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.

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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Stay tuned to see who he will interview next!

I’m not sure I agree. Certainly paid for blogs produced by professional bloggers or PROs has had an impact on the blogosphere, but I don’t believe that it’s killed off the blogosphere as professional and amateur bloggers blog for different reasons.

Professional bloggers blog to share news or their opinions about issues affecting the industry they work in, as well as to network, whereas amateur bloggers blog to share their thoughts and ideas, and to keep in contact with friends and family. As long as the barriers to entry stay low, amateur and professional bloggers can co-exist.

Further proof that the blogosphere is far from dead comes in the form of Technorati’s recent ‘Blogosphere 2008′ report, which reveals that 79 per cent of bloggers write personal blogs. This hardly makes amateur bloggers sound like a dying breed.

Instead of pointing the finger at PROs or professional bloggers I would suggest that social networking sites, such as Facebook, have had the biggest impact on the blogosphere. Since many amateur bloggers blog to share news and photographs with friends and family it is no surprise that some have swapped blogs for social networking sites.

I’ve picked out a few interesting facts.

• 133 million blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002
• 76,000 blogs have a Technorati rating of 50 or higher
• 41 per cent of bloggers use Twitter
• Technology is the 2nd most popular topic for bloggers
• Corporate blogs make up 12 per cent of all blogs
• Professional blogs make up 46 per cent of all blogs
• 50 per cent of bloggers are aged between 18 and 34
• 44 per cent of bloggers are parents
• 42 per cent of bloggers spend 3-10 hours blogging per week
• Only 15 per cent of bloggers spend less than an hour blogging per week
• ‘Blog’ is the 5th most popular tag
• ‘Technology’ is the 11th most popular tag
• 83 per cent of blogs are listed on Technorati
• Just 4 per cent of bloggers pay to advertise their blog
• 46 per cent of blogs don’t feature any advertising
• Bloggers spend twice as much time online as U.S. adults 18-49,
• 82 per cent of bloggers post brand and product reviews
• 89 per cent of bloggers post about brands that they love or hate
• 37% of bloggers have been quoted in traditional media based on a blog post
• Half of bloggers believe that blogs will be a primary source for news and entertainment in the next five years
• 1 in 5 five bloggers don’t think that newspapers will survive the next ten years

Prior to the meetup I was sent a personalised email, containing the ingredients to make a cocktail reflecting my blog, or at least my initals. Apparently Mint, Pineapple and Watermelon are all you need! I thought this was a great idea, and by providing an image of my cocktail they made it very easy for me to blog about it.

I was invited to join Smirnoff’s facebook group, and even sent a video on YouTube showing how to make a Moscow Mule.

If I happened to have any questions I was invited to contact Smirnoff via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, e-mail, phone or even by post. Not by carrier pigeon though!

All this before the event even took place.

Following the meetup, photographs were added to the London meetup group, for attendees to check out. And those like me who regret not going!

Cheers to you, Smirnoff.

Being quirky is a great way to stand out, but it’s not sustainable. TV commercials and moving billboards were once new, exciting and different ways to advertise, and so captured the public’s imagination. But now they’re just background noise, unless the actual advert is interesting.

The same is true in PR. There are plenty of ways to spice up press releases, but if the content is as dull as dishwater than there’s no point. Rather than focus all our attention on jazzing up the delivery with pretty designs and social media add-ons, we should ensure the we give the actual press release the same amount of attention. After all it’s the really creative adverts that we remember.

Check out this video of mobile adverts in Berlin by Mrneglect:

Class of 2008: Public Relations with Media BA (Hons), The University of Huddersfield.