I've produced a list of the world's top PR blogs according to the AdAge Power 150. It's by no means perfect since it only features blogs on AdAge with PR, Public Relations or Publicity in the title, and a few that were suggested to me last month. It's just a bit of fun but I think it's a decent indicator of the top PR blogs nonetheless.

If your PR blog is missing please comment and let me know. If you haven't added your blog to the AdAge Power 150 yet you can do so by clicking here.

PR Rank....AA Rank............ Blog Name........................Country ............AA Score

1. .............26.....................PR 2.0...................................US.........................95
2. .............38.....................PR Squared..........................US.........................89
3. .............54.....................A shel of my former self........US..........................83
4. .............85.....................POP! PR Jots.........................US.........................72
5. ............118...................Pro PR...................................CANADA................67
6. ............121...................PR Blogger.............................UK.........................67
7. ............150....................Strategic PR..........................US.........................63
8. ............151...................Young PR..............................AUSTRALIA................63
9. ...........181....................PRNewser..............................US..........................59
10. ...........193....................A PR Guy's Musings................UK.........................57
11. ...........199....................KDPaine's PR..........................US..........................57
12. ...........205.....................PR Communications............US..........................57
13. ...........228....................Corporate PR........................US.........................54
14. ...........244....................PR Works................................CANADA..............53
15. ...........259....................PR meets the WWW..............US.........................52
16. ...........287...................Drew B's take on tech PR........UK.......................50
17. ...........299....................Common Sense PR................CANADA.............49
18. ...........306....................Hispanic Marketing & PR........US.........................49
19. ...........320..................Simonsays................................UK......................48
20. ...........353...................Brendan Cooper.....................UK.......................46
21. ...........356...................Online PR Thoughts.....................US...................46
22. ...........363...................Observations of PR................US........................45
23. ...........367...................Beyond PR...............................UK......................54
24. ...........383...................Corporate Engagement.........AUSTRALIA..........44
25. ...........385...................PRoactive...............................US......................44
26. ...........396...................PR Disasters...............................AUSTRALIA.........43
27. ...........392...................Wadds' tech pr blog...............UK........................49
28. ...........397...................Wired PR Works.......................US........................43
29. ...........421...................Valley PR Blog..........................US......................41
30. ...........423...................Publicity Hound's.........................US....................41
31. ...........448...................Media Relations Blog................US......................40
32. ...........451...................A view on PR..............................US......................40
33. ...........460...................The New PR.................................CANADA............39
34. ...........489...................Client Service Insights................US....................37
35. ...........492...................This is herd.......................................UK....................37
36. ...........504...................Profitable Business Edge 2........US........................37
37. ...........512...................Alan Weinkrantz PR....................US......................36
38. ...........521...................Pierce Mattie PR.........................US.....................36
39. ...........522...................Pudding Relations......................UK......................36
40. ...........525...................Engage in PR............................US........................36
41. ...........534...................Into PR.....................................US.........................35
42. ...........545...................PR Meets Marketing..................US.......................35
43. ...........554...................PRos in Training............................US......................34
44. ...........567...................Shiny Red.......................................UK......................33
45. ...........568...................Student PR Blog........................CANADA..............33
46. ...........572...................Eyecube........................................US....................33
47. ...........576...................PR Talk........................................US......................33
48. ...........577...................IndiaPRBlog!..............................INDIA..................33
49. ...........598...................Tech PR Gems..........................US......................32
50. ...........603...................All Things PR...............................UK.......................32
51. ...........607...................Denver PR Blog...........................US.....................32
52. ...........617...................Strive Notes...................................US....................31
53. ...........618...................PR Voice......................................UK......................31
54. ...........621...................New Millennium PR......................US....................31
55. ...........637...................Norton's Notes.............................UK.......................30
56. ...........647...................Morgan McLintic on PR...............US......................30
57. ...........654...................Mutually Inclusive PR..................CANADA.............29
58. ...........664...................From PR to Eternity......................UK......................29
59. ...........666...................PR Thoughts From Ronn Torrossian.....US..................29
60. ...........674...................Youngblood PR & Marketing.........CANADA...........29
61. ...........677...................10 Yetis PR Blog..........................UK.......................28
62. ...........686...................PR. Differently..............................US......................28
63. ...........696...................Mosnar Communications................US......................28
64. ...........724....................Tech for PR.................................US.....................26
65. ...........739....................Social Media for PR Class............US..................26
66. ...........757....................My PR Palette..............................Canada..............25
67. ...........769...................EducationPR.................................US......................25
68. ...........777...................Launch PR.....................................US....................24
69. ...........785...................Blinn PR Report...........................US.......................24
70. ...........788...................Public Relations Matters...............US....................24
71. ...........789...................Online Publicity Journal..................US....................24
72. ...........796...................Minnesota PR blog.........................US....................24
73. ...........834...................First Person PR............................US........................21
74. ...........859...................HighVizPR....................................US.....................19
75. ...........877...................PowerUp......................................US....................17

