How to target media and pitch your story

Posted on | April 4, 2011 | No Comments

As we all know the communications landscape is changing daily. It’s hard enough for a so-called expert like me to keep up but if it’s not your day job how on earth do you know what channel to choose to get your message out?  It’s not enough to have a skim through a magazine, google a few keywords to find some blogs who might be interested in whatever you’re punting or switch on the TV from time to time. You need to be a little bit scientific in your approach. Read more

Social Media World Forum #smwf

Posted on | March 30, 2011 | No Comments

I went along to this yesterday to see what the second European forum for all things social media would provide by way of interesting new learnings.  As is fitting for the ethos of this blog I want to give you some top tips on using social media as a small business owner or by way of educating your clients if you are a PRO. Read more

How to use freelancers effectively

Posted on | March 22, 2011 | 3 Comments

Anyone who works in a PR agency will know that there comes a time when you simply don’t have enough pairs of hands, brains or indeed time. This is where it’s best to use a good quality freelancer to help out. But unlike advertising there seem to be fewer career freelancers available in PR who are able to commit large chunks of time at very short notice. Because most of what we do is at short notice and it’s also quite hard to put a time bracket on it. This all makes it rather tricky to get the best resource.  What we need are flexible, brilliant, capable and experienced people. Oh and they have to have a window at the time we want them. Hmm.  Read more

How to integrate social media into your press office

Posted on | December 17, 2010 | 1 Comment

I recently gave a talk to a group of press & pr officers at a well known UK charity. I had been asked to give them a fairly basic view on how to leap into the 21st Century and start to embrace the changes that social media has brought to the world of PR and media. Right up my street.

This demonstrates really clearly that social media is anything but a given to many large organisations, and where some charities are working cleverly with bloggers, witness Save the Children and Blogladesh, there are those who are not tweeting anything at all let alone working on blogger outreach programmes. Read more

How to work from home

Posted on | December 3, 2010 | 1 Comment

About 3.5 million people work from home these days, of them about 64% are women which doesn’t surprise me. Occasionally we all need to work from home, actually more so since I’ve moved out of London and I have SouthWest trains to deal with.

But in particular the snow lately has created havoc with my commute. Rather than risk 6-8 hours on a freezing train getting into London and back with no reasonable means of doing any work, I’ve opted to work from home. Something that’s not necessarily frowned upon in my office but nevertheless not the norm. Read more

Why women will never be happy

Posted on | December 1, 2010 | No Comments

How to manage expectations

Posted on | November 24, 2010 | 1 Comment

“So I’ll get a massive write up with a picture, all our key messages and stockist information then?” asks the hopeful client.

“Well, not quite, but maybe, but it’s unlikely, but we’ll try, we’ll really try.” says the desperate to please PR.

“Great, looking forward to seeing that.” Read more

5 tips for effective pitches

Posted on | November 22, 2010 | No Comments

I pitched for a large piece of business today, one that I would very much like to win, but after 17 years in this industry I will make no guesses about whether or not we got it. It’s pointless and won’t change the outcome.

I have done this so many times, some good, some brilliant, some catastrophic so at the risk of going all David Brent on you I thought I might share some of my top pitching tips. Read more

Why Twitter is like a toddler

Posted on | November 19, 2010 | No Comments

Social media feels very much like a toddler to me, you think it’s going to be quite smart and clever, but it throws a hell of a lot of tantrums at the moment.  I mention this only because of the way in which brands still view it as alchemy, something they don’t understand and are scared to engage with. The way I often am about my toddlers.  I’m sure I should try and engage with them (I am their mother afterall) but frankly the thought terrifies at times. But as our client companies are getting to grips with social media it’s scary because it suggests that the very business model of customer relationships needs to change.

Become a Mumpreneur

Posted on | November 17, 2010 | No Comments

The world of social media has opened up many opportunities for many people but perhaps none more so than women wishing to make a living without compromising their family’s needs.  Being able to find customers and advocates for your products through the internet has made it possible for women to have it all, to an extent.  It takes courage to set up on your own but the rewards can be great.  Just look at ‘Cuddledry’. a business set up by two mums – who first found fame on Dragons Den. I have guest blogged at that site and it’s a great resource for new mums.

I’m really proud to display this banner at the top of my blog which is a link through to AceInspire. It’s the business run by two extremely clever women Antonia and Erica, and helps women to follow their dreams and set up their own businesses from home.

Take a look at what they have to offer.

In the meantime consider this bit of useless information.  The news of Kate and Will’s engagement clearly sent lots of people to Partypieces.co.uk Kate’s parents’ business.  I was extremely happy about that because Party Pieces have my other blog on their blog roll so I had a record number of visitors yesterday.

Good luck to them both.