Edelman 'New Media Release' is a PR exercise

PR spin, especially from 'Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations firm' (would it, could it be anything else - the marketing boiler plate from the marketing boiler just has to be added), has announced that it has a new template for press/social media story announcements - A sort of replacement for the old fashioned press release. Fantastic!

The concept of a social media news release, says Edelman, 'has been a key topic of discussion within the public relations profession during the past several months'.

Of course, had Edelman been awake, they would known that this has been a key topic of conversation for half a decade and that there is already a 'social media release' and it has been available for four years from Yellowhawk.


This would have saved Edelman’s me2revolution team (part of the world’s largest independent public relations firm) development of the StoryCrafter software (to help accelerate the industry’s adoption of the social media news release) years (okay - minutes) of revolutionary fervour.

One, of course cannot get a close look behind this revolution. In an open source aid to adoption of social media the command and control me2revolution (the technical brains behind the world’s largest independent public relations firm) did not acquire the ethos that goes with being a revolutionary (ahh for the good old days - where are the anarchists?).

Probably more important is that this has all the trappings of an underfunded, me-too, 'Public Relations Exercise' into the fashionable world of 'my new media is bigger than your new media releases' or Todd Defran 1.0. with (the world’s largest independent public relations firm) Edelman spin.

Here are some things one might expect in a NMR:

The Todd Defran layout
Content in format that can be re-purposed for print, web, blog, podcast, vcast, sms alert, mobile web, iTV. With full content for editorial mashup (including two-shots etc), deep briefing by way of searchable, editable wiki content.
It has to be XPRL compliant, NewsML compliant and must be able to have NITF tags the IPTC words need to be identified for the news agencies and for the business community there has to be an XBRL schema interface.

For authentication there is a need to have automated (duel key?) security and these days it is simple to include trace, tracking, monitoring and evaluation components.

Plug-ins might also include auto notifications to:
Backflip BlinkBits Blinklist blogmarks
Buddymarks CiteUlike del.icio.us digg
Diigo dzone FeedMarker Feed Me Links!
Furl Give a Link Gravee Hyperlinkomatic
igooi kinja Lilisto Linkagogo
Linkroll looklater Magnolia maple
Netscape netvouz Newsvine Raw Sugar
RecommendzIt.com reddit Rojo Scuttle
Segnalo Shadows Simpy Spurl
Squidoo tagtooga Tailrank Technorati
unalog Wink wists Yahoo My Web

I did not see the button to 'blog this release' , I did not see the 'vlog this' button or the podcasting buttons. There does not seem to be an 'email to a friend' capability or 'turn this into a PDF' for (the the dead tree paper) freaks in your office button.

I just have a feeling that this is another 'fire from the hip and to hell with the consequences' PR approach to an important issue.

Edeman (the world’s largest independent public relations firm) wanted to be seen to be the web 2.0 leader. Its WalMart problems show a lack of training in-house. Its pitching policies to bloggers show an even bigger training gap and now it is showing that it has only a shaky grasp of new media and its opportunities.

As far as I can see, this announcement is nothing more than a digital version of a 1970's backgrounder press brief with tags instead of tabs. Big Deal!

CIPR and digging holes

Stuart Bruce made this comment this week:

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations has just published its draft (PDF) for consultation of its proposed code of conduct for social media. I will comment more fully once I've had chance to digest it.

My thought before it was published was - why do we need a separate code, we already have one for CIPR and its principles should apply to social media. We don't have a separate code for media relations, event management, internal communications, newsletters, video or dozens of other PR channels and activities.

This is a rambling document and good in parts. I have Responded here. (You can add your comments too). I am a member of the Institute, I have two books on online PR, have published a number of academic papers and I teach the subject as well. I was even the 1999/2000 Chair of the CIPR Internet Commission.

I think there is a need for the CIPR to get the 'social media' thinkers and do-ers together before it ventures out of doors again as recommended in 1999.


So far we have a blog that does not seem to have a strategy; a CIPR blogger who seems it's OK to jump into people's social space and this document which is thrown together.

My recommendadtion is: Stop digging!

On-line Retailers grab the money and run - survey

In a Release issued by Chameleon PR for Blast Radius, Research examining the whole online shopping experience - from first visit to returning unwanted items at the UK’s leading non-food online retailers - has found that even the best online retailers could deliver a very much better shopping experience.

The research, carried out by Marketing Assistance Ltd analysed the top 28 UK online retailers (selected by traffic volume) grading their performance in the run up to the expected boom in web shopping predicted for Christmas 2006.

