PR and marketing

Most people who have joined Facebook have ‘friended’ everyone they know from people they went to school with 30 years ago to new friends.

Their pages are filled to bursting with both personal and professional information about themselves and yet, in order to network on a professional basis, you need to use LinkedIn and start that networking process all over again.

At least that’s how it used to be until BranchOut was launched.

The BranchOut application, created in July 2010, is Facebook’s largest professional networking service. In many ways it is quite similar to LinkedIn allowing users to create networks, search for jobs or people at specific companies to relay interest to and seek endorsement from previous clients or employees.

BranchOut also allows you to transfer all the information from your LinkedIn account over to your BranchOut account to make the start up process easier.

Although LinkedIn still may be the head honcho when it comes to online professional networking, BranchOut seems have one advantage that LinkedIn doesn’t: BranchOut uses your existing Facebook network meaning your contacts are already there, waiting for you to explore as soon as you create your account.

To a person who already has a pretty savvy LinkedIn account, this feature may not make much difference to you. However, to a person who is new to professional networking, this feature may be the tipping point when it comes to choosing between LinkedIn and BranchOut.

However, regardless of whether you are a LinkedIn professional or a first time rookie, BranchOut is worth a try, if nothing more than to have something professional to do while you’re on Facebook. Learning something new, especially in this fast-paced social media day and age, really can’t hurt.

And while on the topic of learning something new, for all you social media savvy people who feel they are starting to get bored by the already existing list of social media platforms – brace yourselves.

Word is quickly spreading about a new social media platform that is yet to hit our Australian social media shores called Kohort. Users are already able to stake their claim by creating their own user account name; however you can’t enter the site yet.

Mysterious or what!?

Do you want to see you and your business profiled in the media but don’t know where to start?

Have you sent out media releases and received no response?

When you get the right media coverage, your sales can double (or triple), you gain new customers and you can position yourself as a leader in the market place.

However, if you don't know the tactics of a publicity/public relations (PR) strategy or how to write an effective media release, you won’t get the results that will make a difference.

You'll learn the science behind an effective PR strategy including writing media releases that get results, how to approach journalists, how to write articles and case studies for the media as well as clever online tactics.

In one day, you'll discover the secrets to getting good publicity that you can use for your own business.

This seminar covers:
• the elements of a typical PR strategy
• how to determine your target audiences
• how to structure media releases and what you must include
• who you should quote and what they should say
• how to deal with journalists
• online distribution strategies
• contributing articles to publications
• how to approach bloggers as part of your PR strategy

This seminar is ideal for:
• Business owners, coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs who want to promote their business
• Professionals who have been given PR or marketing responsibilities but who may not have had formal training in this area
• People who are relatively new to a public relations role

This seminar covers all the issues you need to consider before you even put pen to paper - or fingers to the keyboard! Once you have these issues covered, you will have a strong framework that will guide how you write the release.

About Catriona Pollard
This seminar is presented by Catriona Pollard, director of CP Communications. Catriona has 18 years experience in developing and managing public relations and marketing programs.

Prior to establishing CP Communications in 2001, Catriona set up the marketing communications department for a leading software company and managed a diverse range of accounts within PR agencies. She also has extensive experience in managing public affairs and marketing in federal and state governments.

Catriona's blog Public Relations Sydney was shortlisted as media & marketing blog of the year 2009. She is a co-founder of Social Media Women, a formal online and in person networking group that encourages and assists women to participate more prominently in social media.

This seminar is held at the Sydney Writers' Centre.

PR and Media Releases that Get Results with Catriona Pollard
11 August 2011 9.00am - 5.00pm
Fee: $495 (includes GST)

To book, please click here. 

Ground Floor
55 Lavender Street
Milsons Point NSW 2061

Just like keeping your elbows off the dinner table and letting pregnant women sit down on the bus, the online world has its own etiquette.

These are especially important to know - and follow - if you are a business with an online presence, as offending potential customers and/or clients is certainly not the right way to go.

When online always keep in mind the following rules:

Interesting content: Whether on Facebook, Twitter or blogging make sure you aren’t just posting for the sake of uploading content. The content should always be interesting and add value to your business or the conversation.

Listen to your followers, don’t just talk. Always follow up and reply to people who have made an effort. Whether they have asked you a question through Twitter or made a particularly interesting comment on your blog, people like it when they know the person on the other side of the computer screen is paying attention and not just posting things for them to read. Social media is a two-way conversation, just like in the real world.

Be professional: You are a business and aren’t gossiping with your buddies down at the local watering-hole. Before posting or replying ask yourself `Would you say these things in real life to a client or customer?’ Because if you wouldn’t say it to their face, do not say it online where it is out there for the world to see. While it can be tempting to become over-friendly with followers online, think about your type of business and how casual you want to come across.

Never bad-mouth anyone or anything. Talking about another business or a customer/client in a negative way online will alienate people and it just looks petty. Like your parents told you, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

If you do happen to make a mistake online remember to be gracious and admit to it. Nobody likes a sore loser and sometimes a simple apology will suffice to get you back into the good books of whoever you offended.

Always keep in mind whatever you put online is there for the world to see.

So you want to start up a social media campaign for your business but don’t know where to start.

Have you ever thought of calling in the professionals? While it all may seem relatively easy with most kindergarten students showing their parents how to connect online, the world of social networking for businesses can be a confusing one.

