Podcasts about why pr

Public relations, or PR, is a helpful tool that founders can use as a force multiplier to build credibility and increase their reach.In this podcast episode, Tania speaks with a public relations expert, Jonathon Narvey, about his entrepreneurial journey and how to grow your business faster through PR strategies, whether you have the budget to hire a PR firm or want to find DIY inspiration.Jonathon Narvey is the Founder & CEO of Mind Meld PR Inc. Mind Meld PR is a Public Relations Agency in Vancouver, B.C., serving clients in the USA and Canada. They work with innovative startups and scale-ups in SaaS, AI, EdTech, HealthTech, CleanTech, FinTech and more.As a reporter covering the tech scene, he learned the craft of storytelling. Now in PR, Jonathon and his team use those skills to earn media coverage for innovative tech companies."Public relations is a subset of marketing that is a force multiplier for your overall marketing. So actually PR is not, absolutely not, the first thing that your company would invest in ... Once you've got some traction, you got some money ... now you can throw money at PR and this is going to be the force multiplier. It's the pouring gas on the fire that you've already lit and helping you scale up quicker." - Jonathon NarveyWe discuss in this episode with Jonathon:Why Jonathon believes there are two reasons why people become entrepreneurs and why he chose entrepreneurship. (4:31) How Jonathon started his entrepreneurial journey by relying on key relationships and people in his life. (6:28)How a touch technique from Star Trek became a metaphor for Jonathon's business. (8:36)Why it's important to go after a niche and how Jonathon found his for Mind Meld PR. (10:29)What public relations involve. (12:25)The business benefits of PR. (14:24)The difference between marketing, advertising and PR. (15:03)How social media fits into a PR strategy. (16:46)How to choose stories about your business if you want DIY PR. (18:26)Jonathan's advice on what you can do right now to make your business stand out. (21:11)Why PR remains an effective strategy despite a growing trend to mistrust the media. (24:53)How a shift from the big players in the media to alternative media opens up more opportunities for founders. (27:12)What Jonathon predicts for the future of PR post-pandemic. (28:07)Jonathan's tips on having conversations and managing expectations with clients. (30:34)The communication habits Jonathon and his team use to connect, plan and improve. (33:11)What Jonathon has observed after years of interviewing successful tech entrepreneurs. (35:13)How to connect with Jonathon. (36:51)Full show notes, the transcript, resources and how you can connect with Jonathon, can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com/39Enjoyed this episode? Heard something useful? Let us know!Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Public relations is one of the most commonly misinterpreted industries around, and while its value is undeniable among industry professionals, it is important to spread the word of its worth among business owners and entrepreneurs. In this episode of Two Minute Marketing Tips, Erika Taylor Montgomery, CEO of Three Girls Media shares four reasons your business needs public relations now! You will learn: Why PR is important for businesses of all sizes How PR can help you grow your business How to get started Want more Two Minute Marketing Tips? Get outstanding insight into boosting your social media presence by listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or SoundCloud: How Much Should You Spend On Marketing & PR: Listen on SoundCloud, Spotify or Apple Podcasts Press Strategy — 10 Media Pitching Mistakes And Their Simple Fixes: Listen on SoundCloud, Spotify or Apple Podcasts 8 Valuable Tools For Public Relations: Listen on SoundCloud, Spotify or Apple Podcasts To hear more Two Minute Marketing Tips see my SoundCloud, Spotify or Apple Podcasts channels. Thanks for listening!

It's all about the power of your story this week as I chat with Chocolate PR founder Jo Swann. Jo is the founder of Chocolate PR, an award winning PR agency she established 15 years ago, after working in journalism, media, marketing and PR agencies. She built the business up organically from scratch, and has over the years worked with companies of all sizes including the likes of Whistles, NSPCC, learndirect, Marriot Hotels, Yo! Sushi, Dale Carnegie, Skipton Building Society to name just a few, winning many awards along the way. BUT - a niggling feeling was always lurking, and when you know her you know that that her passion for PR goes further than just ticking a few corporate boxes. What she lives for is helping small businesses, and particularly female entrepreneurs harness the power of PR, so they can tap into it as a cost effective, creative marketing medium. She believes PR is for all of us, not just the big boys and helps women who really don’t believe in themselves get empowered through coverage in the national press. Facing imposter syndrome head on Jo works with her clients to create confidence in their message, and to craft their story in a way that produces pride around their business and an excitement for future growth Jo and I have a shared passion and belief that we all have as story to tell. Subjects covered- Jo's career 20 year PR career Balancing work and home life What is PR? Why PR is a powerful tool? Everyone has a story to tell Learning to own your story Sharing your vulnerability and stepping out of your comfort zone Investing in yourself Stepping out of your comfort zone and keeping an open mind Exciting new opportunities If you'd like to know more about Chocolate PR , visit the website here. You can also follow them on social media Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and Linkedin Don't miss any of the inspiring Out of the Bubble women, you can go and subscribe at www.rachelperu.co.uk and come and say hello on Instagram! I'll be back next week but in the meantime ..... Keeping being fabulous Rachel x (Music credited to Scott Holmes- By Big Adventure) #outofthebubblepodcast #stepoutofthebubble #personaljournals #sharingstories #inspiringwomen #celebratingmidlife #womensupportingwomen --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/outofthebubble/message

Are you confident in your PR strategy? Do you know how to pitch your business well? Gloria Chou is joining me on the podcast to break down her simple 3-step method for getting PR for your business. Gloria is a diplomat-turned-PR coach helping small businesses 10x their visibility and influence without ads or agencies. From cold calling hundreds of newsrooms and hacking her own PR without any agency experience or industry contacts, Gloria developed the world's first PR pitching framework that's helped founders gain over 1 billion organic views across top-tier outlets in nearly every industry. On Today’s Show You’ll Learn:  Why getting eyes on your product is not enough Why PR isn’t out of reach for solopreneurs What your PR pitch needs to have The most important part of your pitch Examples of good pitches Who public relations won’t work for How to delegate the PR process Gloria’s 3-step process has proven to be incredibly effective, and she breaks it down to be easy for everyone to understand and use. If you want to learn how to increase your visibility and influence without ads or hiring a PR agency, this is the episode you are going to want to take notes on! If you want to have a bigger impact in your business but you're not exactly sure how to achieve that without working harder and longer, apply at www.rickmulready.com/accelerator! This will allow you to take the guesswork out of optimizing and accelerating the growth of your online business!   Links & Resources Mentioned in this Episode: www.gloriachoupr.com www.prstarterpack.com www.getfeaturednow.com www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou   Full show notes available at www.rickmulready.com/486 

On this week's podcast I'm chatting to Ondine Whittington, group managing director of Golin UK and Virgo Health.Ondine has worked for Virgo since 2006 and stayed with the firm when it was bought by Golin in 2014. She became the UK MD of Golin Virgo in March 2020.Golin employs about 70 people in London and Virgo about 60. Golin is well known for its consumer work but it also operates across the tech and healthcare verticals.Before we start, thanks so much as ever to the podcast sponsors, the PRCA.And if you haven't taken a look yet, all the categories for the PRmoment Awards 2021 are on the awards microsite PRmomentawards.com Ondine - welcome to the PRmoment podcast.01.30 mins How Ondine started at Virgo 2006 and now 15 years later she’s the MD of Golin and Virgo in the UK.03.30 mins How Ondine didn’t plan to leave Virgo but at the same time she never planned to stay.04.00 mins Do you think people tend to change jobs too often in PR?07.00 mins How has Ondine found moving from client facing roles to becoming the Golin UK MD?08.00 mins How it was finding herself “in the middle of a pandemic within two weeks of taking the role.”10.00 mins and 11.30 mins Why PR has had a good lockdown.11.00 mins How building trust with your teams is more difficult in a virtual environment.14.00 mins Why “the focus on internal teams and their welfare has never been so important” for agency CEOs. 16.00 mins “The role of the employer has changed (during lockdown.) There are days when you feel like a councillor”.17.00 mins In a virtual environment, as an agency leader, the time invested in keeping in touch with your team “could be a full time job right now.”18.00 mins Why Ondine decided she didn’t want to be a doctor anymore but wanted to work in PR!21.00 mins In hindsight Odine looks back at the Golin/Virgo merger.What worked and what didn’t?28.00 mins PR firms have relied on training by osmosis - and in a virtual environment that just doesn't work does it?29.00 mins Why trying to create an environment for better staff training and development in a virtual environment is “the top issue” of PR agency leaders at the moment.30.00 mins The great PR lockdown creativity challenge.33.00 mins Ondine talks about the “sinister underbelly of flexible working.”

Ashley Crouch is the founder of Appleseed Communications.   Ashley's writing appears in Entrepreneur.com, Forbes, The New York Times, and more. She has trained over 2000 people worldwide on visibility and publicity strategy.    She is an international speaker on leadership, publicity strategy, and entrepreneurship.    Ashley and her businesses have been featured in American Express OPEN, TODAY.com, Brit & Co, Huffington Post, and more. She was a Forbes Under 30 Nominee for 2017 in Social Entrepreneurship.    She is the author of the #1 International Bestselling Book, Unknown To Unforgettable: How To Stop Playing Small, Land National Media Attention, And Position Yourself As A Power Player   During the show we discuss:   ● How PR has radically changed post COVID in a way you must know about ● Pillars of building your personal brand ● Building a prestigious personal brand ● Leveling someone else's platform to grow your own brand ● Writing a book and get a TED talk to improve your personal brand ● Why PR is about way more than just branding  ● Importance of business image ● Benefits of landing media attention ● Reasons why media is key to the business's success ● Why entrepreneurs should focus on landing national media attention ● Common pitfalls that hold entrepreneurs back ● Things most publicists do wrong that cost clients time and money ● What does it take to land national media attention ● New principles of PR that get you in National Outlets ● How to develop a better storytelling skill ● Building powerful relationships with top brass media professionals ● Landing big publicity without a big-ticket agency ● What Rocket Reach is and how to use it to get in front of the right people    Show resources:   https://www.unknowntounforgettable.com/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PK5344G https://appleseedcommunications.co/

Today on the PRmoment Podcast I'm talking to Mark Inskip, CEO of Kantar UK’s Media Division about its research revealing the challenges to the comms industry in 2021.According to the research, there are three big challenges facing the sector today: The sheer volume of stakeholders comms professionals need to engage withThe challenge of measuring impact in a landscape of highly scrutinized budgetsThe increased automation of public relations.Here’s a summary of what Mark and I discuss:02.00 mins Why PR teams have become victims of their own success04.00 mins Why PR is in its teenage years!04.45 mins How the PR and comms teams that invest in their teams and resources will become the high performing ones05.20 mins Why PR people must ruthlessly decide their priorities09.00 mins Why PR and communications leaders will need to say “no” a bit more!12.00 mins Why too many marketers are prioritising the short term, to the detriment of the long term 14.00 mins The increasing emphasis of internal stakeholders for in-house communicators16.00 mins Why PR should be proud of the value it creates in building reputation21.00 mins How do you isolate impact in an integrated campaign?22.00 mins Why often good measurement is about finding “the proxy’s and a pragmatic solution.”25.00 mins Mark discusses the role of increased automation in public relations teams30.00 mins Mark talks about how Kantar is developing its AVE methodology.

