Mutually Inclusive PR

Krista B. Blogs the Junos

I met Krista Baliko at a podcasters' meetup last year, (even though neither of us is a podcaster), so I like to watch her progress working at the CBC Mother Corp.

Good to see she's got a blog this week, as she posts about the goings-on in Saskatoon around the JUNO awards. The awards show time has been yo-yo-ing around, while organizers battled with CTV to avoid having the awards broadcast hours past prime time in Atlantic Canada. Sanity has been restored, and the show will start two hours early this Sunday.

Check out Krista's Juno Blog, for some behind the scenes action. I haven't seen any shocking celebrity news there yet. No Nelly Furtado hissy fits about the temperature of her bath. No Jian Ghomeshi throwing a phone at a bellboy.

C'mon, Krista, there's dirt out there to be found, you're just not looking hard enough!

I used to work with Krista's mom. (Hi Joan!)  Also, I'm finally able to provide a bit of link love to my spouse, who is coordinating a JUNO section of the Saskatchewan CBC website. Don't forget to pick up some milk on your way down from Saskatoon, honey.

I was just on the site tonight being a one-person focus group, and thought the photo galleries are the best items so far. Go CBC.

Tags: saskatoon, juno awards, krista baliko, jian ghomeshi, nelly furtado, blogs

I've Been Busy Blogging, but not Here

Sorry to regular readers for my long absence.  I've been getting into the groove of daily postings for b5 media on Common Sense PR, and have been neglecting my duty to inform and entertain you.

For a quick view of what I've been up to on the other blog, check out the Top 10 Posts for the past three months.

I've missed my more relaxed writing on this blog, and am hoping to post here several times a week for the foreseeable future.

Anyone who wants a refund of the subscription fees, please send me an e-mail to arrange payment.

Tags: blogging, b5media, common sense pr, top10

Saskatchewan Bloggers Featured

A feature article about Saskatchewan bloggers gave a peek at some of the province's blogs Monday morning.

Being one of the only Regina bloggers interviewed, I was fodder for a photo and a couple of quotes.  That's me poking up at the top of the front page of the Regina Leader-Post.  I was going for the serious, professional look, but photographer Don Healy wanted the grinning enthusiast look, so I obliged.

I commented about the interactivity of blogs, and that editorial rules for bloggers vary much more than they do for journalists.

A companion article focused on political blogs and how the parties approach social media.

In addition to the usual suspects Kate McMillan, Lance Levsen, John Murney and Saskboy, the L-P talked to Prince Albert pastor Randall Friesen and political strategists Mike Stefaniuk and Reg Downs.

For a look at most of the active blogs in the province, visit the Saskatchewan Blogs Aggregator.

Did I get a spike in traffic from the Leader-Post story?  A bit, but not as much as from a link this week on Laura's Playground Transgender and Transsexual News site.  Goes to show that a mention in electronic format that has a link built in leads to more visits than a mention in a print publication that doesn't include a URL.

And congrats to Saskboy for his Off the Grid being voted best science/tech blogger from the Canadian Blog Awards.  He also came third in the best progressive blog category.  Kate McMillan's Small Dead Animals and Schmutzie's Milkmoney or Not Here I Come were in the top three for best conservative blog and best Canadian blog, respectively.

Tags:  saskatchewan, socialmedia, promotion, blogs, saskblogs, regina

I Hate Web-based Blogging Tools (and they hate me)

After spending 30 minutes pulling together a blog post, my hand slips and hits a key combination.  My web-based publishing software doesn't ask me if I'm insane for not saving my work.  It doesn't ask if I want to reconsider.  It dutifully creates a new page, thus wiping out everything I've written.  Time to start over...

Common Sense PR Blog Part of b5 Media

A while back I announced that I'd be making some blog changes.  The day has arrived.

Drop by Common Sense PR and let me know what you think.

At the time I decided to launch a new blog, Jeremy Wright announced that blogging network b5 Media was looking for writers for a planned business channel.  I sent b5's Douglas Hanna a proposal.  The next thing I knew I was writing posts for the blog-to-be.

I'll be writing primarily for business managers and communicators.  I've found that quite often managers don't know how to get the most out of public relations, and communicators don't know how to get buy-in to communications plans.

Yes, there will be ads.  Yes, they will sometimes get in the way of the paragraph you are trying to read and they may do annoying things to attract your attention.  I'll try to keep the writing and visuals exciting enough to get you past the distractions.  Thanks to ad revenue, I may be able to get to some more conferences and events in the future.

For people who subscribe to feeds, the blog will have a full text feed available, so you don't have to leave the comfort of your feed reader.

Please drop by, subscribe, and let me know what you like and don't like.  Check out some of the other business blogs on b5.  I'm pretty excited about the possibilities for creating an information nexus for the business reader.

Thanks to my editor Douglas, the designer Scott, CEO Jeremy, and all the bloggers at b5 who have made me welcome.  It's been hard keeping this under wraps until launch day (everyone I told about this -- don't tell Jeremy I was a bad boy).

Update:  I realized I didn't mention anything about Mutually Inclusive PR.  This blog will continue, with a bit less emphasis on public relations/communications. I'll be migrating the content to a new server soon at www.ericeggertson.com, but will keep posts active on this Typad server for a while, to keep the links from breaking.

