No longer do you have to wait several days to receive letters in the post; now you can send an email or log in to Facebook or Twitter and send messages instantly.

Long distance communication is as simple as popping next door. However in the wave of social media are traditional forms of communication being left behind before their time?

Lauren Symons: it's good to talk

We don’t talk anymore

Over the last ten years the mobile phone has developed from simply a portable phone into a portable computer. You can text, take pictures and videos, email, play games, download apps and post your exact location on Facebook for the world to see.

But alongside all that technology hidden under a variety of names, a mobile phone or a smart phone is still a phone designed to allow you to make calls wherever you are, as long as there is signal.

Surely this means that a telephone conversation is still considered important.

However this doesn’t seem to be the belief of certain businesses, my case in point is ASOS.

Call me

Recently I had a situation where an exchanged item was being delivered to the wrong address and it was impossible to speak to anyone about this. Instead of providing a customer service number which would give me a thousand options before being able to speak to a human being, I only had the option of email or Twitter.

I decided email would be considerably easier to explain my situation as I wasn’t restricted in word length. However I was restricted in the choice of subject line for my problem. I selected the most appropriate header listed and explained my problem fully in the body of my email. I received a very prompt yet generic reply which did not answer my question and helped me in no way.

I then resorted to Twitter, again I got a quick response which resulted in a handful of tweets back and forth as I tried to explain my dilemma and ultimately I was advised to email customer services.

I received the same generic reply.

As day three of this frustration continued the people handling the twitter account finally gave me some useful advice and a correct reference to quote in the subject header of my email and my problem was resolved. This however could have all been sorted out through a short telephone call.

Bouquets and brickbats for ASOS

I praise ASOS as a company for their use of social media and their desire to communicate with their consumers; they were the subject of my university dissertation. Having monitored their customer service Twitter feed and measured their response times, social media had appeared to be a simple and effective way to manage traditional customer issues. However when faced with a unique problem their use of social media proved to be a hindrance.

Despite social media having a massive impact on how we communicate, it is definitely not time to retire the traditional methods. The telephone is still a vital part of communications and is not something to be written off yet.

Organisations looking to embrace social media need to remember that limiting the way consumers communicate with them may in turn limit the number of consumers who look to do so.

Did I mention my new bag?

The Hermes Birkin. The Chanel 2.55. The Mulberry Bayswater.

What are they I hear you say?

They are bags, beautiful, amazing, stylish, delectable, highly sought after bags.

Not just bags, ‘IT’ bags.

These bags claim to be classics. The sort that will never be unfashionable.

The sort that the wealthy buy in batches yet normal girls like me can only dream of owning.

And that I do. Every day I envision how my outfit would look if I could add the Mulberry Alexa in Oak Ostrich (my personal favourite bag of all time) to it.

But seeing as it costs almost as much as a year’s rent, I somehow don’t think my student budget will stretch that far.

On my first day of university I was introduced to my flat mate and quite frankly as soon as I met her I was over ridden with jealously. Hanging off her arm she had my dream bag, there in all its wonderfulness. I was in awe.

I later discovered she had even more amazing bags hidden away in her room, and I’m sure you can imagine my excitement when she told me, ‘you can borrow any of them any time you want’.  So of course I snapped up the offer, I chose to borrow her pale brown patent Mulberry Bayswater for a friend’s birthday meal and I can honestly say my borrowed bag got more attention than the birthday girl herself.

So why are bags such as these so appealing? I mean they are probably retailed at 10 times what they actually cost to make and when it comes down to it there just a leather handbag with a designer name or logo emblazoned on the front. They are usually quite plain and come in fairly standard colours, with hardly an evidence that it had been bought from one of the world’s best fashion houses.

Many people could look at a Hermes Birkin and not give it a second thought, but girls like me could spot one a mile away.

The scenes of Gossip Girl are full of these bags, Serena Van Der Woodsen appears to own every designer bag ever made and whatever she doesn’t own her best friend Blair Waldorf is likely to have in at least five different colours. Magazine pages are shrouded with the season’s top 10 pieces of arm candy. Victoria Beckham is rumoured to have over 100 Birkin bags all in different colours, the Kardashian Sisters between them must have about 500 designer holdalls, whilst Beyonce probably has enough to give the whole population of NYC a bag each.

Ok, so it all does sound a little superficial and shallow does it not? But we still all want one right? (at least us girls do ).  If Kim Kardashian can have a 10 Birkins why can’t we?

Well, I can only guess but I doubt Kimmy Khad to pay for any of her Birkin bags at all. This is because of the simply genius actions of the PR team behind Hermes. Their business strategy probably goes a little like this:

Step 1: Send a celebrity a few new bags.

Step 2: The celebrity uses the bags and paparazzi gain pictures of them with the bag.

Step 3: Bag instantly comes more desirable to the public.

Step 4: sales of the bag increase

Simple isn’t it? And probably a lot cheaper than conjuring up an extravagant marketing campaign. It gets the bags seen by many different audiences and the picture of a celebrity with their bag has the potential to be all over magazines and newspapers supplying a business with perfect coverage of their product.

I just can’t see why Mulberry aren’t sending their newest recruit the Mulberry Carter … I’m a student, please mulberry have some sympathy!

David Piggott at Westminster for the Maggie Nally Memorial Lecture

I have to admit I was pretty excited when I got suited and booted for the CIPR Maggie Nally Memorial Lecture.

Not only was this West Country boy in the Big Smoke, but I was also going to have a chance to listen to Richard Gizbert. I’d looked at some of his work in the past and had a feeling I wouldn’t be falling asleep…unlike in some of my university lectures.

Task one was getting into the House of Commons; not so much a task, as a chance to imagine yourself in an episode of Spooks.

As I was in my wheelchair I had to enter a couple of lifts, which I like to think were scanning me and assessing my threat level.

Pretty soon technology will be so advanced that scanners will be able to work out your sarcasm level by how wide your smile is and how much glint is in the eye – if you seem too sarcastic a political strategist or pollster will come down and question you, showing you various political pictures and slogans all containing the words “new and change”, “does this make you feel more or less cynical” to which I would say: “Why is he smiling, he’s in politics?”

I tried to smile while I was having my photograph taken but it was taken before I was ready so it looked as though a raindrop had fallen directly into my eye. A good look I’m sure you’ll agree.

After taking the scenic route with my chair I arrived at Committee Room 10 and was met with a very warm welcome by Eva Maclaine, one of the organisers, which straight away put me at ease. It was good to see the interaction between different people in the room. There was no sense of hierarchy, just old friends and new acquaintances coming together to listen and learn.

The introduction to the lecture was given by Mathew Francis, chair of the CIPR’s International Committee. He outlined the purpose and the principle behind the Maggie Nally lectures before handing over to the main man, Richard Gizbert of Al Jazeera.

Hacks versus flacks

After putting the audience at ease with a joke Richard began by touching on the subject of the interdependent relationship between PR and journalism by using an example of the famous nemesis  movie quote: “We’re not so very different you and I”. This in itself was interesting to hear as more often than not the narrative of hacks versus flacks still prevails over the narrative of co-operation.

Richard spoke about the launch of Al Jazeera English and how under the Bush doctrine Al Jazeera was known as the ‘bad guy’ and how difficult it was to get the project off the ground due to negative perceptions and a hostile reception from the US government.

Richard discussed the harsh realities faced by those working at Al Jazeera Arabic, such as the death and injury of two Al Jazeera journalists caused by a US missile. Whatever people may think about the state of the media, it cannot be denied that those reporting from conflict zones do a dangerous but worthwhile job.  Throughout the talk Richard was able to deliver insight and reasoning on why leaders behave in certain ways and how policy in North American is shaped.

Arab Spring

Before moving on to the Arab Spring and the role of social and traditional media, Richard highlighted the gap between peoples’ political awareness and awareness of media influence. He stated that, while people in North America had become more politically aware, they had not managed to transfer this awareness to the media whose power has been compared to that of armies and weapons.

From this Richard moved on to talk about the show that he presents, ‘Listening Post’, which seeks to report on the powerful institutions that make up the media. ‘Listening Post’ has received critical acclaim and is seen by many as required viewing.

Media scrutiny

Speaking about the lack of scrutiny that the media receives, he said: “We do know there’s a level of self-interest involved. I’m not saying that other societal institutions aren’t important but if you look at the role that the US media played in Iraq and you just ask yourself the question, when was the last time a school helped start a war?” This quote really resonated with me as all too often it is easy for those working in and with the media to get trapped in a bubble and not realise the consequences that actions can have.

Richard’s view on the role that social and traditional media played in the Arab Spring was also very interesting. It’s his belief that the uprisings were helped by a combination of both social and traditional media working together. Richard spoke about needing to work in partnership with people producing the information and its need to be contextualised and collated.

This did have me thinking about how and by whom that information is presented. It’s well known that a sound bite or a story can be taken out of context to fulfil a news agenda. This is why it is important that journalists like Richard Gizbert continue to be the norm and not the exception.

Party in parliament

After the talk I was able to meet many people including fellow PR students.  It is always good to meet your peers and have the chance to exchange ideas and learn about different courses, while trying not to make a bad joke.

