Ever wanted to see which words are most frequently used on your website? Wordle.net helps you do just that by using your company’s url to define which words on prominent on your site. It makes you realise that effort needs to be made on how frequently certain text is used as it can help define your key messages. For example, this word cloud for the Freshfield site, shows that we use the words; Lancashire, community, media, design and marketing frequently and as a result those messages are prominent on the site. However, we need to ensure our other key messages are also prominent such as PR, expertise and communcation.
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So this morning the people of Preston and Lancashire woke up to the sad news that the Tithebarn project has been pulled due to a turnaround from John Lewis. Our local business editor David Coates, broke the news at 4am on his twitter feed and helped Emma Broom supply the front page of today’s LEP.
I’ve read the article, listened to comments on BBC Lancashire, monitored opinions on Twitter and it all comes down to one thing… it was a great idea but it came at the wrong time. I’m pretty sure I’m not the first to recognise that the Tithebarnd project became a bit of dream, rather than reality as soon as the UK fell into recession.
Yes, the ten years of planning this major regeneration project has now come to nothing but let’s not be pessimistic and think Preston is dying a slow death. There are a great number of opportunities within the city which we are not making use of. The city boasts a thriving student community, a good shopping centre, a prominent high street and it’s so close to the vital transport networks. We need to snap out of the doom and gloom and get cracking on how to utilise the city’s best bits.
A group has already been set up to revitalise the Winckley Square illustrating good will from local businesses and bodies and also proving that people can work together and make progress in a short space of time. A number of boutiques and cultural cafe’s could easily provide a continental style area of Preston around Winckley Street up to Cannon Street. Over the other side of the city, the market requires a complete make-over and the flag market needs to be brought back to life. The majority of such areas have been overlooked while the Tithebarn project gained momentum and it’s time for a plan B. Surely the council and other bodies can now work together, look forward and make a start in making the city unique.
Despite a great number of people being proud Prestonians (me being one of them) I am afraid to say, it doesn’t really offer those from other cities much in terms of big brand names. Preston is however starting to build on it’s shopping offering with the success of Matilda’s Boutique and the arrival of Fat Face.
I am really liking the fact that those in the retail field are starting to show a bit of initiative to get people in the shops. I recently helped support St George’s Shopping Centre with it’s fourth annual Student Lock-In event which saw more than 9,000 students flock through the doors to gain freebies and exclusive discounts. I also visited both Peter Jackson the Jeweller who now has a brand new Gucci counter and today Pandora held a launch event for the Breakthrough Breast Cancer collection, giving customers the opportunity to enter a prize draw to win one of the beautiful bracelets.
I’m really pleased retailers are really thinking abut what their customers want and reacting before Preston loses the great brands it has attracted.
Pics below;
More pics and shopping news on the St George’s Facebook page
They are pricey, a plethora of organisational skills are required and it can prove a logistical nightmare, however exhibitions are still a key platform to launch a product and vital to showcase new products to emerging markets.
I recently attended a leading trade exhibition in the Middle East with one of Freshfield’s newest clients, Super-Click International.
Super-Click International has recently completed an exclusive licensing agreement with Beaulieu International Group which will see the UK-based firm take the product to emerging markets in Asia, Central and South America, the Middle East, Africa and Australia and New Zealand.
Super-Click is an innovative flooring product which is dubbed one of the most versatile click flooring systems in the world. Having been on the exhibition stand myself and illustrated its benefits to the Middle East media, I now fully understand why people in the industry are getting so excited about it. If you have ever put down laminate flooring yourself or if you have had to wait a few days for a new floor to be fitted in your home or office, you will be amazed at how quickly Super-Click can be fitted. It’s a floating LVT click flooring system and the technology behind it means you need little floor prep. Super-Click has been likened to scalelectrics and jigsaws by exhibition attendees and so easy to use that a member of the Super-Click International team demonstrated putting the floor planks together with his feet!
This obviously makes it a simple for me to excite media contacts in a number of countries, however a lot of Super-Click International’s success stems from making key contacts with distributors in target countries and just being themselves. While it has grown as a business and Freshfield are supporting the brand in becoming a global player, the company has always stuck to its key values and remained a company with a personality. So many big brands go over the top at exhibitions to get the attention of the adoring public but the friendly, yet professional persona shone through in a hall full of firms battling for attention. It was important for me deliver key messages ahead of the event to ensure attendees came to the stand to see the unique product, yet the real pull was the product itself and sometimes when the product, that is all you really need.
As well as delighting regular visitors to the Domotex exhibition the innovative flooring also helped Super-Click International reach out to wider audiences. A number of those who saw the product registered their interest in Super-Click and are looking forward to further discussions with the team. The exhibition was a huge success and while the team are now busy making preparations for a bigger and better stand for Domotex Hannover and Surfaces Las Vegas, the firm will remain true to its brand – the team will act like a global firm but engage like a good friend.
