Last week I was interviewed about mentoring. I was asked about the reasons why we need a mentor. Over my career I have mentored numerous business people and graduates and I see this as part of my contribution to the business community.

Here are the reasons why I believe mentoring is important:

Create a learning culture in your life – I think we’re responsible for our own learning. By seeking a mentor you are creating an opportunity to grow, which is what you need if you really want to be successful.

A source of support and advice – recently I had to deal with a difficult situation with a ex-business associate. The first place I went to for advice was my group of business friends. Informal mentoring is very invaluable so seek out people you trust and admire to provide you with support and advice.

Formal goal setting – mentoring is a great way to help you set a clear career path and set goals for yourself. It also makes you accountable for your own career goals.

Inspiration and a different perspective – spending time with a mentor that you admire can assist with your own perspective and can lead to better decision making.

Expanding your network – I can’t stress how important networking is for your career and business. A mentor can open up new networks with people outside your own sphere of influence. This can lead to new career opportunities you otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

Million Paws Walk – We are participating in the Million Paws Walk 2012 to help raise money for the RSPCA. We hope that by participating in the Million Paws Walk we can raise money and awareness to help neglected animals, but we need your help.

Please support our team and the RSPCA by donating to our CP Communications fundraising page. Help us achieve our (very achievable) fundraising target of $250!

Learn how to do your own PR – My next one day workshop – PR and Media Releases that get Results – is on 24 May. 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. Register here.

I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter.
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How to write great content for the internet

Studies have shown that most people only spend 10 – 20 seconds viewing individual websites, which is hardly any time at all. So how do you get people to spend more time on your website and actually read your content?

The answer is to write valuable content that will appeal to your target audience and is presented in a clear format.

The way that we read internet content is different to how we read print text. People read slower on the internet and tend to scan the page, skimming over large chunks of content and focusing on subheadings and summaries. This means that you need to adapt your content for the internet to make it easier for people to read content on a computer screen.

• Make it brief: Cut down your print content by half .
• Break up the text: Small paragraphs of 40 – 70 words in length. Use subheadings, bullet points and empty space.
• Use links: Use hyperlinks to draw your reader’s attention to other articles that support your research or main points.
• Use inclusive language: Write content that will engage your reader by using the word ‘you’ instead of impersonal words such as ‘users’ or ‘consumers’.
• Create a catchy headline: Write a headline that will grab the reader’s attention and quickly convey the articles main point.

Read the full article on the CP Communications website.
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What you need to know before joining social media

Before you dive into social media there are a few things to consider.

Where is your target audience? Before you join a social media platform stop and think about where your target audience is. What social media sites are they using and which ones are they avoiding?

Which platforms suits your business? You don’t have to join all the social media platforms at once. Start by choosing the top two platforms that are right for your business.

Who will manage your social media accounts? Social media can be very time consuming. You need to consider who will manage your social media accounts and who is able to devote enough time to each site.

How will you use social media? You need to develop a strategy about how your business will use social media. This strategy should include what information you will post, how often it will be posted, how your brand will be represented and how you respond to positive and negative comments.

Are you prepared for a long relationship with social media? Social media is not just a onetime thing. It takes a long time to build a following on social media and to position your business as a valuable member of an online community.

Read the full article on our Public Relations Sydney blog.
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Upcoming events
Here are some events coming up that we thought you might be interested in:

The business of blogging – made easy!
Blogging is an essential social media tool for any business because it allows clients to get to know your business. It also demonstrates your business’s expertise and improves your search engine rank on Google. At this event you will learn about the type of content that your readers are looking for. You will also gather ideas for your first 10 blog posts.
3 May – North Ryde

How to write a business book with Valerie Khoo
This Sydney Writers' Centre seminar shows you how to turn your expertise into a best-selling business book. You will gain practical advice on how to position yourself as an expert and gain instant credibility by authoring a best-selling book. You will learn about how to how to keep your reader interested, the basics of publicity, how to structure your book and how to use it as a lead generation tool.
4 May – Sydney

