I've produced a list of the world's 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 Publicity in the title, and a few that were suggested to me last month. It's just a bit of fun but I think it's a decent indicator of the top PR blogs 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. .............26.....................PR 2.0...................................US.........................95
2. .............38.....................PR Squared..........................US.........................89
3. .............54.....................A shel of my former self........US..........................83
4. .............85.....................POP! PR Jots.........................US.........................72
5. ............118...................Pro PR...................................CANADA................67
6. ............121...................PR Blogger.............................UK.........................67
7. ............150....................Strategic PR..........................US.........................63
8. ............151...................Young PR..............................AUSTRALIA................63
9. ...........181....................PRNewser..............................US..........................59
10. ...........193....................A PR Guy's Musings................UK.........................57
11. ...........199....................KDPaine's PR..........................US..........................57
12. ...........205.....................PR Communications............US..........................57
13. ...........228....................Corporate PR........................US.........................54
14. ...........244....................PR Works................................CANADA..............53
15. ...........259....................PR meets the WWW..............US.........................52
16. ...........287...................Drew B's take on tech PR........UK.......................50
17. ...........299....................Common Sense PR................CANADA.............49
18. ...........306....................Hispanic Marketing & PR........US.........................49
19. ...........320..................Simonsays................................UK......................48
20. ...........353...................Brendan Cooper.....................UK.......................46
21. ...........356...................Online PR Thoughts.....................US...................46
22. ...........363...................Observations of PR................US........................45
23. ...........367...................Beyond PR...............................UK......................54
24. ...........383...................Corporate Engagement.........AUSTRALIA..........44
25. ...........385...................PRoactive...............................US......................44
26. ...........396...................PR Disasters...............................AUSTRALIA.........43
27. ...........392...................Wadds' tech pr blog...............UK........................49
28. ...........397...................Wired PR Works.......................US........................43
29. ...........421...................Valley PR Blog..........................US......................41
30. ...........423...................Publicity Hound's.........................US....................41
31. ...........448...................Media Relations Blog................US......................40
32. ...........451...................A view on PR..............................US......................40
33. ...........460...................The New PR.................................CANADA............39
34. ...........489...................Client Service Insights................US....................37
35. ...........492...................This is herd.......................................UK....................37
36. ...........504...................Profitable Business Edge 2........US........................37
37. ...........512...................Alan Weinkrantz PR....................US......................36
38. ...........521...................Pierce Mattie PR.........................US.....................36
39. ...........522...................Pudding Relations......................UK......................36
40. ...........525...................Engage in PR............................US........................36
41. ...........534...................Into PR.....................................US.........................35
42. ...........545...................PR Meets Marketing..................US.......................35
43. ...........554...................PRos in Training............................US......................34
44. ...........567...................Shiny Red.......................................UK......................33
45. ...........568...................Student PR Blog........................CANADA..............33
46. ...........572...................Eyecube........................................US....................33
47. ...........576...................PR Talk........................................US......................33
48. ...........577...................IndiaPRBlog!..............................INDIA..................33
49. ...........598...................Tech PR Gems..........................US......................32
50. ...........603...................All Things PR...............................UK.......................32
51. ...........607...................Denver PR Blog...........................US.....................32
52. ...........617...................Strive Notes...................................US....................31
53. ...........618...................PR Voice......................................UK......................31
54. ...........621...................New Millennium PR......................US....................31
55. ...........637...................Norton's Notes.............................UK.......................30
56. ...........647...................Morgan McLintic on PR...............US......................30
57. ...........654...................Mutually Inclusive PR..................CANADA.............29
58. ...........664...................From PR to Eternity......................UK......................29
59. ...........666...................PR Thoughts From Ronn Torrossian.....US..................29
60. ...........674...................Youngblood PR & Marketing.........CANADA...........29
61. ...........677...................10 Yetis PR Blog..........................UK.......................28
62. ...........686...................PR. Differently..............................US......................28
63. ...........696...................Mosnar Communications................US......................28
64. ...........724....................Tech for PR.................................US.....................26
65. ...........739....................Social Media for PR Class............US..................26
66. ...........757....................My PR Palette..............................Canada..............25
67. ...........769...................EducationPR.................................US......................25
68. ...........777...................Launch PR.....................................US....................24
69. ...........785...................Blinn PR Report...........................US.......................24
70. ...........788...................Public Relations Matters...............US....................24
71. ...........789...................Online Publicity Journal..................US....................24
72. ...........796...................Minnesota PR blog.........................US....................24
73. ...........834...................First Person PR............................US........................21
74. ...........859...................HighVizPR....................................US.....................19
75. ...........877...................PowerUp......................................US....................17

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. Drew B's take on tech PR
4.Simonsays
5. Brendan Cooper, Your friendly PR Social Media Planner
6. Beyond PR
7. Wadds' tech pr blog
8. This is herd
9. Pudding Relations
10. Shiny Red
11. All Things PR
12. PR Voice
13. Norton's Notes
14. From PR to Eternity
15. 10 Yetis PR Blog

This weekend I attended the closing down party at the Underground night club in Southport, which is one of my all-time favourite haunts. Like many closing down sales and farewell tours it was very busy. It showed what potential the club had, and how popular the place is with its customers.

If every night was like Saturday night I very much doubt the club would be shutting down. So why is it shutting down? I put that down to mediocre marketing. Although the club has built up an impressive level of brand loyalty with its customers, by providing a good quality service, it hasn’t taken advantage of this. The club could have easily and cheaply used social media to interact with its customer base.

Here are a few ways that the club owners could have engaged more with their customers.

• Invite clubbers to get involved by voting for what music should be played or what drinks should be sold
• Provide an online space for customers to share their photographs and videos
• Issue a regular newsletter informing customers about changes to the night club
• Write a blog to provide information about bands that will soon be performing, recommend new artists to listen to and songs to download, and talk about changes being made to the club
• Invite the public to review music

The Underground did run a Facebook group that regularly issued messages about what bands were playing each week. But this can quickly be seen as spam and the message is lost. Nobody wants to be told the same thing each week. It’s boring and it could actually harm your brand.

Labels: blog, closing down, formby, matthew watson, music, night club, potential, social media, user generated content

During a recent trip to Berlin, my friends and I came across moving advertisements in Alexanderplatz. The adverts, which I assume were either robotic or remote controlled, really grabbed my attention as they whizzed around the town centre. At which point my friend said: "I bet Matt blogs about that!" She was right.

Being quirky is a great way to stand out, but it's not sustainable. TV commercials and moving billboards were once new, exciting and different ways to advertise, and so captured the public's imagination. But now they're just background noise, unless the actual advert is interesting.

The same is true in PR. There are plenty of ways to spice up press releases, but if the content is as dull as dishwater than there's no point. Rather than focus all our attention on jazzing up the delivery with pretty designs and social media add-ons, we should ensure the we give the actual press release the same amount of attention. After all it's the really creative adverts that we remember.

Check out this video of mobile adverts in Berlin by Mrneglect:

Labels: advertisements, advertising, berlin, formby, germany, matthew watson, mobile, moving, pr, press release, social media, social media release