It’s happening with the launch today of A Just Cause – Pitching for Partnership.  Open to UK-based charities, the scheme invites them to apply for up to £150,000 of time on a ‘pro bono’ basis from healthcare communications specialist Just: Health PR.

Emma Crozier and Jennie Talman, joint managing directors of Just: Health PR, said:

“We want to work with like-minded people on campaigns we feel passionate about and which can instigate a real change. We believe it’s important to put community before commerce once in a while and every year we work on at least one pro-bono project. So this year, we have developed a novel process for identifying causes and organisations we could work with to support their communications.”

The closing date for charities to apply for the free consultancy time is 8 October 2010.

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to Just:: Health PR’s offices in Putney, London to make a short presentation to a judging panel made up of experts in the communications, healthcare and charity sectors. The judges, including ex-Sun Health Editor Jacqui Thornton and communications and PR expert Alison Canning, were selected due to their continued commitment to furthering communications in the media or their interest in health-related charitable causes.

Luke Gamble with baby elephant landmine victim

Vet Adventures follows Luke Gamble, vet and founder of the Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS), documenting his adventures as he travels through the rainforests of South America, jungles of Asia to the plains of Africa, treating animals in need.

Dorset-based Worldwide Veterinary Service is a registered UK charity whose emphasis is on providing a sustainable veterinary resource to help animal organisations around the world.

Working with all species, both domestic and wild, the volunteer teams are aimed not only at improving animal welfare but also at benefiting the local communities in which they work. By reducing feral dog populations for example, the team can help control zoonotic (infectious to humans) diseases such as rabies.

WVS has appointed Liz Lean PR to develop and implement a comprehensive national PR campaign to raise awareness of the charity and to promote their new documentary series.

Luke Gamble is a 33-year old member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and founder of Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS), which was established in 2003 to provide aid and assistance to animal charities and non-profit organisations around the world. In this time Luke and his charity have assisted over 400 associated charities from five continents and they visit around 30 different countries each year.

With the government contemplating reducing funding for universities, the financial strain on students is likely to increase and the average student starting university in 2010 is expected to graduate with £24,702 of debt.

A long term debt sentence

Once again this year, students are proving more realistic than their parents when it comes to paying off their university debt with 34% of students predicting they will graduate with over £20,000 of debt compared to 19% of parents.

49% of students estimate that it will take them over 10 years to pay off their debt and 8% believe they could be in debt for over 20 years.  With such a debt sentence upon them, some 18% of students said that they would put off or postpone doing postgraduate studies due to the extra debt entailed.

The worry of unemployment

55% of students are worried that they will not be able to find a job on graduation, due to the effects of the recession.  With the worry of debt levels on graduation, some 32% of students have said that they would prioritise a higher paid job over their career vocation to help pay off their student debt and, of the 27% of graduates who would consider taking a gap year before university, 11% would do so in order to help their financial situation on graduation and 9% would do so to put less of the strain on family finances.

Parental sacrifice

Parents are still prepared to make financial sacrifices for their children to help them through university.  23% of parents questioned said they would sacrifice their annual holiday, 21% a new car, 13% home improvements or extensions, 13% early retirement and 12% moving to a bigger house.

But is it worth it?

Meanwhile, new research from YouGov reveals that over half (52%) of British adults think that too many young people are studying at university.

Younger generations are more likely to think that more students should be granted a place at university, with only 44% of 18-29 year olds saying that too many people are studying at university compared to 61% of those British adults over 60 years old.

This year, 160,000 school leavers are likely to miss out on a place at university.

Infographic by postgrad.com

Launched this summer, the service allows Facebook friends (and friends of friends) to match journeys they want to take with available seats in cars. It’s a safer, social media version of hitch-hiking, once popular in the last century.

Founder Drummond Gilbert sees this as a crusade against the 38 million empty car seats on Britain’s roads each day, but he’s keen not to guilt-trip students:

“We’re not telling people to stay at home with the lights off but we are opening their eyes to the benefits of travelling together.  A full car offers students an inexpensive way to get out and have fun, and in the green stakes its up there with taking the train.”

Drawing another lesson from social media, the site has an eBay-style rating system to help identify any bad drivers or unreliable passengers.

There is no charge for using the site and drivers and passengers are advised to agree to travel on a cost-sharing basis – according to the site this should not affect the driver’s car insurance.

The results of the study, which analysed the social media activity of the 2009 Deloitte Fast Tech 50, are revealed in a Wildfire whitepaper, Putting the ‘social’ back into social media’.

