Pickle Jar Communications

On the move ...

2009-06-20T18:04:00.001+01:00

After hosting our blog here on blogger for almost 2 years, we've now decided to integrate the blog and website into one platform on wordpress. As such this blog is now on the move to www.picklejarcommunications.com/blog. Bear with us as we update the website over there. We've already migrated all of our old blog posts from here over to there though so you won't be missing anything.

If you subscribe to our RSS feed, you'll now need to use http://www.picklejarcommunications.com/feed/ to subscribe to latest updates.

Top 100 websites students visit

2009-06-03T06:23:00.002+01:00

In response to an enquiry by London Business School, Hitwise has produced a list of the top 100 websites visited by students in May 2009. Quite a useful list for those of us working in Higher Education communications. It's available to view here.

Comments about your brand might be found in the unlikeliest of places

2009-05-15T19:14:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I presented at the CASE Europe Beyond the Hype conference. You can see my presentation in the previous blog post. The focus of the session was really to talk about making the internal 'sell' for time and resource to support social media. I always say that before you do anything with social media (or all online media for that matter), and even if ultimately you do nothing else, the first thing you must do, and the one thing you must maintain is listening. Monitoring conversations about your brand online is critical to:

Monitor your reputation and understand what others really think of you
Spot ambassadors for your brand whom you may nurture and encourage
Identify potential crises in the making
Spot opportunities for product or service developments
Spot when the moment is right to enter an online conversation and engage.

As such, we were discussing the tools available out there for monitoring brands online. Here are a few that I suggested delegates take a look at:

One of the participants pointed out that they have found students who have used the review feature on Amazon to post comments about their university courses through the book pages of course books that they have to read on that particular course. A novel place to critique a course, but an interesting example of how you should look in even some of the more unlikely places to check out what people are saying about your brand!

CASE Beyond the Hype

2009-05-15T18:16:00.001+01:00

I presented yesterday at the CASE Europe Beyond the Hype conference. I try to use slides as a way to enhance presentations rather than include all the content on them, so they won't make as much sense without me talking over them, but here they are nevertheless. If I find time soon I may turn them into a short slidecast. One of the best things about this session was the contributions from delegates, so sadly even if I do slidecast this I won't be capturing that, but I guess that just goes to show the value of actually attending an event. Here are the slides anyway though:

Tips and Tracks: measuring, demonstrating ROI and persuading your managers

View more presentations from Tracy Playle.

Social media is helping me to grieve

2009-04-17T15:08:00.005+01:00

This is one of the hardest blog posts that I have composed. Writing this is part of my grieving process. But there is a serious message here of the value that social media really can bring to our lives, particularly in times of personal need or sorrow.

Yesterday one of my house rabbits very suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. He was only five years old and full of life until less than a day before he died. To many people who read this blog, and particularly those who know me personally, you'll understand how heartbreaking this is for me. My house rabbits are my family. They live and run freely in my house. They keep me company in the office when I am working (the photo below is of Herbie helping me to decorate the Pickle Jar office back in 2007 when I set up the business). I feed them, care for them and play with them every day. I love them like children.

Herbie was a rescue rabbit. He had been dumped in a cardboard box at a rabbit rescue centre with no note to even tell what his name was. He was a lively chap, clearly still a baby, and we're convinced that when we called in to visit the rescue centre four and a half years ago that he chose us. I think he knew he was on to a good thing - space to run around, fresh vegetables to eat every day, lots of hay, an abundance of toys, and two big sisters to keep him company.

On Wednesday evening we noticed he wasn't his usual self. He didn't come bounding over to the treat bowl, and just sat hunched up looking sad. So, on Thursday morning I booked him in to see the vet. I took him in that afternoon and she couldn't see anything obviously wrong with him. The only problem was that his back teeth were looking a little long and could have been causing him discomfort. So, I left him there for the afternoon so they could put him under a general anaesthetic and file down his teeth. The vet called at 3.30 to say he was absolutely fine, had woken up, and that we could pick him up at 6.30. We arrived on time and sat waiting to be called through looking forward to seeing our boy and hoping that he'd just be looking forward to having his treats that night.

The vet called us in. No Herbie. She had some bad news. As they were getting him ready for us to bring him home he collapsed. I didn't realise at first that she was saying he had died, but the news soon dawned on me. His teeth weren't the problem afterall, but we think some form of organ failure. He died very suddenly. We spent 20 minutes saying our farewells to the little fella, and headed home with an empty carry case in floods of tears. I haven't really stopped crying since.

The point of writing this post though is two-fold. Firstly, being able to publicly express my grief in this way is helpful to me. It gives me a place to record my thoughts and pour out my heart as I sit in an otherwise silent office. Secondly, though, is to make a point about social media. Despite our constant tears, both Nathan and I almost immediately tweeted about what had happened. We felt moved to update our facebook status, and we were able to chat to some understanding friends via instant messenger. Talking on the phone has been too hard, but at least typing is manageable. Losing a pet is not like losing a family member. There isn't really a system of people phoning each other people to share the news. That just isn't how it's done. But social media has given us a platform from which to share our grief and to receive back an enormous 'virtual' hug (we've had some real ones too of course, including with Scotch and Macy - our other two rabbits).

Social media comes under so much criticism for revealing so much about our lives in a public forum, and for voyeurism. Yet lately I have seen several friends share sad news through social media platforms and receive an overwhelming response. There are times when that sense of community, albeit a virtual community in some cases, is really needed. Right now, I'm no good for going outside and seeing lots of people, but through the power of social media, text messaging and instant messaging, lots of people have been able to come to me and offer their support. Nathan even had a tweet from the Times Higher Education - from someone he's never even met - offering their sympathies.

This is one of those times when, through all the concerns and negative press, social media has really come into its own.

Evolving the press release: online and social media communications for press and media relations

2009-04-17T15:04:00.001+01:00

I'm currently involved in organising (and will be speaking at) the following conference. We'll be looking and press and media relations for the education sector and how social media and virtual news rooms are revolutionising the way in which we 'do' PR.

Conference speaking this Spring/Summer

2009-04-13T15:53:00.002+01:00

Just for the hell of it I thought I might share here information about a number of conferences that I am due to/likely to be speaking at this coming Spring and Summer, with details of the sessions being delivered. I'll try as far as possible to post slides here after each of the sessions.

Listening to your stakeholders online
Thursday 23 April, Manchester Metropolitan University

This conference is being organised by the CIPR's Education and Skills sector group. At this conference I'll be delivering a session looking at some of the tools for engaging audiences through your website, and for monitoring the buzz about your brand through social media. Email me if you're interested in booking a place at this conference and I'll put you in touch with the organisers.

Beyond the hype: getting the most from your web presence
Thursday 14 May, London

Alison Wildish from the University of Bath has kindly asked if I'll run a session at this conference she is putting together for CASE Europe with Pamela Agar of Imperial College. My session at this conference is likely to be on demonstrating results from using social media to enhance your web presence and preparing for the internal 'sell' to present the business case. You can book to attend this conference here.

Virtual PR: maximising your press and media relations through online activities
Friday 22 May, London

I'm currently leading a research project on behalf of the CIPR's Education and Skills sector group looking at how universities and colleges use online resources and activities to enhance their press and media relations. My session at this conference will present initial findings of this research. Contact me if you're interested in attending this event as I'm on the organising committee for this one. To participate in the research, follow this link to our online survey which is still open for responses.

EUPRIO Conference
Saturday 27 June, Aveiro, Portugal

I'll be presenting two workshops at the European Universities PR and Information Officers (EUPRIO) annual conference in Portugal on Saturday 27 June. My session is titled 'Learning new tricks: how social media is revolutionising the role of the PR professional'. You can view further details of the conference and book to attend through the conference website here.

CASE Europe Annual Conference
24-28 August, Liverpool

We also have a session proposal out for the CASE Europe annual conference this year. I'm just finalising my details with them and will update this post when I have a little more to say on this one. Registration for the conference is now open here.

Audioboo - the potential

2009-04-05T08:48:00.002+01:00

It's been far too long since my last blog post. I spend so much of my time preaching to people about blogging and the need to do it regularly, that I really must practice what I preach. However, I've got so many exciting projects on the go at the moment for various clients that it's all a bit crazy. Here's something to share though...

Around mid-March, so really very recently, a 4IP funding iPhone app was launched - AudioBoo, developed by BestBefore media. Described by some as 'audio twitter', AudioBoo enables you through a simple iPhone app to record a short burst of audio, attach a photo, tag it, and pretty much instantly have it online with the photo, audio file, and the location of the recording marked on a google map (thanks to the power of GPS). You can set it up so that every new 'Boo' you post is tweeted about through your twitter account, and you can also embed the file into another web page using the emded code provided. Very very simple and easy.

I came across it for the first time at an event I was involved with for Becta, who were supporting a DIUS event hosted by Channel 4. The guys from BestBefore did a live demonstration of the technology, which worked seamlessly. So, in true flattery, I decided to copy their exercise at a social media training session I was running last week. Worked perfectly, and certainly got the creative juices of my 'trainees' flowing, particularly thinking about potential for gathering customer feedback and quick testimonials. From a personal point of view, I know it's also going to be great for gathering quick soundbites at events (from delegates and speakers) and I might also use it to help gather some anecdotes for some research I'm conducting for the CIPR Education and Skills sector group at the moment too.

The guys at 4IP have been blogging about some of the uses they've seen for it. And that's one of the things that so staggering about this. BestBefore and 4IP could see the potential for this technology, but they really had no idea how people would use it. I can't see it replacing Twitter because, let's face it, who wants to have to trawl through audio clips of each of the individuals they follow (I find it hard enough just keep up with written tweets), but the real gem of this story is how the technology has bee pushed out, and the community out there have decided how to use it rather than being told what it's for. This is a great example of how social media is actually all about the content, and not about the technology. The technology just makes it happen, but it's the content that really drives it and encourages interest.

For a little taste, here's me just mucking around with it:
Listen!
And here's the link to the actual AudioBoo page so you can see the photo and map too.

A little about me

2009-02-21T12:49:00.002Z

My good friend Ellie Lovell has 'tagged' me in an activity where I am now expected to reveal 25 things that you didn't know about me, just a pile of random facts. As it's Saturday, I thought I'd have a go for fun:

1. I am a an Essex girl, having been born and raised in Harlow and I am proud to own a pair of white stilettos
2. I was blond for the first three years of my life
3. When I was 15 I owned a pair of white pvc trousers – classy!
4. In 1998 I appeared on This Morning. Richard Madeley told me on live national TV that I have great eyes!
5. I have three house rabbits – Herbie, Scotch and Macy. Herbie was a rescue rabbit. He was dumped in a cardboard box on someone’s doorstep
6. One of my ambitions is to cage dive with great white sharks
7. In 2007 I ran the Great North Run half marathon for the Stroke Association because my mother had a stroke in her early thirties. I too have high blood pressure and I keep the photo of me after the race pinned in front of my desk to remind myself of the elation at finishing the race, and the ongoing need to manage my own health
8. I have a fat photo of myself on the fridge door to try to help me with my ongoing battle to lose a little weight and be a slim bride next year
9. My guilty pleasure is having a cleaner
10. If I could choose to live anywhere in the UK, I would live in Edinburgh
11. I own a hardback signed first edition of Toni Morrison’s Beloved (the book widely acknowledged to have won her the Nobel Prize for literature). It was my graduation present from my parents and one of my most treasured possessions as her work played such a big part in both of my degrees
12. Despite being a straight-A student at school, I have never managed to learn a foreign language and this irritates me
13. I play with my ear lobes. It’s a habit I have had since a baby and is my ‘comfort blanket’. It also often makes work colleagues think I am on the phone!
14. As children my sister and I once drank quite a lot from our parents’ booze cupboard while they were out of the house. When they found out (we left the cap off the whiskey!) we both blamed it on our friend and never owned up
15. I used to swim competitively. I always enjoyed the ‘tough’ events, and was once ranked as the 37th fastest woman in the UK at 200m butterfly (quite an achievement when you’re as short and stumpy as I am!)
16. When I was 14 I had a dodgy perm and was so embarrassed that I refused to go swimming training that night. My dad told me off for being so daft and I ran away from home in response (I actually only got about 30m up the road to my friends house, and only stayed for about an hour – a pathetic attempt)
17. My first pet was a budgie called Gismo. My second pet was a hamster called Rambo
18. I am addicted to my blackberry
19. I am the happiest I have ever been right now at this point in my life
20. I love skiing and scuba diving and wish I had discovered both passions when younger
21. Despite being almost 30, I am lucky enough to still have a full set of grandparents, though I don’t see any of them enough because I am a bad granddaughter
22. I don’t believe in work-life balance. I do believe in doing a job that you enjoy so much that work-life balance becomes irrelevant
23. My dad calls me Angela – it’s my middle name. My fiancé calls me ‘Goat’.
24. When I was little I drew a picture of a blue whale and sent it to Greenpeace. I still have the certificate that they sent me somewhere
25. My surname allegedly can be traced back either to a French piano maker or a German mass murderer. I know which I prefer!

