PR Blether

Searching for my blog visitors…

2010-05-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

The wonder that is the ‘snooping technique’ of the Internet overwhelms me sometimes, oh fine, a lot! I am stunned at how much information a person or organisation can actually generate on a single visitor. Google Analytics, a free application that can be applied to your website will calculate and monitor all little oblivious visitors, also known as you! It will know what sites you have come from, how you found my blog, what country you are from, how long you stayed on my page for, and I also think I now know what colour of eyes you have.

Organisations must be having an absolutely amazing time analysing where their visitors come from, go to, whether they come directly to them (hardcore followers), how long they stay on your website, what links they follow, comments the leave, personal information such as an IP address can often be traced too…. It really is no wonder why newspapers are falling by the wayside in today’s ‘Big Brother’ society.

Why pay money for advertising you don’t know will be seen when you can pay much less for online advertising you can actually statistically assess and analyse how successful the little advert was.

Yes, I really do believe it is a fantastic tool and can really help cut the costs of unnecessary advertising for organisations. But you know me, I always have a wee soft spot for the original, and I fear vintage, traditional media tools like the newspaper. Can we not make a little device that picks up peoples eye movements when we read the paper?! It worries me that such an information overload will make our society complete control freaks and we will refuse to enter into anything without hardcore facts.

I am not saying that we should fly by the seat of our pants and go bounding off into the unknown. Knowledge is, indeed, power. I suppose I am merely the sentimental type that enjoys actually holding the newspaper and getting little black finger tips. I also feel that by reading all my news online I don’t actually read most of it as I am one of the most selective people when it comes to news topics. And with the classic newspaper I am forced to read about things out with my interest.

When I began this module at university I was advised to set up Google Analytics on my little PR Blether blog. I did not have a clue what it would tell me and why I would want to utilise such a sneaky tool but I have enjoyed what it has told me! Here is a few pieces of information that I shall share with you lovely following folk!

81.36% of my visitors came to my little blog via Blogger.
The majority of people were from Scotland, more specifically the Stirling region, which I believe is all thanks to my lovely co-MSc pals!
However I did have a fair number of lovely foreign people view my blog from all over the world, all of whom I expect to invite me to theirs on holiday and in return I shall continue writing on here. I believe this is a fair deal, no?

I hope my blogs have amused you, I began writing these little snippets of my thoughts in the hope of explaining the phenomenon that is digital media and public relations but felt it has become a thought diary of new trends and discussions into topics I find interesting and linking them with PR. It turns out, by participating online you find so many people are willing to help you and discuss to topic from another point of view and provide exceptional advice (and I can trace you!).

I have also learnt that public relations is everywhere.

Until the next time mon amis!

Twitter and PR

2010-05-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

I have been Twittering… tweeting(?) now since February. What can I say, I’m a late bloomer. Anyway! I have created a little video about it.

Let me know what you think about Twitter and PR. Do you feel it's a useful tool?

Did the two bully birds get you too?!

Organisational Metaphors

2010-04-23T03:59:00.000-07:00

Let me begin by explaining, I have been writing about this topic for almost a week. Therefore it is lodged in my head.

However, I have actually come to enjoy this little experiment. Yes I, me, enjoyed a theoretical framework, pigs can fly apparently!

Images of Organisation by Gareth Morgan is a book I bought for £1, thank you Amazon! It is the epitomy of not judging a book by its cover as it is white (more faded yellow now as it was printed in 1986) with black writing. Appealing I think not.

I was apprehensive at first as applying metaphors to an organisation sounded plain difficult and pernickety. But I persevered and have understood what, dear Morgan, was trying to express.

I think he was trying to explain, in the most random way possible, that we cannot possibly summarise an organisation with a single word or phrase.
Although we were asked to create our very own metaphor, the idea behind it was that even a metaphor cannot be explained easily. Each person has a different perspective on what it means.

Ask a person what their ideal holiday is and it will give you a very small insight into the diversity of opinions. Put all those opinions into an office and you have yourself an organisation that has its own unique selection of behaviours, cultures and structures. They cannot be summarised or identified as one type of characteristic.

Morgan’s metaphorical framework highlights the numerous behaviours that can be found in every aspect of life, individually to globally. The guy does know what he is talking about.

I shall admit one thing, I really did enjoy creating my own metaphor. I love the creative side of PR and I suppose I was originally so reluctant to do this experiment as to me theory is not creative. Finally I got to mix the two together, and shock horror I actually understand the theory.

Learn by doing, that’s what I say.

