Over the past few years the evolution of technology has shifted many PR agencies away from traditional PR models in order to embrace the digital era. New communication platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have meant that online PR and social media have become an important focus for many PR agencies. This change has allowed us to offer new and exciting services to our clients.

As PR consultants, our job is all about identifying who our clients need to engage with and ensuring that the right message is delivered to them, which consequently means we have had to keep up to date with technology by adapting the techniques we use to communicate these messages. PRs have had to gain a clear understanding of how a brand’s reputation both online and offline are fundamentally linked, yet what many still don’t seem to understand is that the main difference between traditional PR and digital PR is only the channels of communication; the objective is still very much the same.

Most agencies nowadays have diversified away from traditional PR services by creating different branches of their business, such as social media development, online editorial and SEO management. For example, last week, PR Week published encouraging signs for the industry in the form of its annual top 150 consultancies table. According to the report the industry’s total fee income has risen to £900m (exceeding the pre-recession figure of £858m in 2008), with the results demonstrating a huge growth in digital agencies. All of the 150 agencies listed offered digital PR to its clients in some shape or form. Read more »

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With 80 days to go until the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the final countdown has officially begun. It has been nearly seven years since Trafalgar Square erupted with the news that London was to hold the Games, and for so many of us we have found it to be seven years of tireless publicity about how great it will be for the country.

Since the bid was accepted, economists all over the country have been debating how it will affect the UK’s economy. A lot of scepticism still surrounds the benefits the Games will have on the UK, with a recent poll revealing that more than half of those surveyed did not believe that London 2012 would be worth the huge public expense. Read more »

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Newspapers and news programmes have always been at the forefront of bringing us the cold hard facts before anyone else, but could this be a thing of the past thanks to social media?

Largely due to how technology has so rapidly advanced in the last decade, traditional media is no longer our only source of news. These days I seem to have learnt most breaking news via my Twitter feed, which has led many people to contest Twitter’s rise from social network to ground-breaking news source.

One of the wonders of Twitter is its ability to represent the real-time nature of the Internet. News can break and spread across the world in a matter of seconds thanks to the retweeters and hashtaggers amongst us, and has been one of the biggest changes to the journalism field in recent years. With the subsequent rise of the smartphone, we now also have the tools to record anything at anytime and broadcast it to the world with the click of a button. Read more »

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Public Relations is all about looking after a business’ or an individual’s reputation in the public eye, and effectively building a positive image for them. Yet in recent years, it seems to be that the more controversial a story, the more column inches it receives, which leads me to the question – positive or negative, can all publicity be good publicity?

By now, I’m sure you will be fully aware of the Internet sensation that is Samantha Brick who has caused a media furore around her controversial opinions on beauty and prejudice.

A few weeks ago her name would have conjured up little opinion considering she was a relatively unknown journalist, yet flash forward a week to the headline ‘why do women hate me for being beautiful’ published in the Daily Mail and everyone’s got something to say. Read more »

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New research has found that 50 per cent of creative professionals enjoy their job.

On average, creatives work for eight hours 13 minutes a day, send 28 emails and spend just over 12 minutes on social media sites.

Researchers for Mars Drinks UK asked 2001 male and female office workers across Britain about their average work day, including employees in marketing, finance, creative, HR, legal and IT sectors.

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The Headline team is pleased to introduce its newest recruit, junior account executive Laura Townsend, who joined at the beginning of February.

Having recently graduated from Birmingham City University with a BA honours degree in English Literature and Language, Laura has already gained a wealth of experience in both PR and journalism through various internships whilst studying for her degree.

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So Frankie Cocozza has been kicked off the X Factor and last weekend saw one of the hotly tipped favourites, Kitty, also meet her musical end on the show. Despite what she may have thought, the X was apparently missing from her factor.

So what is it that the public and judges on the show are looking for in the winner? What is that special ‘X’ ingredient that some have but so many lack? I guess if we knew we would all be as successful as Simon Cowell (minus the high waisted trousers and dazzling white teeth).

My suspicion is that there isn’t a magic formula for the perfect pop star, which led me on to thinking about what makes the perfect PR.

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Reputation, whether it is good or bad, needs to be managed. Companies and organisations are increasingly recognising the importance of brand management and corporate reputation to achieve business goals and stay one step ahead of the competition.

For companies, a good corporate reputation is built on trust, be that through the provision of good products, the delivery of services and customer relations, or just communicating effectively about what you do with the people who matter the most. This includes customers, employees and the wider community in which you operate.

These groups will build a perception of your company based on what they see, hear and experience, either through direct communication from you or from other sources, such as word-of-mouth, the media and online.

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Regular readers of our blog will have no doubt noticed that posts have been a little thin on the ground of late. This is because we have been putting our creative writing talents to good use on our clients. As the saying goes, “a plumber’s tap always drips”. Please check back soon for further blog updates, but in the meantime, to see all the latest news from our clients, visit our Press Centre.

Thanks!

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Trying to convince new or existing clients about the power of social media is always a struggle. Sat in meetings, I’ve become used to the blank looks and scratching of heads as I start talking, in simple terms, about Twitter and Facebook, the importance of engaging with online audiences and business benefits of implementing a social media strategy.

Thank god then for Tippex and whoever the genius agency was who thought up their YouTube ‘tippexexperience’ Channel viral ad campaign.

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