The researchers purchased a single item from each of the sites, and then sought to return the product once it had been received. They graded their experience against a set of 36 subjective and objective criteria at every step of the process.

The study results show that investment by online retailers tends to focus on what they care about most, securing the sale.

The loosers seem to be B&Q and HMV.

HMV is still, one presumens fighting Napster and music file shareing by ripping off custmers.

1. Amazon UK
2. Dell EMEA
3. Apple Computer UK
4. Next
5. Comet
6. Tesco/ QVC UK
7. Currys/ Littlewoods
8. Asos
9. John Lewis
10. Hewlett-Packard/Marks and Spencer



I think that Wiltshire farm Foods is darn good too.

PR Strategy needed when using social media

When The Carphone Warehouse boss Charles Dunstone started his corporate blog earlier this year, he was hailed as a cutting-edge chief executive; a man prepared to open up the inner workings of his company to the wider world and willing to communicate directly with his customers, writed Fiona Walsh at the Guardian.

She continues:

But that was April, when Britain's biggest mobile phones retailer was riding high on a wave of favourable publicity about its "free" TalkTalk broadband offer.

Scroll forward a few months and the web is full of tales of "My TalkTalk Hell" as the group struggles to cope with the demand it so badly under-estimated, leaving thousands of customers angry and frustrated.

So what did Dunstone do at the height of the crisis? He simply stopped blogging for two and a half month. His post this Monday largely consists of an apology for his lengthy absence and a reassurance that the broadband supply problems are being worked out.

According to online marketing and communications consultant Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book, Dunstone committed the worst mistake a blogger can make: to start a blog and then abandon it, whether through lack of time or lack of inspiration.

"It makes you look lame," says Weil. "It's important to post regular entries, even if it's only a few lines. An absence of more than two or three weeks is an eternity in the blogosphere."

Which is why using social media needs a Public Relations strategy in place before it is used.

Spinning into danger

The executive editor of Computer Weekly was a runner-up in last week's Paul Foot awards for what judges called "relentless investigation" into the £12.4bn NHS IT programme in the face of "consistent obstruction and obfuscation from the Government".

Collins told Press Gazette "We're seeing Government spinning more, Government departments using the FoI (Freedom of Information) Act not to answer my questions. They're referring me to the FoI Act to get them answered, but we're still waiting for a judgement for the request we put in in 2005, 18 months later. It's very useful for a press department to refer the journalist to the FoI Act because the chances are there won't be a decision on it for 18 months."

The danger the governement faces is that keeping the lid on stuff will end in tears. There is no doubt it will happen. The social media gene is out of the bottle instyle this time. last time (Usenet) it was more difficult to do, The Internet was not generally available and, above all, it was slow. No more.

Transparency has bigger advantages and is now really optional. In a week, month, year, Internet Porosity will let the cat out of the bag. It will then spread like this, morph (Internet Agency) and will become uncontrolable.

Netshine come-uppance for pharmaceutical

The PR industry is not having a good week. Its worst practices and the abominable practices of the clients it advises are being exposed all over the place. This time it is the pharmaceutical companies that are exposed with Blazing Netshine.

They are supposed to be grassroots organisations repre

senting the interests of people with serious diseases. But Drummond Rennie, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, believes that some patient groups are perilously close to becoming extensions of pharmaceutical companies' marketing departments. "There's a crisis here," he contends.

Rather than grassroots, the word Rennie uses to describe such organisations is "astroturf". Originating in the black arts of politics and public relations, astroturfing is the practice of disguising an orchestrated campaign as a spontaneous upwelling of public opinion.

Patient groups special: Swallowing the best advice? - health - 27 October 2006 - New Scientist - www.newscientist.com/...

Corporate Social Responsibility - makes me shudder

Vodafone may be under the cosh from shareholders but it emerged today as a world-beater when it comes to corporate social responsibility.

The mobile phone giant led by the embattled Arun Sarin has been ranked as the world's most accountable business in a survey by AccountAbility, a London thinktank on organisational and corporate accountability, and csrnetwork, a British corporate responsibility network.

So says the Guardian

As soon as I see Corporate Social Responsibility, I give a little shudder. If not responsible - not corporate. Just an accident waiting to happen - and shareholders will gnash thier teeth twice over.

If a company needs to hang CSR on its sleve, the person i/c PR should be going round wringing necks to get rid of those who are not responsible - especailly in the week the Enron Chief got banged up.

