Dealing with the Media Session for PhD Students

Here are the slides used at our recent session for University of Warwick students on "Dealing with the Media". There isn't a great deal of detail in here as I'm not a great believer of putting everything you say in a presentation onto the slides itself, but I thought it worth publishing them anyway. There is a click through link on the Warwick iCast story slide too so you can see the example.

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Useful Presentation on Virtual Worlds and Social Networking

A friend of mine working at Warwick University recently attended a session at the University on virtual worlds. He was going on about how good it was, and by coincidence I stumbled over the presentation available on slidecast.net.

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PR for Medical Research

Last week I attended a discussion event hosted by the CIPR's Health sector group. The event focused mostly on the impact of media (print media in the main) on patients and patient groups. However, a speaker from the Parkinson's Society through up an interesting point. Discussing their reactions to stories about medical developments or "breakthroughs" she mentioned that one of the first things she would also consider in those stories is at what stage the research is at - is it still in petri dishes or is it in clinical trial.

Having worked on many medical research news stories over the past few years this got me pondering ... at what point should universities and research organisations press release medical research stories? On the one hand there is a danger of releasing something early. The research might still be in the lab, or even a theory, and might not work at all in clinical trial. Announcing it to the world at this stage could raise false hopes and create all kinds of problems for GPs and health workers with patients demanding treatments that don't yet even exist. On the other hand, however, releasing stories at this early stage just might help researchers to raise the profile of the research enough to encourage funding to enable further development and clinical trials. It's a fine balancing act between the impact on patients and health professionals, and the need to raise the profile of research in order to further it. Tricky one. I think there's a whole other event just in this subject alone.

GlamStart

http://news.glam.ac.uk/news/en/2007/oct/03/cyber-world-induction-students/

The University of Glamorgan has taken the unprecedented step this autumn of using online gaming to introduce their new student intake to life as a University student. Interesting idea. I like the notion of online gaming being used almost as a communications tool, or as an educational tool, but I am beginning to question whether gaming still needs to grow up a little before it can really work for an adult audience. I hadn't played video games since the age of 10 or so (many a day spent playing Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Master System) until the Wii arrived in my front room this Spring. It's good, fun gaming for grown-ups (and not-so-grown-ups, I guess), and everytime I see the empty boxes on the Wii Menu I can't help thinking of all the educational applications that could feature there - and probably will do. However, reading about GlamStart both excited and also worried me a little. The concept is excellent, but the visuals used in their press release reminded me a little of Habbo Hotel - the online interactive gaming site used primarily by younger teenagers - and the tasks listed sounded as though they erred a little on the patronising side for someone old enough to be moving away from home and bright enough to be studying at degree level. Maybe I'm just old, and this is exactly what 18 year olds want to be "playing" with, but I can't help thinking that for online gaming to really work for adults, it needs to grow up a little.

Kent TV

Congratulations to Kent County Council who have become the first county council in the UK to fund the creation of their own internet TV channel for the local community - Kent TV. The quality of production is excellent and the concept is a great example of how internet TV can be used as a catalyst for effective 2-way communications between a public sector body and the community it serves. Let's keep our finger's crossed that it really works and the public do submit their own video comments and text comments as the site encourages them to. Such sites need not be unachieveably expensive to create, as Ten Alps Digital, the company behind Kent TV knows very well. Having worked with them in a previous role on the launch of their Public TV site, I know their committment, vision and ability to draw content in from other sources is a good recipe for success.

Virtual PR Agencies

This week PR Week reported that Civic and New Media Corp has become the first PR agency to develop an "integrated online PR and digital marketing offering" solely in Second Life - Civic New Media. Interestingly, at the beginning of August Text 100 also seemed to be claiming this same thing (Text 100 Opens First Public Relations Office in Second Life), but that's by-the-by.

We certainly know the importance of practicing what we preach, and other agencies and consultancies clearly feel the same. However, the usefulness of an online PR office is not yet entirely clear to me. Face-to-face contact and real human interaction are key to building effective client-consultant relationships and, in a virtual world where everybody bears a virtual identity that can be, if they choose, so far removed from their own that they may as well be from another planet, how can that relationship really develop? I'm going to make it a mission to pay a visit, though and see what I can find. Visiting their offices with my own Second Life virtual identity feels like the ultimate in spying on consultancy competitors! Wonderful!

Facebook Musings

I read Shane Watson's thoughts on Facebook in yesterday's Sunday Times Style magazine with interest, and perhaps just a little twinge of offence. I have already checked my facebook profile 4 or 5 times this morning, I've had a giggle to myself about "friends" who have piled on the pounds, I've felt a sense of pride towards others that have been doing well for themselves, and I feel as though I haven't stopped reading about Facebook just recently - from their search for a new PR representative in the UK in PR Week, to thoughts on the applications of Facebook for Higher Education marketing in the THES.

I'm a fan. It has to be said. I think it's good that there is a place where I can still have some kind of contact with people that I don't have the time or inclination (let's be honest) to see on a regular basis. I've also been on the receiving end of Facebook being used as an internal communications tool by my previous employer - I thought it was quite a fitting way to be invited to the staff summer party!

It's unlikely that I'll be setting up a Pickle Jar Communications Group on Facebook any time soon, but my "Tracy's Great North Run" Group (I'm running it this coming Sunday on behalf of The Stroke Association) has certainly helped me to drum up sponsorship from "friends" that I otherwise wouldn't have sucked any money from! And this is where my point really rests - at the moment, for me, Facebook is pure social networking. I don't see it as a business tool, and it isn't a substitution for having "real" friendships either. It serves a whole different purpose to me, and a different purpose again to the next person. Understanding of its usefulness as a marketing tool is still embryonic, and it's for us marketing-communications professionals to work through this and offer creative solutions for its use - or not. Time will tell. For now I'm quite happy to continue using it to check-up on my acquaintances and the odd one or two "real" friends.

Welcome to the Pickle Jar Communications Blog

There must be some kind of etiquette and guidance for one's first blog post, but I have never yet been able to figure it out. It probably goes something like this ... acknowledge that this is the first blog post, say something about who you are, say something about your intentions for this blog. Thereafter many people probably never add any more blog posts. But we all must begin somewhere, and thus the Pickle Jar Communications blog begins here. Welcome.

So, who are we? Well, Pickle Jar Communications is a new digital media communications consultancy. Based in Coventry in the United Kingdom, we are embarking on a new venture to help organisations engage better with new and broadcast media. This blog exists because first and foremost we must practice what we preach! However, it also exists to allow us to share ideas, discoveries, news and comments with anyone who cares enough to read. Watch this space and enjoy!