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August 6th, 2010 by Wadds

Getting ahead and getting hired in social media and digital PR

I ran a workshop last tonight as part of the CIPR Summer Social series on building your personal reputation online. It’s never been easier to manage your personal reputation by building networks and publishing your work.

Here’s the deck.

It kicks with an audit of your online reputation or web footprint and then describes how to create profiles on LinkedIn and Twitter, build networks and publish content. It includes case studies from people that have used social media to build their personal profile and secure jobs and concludes with a discussion about dealing with less favourable content.

I’ve pulled examples and case studies from around the social web and am grateful (pause for breath) to Ben Cotton, Carolyn Mendelsohn, Jed Hallam, Josh Halliday, Laura Tosney, Matt Watson, Mike Litman, Neville Hobson, Phil Sheldrake, Shel Holtz and Stephen Davies.

I’ll follow with a blog post next week with personal recommendations from some of this gang about how they’ve used social media to build their personal reputation.

If you’re interested in exploring this topic further I recommend you check out Antony Mayfield’s Me and My Web Shadow: How to Manage Your Reputation Online.

Steve’s up next week at the CIPR Summer Social series on word of mouth.

August 4th, 2010 by Wadds

Escherman and Realwire on online PR reach versus engagement

Escherman’s Andrew Smith and Realwire’s Adam Parker have scrutinised the reach versus engagement for 50 online news sites ranging from Heat to The Economist.

“In the past, the notion of measuring engagement with editorial content was largely theoretical.  Circulation and readership figures were treated as proxies for engagement,” say Smith.

But for online PR, Google tools provide hard numbers. Parker and Smith define reach as the number of views that a page receives and engagement as the amount of time that a person spends on a page.

They find that visitors spend a widely varying amount of time on different news sites and predict how many words they are likely to have read per page.

“[…] as a general rule, specialist titles seem to have lower numbers of visitors and page views, but tend to have far higher engagement with content,” says Smith.

There is one exception. News sites such as Reuters that act as a syndication service have a high level of reach and engagement.

The lessons for online PR are clear.

  • Don’t chase sites with large circulation numbers as engagement is likely to be low
  • Plan your campaigns and target content at sites where your audience is engaged
  • The higher up a story you get your content the more likely it is to be read
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August 26th, 2009 by Wadds

RealWire animation: conversations and community key to online PR

Here’s another neat animation from my pals at RealWire. In about the same amount of time it takes to boil the kettle and make a cup of tea it explains how creating conversations and communities is at the core of successful online PR. Have a look for yourself.

RealWire has made downloadable versions available that you can use offline.

June 18th, 2009 by Wadds

Econsultancy publishes online PR and social media trends report

Social media is growing up. Econsultancy’s latest Online PR and Social Media Trends briefing outlines how the marketing community is engaging his with new channel.

Celebrities may have popularised social media sites such as Twitter but marketing folk have been quick to follow.

The report cites instances of how social media is being applied for qualitative research, track conversation around a brand, develop brand, drive sales, build relationships with journalists and manage customer relationships.

Econsultancy’s documents are always succinct but packed with insight. This report, like others before it, is a must read for anyone in a PR or marketing role.

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May 5th, 2009 by Wadds

Speed launches digital communication training packages

We’re announcing three digital products today aimed at clients that are scratching their heads over the complexities, risks, value and pace of change of digital PR tools.

Not rocket science granted, and if you read my blog regularly you’ll know that we’ve been doing much of it for clients for a couple of years. But if packaging it makes it more accessible for clients and prospects then that has to be a good thing.

Now for the press release.

Speed launches Digital Personal Assistant (PA), Digital Dashboard and Digital Workshop

Speed today announced a Digital Personal Assistant (PA) service for clients scratching their heads over the complexities, risks, value and pace of change of digital PR tools.

The Digital PA service aims to educate individual clients about every corner of digital PR and deliver ongoing support so that they remain at the forefront of emerging tools and techniques. The Digital PA service consists of the following components:

  • A consultant from Speed will configure a personalised dashboard of social media tools called the Digital Dashboard, enabling the individual to quickly gain exposure and experience of social media
  • Bespoke accounts on a list of chosen social media platforms will be set up for ongoing use, with training and content consultancy provided
  • A half day personal training session will be led by the Digital PA, with the Speed consultant acting as a mentor thereafter

The agency today also launched a Digital PR Workshop service, centred on a one-day course for senior management and marketing executives explaining the commercial risks and opportunities associated with digital media. The full-day workshop covers how the media landscape is changing and the rise of social media.

The Digital PR Workshop covers a communication theory and practice, digital network approach and how engagement can be planned, implemented and measured. Speed consultants can also undertake digital communication risk assessments in advance of sessions, probing all of a client’s current digital activity, and reviewing current activities and policies.

Speed, which launched in March, has amassed an enormous wealth of digital PR experience. Two of its founding agencies, Mantra and Rainier PR, won industry awards for digital PR and Rainier was named Best Business Blog by Communications in Business in 2007. Speed is the only UK PR firm to have its entire staff roster accessible via its web site, with Twitter feeds for all and extensive blog content.

“Practically every client realises the opportunities of emerging digital PR techniques but equally most want to better understand the commercial risks, best practice and where on earth to start,” said Stephen Waddington, managing director of Speed.

“We’re tackling this by developing comprehensive services that cover every corner of the digital domain. Digital is still experimental and no-one has got it all right. Yet too many agencies have confused clients by blustering about their capabilities or pecking around the edges rather than showing them the full picture. Speed is bringing a grown-up approach built on five years of digital PR expertise,” he said.

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About Speed Communications
Speed is a UK multi-sector PR consultancy that delivers assured impact for its clients in a changing media landscape. Its work enables clients to influence and control brand awareness, reputation and purchasing decisions in areas where they have few guarantees over outcomes.

Speed specialises in the consumer, technology, business and corporate sectors and was launched in March 2009 by bringing together the teams of BMA Communications, Custard PR, Lighthouse PR, Mantra PR and Rainier PR. The consultancy has a combined fee income of around £5 million, with clients including The Economist, ntl:Telewest Business (part of Virgin Media), Tesco, Toshiba and Wickes. For further information please see: www.speedcommunications.com.

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