News from EIDO Public Relations

The joint charter, the result of consultations between the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the Investor Relations Society (IRS), the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), aims to reduce the incidents of "media spamming" by PR companies. Media spamming occurs when journalists and editors are inundated with press releases and PR contacts which are intrusive and/or inappropriate for their needs. The problem was highlighted originally in the recent Irrelevent PR Truth campaign (see our blog).

This is a campaign we have been following closely because the relationship between PR and journalist is the essence of what we do. Unlike many other PR companies, we have always worked hard to try and ensure that our communications go only to those who we feel will find them useful. But given the scale of the problem highlighted by the campaign, we felt we should do more. Our first action back in the Summer of this year was to migrate our news circuits to an online server and give journalists the ability to add or remove themselves from any of our circulation lists if they feel they have been poorly targetted.So far, we have had only one such request.

Further to this, we have adopted a change in policy with regard to press release distribution. For most press releases, we now ONLY circulate stories initially to editors and journalists on our lists. This means that stories journalists get from us are still newsworthy - i.e. they aren't already freely available online. At some later stage, we may circulate stories a second time to online portals to help boost search engine visibility and penetration, but our focus remains primarily on the needs of journalists and we will not knowingly undermine their efforts to produce unique, newsworthy content.

As a last step, we will now include the CIPR Media Spamming Charter into our standard Terms of Business, clearly stating the negative effects of engaging in spam-like activities or unprofessional harassment of the media. We will also reserve the right to decline to participte in any such action on the grounds that it is not in the client's best interests and may be damaging to our own business credibility.

Download your own copy of the CIPR Media Spamming Charter by visiting our Free PR & Marketing Guides page

The first guide looks at preparing for an exhibition and how, with some simple advance planning, you can really make the most of your investment. Whether large or small, exhibitions offer great opportunities to promote your brand and build stronger links with your customer base. The guide looks at how you can use the show organiser's marketing strategy to your advantage, how to prepare your news stories and how to ensure they get noticed by editors and journalists.

In the coming weeks, we'll be adding more guides to the collection which will address some topics such as developing your international marketing, tips for successful email campaigns, dealing with the trade press and more. We hope you find them useful, and don't forget we are always happy to talk to you about how PR can improve the dialogue you have with your market.

It came as something of a shock to discover that over 8 million mattresses are dumped in UK landfill sites every year. That's a collossal amount of waste, and an amazing waste of precious landfill capacity. Eco-Matt aims to reduce that startling figure to zero. Eco-Matt is the UK's first specialist mattress recycler. Using specialist techniques and machinery, they are able to break down old mattresses into recyclable components, enabling up to 90% of the material to be reclaimed. Based in the south of England, Eco-Matt also handle plastics and cardboard waste from businesses all across the region. We are thrilled to welcome Eco-Matt on board and we look forward to spreading the word about this exciting new process.

The Incovenient PR Truth campaign draws an analogy between pollution in the physical environment and 'news' pollution of the online environment caused in no small measure by PR companies blasting out irrelevant or inappropriate press releases indiscriminately. Journalists are bombarded with such stories daily and it is a source of great irritation - especially when followed-up by the inevitable 'did you get my email' call 15 minutes later.

There is no doubt that 'PR spam' is becoming a bigger problem, partly because of the ease with which stories can be circulated by email and partly by the increasing number of companies offering 'media lists' that are often poorly researched and out of date. Coupled with inexperience on the part of the PRO, this combination of flawed data and naivity creates a potent cocktail that can all too easily wreck delicate PR/Media relationships and create a strong negative backlash against the client.

In response to what some journos believe to be an increasingly serious problem, the campaign proposes a journalist's Bill of Rights which enshrines a code of practice to be followed by PR companies. The code places specific obligations on behalf of the PR company to research its distribution list better and take further steps to ensure they are not spamming recipients with inappropriate stories.

From our point of view, we agree wholeheartedly with anything that helps ensure our stories land on receptive ears. That's why we have always relied on lists that we research and maintain ourselves. There are some in the PR industry, however, who have raised concerns that the Bill goes too far in restricting our ability to sell-in stories to less familiar publications. We too share some of those concerns.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be looking seriously at what lessons can be drawn from the campaign and how we can incorporate those into our business practices. Our objective will be to draw up a code of conduct that encapsulates the essence of the Inconvenient PR Truth campaign. We'll be posting more on this on our blog, Talkback, which you can find on the right hand side of this page.