Unlike many online and web 2.0 companies, Mozilla are great at providing customer service. Rather than calling an expensive phone line to get transfered twenty times before you finally receive help in broken English, or joining an online forum to talk to other disgruntled customers, FireFox users can simply use twitter to tweet about their problems. By monitoring mentions of FireFox on twitter, @firefox_answers can find out who needs help and offer it to them.

What a great way to use twitter and create brand ambassadors out of your customers! But despite this I wouldn't recommend following @firefox_answers. I imagine it's a bit like eavesdropping in a call centre. Instead just check your replies once you've asked a question.

Here are three other great ways for companies to use Twitter:

1. To speak to your customers
@pbloco uses Twitter well by entering into conversations with followers. The peanut butter manufacturer poses questions, replies to followers and occasionally hosts little competitions to win jars of P.B.Loco. If I won something over Twitter I know I'd certainly tweet and blog about it as well as tell my friends.

2. To provide news about your brand
@BarackObama uses Twitter well to keep followers up-to-date about where the presidential candidate is and what he's doing, as well as how his campaign is progressing. What a great way to keep potential voters informed and position the candidate as a proactive change maker.
@innocentAGM2008 on the other hand used twitter badly by updating followers with little titbits about the company's AGM. In theory it was a good idea, but chatty marketing doesn't really work on Twitter. I don't really care if the cake at the AGM tastes good or if there are 44 coats in the cloakroom.

3. To inform your readers
@guardiantech and @prweektech are great at using Twitter to keep their followers up to speed with technology news and generate hits to their websites. Though it can be annoying when @prweektech goes over 140 characters and you don't receive the full message. If you are going to use twitter as a newsfeed you must be committed to doing it and not stop after 6 updates like
@bbctechfeatures who will have left their 250+ followers quite disappointed.

Labels: brand ambassadors, customer service, firefox, formby, matthew watson, mozilla, twitter

Less than two months since astroturfing became illegal, the Carphone Warehouse has been accused of doing just that by Ian Delaney, the editor of New Media Knowledge, who recently noticed some very suspicious posts on his blog. Ian spotted three comments made in seven minutes on an old post, all coming from the same IP address and waxing lyrical about Carphone Warehouse. One even went so far to say: "if cpw was that bad they would not be the market leader."

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, which were put into force on 28th May, were meant to prevent companies from misleading consumers with things like fake blogs and fake comments. But how many people are actually aware of the act and know that leaving fake comments is illegal? Companies need to train their employees and webmasters need to make their visitors aware that writing false comments is against the law.

With many review sites becoming popular online, astroturfing could be a lot more widespread than we realise. If you read a review of a TV or a restaurant (gastroturfing if you will) how do you know they weren't made by a company to improve its image or damage that of its competitors. Then again as Stuart Bruce points out they could have been made by a nutty fan.

Labels: astroturfing, carphone warehouse, consumer protection from unfair trading regulations, flogs, formby, gastroturfing, ian delaney, matthew watson, new media knowledge, stuart bruce

According to PR Week 9 out of 10 of the UK's largest PR agencies have hired more graduates this year despite the credit crunch. This apparently shows that the PR industry looks set to buck the recession. But there's a major flaw. The majority of PR graduates will not go straight into jobs working for the UK's ten largest agencies, many will begin their careers at small consultancies that might be less well equipped to ride out a recession.

As the only person on my course to have got a PR job since graduating, I would be surprised if small consultancies were mirroring large agencies and hiring more graduates than in 2007. But perhaps I'm wrong - what do you think?

Labels: credit crunch, formby, graduate, jobs, matthew watson, pr week, public relations, recession, students, uk

Earlier this month my boss, Stephen Waddington, blogged to say that 'From PR To Eternity' had made it into a list of the UK's top marketing blogs. The list had been produced by Spinning Around using data from the AdAge Power 150. Yesterday Nick Burcher produced a list of the top European blogs according to the AdAge Power 150.

This got me thinking. What are the world's top PR blogs? So jumping on the band wagon slightly I've produced a list of the top PR blogs according to the AdAge Power 150. It's by no means perfect since it only features blogs on AdAge with PR, Public Relations or Relations in the title, but I think it's a decent indicator nonetheless.

If your PR blog is missing please comment and let me know. If you haven't added your blog to the AdAge Power 150 yet you can do so by clicking here.

