MarCom Professional

Hotwire recently blogged about a recent change to UK media law that makes a certain practice of ‘fake blogging’ against the law. What used to be just a faux pas is now more than just that. In plain English, the law means that organisations should not pretend to be consumers.

To prove just how relevant this issue is, an article appeared on the front page of the US edition of PR Week, describing an incident where New-York based agency 5W Public Relations acknowledged that a senior executive was involved in misconduct by impersonating a client when leaving a comment on a blog.

The incident arose when 5W Senior Vice President, Juda Engelmayer, left comments under a client’s name on the Failed Messiah blog. More...

... and that's exactly what journalist Sally Whittle has been doing.

In a post titled "I'm not cut out for PR", Sally describes her experiences as she takes on the role of a PR for a short while.

"In a slightly odd turn of events, I have been doing some PR and copywriting for a business in recent months (nothing to do with what I cover as a journalist), and I have to say: journalists suck."

She pitches a story idea to one nationals journalist who rather snootily sent a reply saying: "That's not a story." Next, she pitched the story to a hack who told her that her story was rubbish, but then came back saying her editor liked it, and could Sally write up 800 words for her to customise slightly, which then ran in a paper under the journalists byline. More...

[photo courtesy of monamigreetings]

Even if you compose the most concise copywriting to ever grace a page, the most persuasive words aren’t always written by you. There’s an ingredient you can add to your copy that can help you sell more in less time. It’s an underused tactic. But one that can rapidly satisfy a prospect’s logical and emotional demands at the same time.

People are skeptical of being sold to, but they do listen to each other. So to persuade them to buy your product you need to provide them with  evidence of someone it has benefited. You need to provide the social proof that your product is as wonderful as you claim. More...

The CIPR needs to update their event booking process so that people can book online. Amanda Rose has been complaining about this for months, as months is how long it took for the CIPR to cash a cheque from Amanda from an CIPR event that took place over 3 months ago.

At the moment if you want to book an event or training course with the CIPR, you must send a physical cheque more than a week in advance, which is a bit rubbish. Does anyone actually own a cheque book anymore?

Amanda has started a petition that says the CIPR should integrate an online booking system for their events, a system such as Eventbrite. More...

Here’s a link to a profile in the Evening Standard of Ian Livingston, BT’s CEO. It’s an object lesson in how and why to inject humour, intelligence, humility and anecdote into a conversation with a journalist.

I had the good fortune to work with Ian at what was then the Dixons Group (now DSG international). I’d like to be able to say that I taught him something about media relations, but I didn’t, being a relative newbie at the time. Instead, I learnt a great deal through osmosis and observation – and much of it feeds into the advice I give clients today. More...

by Peter Prodromou

This week’s crisis with mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae has reinforced the need for a strong communications strategy and community formation to quell fear and inspire confidence in the public.  As with every financial crisis, this one has the potential to spiral out of control if public confidence isn’t re-inforced.  The government’s swift action to provide credit to the mortgage giants, is commendable and, so far, has worked.  Bit the prospect still remains that with the foundation of financial markets quaking, the public could lose confidence and financial institutions of all kinds - down to community banks - could begin to fail. More...

Broadcast and print media and the services the support the creation and distribution of information are not dead and Social Media is not going to get indicted for holding the smoking gun.

These powerful, influential, and age-old industries are however, undergoing some of their most radical transformations and metamorphoses in order to adapt to the elusive and rapidly shifting information landscape.

Money is migrating away from traditional media as well as the industries and services that support it - from creation to distribution.

Is Social Media to blame?

Any expert, thought leader, or analyst will claim that this transition was christened in the 90s with the popularization of the Internet aka Web 1.0. More...