Twitter was the most popular network used (74%), followed by Linkedin (72%) and then Facebook (20%). Less than half (48%) had a blog.

But the study confirmed many technology brands view social media as an opportunity to push out marketing messages and corporate content; 60% of companies with a Facebook page used it purely as a distribution channel; 57% of companies with a Twitter account used it solely for one-way marketing activity; and only 25% of blogs received comments on a regular basis.

In addition, a large proportion of technology companies in the study are ignoring feedback from their audiences. While 66% of Facebook pages received comments from users, 75% of these companies failed to reply to the comments: only 3% of the tweets in the study were retweets and just 12% were replies. Shockingly, 43% of brands with a Twitter account had never replied to a tweet. A tiny 9% of companies replied to comments on their blog.

Companies also failed to integrate social media with their online presence: only 34% of companies assessed link to their social network accounts from their website homepage, with only 18% linking to a Twitter account and 2% linking to Facebook. Only 22% featured their blog on their homepage and on social networks themselves, the integration wasn’t any better, with only 51% of companies on Twitter even including links to their website or blog in their tweets.

Debby Penton, Managing Director at Wildfire said:

“To be truly effective, social media requires a different mindset entirely to traditional ‘push marketing’ and our research demonstrates that brands haven’t factored this into their thinking when using social media. With correct foresight and planning, social media can be a wonderfully effective and cost efficient way of developing relationships with end users and achieving bottom line returns.”

Wildfire recommends that technology companies step back and reassess how they are using social media and work out how best to reach their target audience through these channels. Wildfire has listed ten key questions that any company should ask before embarking on social media activity:

1. What is your target audience/s?
2. What are the most appropriate social networks to reach this audience/s?
3. What content is going to be of interest to your audience?
4. Who in your business is going to be in charge of social media activity?
5. What happens when you get customer service enquiries through social media channels?
6. What is the tone and personality of your brand? How do you want this to be conveyed through social media?
7. How does the real-time response required with social media affect your existing approval processes?
8. What should your corporate social media guidelines look like?
9. Who is going to develop and create content for these channels?
10. What is the business goal for social media? How will you measure and evaluate whether social media activity is having a successful effect on your bottom line?

The full results of the research can be downloaded from www.wildfirepr.co.uk/tech_social_media. You can follow Wildfire on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wildfirepr

Total COI turnover on advertising and marketing is down an estimated 52% in June this year, compared to the same period in 2009, and the new government has made it clear that this reduction in spend should be expected to continue into the future.

Chief executive Mark Lund said:

COI has always adapted to meet the requirements of government and the changing media landscape. A leaner COI is in line with new government priorities. Our future will be grounded in continuing to deliver excellent communications to achieve government aims, in the most cost efficient and effective way possible.

Not the easiest press release for the COI to write.

Led by Cornelius Alexander, a Fellow of the institute, the group will identify existing evidence of diversity, raise awareness of the value of a diverse profession and work alongside other key bodies to drive this work forward.

The group will also make recommendations and feed into the resources developed by the institute, such as advisory guidelines for employers and how to communicate with a multicultural audience.

Cornelius Alexander, Chair of the Diversity Working Group, said:

“Improving diversity within PR is an important issue for our profession.  We can no longer continue to recruit practitioners solely from a small sector of our society and believe that we are able to understand or appreciate the cultural differences that hamper truly inclusive communication. A number of communities within our society are unaware of many public services because traditional means of raising awareness bypass them.  A more diverse profession should change this.”

CIPR President Elect Paul Mylrea commented: “Tackling diversity is not optional, it lies at the heart of building a PR profession that is open to all and represents the society it serves. Our latest State of the Profession Report shows there is much more to do and we will be working with the whole of the PR industry to achieve real progress.”

The working group consists of: Cornelius Alexander, Helen Ashley,  Jon Bennett (deputising for Ashnoor Pardhan), Colin Douglas, Joy Francis, Chris Genasi, Emma Hamilton, Siobhan Kenny, Alex Louis, Marcia McKnight, Paul Mylrea, Richard Rose and Stephen Webb.

You can read more about the CIPR’s diversity strategy and join the CIPR Diversity Group’s Facebook group.

The nationwide quest seeks to find undiscovered writers who deserve to take the title of Column Idol 2010.

The hunt is being supported by rapper Dizzee Rascal and singer-songwriter Diana Vickers.

