The Future of PR – is it really digital?

Digital PR is increasingly being talked about in the PR and Marketing media. PR agencies are starting up divisions or spin off companies to focus on digital communications services for potential and existing customers.

There’s no doubt that online communication tools such as Twitter, social networking and blogs are all part of society today, but so are conversations at bus stops, in coffee shops and in people’s homes. These face-to-face conversations are driven by information from print newspapers, TV and word of mouth news and views. We’ve got to remember that not everyone spends their day connected to the Internet.

However, with ongoing technology developments, these online and offline worlds may be merging even further. At the recent CES event in Las Vegas, new innovations were displayed including the latest in combining TV and Internet. With products like the Samsung Widget TV, the traditional living room that is dominated by the family TV, may now give that same family easy access to the Internet via their TV screen. The need to boot up a laptop or computer in order to access the web will be a thing of the past.

The distinction between web-based and more traditional information sharing sources is definitely blurring. PROs and Marketers must remember that it’s essential to understand the target audience you are trying to reach and ensure you include the correct media channels in order to reach them. That means being aware of all online and offline channels, and with increasingly rapid technology advances there’s plenty to keep up to date with!

It’s an exciting time and one that PROs should embrace in its entirety rather than focusing on one area alone.

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Surrey Tweetup: digital networking in real life

Last night, thebluedoor - Surrey based digital PR agency - hosted the second Surrey Tweetup in Farnham with very generous support from iBundle.

Organised through the power of Twitter - specifically using the recently rolled out lists and geolocation functions - 45 people came along to a very successful Surrey Tweetup. Kindly sponsored by innovation hub, iBundle, those attending were not only treated to drinks but also to an insight into the complex issues surrounding digital data interoperability by iBundle's founder Julian Ranger.

thebluedoor is committing to organising this free digital networking event on a monthly basis (we hope!). We are aiming to ensure that those attending will have plenty of networking (and drinking / social) time. In addition, we hope to source an interesting speaker to start the digital conversations flowing. A significant challenge in the digital world is its massively fast changing nature - cloud computing, real-time web, hyper-local, privacy - therefore each month's expert speaker will provide those attending with a relevant and meaningful update on a specific topic (rather than a business pitch).

The next #SurreyTweetup will be held on 25th March 2010 (venue to be confirmed - although it will be in Farnham). This event will take a slightly different format as it falls on the global Twestival event. Harnessing the power of Twitter, people will be meeting up around the world on the 25th March to raise much needed funds for Concern Worldwide.

So we are bringing Twestival to Surrey in the form of Twestival Farnham, which we're very excited about. As soon as the url and organisation information is released by the Twestival global organising committee, thebluedoor will be launching a dedicated Twestival Farnham blog where everyone will be able to get all the details. In addition, we will keep this blog up to date with Twestival Farnham information, plus there is already a specific Twitter Twestival Farnham feed: @twestivalfarnhm (missing the a because Twitter won't allow a longer Twitter handle). And in April, we will be running a 'regular' Surrey Tweetup gathering.

In the meantime, thank you all for attending last night. As promised, below is a list of everyone on Twitter who came along. Don't hesitate to put those I've missed out in the comments section below. And see you again!! (And next time I will be bringing labels so we can write our Twitter handles on - good suggestion from @k4thybrown.)

@jhhypnotherapy, @mewcenary, @neil_p, @emmafirth, @jamesfirth, @SEOtipsntricks, @rangerj, @benjaminellis, @thelastromantic, @mrmatthamm, @velohub, @emmabandey, @opensourcerer, @k4thybrown, @twentynine12, @suesearle, @4legs, @poldings, @andypike, @1minus1, @georgeLMoore, @projectfive, @pascalw, @asaltbde, @nickykriel, @wiggo, @rachela8, @knockbuckle, @mintytorus, @bhardcastle, @the_jchristie, @jeniferdav, @toni_jane, @guy1067, @rgosc, @abigailh, @sheila_parry

Social media and Web 2.0 statistics: a round-up

In order to truly understand a business sector and develop an expertise, an avid reading habit is required. thebluedoor is a digital PR agency so consequently our reading material is quite varied to cover both the PR sector and those of our clients. Our PR focused reading list is quite broad (both online and in dead-tree format), and includes Wired, New Media Age, .Net, PR Week, Marketing Week, B2B Marketing and The Economist.

