Lisa Harris Marketing

…with an obvious answer in 21st century educational settings, conveniently confirmed by Cristina Costa in her informative post earlier today about the challenges for learners that are inherent in today’s digital world. Cristina notes:

“It is important to bring people together for true collaboration, not just for representation in committees. It is by working closely together that we will be able to understand people’s approach and transform ours.”

What prompted me to write this was an email exchange that I observed the other day, and which has been winding me up every time I recall it. Someone was complaining that the new departmental shared printing facilities meant that other people might “steal his ideas”. Are there really any ideas that would not be enhanced from sharing, feedback and discussion? Surely you “get back” far more than you “give away”? And just think how easy it is now to achieve this position with modern communication tools. So why are some people still so resistant to sharing? Answers on a blog post please… 

thebluedoor has recently won the 2010 Best Business Award for Best Small to Medium Size Business. The judges recognised its commitment to staff development and high-quality service. Full feedback can be found at http://www.bestbusinessawards.co.uk/feedback.asp

thebluedoor is looking for a high calibre graduate as an Account Executive to support the members of the account management team in the delivery of PR (on- and offline), as well as marketing for clients.

Key Tasks:

• Act as a liaison point with all suppliers to thebluedoor in connection with delivery of communications consultancy and products including internal suppliers of communications resource

• Support and strengthen the relationship between thebluedoor and its clients through professional, creative and timely delivery of communications needs – within agreed budgets and agreed schedules.

• Support existing relationships with clients; from the initial brief to delivery of projects coming through known and new contacts.

• Monitor costs for each project, within allocated budgets over each communications project, in liaison with the account management team.

• Support and strengthen the relationship between thebluedoor and its media contacts through professional, creative and timely delivery of their communications needs – within agreed schedules.

• Be an ambassador for thebluedoor at all times, adhering to smart business attire, delivering excellent counsel, high quality and creative work, and taking a proactive approach to all activities

• Demonstrate ongoing commitment to stay abreast of ongoing PR and digital developments.

• Demonstrate ongoing commitment to stay abreast of industry news relevant to thebluedoor’s customers (new and prospective).

• Support the account management team in the management of client relationships to include:

• Attending regular meetings with clients as needed
• Maintaining and updating reports for clients (status and meeting reports)
• Keeping management team updated on workload and priorities
• Timely and accurate delivery of work
• Supporting account management team through adherence to administrative and reporting practices

Key Accountability:

• Support the account management team in creating and managing effective and timely communications solutions.

Please send your CV to aharrison@thebluedoor.com if you wish to apply.

thebluedoor is the sponsor of Digital Surrey, a community for like-minded people wanting to stay up to date with the ever changing digital landscape and meet up, network, learn and share. For more information or to register as a member please visit www.digitalsurrey.co.uk

I’m on the way back from an inspiring morning participating in Headstream’s Social Brands 100 Panel (#sb100) at the lovely Charlotte Street Hotel (highly recommended if you are running an event in the area). You can see photos from the event HERE

Some of the key takeaways for me were:

For brands that are of sub-standard quality or that are supported by poor customer services, the social media world can be a very scary place. The temptation may be to ignore social channels rather than address the underlying problems that are driving the complaints in the first place.

The value of good communication skills – for example in pro-actively apologising for errors or converting a complaining customer into a supporter, all showcased in a channel where the entire conversation is visible to others.

It is easier for new ventures starting from scratch to set themselves up for effective social media engagement than it is to try and change the culture and structure of an established business.

Don’t forget traditional communication channels – not all your customers may be on Facebook, or even online at all, hard though that might be to believe J

A brand can be “social” without participating in “social channels”….think Apple and, er, Apple.

Some sectors such as pharmaceuticals and financial services will always struggle to participate in social channels due to regulatory constraints.

Beware “Socialwashing” (as in Greenwashing) – meaning social interaction that is not authentic but simply a facade or Potemkin Village

Is it fair to give some customers special treatment because they are personally influential and shout loudly and visibly? (Or was it always thus?)

Oh, and by the way, the top 5 Social Brands from the Headstream study are Dell, Nike, Starbucks, Giffgaff and BestBuy J

I attended a great event this morning at The Ivy for Reading Room’s Digital Conversations No-nonsense Social Media breakfast. There’s lots of insightful comment on Twitter – search for #rrdc

The first presentation was by Kevin Hoy, Head of Web Strategy at Greater Manchester police. Kevin explained the thinking behind #gmp24 – a 24 hour tweeting experiment by Greater Manchester Police in which all 3000 telephone calls reporting incidents that were received in that period were tweeted. The intention was to increase online engagement and build trust and understanding between the public and the police. #gmp24 acquired 17000 followers over the course of the day, and the experiment received worldwide coverage on mainstream media. Bravely (remember Skittles?!) the live twitter feed was imported into their website homepage.

Despite a few ‘operating difficulties’ (including the continued reliance on IE6!) the tweeting experiment has had a positive impact both internally and externally, and two community policemen are now incorporating tweeting into their neighbourhood communications. Awareness has also been raised amongst the public of the sheer diversity of issues the police have to deal with. A number of “spoof tweets” actually turned out to be beneficial once the decision was taken to deal with them in a humorous rather than high-handed manner. Support from senior management was also critical in getting the project off the ground.

The second speaker was Charlie Beckett, Director of the Polis “think tank” at London School of Economics, who examined the social media impact of the British General Election 2010. Clearly is was NOT an “Internet election” – Charlie showed how the TV debates had dominated the campaign, and brought Nick Clegg to public attention for the first time. The newspapers’ response to Clegg’s TV success was to drag up and twist an old story about Nazism to try and smear him. In turn this inspired the #nickcleggsfault meme on Twitter where everything from erupting volcanos to the shooting of JR Ewing was blamed on Clegg. I liked Charlie’s comment that ‘legacy media is the polite phrase for dying media’. He suggested that the modern role of journalism was to add value through ‘curating participation’ rather than breaking news. Despite the example set by Obama, the memorable aspects of social media in the UK election were generated by the public rather than the political parties themselves.

The third speaker was Ann-Mari Freebairn, Head of Communications at the RAF Benevolent Fund which provides support to service personnel and their families. The charity has a number of marketing challenges, namely very low brand awareness, a “stuffy” and old fashioned image, and 70% of their supporters are over 70. Social media was seen as a way to engage with a younger audience. Their campaign 1940chronicle used real stories from the Battle of Britain and wove in fictitious supporting characters. The characters posted on a blog each week to describe what was happening to them, each had a twitter account and there was a masterfeed bringing together the tweets of all the characters. Tweets were pre-scheduled to keep the stories going around the clock. The key challenge was to get the message across about the work of the charity without preaching. Online donations and traffic to the main website doubled, and there was also coverage in the mainstream newspapers and marketing press.

In summary, a very informative morning in a great location. It was also good to see so many Digital Marketing students making the trip up from Southampton

Next week I’m presenting a paper at a Workshop based the University of Chester that Paul Harrigan and I wrote over the summer. The intention of the event is for the editors to choose appropriate papers for publication in a forthcoming Special Edition of the Journal of Marketing Management. 

The slides are below – wish me luck

This week I’ve been busy learning about developments in social media metrics and putting together this new session for my undergrad students today:

Feedback welcome