Here are nine things to consider when pulling together your award entry.

• Start by spotting the opportunities that exist – which gives you the opportunity to demonstrate and record strategic value as part of your project, not as an afterthought for an awards entry. Strategy and planning hurt nobody.

• Look for awards – it makes your team feel special and valued.

• Research what ‘good’ looks like, by reviewing previous winning entries.

• Get organised. Form a working group – look at what you could do; look at how you could fit your work into the judging criteria. It’s a team that wins an award.

• Over deliver. Measure measure measure. Make sure you set KPIs and exceed them. Make sure delivery is outstanding. For PR awards, look at AMEC model for measurement. And as any PR worth their salt will know, NEVER USE AVES

• Remember, it’s not an award entry, it’s an application. Scrutinise what you write through the lens of what the judges’ question asks for. Be as objective as you can. Stakeholder feedback is great, but don’t use it as a vanity measure.

• Resist the temptation to use dazzling style. Your application doesn’t need to look pretty – focus on saying something meaningful.

• Try to be a judge if you can – it makes a real difference. You will know what works – and importantly, what doesn’t.

• Keep to the word count – judges have to read LOADS – and waffle is a wasted opportunity. Tell your story and make it as concise as possible.

And if you want further information on this, why not book a one hour awards planning/ co-creation session with us at Tigerfish PR?

Note: these top tips are based on a CIPR webinar given by Hayley James

Image by AxxL from Pixabay

You know when you think positively about a company, it’s generally based on your interaction with it; or what you’ve heard about it – or your real-life experience. No amount of great media coverage is, for example, going to change our minds about shoddy, unreliable firm.

I am a firm believer in the fact that PR agencies are vital to amplify good products and services so that the widest audience is reached – but it is everyone, EVERYONE in a business that impacts its PR, and how that business is perceived.

And here is a photo that demonstrates the very essence of my assertion. It was taken in a local supermarket, and I was jolted out of my routine by something out of the ordinary.

Just look at the care taken with this broccoli. Yes, it is probably the most ergonomical arrangement for packing, but someone has made a real effort – whether that was the supplier or the shelf stacker, I don’t know. But someone has thought about the display; considered the condition of a delicate product; created an impact on the shelf.

How can this relate to a business?

• Attend to the basic aesthetics – clean windows/ clean vans/ good signage/ safe operating space
• Look after your team & establish best practise – HR teams will be able to advise, but we all know what ‘good service’ looks like
• Use case studies to demonstrate your good customer/ client relationships
• Go the extra mile for customers
• Share best practise

I’m not really in the habit of taking photos of my groceries – or indeed sharing them on a website, but this small example of brassica display shouted care and quality. And great companies know to start with the basics.

Your list task list would include:

• setting out your business’ growth trajectory
• creating meaningful KPIs
• increasing client contact
• improving the visibility of your business

Good intentions

And now, 6 weeks in, how are you getting on?

I’m sure some of you are feeling slightly guilty at this point. Yes, you’re ambitious for your business, but you’re super-busy already. There’s not enough hours in the day for all this extra work.

Perhaps a new project has already landed, and you just don’t have the resources or capacity to review your own communications. Perhaps you’re already juggling so many initiatives, you don’t have the headspace for this too. Or perhaps you just got sidetracked by other things.

But you’re not alone. Whether you’re a business owner or a marketeer, it’s quite common for us to pile on the workload, resulting in longer-term strategy and planning getting pushed to the ‘tomorrow’ list.

Over the years, we’ve helped many businesses with their communications and PR – the strategy and implementation too – leaving them able to concentrate on their core work and knowing that everything is in hand. 

Communications clarity package

In fact, most businesses start with our ‘Communications clarity’ package. It’s designed to really get to the heart of what will work to achieve your business objectives, and it’s a good starting point – there’s no point just leaping into PR without a plan.

In a one-to-one session with you and your leadership team, we look at:

• how your communications strategy needs to align with your business plan – so that everyone is focused on the right things
• identifying your stakeholders so that you can make sure your marketing communications are correctly targeted
• identifying your news hooks to grab journalists, so that when you send something out, it will be picked up
• look at practical ways you can evaluate what you do, so that you know what is working (so you can do more of it)

Spring clean

If that sounds like it would be a helpful starting point, now’s the time to take action. Book your PR Possibilities call today, and that’s one step nearer to your ‘new year, new strategy’ goals.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Of course, it’s completely your decision. But, in the same way that it’s good to listen to your friends/ parents regarding partners, there’s learning to be had from other people when choosing an agency.

Here are some things to bear in mind when thinking about the size of the organisation you choose to work with:

“Bricks and mortar” or remote working?

