When media training people, it's sometimes a challenge to convey exactly what might be considered quotable, or a soundbite in common parlance. You know... not too long, not too short. Punchy. Insightful. Possibly controversial. Maybe funny.
In fact, Wikipedia just informs me that Mark Twain described the concept as "a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense".
Well, Paul Gambaccini is obviously expert at it. Of all the tributes paid to Michael Jackson today, his in the one that has stuck with me. Not verbatim, it went something like this on Radio 4's Today programme:
There will only be one Michael Jackson. His life was in three parts. The Jackson Five years. The incredible Quincy Jones albums. And then the years as a freak.
RIP Michael.
Best regards, Philip and the MarCom Professional team.
Video Podcast on Digital PR for the Third Sector
by Ben Matthews of Pudding Relations
This week, I was asked to be part of a panel for the PR Week video podcast , alongside the Refugee Council’s Gerdi Rees and Charmaine Griffiths from the British Heart Foundation. The panel was discussing the role of digital in voluntary sector PR, following the news that Oxfam has appointed a digital PR specialist as part of a plan to transform the way it uses online communications:
Social Media is Rife with “Experts†but Starved of Authorities
by Brian Solis of PR 2.0
Perhaps Lewis Carroll was peering into the looking glass when he wrote “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.” In it, we were introduced to Tweetle Dum and Tweetle Dee, a curious duo that always shared a fruitful, entertaining, and complementary conversational exchange even though they always agreed to battle each other.
Some suggest that the significance of Alice’s encounter with the twins explores how curiosity leads to the unknown and therefore, may not be worthy of pursuit. More...
Being regular is more important than being frequent for bloggers
by Graham Jones of Internet Psychology
Bloggers often debate how often should they publish. "Should I blog every day?", they ask, "Or should I blog twice a week or once a week?", they add. Every blogger has the same quest - finding the perfect frequency of blogging. They are seeking a "magic pill" kind of answer; they want some expert to say "Once a week is the perfect frequency", for instance.
Too much blogging?
But here's the truth; there is no "perfect" frequency of blogging. More...
Future of journalism debate: editors required
by Stephen Waddington of Speed Communications
The debate over the future of media continues but one thing is for sure, it’s too soon to rip-up the editorial model. The sheer volume of conversation taking place around the Iranian election result are cluttering up channels and making it impossible to hear voices that are coming directly from the country. On social networks from Flickr to Twitter messages of sympathy and support are generating huge volumes of noise.
Broadstuff’s Alan Patrick reckons that it’s a new type of spam: More...
Bing a success...so far
by Andrew Allen of Vermont design Works / Vermont Online Marketing
Bing, the much hyped new search engine developed by MSN has so far lived up to its tremendous and expansive marketing campaigns. Microsoft might have finally learned that when web site users think of online search, MSN is not top of mind. It is still a distant third in the search engine battle (Google, Yahoo, and then MSN, now Bing).
However, some of the new search features of Bing are quite fun to use. The importance for my online marketing is that Bing is becoming a much effective online marketing tool. More...
Launching ideas at the U.S. Air Force
by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott
I recently spent the day at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ to meet with public affairs officers and senior leaders of 12th Air Force / Air Forces Southern Air Combat Command. In this video, I ask my friend Capt. Nathan Broshear about his current role as Director of Public Affairs, how he uses social media, and a little about his 6 months in Baghdad working in public affairs in a war zone.
Capt. Broshear says of his work: "We're not launching missiles, we're launching ideas." More...
The Anatomy of a Bad Site in a Good Google SERP
by Mindy Gofton of I-COM
So I was doing a bit of research this morning in Google under the query "affordable health insurance." I got the following result:
Enlarge image in a new window
Now, bearing in mind that I'm searching on google.co.uk, I've been given 3 American sites in the top 5 - although on the whole the results are for relevant websites (even though I don't really need American health insurance). The most interesting, however, is site #4, Rochester Gentle Dental.
The name alone confused me as that sounds like the name of a dental clinic, not a health insurance provider, but it could be a small health insurance company offering dental insurance. More...
Google launches adsense beta for mobile apps
by si crowhurst of We Love Mobile
Google announced via their mobile blog today that they have launched a beta version of adsense for mobile apps.
Adsense for apps means inserting ‘context relevant’ mobile ads into applications and comes off the back of what google describes as a successful trial period.
Inserting ads into applications certainly seems like a good idea from a app publishers point of view. In theory ads can help fund an application, especially those that are given away for free. Inserting ads that are relevant to the app and its users makes even more sense, right? Better targeting means more clicks, means better results for publishers and advertisers. More...
An outline of the Influence Scorecard
by Philip Sheldrake of Influence Crowd LLP
It has been a busy year for me with my departure from Racepoint Group following my so-called "transition period" and my setting up a new consultancy. So apologies for the delay in getting back on the topic of the Influence Scorecard.
It hasn't been far from my mind, particularly following the oodles of positive feedback in January and February, and believe you me, I'm intent on taking up your expressions of interest to meet before the year is out to take this forward. I want to collaborate with you. More...
