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It’s September, surely the ‘silly season’ has officially ended? Despite Blair’s book being all over the news today, the rest of the news has been dominated by the revealing of the real Stig (not Schumacher after all – yes, I really believed that), rabid speculation over Hague’s alleged homosexual affair (based on no evidence in particular, and should we really care?), and many surveys. In today’s Daily Telegraph, there are no less than four surveys in its news pages (which also cover Blair, the Stig and Hague).

The PR industry is often berated for a perceived overuse of surveys and so it’s interesting to see that they are considered worthwhile by some journalists – front page fodder no less. Naturally the news angle has to be strong and the stats powerful – let’s examine them:

Front page: ‘Happiness begins at 55’. The usual ‘fun’ survey. Is it telling us anything that we didn’t know? I’m not certain, but it certainly contributes to a general perception that Brits spend the majority of their life massively stressed. However, we know not where the respondents are based – are they country or city folk? I suspect the latter.

Page 8: ‘£1 a minute to eat at top restaurants’. What consumers find annoying when dining out. Hardly earth shattering, but a big name brand is behind it which always adds kudos. The country’s ability to be irritated by anything and everything no doubt contributes to general life doom and gloom, as referenced on the front page.

Page 9: ‘Fox attack leaves 1 in 5 afraid of wildlife’. A third of city dwellers now perceive wildlife as ‘dangerous’ rather than ‘harmless’. This is not Australia. With a propensity to be so wimpish it’s unsurprising we’re stressed out as a nation, thereby contributing to general life doom and gloom, as referenced on the front page.

Page 9: ‘Family meal replaced by two dinners’. Parents and children are missing out on valuable family time. No doubt that’s because everyone is so stressed and working overtime, thereby contributing to general life doom and gloom, as referenced on the front page.

Regardless of what real value these surveys bring to our general knowledge, we should be thankful they exist as a news filler – otherwise we’d have piped music (see 1930) or the test card.

Now this obviously caught my attention straight away. With the highest number of students not achieving places at university this year, can they now rely on aesthetics over education to help propel their careers? Can good looks really be the key to getting that sought after job at a time when vacancies are at their ultimate low?

My experience of being in full time employment (I am fast approaching my first nine months in PR) tells me this isn’t the case. A pretty face can work only so far, I mean it’s not going to write those press releases for you, or come up with an angle for newsjacking, and it certainly isn’t going to help you fill in those tricky timesheets. Beauty may be a rather helpful tool in opening doors of opportunity, but it will hit you bang on your backside if you can’t step up to the plate and consistently keep performing.

Hard graft, resourcefulness and a willingness to learn seem to be the key attributes needed to keep climbing that career ladder so it isn’t surprising that the research also suggests that the ability to do the actual job was found to be the most important factor in hiring a candidate, with qualifications coming a close second.

So before writing off those hard-earned degrees and time and effort spent on gaining experience, think to yourself; appearances may be what make a good first impression, but ability is what will make that impression last.

Google has launched a new ‘priority inbox’ service for its web-based email service, Gmail. Basically Gmail monitors a user’s email behaviour and ranks email’s in order of importance, bumping the most important and unread emails to the top of the reading pane.

This got me thinking, could a priority email service spell the end of the PR mailer? By PR mailer I mean a mass mailed press release with something like ‘Innovative, groundbreaking thought leader comments on market leading spanner’ in the subject line. As 99% of hacks would hit the delete button every time they received something like this, a priority inbox system would send this mailer to the bottom of the pile, meaning not even the catchiest of subject lines will make it onto the journo’s email radar.

Good PRs will always thoroughly scrutinise whether a story is newsworthy or not, select the right journalists that would cover that story and then contact them by their preferred method. Crap PRs will send a mailer to a Gorkana (replace with whatever service you use) list.

So in an industry under constant pressure to reduce spamming, a priority inbox could be the catalyst needed to encourage more sophisticated PR activity.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Gmail Priority Inbox Kills Email Overload (techie-buzz.com)
• Google adds ‘priority inbox’ to Gmail (telegraph.co.uk)
• Google set to unveil “priority inbox” for Gmail (independent.co.uk)
• Google set to unveil “priority inbox” for Gmail (reuters.com)
• Google to Roll out E-mail Prioritizing Feature in Gmail (pcworld.com)
• Gmail’s New Priority Inbox Feature Knows Which Emails Are Important To You [Google] (gizmodo.com)
• Gmail Priority Inbox: 5 Tips for Better Productivity (mashable.com)
• Gmail priority inbox is an email PA (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
• Gmail Filters Email Beyond Spam (webpronews.com)

Yes, the woman is obviously mentally disturbed, and for that we mustn’t laugh, but being mad aside, the hilarity isn’t in the typical vigilanty ‘burn the witch’ reaction from the British public, rather the more creatively funny responses to the story….

