Thanks for the “best by far” review

Agree 100% with the air versus ground point. I think the comparison is also analogous to the analytics vendors’ approach. The mentions graphs etc are just snaphots from thousands of feet up. They give you a very simplistic viewpoint of what’s going on.

The only way to derive actual insight is to get on the ground and up close so you can get an understanding of the likely motivations of those who are involved.

If I get the chance I will try and take a look at what the “apparent affiliation” groups by party have been talking about more generally i.e. not specifically around any topic. This may shed some more light on your point.

Too much of the analysis is focused on the ‘air war’ that the parties are conducting nationally through their official Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, and those of their senior spokespeople. But actually some of the most interesting activity is the thousands of local accounts of candidates and activists. Many of these won’t mention the keywords that are being analysed as they’ll focus on local issues, which can have a big influence on undecided voters. Often they deliberately won’t mention too much politics or even the party name (certainly those I’ve trained won’t!) This social media ‘ground war’ is largely invisible in the analysis, much like the real ‘ground way’ of people knocking on doors and delivering leaflets as journalists are obsessed with the ‘air war’ because that’s all about the media and them.

I think part of the reason why the number of bloggers, in general, is down is because people have become a lot more calculating on which blogs (written by whom) they “share.” Part of it is (no) thanks to sites like Triberr that encourage a quid pro quo approach to only sharing posts of your “tribe.” But I also see a general tendency to only share posts where the person (or her/his blog gets a mention) OR it is written by a (social) “friend.”

I am the primary “curator” for the PR Conversations Twitter account, and I try to source posts/articles that I consider to be OF VALUE to our global audience from various communication disciplines as well as the boundary-spanning areas (like HR). What amazes me is how most people are very appreciative that something was shared and will follow the account…only to unfollow the account a few days later, because we haven’t automatically followed them back. Meanwhile, a PR Conversations post has gone online, and those same people haven’t thought to share it.

And, truth be told, that goes for a lot of the (higher) profile UK bloggers you have listed here. They love to have their posts shared via @PRConversations, but almost never (voluntarily) share our posts (or that of guest contributors).

It can’t always be get/take, get/take, get/take…bloggers have to be generous in giving back as well.

That is, when something of value is written. Not an automatic share.

There are some bloggers (including from the UK) who I think write some decent posts, but I feel less inclined to “share” their work (going forward), simply because they rarely (or never) share their appreciation in return.

I’d say it isn’t that PR blogging is dying out, but the venues are changing. LinkedIn has proved to be a very fruitful publishing platform in the last 12 months (for me at least). My Social Media Fakery post back in May for example has been viewed over 20K times with over 100 (real) comments to date – that’s more than my entire blogging output from my WordPress blog in the previous 4 years. My LinkedIn posts routinely get 000s of views rather than the low tens my own hosted blog posts often used to get.

Another reason to like LinkedIn as a blogging platform is that it has been the least prone so far to fake accounts (although I have noted a rise in bogus profiles in recent months). Thus views, likes and comments generally are from real people. The CIPR group on LinkedIn is another example of how a particular venue can provide the feedback and comments that you might have used a blog for in the past. Lisa Preston’s post on PR and SEO for example sparked 40 comments – some of them almost blog posts in their own right.

Certainly if you are attempting to reach a professional audience, then LinkedIn as a blogging platform has a lot going for it. IMHO.

I tend not to duplicate content across different platforms. Hence the paucity of blog posts at blog.escherman.com in the last year. Having said that, I’ve certainly no intention of shuttering my WordPress blog.

Finally, I have to say that much PR blogging often ends up repeating the same old themes. Reading some of my posts from 5 or 6 years ago, you often realise that actually little has changed in some respects. So rather than repeat the same old things, I’ve broadened my palette into other related areas such analytics, SEO, PPC and social media.

If nothing else, blogging (AKA writing) is a great way of checking whether you really do have a genuine grasp of an issue. Great writing is the result of great thinking. Anything that encourages the latter and facilitates the former should continue to hold some value. Irrespective of the venue that hosts the content.

Could I be cheeky and ask for a bit of background on the method/tools you used during your analysis to extract the tweets and links?

It seems to me that, with the failure to attract new perspectives and new voices, the UK PR blogger community risks losing interest – and relevance – to anyone who isn’t already a member of said community.

But maybe that’s ok. Maybe blogging (in this context) has had its day. As I said in a comment left on Facebook for Paul: “If I was in my early 20s, and trying to make a name for myself in PR and comms in 2015, I don’t think I’d blog. I think I’d probably consider blogging about comms was too self-referential, had been more than adequately covered already, and was likely to lead me into situations where the triumph of enthusiasm over experience could all too easily attract criticism.”

If there are just 20-odd people in the UK PR blogger community that could look like a de facto closed group to anyone on the outside looking in.

I don’t have any answers, by the way. In fact, I’m not even sure what the question is. I just thought I’d share my perspective as someone who once blogged ferociously about comms but who hasn’t felt the calling for quite some time.