During this period I had an opportunity to speak with Patrick Nally, son of Maggie Nally and a bit of a legend in sports marketing. Just from speaking to him for a few minutes I could tell he was full of ideas and that he knew how to execute them.

Dinner was held in Cholmondeley room which had a magnificent view of the Thames; again I got to talk to many people, all of them warm, humble and hospitable a far cry from the Malcolm Tucker PR type. I would certainly recommend that any PR student check out the CIPR.

The event was thought-provoking, insightful and interesting. As a student of PR I can often be cynical about the fourth estate. Hearing a highly trained, highly ethical journalist speak on his work has renewed my faith.

I am, of course, referring to The X Factor.

I suppose now would be a good time to confess, I have never watched X Factor before, and as you can probably guess, I was less than impressed by it, and probably won’t be watching it again!

X Factor refusenik Sophie Sadler

However, my personal dislike of the show aside, there is no denying that X Factor has a massive following here in the UK, and many former contestants have indeed gone on to bigger and better things – Leona Lewis, JLS and One Direction to name a few.  So why is the show so popular?

The last series (series eight no less!) still managed to draw in an average of around 12 million viewers, and yet to me, the format is dated, the sob stories annoying and the ending predictable. Put simply: I cannot see the X Factor of The X Factor!

Perhaps it’s the controversy surrounding the shows?

Even an X Factor novice like me is often made aware of the ins and outs of the show thanks to huge media coverage from every angle possible, not to mention that X Factor seems to be the only conversation worth having to most people my age for a good three months of the year.

This series saw the scandal surrounding eighteen year old contestant Frankie Cocozza’s departure from the show, following rumours of drug abuse and a vague official statement from The X Factor which simply stated that naughty Frankie had “broken the golden rule”.

And then there was HMV’s “Winner’s Single” blunder, when only one contestant’s song was available for pre-download on the store’s website, weeks before the official winner was due to be announced. This led to dozens of rumours that the show’s outcome was fixed, and resulted in said contestant’s departure from the show the following week – coincidence? Hmm, maybe not.

So what does the future hold for X Factor? Despite staggeringly high viewer figures, the show’s audience had definitely dwindled from last series, dropping nearly a million viewers.

Even the god of high trousers, Simon Cowell himself, was not a judge on the show this year, prompting whispers that perhaps the show is on its final legs. The format is starting to wear a little thin with the masses, and rumours of fixed outcomes and fiddled voting figures have not done the show any favours this year.

And yet… it’s still the topic of the moment whenever it’s on, and those who don’t keep up with it – i.e. me – often find themselves social outcasts during its run. Not to mention the fact that gossip magazines and celebrity culture are still enjoying a period of rule in the UK right now, and shows like X Factor not only provide plenty of gossip, but also feature celebrity judges and guest performances.

For example, Gary Barlow (Take That), Kelly Rowland (Destiny’s Child) and Tulisa Contoslavlos (N-Dubz) were all judges in Series 8, and their rivalry, dramas and outfits provided enough gossip to keep the show in the weekly glossies for the entirety of the show’s run.

Well, it appears The X Factor does have some sort of X Factor, at least for the time being anyway. And for those who can’t stand the thought of another series of whiny, badly dressed contestants with a predictable, anti-climatic finale?

Well, at least we can look forward to another couple of months of empty nightclubs on a Saturday night.

Creative billboards, TV ads, making our own reality show- maybe? The more I thought about it, the more I found it ironic that in an industry where we know everything there is to know about brand, image and reputation management, the reputation of its workforce is false.

In any case, I was reading a post by Stuart Elliot in The New York Times called Redefining Public Relations in the Age of Social Media and thought this very much linked to what I had to say.

First of all, we all know that there are tons of definitions of Public Relations, all leading up pretty much the same thing: creating mutual relationships between an organization and its publics. Basics. Anyways, Stuart Elliot and The New York Times suggest that the way in which this has been done is now changing. And I agree.

In ancient times (before social media) PR was a one-way communication monologue. Fast forward to 2011 (almost 2012) and this conversation now goes two ways. In present time, PR practitioners are worshiping hashtags, eager to learn everything there is to know about creating relationships online.

I’d say by now we are pretty skilled Facebook and Twitter users, don’t you agree? And I am sure almost all of you aspiring PR professionals have a tumblr (I was trying to get a new title on my tumblr the other week and was hoping for ‘Morning Coffee’. Hopeless. I’m telling you, it’s a crowded tumblr world out there!)

Proving Samantha Jones wrong

So why don’t we use these to prove Samantha Jones and her no-nonsense and ignorant attitude wrong? In other words, let’s look at how PR practitioners are using these social media platforms to govern their behaviour.

An area of PR embracing social media is Fashion PR. Think Fashion Week for example. Twitter and Tumblr are tools that fashion brands are using to bring the audience behind the scenes of what the brand is doing – all the time. Works just like a backstage pass, trust me. This is a great way of creating a brand personality and brand awareness for that matter. Hence, this is not done on one day. It’s an ongoing process and it is important to have a strategic plan.

For example, who is going to be the face of the brand? How can the brand best listen and reply to its consumers? How much should you reveal about the brand? How does your share of voice compare to competitors and even more importantly: are you allowed to talk about competitors? What are the needs of the target audience and how can your brand help to address these? What excites them? The list goes on. If you excel at this, the next person calling you a Kelly Cutrune must have missed reading your tumblr – or simply missed his morning coffee.

Ubersocial PR girl

I am a fan of DKNY PR GIRL as you might have noticed if you have read my previous posts. I read her posts daily and I’m amazed by how this brand has succeeded in creating a brand personality – always ongoing conversations, constantly updating and re-tweeting with relevant pictures of both DKNY and NYC. After following her, I now know what they mean by ‘the city that never sleeps.’

There are plenty of other fashion brands out there that are pretty awesome tumblr and twitter users. Yet, not everyone are as ubersocial as DKNY.

Oscar de la Renta for example, posts a little less, writes a little less and tweets a little less. Although, by following Erika Bearman, the PR girl behind this luxury brand, you definitely get a sense of what type of woman the brand wants to portray: an elegant woman who is sophisticated, international and very intellectual. She is friendly and calm, social and considerate.

In sum: Stop watching (or at least stop believing in) reality shows. As much as I dislike (hate is a strong word) how the Internet – quite frankly – has become a sneaky little time-stealer, it is important to know how to manage social media platforms. Stuart Elliot is right; PR is changing! And I see this as a great advantage when it comes to improving the reputation of its workforce.

So, if you are thinking about a career in Fashion PR or any PR industry for that matter, get a tumblr and twitter account and learn how to manage these really well! We don’t need any billboards or TV ads to prove Samantha Jones wrong. Social media is the way to go!

And for the next person telling you that people in fashion PR have a bad attitude, you should ask them: why on earth would big international brands like Oscar de la Renta then pick a PR girl to manage the image of their brand? I mean, this powerful man has been in the fashion industry for decades and would surely know a bad promotion when he saw one.

Charlotte Giver

Who is your favourite character in Sex and the City? Many would say Carrie Bradshaw but recently I have heard a lot of people referring to Samantha Jones. Chocker? Yes!

You might remember her as the blonde publicist with a no-nonsense attitude who likes designer bags as much as she likes dating (yes, let’s just call it that). SATC Samantha is not the only character that today’s pop culture has created to portray public relations.

So, when you are trying to explain to your family, friends and boyfriend/girlfriend what you do, don’t blame them if they are thinking about Samantha Jones or the bitchy Kelly Cutrone in the reality show The City. Needless to say, media portrayals have succeeded in stereotyping women in fashion PR into one category, alas: bitchy, ignorant, intimidating women who like designer brands and to plan and attend glamorous events.

But wait, that is not you. You are not ignorant and ice-cold. You like to work hard, write press materials, meet people from different countries and cultures, create events and social media. Immediately you start to defend yourself and the PR industry, am I right?

Being a PR student, I know that a degree in public relations is like a marketing and journalism degree combined. In other words, you will graduate to be a smart kid, interested in so much more than shoes and the latest designers.

However, people like to talk. It is as simple as that and just as DKNY PR girl wrote on her tumblr ‘people love to group other people in buckets.’

But for someone who is not in PR, they simply don’t know any better than believing in the outdated cliché that they have followed on TV shows such as The Hills, The Spin Crowd and Entourage.

Grown-up mean girls

Meredith Lepore recently published an article on the subject in The Grindstone, where she simply asked ‘are PR girls just grown up mean girls?’ The article immediately got a lot of attention in the PR world and many commentators where quick to point out that it is unfair that hard working men are being called go-getters while hard working women are called ‘bitches’.

The false impression of fashion PR and what it takes to be successful in the industry is dangerous. From own experience, working in fashion PR, you will be working with
fun, outgoing, positive and smart people. I would say that if you don’t have a warm and positive attitude, you will be less likely to get the job.

If you step into the industry acting like a ‘bitch’, people will get annoyed. I can assure you of that. After all, Public Relations is all about relationships, whether it is financial or fashion PR. Although a client wants a PR firm tough enough to handle their account, having a tough approach does not mean having a bad attitude (no one wants a relationship with a Debbie Downer). Nor do you need a bad or nonchalant attitude to stay ahead of competition.

