MarCom Professional

It’s a very real application of social technologies. Here’s Phil Sheldrake in this week’s leader in Marcom Professional:

“I’ve had the pleasure in the last two weeks of working with a dozen of the finest Brits in PR, branding, digital / Web, public affairs and news distribution.

14 April – Social media and the media
Strategic Social Media London, Westminster

21 May – Anti-social media
Social Media in Business, Richmond/London

20 and 24 May – The great print debates
PIRA, Birmingham

Do give us a shout if you’re attending any of these events. It would be great to catch-up for a coffee or a beer.

• Speed’s creative director Chris McCrudden has tasked everyone in the business with unplugging from their networks at least once a month to explore some of London’s galleries and exhibitions.
• Marie Efthymiou wrote my favourite blog post of the week tackling the tricky issue of kissing and physical contact in business situations.
• Steve Earl has written a cracking series of post this week about the motivations (and management challenges) of Generation Y.
• Dan Howe reported on TEDxWarwick 2010 where he heard presentations on living buildings, molecular gastronomy and an inspiring speech Alex Wright, author of Glut:

“I started blogging in 2007 during my final year at Leeds Met. However, in Oct 2009 I wanted to change tact and produce something more social media orientated, in order to try and land a social media agency role. I’m a firm believer that having a sound grasp and recorded opinion on industry issues is a great way to differentiate yourself when job hunting.”

“I also wanted a fresh start using WordPress and to get away from the student angst posts e.g.

This is generation that has grown up with the technology and the tools that so many businesses have yet to embrace. They already have many of the skills that agencies and communication teams are striving to build.

But there is more that the current generation of PR graduates could do to kickstart their PR careers. Developing and demonstrating your digital communication skills will improve your employment prospects and may even enable you to demand a higher starting salary than your less digital savvy counterparts. More...

But traditional media is in turmoil: ad revenue is at an all time low thanks to the recession and the internet has reduced the cost of publication and distribution to almost zero.

The rise of social networks has led consumers to fundamentally change their media consumption habits. Consumers are becoming contributors.

The impact on the PR profession has been dramatic. Command and control media relations no longer works and increasing brands are building direct relationships with their audiences using compelling content and story telling. More...

BBC Director General Mark Thompson was the exception. In his strategy review of the BBC set out yesterday he proposed that the BBC pull back its online effort. The review calls for a 25 per cent reduction in the budget for bbc.co.uk and half the number of sections on the site. Savings will be reinvested in the generation of content elsewhere within the BBC under five new editorial priorities.

Whether or not this will be sufficient to pacify critics in the commercial media sector only time will tell. More...

This was the view of Colin Petrie-Norris, Managing Director, International Specific Media, speaking at the FT Digital Media & Broadcasting conference this morning.

Petrie-Norris shared a list of items that he’d searched for in the last few days with the audience. These included a number of innocent items intended as gifts that he said that he would rather not share with his wife to make the point that Google knows more about a user than their friends and family. More...

Sir Martin Sorrell shared a three-point prediction for the future of media with the audience at the FT Digital Media & Broadcasting conference this morning.

• Consumers need to pay for content. You cannot sustain an online media property on an advertising model alone
• Consolidation among media outlets will result as publishers continue to test different payment models to varying degrees of success
• Finally, society at large will need to decide what it wants the future of its media landscape to look like and determine what alternative funding mechanisms are appropriate.