PR Agencies in Belgium & their RSS feeds - edition 2009.

It is that time of the year again where I check about 29 Belgium based PR agencies - or rather their websites - on the use of RSS feeds.

Again, this is nothing scientific; I just go to the website in question, see if an RSS feed is clearly active, clearly visible and tick off a list.

(This is edition N°5 - I started keeping track in 2005.)

Why bother you might ask...

Well, I do think that if you're in the "content business", the "external communications business", the "conversation business" then you need to have an automated feed that syndicates your content - or the content of your clients - to the online world.

As Public Relations professional you need to understand the full potential of really simple syndication and apply it to your website.

This year I also listed if the agencies in question had a clearly linked blog of their own... In some cases I had to search a bit further than the home page but when this is the case it is also indicated in the list.

Now, here are the top level results:

• from the 29 Belgium based PR agencies listed only 8 had an active RSS feed on their website.
• from the same list, the same number of agencies - 8 - have a clearly linked blog.

Some remarkable agencies:

• Outsource, a former client, has completely switched from "classic website" to a full blogging platform.
• RCA Group has no RSS feed on their website but do have a blog with RSS.
• Porter Novelli, a former employer, has a new blog but it is not linked to their website.

Again this year, I am not impressed...

While some agencies really do their best to get with social media and apply it to their day to day work, most of them seem never to have heard of RSS or any other change in online communications recently.

Even when they use RSS, most agencies do not explain what it is or link their feed to an email newsletter.

In most cases you really have to look for a way to subscribe to their content... Which to me is a bit of a contradiction for a PR agency.

If you want to know how you could use RSS, feel free to search my blog for several articles or at least read this one.

You can download the full list here (opens a PDF) and if you're not on the list, or if I oversaw something, please let me know.

As I said, this is nothing scientific, not designed to be, but a simple check up once a year...

Belgian politics, Amazon Kindle & Product recalls

What do these have in common you might ask...

Nothing in fact. It is just that these 3 topics are pretty relevant to me for the moment.

Belgian politics:

I have been asked by Dominique Deckmyn, the editor in chief of the Standaard Online - the online edition of one of our national newspapers here in Belgium - to "cover" the elections from a social media point of view.

As from this week I am writing regular blog posts on the use or non use (or even misuse) of social media by our politicians in the context of the campaign. You can find the "Campaign blog" here but it is only available in Dutch (and the Typepad editing/formatting is not working very well...)

I must admit I am happy a real reporter is also on the job...  William Visterin, a seasoned journalist, brings the real insights to these stories and keeps me from stressing out.

So far I covered the Twitter use of several Flemish parties and discussed the social media power of Obama during his campaign.

De Standaard team has put together, with the help of a company called Nocus, a very nice overview dashboard of political social media activity in Flanders called the "Obarometer".

Would be great to have this at every election and for the whole country though...

Amazon Kindle

I just added this blog to the Amazon Kindle Publishing for Blogs service which was recently announced.

This simply means that anyone with a Kindle reader can now subscribe and read these blog posts as well.

But then I read this article on Techcrunch explaining how anyone can claim any feed or blog and publish it to the Amazon service and even earn money for it.

Incredible that they didn't include a verification process. In fact, I just claimed my blog feed but anyone out there could have done so...

Product Recall

The fire extinguishers from Pyromaster could explode...

Now I don't have any of these but imagine; you're trying to put out a fire and the thing explodes in your hand...

I received an email from one of their distributors, in this case Colruyt, alerting me of the danger and explaining me what to do in case I have one of those extinguishers.

In fact Colruyt is just relaying information from the Federal Ministry of Economy who issued the press release with all the info needed.

But if you check the Pyromaster official website you can't find any alert of information on the danger of their products.

Even when you click on the Belgian part of their website you're put through to a Dutch distributor which carries no information whatsoever about the product.

I can't understand that companies take crisis communications so lightly.

Pyromaster could make a difference here by informing their clients directly as well as via the government instances. At the minimum they should have an information page on their site.

Message to Silvia Dominguez, PR Manager of the group; update your website please and if you want to get a refresher on crisis communications and how social media can help - register here. ;-)

Blogger Rights - what is legal ?

Picture by Paul DowneyThe Electronic Frontier Foundation has just published an update of their Blogger's Legal Guide.

Now before you jump to legal conclusions a little disclaimer... These guidelines only apply to Bloggers who are based in the United States of America and are based on legal cases & precedents in that country.

However, I do think they are worth listing the main "rights" the EFF has supported here in order to see how these would apply (if at all) in Belgium:

• You Have the Right to Blog Anonymously.
• You Have the Right to Keep Sources Confidential.
• You Have the Right to Make Fair Use of Intellectual Property.
• You have the Right to Allow Readers' Comments Without Fear.
• You Have the Right to Protect Your Server from Government Seizure.
• You Have the Right to Freely Blog about Elections.
• You Have the Right to Blog about Your Workplace.
• You Have the Right to Access as Media.

Some Belgian reporters have already hinted that the new media decree here in Belgium will have an effect on podcasters and bloggers...

However, I haven't been able to find an (understandable) explanation on "how" this new decree would affect bloggers & podcasters.

Definitely a topic to watch.