tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34104592024-02-08T09:06:50.875-08:00PR OpinionsSome thoughts and opinions on the Public Relations profession and industryTom Murphynoreply@blogger.comBlogger216125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1077784893683521562004-02-26T00:41:00.000-08:002004-02-26T00:43:36.090-08:00PR Opinions (http://www.natterjackpr.com)This is the old site for PR Opinions and is not updated.
You can find PR Opinions at http://www.natterjackpr.com.
Thanks
TomTom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1076087594020529482004-02-06T09:13:00.000-08:002004-02-06T09:14:57.060-08:00For most PR people, media relations remains an important part of the job. Getting a client in front of an influential editor still gets the blood pressure rising. But what about when the tables are turned?What about journalists who want to try and land an interview with a big fish?Tom Mangan points to a story in MediaBistro that gives advice on how a "no-name" journalist can get&Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1075987774636260032004-02-05T05:29:00.000-08:002004-02-05T05:46:54.360-08:00It's said that Steve Jobs has a "reality distortion field" around him. In effect, when you're in his presence, his ideas seem to make perfect sense and you ignore any plausible issues regarding the potential success of said ideas. I know a few people with a similar skill. When you listen to them, the only thing that stops you from agreeing that a bridge from South Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1075913535502707702004-02-04T08:52:00.000-08:002004-02-04T08:58:43.483-08:00MarketingSherpa has released its Annual free e-book, "Marketing Wisdom" which includes 99 tips and stories from Marketers including PR Pros.It's a free download."In today's highly competitive PR environment, cutting to the chase seems to be the rule of thumb for our small company. No longer do media outlets, at least on our level, get gift baskets or trinkets. They get hard news Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1075829673413928902004-02-03T09:34:00.000-08:002004-02-03T09:36:13.186-08:00I am delighted to discover a new PR blog, "Luna Cafe" which will address: "<!--StartFragment -->Thoughts on P.R., Entertainment, Fashion, Travel, and Life".The blog is being run by Lisa Torch at DFMPR.Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1075719310184112632004-02-02T02:55:00.000-08:002004-02-02T02:56:48.390-08:00I have spent a lot of time today clearing out my Qurb folder of Spam. Nothing new there. It's the same every morning.I probably get around 400 spam messages overnight, every night.With that volume of spam, I have to rely on the subject line to decide whether to hit the delete button or not. E-mails that have blank subjects or have subjects such as "Hi", "Hello", "Information Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1075718433830431222004-02-02T02:40:00.000-08:002004-02-02T03:48:05.076-08:00According to the Senate Office of Public Records there were over 25,000 lobbyists in 2003 up from 21,000 the year before.The Washington Post takes a look at how the lobbying business is growing and why its presence, in such large numbers, in Washington D.C. makes it the PR capital of the United States....Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1075718096676687062004-02-02T02:34:00.000-08:002004-02-02T02:36:35.280-08:00An internal memo from the head of public affairs and marketing for the Health Insurance Commission in Australia has told staff to ensure they are not seen or photographed cutting a cake with the health organization's logo on it, to avoid potential captions such as: "Putting the knife into medicare".The memo reads: "If you are organising an event for a local member, please ensure that he/she Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1075717777531073212004-02-02T02:29:00.000-08:002004-02-02T02:31:16.076-08:00One of the more popular PR stories doing the rounds in the past few days has been the launch of a PR campaign in Minneapolis to curb (ahem) public urination. I am not taking the p... OK I'll avoid the obvious.<!--StartFragment -->"Among the poster slogans they are considering is "Go before you go," aimed at tavern customers who relieve themselves in public."Thanks to Trevor Cook.Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1075672974199980792004-02-01T14:02:00.002-08:002004-02-01T14:20:41.390-08:00Jim Horton is the keeper of that most excellent of online PR link resources Online-PR.
Jim is also writes one of the most honest and interesting of daily PR blogs.
Jim has been "blogging" for quite some time using HTML pages which makes it hard to link or navigate previous posts. He has finally made the step to full-blown blogging software and his blog can now be found at: http://Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1075672973086086262004-02-01T14:02:00.001-08:002004-02-01T14:04:31.466-08:00Dogbert nicely sums up our discussion earlier this week on the empty promises sometimes offered in the quest for new PR accounts....Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-1075672971895078262004-02-01T14:02:00.000-08:002004-02-01T14:04:30.280-08:00 Mediamap's latest issue of its ExpertPR newsletter has been out for quite a while and I forgot to link to it. Lots of articles including hiring consultants and web-based meetings. According to a recent survey of e-mail marketers the top three challenges facing the profession are:1) Spam and e-mail filters2) Inbox Clutter3) Development (or not) or qualified e-mail Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-902583752003-01-31T02:59:00.000-08:002003-05-15T23:43:07.000-07:00PR OPINIONS HAS MOVED!!! PLEASE VISIT http://www.natterjackpr.comAfter a couple of evenings spent feverishly working on PR Opinions, I have moved the blog to http://www.natterjackpr.com.
