PR from Brendan

What Makes a Video Go Viral?

2009-07-17T22:19:00Z

It's the holy grail. Just this week a client asked me, "What makes a video go viral?

Everyone wants to know the shortcut to a super popular video.

Heck, I want to know myself.

One company that probably has a better idea than most is Visible Measures, a company whose business it is to measure viral video. They hasve a case study or two that you can read.

I think that the key is to be remarkable, emotional, or very funny. You have to move people to say, "Wow, I have to share this with my friends." Then you have to launch the video.

A couple of years ago Dan Akerman wrote a compelling "how to launch a viral video" guide on TechCrunch that included some questionable practices, but he also peppered in some good ideas.

I picked three very different videos here, one is a commercial that is very funny and odd, which makes it fun; the second is a video put together by a patient at the Mayo Clinic that is both fun and heartwarming; and the third is a very lighthearted and funny video about how United destroyed one of its customer's guitars.

Let's hear from you, what do YOU think made these viral videos runaway hits?

Enjoy!

THE COMMERCIAL

Evian Rollerskating Babies - as of today, 5.9 million views

CAUGHT ON VIDEO

Mayo Clinic Couple, as of today, 4.1 million views

THE SPURNED CUSTOMER

United Breaks Guitars, as of today 3.2 million views

Colin McKay: Gov Web 2.0 Communications Pioneer

2009-07-17T21:50:38Z

Reposted from John Cass’ PR Communications, and one in a series of reminisces about Global PR Blog week, which was published five years ago this week.

Colin McKay was an early Canadian pioneer in blogging and social media, but also in the Government use of social media. In my continuing series of interviews with Alumni from the Global PR Blog week, I ask Colin questions about the conference.

John: What did you learn from the Global PR Blog Week?

Colin: Global PR Blog Week was my first real opportunity to work with like-minded people from around the world. Collaboration, community and crowd sourcing are words that are thrown around quite easily today: just five years ago, it was unusual to pull together virtual teams working to a common agenda. YoungPrPros and other listservs were the most similar beast.

John: What did you learn about blogging, if you learned anything about blogging, from the blog week?

Colin: By July 2004, I had been blogging for nearly a year. I had been posting short observations, longer analytical pieces, and even commentary. I didn’t, however, truly realize the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience that could be shared if bloggers pulled their resources together and focused on a common series of topics.

John: Did the conference give you any new insights into PR, and if so what were they?

Colin: I had been aware of the different fields of PR and communications, but hadn’t really spent much time really thinking outside my own day-to-day work. PR Blog Week really demonstrated that there were inspired and influential bloggers who could bring insight to issues common across all these fields.

John: What were the lasting effects of the Global PR Blog Week?

Colin: Personally, I am still in contact with many of the contributors. Participating encouraged me to write longer form posts and articles on my blog and elsewhere, and to consciously look to other bloggers and online sources for inspiration and ammunition.

John: How did the Global PR Blog week influence you and the industry?

Colin: I’m not sure how influential PR Blog Week was for the industry. We’ve certainly seen an explosion in the number and quality of PR pros expressing themselves online. I’d hope that PR Blog Weeks 1 and 2 demonstrated that sold, well-reasoned and influential work could come out of blogging, and that blogging was not just a distraction for disaffected employees.

Interestingly, I look back at the list of participants, and I notice many names that are still influential in the field – personalities that have remained consistent and have continued to contribute, often without a care for being identified as influential, or a guru or a thought leader.

Reviewing the post(s) you wrote for the Global PR Blog week what has changed? What has not changed, since you wrote your post?

Colin: In year 1, I covered crisis communications. I notice that I didn’t cover online tools in any detail. That would definitely change today, but my advice on the preparation, attitudes and approaches to a crisis would not.

In year 2, I focused on the intersection between online communications and the development of government policy. For the longest time, that article remained current – it seems that the ground has begun to shift over the past nine months or so. #Gov2.0 has taken a great leap forward with the arrival of the Obama administration and the experimentation of the Labour government in the UK.

John: Give an update on what you’ve been doing in the last five years, and what you are doing now?