PR Rank....AA Rank............ Blog Name........................Country ............AA Score

1. .............38.....................PR 2.0...................................US.........................91
2. .............43.....................PR Squared..........................US.........................89
3. .............57.....................A shel of my former self........US..........................83
   
4. .............89.....................POP! PR Jots.........................US.........................72
5. ............111....................Strategic PR..........................US.........................68
6. ............113...................PR Blogger.............................UK.........................68
7. ............126...................Pro PR...................................CANADA................66
8. ............201...................Young PR..............................AUSTRALIA................58
9. ...........204....................PRNewser..............................US..........................58
10. ...........211.....................PR Communications............US..........................57
11. ...........222....................A PR Guy's Musings................UK.........................55
12. ...........236....................PR meets the WWW..............US.........................55
13. ...........253....................Common Sense PR................CANADA.............53
14. ...........260....................Corporate PR........................US.........................52
15. ...........263....................PR Works................................CANADA..............52
16. ...........268....................Naked PR...............................US.........................52
17. ...........296....................KDPaine's PR..........................US..........................49
18. ...........313....................Hispanic Marketing & PR........US.........................48
19. ...........324...................Wadds' tech pr blog...............UK........................47
20. ...........331...................Drew B's take on tech PR........UK.......................46
21. ...........345...................Corporate Engagement.........AUSTRALIA..........45
    
22. .,.........346...................Brendan Cooper.....................UK.......................45
23. ...........350...................Tech PR Gems..........................US......................45
24. ...........352...................PRoactive...............................US......................45
25. ...........355..................Simonsays................................UK......................44
    
26. ...........357...................Beyond PR...............................UK......................44
27. ...........366...................Observations of PR................US........................43
28. ...........375...................Online PR Thoughts.....................US...................43
29. ...........376...................Valley PR Blog..........................US......................43
30. ...........405...................Media Relations Blog................US......................41
31. ...........424...................PR Disasters...............................AUSTRALIA.........39
32. ...........428...................PR Meets Marketing..................US.......................39
33. ...........450...................Into PR.....................................US.........................37
34. ...........468...................Wired PR Works.......................US........................36
35. ...........478...................Student PR Blog........................CANADA..............35
36. ...........486...................PRos in Training............................US......................35
37. ...........490...................IndiaPRBlog!..............................INDIA..................35
38. ...........492...................Profitable Business Edge 2........US........................35
39. ...........498...................The New PR.................................CANADA............34
40. ...........500...................Shiny Red.......................................UK......................34
41. ...........507...................A view on PR..............................US......................34
42. ...........515...................Alan Weinkrantz PR....................US......................33
43. ...........529...................PR Talk........................................US......................33
44. ...........530...................Engage in PR............................US........................33
45. ...........539...................New Millennium PR......................US....................32
46. ...........544...................Pudding Relations......................UK......................32
47. ...........545...................Morgan McLintic on PR...............US......................32
48. ...........556...................Mutually Inclusive PR..................CANADA.............31
49. ...........575...................All Things PR...............................UK.......................30
50. ...........594...................Youngblood PR & Marketing......CANADA...........29
51. ...........602...................PR Voice......................................UK......................28
52. ...........624...................PR. Differently..............................US......................27
53. ...........630...................Launch PR.....................................US....................26
54. ...........631...................Tech for PR...................................US......................26
55. ...........661...................10 Yetis PR Blog..........................UK.......................23
56. ...........666...................Blinn PR Report...........................US.......................23
57. ...........684...................Mosnar Communications............US......................22
58. ...........693...................First Person PR............................US........................21
59. ...........697...................PRwordSmith................................UK.....................21
60. ...........699...................EducationPR.................................US......................21
61. ...........713...................From PR to Eternity......................UK......................19
62. ...........715...................HighVizPR......................................US.....................19
63. ...........718...................PowerUp........................................US....................19
    

The top blogs by country:

Australia: Young PR
Canada: Pro PR
India: IndiaPRBlog!
UK: PR Blogger
US: PR 2.0

The top UK blogs:
1. PR Blogger
2. A PR Guy's Musings
3. Wadds' tech pr blog
4. Drew B's take on tech PR
5. Brendan Cooper, Your friendly PR Social Media Planner
6. Simonsays
7. Beyond PR
8. Shiny Red
9. Pudding Relations
10. All Things PR
11. PR Voice
12. 10 Yetis PR Blog
13. PRwordSmith
14. From PR to Eternity

Labels: adage power 150, blogs, european blogs, formby, london, marketing, matthew watson, nick burcher, pr blogs, public relations, rainier pr, spinning around, stephen waddington

Class of 2008: Public Relations with Media BA (Hons), The University of Huddersfield.

