Marketing v. PR - It’s not really like this, is it?

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If the Daily Dilbert isn’t on your must read list, then it should be.

Andy Lark is Dell’s new VP of Global Marketing and Communications

Dell has managed a real coup in securing Andy Lark, former VP of marketing at Sun Systems, as its new VP of Global Marketing and Comms. I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Andy, but his blog is near the top of my must read list. It’s clear that Andy is a visionary who really understands the threats and opportunities that are changing the way that comms professionals need to operate.

When I was managing UK PR for the Electronic Sports World Cup I had dealings with Dell and it was the type of company that suffered from ‘big corporate’ syndrome more that most.

It will be fascinating to see how long it takes for Andy’s presence to visibly impact on what’s happening at Dell. I’ll be watching with interest.

XP: A PR Guy’s Musings

Peninsula’s Facebook research is wrong

Law firm Peninsula has released some extremely dubious research into the negative impacts of employees using Facebook. I’ve fired off several letters to newspapers that have simply published the spurious data, without bothering to do any fact checking (or even really thinking about it).

Your Fact of the Day cites Peninsula’s latest research on the negative impacts of Facebook for employers. Peninsula’s data might be an opinion, but it certainly isn’t fact and provides a very short-sighted and one-sided view of the world of social networking sites such as Facebook. Whilst the results can indicate the amount of time employees spend on Facebook during the working day, who is to say that time spent on Facebook is time ‘wasted’? Peninsula fail to recognise that for many employers, Facebook is actually a benefit, providing employees with opportunities to network with clients and potential new businesses, resulting in an increase in productivity rather than a loss as Peninsula suggest. The creation of business related groups allows employees to exchange ideas, access information across the globe and build relationships with other organisations.

It is impossible to hold back the tide of change and employers should be setting guidelines and providing support and training to ensure they benefit from social networks, rather than being one of those whose business suffers because it is stuck in the past.

Employers need to recognise the potential that social networking, in particular Facebook, can hold and use this to their advantage instead of concentrating on perceived negatives.

Lots of other good commentary including Dennis Howlett and Neville Hobson.

Open Coffee at Loftart

Yesterday I had an enlightening morning at an Open Coffee meeting at Loftart above Flannels in Leeds. The event is organised by Imran Ali and runs on the first Tuesday of every month.

At first I was quite apprehensive, with a background in marketing, I wasn’t quite sure how well received I’d be by the hardcore geek community… but as I stood there, humbly sipping my drink, I felt no pretence whatsoever, I was surrounded by suits, geeks, coders, bloggers, investors, entrepreneurs, designers and developers, all of whom congregate simply to share ideas, thoughts and demos – it was great. I’ve been to many a ‘networking’ event, and whilst the evening sessions are always quite ‘loose’, with attendees somewhat nicely oiled by open bar tabs, morning or lunch time meetings are often the most painfully dry moments I’ve ever known – time awkwardly spent, which I’ll never get back!

So, thanks to Imran for the invite, not only did I meet some very nice people, I’ve now been educated in ‘mapping’ by Tim Waters and introduced to a whole host of new IT slang… admittedly I’m still getting my head around most of it, but that has to be expected in these early days! To finish off the event, I was invited to GeekUp – same chat – plus beers… happy days… oh and I also had the pleasure of meeting Anthony Senior, and his granddaughter (manager of the restaurant), very nice people – lovely venue, amazing patisseries, and excellent coffee’s, five stars from Seb.