– New division not launched

Talkies Group today announced that it has not launched a corporate reputation management division providing specialist monitoring and response services for social media and other digital channels that the majority of people use most days of the week.

Instead, they’ve declared business as usual and continue using communications channels, both digital, social, antisocial and above and below lines, like most people on most days of the week. Read more…

– Banking made easy suddenly smells bad

By luck or legislation New Zealand (Australia) banks didn’t fully participate in the money orgy that’s humped the life out of financial markets and spawned a now fully blown economic malady. Most of us can rest easy knowing that our money is still safe in the bank, I think.

However, finance companies aside, a few investors were directly pinged by collapsing world financial market fortunes. Read more…

– We don’t need newspapers, but we certainly need journalism

The economics of conventional publishing are being bulldozed by the internet and the ease of information sharing.

But the new digital age of freewheeled information only serves to raise the importance of masterful storytellers and a system rewarding their endeavor.

Commentator Clay Shirky puts it so: “Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. Read more…

– Getting ink might give you a warm feeling, but PR it ain’t.

I’ve been saying it for years, but no one seemed to care. Now Seth Godin’s said it and everyone’s listening.

Publicity is not PR. Sure, getting ink is the job most often managed by PR, but it’s a microcosm of a much broader discipline.

A publicist shouts and issues press releases, one hand twitching over the handle of a turgid word extrusion machine.

A PR practitioner gets to the bottom of an organisation, sifting for story nuggets that can be woven into broader communications fabric. Read more…

– News is not about you, it’s what people need to know about you.

Businesses are fascinated by their stories in the same way people are detained by their own reflections.

Hours are spent adjusting finest details; subtle changes painstakingly assessed, tweaked, and reassessed before passing muster for final acceptance. But does anyone notice, or even care?

Getting your story listened to is less about you and mostly about what people need to know about you. It demands arresting context – connecting your story to stuff that matters. Read more…

- Using research to create headlines

One of the defining characteristics of news is newness. And what better way to equip oneself with something new to say than research?

Talkies client and NYSE-listed enterprise software company BMC strove to dominate the conversation about improving business performance with better managed IT. Read more…