Well the season has only just ended but before the final whistle had gone this Sunday there have already been a host of transfer rumours circulating the papers and the internet, not least about the current state of Arsenal who have been widely tipped to lose a host of their players this summer. Whilst Arsenal seem to be giving away some of their best talent some of the not so promising youngsters are being kept on to see if one more season will improve them into the players Arsene Wenger want them to be. The problem is that if they haven't been able to cut it this season then without some Arsenal's best players they are unlikely to improve.

 

Lets start with who is tipped to go or who actually left. Well the first big lose has been Mathieu Flamini to Milan. The central midfielder has had a marvellous season for Arsenal since being given his chance ahead of Gilberto. The Frenchman has been at the heart of some of Arsenal's best performances, doing a lot of the hard graft which has allowed the likes of Cesc Fabregas so much freedom. Whilst Fabregas has taken a lot of the plaudits, Flamini's hard work has gone relatively unnoticed among much of the footballing world apart from those who wear the red & white of The Arsenal. The move to AC Milan on a free transfer has angered many of the Gooners who felt that Flamini was a key element to the side Wenger was building. To lose Flamini to one of Arsenal's European rivals is a big blow, especially as he left for reportedly only an extra £5,000 per week. I admire Wenger for trying to keep a pay structure at the club but if Arsenal want to challenge domestically and in Europe keeping the likes of Flamini is vital. They may be other repercussions for the Gunners, if Arsenal want to be one of Europe's best clubs then they will have to compete with their wages. Its all very well bringing through youngsters at the club but if they do develop into superstars they are going to want wages to match, not be kept on the wages they received whilst still coming through the youth setup.

 

The lose of Flamini seems to have sent a shockwave through the side and if you believe everything you read in the newspapers there is a cue outside Wenger's door of players asking to leave. Now whilst this may be utter rubbish Alex Hleb has been strongly linked with a move away to join Flamini in Italy. Hleb, signed for £11.25m in 2005, hasn't been a massive success but there is no doubting the Belarusian players quality. When Arsenal have operated with Hleb playing just behind the main striker Hleb has looked good, stepping through defences like they weren't there at times. There is no doubting that his lose would be a huge blow to Arsenal, who are short on wingers as it is. Wenger has created a side that is capable of challenging for the title, as they proved this season and with a few additions Arsenal would have come back even stronger next season. If Hleb joins Flamini in leaving those few additions may stretch to five or six.

 

Even worse could follow if Fabregas were to leave, this seem like nothing more than newspaper propaganda but if Hleb and Flamini were to leave then what is to stop Fabregas or anyone thinking that Arsenal aren't going to be challenging for honours next season. Without key players Wenger is either going to have to buy, which he seems reluctant to do, or put his faith in his youngsters once again, which has proven to be hit and miss. Again Emmanuel Adebayor has been linked with a move away, although he has denied that rumour this week. If Arsenal were to lose these four key players they would be unlikely to replace them over the summer or challenge for honours next season.

Another problem that rises out of this major problem facing Arsenal is that if they are to lose key players they will have to really on those who have been ineffective this season, I don't like to use the word failures cause that is too harsh. But the likes of  Philippe Senderos, Gilberto, Emmanuel Eboue and Nicklas Bendtner have all had their moments but overall they have failed to impress and as such these are the kind of players Arsenal should be looking to off load and concentrate on keeping the players that helped them finish just five points behind Man Utd. Wenger is again going to have to pull another rabbit out of his hat if the Gunners are to at least challenge for any silverware next season.

Bet on who is going to win the title next season and who you think will leave in the summer at Betting.Betfair.com.

After having watched the drama of the last day of the Championship season unfold in front of me on Sunday I have come to the conclusion that whilst it will never boost the quality of the Premier League I did in fact find it more exciting to watch than any last day of the Premier League season.

 

Let me explain, firstly the game between Stoke and Leicester may not have been the greatest game on the field but the fans made it into a momentous occasions, momentous for Leicester for all the wrong reasons but still a remarkable day. Who would have predicted that Stoke would be gaining automatic promotion and relegating a side whom, until few years ago, were playing UEFA Cup football and punching above their weight in the Premier League. If anything I would have guessed at the beginning of the season that it would have been Leicester going to Stoke needing a point to gain promotion but that's why the Championship can be so interesting. You can never predict at the start of the season who will be going up or down, many will have picked West Brom to gain promotion but I doubt even the most optimistic Stoke fan would have had their side gaining automatic promotion with them. Along with Stoke who would have guessed that Hull and Bristol City would have been in the play-off places.