The genius ‘Revenge of the Cat’ spoof YouTube video has attracted thousands of viewers (and blanket national coverage). But for me funnier still is some of the comments from people who post their ‘reaction’ to the story. My favourites so far have come from the comments on The Sun website:

‘Don’t know what al te fuss is about, Top Cat lived in a bin for years. lol ’ – ‘lol‘ indeed Ellie1975

And my second favourite…

‘ just opened my wheelie bin and a wasp came out. What sort of sicko would shut a wasp in a wheelie bin? I hope the full resourses of the law are brought to bear on the individual responsible. Forget murderers, rapists, muggers and paedos, just catch this wasp molester now!’ DaveWM

Dumb..of course. Just what you need after a frantically busy week with seemingly no end in sight…most definitely!

After identifying and monitoring the influencers, we use a variety of free social tools, such as Twittertim.es, to pull out the popular stories. Today, TopGear’s blog post on the BBC’s battle to protect the Stig’s identity topped our community paper, receiving the most re-tweets in the mobile social media community. This attention was mirrored in the media, driving traffic to all the major news sites.

However, content doesn’t always cross over from the traditional media to the social media world. With both the traditional and social media communities growing and evolving, we’re committed to getting to know how they tick.

Next week, we’re publishing some insight into the mobile content space, tweet @becdaniel if you’re interested.

Top Tip #1 – Live TV is not the time for swearing

After weatherman Tomasz Schafernaker stuck his middle finger up at BBC New’s 24 Simon McCoy it was then reported that he had previously called Glastonbury “Muddy Sh*te” rather than “Muddy site”. Though I am sure he was not wrong with this particular Freudian slip, it does lead me to ask: who ever put this man on live TV? He is clearly far too stupid! However, if he just followed the golden rule of not swearing on live TV then he may have avoided such criticism.

Top Tip #2 – Don’t try to ‘sex up’ serious news events

The weatherman with the silly name follows other brilliant live TV mess ups which have led me to ask the question: who put this moron on TV? This often comes when people try to make a news story that much more exciting. Kay Burley, in true Sky News style, is often caught out trying to make stories that much more headline grabbing. For instance, during Sky News coverage of the 9/11 attacks she somehow felt the need to hyperbolise the biggest news event of a generation by greeting viewers with this fantastic gem, “and if you’ve just joined us, the entire eastern seaboard of the United States has been decimated by a terrorist attack”. Kay managed to top this by asking the wife of Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright “Do you think if you’d had a better sex life he wouldn’t have done this?” Clearly the wife’s fault! I don’t know about you, but when I don’t get any for a while – I just have to strangle someone. Perhaps Kay Burley should have taken this tip to heart. Both these events were already huge stories; she did not need an attempt to make them bigger.

Top Tip #3 – If national news cameras are near you, behave!

This rule is a big one. If there are cameras around you, make sure you are not doing wrong otherwise you will be caught out and will look a moron. Remember ‘that banker’ who was watching porn on his company computer whilst a live TV interview happened behind him. He was nothing to do with the broadcast, just having a normal day at the office – and let’s face it, whose normal day at the office doesn’t involve the watching of pornographic movies. Sadly, he seemed to forget that this national news interview would be happening right behind his desk – he quickly became far more interesting than the actual story. What a banker!

And it’s not just everyday office workers who need this tip re-iterating to them 24/7. Who can forget the marvellous ‘bigotgate’. Although probably having little effect on the outcome of the election, it couldn’t have helped. Our own Prime Minister (at the time) Gordon Brown, surrounded by advisors, still forgot that national news cameras were listening in when he referred to Gillian Duffy as a “bigoted woman”.

Both Gordon Brown and our lonely banker really should have remembered that when you are near news cameras and journalists, you really should be on your best behaviour!

The ongoing furore over whether or not a mosque should be allowed to be built near Ground Zero in Manhattan has brought many issues to light and has given people considerable food for thought.

If you want to read more about the mosque, Charlie Brooker has written a characteristically satirical take in the Guardian and the BBC has reported on it extensively (as has pretty much every news site on the internet). But while the media is legally obliged to be balanced in its reporting, should it have a moral obligation too, particularly given the sensitivity in this case? While a lot of the media coverage has been even-handed and fair, the right-leaning press must surely take at least some responsibility for the uproar.

The vast majority of people would agree that anyone with that level of influence over a group of people should act with restraint and have some kind of ethical obligation not to directly mislead the public. But is this moral necessity trumped by the need for a free press, and the commercial necessity to sell content? In the case of the mosque, the very real fear is that media slant will whip up prejudice and misinformed word-of-mouth that is socially damaging. Or even puts lives at risk.

