Jon Silk | PR Geek

Gif of the weeeeeeek: @tailsdotcom says IT'S FRIDAY!

2012-06-01T15:23:00.000+01:00

Is Bryan happy about helping lead us to our SABRE win last night?

Or is he happy that he's about to go home to Canada?

YOU DECIDE.

Remember @willsturgeon's #techprdrinks? They're back on July 5th.

2012-05-31T16:43:00.003+01:00

Remember when Will Sturgeon ran informal drinks evenings for tech PR people in London?

(You might not remember, but that's probably because you were there and woke up the next day with little else than a cracking headache and an incriminating article in PR Week.)

Well, they're back.

Eb Adeyeri, DWPub's Daryl Willcox and I have been talking about reviving Will's drinks for a while... So we put it to Will. And he said it was a good idea. He might even show up.

So... Put July 5th in the diary immediately. As usual, we've got limited space in our central London venue, so if you're a technology PR person and fancy coming along, drop me a line at jon@jonsilk.com or comment on this post to put your name on the list.

#techprdrinks is sponsored by DWPub, Brandwatch, and Waggener Edstrom. Will Sturgeon approves this message.

Parking app helps clamp down on offenders (if it wasn't fake)

2012-05-22T11:40:00.001+01:00

This app, according to Boing Boing, is fictional - but the idea of everyone in the vicinity of a badly-parked car not being able to surf the web unless they share a photo of it is SCARY GENIUS.

The Bee Gees storm out on Clive Anderson

2012-05-21T11:11:00.000+01:00

This incident always fascinated me, having watched it happen in 1997. Back then, I couldn't work out why they were so offended. Watching it now I'm not sure any chat show host, serious or otherwise, would be quite so rude today.

You can see the moment each Bee Gee checks out of the conversation. Robin goes first, early on, when Clive calls them "hit writers, but one letter shy" (at about 3'20''). Barry goes when Clive calls them "tossers" (around 5'45"). Maurice is the most patient, playing along with a smile until the final insult (9'00"), when the brothers follow Barry off the stage.

@shaneharley says... IT'S FRIDAY!

2012-05-18T10:53:00.001+01:00

Can we still get away with Very Lazy PR?

2012-05-17T23:44:00.000+01:00

'Don't come dine with me' said the headline in The Telegraph today above a story about how the recession has put people off throwing dinner parties.

When PR people see this kind of news, we immediately scroll to the end to see which brand commissioned the research. Then we smile and metaphorically tip our imaginary hat at the agency behind the idea, where bright young people have brainstormed their client's message into a well-pitched public interest story.

This story, it turns out, was undertaken in conjunction with a brand of food called Very Lazy. They make mashed up garlic, ginger and chilli so lazy people (like me) don't have to mash it up. Despite their products probably being more expensive than buying the unprepared stuff and mashing it yourself, it's not a bad link between survey and brand story. Plus it got into The Telegraph, which is something that'll make Very Lazy Very Happy.

But then I saw the comments under the story. There aren't loads, but a few of them question the validity of the research. Some of them question the conclusions drawn. Others question the motivation of a food brand doing a survey about food.

In a climate where a voracious appetite for news means its easier than ever to get your story in the press, we mustn't forget that the amount of information out there means readers are far more savvy. People are questioning everything they read, and they now have channels to share their doubts with other readers. Readership, which was once an abstract concept, now has a voice.

Which means this style of story is much tougher to get right. If the survey doesn't have a killer angle, it won't get coverage. But if the story is too close to the client message, you'll get called out as a fake. Very Lazy did a fine job, but only just.

Surveys are still a hugely valuable way of communicating a message without resorting to cheesy marketing lingo. So how do we make sure our surveys strike the balance?

1. Don't commission a survey 'to get coverage'. Do it because you're interested in the topic, or think there might by an unexpected finding, or know that people would be really interested in the results. Don't always write questions that pander to a brand message. Make it challenging and honest.

