Year: 2008

My colleague Jed Hallam has started a bit of a debate over on his blog as to whether a PR degree is really worth it. I am a PR graduate myself and have my own opinion on this but I will keep that locked away for now. Anyway, the debate has raged so furiously we have decided to do some official research with PRO’s to find out what you all think as we can’t agree on this in the office. To help us finish the argument once and for all, and to have your opinion heard, click this link to ... Read more

– WARNING THIS POST MAY CONTAIN STORIES OF AN UNCOOL NATURE – Social media is defined by Wikipedia as: “most often referring to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.” It is slightly embarrassing but way back in the early 1800s when I was a lad, I did happen to dabble with a few CB radios. I was explaining my story to a colleague, when I realised this was actually one of the very earliest forms of social networking. Here is my reasoning: CB’s had their own form of etiquette ... Read more

Here’s the response from the former Birmingham Evening Mail journalist that had a bit too much to drink following Obama’s election win. It makes for interesting listening.

We all had sore heads in the office this morning following our first CIPR award win last night. However, I felt I had to share the image below with you all. My new colleague Jed Hallam is brilliant entertainment and he certainly showed us all how to celebrate last night. Entry to the CIPR Pride Awards = £100 (ish) Hire of tuxedo = £45 Being photographed at a black tie event wearing a ladies scarf and holding a half drunk glass of white wine whilst picking up a CIPR Award = PRICELESS There are some things money can’t buy for ... Read more

Adam Tinworth has posted this shocking but entertaining video of a journalist from the Birmingham Evening Mail who had been celebrating (whilst reporting) after Mr Obama’s fantastic election win. I will let you make your own mind up about this one but cutting and pasting an entire BBC article might have caused him a few problems this morning.

I may be a bit late to reply on this but there has been quite a bit of coverage on blogging being dead following an article written in Wired, so I have decided to write this post to tell you that it isn’t dead at all! Blogging has changed the way many people receive their news, report it and express opinions on it. The most recent Technorati report highlighted that there are now 133 million blogs. It also found that almost half (42%) of bloggers spend between 3-10 hours per week writing posts. The most important aspect of community is ... Read more

Please excuse my blatant self-promotion but I thought I would keep my blog up to date with the latest announcement at Wolfstar. Our business continues to grow rapidly and I am delighted to welcome our new account manager Amy Johnston to the team. Amy has worked in a couple of public relations consultancies, in her four years experience, and more recently she worked at Morrisons in its press office. Amy is our third recruit in as many months and we aren’t stopping here – we may have some further news in November.

I was just finishing this post when I noticed my colleague Stuart had beaten me to the chase but I think this video is that good it’s worth both of us posting about it. This is a great example of a campaign viral video – in our opinion the best yet. The US elections always seem to uncover brilliant new methods of marketing and this certainly follows in that mould.

Tech Crunch has recently reported that Myspace has launched a new developer competition to create “the best sustainably social application.”It describes this as when a user keeps the application in their profile and engages for several months. Now I think this is a great idea, I am all for improving applications and creating something which helps a social networker get on an do his thing. Some good quality applications can improve a social network, I continue to be impressed with the many widgets and applications that share Twitter across the various platforms. There are also applications which aren’t so great, ... Read more

Yesterday, I was speaking to a friend who works in the public sector and they asked me if I would explain the blogger outreach process and how to target bloggers properly without getting burnt. We have been busy at work over the last few weeks, reading, commenting and engaging with bloggers from lots of different sectors, so I felt pretty well drilled to give her my thoughts. As I started to explain the difference between media relations and blogger relations, I began to realise that there was one major difference that I needed to highlight. The truth is a good ... Read more