On the PRmoment Podcast this week we’re talking to Tony Langham, co-founder and CEO of Lansons. Tony and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discuss the findings of a recent report Tony edited: How PR firms can recover fast from the pandemic.The report is a series of 250 word pieces of advice from (mostly) PR leaders from all around the world.1.00 min Tony tells us how the "‘How to Recover Fast from the Pandemic" report came about.3.00 mins Why the report is perfect toilet reading material!4.00 mins Tony summarises the report's findings. 4.30 mins Why a spirit of positivity in public relations is one of the great things coming out of the report.7.55 mins The report predicts that the leaders who invest in technology and their people will come out of the Covid-19 crisis most successfully.8.30 mins The impact of Covid-19 on the shape of PR firms. 8.45 mins Why corporate PR is back!9.00 mins The need for collaboration: Why the era of being the only agency of record for clients, especially for smaller independent firms, is probably over.12.00 mins Why the skills of communicators have become paramount for business.12.30 mins Why communications must be about deeds and words.13.00 mins Why Tony is sure PR, as a sector, will have performed better than the global economy during the crisis.13.30 mins Why PR became very important to certain organisations during the crisis.14.00 mins Covid-19 has demonstrated that good communications can save lives and bad communications can cost lives.15.00 mins How can public relations retain its improved profile and identity within organisations coming out of the pandemic?16.00 mins Has the pandemic changed the way Tony will lead Lansons?16.30 mins How working for the PRCA has improved Tony as a leader.18.00 mins Why remote working has actually made Tony more accessible to Lansons employees.20.00 mins How the Covid-19 crisis has demonstrated that change is possible quicker than we all previously thought!22.00 mins Why society is likely to go through a post Covid-19 bitterness stage next year.23.00 mins What does Tony want PR professionals to take from the report.24.00 mins How reading the report can increase the breadth of your PR horizons.

Alex Greenwood has worked in public relations for 27 years. A former journalist, radio host, and TV executive, Alex is a noted crisis communications and public relations expert. His first crisis communication situation was the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing. Since, Alex has advised clients in a variety of reputation management crises, including lawsuits, online incidents, and natural disasters.   He is the founder and managing principal of AGPR Public Relations & Marketing, located in Kansas City, Missouri. AGPR has managed PR and marketing strategy for clients in the entertainment, financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, higher education, nonprofit, and government sectors.   Alex is a speaker and trainer on numerous subjects including PR, marketing and publishing. Since 2017, Alex has been a regular contributor discussing social media on KCTV-5’s Better Kansas City Show.   Press Play for: Why PR is vital during the pandemic Quick tips to build brand awareness Pro Tip: you want a shot on TV, have videos on your website Most effective ways to accelerate your life   Connect with Alex on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.   Check out Alex’s podcasts: Mysterious Goings On podcast and the PR After Hours podcast Learn more at alexgpr.com   Connect with Rick @MrRickJordan on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn    Help others find the show! Subscribe and Review on iTunes Subscribe and Comment on CastBox Subscribe on Google Podcasts or Google Play Follow on Spotify Subscribe and Review on Stitcher   Rick’s company: ReachOut IT   Production Credits

Alex Greenwood has worked in public relations for 27 years. A former journalist, radio host, and TV executive, Alex is a noted crisis communications and public relations expert. His first crisis communication situation was the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing. Since, Alex has advised clients in a variety of reputation management crises, including lawsuits, online incidents, and natural disasters.   He is the founder and managing principal of AGPR Public Relations & Marketing, located in Kansas City, Missouri. AGPR has managed PR and marketing strategy for clients in the entertainment, financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, higher education, nonprofit, and government sectors.   Alex is a speaker and trainer on numerous subjects including PR, marketing and publishing. Since 2017, Alex has been a regular contributor discussing social media on KCTV-5’s Better Kansas City Show.   Press Play for: Why PR is vital during the pandemic Quick tips to build brand awareness Pro Tip: you want a shot on TV, have videos on your website Most effective ways to accelerate your life   Connect with Alex on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.   Check out Alex’s podcasts: Mysterious Goings On podcast and the PR After Hours podcast Learn more at alexgpr.com   Connect with Rick @MrRickJordan on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn    Help others find the show! Subscribe and Review on iTunes Subscribe and Comment on CastBox Subscribe on Google Podcasts or Google Play Follow on Spotify Subscribe and Review on Stitcher   Rick’s company: ReachOut IT   Production Credits

Joining me on this week's episode is Ron Culp, the director of the Public Relations and Advertising Masters Program at DePaul University. Ron discusses a number of important topics, including: 1) What to do when asked to make absurd and misleading claims 2) Why PR professions need the industry to have their back 3) Where companies make mistakes in countering disinformation internally 4) How to make your company attractive to potential employees

On the PRmoment Podcast this week we’re talking to Richard Rawlins, CEO and founder of Finn.Finn was founded in 2005, it has a turnover of approximately £3 million and 35 employees. It is based in Leeds and focuses exclusively on the FMCG sector.Here’s a flavour of what Richard and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:01.40 mins Why as a 21-year-old Richard enrolled in The British Army.04.10 mins Why Richard left the army.05.35 mins Is it surprising more ex-service personnel don’t work in PR?07.10 mins Why PR’s lack of visibility as a career option for people leaving the army, for graduates, for those leaving school is a big problem for the sector.08.45 mins Richard talks about Finn's “Next of Kin” scheme that goes out to local schools, academies and youth trusts to tell them about a career in public relations.10.30 mins Why originally Richard wanted to be an ad man.12 mins How Richard had become “a bit institutionalised” in the army and it took him a couple of years to adapt to a career in PR.13 mins How a spell at Cohn & Wolfe in 1995 defined his approach to PR.15 mins Why Richard believes the sector is too focussed “on being good at PR and not (being) good at client”16 mins “Good PR thinking is the foundation of great communications but too often it's restricted to the earned channel”.18 mins Why in the FMCG sector, the PR agency is now “very often the lead agency” says Richard.20 mins Why Richard sees Finn as an FMCG specialist agency, not a regional agency.23 mins How the virtual way of working has changed the game for agencies outside of London; they always struggled to recruit enough talent. Remote working means that is no longer an issue.25 mins In September 2005 Richard founded Finn. Why did he decide to set up his own business?30 mins “Why the sweet spot is the intersection between corporate and creative.”30 mins Finn is very much focused on FMCG brands. Why did Richard decide to retain such a specific sector focus?30 mins Why “generalism isn’t a strategy”.32 mins How Finn took a hit at the start of lockdown but has repaired since then.

Josh Constine is a Principal investor and Head Of Content at venture capital fund SignalFire. He invests in early stage startups across verticals with a focus on social apps, visual communication, remote work, entertainment & media, and tech's transformation of new sectors. In this episode, we talked about: Why PR is like fundraising How to trigger the curiosity of a journalist Understanding the objectives and risks of PR Identifying your "Superhero Origin Story"

This week on the PRmoment Podcast I’m talking to James Kelliher, chief executive officer at Whiteoaks International.Whiteoaks is a 40 person tech PR agency based in Hook, Hampshire. It has a fee income of approximately £4m.Here’s a flavour of what James and I discussed:1.30 mins How James has spent pretty much his whole career at Whiteoaks - he joined as an account exec and he’s now the CEO and majority shareholder.4.46 mins Did James ever get close to leaving Whiteoaks?7.00 mins How the buy out of Whiteoaks from the founders Bill Nichols and Jill Craig was a two stage process.12.05 mins Why PR firms can grow too quickly, controlled low double digit growth is James’ recommendation!14.05 mins James became the MD of Whiteoaks aged only 29. Did that create any challenges?15.45 mins Why Whiteoaks doesn’t believe retainers offer good value for clients.16.15 mins How Whiteoaks links its project fees to performance targets through a service level agreement - and sometimes refunds fees to clients!21.30 mins James says that If PR wants access to bigger budgets, “to have a seat at the top table it must be more accountable.”24.30 mins Does the payment by results model change the behavior of Whiteoaks as a business and the type of people it employees?26 mins What is it about Bracknell, Reading, Basingstoke - the Thames Valley Corridor that attracts so many tech businesses?28.20 mins Does James think Whitoaks would be a bigger business today if it was based in London?30 mins James talks us through how Whiteoaks’ international group of independent agencies works.34 mins James talks about how challenging the Covid period has been for Whiteoaks and its people. James predicts that the business will be down 15%-20% this year.Please note this interview was conducted before the UK Government’s announcement encouraging businesses to revert to working from home.