This blog features as B2B Centre's case study on blogging

2009-02-11T08:23:00.002Z

Colleagues at the National B2B Centre have kindly included the Pickle Jar Communications blog as a case study on blogging for business on their website. We're rather flattered to be profiled in this way, and thought we might follow that up with a little extra support of our own. So, if you've arrived at this blog because you've read about it through the B2B Centre's e-newsletter or website, you might also find our handy guide to corporate blogging slidecast useful if you're thinking of engaging with bloggers as part of your PR activity or thinking of setting up your own.

So why should I follow you?

2009-02-07T11:13:00.001Z

As many of you know, I'm a big Twitter fan and manage three profiles: @tracyplayle @picklejar and @hecomms. Each serve a very different purpose for me. @tracyplayle is where I post my more personal tweets – the kind of daily ramblings that really only my mates would probably want to hear (though it seems many others also want to listen in – that's fine, but I don't understand why!). Then there's @picklejar: this is the account I use to tweet about anything business-related or relevant to social media, PR and communications. I try to retain a 'human' voice in this and keep my personality coming through, but its primary function for me is professionally-orientated. Finally @hecomms looks after itself by provided updates direct from the RSS feed from www.he-comms.co.uk – the social network that I run for communicators and marketers working in the UK HE sector.

Work has been somewhat crazy recently so while I've continued to tweet away I've noticed a consistent stream of new followers whom I just haven't had the time to check out and follow back. This morning, I decided to have a run through my inbox and start checking out all the new followers and determine who I might like to start following in return.

I generally work on the following principles:

If you're following me it's probably because we have something in common and therefore I may wish to follow you back
If you are taking the time to read my ramblings, then you deserve the courtesy of me at least taking a look to see if I would like to read yours
Twitter is one of my key sources of new information regarding social media, and therefore you might be tweeting about stuff of interest and relevance to me.

So with those in mind, I have spent a couple of hours this morning checking new followers of @picklejar out. Not all of you made the cut and received a return follow, so I thought it might make an interesting blog post to show my thought process when deciding whether to follow someone back or not.

If you're an education organisation's account I will probably follow you back without thinking twice as my key clientele is the education sector so it's important that I monitor how the sector is using Twitter
If your twitter name is the same name as someone I know, I will be more likely to follow you back without further thought
If your twitter name is unfamiliar to me, then I'm more likely to be interested in you if you are set up as a human being in your profile and not just a company name (for example, I am @picklejar, but my profile tells you that I am Tracy Playle – one of the earliest lessons I learned on Twitter was to be myself and not try to be a 'corporate voice' as it just doesn't work)
Likewise, if your @name (and worse still if your profile name) is full of random letters and numbers, I will not follow you back – some of them I won't even check out in the first place
If you pass the @name and profile test, then I delve a little deeper into what else you say about yourself in your profile. If it includes something that is of direct interest to my professional interests, then you pass the next test
The next step is then to look at your previous tweets. Even if say you work in social media marketing or communications, but your tweets are all just personal stuff – what you made for breakfast etc – and nothing else that helps me in my professional life, then I tend not to follow back.

So, in summary, I tend to follow-back people I know and have an existing relationship with and people who are 'above board' and provide interesting and useful information through their tweets. Above all, though, I place emphasis on the fact that I prefer following people, and not organisations (there are one or two in there, but most don't make the cut).

Birmingham Twestival, sponsored by Pickle Jar Communications

2009-02-06T16:03:00.003Z

I wouldn't ordinarily post a press release here as it isn't the most appropriate format for a blog. However, as we are sponsoring the Birmingham Twestival, I thought I'd indulge myself a little and include the press release here:

BIRMINGHAM TO JOIN 100 CITIES ACROSS THE WORLD IN FUNDRAISING ‘TWESTIVAL‘

On February 12th 2009 Birmingham is joining with over 175 cities around the world to host the Midland’s biggest ‘Twestival’, a volunteer-run fundraising event for people who use the micro-blogging service Twitter. BrumTwestival will be held at Poppyred in the Arcadian Centre from 7.30pm, and will see Birmingham join over 175 confirmed cities world-wide in a night of fundraising. The global event, described as “a ‘tweet up’ with a social conscience” will be raising money to support charity:water a not-for-profit bringing clean water to people in developing nations.

With members including Barak Obama, Stephen Fry and Jonathon Ross, Twitter is quickly growing to become a world-wide online phenomenon. The network allows users to update other members who are ‘following’ them online with details of what they are doing in 140 characters or less. As Twitter’s user network has grown, the community has also been the first to publish breaking news online, with members ‘twittering’ updates on unfolding events before journalists have reported on them.

Birmingham’s Twestival will give twitterers across the West Midlands the opportunity to come together in the spirit of fun, change, charity and global communication. Over 100 guests have confirmed their attendance at the event, and more tickets are to be released shortly to meet demand. Birmingham has a very active social media community and this has grown through Twitter to include users from a variety of backgrounds including politicians, University staff, artists and bloggers.

Birmingham Twestival has been organised by volunteer Twitter members who work for a wide range of local businesses. John Newbold, creative director of 383 Project and one of the Twestival organisers commented: “Twitter has grown across the West Midlands to become a really exciting community. It has enabled me to connect with a network of other users from with a variety of backgrounds and occupations within the city and get to know people I may not have met otherwise. Twestival is not only a great opportunity to bring the online community together offline, but unites Birmingham with other participating cities across the world in a common aim. Twitter will allow us to join other cities throughout the day with live updates and coverage of the events.

“As social and business networks grow, online communities are becoming increasingly popular ways to stay in touch and up-to-date. It is rare for people who engage online to have the opportunity to meet face-to-face, and I’m delighted that Twestival will make this possible for so many local users.”

Birmingham Twestival is sponsored by Pickle Jar Communications, the Coventry-based communications consultancy specialising in new and broadcast media, and Bostin, original t-shirt producers and promoters of pride in Birmingham, the Black Country and beyond. Tracy Playle, Director of Pickle Jar Communications commented: “I’ve been using Twitter for personal and business use now for several months. The power to build communities through social media, such as Twitter, is significant and important for small and large businesses alike. We spend a lot of time advising others on how to use tools like Twitter to build communities of interest, and possible business opportunities, so it only seems fitting that we would want to support the biggest Twestival in the Midlands.”

Managing director of Bostin, Donato Esposito added: “Twestival is a fantastic development to Twitter, and I welcomed the opportunity to support such an important charity.”

As well as raising money through ticket sales and donations, a range of raffle prizes donated by local businesses and Twitter members will be auctioned at the event. All guests will also be automatically entered into a main prize draw to win a Nintendo Wii.

The event will begin at 7.30pm. A limited number of remaining tickets are available at www.birmingham.twestival.com

Animoto and istockphoto join forces

2009-02-06T14:35:00.003Z

I received an email earlier this week from animoto alerting customers that they've just entered an agreement with istockphoto.

For quite some time now I've been showing clients animoto, particularly when I'm out and about doing social media training, as it's a wonderful way of creating high-impact videos for your site without the costs normally associated with video production. I always suggest that clients use istockphoto to download good quality images, so I'm delighted to see the two companies pair up at last. See the animoto blog post for further information.

Monitoring social media

2009-02-01T18:20:00.003Z

There are some good social media monitoring services out there offering comprehensive monitoring solutions, such as Radian 6. I've had a demo of Radian 6 and it really is very impressive, but this does come at a price. I'm therefore always on the look out for good search services and monitoring services available for free.

I often recommend perspctv to clients. It searches blogs, microblogs and news sites, but it also allows you to search more than one search term, enabling you to benchmark online profile of one term against another. See, for example, this widget that profiles the relative online coverage of the brands 'university of warwick' and 'university of birmingham'

Social mention doesn't appear to have the same benchmarking potential, but it does provide RSS feeds of given search terms, meaning that you don't have to keep visiting the site everytime you want to check out the latest mentions of your brandon social media sites. The other benefit to social mention is that it covers a wide range of media: text, audio and video. Very clever.

Great example of how to create a slidecast

2009-01-30T12:00:00.001Z

I thought just share this really useful slidecast on how to create a slidecast.

Slidecasting 101

View more presentations from Jonathan Boutelle. (tags: propaganda slideshare)

Online PR is a marriage, not an affair

2009-01-22T07:30:00.003Z

I occassionally browse online sites where people post projects that they require freelance support for. This morning one caught my eye because it's right up my street - a small company wanting support to boost their online PR. Great! A small company thinking along the right lines. Many don't even yet understand the benefits of online PR, so fantastic to see one that not only understands the benefits, but realises that support is potentially needed.

Then, this line in the description of their requirements:

'We estimate approx 4 days, 2 days for each website should suffice.'

Not so great. 2 days work, then nada, for online PR for a website? Online PR isn't a 'project' that can be done and dusted in 2 days. It has to be a sustained effort, ongoing, nurtured and loved. Otherwise it is doomed to failure! Sure, in two days you can do enough to improve your SEO in the short-term, but for real online PR, companies should be dedicating much more time and resource to supporting an ongoing campaign. Think of online PR as a relationship - it interests you, yet you begin with caution at first, then you get carried away in the rush of excitement and can't tear yourself away, then you settle down into a nice comfortable routine - at ease, dedicated, devoted even - with the odd pleasant surprise but otherwise a nice routine of committment and sustained effort. Online PR is a marriage, not an affair!

Planning for a video production - thoughts and considerations

2009-01-20T20:06:00.003Z

Tomorrow I'm helping out at a session at the University of Warwick introducing students to communicating through video. During the three hour session they will be tasked with filming and editing their own short video. I'm being drafted in to help advise them on planning a video production. I thought it might be worth sharing here the various stages that I'll be talking them through:

What are you trying to communicate and why?
What are your objectives?
What are your key messages?

Who are you trying to communicate with?
Define your audience
Understand what your audience likes (a particular style of video?)
Why will your target audience be interested in this?

Where is your audience? How will you reach them?
Where will your video be broadcast?
On a website?
At an event (big screen, small screen?)
How long do you have to grab your audiences’ attention?

Is video really the best means of communication?
Does video appeal to your audience?
Can it communicate everything you need to communicate?
Is your subject visual enough?

How will you structure your video?
Prepare a storyboard
Think about key messages and statements
Be prepared for your structure to change
How will you ‘join up’ sections of your video?
Do you require a voiceover? What kind of voice should this be?

What shots/interviews etc do you require?
Do you need cutaway shots to illustrate a point?
Do you need cutaway shots to make editing look seamless?
What access requirements/permissions might you need for filming?

Who will you interview?
Do you need a release form?
Are you working with children?
Who is going to ‘work’ well on camera?
Does your interviewee(s) have media experience?
Why are you interviewing them?

Where will you interview them?
Is there a location relevant to the interview?
Think about light
Think about noise and other distractions
Do you need special permissions to film there?

What will they wear?
Avoid bright colours (and too much white)
Avoid too much make-up
Avoid fussy patterns
Be comfortable

What will they say?
Preparing interview questions
Planting key messages
Asking provoking questions
Will you require additional cutaway shots after the interview?

Testing out Word 2007 blog publisher

2009-01-12T18:36:00.001Z

Anyone using Microsoft Word 2007 might have noticed that it has a blog post option on it, so I thought I'd give it a go for my blog. I'm travelling on the train at the moment so even with 3G card in laptop, connection is a little flakey so this could be a useful alternative for drafting blog posts while in transit. I like the theory behind it – just open Word, click new and select blog post. I seem to have configured it to send to my blog without any problems (just a matter of username, password then selecting which of my blogger blogs I wanted to add). So here goes, time to see if the post actually works!

Is there a benefit to be an 'older' person signing up to Facebook

2009-01-10T10:06:00.003Z

I've been reading this blog this morning by Samuel Bradley giving tips to college students on using Twitter (though the tips could extend beyond that audience). Bradley advises:

Don’t simply link to your Facebook bio if there’s anything on your profile that you wouldn’t show in front of the class. Rule of thumb: If a link leads in any way to photos of you throwing up after consuming too much alcohol, omit it!

This got me pondering, are those of us that signed up to Facebook in our post-university days in an advantageous position? Okay, so the photos of us throwing up after drinking too much probably still exist, and perhaps they even exist in a digital format (though I'm old enough that most of my uni photos are from good old fashioned film so exist only in hard copy). I would like, at this point, to point out that I am not what you might call a dinosaur. I am 28 years old, so was only a few years out of University before signing up to Facebook, but I just can't help thinking that the photographs of student antics that we enjoyed at university, but might haunt us in our professional lives, are far less likely to find their way onto Facebook. Finally an advantage to hurtling my way to 30!

This argument isn't fully thought through, just my musings, but I wonder, if there is any truth in this, if it could spell an interesting phase for Facebook. I'm perfectly happy for potential clients, employers, and anyone else in my professional life to check me out on Facebook. There are plenty of silly photos of me, but that just shows me being me. There's nothing to worry about. However, for younger folks not yet into their professional lives, I wonder if there might suddenly be a move to close their Facebook accounts down as they start searching for jobs, for fear of what potential employers might see. Dare I say it, could Facebook become the realm of the 'older' generation (I lose that term very loosely indeed!)? It probably will anyway in as much as the 'kids' will have something diffent to amuse themselves, and Facebook will be 'old hat', but for those already on it, could younger antics spell the end of individuals Facebook accounts as they strive to protect their employment prospects.

