PitchEngine – Beta social PR network

While reading ZDNet I saw a piece by Jennifer Leggio about a new beta social PR network called PitchEngine that is looking to provide simplicity for social media savvy PR people and a potential route to help us engage better with the media and reduce their number one gripe – unsolicited pitches.

The three key features of PitchEngine that it’s promoting are the social media release builder, social media newsroom and pitch feed.  How do these tools work?  According to the post on ZDNet in the following way:

Social Media Release Builder — PR pros can build SMRs with a very quick tool that allows for publishing via the PitchEngine site as well as in an iframe on a corporate site. These releases can be posted directly to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook from within the actual SMR and can include multimedia.

Social Media Newsroom — Automates the corporate newsroom development and maintenance process.

PitchFeed — Allows bloggers / reporters to choose which pitches they will receive based on a customized RSS (it even allows the media to block brands that might be spamming them).

This all sounds great to me.  Social media is all about people having conversations online which is an obvious extention to our work in the PR industry so I am definitely going to have a look at this new tool in greater detail.  As we know the basis of good PR is relationships, with one of the most important being the one we create with the media so anything that will encourage a dialogue with them I feel should be embraced. 

I have registered to this social network tonight and intend to experiment with it over the next few weeks and will keep you updated on my progress.  I would love to hear from anyone else out there who is either actively using PitchEngine, or like me is dipping their toe into the water for the first time.

Searching blogs by location

Useful piece from Jack Schofield at the Guardian on his “Ask Jack” page.  I was asked a similar question by a client this morning and was glad I had already seen this.

Blog Personality Test

While waiting to see if I won the golf clubs I rather stupidly bid on ebay after a glass or two of wine and a pint of Cornish Rattler I read an interesting blog from GrrlScientist about the personality that blogs have.  As she states we all read blogs and anyone bothering to read this one almost certainly writes one too but what sort of person writes a blog?  Are their particular personality traits that make certain people more likely to write a blog?  ? If so, what are those personality traits? Do you have them, too?

A team of scientists, led by psychologist Rosanna Guadagno from the University of Alabama, wondered what personality traits made some people more likely than others to write blogs. To answer these questions, Guadagno and her colleagues used the Big Five personality inventory test to measure five key personality traits in college students who write blogs.

Me – I looked at the questions and to be honest couldn’t be bothered to take the test as it kind of felt like one of those emails that you always feel disappointed of when you receive from a friend that should know better.  That said it did raise the question in my head about who writes blogs and who reads them?  This trail of thought particularly followed on from reading an entry on the excellent PR blog by Dan Leach who said that he was contacted by his friend who read his blog regularly but thought his most recent pieces were not up to standard.

Dan – you are clearly someone who has worked in PR for some time as I always think we are all our own harshest critics.  We all, take pride in our work and one of the hardest parts of working in the PR industry is not having a tangible product to give a client and the same goes for a writing a blog I would say.  What you are offering by producing a blog is an opinion, your consultancy and commentary on any specific item that takes your fancy which in the end you hope someone will find of interest but ultimately you have no control over. 

The more you write, the more you find your voice and the more you learn from your mistakes, the greater success you achieve from your work.  The same as with the day job – the more you produce the more you know how to work smart.

In the short few months of producing this blog, I have realised that lists rule, communication with other blogs generate traffic and just how much there is to learn from being part of the PR blog community.

To cut a long story short.  Most of us write blogs because we want to and because it is a great way to reach out to out peers.  I don’t care what personality my blog has to be honest as long as it continues to grow over time and that allows me reach out to interesting people I would never have normally had the chance to meet.  

Oh, and by the way I did win the golf clubs although I doubt they will make much difference.

How we communicate

Sat on the train coming home from London, I picked up a discarded London Lite from the seat beside me and after chuckling to myself about how Shevchenko has returned to Milan as the biggest flop in Premiership history (£30m for 9 league goals) I came across a piece entitled “my month offline”.  What first caught my attention – apart from the cheesy picture – were the stats listed.  All PR people love a stat so I quickly ripped out the page for my “interesting bits and pieces” folder after reading:

60bn – the number of text messages sent by UK users last year
70m – the number of mobiles owned by the 61m people in the UK
£94 – the average spend on communications services per UK household per month

So far so good and then I read the bottom stat.  10 mins – the amount of time the average Briton spends using their mobile phone every day.  What?  10 mins, surely it must be higher?  Who ever produced this stat obviously has never met my wife.

Anyway, this led me to read the rest of Shahnoor Skrzypkowiak’s article in which she decided to try to survive without mod comms for a montg – no text, no email and certainly no instant messaging.  Quite an interesting topic and something I have seen a few variations of recently.

That said, half way through the piece after hearing how when she wanted to get a free ticket for a festival she had to travel across London and doorstop the organizer rather than just phone them, I started to think to myself why?  Having just spent a couple of days in deepest darkest Cornwall with my family (and the rest of the UK judging by the traffic on Monday coming home) one of the biggest things I realized was just how important these mod comms are to us all.  Without them, even the simplest job becomes such a chore.

What I actually think is more important is how we choose to use the many forms of communication tools out there.  For example it is important to know when it is better to call on the land line, when to call a mobile, when to email, when to IM, when to use Twitter or simply when to meet face to face.  All forms have a place but the important thing is how it is used to ensure they don’t become broken.

Venue checking – The Gherkin

I often find that trying to source a decent venue in London, which hasn’t been used to death is one the hardest things, especially one that isn’t just another boring box with florescent lights and no view.  One of my clients is looking to hold a series of customer meetings and was looking for a space that could happily sit between 16 and 20 people and have space to showcase their products.

