We’ll finish this post with a quote from Revolver’s Managing Director Iain S Bruce:

“Steve Jobs’ major accomplishment wasn’t in business and his legacy won’t lie in the designs he left behind. What he did that was truly great was tune ordinary consumers into the technology dream – opening up the public imagination to the infinite possibilities the computing universe offers in a manner few could equal.”

“He was an innovator rather than an inventor, and it’s fair to say that he stood on the shoulders of giants, but without him the dot.communist revolution would be several years further behind.”

Revolver PR Managing Director Iain S Bruce has been invited to address an audience of architects, builders, construction lawyers and surveyors on the value of investing in a digital public relations strategy in a recession. Organised by Glasgow Property Professionals , the prestigious event will see an an audience from all sections of the property sector participate in a session designed to provide them with relevant case studies and a strategic overview of the challenge ahead.

“In the current economic climate PR and marketing budgets are often the first to be slashed, but all the evidence shows that it is the companies that remain committed to corporate communications that reap the benefits as the recovery gathers pace,” said Bruce.

“In the era of the digital media, this has become more crucial than ever before. Every company needs to compete for position online, and while technology brings companies tools that make public relations easier, cheaper and more effective than ever before, it also means that any firm that neglects its online profile risks being left behind.”

Mark Antscherl, founder and Chief Executive of UK Property Professionals said: “ Our network is growing rapidly and our members benefit from our regular expert forums and networking events. We are delighted that Iain has agreed to speak at this event in Glasgow and share his insights on digital PR and marketing. ”

This event will be held on Thursday 28th October at Corinthian in Glasgow. There are limited places available, to reserve a space simply click this link to book.

If the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics were looking for a personality to galvanise enthusiasm for the much-lampooned event, one just dropped into their laps in the form of Jessica Ennis.

The 24-year-old athlete may have produced the performance of her life to win European heptathlon gold at the weekend, but it was her showing in the post event interviews that could well define her career. In the elated, heady moments just after beating the Olympic Champion she would have been forgiven a tinge of hubris, but her victory speech was a model of well balanced modesty.

Hard working, dedicated and determined to overcome and set-backs, yet in her moment of success is still delightful, humble and kind hearted. From the family cheering her on to the moment she went round shaking her competitors’ hands after the race she demonstrated all the attributes of a born public figure.

If the folk behind London 2012 have any sense they’ll already be devising a schedule that allows her to promote the event without the activity getting in the way of her continued training. They’ll be putting some effort behind a fan page on Facebook, generating interest around the #JessicaEnnis hashtag on Twitter and stepping up a Digital PR campaign designed to capitalise on her virtues without undermining her ability to compete.

But what then? With her attributes, what will a post-athletic career hold for Jessica? Modelling and sponsorship deals? Punditry? Will the fates spare her the ordeal of Strictly Come Dancing? We think there’s a big career ahead of this young woman. What about you?

Martinson reports: “SMS and Facebook were used as mobilising tools, Twitter to provide up to the minute feeds on where the action was alongside an interactive map. Videos and photographs were uploaded in near to real-time, but not live, to provide unmediated reports on what was taking place. In short, it was close to being an alternative news supplier blurring the lines even further between citizen journalism and reportage. User generated content has already changed the nature of newsgathering in providing first-hand accounts into mediated mainstream news providers. But what operations like climate.camp.org does is to provide an alternative news source that is, by definition, authentic but, as in common on the web, without any checks of accuracy and verification. And it ticks more than one box. The content is relevant for its audiences, it provides a means of engagement, it is updated and some of the related videos can be chilling or hilarious.”

Like it or not, stories like this demonstrate precisely why local authorities and public sector organisations must start sharpening up their approach to online public relations.

Disputing the popular view that it is a discipline that should be standalone channel or function in the marketing mix, Jonty contends that rather than being simply another channel, social media has taken on a platform role alongside traditional media such as television or print.

Neatly summing up the nub of the matter, he puts it thus:

“Let’s be frank, before the term ‘earned media’ became a buzzword amongst the social media crew, it’s essentially exactly what PR agencies have been doing for decades. Public relations (much wider than media relations alone) is all about connecting a brand to its audiences, using media pitching to create free publicity (earned media), events and one-to-one interactions to drive word of mouth and brand engagement (sound familiar?), the influencing of opinion leaders (ditto) and the creation of public campaigns to educate and affect perception of target consumers about the brand (still with me?).”

Back in sunny Scotland, that’s precisely the line of thought we followed when setting up Revolver. Whatever you call it (from digitally-enabled public relations to plain old Digital PR) the practice of engaging with the social media has to be driven by the same communications principles and techniques you’d apply to any PR campaign.

That social media is different kind of animal is true. That it requires a slightly different approach and skill set is also true. Apart from that the old school media rules still apply, and any organisation that loses sight of that essential principle runs the risk of blundering into a PR crisis of their own making.

