Category: Communications

Fianna Fuckup – Government party trick bloggers into event

Update: Damien Blake who organised the “getting the bloggers and non-hacks to come along” bit has a blog post on this, apologising for the cockup and taking blame for it. He has also left comments below.

So Fianna Fáil got one of Obama’s web people to come and give a talk to the public about what he did. Or rather, an event billed to be a talk by Joe Rospars was advertised and bloggers were asked to put it on Twitter and their blogs.

It was far from transparent that it was going to be a Fianna Fáil supported event though it was obvious given Fianna Fail were twittering it themselves. It’s fine if they are getting this guy over as a consultant and then getting him to talk to the public, while here. However it seems very much that this was a Fianna Fáil event with a waving monkey for a few seconds and the rest was a party political broadcast. So Fianna Fáil without saying they were Fianna Fáil invited a load of bloggers to this with the (no pun intended) hope of seeing one of the Obamanointed ones but as I write this these bloggers are completely and utterly pissed off. Twitter is alight with their ire and it even seems Fianna Fáil are already trying to placate some journalists:

@unarocks on the phone with FF – they just called to try and control the situation.. too late guys!

Some of the ire here:

LIVID having been ambushed by Fianna Fail, lured with bait of Joe Rospars (Obama campaign director).

and here:

@fionnkidney i feel completely duped. How does FF think this is a good way to engage with bloggers?! TOOLS.

and here:

#rospars event over. People running away. Not a good event at all.

and here:

this event was NOT advertised as FF event. Recruitment was not through FF. But we went to a FF launch plus # Rospars with his FF account

When you start down the route of engaging with an online public, starting off with dishonesty won’t get you far. Events like these are meant to build trust, instead Fianna Fáil will now be even more hated and mistrusted.

More posts on this:

A very good summary from Suzy Byrne.

More on IrishElection.

And on Fionn’s site.

Green Ink on it.

Gav.

Brendan.

Irish Times coverage.

Collision Course II – Final Details – Sharing is caring

The second Collision Course is going to be on on Wednesday February 18th, again in the Edelman Offices on Stephen’s Green. We’ll start at 6.11pm and go on for an hour and half. 30 people have stuck their name down so far for this so we’re fairly full. But add your name too as there’ll be cancelations no doubt.

At this Collision Course we’re going to get the PR and Digital Marketing people to mix more with the bloggers who are attending and to share their experiences during the time we have. On the night we’ll split into three groups, each group will hopefully have the same ratio of PR/Marketing people to bloggers and each group will be given a campaign to work on. Each group will then present their ideas on what they’d do. The purpose is to cross-train/cross-share their opinions and insights and in doing so, get to know each other even more.

Last time we all went our own ways afterwards so maybe we should stick around for a while and get to know each other a bit more or head to a bar. Last time some of us went to O’Donoghues. Perhaps we can do the same again?

Police car crash
Photo owned by big-ashb (cc)

The next Collision Course is March 11th, again in Dublin. We’d like to try out another venue but to suit everyone, it needs to be in the City Centre. Offers are appreciated. The venue needs to be quiet so we can marvel at the sound of our own voice and needs to hold 30-40 people.

Collision Course 1 – Aftermath

Well actually, in case it wasn’t clear, bloggers are not whores for free stuff.

Whore in Boca
Photo owned by tercerojista (cc)

Other coverage of the first event: Rick, Alexia, Peter, Will, Thomas, Eoin, Alastair.

I’d disagree that throwing free stuff at bloggers or inviting them to events is good for either demographic. That kind of stuff is superficial and lacks any kind of thought. Bloggers are more than Gavin Lambe-Botoxes. And I’d strongly disagree with Thomas that bloggers think they’re journalists either. That is easily proved wrong with the slightest interaction with bloggers. Journalism is way more than writing about free stuff you were given and maybe it should never have done so.

For me, the real value in working with bloggers is giving unbiased information to opinion formers, those who reach beyond their blog readership and are respected by other blogs and their peers in the offline world. Those who write and analyze because they want to, not because they got the offer of something. If you have a shit hot product then giving the gorey details to a blogger who considers their blog as a space that covers these products is good enough, they’ll be clever enough to come to the right conclusion about it. Answer all the questions they have about it. If you have a shit product though then don’t give it to a blogger, unless it’s one of the claphappy ones out there that take money to do reviews anyway. No I won’t supply a list. They might be good for search engines but they’re not respected.