Online video is getting quicker and quicker

2009-01-07T08:17:00.002Z

I've been playing around quite nicely with my new flipvideo camera recently, mostly for personal use though I'm sure it won't be long before it's put to good business use too.

Last week I attended a close friend's wedding in Ireland. I took the flipvideo camera along and within 12 hours of stumbling to bed after the festivities of an Irish wedding (I hit the sack at 3am and the bride, groom and Irish family were all still up singing in the bar), I had an edited version of the video online on facebook thanks to the excellent built-in software on the camera, instant usb connectivity and free wifi in the hotel.

I thought that was quick! Then this morning I received the latest updates from animoto and learn that they've now created an iPhone app so you can create animoto videos on your iPhone (or touch iPod) whilst still on the move. I haven't tested it yet (might steal my partner's touch iPod later to have a play around), but in theory this is a very cool idea and just speeds up even more the ability to go from a photo (or in the case of flipvideo a video clip) to a fairly polished looking video online in a matter of minutes - and at hardly any expense at all.

Rough and ready video can work

2008-12-20T09:46:00.002Z

I do quite a lot of work with video, often overseeing video productions that cost upwards of four figure sums, resulting in beautifully crafted polished results. But we all know that there is a real thirst online for rough and ready video, generally speaking unedited or only roughly edited, and shot on someone's camcorder. YouTube has proven the point over and over again.

With this in mind, and for no other reason than the fact that I like to have a new techy toy to play with every so often, I bought a flipvideo handheld camcorder the other day. It cost about £90 or so, and is pocket sized so I can take it out and about with me. It'll record up to about an hour's worth of footage, and runs on bog standard batteries. The beauty of it though is that it's so quick to use. You whip it out of your bag, press the button on the side and in 2-3 seconds you're ready to record - fantastic for catching something that needs to be caught quick (though still not quick enough to catch footage of my snoozing rabbit laying stretched out on his side this other day, but then that's more testiment to my speed at grabbing the camera than the camera itself).

So, I'll be carrying this around with me from now on, grabbing the odd bit of footage here and there, and hopefully picking up some interesting interviews and think pieces. I'll start posting some examples soon - need to find some interesting people to speak with first - and keep reporting back on how I'm getting on.

Listening in

2008-12-07T09:55:00.002Z

While catching up on Twitter this morning I felt the sudden urge to jump on a plane straight to New York City after reading Stephen Fry's tweet about how it is snowing on Fifth Avenue. I can't think of anywhere else I would rather be at the moment than standing wrapped up warm on fifth avenue with snow flakes falling around me. Heavenly. So, I tweeted something along those lines. Within four minutes Dee of the New York Tours twitter account was following me.

There are many instances now of people tweeting a brand name or term and immediately receiving a follow from those companies, or other folks that have something to do with that (I had a similar experience just before my holiday to Mexico a few months back when I tweeted about going scuba diving, and suddenly the Scuba Society were following me).

These are the smart companies. They know what terms to look out for, they listen to the chatter and then they spot opportunities to respond. Dee of New York Tours is now listening in on my tweets to see if I will indeed visit NYC and therefore if they will be able to sell me a tour, or perhaps make a recommendation that will then make her company 'useful' to me. Other companies (Comcast being a great example of this), listen in to see if their customers are experiencing difficulties and complaining about their products/brand on Twitter so that they can quickly step in, provide customer service, and ultimately receive a big thumbs up from the tweeter for their responsiveness thus boosting the brand's reputation and averting a crisis (Comcast are well experienced at the crisis potential of new media after the video posted on YouTube of their technician asleep on a customer's sofa).

So, I asked the Twittersphere this morning if there is an application yet available that automatically sets your Twitter account to start following people who tweet a particular term that you specify. It seems there is (I suspected as much). I've been pointed in the direction of Twollow (many thanks @equaliser), a very simple service that allows you (on their free account) to specify up to five terms that, when tweeted by someone, will spark an immediate follow from your account. I'm going to give this a go and will report back on just how useful I think it is.

Adopt a word - genius or pure lunacy?

2008-11-25T14:45:00.003Z

I've just picked up the news of a website called Adopt a Word through rumblings on Twitter. The idea is that you pay £20 to adopt a word for one year. In return for your £20 you receive an adoption pack to confirm that you have purchased that word. Sound crazy? Okay, now chuck in the fact that the £20 you pay goes towards the charity I CAN, helping children with communication difficulties in the UK develop skills to help overcome what can be at times some very challenging problems. Still sound crazy?

Of course it still sounds crazy. I mean, why would anybody in their right mind want to adopt a word? It's meaningless.

It's for that very reason that this site is pure genius. It's so ludicrous, that it gets everyone talking - plenty of buzz on my Twitter feed about it as everyone discusses whether it's crazy or not, which of course has an exponential effect as more and more people pick up on it through other networks on Twitter. And then there's people like me blogging about it too, and probably others tagging and bookmarking the site with digg, del.i.cious, stumble upon etc etc.

Reminds me a bit of the million pound gallery site developed a few years ago. At least this one's for charity though.

Now, what word to buy for my other half for Christmas ...

Social Media for Business - one day training programmes

2008-11-03T09:50:00.002Z

We're launching two one-day training programmes to help businesses understand how they can use social media tools to enhance their marketing and PR activities online for free or very little cost. Both will be held at Warwick HRI's conference centre in Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. The first is on 5 December, and the next on 16 January.

Click here for more information.

When you start thinking in 'tweets' is it time to worry?

2008-10-27T11:06:00.003Z

When I was 14 years old I took part in a fairly typical school exchange trip, staying with Carola Herman and her lovely family in a small town just outside Frankfurt, Germany. I was three years into learning to speak German at the time, but a couple of hours a week at school and no previous exposure to native German-speakers meant that my language skills weren't up to much. I stumbled my way through the week able to understand much of what they said to me, but struggling to communicate back. So focussed on trying to speak the lingo, a few days into the trip I found myself unable to think in English. If I couldn't think what I wanted to think in German, I couldn't think at all. A very frustrating and bizarre experience.

There's something about immersing yourself in a culture with such vigor that means you inevitably end up thinking in terms of that culture too. And so, as I was driving along this morning and thinking about the day ahead, I realised that I was thinking in 'tweets' - that is to say, every one of my thoughts had to be 140 characters or less, or I would be thinking about how I would communicate this or that on Twitter. At regular Friday afternoon pub sessions with friends we've also giggled to ourselves about how you stop thinking about people with their real names and start thinking about them and referring to them as their Twitter alias instead. Even my fiance is at times no longer Nathan, but instead @NZMorris. I think there should be a medical name for this condition - twitteritis?

An apology to my blog (look what I've been up to!)

2008-10-25T12:16:00.005+01:00

I'm afraid I've been ignoring you, my beloved blog. It isn't that I've fallen out of love with you, it's just I've been a little distracted lately. I'm afraid, dear blog, that I have been playing away a little. At the beginning of this week I created a new social network on Ning for communications and marketing professionals working in the Higher Education sector. HE Comms has been so much more popular in its first week that I ever dreamt it would be, so I've been spending time building on it and further developing it in a bid to spread and retain that initial interest. And, yes, I have also been blogging on HE Comms. It's not the end of our relationship, my dearest lovely blog, but I just need to share my time equally and work out what I post here and what I post directly to HE Comms. You're part of HE Comms too, and feature on the 'other blogs' feed, so don't feel too left out. Who knows, perhaps even some of our new friends on HE Comms might come and spend some time with you my little blog. Keep heart, I haven't lost interest.

Letter to PR Week

2008-10-21T10:31:00.003+01:00

Week before last PR Week published an article suggesting that PROs could learn a lot about social media from the US presidential election campaign. Sure, I agree that the candidates are using social media extensively in their campaigns, but I'm not convinced that they're using it particularly well in some cases - Twitter being one such example. So, I wrote a letter to PR Week to say as much, extracts from which were published in Friday's edition. I thought it would be good to post the unedited (albeit restricted to 200 words anyway!) version of my letter here:

Watch but don’t learn from Obama and McCain

Observing the use of digital media in the US election campaign is indeed fascinating. However, I would warn against PROs ‘learning’ from Obama and McCain’s online efforts (News, 10 October). Both campaigns use online media as a one-way communication tool. Their use of Twitter is one example. Obama’s ‘tweets’ tell us nothing more than what rally he is at and where to watch the video. Of the nine tweets made by McCain so far in October, seven of them merely provide links to the latest ads.

Both camps are failing to maximise the true value of social media: community and conversation. They can use social media as a listening tool, and certainly are using it to enable Joe Public to endorse their campaign, but they should also be using it for real conversation that they participate in. Through platforms like Twitter you want to know that it is the man himself busily tweeting on his blackberry between speeches and meetings, not someone hired in to churn out impersonal announcements. PROs could learn far more from the latest celebrity ‘tweeter’ @stephenfry.

International PR - focus on India

2008-10-07T11:21:00.003+01:00

Some of my readers may recall that back in February I chaired a CIPR Education & Skills sector group panel discussion on international PR. Following that event I blogged about the ethics of engaging with PR 'norms' in particular countries (specifically in China) and how easily this sits with a UK perspective of PR conduct. This blog post was also converted into a shorter article for ConnectEd, the newsletter of the CIPR Education & Skills Sector group.

Today the headline 'Why do PR people pamper the media?' posted by @IndiaPRBlog on Twitter grabbed my attention. This blog post, written by Vikas Kumar provides an interesting insight into the practice of gifting journalists to get them to cover your story or event. I thought my readers might be interested to read this too, particularly in light of earlier posts.

THE headline guided by student blogger

2008-10-04T13:11:00.003+01:00

It's a rather miserable looking Saturday today so I'm sticking indoors for now, instead choosing to catch up on reading this week's Times Higher Education (THE). There's a great example here of new media influencing traditional media, and showing that what gets said on a blog - even just a passing comment - can influence one's reputation on a wider scale.

The article, introducing the new Chief Executive of the BBSRC, Professor Douglas Kell, is delightfully headlined 'New BBSRC chief "Olympic gold medallist" of research'. Great headline for the BBSRC and Professor Kell, hey? However, the really interesting thing from my point of view is that the headline was influenced by a simple statement on a student blog:

If research were an olympic sport, the new chief executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) would win gold for "weightlifting with citations", at least according to one online blogger.

The article goes on to mention how Professor Kell engaged with the discussions on the blog that ensued, thus showing him to be 'keen to engage with students, colleagues and the wider public'.

I think this says a lot about journalism when the source that influences their headline is a student blog, but it also speaks volumes about Professor Kell himself. Go Professor Kell! Let's hope more academic leaders can be celebrated for engaging with publics in this manner.

How are journalists using new media?

2008-10-03T12:08:00.002+01:00

My approach to using new and social media as a PR tool is to forget about everything that traditional PR approaches might have taught us (well, perhaps not everything, but many things) and view it as something altogether very very different from media relations. Never sending a press release designed for a journalist to a blogger is a good example of this.

I thrive on the fact that new and social media generates opportunities to communicate direct to key stakeholders without having to hope that a journalist will pick up your story and run with it. However, I often get asked how PR folks can use new media to enhance their traditional media relations aproaches, particularly how new media can help them engage more effectively with journalists. This morning an interesting insight popped up on my Twitter feed.

I follow (follow - not stalk!) a few journalists on Twitter. A particularly prolific 'tweeter' is Joanna Geary from the Birmingham Post. This morning she tweeted about the order in which she checks on everything when she gets into work every day. I thought it provided a particularly interesting insight into a technically-savvy journalist's communication preferences. Here's the order in which she says she checks things, check-out the high prority she gives to online communities:

Personal email

RSS Reader

Twitter

Facebook

Work Email

I suspect that many journalists aren't as 'into' new media as Joanna is, but this is an interesting insight nevertheless. Many thanks for sharing this with us Joanna!

Blog rebuttal unit? You're asking for trouble!

2008-10-03T09:30:00.003+01:00

I used the rare opportunity earlier this week while travelling on the train into London not to switch the laptop on (I did that on the way back to start writing this post) but instead to read last week’s issue of PR Week. It goes without saying that the word ‘blogosphere’ plastered on the front page aroused my interest. Interest, that is, and concern.

Now, it could well be the case that it’s all in the way it’s reported, and if that’s the case then perhaps PR Week need to develop their understanding of how social media is changing the way in which we must got about PR, but I couldn’t help the sharp intake of breath and inkling of disgust at the news that ‘the Labour Party is exploring plans for an online rapid rebuttal unit, designed to kill off damaging stories circulating in the blogosphere’. Rebuttal unit! Kill off! What kind of PR is this? Certainly not the kind that is conducive to successful engagement with bloggers.

I’m sensing the bloggers reactions now. The thing about the ‘blogosphere’ is that you can’t just kill stories off. This is the world of social media and communities and if a PR person steps in and makes any attempt at trying to ‘kill off’ a community contribution, then out roar will follow.

PR Week’s comparison of this new unit to ‘Labour’s famous Excalibur unit, which was successfully used to kill negative stories by Tory-supporting newspapers in the run-up to the 1997 general election’ verges on the absurd. The way in which we approach the press and approach bloggers and other online communities is not one and the same thing. The PR industry needs to know this otherwise negative stories in the blogosphere could be made even worse by PR intervention. I expect that Derek Draper, the former lobbyist allegedly appointed to lead on this initiative, already knows this, but here are a few thoughts on how they should approach negative online stories as a starter for ten:

• Be proactive, not reactive. If a political party wants a positive online image then engaging with online communities at an early stage is key. Become part of those communities and have online dialogue with them on an ongoing basis, don’t just ‘pop up’ when something negative is said.

