Rangers Football Club is having a terrible time of it. It used to have a really easy time in the mainstream Scottish media but of late has been more and more under fire between a tax case and scrutiny of the new owner, Craig Whyte. And there’s crisis social media and PR lessons here for any businesses.

Read more…

There’s an interesting story over at The Drum about a row having broken out between Liverpool City Councillors and the local press. In short, the council is banning their press officers from speaking to the papers. As you would expect, the CIPR and PRCA have condemned this, calling it daft.

But when you look at circulation and online presence, the council could go online and reach more people than they can through the traditional press. They’d also be more in control of the message. And this is the shape of things to come.
Read more…

The whole phone hacking issue been covered elsewhere and better in-depth than I can give time to, but this one item did impress me.

While it’s fair to say that until Edelman PR got on board the phone hacking tale was a PR disaster for News International (and has since been turned round really well) there’s been one nice PR touch by the likes of Trinity Mirror and so on… they’ve kept the text specific to ‘phone hacking’ so they can talk about that – and deny it – without talking about the other tricks known to have been used at papers where reporters would receive lists of outgoing calls made by people at certain addresses from insiders at friendly phone companies. Said reporter would then go through the phone numbers and dial away to try and find a story.

It’s not hacking but it’s in the same area – invasion of privacy by accessing data people would expect to be kept confidential.

And again, like phone hacking to be honest, that’s an OK tactic if you’re chasing dodgy types – criminals, corrupt politicians and so on – but not authors, footballers and other ‘celebrities’.

The BBC seems to be in a bit of a muddle regarding social media use for staff, according to politics site Guido Fawkes. Business Editor Robert Peston cracked a sexual joke about the Royal Wedding and was asked to remove the joke, which he did (you can see what the gag was here). And it’s not the first time the BBC has had problems with Twitter.

Now you can read Guido’s article as BBC bashing but it does have a fair point – are the feeds the staff post on personal or private? Apparently, they are private. In which case, does the BBC have a right to censor it?

What’s the lesson here for businesses in Scotland and elsewhere thinking of social media?

Read more…

For years, business types have been told – time and time again – to make sure they have their own domain names and professional looking email addresses. It’s a basic thing. It inspires confidence in who you are dealing with and you’re going to feel better dealing with a pro than someome with a Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail account as their primary work address.

Which begs the question: why are so many politicians not being professional? Don’t they see how bad it makes them look when they hand out tacky-named Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail addresses?

Read more…

I used to crack the joke that you know you’ve arrived when your work appears on the major BitTorrent piracy sites and I’ve seeded things (legally) in the past myself but I had a chuckle this morning to note that a book by one of Scotland’s best journalists, the Daily Record’s Gary Ralston – a book about the founding of Rangers Football Club (link to book’s official, content-rich site) – has turned up on one of them.

I’m not going to name the link for obvious reasons (here’s the legal Amazon link) but you know that digital is becoming more and more a part of everyday life when this happens to Scottish sports authors! And I think – think – Gary is the first Scottish reporter to be torrented/pirated this way! (Don’t know if he’ll see it as a compliment though).

Having said that, how should authors handle their books appearing on piracy sites? Read on for some tips for authors dealing with piracy and some surprising case studies.

Read more…

I do a fair chunk of speaking and social media workshops and while I enjoy them, I’ve noticed lately that I’m relying too much on PowerPoint and Keynote and being a bit lazy. On top of that, in Scotland – a country where for many in the media ‘digital’ (never mind ‘customer engagement’) is still a dirty word – could do with raising its game a bit, so this is my efforts at trying to raise the baseline.

To that end, below there’s a link to a series of social media presentations I’ve done – free to you – over the last year or so, covering social media successes, social media in a crisis, social media basic advice and some semi-advanced (for Scotland) social media advice. There’s versions for iPods and computers as well as the plain PDFs. (And yes, some parts may be a little out of date, but the general material is sound.)

If you’ve ever been curious about social media, wondered about how authors, lawyers, accountant, hotels, bars, general businesses can make social media/digital engagement work, then these are the podcasts for you.

Read more…

UPDATE 2 (27 APRIL): Weber Shandwick Scotland are looking for a digital/social media ace. I’ve worked with them and they are a good bunch – and well known digitally in the rest of the UK – so it’s a great opportunity.

Having said that – and this is a question I get asked a lot – how do you get a job in social media?
(Don’t have time to read this? Get this social media blog delivered as audio via iTunes or RSS)

The BIG Partnership are looking for someone to join their digital and social media team and given the size of BIG and the fact that out of the large PR agencies in Scotland they are leaps ahead of most, if you are based in Scotland (Glasgow ideally) and interested in the future of PR communications – or want a career in said industry, you’d be nuts not to go for it.

UPDATE: Ketchum and the very talented Kate Matlock are looking for someone similar in London.

Read more…

The independent PR scene in Scotland has just had a welcome addition with the set up of CranComms, a bespoke agency set up by ex-Shelter PR supremo Christina Cran.

Now Christina has always worn her heart on her sleeve, making her not only one of Scotland’s most ethical PRs but one of the most honest and trustworthy and she’s taken that ethos to heart with her new venture, offering a freemium service to third-sector parties.

Read more…

Last week was great interesting for the professional services in terms of social media – we were asking if banks should use social media, then there was Twittergate with the legal profession (this is the comprehensive must-read on that) and late Friday pm, an Edinburgh/Glasgow HR company saw financial details – which weren’t flattering – thrown up on LinkedIn.

And given the state of the accounts, it’s a bit of a PR disaster. So how do they get out of this?

Read more…