Well, wasn’t the pandemic a great leveller? Pre-lockdown, we would do calls with people in swanky warehouses/ uber glossy loft-living open plan spaces, or wood panelled offices. During the endless Zoom/Teams/Google Meet calls that followed in 2020/21, those same people would invariably be in back-bedrooms. Or their kitchen.

I think the learning from that is: don’t be swayed by the offices. It’s the people who count, EVERY TIME.

Large team or small team?

Premises, salaries, pensions, equipment, perks, training, insurances, accountancy charges, subscriptions, online services, memberships, marketing, profit … the truth is, the amount you pay to an agency contributes to a lot of overheads, regardless of agency size.

But you can imagine, if you were employing a lot of people, you would want a bigger financial buffer to protect your staff; and you’ll have more overheads. Which will probably result in proportionately higher costs.

That aside though, here are some things to ask:

• How many people will be on my team?
• Who will be my main point of contact?
• How likely is there going to be consistency? (every time they change, you have to invest your time bringing them up to speed with the nuances of your business. Some people you will gel with, but if there’s churn, you won’t have much say in the matter)
• What happens if your team doesn’t have the skills we need?
• Who will actually be doing the legwork on my account? It’s not ideal to think you have the account director doing the strategy or day-to-day, but in reality, it’s the intern.
• If I have a problem, who do I speak to?
• What specific experience does my account handler have, in my sector?
• How do you bill any extras if we over-run on time?
• What ongoing professional development do you put in place? For example, I’m an accredited CIPR practitioner and to maintain that, I complete my cpd every year.
• What professional standards do you adher to?

What about working with an independent practitioner?

Most times, independent practitioners are extremely experienced professionals, who want to run a business their way – with the ability to choose who they work for. For example, I only work with companies where I am absolutely convinced that I can make a real difference. My speciality sectors are within manufacturing and supply chain. And crucially, only for people that I like and respect.

The good news is that you will know who is on your account. You will build a bond of trust, and an ally. Someone who has your back and will consistently deliver.

So what additional questions do you ask an independent PR practitioner (because all the above ones are relevant)?

• What happens if you’re away or ill?
• Who else is on the team? (because if they’re like me, they will have an army of trusted, experienced freelancers with whom they have worked with for years). The benefit of this is that they can assign exactly the right people to work on your account – not just the ones they employ.
• How do you bill any extras if we over-run on time? (Independent practitioners tend to be far more flexible – because they can be)

If you want to pick my brains, book a free call to talk about how working with me might work. Or use our handy contact form.

In summary

Speak to a range of PR agency sizes. But bear in mind that beyond the snazzy pitch decks and fancy coffees, it’s real people doing the work. Make sure they are the ones who understand your sector; that you get on with.. and that can deliver the results you need.

We all know the type. The jolly men and women who are utterly charming. They have all the time in the world for you, for a good old chinwag. They say they’ll do something, and, well, you know, time flies and they get sidetracked. With the best will in the world, it doesn’t happen… and that used to be totally fine, because there was always a way around, and, frankly, they were so nice, you couldn’t be cross. 

But that was before we had fully embraced remote working. 

Now? When we have an online meeting, we want clear direction, action points, results. Forty five minutes is pretty much most people’s concentration span, so aside some initial banter, the conversation should turn to work. 

And when people say they will do something – that is exactly what should happen. Of course, that, in an ideal world was always the case, but now? Absolutely vital.

Not a conversation but a monologue with witnesses

In primary schools, our children are taught that if there are 3 of them in a group, they each have a third of the time to talk; If there are 4 – well, each get a quarter of the time. With online meetings, it’s difficult to kick someone under the table, or discretely signal that time is up – which gives some carte blanc to embark not on a conversation, but deliver a monologue with witnesses. (Margaret Millar)

I’m not saying that the world wasn’t a richer place when business could be done on a golf course, or over a coffee or a leisurely lunch; when a handshake wasn’t something that one only saw in films. Hopefully we will return to those heady days but, until then, it’s short sharp results-driven calls all the way.

The CIPR North West has continued to host training sessions – in particular, the Lancashire sub-group that I chair has staged almost a dozen on a range of topics from analytics to internal comms; from meeting the media to mental health. You can read about how we made it work here. We have had over 450 tickets booked for them, so purely from an engagement and continuous learning point of view, there has been a small Covid silver lining – we have been able to engage far more widely with our PR community. 

But we realised there was still a gap. Training is absolutely necessary and hugely enjoyable, but where were the opportunities to just chat? So we decided to kick back and organise a social networking event. A way to get to know the new faces a bit better and refresh connections with other industry colleagues.

