Multimedia PR flying high

Scott Berinato's post, Delta-Northwest Create the Press Release of the Future, on the Harvard Conversation Starter blog highlights an exemplary use of a micro-site for PR purposes. In my mind this is a great example of a multimedia release. Clear thought has been given to the stakeholders and communicating direct with key groups (staff, customers, communities), but this is also coupled with an excellent news centre with extensive quotes, web videos available for use, broadcast-quality video clips available to access, audio clips for download, and a great selection of images too. This is a great example of best practice for such issues, and one that really isn't difficult to replicate by other organisations with a bit of foresight and a modest budget - it really need not cost a lot of money, and I expect many organisations would see significant return for investing in a site like this for certain issues.

A real tweet for PROs

Just following on from my recent Twitter addiction, here's a great post today from Mashable on how to monitor 'tweets' and use them to manage your brand.

Let's consider the application of this, for example, for a university. Say a prospective student tweets that they're trying to find information on a particular course, or trying to find something out about your university. Perhaps that piece of information isn't readily available online, or it is available but well hidden. That university could then respond by either quickly putting the relevant piece of information up on their site, and provide a link back to the person who tweeted in the first place, or by supplying the link to that person. Surely this is just basic social media monitoring that all universities and similar organisations should be doing, but perhaps don't yet have the time and resources to manage.

A del.icio.us solution!

Really useful blog post here on how the Missouri University of Science and Technology are using del.icio.us to help them evaluate online coverage of their brand.

Twittering away

I've been prompted to think a lot about Twitter today.

Firstly, there's a great post on how Twitter can be used by journalists on ReadWriteWeb today. Really insightful article that I think shows the next step that journalism might take. Firstly journalism had to take the step from print to online, then from merely linear one-way online communication to blogs, and now from interactive 2-way communications to multiple-platform communications. Could this be the end of the 'article' as we know it? Instead journalism and articles as such might span across multiple platforms instead of being a single piece of copy on a single page.

Then I followed a link through from one of the comments to a nice little article on Marketing Vox on how to use Twitter to Build Brand Integrity. This got me thinking about the education sector in particular and how Vice Chancellors of universities, many of whom have been reluctant to engage with blogs, could instead use Twitter as a means of communicating with their students, giving themselves a 'presence' on campus even when they're not physically there, and giving them and their institutions a more friendly face.

Finally I came back to thinking about potential uses for Twitter for Crisis Communications again. At the CIPR Education & Skills Sector Group we're currently putting the final touches to a conference on crisis comms and new media. I'm working with one of the speakers to help develop a 'how to' session, and I think we need to do a step-by-step walk through of Twitter for our audience. This one is a no-brainer as far as I am concerned.

Now I just need to decide the best use of Twitter for PJC! I've been a little slow with keeping it updated so far but am sure I'll pick up momentum soon.

Just a nice, innocent viral marketing video

I rather like this viral marketing video doing the rounds from HP, so just thought I would share it even further. Really is the key to viral marketing videos - keep it simple, clever, entertaining, fun and something that makes you smile and want to share with others. This does the trick ... and my post is evidence of that.

Stitcher

This just might be genius.

US-based company Stitcher are launching a customisable radio facility for use on mobile phones. Initially being rolled out on the iPhone, the player will allow you to syndicate audio content that you want to listen to - a bit like an RSS reader for audio, I guess. Quite rightly so they're pitching this at commuters, offering them a way of getting digests from their favorite audio content sources back to back while on the move. Check out the 'about' section on their site, and also read the Mashable blog article about this.

Daytime delights

Apologies for the little absence from the blog over the past few days. I've been poorly for a few days and, unable to stare at the computer screen without feeling nauseous (nothing to do with the content, purely to do with feeling ill, I might add). So, I've had my feet up and been off-and-on enjoying the delights of daytime TV. I thought I'd just share my top 3 daytime TV observations/moments from the past few days:

1. The home makeover show where a man had painted his 3-year old daughter's bedroom the same colour (all over) as the Pickle Jar Communications logo. The 'stylist' referred to it (in Canadian accent) as 'advocado barf' (barf as in 'puke' not 'bath'). Perhaps not so good for a 3-year old girl's room, but, hmmm, where can I buy some for PJC HQ?!
2. The fact that on 'Bargain Hunt', the programme where two teams have to buy items that then get sold on at auction, seems to celebrate people making a loss! I forced myself (forced, I tell you) to watch 3 or 4 episodes of this bizarre gem of British TV and not once did any of the teams make a profit or break-even. Boy did they celebrate their loss-making wins! What a great way to teach out-of-work people great business practice - make a loss and get a big pat on the back and told how well you have done. I think they need to bring Alan Sugar in to guest host an episode or two.
   
3. Trevor Williams, Chief Economist for Lloyds TSB on the lunchtime BBC news on Monday wearing the narrowest vertical stripes in just about every direction he could. I really need to get my hands on this clip for my 'What to Wear' sections of my 'Working with Broadcast Media' training sessions. Not good for the nauseous viewer though.
   

Facebook Chat

Facebook have announced the launch of Facebook Chat, the instant messaging service for facebook users to communicate with their friends logged on to their profiles. I have to express a few reservations, however, about this new service.

First and foremost, I'm already a fairly avid user of Windows Live Messenger. I have a handful of contacts set up and that's about manageable. These tend to be fairly close friends or colleagues. For me facebook serves a completely other purpose - keeping in touch with people that I'm not necessarily likely to have (or want) daily or even weekly conversations with. As such, I'm not entirely seeing the point of Facebook Chat. I can understand why they have done it, and admit that I may well change my mind in a few months time once I have a go, but for now I remain a little unsure.

Be Patient

Do 'patients' exist any more in the UK health and social care sector? I've been out of the office for most of this week working on a video project for the health, social and child care sector and not one of the people working in health care were allowed to refer to the people that they work with (or on behalf of) as 'patients'. Instead, they are referred to as 'service users', 'clients' and 'customers'. Yes, I appreciate that the NHS wants to foster a culture of 'customer service', and rightly so too, but what's so wrong with the word 'patient'?

What a clog!

Julia Finch reports in today's Guardian of yesterday's drop in share prices at Tesco being largely the consequence of a little too much information provided in Simon Uwins' 'Fresh & Easy' blog. According to Finch, traders blamed yesterday's drop in share price by 11.25p on Uwins' blog post of 26 March, Pausing for Breath at Fresh & Easy. Tricky one from a communications point of view. Uwins is suggesting in his post that the reason they are slowing down the new openings of new stores (or 'taking a break') is to allow them time to listen to customer feedback and respond or make the relevant changes. Good PR practice on the one hand. In fact, excellent PR practice following the correct 2-way communications, feedback, revision, rollout cycle. Perhaps not such good PR practice from a business point of view though if his post genuinely did assist in the fall of the share price. What a lovely case study for a PR student somewhere to take a look at! Hint: there might be something slightly amiss at stage 3 of Cutlip, Center and Brooms' PR planning cycle in this case study.

Digital Media for Business

As part of the work we've been doing for Ideas for Life TV, we were recently involved in a conference on digital media for business hosted at Alton Towers (18 March). Working with Ember Regis, we interviewed the key speakers from the event. Two of them were specifically speaking about how digital media can be used to communicate science and can be used by business. Both videos are available below. The first features Magic Lantern Chief Executive, Anthony Lilley, while the second is an interview with Adam Rutherford, online editor for Nature.