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.

Gobbledygook manifesto

I have been wanting to share this ppt with you for ages. But I've been in internet hell for a month i.e. no broadband since August 14. Anyway, all sorted now. And now I can share this great "manifesto" by David Meerman Scott. It's a must-read for anyone responsible for writing copy for marketing materials or PR. And a great addition to the plain English campaign.

David aims to ban words such as "best-of-breed", "solution driven" and "world-class" from our writing as they are absolute drivel and mean nothing. His advice is similar to the plain English campaigners in that he recommends that we use simple language to describe our products and services. Language that everyone understands. He also highly recommends that we start with our buyers, not our products, when writing copy to show that we understand what our customers need. Complete common sense.

David's recommendations are, as you would expect, short and compelling. Click here to read his manifesto.

Lost in relocation

Apologies for not writing any posts for a few weeks. We've moved house and we're having difficulties with the internet providers. Their customer service and technical assistance has been ridiculously poor. We are currently questioning whether we should continue to use them. And have been lambasting them through WOM (word of mouth).

It's a reminder that while WOM can be great for spreading the word and promoting your products and services, it can also cause lots of damage to your brand. It's incredibly important to protect your brand every step of the way through excellent customer service and quality communications.

p.s. thanks to all the followers on Facebook. There is an extremely great new application called Network Blogs, which allows you to link your blog to your Facebook page. You can find more info at www.networkedblogs.com.

What form of media/advertising do consumers trust the most?

Sixty-nine percent of consumers still trust editorial content in newspapers more than most advertising including mobile ads, tv and radio ads, billboards, ads in search engines etc. Editorial content was fourth in the trust table behind recommendations from people I know (90%), brand websites (70%) and consumer opinons posted online (70%). The least trusted form of media/advertising was mobile ads at 24%.

The study was carried out by Neilson Online during their 2009 Global Online Consumer Survey.

Companies looking to build their reputation among their publics should aim to focus on the most trusted forms of media/advertising.

A good local example of PR

My favourite restaurant on Lamma Island, The Waterfront, had a kitchen fire a couple of months ago. Thankfully, no one was hurt but they had to close down the kitchen for a while. Meantime, they tried to keep business going by grilling steaks and salmon using an outdoor barbecue unit. This helped keep the interest of some of their loyal customers but about 75% of their diners disappeared.

They recently installed a new kitchen but diners did not return.

So last wednesday they decided to do something different to entice diners back. They had a curry night.They promoted the event on the island community blog http://www.lamma.com.hk/ and through word of mouth. Subsequently the restaurant was jam-packed on Wednesday. On the night, the owners also revealed that they were revamping their menu including introducing a regular bbq night on Monday's. And the owner, who we rarely saw before, came to each table and personally thanked everyone for coming back to the restaurant.

The Waterfront Restaurant through PR got their customers back. In simple terms, they had a crisis. They averted this crisis by making changes, they researched what customers wanted and delivered it. They then used the local online media tool read by their target audience to promote their new offering and thank their loyal customers. And then the owner engaged positively face-to-face with his audience on the night.

The food was delicious too.

WTF is Twitter and why should I care?

A really good presentation on Twitter for those who want to know more. That said, use Twitter carefully as a social marketing tool and make sure your target audience use it too before you embark on a campaign. Manage your reputation by keeping an eye on what is being said about your company on Twitter too..

WTF is Twitter and why should I care?

View more presentations from 3w pr .

Twitter is not for teens, Morgan Stanley told by 15-year-old expert

I love this story http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/13/twitter-teenage-media-habits. It's about Matthew Robson, a 15 year old boy, who while working for Morgan Stanley as a summer intern did a report on how teens use media.

Many people have questioned whether we should be listening to what a 15 year old says. But I actually think we should be listening to what 15 year olds are saying - they are after all a key audience for many marketeers and the drivers of future trends. (However, I do question the methodology used i.e. how many of his "friends" did he interview in order to make his research scientific)

The most controversial part of his research, which has got so many social media gurus knickers in a twist, is that he said that teenagers don't like, or use, twitter. Matthew says that most teenagers have signed up for the service but stopped using it when they realised no one really cared what they were tweeting! However, teenagers love facebook, and use it over four times per week, because it is highly engaging. Exactly how communications should be.