Here’s how we did it.

9 quick tips for a successful online networking

1. Our webinars are team efforts so we distribute roles across the committee, with a different person handling:

• Writing the event description
• Putting the event listing together
• Coordinating social media
• A role in the webinar itself (which we’ll get to in a moment)

2. We make extensive use of WhatsApp as an organising committee, so communication doesn’t get lost in the email deluge. Over WhatsApp, we discuss the event running order, and assign ‘on the day’ tasks

3. We have a tech check 10 minutes before attendees arrive to iron out any last minute glitches. At this check we also make sure there are at least two co-hosts assigned. This enables organisers to let any latecomers in from the waiting room (whilst someone else is talking), or mute delegates if necessary. It also is insurance against the whole event closing if the host’s system fails.

4. Whilst we’re all used to Zoom/ Teams/ Google Meetups etc, talking in a large group isn’t conducive to a relaxed, chatty environment, so once the format was explained, we quickly put people into breakout rooms. We had about 5 people per room, which seemed about right.

5. One person is in charge of opening/closing the breakout rooms. We opted to use the ‘automatic’ function, which randomly assigns 5 people to each breakout room. These rooms were closed at the end of each breakout and then ‘reopened’ again, which meant that the groups were randomly mixed.

6. In the hour session we had 3 x 15 minute breakout sessions, interspersed with feedback and setting the next conversation starter. These conversation seeds proved to be very popular, and they enabled everyone to contribute. Here are a list of ones you could try at your own event:

• Over the past year, what has changed in your life … that you would like to keep?
• What is your top productivity tip that keeps you on track?
• What advice would you give your younger self, just starting a career in PR?
• What are your book and podcast recommendations?
• What is your biggest PR win/ success story?
• How is your week going?
• Share some example of great comms you’ve seen recently
• What are you looking forward to, post lockdown?
• How do you decide on training topics?
• Highs, lows or funniest points in your career…
• What would you say is the soundtrack to your life?

7. Timing is crucial with online events, so using the ‘broadcast to all rooms’ function on Zoom, we reiterated the topic to be discussed; and then gave a 5 minute warning of the time left in each session. We had really positive feedback on this feature.

8. In order to keep the event engaging, we had different committee members introducing each new topic and asking for a quick review from a few of the groups on what they talked about. It works a bit like a layer cake:

• Speaker 1: scene setting, the plan and the first topic
• Breakout room 1
• Speaker 2: asking for feedback from breakout topic 1; then setting groups off again with second topic
• Breakout room 2
• Speaker 3: asking for feedback from breakout topic 2; then setting groups off again with third topic
• Breakout room 3
• Speaker 4: asking for feedback from breakout topic 3. Then trailing forthcoming events
• Speaker 1 again: wrapping up the event and close.

9. We always ask for feedback and use Google forms to collect and collate the data. A link to this is put in the chat, so people can fill it in during the event.

And as you can see, whilst online socials aren’t a patch on seeing people in real life, it was definitely a success and something we’ll be doing again.

At the March 2021 CIPR North West’s social event, we all shared our top recommendations for books and podcasts. And what an eclectic list it turned out to be!

Here is a snapshot of the top 20 titles and podcasts:

Audio recommendations

The Battersea Poltergeist – BBC Sounds podcast https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2/episodes/downloads

Csuite (marketing) podcast

That Peter Crouch Podcast 

Late night with Jane Garvey and Fi Glover

BBC Sounds – Night Tracks.

Rough Trade edit podcast

Morecambe Bay Podcast (interesting guests – from sea swimmers and bird watching to Morecambe and Wise and photography.)

Talk Art podcast

2020 R4 Reith Lectures by Mark Carney – climate, covid and credit.  

________________________________________________________________________________

Book recommendations

Where the crawdads sing – Delia Owens

Girl A by Abigail Dean

 Lemm Sissy – My name is why

A cheesemongers history of the British Isles – Ned Palmer.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Akin by Emma Donoghue

The Man Coach by James Boardman

Alan Partridge from the Oasthouse.

Dadventures – by Alex Gregory

________________________________________________________________________________

And in it’s own specially important category…

MyPossible Self – a free mental health app from the NHS (I’ve linked to the Apple store, but I’m sure it will be available on Android too)

What have you been reading/ listening to recently? What would you recommend?

Picture the scene. I had an introductory chat to James the other day on the phone. James is 50. He was a big noise in augmented reality when the tech was taking off and he made a killing. Since then, he’s become a serial angel investor. He also skis, has two young children, owns a home near Lyon and is richer than Croesus.