The top blogs by country:
Australia: Young PR
Canada: Pro PR
India: IndiaPRBlog!
UK: PR Blogger
US: PR 2.0

The top UK blogs:
1. PR Blogger
2. A PR Guy's Musings
3. Drew B's take on tech PR
4.Simonsays
5. Brendan Cooper, Your friendly PR Social Media Planner
6. Beyond PR
7. Wadds' tech pr blog
8. This is herd
9. Pudding Relations
10. Shiny Red
11. All Things PR
12. PR Voice
13. Norton's Notes
14. From PR to Eternity
15. 10 Yetis PR Blog

This weekend I attended the closing down party at the Underground night club in Southport, which is one of my all-time favourite haunts. Like many closing down sales and farewell tours it was very busy. It showed what potential the club had, and how popular the place is with its customers.

If every night was like Saturday night I very much doubt the club would be shutting down. So why is it shutting down? I put that down to mediocre marketing. Although the club has built up an impressive level of brand loyalty with its customers, by providing a good quality service, it hasn’t taken advantage of this. The club could have easily and cheaply used social media to interact with its customer base.

Here are a few ways that the club owners could have engaged more with their customers.

• Invite clubbers to get involved by voting for what music should be played or what drinks should be sold
• Provide an online space for customers to share their photographs and videos
• Issue a regular newsletter informing customers about changes to the night club
• Write a blog to provide information about bands that will soon be performing, recommend new artists to listen to and songs to download, and talk about changes being made to the club
• Invite the public to review music

The Underground did run a Facebook group that regularly issued messages about what bands were playing each week. But this can quickly be seen as spam and the message is lost. Nobody wants to be told the same thing each week. It’s boring and it could actually harm your brand.

During a recent trip to Berlin, my friends and I came across moving advertisements in Alexanderplatz. The adverts, which I assume were either robotic or remote controlled, really grabbed my attention as they whizzed around the town centre. At which point my friend said: "I bet Matt blogs about that!" She was right.

Being quirky is a great way to stand out, but it's not sustainable. TV commercials and moving billboards were once new, exciting and different ways to advertise, and so captured the public's imagination. But now they're just background noise, unless the actual advert is interesting.

The same is true in PR. There are plenty of ways to spice up press releases, but if the content is as dull as dishwater than there's no point. Rather than focus all our attention on jazzing up the delivery with pretty designs and social media add-ons, we should ensure the we give the actual press release the same amount of attention. After all it's the really creative adverts that we remember.

Check out this video of mobile adverts in Berlin by Mrneglect:

I've produced a list of the world's top PR blogs according to the AdAge Power 150. It's by no means perfect since it only features blogs on AdAge with PR, Public Relations or Publicity in the title, and a few that were suggested to me last month. It's just a bit of fun but I think it's a decent indicator of the top PR blogs nonetheless.

