The Sun Won’t Win it

30 09 2009

File:It's The Sun Wot Won It.jpgThe Murdoch owned tabloid came out last night in favour of the Cameron led Conservative party.  It did so whilst trumpeting the claim that it always picks the winner in the UK general election.

There was more than a nod to the headline “It’s The Sun Wot Won It” printed after the 1992 vote when they backed John Major. In the confident proclamations of George Pascoe-Watson, the paper’s political editor, do we detect the hint of a suggestion that Britain’s biggest daily dose of dead wood and ink actually decides the outcome of the poll?

There is no question that Gordon Brown’s popularity is at the lowest of ebbs but there is plenty of evidence around the social networks that the Sun’s decision has actually brought people out in support of Gordon.  National papers simply do not carry the same political influence when the ordinary voter can cry ‘foul’ and then publish their own views.  With the opinion polls so solidly predicting a Conservative coup, Murdoch and his red top flagship might even be accused of bandwagon jumping.

We also now live in an era where the people talk back and are far less likely than ever before to be told by the media how to vote.  Labour’s chances don’t look good but The Sun may have given the divided activists something to rally around.  Former prime minister Harold Wilson said “a week is a long time in politics” and there are still quite a few weeks to go.


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Categories : Journalism, Newspapers, Politics

Upcoming Events

8 09 2009

This blog is a companion to my book ‘Public Relations and the Social Web’ , so if you are reading this you probably have some interest in the subject and might like to know about some events that I will be speaking at in the next few weeks. 

On the 16 September I will be talking about ‘The Cutting Edge of Digital PR’  at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations(CIPR) in London. It is a freshly squeezed breakfast briefing. 

Then on 6 October I will be running a session on Social Media in Leeds for the CIPR Northern Conference.  The one day conference has a great line up Alistair Campbell, former press secretary to Tony Blair, topping the bill.  Also in the line up are Yasmin Diamond, Director of Communication at the Home Office; Heather McGregor, Columnist for the Financial Times. 

There will also be masterclasses from Stuart Bruce, MD of Wolfstar; Sarah Knight, Engagement and PR Director at BJL; the eponymous Andy Green of Green Communications; Paul Willis, Director of the Centre for Public Relations Studies at Leeds Business School (LMU) and Robin Wilson Director of Digital PR and Social Media at McCann Erickson; plus more besides.

Then on the 30 October I will be speaking at the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) Summit at Merchant Taylors Hall, Threadneedle Street, London.


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Categories : Politics, PR

MPs in Commons Tweet Speaker Results

23 06 2009

The results of the House of Commons Speaker elections last night were delivered live via twitter throughout the evening.  At every voting round the results were posted live on Twitter within seconds of being announced to MPs. 

This was made possible because many of the MPs were doing the posting themselves, apparently live from the floor of the House.

Possibly the first to announce the result was Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson, who earlier in the evening revealed who she was voting for in the supposed secret ballot.  Both Tom Watson MP and Jim Knight MP leaked the unofficial result five minutes before it was announced to MPs.  Whilst the voting figures they gave were wide of the mark, they both had the winner right, meaning for the first time ever ordinary voters had the result before many MPs.

The rapidly increasing number of MPs now microblogging (sometimes from inside the chamber) is potentially far more significant for the House than the appointment of John Bercow MP as a radical reforming Speaker.


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Categories : Blogs and blogging, Politics, Twitter

This Week’s Best of the Blogs #2

19 06 2009

1. PR MEDIA BLOG – Will Twitter Do the Business?

Upfront PRMB is the Staniforth blog, where I work, but this is a guest post from Phil Jones, the Sales and Marketing Director at Brother (not a client).  It is a really excellent take on the benefits of microblogging to businesses.  It is the first of a two-parter, with the second published today.

2. GODDAMIT I’M MAD – Becoming a Man

Sister Wolf has been mad for a long time…and she’s getting madder.  This is a piece prompted by Chastity Bono’s plan to have a sex change.  The web can be a weird and wonderful place.

