DIY PR by Penny Haywood Calder

Blogging for Business

2010-04-23T15:58:00.003+01:00

Did a presentation on Blogging for Business at the local Chamber of Commerce on why businesses need to engage with social media.

Showed how it all links-up: engaging with people in 1-to-1 conversations to create niche communities by posting and cross-posting between sites such as Twitter, Linked-In, Facebook and your blog.

Did you know that Facebook has so many members now, that if they were the population of a country, it would be the third largest country in the world! Can your business afford to ignore an audience like that? Especially when you can engage with it free of charge.

You can take that cross-linking a stage further and integrate your blog and website at your own domain name. This blog is integrated with the PHPR website to give me the best of both worlds thanks to Simon Allen here at Shopfitter.com.

Blogs are so much easier than websites to update, so they are a great way to add fresh content. Plus they give you the opportunity to demonstrate expertise and trustworthiness online.

As I ran down the benefits of blogging and gave some examples, you could see light bulb moments going on across the room. At the end, an accountant rushed off leaving me with the parting shot that he was off to "give it a go". Brilliant!

2010-04-21T16:02:00.001+01:00

Toastmasters International's Edinburgh Speakers Bureau did their first gig yesterday - book speakers at
http://ping.fm/EIrvy

Create Interesting White Papers to Support your Business

2010-04-19T19:31:00.003+01:00

Many business owners are sitting on marketing information that throws an interesting sidelight on their sector. Perhaps your company is bucking a recessionary trend? Or you've noticed that sales have changed in surprising ways?

That might be enough to be the germ of an idea for a press release.

Or you may have more in-depth information that allows you to demonstrate your expertise? In which case, an expert guide might be useful to prospective customers and a good marketing tool for your business. Not to mention creating some useful extra content for your website.

If you have a wealth of information and consider yourself at the forefront of some aspect of your business sector, you may consider a more in-depth white paper. These normally run to 10 or more A4 pages, using graphs and pictures plus graphical devices to underline your points.

But before you start, why not take a lead from the professional journalists and chose a key theme to follow through the release, guide or report? Journalists are masters of writing compelling way and their example will help to steer you away from churning out a self-serving document that no-one wants to read.

There are some useful suggestions in a piece called 5 Ways to Create a more Engaging Introduction (http://www.whitepapercompany.com/blog/?p=4638).

Clever Chrometa's Time Logging Makes More Money for Consultancy

2010-04-02T14:04:00.008+01:00

PHPR is committed to transparency so we produce timelogs of our work for clients. We also pass on expenses at cost. Most time-logging systems we've tried seem very fiddly and I think we have missed small details to the extent that I don't want to work out just how much over the years. But without an easy time-logging solution, we'd have expended a fair amount of time on boring admin work.

Enter Chrometa into our working life. A trusted friend who knows a good amount about useful technology suggested I took a free trial. I did, and I am very glad. It is a significant improvement in our ability to capture time spent on client work. Not only is it extremely comprehensive and detailed, it doesn't just tell me how long a file is open. It also signals the percentage of active use. Great when you are switching between various jobs.

The detail covers all sorts of programs, emails, files and online activity.

The drag and drop facility makes light work of assigning work to client and project folders which can then be exported to a spreadsheet.

The program is free for life if you blog about it, or a one-off $99 if you don't. I am very happy to blog it up and I hope that you do too. This little program deserves recognition.

PHPR TV on YouTube

2010-03-30T20:49:00.002+01:00

We've launched a PHPR video channel on YouTube with a short piece on clear messages in 'PR for Technology' by Penny at: http://ping.fm/GCuof

The People's Boat gives low cost unique sponsorship opportunity

2010-03-26T19:43:00.002Z

It's not often PHPR sponsors a round-the-world race yacht, but we have - and you can too - from £25! The boat will be auctioned off for charity after the race so it's a not only an enterprising sponsorship, but a good cause. Just think of all those bragging rights - I'm sponsoring a round the world race yacht! Your details will be on the real hull. And on the website. Plus you'll get a good plug in the blog. You can put up your photo - or your partner or child - and send their image round the world. Or your logo. The choice is yours.

Productive Procrastination

2010-03-17T17:22:00.002Z

We all put off some things from time to time. This link will take you to an excellent guide imo - How to make procrastination productive: http://ping.fm/UOllL

How to Use Google's Wonder Wheel to Generate PR Ideas

2010-03-10T15:27:00.002Z

Google's wonder wheel does not seem to be well known, yet it is an incredibly versatile tool when you are in need of ideas.

