If there’s one good habit to develop early in 2010, it’s the habit of exploring and engaging with the blogosphere - but where to start? That’s the question.

Lucky for us, people (with a penchant for laborious tasks) like to rank bloggers on lists, which is great if you’d like a short cut to the cream of the crop. For example, Australia has some cracking bloggers who can be found here:

Top 100 Australian Blogs
Top 100 Australian Women Bloggers
Top 129 Marketing Blogs

Also see The Australian Index Blog Directory for bloggers listed in different categories.

For top blogs from all countries try the Ad Age Power 150 and Technorati’s Top 100. Or, if you’re looking for the best American bloggers (…I think they’re all team USA) by topic try Post Ranks’ Top Bloggers 2009 list. This is a great list to browse. There are three categories:

1/ Most Engagement… stuff that’s very very engagement
The blogger in each topic who received the overall highest engagement total over the course of the year (Congratulations Brian Solis - my personal PR hero - who topped the list for PR. He’s coming out in April for Connect Now).

2/ Most Influential
The blogger in each topic who received the highest average engagement with posts over the course of the year (Brian won again for PR. Yep, he’s pretty good).

3/ Biggest Mover & Shaker
The blogger in each topic whose engagement grew the most over the course of the year (Damn it Brian! At least leave something for the rest of us to fight over).

As the results show, if you’ve got anything to do with PR or you want to know anything about PR you need to know Brian’s blog. The man is a blogging machine. In the first 18 days of 2010 he bashed out 13 posts on a variety of topics, including a post written on New Year’s Day (…if I had of written a post on New Year’s Day it would have come out in hieroglyphics).

Finally, if you have burning questions about the Blogosphere check out Technorati’s annual State of the Blogosphere report. Or if you’re wondering how to keep up with all these busy bloggers, you need a Google Reader, which is simply explained In Plain English.

Posted by Renee Creer

Marguerite Julian (or MJ as we like to call her), Stellar*’s founder and managing director, has featured in this month’s B&T magazine.

As a PR person it’s quite comforting to have someone like MJ around because over the span of her career she has seen it, done it and PR’d it all!

The thing is, she’s very laid back, modest and unassuming so her remarkable achievements are not often highlighted. After some cajoling, she agreed to reflect on her career for this piece and in fact, this is the first time most of us at Stellar* have actually got the full story on what she’s done.

Posted by Renee Creer
Courtesy of B&T Magazine, December 2009

We graciously accepted this starry award for our work with ghd at this year’s Rosemount Australian Fashion Week (RAFW).

The campaigns submitted were evaluated on key objectives, creativity, innovation and overall success and the PR category was judged by beauty directors / editors from Marie Caire, Cleo and Grazia, as well as senior PR University lecturers.

Without further ado, this is what we did:

What was the PR campaign for?

ghd’s sponsorship of RAFW shows. The sponsorships were at varying levels and we were responsible for finding, negotiating and executing agreements, as well as supporting the sponsorships with publicity, and leveraging them via onsite activity.

What was involved?

1) Designer sponsorships – securing brand partnerships with 14 top Australian fashion brands such as Willow, Marnie Skillings, Kirrily Johnston, Zimmermann, Anna & Boy, Manning Cartell, Konstantina Mittas, Antipodium and more.

2) Stylist management – nurturing the relationship between ghd and key stylist ambassadors, as well as establishing new relationships with key industry players in the editorial styling realm.

3) Publicity – running a proactive and reactive media office: creating a microsite for media; proactively pitched stories prior to fashion week; and distributing press information after shows.

4) Media hosting – onsite meet and greet for beauty media at every show, ensuring media were able to get interviews, information, stylist tips and photography.

5) Social media – Facebook and Twitter integration via content and tweets on site to keep fans and media up to date with stylists, shows, hair looks, fashion, trends and, of course, drama!

6) Brand management - strategic positioning of branding at event to ensure maximum exposure via clever and subtle placements.

What were the objectives and how did we meet them?


1) To increase the number of shows sponsored the previous year by securing 10-15 show sponsorships.

A total of 14 sponsorship agreements were secured.

Generated 42 pieces of press and online coverage. Top 10 ranking media outlets (based on volume) included: Primped, marie claire, Grazia, Beauty Directory, Harper’s Bazaar, Shop til you drop, Beautyeditor.com.au, Style magazines, Beauty Heaven, Chic Report – Fashion Week Daily.

3) To position ghd as a fashion-orientated beauty brand.