I thought it might be useful to post some of the recent digital media and online PR statistics that we have read about.

Facebook:

• 300 million global active users
• 22 million UK active users
• 50% log in and spend 25 minutes daily
• Average 'heavy' users spent 125 hours over the last 12 months
• 59% year on year growth
• 75% of all time spent on social networks
• 8,325 billion minutes spent in the UK in September 2009

(Sources - B2B Marketing; NMA/Nielsen)


LinkedIn:

• 52 million users globally
• 3 million in the UK
• Growing at 1 million every 12 days

(Source - B2B Marketing)


Twitter:

• 1,959% year on year growth
• US leads by Twitter countries, followed by UK
• 6th largest social media site
• There have been over 8,000,000,000 Tweets to date, and counting

(Source - NMA: Nielsen; GigaTweet)


Wikipedia:

• 3,1720,120 articles in English
• 19,245,419 pages in English
• 684,000,000 visitors in 2008

(Source - Wikipedia)


iPhone App Store:

• 30 million iPhone users
• 20 million iPhone Touch owners
• Over 2 billion apps have been downloaded from 100,000 apps
• AdMob estimates that $200 million worth of apps are downloaded per month ($2.4 billion per year)
• By June 2009, the app software-development kit had been downloaded 1,000,000 times

(Source - Wired: AdMob)


3G Phones:

• 3G mobile penetration in western Europe has risen from 17% in 2007, to 29% in 2009
• It is forecast to reach to 67% in western Europe by 2011
• In Japan penetration rate is 67%
• $43 billion was made from mobile Internet in Japan in 2008
• 610 million of the first two billion App Store downloads were for paid applications

(Sources - Wired: Morgan Stanley, Pinch Media)


Blogs:

• 133,000,000 blogs indexed by Technorati
• 3,561,000 RSS subscribers to TechCrunch
• 346,000,000 people read blogs
• 900,000 new blog posts every 24 hours

(Source - Technorati)

I tend to bookmark interesting articles on Delicious. Do have a look at what I've been reading recently, and I would be grateful of any recommendations. Thanks!

Surrey networking: Tweet-up in Farnham, February 2010

Twitter has become an established part of the digital PR communications tool-box for companies around the world. Twitter has increased the opportunity help businesses engage effectively and transparently with target online audiences, whilst evolving established communication processes in the public relations and journalism sectors.

As a PR agency based in Surrey, and following the success of thebluedoor’s last Tweet-up in December, we have decided to organise a second Surrey networking event on 3rd February 2010. And we’re very pleased to thank locally based iBundle for kindly agreeing to sponsor the evening’s drinks. iBundle is an innovation hub for software and web companies, providing innovative new tools and services for their target markets.

As before, proceedings start at 7pm at the Slug and Lettuce on East Street, Farnham. For those that are driving, there is a convenient car park at Sainsbury’s on South Street, and the nearest train station is only a ten minute walk away from the venue.

The Tweet-up offers an opportunity to meet up IRL (in real life), network with the local digital community and enjoy discussing some of the key developments in the digital space.

I hope that this is the start a regular Surrey-based free networking event. All are welcome: PRs, journalists, developers, programmers, freelancers – in fact anyone on Twitter or in the digital space who is interested in meeting up for a drink and a chat.

If you’re planning to attend, please let us know via email (info at thebluedoor dot com) or leave a comment below. We wish all the local tweeting community a happy new year and we look forward to seeing you all again in person.

P.S.: Date for your diaries – thebluedoor is already looking forward to supporting the global charitable event Twestival 2010. We will therefore be organising a Tweet-up in Farnham, Surrey on 25th March to raise funds for Concern Worldwide. Further details will appear on our blog shortly.

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Digital PR: my education at thebluedoor

I am thrilled to be starting 2010 with an eight week internship at the Surrey PR agency, thebluedoor. After completing PR placements in London in the travel and tourism sector last year, I am eager to continue my education and learn from a PR agency that is growing rapidly with exciting prospects for the year ahead.

thebluedoor – its clients and its digital PR expertise – offered me an internship which I was delighted to accept. As a relatively new PR agency I felt that I would be able to both learn from their experience as well as significantly aid the team in implementing PR strategies and campaigns for their wide portfolio of impressive consumer, B2B and digital brands. And from speaking to the team, I know that the coming two months will greatly improve my knowledge of PR and the importance of digitised communication for businesses.

