Introducing a new(ish) member of the team

August 8th, 2008

At Liberate Media we’re always on the look out for consultants that can add a new dimension to our team, and Tim Greenhalgh has been a breath of fresh air since he joined last year. It may seem like an odd time to introduce him, but as we’ve taken the decision to divide our blogging power into separate focuses, now seemed like the right time to put Tim firmly in the spotlight.

Personally, I’ve known Tim for many years, having first introduced him to my clients when he was working for The Times.  Tim has gathered a vast amount of experience in various roles, including 20 years as a national journalist, specialising in technology and education for The Times and Observer, and also launching several technology start-ups, including a VC-backed virtual world company.

As you can imagine, Tim’s experience has been invaluable to us not only in terms of his journalist instinct and contacts, but with the real world business knowledge that comes from running your own company. Something that our clients appreciate.

We hope you’ll enjoy Tim’s blog, which is focused on virtual worlds, mobile’s move into social media and digital education as well. You may have already seen a few of Tim’s posts on the central blog, and I’m sure he will build up a following of his own pretty quickly.

Best of luck Tim.

Posted in Blogging, Content, Digital communications, Journalism, Liberate Media news, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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Go Live blogging Go Nintendo

July 15th, 2008

 

As a big fan of the Nintendo Wii I just happened to spot an interesting headline on one of my RSS feeds:

GoNintendo live-blog - Nintendo E3 media briefing

Once I had clicked through, i was greeted by the following message: “This post will sit on the front page, inactive, until the show begins. As long as I can get a wireless signal, I will be providing updates to this post. If I cannot get a signal, Deux Michaels will handle this section. I will update you on the situation as the event nears its start.”

Two things, first:

I’m all for live blogging, instant comments and reaction to breaking news. Doing this puts your blog on the map and in pole position, it draws the crowd in and turns your site into a goto site for all the latest news.

Secondly:

Good on GoNintendo for trying a different approach to blogging and covering an all important media briefing, it’s certainly an approach I would recommend to our Liberate Media clients.

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Blogging: is it becoming a propaganda tool?

February 29th, 2008

‘Propaganda’. Now that’s a word I haven’t used for a while. Probably not since my politics A-Level! But yesterday’s report by US blog the Drudge Report, of Prince Harry’s stationing in Afghanistan, has brought to light the propaganda influence a blog can have.

Tonight Jon Snow is referring to events over the past 24-hours as a “propaganda war”.

Without wanting to state the obvious, the shocking reality of the situation is that one blog report, which ignored media censorship rules, has led to Prince Harry being flown home from Afghanistan. Public opinion is very divided on whether Druge should have published the classified information or not, as it would be on such a highly contentious issue…but for me what’s more concerning is the political power a single blog has managed to achieve.

The potential for abuse is deeply concerning. The uncensored openness of the blogosphere is what makes it what it is, but are we heading for an abuse of that freedom? If blogs of influence begin to harness the power they have within their network, and use it for the wrong reasons, that could take us to a very bad place…

Posted in Blog, Blogging, Digital communications, Journalism, Social media | No Comments »

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The Madeleine McCann blogging stats

October 23rd, 2007

Barely a day goes by without my RSS feeds for Sky News, BBC News, The Telegraph etc leading on a story about Madeleine McCann…and I think it’s fair to say this has been the case for the past three months.

The story is a PR phenomenon, and the traditional news organisations have gone for it hook line and sinker. But I wanted to see if the same was true of the blogosphere.

The below graph shows the number of blog posts on Technorati mentioning ‘madeleine mccann’ over the past 30 days, and the figures are clearly beginning to dip in comparison to the number of journalist stories on the subject. Google News reports more than 4,500 articles on the issue over the past month.

However, a search for ‘madeleine mcann’ on Icerocket over the past three months pulls up quite different results. On average, 217 posts a day have appeared on the subject, for the past three months.

There is an obvious obsession with the story, among journalists and bloggers alike, but it seems the blogosphere has tired of the story a little more quickly than traditional news outlets.

Could it be that the blogosphere is realising that a very different ’stickiness factor’ applies to blogs, than to tabloid newspapers or online news channels? It could well explain why the blogosphere has moved on more quickly from the Madeleine McCann story, in order to keep readership.

Technorati tags: madeleine+mccann, icerocket, technorati, news+agenda, journalism, blogging, pr

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Overpromised, underdelivered

October 12th, 2007

I’m in the process of moving house at the minute and one of the many tasks I need to take care of is to set up my new broadband connection. This has put the ongoing broadband speed saga into real perspective for me and I’m getting increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress.

Fear not though, this post isn’t going to be an aimless rant, it does have some relevance.

The whole saga has taken a step closer to some sort of public resolution, or at least further naming and shaming, this week with Ofcom entering the fray.

After Stephen Timms threatened action from the government last month, with a date for the intervention summit still to be named, now Ofcom has written to the UK’s top six broadband providers asking why they fail to provide the connection speeds that they so often flout in the media.

Hurrah! Some action at last! While we’re at it can we also ask about the extortionate pricing and rubbish service? Okay, one thing at a time Gofton.

In PR terms the broadband providers need some much needed positivity around them at the moment, and it simply isn’t happening. Why? Because instead of coming up with a new strategy to deal with the issue at hand they are continuing to follow a trend of ignorance. Ignoring the major issue and trying to distract the consumer with shiny new offers of anything other than the actual performance we are paying for.

According to Rick Wray’s article on Technology Guardian yesterday, O2 is going to take a different approach with the launch of its broadband service next week by…get this…testing a customer’s line before they sign up to estimate the likely speed they will be able to receive, and then placing them on a relevant package. What’s this? Actually testing before promising, surely this is buffoonery of the highest order!

But no…there’s more…O2 will then test the line again a month later.

Simple, transparent, obvious. Hopefully O2 have shown the way forward. Smart communications!

And another thing…

Technorati tags: 02, broadband+speed, broadband+providers

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