• If ‘reacting’ to something said online, do so through a key figure in the party and not just through a spokesperson. Make sure that you are seen to engage in the conversation and not simply try to ‘rebut’ what is being said.

• Be human and personable in your responses and approach, not simply tolling the party line.

• Never EVER send a blogger a blanket press release. The nature of blogging is for people to write about what they want to write, not what you want them to write.

• Do your research with bloggers. Actually read their work and try to understand them before making any approach. Don't presume you understand them from reading one or two posts.

• Be wary of trying to ‘bribe’ bloggers with gifts and free lunches. Serious bloggers are sceptical people and probably more likely to expose your tricks to sway them towards your message, than actually write what you want them to write.

• Produce social media guidelines for party members. If any of them are prolific bloggers themselves, or engaging with online social communities, then you need to make sure they’re not saying anything or behaving in any way online that is likely to send out a negative message about the party. This doesn’t mean telling them what to say, but instead guides their behaviour online to make sure they’re not overly reactive to negative stories, potentially making the situation worse.

A fantastic touch for an opening event ...

2008-10-02T17:00:00.002+01:00

I was at the University of Warwick this morning with a former colleague and friend of mine having a catch-up and gossip over a coffee. She was telling me a little about some of the PR efforts that she has been making recently in the Warwick Manufacturing Group. Most notable was the opening of the International Digital Lab at the end of July. She mentionned a 'special touch' to the event that I thought was so brilliant that I just had to share it on the blog as an example of best practice.

The Digital Lab is all about technology and the future. So, it hardly seems fitting to have images of the Prime Minister cutting yet another ribbon, right? So, instead of following in tradition, Zoë set the wheels in motion for a ribbon-cutting with a digital twist. With just a week to go before the launch, and the news that Gordon Brown would be formally opening the building being kept under wraps, Zoe managed to persuade some of her colleagues to design a virtual ribbon cutting ceremony. So instead of there being an actual ribbon, there is a screen and the PM 'virtually' cuts the ribbon. I love it. It's so appropriate for the building's purpose. You can see images of this on the International Digital Laboratory website. Nice touch, hey?

Only make a PR effort when you're prepared to receive the response

2008-09-22T13:24:00.005+01:00

As an avid reader of the Mashable blog and a communications professional working largely with the Higher Education sector, I was quite interested to see the recent Startup Review of Unigo 'a free online platform for college students to share their opinions, photos, videos and documents'.

It's important that I keep aware of sites like this given that I work so closely with universities, and it's always good to see if any of these have the potential to migrate to the UK. So, I clicked on the link to take a peek at the site and was greeted with a pop-up asking me for a username and password. Now, not only has this site had excellent coverage through Mashable, but according to some of the commments, it appears they have also appeared in the New York Times Magazine. So, why oh why would anyone get such great publicity and mess it up by having a site that doesn't work just when thousands of people will attempt to visit it? I couldn't resist but to express my opinions through the mashable blog post and my own blog.

There's a key message here, and a real fundamental of good communications and PR practice, that if you are going to get some great publicity (and good on them for getting such great mentions) you really need to have everything else in place to back that up, such as a website that actually works otherwise all of that publicity will just go straight down the drain. Such a pity.

Ofsted should be congratulated for their committment to communications, not criticised for it

2008-09-17T17:51:00.007+01:00

Ofsted have come under criticism today for spending around £400,000 per year on salaries for PR staff. I was somewhat enraged by the BBC's report firstly for the continued negative perceptions of the PR industry, but more so for a) criticising an organisation for showing a committment to communicating well with its stakeholders and b) failing to take into account the fact that many other government departments spend considerably more money than this by outsourcing PR services to expensive city agencies. I think Ofsted should be applauded for developing a strong in-house communications team.

The criticisms hit home with what regular readers of this blog will know to be one of my pet-hates - the continued perception that 'PR' is just about press and media. The BBC online article quotes Mark Wallace:

Mark Wallace, campaign director of the alliance, said: "Who could possibly think, 'we've got nearly half a million to spend on education - let's spend it on Ofsted press officers'?

"It's obscene. Shocking. If the government's got half a million to spend on education it should go on schools or teachers' pay not PR men. OK maybe they need one or two press officers - but 12?

Firstly, as a woman working in PR it's easy to take issue with the term 'PR men', though that is by the by. What I really take issue with is the assumption that a team of 12 PR people actually means 12 press officers.

So, I delved a little deeper and checked out the job vacancies on Ofsted's website. The communications roles advertised (none paying particularly exciting salaries I might add, particularly at the most senior level - the salary is quite modest for this level role based in London) include press officers, a strategic director, a PA, events managers, intranet developers, internal communications staff and publications professionals. Hardly '12 press officers'.

For an organisation employing 2,700 people spread throughout the UK, with all the associated difficulties of having a geographically spread workforce, and for an organisation responsible for inspecting education and training services being used by one third of the England population (according to Ofsted's website), a communications team of this size is probably about right, if not a little small given the sheer numbers of stakeholders with whom they are clearly committed to communicating.

I can't help feeling that once again this is just an unfounded criticism of the PR profession and a gross underestimation of the good and essential works that communications and PR professionals actually do. We in the industry need to do more to improve public understanding of what PR actually is and does, and the media need to start understanding that their own encounters with PR through press officers sending them press releases is not the entire industry. The guy or gal that swipes your card at the cash desk when you pay for your petrol is not, after all, the only person representing the oil industry, so why do people think that press officers are the only people in the PR industry?

Blog vacation is over ... though social media vacation didn't even begin

2008-09-17T17:51:00.003+01:00

Hello my dear readers. Apologies for the little gap in posting to this blog over the past couple of weeks. Having signed off on a number of successful projects towards the end of August, I took two weeks out to spend a little time in Mexico. Boy could we learn a lot from the Mexican's in this country about customer service. And knowing the power of new media and how people can and will use it to say bad things about hotels, etc, I couldn't wait to get back to right some of the wrongs that I had read on Trip Advisor about our hotel.

One of the most striking things for me from the holiday though (with the exception of releasing newly hatched turtles into the sea, swimming with sea lions, scuba diving during a storm at night, bathing in the warm Pacific ... sorry, I digress) was the way in which new and, particularly, social media changes the way that we behave on holiday. We announced our safe arrival with text messages back home, I 'tweeted' (just to make the folks in grey, rainy England envious of course) on the blackberry from the beach or out at sea, and instead of writing a good old fashioned postcard we created a PowerPoint presentation with some of the photos (thank goodness for digital cameras and small laptops) with the aim of sharing it with everyone via SlideShare. SlideShare failed me on this occassion, so instead I uploaded a pile of photos onto facebook using the hotel's wifi connection and emailed everyone the link. So, for those thinking that I'm sad for taking my blackberry and laptop on vacation with me, please don't - it was great to be able to share with my friends and family the wonderful time I was having. Isn't social media great?

Marketing and PR professionals - please get the basics right!

2008-08-28T17:14:00.002+01:00

I thought I'd just share with my readers a little letter that I have just sent to another PR/Marketing company in response to an unsolicited marketing mailing that they sent me. I usually receive these kind of mailings warmly and with respect to the sender, but this person got the basics so wrong, that here is my response:

Dear Tony

You recently sent Pickle Jar Communications a letter introducing some of the broadcast services that you provide. You began your letter with the words ‘I know unsolicited mail can be a pain ...’. I am sorry to say that in this instance your letter was considerably more of a pain than unsolicited marketing mail usually is.

In fact, I normally receive marketing materials from other companies and show my respect for the time they have taken to write to me by reading the information and making a decision as to whether it is something I am interested in or not. I rarely discard such mailings without looking at them, instead treating them in the same way that I would hope my own marketing materials would be treated.

Your mailing, however, served only to waste my time. You made the very simple mistake of not putting enough postage on your letter which meant that instead I received a note from Royal Mail informing me that there was a letter awaiting me in the local sorting office for which I needed to pay an additional £1.15 because the sender did not pay adequate postage.

Not knowing what the letter was, and equally thinking it could be something important, I took the time out of my day to drive to the sorting office, pay the additional postage and collect the item. I’m sure you can imagine how annoyed I was to see that my efforts were purely for a piece of direct marketing mail.

I would really hope that a fellow PR and marketing professional would know better than to annoy a potential customer by making such a simple mistake. As such, I now enclose my invoice to claim back from you the cost of postage, half an hour of my time in lost earnings, and the mileage to collect this letter from the sorting office.

Yours sincerely

Tracy Playle MCIPR
Director, Pickle Jar Communications Ltd

Very useful visual guide for how Broadcast PR people need to rethink PR

2008-08-14T13:37:00.002+01:00

I know I am always banging on about how PR people need to rethink this and rethink that, but today David Cushman has posted a really useful presentation on slideshare that really helps PR people to visualise the differences and challenges them to find ways to engage with what he calls 'P2PR' (I like this expression, might adopt it myself!). Seeing as the embed tag is available on his presentation, here it is:

From broadcast PR to P2PR

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: new networks)

New Handy Guide: Corporate Blogging

2008-08-13T18:26:00.001+01:00

We've just created a new Handy Guide, though this time it's in the form of a slidecast. This is designed as an introduction for companies thinking about trying to engage with blogs or create their own corporate blog as a means of raising their profile or communicating with their stakeholders.

Handy Guide: Corporate Blogging

View SlideShare presentation (tags: blogging communications pr)

A little video of our 1st Birthday party

2008-08-08T14:51:00.003+01:00

I've decided to play around with Animoto again this time to make a little compilation video of photos from our 1st Birthday party:

What has been keeping us so quiet?

2008-08-08T10:55:00.003+01:00

I promised in a blog post the other day that I would update you all on what we've been up to lately and what has been keeping us too busy to blog (not that there's ever really any excuse not to blog of course!).

Firstly, we were called up about six weeks ago by the University of Warwick asking us to write and oversee the design process for two of their new induction publications for the students arriving in September. Your First Weeks is a guide that takes the students through what they need to do before and after they arrive at Warwick, and what's available to them once they arrive in terms of events and induction sessions, societies and clubs, etc. The challenge with this document was to, for the first time, provide concise information to students in an engaging way with consistent tone and style throughout. The second document is the Student Handbook, a less exciting document by its very nature but a necessity. The challenge with this one was to produce something that the students would actually read and something that they would keep with them throughout the year. We prepared the copy for both documents, liaising with key contacts at the University to pull it all together, and then worked with Paul Dibbens of Mustard Design to oversee the design process and get the documents ready for print. Anyone following us on Twitter will have seen all the different phases we were at with this. Both documents are now at the printers and are being sent out to students next week.

That's not all. We were also called in to Alexon International (a large ladies-wear retailer) to help them announce the appointment of their new CEO to 5,000 staff. We proposed conducting an interview with their new CEO Jane McNally to ensure that staff could see she was motivated, keen to drive the business forward with a clear vision, but also personable and human! Again working with Mustard Design, we produced a 2-page document that is now being sent out to all staff. In truth, my preference for a communication like this, given how personable Jane actually is, would have been to record a podcast so that staff could also hear her tone of voice and hear her enthusiasm directly. However, access to technology can't be guaranteed with this company and we didn't want to alienate staff who didn't have PC access.

Finally (not all our work but our next big project) we were asked by the Open University to work with them to produce a video for staff. The video is to help staff who are not based at the headquarters in Milton Keynes to understand what happens on that campus, and also for new starters who will be working at the Walton Hall (HQ) campus to understand what is available there to them. Working with @Warblefly Productions, we filmed this project this week and are now in the post-production phase.

Celebrating a year of creative communications

2008-08-07T13:08:00.006+01:00

Yesterday evening we celebrated Pickle Jar Communications' 1st Birthday at The Earlsdon Cottage. We always receive excellent customer service from The Cottage but this time they excelled themselves and went that extra mile by fulfilling our quirky request to serve our guests jars of pickles, and labelling those jars up with the PJC logo without us even asking them to. Very sweet of them. A big thank you must also go to Creative Balloons of Earl Street, Coventry, who provided and delivered our corporate-coloured helium balloons with less than 24 hours notice.

Lots of bubbly was flowing as we celebrated a year of success with friends, colleagues and family. A big thank you to everyone that attended and all the messages of congratulations and best wishes that we received from those who weren't able to join us this time. Here's to another successful year ahead!

Photographs from the evening can be viewed on our facebook page.

Party Pickle Video

2008-08-05T21:11:00.003+01:00

Just been playing with animoto to see if I can create a short video for the Pickle Jar Communications first birthday party tomorrow. The challenge is to see how the high res dvd version works (if at all) on a large plasma screen. I expect it will struggle, but good for online versions.

Bringing the genius of Wilkes University to a UK audience

2008-08-04T06:11:00.004+01:00

I attended a Higher Education External Relations Association (HEERA) meeting week before last as a representative of the CIPR's Education and Skills group. They were chatting about different events that they might put on. Having recently become aware of Wilkes University's highly targetted advertising campaign that ran in Spring 2007, I mentioned this to them as an interesting case study for a conference session. It seems that none of the marketeers at the table had heard about this campaign, so I thought it worth putting a blog post up here with the link through to this New York Times article about the campaign. Personally, I think this is very daring and a genius approach: a clever marketing campaign that is so clever that the PR value it generated as a consequence is probably worth more to them than the actual marketing!

