I wonder if this is the world’s first awards unboxing video? Certainly makes a change from phones and gadgets.

It also fails to mention the elephant in the room – the media database companies. When I started in public relations in 1989 I was taught to create proper media lists. That meant you sat down with a proper ring bound directory printed on paper (I can still remember the PR Planner section numbers such as 5B for enterprise computing, 72 for local weekly papers). When you started work on a new client you’d go through each relevant section and the individual media within it to decide which ones might be relevant.

Then you’d nip down to the newsagents to buy some copies and you’d sit on the phone and call up the ad sales teams to get sample copies and media packs sent to you. While at the newsagents you’d also have a browse to make sure you hadn’t missed anything.

Within a few days you’d have a big stack of lovely magazines and newspapers that you’d sit down and read. You’d take a look at the ABC figures to really understand what the readership was. You’d note what sections each one had and start thinking about what information your client had that might possibly fit into that section. You’d note the by-lines on every story and article and begin to understand what different journalists were interested in.

Then and only then would you begin your outreach. In those days it meant fax, post or bike. And you wouldn’t just mindlessly blast out the same news release to every contact. You might have five or even 50 different variants, each with an individually tailored headline and first paragraph just for that media or small group of titles.

Today the reality is that it is incredibly difficult to create that decent list in the first place. Every single media database I’ve tried (which I’ll admit isn’t them all, but almost) churns out lots of irrelevant targets and misses others no matter what you put in.

The databases give the illusion of research, but in reality are a lazy way out and are only ever a starting point that take you perhaps 10-15% to where you need to go. That’s just one of the problems.

Another is the ‘sweat shop’ mentality of some (but by no means all) PR agencies that perpetuate the junk mail approach to media and blogger relations. They’ll pressurise junior account executives into pumping out the releases and then hitting the phones with the dreaded follow-up phone call. Quite frequently these poor people have no real in-depth knowledge of the client so can’t provide any added value to the journalists they are phoning.

And this worst practice gets perpetuated as the account executives get promoted and work their way up the ranks, in turning teaching bad practice to those they manage. This presents a challenge to the good public relations consultancies, as they have to retrain people who join from elsewhere.

The third problem is PR agencies. Get a backbone people. Clients are paying you for your expertise. Just because they tell you to do something doesn’t mean it’s right. It’s your job to provide counsel and explain why your way is better. Stop focussing on outputs and start focussing on real business and organisational objectives, not fluffy publicity outcomes.

Finally, I’m not convinced by some ‘rights’ in the manifesto. The one that I most strongly agree with is “permission required”. I think that’s flawed thinking. If you’ve done your research properly and are convinced that what you are about to send is relevant to the recipient and it’s been prepared in the appropriate format (eg. not an idiotic file attachment) then it’s not really practical or necessary to seek permission. If you don’t have express or implied permission and the information is relevant then all you are doing is inconveniencing the person even more by annoying them by asking for permission!

Some of the other ‘rights’ are too ambiguous. For example, telephone chasing, really depends on who you call, when you call what you say and why you’re calling. It’s not always wrong, it’s just the way it’s usually done that is wrong.

If you pop over to the Wolfstar blog, you’ll see that we’re recruiting experienced public relations consultants to work on global, European and UK online PR and social media for clients such as Sony Ericsson, Discovery Channel, First Direct and Philips.

We’ve been celebrating in the Wolfstar office today as we’ve just found out that we’ve won the Chartered Institute of Public Relations President’s Grand Prix Award for Best Use of Social Media Award for our campaign to support the global launch of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 mobile phone. That makes it officially the UK’s best social media campaign. I didn’t do it on my Wolfstar blog post, but I want to do so here and say a massive thanks to Sony Ericsson for being a brilliant client and being brave enough to not be afraid to push the boundaries of what’s possible with social media and for really ‘getting’ that it’s an integral part of corporate communications strategy. I also want to say an equally massive thanks to the brilliant team that I’m privileged and humbled to have working with me at Wolfstar.

The other interesting fact about Conversationalists is that they’re 56% female, more than any other group in the ladder. They are also among the youngest of the groups, but 70% are still 30 and over.

What intrigues me is that Conversationalists sit above Critics, which strikes me as odd as the effort required to be a Critic appears to be greater than the effort needed to be a Conversationalist. Hopefully Josh Bernoff will comment to explain the reasoning behind this.

This was after Duck Duck narrowly escaped a roasting after disappearing for five days just before Christmas as reported in the Whitehaven News – Christmas quacker: a lucky duck returns home.