And I’ve not been disappointed: on my first day I was I was asked to help organise a Tweet-up, inviting interested Tweeps in the Farnham, Surrey and Hampshire areas to meet and celebrate Twitter and its effects upon the world of PR, communications and business. I’m really excited about this project as it will provide me with first-hand knowledge of digital and social networking tools such as blogs and Twitter, and getting to grips with their power beyond sharing what I’ve eaten for breakfast.I know I’m going to be challenged and supported whilst at thebluedoor, they have committed to ensuring that I learn rather than just being thrown in at the deep end. And having met the team, I know that as well as some hard work, there should also be plenty of fun to be had along the way.

Written by Liam Sherry, Intern at thebluedoor

Festive tweet-up in Farnham

Twitter has taken the world of journalism and PR by storm. With its 1,959% year on year growth, its use in the world of communications is firmly established. Although the world of Twitter is online, I have met some interesting, inspirational and awesome Tweeters in real life.

So to celebrate all things Twitter and Christmas, and with encouragement from fellow Farnham Tweeters @jamesfirth, @emmafirth and @guy1067, we have decided to organise a festive gathering in Farnham, Surrey on 10th December 2009. Kick-off is at 7.30pm, so come along and meet up in person at the Slug & Lettuce on East Street. For those of you driving, there is a handy Sainsbury's car-park on South Street, and for those of you coming by train it is just ten minutes walk from the station.

Let us know whether you are coming by either sending us an email or leaving a comment below. It would be great to meet up with the Surrey Twitter community in person, and of course raise a glass to the festive season.

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Digital PR: Google 4 grown ups

Google is the daddy - that was the message from the seminar I recently attended. Not that I had any doubts on that subject, with Google funneling the majority of search queries as well as developing extended services like Google Wave and Google Docs, no-one is currently in a position to challenge their status.

Being interested in web optimisation and ever keen to keep up on the latest methods that Google is using to crawl, index and serve up search results, I was looking forward to the seminar hosted by Thoughtbubble and delivered by Tim Ireland. And I wasn't disappointed. Tim is an excellent speaker - his experience and knowledge is vast.

If you have been following our recent debates: PR vs SEO, you will know that we, at thebluedoor, believe PR and online PR, and SEO are complimentary but very different skills that share one common goal: raising and maintaining "brand" reputation.

Hearing Tim talk about his experiences and showing live examples of his work underscored what we have heard from Matt Cutts and other Google gurus: reputation is key. There are no shortcuts and no substitute for longevity: well written keyword rich text and strong inbound links gained through sucessful partnerships are what really count.

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The Ultimate Digital PR Technology Wish List?

Reading the FT this weekend, I came across an article about a hi-tech treasure hunt (geocaching) as part of a feature on ‘pursuits – the things we long to do’.

It got me thinking about the technology we long to use and those bits of kit that we can no longer do without.

The list of potential gadgets I’d like to have access to is endless – from a 3D home cinema to interactive computer screens in the office. However, as a digital PR professional, I know that realistically most of the technology I crave is linked to enhanced communication.

Like many people, I can’t be too far away from my Blackberry. Not only is it my link to email and phone, but also Twitter, Video, Web and much, much more. What better way to capture an important moment and be able to share it with others while on the move? While your PDA of choice may differ, the desire to keep in touch via multimedia remains fairly consistent for most people – just look at the ongoing demand for the Apple iPhone and the forthcoming Palm Pre.

This week, the Guardian carried an article by Charles Arthur on how technology journalists seem able to spot the latest tech that is likely to succeed and still be used in five, ten, twenty years. It was an interesting insight into how leading journalists such as Rory-Cellan Jones work, but also reminded me why following the tech media is vital as the findings truly do impact our daily lives.

At the start of my career in PR (some fourteen years ago!) the communication tools available were landline phones, fax machines and the Royal Mail. Even working at the forefront of technology it was some time before we had the excitement of a dial up Internet connection for the entire team to share.

