BBC kowtows to the cult of celebrity

On the front page of the BBC News website there are always three main stories. Right now, one of those is a sad story about the non-suspicious death of a young man in his thirties. The item goes on to describe the procedures followed in the event of such an unfortunate incident: person identified, relatives informed, etc, etc.

It's indubitably sad that this should have happened. Sadly, I suspect it happens a hundred times a day, many thousands of times per year - but the rest of them won't get a prime spot of the BBC News website.

This unfortunate young man's only claim to fame - and it's certainly not a claim to newsworthiness - was that he was Max Mosley's son. That's it. He wasn't even a celebrity himself, only the son of one. And his death gets him on the front page of the website of the country's national broadcaster.

I have generally been undecided on whether I should have to pay for the upkeep of the BBC just because I own a television. Now, I'm quite certain that I should not.

'Conversations': social media networking event tonight

I'm off to 'Conversations' tonight at One Aldwych, London. It's a "unique social media networking event for marketing professionals"; the format is "a series of conversations with experts in various aspects of the Web 2.0 marketing mix interspersed with chat, drinks and nibbles".

It was pitched to me as being for those with a particular interest in web and social media focused marketing, so that's a tick. Expert speakers tonight include Jeremy Brown from Sense Worldwide, Mark Adams from the Conversation Group, Steve Loynes from Chameleon PR and Paul McKeever from FRONT.

I'm hoping to learn some new things; I really hope that it stays pragmatic, realistic and 'real' (rather than too theoretical and high-brow) and that there will be ideas or techniques I can take away to use tomorrow for our clients.

"Last chance to sponsor..."

These are the first four words of the Subject line of an email I have just received from a usually well-respected analyst firm, which has just spammed me about some conference or other that is completely nothing to do with me or any of my clients.

As Biff says to George McFly in 'Back to the Future': "Hello? Hello? Anybody home?". Do the people who wrote this, signed it off and then sent this dross know that there's a recession on? Because, guys, if the best line you can come up with to sell sponsorship is that it's your 'last chance' then you are doomed. (The conference starts in 12 days, by the way. People have obviously been tripping over themselves to sponsor it so far.)

It doesn't get any better in the body of the message. "Don't miss out on your opportunity to position yourself as a vendor of choice to this powerful community of executives" it reads. Now I may be wrong, but sponsoring a trade show doesn't position you as a vendor of choice. It positions you as a vendor. Then they either choose you or they don't. (Then again, if they think you're going to charge them enough in this day and age that you've got enough cash to blow on a sponsorship, maybe they won't.)

Off the top of my head, first draft, no time spent trying to come up with an alternative, wouldn't a Subject line that read: "Recession-busting sponsorship opportunity: get in front of X Supply Chain executives for..." be better? As long as you weren't being sent something completely irrelevant (i.e. spammed) you'd surely be more likely to at least open the message to find out what the sums involved were?

PS. Don't get used to these movie analogies. Two in two posts is just a coincidence.

Did you know?

I received this link from a friend on Friday. She says it's a presentation that Sony gave to its executives last year, although I haven't checked whether that's accurate. At any rate, some 2.7 million people have already watched this so I'm clearly no leader where this video is concerned. But some of the facts and figures are astonishing.

I don't have a favourite statistic and I'm not sure quite what it means for PR professionals, but I'm pretty sure that, if nothing else, we need to be alert to the scale of things these days. A tiny percentage of a very big number is still a very big number.

I'm sort of reminded of the scene in the film Cocktail, in which Michael Caine explains to Tom Cruise that there's a guy somewhere making an untold fortune simply from selling the little plastic washer that holds open a cocktail umbrella, because he's making tens of millions of them at a tiny fraction of one cent each...

Putting the public back into public relations

I've just been sitting in the toilet reading a book.

Not something I'd ordinarily admit, to be sure, even on a Saturday - but this is not an ordinary book. As for the toilet - well, I don't know about everyone else, but there is a very small number of places in my home where I can get five minutes' peace and quiet from one four year old and one three year old.

The non-ordinary book is Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge. Amazon delivered it this morning; I pre-ordered it a few weeks ago so I guess it's now formally published. There's probably some Harry Potter-esque competition going on now: who can finish it first. Unless I can fix the lock on that toilet door, it won't be me.

However, finish it I will. My first Social Media News Release - based on the now-famous Shift Communications template - was 'way' back in June 2007. I'm hoping - nay, expecting - that this book will give me some new ideas for me and the team to take out to our clients.

Ryanair's social media strategy

Saw this just now, at the Guardian.

LMAO. Although I have an idea that Ryanair's senior management won't know what that means.

"I want to hold a press conference..."

Trust me, these may well be the words that a tech PR person most dreads hearing from his/her client's lips.

Why? Well, largely because they're unpredictable - and that means we're effectively being asked to gamble with clients' money. OK, it's the client who is asking you, "Red or black?", but that's not going to make you feel much better if you choose wrongly. And, of course, if it doesn't work, we look bad even though it may not be our fault.

Fortunately - in my view - the tech company press conference is a rarity these days. Journalists are, more than ever, spread all over the place geographically, enabled by technology to work remotely. They don't want to travel, nor do they need to: that same technology, or variants of it, means that they can get the bulk of the story by email, or Twitter, or RSS, or wire, within moments anyway. Pictures? Probably downloadable from the company's press office. So the press conference is redundant, unless you're Microsoft- or Nokia-size, that is?

Not quite - there are occasions when it'll work, even for a smaller tech company. But the preconditions are harsh.

First, choose a time/date/location when/where the journalist you're interested in are going to be there anyway - at a show or exhibition, for example. Journalists go to these in search of stories, and by holding a press conference you're suggesting you've got a significant story for them. Box ticked.

Second, be sure you have something really worth saying; if your client has a perceived history of 'bigging up' announcements only for them to fall short of expectations then your journalists are going to think twice before pitching up to this one (or to the next one, if you disappoint this time).

Third, I might add that the content of your press conference-worthy announcement should probably be more than can reasonably described in a 400 word news release. Of course, 400 words is more than enough to convey any story - but the press conference does afford the opportunity to go into details (provided they're pertinent, relevant, important, etc) that you couldn't hope to cover in a news release.

So, why this post, today? Because client Truphone is holding a press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 17th. With 2,999 other companies vying for media attention that's a daunting prospect. But we're meeting those preconditions for success, and we're looking good so far.