Colin: Well, canuckflack is still well and alive, although it has received greater and less attention over the years. I continued as a communications manager at the Department of Industry until 2007, when I joined the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. At the moment, I’m the Director of Research, Education and Outreach, and have been able to launch some fairly novel outreach tools that draw from my experience blogging and fooling around with social media: http://dpi.priv.gc.ca, http://blog.privcom.gc.ca and http://youthprivacy.ca. Not to mention our fledgling Twitter account http://twitter.com/privacyprivee.

John: Thank you Colin. Great insights into the virtual event, how PR has changed and not changed. Also I think your point about the faster pace of change in Government is very true.

When it comes to online news content, Steve Brill believes “free” is idiotic …

2009-07-17T20:56:59Z

So, is giving away online news and information for free the wave of the future … or just plain idiotic! The polemic continues with Steve Brill’s comments in this video interview with TheAtlantic.com’s Bob Cohn during the “Aspen Ideas Festival” at end-June …

Full disclosure … I’ve linked to this video at TheAtlantic.com for free! Which may or may not underscore Brill’s point … The video is available at TheAtlantic.com with Bob Cohn’s lead-in commentary, here.

E-mail this: Bookmark this:

Twitter Clips Hundreds of Followers from High Profile Accounts

2009-07-17T21:32:00Z

It looks like Twitter knocked off about 300 followers for dozens of different accounts, including Chris Brogan, Dave Winer, Robert Scoble, Jeremiah Owyang and yours truly. Perhaps the database was recompiled? See the gallery that follows this post.

Personally, it's not a big deal to me (I am grateful for every follower I have!). I just spotted the anomaly when I was giving a client a demo of the Twittercounter product.

Anyone have any insight here?

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Colin McKay: Gov Web 2.0 Communications Pioneer

2009-07-17T21:28:11Z

Colin McKay was an early Canadian pioneer in blogging and social media, but also in the Government use of social media. In my continuing series of interviews with Alumni from the Global PR Blog week, I ask Colin questions about the conference.

Colin looks back on the Global PR Blog week, its influence, what’s changed in PR since 2004, and how Government is embracing web 2.0 today.

John: What did you learn from the Global PR Blog Week?

Colin: Global PR Blog Week was my first real opportunity to work with like-minded people from around the world. Collaboration, community and crowd sourcing are words that are thrown around quite easily today: just five years ago, it was unusual to pull together virtual teams working to a common agenda. YoungPrPros and other listservs were the most similar beast.

John: What did you learn about blogging, if you learned anything about blogging, from the blog week?

Colin: By July 2004, I had been blogging for nearly a year. I had been posting short observations, longer analytical pieces, and even commentary. I didn’t, however, truly realize the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience that could be shared if bloggers pulled their resources together and focused on a common series of topics.

John: Did the conference give you any new insights into PR, and if so what were they?

Colin: I had been aware of the different fields of PR and communications, but hadn’t really spent much time really thinking outside my own day-to-day work. PR Blog Week really demonstrated that there were inspired and influential bloggers who could bring insight to issues common across all these fields.

John: What were the lasting effects of the Global PR Blog Week?

Colin: Personally, I am still in contact with many of the contributors. Participating encouraged me to write longer form posts and articles on my blog and elsewhere, and to consciously look to other bloggers and online sources for inspiration and ammunition.

John: How did the Global PR Blog week influence you and the industry?

Colin: I’m not sure how influential PR Blog Week was for the industry. We’ve certainly seen an explosion in the number and quality of PR pros expressing themselves online. I’d hope that PR Blog Weeks 1 and 2 demonstrated that sold, well-reasoned and influential work could come out of blogging, and that blogging was not just a distraction for disaffected employees.

Interestingly, I look back at the list of participants, and I notice many names that are still influential in the field – personalities that have remained consistent and have continued to contribute, often without a care for being identified as influential, or a guru or a thought leader.

John: Reviewing the post(s) you wrote for the Global PR Blog week what has changed? What has not changed, since you wrote your post?

Colin: In year 1, I covered crisis communications. I notice that I didn’t cover online tools in any detail. That would definitely change today, but my advice on the preparation, attitudes and approaches to a crisis would not.