Guardian Unlimited Business | | Vodafone tops corporate social responsibility survey - business.guardian.co.uk/...

Why Journos dislike PR's

A new training workshop for PR (Public Relations) executives explains the well-intentioned behaviour that consistently annoys journalists in contact with them – and how to avoid many of the most common errors when seeking to place a news story or feature, to secure media coverage for PR clients. The post goes on to list many of the things Journos hate...

creativematch: New course aims to help you avoid hacking off journalists - www.creativematch.co.uk/...

Passing off - the Edelman story

Richard Edelman today issued an apology for his agency's role in creating a blog for client Wal-Mart that did not properly disclose its origins or funding says Brand Republic.

The blog, walmartingacrossamerica.com, chronicled a couple's journey across the country in an RV while stopping at various Wal-Mart parking lots. Although the blog did not initially bear any clear disclosures outside of an advertisement, the trip was funded by the group Working Families for Wal-Mart [WFWM], a Wal-Mart-backed organization designed to promote a positive portrayal of the company. The group is part of Edelman's effort to turn around the reputation of the controversial retailer.

Richard Edelman posted a statement of apology for the incident on his personal blog on Edelman's website today.

"For the past several days, I have been listening to the blogging community discuss the cross-country tour that Edelman designed for Working Families for Wal-Mart," the statement said. "I want to acknowledge our error in failing to be transparent about the identity of the two bloggers from the outset. This is 100% our responsibility and our error; not the client's."

Edelman went on to say his agency supports the transparency guidelines of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association [WOMMA], which call for disclosure of the source of such efforts.

The fact is that, 'passing off' is bad practice, transparency is essential and both Edelman and WalMart know this and both are culpable. There is no excuse. It is, as Edelman says, an error. It is also bad practice and reflects on the professionalism of the profession. In the UK Asda was acquired by Wal-Mart and would hope its PR team is more professional.

In the UK this form of practice is banned by the CIPR code of conduct. It may also be illegal anyway.

When Colin Farrington comes out of his six month purdah and it will not be soon enough for CIPR to ask its lawyers the nature of the legal position. Certainly in election law passing ones self off as another candidate or representing a participant is not legal and there is a lot of consumer law that would make miss-representation illegal as well.

Mass MySpace spam attack

From IT Pro:

Reports are spreading of a mass spamming campaign organised by phishers which uses spoofed MySpace addresses to direct users to bogus web sites.

The ruse uses spoofed MySpace messages, that even contain the regular site boilerplate copy, claim to have a link to a song the recipient might like. Instead the link leads to a site selling very cheap music, but when the user tries to buy then the credit card details are harvested for later use.

Pay-for-play PR is bad - always

Gary Bivings has a comment about 'pay for play'.

... it seems that PR types and marketers are paying bloggers to write favoarble stories about client products. There's a story(not yet online) in the November issues of Smart Money called "Bloggers" by Anne Kadet highlighting this new (perhaps not, alas) and sordid trend. There's even a company called PayPerPost.com that as its name implies pays blogger for posts. Seems about as reputable as paying individuals and companies to fradulently click on search engine ads. (Yes, this is a real problem.)

If you have to pay for it, you are not doing it right. You will be found out, your client/organisation's reputation will suffer and the blogger in on the deal will be ignored by the 'real' people in the conversation.

What is a blog

Suw Charman defines a blog by what it is not at Watson Farley & Williams.

She lists:
a) The blog entries are PDFs.
b) The blog entries are dire. The company has asked the trainees to blog, but obviously hasn't helped them understand what blogs are, what might be good to write about, or how best to write it.
c) No comments.
d) No trackbacks.
e) No archives.
f) No blogroll.
g) No RSS.
h) No links to other blogs.

It is a great read.

Its the Sun Wot done it

After reading this Philip Young post, who wants to do press relations anyway.

Quote from ex-Sun editor:

In my day we used to put the untrue stories on page one and the truer ones through the paper, so by the time you got to page 38 there was nothing wrong with them!

It seems to me that opening a relationship direct with the public has a host of advantages not least there is some protection from media lies.

The difference between PR and Marketing

The difference between Marketing and Public Relations is highlighted by BL Ochman in this post.

On the one hand there is a glitzy promo and the alternative is to make it a fun conversation. She says:

OfficeMax has launched an elaborate, and undoubtedly expensive interactive campaign featuring "graphologist" Dr. Gerard Ackerman to launch OfficeMax’s new private label design pen brand, TUL. It's created by DDB Advertising-Chicago and the heavy hand of ad agency cluelessness is evident.