2. Use the results of the survey in other parts of the business. Lots of PR surveys are only used in marketing, but they are a great opportunity to pool resources and find out something to the wider benefit of the business. Design the survey to be shared with product development, the sales team, or the bosses. Even better, write it for them first and make PR secondary (see point 1).

3. Spend some money on it. If you don't spend enough time brainstorming, writing, and fine-tuning the survey, it won't tell a good story. If you don't ask enough people, it'll be worthless. Put the survey at the centre of your campaign, and treat it like the most important tactic. It is not an afterthought or an add-on! And if you don't have enough budget, pool your resources with another department (see point 2).

And now a survey of my own... Do you use surveys in your PR campaigns?

Beastie Boys @ Glastonbury 1994

2012-05-05T16:05:00.000+01:00

I remember watching this live on TV, and then replaying it over and over again on video.

If you don't want to watch the whole thing, an amazing performance of Sabotage starts at 5'20".

@russellsimmons says... IT'S FRIDAY!

2012-05-04T15:28:00.001+01:00

Things I need to get out in the open to keep Spotify from going under

2012-04-30T10:19:00.000+01:00

I read in the Nutshell on Friday that Spotify's investors are getting antsy after it's Facebook tie-in hasn't made them money.

Ignoring the fact for a moment that many game-changing startups don't make money but still sell for hundreds of millions of dollars (*cough*Instagram*cough*) this reads as bad news for Spotify. Since it launched, Spotify has been at the centre of a storm of financial debate. Yes, it's a startup, which means it is going to need money. But it's also a startup that is playing in the commerical music space, which means it is not just operating and marketing costs it needs to recoup to keep afloat. It is also treading on some very powerful toes, sharing revenue with music labels to step them shutting it down for turning their industry on its head.

Which is why, as a paying customer since the very beginning, I've been OK with Spotify desperately trying to get me to approve its relentless requests for me to share what I'm listening to on Facebook. Yeah, it's amazingly annoying (especially when cancelling the popup crashes the mobile app), but the more intrinsically linked the two social networks are, the more they are likely to merge.

If the social media music market was a dancefloor, Spotify is a young geeky kid lunging clumsily at the hot popular girl (Facebook) with his tongue sticking out. I'm praying the kid gets lucky. But if this union is going to take place, we're all going to need to encourage the Facebook/Spotify snog. Having been burgled last year, losing all my MP3s in the process, I'm screwed if Spotify goes under. I'd have no music, aside from a few songs I keep on dusty plastic discs in a cupboard somewhere.

So, here and now, I pledge to share what I'm listening to on Facebook if Spotify needs me to. And it's going to be embarrassing. I have a penchant for 80s power ballads. And sometimes I dabble in Scandinavian electropop. I listen to Lana del Rey's album at least once a day. When I'm down, my 'sad songs' playlist consoles me with '74-'75 by The Connells. And when I need a boost, I'll probably dance in the kitchen to Labrinth or Tinie Tempah. Oh, and I'm really, really obsessed with Tori Amos (a concept which years ago led to a Tori Amos tattoo that I'll show you if you ask me nicely).

There we have it. It's all out in the open now, so I might as well give in and share it all on Facebook.

You should try it too. Spotify needs you, and so do I.

Obama on Fallon: I'm finding it difficult to believe this actually happened

2012-04-25T19:34:00.000+01:00

Nandos vs Santam: Now this is how you do viral video marketing

2012-04-24T12:49:00.000+01:00

Santam releases a reasonably clever ad for its insurance services.

Nandos does a parody version.

Santam bites back.

Genius.

Via @tacanderson.

Cosmopolis trailer = AMAZING

2012-04-22T17:47:00.000+01:00

Modern rules for living #2

2012-04-21T15:01:00.000+01:00

Clue: Apparently I'm being uncharacteristically rude.