PR (Public Relations) is a topic we touched on a couple of episodes ago and we are going deeper into practical ways you can use publicity to get known in your market, be the person journalists call and build your authority as an expert. In this episode your hosts, Suzi Dafnis and Michelle Falzon chat with PR maven, Monica Rosenfeld, Managing Director of WordStorm PR, a boutique-sized PR agency she founded in 2000, about how you can tap into the curiosity of journalists so you get more exposure in the media! Listen to this episode to hear more about: What it means to have a “Media Mindset” Why journalists love business owners who take a proactive (vs passive) approach to the news The 3 pieces of research you MUST do on the media in your industry How to boost your credibility for months and even years AFTER your media appearances Why PR beats Social Media! The specific times it makes sense to do PR The BEST type of PR (not what you might expect!) Monica’s favourite “go-to” PR Strategy The #1 mistake PR “newbies” make and why you will NEVER get featured in the media if you make this error The “Top 5 Hook Angles” that will get a journalist’s attention The big tip you can take from Monica’s World Forest Day campaign How to make your business story “newsworthy” What to look for in a PR agent 5 ways to make the most of your media mentions And much more. SPECIAL OFFER for Content Sells Podcast Listeners! 1-hour Media Strategy Session With Monica Just $245 ex GST (normally $395 - SAVE 38%!) Go Here To Book Your Session Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness Success Mastermind Monica Rosenfeld Wordstorm PR Jamie Swanson Content Sells Episode 133 How To Use Photography To Advance Your Personal Brand

In digital marketing and martech we talk about all kinds of channels but PR is often overlooked. And that's a shame according to Aaron Mirck, founder of Presscloud.co, a platform that helps you in reaching the right journalists in your industry. During the interview we discuss loads of topics, some of them include: Why PR is important in your marketing mix How to create appealing PR pieces How to measure for success in PR LinkedIn Aaron Mirck: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-mirck Website Presscloud: https://presscloud.co/ If you want to be on this podcast or would like to know more about Marketing Technology, visit our website at marketingguys.com or contact Elias Crum at e.crum@marketingguys.nl

A strong Public Relations strategy can radically increase your exposure and authority by being seen in the media and alongside other go to experts and influencers in various platforms. This is often money-can’t-buy brand awareness for you and your business and when done strategically, can result in increased sales and opportunities for you as a thought leader. In this episode your hosts, Suzi Dafnis and Michelle Falzon share a special “from the vault” training delivered inside the HerBusiness Network from PR Expert Candice Meisels. This training gives you a first-pass overview of what PR is and how to use it to be seen as an expert and get picked up by the media. Listen to this episode to hear more about: The stories of two HerBusiness Members and Masterminders who are having awesome PR wins right now One of the most common misunderstandings about what PR is and is not Why PR can be so powerful for SMALL business owners (and why it’s not just for big corporations with large budgets) How PR fits into your business and your marketing strategy Where the “PR Power” in your business is likely “hiding” and how to find it How to position yourself as an expert to the media Why you need to shrug off Imposter Syndrome to be seen and heard using PR And much more. Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness Success Mastermind Candice Meisels PR Amanda Farmer - Your Strata Property Peta Gillian - Strong Healthy Women Content Sells Podcast EP133 - How To Use Photography to Advance Your Personal Brand With Jamie Swanson Dr Robyn Miller - The Mental Load Project

Public Relations often feels unattainable because we usually see it working for giant brands with an agency creating the most incredible spins on news. The secret to actually getting media and the right kind of explosive attention is all about the relationships and followup. Anyone can utilize PR for their business so I brought Courtney Love Gavin, a public relations strategist to help break down some of the myths that people have about PR and how to use it to grow their business. Courtney actually started her own public relations firm after using PR to grow her creative goods business. She was profitable within 30 days of launching by using the power of PR to get visible and left the corporate PR world for good. She discusses how to approach PR for your business and the importance of building organic relationships to help get your message out there. Courtney shares how to pitch yourself and why you need to filter your pitches depending on who you’re speaking to. We talk about how less is more in the world of PR, why you should have PR for your business and how to use PR in times of crisis.  We talk about: What Courtney does as a publicist How you can approach PR for your business Why you should build organic relationships How to pitch yourself and your business Why you should filter your message to who you’re pitching to Why PR is about less rather than more What the point of PR is for your business Why you should be putting yourself out there in a meaningful way How to use PR to manage crisis communications About Courtney: Courtney Love Gavin is a sophisticated public relations strategist and consultant for visionary entrepreneurs and brilliant leaders. Courtney Love teaches her clients how to use PR to arrest attention, inspire action and increase their credibility, drawing from her 16 years of experience leading PR for the world’s most admired brands and business leaders. Courtney Love is solar-powered and lives in Santa Monica, CA with her rescue dog Chandler Bing. When she’s not consulting or creating communications that convert, Courtney Love enjoys trips to the library and perfecting her right hook. Connect with Courtney: Website | Instagram | Facebook Links: My Pretty Playbook About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.    

Topics and key takeaways from this episode: Why PR is important for your business and personal brand right now The role of your personal brand in Public Relations and Networking  How to decide who you need to have in your network  How to remove any guilt or concern about networking to build profitable relationships  How to become visible and have influence without sounding like a use car salesman/woman.  How to approach pitching so you get the most out of your efforts  How to find the fortune in following up  How writing about a controversial topic helped Nina to go viral and grow her business Nina’s tips for staying grounded calm and effective as a leader in your business www.modernmogulhq.com/podcast www.instagram.com/modernmogulhq

A lot of us white-collar workers are poor when it comes to managing our health. Due to the nature of our job, which is sitting 9 to 5 staring at a computer screen, it’s no wonder a lot of us gain pounds and increase the digits on our waistlines.  And so not only are you stressed due to work, but you’re also overwhelmed by the fact that you’re gaining weight and becoming more unhealthy. How do we prioritize our mental and physical health so that we can grow and thrive more in our chosen career? In this episode of the Transform Your Workplace podcast, we are joined by Mark Mohammadpour, an accredited Senior Communications Executive, Certified health coach, and personal trainer and the owner of Chasing the Sun.  He will talk about how he transformed his life from being a busy, stressed PR person into someone who’s coaching and helping people incorporate fitness, health, and wellness into their lives so they can reduce their stress and thrive. Get inspired and start taking action on how to be more fit, healthy, and mentally well as mark shares how he lost and kept off 100+ pounds over the ten years. He brings up how his perspective on his PR job changed when he started his fitness and health journey. We also talk about how you can own your calendar, develop healthy habits, and what role an employer plays in all of this.   In this episode, you will learn about: How Mark started his transformation to drop his weight and become healthy Why PR is viewed as an extremely stressful profession Mark’s approach to health and wellness Controlling our eating to develop healthy habits How the decision we make impacts us in the long run Checking your ego and seeing who you inspire What Mark did to make his health transformation a success Empowerment of people The role of the employer concerning the workplace’s mental and physical health, and work-life balance Owning your calendar and set up your boundaries What did you think of this episode? Give us a 5-star rating and write a review on Apple Podcasts, or take our survey. Contact Brandon: Email Brandon.Laws@xeniumhr.com or connect on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com Follow Xenium on Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Connect with Mark LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Chasing the Sun - Health Coaching for Communicators, Marketers and    Resources mentioned in this episode: You can read Mark’s full transformation story here!

This week we’re changing tack again with the second of our mini series of podcasts looking at the use of data, technology and insight in communications.On the show is Petra Masinova, global director, reputation intelligence at Kantar.Petra has worked in senior in-house roles – so she understands what senior communicators want and need from their communications. She has also had big agency experience – having been CEO of McCann Worldwide in Prague.Petra has been the global CEO of Newton Media (a big European media measurement firm) before moving to the southern hemisphere’s biggest measurement player – iSentia as a global director.So she understands all aspects of PR’s data challenge – in-house, agency, national, international and technical.For those of you that don’t know WPP recently sold a 60% stake in Kantar to Bain Capital, the US private equity company in a deal expected to yield £2.47 billion to WPP and valuing Kantar at approximately $4bn.Here is a summary of what Petra and I discuss:[00:02:31] How the media monitoring and media measurement sector has changed in the last 10 years. [00:03:14] Why the head of comms or head of corporate communications role today is much more challenging than it used to be. [00:06:23] How the PR professionals are now looking for marketers’ budgets. [00:06:28] Why the broadening of PR’s remit is impacting the measurement KPIs.[00:08:40] How global and local companies are measuring their reputations.[00:10:33] Are companies spending more on data and insight more than they used to? [00:11:34] Why the most important thing for a data provider to deliver is relevancy and context.[00:13:01] How the next step for the measurement firms is to be able to deliver predictive intelligence.[00:14:27] Why consumers behaviour in social media is more predictable than that of journalists.[00:15:20] How the current generation of head of communications have different priorities than their predecessors. [00:16:03] Why data is no longer a support metric communicators – it's an illustration of whether or not people are good at their jobs.[00:16:50] A discussion about integrated measurement in businesses where there are normally multiple consumer touch points within the organisation.[00:21:32] What do comms people want from their measurement and insight partner? [00:22:27] How in-house comms teams are increasingly buying data consultancy services not from the PR agency.[00:24:40] Why the bigger companies are suddenly creating their own in-house data teams – and why this is a game changer. [00:25:31] Why, if you're an owner of data within a company, you're juggling imperfections because you've got different data sets.[00:28:11] Why PR agencies should not be trying to create their own measurement methodology.[00:31:16] Here's a link to AMECs Integrated Measurement Framework document and it's M3 resource which will help you understand where you are on your measurement journey relative to your competitive set.[00:37:17] What are the most popular KPIs in communications?[00:40:02] Post the Bain acquisition – what is Kantar's strategy?

This week, in the latest of our life stories podcasts, I’m interviewing Marshall Manson.Marshall has been London based for the last 11 years. He worked at Edelman London as its digital director from 2008 to 2013, then he joined Ogilvy, from 2013 to 2018, latterly as the last UK CEO of Ogilvy Public Relations. Marshall joined Brunswick as a partner in April last year. Brunswick employs 1,100 people globally and 250 people in the UK. It has a global fee income of circa £300m. [00:01:52] How different is the work Marshall is doing at Brunswick compared to the earlier parts of his career? [00:02:37] Why Alan Parker, Brunswick's founder, says it doesn't do "people, politics or products." [00:05:32] Marshall reflects on the differences between the PR market in China compared to the US and the UK, including the primacy of digital and the dominance of WeChat. [00:08:09] Why for much of the web and digital comms at the moment it's the East leading the West. [00:10:23] Why Marshall's first proper job was absolutely crucial in shaping the rest of his career. [00:12:59] Marshall talks us through the individual nature of political campaigning in the US. [00:15:27] Why Marshall moved to London 11 years ago in the back of a "drunken bar conversation." [00:17:31] How a period of digital innovation from 2008 to 2013 got Edelman head of the market. [00:21:24] Marshall talks about why Robert Phillips and his engagement model was ahead of its time. [00:23:13] Why the Edelman’s purchase of Marcus Dyer’s digital agency Spook was a key part of Edelman UK’s digital journey at the time. [00:25:50] How a PR team and a digital team work together. [00:29:11] Why Marshall moved to Ogilvy and why he loved it. [00:33:06] How to thrive in a big agency, you must be "not precious about anything, I'm just here to help". [00:34:11] Based on his time at Ogilvy, Marshall talks about the journey that is integrated marketing. [00:34:59] Why PR people shouldn't try to be good at everything. [00:35:24] Why PR people need to stop being defensive. [00:37:22] Why being the UK CEO of Ogilvy Public Relations was the most enjoyable time of Marshall's career – so far! [00:38:34] How PR’s role in the communications mix is to create content that people choose to consume and share. [00:42:36] How fewer clients now have separate budgets for PR, advertising, digital, etc – they want agencies to bring "us some good ideas and show us how you can make them and get them in the world. And then we'll figure out where the money is going to come from!" [00:43:24] Why the progress of PR to take market share from advertising and digital agencies has been slower than many had expected. [00:45:00] Why the short tenure of CMOs is leading to short-term focus marketing communications. [00:46:31] Why did Marshall leave his dream job at Ogilvy? [00:48:00] Why at Brunswick, Marshall enjoys advising at the business level, as opposed to the marketing or comms level.