I’d say: just don’t let anyone take advantage of you (don’t leak any information about your client to competitors), stay ahead of the game, get press, work hard, stay on top of social media, smile and make your clients happy.

So before you are applying for a job in Fashion PR, stop believing in the outdated cliché you see on TV because no one wants to be that movie.

You can follow Charlotte on: http://yourcoffeebreak.tumblr.com/

Elli Share: dreaming of a fashion PR placement

Whenever I tell people I want to have a career in fashion I’m always met with something that goes along the lines of ‘oh, that’s nice’. But I can tell that behind the friendly-yet-slightly-condescending reply, they think I’m just another 18 year old girl living their life through the contents of Heat Magazine.

OK, so I’ll be the first to admit that my knees go weak at the thought of a pair of designer shoes but that isn’t the only thing that draws me to the fashion PR industry.

The fashion world is an ever-changing environment and the thought of being in a job where one day is never the same as the next entices me. Being able to combine a personal hobby and interest of mine with a career is something I have always aspired to do, so with this in mind, I am currently in my first year of studying Public Relations at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Alongside my lectures and seminars I have been avidly trying to learn as much about the industry as possible. I have read numerous articles from people having had placements at fashion PR agencies, or positions in-house, and these have been immensely helpful in giving me an idea of what the actual workplace is like.

Foot in shoe, then in door

But how else can I learn more about fashion PR until I get that all-important work placement?

A while ago I stumbled across a blog named PR Couture whose tagline, ‘Fashion PR’s Haute Spot’ couldn’t be more spot on.

In spite of it being an American-based blog, it has proved invaluable in supplying me, and many other readers, with a wealth of engaging articles, interviews and tips that have enabled me to get a clear idea of what the industry is like and the various tasks that fashion PR’s have to carry out.

As well as this, they also have a list of fashion PR agencies situated across America, which may prove useful to me as I am very interested in spending my placement year across the pond. I now find myself checking this website on a regular basis to get the latest inside scoop and to see if there is anything else that will quench my knowledge thirst.

As well as PR Couture, I also regularly visit other fashion blogs to ensure I never miss a beat.

Only 5 years ago, blogging was barely heard of, but it has now become a phenomenon that has taken the internet by storm with bloggers covering everything from celebrity gossip to political issues.

Because of the overflowing number of blogs out there, it can be tricky to find one that you can relate to and most importantly, want to actually read, but one of my personal favourites, that I find myself repeatedly going back to, is Fashion Toast.

The author of this blog, Rumi Neely, has become a celebrity in her own right through her innovative posts and exquisite photographs. For this reason, the blog has won numerous awards and has established itself as the prime fashion blog out there.

Other than reading and catching up with various fashion and PR based blogs, I have found Twitter to be fundamental in getting access to and to gain a greater understanding of people working in fashion PR.

The River Island PR team have their own Twitter account which they update regularly with all the PR news relating to the company and through this they have also provided budding fashion PR practitioners, such as myself, with a direct link to a major brand’s press office.

River Island are not the only fashion brand to have their own PR Twitter account. The PR girls of luxury designers, DKNY and Oscar De La Renta also have their own individual accounts which they constantly update with their whereabouts or the tasks that they are carrying out at that particular time. As well as reading these tweets to simply be nosey, they also allow me to see what daily life is like for a fashion PR and all the hard work that gets put into maintaining a brand’s image.

The internet is not the only way in which I’ve attempted to learn more about fashion PR. It may seem superficial to some, but by reading highly established fashion magazines such as Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar you can often see the finished product of all the work that PR practitioners have put in. The huge quadruple page spreads by Gucci or Dior are there down to the works of the PR team and the thought of seeing something that I have worked on actually being published in print is something that I find very exciting.

I am not naïve enough to think that the lifestyle of a fashion PR is all champagne-sipping and red-carpet-event-attending. I know that the days are long and tiring, and it can be stressful keeping up with all the incoming and outgoing stock.

However, there are negative points to every profession and I would like to think that these are all outweighed by the excitement of waking up, not knowing what that day will bring, or the immense satisfaction of seeing a celebrity wearing something that you had sent them.

I will continue to strive to learn more about the fashion PR industry but ultimately I know that the main way of getting my foot in the door is to gain work experience in the field. Therefore, I am currently in the process of applying for a summer 2012 work placement either in-house or for agency and I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The fashion industry is a very competitive one and so the best organisations need creative and talented PR practitioners working for them.

Why can’t that person be me?

Klout and Peerindex both work in a similar way. They both analyse a person’s Twitter account, looking at how many people they follow and how many they are followed by, the number of tweets they make, retweets, mentions and favourited tweets they receive and the number of clicks their links receive. They are powered by algorithms and the one thing this lacks is human understanding.

This lack of human interaction results in accounts that spam messages, but receive high volumes of retweets or lots of followers, will receive high scores of influence. The algorithm decides the account is influential as it generates interactions and is well regarded by the high number of followers, but in reality it may just be @big_ben_clock, which tweets only the word ‘bong’, has over 100k followers and a Klout score of 68.

The argument against social media influence scores is a strong one. Attaching a number to a Twitter account offers no context and is completely flawed by not realising the person’s offline influence that can give them online authority, despite being too active on Twitter. But I do have this to say: haters gonna hate.

Sure, using Klout and Peerindex may not be the best tool around, and yes I am very aware of the fury at the services in the blogosphere at the moment (although it does seem somewhat of a bandwagon and a little perspective could help). But let’s look at what the #socialstudent list achieves:

• Encourages students to take social media more seriously. It is still new to all of us and the best way to learn is to dive right in.
• Provides a quality list for the PR industry on who is up and coming. Sure, there may be some people not on the list, or some geniuses that just do not like Twitter. But it is quite likely that the people at the top of the list are social media savvy and good at their own PR and therefore at least worth looking into.
• Gives PR students something to show to prospective employees. We often forget that university is actually hard work and gaining the relevant experience can be difficult. If a student is able to say they were in the top ten of the #socialstudent list it could go a long way.
• Helps Behind the Spin keep connected with PR students nationwide. As our origins are with Leeds Met it comes as no surprise that many articles are from Leeds Met students. The #socialstudent list helps engage with students all over the country and highlights the opportunity writing for Behind the Spin gives.

I dislike Klout and Peerindex. Both have said I am influential in areas I am not. Both have listed me as influential as MDs of major PR companies when I could only wish I was. But what they do offer is a quick glimpse at who may be influential. To take these measurement services without an entire tablespoon of salt is ridiculous, which makes me wonder why there is such fury about them – were all these angry bloggers unaware the services were flawed until just now? I think not. What I do think is that we need to focus on the positives, not the negatives, and use the services in a smart, productive way.

If you are a decision maker at a PR company and  come across our #socialstudent list, then don’t automatically hire the person in the #1 spot, or dismiss the list altogether for using such measurements – instead look into the top 10, maybe even the top 20. Once you’ve done your homework you’ll soon find that we were right about some of them – they are influential, they are smart and you want them working in your agency.

To answer the question posed in the title of this article. No, Behind the Spin is not wrong to use Klout and Peerindex for the #socialstudent listing. As argued above it achieves a purpose, but we do welcome all suggestion on how it can be improved, so if you have any thoughts, please feel free to comment below.

Ben Frith

In light of a recent event where Jeremy Clarkson voiced his opinion regarding the public sector strikes, one question has been crossing my mind: does controversy sell? I think that the answer is yes.

Clarkson made an appearance on BBC One’s ‘The One Show’ on Wednesday 30^th November to promote his upcoming DVD and sparked controversy when, in response to the presenters’ questions regarding the recent strike over pensions, he stated:

“I’d have them [the strikers] all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean, how dare they go on strike when they’ve got these gilt-edge pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living.”

This comment has since received over 31,000 complaints, despite countless apologies from the BBC and Clarkson himself claiming his remarks were just a ‘joke’. I’d like to know whether this was a genuine accident or whether the ‘stunt’ was planned beforehand in an attempt to generate interest around Clarkson and, ultimately, to sell more DVDs.

The death of Michael Jackson is another apt example of how controversy sells. After his untimely and suspicious death in June 2009, it could be argued that Jackson’s posthumous career has matched that when he was alive. When news of his death surfaced on the internet, his album sales shot through the roof and occupied the top 15 spots on Amazon’s bestsellers list and over 1 million copies of his songs were bought online. Would this have happened if it wasn’t for his sudden death and the controversy that the media generated around it? Probably not.

Buzz sells

The same could be argued of Amy Winehouse, as sales of her second studio album, Back to Black, increased 37-fold following the young artist’s death earlier this year. Before her sudden passing, Winehouse’s albums had fallen out of the charts, but as soon as news of her death leaked online her albums occupied top spots across the country. Why, you ask? I think this is because ‘buzz’ sells – hype around a certain celebrity, or business, definitely improves sales of their products.