In case you missed it: The Evening Standard's massive survey mixup

2012-04-17T22:25:00.005+01:00

Yesterday, The Evening Standard published a front page story about its exclusive poll of Londoners - revealing how almost eight out of ten (78%) people think mayoral candidate Boris Johnson is fighting on behalf of wealthy people more than any other group.

Today, the newspaper published a correction at the bottom of page 2 saying they had "failed to apply the correct sample weighting". The real number is 37%.

Anyone in PR will be feeling weird right now.

On one hand, we all know the power of a good survey and are applauding the Evening Standard for commissioning YouGov to test how real people are feeling about an important issue.

On the other, we all know how hard it is to interpret survey results, and live in fear of this kind of mistake.

Why Google+ is the most elegant social network

2012-04-14T20:04:00.004+01:00

Google+ reworked its interface this week, unveiling a cleaner look and adding some new features. It also created some controversial white space.

Google’s attempt at adding real-time and social data to its unquenchable thirst for information has been described by many – me included – as a cynical move and one that won’t catch on.

But to quote Robert Scoble, long-time social media legend and Google+ advocate:

You all are invited to a little party I'm throwing on Monday night. I'll be in the corner with the other Google+ advocates. Oh, wait, there's 170 million of you? Shhhh, don't tell the press. They think this place is a ghost town.

And once you look at it closely, those heralding Google+ as a game-changer might be right. I’ve been sporadically using the service since it launched, and the bones of an incredible social network are there. You want reasons? Here are three:

1. Circles

There are so many social networks out there, I’m using at least five every day with different sets of parameters for who can be my connections in each one. These people tend to overlap (my family are on Path and Facebook, my colleagues on Facebook and Instagram, my clients on LinkedIn and Twitter, and so on). I end up sending multiple messages to the same people, or having to use multiple services to reach the right group (I even created an iPhone app to help me stop having to do that). Even worse, I end up sharing something that isn’t appropriate with one set of contacts. Circles is an elegant solution to managing that problem.

2. Instant upload

You can set Google+ to automatically save photos from your phone to a private or public album. Apple has tried to do this with Photo Stream, but anyone who has tried to use it quickly realized that Apple had to invent a tenth circle of Hell devoted to people who once took an embarrassing photo and are then doomed to reside there, forever trying to delete it then watching it come back until they're forced scoop out their own eyeballs. Once again, Google+ provides a simple and elegant solution to transfer images from a phone to the web (but not quite as surprising as Bump's).

3. Hangouts

Admission: I’ve never used Hangouts. But the idea is wonderful. If every single person who pops up in my Google Chat window as being online was a friend or family member and not someone I haven’t spoken to in years, I’d be a regular user. No separate application to install, no separate contacts list, and fully integrated into a network you’re already using. Facebook tried this, but it’s nowhere near as slick, and the way the camera shifts to the speaker in Hangouts (like in proper office-based videoconferencing) looks wonderfully elegant.

I’m sure there are many more good things about Google+, but these are three things that I think are particularly special. I’m going to hang out there more often to see if it really could become a useful tool – feel free to add me to an appropriately-named circle. The fact that you’re reading this probably means you’re already in my ‘PR Geeks’ one.

Now I just need to get over the fact that Google knows what I’m reading, where I am, who I’m saying things to, what I look like, and what I’m thinking. It’s lucky it does all of the above in such an elegant way, otherwise this would all be a bit frightening…

How to get more likes on Facebook

2012-04-12T21:50:00.002+01:00

I will be emailing this to everyone I know tomorrow.

Why I backed the Pebble e-paper watch...

2012-04-12T09:41:00.001+01:00

Er, because I want one.

Be a fake celebrity for the day

2012-04-11T13:28:00.003+01:00

Pop down to your local shopping centre with some mates pretending to be an entourage, and you too could get shops closed for you to browse in private / security guards protecting you from crowds of 'fans'. Oh, and girls desperate to go out with you (watch to the end if you can bear it).

Amazing stuff, and a clear indicator that we just love the idea of pointless celebrity that hasn't been earned through actually *doing things*. If you want more proof, just look at the Kardashians...

