Star Wars Kid

Posted Sunday, November 26, 2006 at 1:51pm in Off topic | 7 Comments

This has very little to do with PR. Have you heard of Star Wars Kid? Probably one of the funniest UGC videos I’ve ever seen. In short, a young kid in Canada filmed himself swinging a golf ball retriever much like a light sabre from a Star Wars film.

Wikipedia says: “On November 4, 2002 Ghyslain Raza made a video of himself swinging a golf ball retriever around as if it were a weapon. Most believe he was imitating the Star Wars character Darth Maul with a double-bladed lightsaber, though others believe he was imitating the character Kilik from the game Soul Calibur wielding a bo. The video was filmed at the studio of his high school, and the tape was left forgotten in a basement for a few months. On or around April 19, 2003, the original owner of the videotape discovered Raza’s recorded acts and immediately shared it with some friends.

The video was uploaded to file sharing site, Kazza, and the rest, as they say, is history. After being sent to and from friends in countless emails around the world the mainstream media including the New York Times, CBS News (RealPlayer video) and BBC News picked up on it.

While the original video is undoubtedly funny (much to the dismay of Raza himself who filed a lawsuit in July 2003) there are over a hundred remakes of it in various themes. I guess in this case UGC isn’t favoured by all.


The original


Star Wars themed


Terminator


The Matrix


Rave remix

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CIPR careers day

Posted Friday, November 24, 2006 at 3:45pm in Blogging, Media, PR General | 7 Comments

What a difference a year makes. This time last year I was in my last year of study wondering where I’d end up in my first PR gig; a year later I’m giving a presentation to 250 people on the ins and outs of working in consultancy PR. Sheesh!

I’ve been kindly asked by the CIPR to present at the Move into PR, CIPR Careers Day this coming Monday (27th November). The CIPR Careers Days are the only events of their kind to dedicated to providing information and advice on a career in public relations.

As well as me there are a number of other PR practitioners speaking from various fields of the PR profession. The agenda looks like this:

* Chair
Kevin Taylor FCIPR, Director, Companycare Communications

* PR & the integrated communications mix
Margot Raggett, operations director, Lexis PR

* PR Consultancies
Yours truly

* In-House PR Departments
Kirsten Harvey, Press Officer, TFL

* The Campaign
Enda Joyce, Senior Consultant, Media Strategy

* Making your first move
Mark Ramsdale ACIPR, Head of Education Policy, CIPR

* How the CIPR can help you!
Stephen Pembroke, Ceres Partnership

* Moving into PR with a non-PR degree
Ruth Allman, Media Communications Officer, Reading Borough Council

* Effective CVs and interview techniques
Emma Dale, Director, Prospect Resources

Noticing a pattern here? I’m speaking alongside what looks to be some pretty senior consultants. No pressure Stephen! I guess the one advantage I have is this time last year I was in the same boat as most of the attendees so I should be on a similar level.

The CIPR says: “Careers Day is open to all. You may be an undergraduate contemplating a career in PR… a graduate, not sure where to go next…or you may work in a completely unrelated field and want to know how you can get into PR. If your chosen career path is public relations, come along and learn all you need to know about the industry.”

The Careers Day fee is £30+VAT and this price includes admission to presentations and exhibition, refreshments, lunch and a delegate pack. You can book a place here. Or, alternatively, email the very friendly Rebecca Murphy at rebeccam at cipr dot co dot uk (making the necessary adjustments).

The Careers Day fee is £30+VAT and this price includes admission to presentations and exhibition, refreshments, lunch and a delegate pack.

The Edelman HR department will be there on the day too (Edelman is one of the exhibitors at the event).

In related news: In the ever changing media landscape it’s little surprise that one of the profession’s governing bodies has released a code of conduct on social media. The CIPR president, Tony Bradley announced on his blog yesterday that, in true social media fashion, the institute is asking for feedback on the paper from its members and non-members. Tony says: “I encourage you all to read the document, think about it, debate it - and let the CIPR know your views on it. This is a vital area for the future of our profession. What we do now matters, which is why we need your input.”

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Borkowski/YouTube… Hmm

Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 11:51am in Blogging, Off topic | 20 Comments

PR Week’s Diary piece this week has a quick note on the success of a YouTube video featuring Borkowski PR relocating to new offices. PR Week says (sub required): “Ten of the agency’s staff, plus assorted badgers, robots, and Action Men figures are seen exiting the agency’s old Holborn offices to the sounds of a Benny Hill-style-ditty, piling into a taxi and re-emerging across town in Clerkenwell. Borkowski himself appears at the head of a ’skiing’ conga line.” Woah, cool.

But wait, there’s more.

“Borkowski denies the agency posted the clip on YouTube, but was chuffed when Diary tracked him down: ‘We were stored as a “favourite” by 259 people after 18 hours. It just shows what can be done in a day.’”

Wow! 259 people in 18 hours. That is impressive. You know what happens when you’re ‘favourited’ on YouTube? Yep, you feature prominently on the ‘Most Subscribed To‘ page. No wonder there has been so many views in such a short space of time.

Hold on a second… I’ve just had a look at the subscriber list to the Borkowski video and (forgive me if I’m wrong) there seems to be some members with very dull imaginations. Why they’re all using practically the same username. Let’s see, we have member OPSPL1, OPSPL2, OPSPL3, OPSPL4, OPSPL5, OPSPL6, OPSPL7… I could go on and on. Take a look for yourself.

No wonder it was featured on the ‘Most Subscribed To’ page! Why it looks like someone is cheating the YouTube system! Shock, horror!

But, as the PR Week article says, Borkowski PR deny putting the video on YouTube. I wonder who could have done it then? ;) I mean, someone spending literally hours and hours to register as multiple members must think a helluva lot of this particular video. You can watch it here.

