McClellan, PRSA, Cohen and CBS, You Tube, Harold Burson, Jack O’Dwyer, Myself and…boy what a blunder!

As professionals, we know only too well how often we are called on to discover or even create reasonable opportunities for published visibility, as well as to rouse and galvanize internal/external stakeholder groups when a client or employer’s reputation is in a critical condition (or, more recently, even in business as usual circumstances). So what else is new?…..

New NZ wiki seeks digital answers from public

New Zealand is having another foray into the world of wikis, this time with a wiki asking for contributions to the next phase of the country’s digital strategy. The first wiki was used as part of the consultation process for the updating of The Police Act in 2007 and this year’s most recent prompt for citizen participation will run until mid-May.  Worth having a look at the shape of public consultation to come.

Architects and Public Relators: we both create SPACES where publics interact….

A lively discussion came up last Thursday evening in Rome, at the second of the six sessions scheduled for the production of the video book on ‘What is Public Relations’, which my friend Joao so acutely and courteously described here, following up on the first session. The general topic has to do with many issues my co-bloggers have touched upon in this blog as well as with the content of a recent (the plum of...

What’s my name – and where’s my number?

In case you missed it, 2007 was a big year for the statisticians – and, in many ways, something of a lost opportunity for us when it comes to making public relations count. I’m not normally a big fan of ‘numbering’ people, but I do believe that ‘public relations’ really needs a universal number of its own. Why? Because then the national and global impact of our profession could be quickly and neatly measured and...

Public, private, community, individual

I received a friendship request today on a social networking platform for communicators.  I have no idea who this person is, and I suspect that he is a consultant randomly inviting other people to be his friend in order to expand his prospect list. His message basically just says hello and provides no info on why he wants to be my friend (and after looking at his profile, I still have no idea).  In the...

Reinventing diplomacy

I sometimes think that we get a little obsessed with what PR is and isn’t, and I am not always sure that these conversations do anything more than keep us busy navel gazing. What I’d like to think about is what PR is becoming…and that’s everything. My personal belief is that formalized communications evolved because it was the only way to manage as organizations grew in size. What is happening today, in my opinion, is...

The green power of public relations

I’ve asked Caroline Wilson to share some thoughts on the power of PR to change people’s behaviour around environmental issues, which she regularly explores at GoodGreenPR: I sometimes think the ‘green’ issue for people working in PR is very similar to the familiar debate about the role of PR generally.  Should PR be about skilfully promoting and communicating the image, products and community profile that others high up the management tree set out?  Or should PR...

New Zealand Police open up law-making to the public

As a follow-on to the posts regarding Madeleine, the Portuguese police and the public interest, I thought you might be interested in a real life ‘open conversation’ involving New Zealand police. They have created a wiki to encourage public participation in the revision of the current police act, written in 1958.