Sadly iMovie 11 doesn't come with a spellchecker

Now that’s after you’ve sat through the video that’s been edited using iMovie 11‘s James Bond-esque ‘Spy’ theme. It’s plain ridiculous.

The course outline:

1. Basics of Online Comms
2. Developing a Communications Bible
3. Developing a Comms Philosophy
4. Working with: Blogs, Forums, Twitter etc.
5. Finding Tools – Who is talking about you online?
6. Crisis Communications

My background

As someone who makes websites for a living and spends quite a lot of her spare time online, I would consider myself fairly ‘online savvy’ already. PR, marketing and advertising are all subjects I have an interest in both from a creative and an online point of view but what knowledge or skill I think I have is purely based on readings picked up along the way. In other words, I have zero training and it has been up until recently a casual interest.

So why was I there?

Firstly, I wanted to learn. I’m becoming increasingly interested in the growth, power and influence of online PR and I wanted to see if what I have picked up along the way was right or wrong and (naturally) to learn new things. Even if I never apply such knowledge in a formal client situation through my work I think it’s knowledge you can apply to yourself as an individual with your own online presence.

Secondly (and quite bluntly), I wanted to see Damien at work so I know who I can recommend him to if and when the situation presents itself.

And last but not least, it was free. Let’s be honest, we all love a freebie especially when it’s a good one like this.

What did I think of the workshop?

As an outline online PR workshop I thought it was very good. If you have a client or if you yourself are not convinced that you need to worry about online PR then this will flip that opinion on its head and rightly so. A wide range of platforms and useful tools were covered in the presentation and some key points were communicated well through case studies. The unfortunate yet timely blip in Boards.ie last week made for a great example of crisis management, an area that online PR has huge importance whether the crisis itself is an online or an offline matter.

A lot of what was covered is up on the Mulley Comms blog and a post on building a Business Communications Bible worth casting your eye over is here.

Would I attend another Mulley Communications course/workshop?

Yes.

Would I be happy to pay for it?

Yes.

Would I hire Mulley Comms to take care of my online PR?

Yes.

Cheers Damien for an interesting day and props for getting us out of bed and somewhat alert on a Saturday morning.

Quite proud that this shot made Pix.ie’s longlist for 2009 Photo of the Year. I took it with my compact while cursing and dreaming of a Canon 450D. Hopefully that dream will become reality this year.

2FM has a new schedule and Rick is slotted in from 12 till 3. So far so good, velvety voice.

The first Irish Stew Championships hits Sligo this March as part of the ‘SÓ Sligo‘ festival.

Andy Clarke on why ignorance is bliss and continues to sing the praises of designing ‘in the browser’.

I want to learn to dance this year. Just no idea what type. Dance Ireland kick off all sorts of lessons this month.

Mr. Mulley is giving an workshop in Online PR on Jan 23.

Got a good business development and online head on you? Come work at X Communications.

X Comms logo gets Lego treatment

X Communications (the lovely place I work) is trying to get a nice snappy URL sorted for the company Facebook page. We’ve got 65 of the 100 fans needed to be eligible so if you think you might like to help us on our way click here, log in & become a fan.

If you’re choosey about who you fan or just wonder who X Communications/X Comms are, here’s a bit about what we do…

X Communications designs & builds websites, primarily on the Kentico content management system. They’ve been doing it for nearly 15 years from Dublin city centre and have picked up a few lovely awards along the way – check it out!

Some of our latest work can be seen on the funky McDonald’s Ireland homepage (featuring some cool parallax motion effects done with JavaScript and PNGs), the new EU Matters website, the 2009 Shoreditch Festival website and the new website for the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII).

If you want to find out a bit more about the projects, check out our blog. If you’re on Twitter, why not come say hi to us @xcommunications or drop us an email to info {at} xcomms.ie

My ideal iQ

On Monday, Toyota Ireland announced on Twitter that they were seeking “4 Irish bloggers wanted to give happy homes to 4 Toyota iQ’s for 2009“.

If you get selected you will have a lovely little Toyota iQ to drive for the next 6 months & you’ll be tweeting & blogging your experience as you go.

Last night @toyotaireland tweeted that in under 12 hours of launching the new iQ promotion, they had received in excess of 100 applications and the toyota.ie website experienced an increase of 13% in traffic. Not bad going considering @toyotaireland is still a fledgling Tweeter yet to really embrace the interaction rather than the broadcast side of Twitter.

Interested? Well you’ve got until this coming Friday to apply, which you can do here at www.toyota.ie/about/promotions/iQ-Twitter

Here’s some of the obligatory terms & conditions of the gig, the entire list can be found here:

• Each of the four participants will receive their Toyota iQ from week commencing July 20th until January 4th 2010. Usage of the iQ is non transferable and is limited to the island of Ireland.
• Provision of the iQ will require each participant to blog and tweet about their real life experiences with their iQ at least once a week. You must include a photo or short video of you and your iQ at least once a month.
• Tweets must include #toyotaiQ and the blog post must link to wwww.toyota.ie/promotions. Participants will be required to take part in some publicity which will also promote the participants blog.
• All maintenance and insurance costs for the vehicle will be covered by Toyota Ireland. To be covered on Toyota’s insurance policy you must be over 25 and have a full clean drivers licence. If you are over 21 and can insure the iQ on your policy then you can also apply.

It’s a really cool offer & I can’t wait to see how it works out for both Toyota and the participants. I’m not usually a fan of the ‘super-mini’ class of motor but this thing seems to pack a lot of punch. It scores 5 stars in the Euro NCAP safety test and Top Gear described it as “…boring Toyota’s iPod moment…” – praise indeed

If the iQ ain’t for you, earlier they put out a tweet about their plans to produce some self-help videos on general car maintenance and are looking for suggestions on what topics to cover. You can send them your ideas via Twitter to @toyotaireland.