Saying that, the web and the Internet might be the future but this is the present and bloggers have some influence but not a lot. PR people need to figure out the value in bringing bloggers to events and boozing them up and whatnot. Perhaps a simple email with a few attached documents might be more than enough. Many bloggers might appreciate access to someone in a company or an information source rather than samples of a product. This billable hours thing that was mentioned a lot at Collision Course suggests PR companies have limited resources and some clients might not want to pay big amounts. If that’s the case, maybe one’s time is better spent trying to get discussion of your client or their company on to Pat Kenny or mentioned in the Sunday Business Post but then again, this is pretty much the same as bringing bloggers to events. Short term.

You know, the R in PR? Working on that might be better. Proper relationship building takes much longer than that though and billable hours will probably hamper that. Perhaps that’s why the clever PR firms hand over the relationship to internal employees of their client company once the blogger or journalist is first introduced via the PR company? Good matchmakers are good PR people. The King sending gifts to his potential Queen does nothing if she has more than a few braincells. Which goes back to the first line in this post.

There is nothing new in this globally but locally it seems bloggers and PR people are learning these basics. If you’re not clever on how you work with bloggers and how bloggers work with PR companies then you will see blog posts like this famous and very true blog post from Tom Coates about his disgust with PR and Marketing types. That happened 18 months ago in the UK. Hopefully the idea of Collision Course and ongoing feedback will stop this. Perhaps next time those that aired their feelings in the pub afterwards might actually do so at the event where the PR people were.

For the next Collision Course I’d hope we can move beyond seeing how best to make contact with bloggers and ask the PR people the best way bloggers can contact their clients or get information from their clients via PR companies. It’s two-way, not one way. In addition I’d hope to get bloggers and PR people to bring along what they consider good examples of Online PR and Marketing.

Collision Course II – February 18th 2009

While the first Collision Course hasn’t even happened yet, there are enough people being turned away (sorry people!) to warrant a second one. Unless we all end up doing some kind of Battle Royale thing, there’ll be a second and a third and so on. We might as well make this a regular thing. Some of the wrinkles might get ironed out by the next one too. It would also be good to see new faces at the second one. So if you’re a blogger, a PR person or someone in Digital Marketing then sign up in the comments for the next Collision Course.

If a PR or Marketing company wants to volunteer a space for 30 people or less on the evening of February 18th, let me know too.

www.Army.mil
Photo owned by Army.mil (cc)

Marketing is the quick shag, PR is the long-term relationship

In doing a video interview with Niall I uttered something like the title of this blog post. He has promised to edit the video to make me look like a tool. Minutes in the editing suite so… I don’t know is that statement correct.

From what I can see people look at marketing in terms of campaigns, short sharp jousts with the world and then they’re over and done with. Cigarette time. Look at all those “micro” and “mini” sites that are out there from marketing campaigns and they’re just gathering web dust now. Such a waste really. It’s all lust with these interactions.

Then we have the idea of PR being about building relationships between companies and individuals or people with authority and/or influence. Building those kind of relationships takes more work and time but if we keep with the analogy, don’t a lot of long-term relationships become rather boring? Even when the lust turns to love? Will a mistress pop up from time to time? Will there be a divorce?

Surely though with the web and the always-on, always some kind of connection to people vibe, the fun and energy of the marketing jousts can be worked into something longer term and into relationship territory. I’m looking at the brilliant marketing concepts from Burker King of late and again and again they bring something fun out and people are anticipating them. Yet, where is the central hub for fans of Burger King campaigns? They could actually gain super fans if they so wanted by creating that hub. What powers Apple fans and the anticipation of a new product could actually be applied to BK’s odd marketing and bring it under the wing of PR.

"Lingua" by Jim Sanborn
Photo owned by dbking (cc)

You’re all media companies now Dave

A recent Times article pretty much was a copy and paste job from a blog post from Facebook. Who needs to send out press releases when you know a blog post will get the attention of the world? Steve Jobs did it last week too.

