New business starts and inparticular franchises are at an all time high according to Jonathan Guthrie writing in the FT last week, swelled by people seeking an alternative way of generating an income post redundancy.
Warwick Business School has identified a new category of entrepreneur, coined the necessity entrepreneur, who set up a business “because they have very few other economic options”.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=0f8acd63-054b-46ca-8d56-2b446b0c0361)
If you’re interested in exploring business models for the future of media head to the North East of England.
That’s the call of Rick Waghorn who has written an excellent summary of the numerous projects in the region that are exploring aspects of content creation, delivery and financial models.
“If anyone wants to know where the future of the UK’s new media landscape will be forged and decided, it’ll be in the North-East of England. […] Whether by accident or design [it is a] very interesting place to be now media-wise,” says Waghorn.
Hyper local network
Trinity Mirror has created the Your Place network of 22 hyperlocal blogs fed by local bloggers and journalists the length and breadth of Northumberland. I’m an occasional contributor to my local site in the Rothbury area
Meanwhile Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday), an ambitious journalism student at the University of Sunderland, has launched SR2, a stylishly produced site dedicated to reporting about the SR2 postcode area of Sunderland. He is aiming to go ad funded to cover costs
Ad model
Trinity Mirror has recently opened up its Your Place project to an ad network called Addiply. It enables businesses to set up an ad campaign for a specific geographical audience for £5 per week.
Pay walls
The Northumberland Gazette is one of six weekly regionals in the Johnston Press stable that will disappear behind a paywall in a trial that starts on Monday. Will readers sign-up and pay online? I doubt it, but it will be interesting to watch.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=da27cc93-e147-4db6-b9ef-7a620ab8738c)
In the last 10 days I have had three different conversations with businesses that are using the social networks to gather commercial intelligence.
The very act of socialising an organisation means individuals share their motivations and information that can be tracked and used by third parties to competitive advantage. Be warned.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f2f1fad0-7705-49a4-884c-cfc97d4e34cc)
Last week the FT reported on the challenge that ad agencies and PR firms face in recalibrating their businesses around digital. Mark Hanson spotlights the issue on his Livejournal:
[Clients] are buying outcomes. Outcomes that need to embrace a selection of skills but agencies are still trying to grab budget within the confines of their existing structures.
Brian Sollis covered similar ground when he posed a similar question to readers of his blog last week asking who owns social media?
The answer is clear, your customers and influencers own [and] define it. And, without guidance or participation, they steer the impression and perception of your brand. Social CRM is much more than engagement strategies and tactics however, it requires a completely revamped infrastructure to support effective socialized relationships management through technology and resources.
Last night I spent the evening in the company of a CEO of a management consultancy. He was excited about the prospect of using social strategies in business planning and the development of strategy.
Today Dachis acquired Headshift. Drew Benvie explained the importance of the deal in a blog post this morning:
Dachis is headed by former CEO and founder of Razorfish. It is […] using a $50m pot of money from Austin Ventures to acquire companies that fulfill on its promise “to unlock the value of social technologies for large corporate enterprises.” […]
Business consulting with a deep knowledge of social media […] is in high demand and I hope the new Dachis Headshift partnership will continue to prosper in this sector.
A new business category has evolved.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5a7a7f03-f3e7-4635-93d4-7f0bb6f527e1)
Here’s a neat Twitter client application we discovered this afternoon that allows multiple people to share a corporate Twitter feed. It’s called CoTweet.
Users register to share an account.
When they Tweet using the CoTweet client it inserts a circumflex accent after each Tweet with their initials so that you can spot the author of each Tweet.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6b5cc3c1-bc1e-4cb7-a609-3bec5d37dbd3)
Twitter has introduced a verified account feature. The beta-feature has been introduced for anyone that has experienced identity issues and will see a badge added to the Twitter page of accounts that have been verified.
“We’re starting with well-known accounts that have had problems with impersonation or identity confusion. (For example, well-known artists, athletes, actors, public officials, and public agencies).”