Says blogger Toni O’Sullivan: “There’s no doubt that online communication tools such as Twitter, social networking and blogs are all part of society today, but so are conversations at bus stops, in coffee shops and in people’s homes. These face-to-face conversations are driven by information from print newspapers, TV and word of mouth news and views. We’ve got to remember that not everyone spends their day connected to the Internet.

“The distinction between web-based and more traditional information sharing sources is definitely blurring. PROs and Marketers must remember that it’s essential to understand the target audience you are trying to reach and ensure you include the correct media channels in order to reach them. That means being aware of all online and offline channels, and with increasingly rapid technology advances there’s plenty to keep up to date with. It’s an exciting time and one that PROs should embrace in its entirety rather than focusing on one area alone.”

Hats off to Ms O’Sullivan for spotting this one. We’ve always believed that while crucially important, Digital PR is only part of the public relations mix. In a multimedia world, good PR must work across all channels.

The world’s biggest food company is reportedly set to launch a campaign to defend its reputation amid stinging criticism on social media sites.

PR Week reports that the Swiss firm is eager to address a range of issues, from long-standing concerns about its formula milk to a more recent hijacking of its online marketing services by critics.

The publication reports that in 2009, Nestle suffered a social media crisis after its invite to influential parenting bloggers in the US on Twitter was taken over by activists and turned into a “highly visible” anti-Nestle campaign.

While there has been no official comment on the online PR push, PR Week said a company source had told it the firm is keen to counter criticism because “stories don’t die online”.

Whether you like it or not, consumers will research and talk about your company online. If you want to be in a position to monitor, manage and respond appropriately to that, then you’re going to have to invest in Digital PR.

Responding to recent calls from industry figures for the range of qualifications available to both aspiring and current public relations practitioners to be more digitally orientated, Scotland’s leading Digital PR agency has challenged communications firms to invest more heavily in training staff on the job. The company, with offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh, believes that organisations must be prepared to put time and resources into providing staff with the support required to get to grips with the digital media.

“While there is a need for existing PR qualifications to encompass digital issues in order to meet the growing demand from agencies for digital PR practitioners, there is a limit to what you can expect such course to achieve. The digital media moves at the speed of light and is in a constant cycle of evolution and change, meaning that formal course materials are at risk of falling out of date before they’ve even been written,” said Revolver PR Managing Director Iain Bruce.

“In our experience new staff benefit far more from on-the-job Digital PR training than they do by following a course-based syllabus. While this requires more time and resources to be focused upon each individual, it’s a process that ultimately produces far greater returns.”

A number of industry commentators have recently stated their belief that young people need to be more digitally oriented in their qualifications in order to meet agencies growing demand for trained digital PR individuals. They suggest that recruitment consultants are now struggling to find suitable candidates and have call for potentials employees to be formally taught the foundations of digital knowledge.

Revolver PR, conversely, calls for employers to invest in youth through a process of in-house digital PR training, whereby employees are given instruction on the job as opposed to studying through external educational institutions.

“There is far too great a number of wasteful media courses out there that do not prepare young people for the future as it is” says Bruce. “On-the-job training is much more beneficial when considering that public relations companies require young individuals who pay attention, are keen to learn and who take direction without hesitance.”

Whilst the benefits of this are disputed somewhat within the industry, Revolver is of the opinion that internal training in digitally enabled public relations consultancy and social media usage benefits the company just as much as the individual.

According to the company, such users could prove profitable due to their ability to spread positive messages about brand experiences across a broad swathe of connected consumers.

Marketing Sherpa’s research showed that 61% of Max Connectors are interested in forging relationships with with businesses to find out early about products and features, with 48%  also apparently interested in learning about company culture, policies and environmental attitudes.

Interesting stuff, and indeed companies like Starbucks and Ford have demonstrated that campaigns aimed directly at social media users can be hugely succesful. It’s not going to work for everyone, however, and we’d urge anyone considering  taking their digital PR straight to consumers to pause for thought before directing a broadside of marketing spam at every poor soul with 500+ online friends.

“PR has also benefited from the changing media landscape. The withering of many traditional media outlets has left fewer journalists from fewer firms covering business. That makes PR doubly important, both for attracting journalists’ attention, and for helping firms bypass old routes altogether and disseminate news by posting press releases on their websites,” the article states.

According to the piece, spending on public relations consultancy will surpass $8billion by 2013 in the US alone. They quote Miles Nadal, chief executive of MDC Partners as saying that investment in digital PR accelerated during the recession “and will go forward in perpetuity” because clients became more focused on measuring the impact of their efforts.

“The internet offers various yardsticks, from traffic to cheerleading websites to numbers of Facebook fans, whereas the number of people who see a conventional advertisement is much harder to gauge.”

Needless to say, I agree entirely