The wonder wheel arranges Google's search results in a mind-mapping style wheel. Each spoke of the wheel shows a key search term relating to the natural results for your search - the full results are shown on the right hand side.

The mind-mapping display lets you see your search results at a glance. Click on a spoke to drill down into an area of your results and another wheel pops up.

At any time, you can refine your results to select images or videos relating to one of the spokes on a wonder wheel. Those results are then shown as a regular Google search results display.

Using a combination of the wheel and a refined search, you can spot gaps to fill, as you'll see in the following example.

Technology PR agency search spots a gap:

To use the wonder wheel, key in a search term.

Just below the Google search box there's a blue bar and inside that bar on the left click on the words "show options".

A list drops down to the right of your search results, currently arranged in 4 groups. The second last group, called "standard view" contains the option. Click to get your results displayed as a wonder wheel.

Click on a spoke of the wheel and another wheel appears with a further 10 results. Each wheel shows the number of pages indexed on the main term and 10 related search results.

A few clicks on the spokes and you'll be full of ideas for your blog piece or article.

It's also good for showing up opportunities. For example, I followed the spokes of a search on "PR"(UK pages) and clicked on the spoke "technology PR agencies" because we do technology PR. Then I went back to the list on the left and chose "videos" - and got no results!

Awesome!

It's about time there was a technology PR agency video and I'm off to make one!

How to be interesting in Social Media

2010-02-24T17:42:00.007Z

Got some thought provoking tips on social media from Seth Liss, SunSentinel.com's news community manager. He's making the point that a lot more people are using social media now and it's harder to get noticed. But social media is still a better bet than advertising for driving business to ecommerce sites, so it's worth making the effort.

He kicks off with the obvious: drop the drab everyday stuff.

When you do post a newsworthy event, he points out that it's the details that make it more interesting. How did it happen? Where? How does that make you feel? Not easy in 140 characters, but when was really good communication ever easy?

He reminds us to avoid engaging in a 1-2-1 conversation on public sites - it's really boring for everyone else.

He also reminds us to place posts with links into context. We need to judge for ourselves whether the link is worth pursuing.

It looks as if people have had enough of blatent promotional messages from their friends. Edelman's Trust Barometer survey shows "the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of information about a company has dropped from 45 percent to 25 percent since 2008." (Edelman's annual Trust Barometer survey is based on nearly 5,000 25-minute interviews with informed people aged 24-60 in 20 countries).

He suggests sharing good information is the key to being interesting. Develop interesting sidelights on your business sector to demonstrate your knowledge in action.

Plus timing is key. Most people dip into their social media accounts so they miss a lot: If you can spot patterns when key people are posting, you can predict when they are more likely to see your posts.

Finally advises: listen first, then comment. "If people know you are interested in what they have to say, they will most likely be curious about what you have to say as well."

I'd say: there's no quick fix. It's a case of listening well before you speak to have a better chance of engaging with well respected people with a good following. People who enhance your own line reputation, and in turn, that boosts your online business.

Don't Let David Brent Creep Into Your Business!

2010-01-29T15:53:00.005Z

A recent Accountemps survey of 150 top US executives listed the following top annoying jargon words:

Leverage

Reach out

It is what it is

Viral

Game changer

Disconnect

Value-add

Circle back

Socialise

Interface

Despite the list originating in the US, these are all terms I come across a lot.

The list also included words that previously appeared in their earlier (2004) survey, which sadly we still see today:

At the end of the day

Synergy

Solution

Think outside the box

On the same page

Customer-centric

People use jargon to indicate they're up with the latest management fads, as immortalised by the David Brent character in 'The Office' TV series a few years ago. As a result, far from being impressed by jargon, it's more likely to produce an image of an ineffectual man with a bad break-dancing tendency!

It's not a good image. It's not good PR. It's not even good communication.

Environmental Business is Good PR & Saves Money

2010-01-29T15:26:00.004Z

There's no shortage of paid help and expensive subscriptions to keep you abreast of environmental legislation for business, but there are some great free resources. Use them to create an Environmental Management System (EMS) to demonstrate your serious commitment to the environment. And reduce the likelihood of expensive fines by keeping up to date with a number of recent changes that affect most businesses.

