I finished 2 weeks work experience at Fido PR in Manchester on 1oth July. It was brilliant! Really enjoyed it and worked with a wonderful team. I helped out with clients RHS Show Tatton Park, Golden Square shopping centre in Warrington and the charity Forever Manchester. I did a whole range of things whilst I was there but I think my favourite was helping to arrange the Forever Manchester Cocktail Party!
I invited local radio DJ's from Key 103, XFM Manchester, BBC Radio Manchester etc and rang round celebrities agents and managers to see if they would like to attend. The biggest success for me was when Bez confirmed that he would attend! I had the privelage of meeting him, his partner Monica and friend Lee at the event on the 15th at Harvey Nichols in Manchester. They were great, really chatty and friendly. This was the first time I have met a 'celeb' and, (this is going to sound strange) they are just normal people! A valuable lesson learnt for me, although to be honest I have never been into celebrity culture anyway.
OK! magazine were partners for the event and there were photographers from the mag and local media. The M.E.N have some great images from the evening and the article is a good bit of coverage . The event was a great success and the cocktails were delicious!
I am sad to leave Fido and will hopefully be able to go back in the future as I have met some wonderful people and made some lovely friends.
But, no rest for the wicked, 2 weeks at Mason Williams starting monday and then 2 weeks at Impact Media PR! By the time I start my third year I will have almost 4 months experience under my belt. I don't know if it will mean I get a job after my degree, the way things are with the economy, but the main thing is I am enjoying PR and am learning that it is the career for me.
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Thursday, 18 June 2009
What does the internet think? A good PR tool?
Ok so one of the main things we attempt to evaluate in PR is what people think about a client, product or a service. There are many ways to go about this which are very effective, many of which can be complicated, others can be simple.
Today I read about one which I assumed could be an evaluation tool in the latter category. And it's a search engine! I thought wow! Like we don't have enough of those... BUT it said it gave percentages of all the information about your chosen subject on the net, this made me intrigued- finally! Something extremely simple, cheap and quick! Ladies and gentlemen I present to you 'what does the internet think'?
According to the Metro it, "trawls the main search engines - Google, Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo! - for positive and negative phrases ('I love', 'I hate', etc.) associated with that thing. And then works out how fond the internet is of it".
Great stuff. I don't need to listen in university about evaluation techniques... Well no, actually I still really need to! This search engine does not make a PR persons life any easier at all... Sure it is fun, but when it comes up with 79.7% positive feedback for Adolf Hitler then we know that this is not the most reliable evaluation technique.
Although the Metro article does state that, "the internet is a big fan of kittens (92.6% positive) and cake (93.7%), less keen on ninjas (83.4%) and even less keen on swine flu, recession and Twitter (although they still all got over 60%)". Interesting...
So this may be something to have a laugh about in the office (may be not about the Hitler search as that is way not cool) but it ain't going to make any ones life easier and especially not the PR practitioners, although a comedian could get some brilliant material from it I am sure.
Oh and Public Relations is 88% positive...nice.
Today I read about one which I assumed could be an evaluation tool in the latter category. And it's a search engine! I thought wow! Like we don't have enough of those... BUT it said it gave percentages of all the information about your chosen subject on the net, this made me intrigued- finally! Something extremely simple, cheap and quick! Ladies and gentlemen I present to you 'what does the internet think'?
According to the Metro it, "trawls the main search engines - Google, Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo! - for positive and negative phrases ('I love', 'I hate', etc.) associated with that thing. And then works out how fond the internet is of it".
Great stuff. I don't need to listen in university about evaluation techniques... Well no, actually I still really need to! This search engine does not make a PR persons life any easier at all... Sure it is fun, but when it comes up with 79.7% positive feedback for Adolf Hitler then we know that this is not the most reliable evaluation technique.
Although the Metro article does state that, "the internet is a big fan of kittens (92.6% positive) and cake (93.7%), less keen on ninjas (83.4%) and even less keen on swine flu, recession and Twitter (although they still all got over 60%)". Interesting...
So this may be something to have a laugh about in the office (may be not about the Hitler search as that is way not cool) but it ain't going to make any ones life easier and especially not the PR practitioners, although a comedian could get some brilliant material from it I am sure.
Oh and Public Relations is 88% positive...nice.
Monday, 1 June 2009
Everyone is a journalist!
The missing Airbus over the Atlantic makes it ever more apparent that everyone is a journalist. Twitter is full of people (including myself) constantly commenting on the story.
Under the 'trending topics' section the term 'Atlantic' is rising up the list. Although at the moment (13:00) the topics above include Susan Boyle and #musicmonday. What that says about society I do not know!
The sources are generally from other news sources such as the BBC etc People are engaging making comments and giving opinions. With the plane apparently missing over the sea Twitter will not play as central a role as it did with the recent Amsterdam air crash, as I assume there will not have been any eyewitnesses or 'on the scene' reporting.
