Simon Wakeman - marketing, public relations and digital communications

Monthly archive: February 2007

Do you know who you’re dealing with?

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 8:46 pm

Richard Millington has a post about how easy it can be to create fake PR - and has some examples to prove it. His post reminds me of an experience I had with a fake journalist last year.

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Categories: Public relations

Jean-Claude Saade’s seven doors of connection for brands

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 7:27 am

We encounter hundreds of brands every day, both online and offline. Find out about how brands can build and enhance emotional connections.

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Categories: Blogging, Branding, Marketing, Public relations, Social media

Direct mail, opt-in, opt-out and saving the environment

Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 7:00 am

The UK direct marketing industry is responsible for producing 550,000 tonnes of paper mailings each year. Is it time they started sending mailings to people who have actually asked for them?

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Categories: Direct marketing, Email marketing, Regulations and laws

Talktalk, the broadband update and my router

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 at 8:37 pm

TalkTalk’s upgrade to my broadband service and help when my router wouldn’t connect left much to be desired. Google to the rescue…

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Categories: Customer experience, General, Hardware

Redesigned website goes live

Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 7:25 am

It’s been a busy few evenings as I’ve been working hard to get my new website design live, and now it’s here.

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Categories: Blogging, News, Wordpress

Google hits your RSS subscriber statistics

Sunday, February 18th, 2007 at 7:57 am

If you track your RSS subscriber figures as closely as I do, you’ll know that the number of people downloading your RSS feed tends to drop markedly at the weekend. Yesterday mine went up though, and a change at Google is behind this.

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Categories: Blogging, RSS, Social media, Statistics, research and analysis

Thoughts on developing your people

Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 9:25 pm

Anna Farmery at the Engaging Brand blog has a nice post about what you can do to develop your team members. She has some good and easily actionable tips for helping develop the skills of your team. I’ve added a few of my own too.

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Categories: Personal development

CIPR social media guidelines agreed

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 8:11 pm

Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) president Lionel Zetter reports a busy day of meetings last Wednesday in his latest blog post on PR Voice. He also confirms that the CIPR Council has agreed the new social media guidelines for members.

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Categories: Blogging, Public relations, Regulations and laws

Technorati, Ogilvy and verbal diarrhoea

Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 10:31 am

James Byford and Antony Mayfield have blogged about the Technorati/Ogilvy link-up that was announced last week. The main aspect of the announcement itself that stands out to me is that much was said in the respective news releases and posts, but it all meant so little - a hype and jargon overload.

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Categories: Blogging, Marketing, Public relations, Social media

Fake blogs to become illegal in UK

Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 8:55 pm

Niall Cook points out a story in this week’s UK PR Week magazine - about a piece of European law set to be enacted in the UK at the end of the year that will outlaw fake blogs and other dubious PR practices.

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Categories: Blogging, Marketing, Public relations, Regulations and laws, Social media

Do RSS subscriber figures always go up?

Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 12:31 pm

Tracking RSS subscribers is a way to see how many people are tracking your blog. It’s a great motivation to see RSS subscriber growth and be able to celebrate milestones. But do RSS subscriber figures always go up anyway?

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Categories: Blogging, Public relations, RSS, Social media, Statistics, research and analysis

Essential skills for listening

Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 7:20 am

Be able to listen, and actively show you’re listening, is a really valuable skill in business. It can help you develop relationships more effectively with colleagues, managers, clients and suppliers.

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Categories: Personal development

Blog design - what would you recommend?

Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 7:47 am

It’s been almost two years since I did any design work on my blog. In that time the design has moved quite a long way away from the original look and feel, thanks to the addition of various new widgets and Wordpress plug-ins. I think it’s time to spruce things up a bit.

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Categories: Blogging, Branding, Web development, Wordpress

Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales and PR people

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 7:35 am

Last week’s PR Week magazine (UK) features an article about Jimmy Wales, head honcho at Wikipedia, threatening to ban PR agencies and paid PR professionals from editing Wikipedia if they continue to edit entries about clients.

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Categories: Public relations, Social media

Can the Bernard Matthews brand survive bird flu?

Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 1:08 pm

Over the weekend the UK had its first substantial outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu. This is the first time that an outbreak of such a disease has hit a branded farmer - Bernard Matthews. What does this mean for the Bernard Matthews brand?

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Categories: Branding, Marketing

Dealing with feed overload - the answer?

Sunday, February 4th, 2007 at 9:04 pm

Late last year I blogged about how my RSS reading list had reached 100 feeds and was becoming impractical to keep up with. Now I think I’ve found a solution.

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Categories: Marketing, Public relations, RSS, Social media

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I blog about marketing, PR and communications, with a focus on new media and how technology can help organisations communicate more effectively.

The content and opinions expressed on this blog are not endorsed by nor reflect the views of any company or organisation I work with.

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