Women in Banking and Finance Business Series Luncheon – Ita Buttrose and Oroton Group CEO Sally MacDonald
This event will host a lively discussion between Ita Buttrose and Sally MacDonald about their careers and the future of women in leadership positions. They will also explore the strategies that worked for them to achieve successful careers. Ita Buttrose is a businesswomen, media editor and bestselling author. Sally MacDonald is the CEO and Managing Director of Oroton Group.
9 May – Sydney

LinkedIn: How to build great personal and professional profiles
This She Inspires event will discuss how to use LinkedIn to promote your personal brand and your business. You will learn how to integrate LinkedIn into your social media strategy and how to complete your online profile. Friends of CP Communications (that's you!) receive 25% off when they book with this code CP05lisb
16 May – Sydney

Professional development program: Magnetic writing
This course will teach you how to improve your text, sharpen your writing skills and keep your readers engaged with your writing. You will be shown how to grab and hold an audience’s attention while communicating your message clearly and simply. You will be given skills to make composition easier, no matter what level of writing you are at.
16 May – Perth

Leaders with a life conference
This annual business event will provide attendees with the energy, ideas and inspiration to take their leadership style from good to great. National and international speakers will provide their tips and personal leadership experiences. This conference is perfect for anyone who dares or dreams of taking the lead.
21 – 22 May – Adelaide

When was the last time you day dreamed? Did you know that day dreaming helps with creativity and innovation? It helps your brain notice new connections, to see the overlaps that we normally overlook.

I’m reading Imagine: The Science of Creativity, which is all about how the brain ‘has a creative impulse built into its operating system’. It’s about how we imagine.

You don’t have to be an artist or naturally inventive to be creative. As the book says, we tend to assume that some people are simply more creative than others, that originality is a predetermined personality trait.

However, by merely sitting in a blue room or spending time looking at the blue ocean or the sky you can double your creativity.

Productive daydreaming (where you’re not letting your mind wander so far away it gets lost) can lead to great insights. When you are struggling with seemingly impossible problems, find time to unwind.

Rather than relentlessly focusing, take a warm shower or walk on a beach. Do a little day dreaming.

As the book says, it’s not until you let yourself relax and indulge in distractions that you will discover the answer; the insight arrives only after you stop looking for it.

So maybe it's time to stop looking and start day dreaming.

Million Paws Walk - We are participating in the Million Paws Walk 2012 on Sunday 20 May to help raise money for the RSPCA. We hope that by participating in the Million Paws Walk we can raise money and awareness to help neglected animals, but we need your help.

Please support our team and the RSPCA by donating to our CP Communications fundraising page. Help us achieve our (very achievable) fundraising target of $250!

I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter.
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How to respond to negative tweets
Responding to a negative tweet can be tricky, especially since you don’t want to escalate the problem further. So how do you respond to a negative tweet and resolve the issue quickly while still maintaining a good reputation for your business?

The worst thing you can do is to ignore the tweet or respond in a negative way. This could escalate the issue and lead to a major crisis situation if other followers join the conversation.

Here are some tips to help you respond to a negative tweet.

• Tweet a polite public reply in response to the negative tweet and offer a clear process to resolving the issue. For example you could explain the issue better or offer them a discount on their next product.
• If you are following the person who wrote the negative tweet than you can send them a polite direct message explaining in further detail how to resolve the issue or asking them to explain the issue further.
• If you’re not following the person who wrote the negative tweet then send them a public reply and start following them. Ask them to follow you back so you can then send them a direct message.
• Deal with the issue on a more personal level by asking for their contact details. Send them an email or call them on the phone. This will be easier to resolve the issue when you can write more than 140 characters.
• Remember to address the problem quickly.
• Always stay calm and do not aggravate the situation further by getting angry or responding negatively.
• You can also research the person’s profile who wrote the tweet to understand their personality. This will help you to communicate better with them and help to meet their needs.

It is important to maintain good customer service while using twitter, which means responding to complaints quickly, being helpful, treating customers with respect and always being friendly and polite.