The Use of Social Networking Sites in PR Campaigns

2010-04-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

Before the Easter break a group of us were asked to prepare a presentation on... you guessed it ‘The use of social networking sites in PR campaigns’.

I, like most students/ young people/ socialites etc, love a little bit of social networking. There is nothing better to distract you from work, essays, deadlines, life.

However as much as I love going on and pottering about I rarely stray from my page or a friends, I have barely mastered ‘Facebook stalking’. For others it’s a different story, apparently ‘you really cannot comprehend the enjoyment people get from snooping around’ (a very wisdom filled friend, 2010). I am unlike most people. Yes that’s right, I generalised.

It’s not that I don’t like finding out information, I do. I just feel sometimes I am crossing a barrier into far-too-personal Ville without a passport.
I have strayed from my point.

There are thousands of people out there who snoop and come across gems of Facebook groups. They don’t necessarily need to be stalking other people but it’s the social groups they look for. I like these people. And apparently so do companies.
One of the companies I spoke about in the presentation, and the one I will focus on, in this ever expanding blog, is Smirnoff Vodka.

Here is a little clip of the advert they began running in August 2009.

From this advert, Smirnoff Vodka has begun a PR campaign which is being run through a Facebook group. Members can win the opportunity to go to a multitude of parties, similar to the one shown, all around the world (Berlin, London, New York).

In a time of globalisation, people like exclusivity. They like to feel as though they are in a very small, elite group of people who have experienced something no-one else has. Enter Smirnoff Vodka and their lovely forest parties.

Smirnoff Vodka have realised the potential social networking sites have, in this case Facebook, and have used this channel to build and develop relationships with its consumers. As with most campaigns they have to collaborate a mixture of tactics involving marketing, events and PR. For this particular campaign, without the public relations aspect I doubt it would have been as successful.

The China-Google Story

2010-04-01T03:42:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there were two men.

It was their dream to create a place where people would understand computers and communicate through digital means.

It was their dream to make life simple and easy and to provide people with answers with a few clicks of a button.

Seven days into September, such a beautiful place was created. Google.

It was paradise, a place to roam free and was useful for all users world wide. But there was one rule. They had to allow the Chinese Government to censor their Chinese search engine.

Low and behold this one rule was not being adhered to. Google did not want to restrict searches on their Google.co.cn system and therefore has begun redirecting their Chinese users to the Hong Kong site (Google.co.hk), a place that is not censored by the government for political content, thanks to its unique cultural and political history.

As with everything, the ripples of repercussion unfold to innocent by-standers. Little defenseless Chinese web-users write pleading letters to both the Chinese Government and Google asking them to reconcile.

Poor Google inventors, they just wanted the freedom and purity of online surfing. They wanted everyone to find answers to their questions and find what they are looking for.

To be fair, their dreams have made them billions of dollars. So what does it matter that one country wants to control political searches?

Below is a video of the discussions taking place about the situation. You have to wonder why people are picking particular sides of the debate.

Oddly enough I think it actually comes down their morals. Or at least this is how I am choosing to interpret the situation. Although whose morals is it I am referring to?

The World Wide Web

2010-03-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

I have just left a class dazed and confused. For reasons I dread to admit.

Who knew the internet was so vast? You can do anything and everything on it, literally. I have just heard of around one hundred different websites that are apparently huge throughout the world.

There were websites dedicated to social bookmarking, video streaming, blog popularity, knitting forums, any-topic forums for that matter, cloud computing, second life, political campaigns, an entire site dedicated to cats, photographs of red things....

I think it is fantastic, I really do. I recognize the limitless potential the World Wide Web has for PR practitioners. They can scour the internet looking for people’s genuine opinions, compare prices, create forums, find out what blogs are the most popular that week. It goes on.

The image below is a satelite view of the world of 'second life'.

Public communication has literally become public in a global sense. Consumers are able to purchase products from the other side of the world. No longer are public relations practitioners restricted to their region or nation. They can establish relationships with people all over the world and identify new markets and relationships that may never have been discovered or established without this global tool.
You felt the ‘but’ didn’t you.

I just wonder what will happen when so much emphasis is given to the online user that the real ‘outside’ world will be overlooked. The limitless potential of the world, without a computer, is an option too. Yes computers make it easier and faster to communicate but where is the proof that those attributes are more effective? When a little time and thought, and perhaps the production of something real that you could actually touch, may still be the way to develop a true relationship with your public.

The above image is a non digitally enhanced photograph of a Scottish Beach.

The Premium E-commerce Experience

2010-03-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

As reported on Reuters UK today, fashion houses are now reaching out to their consumers through websites, Facebook pages, Twitter and phone applications (thank you iPhone).