However, I think that this story also shows that journalism will remain a profession. For example with this current story much of the news is coming from the news agency Reuters as they have the means to gain access to breaking news. Much of the 'noise' on Twitter is information from news agency's and television/internet sources such as BBC News.
I think that this is a reminder that journalism is still very much a profession, especially when news is not accessible through eyewitnesses and bystanders.
Under the 'trending topics' section the term 'Atlantic' is rising up the list. Although at the moment (13:00) the topics above include Susan Boyle and #musicmonday. What that says about society I do not know!
The sources are generally from other news sources such as the BBC etc People are engaging making comments and giving opinions. With the plane apparently missing over the sea Twitter will not play as central a role as it did with the recent Amsterdam air crash, as I assume there will not have been any eyewitnesses or 'on the scene' reporting.
However, I think that this story also shows that journalism will remain a profession. For example with this current story much of the news is coming from the news agency Reuters as they have the means to gain access to breaking news. Much of the 'noise' on Twitter is information from news agency's and television/internet sources such as BBC News.
I think that this is a reminder that journalism is still very much a profession, especially when news is not accessible through eyewitnesses and bystanders.
Air France Airbus missing
I am trying to find out as much about the missing Airbus. I first heard about it on Twitter from news sources such as NYtimes, BBC news, The Guardian etc.
Obviously info is still pouring in all the time. It is looking similar to how the news broke about the recent Amsterdam plane crash.
Where is best to follow the details? BBC News 24 on the Television is emphasising that the details are extremely sketchy saying that some of the news sources are unreliable.
As a journalist, or even as an audience, where do you start collecting info? I am following on twitter, BBC News 24 (Television).
For research I have viewed Wikipedia, Searching for Air France and the model of the Airbus A330-200 . The page has been altered on the accidents and incidents section already.
I don't know if this is possible and may have ethical issues but could someone who is interested in the story find info on Twitter?
If a passenger placed an entry which may give insight into what happened? Surely if this has happened could the entry from (what would have been a laptop or mobile) give a traceable location as to where the plane is? Or passengers are?
Obviously info is still pouring in all the time. It is looking similar to how the news broke about the recent Amsterdam plane crash.
Where is best to follow the details? BBC News 24 on the Television is emphasising that the details are extremely sketchy saying that some of the news sources are unreliable.
As a journalist, or even as an audience, where do you start collecting info? I am following on twitter, BBC News 24 (Television).
For research I have viewed Wikipedia, Searching for Air France and the model of the Airbus A330-200 . The page has been altered on the accidents and incidents section already.
I don't know if this is possible and may have ethical issues but could someone who is interested in the story find info on Twitter?
If a passenger placed an entry which may give insight into what happened? Surely if this has happened could the entry from (what would have been a laptop or mobile) give a traceable location as to where the plane is? Or passengers are?
Thursday, 14 May 2009
PR and Audioboo
http://audioboo.fm/
I have just had a look at this site. I am not sure about its uses but I think it could be great for journalists and PR practitioners, especially for acquiring quotes or releasing them.
It presents challenges for PR as it is another outlet for opinion formers to express opinion. If it is negative then how do you combat this and even monitor it? If it is positive about your product or service etc then can you harness this? Consumer feedback sections on companies site could use these?
To stand out on this site, how do you make yourself listened to? It is like shouting amongst a crowd and trying to be heard!
I'm sure there are many uses for this. But lets see if this takes off or is just a fad. I am not going to make the call, but on initial viewing I think it could be extremely useful.
If anyone has any thoughts then please share...
Update: It appears that this post is my most successful as it got a mention on Neville Hobsons' FIR 451 podcast which I was pretty chuffed about. The conversation about Audioboo starts at around 39 mins into the cast. Delighted that practically my whole post was read out. Even my tutor Philip Young got a mention. Now to get more involved with online conversations...
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Swine flu and Kleenex
I don't know what I think of this. On the one hand I think that it is really clever as it has been launched at just the right time to make some money. On the other hand it is taking advantage of a panic that the media has quite rightly been fueling over the outbreak of swine flu.
If they work then great. But at the same time I feel that this company could be seen to be taking advantage of a bad situation. I wonder whether this was a good move for the company or whether anyone is slightly skeptical?
The website contains advertising for the anti-viral product along with information about swine flu next to it which to me is either a clever juxtaposition or very helpful.
Does this brand look like they care or are they taking advantage? You decide... http://www.kleenex.co.uk/
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Divine Chocolate blog!
Check it out...
I did a guest blog post this week on Divine Chocolate's blog after completing my placement there.
I did a guest blog post this week on Divine Chocolate's blog after completing my placement there.
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