If your PR blog is missing please comment and let me know. If you haven't added your blog to the AdAge Power 150 yet you can do so by clicking here.

PR Rank....AA Rank............ Blog Name........................Country ............AA Score

1. .............29.....................PR 2.0...................................US.........................93
2. .............36.....................PR Squared..........................US.........................89
3. .............54.....................A shel of my former self........US..........................84
4. .............83.....................POP! PR Jots.........................US.........................73
5. ............122....................Strategic PR..........................US.........................66
6. ............124...................PR Blogger.............................UK.........................66
7. ............126...................Young PR..............................AUSTRALIA................66
8. ............130...................Pro PR...................................CANADA................65
9. ...........193.....................PR Communications............US..........................58
10. ...........202....................PRNewser..............................US..........................57
11. ...........206....................A PR Guy's Musings................UK.........................56
12. ...........255....................PR meets the WWW..............US.........................53
13. ...........260....................Corporate PR........................US.........................52
14. ...........274....................PR Works................................CANADA..............51
15. ...........276....................Common Sense PR................CANADA.............51
16. ...........277...................Drew B's take on tech PR........UK.......................51
17. ...........290....................KDPaine's PR..........................US..........................50
18. ...........293...................Wadds' tech pr blog...............UK........................50
19. ...........308....................Hispanic Marketing & PR........US.........................49
20. ...........338...................Brendan Cooper.....................UK.......................46
21. ...........343...................Corporate Engagement.........AUSTRALIA..........46
22. ...........354...................Beyond PR...............................UK......................45
23. ...........357..................Simonsays................................UK......................45
24. ...........362...................Online PR Thoughts.....................US...................45
25. ...........374...................Into PR.....................................US.........................44
26. ...........380...................PRoactive...............................US......................44
27. ...........385...................Observations of PR................US........................43
28. ...........395...................Wired PR Works.......................US........................43
29. ...........407...................PR Disasters...............................AUSTRALIA.........42
30. ...........417...................This is herd.......................................UK....................41
31. ...........438...................Valley PR Blog..........................US......................40
32. ...........443...................Publicity Hound's.........................US....................40
33. ...........456...................The New PR.................................CANADA............39
34. ...........460...................Media Relations Blog................US......................39
35. ...........464...................Client Service Insights................US....................38
36. ...........475...................PR Meets Marketing..................US.......................38
37. ...........476...................Pudding Relations......................UK......................38
38. ...........501...................Student PR Blog........................CANADA..............36
39. ...........511...................Profitable Business Edge 2........US........................36
40. ...........513...................A view on PR..............................US......................36
41. ...........519...................PRos in Training............................US......................35
42. ...........537...................Tech PR Gems..........................US......................34
43. ...........542...................PR Talk........................................US......................34
44. ...........551...................Shiny Red.......................................UK......................33
45. ...........561...................Eyecube........................................US....................33
46. ...........567...................IndiaPRBlog!..............................INDIA..................33
47. ...........585...................All Things PR...............................UK.......................32
48. ...........588...................Engage in PR............................US........................32
49. ...........597...................Mutually Inclusive PR..................CANADA.............31
50. ...........609...................Morgan McLintic on PR...............US......................31
51. ...........620...................Alan Weinkrantz PR....................US......................30
52. ...........626...................Strive Notes...................................US....................30
53. ...........627...................PR Voice......................................UK......................30
54. ...........632...................New Millennium PR......................US....................30
55. ...........647...................Norton's Notes.............................UK.......................29
56. ...........661...................From PR to Eternity......................UK......................29
57. ...........679...................PR. Differently..............................US......................28
58. ...........686...................Mosnar Communications................US......................28
59. ...........688...................Youngblood PR & Marketing.........CANADA...........28
60. ...........691...................Launch PR.....................................US....................27
61. ...........716...................Online Publicity Journal..................US....................26
62. ...........739...................10 Yetis PR Blog..........................UK.......................24
63. ...........745...................Blinn PR Report...........................US.......................24
64. ...........752...................Minnesota PR blog.........................US....................24
65. ...........787...................First Person PR............................US........................21
66. ...........788...................Public Relations Matters...............US....................21
67. ...........802...................EducationPR.................................US......................20
68. ...........809...................HighVizPR....................................US.....................19
69. ...........816...................PowerUp......................................US....................18