It was at this point I became aware of the private dining spaces available at 30 St Mary Axe also more commonly known as The Gherkin.  If you get a chance to hire one of these rooms I have to say the view is quite magnificent and has a real wow factor.  My client was genuinely impressed, especially when we opened the door to the room and were faced with the floor to ceiling glass view over London which I have to say is something to behold.  Even the stroll to the gents is impressive with the corridor being on the outside so you get to see even more of our beautiful city.  The perfect venue for a clear day.

Unfortunately, the rooms available on the dates we required just are not going to be big enough which demonstrates yet again why it is essential to venue check.  Even in an age when you can see 360 degree views of a room on their websites it is not until you actually walk into a venue, see the facilities, meet their staff face to face, see the refreshments available and get a general feel for the place that you can actually decide whether it is appropriate or not for your event.
If any of you out there have any other inspirational ideas for venues I would be interested to hear about them.

Keep Your Frolleagues Separate on LinkedIn?

My dear friend and freelance PR Josie Pearson sent me an interesting article the other day by Andy Coote which is well worth a read.  According to the piece LinkedIn states that we should all be keeping a ‘separate account for socialising so that business contacts don’t mix with friends’.

The problem, it seems, is that we feel that we cannot refuse requests by our colleagues to connect online and then go ahead and post material which neither group should be privy to.  Andy quite rightly suggests that we might be better looking at it in a slightly, but critically different, way.  In a world when it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep our professional and social lives separate, Andy argues that to manage our online reputation effectively, we should think very seriously about what we release into the wild.

Britain’s Worst PR Agent

Entrepreneur and ‘business guru’ Guy Kingston is a man to keep an eye out for as he is on the hunt for ‘Britain’s Worst PR agent’. Kingston, who has clearly had a few bad experiences, has set up a forum on his website where dissatisfied clients can share their PR disasters.  As he so eloquently puts it “Have you had been ripped off, lied to or otherwise had your time and money wasted by a scumbag masquerading as a Public Relations agent?”

According to quotes from Kingston on the Management Today site the thing that has really got under his skin is cost: ‘Most seem to spend their time clocking up hours on projects they have invented for you rather than concentrating on delivering the results that you need’, he says. Empty promises is his other big gripe: ‘They will promise you lots of media coverage then when it doesn’t appear they simply blame you.’

I can understand his frustration if as he says in the piece he doesn’t feel he is getting value for money but it does highlight the need for an agency and client relationship to be just that a relationship.  It needs to be a two way thing to work with input from both sides.  It is essential that regular contact is maintained so the client understands exactly what you are doing and any potential pitfalls so there aren’t any surprises down the line. 

Personally, I have just got back home after a few beers with one of my clients after meeting a journalist and it is doing things such as this that help both parties get the most from the relationship.  It allows you to ask in an informal environment what they would like to see more of and what is working and also importantly what isn’t.

Recession? What recession!

There was a story on Silicon today which I hope will cheer a few of you up in tech PR with reports that despite a shakey global economic market, IT spending is set to pass the $3.4tr mark – up eight per cent from last year.  The research which came courtesy of Gartner also went on to explain that services and not products are dominating spending with IT and telco services making up 70 per cent of IT budgets.  All good news and long may it continue.

Obviously from a purely selfish perspective if people are still buying our clients products then they still have money to spend on PR….hopefully.  That said with so many doom and gloom stories out there about the impending recession I’m sure a number of agencies are looking to plan about what to do should the worst happen.  This is something we do quite thoroughly at Berkeley PR with quarterly, half year and annual forecasts / plans.  This is conducted not just for ourselves but also for our clients in terms of their PR campaigns.

I attended a credentials meeting this morning and was amased to hear that the company we were talking with had only just started receiving monthly activity reports and for the previous eight years had received nothing apart from the odd update phone call.  Unbelievable.  Don’t get me wrong I would rather just roll up my sleeves and get on with the job at hand but it is also important to be able to record the activities.  This should not just be to justify the PR agencies existence and retainer fees (which is very important) but also to help your marketing contacts explain to their board what they have spent the money on.  This is an approach I have always taken as I like PR to be transparent but if the doom merchants get their way, this will inevitably become an even more vital part of our industry.

Blog traffic is soaring

Reading the latest issue of Web User this evening I saw a news piece claiming that visits to blogs by UK surfers reached their highest-ever levels in June and in fact accounted for one in every 84 website visits.  According to Hitwise who released the piece of research rather unsurprisingly the BBC, Guardian and this blog were amoung the most popular……OK you caught me, I lied about the last one.

The research also revealed that traffic to blogs has grown by more than 100 per cent in the last three years compared with an increase of 70 per cent to news and media websites.  All interesting stuff and worth remembering the next time you are in a pitch or meeting with a client and they ask say “blogs, what is your take on them?”.

IT Crowd Props

I just saw on the dot.life blog that Graham Linehan, writer of the IT Crowd, has asked via his blog for inspiration for props for the forthcoming third series he has just completed. It isn’t because he needs any help or is shamelessly trying to get free stuff but genuinely because he thinks it will be cool to see what people come up with.  My favourite posting so far was a V mask which made me chuckle.  Anyway, as he says on his blog:

How would you like to help in designing the look of series 3? Specifically, you’d be helping us choose the stuff that litters the main set. I’m talking about posters, comics, fanzines, T-shirts… anything you’ve seen in the last few months that you think is pretty cool or captures the spirit of the show or a particular character. By now, most of you know the kind of things I like…weird toys, indie comics, sci-fi, geek references, internet memes, boardgames.I’m sure that a lot of you can come up something or may even have some old review products stuffed in a cupboard somewhere which may be of interest to Graham.  If you do drop him a line, let me know, so I can keep an eye out for what ever you suggest when the next series starts.