Author: Antony Mayfield

Steve Rubel carries the story that Edelman’s survey found that 48% of bloggers have yet to encounter PR professionals. He expects that to change. And soon, the poor things.

If you want to take a look at the findings of the Edelman survey, they are at: https://extranet.edelman.com/bloggerstudy/

I was surprised that 52% had been contacted, to be honest. Does that make me naive or behind the times? Or British.

We’re not quite as engaged with connected media here yet, some
say.  A friend who went to a blog conference the other week in
Cambridge said that was down to the fact that we’re just a little more
reserved here and less comfortable with the kind of up front, public
honesty that blogs demand. Rings true. But maybe we’re just taking our
time.

I can’t agree with Mr Rubel more though when he says that PR people
need to spend less time thinking about monitoring and analysis tools
(if they are even doing that) and just get int here and start reading
blogs, using the new media, joining in the conversations.

I’ve started blogging on a small scale to do just that. Try it out now
I have been reading the things for a good while. I’ve also started a
"closed circuit" blog with a client which is working very well for both
of us as a place to swap ideas and play with the medium without being
self-conscious. I’ll tell you more about that another time.

While we’re on the subject of PR and blogs – I love what Ogilvy are doing: publishing the blogs they are reading by category – e.g. Health, Marketing, Politics etc. I’ve always been a bit sceptical about PRs who treat their media or industry knowledge as if it is their most valuable piece of "IP", to revealed only when necessary to clients and colleagues. I hope that this move by Ogilvy is a sign of things to come – of open conversation between communications professionals. As media changes at breakneck speed – so it seems to me – the PR people who survive and thrive may be the ones who are the most open, the most able to embrace the spirit of connected media. Getting carried away, Mayfield? Maybe. I just mean that if the future changes to our trade are as big as some say, we should stick together.

 

By Antony Mayfield

Another story from Buzzmachine (via Blogads) is that an Audi ad campaign on blogs cost 0.5% of the budget but generated 29% of the traffic to the website. Find the original report on MediaPost. One telling quote in the article from Brian Clark CEO of GMD Studios the agency which ran the campaign from Audi was: "People are talking about you whether you’re listening or not." This point is one which businesses need to take on board with all of their communications and indeed their approach to communicating with their customers, partners, suppliers et al. My current prescription (I may change my mind later)  for the timid corporation or public body upon whom it is dawning that they need to deal with social media: Start listening to the conversations out there (or get yourself a professional who can filter the noise and explain what’s going on). Have an honest conversation in the organisation about what the opportunities and threats are and in what spirit you should respond. Decide how you will hear and respond to stories quickly and with integrity to deal with misunderstandings and genuine problems.   Start playing with the medium – start up internal blogs, wikis and podcasts. Encourage as many people as possible to have a go. Decide how you are going to deal with the medium across all of your communications – marketing, PR, sales, support and customer service.

[This  – and the next few posts today – were originally posted on my Bloglines blog which I will be closing down…] Saw this company on Buzzmachine: Wiki Books which is publishing open-source textbooks. Fascinating idea. Makes perfect sense, but it is the sort of thing I can imagine all sorts of sub-committees and quangos getting very sniffy about. Imagine not controlling text books!

 

Good things come etc…. and frankly, I’ve been waiting for myself to pluck up the nerve to start blogging for a good long while now.

I’ll be importing a few posts and (hopefully) the grand total of one subscriber from my abortive Bloglines blog, but really this is going to be my first run at real open-water, no-wires, no nets blogging.

And very excited I am too.

I have had a go at running a couple of closed-circuit blogs with colleagues and clients. Good idea to do this – it’s got me used to the format and given me a blood-quickening insight into the potential of doing even more. Now it’s time to go public.

So what’s this going to be about?

Finds…
Sharing news, cool businesses and applications that I think are too good not to shout about…

Minds…
Well ideas. Other people’s thinking and mine. Innovations and business ideas. See if any of them are useful to you.

Conversations…
Mainly it’s about the conversations. With so much change in the air and the ether I’ll bring to the blog some fruits of the more interesting conversations I’ve been party to (or just shamelessly eavesdropped on) and see if they have a life online.

I’m really looking forward to this.