At a time when businesses need every edge they can get, being able to demonstrate credible green credentials is a real PR plus - a key business asset.

Log onto useful free resources at the http://wwwnetregs.gov.uk/ site, which has been recently re-vamped. It includes a questionnaire http://ping.fm/iaVafnetregs/links/97472.aspx)where you can get a bespoke answer as to your environmental compliance requirements.

That will give you a legislation list, which is the start of your EMS. You will find out how each individual piece of legislation impacts on your type of business using the search tools on www.netregs.gov.uk. Netregs will stream info according to business type and the regional variants for Scotland, England & Wales, plus Northern Ireland.

Environment legislation is driven by Europe and there are more changes in the pipeline. It's worth signing up for the Netregs updates to stay up-to-date.

DIY PR No 8 - Media Relations

2010-01-08T20:14:00.000Z

I'm all in favour of business networking, and word of mouth is the most effective type of publicity, but it is limited to relatively small numbers because it is a one-to-one form of communications.

The grand-daddy of the one-to-many approach is media relations (both online and offline media), not only because it delivers the big numbers, but it also carries a powerful media editorial endorsement.

Like an award (which makes you forever an award-winning business) you can use a media accolade on all your publicity materials: as seen on TV/in the FT.com…. This confers a lot of credibility on your business and inspires confidence.

And we are talking of reaching very large numbers indeed: thousands of people.

Every town has a collection of local media, from community radio, newspapers, online sites and local interest magazines onwards, so look out for outlets for your news.

And don't forget the newsletters and blogs for the business clubs and the trade press relevant to you and your business.

Add a few of these up: it would take you several lifetimes to network with that lot. A really good story could reach them all in one single day!

For every person who contacted the business as a result of reading or hearing about you through the media, there were thousands in various stages of near readiness to buy, who needed a few more nudges with information and contact to finally land the sale.

That's why PR needs to work alongside marketing and sales.

PR raises awareness and confers credibility.

Marketing describes the features and benefits of your offerings and decides how to position them in the market (positioning for price, gaps in the market, distribution etc versus your competitors).

Sales matches the benefits to an individual buyer's particular needs and handles the mechanics of the sale and after sales service liaison. And manages the relationship to get customer referrals and case studies to further boost your business.

DIY PR No 7 - Keeping those closest up to speed is good for business

2010-01-05T19:16:00.002Z

Staff are at the front line and spend a lot of their waking hours with you, so they could be your business' most knowledgeable and credible advocates - if you give them the information they need.

Even if the 6 degrees of separation theory has been disproved, most people are better connected than we realise: your staff among them. Even if it’s only friends like them who would be good workers, saving you lots of recruitment costs and time. But you’d be amazed at who their uncle knows.. so keep them up to speed with the company. But they can't pass on good news about your business if they don't know it!

Same goes for your family and friends. I once met a wife who was playing tennis with the wife of the top guy on her husband's key potential client list. He hadn't told her, so she never even thought to mention the surname of her tennis pal to him... A simple dinner invitation was all it took when I pointed out the connection.

And advisers.

Your lawyer and accountant are dealing with 100s of businesses a year. Why shouldn't they refer you if they come across a need for your services? But you won't be at the front of their mind when they come across someone who needs your goods or services if you don't keep them up-to-date with positive feedback. And they are businesses too. You might want to explore a more formal arrangement to cross promoting each other?

But different people swim into your orbit at different times and there comes a point when keeping track of these newsletters and contact actions needs to be organised so you don’t send out the same snippet or newsletter twice to the same person. It's all too easy to do if you get a few interruptions in your day...

This is where a CRM (customer relationship management) program like SalesForce or Act! or the free open source program: ChannelCRM.dk (it has been translated into English) could be very useful. Don't let the ‘customer’ bit in the name put you off - these are contact management systems that work well for managing communications with potential client.

This is the seventh in a series of posts re-visiting some of the 30 low cost or free publicity techniques featured in PHPR's founder's best-selling book: DIYPR, the small business owner's guide to 'free' publicity by Penny Haywood.

The 30 techniques are a mix of digital and offline sales, marketing and PR tools because you need to work all three disciplines (sales, marketing and PR) to effectively boost a business.
That's because:

PR raises awareness.

Marketing describes the features and benefits of your offerings and decides how to position them in the market (positioning for price, gaps in the market, distribution etc versus your competitors).

