Thoughts on public relations, social media, marketing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Business Link is offering two hour workshops across Yorkshire on the subject of Online Social Networks – Reaching out to New Customers.
The workshops are free to attend and equip delegates with the knowledge to begin attracting new customers through social networking.
Topics include:
For more information, visit Business Link and search for “Reaching out to new customers”.
Young Enterprise was founded in 1963 and runs a range of business and enterprise education programmes that are attended by over a quarter of a million people each year. The UK registered charity offers the programmes through the support of over 3,000 businesses and 11,500 volunteers, and is now looking for business to sponsor its Young Enterprise awards scheme at the Northampton and Daventry Area Final on the evening of 30th March 2010.
Awards will be presented to:
Sponsoring an award costs £250 or £500 for the top prize of Best Company.
Enquiries should be directed to Richard Osborne at Young Enterprise on 01604 490 313.
A campaign against the level of irrelevant material circulated by PRs has been launched under the heading ‘An Inconvenient PR Truth‘. And the associated findings do not make pretty reading for the industry.
Release distribution service RealWire (who are leading this latest campaign) launched a survey late last year to look at just how widespread the problem of press release spam really is.
Respondents were people who receive news releases on a daily basis, including journalists, editors, bloggers and publishers.
The report estimates that 1.7 billion irrelevant news release emails are received by UK and US journalists every year. The survey suggests that more than three quarters (78%) of news releases issued are not relevant to the recipient, and over half (55%) of respondents stated that they have blocked some distributors due to high levels of irrelevance.
The average number of news releases received per respondent per day was 54, but 18% of respondents receive over 100 releases a day. Most worryingly, 57% of respondents stated that 80% of the releases that they receive are irrelevant, whilst 23% said that a ludicrous 96% of releases received are irrelevant.
When it came to opinions on what constitutes acceptable levels of irrelevance, the results varied greatly. Whilst 37% stated that they would consider it acceptable if no more than half the releases they received were irrelevant, 27% considered it acceptable if less than 2 in 10 releases proved relevant.
The survey also asked about what kind of news releases are popular, and which are unpopular. Whilst the most popular subjects include product and market-related releases, the unpopular topics cited included office openings, job appointments, awards, financial results, and client and/or customer wins.
Respondents were asked about their feelings when it came to how news releases are addressed – do they mind receiving something that has clearly been mass-mailed provided that it is relevant, or do they prefer emails that are addressed to them?
The survey’s results show that 25% of respondents prefer releases to be addressed to them and furthermore, that 33% prefer emails that come from a named individual.
These findings won’t come as a surprise to many in the industry. Since the advent of technology that allows huge mailing lists to be created at the click of a button, online PR spam has been a serious issue.
Back in June, I blogged about a survey revealing the extent of PR spam:
Of course, it’s now relatively easy to set oneself up as a PR professional, buy access to a media database and start churning out releases in all directions. Spam exists in every industry – why should PR be any different? They say spam accounts for some 90-95% of all emails sent, so it’s not really surprising that journalists are being targeted.
There’s little doubt that spam is rife, and that it is eroding the PR industry’s ability to communicate effectively, so what does An Inconvenient PR Truth propose to do about it?
In a bid to improve PR practice with regards to relevance, An Inconvenient PR Truth has released a ‘Bill of Rights’, arguing that the industry should address the research findings by respecting the rights of recipients, which include:
The campaign calls on all those in the industry to sign up to the bill, in the hope of improving irrelevance levels and reducing ‘pollution’ in the PR industry.
After chatting with @AdamVincenzini, @AdParker and @KerryMG about this on Twitter this morning, my feeling is that many people know they spam and don’t care. For that group, I doubt they’ll be moved from their old ways.
But for the young and/or naive who don’t know any better, this could help change perception, and with the backing of some leaders in the PR world, could improve the industry as a whole. Let’s hope so anyway.
To find out more about the campaign, visit An Inconvenient PR Truth.
Addition: There is an interesting post on how journalists could tackle the issue of PR spam over on Max Tatton-Brown’s blog.