Those judged to have the best six ideas will receive training and mentoring to bring their creative idea to life, write their own column and pitch it to a panel of experts. The overall winner will have their column printed in The Sun newspaper for all to see. The competition is specifically looking to support young people in England who feel their voice is unheard and wouldn’t usually have access to an opportunity like this.

‘Everybody’s got a talent, everybody’s got a skill, some people just don’t have the belief. It doesn’t matter what background you come from, some of the greatest minds were from poor backgrounds, what they had was the drive, the work ethic and the vision. A newspaper like The Sun is informative and entertaining so that is exactly what your column needs to be. It is the same with music, you want to entertain people but tell them something at the same time. My tip to entrants would be, if you have a strong point of view about something you should use that, and I always think it is important to put humour into whatever you write, show your passion and your personality.’ Dizzee Rascal

I love being creative and can sometimes find it hard to express my emotions so I do it through lyrics. Hearing the final product, or in the case of a columnist seeing your final piece in a newspaper, is a brilliant buzz. It gives me a real sense of pride to hear a finished song and it would be the same seeing your finished column in a newspaper. It’s an amazing feeling.’ Diana Vickers

The competition closes at midday on Monday 9 August.

Read the terms and conditions here; and click here to enter the competition.

Northern Lights interns: Gabriel St Aimee, Nafisa Shafiq, Mohammed Waheed and Liane Clarke

The Harrogate consultancy is working in partnership with Bradford University School of Management, industry experts and businesses to give black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) graduates hands on experience of working in corporate communications and public relations – a sector where people from these communities have historically been underrepresented.

Hallmark’s Communications and PR manager Alex Glen said:

“As part of Hallmark’s commitment to the local community, the Northern Lights PR internship gave us a fantastic opportunity to work with a creative group of young people and to strengthen our understanding of the many ways different cultures celebrate key occasions.

“The interns have also been able to gain firsthand experience of the day to day workings of our business so it has been a very positive and worthwhile experience for all of us.”

During a packed three weeks, five interns attended a range of master classes led by industry experts covering media relations, press photography, social media in business and blogging.

Guest speakers included Saeeda Ahmed from social enterprise Trescom, who led a Jobskills workshop, Karyn Fleeting from Tinderbox, who ran a session on social media and Charlotte Renwick from Bradford University who spoke to the group about working as part of an in-house PR team.

The five were also tasked by marketing and communications professionals to come up with creative ideas to encourage more use of the railways and a new range of greetings cards celebrating special occasions for different cultures.

Commenting on the internship experience, Gabriel St Aimee said: “The public require companies to communicate effectively with them and I hadn’t realised what a skill that is.

“Meeting so many people, from all walks of life and professional backgrounds, willing to share their expertise, has really opened my eyes to the possibilities for my own future.”

The five interns are, Gabriel St Aimee, Nafisa Shafiq, Shaeeb Tanwir, Liane Clarke and Mohammed Waheed.  With degrees in a variety of subjects, including History and IT the extra skills and business experience offered by the internship has increased their career options.

Northern Lights plans to offer a similar internship for BAME graduates in 2011.

You can read more from the interns on the Northern Lights blog.

Grayling’s brief is to raise the profile of the EIU, positioning the sector analysts and leveraging report content. The six figure account was won by Grayling following a four way pitch and covers activity in two regions. Asia Pacific will be covered by The Consultancy in Hong Kong and Cape PR in Australia.

The EIU is the world’s foremost provider of country, industry and management analysis, and is now a leading research and advisory firm with more than 40 offices worldwide.  With extensive international reach, and unfettered independence, the EIU is the most trusted and valuable resource for international companies, financial institutions, universities and government agencies.

Michael Brunt, Global Head of Marketing, Economist Intelligence Unit commented:  “We appointed Grayling after a thorough pitch process during which we spoke to all the top international agencies. We felt that Grayling’s offer would provide us with a centrally coordinated and highly effective one-stop shop for all our communications needs. The Grayling team convinced us with their strong expertise within the media space, and we look forward to working with them.”

Michael Murphy, CEO Grayling, said: “The fact that the Economist Intelligence Unit has chosen to work with Grayling is another strong endorsement of our growing reputation for providing counsel, insight and delivery of global PR support. The EIU is such a prestigious brand; we are delighted to be working with them in such an integrated communications remit across territories.”

The campaign will be driven out of Grayling’s offices in London and New York.

The number of graduate vacancies has fallen by nearly 7% this year according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR).