Having styled 14 shows at fashion week, ghd achieved a strong presence in front of beauty and fashion media, as well as key fashion influencers, affirming its fashion focussed positioning.

What were the key creative elements?

RAFW is a competitive sponsorship platform. To ensure ghd stood out an online element was integrated via a ghd RAFW microsite. The microsite acted as a portal for media which held daily information and images from shows and included a daily HTML emailer to media to direct them to the site.

Ensuring we had strong content meant briefing, directing and managing photographers and film crew onsite; hosting designer and stylist interviews to camera; pre-writing all copy including step-by-step instructions on how to create looks, as well as stylist and designer quotes and product references.

Links to the ghd microsite were also posted on ghd’s Facebook page and Twitter profile.

The timing of RAFW also gave us the opportunity to reinforce and build awareness of ghd’s current styler promotion, Rare, which featured a leopard print design. We integrated this theme with the microsite as well as through brand executions onsite via gift bags and branded chocolates.

We used Stellar* Analytics, our reporting tool which measures and analyses media outputs. Via Stellar* Analytics we were able to evaluate key messages and campaign reach. It showed which sponsorships provided the most media cut through and helped us analyse messages the media referenced. We also measured our success by monitoring consumer interaction on social media platforms.

Posted by Renee Creer

Why does PR = evil? I’m guessing that the assumed evil deeds we perform are to do with the so called spinning of information to generate publicity and dupe unsuspecting audiences.

This 19th century framework of PR is old and irrelevant. Unfortunately as an industry, we have failed pretty miserably at helping people understand what PR is and what PR people do.

While PR is widely known for publicity generation, this and media relations is just one facet of PR, as Craig Pearce and Karalee Evans also point out.

The media is just one channel in a host of channels PR people use to help businesses and brands meet their objectives and communicate with their many stakeholders and by that I mean markets, customers, employees, investors and so on.

When a client comes with a problem or opportunity, we solve it with the most appropriate solution:

…and then there’s all the ‘relations’…

“I’m supposed to be on top of what’s new in tech, but there’s just too much, too fast; it’s like drinking from a fire hose”

I like this quote a lot.  American tech columnist, David Pogue, said this and it’s sometimes how I feel trying to keep up with social media. 

Today’s PR professional needs to be on top of many new things to keep up with the rapid technological and social changes we’re experiencing.  Knowing traditional methods is one thing, but it’s important to keep abreast of new developments that can help client’s achieve their goals.

It’s not enough to be good or great these days, you need to be brilliant, which takes a lot of bloody work (…or, comes quite naturally to some really annoying people!).  It is impossible to know everything, but here are some areas that today’s PR professional should, in some degree, be across or should be working toward knowing:

1. Knowledge of the macro environment, that is, the forces that are shaping media and media consumption and the new influence structures that have developed
2. Knowledge of the main social media tools and their nuances and direct experience with them, that is, actually being part of it not just talking about it
3. Knowledge of different types of releases from traditional media releases, to consumer/customer focussed releases sent via wires services, to social media and search engine optimised releases
4. Knowledge of social media etiquette and how to have and sustain two-way conversations with people and communities
5. An understanding of the importance of search and search engine optimisation and how search and content work together
6. An understanding of the value of content and context, and also what web-friendly content is and how to distribute it across the social web
7. Knowledge and experience with information organisation / management tools - RSS, tagging, bookmarking etc
8. Knowledge of monitoring and insight tools, from free tools and blog search engines to paid monitoring tools
9. Knowledge of how to integrate social media into PR programs based on strategy not random tool selection based on what’s cool right now
10. An understanding of how to measure social media results

I’m still grappling with some of these points and I don’t know a whole lot of stuff but I do know what I don’t know and sometimes that’s half the battle won.

Posted by Renee Creer
Image by the brilliant Carl Sherriff

Lately, there has been some very public instances in which PR people have been ‘named and shamed’ online - on blogs and in twitter - for the way they have approached food bloggers. 

It hasn’t been pretty and when situations like this occur, it doesn’t do anyone any good.  I attribute this strife largely to a general lack of knowledge and understanding about bloggers and blogging. 

So in an effort to improve relations between PR professionals and members of the food blogging community, Stellar* is hosting a ‘meet up’ and panel discussion.  Please click here for event details and registration.

If you would like to gain some insight into the food blogger communities in Sydney and Melbourne; gain an understanding of who food bloggers are, how they work and what they do and don’t want; learn how to approch bloggers (without pissing them off) and build positive relationships, then please join us for this FREE event. 

