Whilst I appreciate that people share content in a variety of different ways, I have focused my efforts solely on Twitter. I thought the site would give a good indication of how much content people are sharing without requiring the immense amount of time that would be needed to analyse several social networks and bookmarking sites.

The results of my three month study are interesting. On average, each of the IT trades are tweeted about 2,868 times a month. The Register is the most tweeted about IT Trade, racking up 21,719 tweets by its readers per month – more than 7.5 times as much as the average. And almost 37 times as much as the least tweeted publication.

By comparing the average number of tweets with the number of unique users that Google’s DoubleClick Ad Planner says each each publication receives, I found that just 4.18 per cent of each publication’s readership is tweeting links to articles. Computer Weekly has the highest percentage, with a possible 9.06 per cent of users tweeting about articles on the site. However it’s likely that both figures are much lower in reality, as people may tweet more than one link each per month.

Interestingly, IT PRO has the most followers on Twitter, with 12,901 people following its account. The average IT trade has 3,748 followers. This suggests that the number of people following a publication’s Twitter account isn’t the only factor that impacts how much content people share on the social networking site.

A whole host of things can encourage people to share content – frequency of tweets, relevancy and newsworthiness of content on the site, whether or not social sharing buttons are available on the site, which buttons are on offer, where the buttons are positioned, the size and type of readership that each publications has, and of course, which social networks they use most.

What are your thoughts on this? What do you think makes people want to share content? And how can publications encourage more visitors to share links with their network.

As you’d expect, most people were poking fun at Morrisons for making such a silly mistake, and suggesting that the promotion is perfect for bargain-hunting adulterers. But was it really a mistake? Or had Morrisons planned the stunt very carefully to draw attention away from its competitors, who will no doubt be spending a fortune on promoting their Valentines Day cards and gifts at the moment.

Considering the amount of approvals that most press releases and adverts go through, I have to think it’s probably the latter. It’s a clever tactic and one that will help Morrisons to raise its brand awareness further and drive home the message that it offers really good value for money. Whilst also making people think of Morrisons when they go out to get a card for that special someone.

However, this kind of stunt is not without its risks. It could also make the supermarket look down-market, which could put some consumers off. That said, it’s a strategy that has proven to be particularly successful for Ryanair. The company’s CEO, Michael O’Learly, regularly makes outrageous claims to the press that serve to remind the public that the airline is one of the cheapest. Yet at the same time, it can impact how much people trust the brand, which is particularly important if your customers are putting their lives in your hands when they pay you to fly them across the world.

It’ll be interesting to see how and if Morrisons reacts to this online chatter. At the moment the company’s Twitter account hasn’t posted anything related to the offer and neither has its Facebook page. But as more and more people join in the conversation, perhaps this will change.

That’s not surprising. Building relationships with employers and gaining experience working in your chosen industry can go a long way in getting you the job that you want. This is now so important that many students and graduates are willing to work for free. But clearly not everyone can afford to work without getting paid. And they shouldn’t have to according to a new report by The Institute for Public Policy Research and the campaign group Internocracy.

The two groups have claimed that offering unpaid internships is against the law. Apparently interns have the same rights as staff members on the company’s payroll and therefore they should receive the minimum wage. It makes sense if you think about it. But with many firms and PR agencies offering unpaid internships or just offering to pay for expenses, it’s clear that few employers are aware that this is the case.

The Institute for Public Policy Research and Internocracy are doing a good job of raising awareness about this law, but I seriously doubt that things are going to change any time soon. Are interns really going to put their fledgling career in danger by taking legal action against a company? I don’t think so. Are employers going to be as willing to take on interns if they’ve got to add them to the payroll and offer them the minimum wage? Probably not.

Sadly unpaid internships instantly put students and graduates from low income families at a disadvantage against those with families that can afford to help them out financially. For employers this means that they could be missing out on the chance to meet and employ some bright young sparks, purely because of money.

I don’t know what the solution to this is. Employers have got it hard enough at the moment, without having to pay an intern £4.83 – £5.80 an hour, depending on their age. Equally new graduates and students are faced with the massive challenge of finding employment, whilst the UK is still recovering from the recession, so many will be willing to do anything to get a job.

What are your thoughts on this? Were you aware that interns have a legal right to be paid the minimum wage? Are you currently doing unpaid work experience?

Within seconds she highlighted half a dozen different things that needed sorting out – trays of food that were half-empty, veg that was clearly past its best, and signage that provided no real information. Not to mention the shop, which looked like it was stuck in the last century.