Here's a special PRmoment podcast from the ICCO Global Summit in Lisbon featuring interviews with ICCO CEO Francis Ingham, global CEO of Hotwire Barbara Bates, and new president of ICCO and group CEO Avian WE in India Nitin Mantri.On the podcast we cover global public relations trends, whether PR has an ethics problem and focus on Nitin's plans for his two-year stint as ICCO president.Here's a flavour of what we discussed:Francis Ingham[00:00:32] What is ICCO?[00:00:39] Do we really need a trade body for PR trade bodies? [00:01:28] Whether we are now entering a period of a two-speed global PR market?[00:02:03] How PR people globally identify the same challenges: Talent, proofing the value of what they do and ethics.[00:02:29] Whether PR has a greater mental health problem than the rest of society?[00:03:37] Why over-servicing and poor evaluation are linked to mental health issues in PR. [00:04:20] Whether PR has an ethics problem.[00:07:15] The global gender pay gap in public relations.Barbara Bates[00:08:12] Why PR must protect and defend its big ideas.[00:08:37] How many people in the PR agency world see "themselves as servants rather than a service".[00:09:35] Barbara Bates discusses the central difference in how creativity is sold from an ad agency objective to a PR agency – and whether PR giving its ideas away for free, creates a perception of low value in the minds of clients.[00:10:28] How PR agencies need to be better at presenting and selling big creative ideas Nitin Mantri[00:11:11] Why Nitin Mantri becoming the new president of ICCO shows the international footprint of the organisation.[00:11:35] Nitin Mantri discusses his agenda for his two-year term as president of ICCO.[00:14:19] Nitin talks about the challenges of running a modern PR firm where you have to merge different types of skills into one business – from writers, to videographers, to designers, etc.

This week, in the latest of our life stories podcast, I’m interviewing Fenella Grey, chair at Porter Novelli London, on the PRmoment podcastFenella was a director at Weber Shandwick between 2007 and 2013, then she spent almost six years at Freuds before joining Porter Novelli in 2014.She was MD of the London office, before becoming London chair in July last year.Porter Novelli in London has circa 75 full-time and part-time people in its London office.Here’s a summary of what Fenella and I discuss:[00:01:01] Whether Freuds is still that the agency that consumer shops in London try to emulate. [00:03:29] How Fenella learnt at the "front end of making big decisions and this and selling big ideas to the C-suite of organisations" at Freuds. [00:05:02 ] Why did Fenella leave Freuds and move to Porter Novelli?[00:06:19] How, when Fenella joined Porter Novelli London, it required a "big shot of adrenaline". [00:07:04] Fenella describes Porter Novelli as a boutique firm with a global network. [00:09:15] Why Fenella believes the "whatever size business, whatever stage you are within the business – it's a luxury to hire talent ahead of revenue."[00:10:03] How Fenella's mentor, Karen Van Bergan, told her running an agency is "as simple as having the right team around you – if the right team around you are doing their jobs then you know the only way is up.”[00:12:20] Fenella talks about why she believes many global firms have become too generalist and why she believes Porter Novelli can become "the defining global purpose communications consultancy".[00:16:18] Why the biggest change Fenella made at Porter Novelli was to make the team believe that "that we can win."[00:16:48] How Fenella reset the culture of Porter Novelli London. [00:18:17] How has Porter Novelli London business performed over the last few years?[00:18:46] Why Fenella has moved up to become chair of Porter Novelli London whilst Joe Patterson and Nicole Yost have become joint MDs.[00:19:34] How the nature of client work that Porter Novelli is involved in has changed.[00:20:31] In markets such as France, Italy and the Netherlands Peter Novelli has merged with other Omnicom agencies Ketchum and Fleishman Hillard to form Omnicom PR – but in markets like the UK it has retained its independence. What have the cultural difficulties been in the variants of this structure?[00:22:35] As a woman at the top of a PR firm – does Fenella think she's had to work harder than her male peers to get there?[00:24:07] Fenella describes what the Omni Women scheme is all about.[00:25:33] Are these turbulent times an opportunity or a threat to the PR sector?[00:27:31] Why PR firms are better placed to help businesses with finding and delivering their purpose than management consultancies.[00:27:57] Why we need to be able to prove a return on purpose for brands.[00:29:32] Why Fenella believes there is still an opportunity in PR to marry better data with great creative to drive even better impact for business.[00:30:10] Does every business need a purpose? [00:30:13] Fenella and I debate whether improving a company's purpose will always lead to more sales. [00:36:09] Why Fenella believes there is there's no such thing as a work-life balance.[00:41:06] Fenella and I ask why, despite the increase in the breadth of work being done by PR firms, the PR sector is not making more significant inroads into the budgets of ad agencies.

This week, in the latest of our life stories podcast, I’m interviewing Dan Neale, co-founder and MD at Alfred.Alfred is an independent PR shop in London focusing on the consumer, entertainment, technology and gaming markets.It has a fee income of circa 1.3m and about 15 employees. Alfred was founded in 2013 by Dan Neale and Gemma Pears. Gemma moved to the US for a short while and during that time Dan bought her out, meaning he now owns 100% of the business.Previously to Alfred, Dan headed up Unlimited Group’s then digital and social offer – Things with Wings.He was only 30 when he launched Alfred – so he was a relatively young PR entrepreneur.Here’s a flavour of what Dan and I discussed:[00:01:21] Whether Dan, as a 30 year old, reckoned it was a risk to leave a salaried job and launch Alfred.[00:04:26] How Dan was influenced by his father being an entrepreneur.[00:06:40] How Dan always had the ambition to build and create something, he just wasn't sure what it was going to be. [00:07:48] Why Dan believes that too much PR activity is obsessed with short-term objectives, rather than ideas that will help change a business.[00:08:52] Why PR needs to be more confident in its impact – reputation has a huge impact on brands. [00:09:27] How and why Dan had to buy Gemma Pears, co-founder of Alfred, out of the business. [00:12:06] Whether it feels different now that Dan owns all of Alfred.[00:13:40] Why Dan wants Alfred to approach work like a creative agency rather than a traditional PR agency[00:15:55] Why doing a year’s IT and computer programming course at uni (which he then dropped out of) has helped Dan in the long term.[00:17:05] Why Dan decided early on in the life of Alfred to employ two experienced non-executive directors.[00:20:01] Why agencies must create an environment where people are willing to challenge and be challenged. [00:22:32] Whether Dan is pleased that after six years he's built a business with a fee income of £1.3m – or is he disappointed?[00:22:38] Dan argues that there have been fewer independent UK start up PR firms in recent years. [00:25:48] Dan talks us through what, in hindsight, he would do differently since launching Alfred. [00:27:52] Whether agencies should to try and build their own IP or tool or buy an off-the-shelf product? [00:31:21] Whether there is a similar mindset linking the careers of music and public relations.[00:33:01] Why Dan believes PR has an irrational focus on coverage versus impact. [00:34:07] Why Dan believes linking reputation to impact is the answer to PR’s measurement dilema.

This week, in the latest of our life stories podcasts, I’m interviewing Mark Lowe, co-founder of Third City. Third City is a consumer PR firm in London with a fee income of over £2 million and a turnover approaching £3 million and 28 employees.Mark co-founded Third City in 2008 with Graz Belli. Previously Mark had worked at Band & Brown for six years.Here is a summary of what Mark and I discussed.[00:01:09] How Mark originally wanted to be an actor. [00:03:01] Mark talks us through his early career as a singer in a band. [00:05:09] Why if you have a dream in life it's important to at least give it a go! Even if you ultimately end up doing something else.[00:06:35] Mark and I discuss the trend of people going plural and having two or more jobs.[00:07:42] Whether PR firms offer sufficient flexibility in working practices. [00:08:32] Why Mark reckons his CV in his 20s was "a bit of a mess". [00:12:33] Why Mark's career accelerated when he joined Band & Brown and met Graz Belli. [00:13:05] Why you don't have to have a conventional career path, the most important thing is that you really believe in, and want to do, what you're doing. [00:13:31] Why "trying and failing" is an important part of life/your career.[00:15:19] Mark talks us through the challenges and advantages he had of starting his PR career pretty late. [00:15:54] How meeting Jill Brown and Graz Belli was a critical change in Mark's career.[00:16:43] Why Mark believes the PR sector has some cultural preconceptions about age which hold the industry back.[00:17:53] Why Mark would like to redefine PR as "brand communications".[00:18:23] Why PR firms are now working in the space that was previously occupied by branding agencies.[00:20:19] Why the barriers between consumer and corporate PR are being broken down.[00:20:36] Why the way VCs are buying public relations is changing the agency market.[00:22:20] Why brands can no longer manage their reputation and brand out of two separate departments.[00:22:38] How Mark went from a senior account director at Band & Brown at 29 to a director at 32.[00:22:59] What did Mark do in those three years to accelerate his career?[00:26:26] Why Mark decided to leave Band & Brown to set up Third City alongside Graz Belli and Gill Brown.[00:27:22] What were the reasons behind Band & Brown losing its momentum quite quickly? [00:29:53] Mark talks about how Third City was founded.[00:30:44] Why Mark believes its important for a PR firm to be able to blend the best of consumer agencies and corporate agencies. [00:33:02] Why Third City is looking for opportunities for regional expansion in the UK and models for international expansion. [00:34:29] Mark talks us through Third City's structure, including its Third Citizen network. [00:37:41] Why Mark believes public affairs professionals are often more interested in the political process than the political context. And they are very rarely interested in brands. [00:38:23] How people who work in brand communications are often not that interested in politics.[00:40:08] Mark asks whether the rush for purpose is explained by the idea that we are now entering a world in which businesses are neither paying taxes nor creating jobs, so they are having to come up with other reasons and justifications for their existence. [00:41:05] Why is it that VC firms tend to prioritise public relations as a method of marketing?[00:45:11] How the uncertainty of Brexit is impacting the UK PR busines