Now being contactable 24x7 is the norm and patience for information to be sent or retrieved is limited to a few seconds. Forgotten are the labour intensive research tasks we used to undertake using telephone directories and encyclopaedias.

I believe technology advances are an essential way of enhancing our lives – don’t forget the same tech that keeps us in touch with the office keeps us in touch with our friends, family and leisure pursuits. The possibilities are endless - we can all become farmers via a Facebook application or learn cutting edge new skills via virtual training sessions on SecondLife.

So, what would communications technology would you find essential for your ultimate weekend pursuit? I’m still working on my technology wish list –at least there’s still 90 days to go before Christmas…

PR vs. SEO: the great debate

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) agencies have been extremely vocal about how the PR (Public Relations) industry apparently does not understand digital. Let's just knock that myth on the head - we do.

In this month's Communicate magazine's regular @loggerheads slot, I was given the opportunity to debate with Andrew Girdwood of Bigmouthmedia. Neil Gibbons, the editor, asked: "Who is better placed to assist a company in its social media strategy - a specialist PR firm or a SEO consultancy?"

The @loggerheads debate format doesn't really allow either side to win, and when two opposing sides are arguing from thought-out (dare I say, entrenched) sides it would be unlikely for either side to concede ground in such a public forum. However I stand by my principle that I have argued before and with Andrew during the debate: PR and online PR, and SEO are different but hugely complimentary skills.

The argument that SEO agencies such as Bigmouthmedia keep on recycling - that PR agencies just don't get digital - is null and void. We do. The standard of best practice and knowledge that I see coming out of the PRCA and its Digital Committee, as well as the industry in general, is amazing. Genius practitioners such as Mat Morrison at Porter Novelli, have deep and clear knowledge of both PR and the web (its technologies, its algorithms and its psychologies).

As an industry, PRs should stand up and be proud of our digital knowledge, our multi-channel experience and our online skills. SEO is extremely important in any social media strategy, however just one part of an online / off-line delivery specific to each client and their objectives. It's vital that both sectors understand and value each others' benefits, and work together in a way that delivers meaningful results.

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Online PR vs. SEO? It's time for mutual respect

Online PR (Public Relations) and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) have had a recent history of competing for each others' businesses. The time has come for this to stop. It's vital that both disciplines start to respect that each needs to champion and celebrate their sector-specific expert understanding and experience. Indeed, the time has come to start working together.

Key to brokering this peace is to concede that both disciplines have different end-games and techniques, as well as accepting that those in the PR sector practicing online PR have a deep technical knowledge of the web, its structure and behaviours. 'Digital natives' work in both sectors bringing their valuable technical experience to bear on their daily working lives.

PR - just because it is online (or can be online) - has not changed during this online revolution. Public Relations is just that: a relevant interaction with people who are a businesses' stakeholders, its past/present/future customers, its critics, as well as its die-hard fans.

Online PR must be integrated into our PR agencies and our PR strategies, not protected by the high-walls of geek-speak which results in making online the preserve of those in-the-know. Instead, online has to be normalised and we must encourage understanding of the tools.

At thebluedoor we have always worked with specialist SEO partners such as Guava for Mars Drinks, as this collaboration makes for a powerful team-effort. It's time to for digital PR and SEO to start working together in order to mesh mutually supportive techniques and strategies to drive and deliver meaningful results for our clients.

Back to the future – how digital media can make some films last forever

Having recently seen the film ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ at the cinema, I started thinking about the amazing possibilities being able to see into the future might hold. The most obvious being the chance to win the lottery, but also to feed my digital PR interest in technology developments.

New gadgets, applications and especially lifehacker solutions never fail to impress me. But it’s been interesting how many ‘old’ technologies seem to be coming back (if slightly re-invented!).

Reading the FT’s Weekend magazine on Saturday, there was a great article by Tim Bradshaw about how Polaroid could be making a comeback. The company first introduced an instant camera back in 1948 and was still something ‘cool’ in the 90’s. Sadly, the company closed its doors in 2008 as it was considered ‘out of date in the digital age’. But now an Austrian Entrepreneur and a former Polaroid manager want to bring back instant film under a new name to meet the demand of Polaroid enthusiasts that still exists.

