The online battle between Birmingham and Manchester. A no-score draw.

By Mik Barton on Sep 8, 08 09:47 AM in PR

Actually, the northern team might just scrape through on penalties - but you be the ref.

I started this little bit of research because Gordon has brought his Cabinet to Birmingham today.

It should be excellent news. But how well placed is the city's PR machine to reap the benefit?

Given that ninety percent or more of journalists will start their research on the internet, I thought I'd check out the critical websites...

If Birmingham City Council is busy briefing the media about our great city on the back of the Cabinet meeting, it doesn't show on the web site. That's a great pity.

There is a sort of silver lining - in that our great northern rival doesn't fare much better.

You can form your own opinion, but I think Manchester City Council's website looks a lot more professional. On a practical note, the latest news releases are easy to find even if they are a little thin on content. Manchester also boasts an RSS feed.

Birmingham, on the other hand, does a very good job of hiding any news releases. So even if there was something important to tell the media I doubt they'd find it - unless someone from the press office phones them first.

It is a great shame, because a little investment in web content can go a long way.

The two second cities could be in line for some direct comparison in the not too distant future when Manchester hosts the Labour Party Conference at the end of this month and Birmingham welcomes the Tory Party Conference the following week.

What will the media circus find on their laptops?

Let's try searching for a term like "party conference". Remember folks, this is just for fun.

Birmingham City Council

The search brings up a story about the Lib Dems' local government conference in 2007. (So that will at least keep part of the Progressive Partnership happy)

Manchester City Council

Right party. Wrong year. There's lots of information about the Labour Party Conference... in 2006.

Marketing Birmingham

Bingo. It is the fourth item, below something about corporate hospitality in Cheshire, but the city winning the Conservative Party Conference in 2008 and 2010 does make the news.

Marketing Manchester

I love this one. There is no search facility on the home page, so you have to find the "press centre" to be told: "no news available".

Advantage West Midlands

Oops. The top item returned is about the 2006 Labour Party Conference in Manchester.

North West Regional Development Agency

Server error!

Disclaimer: the above exercise was conducted this morning. If you've found content about the 2008 party conferences, perhaps they've read this blog and added it since?