Trevor Cook on public relations, social media and politics

Monthly Archives: January 2009

Change doesn’t always mean happiness

January 26, 2009 – 4:15 pm

One of my favourite authors is John McGahern. In his Memoir, McGahern writes (p80):
I take the belief that the best of life is life lived quietly, where change is imperceptible, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is imperceptible and the precious life is everything.
You could hardly imagine a viewpoint [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Books | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Some glimmers of hope

January 26, 2009 – 3:36 pm

The crowd in Willunga on Saturday was fabulous. The Tour Downunder is as much community carnival as it is a bike race. There was a wine and food festival and the cafes and pubs were doing a roaring trade and the weather was wonderful. People get talking, after a bit of a chat to establish [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Optus, Motorola do it to me again

January 13, 2009 – 2:28 pm

Last October, I wrote about the problems I was having with Optus and getting charged for ringtones from Motorola. I was credited for the overcharging but no reasonable answer for how the ‘mistake’ could occur was ever forthcoming from Optus or Motorola. In October, I got Optus to bar my phone from getting ringtones which [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Business & economics | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Red Cross passing on ’stacks’ of complaints

January 13, 2009 – 2:11 pm

A little while ago I wrote about my revulsion at the NSW Government’s decision to rip apart the Australian ethos around blood donation: ‘freely given, freely received’. Yesterday, Red Cross rang me in response to my email of complaint and said they had received ’stacks’ of complaints and were passing them on to the NSW [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in NSW politics | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption

January 13, 2009 – 7:25 am

This NYRB article is well worth reading. The scale of the problem seems extraordinary:
No one knows the total amount provided by drug companies to physicians, but I estimate from the annual reports of the top nine US drug companies that it comes to tens of billions of dollars a year. By such means, the pharmaceutical [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Advertising & marketing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Loving those blues podcasts

January 12, 2009 – 8:34 pm

I got hooked on the blues back in the late sixties when I discovered my white heroes (eg Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Johhny Winter) had some very cool black heroes (e.g. Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker). In fact, I think John Lee Hooker (pictured right) might just be the coolest guy ever. One [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Just don’t (write it)

January 10, 2009 – 7:21 pm

That’s right, you may well have … Unblocked Writer Syndrome. I particularly liked this paragraph for obvious reasons:
“Dragging and Dropping Your Pseudonyms and Avatars.” Students will be required to write expressively—and then sign their real names to what they’ve composed. Now try writing that nasty one-star review! See how it feels to flame someone who knows who [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Social Media | Tagged | Comments (0)

Sunday evening is the new web peak period

January 9, 2009 – 5:28 pm

According to new research by Britain’s Ofcom:
one big shock to come out of the detailed research is that the peak rush hour, when average web speeds slow to a crawl, is in fact Sunday between 5pm and 6pm.

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Internet | Tagged | Comments (0)

How PR works online (video)

January 9, 2009 – 5:11 pm

Thanks to PRblogger for this short (introductory) video.

By Trevor Cook | Posted in How-to do social media, Public Relations, Social Media | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Google Reader for beginners

January 9, 2009 – 4:55 pm

If you’re not using an RSS reader, you’re not really using the Internet in any sort of effective way. Google Reader is one of the best and most popular and it’s free. Recently, they posted some videos to help you get started, and once you get started you’ll quickly see the joy and power of [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Social Media, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (0)