I understand why some public figures and companies might use controversy as a form of promotion, because the more that people talk about your product, the more you’re likely to sell, right? But this leads to questions about whether such tactics should be used in business and whether there should be regulations regarding how businesses are allowed to promote their products. This would obviously be difficult to control in terms of live broadcasts, but should there be set punishments when controversy, especially when it has offended many people, is blatantly used to generate more sales?

Although some would call it distasteful and sometimes downright horrible, I believe that with or without punishment, controversy will continue to be used in promotion. If controversy creates hype around a product and improves sales, I don’t think businesses, especially those that are well established and powerhouses in a specific field would think twice about receiving a small fine if it means their sales soar.

Yasmin (centre) and colleagues off to a Todd Lynn fashion show

With seven clients showing – Antonio Berardi, Aquascutum, Christopher Kane, House of Holland, Osman, Richard Nicoll and Todd Lynn – there was so much to be done that I had never expected.

Invitation request lists had to be analysed and reanalysed daily, addresses for invites had to be requested or found, then came the long task of handwriting each invitation for every show.

Particular looks from each designer’s SS12 collection often got requested by celebrities so we had to ensure that every item was in the showroom, regardless of whether it had only just been sent out to New York two days prior to the request.

The stress that came with the lead up to fashion week didn’t seem worth it, until we got to request shows to work at.

The popular choices for interns to choose seemed to be those that would be filled with celebrities to awe over, however that didn’t interest me.

I knew which shows I wanted to work, as I loved the collections of each designer, I was determined to make sure I was at each show. Antonio Berardi, Aquascutum, Richard Nicoll and Todd Lynn – my determination paid off.

It seemed only fair that I had more shows than other interns. I would do anything in order to make sure there were no slip ups, I turned up earlier than requested for every show, I upheld a professionalism that I had never cared to have before and even when I’d been helping backstage as soon as the first model hit the runway I had the same mind-blowing excitement for every show.

Fashion has always been an important aspect of my life. In choosing a university degree I always considered whether a particular course would prohibit me from finding a path in to the fashion industry.

Public relations seemed like a perfect career to be part of the industry without the stigma that working in fashion can often bring. And I was yet to reconsider my career options when I decided to take on a placement in one of the world’s leading fashion PR agencies.

I had stumbled across The Communications Store. I’d heard of other top agencies in London such as Relative MO and Karla Otto from reading fashion week articles in Elle and Vogue, but would always dismiss them as being unrealistic placement choices.

When I came across The Communications Store (TCS) all of those doubts were replaced with determination, I had never felt more passionate about a prospective job opportunity before – and although it was just for a work placement I knew that I would do anything to get it.

Foot in door

I initially emailed Natalia Cassel, a Group Account Director at TCS asking whether I could interview her for my portfolio. Once this was done I enquired about the possibility of doing a summer placement. I quickly worked out how busy the fashion industry was. After two months of emails between Natalia and HR it seemed my persistence had paid off and I was offered a four-month placement from early June until the end of September.

My first day was possibly one of the most exhausting of my life. I obviously arrived early so sat drinking coffee to calm my nerves before actually going in to the building. I hadn’t really thought about what to expect but was stunned to find that everyone was welcoming.

What I also hadn’t anticipated was the amount of work an intern was expected to do. Alongside eight other interns it was our job to do pretty much anything and everything that needed to be done.

The heart of the office is the showroom

A fashion PR agency is unlike a normal PR office environment in almost every way. The standard computers, desks and boardroom remains the same, but in fashion PR the heart of the office is the showroom and it was the interns’ role – under the guidance of the fashion merchandiser – to make sure it was spotless.

It took me only a week to realise that would never happen. It took me only a day to realise that no intern should ever start on a Monday with low work expectations.

A fashion intern’s main role at TCS was to book out send-outs or book in returns. Unlike conventional campaign and press release work, the majority of PR in fashion is sending out clothes for publication or press.

As TCS has such a high-profile client list, including Christopher Kane, Missoni, Nicholas Oakwell, Roland Mouret and Versace, it was imperative that the whereabouts of every item of clothing was known. Stock checks became a regular part of my summer; in fact my work placement began to become my life.

I had never been so passionate about working before. I became so involved with working at TCS that it seemed to be the only thing I did. I struggled to keep on top of the blog I had intended to be a diary for my placement, and the regular tweets I had initially hoped to do were unrealistic in such a busy environment.

Feels like full-time

What I had anticipated to be a regular work placement became what seemed to be a full-time job. Working 9-6 Monday to Friday meant that I was constantly tired, after the commute back home every evening all I wanted to do was sleep. I began to struggle to find any motivation to work and began to cherish my weekends up to Leeds or going back home to Essex.

After a week in Ibiza I knew I had to decide whether I wanted to continue my placement. It wasn’t until my first day back at TCS after my holiday that I realised how much I’d missed the office. It also seemed pointless to even consider leaving my placement early after the effort it had taken to get it. I’d forgotten before how much I loved the family environment, the spontaneous tea breaks – that I usually started – and the random errands I’d always offer to run. It took being away from that environment and actually having downtime to realise how much I loved working at TCS.

Put off fashion PR

I had so many different feelings about the PR industry and which field I hoped to go in to once I finished my degree. After the first couple of months of my placement I had assumed I’d been completely put off fashion PR and that the placement had shown me that I didn’t want to be part of the industry.

However, by the end of fashion week I had fallen completely back in love with fashion. I realised how privileged I was to have worked for such a fantastic company alongside amazing people. I’m still unsure whether fashion PR is definitely for me, but that’s the whole point of work placements, to gain an experience of what you might want to do with your life.  I now know that fashion PR is still very much an option.

Alex King

In a TV advertisement, Cheryl Cole will tell you she’s “found an answer to our hair prayers” and that L’Oréal products are the solution to all of our dull, lifeless hair problems.

She obviously fails to mention that she is being paid to say all of this.

Using celebrities as spokespeople for products is hardly a new concept.

Enlisting an A-Lister as an ambassador for a brand has now become a mainstream promotional tactic.

With the rise of the web and social media, more and more people are researching products online before they buy. And when your favourite celebrity endorses something, does it influence you?

While many of us are now more media aware and have caught on that what celebrities say about certain products might not be sincere and genuine, celebrity endorsement has now become more devious with the social media boom.

What are the benefits of using a celebrity to endorse your products?

Beauty and glamour

The world of celebrity goes hand in hand with beauty and glamour, and your customers will start to associate this with your brand. Celebrities attract attention and this helps build recognition and trust with an audience. Many will be guided by their favourite celebrities and try and model themselves after them, making it easier to persuade them to buy your product purely by using Cheryl Cole in your ad.

Sex and drugs

While it can be beneficial for a brand, it can also be disastrous, particularly when a scandal is involved.  After all, we all remember what happened with Tiger Woods (sex) and Kate Moss (drugs). Numerous brands will soon cut ties with celebrities who can damage their reputations, particularly those brands seeking a family-friendly image.

These days, companies are starting to recognise Twitter as a powerful PR tool. If you want Kim Kardashian to tweet about loving your brand or products, her over 11 million followers will see it. While some of those will recognise the tweet as a marketing ploy and ignore it, many others will research the product, and a fair few will go on to buy it. While Twitter has been dubbed as ‘Free PR’ certain celebrities can charge you over $10,000 per tweet about your brand. So this option is immediately ruled out for small brands with limited budgets.

So is this fair?

Legal, decent, honest, truthful – and disclosed

This has led to calls for independent watchdogs and tighter regulation. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has started cracking down on Twitter users and bloggers. They recently reached a decision following an investigation into social media firm Handpicked Media which operates a commercial blogging network – insisting that it must clearly state its relationship with the brand, including whether or not promotional comments have been paid for. Perhaps this will put an end to some of the dishonesty but it can never be completely stopped.

In the culture we live in, celebrities are always in demand and celebrity endorsements will always be big business. While it can be a very effective tactic, many of us media cynics see it as a way of deceiving the naïve and misleading the public. While it can’t be stopped, perhaps more regulation and control is in order as the lines can often be somewhat hazy.

What are your thoughts? Is it acceptable for PR professionals to consider celebrities to endorse their products, particularly via Twitter? Or do you think there should be more regulation by independent watchdogs?

John Harrison

The latest trend for advertisers seems to be the use of QR codes in their promotional materials. But what about the PR industry? How can we make us of QR codes? Do they have a place in the PR toolkit?  I interview John Harrison, co-founder of ScanMe.com, to find out.

Would you please briefly explain what a QR code is and where they came from?

The QR (or Quick Response) barcode is a two-dimensional code originally developed by a Toyota subsidiary – Denso Wave – back in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process.

A conventional, linear barcode typically holds a simple 12 digit numeric code that identifies what product it is. A QR code can hold up to around 4,000 alphanumeric characters which can be used to do a multitude of things. It can also be scanned no matter which way up you are holding it.

Why have QR codes become so popular in the communications industry?

Smartphones have all the ingredients for being an effective information and marketing tool: it’s always with it’s owner; it can be instantly communicated with via email or phone; it has the ability to show things effectively via web link or video stream. The only issue is engaging with the consumer and showing them what you want them to see. QR codes offer this opportunity.

