All entries for August 2006

eep – something odd going on with Warwick Podcast

I've noticed some odd behaviour with Warwick Podcasts that may need some further explanation.

Certain podcasts seem to have received very large traffic with a massive spike between the 11th and 15th Augustwith three podcasts getting an awful lot of traffic:

Muslims in Prison: 513
Sleep and Obesity: 1368 – I kind of understand this one
Oil Prices: 3469

the next highest number of downloads for the period is 62, which is why these numbers seem a bit odd to me.

The stats tool isn't giving me any useful info as to where the traffic is coming from, so I remain a bit bemused by the high numbers.

Not that I am complaining of course – the more the merrier after all.

: 21 Aug 2006 10:35 |  Tags: Podcasts |  Comments (8) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

UK Govt enters YouTube

Well, isn't this interesting.

The UK Govt has started publishing short videos onto YouTube to promote certain intiatives – in this instance onw on 'Transformational Government' and another on department mergers.

Firstly, kudos to HM Gov for starting to use these tools. However, I would have to say that the videos seem to embody the same sort of crass self–promotion that you get with Party Political broadcasts.

The transformational government video seems to be the worst of these – considering the governments track record in implementing IT systems I would imagine most users look at this and think it's the worst kind of PR puffery. The video makes no attempt to tackle issues related to implementation, security etc etc and just jokes about without any substance.

Sharing the Leadership Challenge is much more interesting. More depth, insight and explanation. Doesn't treat the viewer as an idiot and tries to build a case and explain it. Perhaps the video could have been improved with more comment from doers rather than leaders. You can still dismiss it as propaganda but surely the point about services like YouTube is that you have a cracking right of reply mechanism. What will be interesting is whether the Public Sector Unions come back with an alternative view of TFL.

These are still early days in terms of the use of this channel, but you can start to see how organisations are going to jump in (I know we are planning stuff…) – but also how the channel users can quickly respond to communications with their own videos, comments and insight.

For your amusement here are the two vids, thanks to the power of BlogBuilder media tags – reproduced with absolutely no permission whatsoever:

: 21 Aug 2006 09:45 |  Tags: Communications Online PR Video |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Music for your child you won't be ashamed of!

Writing about web page http://www.babyrockrecords.com/web/page.asp?pgs=products

If I ever have kids I will be buying the entire back catalogue from this lot (except for Coldplay – ugh).

What a great concept – classic indie rock tracks for your toddler!

Smells Like Baby Spirit – Excellent!

: 18 Aug 2006 09:00 |  Tags: Music |  Comments (14) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Newbold on Stour Village Fete

It's our summer fete on Saturday, so if you fancy an afternoon in South Warwickshire then please pop along – you might even get the chance to throw wet sponges at me!

Lots of games, stalls and a pig roast plus, hopefully, some vintage cars.

If you don't know where Newbold on Stour is then see this – link

: 10 Aug 2006 16:59 |  Tags: Newbold Village |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

PR and Youtube

Writing about web page http://www.whatsnextblog.com/archives/2006/08/the_wall_st_journal_has.asp

Interesting 'expose' of a spoof video posted to Youtube uncovered by the Wall Street Journal.

Posted by a PR firm working on behalf of the oil industry in the US the video parodies Al Gore and his campaign to raise the profile of issues related to global warming.

I am not surprised that Youtube is being used in this way. What surprises me is that all Exxon can do is take the piss – and do so in such a way as to attempt to hide a films origin.

One of the reasons that PR gets such a bad press (hahaha!) is that it is perceived to be underhand and sly in how it operates. This sort of crap just makes it harder for the rest of us.

: 07 Aug 2006 08:45 |  Tags: Communications PR |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

HOT HOT HOT!

Writing about web page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVENWl8uBeg

via BoingBoing – perhaps American Universities are not that far ahead in their marketing:

link

: 02 Aug 2006 09:00 |  Tags: Communications PR |  Comments (20) |  Close comments |  Report a problem