Trevor Cook on public relations, social media and politics

Monthly Archives: April 2009

Help – the word most used in Darling’s budget speech

April 23, 2009 – 7:17 am

So says the Times. Other key words were economy (no kidding) and support. I wonder if the same will be true when Swan does his effort next month.

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

2009 Orwell Prize winners

April 23, 2009 – 5:34 am

Journalism.co.uk
Patrick Cockburn has won the 2009 Orwell Prize for political writing.
Each year, the prize in association with the Media Standards Trust, The Orwell Trust and Political Quarterly, awards a Book Prize and a Journalism Prize to recognise works that ‘achieve George Orwell’s ambition to make political writing into an art’. 
Cockburn beat competition from Observer writer Catherine [...]

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

Microsoft grants $6.7 million to Vision Australia

April 22, 2009 – 3:17 pm

Well done, Microsoft, a grant that will make a big difference to many people.
MICROSOFTS biggest-ever Australian grant will help create social networks for the blind.
Social networking websites and digitised libraries have become important sources of modern information, but until now they have been inaccessible to the 300,000 Australians who are blind or who have low [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Community involvement, Philanthropy, Social Media | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Indigenous communications

April 22, 2009 – 12:47 pm

This is a shameless plug. I did a fair bit of work with Noel Niddrie, of Winangali, a few years ago and I reckon he does a great job. Noel has just got a brand new, gorgeous, website. So if you need someone to help get a message out to Aboriginal communities, check out Winangali.

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Public Relations | Tagged | Comments (0)

It’s the content, stupid

April 22, 2009 – 7:37 am

Nathan Rees chief of staff, Wedderburn, is right, the NSW Ministers are hopeless media performers.
Part of the reason for that is that for the most part they are dull, unintelligent and uninspiring people. But perhaps even more importantly they have nothing of substance to say. They are a strategy-free zone. The NSW Government is directionless. [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Media, Media relations, NSW politics, Politics, Public Relations | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Follow Mark Colvin on twitter

April 22, 2009 – 5:22 am

Mark Colvin, long-time host of the ABC PM program is now on twitter. Mark is a prodigious and educated reader of the daily media, and he’s using twitter to tip us on to some great stuff to read. It’s a great way to stay well-informed.

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

Susan Boyle Videos To Exceed 100 Million Views

April 21, 2009 – 2:34 pm

It’s just unbelievable:
The Susan Boyle phenomenon shows no signs of abating – in fact, one video tracking firm claims that momentum is growing behind the Scottish singer.
While the official YouTube video of the performance reports over 32 million views, tracking company Visible Measures is monitoring the statistics for all versions of the clip, plus fan [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Social Media | Tagged | Comments (1)

The ten dumbest money-saving tips

April 21, 2009 – 10:42 am

The Times provides an antidote to all those dopey guides for the recession that pop up in the media and in blogs.

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Business & economics | Comments (0)

Twitter, facebook and youtube are growing rapidly

April 21, 2009 – 6:02 am

From Mashable:
In March, YouTube reached 100 million monthly viewers in the US. 6.3 billion videos were viewed on the site. MySpace, the social network that used to break records like these, is now lagging behind Facebook; according to latest calculations, Facebook now has a total of 65.7 million unique visitors versus MySpace’s 54.1 million. MySpace was sold to News Corp. for $580 million in 2005. Facebook’s valuation? [...]

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

PR boost for expensive, ecologically bad bottled water

April 21, 2009 – 5:47 am

Source: PR Week (UK), April 15, 2009. via PRwatch.
A front group for the UK bottled water industry, “which is perceived to be expensive and environmentally unsound,” signed a “six-figure” contract with the public relations firmMunro & Forster. The Natural Hydration Council was “set up by Nestle Waters, Highland Spring and Danone Waters last September.” Its new PR firm “will attempt [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Public Relations | Tagged | Comments (0)