If you fall into this category complete this form on the site.
Twitter could use registration as a mechanism to drive revenue. Users would be will to pay a few dollars to verify their account. But the feature is free and limited to individuals and public organisations.
“We may verify more accounts in the future, but because of the cost and time required, we’re only testing this feature with a small set of folks for the time being. As the test progresses we may be able to expand this test to more accounts over the next several months.”
While there is no plan to open up account verification for business it’s clearly something that it is considering as it has asked businesses to register their interest.
“We’re not testing this feature now with businesses. However, if you’re interested in verification for your business, fill out this feedback form and let us know.”
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a999337a-00fd-464d-afb7-b6553e8e9e82)
We’ve been just completed a piece of planning work for a prospect and spotted the issue that Econsultancy calls social media succession planning in its Online PR and Social Media Trends briefing.
It’s an issue for any organisation where an individual is the face of the company in social networks. The risk to the business is the individual building up relationships with customers and then choosing to leave the organisation.
In the sector that we’ve been researching brands are represented on Twitter either by a corporate account or an individual, or in a few instances both.
Econsultancy recommends that a branded Twitter account combined with individual Twitter representatives is best way to mitigate risk.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=723b1bf4-4a6d-4153-af1b-211a4c65870e)
I caught up with Branded’s Giles Thomas last week for a Q&A for Speed’s fortnightly newsletter. I asked him about the relationship between PR and marketing disciplines. Branded, like Speed, is part of the fast-growing agency group, Loewy.
Who is Branded?
Branded is a brand strategy consultancy run by ex-Marketing Directors and senior agency specialists. It is run by people with real depth of experience offering real advice. We are specialists in helping organisations create or revitalise brands by developing robust, media-neutral branding and communications strategies.
Why is there a chasm between PR and marketing?
Where marketing is the dominant discipline the combined function is often overseen by a marketing professional. This means that marketing culture often prevails, and PR considered less important than it should be.
The lack of control over implementation (exactly what appears and when) can lead marketers to feel uncomfortable. Marketing is increasingly accountable, yet PR metrics are traditionally difficult to align to business strategy.
How does PR fit within the marketing mix?
PR should be close to the very centre of the marketing mix for reasons which good Marketing Directors recognise. The choice of PR channels and tone of voice should be directly influenced by the brand’s promise/story. This ‘story’ should be a persuasive source of competitive advantage that is easily delivered via these PR channels.
How can PR better engage with marketing?
Our experience suggests that PR teams are often fertile ideas generators, but too often these ideas lack a strategy. PR teams need to get involved earlier in the brand development process – they should be at the table to advise the marketers on how the brand should be crafted in order to gain maximum editorial interest – including the key brand messages and language the brand should use to maximise potential interest amongst users/audiences.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=60f353e4-7cf7-4636-a5ef-1a2e8ca63901)
Behind the Spin has published an article that I’ve written about starting a PR business. It sets out the opportunity for digital techniques and formal communication methods to be applied to the PR industry – and to this end spotlights the work we’ve done in this area at Speed. Thanks to RealWire’s Adam Parker, Escherman’s Andrew Smith, and Diffusion’s Daljit Bhurji for providing candid contributions.
Update: Andy has updated this blog post about how to start a PR agency on a credit card.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=bcef6e52-3308-4f74-a573-1a4b85bc06e0)
As a weekly traveller on the East Coast mainline I’ve benefited from buying tickets online in advance over the last 12 months.
The best value fares are always available on the web rather than at a ticket office, often at a discount.
But a report published this morning on the UK rail industry by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee says that this situation promotes social exclusion and is unacceptable.
It’s a tricky issue. Moving a business model online so that it become self-service removes costs which can be passed on to the customer. But those without online access or the motivation to go online miss out.
This scenario is repeated in many other areas of life as front line services move online from banks and traditional Post Office services, through to local authoraties and utilities.
