- 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.
Public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.
Although this is a UK story, I wonder if HK suffers from the same infliction.
...The world of the news media is continually changing, and the sooner you get started with a smart, disciplined PR program, the sooner you can enjoy its benefits. It doesn't cost a lot of money and it need not cost a lot of time. All it takes is thoughtfulness and a commitment to respecting both journalists and the audiences they serve.
Read more here.
This could be the right time to speak to a PR agency and launch a PR campaign....
One of the best and most professional people I've worked was Gordon Ramsay. He was incredibly professional and enthusiastic about the job we hired him for. He used our key messages in the interviews we set up for him, he worked overtime to do an interview for Channel 4 news and he had everyone who worked with him eating out of his hand because of his graciousness. And he got us hundreds of positive articles in the media all over the UK. He was well worth the money that we invested in him to boost our brand and campaign.
But hiring celebrities does not always give you positive results. You have to be very careful when choosing the right one. Celebrities who are late, demanding, go off message and generally upset your company can cause incredible damage to your and your company's reputation. This damage can take a long time to resolve. So it's important to try and prevent a huge mistake before it happens.
Would I hire Gordon Ramsay today? Probably not. His brand is currently generating a lot of negative media. So he would not be the ideal person to front a campaign. He would become the story, rather than the product. (I strongly believe that Gordon Ramsay will be able to rebuild his reputation over time. This is because his brand does not involve him being a "good boy" so it will be much easier for him to make a comeback.)
So my top tips for using celebrities for campaigns include:
Remember you are hiring them to do a job so you need to ensure that they boost your company's reputation not hurt it.
This is a touchy subject. Some people think you’re dumbing down if you use simple language and short sentences. Not me. Think about it. Do you want your customers to completely understand your new service or products? Of course you do. So use simple language appropriate for your audience.
We’ve all read material then scratched our head because we don’t know what the author is trying to say. I tend to shut down when faced with gobbledygook! I turn off and I choose another supplier. I do the same when faced with too much information e.g. a 100 slide powerpoint presentation. But companies make this same mistake again and again. And in the process you could be turning thousands of customers away.
About five years ago, one of my ex-colleagues introduced me to the Plain English Campaign http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/. It changed my life, seriously. And I’m not the only one who thinks they’re great. Their members include Abbey National, Bupa, BT, British Heart Foundation, Co-op, Glasgow University, HBOS, the Home Office, JP Morgan, London Underground, NHS and O2 (UK) to name but a few. These great brands can’t be wrong.
Plain English tips include:
The Plain English Campaigners are based in the UK but their principles can be used all round the world. The site has some fantastic free downloads including an A to Z of alternative words which includes replacing “acquire” with “get” and “purchase” with “buy”. The site also has free guides on how to write in plain English, how to edit materials and how to make the most of your brochures and leaflets.