Read the actual report here http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2009/07/TEENAGERS1.pdf .

PR agencies in UK failing in online media

Great at doing PR. Just not very good at PRing themselves!

Bigmouthmedia’s 2009 online PR survey recently revealed that most of the UK’s leading PR firms have failed to get fully involved in online media.

According to Bigmouthmedia's latest survey of Britain’s 100 leading press and public relations agencies, the number of PR firms offering online PR and social media services has undergone a sharp rise over the last year, with 40% now providing a range of internet services. A 90% year-on-year increase.

However, 60% of agencies said they had yet to include online PR as part of their offerings. And only 45% of the group who claim to offer online media publish their own blogs despite widespread recognition of the value and importance of blogging as a media tool.

So in total, only 22% of UK PR consultancies currently use blogs to communicate with clients, colleagues and the wider marketplace. London agencies take the lead.

Although this is a UK story, I wonder if HK suffers from the same infliction.

The cardinal sin of blogging, and the opportunities lost

I've created the cardinal sin of blogging. I haven't been able to update my blog properly or put anything of great value on it for a while due to being super busy in a new job.

Not having regular updates on your blog can drive visitors away. It's important to build a valuable site for your audience, which they find engaging and useful. Continue to review your blog to make sure it still reflects your objectives. And keep it updated. Otherwise it is a lost opportunity.

A corporate blog is a great way to keep your customers up to date with your company, products and services in an informal and entertaining way. It can build a sense of community. You can engage customers through feedback and even earn money from advertisers if your blog is read by a highly targeted audience. You can easily measure its impact too (although I'm frustratingly unable to measure my blog at present).

Many PR agencies now offer blogging as a communications service. They can help you to come up with a strategy for blogging, assist you with the design and also write and edit your blog.

A blog can be a great internal communications tool too. A weekly blog by your CEO is a fantastic way to motivate employees. It shows the human side of the top man or woman and keeps employees abreast of what's happening in the company on a regular basis. The CEO can also use it to reaffirm the company's mission during tough times. It's also a great tool for reaching people around the world if your employees are stationed in many different countries. Continious communication with employees, such as blogging, is extremely important during these challenging times.

Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival launches first PR award

On June 22, the Cannes International Advertising Festival announced the winner of their brand new category for PR. This is another boost to the PR industry which is continually becoming more and more important worldwide.

Cumminsnitro in Brisbane, were the winners of the inaugural PR Grand Prix for Tourism Queensland’s ‘Best Job in the World’. In its first year the PR category received 431 entries from which the jury also chose to award 17 PR Lions from an initial shortlist of 37.

The International Advertising Festival - Cannes Lions - is the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals and advertisers as well as the most prestigious annual advertising awards. More than 10,000 registered delegates from 94 countries and around 12,000 total visitors from the advertising and allied industries attend this event to celebrate the best of creativity across all media mix, discuss industry issues and network with one another.

You can find out more about the winners and the awards at www.canneslions.com.

Things to measure

It is important to carefully evaluate your PR efforts to find out whether your campaign was a success. Items you should measure include:

1) The details of the newspaper/website/radio/tv including circulation and readership (usually 2.5 times the circulation), page views/followers for online or audience for radio and tv.
2) Size or length of article/clip
3) Whether the article/clip was positive or negative - measure the percentage if possible
4) Whether your key messages were featured in the article/clip
5) Whether your company was mentioned
6) Advertising value equivalent i.e. if you had paid for that space in the media how much would you have paid? A bit contentious BUT it adds a value to the campaign. This tends to work better for print, TV and radio and less so for online.

If you used a spokesperson or a celebrity in you PR campaign, it is important to measure how many times they were mentioned in the media. Measuring the celebrity mentions will help you to evaluate whether you should hire that celebrity again. If possible you should aim to do some market research first to find out the public's opinion on the celebrity before you invest in them..

