Danny Whatmough.com - Latest Comments

Re: A requiem for word counts. Who’s with me?

Danny Whatmough — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:02:03 -0000

Great quote, thanks Steve.

Re: A requiem for word counts. Who’s with me?

stevefarnworth — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:00:09 -0000

Yes, yes, yes - a thousand times, yes! When I used to review consumer tech products, most of my reviews regularly came in under 700 words (news posts usually under 300) and almost everyone questioned why they were so short, I asked them whether I had left anything out or whether the copy was poor/dry and their response was always "no" - just a strange fixation that anything worth reading has to be long.

"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do" - Thomas Jefferson

Re: A requiem for word counts. Who’s with me?

David J M Clare — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:45:20 -0000

Lol, did you feel short changed from this post then? I'm a fan of no word count - and to be honest I do not read blog posts that are long, mainly for the fact that it hurts my eyes and most people cannot write well enough to keep my attention. In fact, I'm betting by now I've already lost yours ;)

Re: A requiem for word counts. Who’s with me?

Alex Perryman — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:16:15 -0000

On the other hand, if a post makes its point, but is too short, I feel a little short-changed having clicked through to it.

Re: A requiem for word counts. Who’s with me?

Ronan Shields — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:19:58 -0000

Can't agree more Mr Whatmough! Word counts are a legacy of the print era when editorial had to write enough for commercial to sell a 'contextually relevant' ad on the other side of the page

Re: Digital PR in Black and White #prcacareers

Chris Hoskin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:43:39 -0000

Brilliant.

What is the narrative for slides 45-48?

Re: Brainstorming: can you force creativity?

Danny Whatmough — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:26:32 -0000

Thanks Peter. I should add that I'm not saying brainstorming itself isn't of value. It's just that I wonder if it could often be more effective than it currently is. I find it amazing to spark off the ideas of others so was interested to read about the power of the individualistic creative process. This is very much a challenge rather than a solution...

Re: Brainstorming: can you force creativity?

Peter Sigrist — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:11:32 -0000

This is a thought-provoking post, Danny. I have had a positive experience of brainstorming ideas. I don't have a narrow definition of creativity or of brainstorms - sometimes you're trying to solve a knotty problem, sometimes generate unexpected ideas, sometimes just seek views as in a focus group. Often the best ideas come from thinking things through alone, it's true. But nothing gets to the unexpected solutions as quickly, in my experience, as a brainstorm in small, very carefully curated groups.

Re: Why all PRs should learn to code

Gem — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:10:09 -0000

Brilliant, thank you!

Re: Is the PR agency model broken?

web development — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 02:58:20 -0000

Hi,
you know today is the world of the social media agency. It makes sense for Powered platform to partner up with a service(s)
teams that have already been successful for some time, this improves the
time to market to deployment.

Re: Facebook’s risky new approach to (forced) sharing

Remco Janssen — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:06:07 -0000

Don't you just hate it that social networking sites change and 'improve' stuff that didn't need improvement nor change? Darn it!

Re: Facebook’s risky new approach to (forced) sharing

Ari Herzog — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:57:30 -0000

As I listen to a song in Spotify, my "recent activity" specifies the name of the song. Just the name of the song. Not who the performer is, or even a blip.fm-like video of the song. Either of these latter two options would provide for more interactivity, no?

And, if I suddenly listen to an entire playlist in a row, will my recent activity (and ticker seen by my friends) be inundated with songs I'm listening to?

Re: Facebook launches a subscribe button & changes the social game again

Ari Herzog — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:21:32 -0000

I like the subscribe feature but detest the smart lists. I also noticed I can no longer include a message when sending someone a friend request.

Re: Facebook ditches Deals and Places; location isn’t a walk in the park

Ari Herzog — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:09:38 -0000

Are you positive Places is gone, or might it only be a mobile app now?

Because in the new privacy settings structure, under the tagging section is this question: "
Friends Can Check You Into Places using the mobile Places app"

Re: Is the PR agency model broken?

Full Term Pregnancy — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:53:01 -0000

This is an educative experience. All we have to learn is to
start from the basics. I love everything about this post. I amazed me and made
me realize that I still have a lot to learn. Thanks a lot for sharing your
insights.

Re: Have the confidence (and skill) to say no to AVE

Ondonie — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:14:30 -0000

Making decisions matters a lot especially if we are aware of its outcome. Refusal also play a significant role because with it we can be able to weigh things that are vital to us. Refusal to AVE is not new but by doing so is coupled with a responsibility.

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Re: Is the PR agency model broken?

angelomario — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:29:55 -0000

Hi there Danny, this is indeed an inspiration! This is an amazing post! Information in this post can be a good training. Most of us look after new and fresh ideas and no doubt that he is an inspiration. This one is a sure hit in terms of informing the public. This can be a good topic to research to. I am glad I was able to stumble on your post.

Angelo Mario

Webmaster of Accounting Online

Re: Why Facebook’s Skype announcement was a #PR #Fail

Danny Whatmough — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 06:46:12 -0000

Yes I think that is the point Paul. Apple can get away with this because it has built up fervent support over many years. Facebook doesn't have the same level of support.

