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One theme across the blogosphere this week is just how busy everyone is. Still I’m never too busy to read some of my favorite blogs. Here’s this week’s top picks.
1. Allen Weiner has some interesting comments about the new ways people consume media over at the Gartner Research Blog for the Media Industry. Apparently the average American spends almost five months a year reading, watching TV, surfing online, listening to the radio, etc. Allen predicts the tipping point will come soon.
2. PR business is booming, …

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There’s a new name on this weekly feature for no other reason than I couldn’t resist the alliteration  
1. …the world’s leading…has a go at late payers. Most consultants know what a pain it can be to have to spend effort collecting on invoices. I’m not sure the approach taken here is advisable, however.
2. The Copyblogger has drafted the 5 immutable laws of persuasive blogging. There’s not much new here, but it’s a good review of the basics of good copy writing.
3. Martin Stabe summarises the recent controversy over …

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Strive Notes ran series of PR 101-type postings late last year. Every Sunday over several months we got ‘back to basics’ with several ‘how to’ entries that proved to be very popular.  To continue where we left off, today we are looking at strategic thinking, the very heart of public relations planning.
A PR strategy is, in effect, a plan which predetermines activity to achieve a desired result.  It links research data to activity in order to attain goals and objectives. In short, it’s the roadmap to get you where you …

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There’s been some interested stuff going on in the blogosphere this week: controversy, scandal and the usual mutterings. Here’s five posts I enjoyed.
1. Organ Grinder gives an overview of at the meltdown at TechCrunch UK. It’s pretty amusing stuff when you consider how much blogosphere attention has been spent on these events.
2. Tom Peters has a fascinating discussion about the practice of badmouthing your competition. After more than fifty comments, it seems consensus is that it’s good to love thine enemy. I tend to agree. I …

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I have to admit, this week has been manic and I’ve not been able to do as much reading as I’d like.  But still, I’ve found five great posts!  Here they are:  
1.  Josh Hallet warns of the danger of Snake Oil Salesmen in the social media realm with his Shaking out things post.
2.  Stephen Davies is throwing out his ideas on being a good PR consultant for blogosphere comment.  He says, be good with people, be on top of the what’s going on the in the media, don’t be afraid to make a mistake, promote yourself and be …

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1. Competence and reputation. How long have the consultants been in business? How big is the firm?  What are their annual billings? What type of accounts do they have? Do they have samples of their work?
2. Experience.  Who are their current clients? Past clients? How many clients do they have, and for how long have they served them? How many clients have they lost in the past year?
3. The team.  Who’s on staff? How are they qualified? Who will work on your account?  How long have they been with the firm? How …

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It’s probably obvious to anyone who reads Strive Notes regularly that posting has been irregular recently.  I’ve been on the road for the best part of 10 days and blogging only intermittantly.  Now I’m back at my desk, and things will return to normal.  I haven’t been reading my fave bloggers all that regularly while travelling, but I have managed to compile a top 5 for this week.  Here they are, in no particular order:
1. Leo Bottary caught my attention with two sequential posts.  The first entitled Indifference, was …

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Friday has come around quickly once again. So here’s this week’s round up of some of the blog posts I’ve enjoyed the most this week.   
1.  Todd Defren looks at the Paradox of Excellence: The better you perform, the more invisible you become.  How true that is. The client comes to expect to be on the front page of his main trade media every week.  And then is disappointed if he slips to page 2. But, as Todd says, “It’s rare, but, sometimes, sh!t happens.”
2. Pete Wilby asks, “Does PR need to work on its …

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A client is about to launch a new global service that, if successful, will transform the company’s business model.  They’ve made a significant financial investment and are taking a considerable risk with this new service.  However they plan to launch it under what I consider to be a very weak brand, and I’d like to hear some opinions on what to do about it.
The chosen brand name reflects the client’s internal processes instead of customer benefits. The chosen words actually have a very different and widely-accepted meaning to the outside world, and …

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Well the summer holidays are definitely over and  the pace at Strive has picked up! So much so, that I struggled to keep up with my reading this week. But I did manage to enjoy some pretty compelling posts I’d like to share.  Here they are in no particular order:  
1.  The debate about media studies qualifications continues with Richard Burton, former editor of The Telegraph Online. 
2. Trevor Cook raises some questions about the motives of media pundits who chose to use the untimely death of Steve Irwin this week to raise their own profiles. He …