Likewise, if you have questions you’ve been too afraid to ask - now’s your chance!  Ask on the night, email questions through to us prior OR leave a question on our blog.

The format is a panel discussion followed by an open Q & A session.  Speakers include:

• Ed Charles
  Melbourne based freelance journalist and food blogger behind Tomato, which attracts +30,000 page views per month.
• Helen Yee
  Food enthusiast and the appetite behind one of Sydney’s longest-running food blogs, Grab Your Fork, online since 2004.
• Reem Abdelaty
  A passionate foodie with an aptly titled and popular blog called I Am Obsessed With Food.

Why are we doing this?  Because as we stated here “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”.  We want to help to make things better and we thought that this would be a step in the right direction for all parties.

Big thanks and shout out to Restaurant Arras for providing a beautiful venue and ‘hatted’ nibbles for the night.  And to Ed for making the trip up from Melbourne.

Posted by Renee Creer

Is it just me or has PR been slammed more in the last month than in the last few years?  The industry appears to be copping it from all sides.  We’ve had:

• Neil Shoebridge’s AFR piece titled How to lose clients and annoy reporters.  He argues that the PR industry is awash with incompetent people and outlines his top and deady PR sins.
• Jason Whittaker’s guest post on Mumbrella titled Precious PR hacks and why they do their clients no good.  Here, Whittaker has had enough of PRs telling him how to do his job.
• Ed Charles, journalist and blogger, named and shamed a PR in this post after he and other food bloggers were spammed via a contact list of bloggers Charles published online.
• Heated industry debate, in B&T magazine and online over Brisbane agency, Publicity Queen, and their promise of guaranteed publicity.

And that’s not the extent of it. So what does one in PR say or do about all of this?

We consider ourselves an agency of smart, professional people who know the media and have good relationships with journalists.  We have, on occasion, f#*$ed up, gotten it wrong, and done dumb stuff.

There are always two sides to any story or coin and may we state that the stupid and incompetent are not just confined to the PR industry!

Rather than scrap it out school yard style, we’ve decided to outline A NEW MANIFESTO FOR PR because if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

We promise to:

1. Not be idiots or self important show ponies

2. Not pitch stupid, irrelevant stuff to media outlets, journalists or bloggers

3. Continue to comply with spam laws

4. Limit blanket distributions where possible

5. Keep a sense humour

6. Get to know the media or blog’s scope and where journalists’ interests lie

7. Build reciprocal, positive relationships

8. Play nice

9. Make PR as relevant and exciting as possible

10. Always strive to be better at what we do

11. Follow up and keep our word

12. Set a positive example

13. Educate younger staff and clients on the right way to do media relations

14. Not make claims that we can’t justify or promises that we can’t keep

15. Do our research

16. Beware of fibbers and phonies

17. Try to fix things when they go wrong

18. Be patient and reasonable in the light of differences

19. Ask and learn more about how journalists work and what they need

Like to contribute?  By all means, add to the list.  Or follow this conversation on Mumbrella.

Posted by Renee Creer

In the words of Freddy Mercury: “Is this the real life?  Is this just fantasy?”

The title of this post is a PR ‘fantasy made reality’ by the intro of a website called The FULL STORY.  And not just for PR but for any business; we’d all like our news published our way.

One of the best things about the internet is the ability to self publish at low or no cost.  No longer do we have to solely rely on media outlets to filter, edit and publish information on our behalf.  As long as you’re not a complete techno failure you can get your voice out there.  This of course has many implications on the credibility of information but that’s another post for another time.

In their words The FULL STORY (…bit of extreme capitalisation there) website is a media and information release portal where individuals and organisations can post breaking news and information or their side of the story on issues of local or national importance for FREE.  It’s a public platform to correct misinformation and selective reporting by providing a different perspective on an issue already on the public record.

The website states it was developed in response to the frustrations organisations and individuals face when things are incorrectly reported, omitted, taken out of context etc.

I scouted around the site and I’m not quite sure it hits the mark.  Companies are posting their news but there is no context to it.  Are people just using it as a news portal or are they publishing in response to incorrect or biased news?

The site would benefit from an option to add historical or background information to the releases or even links to the offending news pieces so the context is clear.  Then we could all follow stories as they unfold because let’s face it, we all love a good bun fight.  Then the site could develop as a news version of Not Good Enough or Wikileaks. 