In year 2, I focused on the intersection between online communications and the development of government policy. For the longest time, that article remained current – it seems that the ground has begun to shift over the past nine months or so. #Gov2.0 has taken a great leap forward with the arrival of the Obama administration and the experimentation of the Labour government in the UK.

John: Give an update on what you've been doing in the last five years, and what you are doing now?

Colin: Well, canuckflack is still well and alive, although it has received greater and less attention over the years. I continued as a communications manager at the Department of Industry until 2007, when I joined the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. At the moment, I’m the Director of Research, Education and Outreach, and have been able to launch some fairly novel outreach tools that draw from my experience blogging and fooling around with social media: http://dpi.priv.gc.ca, http://blog.privcom.gc.ca and http://youthprivacy.ca. Not to mention our fledgling Twitter account http://twitter.com/privacyprivee.

Thanks for this, John!

John: Thank you Colin. Great insights into the virtual event, how PR has changed and not changed. Also I think your point about the faster pace of change in Government is very true.

The ethics of publishing stolen material

2009-07-17T20:12:41Z

It’s not black and white, but TechCrunch crossed the line.

A smart use of Twitter by Hyatt Hotels

2009-07-17T19:24:10Z

I received this email from the folks who run the Hyatt Hotels guest loyalty program:

We are pleased to announce that Hyatt™ is extending its hospitality and service to accompany you at all times during your travel journey. Whether it’s before, during or after your stay, Hyatt hospitality will be on-hand to make your travel experience easier and more enjoyable through our new service called HyattConcierge, which can be accessed through Twitter by any web-enabled device.

Twitter is a network of 3 million users and is a great tool to find quick, easy answers and information. Need directions to the Grand Hyatt New York? A restaurant recommendation in Hong Kong? A spa appointment at Hyatt Regency Waikiki? HyattConcierge is there to assist you with your travel questions and requests.

To access HyattConcierge, visit twitter.com/HyattConcierge to create an account or to follow us. Once connected, send us your “tweets” and we’ll be there. This service is another way for us to show our commitment to making you feel more than welcome at every Hyatt worldwide.

HyattConcierge is at your service.

Safe Travels,

Jeff Zidell
Vice President
Hyatt Gold Passport™

A smart move by Hyatt. They have extended their relationship with me to where I am – on Twitter. And I love that they’re doing this. A great example of a company making it a bit easier for me to do business with them – on my terms and in the way that I want.

Kudos to Hyatt.

NPR's Bob Garfield Booked to Keynote PRSA

2009-07-17T17:21:45Z

NPR "On the Media" host, AdAge columnist and author Bob Garfield will keynote the annual PRSA conference this fall.

Garfield gained some extra notoriety by publicly shaming Comcast with the launch of ComcastMustDie.com in 2007.

The site launched around the same time coincidentally, that Comcast's Frank Eliason started dealing with blogger blowback with a small team of people internally, which led to the launch of the now massive ComcastCares Twitter feed (26,495 followers and 32,893 updates as of the time of this post).

Other PRSA keynoters in recent years include Craig Newmark, Mia Farrow, Mitch Albom and "America's Publicist" Karen Hughes.

GM's New Marketing Head: Company Took "Our Eye Off the Ball" for More Than Twenty Years

2009-07-17T17:15:36Z

[Image: daniel.gene/Flickr]

GM's new marketing head Bob Lutz was interviewed by NPR's Robert Siegel this week. Lutz is a longtime GM veteran who was on the verge of retirement but recently took the position of overseeing all marketing and communications efforts with the goal of reworking GM's image. BusinessWeek's Jon Fine highlights this specific passage from the interview:

Mr. LUTZ: [W]here we really messed it up and took our eye off the ball in terms of product was in '70s, '80s and early '90s. And I think we've - in the last five or six years - we've had a radical transformation in the way we approach the product and our goals for products and look at the awards we've gotten. We got car of the year.
SIEGEL: But when you take your eye off the ball for more than 20 years...

Mr. LUTZ: Yeah, well, that was bad. ...

We appreciate the candor, but also wouldn't be surprised if GM put Lutz through another round of media training.

Combining social media and public policy, I'll be in heaven

2009-07-17T15:46:23Z

Okay, I'm excited.

