The importance of plain English All professional PR people know the importance of using plain English in our communications. However, if you're on the internet it's not that simple as plain English and plain American aren't the same thing at all. I've just posted on the Softalk blog about how important it is for small and medium sized businesses to communicate clearly and have referenced the BA Brit-speak Dictionary and Bullfighter.

19.10.05 12:44 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

Managing your fear of public speaking Tip of the cork rimmed hat to the effervescent Lee Hopkins who points to the Presentation Coach blog which has a great post on managing your fear of speaking in public. The secret is that for the very best public speakers "the fear never goes away".

19.10.05 07:38 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

Long live the news release More gems of genius from Richard Bailey who says Long live the news release! One of my pet irritations is the number of PR people who persist in using the term press release. I have never used it. It's something I was taught in my first few weeks of communications studies when I was still a student at Southampton. News releases aren't dead because there is still a need to announce news and news releases are one of the most efficient ways of doing it. It's not the only one. It never has been. But it works. What's with using press release? We've had radio since the 20s, TV since the 30s, web sites since the 90s, blogs and podcasts since the 00s. Don't any of these media matter to the press release dudes? And even more to the point don't they realise that the acid test of a press release is that it must be NEWS!

18.10.05 14:18 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

CIPR Conference: Making the news - Blogging, RSS and the New PR The University of Sunderland is hosting a conference for PR practitioners, Making the news – Blogging, RSS and the New PR, on November 18. The keynote speaker is Microsoft's Tom Murphy, author of the outstanding PR Opinions blog. It's the brainchild of Philip Young who is going to speak on  'How weblogs are chaning  PR'.  Other speakers include: > Chris Rushton of  the University of Sunderland on 'How to get newsrooms to notice PR' > Elizabeth Albrycht on 'Monitoring, evaluation and networking in the New PR' > Stuart Bruce (yes that's me) of Bruce Marshall Associates on 'Blogs in business'. This will be some practical case studies from the UK, other parts of Europe and the USA. The conference is being introduced and closed by Tony Bradley, President-Elect of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Delegate tickets are £75 + VAT for CIPR members, £95 + VAT for non-members. We expect strong interest in this event and places are strictly limited so delegates are advised to book as soon as possible. For further details or to book your place please call Nicky Wake at Don’t Panic Projects Ltd on 01706 828855 or e-mail nicky@dontpanicprojects.com. UPDATE: Proving that even us old PR gimmers of 37 have something to learn from the brightest PR students I've added this Technorati tag of ciprblogconference.

17.10.05 10:37 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

Change is not death, fear of change is death From gapingvoid. There is message for PRs. Wake up and smell the coffee. The world is changing we must change with it by adapting to new technologies much faster than we have in the past. There is a message for blog evangalists. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. You still need to use news releases, never say no comment and to return journalist's calls.

15.10.05 10:01 Permalink / 3 Comments / comment

Air Conditioning Contractors know a thing or two about PR ACCAbuzz is the business blog of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America and in their latest post they are encouraging their members to embrace the power of public relations.

14.10.05 09:12 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

No comment is no option. Duh? No comment is no option, say top business writers - PRWeek UK. If that was the most thrilling information to come out of the PR Week 'Taking the Drama Out of a Crisis' conference then I'm glad I wasn't there. I could see the sense of this headline in a general management magazine, but PR Week! Surely there can't be any PR professionals who still think that they can get away with "No comment". It's other senior managers (and lawyers) that we need to educate.

13.10.05 10:29 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

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