However if the website is simply a portal for news that didn’t make the cut on mainstream news sites, The FULL STORY might end up a bit ordinary, because quite frankly, it might be missing what makes news ‘newsworthy’ in the first place. 

Companies can already publish their own news on their websites or blogs, or release news to wire services or news aggregators.  But in any regard, The FULL STORY is a useful outlet for people (especially SMEs) wanting to either get their side of the story out or even for news devourers wanting to confirm both sides of a story or issue that interests them.

I’d love to hear what others think about it?

Posted by Renee Creer

You don’t know this but today is the Birthday of Stellar* Analytics; it’s officially 1 year old!  We’ve been pretty quiet about our new baby but after 12 months of getting to know it, we are ready to unleash it!

Stellar* Analytics is our custom measurement, analysis and reporting tool.  It’s also a sophisticated online media centre which has pretty much saved our sanity here at Stellar* - but more on that later.

Any good PR professional knows that measuring and evaluating campaigns is essential however right now, in light of economic pressures, it has never been more important.  You simply have to be able to justify budgets and demonstrate value.  That’s why we’ve invested significantly in this tool.

For clients, Stellar* Analytics is a valuable reporting tool for senior management which measures and analyses media outputs (both offline and online coverage) and collates the results in customised reports that provide:

• A benchmark for client, competitor or category / sector coverage
• Tracking of editorial share of voice / mindshare for products, categories, brands and more
• Evaluation of key messaging and of campaign reach
• Insight into journalist and media outlet outputs
• A long term measure of marketing / PR ROI
• Detailed market intelligence and both qual. and quant. insights

We do all of our publicity reports via this tool and customise each report to individual client needs.  We also do specialist reports based on specific briefs (competitor analysis for example).  The media outputs we measure not only include press clippings, but cover websites, blogs and broadcast.  And did I mention the charts?  Stellar* Analytics offers over 50 different charts which slice and dice the coverage in more visually pleasing charts than one person should ever see. 

He’re what our clients say about it:

“Stellar* Analytics is a valuable tool.  It helps us create more accurate programs and more targeted campaigns which has enabled a better ROI.  It’s great to see PR measured and evaluated in such a comprehensive manner.”  Hayden Isaacs, Communications Manager,
Brown Brothers Milawa Vineyard

I just LOVE Stellar* Analytics!  Where has this been all our lives?!  The PR report is now so comprehensive yet easy to understand for all levels of the business.  It’s a fantastic measurement tool.” Anna Logan, Marketing Manager, ghd hair

For our agency, Stellar* Analytics is a sophisticated online media centre which looks after all of our day-to-day needs.  It’s a:

• Media contact database and contact management system
• Press release distribution and tracking service which uses HTML email templates
• Online media monitoring tool of both national and international sources
• Account activity tracker and project management system

So essentially, we now offer online media monitoring which is on par with other major service providers but at a fraction of the cost.  We also have the capability to include images and links to external content in our press releases and we can track opening rates and link throughs. 

Ok, I think I’ve said enough, so Happy Birthday Stellar* Analytics and if you want to know more please comment or email me direct renee@stellar.net.au

Posted by Renee Creer

Is Monday too soon to be thinking about cocktails?  I say no.  This is PR and of course, all we crazy PR hedonists do is booze up.  So as I poured my first Hendrick’s cocktail of the week (respectfully 1 minute after 12 noon), an interesting article by Fi Bendall caught my eye.  It describes, among other really interesting points, the media consumption of her Gen Y teenage kids (16 and 14 years old).

“The teens are using new media at every available opportunity, always on in the background is the web, laptops sitting next to the mobile phone that is sms’ing and iPod plugged in one ear.”

This describes what I call a CONSUMPTION COCKTAIL.

It’s not limited to teens and new media.  All ages do this.  Have you noticed you do this yourself? 

You’re at home on the computer, flicking between Facebook and Google and you’ve got one ear tuned to the TV on the background.  If something interesting comes up you watch for a few minutes then it’s back to downloading a podcast for tomorrow’s bus ride, while you continue to sms your friend about the weekend.

That’s a consumption cocktail - everything is thrown into the mix at the same time.  We are, after all, media animals and as our access increases so does our appetitie for information and entertainment.

What are the implications? 

More channels = less time per channel = multiple channels at once = attention split between channels = smaller and smaller audience segments = marketing / PR / advertising hell?

Not really.  It just means we have to be smarter, faster and better at connecting with people via things that are relevant and remarkable.  Makes for thirsty work…

Posted by Renee Creer