This week on the PRmoment podcast, I’m pleased to welcome Natasha Hill, managing director at Bottle.Bottle has a turnover of £2m and is an independent multi-specialist PR firm in Oxford.The business was previously owned by Will and Claire Cairns. Will Cairns still has a stake in the business but Natasha and creative director Colin Cather now run the business day to day.Bottle has 25 staff and about 60% of its work is in consumer markets and 40% in B2B.Here is a flavour of what Natasha and I discussed:[00:01:21] Why Bottle founder Will Cairns can now be found in the Cotswolds, on a bike with a bunch of American tourists![00:02:02] How Bottle founder Will Cairns has exited the day-to-day running of the business and handed it over the Natasha and creative director Colin Cather. [00:04:49] Natasha talks us through the story of Bottle as a business – how it grew to about £2m in 2014 and then lost some momentum (fee income subsequently fell to circa £1.4m.) The business has now grown back to a fee income of £2m. [00:05:14] How Natasha has retained a high number of retainer clients at Bottle, despite the sector trend for an increased number of project-based agency/client relationships. [00:07:10] Why PR clients increasingly value strategic advice over campaign implementation. [00:10:51] Natasha explains the recruitment challenges for PR firms near, but outside of London, in places like Oxford.[00:13:01] How Natasha has restructured Bottle in-line with her brand marketing background.[00:14:36] Why the fact that neither of the current leadership team of Bottle have come from a pure PR background has helped its client proposition.[00:15:32] How Bottle has re-engineered the way the team works and the structure of the working day to reflect the challenges of modern public relations. [00:17:09] Should all PR teams, both in-house and agency split into reactive teams and proactive teams?[00:19:33] How Natasha and the rest of the management team at Bottle have turned around a business that was in decline and created growth. [00:23:08] Why Natasha made the move from a strategic marketing director role at the UK’s biggest charity Cancer Research UK to a small PR firm.[00:25:00] How Natasha's belief that Cancer Research UK needed to become more of a human charity, rather than purely a research-focused charity – led to the organisation’s rebrand.[00:28:40] How post the rebrand in 2012 Cancer Research UK's income was up by 6%.[00:29:44] As a marketer how does Natasha see PR’s contribution to the marketing funnel – which bits of the funnel are realistic for PR firms to grab and which bits are not?[00:32:29] Why agencies are increasingly having to draw the line on the type of work that they can do – otherwise you end up just trying to cover too much with insufficient expertise.[00:33:47] What does PR actually do for a huge charity like Cancer Research UK?[00:37:52] How does Natasha see the relative advantages of having an in-house team compared to outsourcing to an agency?[00:39:38] Natasha talks us through the process of digital transformation she implemented during her time at Cancer Research UK.

Here’s a special PRmoment podcast from AMEC’s Global Summit in Prague: featuring PRmoment founder Ben Smith complete with an almost lost voice, Diageo’s Jim Alexander, AMEC chairman and CARMA CEO, Europe and the Americas Richard Bagnall and Mischief’s head of insight and strategy Gemma Moroney.We talk through the three perspectives of PR’s measurement opportunity – the client's perspective, the measurement provider’s perspective and finally, the PR firm’s side of the story.First up I talked to Diageo’s Jim Alexander.Jim and I talk for about the first 18 minutes of the podcast and here is a flavour of what we discussed:[00:00:58] Jim talks to us about where Diageo started its measurement journey and where it has got to now. [00:01:17] How, two years ago Diageo's measurement processes was in "a very disparate place". [00:02:08] Why each brand and each different specialism within Diageo’s marketing and comms had a different approach to measurement and analysis.[00:02:21] Why one of the benefits of a large organisation with lots of different brands is that you can better hold them up next to each other to compare, learn and improve. [00:02:56] How Diageo has used AMEC's Measurement Framework across its business. [00:03:24] How the framework is used by everyone from Diageo's director of marketing Europe all the way through to account execs working in Diageo's PR agencies. [00:03:31] How it can be challenging to get between 200-300 people to use Diageo’s Measurement Framework document. [00:04:50] Whether Jim volunteered or got volunteered into the role of modernising and standardising Diageo measuring process.[00:05:28] How did Jim tell people internally that some of the KPIs they had spent years reporting were actually worthless. [00:05:37] Which KPIs did Diageo get rid of and which KPIs did it introduce. [00:05:45] Why Diageo has only set output and outcome KPIs not impact ones.[00:06:54] Why "opportunities to see" is Jim's "bad guy metric". [00:08:37] How Diageo has built its own multi-channel metric methodology called "visibility" and Jim talks us through what this metric means. [00:11:41] How did Jim approach the conversation with the senior internal stakeholders who for a number of years thought the comms effort had "all been going swimmingly" when in reality the true metric was minuscule in comparison?[00:12:37] Why PR’s use of bizarre, unjustifiably large numbers in the past has been at the centre of its historic credibility problem – senior decision makers used to just "look straight through” these ridiculously big numbers.[00:13:14] Jim explains why understands AMEC's campaign on the importance of getting good outcome and impact data, but adds that the "problem is getting that level of data is very difficult and often expensive".[00:14:18] Why, for the evaluation debate to continue to move forwards, the key stakeholders are the senior in-house people – there's only so much agencies can do. [00:14:56] From it a tool’s perspective how does Diegeo attempt to unify its measurement across the numerous different channels that PR operates across?Next I talked to AMEC chairman and CARMA CEO, Europe and the Americas Richard Bagnal from about 18.20 mins to 34.35 mins.Here are some of the highlights from that discussion:[00:18:05] Where has PR as a sector got to in its measurement journey?[00:19:10] Why AMECs Measurement Framework Process and the Measurement Maturity Mapper (M3) mean there are no more excuses for poor PR and comms measurement. [00:21:00] How AMEC's Integrated Framework will help you measure r

This week on the PRmoment Podcast, in the latest of our life stories series, I interviewed chairman of The PR Office Shimon Cohen.The PR Office was founded in 2004, has a fee income of about £2.5m and about 15 employees.The business has clients across a broad range of sectors and Shimon has some interesting views on how he sees the scope of public relations.Here is a summary of what Shimon and I discussed:[00:01:05] How Shimon used to be executive director to the Chief Rabbi but ended up in PR.[00:04:32] Shimon talks us through his “job interview” with Sir Tim Bell. [00:06:49] Shimon describes what it was like working at Bell Pottinger in its heyday (Shimon left 14 years before the scandal that bought it down.) [00:07:16] Why good public relations essentially comes down to three things: Where are you now, where do you want to be and how do you get there. [00:09:46] How, Bell Pott Gate aside, Shimon believes that Sir Tim Bell's clarity of thought and wisdom was the most important factor in the development of public relations as a serious boardroom discipline. [00:12:14] Why Shimon believes that in many large companies you get really really good at doing something and you get promoted into a job that you don't know anything about! [00:12:45] Why Shimon didn't like being CEO of Bell Pottinger and resigned. [00:14:23] Why Shimon "adores" PR. [00:15:06] Why Shimon believes the PR sector hasn't really changed at all in the last 10 years. [00:17:34] Why PR people need to sell something that somebody wants to buy![00:18:23] How the communications triangle between government and organisations and the public has been inverted.[00:21:14] Why at The PR Office Shimon "outsources as much as possible". [00:23:19] Why everyone who works for The PR Office is a fee earner.[00:25:16] Why all of the PR Office's employees work from home on Fridays.[00:27:06] Why Shimon believes we may see professional managers with no PR experience being appointed as the CEOs of PR firms - just like what happens in law firms. [00:31:05] How the PR Office have maintained credentials across a broad range of work and not specialised in specific sectors. [00:31:025] Why Shimon believes PR people should not specialise in a specific vertical sector but retain a broader knowledge of business.

Everybody wants to get featured in a magazine or booked as a speaker, but how do you do it? On today’s episode of the Wingnut Social Podcast, Darla and Natalie turn to one of the industry’s best to get some answers: Andrew Joseph. With over twenty years in the world of publishing and public relations, Andrew Joseph is an experienced and strategic asset for home and design brands as well as designers looking to position themselves in a busy market. Andrew started his career at Conde Nast publications in fashion and beauty with Vanity Fair and Allure, where he learned the industry from the inside out, experiencing firsthand the inner workings of the editorial side of publicity. When opening Andrew Joseph PR in 2012, he shifted gears to architecture and design, applying his southern charm and New York know-how to a career as a marketing and public relations expert. What You’ll Hear On This Episode of Wingnut Social [2:00] Wingnuts are loving the strategy doc [7:54] It’s take two with Adam [9:55] Why PR is important for designers [15:42] Would a PR firm work well for a new designer? [18:20] Trying to go DIY [26:54] What credentials should you look for in a PR firm? [29:46] Should you go boutique? [32:30] PR success stories [38:39] Working with a PR firm [43:25] Whut up, Wingnut? Connect with Andrew Joseph Andrew Joseph Andrew Joseph on Facebook Andrew on Instagram Resources & People Mentioned Alan Tanksley Sandra Funk Tales of the City Wingnut Social’s services Pitch the right way One of the most critical ways a public relations firm can help you is through their relationships with magazine editors. Often PR professionals know what sorts of stories various publications are working on, what sorts of stories they like, and how you may fit (or not fit) into their magazines. The worst thing you can do is pitch yourself to a magazine with no clear idea of what they’re looking for. Relationships are actually a huge part of public relations. Andrew told Darla and Natalie a story about how he helped out an editor one time around the holidays, and now he’s able to book clients spots in the publication regularly, because the editor knows she can trust him. PR won’t land you clients directly Andrew says he always tells his potential clients that he can’t deliver new clients to them. He can book them in magazines or onstage as a speaker, but there’s no guarantee that will lead directly to clients. Instead, PR has more of a “long tail,” where the more publicity you generate, the more you can build an impressive portfolio to show potentials clients. Connect With Darla & Wingnut Social www.WingnutSocial.com On Facebook On Twitter: @WingnutSocial On Instagram: @WingnutSocial Darla’s Interior Design Website Subscribe to The Wingnut Social Podcast on iTunes, Google Podcasts, or TuneIn

