Whatever...

“HELLO!? I’M ON A PLANE...”

By Alexandra Radius

We all know that it’s forbidden to use a mobile phone on the plane, especially during take-off and landing.  However, a month ago, the airline company Emirates authorised its passengers for the first time to make calls aboard a commercial flight.  Other companies, such as Air France in Europe and Qantas in Australia, have also been testing the use of mobile phones in the air.

But what’s happened to the risk of radio interference? The Transportation Security Agency still maintains that, “the use of these devices will one day cause an accident by interfering with cockpit devices."  Hardly reassuring.

And apart from the radio frequency issues, the big issue is how fellow passengers will react to the use of mobile phones.  There’s enough noise on a plane already without the added cacophony of multiple people on mobile phones speaking too loudly to be heard.  Air rage anyone? 

A recent study on the subject in the US is clear – two thirds of Americans are for a simple ban on telephone communications in the air. This conclusion has already been adopted by Lufthansa, which isn’t proposing mobile telephony use on its planes.

I'm not actually in favour of phones on planes myself; I find it annoying enough when people talk on their phones in restaurants!  But maybe we could have a dedicated section for it on planes (similar to smoking sections in the past) with a soundproof system? Or just allow people to text?

One thing is for sure, the question around the use of mobile phones on planes is going to stir up more hot air than is perhaps healthy in such a confined space!

Secret Phormula or invasion of privacy?

By George Mensah

Privacy has never been more important to people than in today’s surveillance-intensive society. Unless you’re willing to share your secret habits or quirky preferences on, for instance, social networking sites, direct attempts to find out what they are could be considered nosey, to say the least.

So it isn’t really surprising then that when Phorm allowed their software to be trialled without public consent, the backlash came thick and fast.

After a huge amount of damning press for the online advertising company, its actions were judged as being nothing short of illegal.  While the service may have offered some benefit and the data collected is said to be anonymous, the secretive nature of Phorm’s actions has dented what would have otherwise been a harmless exercise, that selected users might have even volunteered for.

But while companies will argue that the service is designed to encourage better and more targeted advertising, the idea that someone is able to see your browsing history, the entire content of every single web page you visit and even read your web based mail poses serious questions. While companies may claim this information is discarded as a matter of course, I can’t help but wonder if our online personal data will ever be truly secure? If Phorm can access this data so easily, without our knowledge or approval, how well are ISPs protecting their customers?

For example, prior to the Phorm frenzy, there had been a lot of talk surrounding Google and its retention of web data, an issue that seems to have been swept under the carpet, especially now that it is aiding police in the search for illegal pornography – however, it’s deeply worrying that the Home Office now view traffic from websites as being publicly available and thus legal to intercept.

I’m sure we’ll see more attempts to get people to either consent to having their browsing habits analysed, or companies trying to circumvent the law and jump through loop holes to get at, manipulate and sell the data, but companies should heed this warning – people will only ever accept this intrusion if it is opt-in rather than opt-out.  Because if it’s not the former, I doubt very much that this is the last we’ll hear of this very modern invasion of privacy.

Avoiding the subject line of death

By Tom Kirkham

Stop press!  A new study has revealed that internet daters must take great care with the screen names they choose, or risk putting off potential lovers. 

Flirtatious names like “fun2bwith” and “i’msweet” are top ranked by both sexes, with physical descriptors such as “cutie” or “blueeyes” close behind.  Given that for many years now my screen name has been “gashedforehead”, this is enough to cause me some concern… 

Not that I’m an internet dater… But if I was, I’d be mindful that screen names, like real names, rarely tell the whole story.  Massive growth in the number of online users means that with most web services, you don’t stand a chance of getting the alias you want, unless you substitute the vowels with numbers and spell the word backwards.

Real names offer even less choice, and tend to say more about the parents than the child (‘Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily’ and ‘Princess Tiáamii’, for example).  Nevertheless, they’re a key component of our personal brands, and can be a problem in a world increasingly dominated by electronic communication. 

For instance, if I was a journalist and received an email from John Brown offering me an interview with David Smith, I’d be sorely tempted to ignore it.  Likewise, if I received correspondence from someone called Princess Tiáamii, I’d probably delete it as spam.

So, if you’re a PR with a boring name, what can you do to achieve the same results as somebody like Max Power?  Well it may sound obvious, but so often we see dull email subject lines and opening gambits full of meaningless and inane word chains and acronyms, which hardly scream out ‘open me!’ or ‘read on!’. 

In the world of internet dating, smart users will compensate for a bland screen name by posting a compelling personal ad.  They won’t put, ‘Single male, GSOH, WLTM nice girl for friendship and maybe more...’; it’s the equivalent of writing a lead line that says, ‘Are you interested in meeting the VP marketing of US company Paradigm Shifters Inc...?’

There will always be many aspects of our personal brand over which we have little control.  So it’s important to remember that when communicating online, you’re actually in a position of relative power when it comes to creating a strong first impression – providing you take time over your words, and ensure they deliver maximum positive impact.

Until next time then…

Tom “Babelicious” Kirkham

Tech bloggers – key influencers or just more of the same?

By Jacqui Depares

It should come as no surprise that PR is a highly dynamic industry, always looking for new communication tools to get clients’ messages across to their respective audiences as competition, particularly in the tech sector, continues to grow.

I saw a good example of the huge impact that new media has made in this respect when my brother sent me a link to a new series of online programmes he’d helped create for a musician wanting to generate interest in his new album.  With over 70,000 hits in the first 48 hours of its posting, it’s fairly clear that this was a major PR triumph.

The communication mediums we can use in today’s technology savvy society are clearly evolving, with showbiz/gossip blogs often playing a significant role in making or breaking a celebrity.  But how does this translate in the wider business/tech world? Can a blogger really define the fate of a vendor?

In the US, particularly the B2C space, this is definitely the case.  Technology bloggers there have massive influence in the media and PROs go to great lengths to encourage these individuals to write positively about their clients.  A negative story can cause major ripples in an organisation and result in some serious crisis control taking place.

However, the picture is different in the UK market.  Technology blogs exist – but they’re either online publications that just happen to be using blogging software or are directly linked to a publication, and therefore have as much (or as little) reach as the publication itself.  So is there any point in specifically targeting them?

My gut response would be no.  Yes, pitches, briefings etc should all be tailored around the needs of that particular journalist/blogger (with many writers now wearing both hats) – but I certainly don’t think that the UK PR industry needs to launch a full on assault on the blogging community. 

And I’m not alone in my thinking – journalist Stephen Pritchard in last week’s PR Week argued that “targeting bloggers risks stretching PR companies’ limited resources even further”.  With already a huge media base to target, I think that PROs would be best advised to focus their efforts on traditional PR outreach – investing time in building and maintaining relationships with key journalists. 

Now of course, given I’m writing this on a blog, you may be thinking this all seems a little hypocritical.  So just to make it clear: blogs are an important tool for PROs (and PR companies!). I’m just not that convinced they currently have enough influence in the UK media to warrant us – certainly in the B2B arena – dedicating huge amounts of time targeting them.