I'm off to try this in Covent Garden Piazza.

Why the standard-issue iPhone earphones are the best earphones in the world

2012-03-26T21:22:00.005+01:00

I think the standard-issue Apple earphones (headphones? earbuds?) you get with the iPhone are one of the most cleverly designed products we have seen in the history of technology.

You are probably thinking or saying one of these things right now:

"The sound from them is dreadful! No bass! So tinny!"

"The white rubber bits get filthy! Mine look disgusting!"

"Are you kidding?! They don't even stay in my ears!"

"They are made so badly! I'm on my fourth pair!"

"What?! They leak worse than a screen door on a submarine!"

And this is where you'd be wrong: They are the perfect commuting accessory. Yes, you heard me. The Apple ones are PERFECT.

When I get the tube to work, I need something that sits loosely in my ears. I have a pair of Sennheiser CX300 II earphones that fit so snugly in my ear that, by the time I get to work, my ears are throbbing.

Oh, and the Sennheisers seal so well I'm oblivious to all other sounds. Has my train been diverted? Is someone calling out a warning? Did I hear that car hurtling towards me as I cross the road? I'd have no clue. With the iPhone headphones I get enough ambient sound to allow me to get one with normal life while Spotify provides the soundtrack.

Oh, and talking of Spotify, the button on the iPhone headphones controls Spotify with one click to stop/start, two clicks to forward a track, and three for back. I can click to stop the track, leave them in my ears, and still order a coffee on the way to work. Even if I'd shelled out for the Sennheisers with the in-line remote I'd have to pull out an earbud to have a conversation.

Oh, and talking of earbuds, I have already lost a couple of the Sennheisers' interchangeable earbuds. The Apple headphones have no such complexity. The hardy little suckers have been through the washing machine in a pocket and didn't bat an eyelid. (Top tip: It solved the newspaper print smudging too.)

Oh, and talking of pockets, the Apple headphones have a rubberised coating which means I spend about a quarter of the time it takes me to untangle the wires compared to my other two pairs. They look neat and tidy when in the ear too, without sticking out for miles, in-your-face branding or unnecessary bling.

To summarise:

So comfortable you can wear them all day

So versatile you can hear external noise without removing them

So tough they can go through the wash and still work

So clever they tangle less than the others

So cheap (they were free with the device)

Sure, if you're a sonic purist in search of perfect noise-cancelling or the widest dynamic range, then the Apple earphones are not for you. But then you shouldn't be listening on a phone, either.

If all of these points don't add up to a design classic, I don't know what would.

Discuss.

(Photo by p_a_h)

One week to go until our Social Advertising breakfast briefing - are you coming along?

2012-03-22T11:45:00.004Z

I'll be chairing a debate on social advertising next Thursday, as part of a new series that Waggener Edstrom will be running on the big questions facing PR and marketing people.

Just so you know, I'll probably be asking whether a PR agency is the best choice for managing a social ad campaign, quizzing people on how social advertising in B2B is different from B2C, and challenging the rules of advertising campaign planning. But I'm open to ideas. Our great panel members will have a lot to say I'm sure.

If you're an in-house marketer, it would be great to see you there. Spaces are free but limited, and I heard the breakfasts are good.

---------------------------------------------------

BRIEFING: INTEGRATING SOCIAL ADVERTISING

THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 9.30am

Hosted by Waggener Edstrom’s @prgeek, Jon Silk, our panel will uncover trends in social advertising, debate tips and tricks for success, and discuss industry benchmark data.

THE PANEL:

· Waggener Edstrom Head of Digital Strategies, EMEA, Tac Anderson
· Casio Marketing Director, Tim Gould
· Econsultancy News Editor, Vikki Chowney

Doors open at 9am for a 9.30am start. 11am finish. Breakfast will be provided.