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Euroblog 2007

Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 at 6:58pm in Blogging | 3 Comments

If you live in Europe and work in the fine art of public relations, it might be worthwhile filling out this year’s 10 minute Euroblog 2007 questionnaire which aims to question if “enthusiasm for blogs and social software is delivering business/ organisational advantage.” A not for profit research which is being carried out by a number of European universities (including Sunderland) and coordinated by the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (Euprera).

The news release says: “Last year EuroBlog 2006 discovered a two-speed Europe, with some practitioners enthusiastically embracing the new media but a significant minority failing to see any business or organisational advantage. The latest survey sets out discover whether the enthusiasts were right and social media is changing PR practice.

“The survey, which will show who is using weblogs and why, and give insights into future trends will be compelling reading for PR practitioners at all levels.”

It will be interesting to see if there has been any immediate changes from last year’s survey results. Speaking from a UK perspective, the whole blogging concept seems to have came into its own lately. Whether this is to do with organisations genuinely believing that blogs are critical medium to use when communicating with stakeholders or, indeed, because it’s just the latest cool shiny thing. My thoughts are it’s both. I wonder what stage blogs are now at in Tom Murphy’s PR Hype Cycle?

The survey is open to all European PR practitioners regardless of the field they are in. It aint just for the online folk. Fill it out at http://www.euroblog2007.org/survey

Sidenote: Euroblog lead researcher, Philip Young, also runs the Delivering the New PR conference. The fifth and final conference was held this Friday in London. I was supposed to go but unfortunately couldn’t make as I had too much work to do in the day job.

You can read all about it here, here, here and here.

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Five tips for being a great PR consultant?

Posted Tuesday, November 7, 2006 at 9:25pm in Blogging, PR General | 24 Comments

UPDATED

Yesterday I received an email from an enterprising PR student from Leeds Met. The emailer (who shall remain nameless since I haven’t had her approval to make public this email) asked me my thoughts on what my top five tips are for being a good PR consultant. My comments along with others will be part of an up and coming article in student PR magazine, Behind the Spin.

Always happy to receive a bit of kudos. It’s good for the ego you know. But at the same time realising my limited experience in the field I thought it would be best to throw it out to the blogosphere. Constantin says he’s currently tracking 555 PR feeds so this kind of question is made for the blogosphere. So the more views and opinions received the better her article will be. Here are my five:

1. You should ideally have an interest in people.

Working in consultancy will put you in contact with a lot of new people. It could be clients, potential clients, suppliers or colleagues. Having an interest in people and enjoying meeting people generally will help you develop good relationships.

2. Stay on top of the news agenda.

There’s nothing better than being the font of all news knowledge to both clients and colleagues. Stay ahead.

3. PR yourself

If you can’t do it for yourself then how are you expected to do it for others?

4. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes

* The person who doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything. (Paul Arden)
* I haven’t failed, I’ve had a hundred ideas that didn’t work. (Benjamin Franklin)
* Of the 200 light bulbs that didn’t work, every failure told me something that I was able to incorporate into the next attempt. (Thomas Edison)
* If we don’t get lost, we’ll never find a new route. (Joan Littlewood)

5. Take each day as it comes

You’ll have your good days and bad days. You’ll have days when you can knock out a thousands words of copy in an instant, you’ll have days when you can’t string a paragraph together. There will be times when in brainstorms when you’re throwing more ideas around than Einstein, there will be times when your only constructive contribution is the 3D duck on your notepad.

Take each day (and situation) as it comes and try to learn something every time.

Okay, in the spirit of true openness, transparency and wisdom of the crowds I’m opening this up. I’ve never been a huge supporter of tagging other bloggers except this time around. So Erin, Alex, Paull, Chris, Owen (I know you’re still studying but value your opinion), Piaras and Jeffrey… what’s your thoughts? Anything to add? Anyone else?

It would be good to take the global perspective on this IMHO…

UPDATE

Aussie PR blogger, Paull Young says:

* Teamwork

* Get in the know

* Learn continually

* Focus on Ethics

* Find your passion & follow it

Chris Clarke says: “To add to ‘PR Yourself’, or perhaps to expand on it, I would suggest you network as much as possible. Meet people, go to the conferences, participate in the blogosphere, get your name out there. In short, like you said: “PR Yourself”!”

Simon Wakeman says: “The only tip I’d add to the collected thoughts so far would be to have fun! I think I produce my best results when I’m enjoying my work - it makes me try that little bit harder to deliver the best results I can. For that reason I’m always careful what projects I take on. I make sure that whatever I do interests and challenges me. There’s always going to be more and less fun projects to work on, but it’s about making the overall balance fun.”

Heather Yaxley says:

* Build your knowledge of online social media

(including setting up a bloglines account and feeding into colleagues who haven’t yet got this new world)

* Network

360 degrees, upwards/downwards/sideways inside and outside your organisations (the PR “black book” of contacts is still vital)

* Become an expert

identify an area where you can shine and be recognised (no matter your age or experience) as the master

* Add value

be useful to those around you, and identify ways you can prove you are adding value (key for the CV rather than boring “responsibilities”

* Value your own reputation

manage what others say about you when you’re not around - you are your most important client and need to build “brand-me”

Sherrilynne Starkie says: “Surely being a good writer must make the top five. For me it’s number one.”

My Australian colleague, Luke Schepen says: “I’m going to bring one to the table. ‘Position yourself as a trusted advisor’. Whether you are working in an in house role or in a consultancy, a PR pro must position themselves as a trusted advisor in the organisation, and in most cases to the CEO. People should know they can come to you to seek counsel and walk away with the best advice you can give them.

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