Apologies and new location

Hi there

I am so sorry for not updating this blog in such a long time. A complete cardinal sin. I have been busy setting up my own PR and marketing communications company in Hong Kong - CRED Communications. And then I completely forgot my log in details for this site! So as well as introducing you to my new blog, here's a practical tip for you - write down the password details for your old blogs, especially when blogger defaults to Chinese in Hong Kong! Thanks for visiting. And I look forward to seeing you over at my new blog, also called Practical PR Tips.

Mandy

Women are dominating social networking

According to data collected by Pingdom from Google's US Ad Planner, women (in the US) use social media web sites more than men. The data states that:

• 59% of Twitter; 
• 57% of Facebook; and,
• 52% of LinkedIn users are female.

Slashdot, Digg and Reddit are more popular with men. The full results are in the image below.

It's all about me! Actually no it's not.

Here is another great tip. This one comes from a company called Future Now. They have created a brilliant test, the we we calculator, which calculates the we's versus the you's in your copy to ensure that your text is customer-focused.  Your customers are the most important audience so it's vital to ensure that you talk less about how great you are in your copy and more about how you will meet your customers needs.

Try the calculator out for yourself. You will be surprised by the results! Here's the link.

Fight the bull

Here's a great website where you can download software that will test for "bull" or jargon in your copy. This great software supplements the tips I've given on using plain english and avoiding gobbligook.

Marketing art online and how it could help you

I've been taking some time out from work recently. I've returned to a great passion of mine, which is drawing. I was pretty good at art at school but never made anything of it because I didn't practice enough. I've dabbled back and forth over 20 years, doing night classes in Hong Kong and at Edinburgh Art College but didn't really put my heart and soul in to it or went to classes every week due to work commitments. So I eventually gave it up. But with time on my hands just now, I've started classes on Lamma Island where I live, and love it. So what has this got to do with this blog? Well, I've also recently learned a few practical PR tips from the art world in the past six weeks that I'd like to share with you

While researching advice on how to draw better, I came across thousands of artists who integrate blogs, websites, Facebook, trade magazines and Etsy (online craft mart similar to ebay) to market their art.  Press coverage on their work is featured on their blogs (and websites) together with exhibition details, videos of their work and tips/advice to other artists.  Visitors to their blogs can register for updates via email and RSS, so maintaining engagement with their audiences. Some artists have their own shops too. The artists integrate all these communications channels and methods to produce powerful, and reasonably priced, campaigns.

One such artist who has embraced new media and social marketing is ADEBANJI ALADE, from London, England. You can find his blog here. He has had the blog since 2006 and it includes video tips, links to his website, his drawings, magazines he likes, other artists he likes, exhibitions, his awards and links to work he has done with third parties. Alade''s biography is fascinating too.

One of Alade's sketches from his blog

Alade at work

The internet has given artists an amazing portal to reach their audiences, build their reputation and sell their work. Small businesses everywhere could learn a lot from them.

Nearly 5,000 articles on the net dedicated to David Letterman

Anyone who doubts whether what you do, what you say or what others say about you doesn't impact your reputation should key in "David Letterman" on google news. Married TV show host Letterman is the big news story of the weekend after confessing live on air that he had been blackmailed for US$2m for having affairs with women who work on his show.


Nearly 5,000 articles can be found on the net from various media outlets and blogs commenting on his live confession, which involved him saying he did "creepy things" with employees. Will it kill his multi-million career that spans 20 plus years? Will the man who routinely jokes about everyone else's private lives, especially politicians who have done similar things, lose his job, his career and his family? Is his credibility ruined? Has he become the joke? Is his reputation in shatters?


Unless more revelations come out about the said "creepy things" he did, and they are truly apalling, I think Letterman will be okay. Letterman is a comedic talk show host, not a politician. He interviews celebrities, sports heroes and even politicians about their lives. While at the same time keeping his life extremely private. And because he is not known as a fabulously squeaky clean family man he will largely avoid being pillorised for double standards. Yes. Many people will find him a turn-off now, especially women. But his ratings will probably soar in the coming weeks as people turn on to his show to find out what he will say/do next. Even in highly conservative America.

Great ad for EA produced by my friend Cat

Just a quick post to show you the brilliant EA ad produced by Cat Reynolds (my friend) for Dutch agency Wieden + Kennedy.