Comments for Heather Yaxley - Greenbanana views of public relations and more

Comment on When is a press release not a press release? by Richard Aucock (@richardaucock)

Richard Aucock (@richardaucock) — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:08:35 +0000

As journalists, we won’t be tweeting or socialising such things, so we’ll ignore all the fluff. Let us do the promotion once the story’s written.

Maybe, thinking about it, social media news releases are good for journalism? If our differentiation comes in the added value we can offer over such releases, there’ll be a greater imperative to achieve this in order to avoid unfavourable comparisons with the SMNR. Any added value, or lack of it, will be exposed.

Thought-provoking post, Heather – thanks.

Comment on When is a press release not a press release? by Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:58:29 +0000

We know each other through Al Clarke Heather. Your posts are always good thought provoking reading. Regards Leslie

Comment on When is a press release not a press release? by Heather Yaxley

Heather Yaxley — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:22:46 +0000

Thanks Judy and Sean – undoubtedly what we see with such ‘releases’ is a marketing mind-set. So zero targeting and use of a Mailchimp style html mailing which, as Judy notes, has the presumption that it is up to the receiver to unsubscribe. And to think that clients pay for this rubbish – wonder how the company evaluates the success? Probably in terms of ‘real estate’ that covers it…

The real shame for PR within this Alexia company is that even a quick scan of its Facebook group reveals that it has several major issues that it is not managing. In particular its lobbying against GMO labelling seems to come up frequently.

Comment on When is a press release not a press release? by Judy Gombita

Judy Gombita — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:10:28 +0000

P.S. to Sean. My journalism colleague, Ira Basen, has a radio documentary in the works about this subject. Although his original premise was “brand journalism” (including how many journalists are now working in-house or on contract to companies), but he continues to muse whether it should be “content marketing,” simply because that will get more interest and eardrums…..

Comment on When is a press release not a press release? by Judy Gombita

Judy Gombita — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:49:45 +0000

What bothered me the most when I received it, Heather, was that I had to UNSUBSCRIBE from receiving future ones.

Presumably we received these as a result of PR Conversations, but talk about your “spray and pray” untargeted, unresearched marketing spam (sending it to someone in Canada and someone in Great Britain).

And the legislation is catching up with this practice. I went to a Brainrider-sponsored #torontob2b meetup session last year to “Learn the specifics of the new Canada’s Anti Spam Law (CASL). The first of its kind in Canada, CASL is the most strict anti spam law in the world. Sweeney Williams will provide an overview of the law, how they relate to compliance; as well as an update on expected implementation timelines.”

See the video: http://www.brainrider.com/better-b2b-marketing/torontob2b-marketers-meetup-sweeney-williams/

Comment on When is a press release not a press release? by seanwilliams58

seanwilliams58 — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:36:09 +0000

Heather – I have to say, I laughed heartily whilst reading your post. I’ve recently heard from a couple of journalists who asked for a news release — it’s the basis for the story, not the story itself. The content in a good SMNR is, well, news, same as in an MSM release. Notwithstanding the SEO and “real estate” value of any stuff we send out, the fact remains that if we want people to cover our story there needs to BE a story.

Even more ironic (and irritating) is the tendency to call PR “content marketing.” Don’t get me started. And tell those kids to get off my lawn.

Comment on Give me some credit – how to avoid plagiarism and scraping by Terry Kowalski

Terry Kowalski — Sat, 11 May 2013 02:54:08 +0000

Heather, you bring up a most valid point. I’ve cited your work in the past as it was a valid contribution to an argument or further explanation to my understanding of what was being studied in PR and marketing.
As a broadcast creative, I can’t tell you how many times my strategy, copy and visual expression has been copied. Flattered yes — received credit no. This is a practice that comes with my territory — unfortunately.
BTW, I need to have you sign my PR Bible!

Comment on Give me some credit – how to avoid plagiarism and scraping by fionaethomas

fionaethomas — Thu, 09 May 2013 08:39:34 +0000

I’m fairly new to PR study – but would like to say publicly how amazingly helpful you were to me, Heather, over my recent CRT, and i was PROUD to reference you! Referencing those who are leaders in the PR field can only strengthen a piece of work.

Comment on Give me some credit – how to avoid plagiarism and scraping by Heather Yaxley

Heather Yaxley — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:11:50 +0000

Thank you Sean. I didn’t mention here, but I also have a dislike for books (especially those published with PR practitioners as the target market) that avoid including references, do not substantiate the points being made with cited evidence and/or seem not to realise that they are building on the work of others. When I’ve queried this with the authors or editors of such books (which are often popular sellers), they respond that they didn’t have the time. I think phooey applies to them too!

Comment on Give me some credit – how to avoid plagiarism and scraping by @commammo

@commammo — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:57:10 +0000

Heather, thank you so much on behalf of anyone who believes in private property, including intellectual property. My experience with student plagarism is, thankfully, limited, but conceptually, I find otherwise smart people have some funny ideas of attribution. Phooey, I say, to those who “canna botha” with citing, quotation marks and proper references. Phooey again.