FIR listener contest

Want a free ticket to the upcoming Web 2.0 Expo Europe?  It’s taking place in Berlin  on October 21-23. The three-day conference and exhibition is for designers and developers, product managers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketers, business strategists and anyone passionate about creating a better web ecosystem.  You get free entry to all conference sessions, workshops and [...]

Isle of Man welcomes social media pro

We’ve recently welcomed a new voice in social media to the Isle of Man. Derek ‘The Bandit’ Richardson has just relocated from South Africa and you’ll soon be hearing him at weekends on 3FM.  But when he’s not entertaining Island residents with his take on dance music, he’s pretty busy online. He’s got two podcasts: [...]

September 13: PR top 5

Image via Wikipedia
Well that was the week that was.  There’s little more to say, except here is my list of some of the blog posts I enjoyed reading the most over the past week.
1. Jeremiah Owyang makes some good points about why some start ups need to hire PR professionals.
2.  Lee Hopkins gives an [...]

A blog newbie on Naked Conversations

Image by marketingfacts via Flickr
A blog is traditionally written by someone who knows what they’re talking about. However this blog post on blogging isn’t. I didn’t even know what blogging stood for until I recently read a book on the subject, Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel.
It  has opened my eyes up [...]

7 September: PR top 5

Image by Stuck in Customs via Flickr
I learned a lot more about how the Internet impacts public relations this week. Here are my picks of the best stories:
1. Ten ways to measure the ROI of social media; Charles Helfin has some really good advice on evaluation.
2. Susan Getgood points us to some excellent Internet [...]

Strive PR is hiring!

Are you a recent PR graduate or do have you recently gained a CIPR diploma? Perhaps you’ve earned a degree in journalism, media studies or English? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions and are looking to take your first step in a PR career we might have just the [...]

01 August: PR top 5

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Caroline has compile a list of the PR blogosphere content that she’s liked best over the past week:
1. Interesting post by Seth Godin about how to get people to go against the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
2. Here’s some good advice from Eric Eggertson. Follow your gut.
3. Scandalous flirtation between [...]

Murat & Clifford

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Apparently Max Clifford had been advising, on a pro bono basis, Robert Murat, the man who for a time was at the centre of the investigation of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
This week, Murat received a payout of £500k from the British media for publishing unfounded accusations about him. He has also [...]

25 July: PR top 5

Image via Wikipedia
Strive PR account assistant Caroline helped out this week by shortlisting the five PR blog posts she enjoyed reading the most…

Simon Collister blogged about the pictures of the new Downing Street website are on Flickr due to their design team employing social media in their work.
Bob LeDrew explains how to expand blog contacts [...]

My PR Week

Every weekend I look forward to sipping a cup of java and reading the UK public relations profession’s trade mag, PR Week.  I love it; I really do.  It’s chock full of interesting stories about the business I’m so passionate about.  There is news, campaign case studies, media profiles and collection of columnists worth reading.  [...]

PR top 5 June 8

Here’s some of the posts I enjoyed the most over the past week.  They are not in any particular order of importance but are all interesting to me. I hope they are to you too.
1.  It looks like the beleaguered Mr. Brown has been knocked back by Ogilvy UK.  They say his fees are ’small [...]

Link love May

Whoa!  It’s been a busy month with lots of activity at Strive Notes.  You may have noticed a new badge in the right margin at the bottom.  Strive is climbing the ranks in the PR Friendly Index and we are very proud to be recognised as of the most popular PR blogs.  Thanks to everyone [...]

PR activity reports

Here’s a little explanation about why I wrote the dos & don’ts post earlier this week.
At the end of each month, those of us in the PR consulting business go through a self-flagellation exercised called ‘compiling activity reports’.  It’s a tortuous affair where we take a look back over the past four weeks and draw [...]

Dos and don’ts for journos

I know we’ve been reading a lot about bad pitches from PRs these days. How about letting some bad behaviour from journos get some air time too?! If they want us to help them do their jobs, they should show a little respect.
Dos and don’ts for jounros if you want to get the [...]

Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media

Image via Wikipedia

On Friday I attended the Don’t Panic Guide To Social Media event in Marble Arch, London. On the whole it was a worthwhile outing because I learned a lot and got to meet a some very interesting people.
The event was chaired by Neville Hobson who opened with a discussion of the possibilities [...]

Humphrys gives Brown ‘a hard time’

Imagine your spokesperson is hauled over the coals in a hostile interview for something that he never said. He holds his own in the interview but comes across looking defensive. What can you do, after the fact, to salvage the situation?
This is the exactly the challenge faced earlier this week by the PRs [...]