National Express East Coast: Lions led by donkeys – 10 comments
In January I used my blog to express dissatisfaction with National Express East Coast’s abysmal customer service. At the end of November it was time to rejoice as it lost its franchise and the east coast mainline once again became a nationalised rail service (however temporarily). In just one month service has improved phenomenally.

Public relations is about reputation, not SEO – 16 comments
This post on the relative merits of public relations v. SEO resulted in me being asked to debate with Antony Mayfield at the New Media Knowledge event on online PR. It was a bit of an artificial debate as despite now working for a search agency Antony is a PR person so we agreed on far more than we disagreed. The arguments in my post focus on the fact that far too many people don’t know what they are talking about when discussing PR and SEO. I’d like to see more facts and less opinion.

Obama shaking hands with black policeman at No 10 Downing Street – 4 comments
A photograph showing the evident pleasure on the face of a black policeman as he shakes hands with President Barack Obama.

If you want to be a thought leader, blog don’t Twitter – 3 comments
Steve Rubel shutters his blog in favour of a ‘lifestream’, for once I agree with Robert Scoble and argue that thought leaders need to blog, not Twitter.

The only three questions you need to ask your prospective PR social media agency – 14 comments
A post that generated lots of retweets and was in a similar vein to one of my most popular posts of 2008 – Top ten ways not to choose a social media consultant.

How can local government use social media? – 1 comment
The IDeA asks how local government should use social media and I provide some answers based on not only on my public relations and social media experience, but also as an ex-councillor who served as Lead Member for Corporate Communications.

Will PR ever be free of the curse of AVEs? – 5 comments
The Central Office of Information announces it will stop using AVEs to evaluate public relations, I blog about hoping that the rest of the PR industry will follow suit.

Lots of interesting new social media research statistics – no comments
Short post that simply points to two other of my posts – Forrester publishes third global social media and social networks research report and Teens DO use Twitter: real research with the facts and statistics, not myths and hype on the Wolfstar blog. Illustrates the importance of search friendly headlines.

Social media campaign hammers the Daily Mail – 5 comments
When the Daily Mail ran a racist poll on its website, a vigorous Twitter campaign meant that it didn’t get the result it hoped for, a useful illustration of the power of social media.

Mandelson v. Marr: Master class or disaster class – you decide – 6 comments
YouTube videos of Lord Peter Mandelson getting the better of Andrew Marr, in what I think is a master class of how to handle a media interview.

Imagine my delight to read in the Guardian that there was to be an ‘All new Peter Rabbit for the 21st century’. Brilliant, I thought, a children’s TV show that actually has really strong stories. Then I read the quotes from Chorion chairman Lord Alli and I have to confess that the air turned blue as I’ve rarely read such dumb comments.

What Lord Alli and Chorion mean by ‘updating’ is apparently dumbing them down to suit the lowest common denominator. All they are doing is taking Beatrice Potter’s fantastic characters such as Peter Rabbit and Tom Kitten and creating new and ‘appropriate’ storylines. According to Alli this means: “Peter Rabbit’s father being caught by the farmer and being baked into a pie is not going to be our first episode. We’ll be skipping over some chapters.”

So there you have it, Chorion is planning to make an anaemic and pointless show that will have no resonance whatsoever with children or parents who love Beatrix Potter’s beautiful tales and characters.

1) Do they walk the walk?

"If your key agency people are not participating as thought leaders in the space, should they be advising you?
They need street cred themselves."
Ed Nicholson, Director Tyson Corporate PR

Does the agency have a credible social media presence of its own and for how long? Personally I’ve been active in this space for more than seven years (more than 12 if you include Usenet, mailing lists, forums etc) and most people in the Wolfstar PR team also have impressive social media track records, as well as Wolfstar having its own presence.

2) Do they have case studies to share with you to demonstrate their success incorporating social media into clients’ overall marketing strategy?

As Ochman says “if they don’t, they’ll be learning on your dime.”

Good as these questions are I think a third one is essential.

3) Do they have excellent experience and expertise in traditional public relations?

Social media isn’t the be all and end all. It must integrate into the existing corporate communications strategy. Does your prospective consultancy have the experience and expertise to not only integrate, but also advise intelligently on how that strategy needs to change.

Ochman says “there are a handful of credible social media agencies and consultants on the planet”, but I’d argue that simply being a credible social media agency or consultant isn’t enough. First and foremost you’ve got to be a credible public relations person.