This reported decrease follows a drop of 8.9% in 2009. The median graduate starting salary has also failed to rise and remains at the 2008 figure of £25,000.

The drop in vacancies has caused a corresponding increase in the number of applications for each much sought-after graduate job – the average now stands at 69 for every vacancy, compared to 49 last year and 31 in 2008.

This is due not only to a decrease in jobs but also to the number of graduate job seekers being swollen by 2007 and 2008 graduates who have yet to find work and an understandable move on the part of graduates to send off more applications during a downturn. Graduate recuiters have responded by retreating to the safety of the minimum 2.1 degree selection criterion in order to cope with the influx. The AGR survey shows 78% of employers now insist on this as opposed to 67% in 2008.

Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive of the AGR, said: “Today’s findings suggest that the recovery is going to be slower than previously thought. Recruiters are under intense pressure this year dealing with a huge number of applications from graduates for a diminshing pool of jobs. Those of our members who took part in the survey reported a total of 686,660 applications since the beginning of the 2010 recruitment campaign.

“It is hardly surprising then that the number of employers asking for a 2.1 degree has shot up by 11 percentage points. However, while this approach does aid the sifting process it can rule out promising candidates with the right work skills unnecessarily. We are encouraging our members to look beyond the degree classification when narrowing down the field of candidates to manageable proportions.”

The AGR is the leading voice of graduate recruiters and developers and its bi-annual survey provides the most extensive and detailed insight into the state of the graduate jobs market. Today’s edition is based on the responses of 199 AGR members in the UK across 18 sectors who will provide an estimated 17,920 graduate vacancies in 2010. The research was carried out by CFE in May 2010.

The event takes place this Wednesday evening, 30 June.

The guest host is Richard Farleigh, a BBC Dragon’s Den investor, and free seats are available at www.keenstudents.com/news.

The event has been organised by KEEN (the Knowledge East Enterpise Network) in partnership with higher education institutions including London Metropolitan University, Goldsmiths University of London, London South Bank University, Queen Mary University of London, University of Greenwich and University of East London.

The media relations tip is delivered in their own unique way by Gabrielle “Rocky” Lofthouse, who believes persistence with journalists is the key to being a PR champ. 

If you have not subscribed to the 10 Yetis YouTube channel then there has never been a better time.  Simply subscribe and you will be entered into a draw to win Guy Clapperton’s new book “This is Social Media”.

Holly Manley, Store Manager of Savers store in Erith collected her award for Apprentice of the year in the Leaner Category in the Workforce Development Awards 2010.

The awards were announced at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in the heart of London’s South Bank on 26th May.  The next step for Holly is the National Apprenticeship Awards final which takes place in London on 15^th July.

Holly, 20, has worked within the AS Watson UK Group for almost three years, beginning her career at Saver’s sister company Superdrug at the Woolwich store.  She completed her Apprenticeship in Retail Management Training while at this store, including a Level Two Apprenticeship in Team Leading.

Holly was then promoted to Assistant Manager of the Savers store in Erith, and shortly after was promoted once more to Store Manager.

Jo Mackie, AS Watson UK HR Director said: “We are delighted to see Holly collecting her award which is well deserved.  To be such a successful store manager at just 20 years old means that she really is one to watch in the retail world and is a great illustration of what can be achieved for those who take part in our Retail Academy training programme.”

Holly Manley, said: “I am so excited to have won this award; it’s such a great achievement and is something I never thought I could have achieved.  I will now encourage my staff to follow my lead, take part in Superdrug’s retail training and further their career.  It’s a dream for me to have come this far and I am looking forward to the National Awards in July.”

Superdrug currently has 436 Apprentices in its Retail Academy training programme, AS Watson currently has 479 colleagues who have completed their training.

The competition, called ‘Tell It Your Way’, will also give one lucky winner the chance to gain a week’s work experience at Ridley Scott Associates (RSA) offices in Los Angeles, New York, London or Hong Kong.

The contest involves creating an original sixth short film to accompany Philips’ ground-breaking Parallel Lines series of short films, directed by RSA talents, Greg Fay, Johnny Hardstaff, Carl Erik Rinsch, Jake Scott and Hi-Sim. The five short films, released on www.philips.com/cinema, are part of a cinematic project whereby each director created a film in a different genre, with a different storyline, but all following the same six line dialogue.

