CBS goes inside the Barack Obama campaign

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I’ve just found this fascinating video on the Total Politics site where CBS takes a camera crew inside the Barack Obama campaign to interview some of the backroom staffers.

Most telling for me was chief strategist, David Axelrod, talking about the difficulties of campaigning against friends in Primaries or internal party elections. Axelrod had worked for Hilary Clinton in her first Senate campaign and now found himself working on the other side.

I had exactly that experience when I worked as Director of Communications for Alan Johnson in the Labour deputy leadership elections. Hilary Benn, another of the six candidates, is an old friend of mine and as a Labour Party staff member I worked as his campaign manger in the Leeds Central by-election where he first won his seat.

XP: A PR Guy’s Musings

Is investigative journalism dead?

As a broadcast journalism student, journalism is a topic close to my heart; however I feel the need to ask myself why I am looking to a career in PR instead. First and foremost, is the move away from muckraking journalism which brought governments to right; here I am obviously thinking of the infamous Watergate Scandal. I’m sure Woodward and Bernstein started a revolution among young journalists in the hope that they too would have the chance to change the world using a secret source named ‘Deep Throat’.

It was in this Golden Age that the media really lived up to its name as the fourth estate. But in the modern age investigative journalism can simply not survive within the press. Commercial pressures are forcing resources and cash to be stretched to the point that no, or at least very few, editors are willing to take a risk on expensive investigations. Phillip Knightley explains that it all began with the death of the print unions, and was subsequently made worse by the arrival of media law firms. I particularly like Knightley’s quote from Rupert Murdoch just after he ended the editorial budgets on the Times Newspapers, “Never give journalists a budget. The b******s will spend every penny of it." Just give them a news agenda instead, yeah?

Today, investigative journalism has moved over to television, with the technological age paving the way for the ‘undercover documentary’. Prime time spots are filled with reporters donning hidden cameras and mini-mics, in their quest for justice. I am not objecting to this kin d of journalism, don’t get me wrong I enjoy this type of programming as much as any other, yet I can’t help feeling like saying “Is this the best we can do?”

This is not the only problem. It is clear journalism is in decline across the spectrum – for one, Politics has been made into a melodramatic soap opera and ultimately caused the public to become more concerned with trivial rubbish. It was not long ago that Blair’s new haircut made the front pages and Cameron’s dabble with cannabis in his teens caused national uproar.

So with the Internet taking the world by storm and the emergence of social networking taking over could UGC (User Generated Content) become the new method of journalism? (In 2006 Ofcom’s communications market report revealed that 41 per cent of all UK Internet users aged 25 and over have a social website homepage. This is in addition to the 70 per cent of all 16-24 year olds signed-up to social networking sites.)

To this I would answer no, despite the lack of faith I have expressed in modern journalism, I still believe it plays a vital role in our democracy. There might be less catastrophic wrongdoings uncovered and more conformist reports in today’s news output, but there are still a lot of journalists risking their lives and fulfilling their role whole-heartedly to bring all of us, the news.

Is Gordon Brown the first head of government to Twitter?

Yesterday, DowningStreet started to Twitter. The bio describes it as “The official twitter channel for the Prime Minister’s Office based at 10 Downing Street” and gives the web address of the official PM’s site at www.pm.gov.uk.

Of course it isn’t actually Gordon Brown sitting at the keyboard or tapping away on his mobile (in fact I seem to remember that when Gordon became PM he had to give up his personal mobile as all the PM’s calls need to be logged).

But that’s not what this should be about. The social media and social network purists will possibly criticise the move because the PM isn’t properly taking part in the community. But come on, get real people. He’s got a big enough job running the country.

If it is being done by someone close enough to Gordon in his office then that is good enough for me. However, at the moment you don’t get that impression. The eight posts to date are incredibly dull and uninformative - even for a political junkie like me.

If this is to work then it needs to give an insight into Gordon’s personality and what makes him tick. “The Prime Minister is greeting President Nicolas Sarkozy at the front door of 10 Downing Street” tells me absolutely nothing of interest.

What was Gordon thinking? What was he doing? That would make the Twitter channel work.