However Mary’s comments weren’t designed to upset the three scouse sisters that run the shop in Merseyside. She was simply flagging what their customers, or rather potential customers, were thinking. Mary worked closely with the Liverpudlian ladies to demonstrate that their consumer’s tastes had evolved and that it was time that their business did too.

She taught the three shopkeepers to think outside the box, which ironically led to the greengrocer’s launching a locally-sourced fruit and veg box delivery service. This offered their customers the convenience that they craved and the local produce that they were looking for, while at the same time helping the women to boost their revenue by reaching new customers.

Once Mary had worked her magic, the store looked absolutely terrific. The shop was packed full of customers and you could tell that the shopkeepers had fire in their bellies, ready and waiting to take on the supermarkets that had gobbled up so much of their trade.

The comparison with PR is crystal clear. Consultancies that haven’t recognised that the media landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years or don’t see why they should stop doing what they’ve always done and integrate online PR into their client work, will be left behind, struggling to provide what their customers require.

The same is true for the clients that we as PR professionals represent. Companies that don’t start engaging with online audiences soon, alongside their traditional targets, may find that their competitors do. Allowing the businesses that you compete with to get a head start online is quite simply a recipe for disaster. But unfortunately, it’s a recipe that many organisations in the UK seem to be following.

At the end of the day you don’t have to be retail royalty, like Mary, to manage a successful business long-term. You’ve just got to have faith in what you’re doing and never ever stop reviewing and improving your company. To put it bluntly, you shouldn’t be afraid of change, you should be afraid of not changing. When you sit back and rest on your laurels, that’s when the really scary stuff starts to happen.

Twitter users are invited to add themselves to the map by tweeting the #ukhols hash tag followed by their age, gender, post code and their holiday destination.

Using social media like this can be a great way to build a brand’s profile online and generate lots of quality coverage in both the traditional media and the blogosphere. Vodafone’s map has already gained coverage in the Guardian, the Daily Mirror, and Brand Republic.

The mashup comes a month to the day since I launched my National Work From Home Day map, which was based on the #uksnow map developed by Ben Marsh, who is behind this map too!

And with that I’m off on my hols! See you in a week or two…

One website that serves to draw attention to bad PR practices is PRfail.tumblr.com. The site was setup nearly a year ago by Jonathan Hopkins to aggregate examples of bad PR highlighted on websites such as Twitter, which sees many users attach the #PRfail hashtag to their tweets.

The site now features plenty of PROs who have pointed our mistakes made by their peers or by the companies they represent, but is this wise?

If I were to criticise a company’s mistake on my blog or on Twitter, Google would automatically connect my name and the name of the company I work for to the name of the company I badmouthed. So if I or the company I work for were to then pitch for a PR brief by that company it would only take a quick search of those names, for example Nike and Speed Communications, to bring up my blog post or my tweets in the first few results. I’m pretty sure that digging up old mistakes that a potential client would rather forget, is probably not the best way to make a good impression.

That said, identifying a ‘PR fail’ and offering a solution as to how the company might have dealt with that crisis more effectively could demonstrate expertise. Though I’m not sure how much expertise you can demonstrate when you’ve already used up 7 characters of your 140 character tweet with a #PRfail hashtag!

My mind’s not totally made up on this. Do you think we should be more careful about what we say online or use our freedom of speech to highlight bad PR in an effort to separate the wheat from the chaff?

Speed specialises in the business, consumer, corporate, and technology sectors, and has been formed by bringing together the teams of BMA Communications, Custard PR, Lighthouse PR, Mantra PR and Rainier PR. All of these teams were acquired by Loewy in the past three years. The new consultancy structure and brand is effective from today.

“The PR industry has reached a watershed moment and we’ve designed Speed to deliver on what clients need now and for the future,” said Stephen Waddington, managing director of Speed.

“The fragmentation of media, rise of social networks, increasingly savvy purchasers and the recession are combining to challenge the established PR industry hierarchy. Speed is a modern consultancy that is seeking to tackle this head on in delivering assured impact for our clients.”

The 50 person-strong consultancy is based in The Communications Building, Leicester Square, London and has an annual fee income of around £5 million. Its clients include The Economist, ntl:Telewest Business (part of Virgin Media), Tesco, Toshiba and Wickes. The team is led by managing directors Steve Earl and Stephen Waddington, who previously ran technology specialist Rainier PR.

To find out more about Speed check out the blogs, web site, YouTube channel on YouTube or give us a call on +44 (0) 20 7842 3200.