The top blogs by country:

Australia: Young PR
Canada: Pro PR
India: IndiaPRBlog!
UK: PR Blogger
US: PR 2.0

The top UK blogs:
1. PR Blogger
2. A PR Guy's Musings
3. Drew B's take on tech PR
4. Wadds' tech pr blog
5. Brendan Cooper, Your friendly PR Social Media Planner
6. Beyond PR
7. Simonsays.
8. This is herd
9. Pudding Relations
10. Shiny Red
11. All Things PR
12. PR Voice
13. Norton's Notes
14. From PR to Eternity
15. 10 Yetis PR Blog

I was tagged by Ben Matthews, in an Internet MeMe, that involves picking three innovative communicators, that have influenced me. This is the blurb:

"The idea’s simple. We’re asking you to list the three communicators living or dead who have most influenced your way of thinking professionally and perhaps personally too. Who do you think the real innovators are? Who’s been most responsible for kicking the industry forward? And just who are the communication PRunks?"

Rather than pick three innovative communicators that have influenced me, I've chosen to pick three innovative inventors that have truly transformed the way people communicate, and thereby influenced every person working in the public relations industry.

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.
Bell invented the telephone in the late 19th century and changed the way we all communicate . The first successful phone call in 1876 started with this: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” I like that fact. I cannot imagine the PR industry without the telephone. Having to send press releases by post or telegram is unthinkable now in a world of 24/7 news. Without the telephone we'd have no fax machines, internet connections or e-mails either.

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web.
Berner-Lee invented the web just seventeen years ago in 1991 and in that short time has changed the PR industry in ways that we still don't fully understand. Nowadays every business worth its salt has a company website and online coverage is often seen as more important than news in that very last century medium that is the printed press. Everyday PR's across the world do research online, read the news, make press lists, engage in Blogger outreach campaigns, network with others in the industry, and many other things thanks to the web.

Ray Tomlinson, the inventor of e-mail.
Tomlinson wasn't the first person to send an e-mail in 1971, but he was the first person to invent an e-mail system that let users send a message from one computer to another. Previously users could only send messages to other users who used the same computer. E-mail has thoroughly transformed the PR industry too. We use e-mail for everything from sending press releases to receiving information requests from journalists, and even brainstorming ideas with colleagues sat next to us. If only we didn't have to put up with all that pesky spam...

Now it's my turn to get tagging. I tag Richard Millington, Chris Norton, and Tom Harle.

Update: Freakily I've managed to pick the exact same three as Giles Shorthouse. I promise I didn't copy! Ugh, this blogging is more stress than it's worth.

According to the New York Times bloggers are living in a world of 24/7 stress. Berocca news jacked this by setting up a website offering a free blogger relief pack to rejuvenate stressed bloggers with much needed vitamins and free goodies. That's a great strategy to create some online buzz about your product, it which is why worked well with many bloggers picking up on the story and blogging about it.

That was in June. Two months passed and for many of us there was no sign of the relief pack. Not good news for blogger's stress levels, or the nice people at Berocca who must have been quite concerned by posts like this declaring the exercise a PR fail. Since commenting on that post, I received a relief pack in just a matter of days. Coincidence?

