PR and marketing

I have enjoyed taking photos for a long time. I’ve never had one of those amazing expensive cameras, just the ‘point and click’ kind. I’ve often thought I should carry it around with me because I see photo opportunities everyday and have missed so many because I didn’t have my camera.

When I got my iPhone, I realised I was carrying a camera with me! I started taking photos most days and I am now an avid “iPhoneographer”. Yes that is a word. It’s also called mobile photography. There is a real movement in photography that now involves iPhone photos.

An app called Instagram has really facilitated this movement. It allows you to enhance, add filters and share your photos easily. Over the holidays I spent time exploring the people and ‘language’ of this app. There are IGers (Instagramers) all around the world, with a group in Sydney and Melbourne. You tag your photos so people can easily find the genre i.e. #ocean #clouds.

What’s a photo if it isn’t shared! So you start following people and liking their photos. They follow you back and you can add comments on photos. I have “met” some lovely people and great photographers. It’s another community I’m a member of now.

It’s even gone main stream. The Sydney Morning Herald ran a competition over summer for iPhone photos through Instagram. They requested you upload your photo to Instragram using the hashtag #summerherald and they chose the best to be published in the paper (I jumped for joy when one of my photos was used. Yippee).

When I was in Milford Sound in New Zealand over the holidays I was with people with amazing telephoto lens’ etc, and there I was with my ‘point & click’ camera in one hand and my iPhone in the other. It was quite funny!

Check out my photography blog ‘Life as I see it’ and I’m CatrionaPollard on Instagram if you want to join in the fun.

While we are on the subject of photography, I want to thank Shane D Photo for my gorgeous new professional photos!

Learn how to do your own PR! – My next one day workshop - PR and Media Releases that get Results - is on Thursday 23 February 2012. Learn how to construct a PR strategy including how to develop media angles, pitches, media releases, articles, case studies and editorials. You will also learn how to strategically use these tools to maximise your chance of achieving your PR objectives. This event is held at the Sydney Writers’ Centre. Book now!

I’m speaking at SheInspires on Social Media. Come and learn a step by step guide to social media and how you can use it to increase the profile, credibility and reputation for your business – and yourself. 28 February 2012, 6:00-7:30, The Rocks Sydney. Its $45 and we have a 25% off code – CP02insm – for our friends (which is you!). 

Want to join our team? We are looking for an experienced PR consultant to join our team. Send us your resume if you or anyone you know is interested in working with us. We’d love to hear from you.

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How to follow up with the media

So you’ve sent out a pitch or a media release to journalists and have received no reply. What now? What should you do to find out if the journalist received your email or if they are interested? An essential skill for all PR professionals is to learn how to follow up with the media over the phone.

The best way to follow up with a journalist is by calling them. An appropriate time to follow-up is usually two to three days after the email pitch or release has been sent.

Be very specific about the media pitch or release you sent them. Don’t just say “I sent you a release and wanted to know if you were interested”. 

•  Be polite and speak clearly
  When calling a journalist speak clearly and be very direct and to the point. Try to sound interested and enthusiastic to make the call interesting for the journalist. 
•  Don’t be afraid of journalists
  Don’t be intimidated by journalists, they are people too. If you contact them at a bad time apologise once and move on, apologising more than that can become annoying.
• Choose your questions wisely
  When calling a journalist don’t ask them if they are going to publish the media release. Instead, tell them the date you sent the media release on and what it was regarding. Simply ask if they received the release and if they would like further information or high resolution images. 
•  Be ready to respond to their requests
  You should be ready to supply the journalist with relevant images, additional information, event details or the contact details of your spokesperson. You can also line up interviews for the journalist to make it easier for them to cover your story/client.

Read the full article CP Communications News.
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Google+ Business Pages: What are the advantages?

Every business is different and so needs a different communications strategy. Not all businesses will be suited to the features and benefits that Google+ Business Pages offer, however some advantages of a Google+ Business Page include:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO):
  SEO is all about using techniques to drive the right people to your website. These include key words, back links and valuable content that will help search engines naturally find your site without paying for ads.
  