This Polaroid venture - dubbed ‘the impossible project’ – would revive the business on a smaller scale, believing strongly that it will break even. Embracing current resources available, the team is already using digital media to raise awareness, share pictures with enthusiasts on developments, as well as inviting the online community to input on challenges they are facing in order to find solutions.

It’s a wonderful story of how ‘old’ and ‘new’ technology is working together to meet a current need.

Having read this I was also less surprised to learn that there is a course available in bookmaking. The Papered Parlour in south London helps to keep alive an interest in an art form which could easily be forgotten in an age of digital books. But with a trial launch coming up of video ads in the magazine Entertainment Weekly (not unlike the newspapers in Harry Potter), thanks to a collaboration between Pepsi and CBS, maybe there is a future filled with even more old and new technologies being bound together?

If you’ve got an idea, starting a conversation online can be a powerful resource to gain input from experts around the world. While I wait for my personal inspiration though, I’m going to watch more Sci Fi films and look out for that next big new/old technology of the future!

Reboot Britain

Yesterday I went to Reboot Britain, an event organised by NESTA - the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

The idea of Reboot Britain was born from NESTA’s report "Attacking the Recession" which was published earlier this year and outlines measures to support a more dynamic and resilient economy.

In his foreword to the Reboot Britain publication Jonathan Kestenbaum, CEO of NESTA tells us that Reboot Britain asks an important question of us in this digital age: given the unprecedented challenges we face, how can we best overcome them by harnessing the unique tools now at our disposal?

With this in mind I sat down to listen to the impressive line up of speakers on stage in the lecture theatre, and what a treat it was. Here are the highlights for me:

Gillian Tett - (Assistant Editor, Financial Times), talking about the banking crisis:
Innovation occurred in such small silos that no-one outside the system understood it and no one inside the system had the big picture.

Tony Ageh - (Controller of Archive Development, BBC) – Mining the Archives, a new Age of Opportunity:The BBC archives are about to get sexy. The BBC has 5 ½ miles of shelved archives and over 400,000 complete programmes. It would take over 120 years to convert these programmes into a digital format. Tony Ageh says the answer is to let people “have” the content; making this content freely available will create entirely new businesses. The media sector will reinvent itself through its archives.

Martha Lane-Fox – (Digital Inclusion Champion, Digital Britain) – Ending the Digital Divide: People being left behind are left behind in every sphere of their life. Let’s focus on getting the 6 million people who are most socially disadvantaged online; if we can do this, we can increase their confidence / motivation / skills / inspiration.

Charles Leadbeater – The Mutual Media Manifesto: Media is something we do with people, not to and for people. Renegades and pirates will be the ones to create the innovations of the future.

Alan Moore – (co-author of Communities Dominate Brands) - Straightline Thinking stops here, the true promise of the networked society: There is no more online or offline, there is only blended reality. Don’t talk about digital, talk about technology as co-operation.

These are just some of the great soundbites from the excellent presentations and although some left me with more tangible ideas than others, all were thought provoking and inspiring.

You can take a look at the Reboot Britain slide show below or download or follow the latest news and views on #rebootbritain.

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Twitter: how can a business use it?

"Twitter - so what is the point?" Being involved in digital PR, this is a challenge I hear all the time, partly driven by articles appearing in newspapers written by armchair pundits who don't use it but certainly have a negative opinion.

At thebluedoor we use Twitter alot. Each of us have our own Twitter account and we also have a rather underused company account too. My Twitter name is @AbigailH - please do follow me and let me know if I can help with any Twitter questions that you have.