It was a fabulous place to be and it we did indeed see the Dubai sights including Atmopshere bar at the Burj Khalifa, the Mall and the Cavalli Club – Such a tough job but someone has to do it right?
It’s extremely busy at Freshfield at the moment; however I managed to tear myself away from my desk and about three million emails last week to attend The Lancashire Youth Games county finals.
The programme of events has been expanded again this year to include 112 district finals and nine county finals, including a special schools’ swimming gala and the SPAR Lancashire Disability Youth Games. It was the turn of the Gymnastics County Finals this month and it was a fantastic event.
Senior competition manager, Jane Sheridan had once again created a great event for children across Lancashire, offering a brilliant opportunity to get involved with sport and be the best you can be. She was helped by demonstrations and coaching from The City of Preston Gym Club, Gym Mania and Preston City Trampolining Club.
Gold medallist gymnast, Craig Heap attended the event and delivered an inspiring presentation prior to the competition, focusing on finding your own identity and showing the importance of participation and determination. Craig, who was born in Lancashire, captained England to a team Gold in the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and again in Manchester four years later.
Craig is now delivering presentations to a number of pupils across the UK, illustrating how sport can really make a difference to people’s lives. I managed to steal his medals and pretend I was champion, photo taken by Clive Lawrence Photography.
Children were able to compete in both the team and individual sections in one half of the sports hall, whilst those who weren’t participating at the time could enjoy specialist coaching on a number of apparatus. It was so lovely to see grassroot sport being supported like this. I do feel very cross to know that whilst the Lancashire Youth Games, run by The Lancashire Sport Partnership is such a success, the people behind it are losing their jobs and I’m not quite sure why the Government feel this is necessary a year before the 2012 Olympics.
Events like the Youth Games, where young children are encouraged to participate in a number of different sports are likely to lessen across the country and quite frankly it will be a severe loss to so many children. In addition, as a nation, we are unlikely to perform at high standards if sport is not supported from a young age.
The events as a whole have brought together more than 10,000 pupils from hundreds of primary schools across 14 local authority districts.
Winners:
Individual
Boys: 1st William Brimelow, 2nd Leon Bottomley, 3rd Lucas Down
Girls: 1st Holly McCauley, Joint 2nd Harriet Qualter and Yasmin Bannister and 3rd Lucy Harris
Team:
1st Blackpool (St Teresa’s Primary.)
2nd – Wyre (The Breck.)
3rd Heysham (St Peters.)
The word blog is one of the most popular words on the internet today and with over 360 million people using the internet, businesses must ensure they are using it appropriately to maximise potential.
Whilst there are a number of marketing tools out there, blogging really facilitates communication. It can provide businesses with an excellent opportunity to add fresh content to their websites on a regular basis, act as a powerful tool for real-time discussions and are influential too for building long-term relationships with customers/clients.
The benefits are clear, however if a business has a desire to begin blogging it needs to be prepared to commit to it. Blogging takes time and resources if it is to be sustained. Here are some of our tips for creating a successful blog:
Determine the primary purpose of your blog
This will depend on what type of organisation you are or what industry you are in, but blogs can be used for a variety of reasons, such as communicating directly with customers on service issues, demonstrating thought leadership and knowledge of your industry, talking about new products and innovations, or announcing news about your company. Before launching in, ask whether having a blog would meet any of your strategic communications objectives.
Remember content is king
Readers will decide within a couple of seconds whether your blog is useful to them. Therefore it has to grab the attention quickly, be of genuine interest, and be clearly and concisely written. If your blog is providing and sharing useful content, it will be read. If it isn’t, it will be ignored. Again, sustaining a successful blog requires resources and expertise. Don’t use it to sell, sell, sell.
Engage with your audience
When unplanned events happen, such as last winter’s treacherous weather conditions, corporate blogs can be a great way of keeping your customers up to date. If business is disrupted a blog can allow you to get valuable and timely information to your customers about how you are responding. A good blog should also enable effective two way communication with customers. A word of caution here though – if you allow members of the public to communicate directly with your organisation, you have to be prepared to respond to negative comments and this will require its own approach.
Know how to market your blog
Once you have started to build content, you should integrate additional social media platforms into your blog, such as your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts as this will further strengthen your online presence. Using links to direct people to other authoritative content can help position you as an expert and a sharer of valuable information. Remember that this will require some technical knowledge.
Set guidelines for digital engagement
While engaging with your audiences and stakeholders online can certainly prove worthwhile, it is vital to be aware of the risks. Remember that once something is live online, it has a potential audience of millions. Pitfalls can include publishing misleading information, damaging the company’s credibility, or a lack of comment moderation. It is therefore advisable to set clear protocols and style guidelines for the team responsible for writing and uploading blogs.
In summary, business blogs can be an extremely valuable tool for your business, but they need to be properly resourced and aligned with business strategy. Successful planning and professional execution is the key to establishing and maintaining a successful blog.