Throughout March, Business Link is offering masterclasses in Becoming a Better Leader to small and medium-sized businesses in the East Midlands.
The masterclasses cover how to improve your leadership skills, and the techniques that you can employ to motivate staff and retain a competitive edge.
To qualify for one of these free events, being staged in Derby, Kettering, Woodhall Spa, Nottingham and Leicester, you must have been operating for at least twelve months and employ at least five staff.
For more information, visit the Business Link website and search for “Becoming a Better Leader”.
New Start Scotland is a national business event targeted at start-ups and small businesses.
This year, its being held on 19th and 20th March at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.
The event’s seminars are being headlined by Shaf Rasul and Doug Richard – both of Dragon’s Den fame.
New Start Scotland will also feature of series of workshops, including help with increasing efficiency and managing staff. There will also be the opportunity for visitors to take part in The Bright Business Idea Competition, where entrepreneurs pitch to a panel of judges for the chance to win a £5,000 cash prize.
There will also be a Small Business Club clinic, a networking area, as well over 120 exhibitors.
The event is free to attend and runs from 10am until 5pm on the Friday, and 10am until 4pm on the Saturday.
For more information, visit New Start Scotland.
Fresh Business Thinking is holding a Hit Me! Social Media and Search event on 30th March 2010 at Microsoft’s London Office.
The event’s seminars will cover:
Guest speakers will include ‘Twitter expert’ Mark Shaw and Realwire CEO Adam Parker.
Tickets for the event start from £145 + VAT, and the event runs from 9.30am – 5.30pm.
For more information, visit the Hit Me! Social Media and Search booking page.
The Business Start Up Show is a national event geared towards fledgling businesses.
Held at the Excel Centre in London on the 20th – 21st May, the show will feature several special guest speakers including West Ham United co-owner David Gold, Apprentice winner Michelle Dewberry, and Richard Farleigh from Dragon’s Den.
The event will also feature exhibitors from a wide range of industries, as well as seminars covering subjects such as writing a business plan, managing your finances and cash flow, branding and advertising.
Attendees will have the opportunity to attend one-to-one business advice sessions with business experts, as well as taking part in speed networking – a great opportunity to widen your business network.
Businesses in need of funding will be queueing up for ‘The Midas Touch’, a Dragon’s Den style event where entrepreneurs pitch to a panel of potential financial backers in the hope of leaving with an investment.
The event runs from 10am – 5pm on both days, and is free to attend.
For more information, visit the Business Start Up Show.
The ‘big freeze’ that struck the UK earlier this month undoubtedly had a negative impact upon business. With people unable to get to work and vital deliveries delayed, the cumulative loss to UK enterprise is predicted to top £1 billion.
Nevertheless, some businesses ploughed on through the terrible conditions and got good PR out of the bad weather.
Here, in no particular order, is a selection of examples:
1. Positive Computing, based in Berkshire, were relatively unaffected by the bad weather, with managing director Julian Lewis able to run the business from home whilst keeping in touch with his home working staff. In fact, according to the resulting press report, the bad weather saw demand for the company’s expertise – setting up remote workers – soar.
2. Internet telephony service Skype made the press repeatedly, being cited as a vital tool for many business looking to avoid having to cancel meetings or lose contact with clients.
3. The workers at Cleveland Potash salt mine sacrificed large parts of their Christmas break to ensure that the incredible demand for salt was met. Indeed, some even worked on Christmas Day, winning some positive press.
4. Despite schools and nurseries being closed across the UK, some remained open. Indeed, Daisy Chains Day Nursery in Flint, Wales even went as far as to accommodate extra children from other nurseries that had been closed, winning favour with the media and, no doubt, parents.
5. Outsourcery, a communications and hosted IT company, garnered some positive publicity when they reported a 20% increase in enquiries over the cold snap as small and medium sized businesses looked to for communications solutions to the problems caused by the snow.
The lesson here: good PR practice isn’t just about making announcements when you have a new product or service, it’s about keeping an eagle eye on current events (local and national) and being ready to make a comment or provide additional information wherever relevant.
