Philip Sheldrake

Category: Uncategorized (page 6 of 8)

1 May 2009 / 0 Comments

Friday Roundup – night clubs and social media

Those of you with whom I've discussed social Web strategy, or even helped define and execute it, will know my analogy of the social Web with the social life of a typical city. For example, the Facebooks, MySpaces and Bebo's are the mega night clubs on the ring road. The blogs and small forums are the pubs and bars on the high street. The likes of Ning are the market stalls or local fair rides. The tweeting of Twitter is the chitter chatter in passing and over the garden fence.

And this isn't analogy for analogy's sake, this is a great way to orientate social Web newbies to the norms and expectations of social media, applications and services.

Take the example of participating for the first time in a Facebook group, or a business forum, or blog meme. Enough to make the most confident of net newbies hesitate.  Yet no-one enters a room buzzing with people they don't know and starts gobbing off immediately before assessing the etiquette and the tone of the conversation, so why do that online? Social media newbies just need to look out for the analogous sort of things to which they are so naturally accustomed offline.

Offline - is drinking from the bottle acceptable? Online - is proper punctuation and spelling expected?

Offline - who's got gravitas, attracting people around them? Online - whose point of view is attracting the most comment, the most feedback and interaction? Read more

24 April 2009 / 0 Comments

Friday Roundup – teamwork

The likelihood of outstanding business success is greater with great teamwork. I'd say that was an obvious and uncontroversial thing to say!

For the Friday Roundup, I'd condense the management texts I've read and the experiences I've had to date into five teamwork must-haves:

  • a shared and clearly articulated vision;
  • mutuality (individual success is team success, and vice versa);
  • honesty;
  • clearly defined roles and responsibilities; and
  • a self-sustaining determination and hunger for success.

These qualities are being put to the most extreme of tests in current times. The economic climate today requires great teams to tend to these must-haves like never before, to keep them resilient and vibrant. But the ultimate test is for those teams that observers within or without rate as sub-par today. Read more

17 April 2009 / 0 Comments

Friday Roundup – AVE v SWA

AVE. Three little letters I thought had been dragged and dropped into the PR waste basket some years back. Right next to "column inches", you know what I mean. Yet I have come across Advertising Value Equivalent no fewer than four times this week, coincidentally and oddly.

The first definition returned by a Google search is provided courtesy of SourceWatch: "...to 'measure' the benefit to a client from media coverage of a PR campaign". The description goes on to describe how you ask yourself the question "Mmmm, how much would this space have cost me to buy advertising stylee?" and then you multiply that by, oooh I don't know, 3, or 4, or 10?

Public Relations is about exerting influence and being influenced. We do this by sparking debate. Creating stimulating content, and demonstrating insight, passion and leadership by finding and starting conversations about the issues that matter to the marketplace, to our customers and prospects, and to our customers' customers.

What's the AVE of that conversation exactly? Read more

10 April 2009 / 0 Comments

Friday Roundup – hackneyed copy

"Innovate". "Pleased to". "Unique". "Focused on". And of course, "Leading Provider".

Keeping content fresh, exciting, straight forward and engaging isn't always easy, and reversion to clichéd terms under the illusion that that's the job, that it's the way, is an easy trap to fall into.

Which is why I like David Meerman Scott's Gobbledygook analysis. Now in its second year, it does what David wants it to do... makes you think about everything you write.

See, now I'm wondering about my use of the word "engaging" before. Is that hackneyed? Is that a marketer talking to marketers leaning lazily on an industry-word-of-the-decade? Hey, just doing a quick check on dictionary.com tells me it doesn't even mean what I thought it did; apparently it means attractive, charming, winning, and not, as I'd assumed, the potential to compel someone to engage with whatever.  Read more

3 April 2009 / 0 Comments

Friday Roundup 3rd April 2009

How are you feeling today?

Jolly? Then you'll thank Trevor Young of the newly launched ParkYoung for drawing our attention to this comedic video on the perils of design by consensus... a lesson in when less is more.

Thoughtful? Then you'll want to drop in on Brian Solis' updated Conversation Prism.

Poor? Then you might wish to review your investment in online advertising courtesy of Graham Jones. It is, he says, a waste of money.

Best regards, Philip and the MarCom Professional team.  Read more

27 March 2009 / 0 Comments

Friday Roundup – Brian Solis' new book is out

It's always difficult to pick out the highlights of the highlights from a week of MarCom Professional posts, but here goes...

If social media thought leader Brian Solis didn't occasionally blog from face-to-face events I'd swear he eats and sleeps solely on the big old WWW. I've yet to join a service, pre-beta, pre-alpha, or whatever, where Mr. Solis isn't already embedded! Well his new book is out, as you will see from his post this week, "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations".

Haven't got hold of it yet... but half way through David Meerman Scott's World Wide Rave.

And for pure poetry, you must check out the presentation brought to our attention by Trevor Young. Intriguing and powerful copy. Read more

13 March 2009 / 0 Comments

Friday Roundup – humans first, machines a close second

An indulgent post bag this week. So many fascinating posts, I couldn't keep the short-list all that short.

Take the debate about search engine optimisation (SEO) amongst various pockets of the digital marketing profession. My approach to SEO has always been to develop content for humans first and search engines a close second. But definitely second.

And where does SEO stand when future 'votes for' a webpage, as interwoven into the search engines' algorithms, come not solely from links from other websites but from more inclusive sources such as social bookmarking services like Delicious and Stumbleupon, and Twittered links?

David Meerman Scott hints this week at his view of SEO... "SEO and your crap filled site"! And in case you remain uncertain, click over to Graham Jones' "Search is on its deathbed...bye, bye SEO".

And if you fancy getting into this sort of stuff more deeply, Brian Solis struts his visionary stuff again this week with "Are Blogs Losing Their Authority To The Statusphere?"

Best regards, Philip and the MarCom Professional team. Read more

6 March 2009 / 0 Comments

Friday Roundup 6th March 2009

So last week's Roundup featured some posts with good old fashioned moaning, and the email click through rate was amongst the best ever. Right then. So I'm going to pick a super moan to lead the Roundup today.

Thanks to Vero for a heartfelt post criticising a government social media sex education campaign that falls just a teeny weeny bit short in Vero's opionion of delivering value representative of the four million odd pounds it cost. How not to...

And whilst we remain steadfastly focused on matching last week's click throughs, how about this post by Trevor Young on how not to express yourself.

And just in case you're not going to be tempted by negative pieces this week, check out Graham Jones on how to get retweeted.

Best regards, Philip and the MarCom Professional team. Read more

27 February 2009 / 0 Comments

Friday Roundup – Twangry

There's nothing like a blog post to have a good old fashioned moan. It's cathartic. Good for the soul.

Brian Solis has a bit of a go at Facebook's consistent shortcomings in good community relations. Stephen Waddington rips apart the journalistic coverage of new research that shows social networking is harmful, or does it? And I waded in on a PR Week article about Twitter that made many Twitterers very Twangry.

Twangry. That's a new word I learned this week. Mmmmm.

Have a super weekend. Best regards, Philip and the MarCom Professional team. Read more

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