Not all blogs matter
Posted Sunday, April 29, 2007 at 2:00pm in Blogging | 9 Comments
:::I’m a little late on this one:::
This post by Heather Green of Business Week’s Blogspotting blog (via Ged) raises some interesting questions about the blogging phenomenon. Prompted by questions raised on Mathew Hurst and Steve Rubel’s blogs, Green asks Technorati CEO, Dave Sifry about the blog search engine’s recent data analysis.
To cut it short, although Technorati is tracking over 70 million blogs, there are only 15.5 million that are have been updated in the last 90 days. This, to me, speaks volumes in terms of the blogosphere in general. Of course blogs are still important and my belief is organisations should be listening and engaging online. But let’s be honest, not everyone wants nor has the time to blog.
People have active social lives, children to look after, outdoor hobbies, two jobs etc. And this statistic shows that a considerable number have given it a go and decided it’s not for them. Just because people have the tools to create their own media it doesn’t mean they’re going to.
Here are four reasons why not everyone blogs
Blogging is for extroverts.
Some people don’t want their lives (thoughts, videos, photographs etc) splattered across the internet for all to see thank you very much. Some people are humble and appreciate their privacy with the select few friends they choose to let into their lives.
Blogging rarely makes you £££
There are very few blogs that make money - even fewer in the ‘quit your day job’ bracket. Some people like making money.
Not everyone enjoys writing
Writing is a chore to some. If you don’t love creating narrative, telling a story or simply communicating using words then blogs aren’t for you. I also think sometimes we forget that some less educated people or manually skilled people simply can’t write to a standard they feel comfortable showing the world. And remember, some people have nothing to say.
Blogging is time consuming
As mentioned above, not everyone has the time to spend hours a week keeping up to speed with what’s going on and actively collecting their thoughts on a blog. “There simply aren’t enough hours in the day.”
These are just the first four reasons that came into my head while writing this; I’m sure there are many more. Yes, I know, I know. There are loads of reasons why people should blog but, to be honest, I’m becoming bored of reading them now. There should be a balance of argument.
I’m not putting a downer on it all. Honestly. I’m just giving it some perspective from my own point of view. Those who keep investing the time in blogging will continue to grow in influence. A blog’s readership will always increase as long as it keeps producing valuable content for the readers. From a personal point of view, blogging has helped me no-end both professionally and socially and, to me, it’s fun so I will continue to do it. But I think there are other elements of online PR that should be discussed.
I also appreciate the content I receive on a daily basis from my 170 RSS feeds which help me to develop my thoughts on the media landscape. But at the end of the day blogging is not for everyone and, as shown, just because Technorati says it’s tracking 70 million blogs doesn’t mean they **all** matter either.
Protect your brand’s domain?
Posted at 12:08am in Blogging, Technology | Leave a Comment
When registering a url for an organisation it’s probably best to purchase all available top level domain names (.com, .co.uk, .biz, .net etc). It makes sense for a couple of reasons with, I would say, the most predominant being stopping cybersquatters from sitting on your brand url.
But what about personal sites like blogs? Think the same rules apply? Is it actually worth shelling out a substantial amount of money which would have to be paid yearly or once every two years to keep your url safely as your own? Not sure if I do. I own (or should I say I rent?) the .com and .co.uk of the domain ‘prblogger’. However, a quick search today shows that someone has decided to register a couple of other top level domains of prblogger too:
prblogger.net, prblogger.info and prblogger.eu have all be registered. NOTE: I purposely haven’t linked to any as one of them redirects to a pornographic website.
Fair enough. Who am I to complain? If I wanted them I should have registered them. Although I do feel a little uneasy about the porn one but what can you do? It’s not just me either. I ran a check on urls for a few others. GigaOM has seven top level domain names of his .com version registered by (I’m assuming) other people:
gigaom.co.uk, gigaom.org, gigaom.net, gigaom.biz, gigaom.mobi, gigaom.tv and gigaom.info
Techcrunch has:
techcrunch.biz, techrunch.eu,techcrunch.net, techcrunch.mobi, techcrunch.tv
As of writing, the above link only to advertising and not Frankie Vaughan so perhaps it is a nice little money earner to own top level domains of blogs of a large following like Gigaom and Techcrunch? But why use mine? My traffic is million miles away from theirs.
Personally, I’d find it funny if someone made money from a prblogger top level domain. In two years I haven’t made a penny. Heh! 
Nothing to say
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 10:24pm in Off topic | 3 Comments
Ever sit at your computer and feel you’ve got nothing to say? No matter how many feeds you read for a lead (say that 10 times fast) nor how much you try and motivate yourself to write. It just ain’t happening. Nothing in the tank. Can’t be bothered. I’m sure it happens to everyone.
So as I write this with nothing to say, declare nor share with the world, I wonder how many people write for the sake of keeping their readers happy? I couldn’t do it. “But you’re supposed to write for your readers” some will say. “But why?” I ask. “I’m not commercial.” I add in defiance. No one owes anyone anything. While appreciative of anyone who has bothered to stop by, I don’t owe them anything and they certainly don’t owe me anything either. It’s a ‘no strings’ relationship. You and I are just having fun.