If it is to be a news channel then that’s fine as well. But at the moment it doesn’t do either very well. “No10 news: France and Britain pledge school places: The Prime Minister and French Preside… http://tinyurl.com/27sjzl” tells me nothing much.

That’s probably because it is created using Twitterfeed from the PM’s existing RSS feeds.

So far there are only 23 followers (it was single figures when I joined) and it is following nobody. It will be interesting to see if it does do any following. If it is a success and enough people start following then it would be unrealistic to expect real interaction and community. But, what you could do is monitor and mine the followers to glean insight into what they are talking about and therefore what matters to them. That would provide useful information as to what to Twitter about and also provides the potential for a quick, dirty and easy online focus group.

Edelman’s Marshall Manson also has a post, as does Simon Dickson who alerted me to the story with his Tweet (incidentally it’s hard to credit a Tweet and comment in 140 characters).

UPDATE: To be crystal clear, even though I’ve already said it above. I (245 followers) was NOT the first to Tweet or blog this story. That honour goes to Simon Dickson (39 followers) at 12:04 yesterday, mine was second at 13:18. It was just that mine got picked up by Marshall Manson (followers 150), which in turn was picked up by Steve Rubel (4627 followers). I think it’s down to the number of followers.

UPDATE 2: CNET is now covering it as well. Cross-posted from A PR Guy’s Musings.

Blogging without due care and attention

Last week Stuart and I had a chuckle over an article in the Yorkshire Evening Post about how the conservative party have been warned about blogging whilst under the influence of alcohol. Apparently TORY candidates at local elections in Leeds have been warned not to post internet blogs when they are drunk. If they do find themselves writing while under the influence, they have been advised to save a draft and then wait until the morning before deciding whether to send it. I’ve always been told that a little drink can help get the creative juices flowing but I think the principle here is the same as text messaging whilst a little merry. We are all guilty of thinking that posting that blog or message was a good idea when the alcohol strips down our inhibitions and gives us the confidence to tell the world what we really believe but when the morning comes and the memory of the night before comes flooding back its all too late.

I think the whole thing was trying to be a bit tongue in cheek, but bloggers out there everywhere should heed this warning before they switch on their laptops after cracking open that second bottle of wine. In the mean time, I want to see where these drunken Tory blogs lie, as they sound like some interesting reading.

Your country needs YOU to vote!

Normally when I have a political point to make it, then I’d make it on my personal blog at A PR Guy’s Musings. But Todd Defren has written a post, that’s  not about PR or social media, that’s so important I just had to share it.

Todd has emailed all his 100 staff with a powerful plea to vote in next Tuesday’s primaries to choose the Democratic and Republican candidates for President of the United States of America. I’m sure Todd won’t mind me publishing his email in full:

Hi all –

I’ve always believed strongly in encouraging people to vote.  I’m one of those wonks raised to vote for the local dog-catcher, if there’s an election for the post. 

It’s an all-too-rare privilege in this world to have the opportunity to make our voices heard through the pulling of a lever.  

So I hope you plan to make the time to vote this Tuesday in the primaries - certainly your managers will support you in this, if it requires coming in a bit late or leaving a bit early. 

It doesn’t matter who you’re voting for, please, just be sure to vote!!  It’s your country, folks: the participation of young people ensures that it’s not just retirees and extremists (of either party) who get to decide who’s in the Oval Office.

I’d agree totally with Todd. I make no secret about my politics. However, I also know many people and have friends who are active and members of different political parties. I have far more time and respect for those who disagree with me than for those who refuse to engage with democracy.

My biggest irritation is reserved for those who claim “they are all the same”. They are only all the same if you are too lazy to find out what each party and politician really represents. Get off your backsides and remember people died to give YOU the vote. Don’t disrespect their sacrifice.

I don’t care who you vote for, just vote.

Some really interesting business blog links

I’m not a fan of link posts, but for once I’m going to indulge in it myself:

OpenSkies is a new airline from British Airways and it has launched not with a traditional website, but with flyopenskies a business blog where they invite you to “join the conversation” and say they want to try and be open about the process of starting the new business.

