September 1st, 2010 by Wadds

CIPR calls for clarity on ASA’s digital remit

The CIPR has hit out at the ASA for not consulting the PR industry on its proposed regulation of brands in social networks.

In a statement issued by the CIPR (disclosure: I’m a member of the CIPR social media panel) it said that it was given undertaking in May that the views of the PR industry would be heard.

We are disappointed this action has been taken without our involvement,” says Ann Mealor, Interim CEO at the CIPR. “We are writing to the ASA regarding our concerns and advocating the need for closer working relationships on this issue.”

The CIPR said that it has reservation about the planned changes to the ASA’s remit. It called for any definition of advertising to be properly scoped so as to avoid censoring online communication.

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September 1st, 2010 by Wadds

Crowdsourcing comment on the ASA extension to digital remit; opinion polarised

One of the real benefits of social media is that when a document is published such as the OFCOM Market Report last week or the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) extension to include a digital remit published today, the combined might of bloggers and journalists are quick to review the document and share their thoughts.

Media and marketing experts have been quick to share their views on the ASA announcement published this morning.

Opinion is polarised: consumers need to be protected and advertising standards should apply to all media yet the ASA’s approach is heavy-handed and impinges on editorial engagement.

Brew Digital’s Chris Reed is in the former camp.

“It’s been some time coming, but looks sensible, workable and financially viable – and with the advertising/search networks on board, has teeth as well.[…] The extension of the ASA’s remit means that all commercial communications, irrespective of channel, need to be legal, decent, honest and truthful.”

Marketing Week’s Russell Parsons spotlights the overlap between advertising and editorial engagement in social media.

“An ASA spokeswoman admits there will be “teething problems” and some “grey areas”, for example what is editorial and what is marketing, but adds that objections will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis using a “principles-based” approach.”

Visit 33 Digital or the Drum for overviews of the ASA’s guidelines.

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August 15th, 2010 by Wadds

On hols, off grid

I’m off on holiday for a couple of weeks. No phone. No email. No blogging. And no Twitter. Maybe.

I look forward to returning in time to hear BBC Director General Mark Thompson’s McTaggart Lecture. It promises to be a highlight for the media industry for 2010 given the BBC’s ongoing strategy review and the fact that James Murdoch had the gig last year.

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August 15th, 2010 by Wadds

Old pros are learning social media techniques to build personal reputation online

In a comment via Linkedin in response to my post on getting ahead in digital, journalist Clive Couldwell noted that it isn’t just graduates that are using social media to promote their career.

“Even 30-year veterans who haven’t rethought their CV in 10 years have to get their act in gear and be seen to be doing it. With the tools now at their disposal, the medium is fast approaching the content specialists. So we’ll be back on top very soon,” he said.

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August 13th, 2010 by Wadds

Blogger.Ed: excellent new community resource for bloggers and PRs

Here’s a blog to plug firmly into your RSS reader.

Its Sally Whittle’s new site called Blogger.Ed. It launched this week and is shaping up well, tackling topics from getting started in blogging, such as SEO and basic HTML, through to trickier issues such as copyright, naming and shaming, and transparency.

There’s also plenty of educational content for PRs seeking to engage with bloggers and a forum where participants can seek out technical information and PRs can connect with bloggers and vice versa.

Go and have a look for yourself. I highly recommend it for bloggers and PRs alike.

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August 12th, 2010 by Wadds

econsultancy call for insight for 2010 online PR and social media report

Another day and another research exercise.

Today’s is from econsultancy for its 2010 online PR and social media report sponsored by bigmouthmedia.

Last year it found an industry grappling with issues of engagement, monitoring and measurement.

The research is the most exhaustive in the sector. Please consider completing the questionnaire.

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August 11th, 2010 by Wadds

CIPR crowdsources comment and contributions to its social media guidelines

22-months is a long time in this industry. That’s how long it has been since the CIPR reviewed its social media guidelines.

The CIPR’s Social Media panel is addressing the issues by inviting contributions to the guidelines from across the PR industry and other disciplines. You’re invited to make contributions direct on a wiki.