Next week I'll be speaking at

the first ever Open Government & Innovations Conference. The conference, facilitated by the Department of Defense, is being touted as an opportunity to collaboratively explore how government can use—and is already using—social media tools and social software to achieve President Obama’s call for government transparency, participation, collaboration and innovation.

I'll be joining policy wonks like Vivek Kundra, the country's Chief Information Officer and Aneesh Chopra, America's Chief Technology Officer, as well as one of my all time heroes, David Weinberger o0f Cluetrain Manifesto fame, as well as visionary Tim O’Reilly, plus dozens of other social media and transparency experts to share ideas and case studies about how federal, state and local government can use emerging technologies to create a more efficient and effective government.

I'll be leading a panel on Wednesday on how to measure transparency and social media with Liana Evans of Serengeti Communications and Andy Krzmarzick of The Graduate School.

Hope to see you there, If not, I'll definitely be writing about it.

File it under crazy S*&^: Fan Pages for PR Firms! Mom Blogs’ PR Boycott? | Marketing Roadmaps

2009-07-17T14:22:41Z

File it under crazy S*&^: Fan Pages for PR Firms! Mom Blogs’ PR Boycott? | Marketing Roadmaps

Casting a Digital Shadow; Your Reputation Precedes You

2009-07-17T14:39:06Z

Credit: Geekadam

While speaking at the intimate and immensely valuable Zappos Insights event (Zappos Live), I shared thoughts of how the culture of any company or brand is as strong as the individual personification of it.

Everything starts and fortifies with you. Your actions and words online are indeed extensions to how people interpret, perceive, and react to the brand your represent. Concurrently, you also represent your personal brand – the digital identity that’s established through the collection of digital shadows you cast across the social web.

During my discussion, I asked those in the room to stop and think a bit about what it is they stand for, believe in, and aspire to become and whether or not the search results in Google, twitter.com/yourusername, Search.PeopleBrowsr.com or Collecta might reinforce their intentions or paint an unexpected and possibly surprising picture.

Everything we share online is indexed on the Web for years to come. When we Tweet, upload videos and pictures, post on blogs and comments, update our status on social networks, we cast a digital shadow that parallels our activities and mimics our convictions in real life. This digital shadow is strewn across the web only to be reassembled through the search pursuits of others – whether they’re prospective partners, employers, employees, customers, influencers, or stakeholders.

Curiosity Killed the Candidate?

A recent study performed by CareerBuilder.com validates the behavior of identity sleuthing and year over year patterns forecast subsequent ubiquity.

The professional network asked 2,500 hiring managers whether they search Facebook or other social networks to discover information about prospective employees. An astonishing, but not unexpected, 38-percent of respondents said yes. In comparison, only 22% of hiring managers acknowledged searching social networks in 2008.

You can bet that Google is part of the process as well.

In addition, 24%, which represents one in four hiring managers interviewed, conceded that the results contributed the decision to hire a candidate. 34% however, dismissed candidates based on what they uncovered.

This is a trend that’s years in the making however.

In 2006, a survey of 100 executive recruiters conducted by ExecuNet surfaced the shocking truth that Seventy-seven percent of recruiters reported using search engines to find background data on candidates. Of that number, 35 percent eliminated a candidate because of what they found online.

And, it’s not just a crystal ball for employers. Everyone searches the names of those who either intrigue them or emerge as a potential contender for collaboration or interaction.

Why not? It’s only smart business to gather intelligence and research before an introduction or engagement.

Kaplan Test Prep released a report last year that indicated that one in 10 colleges and universities explore social networks and common search engines when considering aspiring students for admission.

Fortunately or unfortunately, this practice of investigating people will not dissipate. The only elements that will change are the increases in the total percentages of search queries performed by decision makers.

It’s not all bad news however. The truth is that the search experience related to you is defined by you. Acceptance of this reality represents half the distance to crafting a more strategic and effective representation of who you are and what you stand for online and in the real world.

Deleting your profiles is not the answer. Deleting offending material and updating your privacy settings, on the other hand, is a good place to start. The truth is however, that it takes more than editing what exists today. In order to truly shape our personal brands as they’re viewed remotely, from a distance, and without our explicit input, we must take the reins and contribute to its silhouette at the very least.