My old friend Simon Collister has an interesting post about his just completed CIPR diploma dissertation on “whether political bloggers in the UK have an influence on the media agenda of broadsheet newspapers”. I look forward to reading the full dissertation which Simon is going to publish as a PDF.

Chris Edwards, chief executive of Education Leeds, is someone I know and admire from the days when I was a local councillor. He is now a very prolific blogger at his Interesting Times! blog. After spending the day at BETT with a client I read that Education Leeds and Bluewave SWIFT were winners of the prestigious BETT award for ‘Supporting Institutional Leadership and Management Solutions’.

The always interesting Colin Byrne, CEO of Weber Shandwick, has a good post on online politics about both the Labour Party and the Conservatives appointing advertising agencies, both of which are looking digital marketing strategies. I can’t help but wonder if ad agencies are the right people to assist with this and if public relations consultants might not be better qualified.

PR Week reports (behind a pay wall) that “public affairs chief” Steve Morgan of Morgan Allen Moore is “commuting between London and the US to work for Hillary Clinton”. Given what’s happening with Labour deputy leadership contender Peter Hain I suspect some people think he should be spending some more time in the UK.

Full Disclosure: I was director of communications for Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Health, and the deputy leadership contender who narrowly lost to Harriet Harman.

XP: A PR Guy’s Musings

Is 40 old?

My fellow Wolfstar director Susie Lawrence has just upset me. In her post about Facebook Susie said “Yes I am old (40 - don’t mind admitting it…”.

Excuse me! Since when has 40 been old? I’m not 40 until next year, but I don’t feel ‘old’. I’ve got several friends who are older than me and they don’t even feel old.

Facebook might be dominated by younger people but lots of 30+, and even 40+, people I know are on it. I haven’t done a definitive analysis but of my 150 Facebook friends:

• 71 are over 30
  • 24 are 30 or over
  • 47 are 40 or over
• 19 of the over 30s are female

There are probably more, as I’ve tried to be generous and err on the side of caution when assessing peoples’ ages. The other thing is that a lot of the over 30s are genuine friends, where as most of my Facebook friends under 30 are more accurately ‘acquaintances’.

Most of my Facebook friends are also people I know professionally - clients, business contacts, journalists, politicians (or people working in politics) other PR, public affairs and marketing people.

Is 40 old? Please comment to let us know what you think?

First Direct and Virgin pull Facebook ads

A social media story that got a lot of coverage yesterday was about big brands such as First Direct and Virgin Mobile pulling their adverts from Facebook because they appeared on a page for a group supporting the far-right British National Party.

This highlights both one of the strengths and weaknesses of businesses and brands using and participating in new social media. The weakness is that it is so new and changing so rapidly that mistakes are inevitable, but fortune favours the brave and it is those companies that are willing to lead and experiment that will benefit most. A strength is that it is possible to react very quickly in the best way:

“First Direct also signalled likely changes towards a more sophisticated way of advertising on the internet. The banking and insurance firm’s spokesman, Rob Skinner, said: “We are obviously concerned about where our advertising appears. We have got to make sure that the places we advertise are consistent with our own values and identity.”

However, it’s also interesting that none of the brands affected appear to have talked to customers via Facebook.

XP: A PR Guy’s Musings

UPDATE: More comment on Stephen Waddington’s Tech PR Blog and John Dodds on Make Marketing History. I agree with John’s line about the danger of automated systems, but not about his fear of “losing control of your message” as that’s the perspective of an ad guy and if you’re going to have genuine conversations you’re never going to control your message.

Could ObamaGirl awaken interest in politics 2.0?

Been busy, so I’ve only just found out about ObamaGirl (via Loic Le Meur). The YouTube video below alone has had almost three million views.

It’s already had coverage in The Observer, The Economist and People magazine to name but a few.

Can’t see politics 2.0 in the UK ever being like this.

UPDATED: Unlike Loic (who worked for Nicolas Sarkozy on his French presidential campaign) I’m glad I didn’t have this idea while working on Alan Johnson’s deputy leadership campaign!

XP: Wolfstar blog, A PR Guru’s Musings, Stuart’s Soapbox