PR Blog
Dennis Rutzou Public Relations
Twitter, Tumblr, Flutter… a fight of character
May 14th
I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon about three months ago, not having the slightest idea what meaningful 140-character piece of information I could share with my ‘dearest’ followers. To my surprise, I picked it up fairly quickly and started seeing the potential for me and DRPR.
Then this week I heard on Mumbrella of Tumblr, which to me seems like a boosted Twitter. It allows users to post anything, whatever the format or number of characters.
And then there’s Flutter, the new ‘nano blogging’ website…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeLZCy-_m3s]
There isn’t any Flutter. But this brilliant Flutter joke highlights the fight for fame social media communities are having and people’s More >
Women are natural networkers
May 7th
I attended a great business networking lunch last week and I think I’ve finally found a networking environment that can work for me.
I have to admit that I’ve never really enjoyed the standard business networking events before. You turn up and have to make intelligent small talk with total strangers and hopefully make some sort of business connection. I’ve met a few nice people but I’ve often found myself wishing the guest speaker would get going so I could get past the awkward small talk.
Last week’s event was the launch of a new group to Australia called The Athena Network. More >
PR means Page Ranking and Public Relations
Apr 29th
There was a time before the Internet when the acronym PR was instantly recognised as meaning Public Relations, rather than Page Ranking.
So what impact has the web had on the practice of public relations?
The online environment is another means of communication, which must be integrated within the public relations planning and activities for the organisation.
A very important point is to ensure that the website is integrated within the other PR activities that are being implemented to ensure a consistency of language and theming.
This is built around the credible key messages that describe the organisation, its products and services and are More >
Good PR and bad PR – nothing in between
Apr 24th
While away chatting with a journalist last Thursday night at the official launch event of The Sebel Surry Hills, he put forth the comment “there are good public relations practitioners and there are bad public relations practitioners – nothing in between”. Michael Jackson’s lyrics suddenly come to mind. This comment couldn’t be more ‘black and white’. However I found my head nodding profusely in agreement.
Why is that journalists often shudder when they hear the two words ‘public relations’ echoing down the phone line? In my opinion, there are simply too many PR practitioners missing the mark out there, subsequently smearing More >
Apr 17th
Now is the time for optimism
I have been hearing rumblings, albeit quiet ones, for some time now; a few quiet words here and there about a feeling of disdain about the amount of negativity in the media.
But it is only now that I am starting to see journalists put aside the hot topic of the ‘downturn’ and reconfigure their stories. Like in the March issue of Nett magazine where editor Josh Mehlman says, “whinging won’t get us anywhere”. He goes on to say that the thing that sets small businesses apart is their optimism. Where some people see gripes and grumbles, More >
PR firms: move online or phase out
Apr 8th
US-based PR practitioner Gaye Carleton mentioned in a blog that “virtual on its own is a mere puff of smoke” and “while at the moment we’re fascinated with all things virtual and with virtual being touted as ‘the future is now,’ I say, ‘Just say no.’”
She goes on to say that the mix of physical – a press clipping, a press kit, a creative promo item – and virtual is fine, but she worries that PR could become an ‘at-risk’ industry.
My perspective on the subject is that the PR industry is at risk only if it does not embrace online communities.
Although More >
Bravo Mumbrella
Apr 2nd
I loved the Dr Mumbo item ‘The Starcom Translator’ earlier this week on mumbrella.com.au.
Media buying company Starcom put out the most incomprehensible media release I’ve ever read and Mumbrella provided a very amusing translation. Well done.
I sincerely hope that the Starcom media release was not written by a person who calls themself a PR or communication professional.
The posting certainly attracted a lot of comments including a brave response from Starcom boss John Sintras.
It’s great to see such a readable blog, ezine, enewsletter or whatever we are meant to call it, in Mumbrella. I enjoy my daily updates on the advertising, marketing More >
News merchandising, it’s a term you should remember
Mar 26th
‘News merchandising’ is a term I came up with a few years ago. At least I think I did, but you can never be sure that it isn’t something I read in a long-forgotten article and the term was filed about in my sub-conscious for a few decades before re-emerging. But I have been using it for a while and no-one has contradicted me yet and my ownership of the term.
What I mean by the term is the conscious effort to explore every opportunity to maximise media coverage from a particular item of news to achieve the greatest possible More >