Tags:  b5media, blogs, eggertson

Marketers, Welcome to My Readers

In the right margin of this blog, you'll find an ad aimed at Canadian public relations folks.

I haven't run ads here before, not from a misguided sense of the purity of my ideas, but because I didn't have the time and energy to pursue it.

Well, CNW Group sought out several Canadian public relations bloggers for a promotion of a media monitoring tool, so you could say opportunity came knocking.

The result, for those who click through to CNW, is an online game that has a PR flack trying to protect the client from whatever objects coming falling from the sky. Full credit to them for recognizing that advertising has to have some intrinsic value (in this case, a bit of entertainment) for the audience, especially an audience that is as jaded toward traditional marketing as your average PR person is.

Not wanting to host anything on the blog I wouldn't try myself, I checked out the game, and it's both safe for work and sort of fun.  The game animation is okay, but I liked best the descriptions of crises that are dropped on the poor PR person in the game. 

David Jones has a comment recognizing CNW for trying something different.  Much thanks to Michael O'Connor Clarke for being the go-between for several months while the idea took shape. Colin McKay is also selling his soul, as is Chris Clarke.

(Update: Donna Papacosta chimes in.) 

Knowing how much we bloggers like to talk about ourselves and our blogs, I suspect this campaign will get as much traction from the posts written about it as from the ads themselves.

This is an intermediate step for me.  Pretty soon I'll be delving much deeper into the world of advertising-supported blogging, and I'm really looking forward to it.  More on that next week...

Tags:  ads, socialmedia, promotion, blogs, cnwgroup

You Can Tell a Blog Has an Audience When...

Antonia Zerbisias doesn't post to her popular blog about media, politics and culture for two months.

She drops in on Halloween, posts 17 words, and gets 157 comments. Those are dedicated readers.

With some blogs, half the fun is in the comments section. (Or in this case, all of the relentless personal attacks and mind-numbing semantic debates are in the comments section.)

Tags:  media, torontostar, blogs, canada, debate,bitchfest

Venture Profiles Red Paperclip Guy

CBC's Venture is profiling Red Paperclip guy Kyle MacDonald and fiancee Dominique Dupuis Wednesday October 25 at 7:30 p.m.

MacDonald is pretty busy writing a book about his year-long publicity campaign, based on trading up from a red paper clip to a house.

The Venture crew spent some time in Kipling, Sask., with the couple, and show MacDonald in action, schmoozing with the likes of Corbin Bernsen, who was part of the trade up to a house.

I have a ballpoint pen available for trade, by the way.  I'll consider any legimate offer...

Tags:  redpaperclip, saskatchewan, promotion, publicity, venture,blogs

Edelman's Conflicted Role Led to Silence

When the large public relations firm Edelman went into a protective silence instead of engaging its critics over a pro-Wal-Mart blog, it reminded me of HAL, the computer in 2001, A Space Odyssey.

HAL was just doing his job.  But we learn in the next movie (or book, for Arthur C. Clarke fans) that HAL's psychotic behaviour was a natural reaction to being given two contradictory orders by its programmers.

Edelman has repeatedly stated it wants to uphold transparency and honesty in its word-of-mouth marketing and social media activities - both for itself and on behalf of clients.

Compare that to the military, man-the-barricades mentality that is ingrained in the corporate culture at Wal-Mart. Add a prevailing attitude in U.S. politics/marketing/culture that if you just repeat a lie long enough, the public will accept the lie as truth.

It's a very typical situation where the client doesn't want to operate in the real world because the rules of behaviour are inconvenient.

The public relations agency's job is to educate the client and show them how they can gain from behaving in a less anti-social manner. There are many, many compromises to be made on both sides before that kind of transformation can take place (if that's even possible).

The blog was one of those compromises, and president Richard Edelman has acknowledged "the cross-country tour that Edelman designed" was done in a way that violated the agency's stated principles.

His apology was a good step toward clearing the air.  I attribute the fact that it took him several days to respond to the criticism of bloggers to the HAL syndrome.  It's hard to respond to complaints about your actions when you're just doing what the client wants.

See Shel Holtz's Edelman and the One-sided Conversation, and a few dozen other posts - IR Daily, twopointouch, Open (finds, minds …, hyku | blog, JD on EP, Marketing Begins At Home, Joe Duck, PR Squared, Scobleizer, The Post Money Value, Blog Business Summit, Message, Publishing 2.0 and A View from the Isle (links via Techmeme).

Update:  Edelman's internal investigation has turned up two more fake blogs.  Surprise, surprise - both related to Wal-Mart.  That just reinforces my impression that the client is driving this particular wagon.

Tags: communications, consulting, marketing, edelman, agencies, walmart, blogs

Rewarding Images

  How to cross the street in Brooklyn 
  Originally uploaded by gillicious.

You stay subscribed to some blogs just because you like to be surprised by whatever the person might do.

I came across Gillian Gunson on Flickr, and have subscribed to her blog Gillianic Tendencies for a year now.  Lots of discussion of her cat, her job, her hair.  Lots of self-portraits and angst about her cat, her job, her hair.

And a bright personality that shines through it all, keeping me coming back.

This week I was rewarded with this photo from her recent trip to New York.  Not your average tourist...

Photo by mmonk.