DIY PR by Penny Haywood Calder

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

Labels: blogging, Edinburgh, online PR, PHPR, PR, technology PR agency

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

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).

Labels: expert guides, PR, press releases, white papers, writing

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.

Labels: Chrometa, free time-logging, PR, PR consultancy, save money, time-logging

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

Labels: clear communications, online video, PHPR, PR for technology

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.

Labels: blog, sponsorship, The People's Boat, yacht

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

Labels: business management, productive procrastination