In order to understand Twitter and its benefits I would advise that you stop reading articles in papers and start using it. Here is some tips that might help you get started:

• Go to Twitter - it's free - and register your own name (or as close as possible) and your business and its brands. Even if you don't intend to use the latter, owning them means that you are protecting them from someone else who might have malicious intentions to spam your brand
• Watch the demonstration video, it is a great starting point
• Fill in your profile and don't forget to put a link to your website or blog
• Use a free application e.g.: TweetDeck / Twirl in order to see conversation
• Follow @hashtags and create business relevant hashtag e.g.: #Habitat (* see below). Hashtags help conversations to be visible
• Follow @MrTweet in order to ‘find’ followers / friends
• Live-Tweet events / news / general industry information, as well as key business information to gather more attention
• Perhaps add links into your Tweets that point into your business’s key online areas. Remember to use key words – there are SEO benefits in Twitter
• Track the ROI by looking at your website's analytics
• Refer to key opinion formers and include their Twitter handle e.g.: @stephenfry. If they are using TweetDeck they might see them and sometimes (if you are lucky!) respond / engage accordingly
• Twitter is great for testing ideas, gathering feedback, and asking questions
• Remember that this is Web 2.0 i.e.: it is talking and listening, not just pushing out company news! – otherwise people will not be interested

* = Habitat got into hot water earlier this week by using inappropriate hashtags such as #iranelection in order to piggy-back a topic that was being discussed (trending).

Twitter does not replace face-to-face communication, but is a very powerful digital networking and collaboration tool for businesses. And in the spirit of that final point, I'm attending tomorrow's TweetCamp in London and am very much looking forward to meeting up with people (many for the first time) who are active on Twitter. If you are going, I can't wait to meet you. And if you're not, there is sure to be lots of live Tweeting going on, so watch out for the #tweetcamp tagged Tweets.

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PR and SEO: living in harmony?

PR is currently experiencing a squeeze from other disciplines. As 'Search' becomes increasingly reliant on good content, SEO agencies are becoming full service agencies. Offerings are becoming broader to include PR. Perhaps this is not surprising as PR has traditionally provided the good, interesting, robust content.

However, I believe that this encroachment presents a Pandora's Box of potential problems. Granted - SEO and Digital PR agencies essentially want the same thing - a client with strong search rankings, with traffic converting into leads, even sales. But, the ways of getting there using each discipline is different.

As the PRCA says - PR is all about reputation. PR communicates compelling, robust messages - stories - to a target audience who finds it interesting, useful and relevant. Although 'reputation management' is a bit of a red herring, PR professionals are expert in finding the 'so what' factor - is it new and why would a journalist (and ultimately his or her readers) care.

At thebluedoor, we start at the beginning by understanding a client's objectives in order to advise on a route forward. And in the shiny exciting world of all things digital, this approach to delivering excellent PR must remain the same. The strategic rules of PR have to stay solid - whether it is online or off-line, and wherever possible it is our job to ensure that these channels are integrated. In order to understand the rules of PR, specific industry experience is a must - which is perhaps what not all SEO agencies have. Yes, all industries have good and bad practitioners, but good PR professionals have spent time in the ring. Results don't just happen (in the main): we will have taken time to understand a journalist's agenda, followed their published articles, read the relevant publications and obsessively followed the news agenda.

I feel that it is vital for the different disciplines of SEO and PR to remain true to their origins and not become diluted. Instead of becoming an 'expert' in all things to all people, our combined challenge is to understand each others different but related areas of expertise. Agencies must work together, complementing each other, to achieve the best results for our clients.

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Digital Networking - Adapt or die?

Call me old fashioned, but I have always believed successful PR is all about building good relationships. Relationships with the client, relationships with the media and of course with the community.

It’s a recognised fact that one of the best ways to build relationships is to network, become part of a community and exchange information and ideas. The advancement of technology and the introduction of social networking have transformed the way we interact and share information. Online is now one of the fastest and most impactful ways to connect with people and build communities.

The tools that power the exchange of information and networking online are constantly evolving and this begs the question: Do the basic principles of relationship building still apply or have they, like the web and those that use it, had to adapt or die?

Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr have been readily embraced and are fast becoming assimilated into our lives with more and more of us receiving information and networking via social media. Even the Mayor of London has been using phlogging social media technology to promote his trip to Seoul last week via ipadio.com!

Essentially networking, if done correctly, is about making connections with individuals, finding common interests, sharing information and ideas with the aim of establishing mutually beneficial relationships. If used correctly social media can be the driving force behind developing strong business communities and effectively promoting your organisation. The web is all about accessibility and the introduction of social media gives individuals, business and even products an active, immediate and responsive voice. We are also no longer just receiving news, we are making it. We’ve become independent distributers of news, as well as broadcasters, promoters and opinion leaders all in one.