Read the full article here.
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How to use evergreen stories to your advantage
There are heaps of events that occur every year that the media will always publish stories about such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day. These stories are called evergreen stories.

Evergreen stories are kind of like ground hog day. They come around every year and from a media perspective, they remain interesting and newsworthy every year.

Journalists are always looking for a new angle for an evergreen story because they don’t want to publish the same story as last year. You can use this to your advantage and gain publicity for your business by coming up with a fresh new angle.

An example of an interesting evergreen angle is around New Years Eve when there are always hundreds of stories about New Year’s resolutions – quit smoking, get fit or get a new job. You could add a new twist to this angle such as: What are your New Year’s business resolutions and how to achieve them.

You could even write a success story about how your business achieved last year’s resolutions and the amazing result that occurred.

Read about how evergreen stories can benefit your business on our 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 Enterprise Unconference
At this event you will learn about the social enterprise, what it is and what it means for your business. You will also learn how the social enterprise impacts social innovators. This event offers the opportunity for you to network with other like-minded people to build your network and drive social innovation in Australia.
14 April 2012 – Paddington, NSW

6 Steps to a Better Business
At this free workshop you will learn how to make you business work more effectively so you don’t have to work so hard. Learn how to turn your advertising into an investment instead of an expense, leverage your time to maximise your profits and efficiency and learn how to recruit and retain the best employees for your business.
17 April 2012 – Crows Nest, NSW

Social Media Management
This conference will teach you how to create a sustainable presence for your business on social media. You will learn how to handle negative issues on social media and how to develop the best community on social media for your business. You will hear practical advice from a number of social media and marketing experts.
17-18 April 2012 – Sydney, NSW 

SEO for Beginners
Learn how to make your website Google friendly with search engine optimisation (SEO). You will learn about the definition of SEO and how to use it to get your business to appear on the first page of Google searches. Marketing expert Dave Chaffey of Netreach will provide practical advice and tips on SEO and how to find your own SEO consultant.
18 April 2012 – Sydney, NSW

Think Women Think Business
This one day conference is for women who want to invest in their future and receive a tool kit of ideas to grow their business. There are six available workshops to attend on the day and you can choose to attend any three that best suit your needs. You can also network with like minded women from a range of professional backgrounds. The conference concludes with a keynote presentation.
20 April 2012 – Perth, WA

Social Media Live! - Sydney
Attend this interactive workshop and learn how to use social media strategically and effectively for your business. At the end of the day you will have created your own Twitter account, LinkedIn profile and company page, a Facebook Business page and a social media strategy to manage these new sites. You will be given a workbook and instructions, which explain how to use these sites.
30 April 2012 – Sydney, NSW

Reputation matters- Klout, Kred, and the growth of the social recommendation economy with Kate Carruthers.

How do you measure reputation on social media? It’s so much more than the number of followers you have.

Both Klout and Kred measure influence based on your ability to drive action. The Klout Score uses data from social networks to measure true reach, amplification and network impact. Kred analyses billions of tweets from the last 1,000 days to calculate your Kred. Every interaction you have made in that time is part of your score. It measures Influence and Outreach level.

But are they accurate? Kate 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.

About Kate:

Kate Carruthers is an expert and forecaster in online collaboration, social media, digital integration, unified communication, email and search marketing.

With extensive experience in senior executive roles for diverse organisations such as GE, AMP, Westfield and State Government she currently works in business strategy and implementation roles. Kate has also lectured in postgraduate business at Macquarie University and taught TAFE level courses in business and management.

She is Co-Founder of Social Innovation Sydney and was a long standing member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers and is a Senior Member of the Australian Computer Society. She is on the Advisory Board for the　Schools of Computer Science & Software Engineering and Information Systems & Technology at the University of Wollongong.

Kate is currently studying law part time as an external student with Queensland University of Technology.

Twitter: @kcarruthers 
Blog: http://katecarruthers.com/blog/

Please note: This month's Social Media Women is being held on the FIRST Tuesday of the month as the second Tuesday falls on Valentines Day.