1. PR 2.0 – @briansolis
2. What’s Next – @whatsnext
3. PR Squared – @TDefren
4. A shel of my former self – @shel
5. POP! PR Jots – @jspepper
6. Strategic PR – @prblog
7. Pro PR – @thornley
8. PR Blogger – @stedavies
9. Young PR – @paullyoung
10. Communication Overtones – @kamichat
11. PRNewser – @prnewser
12. A PR Guy’s Musings – @stuartbruce
13. KDPaine’s PR – @kdpaine
14. Dave Fleet – @davefleet
15. Flack – @PeterHimler
16. Wadds’ tech pr blog – @wadds
17. Faster Future – @davidcushman
18. Corporate PR – @ealbrycht
19. Canuck Flack – @Canuckflack
20. Simonsays – @simoncollister
21. Brendan Cooper – @BrendanCooper
22. PR Communications – @johncass
23. Drew B’s take on tech PR – @drewb
24. PR Works – DoctorJones
    
25. Catching Flack – @jongreer
26. Hispanic Marketing & PR
27. Online PR Thoughts
28. Fake Plastic Noodles – @mseasons
29. PR meets the WWW - @cbasturea
30. PRoactive – @sallyfalkow
31. Common Sense PR – @shannoncherry
32. This is herd – @thisiscow
33. Flack Life – @bobledrew
34. Beyond PR
35. A view on PR
36. Pudding Relations – @benrmatthews
37. Denver PR Blog – @denverprblog
38. Engage in PR – @KyleFlaherty
39. Observations of PR – @LukeArmour
40. Valley PR Blog – @danwool
41. PR Disasters
42. PR Meets Marketing – @csalomonlee
43. Potomac Flacks – @MattMackowiak
44. Into PR – @owen_lystrup
45. The New PR – @ryananderson
46. Wired PR Works – @wiredprworks
47. Publicity Hound’s – @PublicityHound
48. From PR to Eternity – @mpwatson
49. Middledigit – @middledigit
50. Profitable Business Edge 2 – @JosephRatliff
51. Scatterbox
52. Pierce Mattie PR – @piercemattiepr
53. Client Service Insights – @leobottary
    
54. Corporate Engagement
55. Shiny Red – @shiny_red
56. Mutually Inclusive PR
57. Media Relations Blog
58. PR Voice
59. Eyecube – @eyecube
60. PR Talk
61. Student PR Blog – @clarkey
    
62. PRos in Training – @kmatthews
63. Lubetkin’s Other Blog – @podcaststeve
64. 10 Yetis PR Blog – @10Yetis
65. Alan Weinkrantz PR – @alanweinkrantz
66. Norton’s Notes – @chris_norton
67. Strive Notes – @Sherrilynne
68. PR. Differently – @skydiver
69. Morgan McLintic on PR – @morganm
70. PR Thoughts From Ronn Torrossian – @Ronn_Torossian
71. All Things PR – @samoakley
72. Social Media for PR Class
73. Tech PR Gems – @timallik
74. IndiaPRBlog! – @IndiaPRblog
75. Youngblood PR & Marketing – @michaelallison
    
76. Launch PR – @LaunchPR
77. My PR Palette – @martinwaxman
78. EducationPR – @pabaker55
79. Tech for PR
80. Public Relations Matters – @barbaranixon
81. Mosnar Communications
82. Flacker – @evanspatrick
83. Minnesota PR blog – @mnpr
84. Blinn PR Report – @BlinnPR
85. Online Publicity Journal
86. First Person PR – @karihanson
87. HighVizPR – @abbebuck
88. PowerUp

If any usernames are missing or incorrect please let me know and I will make changes to this list. Have a Merry Christmas!

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The claim follows reports that Harringey Council spent more than £3.4m on publicity during the 07/08 financial year, of which £2.2m was spent on PR (communications and other expenditure). It is suggested that had Harringey Council spent that money on child protection and social workers instead of PR, Baby P might have received the care he needed and still be alive and well today.

It may be true that had Harringey Council spent another £2m on child protection Baby P might still be alive, but I think it’s wrong to blame that on PR. If the council hadn’t paid its phone or electricity bills they could have spent more money on child protection too.

I think it shows a real misunderstanding of PR and devalues the industry as a whole. It implies that PR is a luxury that council’s can simply do without. If Harringey Council had spent the money on child protection instead of PR I suspect tax payers in the area would be pretty disgruntled. How would they know that the council had spent an extra £2m on child protection without the council spending money on PR to let them know?

The article goes on to report the terrible news that Harringey Council is now spending money on crisis PR. If they hadn’t spent money on crisis PR and either gave no comment or put people forward who had received no media training, they would have fueled yet more criticism by the media. Really the council are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

The sad fact remains that Baby P is dead. No amount of spending on crisis PR or child protection can change that now.

Stay tuned to see who he will interview next!