  As Google is one of the biggest search engines and therefore ranks Google+ very high in search results, it makes sense that SEO would be the top advantage for owning a Google+ Business Page.
• Google Services:
  By creating a Google+ Page, an organisation has direct access to all other Google services integrated into the system. Such services as Google Maps, search, YouTube, Android, Chrome and Gmail provide even greater exposure for a business. 
•  It helps build connections:
  Google+ pages don’t just interact with other pages; they interact with the entire Google+ world. Businesses can add people to circles, +1 comments and photos, add their own photos, edit their profile, host Hangouts and share things.
• Host hangouts:
  Google+ allows businesses to host their own Hangouts – live video chats with other users. Potentially a business could use these hangouts to have meetings with international clients, have expert discussions with potential clients or stream a live question and answer session. With live streaming businesses have even more of a reason to engage with their target audience.
• Circles:
  Circles are a feature on Google+ and Google+ Pages that allow the profile user to create groups of similar people or businesses. This makes it easier for businesses to send out targeted or tailored messages to each individual group.

Read the full article Public Relations Sydney blog.
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Upcoming events

Here are some events coming up that we thought you might be interested in: 

Social Media Marketing Course (Sydney)
Want to learn how to use social media for marketing your business? The Social Media Marketing course will teach you the key principles for using social media successfully and examine best practice examples. This intensive day course will cover the key social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogging.
3 February- Sydney, NSW 

Social Media Women
How do you measure reputation on social media? Kate Carruthers, an expert and forecaster in online collaboration, social media and digital integration, will explain the new social recommendation economy and why reputation matters. She will discuss how to make the new social recommendation economy work for you.
7 February- Sydney, NSW

The League of Extraordinary Women volume II
This networking event is for all young up and coming female entrepreneurs to meet like minded females, network in an informal environment and establish new business and personal relationships. You will hear from some of Australia’s leading female entrepreneurs such as Jodie Fox, Telstra Business Woman of the Year 2011.
9 February- Sydney, NSW 

Secrets of success for women in leadership
The Secrets of Success seminar is the first step of The Butterfly Program for Women in Leadership, which is a personal development program designed specifically for women in leadership and those who aspire to leadership roles. This seminar will offer tips on how to overcome obstacles and control thoughts, feelings and actions to get better results.
16 February – Melbourne, Victoria

Accelerate your digital business
Most entrepreneurs and companies do not have a plan to grow their business. AIMIA and VentureOne have created the ‘Accelerate your digital business’ workshop to help you grow your business in 2012. They will discuss how partnerships, joint ventures and investments can accelerate your business.
28 February- Sydney, NSW 

Web editing course
At this one-day course you will learn how to upgrade your web editing and e-copywriting skills. You can participate in discussions, gain hands on experience and work on your own projects with the guidance of an experienced online editor.
27 February- Sydney, NSW

Ouch! I have blisters on my hands. On Sunday I paddled in Sydney Harbour across the heads in a kayaking challenge.

It was more fun than a challenge – in fact the whole time I was paddling I kept thinking “how lucky am I”! Gorgeous day, beautiful harbour - if I could have, I would have jumped for joy.

The challenge was to raise money for Lifestart, a group that provides support for kids who have an intellectual disability or developmental delay. Before this challenge I hadn’t heard of Lifestart.

This type of fund raising event is a great way of raising the profile of a charity. Not only from media coverage for the actual event, but also by creating word of mouth from the participants – and there were over 700 of us.

Our team was a collection of people mostly connected through twitter. (I mean – how amazing is twitter!). We are connected because we all have a sense of adventure, community and gratitude.  We promoted the event through our social media networks. So it reached thousands of people who, like me, probably hadn’t heard of this charity before.

Our team – The Paddlesteamers – did the 17.5km in 2hr 26m and were 59th of 195 teams.  We raised money and awareness for Lifestart – and in the process we created even stronger personal and professional connections beyond twitter.

