Q and A on innovations in public relations

Boyd Neil of Hill & Knowlton Canada asked does good writing only come from journalism? He thinks it can come from anyone.

"You can’t get in unless you can write" Mark Mellor, Firefly talking about recruiting PR people.

"Don’t jump on the blogging bandwagon just because it’s cool" Euan Semple talking about if CEOs should blog. The answer is only if they have something to say and are willing to listen and engage in the conversation.

"PR 2.0 is the same evolution of communication" Mark Mellor

"The connectedness, speed and accessibility is different" Euan Semple

Andrew Morrison, senior comms manager, Coca-Cola Africa talked about the YouTube mentos mints video and how Coke has now commissioned the creators to create an official Coca-Cola video. He asks does he say a split between those who will embrace the new technology and those who still want to more formally "control the message".

Motorola has just introduced a company blogging policy. It has started blogs and made the decision to get people with something interesting to say to blog rather than just automatically assuming it should be the top people.

Instant Survey – do you have a blogging policy?

Yes 12% No 88%

With that result I’m tempted to make a blatant commercial plug about how I’m available to help you develop a corporate blogging policy 😉

Euan Semple made the very important point of the danger of blogs as an echo chamber and only listening to views that reinforce your own.

"More clever people outside your organisation than inside it" – using the example of EI Lily.

UPDATED: Typos and links that I missed during the live blog at the summit.