We are in control of the digital shadow that materializes when the spotlight is cast upon us.

Take this opportunity to showcase accomplishments, strengths and talents. Reinforce what it is you stand for as well as what moves you. In many ways your profiles and the material you share online contribute to a digital resume, whether you agree or disagree. It’s there, right now, talking about you, without your direction. Opportunities that may have presented themselves to us never materialized because of our digital shadows. So, do something about it. Just don’t lose who you are in the process.

Yes, we’re still human beings. Yes, we have fun. Yes, we do things we don’t want the rest of the world to know about.

Decide whom it is you’re trying to impress with your social profiles and updates and realize that answer may change over time. Just “think” about what it is you’re sharing and why before you upload to the public Web. Anything not conducive to the reinforcement of a strategic outward facing personal brand should be relegated to the private viewing of your bona fide, genuine social graph. Again, there are privacy settings within each social network and you govern who sees what. Let the privacy controls and the corresponding content serve as the church and state of your online persona.

There are benefits and consequences associated with each bit of content you share, even if they’re not immediately discernible.

And parents, it’s never to early or too late to help guide your children.

Start monitoring their online behavior as soon as they start spending significant time online. Actively Google them to assess the results. Help them create and craft content that serves as a placeholder for their identity now and in the future.

Who we are and who we want to be often reside at opposite ends, where the space between is distanced or narrowed by our actions, content and words.

What does your profile or search results say about you?

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One Person Does Not Equal “Everyone”

2009-07-17T12:00:03Z

A couple of months ago I wrote about the challenge that communicators face in recognizing that we are not the same as our audiences. A similar dilemma sits alongside that for communicators engaged in social media: one person does not equal a majority.

Just as the fact that you think something doesn’t mean everyone does, the fact that one person complains about something online shouldn’t mean you go into crisis mode. One complaint doesn’t mean you have to change your business processes.

Caveat.

Social media can, and frequently can be, the canary in the goldmine. If you see a steady trickle of people complaining about something over a period of time, you should pay attention. That doesn’t mean you automatically have to change things, but remember: direct feedback is one of the most powerful benefits of social media.

Also…

One thing to remember: While one person’s moment of pain may not be something that requires serious change to your processes, you need to separate that decision from that of whether to engage with that person to solve their pain.

This is an area where experienced practitioners can help companies as they plot their way through the social media waters. People who aren’t familiar with the space may blow something completely out of proportion (or, on the flip side, not heed the warning signs when they are present).

So, next time you see someone complain about something online, stop and think: is this the canary in the coal mine, or are you about to cry wolf?

PRNewser's Blogroll

2009-07-17T15:14:18Z

We've received a lot of questions and emails recently about the blogroll and how to get on it. The answers is: just email us the link and title of your blog along with author names and and a little bit (2-3 sentences) of background.

Unfortunately, "updating the blogroll" is usually near the bottom of our daily to-do list, but we promise an update is coming soon. So, if you'd like to get in on the fun, let us know.

Apple to Microsoft: Quit running ads that say we’re too expensive

2009-07-17T05:00:00Z

Apple lawyers asked Microsoft to end its "Laptop Hunter" marketing campaign that suggests Apple computers are too expensive. Microsoft vowed to continue it. Plus, 20 brands that died in '09; and much more.

BlogPotomac Registration Opens Up, New Speakers Highlight the Future

2009-07-17T12:13:00Z

Registration for the final BlogPotomac on October 23 is now open. The event promises to bring some of the old, with a heavy focus on what’s coming next in online media.

To that end, I’d like to announce three additional new speakers, each of which will discuss the evolution of online media from their unique technology’s perspective. Each of their perspectives will shed light on next generation online media as it is evolving now, and what we as marketers and communicators should expect.

FortiusOne CEO Sean Gorman will talk about the impact location based technologies and mapping are making on the web. With over 10 years of experience at the forefront of the geospatial revolution as a researcher, practitioner, and entrepreneur at FortiusOne, Sean recognizes both the opportunities and challenges presented by the changing Web. Sean brings insight and innovation to the next generation of the Web and seeks to enable users of both GIS and the GeoWeb with solutions that marry the best of both worlds to create actionable intelligence and grow collective knowledge.