The blisters on my hands are a very small price to pay for a sense of achievement and gratitude for having such an amazing experience. See photos of the paddle and there is still time to donate.

PS To celebrate inspirational experiences, we are giving away a copy of the The Me Myth, a personal development book written by bestselling author (and our friend) Andrew Griffiths. The book has a brilliant, inspiring message — stop looking inwards for answers and start looking outwards. Andrew’s simple yet profound message is a result of an eye-opening personal journey. The 5th person to email me will receive the book. Good luck!

The results are in. PR drives news.
Organisations employ us to influence the news. That is the role of a PR agency. We come up with story ideas and media angles and pitch them to journalists writing for publications our clients’ target audience reads.

And it seems it works. 

Crikey in conjunction with the University of Technology (UTS) Sydney’s Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) investigated the role PR plays in making the media.

They analysed a five-day working week in the media finding nearly 55% of stories were driven by some form of public relations. The Daily Telegraph came out on top with 70% of stories analysed triggered by public relations and The Sydney Morning Herald had 42% of PR-driven stories for that week. Melbourne’s The Age were 47% public relations driven compared to 65% in The Herald Sun.

Of 2,203 articles analysed, more than 500 or 24% had no significant extra perspective, source or content added by reporters. So 24% of journalists in that week put their byline on stories that were republished press releases with little or no significant extra journalism work.

Interestingly, the highest levels of PR content were found in the innovation/technology sections (77%) and police rounds (71%).

I understand that perhaps people that think they are reading original researched articles in the newspaper will be up in arms about this. But this highlights two things for me:

Firstly, it highlights that many journailists critically rely on PR people to supply them with stories.

Secondly, if you don’t have a PR Agency- Get one!

Four easy steps to take to increase traffic to your website.
Just having a website isn’t enough; you need to get traffic to your site. We asked expert Inbound Marketing & Social Media Strategist, Clodagh Higgins for her top tips to increase website traffic.

In today’s online world – Google’s metrics have a major influence on making sure your website will be seen quickly by people who are looking for your business.  
 
Google is the #1 search engine currently owning a whopping 65% market share in Australia, which means that 65 out of 100 Aussies go to Google to type in problems that they need solutions for.
 
It’s a bit like a popularity contest; if you tick all the boxes for the things that Google deems to be important, then you will be rewarded by appearing on the first page, even at the top of the first page, if you are very good!
 
To make sure that qualified potential clients find your website can you answer yes to these four questions?
 
1. Do you have a blog on your website?
2. Are you advertising your website in offline publications like specialist magazines for your industry?
3. Are your main keywords in the title page and/ or front page of your domain?
4. Do you advertise your website in Yahoo Directory every year?
 
If you answered no to one or more of these questions then you are missing out on online traffic and subsequently missing out on leads for your business.

Upcoming events

Here are some events coming up that we thought you might be interested in:

Networking & Self Promotion
Founder & Managing Director of Women’s Network Australia, Lynette Palmen will talk on networking and self promotion. This event will teach skills on how to make connections for business success and also give you the opportunity to put these skills into practice.
13 April 2010

Social Media Women
Women with an interest in social media are invited to attend the next meeting to be held by the newly launched formal networking group Social Media Women. Whether you are an expert or have never used social media – you will find it an inspirational and collaborative group.
13 April 2010

CeBIT Australia
CeBIT Australia is the leading business event in the Asia Pacific region for information and communications technology driving business strategy. 600 exhibitors and over 30,000 highly qualified trade visitors from overseas will be in attendance.
24-26 May 2010

XMediaLab
This event will feature a selection of expert digital media practitioners from around the world. People with original digital media ideas can connect with a network of independent creative thinkers, technology wizards, commercialisation experts, potential business partners, and potential resources.
28 May 2010

Australian Business Events Expo 2010
This event will focus on Australia’s event industry. It will showcase products and services amongst other items that will assist when it comes time to organise an event. This event is free to attend.
22-23 July 2010

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