Much of the content from the last edition remains valid but since the last draft we’ve seen the rise of location based marketing, privacy issues and Twitter is now a mainstream tool for the profession. And lots more.

It’s another example of how the CIPR is modernising and I’m delighted to be helping out by spearheading the review process.

Please consider making a contribution.

Related articles:

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August 11th, 2010 by Wadds

Help PR post grads explore the role of social media in the PR industry

If you’re working in PR and social media you might be interested in helping out two post graduate students that are working on research projects.

Laurence Baken (@PR_Social_Media) at Sheffield Hallam is taking a look at the importance of social media in the PR industry.

“I aim to find out how well PR practitioners are familiar and up-to-date with social media tools and how it enhances the PR practitioners’ power within their organizations in terms of decision-making power,” he says.

Weijia Qiu (@weijiaqui) at Newcastle University is exploring whether social media is a more cost effective channel to communicate with an audience in a downturn and whether its growth can be attributed to the recent downturn.

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August 6th, 2010 by Wadds

Getting ahead and getting hired in social media and digital PR

I ran a workshop last tonight as part of the CIPR Summer Social series on building your personal reputation online. It’s never been easier to manage your personal reputation by building networks and publishing your work.

Here’s the deck.

It kicks with an audit of your online reputation or web footprint and then describes how to create profiles on LinkedIn and Twitter, build networks and publish content. It includes case studies from people that have used social media to build their personal profile and secure jobs and concludes with a discussion about dealing with less favourable content.

I’ve pulled examples and case studies from around the social web and am grateful (pause for breath) to Ben Cotton, Carolyn Mendelsohn, Jed Hallam, Josh Halliday, Laura Tosney, Matt Watson, Mike Litman, Neville Hobson, Phil Sheldrake, Shel Holtz and Stephen Davies.

I’ll follow with a blog post next week with personal recommendations from some of this gang about how they’ve used social media to build their personal reputation.

If you’re interested in exploring this topic further I recommend you check out Antony Mayfield’s Me and My Web Shadow: How to Manage Your Reputation Online.

Steve’s up next week at the CIPR Summer Social series on word of mouth.

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August 5th, 2010 by Wadds

Mucking about on the river

The Speed crew escaped London to spend a day on the river in Cambridge yesterday during which:

  • one of our number took the nautical fancy dress theme a little too far
  • we sneaked into a item that a BBC crew were filming for BBC Breakfast
  • we narrowly avoided a five-punt pile up as we navigated the Fen Causeway
  • but eventually, with the addition of paddles, we all got to grips with controlling a punt and managed to line up our flotilla of six punts under the bridge behind King’s College
  • spent a glorious afternoon enjoying the hospitality of the Granta, a very splendid river side pub

Company away days are variously billed as team building exercises or bonding sessions. But for us it was simply an opportunity to spend time together and kickback after working bloody hard during the first half of the year.

Thanks to Abbie and Sonia for first class organisation.

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August 4th, 2010 by Wadds

Escherman and Realwire on online PR reach versus engagement

Escherman’s Andrew Smith and Realwire’s Adam Parker have scrutinised the reach versus engagement for 50 online news sites ranging from Heat to The Economist.

“In the past, the notion of measuring engagement with editorial content was largely theoretical.  Circulation and readership figures were treated as proxies for engagement,” say Smith.

But for online PR, Google tools provide hard numbers. Parker and Smith define reach as the number of views that a page receives and engagement as the amount of time that a person spends on a page.

They find that visitors spend a widely varying amount of time on different news sites and predict how many words they are likely to have read per page.

“[…] as a general rule, specialist titles seem to have lower numbers of visitors and page views, but tend to have far higher engagement with content,” says Smith.

There is one exception. News sites such as Reuters that act as a syndication service have a high level of reach and engagement.

The lessons for online PR are clear.