Next up is a representative from location based social network GyPSii®, Shane Lennon, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Management. GyPSii® connects people, places and communities across networks and devices, from work to play to home, enabling members to share their real life experiences in the virtual world on your mobile phone and the internet. Shane is responsible for strategy, marketing, user adoption, the product portfolio at GyPSii® and is the advocate for end users and the voice of the market.

And last but not least, the recently appointed Washington DC Director for Strategic Partnerships at Ning Peter Slutsky will be joining us. Ning provides private white label social networks for free, and now has more than 1.3 million networks on its servers. Before joining Ning, he served as the Communications Director at Progressive Strategies, LLC, a Washington, DC consulting firm specializing in new media, communications strategy and using social media tools to promote campaigns and projects aimed at building the progressive movement.

These three speakers will join our preannounced roster of speakers:

Renowned social media chronicler Shel Israel will keynote and discuss his book Twitterville (out September 3), including the future of the red hot social network. Everyone will get a copy of his book.
Beth Kanter, the top-ranked changeblogger, will discuss how nonprofits are using online media to innovate and affect change.
crayonista and ace strategist Jane Quigley will discuss future Internet media forms, such as the semantic web and other new forms she’s watching

There will also be sessions on mobile applications (iPhone and traditional). Amber Naslund will return and join me as co-hostess. We hope to see you there!

Hillary Clinton Finishes Paying Off Campaign Debt, Last Check Goes to Mark Penn

2009-07-17T14:16:03Z

More than one year after he stopped working with the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, Mark Penn has finally received full payment for his services.

Bloomberg reports that Clinton has "erased most of her presidential campaign debt" and that "The last outstanding bill was $1.5 million to former chief strategist Mark Penn." The check went to Penn's firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, a subsidiary of WPP (WPPGY). Penn also serves as CEO of Burson-Marsteller.

9/11 Bad Pitch

2009-07-17T13:03:59Z

The Global PR Blog Week inspired me to go back to some of the early PR bloggers and look at their work. Phil Gomes is one of the first, if not the first PR blogger. He started in August of 2001, just before 9/11.

On 9/11, Phil wrote about his feelings in the early evening of September 11 in My Generation's Own Pearl Harbor:

In addition it seems both appropriate and inappropriate that one of the first PR controversies on his blog was a pitch email the afternoon of the 9/11. An agency sent out a pitch suggesting their client's product was of a similar crisis and level of importance to the events of 9/11. Phil published the pitch, with the names of the PR person and agency removed.

Phil covered the bad pitch the following Monday in "And You Thought That Terrorism Created Tragedies?".

Reactions to the pitch were detailed in Phil's "And You Thought That Terrorism Created Tragedies?" (Cont'd):

The employee who sent the email resigned, and the CEO of the agency apologized.

On the day when the U.S. was reeling from the attacks of 9/11 the PR professional who sent the pitch did not understand the consequences of what was happening around them, they also did not stop to consider how inappropriate their reference to 9/11 was in the pitch. When a PR professional attempts any communication it's important to think about how their communication will connect with their audience, that means you have to understand what's important to an audience at that moment in time. I seem to recall my employer sent everyone home, and we pretty much did not do very much for the rest of the week. Having a sense for history helps as well.

Getting your facts right about history is also important, on a lighter note, later in the month Phil shared with his readers a history lesson and confusion over names. Pitch Ultimately Yields Inadvertent History Lesson:

"Unfortunate Error In my recent letter regarding my client, I had referred to its managing partners as having "interesting Alger Hiss backgrounds." I meant to say that they had "Horatio Alger" backgrounds. So they can be characterized as rags-to-riches types, not as highly placed diplomats acting as double agents for the Soviets."

Big Brother find out about Jacko

2009-07-17T12:08:55Z

I thought Big Brother lost its “social experiment” relevance a long time ago, that was until I was told about this by a friend. Interesting to see the contestants’ reaction to finding out the news about Michael Jackson’s death…one of serious shock and sadness.

If only some of the media could replicate some of this, ITV’s reshowing of Martin Bashir’s “Living with Michael Jackson” was a hugely cynical approach to try and increase audience share. I hope, like me, you avoided watching it.