Labels: class of 2008, eileen jones, formby, graduate, graduation, matthew watson, pr, public relations with media, university of huddersfield

If you're looking for gadget and gizmo gossip then please visit the Digital Lushes blog, which is written by Custard PR and was recently redesigned by me.

Labels: blog, custard pr, digital lushes, formby, gadgets, gizmos, matthew watson

Pop star, Lily Allen recently blogged, "Please can everyone stop stabbing each other in the UK , it's really sad , my thoughts are with all the families affected by these heinious crimes . we need to have a knife amnesty , we should put on a big concert to raise awareness and stop the violence , Boris, if your listening , call me man."

It would appear that man, Boris Johnson was listening. Or at least his aides were. Although how exactly you listen to a blog I don't know.

Teaming up with a famous young Londoner like Lily is a very shrewd way for the new Mayor of London to position himself as a proactive crime fighter committed to reducing the levels of knife crime in the City. That said I very much doubt that a photoshoot with Lily and a brainstorming session will make a massive difference. Kids won't stop carrying knives because Lily says so. Kids will stop carrying knives when they feel safe on the streets.

I think many knife holders are carrying knives to protect themselves rather than to commit crimes. So rather than a knife amnesty or a Knife Aid type concert I think working to publicise initiatives setup to lower the rates of crime and news that crime rates have dropped will have a bigger effect.

A good example of this is the news released today that the rate of recorded crime has nearly halved since 1995, and is 9% down on last year. However I doubt that will be on the front page of the newspapers tomorrow. Especially since the BBC has reported that another youth has been knifed to death tonight, and tomorrow is the day of Ben Kinsella's funeral.

The media should cut down on sensationalist reporting of crime that just heightens people's fears and focus on the facts, no matter how mundane they are. But sadly I think selling papers is more of a priority than saving lives. The BBC has an article reporting a similar idea here, and a nonsense article here claiming that Nike has shelved its Air Stab trainer because of fears it promotes knife crime. That shoe has nothing to do with knives - it's a stability shoe!

Labels: amnesty, bbc, ben kinsella, boris johnson, crime rates, kids, knife aid, knife crime, lily allen, london, murder, photo shoot, uk, yoof

In Saturday's Guardian there is an article detailing how Princes William and Harry have shaken off their image of drunken heir heads to become right royal role models. All it took was a cocaine bust here and a spot of helping the poor there. Hey presto, you're a national treasure and the tabloids love you.

But is it really that easy to change your image? A short burst of positive PR with a few days charity work, a well staged photo shoot and some well timed news releases. Or does it demand a more sustained effort to make a difference. I'd opt for the latter. If Harry and William went out next weekend and had one too many bottles of champagne, before getting photographed stumbling out of some posh club in a sick stained shirt all that hard work will have been for nothing. At least in terms of improving their image.

The princes aren't the only 'royals' who have been working on their reputation recently. The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has been in the background working hard on his. The pop star who Max Clifford once described as "the hardest job in PR after Saddam Hussein" is now working on a new album, and collaborating with some of the biggest names in the music industry. I'm not sure how Wacko Jacko has improved his image, but whatever he's done it certainly seems to have been successful. After all I can't imagine the likes of Kanye West, Akon, and Black Eyed Peas star, Will.i.am, were falling over themselves to work with a singer recovering from a second set of peadophilia allegations.

What other public figures have turned their reputation around?

Here are my top 5:

1. David Beckham. Following kicking Diego Simeone during the 1998 World Cup, Beckham went on to become one of the country's favourite footballers and captain of the England team.
   
2. Nelson Mandela. Once regarded as a terrorist, Mandella is now thought of as a key freedom fighter and in 1993 was presented with a Nobel Peace Prize after becoming the11th President of South Africa. However he was only taken off the US list of terrorists twelve days ago.
3. Kylie Minogue. Sometimes all it takes to change your image is a decent pair of hot pants. However this might not work for all.
4. David Hasselhoff. Embracing his online persona as the Hoff with some good humour was all it took for the aging actor to breathe some new life into his celebrity status.
5. Take That. Once in a while doing nothing can revive your image. There's a reason they say what goes around comes around...
   

Labels: brand ambassadors, formby, image, matthew watson, max clifford, michael jackson, nazi, prince harry, prince william, reputation management, top five

Please check out another blog I've been helping to develop - Earlin' Abuse: Steve Earl's IT PR Agency Blog.

Labels: blog, earlin abuse, formby, matthew watson, rainier pr, steve earl

I've been developing this blog for Susannah Wyeth at Lighthouse PR. Please check it out!

Labels: blog, blogging, formby, lighthouse pr, matthew watson, rainier pr, susannah wyeth