Pete Doherty and Samaritans

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I see in PR Week that the charity Samaritans have enlisted the services of Pete Doherty to publicise a celebrity football game this weekend.
On the surface it seems like a good idea.  Using  established musician to promote is service to young people is an excellent strategy for Samaritans, who provide free, confidential emotional [...]

Jo’s final PR top five

Well, I am moving on to pastures new and this is my last Top Five for Strive PR, I hope you like it!
1. I couldn’t agree more with these seven PR promises (especially numbers six and seven) and the comments from Cortland Coleman and Rob Jewell that follow. The advice offered by [...]

THE Journo: Sally Whittle

THE Journo is a recurring feature on Strive Notes…a kind of modern day ‘meet the press’. With this installment I am very happy to welcome tech and biz freelancer and entrepreneur…Sally Whittle.
Name: Sally Whittle
Title: Freelance journalist
Employer: I write for a mixture of magazines, newspapers, trade mags,
websites and commercial clients. I also run pitching workshops [...]

PR blogroll update

I’ve just spent a few minutes to update Strive Notes’ blogroll to reflect the sites that I’m actually reading regularly.  I should have done this ages ago.
I don’t think I’m alone in this neglect.  These lists change all the time as new bloggers come along and others let their blogs die.  Keeping these links up [...]

An adventure in PR

About  a month a go I’d made the decision to change a few things to see what happens.  I’d cut back on my volunteer and charity work, outsourced some admin, taken a breather on business development activity and refocused my attention on core services.
I could not possibly have predicted the quick and profound effect these [...]

May 9th: Jo’s PR top Five

My penultimate top 5 blog post for May!
1. The Truth About PR People is that We Often Tell the Truth. This blog is linked to a story from Ad week about a bogus blog in the USA. Students of Hunter College in New York invented a girl (Cee) who launched an online appeal for a [...]

PRs need to learn manners

Obviously using the right language always matters, but as Peter comments here, ‘why write two words when you can write one’.
Grammar is important, but if a journalist were to reject a news release because of one little error, I would think that more him foolish then the person who wrote it in the [...]

Link Love April

Writing these link love posts after the end of each month really reminds me why I enjoy keeping  Strive Notes alive.  It reminds me what a broad and varied community we are apart of and I’m grateful to everyone who takes part.
photo credit: [177]
Commenters:

Lori

Rachel
Alex
Nathan X3

Mark
Owen
Leo
Bob x2

Rita
Sallie
Neville
Stephen
Mike

And  linkers:

Getting Ink
A Step Ahead
JLo Stalker
A Step Ahead
Ugh!! Greymatter [...]

April’s fave five

Another month is gone already and summer is upon us. April was a great month at Strive Notes with the highest monthly traffic in almost a year.  Here are posts which had the most views:
5. Could OS provide the answer? This Tech Talk column looks at how two of the British political parties are striving [...]

May 1st: Jo’s PR Top Five

photo credit: radiogabba
I have been away recently and so not been blogging on Strive Notes much. So after a short ‘break’ here is my top 5!
1. Shel Holtz believes that unless media relations is the only thing your PR has ever done, then PR is a two way street, not a one-way street. [...]

How long is a news release?

I found myself blasting out an email to the team today to remind them of some fundamentals.  It occurred to me that I should wrap it into a blog post for future reference.
If the target publication is a broadsheet, a news release can have up to 500 words.  For a tabloid, keep it to 300 [...]

Listening 2.0

photo credit: tanakawho
I enjoyed the simplicity behind Dr V’s blog post ‘Listening is Not Enough’. After an inspiring ‘new communications forum conference’ focusing on PR 2.0 and new communications strategies, she came back to the office bursting with ideas about the evolution of PR from media relations to relationship management. She goes on [...]

Don’t panic! I’ll be there

I’ve just booked to attend the Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media conference taking place in London 23 May at the Regents Park Marriott. The one-day conference has a great line up of speakers: Sam Barratt of Oxfam, Kerry Bridge of Dell,  Robin Goad of  Hitwise, Graham Goodkind of Frank PR, Marshall Manson of Edelman,  [...]

April 26: PR top 5

photo credit: albertini
Jo is off until next week. Until then you’re stuck with my PR top 5. Enjoy!
1. Leo suggests that you shouldn’t take notes during a meeting so that you free your mind to truly listen to the discussion. I’m not so sure.  I can’t remember a single thing after five minutes if [...]