So to answer the question, yes the basic principles of networking still apply; but in order to build lasting relationship we have to actively embrace all forms of networking. It’s no longer an activity we schedule in the diary it’s a way of life. In short: we as individuals and businesses have to adapt, innovate and contribute or risk disappearing all together.

Surrey PR agency (that's us) awarded industry standard for excellence

As we move into our second year of business, thebluedoor is celebrating! Last week we were awarded the Consultancy Management Standard (CMS) by the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) – an internationally recognised gold standard of excellence. Of the UK’s 2,000+ PR agencies, only 109 agencies have passed this rigorous external audit which examines standards in management, communication and service delivery.

Since our launch last April, thebluedoor has defied the economic slowdown. thebluedoor works with a variety of national and international companies, delivering strategic, creative and valuable PR consultancy and services from press office function, crisis communication through to copywriting, growing in size and client base every quarter.

The timing of the company going live has been interesting to say the least! - the global economy has been extremely turbulent. However we are weathering the storm: we’ve doubled in size, increased our client base, are growing the team, and have begun our second year by achieving an industry standard that is recognised globally.

And in the words of Francis Ingham, director-general PRCA: “Well run businesses consistently deliver the results clients are looking for. The Consultancy Management Standard was developed specifically to ensure that PRCA members have the systems and structures in place to meet and exceed clients’ expectations. The Standard has been so successful that it has now been adopted in 14 countries around the world.”

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Digital Media, Online PR, Social Networks: is measurement just a giant red herring?

I’ve been a busy bee recently: up in the smoke 8 working days out of 10.

Highlights? Loads of them, but particularly the FreshNetworks gig on Tuesday looking at Social Networks with a specific focus on monetisation, and last night’s inspiring Digital Britain Unconference (organised by @billt and @kcorrick) in London. And, as an aside, if anyone still wonders about the magic of Twitter, just the very fact that a diverse group of 80 to 100 people turned up to the ICA to provide a response to Lord Carter’s Digital Britain 2012 says it all. Similar important events are happening across the country, all mobilised through Twitter, blogs and networks and organised in just 2-3 weeks.

Forgive the nascent nature of my ramblings but I’ve got a collision of thoughts stacking at the moment. I’ve got to get them down, and would love any feedback and opinions that might help me make some logical sense of it.

PR and measurement

• PR: PR has long struggled to justify its existence through our clients’ evergreen, and justifiable challenge to demonstrate the value in pounds and pence.
• Equivalent Advertising Spend: Yes there are many ways – Equivalent Advertising Spend, share of voice, circulation – but they are all flawed for one reason or another.
• Influence of PR: PR impacts (or perhaps ‘influences’ – tricky word I know) behaviour online and offline, over a period of time – and this human behaviour cannot be measured. Also sustained PR can positively impacts the way people feel about a company – again, how do you measure that, particularly if money isn’t plentiful to carry out before and after attitudinal surveys.
• Brand Effect: That bluebottle-sized fly in the ointment called ‘Brand Effect’ is notoriously hard to track, measure or quantify.
• PR Measurement: Recently I have often heard my peers and colleagues waking up to online (at last!) and greeting it with the grateful and hopeful cry ‘And it’s measurable!’

Is it? I personally find this justifying statement worrying. Yes it is certainly more measurable, particularly if realistic metrics are built into campaigns from the start. However these can run the risk of turning people off, making the conversation unnatural and doing quite the opposite of the end goal.

Social Networks and monetisation

• Similarly, there is a huge amount of talk about monetisation of Social Networks – Facebook, Twitter – at the moment. Can they be? Should they be? After all companies have to see a bottom line return on investment, don’t they?
• As Joanne Jacobs was saying on Tuesday, Social Networks perhaps should not be seen as purely a vehicle to see a return on investment, and if they cover their costs that’s fine. People go shop later, online or offline – and if the network just serves to build that feel good factor (that many hard nosed marketers call ‘fluffy’) that’s significantly fine too.
  