Sales matches the benefits to an individual buyer's particular needs and handles the mechanics of the sale and after sales service liaison.
As the series develops, choose a few to trial for a few months.
The aim is to work up to 10 varied publicity techniques that work for you and your business to create a rolling PR Plan for success.

Your feedback is most welcome and may be included (with proper attribution) in the forthcoming revised edition of DIY PR.

DIY PR - no 6 - Referrals

2010-01-04T08:00:00.001Z

Referrals are much more influential than your own sales spiel – they are credible because they are third party endorsements.

They are vital for B2B businesses and are the fastest way to boost any business. So why not have a Referrals Plan to maximise your referrals chances?

Roy Sheppherd’s book shows you how with over 100 non-cheesy ways to ramp up your referrals – it’s called Rapid Results Referrals. Nothing new. Only common sense. But how many referrals tactics are you currently using?

How often do you hear about Referrals Plans? … Exactly! You’ll be miles in front of the businesses that are not using a planned referrals campaign.

Just choose up to 10 referrals ideas from the book and work with them for 6 months, review, ditch what doesn’t work and top up with new ones. Repeat twice a year. Easy!

This is the sixth in a series of posts re-visiting some of the 30 low cost or free publicity techniques featured in PHPR's founder's best-selling book: DIYPR, the small business owner's guide to 'free' publicity by Penny Haywood.

The 30 techniques are a mix of digital and offline sales, marketing and PR tools because you need to work all three disciplines (sales, marketing and PR) to effectively boost a business.

That's because:

PR raises awareness.

Marketing describes the features and benefits of your offerings and decides how to position them in the market (positioning for price, gaps in the market, distribution etc versus your competitors).

Sales matches the benefits to an individual buyer's particular needs and handles the mechanics of the sale and after sales service liaison.

As the series develops, choose a few ideas to trial for a few months.
The aim is to work up to 10 varied publicity techniques that work for you and your business to create a rolling PR/marketing/sales Plan for success.

Your feedback is most welcome and may be included (with proper attribution) in the forthcoming revised edition of DIY PR.

Keeping at the front of people's minds

2010-01-03T16:51:00.006Z

Generally, the high value sales “follow the face”, especially in the early stages of generating business-to-business service sales, even if the sale and most of the service delivery happens online.

1-2-1 networking and building relationships and referrals is key at this stage.
But you can accelerate a business relationship in between seeing people face to face by staying in contact in a thoughtful and helpful way. For example:

1) Provide personalised news snippets – maybe send a link and a note - like a personal Tweet?
2) Keep them up to speed with e-newsletters if you have contact permission and know they'll be interested
3) Hang out online and comment on their blog, answer or comment on their forum posts - that's really good for generating feel-good as many blogs don't generate much feedback.
4) Ring if you have news that could be very useful – keep it light. No pressure.

It's worth keeping in mind when you are desperate for a sale that they tend to come when you don't push. Not everyone is immediately ready or able to buy immediately, so these contact efforts are never about in-your-face selling. It's about being a familiar and trusted contact - and being at the front of their mind when they are ready.

This is the fifth in a series of posts re-visiting some of the 30 low cost or free publicity techniques featured in PHPR's founder's best-selling book: DIYPR, the small business owner's guide to 'free' publicity by Penny Haywood.

The 30 techniques are a mix of digital and offline sales, marketing and PR tools because you need to work all three disciplines (sales, marketing and PR) to effectively boost a business.

That's because:

PR raises awareness.
Marketing describes the features and benefits of your offerings and decides how to position them in the market (positioning for price, gaps in the market, distribution etc versus your competitors).
Sales matches the benefits to an individual buyer's particular needs and handles the mechanics of the sale and after sales service liaison.

As the series develops, choose a few to trial for a few months.

The aim is to work up to 10 varied publicity techniques that work for you and your business to create a rolling PR Plan for success.

Your feedback is most welcome and may be included (with proper attribution) in the forthcoming revised edition of DIY PR.

Edinburgh on Google Logo

2009-11-30T09:46:00.003Z

Good to see Edinburgh Castle on Google for St Andrew's day

Environment Award Generates Immediate Business Boost for PHPR

2009-11-24T21:35:00.007Z

PHPR had a serious new biz approach at the VIBES awards - proof that VIBES (Scotland's top environmental award) is good for biz.