Funny cartoon - death of the tag cloud

2008-08-04T06:06:00.001+01:00

Goodness me, it has been over two weeks since my last post! My have I been a busy bunny of late. More on that soon, but I thought I'd just doing a very quick post this morning while I am suffering insomnia induced by a tickly cough that seems to be building in my throat. Just been browsing back through ReadWriteWeb's blog posts and saw this fab cartoon on the death of tag clouds. Very funny.

Svlendid!

2008-07-18T10:30:00.004+01:00

I have to say that Derek Williams' audacious PR stunt to continue his career as a Sven-Goran Eriksson lookalike is fantastic. How funny? Relatively harmless, but risky enough to earn him front-page coverage on the papers this morning. When done well, PR stunts can really pay off and I have no doubt that Mr Williams' lookalike career will now continue to flourish even though the former England football manager is no longer working in the UK. And for what cost? A flight to Mexico, a couple of nights in a hotel and probably a small fee for the two glamorous ladies dangling off each arm to complete the look. You can't buy front-page advertising for that kind of investment!

Bizarre Viral

2008-07-18T09:12:00.003+01:00

This has to be one of the more bizarre viral videos I have seen in a little while, but allegedly the 'Will it blend?' series has become quite a hit! This video alone has had almost 850,000 views on YouTube at the time of creating this blog post and it's only been out there for a few days. All brand awareness for the iPhone I guess, not that they really need it at the moment! A nice bit a fun for a Friday blog post:

What an addictive corporate gift!

2008-07-17T16:10:00.004+01:00

I've been clearing out my office a little today and have been sorting through a box of my other half's belongings that came from his old office before he moved job. In amongst this box was one of the best corporate giveaways I have ever seen. It's a little block broken down into a number of blocks that you can fold out and reshape - a little like a clever stress toy. On the different faces of the blocks are images representing the company, their logo and web address. I am going to steal this from my other half as I think it's very addictive and he won't miss it! Here's a little (rather ropey quality, I admit) video of the block in action:

Useful overview to social media

2008-07-17T12:51:00.002+01:00

I know I bang on probably far too much about Twitter on this blog, but it is such a great source of useful info and links to resources. Here is another one that was flagged up recently by one of the very interesting people that I follow, Drew B from Hotwire (hope I got that right!). It is a slide show produced by one of their clients giving an overview and some useful stats about social media. I like the simplicity of this:

| View | Upload your own

Animoto

2008-07-10T12:02:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Paul Bradshaw (twitter.com/paulbradshaw) who I follow on Twitter, I learned this morning about a new slideshow service called Animoto. This is amazing. It's a wonderful substitute for anyone that wants a video on their website but can't afford the thousands of pounds that a video will cost.

Basically all you do is upload a selection of still images to the site, select a music track (they have a library of licence-free tracks for you to choose from) and the site does the work for you. I had a little play around using my rabbit photos (why not?) and here is what it created. This took about 20 mins to upload the photos and about 10 mins for the video to be created. I hadn't edited the photos or anything, so this is a real rough-and-ready attempt. Imagine what you can do with a little more effort.

I was then very easily able to put it on facebook (just the click of a button takes you straight through) and get the html code for embedding it in this blog post.

I will certainly be buying the commercial licence for using this site to create a little promo real for Pickle Jar Communications, and perhaps even offering this as a service to our clients. It is just wonderful!

A PR Beast of a Feast

2008-07-08T13:18:00.003+01:00

As I sat with my other half yesterday evening watching Channel 4 news I couldn't help but comment on how inappropriate it seemed that the news item reporting on G8 leaders discussing food shortages should be accompanied by cutaway shots of said G8 leaders sitting down to dinner. It was therefore no surprise when The Guardian dropped on my doorstep this morning to see as front page news the incongruous G8 feasting and the leading subject of conversation of the day being hailed as hypocrisy on the part of the G8 summit.

As ever when I see items on the news or making the front pages, I always think about the PR people working for the various organisations behind the stories or battling with them. Sometimes I inwardly congratulate and even envy them at times for pulling off such great publicity. Sometimes I pity them. Sometimes I get angry at them. This time, however, I just can't see how they could possibly win! If I were asked to organise an event to which 8 of the guests were going to be the leaders of some of the most powerful countries in the world, you can bet your bottom dollar that I would be recruiting top chefs to provide a sumptuous feast for them! However, if knowing that on that same day they would be discussing a global food crisis you would see a certain irony on putting on such a feast. So how do you win? There's a cultural difference at stake here too - the difference between what we might consider to be a feast in the UK and what the Japanese consider to be a feast. Is eight courses really that uncommon in Japan? I served five courses to guests in my little two-bedroom Coventry terrace house on Saturday evening.

I therefore pity the PR person who might have had any say in this. On the one hand the annual gathering of eight of the most powerful people in the world is something to celebrate and ought to be celebrated in style, on the other hand if they're discussing food shortages then only the most modest of dinners (or better still perhaps no food at all) was really going to keep people happy. I think perhaps with a budget of over £200m, perhaps there are some other extravagances of the G8 summit that ought to be looked at instead of the food, but no PR person is going to draw attention to any of those now, are they?

A great example of the power of new media

2008-07-01T22:46:00.004+01:00

I'm working late tonight. Because I'm working late, I'm missing out on a trip to the Coventry Pizza Express with my fiance and a group of our friends. Sounds like a fairly run-of-the-mill Tuesday night, doesn't it? However, there is a story behind this trip to Pizza Express - one which - combined with tonight's activities (and bearing in mind that they are still probably sat in the restaurant as I write this blog post) really demonstrates the power and speed of new media communications.

The background, in a nutshell, is that between us we've all experienced some examples of pretty poor customer service from this restaurant lately, despite the food being great and it being one of only a few places in Coventry city centre that we like going to and that suits all of our tastes. So, my friend Ben wrote this blog post a few days ago as a bit of a whinge about their customer service.

The blog post did the rounds thanks to the power of google and twitter and ultimately resulted in Ben receiving a call from the manager of the restaurant yesterday assuring him of their committment to customer service. So, true to form, the gang have headed over there tonight while I sit here working away.

As I'm working, one of said-gang and an avid Twitterati has posted a message linking through to a video recorded on his phone as they arrived at the restaurant this evening. In less than an hour the video had already been viewed 22 times. In case you can't quite follow, the gist of this is that the operations manager said that we could request to sit upstairs anytime we wanted, but when they've tested this out tonight, they've yet again been denied using the space upstairs (a space which they rarely seem to use even when the restaurant is full, hence the earlier complaints about customer service).

And I've also just received another Tweet from my fiance this time telling me that they've been refused another drink (just to be clear - they won't be drunk or anything at this time - they're just a bunch a nice young professionals with money to spend wanting to have a quiet drink).

What a great example of the power of mobile, video, and social networking, hey? They haven't even left the restaurant and already probably upwards of 30 or 40 people (by time I have also tweeted about this blog post) will be aware of this.

Twitter update: 10 mins after posting this blog
Jake (our talented videographer) says that customer service from the girl that served them tonight has been good - I just thought I ought to add this update to keep it fair to the staff that do deliver good service!

"Green" "Sex" "Cancer" "Secret" "Fat"

2008-07-01T08:06:00.002+01:00

Great article in the NYT yesterday flagged up thanks to a new contact I've added on Twitter.

Need Press? Repeat: ‘Green,’ ‘Sex,’ ‘Cancer,’ ‘Secret,’ ‘Fat’

I don't often blog about more traditional PR approaches, but this is such a great article (though it does confirm what most of us PR peeps know already).

Back in my days as Head of Research-TV we ran several stories to the press on cancer. I remember many of our contacts and clients saying that they wouldn't do these stories anymore because they were tired and overdone, but the message of course is that it isn't they who set the news agenda and if the press are still carrying stories about cancer and you have a good and credible one to tell, then you'd be foolish not to, right?

Universities need to internationalise their approach to social networking

2008-06-23T12:17:00.004+01:00

The news that Facebook has finally launched a Chinese-language version of the site will undoubtedly excite many British universities. China is an important market for recruiting students and developing research partnerships. It is clear that British universities have over the past few years started to get to grips with the opportunities for communications (and dare I say, marketing) through social networking sites. The familiarity in the UK with Facebook and other popular sites such as Bebo and MySpace has encouraged universities and HE colleges to establish a presence in these virtual networks, or at least to monitor them for looming crises. Surely adopting a presence on Facebook's Chinese-language site is just another extension of this approach? Or is it?

I've been wondering over the past few months just how much consideration universities actually give to the international scene in social networking as opposed to thinking purely in terms of social networks that dominate in the UK or western world. For example in Asia Friendster is one of the most popular social networking sites, overshadowing both Facebook and MySpace quite considerably. QQ, Xianonei and 51.com are also dominant in the Asian market but barely heard of in the West. The language barriers make some of these sites inaccessible to the marketeers and communicators working in British universities, but if they are serious about continuing to engage with potential students in Asia, particularly China, then perhaps efforts should also be made to educate ourselves more in social networking spaces dominating other markets. Time is an issue, with many communications departments in British universities already stretched and undoubtedly struggling to keep up with the pace of technological change and online communications. I'd be delighted to lead some research into the potential for marcomms with non-English language social networks if there were a few universities out there that might be interested to get involved and back this.

This recent blog post on Venture Beat gives an insight into Friendster's dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. This post from Read Write Web written in January 2008 might also provide useful background information to anyone looking to explore the social networking phenomenon in China and Asia.

Useful toys for the blog

2008-06-16T13:37:00.003+01:00

I'm always looking for new and useful tools for the blog and by following Paul Bradshaw on Twitter (www.twitter.com/paulbradshaw) I have had introductions to some great resources this morning. Firstly, he linked through to the blog post 60 ridiculously useful tools for your blog or website.

If that wasn't enough, I then also spotted Paul's use of polldaddy.com on his Online Journalism Blog. Polldaddy looks like a rather neat little tool for embedding polls and short surveys (for free using the basic account) in blogs and websites. Certainly one that I'll be thinking of using in future.

Thanks Paul!

Evolution of mobile phones

2008-06-14T12:51:00.002+01:00

Just spotted this video on YouTube showing the evolution of mobile phones since the 80s. Just goes to show how incredible technology is and just how much we've moved on. How many of these handsets have you owned?

Pitching to bloggers

2008-06-10T13:15:00.004+01:00

There has been a great deal of discussion recently about how to pitch to bloggers. Many bloggers are adding PR companies to spam filters in order to stop being pestered by pointless press releases.
I'm currently preparing a new media training session for a client and searching for useful resources to give them. I came across this really great discussion on Matt Haughey's blog about how to pitch to bloggers. Well worth a read.

Crisis Comms Conference - presentations, resources and feedback form now available

2008-06-07T12:52:00.005+01:00

As promised at the CIPR Education & Skills Group Crisis Communications conference (6 June 2008), on behalf of the Group Pickle Jar Communications* has created a web space with all of the presentations from the conference, links to additional materials, and the feedback form for the event. All of this content can be accessed here.

We have also set up the blog post below for delegates (and non-delegates) to share comments and ideas from the conference if they so wish.

*The Director of Pickle Jar Communications, Tracy Playle, is the CIPR Education & Skills Sector Group's Vice Chair and Events Officer hence why we are hosting these resources on our website.

Delegates of the Crisis Comms Conference: Keep Talking

2008-06-07T11:26:00.003+01:00

There were plenty of ideas being shared at the CIPR's Education & Skills Sector Group Crisis Comms Conference this week (TVU, 6 June). As the Events Officer and Vice Chair of the Group, I thought it might be nice to create a space for those conversations to continue if delegates so wish. I therefore invite you all to post comments in response to this blog post as a way of sharing your thoughts on the conference, sharing ideas and asking questions of other delegates. Please go ahead and hijack my blog for this purpose - you are all very welcome!

Crisis Comms conference a success

2008-06-07T10:04:00.002+01:00

I'm back at the desk this morning having been out and about down in London for the past two days. Yesterday, we (we being those of us on the CIPR Education & Skills Sector Group) hosted our crisis communications and new media conference. From previous blog posts, you will know that I was pretty stoked about this conference anyway. However, it exceeded my expectations. Peter Reader, a colleague and friend from the University of Portsmouth, set the conference up excellently with his introduction to crisis communications. Mike Dame from Virginia Tech followed with a presentation of how they handled communications (particularly online) during the shootings on their campus in April 2007 in which 33 people died. I don't think I have ever seen a more focused, engaged audience. We broke for coffee after this session and everyone was very choked and blown-away by the presentation. Alison Arnott followed after coffee. Alison was one of the first media officers on the ground working for BAA when the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport occurred last year. I learned at dinner the night before that this was Alison's first presentation to such an audience. You wouldn't have known it! She was engaging, and her presentation was so personable and well presented that, yet again, we had a room full of focused delegates. Our committee Chair, Emma Leech, followed on by sharing experiences from MMU of a mix-up over exam venues last year, then Tom Abbott took the reigns for a while talking about the tools of the trade. We then ran four scenario sessions for the delegates to explore. Held in the graveyard slot when everybody must have been getting tired and ready to go home, I was amazed at just how animated our delegates still were. I'm really looking forward to seeing the feedback now and will be posting the slides online shortly as promised.