This week on the PRmoment Podcast, in the latest of our life stories series, I’m pleased to welcome CEO of Golin Jon Hughes.Global PR firm Golin has a fee income of about $240m. Jon has been at Golin for about 14 years, he spent six years in the UK as co-managing director alongside Matt Neale, before moving to Hong Kong to head up its international business. He became CEO alongside Matt Neale and Gary Rudnick in 2017.Here are some of the highlights of what Jon and I discussed: [00:01:15] How Jon went from working in IT sales and ended up as global CEO of a top-ten global PR firm. [00:04:28] Whether Jon has Jon got more “PR royalty” mates than anyone else? [00:06:04] Why Jon “didn't really know” Matt Neale before they became joint UK MDs of Golin. [00:07:59] Why the sector experience of Matt and Jon combined to mean that they together were the right combination to take Golin forward [00:08:52] Why Golin in London had lost its identity before Matt and Jon took over in 2005. [00:09:50] How Fred Cook's management style gave Matt and Jon "headspace" which allowed them to do things that ordinarily they wouldn't have done. [00:11:08] Why London is a hub of innovation not just for Golin, but for PR as an industry. [00:12:12] How Golin in London has grown from 25 people in 2005 to 200 today - Jon talks us through how an agency business can go on such a prolonged period of growth. [00:12:33] Why all agencies go through cycles of success and then have to reinvent.[00:12:56] Why one of Al Golin's mantras "fix it before it breaks" is on Jon's office wall.[00:15:35] Why winning the Orange pitch meant Golin was able to hire some great consumer talent in 2006 - Bibi Hilton! [00:17:47] Why agencies need "that freshness and that hunger at scale - that's when you know you're on the money." [00:20:58] Why the client "Palm" was a critical part of the story that lead to the renewal of Glolin as a global firm.[00:22:33] Jon talks us through the G4 model ten years on.[00:26:44] Why PR firms trying to be all things to all people ends up in a vanilla proposition.[00:26:53] Why Golin has recently rebranded as a PR agency. [00:28:30] Why, when PR people run out of conversation, they either talk about PR trade bodies or the definition of PR. [00:28:51] Why some people have seen Golin rebranding itself as a PR firm as a regressive step. [00:30:29] Why Jon took the president international job in Hong Kong in 2005 despite him originally thinking that Matt Neale was going to get it.[00:32:46] Why Jon enjoys building businesses and managing change.[00:34:35] Jon compares the working styles of India, China, Singapore and Taiwan.[00:35:22] Jon talks us through Golin’s buying criteria for when it makes an acquisition.[00:37:17] Why (as the acquirer) you have to expect the unexpected when you do acquisitions.[00:38:01] Why holding groups don't acquire for revenue, they acquire for the specialism and talent.[00:38:54] Jon talks us through where Virgo Health is today, following its acquisition of Golin in 2012.[00:39:45] Following Golin's acquisition of Magic, Jon talks us through what it's like trying to buy a business in China.[00:41:30] Jon talks about how he sees the PR agency market heading from an acquisition perspective.[00:43:33] Jon discusses his favourite memories of Al Golin.

Natalie started her career at Shine in 2003 before launching Aduro in 2012. Aduro has a turnover of £1m and employs 10 people. It specialises in consumer focused public relations work.[00:00:54] Why Natalie describes Aduro as the “Ronseal of PR”.[00:02:56] Why Natalie believes it is possible to isolate the impact of PR in a consumer market where there are numerous promotional channels. [00:03:52] How working with entrepreneurs showed Natalie that if she could demonstrate the impact of PR on the entrepreneurs’ businesses, their businesses would grow and they would spend more on PR. [00:05:59] How Aduro has developed a model where it believes it can confidently point to its sales impact.[00:07:08] Why internally there is a need for PR to be able to define its cost per acquisition.[00:08:21] Why clients should own their evaluation and measurement insight, rather than farming the whole thing out to agencies.[00:09:15] How Aduro, as a consumer agency, is asking questions of clients’ evaluation methods that the clients haven't been asked before. [00:11:55] Why Natalie never, never set out to establish her own agency.[00:12:21] Why launching Aduro threw up an opportunity for creating flexible working and a genuine balance for Natalie.[00:13:04] Why Rachel Bell has a stake in Aduro.[00:13:41] Why Natalie started Aduro whilst living in Shropshire.[00:15:15] Why Natalie regards Aduro's growth as the "tortoise to some people's hare" but the slow and steady approach has worked for her. [00:15:19] Why setting up Aduro has enabled Natalie to "grow a business around having two children". [00:16:07] Why Natalie going on maternity leave early on in Aduro's "life" has meant that not everything in the business needs to flow through her. [00:16:34] What was it about having Rachel Bell as a mentor that helped Natalie grow the business?[00:17:24] How having a mentor has helped Natalie with things like the importance of business planning, networking, structure and having a five-year plan.[00:17:43] Why Natalie believes having a financial director has been one of the most important things in the progression of Aduro.[00:19:34] Why Natalie wouldn't have launched Aduro without Rachel Bell. [00:21:01] What flexible working means – because it's become quite a broad term. [00:23:28] What are the drawbacks of flexible working?[00:25:25] Can you achieve as good a result for the client if the team is working flexibly? [00:27:54] How does an agency begin the process of making flexible working work? [00:28:00] Why, for flexible working to work in a firm, you need some of the key senior people in the business to work flexibly. [00:28:42] Does Natalie believe PR still has a long working hours problem? [00:29:12] Why Natalie believes that it's now unacceptable for PR firms to have a long hours culture. [00:29:44] Why, from a timesheet perspective, agencies should be resourced at approximately 60-70% of employees time, anything more than that is not realistic and will result in staff working overtime.[00:31:41] Why PR firms need to get better at saying no to clients. [00:33:03] Why overservicing has decreased as the standard of PR work has increased.[00:33:59] Whether PR has a mental health issue greater than other elements of society. [00:36:21] Why Aduro has resigned from a number of accounts.[00:36:55] The importance of a genuinely positive client relationship where you can grow together.[00:40:06] Why does Natalie think there are co

As users turn away from public social networks to using private groups and dark social media, reaching those people with branded messages is becoming more and more difficult. In accordance with this, employee advocacy is on the rise, with an increasing number of companies focusing on their own staff to spread their messages far and wide. In this episode of the Digital Download Podcast I talk to Keith Lewis, Social Media Manager at Zurich Insurance UK, about the organisation's journey over the last few years towards a fully-fledged employee advocacy programme. We discuss the challenges of the approach and some of the key considerations, such as how to identify and encourage advocates, how to guide them, and what processes and software tools work best. Here's what is discussed in this episode: Why PR no longer controls the message How you can relinquish control without destroying the message Why advocacy may address the move to dark social How reach through employees is significantly higher than through corporate channels How an advocacy audience differs from a corporate audience How empowering employees reaps significant rewards How to identify potential employee advocates How software supports the development of advocacy Why success in advocacy breeds success How to identify and distribute shareable content The role content curation plays in effective employee advocacy How taking part in an advocacy programme need not affect your day job Why an effective internal network can be as important as external social media channels   Subscribe: Apple Podcasts I Android Podcast Apps I Email I RSS   Useful Links from Today's Show LinkedIn Elevate Workplace by Facebook Yammer   What to do Next I'd love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. If you enjoyed today's show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. You might also want to check out Digital Download Membership, which is like having an army of expert mentors to turn to who keep you updated with the latest digital and social media developments and provide feedback and opinions on your ideas. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you'd be able to take a couple of minutes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, as this helps others discover Digital Download. Thanks for listening!  

This week, in the latest of our life stories podcast, I’m interviewing Neil Henderson, group director of global media and financial communications at Zurich Insurance Group.Neil is based in Switzerland.Previously, he has was head of media, content and partnerships at Which?, director of communications at Mastercard, executive director at Golin and head of media and broadcast at Red.Before this, he was a journalist with Sky, ITN and the BBC.[00:01:03] How Neil has managed his career so that he has been able to work in a broad range of sectors rather than specialise in one. [00:01:58] How for Neil, as a journalist turned PR guy, his career has always been "a bit like working a newsroom". [00:07:01] Why Neil wishes he'd stayed at Red and Golin longer than he did. [00:08:17] Whether PR people still under-prioritise the broadcast media. [00:12:38] How one of Neil's clients wanted him to get a urinal story on the Today programme. [00:13:08] Why do PR people not tell clients who have ridiculous requests to piss off?[00:16:59] Why it was Neil's time at Red that made him into a PR guy. [00:19:06] Why Neil believes that journalists continue to think that PR people are stupid. [00:20:35] Why it doesn't work out for 50% of the journalists that move into PR. [00:20:50] How media relations is only about 40% of most PR jobs these days. [00:21:47] Why you can learn more at a lunch with someone than at any other time. [00:22:20] How Neil is amazed that some agencies continue to open an Excel spreadsheet send a press release to 130 people. [00:23:28] Why senior journos calling out young PROs on Facebook for poor practice isn't a good look. [00:27:02] Why Neil’s time at Which? was his dream job. [00:29:42] Having made the move in-house - does Neil believe he'll ever move back agency side? [00:29:49] Why working in-house means that you basically have a variety of clients in the form of internal stakeholders. [00:32:46] How has it been for Neil moving his family to Switzerland? [00:34:09] How German and Swiss journalists allow PR people to make changes to the copy. [00:35:50] How as a Brit working in Switzerland it's embarrassing for Neil to talk about how badly Brexit is going to his German and Swiss friends. [00:39:04] Why Neil believes that even if there were a second referendum and the UK stayed in Europe, to a large extend the damage has been done. [00:40:37] When Neil is buying PR - what does he look for? [00:42:28] How sometimes you could put pitch documents together in a row on a table from seven agencies who pitched and if you took the names away you probably couldn't tell the difference between between some of the ideas. [00:43:23] Why Neil believes PR people even now have an obsession with print. [00:44:18] Why Neil believes agencies are still missing a trick with radio. [00:45:40] Why Neil believes PR in London is in such a good place. [00:46:58] Why Neil thinks some of the big PR shops are still overpriced: He says "Some of the bills I get are eye-watering for what what we get." [00:50:13] Whether the PR sector is more susceptible to mental health issues than some other sectors. [00:52:03] Why PR businesses don't say no enough. [00:52:08] Why PR firms don't challenge nasty clients enough.