So why do I know so much about James? Because he is an extremely effective self-publicist. He loves talking about himself. And that’s not a criticism; he’s genuinely good at it and, thank goodness, he’s also a fascinating listen.

But most of us just aren’t wired that way. I’m not. Almost none of my clients are. For me and them, we’d much rather get our heads down and be good at doing what we do, rather than talking about what we do. 

Therein lies the conundrum. Self-publicity makes you feel a bit icky. But you really don’t want to see your competitor hogging all the limelight. So how do you resolve that?

Sharing the joy

I did some work recently with a company that posted a video in which they machine a gear. That’s all. There’s no presenter. No voiceover. Production values are basic but as good as they need to be. Crucially, there’s no agenda and no sell.

This is a video created by people who love making things for people who also love making things and would be interested to see how you make a gear.

Amongst a certain niche audience it has proved a big hit. It’s driven lots of engagement and no small amount of new business enquiries.

So what makes this company different from James? The answer, of course, is the intention. The publicity conscious know how what they do will ‘play’ and engineer their publicity accordingly. The people who don’t have a PR bone in their body do it because they have an authentic love of their subject and want to share it.

Removing the icky

That’s the key to doing PR when you feel uncomfortable about PR:

• Create content that solves a problem in a simple, genuine way or which elicits an ‘I never knew that’ reaction
• Share the joy of what you do by posting blog posts, photos or videos that let your customers into your world
• Be yourself because customers can spot inauthenticity a mile off
• It doesn’t have to be about you – share the limelight with your team

By creating something you feel happy to put your name to and which avoids any hint of a sales patter you remove the unease of self-publicity. Yet at the same time, you’re giving your business a stronger profile. It just happens to be a profile you feel comfortable with.

If you need help with this – give us a call.

(thanks to mgallon from Pixabay for the photo)

Does that sound familiar?

But with all challenges come opportunities. And the big one here is community and CSR (corporate social responsibility).

If your business has not been too adversely affected by the lockdowns, you probably still have your marketing budget – but less to spend it on. So here is an idea: use this time/money to do something really good for your local community – and build better team engagement and company awareness at the same time.

Companies like Amazon and Toyota are already leading the way with this.

Here are five ideas on how you engage with your local community – for everyone’s benefit:

1. Create a competition for local school children. If, for example, you are a manufacturer, get the local children to make something from scratch, from cardboard or recycling items.
2. Arrange a sponsored fundraising event, socially distanced of course, with your employees, and make a donation to a local charity. They are sorely in need of cash at the moment, so as well as team building, you’re being a responsible neighbour.
3. Commission a local artist to create a piece of artwork for outside your company – something that everyone can enjoy.
4. Can you support a ‘buy local’ campaign and put some money behind it, to help local businesses who can’t afford the advertising?
5. Send out ‘little ray of sunshine’ packs to your staff – with 5 extra each, so they can drop them off to people who need a bit of extra support too. These could be as simple as a cake, or a pack of notecard and stamps, so recipients can also spread the goodwill.

For more ideas, we recommend you speak to your nearest charity as well as your local MP, councillor and newspaper. They will definitely know of areas where you can help.

This CSR mightn’t sell any more of your product, but this philanthropy is good for moral, good for staff and good for recruiting more people when the time is right. It’s not just nice content for your website and social channels. It’s a really positive thing to do, which shows leadership and compassion.

And hey, if you’re lucky enough to have a business, how amazing would it feel to look back on this pandemic and know that in some small way, you made a difference for good?

Photo by Andre Ouellet on Unsplash

Many businesses do their PR in-house, which is absolutely fine. In my book, as long as you’re not in stealth mode, do whatever works for you.

Sometimes the responsibility lies with the marketing team; sometimes it lands on the MD’s shoulders (along with everything else!) but the reality is always the same – no matter who does it, it takes time. Also, if it is not your main job, thinking about how you promote your company may be stopping you from doing something else.

Here are some tips to help get your PR and marketing done effectively, so you can concentrate on the day job:

• Chunk your content – set aside an hour and list all your potential stories
• Delegate some of the news stories to other people in your team – PR is a whole company activity, not just one person’s responsibility
• Have a ‘community news ambassador’ who will keep you updated on your company corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity. That might be the sponsorship of a local team or engagement with the neighbouring community
• Create a standard email template for requesting case studies from customers
• Create an annual marketing plan so you can see at a glance what is coming up.

I know some businesses refer to ‘free PR’ but honestly, it’s only free if you don’t value your own time. Of course, it may be more cost-effective to ask for some help from a PR professional!

Photo by Agê Barros on Unsplash