  • Don’t chase sites with large circulation numbers as engagement is likely to be low
  • Plan your campaigns and target content at sites where your audience is engaged
  • The higher up a story you get your content the more likely it is to be read
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July 29th, 2010 by Wadds

PR agencies need to handle traditional, online and social media

The ABC Multi-Platform report plopped into my inbox yesterday. It continues the narrative of a decline in print and the shift to online.  Some web properties such as Mail Online are enjoying incredible growth (up 4 per cent month-on-month to 42 million).

The third IPA TouchPoints Survey reported last week that social media penetration in the UK was 37 per cent with Facebook the most popular platform. You’d be forgiven for thinking that it should be much higher.

This is the ongoing story of media fragmentation. We’re at an inflection point and for the moment at least PR agencies need to be able to help brands navigate traditional, online and social media.

At least that’s our view at Speed. Media planning tools are taking an increasingly important role helping us identify audiences and their media habits.

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July 28th, 2010 by Wadds

CIPR Social Summer: How to get ahead in social

At the CIPR Social Summer event next Thursday, 5 August, we’ll explore why it’s never been easier for PR professionals to build relationships or personal reputation.

Social media provides the opportunity for an individual to build a personal network liker never before. It used to take a graduate several years of lunching journalists and late night drinking sessions to build up a network of contacts.

But no longer: face-to-face meeting remain invaluable but now armed with Twitter anyone can build a network of journalists and over the course of a few weeks learn about their likes and dislikes. That’s one small step away from engagement and developing a relationship.

Social media is also enabling savvy individuals to build their personal reputation by showcasing their work whether that’s words, photos or video. It takes no more than 15 minutes to create a blog or an account on Flickr or YouTube to share with your network and peers.

Professional networks such as LinkedIn and personal web sites have become the modern portfolio. They’re almost certainly the first place that an employer, potential business partner or prospect will go to check you out.

Come along and share your ideas for building personal networks and reputation. Let us know you coming on Linkedin. You can check out my profile at the same time.

The CIPR Social Summer events take place each Thursday from 5pm to 7pm at CIPR, Russell Square.

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July 26th, 2010 by Wadds

CIPR takes professional development online

At last an online Continuous Professional Development (CPD) scheme for the PR profession. It’s a neat feature that’s included within the spec of the CIPR’s new site.

The PR industry isn’t certified like some other professions but the CIPR CPD scheme requires professionals to collect a total of 60 points per year across four areas of professional expertise (I’ve nailed 30 so far this year).

Points are accumulated from attending breakfast briefings, conferences, training courses, participating in CIPR activities and online training.

“Now that it’s online, membership of the CPD scheme is growing fast. The key now is to link this to professional development programmes and performance objectives with outcomes […] at all stages of a career. What’s important is the commitment to continued development,” said CIPR President Jay O’Connor.

The PR industry has just taken a step closer to growing up and truly becoming a profession.

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July 26th, 2010 by Wadds

Review: Dan Ilett’s Get Quoted media training audio book

I had the pleasure of sharing a car journey with Dan Ilet this morning. At least I was joined by his dulcet tones on my iPod in the form of his new audio book called Get Quoted.

Get Quoted is available via iTunes priced £7.99 and is a 45-minute media training guide to mastering press interviews.

Ilet has a great pedigree. He’s the founder of Greenbang.com an online environmental technology and CSR publication. I should disclose at this point that I occasionally write a column for Greenbang called the Grumpy Environmentalist.

During his career as a journalist Ilett has written for The Economist, The Financial Times and numerous technology publications and is regularly called on by PR firms and their clients to media train executives.

In Get Quoted Ilet covers the basics of the media in 2010, preparing for interviews and how to give a good interview, all in an incredibly upbeat, accessible format.

I had three key takeaways:

  • always test your story – use the mantra of the news editor, “so what”, “so what”, “so what”
  • prepare for interviews – develop key messages and learn the basics of managing an interview
  • always get back a journalist before deadline – very basic stuff but very few people do

Ilet is critical of the role of the PR industry as the gatekeeper to stories. But in Get Quoted he’s produced an excellent product to help the industry do it job properly.

It’s a must have for anyone that works in PR or speaks regularly to the press. You can quote me on that.

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