Does anyone know what the 'P' in PR actually stands for?

2008-06-02T16:11:00.004+01:00

I've heard myself over and over again recently explaining to people that aren't particularly familiar with the PR industry that the 'P' in PR stands for 'Public' and not 'Press'. We are not all simply copy-monkeys churning out press releases and trying to win column inches for our clients or employers. Public Relations is exactly as it says on the tin: managing relationships with publics. The media, or more specifically, journalists, might be just one of those publics - one of many I might add!

So, I'm a little disappointed today that Damien McCrystal's article in the Guardian - Don't bite the hand that feeds you - places such emphasis on the media relations role that the PR professional plays. To his credit, he is trying very hard in this article to establish the credibility and the importance of the PR industry in the UK. I applaud him for that and welcome his thoughts and opinion. However, with an industry that has such a poor reputation amongst those that work outside of it, I think we PR professionals should be doing so much more to show the sheer breadth of the work that we do. Yes, relationships with journalists are crucial, but they are not everything. Sadly, to some PR companies and PR Officers they are everything, and their clients and organisations are the worse for it.

I've made a new friend recently. He's an opinionated chap who has moved in with a close friend of mine and thus has joined our social circle. I like him a lot. However, he has made it very clear to me that if we met under any other circumstances than the social circle of which we are part, he would have taken an instant dislike to me. Why? Because I am a 'PR person'. His staunch dislike of PR people is, in my opinion, purely founded on his misunderstanding of the good works that we 'PR people' (or communications professionals, as I prefer to call myself), actually do. We only met a few weeks ago but we've already had several good (and good natured, I might add) debates about the sins of the PR professional. Articles in the popular press that simply reinforce that perception of PR people as column-inch hunters, no matter how well they might try to paint the profession, just don't help us to improve wider perception of our abilities, skills, know-how and contributions to society and industry. We need to do more.

New Handy Guide Published: Get Tweeting

2008-05-27T16:07:00.001+01:00

We have just published a new 'handy guide' to the Pickle Jar Communications website. Get Tweeting looks at the marketing communications opportunities for organisations interested in using Twitter.

Twitter drives traffic to the PJC website

2008-05-24T10:35:00.004+01:00

I keep saying this and I will say it again - I love Twitter. I am a big fan. This week as I was updating the Pickle Jar Communications website, I was twittering about my progress. This was simply done as an update to what we have been upto at PJC - not with the pure intention of driving traffic to the site because I think you have to be very cautious about this kind of approach to micro-blogging. However, I was delighted to take a look at the web stats and see that by simply tweeting about this, I saw the highest ever peak so far in unique visitors to the site. Interesting how something as simple as 140 characters that took 30 seconds at most to publish can make a difference to site traffic.

'Best Answer' on LinkedIn

2008-05-24T10:04:00.004+01:00

I'm delighted. I'm chuffed to bits. I'm estatic ... I'm now an 'expert' on PR on LinkedIn!

If you've been following my blog this week, you might have spotted my post earlier this week pondering just how many questions one should actually answer on LinkedIn. This is because I've began answering questions on LinkedIn in the subject areas that I know best. It's part of my own committment to a) establishing myself and my company as an 'expert' in communications and PR and b) sharing best practice and ideas with other communications and PR professionals, and those engaging with PR, comms and marketing.

So, after answering just a few questions on LinkedIn, I'm somewhat delighted to have had my answer selected as the 'best answer' in a recent question. Then when looking at the question page to see what others had said, I spotted against that this answer gets ranked as 'best answer' in the Change Management category too. Bonus!

I guess what I'm trying to do in this blog post, therefore, is share with you my own journey of how using a service like LinkedIn can help to raise one's profile. In itself, it is a PR/marketing tactic with an altruistic edge.

The outcome of my answer to the PR question is that the person answering the question, Justin Foster of The Tricycle, has also now included my answer in his blog post about the question with a link through to the PJC website (the shiny new PJC website I might add!). It's a great blog post in its own right, so go ahead and take a look.

New Pickle Jar Communications Website Launched

2008-05-22T17:15:00.004+01:00

We're delighted to announce that we launched our new website this week. As with any successful website, we aim for it to be an ever evolving project, but we're happy with the results so far. New features include a Twitter feed (anyone reading this blog for a while will know what a big fan I am!), a feed directly from this blog and a 'handy guides' section where we will be providing guides and resources for communications projects. Our guide to preparing for a broadcast media interview is aready there, as is our video project planning sheet. Do visit the website, take a look around and let us know what you thing. www.picklejarcommunications.com

Just how many questions should you answer on LinkedIn?

2008-05-20T10:43:00.002+01:00

I use LinkedIn fairly regularly as a means of maintaining and extending my professional network. I've also more recently stepped up my activity on there by answering questions that other members of the community post. I've already had one person tell me that they would like to include my answer in their blog along with a link to my blog and my website, so it clearly does have some merit from a marketing point of view, although I'm as much as interested in just sharing best practice where I can.

However, I thought I was pushing it a bit when I answered three questions on there yesterday afternoon. I thought I ought to calm it otherwise I would be viewed as a serial question-answerer!! Then I checked out the rankings for the number of answers other members of the community had given and one guy had answered 144 questions this week alone (it was only Monday!). So, this begs the question as to whether one can overdo it on this. Surely answering that volume of questions (even though many of his answers were short) means you can be spending more time perusing questions on LinkedIn that actually doing any work or following up new, real leads. Is it possible to become addicted?

Spaceman Steve Loves Pickle Jar Communications

2008-05-19T12:09:00.002+01:00

There's no harm in a little bit of silliness on a Monday morning, now, is there?

A good friend of mine has developed his own little 'friend' - Spaceman Steve (don't ask). Spaceman Steve keeps popping up all over the place and this morning, look where he popped up.

It's a novel approach to marketing the business but my friend clearly wanted to show his support for PJC!

Winners of the Fast Forward Challenge

2008-05-15T16:05:00.005+01:00

I recently received the photographs from the Fast Forward challenge final that I managed on behalf of Ideas for Life TV. Just because I'm proud of the teams that took part and proud of pulling this series together, I thought I'd share the picture of the winning team from Woodway Park School along with the judges.

New Challenges, New Opportunities: the role of new media in crisis communications

2008-05-15T14:38:00.004+01:00

In my role as Events Officer for the CIPR Education and Skills Sector Group, I have been organising a conference on the role that new media plays in crisis communications. I am very excited about this conference because we have such a great line up:

- Peter Reader, University of Portsmouth (and all-round crisis comms guru for the HE sector!)
- Michael Dame, Virginia Tech (yes, we're flying him all the way from the States to talk about their horrendous experience in April 2007)
- Tom Abbott, University of Warwick (new media guru and my personal sounding board!)
- Emma Leech, Manchester Metropolitan University (Chair of CIPR Education and Skills Sector Group and boss of a very very new media savvy team!)
- Alison Arnott, Glasgow Caledonian University (the first BAA media officer on the ground at Glasgow Airport when the flaming jeep crashed into the building)

This is going to be a really exciting event, with a good long session for groups of delegates to plan how to deal with crisis situations that we'll be throwing at them - with an added element of surprise!

Further details are available online here.

If anyone would like a booking form, they can email me to request one: tracy@picklejarcommunications.com

A Right Royal Mess

2008-05-15T13:37:00.003+01:00

I had a wry smile to myself today as I read Tariq Tahir's article in the THES, 'The Queen for a Day'.

Reading others' experiences of hosting a royal visit took me back a few years to a former role at the University of Warwick. It's not quite to the scale of Joan Concannon's experience at the University of Dundee, but I'll share my experience anyway ...

Event management was a fairly significant part of my job back then when the Communications Office started receiving calls from the West Midlands High Sheriff's office telling us that the Duke of York would be visiting the University in a few weeks time. Initial reaction seemed to be that this was a hoax. Several calls later everyone began to accept that this was for real and that His Highness would be dropping by for a visit to the University's Science Park. I was quickly drafted onto the organising committee for what was perhaps the most surreal event that I had been involved in organising. Firstly there was the security and deciding where on earth his helicopter should land. Then there was the route, working out which doors to take and timing the visit down to every last second. Then there was the brash academic who needed to be involved in the programme but steadfastly refused to alter his schedule to suit the visit (firm words from the powers-that-be put paid to that). Then, of course, crucially there was the catering (he was stopping in for lunch): a specific brand of bottled water with the caps unopened, and nothing smelly in the sandwiches - strictly no onions or garlic.

Peter, the University's press manager, rightly assumed that the visit wouldn't really attract any press attention but went ahead and invited members of the press anyway as instructed. A few photographers and, if memory serves, Sky News turned up. However, the Duke arrived in the foulest of foul moods, stomped straight past the press and straight into the building. No good coverage that day then!

I spent the initial stages of the visit (while the Duke was being escorted around and presented to by anyone that we had 'guessed' would be of interest to him) dashing around making sure everything was set for lunch and trying to keep the men with the curly wires behind their ears happy! Lunch was hosted in a building with some well-meaning, but over-excited women eager to catch a glimpse of the Prince. The lunch itself felt a little like a wake: very sombre and controlled, with everyone politely munching on quartered sandwiches and sipping tea. By careful manoeuvring I managed to be one of the few people in the room to avoid having to exchange pleasantries with the Prince by pretending to be just too busy making sure everything was running smoothly. That, and hiding behind columns. The thought of having to remember the rules of address, and worse still having to actually do that curtsy for real that I had practised so many times (and that I had had to instruct so many others on) filled me with horror. The suddenly, he was gone. All over. Event disbanded. Not even a celebratory glass of wine and pat on the back as we were acustomed to do at Warwick after a successful event. As I say, it was a surreal day but I understand no where near as surreal as the Presidential visit that Warwick hosted back in 2000. My former colleagues have anecdotes galore from that event - but that's their story to tell (although my personal favorite is the colleague who responded to someone lightly tapping on their shoulder only to turn around face-to-face with Sir Trevor McDonald politely saying that he had lost his ticket and would it still be okay for him to go into the main hall - bless!).

PS Okay, so my title of this blog post is a little unfair - it wasn't really a 'mess' - but I wanted something snappy and it seemed like fun!

Creating good podcasts

2008-05-13T13:14:00.003+01:00

I love reading updates from Mashable - the social networking blog - and their posts often provide content for my own blog posts for all the right reasons. Sadly, though, today they're forming a blog post for all the wrong reasons. I decided while grabbing a quick bite to eat this lunchtime to delve into their post 'For the Love of Podcasting' and listen to a few of their podcasts. I was really disappointed. I can see they're aiming for a certain style and tone to these podcasts, but the attention to the quality of production is poor. The introduction is rushed, the sound quality is very bad, they don't tell you (from what I can see) how long each podcast is, and the presenter doesn't sound particularly well prepared. This is such a pity because the content should actually be quite good, and is certainly appealing, but the quality really put me off of listening beyond the first 30 seconds or so of each one that I launched.

So, while podcasts are a form of communications that you can produce yourselves, there are a few basic tricks really worth following in order to make them just that little bit more friendly on your listeners' ears:

be prepared for your podcast. Have a plan (this doesn't have to be a script - in fact, it's sometimes better if it isn't scripted) of what you are going to say and what you might ask the person you are interviewing
check correct pronounciations of names, and check job titles of the interviewee before you begin recording
always log the length of the podcast for your listeners to know just how much time they need to put aside to listening to this
slow down your speech just a little so that what you are saying is clear
wherever possible, conduct interviews face-to-face. Using a telephone line isn't ideal but it can be okay if face-to-face or ISDN interviews just aren't possible
invest in decent recording equipment
edit your podcast. It's well worth spending just a little time cutting out some of those ums and ahs or even full questions and answers that just haven't quite worked to make the podcast flow better
CIPR members should also check out Karen Ainley's guide to podcasting for PR in the member area of the CIPR website (under PR guides).

Blocking PR 'spam'

2008-05-12T20:44:00.002+01:00

It's funny that as a PR professional I rarely see any pitch that I deliver to a journalist or blogger for that matter as 'spam'. This is because I always do my homework and would only send a release to a journalist or blogger who are writing about the same subject area that the release is in. However, this blog post today shows just how annoying some PR agencies are potentially being in their approach to bloggers. So much so that people are beginning to develop spam filters to specifically block emails from particular PR agencies. Ouch! You really wouldn't want to be on that blacklist.

Interestingly, I also received an alleged 'press release' into my own inbox today. Slightly bizarre given that I'm a PR professional. I'm used to sending them, not receiving them. I don't quite know how I received this one or why I was on their mailing list. Maybe they found me through my blog and thought I might give them a mention. Basically, it's for a new website about eco-living, from what I can see. However, the press release is just so bad for the following reasons that I just don't think they deserve a mention:

It was sent as a pdf attachment (strong rule of good PR - don't send unsolicited attachments!)
The covering email was not personalised - pure laziness (or sign of bulk emails)
The alleged 'press release' provided me with hardly any information
It felt and looked far more like an advert than a press release.