This week on the PRmoment podcast, in the latest of our life stories series, I’m pleased to welcome founder and MD of Fanclub PR Adrian Ma.Fanclub was established seven years ago, has a turnover of £1m and employes 11 people.It has a consumer and B2B client portfolio including Tesco Mobile and every PR person’s favourite organisation The NLA.Adrian has some really interesting things to say about the progress of PR’s diversity problem from about 32 minutes onwards.[00:01:35] Adrian tells us about his first year in business and why there were times when it was a struggle to keep it going.[00:01:50] How a chance meeting with a journo led to Adrian setting up Fanclub PR.[00:02:28] How Adrian started Fanclub with a £500-a-month client.[00:03:34] Why Adrian had to freelance for about two years before he was able to dedicate his time 100% to Fanclub.[00:07:38] Why you have to commit to launching your own business and then things will happen for you.[00:08:31] What were Adrian's biggest challenges during Fanclub’s story so far?[00:12:38] How working with ad agency TBWA opened Adrian's eyes to the need for better creative excellence in PR.[00:14:29] How PR agencies have grown up in terms of their creative process.[00:16:00] How Adrian's real passion is music: he runs a record label, was a DJ and plays the keyboard.[00:19:30] Did Adrian give up his dream career in music to run a PR firm?[00:20:30] Are there more people writing PR books than reading them?[00:21:42] Why Adrian doesn't believe enough emphasis is placed on understanding PR as a craft and its relationship to the other marketing disciplines.[00:24:49] Why Adrian believes this generation of PR practitioners is going to be a huge force for change in the marketing mix.[00:26:19] How Adrian doesn't feel that there's enough being done for agencies to look after the mental wellbeing of their staff.[00:28:13] How working with Helen Holland and Neil Backwith at Komodo (now Chameleon) helped Adrian understand how to better run a business.[00:30:05] How Fanclub has come to specialise in digitally integrated work.[00:32:11] Why Adrian believes that the PR sector is not more diverse.[00:33:30] Adrian outlines two social trends that mean that often young BAME people don't see PR as a credible career. [00:35:25] The story of a of an Tariq Ahmed who noticed that his white peers were getting better jobs than he was and changed his name.[00:39:13] How according to the last census, 45% of the 8.2 million residents of London were white British, but how the workforce of most PR firms in London is far more than 45% white British.[00:40:55] Why PR agencies need to represent the society they're trying to communicate with.[00:41:17] What would Adrian do to improve the diversity of PR?[00:43:31] Why unconscious or conscious bias in the recruitment process against BAME applicants is better described as prejudice.[00:47:52] Why firms must not think its a case of “one and done” when it comes to BAME recruitment[00:48:24] How for there to be real change in PR’s diversity we have to get better at encouraging BAME people into it and improve recruitment practices.[00:48:54] How clients can be a significant catalyst for improved diversity.[00:49:56] How Adrian sees AI and AR impacting public relations.

This week in the latest of our life stories podcast I’m interviewing Tom Murphy, director of global communications, Microsoft Services.Tom started his career at Text 100 in Ireland and then worked for a couple of start-ups and mid-sized firms in their in-house teams before joining Microsoft Ireland in 2005.He moved to Microsoft's head office in Redmond in the US in 2009 and is now Global Communications at Microsoft Services. Tom joined us on the phone from Redmond.Here is a summary of what Tom and I discussed:[00:00:56] What was it that he did at Microsoft Ireland that meant he got a tap on the shoulder to go to the US. [00:02:15] Why Microsoft has a career profile where you spend a couple of years learning a job, you spend a couple of years doing the job and then you look for your next move. [00:03:18] How, in Redmond, Tom can go skiing 40 minutes from his front door and gets a guaranteed four or five month summer .[00:03:39] Why in a big company you get a lot of opportunities to work in a whole range of different areas. [00:04:28] Tom tells us about his experience of working for Microsoft in the US for 10 years.[00:04:46] Tom identifies the big differences between working in-house and agency side. [00:05:46] Why in-house your perspective needs to be a mile deep and an inch wide rather than the opposite when you have in agency.[00:05:59] Why the pressures you feel in-house are very different from the questions you feel agency side.[00:06:11] Why Tom believes that communicators should try and spend time both on the agency side and in-house. [00:08:24] How TV shows like Ab Fab created a false impression of PR for Tom and almost meant he didn't target a career in public relations. [00:09:54] Why Tom believes he has been "the luckiest man alive to have fallen into a career in PR". [00:09:58] How PR provides such a diverse set of work experiences, that very few jobs can compete with.[00:10:43] Why you must retain your inquisitiveness to be at the forefront of communications.[00:10:53] Why PR and communications folks are typically at the leaders table when decisions are made. [00:11:01] How senior PR people input into major business decisions and shape strategy. [00:11:20] How the profile of public relations within Microsoft has changed in the last 10 years. [00:11:57] Why PR has always been a major strategic function for Microsoft. [00:13:11] How Microsoft has made a "massive investment" in storytelling.[00:13:32] How Microsoft uses data and insights to help it inform both its PR strategy and business strategy. [00:14:05] How does an in-house team use data? [00:14:17] How Tom is amazed at “how half are PR professional seem to be embracing data and half are ignoring it”[00:16:00] How data gives Microsoft a balanced scorecard of the business. [00:16:53] How many different KPI’s do Microsoft find useful? [00:20:11] Why Tom finds his current internal communications role enables him to get very close to the challenges of the business. [00:20:46] How do you create better employee communication within a business of 16,000 people. [00:22:02] Why the prominence of change in modern business means that communications is more important than ever. [00:22:48] How the nature of employee comms has changed in recent years. [00:24:37] Why modern employee communications is getting more complicated by the day.

This week, on the PRmoment podcast in the latest of our life stories series, I’m pleased to welcome Molly Aldridge, Global CEO of M&C Saatchi Public Relations.Molly has worked for both large and small agencies, independent and networked. She joined M&C Saatchi Public Relations in 2012. The company has a fee income of circa £10m and employs circa 100 people. Here is what Molly reveals: [00:03:32] The importance of PR being a good place for parents to come back to work after having children. [00:04:36] Why PR as a sector needs to make sure that it looks after working mums and dads otherwise you lose a whole set of talent certainly within the industry at a time when PR firms are struggling to find sufficient talent. [00:05:27] Why Molly's time at Cohn & Wolfe was such an important job in her career. [00:05:45] What makes a good public relations practitioner today. [00:06:50] Why PR needs great people brokers. [00:08:34] How sometimes a hotbed of exciting young agency talent can splinter to launch a number of different agencies. [00:10:00] Why an agency has to keep its momentum up. [00:10:03] Why the type of clients are a really important part of an agency’s momentum. [00:10:03] How an agency can lose its momentum. [00:12:29] The difference of working for a big agency compared with an independent agency. [00:14:57] Why you need to be a lot more autonomous, a lot more proactive and a lot more entrepreneurial in a smaller firm. [00:15:23] Why Molly's time at Henry's House was critical to the success of Slam. [00:15:46] Why success is a mixture of hard work and luck. [00:18:10] How the opportunity to create and lead Slam came about. [00:18:45] Why the launch of Slam would not have worked without Scott Wilson's sponsorship. [00:19:58] Why the launch of Slam worked when so many other consumer offers of large PR firms have failed. [00:20:20] Why rapid agency growth is much easier if you grow as your clients grow. [00:23:30] How Slam managed to grow at 30% year on year with a profit margin of 30% in the consumer PR market. [00:24:59] Why was Colin Byrne such a good mentor to Molly? [00:26:43] Why in a “US holding company world” you need someone at a senior level to have your back. [00:28:19] Why did Molly leave Slam - which she had grown to a multi-geography global PR firm - to join M&C Saatchi PR which at the time had a fee income of less that £1m? [00:31:08] Why the right opportunities should make you excited and terrified in equal measure. [00:31:37] Why Molly felt she'd taken Slam as far she could. [00:31:42] Why, because of its US-based ownership, Molly felt (at the end) the relationship was getting a bit parent-child like. [00:33:10] How Molly and Chris Hides have taken M&C Saatchi Public Relations from a fee income of circa £1 million to over £10 million. [00:33:54] Why growing an agency business quickly is really about relationships, people and hard work. [00:35:53] The mystery of why there is not more cross pollination of clients in multi-discipline marketing firms. [00:37:56] the In the absence of global British brands how has Molly grown M&C Saatchi Public Relations globally. [00:40:26] Why the partnership between Molly and Chris Hides works so well. [00:44:38]

“PR is about finding the intersection between what (the journalist) is trying to do, and what you’re trying to accomplish.”   Keyana Corliss is director of global public relations team at Tableau Software, a leading visual analytics company. In her position, she develops messaging, outreach strategy, branding, and positioning for all external communications around company news, product launches, customer conferences, and corporate development activities like earnings and mergers and acquisitions. She helped the company went it went public in 2013, and has secured coverage in such top-tier publications as Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, Wired, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.     Listen And Learn: Tips on the right ways to pitch. The importance of honoring the separation of church and state when it comes to reporters. Why PR is not just a pitch factory. It’s a partnership. How powerful content and PR converge. Why not all PR is landing a great article. Sometimes you don’t want to be in the news. How PR can create “spikes and unicorns” in your sales traffic and inquiries.   TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TABLEAU SOFTWARE GROUP, CLICK HERE. TO FIND KEYANA CORLISS ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Josh started his career as a Navy Journalist and for a period was a morning DJ. Eager to learn he shadowed successful people in work to learn how to sell. He failed 6 times in business, and on the 7th and 8th times he got it right and started the successful Savings Angel and UpMyInfluence companies, which go strong today. Josh shares some great life and business insights and this is one not to miss. Have a pen ready as he provides loads of tips. There were lots of great takeaways in the episode, so grab that pen and notepad, and enjoy! Why you should shadow the most successful person in your business What lessons Josh has learnt from over 2K appearances in the media Why PR is a dated term and Influencer engagement and authority building is more apt How to avoid getting rejected by the media by avoiding certain activities Why the traditional PR industry is broken and how Josh is solving it How to get more social proof by aligning to the right influencers What are some of the pain points when scaling an agency Paying attention to what is most difficult and how to change it   Important Links & Mentions From This Episode: UpMyInfluence UpMyInfuence discovery call - mention BLG Josh Elledge's LinkedIn profile Slack Evernote BombBomb The BombCast Duct Tape Marketing podcast Hidden Brain podcast Corporate Escapees podcast The Miracle Morning Blinkist Audible