All of these measurements will help you to evaluate the success of the campaign. They will also help you to set a benchmark for your next one.

I used to measure all of these factors, and this along with clear objectives and creative ideas, contributed to my campaigns winning awards from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

The beauty of branding, and Facebook

Hitwise reported that the majority of searches on Bing were brand-led.

Facebook was the number one search.

Why reputation matters

A couple of stories that really show that reputation does matter.

First up is the adorable rogue, Gordon Ramsay. I can't believe I'm mentioning him twice in my blog. But here goes.

He's been up to no good again. Upsetting TV presenters and the prime minister of Australia. But worst of all, he upset his mum! Actually the mum part possibly helped to save his backside. He was perceived so rude and offensive to a favourite Australian TV presenter that the country's prime minister waded into the argument causing bad press worldwide for Ramsay.

Perhaps his type of sense of humour doesn't work in Australia, or he hadn't realised just how fiesty Australian women are. But either way he should have thoroughly checked their culture before he started using his style of "charm" on the Australians. With his reputation at risk, he needed to apologise. And quickly. And so he said sorry. On Australian TV. It was the best thing to do. We'll soon see whether this recent episode affects sales of his books, TV series or restaurant attendence.

The second story is about the expenses crisis happening in the UK. The story below is from the CIPR's PR Voice blog - http://http://prvoice.typepad.com/. It's written by Kevin Taylor, CIPR President.

"The crisis caused by the exposure of the expenses of many MPs threatens more than just the political future of some of those individuals whose claims were highlighted and criticised.

Because if anybody ever doubted the importance of reputation, the current crisis is evidence of just what can happen when reputations are destroyed.

It is worth stating again that whether you are talking about an organisation or an individual, reputation is largely determined by three factors: what you say, what you do, and what others say about you. I’m afraid that – at different times in this crisis – various MPs and their representatives have failed on all three counts.

And where we stand now, is that the reputational damage is so great – it threatens Parliament itself. The collapse in voter confidence could very well see even lower voter turn outs in the next round of elections, which in turn could favour minority and extremist parties.

And it is hard to see where all this is currently heading. Until you go back to those factors that affect reputation and look closely at the first two – what you say and what you do. Parliament – not one party or another but the institution itself – needs now to be seen to be putting its House in order, it needs, more than ever before, to communicate clearly what it is doing, and some individuals need to either explain, apologise, or stand down – in some cases all three.

The media has played a crucial role in exposing some of the worst excesses; and – when the right actions are being taken – can also play a role in helping to rebuild confidence. I do worry, however, that the media opinion will likely divide into party political lines and that’s one reason why I feel that the organisation leading change needs to be seen to be Parliament and not necessarily Government.

There is an opportunity for party heads to show leadership, but Parliament needs to unite around a series of changes and measures that have all-party support. The issues at stake here are, I feel, too big for party point scoring."

Facebook no1 website in UK

Social networking site Facebook is now the number one website in the UK according to global research company Nielson. MSN/Windows came second. Twitter failed to make the top ten.

Alex Burmaster, European communications director for Nielsen Online said: “Between just the two of them, the two most heavily used web brands - Facebook and MSN/Windows Live - account for almost 11 billion of the 48 billion minutes that Britons spend online,”

“That’s over one in every five minutes and highlights just how competitive the online space is for both publishers and advertisers when it comes to capturing consumer attention,” he added.

In April this year, the average Briton was online for 22 hours and 20 minutes, up from 34 per cent last year.

The top ten websites in the UK are

1 - Facebook (market share 12.7 per cent)
2 - MSN/Windows Live (9.2 per cent)
3 - Google (5.3 per cent)
4 - eBay (4.1 per cent)
5 - Yahoo! (3.5 per cent)
6 - AOL Media Network (3.0 per cent)
7 - BBC (2.3 per cent)
8 - YouTube (1.9 per cent)
9 - Microsoft (1.5 per cent)
10 – Apple (1.5 per cent)