Multimedia PR flying high

2008-04-29T23:02:00.002+01:00

Scott Berinato's post, Delta-Northwest Create the Press Release of the Future, on the Harvard Conversation Starter blog highlights an exemplary use of a micro-site for PR purposes. In my mind this is a great example of a multimedia release. Clear thought has been given to the stakeholders and communicating direct with key groups (staff, customers, communities), but this is also coupled with an excellent news centre with extensive quotes, web videos available for use, broadcast-quality video clips available to access, audio clips for download, and a great selection of images too. This is a great example of best practice for such issues, and one that really isn't difficult to replicate by other organisations with a bit of foresight and a modest budget - it really need not cost a lot of money, and I expect many organisations would see significant return for investing in a site like this for certain issues.

A real tweet for PROs

2008-04-29T18:07:00.004+01:00

Just following on from my recent Twitter addiction, here's a great post today from Mashable on how to monitor 'tweets' and use them to manage your brand.

Let's consider the application of this, for example, for a university. Say a prospective student tweets that they're trying to find information on a particular course, or trying to find something out about your university. Perhaps that piece of information isn't readily available online, or it is available but well hidden. That university could then respond by either quickly putting the relevant piece of information up on their site, and provide a link back to the person who tweeted in the first place, or by supplying the link to that person. Surely this is just basic social media monitoring that all universities and similar organisations should be doing, but perhaps don't yet have the time and resources to manage.

A del.icio.us solution!

2008-04-28T14:52:00.001+01:00

Really useful blog post here on how the Missouri University of Science and Technology are using del.icio.us to help them evaluate online coverage of their brand.

Twittering away

2008-04-28T14:25:00.003+01:00

I've been prompted to think a lot about Twitter today.

Firstly, there's a great post on how Twitter can be used by journalists on ReadWriteWeb today. Really insightful article that I think shows the next step that journalism might take. Firstly journalism had to take the step from print to online, then from merely linear one-way online communication to blogs, and now from interactive 2-way communications to multiple-platform communications. Could this be the end of the 'article' as we know it? Instead journalism and articles as such might span across multiple platforms instead of being a single piece of copy on a single page.

Then I followed a link through from one of the comments to a nice little article on Marketing Vox on how to use Twitter to Build Brand Integrity. This got me thinking about the education sector in particular and how Vice Chancellors of universities, many of whom have been reluctant to engage with blogs, could instead use Twitter as a means of communicating with their students, giving themselves a 'presence' on campus even when they're not physically there, and giving them and their institutions a more friendly face.

Finally I came back to thinking about potential uses for Twitter for Crisis Communications again. At the CIPR Education & Skills Sector Group we're currently putting the final touches to a conference on crisis comms and new media. I'm working with one of the speakers to help develop a 'how to' session, and I think we need to do a step-by-step walk through of Twitter for our audience. This one is a no-brainer as far as I am concerned.

Now I just need to decide the best use of Twitter for PJC! I've been a little slow with keeping it updated so far but am sure I'll pick up momentum soon.

Just a nice, innocent viral marketing video

2008-04-23T11:48:00.004+01:00

I rather like this viral marketing video doing the rounds from HP, so just thought I would share it even further. Really is the key to viral marketing videos - keep it simple, clever, entertaining, fun and something that makes you smile and want to share with others. This does the trick ... and my post is evidence of that.

Stitcher

2008-04-17T14:58:00.003+01:00

This just might be genius.

US-based company Stitcher are launching a customisable radio facility for use on mobile phones. Initially being rolled out on the iPhone, the player will allow you to syndicate audio content that you want to listen to - a bit like an RSS reader for audio, I guess. Quite rightly so they're pitching this at commuters, offering them a way of getting digests from their favorite audio content sources back to back while on the move. Check out the 'about' section on their site, and also read the Mashable blog article about this.

Daytime delights

2008-04-17T14:44:00.004+01:00

Apologies for the little absence from the blog over the past few days. I've been poorly for a few days and, unable to stare at the computer screen without feeling nauseous (nothing to do with the content, purely to do with feeling ill, I might add). So, I've had my feet up and been off-and-on enjoying the delights of daytime TV. I thought I'd just share my top 3 daytime TV observations/moments from the past few days:

The home makeover show where a man had painted his 3-year old daughter's bedroom the same colour (all over) as the Pickle Jar Communications logo. The 'stylist' referred to it (in Canadian accent) as 'advocado barf' (barf as in 'puke' not 'bath'). Perhaps not so good for a 3-year old girl's room, but, hmmm, where can I buy some for PJC HQ?!
The fact that on 'Bargain Hunt', the programme where two teams have to buy items that then get sold on at auction, seems to celebrate people making a loss! I forced myself (forced, I tell you) to watch 3 or 4 episodes of this bizarre gem of British TV and not once did any of the teams make a profit or break-even. Boy did they celebrate their loss-making wins! What a great way to teach out-of-work people great business practice - make a loss and get a big pat on the back and told how well you have done. I think they need to bring Alan Sugar in to guest host an episode or two.
Trevor Williams, Chief Economist for Lloyds TSB on the lunchtime BBC news on Monday wearing the narrowest vertical stripes in just about every direction he could. I really need to get my hands on this clip for my 'What to Wear' sections of my 'Working with Broadcast Media' training sessions. Not good for the nauseous viewer though.

Facebook Chat

2008-04-07T15:26:00.003+01:00

Facebook have announced the launch of Facebook Chat, the instant messaging service for facebook users to communicate with their friends logged on to their profiles. I have to express a few reservations, however, about this new service.

First and foremost, I'm already a fairly avid user of Windows Live Messenger. I have a handful of contacts set up and that's about manageable. These tend to be fairly close friends or colleagues. For me facebook serves a completely other purpose - keeping in touch with people that I'm not necessarily likely to have (or want) daily or even weekly conversations with. As such, I'm not entirely seeing the point of Facebook Chat. I can understand why they have done it, and admit that I may well change my mind in a few months time once I have a go, but for now I remain a little unsure.

Be Patient

2008-04-06T10:18:00.003+01:00

Do 'patients' exist any more in the UK health and social care sector? I've been out of the office for most of this week working on a video project for the health, social and child care sector and not one of the people working in health care were allowed to refer to the people that they work with (or on behalf of) as 'patients'. Instead, they are referred to as 'service users', 'clients' and 'customers'. Yes, I appreciate that the NHS wants to foster a culture of 'customer service', and rightly so too, but what's so wrong with the word 'patient'?

What a clog!

2008-04-01T13:20:00.004+01:00

Julia Finch reports in today's Guardian of yesterday's drop in share prices at Tesco being largely the consequence of a little too much information provided in Simon Uwins' 'Fresh & Easy' blog. According to Finch, traders blamed yesterday's drop in share price by 11.25p on Uwins' blog post of 26 March, Pausing for Breath at Fresh & Easy. Tricky one from a communications point of view. Uwins is suggesting in his post that the reason they are slowing down the new openings of new stores (or 'taking a break') is to allow them time to listen to customer feedback and respond or make the relevant changes. Good PR practice on the one hand. In fact, excellent PR practice following the correct 2-way communications, feedback, revision, rollout cycle. Perhaps not such good PR practice from a business point of view though if his post genuinely did assist in the fall of the share price. What a lovely case study for a PR student somewhere to take a look at! Hint: there might be something slightly amiss at stage 3 of Cutlip, Center and Brooms' PR planning cycle in this case study.

Digital Media for Business

2008-04-01T11:29:00.004+01:00

As part of the work we've been doing for Ideas for Life TV, we were recently involved in a conference on digital media for business hosted at Alton Towers (18 March). Working with Ember Regis, we interviewed the key speakers from the event. Two of them were specifically speaking about how digital media can be used to communicate science and can be used by business. Both videos are available below. The first features Magic Lantern Chief Executive, Anthony Lilley, while the second is an interview with Adam Rutherford, online editor for Nature.

Social networking in Asia

2008-03-30T19:06:00.002+01:00

Spotted the link to this on ReadWriteWeb and thought it worth including here. Pity that the presentation doesn't have audio, but the slides do largely speak for themselves.

| View | Upload your own

Video production for PARD programme at WMG

2008-03-29T14:13:00.005Z

Pickle Jar Communications was contracted earlier this year by WMG at the University of Warwick to oversee the production of a video promoting the successes of the various projects within the Premium Automotive Research and Development (PARD) programme. We worked with @Warblefly Productions, Eight Eyed Sea Bass and Mustard Design to co-ordinate the final package - a 20 minute video and DVD packaging with 2000 copies supplied. Our colleagues at Eight Eyed Sea Bass have kindly popped the video online, and we are able to embed it here:

WMG Innovative Solutions
Uploaded by EESB

Pickle Jar Communications worked with the team at PARD to develop the video brief, then worked closely with the production team to develop the concept. We were responsible for organising all filming, scheduling a very tight 3-day shoot, then overseeing the edit process for delivery of the final DVDs in time for a conference that the PARD team had organised where the DVDs were to be distributed. The entire project was turned around in just 6 weeks from proposal to final delivery.

Another brick in the wall

2008-03-27T17:02:00.005Z

It's all about the kids today. What are they doing online? How can we make the web and video games safer? The launch of the report of the Byron Review is of course welcomed by most people - parents in particular, I suspect. The report itself acknowledges that "headlines have contributed to the climate of anxiety that surrounds new technology and created a fiercely polarised debate in which panic and fear often drown out evidence" (Byron Review, Foreword) but I fear that the press reports surrounding the publication of the review will simply serve to heighten those anxieties even further. The fact that the report calls for a strategy for e-safety for children, which is of course what the press will report on, in itself seems to me to say that the world wide web is an unsafe place. The emphasis is on the negative. Why isn't there, for example, a strategy being launched on the educational value of the web for children? Why should parents be educated to protect their children in an online environment, but not at the same time also be educated on how to support their children productively use the web to influence their education and development. Don't get me wrong, I don't for one second see the web through rose-tinted spectacles, and the dangers to children do need to be addressed. However, they need to be addressed in a balanced context that also embraces the positives and I sincerely hope that the new strategy will achieve this.

But it isn't just what our kids are reading or doing online today that has hit the headlines. What they are reading offline is also of interest as The Guardian reports on the Read Up, Fed Up: Exploring Teenage Reading Habits in the UK Today study also published today which looks at the reading preferences for 11-14 year olds. As someone with two degrees in literature but not exactly what you would call a bookworm as a child (I think I finally managed to read The Bell Jar and The Catcher in the Rye at around aged 15 or 16 - my introductions to really great literature!), the reading patterns of young people fascinates me. I'm disgusted to learn, for example, that Heat magazine is the most loved read for this age group. However, at number four is blogs, showing an excellent example in my opinion of why the web is an excellent educational space for young people - encouraging them to write, debate and digest other people's opinions. I'm slightly suprised that facebook ranks so low in this age groups' opinions (it is number nine on their most loathed reads), but maybe that's just a clear sign of how us 'oldies' just don't understand the content that makes young people tick - although I know plenty of well-educated 'oldies' too that would probably rate Heat magazine as one of their favorite reads. But I do have to applaud the youngsters that participated in this poll for putting BBC Online in their top 10 most loved reads. Isn't it great to see young people engaging with news, current affairs, world affairs and fantastic educational resources? Perhaps this needs to be taken on board when the government come to writing their e-safety strategy.

University Open Days in Second Life

2008-03-22T11:02:00.004Z

The BBC reported this week that Liverpool John Moore's University (LJMU) is hosting an open day for prospective students in Second Life.

I have been involved in a number of conversations over the past couple of years with colleagues throughout the HE sector about hosting open days in Second Life. If truth be told, it's a no-brainer and if the popularity of Second Life continues (and at this moment in time I'm not entirely sure where it is going) then all universities will begin to take this approach.

However, what worries me about the reports from LJMU is that the campus that they (or in this case some of their students) have created is not a true representation of the actual campus. Some of the buildings are virtual replicas, but others are reported to be fictional spaces that students would like to see built on their campus, such as halls of residence with their own swimming pools. Designed to be 'talking points' amongst the student amassadors and prospective students, I fear that with language barriers in place amongst even some of the best English-speaking prospective students from overseas, these fictional buildings could be mistaken by some as representations of real buildings and create a false reality.

If Second Life is to become a widely used tool for marketing universities to overseas students I think a few simple rules of best practice need to be observed by the creators of those virtual spaces:

keep it true to life. If you are including buildings that are either planned to be developed or complete fictions then these need to be very clearly labelled as so, and in a language that is concise and not open to misinterpretation by those who do not speak English as their mother-tongue;
if you have 'student ambassadors' there to speak with potential students, then you need to be true to their genuine personality and not have marketing or communications folk 'posing' as students, which would be very easy to do in this false environment;
when advertising a virtual open day you again need to be clear and upfront (in a language or languages that cannot be open to misinterpretation) about what will be available for visitors to see, and whether it is a genuine representation or not;
don't ever see Second Life as a suitable replacement for actual visits to a campus. I have visited a vast number of university campuses over the years and nothing quite sells a university so well as the atmosphere that its people can create (a sunny day always helps too of course!). Second Life really does open up opportunities that standard print prospectuses or online 360 degree tours just can't offer, and this is an important step for overseas student recruitment, but nothing quite beats one-to-one communication in person on a real campus and I really hope that universities don't ever begin to see this as a replacement for that level of contact.