A not to be missed event- learn about the new social recommendation economy and why reputation matters.

Register now for our February event at

Date: Tuesday 7 February 2012 (First week in February)
Time: 6:00pm - 8:30pm
Venue: The Supper Club at the Oxford Hotel,
134 Oxford st, Darlinghurst.

(Enter the Oxford St side of the hotel and walk up the stairs. Metered parking is a few steps away on Bourke St, $1.10 per hour)

I have just come back from a holiday where I was incommunicado with the outside world. Prior to going I was worried about my addiction to Twitter, my crackberry and my laptop. Addiction? What addiction. It was heaven. Maybe you should try it some time. I can certainly recommend it.

While I was away Marketing Magazine very kindly profiled me if you want to take a read.

What makes a great website?

What are the essential traits of a great web site? After you visit a site and you browse through it for a while, what makes you stay? Great design helps. Amazing graphics are eye catching. But the fundamental trait that makes a website work is the content.

The content or copy of your website is critical. This is where you hold the attention of your audience. Your word choice and grammar are critical. Misspellings and poor grammar are a quick turn off. If your content isn’t easy to read people will go to other sites to get information and buy.

Copy writing is often one of those jobs that people think they can do themselves but probably shouldn’t. We often help clients with their web copy to assist them in the creation of a professionally written website.

Tips on writing effective website copy:

Keep it short
While choosing the right words is important, keeping them to a minimum is equally important. The length of your copy online should be about half that of the print version. Re-work your original, including succinct sentences and short paragraphs. Dot points are often a great way to achieve this.

Chose your words carefully
Try to avoid words that are too descriptive, colloquial or flowery. Descriptive words often don’t tell readers much and are a waste of words.

Understand your audience and write for them. Just because you have a well versed vocabulary doesn’t mean your audience does. At the same time by choosing colloquial language you often dumb down your website and limit credibility.

Read more tips on writing effective website copy.

Media monitoring with Google Alerts

Most businesses don’t have the budgets to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media. They would prefer to use the budget to generate coverage rather than track it!

We encourage our clients to use Google Alerts which are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, blogs etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

We have one for each client name and spokesperson so we can track their coverage. Obviously this only applies to coverage that has been posted online so don’t rely on this to track coverage in trade publications.

Some other handy uses of Google Alerts include:
• monitoring a developing news story
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• tracking stories in other blogs
• tracking stories/topics in your industries

To create a Google Alert:
Go to www.google.com/alerts
Fill in the ‘form’ by adding your search terms. The Type dropdown let’s you choose from News, Blogs, Web, Google Groups, and Comprehensive. The Comprehensive option will search all options - which is what we use.
Select how often you wish to receive the alerts - once a day, as-it-happens, or once a week.
Hit Create Alert and you’ll start receiving emails with your alerts!

Creating online authenticity

Social media is all about authenticity, Rohit Bhargava, of Ogilvy USA explained at a recent Frocomm event. Here are a few topics he discussed in his presentation.

Media is circular
News is no longer just generated by journalists. With the help of social media, media has evolved to become a circular process. Individuals are looking to the media for stories, but at the same time, the media is looking online for stories and trends.

Unlock the passion of accidental spokespeople
One of the most noticeable effects of social media is the emergence of the ‘accidental spokesperson’. This concept is that employees or customers of organisations are fast becoming accidental key voices or spokespeople.

Speak with a human voice
Social media is providing organisations with the chance to humanise and authenticate their organisation. With the emergence of blogs and sites such as Twitter, businesses have been given the opportunity to bring their organisation alive by delivering a vivid personality through a spokesperson such as the CEO.

Faceless doesn’t work anymore
Consumers are no longer OK with being put on hold or talking to recorded messages. They want to talk to a real person and get a personal reply to their individual questions. Social media is allowing organisations to do this.

Virtual trust trumps all
Current research has shown that consumers are starting to trust online reviews over recommendations from their friends and company produced product information. This highlights just how important online reviews are for your organisation.

Read the full article on our Public Relations Sydney blog.

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