Drew B's take on tech PR

New address for The Worlds Leading

A few emails and chit chat today suggested that The Worlds Leading has a new website, is being written by a new person, and can be found on a social network called Ning. So a bit of looking around and here it is.

Here's the new address. And if you track things through RSS feeds, here's the feed.

My initial thoughts are superficial - the colour and font give me a migraine, so I'll just subscribe to the feed.

Edelman hires The Worlds Leading

Just read in PR Week that the man behind The Worlds Leading has been hired by Edelman. Mark Pinsent's a good chap and I hope he'll enjoy the new gig. I had the privilege of grabbing a lunch with him a while back when he was still blogging under his nom de plume and I think its a shame he's not doing the blog any more. Maybe someone else will revive the bitching PR blog format for a third incarnation?

Here's part of the PR Week article:

Mark Pinsent, a Next Fifteen Group alumnus, was the force behind the acerbic blog that ran from 2006 until last October. The blog consistently poked fun at Edelman and its practices, although Pinsent is now calling his contributions to The World's Leading 'a persona'.

The former Text 100 director will oversee new business development in the tech and digital spheres, focusing on web 2.0 projects on behalf of current clients including Stella Artois and Shell.

PR junior needed - entry level position at Hotwire on offer

We're looking to hire an entry-level candidate who wants to get a foot in the door in a PR agency here at Hotwire. Would you like to join us please? It starts as a recepionist and operations job, and would suit a grad or similar level person - maybe you're about to leave university, or you've recently graduated and you're looking for that elusive first job in PR, or you're after a change, let us know.

More information is available here on the recruitment section of the Hotwire site. If you're interested then let me know - I'm on drew.benvie@hotwirepr.com. We're not just recruiting at that level - there are some other openings in our London and European offices too for various specialist positions.

If you want to know more about what we do here, where we are or why we're a nice place to work, you'll find it all on our site, here.

And here's the official ad for our opening.

Operations – London
Receptionist, £ attractive package depending on experience.
We are looking for a talented individual to join our operations team. You will have excellent communications skills, be able to multitask under pressure whilst remaining client focused and ultimately interested in developing a career in the PR industry. Ideally you will have some previous office experience gained within a fast-paced and proactive environment.

Many thanks for taking the time to read my official company bulletin :-)

The use of Twitter in election reporting

The New York Times has an interesting article on how 'microblogging' is changing journalism and the use of Twitter in web reporting around the general election. Worth a read. The first case study, that of John Dickerson, the political correspondent at US online mag Slate and formerly a reporter at Time magazine, talks about how he uses Twitter on his Blackberry to update his contacts on Facebook and the readers of his blog with quick, short messages.

"One of the things we're supposed to do as journalists is take people where they can't go,'" he says. And goes on to talk about how microblogging gives him a way of getting that scoop.

A lot of the PR and media community are using microblogging like Twitter, and I think that in the coming months we'll see more and more instances of it being used in mainstream and outside of the tech media and PR bubble.

PR Week blogger survey

I just tried filling out a survey sent to me by Julia Hood, the editor in chief of PR Week. It's a survey into the attitudes of bloggers vs journalists and it's getting published in PR Week magazine in March.

One problem though. The first question asks your primary job: something like "print media, online media, broadcast media, blog, other"

Well I'm not a journalist. For this exercise I suppose I'm a blogger. But I'd guess 99 per cent of bloggers, their primary job is not being a blogger. Blogging is just something they do - like posting on Facebook or whatever. So of course I fit into 'other'. That's when computer says no. Apparently unless you're a journalist, then your first job has to be your blog to take part in the survey.

Anyone else think this is going to skew their results a little?

Brits just don't find Gizmodo's stunt funny. Why? It's boring. Zzzzz

The talk online when I woke up this morning and much of today was the stunt that gadget blog Gizmodo pulled over at the big tech show in Vegas this week, CES. The Gizmodo gang went around with one of those TV zappers and turned off peoples TVs while they were talking about stuff with the TV on.

It's a little bit funny, but not that much, really. Come on? Why is there so much buzz about this lame stunt? It's not really that funny is it? You'd get more laughs off You've Been Framed!

Yet all the blogs (almost all American, note) are going crazy!!!!1!!!!!!one!!1!! "Gizmodo goes too far!", "Gizmodo what were you thinking?", "Let's see who's laughing after next year's body cavity search."

Is it just us Brits that see this for what it is? A not even that good prank? We could do su much better, no?

*rubs hands and starts thinking about good pranks for the next gig*

*perhaps with paint or flashing LED alien things*

Facebook deletes 'super-user' Robert Scoble

The social media story bubbling this morning is that the blogger and social media pundit Robert '5000-friends' Robert Scoble has been kicked off Facebook and all traces of his account have been removed.

Facebook told him it was because he was running programmes on his Facebook account (which Facebook terms as illegal). We're not sure what kind of software, but it probably takes info from his friends and gives it to him in a shareable format. Here's what Mike Butcher at TechCrunch UK says on the story.

Question is, will Facebook care that the man who has more 'friends' than Facebook allows a user to have is angry at them? Or that his massive fan club now thinks Facebook is bad? Or will the long tail of millions of Facebook users with normal amounts of friends, the original Facebook users, the ones who don't know and would never care to know about Scoble and his club, always remain priority number one?

Watch and find out over on Techmeme as the discussion develops.

My week in media

I was tagged by Ged for James' week in media thing. Where we all say what we read, watch, listen to and surf. It's really catching on. [see what people like James, Ged, Stephen Davies, Stuart Bruce and Stephen Waddington have said]

Firstly, I can't believe all these digital media types are saying that they read, watch and listen to stuff, then surf separately. It's all mixed up surely? I read, watch and listen to stuff on all sorts of media, online, digital, print etc, so to split out surfing, surely you should split out TV, cinema, or print too? So I'm rolling that fourth category into the others. Makes more sense that way. Sorry to change your meme James. Hope you don't mind.

What I’ve read
Start with reading my Twitter feed then my RSS folders (I have 30 split down by importance - I usually go through the first four). Then I read emails on my commute, then the Metro newspaper followed by a paid newspaper some days when I'm in the office. Weekends I miss some of this out and jump straight from feeds to The Guardian and Sunday Times. I'm currently reading a bunch of books at the same time but nothing too in-depth right now (welcome any suggestions on what to go for next). I read many magazines any more. I do use bookmarking sites to find and save stuff to read, I keep notes offline too in Moleskine notebooks, and I filter other reading material through my Gmail account in a similar way to Steve Rubel. I get about 150 emails a day (used to be far, far worse). I use social networks, blogs and mashups Twitter to read what's going on in my circle. 

What I’ve watched
Generally I have TV news on in the background all day, then watch some at night. I don't watch many moveies and almost never go to the cinema. TV news (BBC or Sky) is on in the office. When I can give more attention, in the evenings I watch stuff I've recorded on Sky+ like rugby and football, Mighty Boosh, Have I got News for You, then pad it out with soaps and whatever real-life guff is on at a given time of the year.

What I’ve listened to
Radio in the office changes from station to station (music ones). But when I can control what I listen to, on my commute and at home, it's whatever music's on my iPod and podcasts like Russell Brand and Ricky Gervais shows, and Pods & Blogs and FIR for work.

Bonus!
Where I've read it, watched it and listened to it
iPod Touch, Blackberry, HP nc4400 laptop, Sky+, newspapers, Moleskines, email!

Who I'm tagging?
Podcast gurus Chris and Neville, internationals Mdy and Youngy, then lastly my frenemy who can pick holes in most the things I've said if he likes, PR Geek.