If you’re going to be doing business, you’re going to have to have an online element. No matter who you are, no matter what your product. This doesn’t mean that you have to be a newspaper-type organisation or do podcasts or videos but your current and future clients expect interactions that are more than a dull brochure-like website or a phone call or a replied-to email. With the current masses expecting more interactivity and a more personal relationship with who they buy from, it’s time to gear up.

Brick code
Photo owned by hiler2002 (cc)

You’re going to have to do Online Marketing and you’re going to have to do Online PR but perhaps you’re doing this and unaware that what you’re doing has a name. You’ll have to create content in various formats, be it blog posts, video tutorials, Flickr uploads and you’ll have to engage with people not just in the short term but over the course of your business life. This is how you’re a media company. When customers want to ask you something they should be able to find you where they are, not just where you are. As important, if not moreso though is that their peers that they ask should know your company and products and do the work of marketing on your behalf because they have some kind of relationship with you already.

Yes it means more work or maybe it just means you have to be cleverer with your existing resources. The payoff though is that you’ll have broader reach over space and time. Do you need to do it? I think yes but then you don’t need to be in the Golden Pages or have a phone either and you might still keep going.

Again, being a media company now doesn’t mean being a content producer, you can get others to do that but you do need to know that you are in the media, you are the media, you are working with the media.

*You’re my wife now Dave comes from The League Of Gentlemen

Want press coverage? Now is a good time

Everyone is winding down now for Christmas with some PR agencies not back until the New Year but news still happens and newspapers and radio stations still need content. Some do shut their doors but the mains ones need to maintain a presence. Now is as good a time as any to crowbar your company or product into the media.

What might make it easier again to get some attention is something that fits well with the current zeitgeists. Recession, Christmas, banks, job losses. Something anti-gloom too might work well. Or a riot:

Protesting Clowns
Photo owned by pinguino (cc)

Collision Course 1 – Edelman HQ, Jan 21st, 6.17pm

Update: 12 Jan 2009 – Event is now full

The event I previously offered to organise, that of Irish bloggers meeting PR and Marketing folk will happen on Jan 21st in Dublin thanks to Edelman who are offering up space to host it. Yeah it’s 6.17pm as 6.15pm is just a tad too uniform but come along at 6.15pm if you feel more comfortable with that. Spaces are limited to 30 and those who already stuck their name down get first refusal.

Let
Photo owned by lepiaf.geo (cc)

The format will be a PR rep will give a five minute talk about what PR is about and maybe give some Irish context and then we’ll have an Irish blogger share their experiences of what blogging in Ireland is about and then we’ll open the floor so anyone can pick the brains of this combined group.

The idea of this meetup (and perhaps it will become a regular thing) is for those who interact so much online can share their experiences with those people employed to try and connect with these digital natives and give them what they want. A lot of the bad experiences around PR and Marketing are to do with miscommunications between the various groups. Lets try and sort that.

Edelman’s address is:

5th Floor
Huguenot House
37 St Stephens’ Green
Dublin 2 – Ireland

The Rear
Photo owned by Alana Elliott (cc)

Merry Christmas – Our gift to you for 2009

The feedback about the Online PR post has been extensive in the past 24 hours, thank you for that. It’s been put to me that I need to put my money where my mouth is or some other cliché and so I will. It’s not enough for bloggers (I’m one of them!) to bleat on their blogs about what they want from PR people and Marketing people and how they want to be approached, if they want to be approached. Opt in remember!

Papas noel gaiteros
Photo owned by DrZito (cc)

So I’m offering to run an event in mid-January where bloggers that are interested (I’ll provide booze and cake to bribe them!) can come along and meet up with PR and Marketing people who can mingle with them and get their feedback on campaigns or thoughts they had on how to engage with the online community which includes bloggers, social networkers and all the rest. I would like to see more PR and Marketing people communicating with Irish bloggers who are interested in these communications and having these companies listen to what the online people think and to try and work with these onliners to get them what they want.

Want to come along? Leave a comment below, be you a blogger or a PR/Marketing type.

Lane
Photo owned by tomeppy (cc)