The Public Accounts Committee stops short of recommending a solution. Expect the issue to be picked up by a special interest group such as the Citizens Advice Bureau.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2bd90adf-8554-4a8c-b3ca-ff007b235607)
The MP’s expenses debate is a perennial issue. Instead of debating claims for pay-per-view porn, bath plugs or Brown’s proposed attendance allowance let’s hear the case for paying politicians a salary commensurate with their executive role so that ridiculous expenses claims can be eliminated.
Backbench MPs earn £60,000 a year which is less than a communications director or a director in the PR industry according to PR Week’s 2008 salary survey. But, it’s still a damn sight more than the average salary of £25,000 in the UK. Which I guess is why no politician of any party will ever tackle the issue.
You wonder what kind of educated person chooses to be a politician when it pays – financially and in terms of work life balance – to pursue a more conventional career. Should we be surprised that we end up with so many apparently dysfunctional individuals as politicians?
Paying politicians properly rather than a dubious cocktail of salary and expenses might even attract some new talent and raise standards. But, in politics, like most other areas of life, it seems that you get what you pay for.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=225f30b2-a2e9-4a28-8030-27ec2a7487c4)
The credit crunch has spawned a new genre of book publishing. Titles fall into two camps, either attempting to explain how the financial crisis happened, or equipping readers with information to navigate their way through the resulting turmoil.
How I Caused the Credit Crunch is a fictional story that traces seven years at the forefront of the credit markets and tells the story of how an Oxford graduate finds himself in command of vast sums of other people’s money.
Author Tetsuya Ishikawa turned to writing in May 2008 when he was made redundant from Morgan Stanley. During his career as a specialist credit banker he structured and sold credit products to investors globally.
Ishikawa uses human anecdotes to describe the rise and fall of the market without resorting to technical language. The stories of personal excess are incredible and are exceeded only by the appetite that corporate investors developed for credit products.
It’s a thought provoking page turner that will broaden your knowledge of the financial sector and leave you to draw your own conclusions as to who caused the credit crunch. That Ishikawa played his part there can be no doubt.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a9d13901-9e8c-4113-97cd-b542a540a669)
I’m late with commentary on Week 3’s Apprentice challenge (available on iPlayer) but I’m posting this for the sake of completeness.
Week 3 was the design task. The teams were mixed up and the challenge was to create an original piece of personal exercise equipment and flog it to retailers. Debra led Ignite which designed a version of a traditional exercise ball. James led Empire which developed a gym-in-a-box. Here’s what we learnt.
Delegation
James delegated the design of Empire’s product to Ben and had no input in the project until a prototype arrived from the product design company. Delegation is fine, but for a team leader to have no involvement in the key activity of the task is poor. Ignite won the task despite fiddling and meddling from team leader Debora. She’s a strong assertive leader who delegates tasks, but not authority or responsibility.
Team motivation
When James was given the opportunity in the boardroom he voiced reservations about the design claiming that he kept quiet during the task as he didn’t want to demotivate the team. There’s never a good time to share bad news and human nature is to focus on the positive, but good communication is key to motivation and a good leader would have been able to rally a team despite misgivings.
Demonstrating value
Majid was fired because he wasn’t visible enough. In a team task make sure you’ve got a clearly defined role, that you complete what’s expected of you and that you make sure your boss recognises your work. This is applies in almost all aspects of business and is an excellent lesson for anyone in a client service business.
Product design
Maybe it was harsh editing or maybe the teams really did fail to take full advantage of insights provided by retail stores and personal trainers. Both teams arrived at their chosen product routes by luck rather than rational judgment. Research must lie at the core of the design process. Its why Loewy’s product design gurus Seymour Powell have a team dedicated to ethnographic research.
Selling
Lorraine stepped right outside her comfort zone in a bid to sell and did an okay job once she ditched the script and told a story. Debra would almost certainly have had her in the boardroom had Ignite failed the task. Instead she should have been congratulated for her efforts. Selling is a tough skill to learn if it doesn’t come naturally.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=9d1d31d8-12c3-48dc-9995-6de29c0f58de)
