About

December 29, 2006 — Brendan

Who is Brendan?

Brendan Cooper has spent the past twenty years working at various tech comms coalfaces. In his current role as senior account manager in Fleishman Hillard UK’s digital team he quite simply helps people communicate better using digital channels.

A graduate of the Information Systems Institute at Salford University, Brendan has worked in publications and communications for world-leading brands such as Barclays Bank, ADP and Pure Digital. He was a founder member of sharepages.com and, from that, Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC.

He keeps one eye on the present with the other, chameleon-like, on the future of technology and communications. He also changes colour and occasionally lashes out his long prehensile tongue to catch flies.

You can find out all about his professional background at LinkedIn and follow his daily trials and tribulations via Twitter.

If you’re feeling fruity and fancy-free, why not email him or throw caution to the wind and subscribe?

What is this blog about?

This blog is about how social media can help brands talk to their consumers, with a strong PR bias (not least because I work for a PR agency).

Social media has many definitions. For me, the simplest is that it’s about building relationships, often through recommendation, which brings us to…

PR. This is about building relationships too. It’s also about influencing what people say about your company, service or product. If you think that sounds sinister, well it’s been going around for a very long time, and everywhere. You do it, in fact. What do you think people say about you when you’re not in the room? If they say good things, you have good PR.

So there’s a nice fit between social media and PR, but the trick is how to achieve influence in a community that you’ve necessarily had to build up relationships with to be given credence.

Perhaps the idea of ‘influence’ has had its day, and maybe we’re looking at a new way of working that encourages more interaction and engagement with people. It’s very early to tell - I mean, when did you first hear about Twitter? Facebook? Last year? A couple of years ago? - but that’s what makes it all so interesting.

So that’s what this blog is about. Having worked in many related disciplines over the years - online (I was one of the five people who originally set up sharepages.com and, from that, KTS PLC), publications, copywriting, marketing, PR and technology - social media kind of brings this all together.

Who is it for?

If you’re a PR professional trying to understand social media and how it might work for you, you’ll (hopefully) find something of interest here. My impartial advice is to subscribe immediately.

However, the boundaries between PR and other communications disciplines are becoming increasingly blurred. For example, the Sony Bravia adverts were filmed publicly so that people could see them in production and talk about them. Then they were broadcast. Does that make them adverts, or PR? And would this possibly have happened if it weren’t for social media’s intervention?

So you might like this blog if you’re in advertising or marketing. Or if you’re a fellow social media enthusiast, then my impartial advice, once more, is to subscribe immediately.

What is it like?

It’s like a tiny fluffy white rabbit. I’m going to try not to inject compulsive humour into it, but compulsive is as compulsive does. I will always try to be accurate, approachable and engaging. I will try to respond to comments and interact with other bloggers by posting on their sites. If I make a boo-boo, I will own up to it. And I’ll try to be friendly because that’s how you create your own good PR!