Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

So the Boston Globe says that blogging is essential for a good career and Tom Raftery is running an interesting experiment to see if he can get a job from his blog. Can blogging actually get you a good job though?
One of my friends likes to point out to me that the time I [...]

Imagine getting the opportunity to be tutored by Donald Trump, Tony O’Reilly or Steve Jobs. People would jump at the catch to be their apprentice and hundreds of people attend events to tap the knowledge of people successful in their field.
You don’t really hear people talking about online career development though. People are [...]

I’ve watched with interest over the past couple of weeks how a couple of Irish companies have started to get press coverage off the back of what was written on their blogs. For example, Karlin Lillington wrote a piece on Hosting 365’s free blogs offer in the Irish Times, Ireland’s leading broadsheet, because of [...]

A company could spend a couple of thousand on a photocall which may never land in a newspaper. Yet for the same amount of cash, a company could launch an online initiative like Nike’s RunLondon which can directly engage with a specific audience over a long period of time. It may only end [...]

I flicked through my headlines last week only to be confronted with this story from the BBC that people downloading podcasts are in a minority…well duh!
The Beeb reports that a Forrester Research report uncovered that “tech savvy, young males are most likely to listen to take away audio“. The only thing I find startling [...]

I’ve been keeping an eye on the feedback about the Chevy Tahoe online campaign, where consumers were given the opportunity to create their own ad by combining clips that were made available. The campaign was the cause of controversy because some consumers choose to create protest clips against SUVs instead of creating favourable ads. [...]

I read on Brian Greene’s website that a podcast has been launched for Leviathan. Leviathan is a monthly political cabaret which is hosted by David McWilliams, a prominent Irish broadcaster/journalist/author.
I think it’s a great use of podcasting because I’ve always thought about attending one of the shows, but wasn’t quite sure about its format [...]

Ranking high on Google is the holy grail of the Internet. I work in Public Relations in Ireland and I’ve lost count of how many consultancies there are in Ireland at the minute. Each of these comapnies is spending €5k+ on a fancy website, yet I outrank them on Google and this [...]

I had an interesting discussion with Ed Byrne on our way down to the Galway geek dinner. I brought up the fact that a few people referred to this website as a business blog. I’m not quite sure that I would call it that, given that I don’t run my own business, [...]

I attended a marketing breakfast last week and noted at the event how far behind we are in Ireland in terms of viral marketing. There was no mention of the likes of YouTube or Google Video. Instead ,the only mention of viral marketing was a Carlsberg PowerPoint presentation that was emailed around following [...]

One of the discussion point that came up at a marketing breakfast I attended last week was that the Internet was resulting in the commodisation of goods. My thought on the subject is that’s why creating a brand is so important online.
Consumers don’t just use the Internet to get goods at the cheapest [...]

I actually find it frustrating reading mainstream media online. Why is it that they don’t hyperlink? I understand the whole walled garden strategy, but surely they could at least link to their own material or make links open in a new browser window.
The reason why I think mainstream media stories should include links [...]

For all the talk of practical applications of blogging and other social media tools, one of the best uses of these new techniques is to promote movies on the Internet, especially in Ireland.
The reason why movies should be promoted via the net is because word-of-mouth plays such a heavy role in what people decide to [...]

It seems a few people were thinking along the same lines as there are two articles in the Irish Times today about politics and blogs, one written by Adam Maguire. I also happened to be thinking along the same lines and here’s my two cents on the subject.
Despite voter turnouts dropping across the globe [...]

A recent post by ‘that girl’ over at the Thinking Out Loud website raised the point about bloggers’ lack of awareness about ethics.
Before I start I should say that I willingly participated in some photographic moments last night. I choose which ones to do (ones with sponsors of the awards categories etc). But already this [...]

PR consultants strive to tell their clients’ stories in language that the target audience will understand. Legal firms and financial institutions often seem to confuse customers with jargon. One interesting knock-on effect of this is these companies are going to miss out on precious hits from Google because consumers simply aren’t using their [...]

Changes on the Internet are having an interesting effect on how news is digested by the public. It used to be that today’s news would be tomorrow’s fish and chips lining, but Google seems to be changing all of that.
Visit Google and enter the search term ‘Ashley Cole’ (If you are too lazy to [...]

I was reading the latest issue of Mongrel magazine and flicked through an interview with Messiah J and The Expert, an Irish hip-hop duo. I couldn’t help but notice the link for the MySpace page at the end of the interview. How long is it before we see this snippet feature in every [...]

For all the surveys and percentages about the popularity in the Internet in Ireland and the lack of broadband take-up, I came across two interesting statistics this week which shows that Irish people are using the Internet a lot more than is thought.
I just watched the infamous Eamonn Dunphy outburst on YouTube again, it’s now [...]

If you follow some people’s advice, you should jump into online communications and start a blog, etc. Ask these same experts what exactly you should talk about and they’ll start to run out of steam. Be sure once you hear either of the following phrases, ‘the cluetrain manifesto’ or ‘naked conversations’, to immediately [...]

I signed up for a ShoZu account the other day because I’m after buying a Nokia N70 (expect some sort of review early next week). I haven’t activated it on my phone yet because I think I may just bluetooth any pictures or videos I want to put onto the Internet from my handset [...]

For all the complaints about the lack of business blogs in Ireland, a lot of people seem to be overlooking the increasing role that Social Media is playing in Irish society.
I’m still waiting for my iTrip, so I was listening to Spin FM on Friday evening in the car. The two DJs were having [...]

I get some grief sometimes for not playing golf. A lot of people say that golf is a great networking tool, but I’ve had to laugh recently after seeing that the old boys club of making deals out on the golf course seems to be evolving.
Welcome to the Old Boys Club 2.0! People [...]

I was very impressed by a recent Nike/Google Maps collaboration. The RunLondon project really emphasised how organisations can use the Internet to micro-target specific communities. People visiting the Run London website can visit the RouteFinder section to find, create and share routes with other runners in London.
Nike should really set up a similar [...]

The Internet offers a cost effective solution for engaging with the general public. By incorporating tools like blogs into a company’s website, it can transform their online offering into a focus group. For example, last week I posted about MPs in Britain calling for an enquiry into phone firms who are alleged to [...]