There has been a 600% growth in Smartphone sales in the UK since June 2010, and this has enabled consumers to carry around their own barcode scanner in their pocket! In fact, 24% of owners have used their phone to scan barcodes – and this number is growing at over 1,000% year on year.

Is the industry making the most of QR codes? What should we be expecting next?

There is evidence that more and more companies are using QR codes to convey information to their audience. You will see them on TV ads, at the back of books, or on magazine adverts, to name a few. However, without knowing what’s going to happen when you scan the QR code, the experience from scanning one code to another can be mixed and often the barcodes are not used to their potential.

As barcodes become more popular and the consumer awareness of the technology increases it will become vital to be seen to be using the right tool. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right! Developments and new creative ideas for the application of QR technology are always just around the corner. As with any new technology, it evolves at an astonishing rate.

How do QR codes fit into the social media PR toolkit?

There are plenty of websites that enable you to create QR barcodes that can link to a website you specify. If you link that website to Google Analytics, this can provide you information such as when and approximately where your barcode was scanned.

At ScanMe.com, we have developed sophisticated back-end technology that not only tells you when and where, but also ‘who’ scanned you and on what material! By knowing who scanned what product – be it a brochure, press release or business card, for example – it provides you with a hugely powerful consumer engagement tool. For example, providing barcodes to media to add to coverage can help track which best attracts reader attention and lets you profile the category of readers that are most commonly interested in the brand you are promoting. This in turn can help you make more informed decisions on which media to target in the future and provides excellent, in depth reporting material for clients or the boardroom.

Barcodes also work really well on merchandise so are a great tool for tracking consumer interaction at publicity events. It’s real world engagement, and offers something more than any of the top-tier social media sites can do. The great thing is that through a ScanMe scan page, you can link back to these social sites, therefore gaining the benefit of all this information before you are ‘liked’ or ‘followed’.

How can PR students become skilled in the use and creation of QR codes?

There are plenty of QR creation sites on the internet where you can gain some first hand experience. Our’s is a free service that creates a unique QR barcode for you via login with Facebook – so it’s very simple to try out. The barcode links to a unique ScanMe URL which you control. You can then manage the content without having to generate a new barcode, allowing you to connect with people instantly when out and about while providing scan history so that you can review later.

See how many barcodes you now spot after having read this and scan as many as you possibly you can. You will soon get a good feel of how they are used, how they work best, and experience the good and bad examples for consumer engagement. Happy scanning!

I have written this article as a guide to the differences between business objectives, communications objectives, communications strategy and tactics.

Taught by the best: Harold Burson (from burson-marsteller.com)

Much of the advice stems from training programmes I attended at the global pubic relations consultancy Burson-Marsteller (B-M) when I worked there from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.

Training at B-M  was directed by PR gurus like Harold Burson and Robert S Leaf and their deputies.  In their day Harold and Bob were as famous as David Ogilvy of the hallowed Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency.

B-M was reputed in its primacy in the 1980s and 1990s to be the best agency in town for training on the job and in the classroom and I want to share their thoughts on strategy and my reflections on what I was taught with you.

To help you further I have added at the end an example from my former employer Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics. It’s pretty up-to-date because it comes from a document I prepared for the management board of the company in August 2010. It’s an environmental example.

Business objectives

Business objectives give the business a clearly defined target to reach.

The most effective business objectives meet the following criteria:

S – Specific – objectives are aimed at what the business does, e.g. The low-cost Jet2 airline might have an objective of filling 95% of all its available seats during May, June, July, August  2012 at Leeds Bradford Airport.

M – Measurable – the business can put a value to the objective, e.g. £1.5 million in ticket sales in the four months of trading from May to August inclusive in 2012.

A – Agreed - by all those concerned in sales, marketing and public relations department trying to achieve the objectives set by the board of the airline.

R – Realistic – objectives should be challenging, but they should also be able to be achievable by the resources available e.g. number of aircraft, landing and take-off slots at Leeds Bradford Airport, destinations served, and frequency of flights to those destinations.

T- Time specific – the airline has a time limit of when the objective should be achieved, e.g. by the end of August 2012.

Communications objectives

Communications objectives are goals that an organisation and/or company seeks to achieve through its promotional activities (whether they be PR, advertising or marketing communications) in terms of its communication goals such as creating awareness, knowledge, effecting behaviour change etc.

Your communications objectives should describe what you want your target audience to think, feel, and do after they are exposed to your public relations message(s).

Strategy

The word strategy derives from the Greek word strategia which translates as “the art of the general”.

The term is often confused with tactics, from the Greek taktike. Taktike translates as “organising the army”.

In modern usage, strategy and tactics often refers to warfare. You only have only to look at what they teach at The Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, Surrey, to realise that they are grand masters of what strategy is and how it is applied. Generals like Bernard Law Montgomery applied it well in their campaigns during World War II.

Strategy is how to achieve an objective, goal or aim. It is the overall approach that is taken to a programme or campaign (Gregory 2010).  It is the coordinating theme or factor, the guiding principle, the big idea, the rationale behind the tactical programme.

Strategy is the principle that will move you from where you are now to where you want to be.  It is sometimes called ‘the big idea’.

The big idea can be an all-embracing concept.  Sometimes it isn’t, and you shouldn’t be overly concerned if you can’t come up with a big idea. You should, however, be very concerned if you don’t have a clear rationale.

Strategy is dictated by the issues arising from your analysis of the information at your disposal (ie the answers to your research).  It is not the same as objectives and it comes before tactics.  It is the foundation upon which a tactical PR programme is built.

The following are examples from Prof Anne Gregory’s latest book, Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns: A Strategic Approach. A clear, if unpleasant, example of ‘strategy’ and tactics’ was demonstrated in the war conducted by the combined forces that moved against Iraq following that country’s invasion of Kuwait.

Objective      To get the Iraqis out of Kuwait

Strategy        Cut the Iraqis off and kill them

Tactics         Pincer movement of ground forces to cut the Iraqis off from Iraq, carpet

                      bombing, diversionary tactics, cutting bridges and so on

Further examples of the relationship between objectives, strategy and tactics are:

Example One (Single-objective short-term campaign)

Objective      Publicise new product or service

Strategy        Mount media relations campaign

Tactics         Press conference, press releases, interviews, etc

Example Two (Longer-term strategic positioning programme)

Objective      Establish market leader perception

Strategy        Position as industry voice of authority

Tactics          Research-based reports, media relations, speaker platforms, industry forums, award schemes etc

Tactics

Tactics are public relations devices or actions taken to achieve the business objective(s).

Speeches, special events, newsletters, annual reports and news releases are examples of PR tactics.

In summary

Simply put:

• The business objective is your ultimate business mission
• The communications objectives are the communication needs
• The communications and/or PR strategy is the overall plan you come up with to reach that business objective/goal
• The tactics are the specific methods you employ to implement the strategy

Here’s my take of an example to demonstrate the use of these term for the car maker Jaguar LandRover.

Business Objectives/Goals – Achieve share of market leadership in the family premium car market.

Communications Objectives – Enhance and build the awareness of a new family premium car in the minds of A-B socio–economic families.

Strategy – Convince consumers that your new car is the best premium car in the market aimed at families.

Tactics – Get a high profile personality e.g. Victoria Beckham who is both a style icon and a mother of two children to trial the new five-door SUV you are launching

In a nutshell strategy is how you will achieve an objective and tactics are what you will do.

For large programmes with several elements e.g. community relations, employee relations, and customer relations, you will have a strategy for each part of the programme.

Here’s another real life example from my work with Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) in 2010

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics – The Background

• Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) is a $2.4 billion (USD) transoceanic shipping company which specialises in shipping automotive, agricultural and construction equipment. 
• WWL employs 3,200 people and operates 60 modern eco-friendly cargo ships that trade on 20 routes serving five continents.
• It transports 3.3 million vehicles annually.
• WWL has a strong environmental focus and is an industry leader in developing innovative solutions to reduce the impact of its operations on the environment.
• In September 1994, WWL forged a partnership with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) to protect and preserve marine life on the world’s oceans.

The Environmental Issues

• WWL is operating in a challenging and rapidly changing global business environment.
• WWL’s customers are expecting increasingly more for less.
• Shipping is coming out of a period of strong global economic growth.
• The industry is facing a record build-up of new tonnage.
• Emerging global markets (India, China etc) are gaining in importance as traditional markets like Europe and United States begin to wane.
• Customers’ focus on environmental issues is increasing rapidly and they are starting to monitor the carbon footprint of their logistics suppliers, like WWL.

The Business Objectives

• Derive competitive advantage by aiming to be “the best” in the shipping business on environmental matters.
• Reduce impact of any shipping activities on the marine environment.
• Work in partnership with WWL’s customers to achieve common environmental goals.

The Communications Objectives

• Demonstrate that WWL is investing in state-of-the-art environmentally-friendly ships and terminals.
• Endorse the view that Wallenius Wilhelmsen is a customer-driven company dedicated to meeting the needs of its customers in a future ‘zero’ emissions environment.
• Reinforce the view that WWL cares about the marine environment

The Environmental Communications Strategy

• Partner with Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) to develop regular and consistent contact between key opinion formers to highlight environmental innovation on protecting and preserving the maritime environment.
• Create and develop mechanisms to create newsworthy stories and feature ideas on environmental initiatives that the media want to publish and exploit environmental media opportunities with key media.
• Build links with senior corporate affairs/communications executives within Tier I and Tier II customer companies to gain mutually agreeable environmental outcomes.
• Demonstrate that WWL is cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the supply chain.