  

Digital Britain Unconference

And then on to last night’s Unconference. Without sounding too much like I’m on a soap box at the moment perhaps monetisation, value, ROI of everything that needs to happen in the run up to 2012 should all be seen in a different light. Dare I think that perhaps ‘Brand Effect’ thinking should be woven in? Yes, infrastructure, education, technology etc etc all costs hard cash and those providers naturally want to see a return, particularly when all our pockets are not particularly deep at the moment. However, look at the steaming pile of compost we’re in now due the hard-nosed greed of the banking sector. Surely inspiring Digital Britain to become Digital Britons (as one of the attendees shouted) is key to this. And by communicating the benefits using everyday language and real world on the ground examples could be key to driving this revolution. Perhaps bottom line measurement should be seen for what they are: a diversion that steers us away from what really matters.

Am I barking up a tree, going down a blind alley? Any thoughts that you could add to this would be very gratefully received!

Google Street View – another tool for digital pr?

The Twitter conversation around Google Street View seems to fall into two groups. Divisions occur between the “how dare they do this to me, it’s just another nail in the coffin for personal freedom” and the “I love it and can’t stop using it” crowd.

Now, we work in the digital pr industry, so it could be said that we’re not representative of everyday web users, but we LOVE Google Street View and think everyone else should too. What is surprising is that conversation on Twitter is so divided, surely Twitter users are early adopters of new technology and happy to share information, disseminating it to a large audience? Well, seemingly not all of them. Happy to share what they are wearing, where they are going and what car they will be driving, some Twitter users don’t want us to see what their final destination might have been!

That rant out of the way, I have been thinking about the potential uses of Google Street View for digital pr and have come to the conclusion that there probably aren’t too many. Perhaps the tourism/leisure industry might be able to use images of cities to tempt holidaymakers? Or the property market to enable customers to explore potential areas? But, in digital pr, we’ll probably just use it to explore and have some fun. What do you think?

With all the other Google products out there that help us do our day job, we’ll stick to the analytics, keyword and search sites and just say thank you Google for yet another toy to play with.

Ditch the jargon: communicating clearly through PR

Last week I presented to the Surrey Economic Partnership, focusing on digital PR and the importance of good web content. One of the key messages was that all too often online experts daze potential clients with their snake-oil knowledge using words that are meaningless to the outside ‘real life’ world. So, I was pleased to see today’s Daily Mail ‘examining’ the need for clear communication. (We love pouring over the Mail’s colourful contents: one recent headline intimated that Facebook gives you cancer which had us all in hysterics for at least ten minutes!)

But today’s article – ‘Mind your language’ – reports that the Local Government Association has produced an updated list of 200 phrases that it wants its members to stop using. Phrases such as ‘Interface’, ‘Blue sky thinking’, ‘Toolkit’ and ‘Empowerment’ are now out, with the support from the Pain English Campaign.

This perceived jargon issue is not only found in England’s councils: as the much admired BBC and Radio 4 journalist Lucy Kellaway highlighted last year, it is endemic. In any business anywhere a language, a framework of acronyms, an in-joke slang is adopted as a mantel of belonging. And this is quite natural

However, as experts in digital PR and PR, our ongoing challenge is to tell stories clearly and credibly to a business’s external audiences. So whether it’s ‘leverage’, ‘solution’, ‘end-to-end’ or ‘blue-sky-thinking’ don’t ask us to communicate using your in-jargon. People don’t understand it and nor should they.

Please let us know what your favourite jargon words or phrases are.

Communication beyond conflict

Yesterday I went to a talk on ‘communication beyond conflict’. This was the latest in the talks hosted by the Surrey Economic Partnership and I was keen to see how the breakfast seminars ran as preparation for a talk we are giving next month.

Despite the title ‘communication beyond conflict’, the breakfast meeting was very relaxed and informative. Sub headed ‘it takes two to tango’ Barney Tremblay from Professional Impact talked us through some strategies for dealing with difficult communication issues within the workplace.

Barney talked about ‘perceived’ conflict vs. ‘actual’ conflict, the idea that one should look at oneself and ask some serious questions before trying to solve a problem that may not actually exist! And to this end Barney sent us each home with a mirror and some good advice for keeping the workplace calm and sane.

Barney will be a hard act to follow but thebluedoor are looking forward to delivering the next seminar ‘content is king’ for SEP on the 10^th March – hope to see you there.