We were at the awards ceremony because we'd been shortlisted for the 2009 VIBES Scotland awards - Scotland's top environmental awards. Companies on the VIBES shortlist & the winners are recognised by multiple agencies and the Scottish Government for exceptional environmental performance.

We think that we are the 1st Scottish PR agency to reach the shortlist. The organisers have confirmed no PR agencies have been cited in the last 5 years (VIBES has been going for 10 years).

VIBES is a partnership between the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Environment Protection UK, Environwise & Netregs.

Advertising - does it work?

2009-11-19T07:56:00.003Z

Would an in-store event work, with treats and discounts for invited existing customers?
Or a leaflet drop?
Can you ring round guest houses and hotels offering a bulk deal (and take away the old ones to minimise the hassle?). Can you offer matching bedside tables and wardrobes?

Advertising does work if you have a large budget and top creative skills. It can be an expensive first resort for those with smaller pockets.

This is the fourth in a series of posts re-visiting the 30 low cost or free publicity techniques featured in PHPR's founder's best-selling book: DIYPR, the small business owner's guide to 'free' publicity by Penny Haywood. The 30 techniques are a mix of digital and offline sales, marketing and PR tools because you need to work all three disciplines (sales, marketing and PR) to effectively boost a business. As the series develops, choose a few to trial for a few months. The aim is to work up to 10 varied publicity techniques that work for you and your business to create a rolling PR Plan for success.

Your feedback is most welcome and may be included (with proper attribution) in the forthcoming revised edition of DIY PR.

Advertising - a waste of money?

2009-11-19T07:29:00.006Z

Small budgets rarely stretch to the really effective levels of advertising. Unless you already have strong design skills, you'll need to buy those in. And ads need to be repeated often to achieve impact. That's the bit most small businesses forget. Many small businesses stop at one insertion, but most people don't notice the first three times an advert runs in most publications.

But what do you do when you need to shift, for example, loads of beds in a hurry? Unless Mary Queen of Scots slept in all of them, they will need to be advertised in the local media on and offline. The clever PR alternatives would just take too much time.

TIP: Google sometimes gives away vouchers for £30 of free AdWords. Mine arrived by post after I registered my business on Google Maps, but sometimes these offers falls out of business magazines.

It helps to have a well-written, optimised site that anticipates the information a buyer might need, and answers that, ending with a clear call to action on every page.

You'll save a lot of money if you think about who you need to reach. Can you reach them any other way?

Would an in-store event work, with treats and discounts for invited existing customers? Or a leaflet drop? Can you ring round guest houses and hotels offering a bulk deal (and take away the old ones to minimise the hassle?). Can you offer matching bedside tables and wardrobes?

Advertising does work if you have a large budget and top creative skills. It can be an expensive first resort for those with smaller pockets.

This is the fourth in a series of posts re-visiting the 30 low cost or free publicity techniques featured in PHPR's founder's best-selling book: DIYPR, the small business owner's guide to 'free' publicity by Penny Haywood. The 30 techniques are a mix of digital and offline sales, marketing and PR tools because you need to work all three disciplines (sales, marketing and PR) to effectively boost a business. As the series develops, choose a few to trial for a few months. The aim is to work up to 10 varied publicity techniques that work for you and your business to create a rolling PR Plan for success.

Your feedback is most welcome and may be included (with proper attribution) in the forthcoming revised edition of DIY PR.

Look out for Nissan's 'Leaf' in 2010

2009-11-18T20:16:00.004Z

If you're into being green, look out for Nissan's 'Leaf' in 2010 - an all-electric car doing 100 miles on a single charge and a top speed of 90mph.

Xbox Live will integrate Facebook and Twitter...

2009-11-18T19:57:00.005Z

It's reported that Xbox Live will integrate Facebook and Twitter directly into online gaming, bringing a whole new audience to Twitter.

Klout now lets you see the most influential Tweeters

2009-11-18T19:55:00.007Z

Klout now lets you see the most influential Tweeters on a topic so you can build a Twitter list of the results. The Klout Twitter app measures the influencing powers of individual Tweeps to "find the people the world listens to"

Social Media and personal data

2009-11-16T16:46:00.004Z

Is the real cost of 'free' social media our friends' data?

Covey on scheduling & priorities

2009-11-13T13:34:00.002Z

"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." Stephen R. Covey. Brilliant!

Covey Keeping Business on Track

2009-11-13T13:33:00.002Z

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing" Stephen R. Covey. So true in a creative biz like ours!