An analysis of recent tweets mentioning the word Rotherham throws up some interesting results. The first graph looks at the ‘level of buzz’ on different days and perhaps not surprisingly the top day was November 25, the day after the news came out that social workers at Rotherham council had removed three children from their foster carers because the carers were members of UKIP.

A more interesting graph is the one that identifies the top users by share of voice:

The top two tweeters by share of voice are Respect by-election candidate Yvonne Ridley (43%) and Respect MP George Galloway (25%) with the rest all about in the 7-11% range. Another on the list is Richard Lowe (UKIP’s by-election candidate). Blogger Harry Cole, the Telegraph’s James Delingpole and Patrick O’Flynn, chief political commentator of the Express also make the top ten.

The top nine most shared URLs are all about the UKIP foster parents story with the tenth being a Guardian story on Labour’s controversial selection process.

The related phrases word cloud surprised me as the dominant related topics were not foster parents, council or UKIP as I had expected.

In fact none of the related phrases stand out more than any of the others. It is interesting to note what words do not appear. New Labour, Nigel Farage, Denis Macshane and Yvonne Ridley all do appear, but Labour and Sarah Champion (Labour’s by-election candidate) don’t, although Sarah and Bluebell Wood (Sarah Champion is CEO of this Rotherham hospice) do.

As a comparison I also took a quick look at the results for Croydon North where there is also a by-election. Once again Respect’s candidate Lee Jasper is a related phrase, but not Labour’s candidate Steve Reed. If you exclude the automated @CroydonFeed then once again Respect dominates the conversation with Lee Jasper and George Galloway topping the list. Although this time three Labour names do make the top ten – Richard Angell from Progress, Coop Party staffer Martin Tiedemann and shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna (who incidentally beat Labour’s candidate Steve Reed to win his own selection in Streatham).

One possible explanation for Labour’s candidates not appearing on either related phrases cloud is the rather odd use of @sarah4rotherham and @steve4croydon as Twitter handles. The use of campaign names rather than real names give the impression of being terribly impersonal and that the candidates are only interested in votes, rather than individual local people and issues. It looks like 20th century campaigning using 21st century channels.

It also shows that Respect is putting more energy into using Twitter and that Twitter doesn’t actually reflect what is happening on the ground.

I used Edelman’s TweetLevel to analyse tweets between November 11 and November 27.

The Guardian – no matter how in to ‘online’ I am, nothing beats a physical newspaper. It’s so much more enjoyable and easier to read and browse. You can quickly scan stories that you wouldn’t normally be interested in and would otherwise never read. The Guardian’s my daily, but I also sporadically enjoy and buy the Times, Telegraph, Financial Times and Daily Mail (brilliantly produced and a brilliant insight in to how totally bonkers some people actually are!). The only serious paper I’d never buy is the Independent, which personally I find dull beyond belief.

PR Week (via CIPR membership) – PR Week goes through phases. In the early 90s it was good, it then hit the doldrums for several years, but over the last three to four years has become great and is now an essential weekly read.

Yorkshire Post – still one of the UK’s most important and influential regional papers with strong investigative reporting holding local councils, businesses and universities to account. It covers the whole of Yorkshire and the Humber.

Yorkshire Evening Post – the evening newspaper for Leeds. I’ve got to admit that because of staff cuts it’s not as good as it used to be. But it’s still essential reading and a good example of how essential it is to cherish our local newspapers.

Rothwell Record – a full colour, glossy magazine for the small town of Rothwell and its surrounding villages (including Carlton where I live). If it isn’t in the Record, it probably hasn’t happened. It has a £1.20 (I think without a copy next to me) and lots of adverts, mainly from local businesses offering essential services like plumbers, pubs, builders, carpet sales etc. It’s a tremendous community resource and gives a full page to the local neighbourhood policing team – which means local people know how important PCSOs actually are, despite the constant inaccurate reporting about them in most of the national press.

There are several ways for you to take part:

We’re using Kyte to live stream the webcast on the Sony Ericsson GreenHeart website. You can use Kyte’s live chat facility to ask questions and the panel will answer as many as they can. If you want to be more involved then you can even embed Sony Ericsson’s Kyte channel on your own blog, website Facebook etc (just click on Get & Share).

You can follow GreenHeart on Twitter, we’ll be tweeting the highlights of the webcast and you can also tweet your questions and comments to @SEGreenHeart or use the hashtag #greenheart.

Finally, as you’d expect from a mobile phone company, you can also take part by phone using Ipadio! Just call +44 20 3384 2144 (it’s a standard UK number so if you’re calling from outside the UK, there may be extra charges) and enter the pin number 2344. You’ll then be streamed live onto the Sony Ericsson GreenHeart website.