 

At the other end of the table who have believed that the likes of Coventry, Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday would have needed a win to avoid the drop into League 1. I know the likes of Nottingham Forest and Leeds have fallen through that trap door but still it is unusual for clubs who were once in the Premier League to fall further than the Championship (no offence Bradford or Swindon). There is just so much more to play for in the Championship and the league is so open that it makes for an exciting season. I think it's great that Stoke are going to be in the Premier League next season and I hope either Bristol City or Hull join them because it's a testament to the league that those teams can rise to the top and take their place in England's top flight. They may well go straight back down but who knows, they may well shock everyone and force one of the Premier League's more established sides out.

 

Reading an article by Phil McNulty on the BBC's sport website defending the Premier League after Kevin Keegan's 'boring, but great, leagues' comment yesterday has made me realise that while the Premier League title is going down to the wire, it's between two clubs who you would have guessed would have been up there at the start of the season. You can pretty much dictate how the league is going to go before they kick-off in August. The Premier League has become predictable with the same old sides rising to the top, not so in the Championship this season where it could have easily been Stoke or Hull who took the league winners crown.

 

That is what I love about football, the unpredictable side of things, something which is slipping away in the top flight of English football. It's why I have enjoyed the FA Cup more this year than any other, but that competition lost its shine as soon as Manchester United decided to play in some silly tournament in Brazil rather than in the oldest cup competition in the world. In Phil McNulty's article he makes a good point when he says that all European Leagues are predictable and on the whole you would agree with him where it is always Inter Milan or Lyon dominating their respective leagues. But Spain's La Liga does not fit into the mould. While Real Madrid or Barcelona do normally end up winning the league at least a different side comes up to challenge them most season's. This year it has been Villarreal and before that Sevilla, Valencia, Real Betis etc.

 

Perhaps the Championship's biggest plus point is also its downfall because, as the Derby proved last season, you don't have to be brilliant to get promoted. But teams must always have faith and I look forward to Stoke being in the Premier League next season and also look forward to the most nerve racking time of the year now, the Play-Offs.

Bet on the Play-Offs here at Betfair

I imagine that at this moment realistic Manchester City fans up and down the country are shaking their heads in disbelief at the notion that this summer one of their most successful managers in recent history is to be sacked. He may not have won anything but he has made City into a competitive team once again, and to beat their city rivals United home and away is not mean feat when you consider some of the teams that have tried and failed in that task this season. At the end of last season City were perhaps lucky that their early season form meant they weren't relegated because their home form was dreadful and goals were like goal dust for the Citizens. 

 

To steal a quote from a BBC news reports I saw earlier today, City change their managers more regularly than people change their tooth brush. Sven-Goran Eriksson may not be in the same league as Steve Coppell and his 32 day reign but what Manchester City need, if they seriously want to challenge for honours, is stability and plenty of it. Whilst the former England manager may have dropped a clanger this weekend, I mean who throws away a two goal lead against Fulham, a team single-handedly carried by Jimmy Bullard at times but that's for another blog. Sven may have dropped £46m last summer on a few players who have been less than successful, Bianchi for £8.8m springs to mind. But City were making progress this season, for the first part of the season they were even challenging for a Champions League pace, now I will be the first to admit they have been dismal in the second half of the season but they lack strength in depth in key positions. The lose of Micah Richards and, more recently Richard Dunne, has seem them leak goals like a sieve leaks water but I would have predicted that Eriksson would have added to his squad in that position in the summer. Now he won't get the chance.

 

Eriksson is a good club manager, winning Serie A with Lazio is no mean feat and while he may have failed to carry England past the quarter-finals at least we reached those major tournaments under the Swede. I think Thaksin Shinawatra is being extremely naïve to presume that success would just come to a club that hasn't won a major trophy since the 1976 League Cup, I don't include the First Division a major trophy for a team like City who have a European tournament. It seems that Mr Shinawatra presumed taking over a football club and success come hand in hand if your knowledge of football is based on how Chelsea have done under Roman Abramovich. Sven was building a squad that would have been challenging for major honours given enough time, the future looks bright for City whose youth side just won the FA Youth Cup. Perhaps like Chelsea it was another clash of personalities between the two or perhaps Now the future for City looks grey, who could they readily get to provide instant success whilst working under some extreme conditions where you are only given a season. Most managers like their own freedom and to have someone staring over your shoulder will only fail to fill your manager with confidence. Anyone with any knowledge of football knows that a manager needs time to build a successful team and it looks like if your thinking of applying to become City manager....don't

Place your bets on Sven being the next manager to get the sack here

I've been to pubcon ! hooray ! that to the layperson is a 3 day 'geekfest' search marketing conference held in Las Vegas between the 4th and 7th of December 2007.

The session most relevant you (Online PR person) was:

Reputation Monitoring and Management
If you are not talking with your customer base your customer base will be talking about you. This session will look at ways to monitor, manage, and influence your reputation within the blogosphere and press.

I won't go into all the specifics, but the must useful points were:

Use the right tools to monitor what is being said about you.

