Global PR firm Edelman today publishes its annual Trust Barometer. For over a decade, this research into global attitudes has triggered conversations around trust in business and government. And this year, with a US presidential election around the corner and the EU still trying to plot a way to economic security, trust remains at a premium for businesses and brands.

Having scoured the Barometer findings, one message shines through in this year’s report: trust will depend on far more than platitudes emanating from the corporate press office. People don’t want more Facebook, they want keener responsiveness, more openness, better dialogue, and more frequent communication from companies and brands. Read More »

It’s ironic that Bell Pottinger – the guardian of many reputations – is currently dealing with its own reputation issue.

Reports suggesting Bell Pottinger could manipulate Google results to drown out negative coverage of Uzbek human rights violations and child labour have damaged the reputation of reputation management. Although the PR industry has a power to influence, this influence is limited. If the truth is dark and nasty, the truth will out eventually. Read More »

A few weeks ago, I asked this question, effectively launching the first stage of The CRAPPs (Communicative Relations Awards from PR Professionals), a light-hearted PR awards scheme launched in 2010 to celebrate the often-fractious relationship between journalists and the public relations industry.

Well, I just wanted to quickly blog to tell you that the ten most nominated names in each category have been announced, in categories such as ‘The ‘most likely to tell you to sling your hook’ award and ‘Least twattish Twitterer – the must follow journo’ (with a separate category for ‘must-follow PR’). Read More »

Last year, we launched a different sort of journalist/PR award scheme. We wanted to celebrate the famously love/hate relationship between both camps in a unique, memorable way. How did we choose to celebrate this, I hear you ask?

Well, by poking fun at it, now you mention it.

The CRAPPs (The Communicative Relations Awards from PR Professionals – the acronym unsurprisingly came first) was born in 2010 and was always intended to be a light-hearted affair, in an industry awards calendar more tightly packed than Vanessa Feltz’s fridge. Let the CIPRs of this world battle it out for serious, industry-respected awards, we thought. We’re just happy bringing a bit of premature Christmas cheer to the professional world we inhabit. Read More »

PR agency Brandlink Communications found itself in a PR disaster over the weekend when one of its vice presidents called influential blogger Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess), a “f***ing bitch” in a reply-all kerfuffle.

According to Lawson, the saga began when she received an email pitch from Brandlink about a Kardashian sister who had been spotted wearing pantyhose. Read More »

Digital, and especially social media, has disrupted the media industry. The shift from broadcasting to peer-casting; the amount of user generated content; the new paths in which brand related information reaches consumers; the required speed of response and the multiple new brand touchpoints are only some of the challenge brands and agencies are facing today. Read More »

Recently, I had lunch with the editor of a marketing publication for a discussion about the state of public relations. After exchanging some pleasantries, I asked whether she felt public relations and marketing professionals were comfortable with social media, or at least getting comfortable.

Her response took me by surprise: not even close. Read More »

So now we all officially know what we already knew. Whatever one might think about the importance of alleged affairs by alleged footballers with alleged models though, the past few weeks has dramatically demonstrated how the rules of engagement have changed for anyone wishing to fully control the flow of information about themselves.

In short, you can’t. A whole new set of social skills needs to be employed if you don’t want to end up with 75,000 people tweeting about you for all the wrong reasons. Read More »

Let’s face it: most PRs probably don’t have a grasp on search engine optimisation. They might have heard of the term and may know a little bit about Google’s Keyword Tool and on-page optimisation, but how many PR firms could actually hold their hand up and say that they could offer a full SEO programme beyond just content creation?

By this I mean website re-architecture, link building, keyword position tracking and all those other things that help organisations compete effectively on search engines? Read More »

As the Facebook and Burston-Marstellar Google smear story continues to rumble the social network has come out and said that while it is true it didn’t want its name used it argues that its intentions were never to smear Google anonymously.

It said it wanted to see if people thought the this Google Social Circles tool was more of an issue than just a competitive one between Facebook and Google. That is why, it says, it didn’t want its name used – not because we are scared of the issue or don’t think it’s legitimate. Read More »