To quote a well known superhero’s uncle “with great power comes great responsibility”. I think most people would agree with this as a general rule. The media should not be required to be squarely balanced in all reporting, as that would be overkill and make the media landscape a much duller place. But I do believe that there has to be some kind of ethical onus on fairness – regardless of legal and commercial requirements.

I have a couple of suggestions for simple ways for the media to improve balance:

-          Don’t report opinion as fact – at least try to back up your argument! Yes journalists are not ‘supposed’ to do this, but it is increasingly common as information from social media gets picked up by the conventional press

-          Avoid straw man arguments – all too common, but can be a very persuasive fallacy

Its first-ever product launched outside of the US is targeting young, middle class Asian consumers between the ages of 18 and 28 – and what better way of targeting them than hiring ten of them to blog?

The 10 lucky ones have been selected from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and India to represent the rising Asian generation – and also cleverly to support ‘Denizen’ which, after launching in China last week, will subsequently expand to Singapore and South Korea.

This 100-day innovative pan-Asian social media campaign appears to be rather audacious given that the bloggers have been given total editorial freedom and only asked to ‘share their experiences and thoughts’ – topics are suggested but not imposed and their blogs aren’t linked to the official brand website.

Is this why the Head of Corporate Affairs at Levi Strauss Asia-Pacific division said that Denizen10 wasn’t part of their official marketing plan? “Denizen wants to provide a social media platform that speaks from grass-root level and represents the youth 24/7”, he also added, un-marketingly.

Professional models weren’t hired for the launch of the first collection in Shanghai but bloggers, musicians and friends of those involved with the campaign – people who could be identified as ‘regular people’ – well, if this isn’t marketing then…

Currently looking for a flat share in London myself, trying to make sure I don’t end up living with a weirdo is no mean feat. The Easyroommate and Flatshare websites have begun organising Speed Flat Mating events in and around London. This is a great way to meet potential roomies and make new friends.

In the same way as Speed dating you get given a name badge. If you’re looking to rent you display your name, budget and desired area. For those who are trying to rent their rooms out they display their name, rental amount and the nearest overland/tube station. Once everyone’s arrived and you’ve had a few bevies, for Dutch courage, the mingling begins.

Feeling bleary eyed on my long commute home I ended up coming across a feature in the Evening Standard about some commuters living in tents on Lea Valley Leisure Complex to avoid the Monday – Friday slog. They call themselves ‘Camputers’, I call them nuts. I, for one, will be packing up my tent at the end of festival season and it won’t be coming out until V Festival next year. In the mean time I will carry on looking for the flatshare of my dreams and speed sharing until the right one comes along.

This week, Marie Efthymiou (phonetic spelling available on request) entertains us with holiday anecdotes and suggestions as to how one might explain ‘PR’ to a four year old.

You’ve just got back from your holiday. Where did you go?

I had the most amazing two weeks! We started in not so sunny San Francisco (the best bit was visiting Alcatraz). And then onto Vegas which was out of this world and one massive party! And ended up in LA, which was all about soaking up the sun and celeb hunting (I didn’t see any, but I do have some very interesting snaps of Jennifer Aniston, Simon Cowell and Orlando Bloom’s front gates if you’re interested?)

What was your best meal?

I’m embarrassed to say but it was actually in a Greek restaurant on Long Beach – you see we’re not to dissimilar to you Brits, us Greeks will always sniff out the lamb kebabs.

I also became a little obsessed with their pancakes for breakfast. Everyday I ordered a short stack buttermilk pancake with maple syrup and bacon (very yummy, but thank goodness I don’t live there as I would be HUGE, it was near to impossible to find anything that resembled fresh fruit or veg).

What’s the one thing you have done on a holiday that would most shock us?

Being the good Greek girl that I am, I didn’t do anything that risqué or shocking. But I did take a liking to Harley’s and spent most of the time travelling around LA on one (on the back that is, there’s no ways I could control one of those big, bad boys).

How would you explain PR in three sentences to Steve Earls’ 4-year old?

We tell stories. And we try to make them as exciting as possible (which can sometimes be hard) so when we tell all the big bosses who work at the newspapers, magazines, TV and with computers they like them so much that they tell the whole wide world (well not always the whole world, sometimes just Basingstoke).

If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title would be?

Good Greek Girls Don’t Exist

Why are manholes round?

Well it’s pretty common knowledge that round tubes are the strongest and most material-efficient shape against the compression of the earth around them. And obviously we all already know that it also needs to be round as human beings have a roughly circular cross-section.