As a PR practictioner and a social media specialist it’s easy to assume you are ahead of the game. Today, however, I benefited from an online PR workshop delivered by Nigel Hughes which showed me that there is always more to learn.
Whilst the workshop was delivered at the Freshfield office, it took me away from everyday office thinking and reminded me of the importance of sharing knowledge. Nigel delivered a presentation explaining the importance of online PR, for a PR person. Often, we are so consumed with pitching the importance of online PR to clients, that we can sometimes become disengaged from advances within the industry and our own development.
I took in so many new tools to add to the PR armoury that my brain feels a bit frazzled. However, the end result means I am able to offer a wealth of knowledge to clients which gives them an extensive service. Developing my expertise regularly will allow me to remain confident in running PR campaigns and continue to achieve successful results.
You need to ask yourself if you are truly on the pulse and no matter how busy you are make time for your own development. At Freshfield, continued development is vital to give our clients a return on investment. Believe in better and broaden your skills.
Don’t take my word for it, try it yourself.
I haven’t created a blog for a while as I’ve been settling in to a new role at Freshfield Marketing Communications. In fact, I feel like I have settled in very well, having at least two coats and three Tupperware boxes stashed at the office. No one appears to mind my random outbursts of conversation – thank God! I’m lucky to inherit some fantastic clients in retail, leisure and financial services and this means that my work is extremely varied.
I did prevent myself from visiting the loo for the first week as I didn’t manage to remember the countless door codes and I feared I’d get locked out, that aside, Freshfield is a team of hardworking professionals who are non-fluffy and really down to earth.
This week I have been creating social media proposals and working extensively on media relations. I also managed to persuade a well-known city businessman to dress up and pretend to slay a dragon for publicity which proves that PR is never predictable.
PR professionals have had to adapt rapidly to the changing PR landscape, marrying traditional media with social media and really utilising an array of platforms in order to achieve coverage. However, I feel that as long as you put yourself in the correct creative and professional circles, you can achieve a successful output, giving clients a real ROI.
I’m happy to be working in a job which is pretty dam relentless but a role where I can use my creativity and communication skills.
Ok, I admit it, maybe it was a bit unhealthy to be checking my facebook and email so much but I really miss my iphone! I have recently changed jobs and a new shiny iphone was part of my package as it really aids PR Managers, now I have had to return it and I feel like I have lost a limb.
I never thought I’d be one of those people who had a compulsion to download the most talked about app or be in a position where I would be updating my Linkedin, twitter and facebook, whilst checking in somewhere on foursquare!!!
Though this may seem quite normal to iphone users and strange to those who don’t own one, I feel I do need to explain what a difference it does make to your daily life.
Email: In the PR industry it is extremely important to deal with things in real time, a piece of news could be so advantageous to a client and so being able to look at news updates when you are away from your laptop can also allow you to forward it onto a client with a summary on how to respond in order to gain coverage.
Tweetdeck: I miss out on soooooo much now I don’t have my iphone, when appropriate, I am used to tweeting throughout the day and also checking on my boyfriend’s twitter account for his band. I can only do this on my laptop now and lets face it, there’s just not enough hours in the day to log in and check on everything but with an iphone you can check on all the latest at the swipe of a button and also be informed when people tweet you.
SkySports: The weekend’s aren’t the same any more, if I’m at my snowboarding lesson or out visiting friends, I can’t sneakily check my phone for the latest scores. On my standard Nokia it takes forever to scroll down to the sports pages and it just leaves you feeling frustrated.
Am I just being really impatient and is this what our world has come to where everyone expects things in the here and now, or has the iphone created a fantastic way of making life easier for people? To be honest, I don’t really care, it’s more of a habit for me, I’m used to having things literally at my fingertips.In everyday life, I am now faced with getting lost and having to find my own way, rather than using the maps app and waiting to get to a cash machine to find out my balance, rather than knowing in an instant whether I can afford those shoes!
Bye bye iphone, I hope our paths will cross once more.
I’m not really frightened of ghosts and I don’t really believe in them. I’ve watched Paranormal activity and other associated films and it all seems a bit too far fetched to me. However, I do actually think there can be a ‘presence’ and a recent rip up to The Lakes,
in a tiny cottage in the middle of nowhere affirmed that there could be a ghost-like presence.
In a stone cottage up in the hills in Cumbria, you are most likely going to hear things that go bump in the night so when I heard knocking noises etc, I thought nothing of it really.
It was only when I took a photo of my other half, that I saw something odd. It was almost like he had no arms and there was a shadow walking past him (plus he looks quite harrowing and my he normally is quite good looking ha ha)
I figured this was due to not using the flash correctly and the possibly of movement in my hands so I put the camera down, set it to timer, put the flash on in order to take one of the two of us and as you will see the second picture also shows shadows.
It’s very odd and I did get shivers, the rest of the photos, in the same light came out just fine, other than in that one spot!! Glad it wasn’t Halloween …. Ooooooooooo!!!!
Emma Marie Booth - My World 