It appears not even the elite and glitterati are denying the effectiveness of the digital communication tool. Yet, as with everything they do, they do it bigger, so much better and with an overdose of the ridiculously fabulous.

Their premium e-commerce experience, also known as online shopping, consists of photo and video shooting, which will no doubt be created by a fashion photographer, and a top sales experience, allowing the consumer to see, feel and experience the designer clothes.

Not only is the customer made to feel welcome and special by the digital shop assistant but the premium e-commerce experience (the online shop) is digitally created to look unique just like a boutique. What’s more, it can be changed with every season.

‘Elite’ designer companies are realising they need to develop relationships with their customers. Claudia D'Arpizio explained "The site should have more entertainment, interaction, be less passive... It should keep the luxury feel but be less intimidating."

The article was summarised by Gucci, the designer gods;

"When you plan an advertising campaign, you buy a magazine page hoping that the one million people who will leaf through it, will focus on the image for five seconds, even though you know that probably many won't even see it," he said.
"From a communications point of view, the Internet represents the most effective, efficient and involving means to communicate with clients," Gucci Group CEO Robert Polet told Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, adding that in September, Gucci saw 2 million visitors enter its site. (Reuters.co.uk)

I must admit walking in to a designer boutique, a great example being Ralph Lauren in Glasgow, there is an overwhelming feeling of expectation. Sadly however it is not your expectations that are the issue. Instead it is the suspicious judging eyes of the sales assistant following your every move around the v-neck cashmere jumpers and slit-eye stares as you go by the round table of the latest Pink Pony line. The intimidation, most of the time, getting far too much for you as you near the belts that you tend to escape pretty promptly.

Therefore, I am all for these new premium e-commerce experiences, as there is not a Glaswegian Ralph Lauren sales assistant in sight.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

2010-03-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

Following on from my previous blog, I decided to find out about the effects that can be used in digital photography.

I looked at a diverse range of digitally enhanced photographs, from supermodels to robots, from basic enhancement photographs to entirely constructed pictures. I realised the unlimited potential and damage that could be done with digitalised special effects.

While browsing I came across digital enhancement which caught my attention, particularly when it comes to beauty.

I cannot comprehend why magazines, and regularly television editors, have to air-brush already beautiful people. Thin is not thin enough, tall is not tall enough and skin is not smooth enough. Will it ever stop?

It has become the norm for 60 year olds to have almost no wrinkles, big colourful hair with not a hint of grey in sight and still have breasts like a 20 year old.

We are being brought up in a society that believes wrinkles and blemishes are horrific, and god forbid we, females, step outside the house without make-up on. Most females tend to forget the fact that magazine images have been airbrushed, as we are now beginning to genuinely believe that it is just how some people look. We are forgetting what is real.

Bringing this rant back to digital media, the power is currently in the computer. We have to realise the computer is a wonderful tool. It can amuse us for hours, allow us to contact people in far off lands, learn new things, buy pretty things, the list is endless. However, it can also be a little bit sneaky into tricking us, humanity, into thinking we can play god and make a beautiful, blemish free, world.

When will beauty in the real world be enough? Why must we only see beauty through a digitally enhanced lens?

Digital Media Assumptions

2010-02-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

I chose to study digital media thinking it would be based on photography and video editing.
Come to think of it now, I have no idea why I believed it was based on just these two things. Wishful thinking on my part I imagine.

However, since beginning the course (the complete two classes I have attended) have opened up the topic to unlimited potential. So long as it within the realms of digital media and public communications in relation to my blogging chat.

Digital media covers such a diverse range of mediums, not restricted to photography and videos as I had originally, and foolishly, assumed. It can include computer games, digital radio, e-books, and programs on mobile phones to name a few.
However the one aspect I am rather intrigued by is

Digital Art.

Anything edited by a computer program creates Digital Art. Therefore I believe I am artist of the digital degree! Thank you Photoshop!

In all seriousness, the potential that the sphere of digital media contains is effectively limitless. It will continue to develop and expand with advances in technology and also can contribute to past projects. Creativity just lends itself to this topic, the more off-the-wall and unconventional an idea the more effective I tend to find it.

I found a collection of altered photographs in which the artist has inserted pictures of superheroes into old war pictures. There is no point to them, they are fun. And I love them.

Public relations should use digital media more often, especially in a random, eye-catching a way.

More on this later...

First Blog

2010-02-23T13:25:00.001-08:00

Here I shall chatter about PR and all the fun that is related to it!