Blowing Your Own Trumpet

2009-07-17T09:03:30Z

This week sees the deadline for entries to PR Week’s ‘29 under 29′, an annual feature that showcases “the brightest, most inspirational PR professionals from all corners of the industry”.

I admit that I’ve been thinking of entering. 500 words on why you should be featured shouldn’t be too bad, and with projects like Bright One that I’ve worked on alongside the award-nominated client work I’ve been doing, I would hope that I’d be in with a chance of getting in there.

A few industry friends were thinking of gaming the system. Not in a ‘4Chan takes over Time’s 100 Most Influential list‘ way, more a ‘how many of the 29 can we make sure are people that we know?’ kind of way. It would be fun if 10 or 15 of us wrote and sent in each other’s entries. On second thoughts, I’m not sure I’d trust some of my industry friends not to take advantage and put things in the entry only they know and I wouldn’t want other people to find out about

The PR Week feature does raise an interesting point though. As a blogger – perhaps less regularly now than previously - and someone with an active social media presence, what do my employers and clients think of the time I spend and the content I post online?

For example, while I’ve been writing this post, I could have been putting hours into client work, writing press releases, contacting journalists, etc. What do my clients think about my blogging? I suspect that most of them don’t care – as long as the work gets done on time and to a high-standard, the rest of my time can be filled how I see fit.

As for Twitter (the main reason that I’m blogging less regularly now), it’s much more visible to colleagues and clients when it looks like I’ve done no work and just spent time on Twitter all day. If a client was expecting a bit of work and they saw me chatting away with friends on Twitter, they’d be justified in sending me a direct message telling me to get off Twitter and get back to completing their work.

Also, with marketing and PR budgets increasingly going towards Digital (or Online, or however you define it…), does that make those who ‘get’ social media and other online tools for communication, those who blog and tweet regularly, more high profile within their company and in the industry as a whole, and does this make them ‘better’ at their job? Or even more likely to be noticed?

It might not be in the company’s and client’s best interests to have me blogging and tweeting away. Apart from the issue of time that could be spent on client work, if I’m creating more of an industry presence for myself by being active on social media platforms, am I highlighting that my company employees an enthusiastic and passionate person, or am I merely trying to put the spotlight on myself in the hopes that a bigger and better job offer will come along and I’ll be headhunted by some other company or recruitment consultant?

On the other hand, I know and regularly read some fantastic blogs from other industry peers and colleagues (Warning: Link bait). The discussion of industry issues and sharing of knowledge is one of the greatest advantages of being active on social media in the PR and Communications industry, but how do those blogger’s employers feel about them’ giving away’ that knowledge?

At work, we’ve been discussing the work of other company’s – agencies mostly – in the industry. Are those that promote the fantastic work they do more likely to get more clients that way? Or should agencies take the approach of not promoting themselves at all and let the work speak for themselves?

As an example, Blue Rubicon rarely actively promote themselves and the work that they do. Yet they have some of the biggest clients around and win award after award. I can also think of several examples where an agency has tried to promote themselves by showcasing client work, but which actually could backfire pretty badly if taken the wrong way by clients or other industry peers (not to name any names…). And have I risked upsetting my employers by mentioning a competitor agency?

It’s got me thinking. Should I spending less time blogging, tweeting and being active on other social media platforms, stop ’sticking my neck out’ and rather concentrate on working hard to produce the best possible work for clients? It’s not that I don’t work hard or produce great work. It’s just that perhaps it could be better if I were less active online…

So, I’d like to get your opinion – particularly from more senior industry colleagues. How does your company promote themselves, if at all? What is your opinion of your more junior colleagues online activities? If you’ve worked client side, how do you feel about me writing this blog post? Shouldn’t we be spending more time on your work?

Lots of questions and not a lot of answers. And, yes, I get the irony of writing a lengthy blog post discussing whether I should be writing lengthy blog posts

As for me, will I be entering the PR Week ‘29 under 29′? I’m not sure. Perhaps I shouldn’t blow my own trumpet, but carry on doing fantastic work and eventually the rewards will come.

Thoughts?