So, in my moment of un-rhetoric-ness, allow me to offer you a few links:
Tom Murphy talks about the new era of PR. It’s called PR5.0 and it’s such an evolution of PR that they’ve skipped 2.0,3.0 and 4.0 altogether. How’s that for advancement?
This post by Piaras Kelly is probably the best thing I’ve read online in a while.
This is a song by Beck called Girl. Tis very good.
See, told you I had nothing to say.
A few things…
Posted Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 9:22pm in Blogging, Media, Off topic, PR General | 3 Comments
CHINWAG LIVE - PR UNSPUN
If you’re in or around London on the 24 April at 6pm and work in PR then you’d do yourself no harm attending the Chinwag Live - PR Unspun event. No fancy Power Point presentations, no top down drivel, just a good old fashioned, ahem, chinwag, on how social media is affecting the communications industry. The details but more on the Chinwag website:
* Date: Tuesday 24th April 2007 @ 6pm (discussion starts 6.30pm sharp)
* Place: The Slug & Lettuce (Downstairs), 80-82 Wardour St, London, W1F 0TG
* Cost: £40 - EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT only £20 until 19th April 2007
* Includes: great speakers, engaging conversation plus drinks & snacks
* Booking: Online with your favourite credit card or Paypal
I was asked to join the panel but unfortunately can’t make it. People are attending from as far away as the muddy hills of the North East I found after to speaking to my friend from Webitpr. Should be a good one.
THE DON’T PANIC GUIDE TO CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS
I’ve been asked to speak at the first of many (I believe) ‘Don’t Panic Guide To’ conferences ran by the lovely people at Don’t Panic Event Management. If you haven’t already guessed by the title, this one is on crisis communications held at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Friday 18 May from 9am to 4.30pm. Loads of speakers covering the many different elements of crisis comms. No clues to what I’ll be talking about. 
Speakers include:
* Michael Bland of Michael Bland Communications Consultancy
* Kevin Bocquet - former BBC correspondent
* Heather Edwards of NHS Trust
* Sarah Dean Forrester of Unique Creative Communications
* Andy Green of GREEN Communications
* Paul Kelly of Trimedia Harrison Cowley
* Lucy Laville of Leeds Met Uni
* Rob Skinner of First Direct
* Sally Sykes of AstraZeneca
* Daniel Zammit of Dacorum Borough Council
Tickets for the conference are priced at £250 + VAT or £195 + VAT for CIPR members or charities.
For event booking and further information you can contact Nicky or Andrew at Don’t Panic on 01706 828855 or alternatively places can be securely booked online at
www.dontpanicprojects.com/booking.htm
More info on the e-flyer
FORWARD MOVING
Podcast master, Paull Young, interviewed me for the Forward podcast last Saturday. For those that don’t know, Forward is an online resource for PR students and PR people early on in their careers and is the brain child of my ex-colleague, Erin Caldwell, from Edelman’s D.C office. Paull and Erin are genuine good eggs. I’ve been told on more than one occasion I have a face for podcasting.
It was done over Skype using my new X-Series mobile. If you want to hear a genuine pitmatic accent … give it a listen.
PFA FOOTBALL AWARDS
I’m off to the PFA footy awards and after party on Saturday night thanks to my mate Miller blagging me a ticket. Means only one thing though… I have to get a picture for Frank PR’s mascott and the only dog with a blog, Flying Frank. Looking at Flying Frank’s recent coverage it’s gonna be a tough one!
Who said PR isn’t glamorous?
I have a new job
Posted Thursday, April 5, 2007 at 10:55am in Off topic | 33 Comments
Today is my last day of what has been a fantastic experience at one of the world’s best PR agencies, Edelman. I’ve been offered a job at leading consumer agency, Frank PR, which I have accepted. Don’t want to make a huge fuss over it as this news is very insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The pillars of Edelman have hardly been rocked.
I do, however, want to say that I’ve had a great time working with some very, very smart people that I now class as friends as well as colleagues. And I know I’ll be seeing them again and often (they bloody better keep in touch!). I also know that Edelman will continue to pioneer the online space. No other global agency comes close… And you can’t call me biased. I’m leaving.
There’s a global network of online specialists all sharing knowledge; a huge push internally to get everyone up to speed on new technologies and numerous pioneering initiatives that are being implemented both for clients and for the Edelman brand itself. Also, a European CEO who truly understands and has a passion for online comms, and who I’m also indebted to for the sound advice I’ve received since starting here. If PR Week included a Bottom 100 as well as the Top 100 (sub required) last week I’d have included David Brain as the boss who has most inspired me.
Me? I’ll be taking a less online-specific role (although I’ll still be involved in it) at Frank and working with other media also. You know? The old media that is still thriving and isn’t going to die just yet.
Frank, which won Marketing Magazine’s PR Agency of the Year for the last two years and a range of other awards, look after a range of well-known consumer brands and some high profile figures including Sir Alan Sugar and Ronnie O’Sullivan. They’re a creative hub and have come up with a range of ingenious and memorable campaigns over the years. They have a great reputation which has been acknowledged by the numerous people I’ve chatted with in the last couple of weeks. I’m really looking forward to it. Based in Camden too.
Have a nice Easter.