Source for the News Good for a Gander

The self-styled Internet Psychologist Graham Jones is one of my favourite bloggers and can regularly be found telling us things that it will take the masses a long time to log on to.

Regular readers will know that it was this blogger that convinced Morgan PR to launch this blog in October 2006 - yes, over a year ago - and we have mentioned him numerous and he has done the same for us, both of which have always tickled Google's fancy.

Yesterday he posted an entry: Blogging will get your business more media attention which talks about a study that has found 74% of business journalists now use blogs or will use blogs as a source of information for stories.

This news does not surprise me. Journalists will routinely rely upon Google for finding sources and a good blog will quickly be found - and where are worth their weight is how much more realistic the conversational style of a well written blog is compared with the jargon riddled press releases that companies insist of deluging newspapers with.

A blog is brimming with quotes ready to be cut and pasted into a story. When I wrote about the media furore around the 16-year-old Police Community Support Officers who had joined Thames Valley Police, in my capacity as a former TVP press officer, the Sunday Express picked it up and had a 'former Thames Valley Police spin doctor has slammed...' story courtesy of Google. The story did not appear in the end, but I know how keen they are because they contacted me to clarify details. Such is the power of a blog.

I will urge all my clients to consider blogging and freely advise those who ask about blogging and whether it is worth it, that it truly is. This blog has in itself been a revenue stream with stone cold clients in waiting finding the blog through a combination of Google and blog search engines like Technorati, my own Morgan PR website and recommendation. The blog is a sales script in waiting that can introduce someone to our breadth of service and by the time they contact us many have already decided to use Morgan PR.

Why Comment on Blogs?

With everything I have written about Action Coach recently it seems rather fortuitous that I stumbled across a request for information about them on an American Real Estate Network called Active Rain and more specifically the blog of Jason Romrell, an attorney in Boise, Idaho in America.

So it was good to be able to post a comment to answer his question and hopefully answer the same question for other people too! It is one of the best parts of the blogging community.

One disappointing aspect of the comments allowed on this blog is how they do not trackback, so had I not written my web address within the text – although that does not appear as a hyperlink – no-one reading my comment could had contacted me to find out more information. Nor does it especially add to the search engine optimisation of either blog. This entry on the other hand...

Blog Birthday Prizes at David Airey Creative Design

With scarcely two months to go until this blog celebrates one year in cyberspace I am in awe to discover one of my favourite blogs is celebrating its first birthday with a monster prize giveaway that will have bloggers tirpping over their keys to enter!

David Airey - Creative Design has been a constant source of inspiration, information and amusement for about three months now and from the slick professionalism and delightful design (he is a guru in logo design though, based in Edinburgh) and I am positively humbled as I languish here on Blogger to discover that he has been going for just a few more months than us!

His own words of wisdom have influence not just what I have written here on this blog, but on my website and indeed advice that Morgan PR has given its clients. And in the true mutual benefits nature of blogging, the people he talks about have also helped us to grow.

To celebrate notching up such an accomplished 12 months David Airey has assembled a $4,000 Giveaway of prizes that will have any blogger, or indeed would be blogger, positively salivating over their mouse!

From logo design through to custom WordPress template design and blog hosting, he has a myriad of prizes that include a blog consultation and interview published on Daily Blog Tips online advertising on some impressive sites, and even free money, and essentially all you need to do is write a blog entry like this and let David Airey know - and you'll be in the prize draw.

If you link to five of the sponsors of this fabulous blogging birthday giveaway you get another entry. So what are you waiting for?!

Do Business Blogs Work?

Erstwhile 'Internet Psychologist' Graham Jones is constantly making good points on his own blog and a common theme is how many businesses simply do not get business blogs.

How right he is! Now I should declare an enthusiastic interest at this point. It was Graham who was the motivation for the launch of this business blog way back in October last year and has been a constant source of encouragement.

And somewhat sadly he accurately predicted just how many of us enthusiastic novices would falter as we pursued blogging as a business strategy - alas of all those who started blogs almost a year ago I am the only one who still posts regularly.

Although I hasten to add that Graham Chapple (dashingly pictured right) launched Garden4You soon after and it remains an entertaining tale of one man's battle with greenery and is regularly maintained - rather like the gardens looked after by Garden4You!

Now Graham Jone's constant beef with the sceptics is over whether blogging works and it is a question that I am frequently asked by people daunted by the prospect of maintaining a blog.

So does it work? Well Morgan PR is selling a service more than a product, so with the exception of a handful of clicks on Amazon books I might mention from time to time I do not get revenue directly from the blog per se. Although I know plenty that do!

However, as part of an overal marketing strategy that encompasses traditional advertising, networking, a propert website, commenting on other people's blogs, exhibitions, direct mail, newsletters - you get the idea - it definitely works.

Leaving aside piping hot referrals where those who visit the blog via a link on another blog they like or where it has been recommended by others, I have clients who found my website through Google and clicked on the link to my blog. Because it accurately reflects how we do business and our approach to public relations in Newbury and the Thames Valley it allows a reader to familiarise themselves with us and make a decision on moving forward with that.

When I write about work we have done with clients it certainly promotes them, but it is also a clear example of how I can help others too.

A prospect introduced via the blog is very likely to become a client and plenty of businesses have and some have proved very lucrative - and I would never have met them without this blog, the blog you are reading!

Something that does not work is an abandoned blog. It is worse than no blog. To discover a company has started a blog and abandoned it does not inspire confidence in prospective clients.

So check out Graham the blog guru's blog and indeed Graham the garden guru's blog, but most of all consider how a blog could benefit you - and send us the link so we can tell people about it!

Secrets of Great Public Relations Revealed at the Berkshire Business Show

After months of planning the Berkshire Business Show finally got underway today - and is still on tomorrow, so not too late to visit!

You are however too late to hear me reveal 'The Secrets of Great Public Relations' which was the opening seminar and attracted an audience of around 15 people into the small lecture theatre at the Newbury College venue.

I was introduced by the marathon running public speaker extraordinaire Jim Ewan (he runs marathons - I''m not suggesting his public speaking runs on!) who said some kind words referring to how I got him splashed on Meridian Television earlier in the year when he ran across the Saraha Desert for charity!

The audience was made up of some familiar faces and plenty of new ones too and I was thrilled that some of those sought me out afterwards and I look forward to working with them in the near future.

Naturally I praised blogging as an essential part of any public relations campaign and (almost) seamlessly cut to a pre-recorded video segment of the PowerPoint presentation, which you can see below:



I had to laugh - one of the audience, Accountant Paul Pointer from Freeman Baker Associates quipped it looked like a hostage video! What do you think?

I'm back at the show tomorrow and will bring you more news then.

Will Blogging Really Peak in 2007?

The BBC led with a dubious story yesterday, quoting technical 'gurus' Gartner as saying blogging will peak next year... Really?

As many blogs as there are out there, I cannot honestly believe that they are going to doing anything but continue to blossom. Some will flare and then die, like an ill-lit match in a thunderstorm, but others will flourish and become essential components of our every more personalised web experience.

Also, surely as technology advances we will simply migrate on to every more advanced versions of blogging. I already know how to post a blog entry from my mobile telephone (Admittedly I have had no requirement to do this!) and presumably the technology already exists for me to post a video entry too. Any future development of the blogging environment will encourage more people to lauch their own and leave others playing catch up or making the most of thoroughly established technology. Sort of belated adopters.

Before you get carried away and admire my foresight, the Internet Psychologist, Graham Jones has been saying much the same on his own blog and a quick Google search reveals that many are dismissing the story.