When something flares up (like a disgruntled customer ranting about you) get in there and do serious damage limitation.

When you want to spread a message, find the 'hub' sites and help them write about your product or service. Then if all goes well, these sites disseminate a story across the blogosphere and consequently your originating site will be ranked on the search engines.


The right tools:
(An extended list here: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/08/26-free-tools-for-buzz-monitoring.html)

Google blog search:
Does a great job indexing blogs and flagging up chatter about YOU

Google Alerts:
Same story, but to your inbox and it covers web, discussions, videos and of course blogs.

And then you have the more sophisticated tools like: this one from BlogPulse which tracks blog conversations between various blogs who link in between each other.

The pattern to look out for here is where you find one BIG blog talking about your story and then looking how other blogs respond to the story and link back.

It is in effect an 'eco system' similar to this kind of thing (left: a diagram of a social network with a famous (deceased) person at its hub.

As you see, there are core influencers who influence others to a greater or lesser extent. The big blob in the middle is our main man here.

 So to see this tool in action, you should have a look at these results:

Here is one for 'Pubcon'  and another for 'Paypal' (not much happening here!) and 'Facebook' - hmmmm....very busy!

and how about a normal 'corporate' like Dell - for me the intersting bit is this :

• 11/16/2007   Dell's XPS ONE now on sale (from: Engadget)
• 11/16/2007   Dell's XPS ONE now on sale (from: Toys & Gadgets)
• 11/16/2007   Dell's XPS ONE now on sale (from: Component Apple)
• 11/16/2007   Dell's XPS ONE now on sale (from: BlogJunkies)
• 11/16/2007   Dell's XPS ONE now on sale - Engadget (from: BWOne.com)
• 11/16/2007   XPS ONE from Dell now available for purchase (from: CrunchGear)
• 11/19/2007   XPS One: New Dell All-in-One PC (from: Direct2Dell)
• 11/20/2007   Todos aman a Mac (from: Reymond Blog)
• 11/22/2007   XPS One - Beauty! (from: Andrew Lark)

Engadget has blogged on the Dell XPS, and this has caught on with a number of other blogers.

How about this one for 'will it blend?' the you tube movies of a guy blending various things including an iphone.

• 11/25/2007   Guitar Hero: it shreds, and, yes, it blends (from: Engadget)
• 11/25/2007   Guitar Hero: it shreds, and, yes, it blends (from: Toys & Gadgets)
• 11/26/2007   Rock on, Ottawa-Gatineau! (from: Population of One)
• 11/27/2007   GNC-2007-11-27 #320 (from: Geek News Central Podcast)
• 12/03/2007   Blendtec (from: ANCPL's Blog)

(notice Engadget again ! )

 The Message here is clear: reach online influencers with a good 'viral' message and your message will travel.

There is whole lot more I can talk about in reference to Pubcon, but I'll save that for another post.

I've been working on some international search engine projects i.e. getting various sites across different languages and I found a very helpful set of guidelines from the Google's Matt Cutts.

The main point is that you can roll the duplicate content out across different countries (provided you jump through a few hoops) which obviously will save you on content provision costs.

Personally I'm not really into submitting content to PR websites because I don't really believe may people actually read them. I'm sure there are many arguments against this, but if I want the authority opinion on a given subject, I'll either go to google or some of my favorite blogs or forums.

Still, if you are really working hard to get the word out, then this list my interest you...

Coming from search engine optimisation, I am very used to working to clear goals, wether it's
- ranking for a particular keyword
- getting in web traffic focusing on a particular interest
- achieving conversions (i.e. selling things)

When I look around the online PR space, I see lots of talk about social networks, blogs, meme building - but not a whole lot on the combination of PR and deliverables.

Having spent some time crusing the blogosphere for other online PR sites, it's clear there is a disconnect between traditional PR people and online PR people.

The disconnect seems to be:
- No real understanding of the multiple routes to end users
- Failure to understand the utility of the internet i.e. users want immediacy
- No sense of 'internet is a conversation'
- Hanging on to the idea that broadcast messaging is somehow goingto work in the internet.
- And (for me) most importantly Online PR as a way to get ranked on search engines


 

"Will it blend?" : Online PR case Study

If you watch YouTube, you may have seen the video of a middle aged American promoting a blender from Blendtech. In case you hav'nt seen it...

This video has been seen 1.8 million times and was one the great 'memes' of the internet back in July 07. This Google trends graph shows how the phrase 'will it blend' has suddenly got popular.

Wikipedia does not actually have a page for 'online PR ' - which is interesting. It seems to lump it in with PR/Public relaitons, which I think is wrong.

Why? Because if the definition of PR is "a promotion intended to create goodwill for a person or institutions image.", then this wholly applies to search engine optimsation and promoting ideas and events to the myriad of internet properties out there. 

Read on for what you can do to be seen online...