The Tactics

• Build a model of a concept green ocean terminal that runs on renewable energy – solar panels on the roof, electricity derived from wind turbines etc and launch the concept to port authorities, key customers and the media.
• Launch a maritime club that would enable journalists to debate and discuss matters that are important to the maritime environment. Involve key customer environmental managers in the club’s activities.
• Place authored features by WWL’s vice president of environment and chief executive officer in global business-to-business publications.

Further reading

Alex Neale

Facebook, Twitter, WordPress; not sites I would have typically associated with working life before embarking on my career in PR. As someone who has always had to keep my personal and professional lives separate, I found it a little exciting that I was allowed, encouraged even, to explore and maintain my presence on these platforms for ‘work purposes’ (I still smugly tell my friends).

Social media has always been associated with the consumer and it has been utilised by business to consumer (B2C) brands in several highly successful campaigns – Starbucks, Coca Cola and Skittles to name but a few. Not only does it offer a quick, easy and often painless channel through which to communicate with their consumers directly (thanks to fan pages and opt-in groups), but the increasing amount of personal preferences – like and dislikes, favourite films, books, foods – that its users are revealing about themselves mean that brands are able to get to know their customers better than ever.

It’s clear to see the benefits of investing in social media for B2C clients, but what good can it do for business to business (B2B) clients? Can it provide any value at all?

B2B social media: tried and tested

Social media is considered by many – typically the older generation – to be the downfall of society. They call us lazy, anti-social; they even blame the riots on our obsession with social media. We ‘Generation Y’, tech-savvy, forward thinking PROs are currently facing a never-ending battle in persuading our B2B clients that they would benefit from a little social media to spice up their campaigns.

Many of them are still of the opinion that social media is ‘fluffy’ and far too informal, and above all they believe that they won’t reach their potential customers via a Facebook fan page or a blog.

However, several B2B brands who have taken the risk beg to differ, such as IBM:

Earlier this year, IBM implemented social media elements within their B2B ‘Watson’ campaign fantastically, achieving international coverage.

IBM’s Watson is an artificial intelligence computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language. Earlier this year, Watson competed on the quiz show Jeopardy!, in the show’s only human-versus-machine match-up to date. Over two games, Watson beat Brad Rutter, the biggest all-time money winner on Jeopardy!, and Ken Jennings, the record holder for the longest championship streak of 75 days.

In the lead up to the event, IBM posted around 30 short videos on YouTube, racking up more than 1 million views. It chose to feature the researchers and engineers who built the computer rather than the corporate suits, offering interesting content to both Jeopardy! fans and potential customers. Since the event, Watson’s Facebook page now has more than 17,000 ‘likes’ and its Twitter stream has more than 6,000 followers.

IBM also involved IBM bloggers who have attracted their own followings over the years and researchers used Reddit, a social news site, to answer the top 10 questions about Watson and the contest.

The results of the IBM Watson campaign were phenomenal and this case can help illustrate that the use of social media in PR campaigns is not just a fad but offers a very real and exciting prospect for the future of PR, particularly to B2B companies.

The future of B2B social media

So, what is the future of social media for B2B clients? Do PROs continue in their battle to persuade their clients of its value or The results of a PricewaterhouseCoopers study released last month revealed that almost half of B2B companies are not measuring return on investment or using only basic qualitative measures when it comes to social media.

Despite showing that B2B some of those polled had invested up to £1.18m on social media, the majority appeared to have “limited strategies” that fail to exploit sales opportunities.

It also found that less than 12% of organisations surveyed have full time social media teams in place.

Of course a B2B social media campaign must be taken with a different approach to that of a consumer campaign – your targets are businesses which will undoubtedly interact with a social media platform in the same way as a consumer.

However, ultimately all business people are consumers and, now more than ever, those lines are constantly being blurred. Perhaps the solution is to take away the concept of B2B and consumer campaigns being polar opposites and use elements of both to create a campaign that appeals to a potential customer’s business objectives and consumer preferences to maximise the impact.

Remember, a social media campaign is always going to be noticed by a real person, not a computer, no matter whether it’s a consumer or B2B campaign. Social media, including blogs and business profiles on Twitter and Facebook, can communicate the values, philosophy and personality of a business far more effectively than simply listing it on a website homepage. It allows customers – those people who represent the target businesses – to understand your client’s messaging a little better and feel a little more acquainted with those who run the business.

Discuss this article with Alex on Twitter here.

(Disclosure: Alex works for the Hotwire Group, where our social media editor also works)

I describe myself as a social media addict because I can’t live without my daily internet infusion of blogs and social networking. Among those you can find Tumblr. Even though I don’t always post, I usually check it whenever I check my e-mail.

A bit of history of Tumblr

Tumblr was launched in 2007 and since then it has accumulated over 34 million users. This is a low number in comparison to other social network platforms, but when it comes to blogging, Tumblr has managed to surpass its main rival WordPress this last year.

However Tumblr’s popularity has yet to really infect the entire world. At the moment, more than 35% of visitors and users are from the US, the next country being a far second UK with 5% of visits.

Under the motto of “Post anything. Customise everything” Tumblr appeals to its audiences because of its way of combining sharing (mostly) pictures and other content with blogging and social networking.

Fresh and creative, Tumblr’s is the “easiest way to blog”; the platform is easy, accessible and very customizable.

The Tumblr social network isn’t always created of people you know or converse with but those whose opinion and taste you like and trust.

The connections are created through the love of similar things – whether pictures, quotes, music or ideas,

User engagement

Tumblr’s driving force is the “Reblog” button. This feature which is pretty much a novelty when it comes to blogging, but it is one of the main engagement tools on social networks (you might recognize here the Facebook “Share” button and its Twitter equivalent “Retweet”). The reblog feature creates connections among users giving it an impression that it’s a close network of friends sharing their favourite content although the posts could have thousands and thousands of reblogs.

Brian Solis, the US consultant and author, described Tumblr in an recent interview as a “hybrid network and microblog community rich with its own culture” and added that according to recent statistics by Nielsen, Tumblr is third on the list of minutes spent in social networks and blogs behind Facebook and Blogger.

Because of its social aspect  user engage much more with the content, pay more attention to what is being posted and that is why Tumblr is continually growing, surpassing its competitor blogging platforms.

Personality

When it comes to image if we were to say that WordPress is the Microsoft of blogging, then Tumblr would definitely be Apple.

The blogging platform has created its own personality described by a fresh view, creativity and a young, quirky attitude. I would even go as far as calling it the hipster of social media. Tumblr can be tweaked and designed to appear more serious but in the end it will still have that innovative design opportunities, accessibility and the user friendly interface which makes blogs look more like websites.

The creatives

Tumblr has managed to create a niche where there wasn’t one left. After the appearance of so many social networks, the blogging platform quickly managed to attract artists, photographers and writers on to its pages. Due to its features, Tumblr has the ability to launch and popularize memes and “viral-ize” videos much more easily than other blogging platforms.

Magazines and publishing brands were among the first businesses to notice the potential in user engagement on Tumblr and have started taking advantage of its novelty and creative flair. Most major publications (especially the American ones) already have Tumblr pages.

Some of the best examples of publications using Tumblr are The Economist that mostly share covers, cartoons, pictures and headlines rather than articles, The Huffington Post, also known as the Internet’s Newspaper is present on Tumblr using the blogging platform to offer headlines and links to other content, and Vogue, one of the world’s most famous fashion and lifestyle magazines which uses Tumblr mostly for sharing pictures.

The fashion industry is very well represented on Tumblr through blogs such as OscarPRGirl, which is a PR account used to share fashion trends and pictures from inside the Oscar De La Renta brand or designer Kate Spade’s blog. Fashion brands’ orientation towards Tumblr is easy to understand seeing as in May 2011, Nielsen statistics showed that over 53% of Tumblr users are females and over 44% are between 18 and 34 years of age, which is what most fashion brands and magazines are aiming for – a young, internet savvy demographic.

While media outlets are more likely to use it for sharing headlines and recent pictures, businesses such as IBM use it to create engagement with other projects or ideas. Universal Music is another business with its own ‘Tumblelog’ with news and updates.

To conclude…

I would have to say I believe that Tumblr, if used correctly, can be a great communication tool for any company especially if you’re seeking a younger audience. Because of its stunning simplicity and social potential Tumblr can easily popularise a message, which is what happened this year when the Tumblr blog “We are 99%” went viral.

However, Tumblr, on its own cannot take the role of a website or be the only social media tool used. I would rather think of Tumblr as a supporting blog for your company’s website, Facebook page and Twitter feed, just in the way IBM, Universal and EMI have used it because each of these tools address its publics in different ways.

Daniela Pietrosanu is a third year Public Relations and Communication student at Southampton Solent University. You can find her blog here or connect with her on Twitter here.

