Tag: online PR

Guest blogging was called into question recently by Google’s head of Webspam Matt Cutts, who said in his latest provocative post that “people should put a fork in it.” A lot of people have talked about this but I have my own opinion and I thought it was worth sharing. I’m going to explain why guest posting still has its place and can provide benefits as long as it’s done spam-free and to best-practice.  Cutts said that guest writing for blogs has become dominated by SEO companies, using nasty links to increase exposure and in turn making the practice more ... Read more

So I have had a lot going on recently, following my company re-brand and last night the Prohibition team ventured out into Leeds to the Pride Awards to see if we could pick up an award or two. I have been to the awards a number of times before and picked up a few but this was the first one for Prohibition and it felt quite nice. We were shortlisted for “Best Use of Digital” and “Best Use of Social Media” for the team’s launch of Student Wire which is now recognised as one of the UK’s leading student magazines. According to the ... Read more

I am proud to announce here on my personal blog that after a very busy year my team and I have changed our PR agency name to Prohibition to reflect the recent account wins and growth in team size. I am sure a few of you spotted the change to my company website earlier this week, you can get the full official news story here on the website.   This year has been the best in the five years I have been running the company and I am extremely proud of the team I have pulled together. We have been shortlisted for ... Read more

Its been a busy few months at Prohibition HQ and so I have been busy sorting out a number of new account wins. My next post will have some big news on that front but I will save that for later. However, here are two stories that caught my eye by offering a humorous and slightly worrying side to the news in the social web this week, both of which involve images of cannabis and poor regulation on behalf of Instagram and the housing brand Rightmove. Instagram,  the world renowned photo based social site that helps people share their dinner ... Read more

This is just a quick note to let you know that tomorrow I will be speaking on The future of the social web taking a part in a panel discussion. I have been speaking at a few events recently and this one should be interesting as it will include all of the Yorkshire authors from the Share This Too book I helped with. If this passed you by and you are are interested in coming along I believe there are still a few tickets available at: https://leedsbizweek.com/events/view/119/sharing-the-future-of-the-social-web Here’s the bumf: Panel session 4-6pm Social media is fundamentally disrupting how organisations ... Read more

Last week, PR Week revealed its Top 40 Tech PR Agencies in the UK based on revenue. It supplied some interesting statistics and having a closer look at them I felt I could take a different slant on it as I was interested in something else other than revenue. PR Week said: The majority of tech agencies are adjusting to this changing landscape and consequently are experiencing rising fee incomes. The total tech fee income of PRWeek’s latest Top 40 Tech Consultancies sample is up almost 30 per cent on last year So it appears its good news for us ... Read more

Just over a couple of weeks ago I visited London to speak at the CIPR’s annual social media conference on Online Crisis Management. I was invited to chair a session following the chapter I wrote for Share This Too which is coming out soon – to get a copy from Amazon just order here. The session was really interesting I had invited two people from either side of the fence to discuss online crisis management. I wanted to help provide a range of views on the subject because despite what you may think not a lot has been written on ... Read more

This week I was contacted by an old social media friend of mine Simon Collister. He has kindly invited me along to the PR and Disruption conference, which is taking place next month on 10th July 2013 at LCC in central London. I get invited to a lot of things but as my agency Prohibition is based in Leeds I don’t tend to get to every event that I am invited to but I am prety excited about this as it means I will be able to meet a few people I have been chatting to for a number of years now ... Read more

When actors get bad publicity, we often hear people say that even bad publicity is still publicity, implying that it doesn’t matter much what type of publicity an actor gets as long as it succeeds in making people aware of his existence. Is this philosophy true of businesses getting negative comments on social media as well? Can bad publicity still be good news for your brand? Unfortunately, that may not be the case. How you are perceived in social media often has a direct impact on your company’s general image and reputation. To avoid PR disasters via social media, you ... Read more

In case you missed it Trader Media Group has completed its transition into an online digital business with the publishing of the final editions of its magazines, including Autotrader, on 28 June 2013. It truly is a sad day and I won’t know what to read in the doctor’s surgery next time I am there. This is just the latest publisher in a recent trend to move all of its activities to digital platforms. It is no secret that the print industry has faced a turbulent recent history as they deal with new challenges in the form of print publishing and ... Read more