middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins

UPDATE - I’ve created PR Fail as a way to help people face the reality of the perception of PR on the web, be better and stop doing bad things. A ’see what happens’ thing.

UPDATE 2/6 - it’s still going on and this time there’s accusations flying around about the integrity of the PR industry - to which the PRSA responds

UPDATE 31/5 - the debate is still on - spreading to Phreadz

Coming from a background in PR and still very much involved in it on the digital side of things, I keep a close eye on the general feeling from the web community towards PR - and file any examples of really good (and really bad PR) or particularly fruity opinions about it. More often than not though, it’s negative and that’s obviously not a great thing.

Over the last couple of days, I’d be hitting del.icio.us every few minutes, as it’s all kicking off right now with a debate raging about whether or not companies need to do PR and general thoughts and feelings about PR are being thrown out left right and centre.

It started with Brian Solis revelaing his ‘PR Secrets’, then Loic Le Meur replying with his “Not a Secrets’ that pretty much dismissed Brian’s guest post on TechCrunch. Then, as is the case with social media and the web of today, it’s spilled out into Seesmic, Twitter, FriendFeed and a whole lot of other places.

So, rather than wade in fully and add to the noise, I thought I’d just share a few recent quotes from people on Twitter that I’ve been collecting and offer up my thinking that the definition and role of PR has changed to some degree, but people’s perception of it (and in a lot of cases, use and execution of it) hasn’t.

It’s this difference (and the fact there’s still a long way to go for the PR industry) that causes this debate and that the overall perception of PR on the web is a MAJOR FAIL. And that’s why (and I hate to say it), I more often than not cringe when I think about being in PR - as the industry has so much to do to change perception online and this needs to be led by actions and not more (insert expletive) words. This, is where the industry should be focused its efforts as I don’t think it’s ever going to shake off feelings like this, if it doesn’t change for the better and do so fast. As to how, not sure. More thinking needed, I don’t have all the answers. But in the meantime - consumers are just getting on with their lives and filling them with stuff they like. They don’t really care.

(Hope people don’t mind me ‘re-tweeting’ here. I just want to help spread the word. And, on Twitter, you really do have to face the true reality of what people think)

Charles Arthur - a particularly negative tweet, includes the word ‘DIE’

Jemima Kiss - a funny (but negative) tweet, made me really cringe

Mike Butcher - a negative tweet , I can almost hear him shouting this, my personal favourite one that also makes me cringe big time

Neville Hobson - a positive tweet (yay!), that is in fact negative when you think about it.

David Ciccone - a negative tweet

Please read this if you work in PR. Will, great post. Sure it will stir up some debate. Once I’ve read and digested thoroughly I’ll most likely comment direct. It’s great to hear someone laying it down as thy see it.

A great article by Danny Bradbury published on the Guardian yesterday - “The growing number of websites that mix and match low-quality articles produced by amateurs in order to generate traffic is causing concern”. PR, SEO and online advertising are mixing quicker than ever before and we’re having to get even more technically literate to understand what that means for each of our industries. This is right where I’m at right now. And it’s complicated!

From Iain over at crackunit.com, an awesome blog that I probably link to way too much. It’s just really rather very good and Iain just gets it. Simple as that. Subscribe now.

Haven’t read and digested yet. Sure it will will be a sensible summary of plain old common sense but it’s always nice to have. Full post about it with lots of extra links here at Digital Influence Mapping Project. Wonder what Tom Coates thinks?

Bite is working with Peace One Day to help create the planet’s largest ever peace community and today we’re officially launching the world’s first “digiwristband” to enable people to make their own commitments to peace in support of Peace Day on 21 September 2007. (you can see mine on the right)

Peace One Day began as a film project founded by British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley in 1999 to establish the first ever-annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence. In 2001 the Day was unanimously adopted by UN member states as 21 September annually - Peace Day. Jeremy has amassed an impressive list of high profile supporters through his work including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Jude Law, Angelina Jolie, Chris Martin, Annie Lennow, Sam Taylor Wood, Jonny Lee Miller, Simon Fuller, Sir Richard Branson, Kofi Annan and others. In 2006, 200 countries committed to Peace including all 192 UN member states, directly involving 27.6 million people. Pretty amazing stuff.

On Peace Day, Friday 21 September, there will be activity taking place in hundreds of countries around the world. At Peace One Day’s flagship concert at the Royal Albert Hall a host of star names will perform live and contribute through messages and films. Annie Lennox, Corinne Bailey Rae, James Morrison, Beth Orton and Marc Almond will all perform live, and they will be supported by video messages and specially filmed pieces by David Beckham, Jude Law, Lord David Puttnam and others.

In support of Peace One Day in the run up to Peace Day and beyond, we are trying to make as many people aware of the project as possible and inspire individuals, schools and corporations to make a commitment to peace, create a “digiwristband” and help spread the word by displaying their commitment on their MySpace profile, Facebook, profile PC wallpaper, mobile wallpaper, email signature, blog or website.

The Peacemaker wall displays all Peacemakers around the world and you can see Jeremy Gilley at number 1, Simon Fuller at number 19, myself at number 27 (!), Corinne Bailey Rae at number 186 and Bite at number 219.

You can help support Peace One Day by:

1) Making a commitment and displaying your digiwristband on your blog, website, MySpace or other online profile that you can add HTML to
2) Adding the Facebook Peace Commitment app to your Facebook profile and inviting your friends and networks to do the same
3) Blogging about Peace One Day and encouraging other people to make a commitment and spread the word
4) Spreading the word about Peace One Day in any way you can by emailing your friends and colleagues, including it in a newsletter, featuring it on your website etc etc

Go on. Do it now. Help us create the planet’s largest ever peace community.

All images, logos and other assets can be found here.

I submitted comment for this article in Profile magazine ages ago and it has just come out. I still agree with what I said, which is good . . . . (!)

and this is what it was . . . (from Deirdre). I plan on going . . .

Okay, I don’t mean to cause alarm, but…

We are *** CLOSING REGISTRATION *** for Big Summer 07 very soon - possibly later today (Wed).

If you haven’t registered here:

You won’t be permitted entry.

Chinwag folks will *NOT* be on the door on the night, so if you turn up expecting to get in because you know one of us, you won’t be admitted unless your name is on the registration list that the university door staff have.

I know most of you have registered fully, but there’s always a few peeps who dont read the instructions on the packet for one reason or t’other

So, if you haven’t done so already, please sign-up here:

See you all next week!

Started a group on Facebook for “everyone that works in PR doing a “digital” role. Please join us if you fit the bill - and you get to talk about how whack the name is and all sorts of other intelligent things.

Charles Arthur has let off some steam about PR. He’s had a shocker of a week. Great insight into why PR needs to get a whole lot more “digital”.