks. Anyway, worth taking for a spin.

Technorati Tags: Adium, 10MacApps, IM

Who's There? - Free Seth Godin ebook

Marketing maestro, Seth Godin has kindly made his latest ebook freely available. 'Who's There' is an 'Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web' and is available for download here. At 45 pages (small ones) it's easily accessible, covers definitions for the uninitiated and walks through some excellent blogging lessons.

It categorizes blogs into three types: cat blogs - which mainly revolve around personal blogging; boss blogs - which are used to communicate information from the top down; and viral blogs which aim to spread ideas. The book is about this last category and briefly lays out four laws for viral blogs, together with five components of great blogs (candor, urgency, timeliness, pithiness and controversy):-

Short and sweet: If you can’t be at least four of the five things listed above, please don’t bother. People have a choice (4.5 million choices, in fact) and nobody is going to read your blog, link to your blog or quote your blog unless there’s something in it for them.

Are your manners business class?

While browsing through the bookstore this weekend, I came across Jacqueline Whitmore's 'Business Class - etiquette essentials for success at work.' At 192 pages it's an easily-digestible, whistle-stop tour of business manners.

Most of us, I'm sure, pride ourselves on our deportment, polite conversation, appearance and general demeanor. You don't get far in PR if you don't show up on time, speak eloquently, dress appropriately and conduct yourself well. But even if you are a seasoned pro, it's always good to double-check. People rarely tell you if you have unconsciously offended them, particularly clients and partners, but it can have a dramatic effect on your professional and personal reputation.

For instance, I have noticed since moving to the Valley that on occasion even senior marketing staff do not shake hands at the conclusion of a meeting. Is this a time-saving move? A sign of informality? Or poor manners? It can easily cause an unintended sleight to others with different business mores.

So Business Class is one of those books that if you read it and learn nothing, then you can bask in the warm glow of what a fine, upstanding bastion of etiquette you are; or if you read it and learn a few extra tips, that's one or two fewer people you may offend in future. Either way, it's time well spent.

Technorati Tags: etiquette