Posts in Public Relations
Is a public relations degree worth it?
Over at Rock Star PR , Jed Hallam ponders the value of a university degree in public relations:"I didn’t study public relations at university, I studied English Literature and, typical for the industry, I fell into PR. But what if I would’ve always have wanted to work in PR and would’ve studied it at university? Would that make me a better PR professional? Or would it have simply prepared me for the technical aspects of public relations; the format of the press release, the communications audit, the strategy, the three month plan, the research, the analysis and on and on… Can this be learnt on the job or must it be taught?"
John Burg left a comment on the post that points out that even the best degrees are useless uinless you can convert theory into practise: More...
Social Media Smackdown as PR Defends Itself from Marauding Bloggers
The contrary view, of course, is that social media is a fillip for the industry. Let's face it, with so many media channels now available, companies and brands need more help than ever with their communications and one could argue quite persuasively that PR is the most suitable discipline to provide the most effective guidance and counsel.
American PR company Horn Group recently hosted a forum to discuss this very issue under the handle Is Social Media Killing PR? (see video below by Kara Swisher from Allthingsd.com). More...
Extreme Thinking From a Veritable Brand
Take it to the 'extreme'.To mark the 60th anniversary of the Scrabble, the brand shot a series of amazing photos in which the game was played by fans under 'extreme' circumstances i.e. skydiving, in shark-infested waters, up a sheer cliff, within eating distance of an alligator.
Brilliant stuff!
Locally, the Herald-Sun newspaper ran not one but five photos (across two separate articles).
- If you want to get noticed, take a risk.
Guest post: How you can increase traffic to Government websites with Government Press Releases
Cheryl manages eGovernment Research in DIIRD and is a prime operative behind the Victorian eGovernment Resource Centre, which was one of the global top ten nominees for the World e-Democracy Awards 2008, winning a Special Mention, just behind award winners such as mybarackobama.com.
The eGovernment Resource Centre is, in my opinion, the single best resource for egovernment and online channel information in Australia. More...
Now is Gone Celebrates First Anniversary
On November 13th, 2008, Geoff Livingston and I quietly celebrated the bookversary of Now is Gone, one of the first books that tackled the subject of social media and new PR strategies for corporate marketers and communicators.
As Geoff pointed over out at LivingstonBuzz, the book has earned tremendous milestones:
- Thousands of people have read the book
- We’ve received hundreds of thank yous from folks who said it changed their business life
- Now Is Gone received more than 50 positive reviews
- Thanks to Scott Monty, it was cited by the Wall Street Journal as a resource for small businesses
- The book took the silver medal in the Axiom Business Book Awards
Now Is Gone helps businesses embrace Social Media realistically, intelligently, and authentically as an extension to their corporate marketing initiatives.
Sizzle It! Launches New Go-To Source for Creative Sizzle Reels that are Engaging and Effective
New York City, NY (November 12, 2008) -- Sizzle It! is the first company to offer specialized expertise in the production of sizzle reels. The company aims to become the go-to source for creative, engaging and effective sizzle reels and promo videos. Sizzle It's management team has over 20 years of experience and a dedication to making clients' lives easier. Their clients include several high profile organizations such as Blue Man Group, NBC Universal, CBS, Hewlett-Packard, the Eric Trump Foundation and many top public relations, marketing and advertising firms. More...
Online shoppers make irrational choices - making selling easier
For instance, when shown pictures produced by cameras they chose the camera which led to the best looking image. However, when shown the numerical resolution of the camera they chose a product based on that number - even if the pictures were rated worse than a camera with a lower resolution.
Additional studies on the thickness of crisps and the number of air bags in a massage cushion also produced similar results. More...
PR industry salary benchmarking data
| Job function | Av salary |
| Account executive | £21,846 |
| Senior account excecutive | £26,183 |
| Account manager | £30,792 |
| Senior account manager | £37,333 |
| Account director | £44,480 |
| Senior account director | £53,253 |
Top 50 UK PR people by Twitter influence
There has been a lot of Twitter chatter over the last couple of days about Stephen Davies’ list of PR and journalist Twitter users. Names are being added to both lists by the hour and anyone named on either list is enjoying a rush of new followers.
Lists are great for creating order. To this end Stephen has created a useful directory of PR people and journalists that use Twitter.
But does it tell us any more than that? What level of influence do PR people using Twitter have? Is Twitter being used to change opinions? After all, influencing opinions is our raison d’être.
I had a quick exchange with Stephen yesterday about this – via direct messages on Twitter as it happens. More...
Teaching young dogs old tricks
Last week we worked with RoadTour to launch a new satellite navigation guide that advises parents on locations throughout the UK that are child-friendly. What was interesting about the launch was that an online launch the previous week using targeted distribution to blogs and online gadget and shopping sites hadn’t worked. We were called in to apply a bit of traditional media magic, and here’s what we did:
We recrafted the story, starting with devising a media-friendly name for the product: “Tot-Nav.”
Next, we assembled a list of 10 tourist sites that scored poorly with children. For this, we asked our kids to quiz their social networks – MySpace, Windows Live, Bebo, Facebook and text – for ideas for the list, along with their reasons why. This was extremely effective. Some of the kids have a network of more than 500 friends on MySpace alone and when you consider the vira More...