3. TED BLOG – Q&A with Clay Shirky on Twitter and Iran

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It began as a conference in 1984 and the brand has grown to cover a range of activities. The NYU professor Clay Shirky reveals how mobiles, the social web, Facebook and Twitter have changed the rules of the game in Iran.

4. ReadWriteWeb – Twitter Censoring Trending Topics

When the crowd decides to talk dirty it seems that twitter doesn’t want us to know.

5 Guardian.co.uk – Investigate Your MPs Expenses

Another piece of crowd sourcing. with the sheer volume of paperwork the Guardian has opened up the 700,000 documents of MPs’ expenses so the the public can identify individual claims, or expenses they think merit further investigation. You can even work through your own MP’s claims for the past four years.


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Categories : Blogs and blogging, Politics, Social Web, User Generated Content

Politics and the Social Web

26 05 2009

In the words of Dan Rather the US veteran TV news anchor “Candidates do hate, genuinely hate, audience participation, because they like to control the environment,” When faced with the idea that voters will ask them questions via a YouTube video, he says, and “they get the shivers.”

 The long-term effects of using generated content and other aspects of the social web on our political systems will be fascinating to observe.  There is no walk of life where messages have been more tightly controlled than in the political arena.  As brands and corporate bodies begin to learn that they are operating in world where the customer talks back, politicians will come to learn that they need to do far more than pay lip service to their promises of listening to and respecting the opinions of their electorate.   

 The level of scrutiny that they will face will continue to increase and there will be greater availability of physical records in terms of audio visual recordings of what they do and what they say.  These records will be searchable and will exist for very long time making politicians ever more accountable for their promises.


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Categories : Journalism, Politics, Social Web, TV

Has Jacqui Smith Been to Manchester?

7 05 2009

The UK government scored yet another PR own goal when it was announced today that they would trial the national ID card scheme in Manchester.  This idea is frankly bonkers on almost every possible level.

The ID cards will be £30 and ‘voluntary’.  My experience of Mancunians suggests it is unlikely that we’d volunteer to part with civil liberties and pay for the privilege. I can hear the conversation in the newsagents as we speak “…sod it cancel the paper and the lottery tickets for the next few weeks, I’ll have one of them ID cards instead. Cheers mate.”

I posted a poll on Twitter this morning – it’s a modest response but resolute (over 86% at the last count) in the view that we should resist the introduction of the scheme. Even the Labour candidate for Withington Lucy Powell doesn’t think that there will be much uptake.

What is more, we citizens of the Republic of Mancunia are not overly keen on being told what to do, especially if it’s one rule for them and another for us. Come on Jacqui take a trip up to Manchester and we’ll tell you exactly what we think.


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Categories : Politics

McBride & Draper: New Media, Old School

14 04 2009

A month ago I wrote a piece on this blog about Derek Draper and how unsuited I thought he was to lead Labour’s social media campaigns.  I pointed out that he had recently been suspended from the social network de jour – ‘twitter’.   

Little did I know what I had unleashed.  Derek blogged about me using false quotes and misrepresenting my recently published book.  He e-mailed me stating “your legal threats are pathetic,  i can – and will – pour a bucket of shit over anyone’s head who has tried to do the same to me” (sic).  He later the same day emailed many of my colleagues and others in the PR industry with links to his “satirical” blog post.

This was very small beer in comparison to what was in the pipeline for the proposed ‘Red Rag’ site.  Derek Draper and Damian McBride are of the old school ‘command and control’  approach to political media management.   They just don’t get the openness that the social web brings with it.  If you deceive or intimidate there is every chance that it will be made public.  The Guido Fawkes Order Order blog that they appear to want to emulate is anti-government and you just can’t replicate that if you represent the government.

Also of the old school is Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office Minister with overall responsibility for ‘digital engagement’.  The debate rages still as to whether he knew about ‘Red Rag’ but if it had reached the stage where content suggestions were being made by one of his charges then he should have.  The point is quite simple; like Draper and McBride he doesn’t understand the implications for open and transparent politics that come with citizen media.  If you don’t get it, you can’t run it.