There are many different types of social media from Facebook to Twitter to Foursquare and blogs. Knowing how to use each one, getting the best results and keeping up with your ROI can be a full-time job in itself. Not to mention keeping up to date with continual, interesting content that your target audience want to connect with.

Experienced social media PR companies will be able to do all the research for you and have you up and running in no time. You will have to accommodate for the cost but you will be able to clearly see what the campaign is doing to boost your business.

Using experts will also mean you will be keeping up to date with the latest in social media, so while your competitors are still playing around with last year’s fad, you’ll be looking to the future and wowing customers or clients with your forward-thinking.

Another point of difference is social media campaign companies will have experienced writers on staff who can utilise their skills for the different platforms from writing 140 character tweets to 1000 word technical blogs.

Social media campaigns aren’t just for big businesses either, all companies from one-man (or woman!) operations right up to international conglomerates can benefit from a well-thought out social media campaign.

Tips for working with an outsourced company:

Do your research before picking a company. Different companies work within different sectors, such as lifestyle and retail, and can be experts in different fields.

Set targets: Know what you want out of the social media campaign and set realistic targets. This can be a certain amount of followers on Twitter, comments on a blog or number of customers taking up an offer from a social media site.

Communicate with the company to make sure you are both on the same page. Social media is an ongoing, probably daily activity and you want to make sure you both have the same idea when it comes to the message and public persona you want to showcase.

CP Communications has been running the PR campaign for the Government 2.0 Taskforce. Their report was released yesterday calling for the government to embrace Web 2.0 tools to deepen democracy and engage citizens.  

It also recommends that government agencies and public servants use Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and online forums to engage with citizens, each other and likeminded professionals around the world. 

When I was reading this, I thought – the same applies to most businesses. How many companies encourage their staff to share their expertise online? In fact, most businesses ban staff from using Web 2.0 tools at work. 

Also, how many companies have fully integrated Web 2.0 to engage with customers and communities? Using Web 2.0 tools the Government can draw all those with the enthusiasm, expertise and crucial local knowledge to collaborate in the process of government. Can you do something like this to engage with your business community?

I want to thank everyone for your support with our Public Relations Sydney blog being shortlisted for Mumbrella's media & marketing blog of the year! As I mentioned whatever the outcome, I am so chuffed to have been shortlisted. Mumbrella said "the hardest category to shortlist was for media and marketing blog of the year. Several good ones didn’t make it."

Finally, we wish you a very merry Christmas and happy New Year! It’s been lovely sharing our stories with you. It’s been an exhilarating and exhausting year, and I am going to go lie under an umbrella on the beach for a couple of weeks and catch up on my reading and day dreaming. 

See you in the New Year. 

Is it time you Facebooked your business?

If you thought Facebook was just for keeping contact with friends and family, think again. It can be a great way of building an online community, or simply reaching another audience online. 

With a Facebook Page you create a public profile that helps you to share your business and products with Facebook users. 

Setting up your page

The first step when setting up your page isn’t actually setting up your page - it’s thinking about the name of your page.  The obvious is your company name, however you can create a page that relates to your business.

For example we have two pages – Public Relations Sydney and CP Communications. The first relates to my personal blog, which I plan on creating a public relations community around, and the other is about our business.

Actually setting up your page

Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and then you need to choose one of three categories for your business: Local Business (and the industry); Brand, Product, or Organisation; and Public band, Artist or other Public Figure.

Adding content

The easiest way of populating your page is RSS feeding your blog into the page. This then means every time you post an article on your blog, it is automatically fed into your Facebook page.

Getting fans

Once you've become a "fan" of your business, your friends on Facebook will see a message in their home page.  You can also send a message to all of your friends asking them to become friends. I also suggest you add the page link to your website, email signature, blog, business card – as many places as possible!

What makes a good page?

A successful Facebook page needs to be engaging, updated and rewarding. While I was writing this article I read on Twitter @JourneyJottings tweeting about a giveaway on her Facebook page. She was engaging (and rewarding) her fans by running a 10 day giveaway where each day her fans had the chance of winning an Australia Map Journal. 

This is just an excerpt of the full article! Go to our blog Public Relations Sydney to read the full article.

Why "No Comment" is never a good idea

Plastered across the media in the last couple of weeks have been reports of Tiger Woods – that car crash and those affairs. Tiger has been very vague about what occurred that night and replied to media inquiries with the dangerous “no comment” creating a public relations nightmare. 

What’s the big deal?

When replying with “No Comment” both the media and the public automatically believe that Tiger is lying, or covering up what happened leaving the media to fill in the gap. This more often than not ends badly. 

What to do if you are in a similar situation?

If you or your business find yourself in the midst of a crisis you should keep in mind the following suggestions:

• Never, ever say “No Comment.” Instead tell reporters the situation is still being reviewed and you will have a statement available as soon as you have all the facts.

• Offer as much information as possible to avoid the chance of inaccurate information being reported to the public.

• Respond quickly to define and control public perception of how you are handling the crisis or the media will do it for you. 

• If the crisis affects members of the public, always show compassion and concern for the people involved.

• Don’t allow for speculation. If the interviewer says something that is not factual, correct the information.

• Report your own bad news before the media catches wind.  This will avoid the media assuming you are guilty without getting your side of the story.

• Always admit your mistakes. Explain why the mistake occurred and what you are doing to fix the problem. Never underestimate the power of “sorry.”

• Forget about “on the record” “off the record” promises. If you don’t want something reported, then avoid discussing it completely.  

Read the full article at Public Relations Sydney. 

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