Miriam Pelusi and Behind the Spin's editor enjoying lunch in Bologna

At a time of scandals and uncertainty, citizens become engaged in active debates. So it is that live-blogging about politics and current affairs has become normal in Italy in these turbulent times.

While it’s difficult to find space on TV for ordinary people and even for journalists – social platforms allow a free exchange of opinions and allow communities to share perspectives and angles.

Surfing social network to get a grasp of what people think and their feelings around a topic is also a good exercise to discover the potential of those social platforms. The citizens’ indignation is growing online: it’s a mixture of anger, sarcasm and hope.

Real plazas and virtual plazas both have an impact. Right now, virtual plazas are becoming even more important. There is a social value on social platforms, and perhaps there are some good points in being there and using them, expecially for analysts.

Let’s take these convulsive days in Italy – a time of crisis with the long-awaited resignation of the premier – and let’s analyse the use of social networks.

On the question of press  freedom in Italy, lively discussions can be found on social media networks such as Facebook. Twitter hash-tags identify key themes:

#aeyou – quickly became the viral trending topic. It echoes the popular Brazilian song used for parties, a sign that people are waiting for the tipping point of the Italian government.

#moka – Michele Serra’s article in La Repubblica on Thursday 3rd November advises Italians to get distracted by Berlusconi by using the moka (coffee maker) law as a metaphor: if you stare at the machine waiting for the coffee, it won’t come out. While if you get distracted and think to something else, so the coffee comes out. That’s a clear similarity with Italians and their current premier, as La Repubblica explains.

#acasa – this means ‘at home’, and that’s clearly a sign of what most Italians want.

#laresadeiconti – the hashtag after the vote.

#opencamera – the hidden cost of politics revealed.

#dimissioni – resignation is a key theme on Twitter comments.

#dopolaleggedistabilità – Berlusconi said he will step down as soon as the budget law passes. That’s the next awaited step.

#elezioni – an urgent call for elections runs on Twitter, tweet by tweet.

The bunga-bunga scandal has damaged the image of Italy, and companies like Ryanair are now using this to gain cheap publicity. Another company Intimissimi used the bunga-bunga scandal as a selling point for one of its products. Certainly it’s all about marketing, but the ethics should be taken into account.

While the foreign press urges his resignation, the Financial Times published a story that stands out of the crowd, ‘In the name of God, please go!’. For once, the press and the public seem to be taking the same view.

The fictional reality represented by Mr Berlusconi and used for his political propaganda has been revealed as a sham. It’s a Photoshop society with bad story-telling. But he seems to be master of his destiny until the end.

Patience must be a virtue for Italian citizens, but it’s not everlasting. Meanwhile a financial crisis and youth people unemployment is just around the corner.

But hopefully, as Bill Emmott explained in Forza, Italia, ”after Berlusconi the Good Italy can be released and make the country a lot better for its 150th anniversary”. The advice for Italians is to change Italy by themselves – working collectively but also in their communities.

Rebecca Hardisty: initially unsure about PR

Unlike fashion, I didn’t know I would fall in love with PR; I didn’t even know what it was until I became a prospective student at the University of Gloucestershire.

It was not until my third year of university, when an unlikely turn of events brought my two passions together when I went to work at We Are Social, a London based ‘conversation agency’ for 6 months as part of the Fashion and Lifestyle team.

I was relatively new to social media at the start of my placement year, but after the three months internship prior to starting at We Are Social, I had the understanding and the enthusiasm to know it was where I wanted to be. It was never the stereotypical fashion PR role people think of, but I loved it.

I didn’t deal with designers or talk to fashion press, nor did it have the bitchy office atmosphere. But I did get to live, breath, read and write blogs about fashion. One of my fondest memories of my work experience was getting to go to London Fashion Week.

Social media has breathed new life into the fashion industry and I feel lucky that I was able to be a part of it for a short time.

Fashion bloggers have become online celebrities for their beautiful photography, ‘Outfits of the Day’ and individual writing styles. It is the rich content that keeps their readers coming back for more, which is what makes a successful blog – influence through a specialised readership.

This new kind of celebrity has taken them behind the scenes, onto the red carpets of high profile fashion events and amongst the fashion fabulous at fashion weeks. They’ve inspired their readers and the brands.

Many fashion brands have realised the potential opportunities that blogger outreach can bring, with many global brands already incorporating this into their social media marketing strategies.

One of my favourite campaigns was Lanvin for H&M. The French fashion house created a collection for the high street favourite and invited bloggers to be some of the first to get their hands on their coveted pieces.

Arguably the biggest fashion blog, Style Bubble, is run by Susanna Lau, who has made a career out of blogging. Her blog, started in 2006, now draws in over 300,000 visitors.

Like with celebrities, having products featured on influential blogs is golden. It’s better than advertising and certainly cheaper. Just look at the success Reiss has had because of Kate Middleton after she was featured twice wearing two of their dresses – the famous blue engagement dress and the bandage dress she wore to meet President Obama and the First Lady.

Both times, the Reiss website crashed due to the high level of traffic to the site.  Imagine the power of a blog with a readership of over 100,000 visitors, who all see their favourite blogger wearing a chosen piece. They are all likely to want to go out and find that item, and most bloggers will usually tell you where it is from.

Brands have certainly cottoned on to this and often send products to bloggers to test and post about.

What all brands need to understand is that bloggers are real people and they are not all the same, there are many different types of fashion blog and blogger. Knowing this is fundamental when outreaching to bloggers.

Bloggers are passionate about what they write about and they want to share that passion. The more original content they have, the more influential they become. If you enable them to blog about something that they and their readers will find of interest, they are likely to respond well.

Through this medium, many bloggers become brand advocates. Like all good PR practitioners know, the aim is to build good relationships and this is true in blog communications.

Yet with the free speech that the internet gives us, it is very easy for bloggers to bad mouth you if you upset them –  and they often will!

I would say to anyone that work experience is invaluable, but it can always be thoroughly enjoyable too. Internships are too commonly highlighted negatively for being unpaid and unfair. Whilst this is an issue in the public relations industry, properly structured and fair internships can provide a way forward.

It is hard to get work without experience but internships give students the chance to shine. If anyone knows, it is me; I had three in one year! Finding a job you love is for many people, a lifelong ambition. Internships give you the opportunity to find what you love, learn along the way and have a little fun.

Emma Gannon

Just the other day I realised that what my Facebook newsfeed provides and what I predominately use it for has changed significantly over the last year. My daily Facebook ‘stalking’ ritual now includes scouring the Facebook horizon for updates from brands, news curators or public figures; a quick and easy way of downloading information in bitesize chunks.

This time last year, my newsfeed would consist solely of updates about my friend’s outrageous antics of the night before and pitiful stories of the morning-after. As I scroll down my Facebook ticker right now, I have just seen an update regarding the St.Pauls protests via the Huffington Post Facebook page, a link from Michael Arrington (who I recently subscribed to), Imogen Heap has just posted an update about an upcoming gig and Burberry have posted photos of their new Winter make-up collection. I just ‘liked’ a post by Bombay Sapphire – does this mean I am now not only socialising with my friends but with an inanimate big blue bottle of gin? Yes, I believe it does.

So how are brands successfully permeating a space that used to be only for friendships and knowledge sharing between peers? This is where the ‘social’ part of social media steps in. Consumers are not dim-witted and brand messages are not always subtly placed and copy can often not flow. Including a stimulus within a wall post that asks fans for consumer research or to share their shopping habits can put off fans from revealing their thoughts.

To oppose this, brands should not try and ask questions that are overtly for the brands greater good, but ask questions that give an insight into what your audience find interesting (so you can build on it).

Last month Emma Barnett from the Telegraph wrote an article entitled “Brands need to become ‘friends’ with customers on Twitter and Facebook”. I’ve always thought that being community manager is first and foremost about making friends on a local and global level, amplifying the brand by bringing a real personality to the fore and providing a streamlined social voice that the masses can relate to. So, how do brands ensure they become ‘friends’ with their customers?

Personification

Traditionally, a brand was just a ‘thing’ you used. An advert would display that object, sitting stationary in the middle of the screen. All marketing tactics would be two-dimensional, such a poster on a bus stop, billboard, cinema or TV advert. This ‘brand’ would talk at you, tell you things and any tactics would probably involve being an agency trying their luck at including hidden messages in a radio podcast. It was one sided, them being the talker, and you being the listener, with nothing but an eyeball interaction in between.

The personification of a brand brings tangible experience and real conversation. This personification is leading the way in innovative techniques for brands to be combine online and offline, such as creating augmented reality stunts and visuals and providing customers with experiences through located-based apps and offers. Interestingly, thanks to the popular social media platforms, we have switched roles completely. The brands are listening, and the consumers are talking.

Subscription

As consumers, we are our own curators of information. We (to the extent we can) control our online identities as we learn to curate, aggregate, filter and search the things most personal to us. We have taught ourselves the ways to be our own public relations agent, displaying nuggets of information that we think best suit our identity and image, and thus, everyday we are leveraging our own personal brand. The joy of liaising with brands and public figures alike on the same platform, we know, thanks to the latest updates from Zuckerberg, can opt-in with subscriptions from brands and public profiles.