The Parallel Lines films bring to life the cinematic capabilities of Philips TVs – unique Ambilight technology, award-winning picture quality, and superior sound – and are a cinematic interpretation of the campaign idea: “There are millions of ways to tell a story. There’s only one way to watch one.”

“I’m delighted to be involved with a project which supports aspiring directors and I’m looking forward to seeing how the entrants interpret the single dialogue brief,” comments Sir Ridley Scott.

“At Philips, we are committed to delivering a cinematic viewing experience at home.  Through our partnership with RSA, we’re excited to be able to offer the public the chance to create their own film and have it be promoted globally as part of such a ground-breaking project as Parallel Lines.” comments Gary Raucher, Head of Integrated Marketing Communications, Philips.

Competition entries are open to anyone globally and should be submitted via the official Philips Cinema YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/philipscinema). Entries close at midnight 8^th August 2010. Three rounds of judging will be held including public voting via YouTube. Finalists will be judged on criteria including creative storytelling, use of dialogue, and technical achievement. The top ten finalists will be selected by RSA directors and British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) Chairman, David Parfitt. The overall winner will be selected from the top five finalists by Sir Ridley Scott himself.

Runners up prize packages include an invitation to a RSA film premiere in London or New York including travel, accommodation; and a number of Philips Cinema 21:9 Televisions.

Full terms and conditions for the ‘Tell It Your Way’ competition can be found at www.philips.com/cinema

The book, written by renowned freelance business and technology journalist Guy Clapperton features everything you need to know to get you marketing clients or even your own business via the fast paced social media.

10 Yetis PR Agency Managing Director Andy Barr was asked to provide his expert opinion on the impact search engine optimisation can have on marketing your business.

To win a copy of the book, simply subscribe to the 10 Yetis Youtube channel   and 5 lucky winners will be picked at random from the list of subscribers. The closing date is the 9th of June.

Tara Cronin

Manchester student Tara Cronin has been voted the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) National Student Representative of the Year 2010. Tara, who is studying for an MSc in International Public Relations at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, beat off competition from 18 fellow students from around the UK to win the award. 

Every year the CIPR appoints student representatives who work with each regional committee and compete for the title of CIPR Student Representative of the Year. As part of the accolade, Tara has won a one-year paid placement with BioMed Central in London, an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher, which has pioneered the open access publishing model working with Matt McKay – one of the UK’s first Chartered Practitioners – during her placement year. 

Commenting on the award Dave Sanders, Chair of the CIPR North West committee, said: “I can’t congratulate Tara enough on this tremendous achievement.  She’s worked hard this year, attended the committee meetings and really made the most of the opportunities presented to her. I know she’ll go on and do the same during her placement year and her subsequent career.” 

On receiving the award Tara said: “I was appointed student representative of the CIPR North West in September 2009 after being elected by my classmates. 

Michael White

“To prove I was Student of the Year I had a range of tasks to perform, including promoting student membership to course members and liaising with the North West CIPR group. I am also responsible for organising a student event that aims to provide me with the practical knowledge and skills required in events management. 

“The coming year will, no doubt, be a busy one, full of great learning potential. This is an amazing opportunity that will present many challenges to enjoy. I am really looking forward to meeting and working with the BioMed Central team.” 

Congratulations must also go to Michael White who was this year’s runner up for the title. Mike also did a fantastic job as rep, regularly securing media coverage, attended CIPR group meetings and also held a social media conference which saw over 60 delegates in attendance. Michael is now about to begin a one year placement at Microsoft.

If you want to see more from the scamps @10Yetis then why not have a look at their YouTube channel

10 Yetis also offer the days news in pill form, with their “Daily Headlines” mailing list.  If you like to be added to the mailing list then please  email emmak@10yetis.co.uk

The Hull meet-up (Twitter hashtag #hullmeetup) will take place on Saturday 22nd May in Weatherspoons branch, The Zachariah Pearson on Beverley Road from 1pm.

The event is designed to give local Twitter users the chance to meet, network and interact with others who live on their doorstep, in an effort to take social media offline and put it in person for a day.

Twitter has been the cause of many social and professional events globally, with many events leading to continuing social meet-ups on a local basis.

Hull’s event has been organised by Twitter user, Laura Smith (@lauramsmith) after the idea was suggested to her followers with immediate positive response.

Anyone is welcome to the event providing they have a Twitter account.

Attendees may be social media enthusiasts, want to learn more about the uses of Twitter or simply want the opportunity to meet new people and gain new friends and followers.

For more information on the event, follow @lauramsmith on Twitter.