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Categories : Blogs and blogging, Politics, Social Web, Twitter

Follow Friday Five #4

13 03 2009

Here are five blogs that you might want to start following this Friday. With four consecutive posts I can safely claim this as a regular feature.  The idea is borrowed from the twitter concept of  Follow Friday with a faint whiff of Ian Dale’s Daley Dozen but with a lower blog count. 

Here are the latest five that you might want to dip into or add to your RSS reader …on a Friday.  As ever it is a spectrum that covers PR, a bit of politics, some media and other stuff to.  Here’s the smorgasbord for this Friday…

1.  Alastair Campbell.org   Love him or loathe him, and for me it’s neither, you can not deny his iconic status.  He’s a journalist, he know’s a great deal and this blog is a great read.  He’s a spin doctor who has reinvented himself as a social web aficionado. Log on and have a look.

2. Stephen Newton’s diary of sorts… One of the first ever Manchester bloggers and the voice or reason.  Stephen tackles big subjects and always has a great angle.  I liked the Cadburys eyebrow ad…he didn’t. One of my top picks since way back when.

3. MAD or Media Arts and Disruption. (Disclosure: it’s from TBWA\ and I work for the group but I’m not involved with the blog) If you work in advertising or marketing, MAD is a must add to your RSS. Great work.

4. PR nowandthen The work of Katie Moffatt or Katie Rocket as she is known in some social media circles. She is self effacing but really gets it all, far more than most.  How many people do you know from the North of England that are currently at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin Texas?

5. Sarah Hartley – The Hartley 2.0 blog, not as essential as H2O  the personal blog of journalist Sarah Hartley who is the head digital honcho at the Manchester Evening News. She blogs for them and also on food hence her social media moniker ‘Foodie Sarah’.

Enjoy. It’s all good.  
 


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Categories : Blogs and blogging, Journalism, Politics, PR

Labour Draper is at it Again

11 03 2009

Derek Draper has recently returned to the Labour fold to champion their social media offensive after many years of absence.  He is a  spin doctor of the old school who seems incapable of ditching the smoke and mirrors.  He has been building a following  on twitter but his account was suspended yesterday as a result of unusual activity, which usually means you have been breaking twitter rules in terms of the number of people that you are trying to follow. In effect spamming.

He however appears to be suggesting that it didn’t happen, and points the finger at political bloggers Ian Dale and Guido “they are saying that my account is supended, which it isn’t.”  Well it may not be now but it was.  Now that he is back in twitter fold it would be interesting to see how many people the spinmeister is following who are not following him back.  What would be a reasonable figure, 20, 50, 100 or even 500? As of this moment @DerekDraper is following 1551 who are not following him. Smells of spam to me. What all politicos need to realise when they are operating in the social web is that it is all in public.  Put away the mirrors and spare us the smoke.


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Categories : Blogs and blogging, Politics, PR, Twitter

Obama – I’ve Started…so I’ll Finish?

4 03 2009

In the last 24 hours Barack Obama’s Twitter has been ousted from the number one spot.  His 352,531 followers have been eclipsed by CNN’s breaking news feed @cnnbrk.  The reason is quite simple, since winning the presidential election the feed has had just two updates, and neither were posted by the president himself.

During the election campaign many of Obama’s tweets were in the first person, possibly posted by him on the ubiquitous campaign Blackberry.  It has presumably been decided that it is un-presidential to tweet.

What does this mean for the administration that pioneered engagement through social media as a key part of an election campaign? There is the new ObamaNews feed but it isn’t personal so it’s not really in keeping with the medium and it has just 24,000 followers at present, less than that of the average self respecting stand up comedian.  

In four years Obama will have to go to the people again. Will it be credible if he starts to engage once more at the point that he is looking for the popular vote, or will he leave that to his opponent? (It may be too late for McCain but he has added 50,000 Twitter followers in the last week). This is a serious question; is engagement with the people something that is just to be done during elections or does the social web mean that politicians can and more importantly should engage directly with their electorate whilst they are in office.  A tweet or two a week wouldn’t be too onerous even for the leader of the free world.


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Categories : Blogs and blogging, Politics, Twitter

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