I think one of the important points to be made with social is that we are not in the age of telling consumers what they think they should need, because through the vast vat of the internet, people can find out instantly what they want to know and what they need. Using a website like comparethemarket.com as an example, consumers can compare their own prices, brands and specs easily and efficiently, and therefore choose and spread the word with friends online.

It is now up to us to make interesting and fun content; to fundamentally make the consumers want to come back for more.

In my mind, I feel the number of subscriptions is one of the most important out of all social media metrics. High levels of engagement by one-off users who stumble onto your page show good incentives from the brand and good traffic drivers. However, loyal fans that voluntarily subscribe to your channel because they like to tune in with your content on a daily basis is increasingly vital for continuous success. By building subscribers, the brand is displaying traits of being the ‘friend’, as people checking in on a daily basis to see what they are up to.

Human Instinct

This is where I believe brands can save themselves in terms of issues and crisis management. Being the ‘friend’ to your audience has never been so important. Common sense and human instinct plays a vital role in dealing with an online crisis. If something goes wrong or something incorrect or accidently offensive has been posted, then you use your personable skills to fix it.

There are people behind every brand, and all customers want to know at all times is the truth. Like a friend to a friend, keeping your customers updated frequently, admitting a fault and providing a quick and efficient solution to the problem normally results in a forgiving audience and a ‘let’s move on from this’ attitude.

You can discuss this article with Emma on Twitter here.

Anna Kraappa

Google+ seems to be everywhere. It already has over 25 million users and it has gained a very respectable amount of media coverage. There are numerous businesses interested in Google+, even if, it seems, regular people mostly are not.

I do consider myself to be quite social media savvy, as well as having a decent social life, in real life. Yet it surprises me that regardless of the attention Google+ is getting, I have not been able to attract enough people in my circles, whilst judging by the look of the people in my circles, neither have they.

Therefore I think it is important to discuss the difficulties of attracting people to join new social media networks from my point of view and try to encourage further discussion on how to get your friends to move from one platform to another.

Google+ was launched with invitation only in late June and it quickly gained an impressive number of users. Even in the beta phase, Google+ was able to attract over 20 million users in its first weeks. I was one of them and a handful of my other social networks friends were too. Google+ seemed like an interesting concept, and being created by Google definitely caught peoples’ attention.

There is no shortage of social networks available, but Google+ seemed fresh, something new to the market, even though the main application of it remain fairly similar to already existing platforms: to facilitate communication and sharing between people.

People received invites through other social media networks and what the majority of people did was have a quick look around before passing it on and inviting people they knew. My main source of invitees was Facebook and as it does not let you do export email addresses I found it a bit challenging to find the contact details. I had 100 invites, of which I ended up sending out around 80 of them to my close (real life) friends and to a bunch contacts I have on social networks.

In the following days I became an active user of Google+ and the more I used it the more my real life conversation topics would revolve around it. I talked about its applications in private life, how sharing was easy with in different circles and how convenient huddle (an instant messaging for mobile application of Google+) was when feeling like chatting with someone, or when asking for a quick opinion.

To my surprise, in the first weeks I only managed to get a small number of people in my circles. I mainly wanted to include people I already knew so I could easily share with close friends, acquaintances and professional contacts. What was surprising was that even though all the people I invited were active Facebook users, they did not seem to make the move towards Google+.

People are reluctant to change by their nature, but I did not expect people to be so prejudiced towards a new social network. My fair share of word of mouth mainly resulted in replies on how difficult it is to learn to use a new platform, how misleading the privacy settings can be and that people simply did not have interest in expanding their social networks further.

Thus, the decision making process of joining a new social network seems to be more complex that what I had first thought. People seem to go through a series of stages similar to commonly accepted theory of buying behaviour, and as in terms of buying and in terms of joining a network, disturbance can and will occur at every stage. Some of my friends actually signed up, but never logged in after the first time. Joining a new network takes a minute, but the decision to make so seems to take much longer.

I consider the people that are in my circles now to be early adopters. By theory, it will take a while before anything reaches masses, but as technology developments are fast by their nature, one would think that Google+ would be more widely used.

It can also be said, as some claim, that any product adaptation is based on the experience the customer has when using the product for the first time. Maybe my friends have not seen Google+ as a pleasant experience and therefore are not interested in using it further. Some may also have been scared by the beta phase invite only policy; it may have felt as too much of an insider thing.

What is left to see is what happens now that Google+ is open for everyone. I am looking forward to see if in the longer term more of my friends will join and how will they start using Google+.

It would be great to hear your thoughts about this, have you perhaps encountered similar issues or have you been able to get your friends to join new social networks?

Anna Kraappa is a Marketing and Public Relations graduate from the University of Lincoln and the Metropolia Business School in Helsinki. She is currently studying for her MSc in Marketing at Queen Mary, University of London. Follow Anna on Twitter here or add her to your Circles on Google+ here.

Founder of Bright One, Ben Matthews

Blogs and online news sites are increasingly becoming the first place that many people go to get their news, especially in niche areas and topics that aren’t covered by mainstream news.

These blogs and sites are communities in themselves, as they will often comment on the same stories, link to each other’s articles, and have conversations on other social networks and mailing lists.

As such, communicating with bloggers can be a vital part of any PR campaign you are running and can help to amplify the messages you are looking to spread.

There are also a range of hidden benefits, such as an increased SEO ranking on the terms you are discussing. So how do you find the blogs and news sites that are relevant to your organisation?

Google Blog Search

Start off with a simple Google blog search around the subject you’re interested in. You can sort by relevance to your topic or by date, with the latest topics first. You can even refine your search by region, if you’re looking for UK only blogs or elsewhere in the world.

Blog Directories

Other sources of blogs include the relevant blog platforms directories: WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous.

There are also directories, such as AllTop, who group the top blogs by subject (hence “All Top”). Take a look at the nonprofitgroup for example and you’ll find 20+ news blogs to read.

Blogrolls

Once you have sourced a good initial list of blogs in your area, you should be able to find more through the various links listed on their sites. Look at their sidebar – is there a list of blogs they read? Do they mention other blogs of interest in their posts? Are there other bloggers commenting on posts?

This should give you a few more blogs and by repeating this process you should have built up a comprehensive list to work from

What is the best way to pitch bloggers?

The first thing you should be doing is spending time reading the blogs you’ve found. What subjects do they typically cover? Are their posts long posts or short? Do they use photos or videos? What is the blog’s style and tone of voice?

Once you’re familiar with a blog’s take on a certain subject, then it should be much easier to tailor your content towards them. All this background research will help enormously when it comes delivering the right content, in the right way, at the right time.

Here are a number of things to consider when pitching to bloggers by email, most of which are common sense but all worth bearing in mind:

Comment on their blog

Bloggers will be more receptive to your pitch if you are a regular commenter on their blog posts. But don’t just leave standard “Great post!” comments – add value to the discussion and show your interest in the subject. This means your approach won’t be so much of a ‘cold’ pitch.

Personalise your pitch

Don’t use a generic email when approaching bloggers. Reference their name (and spell it correctly!), mention their blog by name, and show that you’ve read their blog by referencing recent posts that you liked or are relevant to the story you are contacting them about.

Make it relevant

Make sure the story you’re pitching is relevant to their blog and let them know why you think it is. Sounds obvious, but it’s better not to pitch at all than try to pitch with an awkward or forced angle.

Keep it short, sweet and simple

Rather than go into a lengthy email that they might not have time to read, ask your question or pitch your idea quickly – in three or four key bullet points if possible. More detail can be given in a follow up email or through a link to where the blogger can find more.

Include a call to action

You’ll have more success if there’s a clear call to action. Describe what you’re asking for and how it will benefit the blogger and their readers. Always have a single call to action, so the blogger is clear about what you would like them to do.

Be persistent, but don’t harass them

While a follow up a day or so later is polite, emailing a blogger multiple times in a matter of days won’t go down well. Don’t be afraid to send a reminder email asking if they got your first one – as many bloggers write in their spare time and will receive lot of emails, it can be difficult to respond straight away.

Overall, remember that bloggers are people writing about a subject they are passionate about – so keep it personal, polite and to the point!

How not to pitch bloggers

To finish off this guide, it’s great to look at a poor example of blogger relations.

The Bloggess writes for Good Mom / Bad Mom on the Houston Chronicle, a satirical sex column, a parenting column that will make you wish you’d decided to just stick with dogs and has a book coming out in 2012.

She’s also very dedicated to writing about PR pitches (both good and bad) and just this month she received perhaps the worst PR pitch of all time.

The Bloggess received a form letter email pitch (more than one, actually) about a Kardashian sister being spotted in pantyhose, which isn’t relevant to anything she writes about.

So, she responded to the PR with her usual response. And the rest is worth reading over on her blog… Enjoy.

Ben Matthews is a Founding Director of BrightOne, who have just released their microvolunteering app, BrightWorks, which lets volunteers help charities with their PR and Marketing and a time and place convenient to them. You can also check out Ben’s blog at benrmatthews.com.