The very nice, and intensely cheery PR person told me the campaign is "hilarious" "amazing" and "a hoot." It's definitely funny, and I laughed out loud when Dr. Ackerman told me he loves me. I didn't feel compelled to pass on the URL to friends, but I did think it was fun. If I am ever in an Office Max store and see a Tul pen, I'll certainly look at it.

But there are many missed opportunities in this campaign, like feedback from participants on how accurate they find the readings. All in all, it's an amusing old-fashioned push message with a couple of new media bells and whistles.

People have the option to go straight to TUL.com for a "personalized" on-site analysis or to mail in a sample of their handwriting which results in Dr. Ackerman emailing them a video that shows an image of their handwriting as he analyzes it.

Found-out fake is a fake PR

Shel Holtz is on the case: a blog ostensibly authored by a couple traveling across America in their RV and spending nights parked in WalMart parking lots turned out to be a fake blog, the brainchild of WalMart’s PR counselors at Edelman. While fake blogs (and other fake social media) are nothing new, it’s dismaying to see it emerge from Edelman, which has some of the smarter new-media people on its staff (Phil Gomes, Michael Wiley, Steve Rubel and more), and which touts itself as the PR firm that truly gets social media.

If publicists believes they can fool all the people all the time especially when 'all the people' run into millions, they are nuts. Publicists who do it should not regard themselves as part of the public relations profession,. In the UK this practice is not permitted among CIPR members.

Scream marketing gets one in eye

Within the web advertising world, interruptive formats, including pop-ups, dropped by 9% from a year ago and are now worth only 0.7% of all online advertising spending, reports the Guardian.

Guy Phillipson, the IAB's chief executive, said advertisers were realising that more tailored campaigns were the way forward and were moving away from formats such as pop-ups that mirrored the old-fashioned interruptive nature of TV and radio advertising.

Well... what a shock!

Or, take your tank off my screen.

This is good news for Public Relations when it seeks to engage with online consituents. Oh yes and were did the money for pop-ups go? Is this a budget that PR practitioners picked up?

Hezza -un reformed

The Tory party may like to think it is going to use social media to engage the British electorate.

I suggest they avoid ex-Tory minister, and leader hopeful Michael Heseltine's publishing houseHaymarket. Not only does it try to run Social Media conferences that pretend some speaker is going to show how a PR person will 'control' the bloggers, it can't even get a blog to work on its site.

The whole Hezza empire is surrounded with subscriptions, passwords and restrictions that, even if I get a copy of PRWeek because of my membership of the CIPR, there is no way I can use it here except in passing.

PR speak - just rubbish

Andy Lark has this great post about the absence of thought and PR speak.

Lee Gomes on the use of the word Breakthrough in press releases. There are plenty of other common phrases. Like "leading" - if everyone is leading then who isn't? A simple and imperfect Google search on 'press release leading' resulted in 92,700,999 results...

Our laziness in crafting news releases isn't just tiresome, to Lee's point, it perverts the very language we depend on for our trade.

His full post adds more.
It is a real turn off. Why do PR people keep using these obviously nonsense words.

Call Centres wreck relationships

A YouGov survey reveals just how bad the call centre experience really is. Commissioned by Callmedia and published in Net4Now, the UK’s leading developer of contact centre software reveals that only four per cent of people in the UK have had a favourable experience when dealing with a customer call centre, with 44 per cent complaining that their biggest gripe is contacting a call centre based overseas.

Commenting on this survey, Rufus Grig, managing director, Callmedia said:
“This research clearly indicates what customers do and don’t like.
Companies need to make quality customer service a priority and take steps to provide good, consistent and timely service in a bid to increase loyalty and reduce churn. The surprising find from this research is quite the strength of feeling felt by UK consumers against the outsourcing of contact centres overseas.”

The survey has revealed a number of other interesting facts:

* When a consumer wants to complain about a product or a service, 42 per cent of respondents prefer to use the phone to ensure that their point is heard

* However, 78 per cent of respondents prefer to buy products online rather than by telephone, email or post

* Respondents’ second biggest gripe is being passed from department to department until someone who can answer the specific query is found

Astroturf to get an early bath

Well would you believe it another astroturfer got fired.. When will they ever learn. Kevin Dugan reports.

A top aide to U.S. Rep. Charles Bass resigned Tuesday after disclosures that he posed as a supporter of the Republican's opponent in blog messages intended to convince people that the race was not competitive.