Venue:

Paramount, 31st Floor Centre Point Tower, 101-103 New Oxford Street, London Wc1a 1DD

RSVP: btaylor@waggeneredstrom.com

Spaces for in-house marketers only

For each company that attends, Waggener Edstrom will donate £10 to The Connection at St. Martins which helps homeless people by providing specialist services – including a day and night centre, outreach for rough sleepers, skills training and career advice.

---------------------------------------------------

TED talk takes a turn for the tacky

2012-03-12T12:50:00.004Z

I originally liked the idea for this alternative TED talk, but then it started to fill me with a feeling of disappointment. I know it's cool to mess with the mundane, but the problem here is that TED isn't mundane.

The speaker was billed as the head of a startup using crowdsourced solar panel technology to improve healthcare, and if I'd been there I would've been looking forward to it. Instead, people got five minutes of grown-ups messing about in leotards. The full story is here.

I've seen so many inspirational and enjoyable TED talks (like this one, this one, and my all-time favourite one), that I find this stunt a bit disappointing. If there had been a point to it, maybe I'd have enjoyed it more. Don't get me wrong - I'm all for grown-ups messing about, but I'd rather they did it to alleviate formality in an overly-formal situation, or to create awareness of a cause.

Maybe just creating more awareness of TED was a good reason to do it.

What do you think?

Yeah, so I made an iPhone app

2012-03-09T12:47:00.011Z

Sorry to keep going on about it, but my first iPhone app hit the App Store this week and I'm a bit excited.

It's been annoying me for ages - years, in fact - that there isn't a dedicated 'write' button on my iPhone. Maybe it's me, but it's annoying that I have to think about how to share a message before I type the message. It just seems unnatural. Android and Windows phones seem to handle this better, but Apple's relentless dedication to simplicity means messaging features are kept very separate.

I'm often walking along when something funny hits me, or I see something cool, and I want to capture that thought in a short sentence and whizz it off a friend, or stick it on Facebook, or Tweet it. Thinking about how to share the message then gets in the way, like a big creative wall. I always wanted to decide that bit later. Or even afterwards, and send the same message again via a different service.

Topwrite (which was built by friend's company Episty, with design from the infinitely gorgeous Cassandra Lear) is the dedicated write button that I wanted on my iPhone. I keep it in the top right of my home screen, and I made it bright orange so it's hard to miss when I'm walking along.

It took a couple of nerve wracking weeks in January to see if the first version would be accepted by Apple. We then sent it to a small group of testers, who pointed out all the things wrong with it. The new version hit the App Store yesterday.

So far, some important people have said nice things. We even got a plug on the Hello Internet People podcast.

What with it being my day job and everything, I've made a suitably large amount of ways for you to follow / like / pin stuff to Topwrite. Or you could just go to the website and look at the awesome and slightly ridiculous 'instructional' cartoons done by Ryan Choi.

Anyway, it's only day two of this. It's all rather new, and a little terrifying. But if you try out Topwrite, I'd be really interested to hear what you think of it.

Friendsheet: a Pinterest clone tacked onto Facebook

2012-03-08T10:50:00.010Z

Pinterest: Cool way of viewing images, curated by other people.

Friendsheet: Cool way of viewing your Facebook friends' photos.

The pinboard look is so hot right now.

I think a 7-inch iPad will be announced next week

2012-03-02T13:23:00.005Z

So many people are trying to find the hidden meaning in Apple's event invite, rumoured to be centred on a buttonless, retina display-toting iPad 3.

But did anyone spot the GIANT NUMBER SEVEN? Just me?

Twitter knows who is going to win an Oscar

2012-02-22T19:50:00.010Z

For the last two years, my US colleagues have run the Oscar nominations through our Twitter analysis machine (sits under Jen's desk, looks like an industrial pasta maker, runs on dilithium crystal) and predicted some winners. Twitter managed to tell us the winners of Best Picture in 2010 and Best Actress and Best Actor in 2011.

They've run the numbers again this year. Don't come crying to me if they're wrong: Blame yourself for not Tweeting enough about how much you love Brad Pitt.