To avoid this Berocca should have carried out a weekly send out of relief packs so that bloggers weren't waiting too long to receive their goody bag. And, when they did send out the relief packs they should have taken a little time to address the nice letter inside with my name. Dear blogger doesn't exactly build up a personal relationship with the brand. That said I'm very impressed by the campaign. It's very brave for a non-techy brand to experiment with blogger outreach and I commend that. Also, it's especially important to try relationship building exercises like this during a recession when premium brands like Berocca are in danger of being abandoned by consumers in favour of cheaper supermarket versions.

Well done Berocca, this blogger is now full of vitamin goodness and will stay that way.

It occurred to me today that just one of the many blogs I subscribe to is written by a woman; the lovely Susannah Wyeth. In an industry were 62 per cent of people are female, it would appear that women are highly unrepresented in the PR blogosphere.

Now, I know that there are female bloggers, very good ones at that such as Katya Trubilova and Eleanor Lovell, but what I'm saying is that there don't seem to be that many. I'm not really sure why this is, but I don't seem to be the only one that thinks it. Alena blogged about it last year in her excellent blog about PR women. But, unfortunately it would appear she stopped blogging after just three months.

Perhaps there aren't many female bloggers because there are fewer women in senior roles in PR agencies, and I find many PR blogs are written by senior staff. Or to be a bit stereotypical, are there fewer female bloggers because women are less geeky than us menfolk. Or perhaps I'm just completely wrong and there are a lot of ladies blogging about PR. But in my recent post, I found there wan't one female blogger in my list of the UK's top ten PR blogs.

Earlier this year, Stephen Davies did a great post looking for student PR bloggers. This is my version:

Where are all the female PR bloggers?

Please recommend some fantastic female bloggers for me to follow or identify your own blog so I can balance out my blog intake a little. Thanks.

Female bloggers you've recommended:
Balancing Act
Strive Notes
Casey Leaver
Tracy Playle
Heather Yaxley
Elle
Emily Wearmouth
Emma

Please note: In the spirit of true transparency, Susannah Wyeth, works at Lighthouse PR, which is one of Rainier PR's sister companies. I helped develop her blog and wrote about it here.

Cow revealed some great research in PR Week recently about how 7 out of 10 of the FTSE 100 companies have not registered their company name on Twitter and therefore risk imposters damaging their reputations by brand jacking their name.

There's been a bit of a stir in the PR blogosphere since then, as Wadds registered @CowPR on Twitter. Since then things have escalated with a blog post here, and a blog post there, here a post, there a post, everywhere a blog post. Old MacDonald had a farm ee i ee i o...

Cow PR have however registered @Dirkthecow but not @CowPR. They apparently dropped the PR part of their name a while ago, but it still lives on and even PR Week referenced them as Cow PR.

Last Summer I worked at Concept Communications, but it was known as Concept PR by clients. The reason being as you build up a good relationship with your publics it's only natural that they will rename you with a sort of corporate nickname. For example Marks and Spencer became M&S, Apple Computer became Apple, Woolworths became Woolies, and McDonalds became Maccies. The list goes on.

So registering your brand name online can become a bit of a hassle as there's so many variations of your name in use. Nelson Mandela aka Richard Millington rightly points out it is impossible to register every conceivable variation of your brand name online. Registering a few is always a good idea though. If Cow had registered Cow, Cow PR, and Cow Communications they could have avoided being brand jacked. It's fortunate for them that Wadds didn't try to damage or imitate their brand - instead he did some PR for cows before deleting the account.

Cow aren't the only ones that haven't registered a few possible variations though, despite reporting the story, I noticed that @PRWeek hadn't registered their own name on Twitter. So obviously I nabbed it. If I was a little more mischievous I could wreak havoc and damage the PR Week brand, but fortunately I'm quite nice and will probably delete the account next week as I don't really want it. If PR Week do though, please feel free to ping me an e-mail and I'll send you the details.

UPDATE: I have now deleted my @PRWeek account. I've also noticed that I've been brand jacked too. @Mattwatson and @Matthewwatson have both been registered! Name jacking? And, hats off to Dirk at Cow PR who fessed up here.