public relations

social media, the CIPR way

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Before leaving for maternity leave last year, I was invited to be part of the CIPR’s social media panel along with:

  • Daljit Bhurji ACIPR – Managing Director, Diffusion (@Daljit_Bhurji)
  • Mark Borkowski – Managing Director, Borkowski (@MarkBorkowski)
  • Rob Brown FCIPR – Managing Director, Staniforth (@robbrown)
  • Stuart Bruce MCIPR – Managing Director, Wolfstar (@stuartbruce)
  • Dominic Burch – Head of Corporate Communications, ASDA (@dom_asdaPR)
  • Simon Collister – Head of Non-Profit and Public Sector, We Are Social (@simoncollister)
  • Gemma Griffiths – Client Director, Racepoint (@GemGriff)
  • Katy Howell – Managing Director, Immediate Future (@katyhowell)
  • Marshall Manson – Director of Digital Strategy, Edelman (@marshallmanson)
  • Danny Rogers – Editor, PR Week (@dannyrogers2001)
  • Julio Romo MCIPR – PR and Communications Consultant, twofourseven (@twofourseven)
  • Philip Sheldrake – Partner, Influence Crowd LLP (@sheldrake)
  • Stephen Waddington MCIPR – Managing Director, Speed Communications (@wadds)
  • Robin Wilson – Director Digital PR & Social Media, McCann Erickson (@robin1966)

The panel aims to work across the CIPR to identify new opportunities, including social media measurement, publishing best practice social media guidelines, informal workshops to engage CIPR members with experts, and a series of interviews with some of the world’s leading social media thinkers and practitioners. Lots has happened in 2010 and lots more is planned for 2011.

I attended my first meeting last week and some things to look out for in the short term are:

CIPRtv – the monthly TV channel from the CIPR covering topics such as Big Society, digital democracy and providing a chance to see some of the industry’s leaders in the spotlight.

Social media guidelines for practitioners, currently on the wiki and due to be released in updated form early April.

The CIPR’s April conference on Social Media – information coming soon here

We’re currently formalising our plan and outputs for the coming 12 months and I’ll publish it here as well as on the wiki when it is ready. In the meantime, keep up to date by following the CIPR’s twitter feed and wiki or dropping any of us a line.

bit quiet of late….

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

As you may or may not know, I’ve been off on maternity leave for the last twelve months giving birth to and looking after a gorgeous girlie called Zahra. The year has flown and last week, I found myself back in the whirlwind world of PR and neck deep in stuff I had promised myself I’d read, apps I’d promised to check out, new social media sites to look at, a new mac to set up and use (having not done so previously) and work to fit in around this…joking Nick 🙂

I meant to write this last week but hey, I’ve been busy.

Leaving the girls again after a year at home is tough, I can’t deny that, but I am enjoying being part of the working world and a bit of adult company does wonders for the soul.

So expect more from me over coming weeks as I find my feet and catch up a bit. If anyone fancies helping me out with the top 3 things I missed in 2010, I’d be much obliged (smiling at you nicely Wadds, Stephen, Chris, Ged, David, Paul and Jed)

30 things no PR person EVER wants to hear….

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

  1. Journalist 15 minutes late for client briefing: “Hello” when phoning at home/in the office
  2. Voicemail alert: “Beep beep, beep beep” when getting off the tube 5 minutes before a media briefing is about to start….
  3. Client: So, we have to cut budget this year and we thought we would look at ways to reduce European content and re-use Global press releases and articles….
  4. Client: We know he needs media training, but we really can’t tell him…can you use him anyway?
  5. European partner/office: That is not going to work in <insert Western European country name> and if we have to do it that way, we will need MUUUUUUUCH more budget than that (or in fact than anyone else in the Western Hemisphere has ever charged)
  6. Junior team member: I couldn’t get hold of anyone, they were all on voicemail
  7. Journalist:  The supplement this month was smaller than we planned, so your client’s piece should be appearing online instead.
  8. Designer: On that budget, you can have it good, fast, cheap.  Now choose two.
  9. Prospect: Let’s make a video at our sales conference and put it on YouTube to make it go viral
  10. Actually just the word viral in a brief
  11. Sales person My editor passed your email along to me…have you thought about advertising in X
  12. 12. Client: our VP of sales is in the UK next month. There is no news but can you get the FT and some broadcast stuff lined up?
  13. 13. Client: thanks for lining up that day of meetings – unfortunately the VP isn’t able to make it now.
  14. Client (unprompted) to journalist – It’s been an interesting year. We’ve lost a lot of business and had to let a lot of people go.
  15. Client CEO: I want to have a blog / Twitter account and I want you lot to write it
  16. Prospect: The SEO agency does my PR, they send out the releases online
  17. Client: Can you go on Amazon | x forum and write some positive reviews?
  18. Message from reception: Watchdog wants to have your client on a panel
  19. Prospect: I don’t have any time, money or resources. What can I do with social media?
  20. Client: why weren’t we allowed to approve the piece before it appeared?
  21. Client: because of my budget cuts I’d like you to pay for expensive items such as my hotels etc – just temporarily – and I’ll raise a PO next quarter – is that okay?
  22. Journalist: your VP isn’t senior enough – I only want to speak to your client’s CEO
  23. Journalist: sounds interesting.  Send me an email about it and I’ll take a look
  24. Journalist to client on briefing call: Sorry, what’s this call about?
  25. The silence that fills the room like a gothic marshmallow after asking the prospect what is the desired ‘call to action’ out of a prospective online campaign
  26. Client Do you know where I can get a massage with all the trimmings and would it be possible for you to pay for it and charge it back to us on expenses?
  27. Boss: I don’t see the point of twitter.
  28. Client: I’ll be bringing somebody from procurement to the next meeting
  29. Prospect to pitch team: I know we said this was just a one stage non-competitive process, but would you mind pitching for a 4th time against a handful of other agencies?
  30. Prospect to pitch team: Can you include a detailed explanation of the current UK and EU regulatory situation with your initial proposal?

Wade in PR folks…any more faves?

(Thanks to the team at Ruder Finn for crowdpitching in with some of these)

now there’s no excuse not to scan the headlines

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

As I get older, luxuriating over the weekend papers is becoming a fading memory as children, chores and family stuff increasingly demand more time.  That said, a lack of always being hungover on a weekend morning certainly helps redress the balance somewhat!

I came across this link on Twitter this morning (which is increasingly becoming my catch all newspaper anyway – see post) from The Guardian…it is a handy link to all the Sunday headlines on one page.  Great for a quick flick through and to save relevant / interesting stuff to Delicious to read/properly digest later.

Off to have a nosey at what the other papers offer by way of a digest….