Usual disclaimer, Sony Ericsson is a client of Wolfstar.

On Thursday I Twittered my support for the striking journalists on the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post who are facing redundancy.

I was delighted by the almost instant response from Yorkshire’s public relations professionals with lots of colleagues from other PR firms and in-house departments quickly tweeting their support. During my lunch break I went down to join the picket line, as I understand did PRs from Finn Communications and Ptarmigan PR. At Wolfstar we’ve also sent some chocolate biscuits down to the picket line to help keep our friends well nourished (see this story on the official strike blog).

So far I think the campaign has had support from PRs at: Wolfstar, Finn Communications, Green PR, Hatch Communications, Fox Communications, Ptarmigan PR, Staniforth PR (Manchester), Yorkshire Water, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.

Apologies if I’ve missed anyone, feel free to add you support in the comments.

My reason for supporting the journalists is two-fold:

1. Respect and friendship for the work they do and the value it has for me as a PR professional.
2. Defending local democracy, business and society. Despite the growth of the internet (which after all is the foundation of my business) I still strongly believe in the importance of a strong local press.

Just two examples of how important the YEP and the YP are:

1. The Yorkshire Post’s excellent coverage of Stylo plc’s financial problems – the FT and quality broadsheets couldn’t hope to compete because they don’t know the company and its personalities.
2. The Yorkshire Evening Post’s many stories by Peter Lazenby exposing the dangers of far-right extremists targeting local council seats.

You can read more and leave your messages of support on the official blog at http://ypchapel.wordpress.com.

UPDATE: It’s worth watching this short video to hear from the NUJ’s Deputy General Secretary Michelle Stannistreet and the YEP Father of Chapel Peter Lazenby.

What I’ve read

My newspaper habits are fairly regular and The Guardian, Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post are essential reads. Sunday papers are a bit more difficult as like bits of different one – we get the Sunday Times delivered, but I also like the Observer and Mail on Sunday (if just to marvel at the fact that some people actually believe its delusional right wing rants). Magazines that I enjoy include PC Pro, PCW, PR Week, Real Business, Yorkshire Business Insider, Marketing, Marketing Week, New Media Age to name but a few. Finally I’m still trying to finish Alastair Campbell’s The Blair Years diaries.

What I’ve watched

Most of my television is recorded on the PVR, rather than in real time. I’m not a big fan of TV news as it’s far too lightweight – you can learn far more, far faster by reading a proper newspaper. That said I usually catch some of BBC Breakfast News and BBC New 24, but very rarely the ‘big’ news programmes. Entertainment wise I’m currently enjoying my Christmas present of a box set of When The Boat Comes In (a fantastic 1920s/30s drama set in the North East and made in the 70s) – at 2,542 minutes I should be enjoying it for some time to come! I’m also enjoying re-runs of The West Wing on More 4, Saturday Kitchen with James Martin, Dr Who, Heroes and Spooks.

What I’ve listened to

I also got a cheap and cheerful DAB digital radio for Christmas and have discovered a new station which just plays loads of great rock music and occasional news, but no annoying DJs. I’m also continuing to put up with the Today programme on Radio 4 and have to admit I’m a closet Archer’s fan (not so closet now).

Where I’ve surfed

Does this include RSS feeds as I no longer visit a lot of my favourite sites? I’m going to ignore the blogs for now and just mention some of the mainstream media sites such as Guardian Unlimited and the Daily Telegraph.

Those who’ve already done this meme include James Gordon-Macintosh, Ged Carroll, Stephen Waddington and Stephen Davies.

I tag David Brain, Iain Dale, Chris Norton, Philip Young and Ian Delaney.

What we want:

• Good writers – you don’t need to be Shakespeare or Burns, but you do need to be able to string more than a sentence together and write news releases, emails, blog posts etc
• Creative sorts who can not only come up with bright ideas, but make sure those bright ideas get done and deliver results
• Experience of public relations – doesn’t need to lots, but you’ll have at least done some placements in a PR consultancy or in-house team
• An understanding of and a thirst to know a lot more about social media, social networks etc
• Your CV as a PDF or plain text in the email
• People who’ve read more than a few posts of A PR Guy’s Musings and give us a clue that you understand how we do PR
• Someone who wants to work in Leeds, but will travel to see clients elsewhere

What we don’t want:

• People who think PR has any relationship whatsoever with Ab Fab
• People who are afraid of hard work
• People who think they are too grand to make the coffee or empty the bins
• People who are stuffy, formal and don’t know how to have fun
• CVs with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes
• CVs as Word files
• People who haven’t read this post and more of A PR Guy’s Musings very carefully

We promise to try our very, very hardest not to be ageist, sexist, racist or any other ist you can think of. Our current office isn’t too accessible, but we’ll be moving onwards and upwards soon so that shouldn’t be a problem.