Why does the British public trust doctors so much more than scientists?

2008-03-13T18:57:00.006Z

A lot of my work is around communicating science, or working with education bodies. So, every year I am interested to see how certain professions fare in MORI's annual survey of trust in different professions.

Catching up on reading my backlog of publications that have fallen on my desk over the past few weeks, I was delighted to see that February's edition of Profile magazine (the CIPR's main publication) featured the results of this year's trust survey, announced on 5 March. I wasn't quite so delighted, however, to see that public trust in scientists has fallen by 7 per cent since last year's survey - the largest change in any of the professions.

The poll asks respondents whether they would 'generally trust them to tell the truth or not', and lists 16 professions to compare. Doctors come out top in this survey, with 90 per cent of respondents saying they would trust them to tell the truth. By comparison, just 65 per cent of respondents claim that they would trust scientists to tell the truth.

This difference insterests me and I think its a challenge of those involved in science communication to address this. Is the difference in perception caused by the public's exposure to these professions? It's highly likely that most of the public know their doctor and see them every so often, but how many members of the public know a scientist or someone that they would call a scientist? To some extent we might also question why doctors are even separated out from scientists in this poll. Aren't doctors also scientists, afterall?

Perhaps if we could communicate the work of scientists and science-related professions more effectively, and put a more human face on science, there wouldn't be such a marked difference in trust between doctors and scientists.

They've done it again

2008-03-10T19:30:00.004Z

I just have to say that the BBC have done it again and created a really wonderful, very usable, new homepage for their website. I adore the features like the radio links on the right-hand side, the clock at the top and more news on the homepage. With the iPlayer link at the bottom and the blog feed in the bottom left, it really is a great example of various media coming together all in one seamless place. Well done BBC!

Fast Forward to the End

2008-03-06T08:16:00.003Z

Tomorrow we're holding the final of the Fast Forward series for Ideas for Life TV. Not only have I been production manager for this project, but I have also had to be event manager too pulling together all the various strands to make it work. I have to say, I'm feeling quite sad that it all wraps up tomorrow (with the exception of one further piece that we need to film with another company). On the plus side, I will be able to stop working silly hours for a short while, my house actually might get cleaned this weekend, and I will really get to see just how far our teams have come along. It's been an interesting experiment in science communication and I'll reflect more on that soon, but for now I need to get back into those last minute preparations for the final. The prizes for the kids have started to arrive at my door now and I think there's another delivery man knocking at the door right now ...

Is it right for journalists to use social networking sites for source material?

2008-03-03T10:28:00.004Z

So, here is a dilemma that has been rife in the press recently. Supposedly journalists are dipping into individual’s profiles on social networking sites like facebook, MySpace and Bebo to find out more about them for stories they are developing. I’m ever so slightly surprised that this has caused such an outcry, in truth. I think the biggest question to be asked here is where do we draw the line?

Let’s make a comparison. If the paparazzi climbed a tree outside a celebrity’s house and took a photo of them in their bedroom wearing their PJs, or lounging around with no make-up on their sofa watching TV, then there would be outcry and we would consider that wrong. However, if said celebrity pulled on that same jogging suit and ventured out of their house to buy some milk at the corner shop, we would react differently to a photograph taken then.

So, the dilemma is really one of space – personal and public space. In this case, the only difference is that it’s virtual space that we are talking about. As such, if an individual chooses to reveal aspects of their character or personal life online, then they have made a conscious choice to move something that might be private to them into the public domain. How can they then complain if the media uses that information? All the media is doing is exposing such information to a wider audience, any member of which audience could have found out this by searching online themselves.

Using photographs or videos or the like is a different issue, and we have copyright laws to protect against that. Just because I publish a photograph of me at standing on the Statue of Liberty Plinth against the Manhattan skyline on facebook does not mean that I am freely allowing anyone to use that. I still own the copyright. I’m not suggesting for one moment that any journalist would want to use that photo, but I’m sure you get my point. And in the interests of my own self-publicity, here is said photo.

How does a code of practice cope with varying degrees of ethics for international PR?

2008-02-28T10:54:00.002Z

This week I chaired the CIPR Education and Skills Sector Group’s panel discussion on ‘Building contacts with international media’. Needless to say the subject was popular with universities and we had a turnout of around 80 people. However, the session got me thinking about the varying degrees of ethics in the PR-journalist relationship around the world and how being a member (as I proudly am) of an organisation like the CIPR, signed up to a code of practice, actually sits with being able to manage a successful PR campaign.

Let’s take an obvious example discussed at the event: China. Every university in the UK is interested in China. The largest proportion of overseas students come from there: they arrive in the UK, pay the highest level of fees and go back home after their course and spread the word to other families about their university.

Now, at yesterday’s panel discussion it was made very plain that payment for editorial is commonplace in China. This isn’t advertising, this is actually handing a brown envelope of cash to a journalist to ‘persuade’ them to write about your organisation, product or story. We learned (lots of raised eyebrows in the room) that at Chinese press conferences it is again commonplace to order the room according to a hierarchy of journalists: the most ‘important’ (or influential, perhaps we should say) sit in the front row where they are welcomed by hefty brown envelopes and served tea and coffee to their liking throughout. As the rows go back, the envelopes get smaller and the service gets less attentive.

We also learned that India is increasingly adopting this approach to the PR-journalist relationship.

So, given that we were holding this event under the umbrella of the CIPR who have a very clear code of practice for PR professionals in the UK, and, let’s face it, the raised eyebrows in the room can only mean that most people think the Chinese practice is somewhat unethical, how do we cope with globalisation and the increasing demand for international PR approaches? Is it any different to taking a journalist out for lunch, or to buying advertising space in a newspaper and just ‘by coincidence’ there being a mention of your product, company, service, findings or whatever it might be in the same paper just a few pages later? I think it is. Perhaps the press isn’t always quite as free and fair as we might like to think it is, but they too have ethical standards.

Or is this really a question of ethics at all? Is this just actually a question of business practice and how such practices vary from country to country? Should we engage with such practice in order to get the international coverage for our organisations or clients that we so need, or should we maintain our British PR practices and just hope that they will work? I think some kind of middle-ground needs to be found (yes, I’m sitting on the fence), and a way worked out to engage with media in such countries without compromising our professional or personal integrity.

There’s also part of me, looking back to my student days and thinking about cultural identities and difference, that likes this difference and embraces the challenge that it presents us with. In a globalised society, isn’t it somehow refreshing that such cultural differences still exist and we don’t just have one great homogenised system of working? From an ethical point of view I don’t like it one bit, but from a cultural point of view the difference excites and interests me. I’m not saying the practice is right, but what is right is that different forms of PR practice exist. Difference is good. Without difference in such practice, and different ethical viewpoints, how do we actually continue to test our own values? How do we know what is ‘good’ if we never have any ‘bad’? We can only test and reinforce our own values if we have something to compare them with, and for that reason if for no other, we need to embrace difference.

A dazzling smile

2008-02-25T12:57:00.004Z

Picked this up today from "For blog's sake". Very funny, and a great example of how you have to be careful with everything you publish online!

Science and the Media: You and Yours

2008-02-16T14:04:00.002Z

There was a really good 12 minute segment on You and Yours yesterday on Radio 4 (Friday 15th February) on Science and the media. Definitely worth a listen.

Where have all the ties gone?

2008-02-12T16:48:00.001Z

I think my partner might be getting a little suspicious about where all of his ties keep disappearing to. You see, without him knowing, I have been secretly stealing them (not such a secret once he sees this) for a training session that I am delivering in a couple of weeks time. The session is entitled "Working with Broadcast Media" and is designed for a small group of academics not as media training, but to get them thinking about how they might work with various types of broadcast media to communicate (or dare I say it, publicise) their research. Whenever I deliver presentations or training on this particular subject I love doing a turn on what not to wear (or what to wear), but this time I've decided that it really needs props. As such I am currently hunting down the following items:

- a classic white lab coat (preferably one bearing a University logo): the staple attire of all scientists on TV (and they never bother to iron out the creases of that lab coat that the press officer has just handed them!)

- a bright bold jumper: I have just the one in mind but the academic that I saw wearing it on TV once probably wouldn't lend it to me for this purpose. I don't remember what his research was about but, boy, do I remember that jumper!

- ties with tiny detailed patterns (particularly where the weave of the fabric is made obvious to look nice): particularly hard on the eye on video watched online

- anything in tweed: looks great for an autumn-winter season ladies suit, but not friendly to the camera

- small pin-stripes: again, not so good for online video

- a big pair of earrings: hmmm, might have some of these in my own jewellery box!

Changing the face of Coventry

2008-02-12T16:25:00.001Z

Now, Coventry doesn't have the best of reputations. Being said to be "sent to Coventry" is no good thing, and Hitler clearly didn't think much of the city either when he chose to drop a considerable amount of explosive on in over 50 years ago. Some visitors consider the ring-road to be an impenetrable barrier, while others (including Coventry residents) don't even bother to get close the ring-road, let alone on the inside of it - the area currently deemed to be Coventry City Centre. So, I was intrigued by the recent invitation to a presentation for local business leaders on the regenration plans for Coventry. This is all very exciting to me, and the plans are great. But I approached the meeting, as one would in such circumstances, with my 'communications professional' hat on. The presentations were good, the talks inspiring, and the comments and questions well thought out and, mostly, encouraging. But I can't help thinking that the City is missing out a key audience group in their plans for the City centre. They're right to keep on about establishing Coventry's brand and USP, but I can't help thinking that they just might be missing an essential audience group out of their consultation...

Occassionally at weekends I might venture into the city centre. Generally speaking it is heaving with young people - mostly teenagers. Although the Council's research shows that residents don't want to go into the city centre, here is one set of people that clearly do! And yet the approach to communicating and consulting with residents doesn't really tap into communications tools that would reach this essential audience group. Instead of (or at least in addition to) relying on the local print media and radio stations, coupled with a fairly well-hidden web presence, why aren't the Council and partners using blogs and social media to reach residents of the City - and those that are essential to the future of the City? It strikes me as a no-brainer to have a facebook group geared at showing support for the regeneration plans. But I can't find it. Perhaps I may well just have to create it myself, being the big fan that I am of everything they are currently talking about doing.

Moving in to a new target audience group

2008-02-04T01:18:00.001Z

My partner and I went to New York last week where he suprised me (suprised because it's taken him a while) by proposing on my Birthday. So, in typical naughties-style I couldn't wait to get home and online to update my facebook relationship status to "engaged". Soppy, hey? But the point is this, on the one hand it has been an exceptionally effective communications tool enabling us at the click of a button to spread the news of our engagement without having to text, phone or email everybody. On the other hand, I have realised that by clicking that little button I am now a target for a whole new type of advertising. I have just been targetted by Ocean Finance offering wedding loans. Clever! Having been working out a budget for the wedding, I might just be needing that loan!!!

Fast Forward launches on Ideas for Life TV

2008-01-19T19:49:00.002Z

The Fast Forward series that we are working on launched this week on Ideas for Life TV.

I've embedded episode 1 directly from Ideas for Life TV below. It might take a little while to play (don't forget to hit the play button!) but bear with it to meet the kids and find out about their challenge!

The rest of the series is progressing nicely and we now have some exciting judges lined up for the grand final to the challenge on 22nd February. Episodes will be released roughly speaking every week from now until March.

Building Contacts with International Media

2008-01-19T19:35:00.001Z

I'm going to be chairing the CIPR Education & Skills Sector Group's event on Building Contacts with International Media on the 26th February. It should be an interesting event and we already have lots of people signing up to attend. So now I have the challenge of deciding what questions to ask them, what way to steer the discussion ... and how to claw things back if the discussion goes off on a tangent. Some initial and very obvious thoughts for questions to the panel include:

How to get the stories to overseas media (distribution methods, is email okay, what services are there to use to help with this)
Where to begin with building contacts - are UK-based correspondents a good 'route-in' as such?
Can language be a barrier?
Do different countries have different conventions in terms of writing and issuing press releases?
What kind of stories should we be trying to place with international media?
How can we monitor pick-up of stories in overseas media?
Perhaps encourage the panel and members of the audience to share experiences or anecdotes about working with overseas media.

Best Public Speaker?

2008-01-11T15:16:00.001Z

Well, according to my peers - that is, according to people who have bothered to do the compare friends thing on facebook - I am now the best public speaker (and the hardest worker)! Love it. Very funny. Isn't it nice to find out nice things that other people think about you. However, previously I was, again according to my peers, the best singer! Oh if only they have ever heard me singing (which I can assure you they will have not).

Off the Autosport show tomorrow to do some filming for Fast Forward - ah it's a tough job!

Fast Forward

2008-01-10T14:05:00.001Z

The Fast Forward series that we have been working on for Ideas for Life TV is now coming along nicely, with just 5 days until the site and series launch - it's all really rather exciting! We now have episodes complete introducing the teams, and showcasing the University of Warwick's eco-one project. Filming was complete on Monday at Coventry-based Modec, and this weekend we're off to the Autosport Show at the NEC to finish our item on the Westfield hybrid sportscar and hopefully start working on a piece on the Concept Climax car. Then it's back for an update with our school teams on Monday. It's all happening!