Please update your bookmarks! There won't be anymore additions to http://tmurphy.blogspot.com, though I will leave it here. I have also managed to migrate all the archives to the new site.
Thanks
TomTom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-902532812003-01-30T01:26:00.000-08:002003-01-30T01:26:11.643-08:00The beatings will continue until...The media landscape continues to be ravaged with more and more layoffs. But you know things have really got out of hand when an entire editorial team puts itself up for sale on eBay.
Although the eBay entry now says "Complete former staff of Z---- T--- U-----" following some obvious legal wranglings, it originally said the "Complete staff of ZDNet Tech Update".
The offer includes staff on the Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-3902484052003-01-29T00:47:00.000-08:002003-01-29T00:47:42.000-08:00Public Relations news round up...THE AUTHOR OF "THE DEATH OF SPIN", George Pitcher has an article on Corner Bar PR discussing how good public relations can't substitute good business practice.
PR WEEK HAS AN INTERESTING story on the current health of technology trade shows.
BURSON-MARSTELLER HAS BEEN appointed as the agency of record for Stellar Internet Monitoring - whose products monitor the "misuse" of a firm's Internet Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-902483432003-01-29T00:13:00.000-08:002003-01-29T00:13:35.913-08:00Two clients for the price of two clients....Can anyone spot the similarities between two Public Relations announcements (1, 2) made for two clients by the same PR firm? I'll grant you there are some differences. :-)Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-902483262003-01-29T00:03:00.000-08:002003-01-29T00:03:29.830-08:00Do you use that phone for Public Relations?A colleague yesterday pointed out that weblogs will never become mainstream until people forget about how they work and what they offer and just use them. His analogy was the telephone and I thought he's absolutely right.
However, given that weblogs have barely leaked outside the global community of technology enthusiasts we probably still have some way to go. Last week during a course I was Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-3902431602003-01-28T01:07:00.000-08:002003-01-28T01:34:13.000-08:00Barging in...The New York Post stopped an article by Manhattan-based PR Jeff Barge in which Barge accused his industry of being in the "deception business". The Post says they dropped the story becuase it was too "self-promotional". Thanks to Deborah Branscum for the link.Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-902431502003-01-28T01:00:00.000-08:002003-01-28T01:13:05.000-08:00PowerPoint...Death by any other nameKarlin Lillington has an interesting entry today on the evils of PowerPoint and references John Naughton's recent piece in the UK Observer.
We've been trying to avoid what we call here "Death by PowerPoint" for some time. There are pros and cons from a communication perspective. The conversation is by it's nature more natural and engaging without slides, however because people are so Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-902409502003-01-27T12:47:00.000-08:002003-01-27T12:47:30.330-08:00XPRL appoints new chairperson to guide Public Relations standards...XPRL.org the organization established to propose a common XML standard for the Public Relations profession has appointed a new chairperson, Alison Clark.
Alison, based in the UK, is a self-employed public relations consultant who previously held a variety of roles with Edelman, Wessex Water and Shandwick.
For anyone not aware of XPRL.org I recommend a visit to their website. It promises a new Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-902383642003-01-27T01:39:00.000-08:002003-01-27T01:41:29.000-08:00Easier isn't necessarily better... the Public Relations lessonAs we all know just because something is easier it doesn't necessarily follow that it's better. For example. It's certainly easier to watch a football game on TV, it's cheaper, the toilets are close-by, you have the benefit of expert opinion and have the best views of the action. But you know it's still far superior to experience the atmosphere youself, to be in the stadium.
The same can be Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-902278812003-01-24T01:50:00.000-08:002003-01-24T01:52:50.000-08:00How are you coping with the growth in content?The Internet has spawned the largest content creation boom in the history of personkind.
This explosion of news and views among professional journalists and consumers has serious implications for practitioners whose job it is to monitor public opinion as well as monitoring what's being written and debated in the public domain.
Given that search engines only index around 40% of Internet content Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-902245142003-01-23T09:36:00.000-08:002003-01-23T09:36:33.353-08:00United States and Europe diverge on trust... In a survey of over 850 "opinion leaders" in the United States and Europe, Edelman found that there are significant differences in corporate trust between the continents.
The survey found that while trust in corporations had fallen in Europe, it had risen in the United States. This seems a very strange finding to me :-) Trust in the US government is slipping however and remains very low in Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-902202082003-01-22T12:35:00.000-08:002003-01-22T12:37:24.000-08:00PR news from around the Internet...THE FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS has conducted a study of 115 major US companies and found that ninety eight percent of CEOs took part in some political activity in the last year. A particularly alarming finding was that over twenty five percent of the companies surveyed had no crisis management team in place! Read more here.
IN OTHER NEWS, OVER NINETEEN Public Relations organizations (yep Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410459.post-3902201422003-01-22T12:17:00.000-08:002003-01-22T12:39:52.000-08:00You can't hide behind Public Relations..There's a story on the UK-based HR Gateway website about how PR can't hide poor HR practice.
The story is in advance of a free e-book being offered by Nicola Hunt on "Communications & HR" which is being released on February 3rd.
Tom Murphynoreply@blogger.com