But I also think Apple is much savvier about how it approaches announcements. With Apple, the hype usually has some justification (even if just in the minds of its fans).

Re: Why Facebook’s Skype announcement was a #PR #Fail

paul rayment — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 06:16:17 -0000

Agree 100% but Facebook are not the first to do this, or even the biggest. I'm sick to death of Steve Jobs standing on a stage saying how the latest Apple product is amazing and better than something else, when in truth it isn't and the other thing can do MANY things that his product can't. This is then usually greeted with whoops from the crowd who ignore the glaring faults. I guess it shows that Facebook isn't held in such high regard.

Re: Google+ musings; great product, three years too late?

Paul Sutton — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:29:53 -0000

Interesting. As I said in my own post this week (http://www.thesocialweb.co.uk/... my feeling is that, like you say, Google+ could work alongside Facebook and Twitter. The suite of tools it has built (Hangouts could be awesome, Sparks is RSS on steroids and Instant Upload is genius!) are what will attract me to use it, rather than it being yet another social network to update. There are 2 or 3 potential killer applications there already, with a promise of more to come.

More to the point though, the integration with Chrome and, above all, Android, could really drive this. I've used Facebook's version of Circles (Lists) in exactly the same way for a long time, tailoring who sees what on Facebook. But I'm in a very small minority and whereas Facebook has hidden this functionality away, Google's put it right in your face. It's another simple and yet genius move, and I think that will appeal to a lot of people.

The one thing that Google hasn't got is time. I don't doubt that Facebook is already working on some new stuff to fend this off and, in the same way that Places brought geo-location to the mainstream rather than Foursquare, if Facebook were to introduce video meetups in a few weeks, bang goes Hangouts. Like I say though, with Android Google has the potential platform to make this really work - and Facebook generally struggles with mobile.

Wave and Buzz were both ill-conceived. G+ is well though-out and genuinely inventive. It's going to be an interesting few months...

Re: Have the confidence (and skill) to say no to AVE

Danny Whatmough — Wed, 11 May 2011 08:23:10 -0000

Thanks for the comment

Peter
. You are of course right about sharing advice. I was just having a rant on my high horse! My frustration is that many seem to have given up when it comes to finding a better way.

The gauntlet has been thrown! I promise the next post on the matter will be more constructive!

Re: Have the confidence (and skill) to say no to AVE

Peter Sigrist — Wed, 11 May 2011 08:16:54 -0000

Hi Danny. Forthright view as always. And right, of course. I wish I could say I'd never used AVE in all the years I've worked in PR, but it just isn't true. Nevertheless, I'm glad to say I've not touched it for years now and am confident I never shall again.

But.

One bone I'd pick is your vehemence that you'll not share information with those agencies that are struggling to move beyond AVE. Why not? I'm sure, like me, you'd agree that there's little - for want of a better expression - intellectual property in the thinking that gets you to a good business-related metric. It requires rigour, not rocket science.

Perhaps you'd also agree with me that it's in all our interests that agencies collectively get better at selling credible measurement. After all, if 'PR Agencies' become synonymous with 'the agencies that can't measure the impact of the work they do', we all suffer.

As one of the more vocal names in the PR industry, and certainly as one of the most astute (IMO), I'd hope you'd be more willing to share best practice. It both makes you look good and helps to burnish the reputation of this entire industry.

Now I'm off to add this comment to your post on the CIPR site, where I note it has appeared too :)

Re: Is the PR agency model broken?

Tom — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:45:37 -0000

Danny, you're absolutely right. There's a strong case to be made that the conventional Agency structure is flawed.

The breadth and depth of what PR Agencies claim to cover is enormous. The key to challenging this is to have a really broad area of creative input - i.e. crowdsourcing.

Crowds (of professional creatives) are the only way to tackle the massive variety demanded by clients. Mark Pinsent's point about specialisms is important, and if an Agency can afford to employ specialist teams in every area, and develop it's offering accordingly then it could claim to be fully integrated, however there are very few agencies with the capacity to do this.

Check out www.blurGroup.com for an alternative.

Re: Even Scoble agrees with me that Quora is all hype!

Max Tatton-Brown — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:04:35 -0000

You've got to bear in mind that he's just saying it's not the future of blogging anymore though. No reason why Quora can't be a success in its own right and although there's a current backlash, at least people know what it is.

Plus, the mainstream audience wouldn't come now anyway, they won't until the content is there, which all this hype is helping happen!

My thoughts on why it could be a big success on the slowburn here: http://bit.ly/gaWZSE

Re: Shut up about Quora already!

thyr — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:52:49 -0000

Ha! But the same degree of chatter happened for Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. This is nothing new. It also happened for iPhone, iPad, Google Buzz, Google Wave, Google everything and for the Tesla car, Smart Car, New Zesty Doritos®. The big difference is that Quora isn't very interesting. Not yet anyway. People need something to babble about. Especially people who have blogs and write daily. Although I find such pedestrian thought, and herd writing to be an utter snooze, Quora like any other "new" thing serves its purpose. Eventually there will be an iClue and people can sign up for a clue, until then, same old same old.