Did you manage to get positive press for yourself or a client during the freeze? Please add your stories in the comments section below.
(Hat tip to Marketing Donut for giving me the idea for this post)
The latest update of the Bellwether Report, published today, shows that whilst marketing spend declined for the ninth quarter running, PR budgets saw a slower rate of decline in the final quarter of 2009 compared to the previous quarter – from 24.4% down to just 4%. The report also shows that the rate of budget trimming in the industry is at its slowest since the first quarter of 2008.
Whilst times are undoubtedly still tough, these results suggest the industry can be optimistic about the year ahead, with marketing spend predicted to increase in 2010.
For those in the PR industry, the report underlines the importance of providing a service that delivers strong results and offers value for money. Whilst the green shoots of recovery are perhaps starting to surface, the recession continues to hit people and businesses hard and there is no guarantee that the renewed optimism within the PR industry will be replicated elsewhere.
Despite these positive findings, the purse strings of the average UK business are still a lot tighter than they used to be when it comes to budgeting for PR and marketing campaigns, and many might well still opt for the cheapest option rather than best option in this climate.
For businesses tempted to engage the services of a PR agency, finding the balance between value and price can be tough. Before you leap on the cheapest option on the table, here are some questions to help put ‘value’ in perspective:
Is saving money worth the risk?
If a painter does a bad job, you can always get someone better in to make it as good as new. The risk involved in opting for the cheapest provider is relatively low. Not so in marketing, where the risk of damage is much greater.
Any PR work undertaken will reflect on both your product and your company as a whole, helping to determine their success or failure potentially well beyond the duration of the campaign.
Is the pricing of the service blinding you to the true value?
Some agencies might seem expensive, while others might seem cheap, but neither is necessarily an indication of the quality of the service they offer.
Look at each option on the table and consider the agency’s track record and exactly what they are offering first. Once you have a sense of the hierarchy of quality, compare this against the prices. Is the cheapest agency offering the lowest value? You might be surprised, but equally you might simply find proof of the old adage, “you get what you pay for.”
Can the potential return on investment justify a higher spend?
While larger companies tend to have a tried and tested formula for setting the budget around a product or service launch, many smaller firms will simply set their budget based on a combination of what they feel they can afford at the time, balanced against the mean cost put forward by competing providers.
When you have all of your quotes in front of you, assess the potential return from each proposed campaign. In many cases, getting value for money may mean spending more, but you will get a better return in terms of campaign reach, support and quality. Pound for pound, the value could be higher.
Put simply, when setting your marketing/PR budget this year, remember: you’re not just paying for the hours worked, you’re also paying for the contacts, the support, the experts and, most importantly, the results.
If you’ve ever played with an online translator like Google Translate, you’ll know that while these tools are pretty good, they’re not perfect.
Before you entrust such a tool with your promotional copy, head over to the Lost in Translation Multibabel tool and enter it there. The tool will take it through up to ten languages and back to English.
Think the results will be intelllgible? Here’s the text for one of our service pages after the Multibabel treatment. Can you tell what it is yet?
To announce the project, invested in the words, the end to control if each part of the contact writes that you are in the way of persuation with its customers and pertinent has.
You’ The RH in the transaction, each part of the writing is important. Each signal if a customer of the pages of a pamphlet pressures, not simply does not adapt it to information, he is _activement that _activement convinced, or at least would have that to be.
A good part of the copy not only declares the circumstances the end equally to work but conceited the lecturer or a certain position of its opinion or ideas of the taken one by the transactions. One leaves memorable of the writing knows the reliability of its small flag, improved ingualmente the squeeze you outside of the amount and the conservation of the manufacture of the improvement.
Our project of the advertising seemed to White Books of direct mail whole, with the national visualizations of the variety of the newspaper behind pamphlets, as with the types of this sequence of the video of the training it catalogues and in the studies finished with bulletins. In all in case that we work with the customer, the end to produce adequadamente in way of convincing form and the writing, who was starting, for the aim.
Engaging stuff, eh?
Emily Leary is a comms consultant and blogger. With over a decade of experience in PR and digital marketing, … [Read More...]