So if you’re in the market for a new job (or even a first job if you’re a particularly talented student just about to graduate) then email me a CV.

You can donate online:

andycharlwood10krun

ryannorton

Dom was a good friend, who I miss greatly – and the Labour Party misses even more, as Dom was one of the most tireless campaigners and workers I know.

UPDATE: Sorry folks, this should have gone on Stuart’s Soapbox.

How Do cites the reason as Marc Bolland “is keen for the supermarket to shed its perceived northern image and rather project itself as national”.

I can think of several reasons why this doesn’t make any sense:

1) Being in London tends to make companies/people have LESS of a national outlook as London is such a big market they struggle to see beyond it to the rest of the UK. If you’re in a smaller market you can’t afford to be that blinkered so have to have a more national outlook.

2) If it’s staying with the same agency then both of its offices should be offering the same level of service. Personally I’d be very alarmed at giving any work to an agency that couldn’t offer consistent service and quality.

3) It’s media buying and planning. The fact that the person that sits behind a desk doing it is in London, Manchester or Bristol doesn’t have any affect on what the public think about you.

How Do looks very interesting and Nick told HackFlack that he sees it as “the online hub for the thriving media community across the North West”. As a Cumbrian who ended up on the wrong side of the Pennines I don’t really hold with all the North West v. Yorkshire rivalry, so I hope that How Do rapidly expands across the Pennines.

I wish the venture well and will watch with interest.

I’ve only looked at the north of England and the quick breakdown is:-

Yorkshire and the Humber 4
North East 3
North West 9

David’s right the Power Book is an interesting read and a good contribution to the industry. Danny Rogers’ introduction says:

“this is PR Week’s first shot at identifying and profiling – the creme de la creme of the UK PR industry today… We have worked extremely hard in compiling a definitive list of the PR sector’s most powerful figures, based on criteria including: the size of PR budget under their control; the personal influence they wield in the world of politics, business or media; the extent to which they have innovated in their particular field; and their influence and status within the PR industry itself”

It’s a bit of a rough and ready analysis as I might have missed some people.

In Yorkshire the four people listed are (in alphabetical order):

Stuart Bruce, Managing Partner BMA PR: inspirational boss Pete Ward; fav web link www.live.com; essential viewing West Wing, Spooks, Dr Who (prefers news in papers or online, not radio/tv); gadget T-Mobile MDA Pro; respected politician Tony Blair; guilty pleasure Laphroaig; epitaph “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again” 

Anne Gregory, Professor of Public Relations, Centre for Public Relations Studies, Leeds Metropolitan University: inspirational boss John Harvey Jones; essential listening Today programme; fav web link www.bbc.co.uk; gadget free; respected politician Baroness Amos; guilty pleasure champagne; epitaph “She changed things”

Alan Hyde, Head of Comms, GNER: inspirational boss Christopher Garnett (former GNER chief exec); essential view/listen Today programme, West Wing; fav web link www.google.co.uk; gadget BlackBerry and iPod; most admired leader Tony Blair; respected politician Nelson Mandela; guilty pleasure Southampton FC; epitaph “No more spinning, not even in the grave”

Phil Reed, Managing Partner, Brahm PR: inspirational boss David Ward; essential view/listen BBC Radio Five Live; Breakfast; fav web link news.bbc.co.uk; gadget Sky Plus; respected politician Colin Powell; guilty pleasure The X-Factor; epitaph “Seeing Leeds United win the Champions League (again) proved too much for his ticker”

Very surprised not to see Andy Green (GREEN Communications), Gordon Forbes (Ptarmigan) and Tim Sinclair (Sinclair Mason, now Trimedia Harrison Cowley) not listed, but Anne Gregory and Phil Reed I expected.

The other northern names listed are Tony Bradley (Bradley O’Mahoney), Emma Chadwick (Staniforth), Richard Clein (Bell Pottinger North), Jon Egan (October Communications), Jan Hilary (City of Durham Council), Jo Leah (Shandwick North), Stefan Lepkowski (Karol Marketing), Danny Moss (Manchester Metropolitan University), Rita Rowe (Mason Williams), Sally Sykes (AstraZeneca), Phil Townsend (Manchester United), Nina Wheeler (Brazen).

Apologies if I’ve inadvertently missed you off. Drop me an email or comment and I’ll add you in.