This week, on the PRmoment podcast, as part of our life stories series, I’m interviewing Nik Govier, founder and CEO of agency Blurred. Previously, Nik was the co-founder of consumer PR shop Unity. At its peak, Unity had a turnover of circa £4m. Nik has recently founded and self backed her new venture Blurred, which launched last month. Here is a flavour of what we discussed: How a job as a tour guide at at Madame Tussauds led to a career in PR 1 min How Nik’s early career was in corporate PR, but despite this she then moved to consumer PR when she started Unity 2.30 mins How a random account win set the tone for Unity’s consumer specialist success story 4.45 mins How awards built the momentum for the growth of Unity 6.50 mins What the creative process looked like for Gerry and Nik at Unity 8.50 mins Why the combination of being able to be a planner and a creative is such a rare skill set 10.15 mins What the link between creativity and planning looks like in practice 11.40 mins Is it possible to be creative everyday? 14.40 mins Whether people have a creative life cycle 15.50 mins Understanding creative fatigue 16.10 mins Why the rise of the freelance creative may lead to the ‘vanilla-isation’ of creativity 18.30 mins How PR is doing in the race for integrated communications 20.10 mins Why some big famous PR firms have ‘let the sector down’ 20.30 mins Why doing ambitious, integrated work is vital to increasing budgets 22.10 mins Why the budgets are often smaller in PR, but the margins are better 24.34 mins Why ad agencies may have a great idea, but they don’t know how to make it "run across earned media" 25.05 minsWhy the market is there for PR to thrive as integrated communications firms, they just need to confidence to pitch for larger budgets with bigger ideas 25.20 mins Why Nik has a chip on her shoulder 25.50 mins Nik says agencies of Ogilvy’s size have no choice but to restructure; they will have to break something before they will be able to rebuild it 29.30 mins Where Nik sees the marketing communications agency market in 10 years’ time 32.00 mins Why PR people’s uncertainty about their role in the world is so frustrating 33.35 mins Why the PR measurement debate is over and needs to move on quickly 35.10 mins Why advertising people are not smarter that PR people 37 mins How the advertising and media agencies are dealing with the seismic changes impacting their sectors 37.40 mins How Nik has structured Blurred and what does the skill make-up of the team look like? 42.20 mins Why the era of one-size-fits-all creative is over 45.45 mins Why naivety can bring creative advantages 47.30 mins Why Nik wants to scale Blurred ‘very quickly’ and is a ‘lady in a rush’ 48.45 mins

Every year the PRCA Digital PR report throws up some unexpected findings from the world of digital communications, and this year is no different. Among the headlines are that although PR teams are controlling more social and digital media activity, they're less confident in measuring it! In this episode of the Digital Download podcast I talk to Danny Whatmough, Chair of the PRCA Digital Group and MD for Integrated Media at Weber Shandwick, about some of the findings and what the implications are for the public relations industry in 2019. We also talk about his new book, Digital PR, which is one of the PRCA Practice Guides. Here's what is discussed in this episode: The headline results of the PRCA Digital PR & Communications Report 2018 Whether in-house teams are now controlling more day-to-day social media activity Why PR people are losing confidence in measuring digital activity Whether measurement still exists as an afterthought Why digital crisis management is moving in-house Whether companies now have a more balanced view of social media negativity Whether social media customer service still exists as part of the comms role How different elements of digital media are splitting into different specialist groups Why budgets for influencer marketing are in decline Why proper relationships with influencers are finally coming to the fore What the book 'Digital PR' is about & who it is aimed at   Subscribe: Apple Podcasts I Android Podcast Apps I Email I RSS   Useful Links from Today's Show PRCA Digital PR & Communications Report 2018 Digital PR book on Amazon   What to do Next I'd love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. If you enjoyed today's show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. You might also want to check out Digital Download Membership, which is like having an army of expert mentors to turn to who keep you updated with the latest digital and social media developments and provide feedback and opinions on your ideas. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you'd be able to take a couple of minutes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, as this helps others discover Digital Download. Thanks for listening!

This week, on the PRmoment Podcast, I’m interviewing Adrian Talbot, global CFO at Hotwire. Most PR agency entrepreneurs I speak to reckon the time they hired an experienced financel director was a critical moment for the growth of their business – so I thought it would be interesting to get an experienced PR agency FD on the show to talk. Adrian has held senior FD posts in various PR firms for the last 15 years, including Hotwire, Instinctif, Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Burson Marsteller. Here is a summary of what we discussed: The most important challenges for a finance director in a consultancy business The difficulties of financial forecasting for a PR firm when clients can give you three months’ notice The difficulties of managing hard-to-predict revenues against a fixed staff cost The difficulty that public relations has in selling an intangible product Why a successful FD must involve themselves in the business – not just be the person who pays the bill Why the FD needs to continually monitor your revenue and staff costs Why Adrian reckons he is in charge of births, marriages and deaths at Hotwire! What do PR firms get wrong in their financial management? Why PR firms should have weekly revenue and pipeline forecast tools How to manage client ove-servicing early Why PR firms need to recognise buy signals and negotiate more strongly The mix of fixed costs and marginal costs that make up a PR firm The cost and profit make-up of most PR firms – people, operating expenses and profit Why the average UK agency profit margin is 13%, against a target of 20% Why the number of freelancers working in PR firms is not dramatically increasing Why freelancers need to be experts within a niche, not generalists Why the definition of a retainer client has changed The challenges of running a PR firm as the company grows Why the key reflection points for agency growth challenges tend to be around 3, 10, 30, 100, and 300 people Why Hotwire is moving to value-based pricing Why clients are not interested in timesheets Why timesheets are now an internal business management tool, not an external pricing mechanisms Why the revenues of PR firms tend to be cyclical How Hotwire has managed to grow its global footprint geographically over the last 10 years How Hotwire’s new(ish) CEO Barbara Bates has had a big impact on Hotwire’s growth in the last two years The difference of being an FD in a public and private owned business Why technology systems are becoming an increasing cost for PR firms Why Adrian has set up the Hotwire band – Borderless Thinkers!

This week, on the PRmoment podcast, I’m interviewing Brad MacAfee, chief executive officer, senior partner at Porter Novelli. Brad has worked at Porter Novelli for the past 18 years and is now the global CEO of this Omnicom-owned PR firm. Porter Novelli has around 90 offices in 60 countries. Here is a flavour of what Chris and I discussed: Brad identifies what he sees as the four growth categories for public relations over the next few years 1 minWhether company purpose has become the new CSR? 2.30 minsWhy consumer behavior is fuelling the rush for company purpose 4 minsWhy Brad almost left Porter Novelli in 2006 when he didn’t make partner 6.30 minsWhy Brad decided not to leave Porter Novelli 7.20 minsWhy personal career management is really important 8.46 minWhy the first 100 days of your time at a company sets the tone 10 minsWhether networked agencies have become unfashionable 11.05 minsWhy networked agencies have a bright future, but a very different future to independent agencies 11.30 minsWhy the advantages of scale are so important for networked agencies 12 minsWhy Omnicom having 5000 people in London is a competitive advantage 12.30 minsWhy the specialisation on offer within the holding companies excites Brad 13.00 minsWhy the diversity of skills and scale in the networked model scale will eventually lead to better quality work for brands 13.30 mins and 16 minsHow Omnicom PR group mix and match teams across its PR operations for specific briefs 14.30 minsWhether there is a tension for Brad in representing both the Omnicom PR and Porter Novelli brands 17.00 mins What does “putting employees first” mean in a PR firm? 19 minsWhy employees now expect great experiences at work 22.10 minsFrom a management perspective what’s it like working for a holding company like Omnicom 23.35 minsWhether Omnicom PR firms ever pitch against each other 25.45 minsHow Brad became CEO of Porter Novelli 27.55 minsWhat skill set you need to become CEO of a global firmWhy you need a great mix of mentors to have a great careerThe skills required to be a good PR person today Why PR firms need a stable of clients to help them stay innovativeWhich regions of the world Porter Novelli is prioritising 38.30 minsWhat is the job specification of a global CEO in a global PR firm? 40 minsWhy Porter Novelli decided to get involved in Giving Tuesday 41 minsWhy diversity matters in PRHow Facebook CMO Antonio Lucio insisted Facebook’s agencies had diverse teamsWhy there will only be progress on diversity once it is measured Why PR firms should always be recruitingHow diverse teams within Porter Novelli have been the most successful commercially and in terms of the quality of the work

The convergence of public relations, social media and SEO is nearly complete, and one area where the lines are now completely blurred is that of authority link building. And yet PR professionals still question their ability to build links that impact search rankings and are confused by how to go about it. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast I talk to Andy Barr, owner of 10 Yetis, to address some of the key questions that public relations and communications people commonly ask about SEO and authority link building. We address the fundamental aspects of link building and discuss how PR can still take advantage of what is a very lucrative area of business. Here's what is discussed in this episode: Why follow links are (still) the holy grail for SEO Whether implied links currently have any impact on search rankings Why PR is better for authority link building than SEO What the differences between SEO and PR are when it comes to link building What the technical value of SEO people is How PR & SEO can best work together to achieve great results Why SEO can get away with charging significantly more for link building than PR How Google knows whether you've bought links What Google does when it spots dodgy link profiles What Interflora & BMW did to get removed from Google rankings (allegedly!) Whether links from social media impact search rankings What ranking factors are most important What is a good, low-cost SEO toolkit for PR people   Subscribe: Apple Podcasts I Android Podcast Apps I Email I RSS   What to do Next I'd love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. If you enjoyed today's show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. You might also want to check out Digital Download Membership, which is like having an army of expert mentors to turn to who keep you updated with the latest digital and social media developments and provide feedback and opinions on your ideas. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you'd be able to take a couple of minutes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, as this helps others discover Digital Download. Thanks for listening!

Advances in digital communications technology over the last few years have made the ability to work from anywhere at any time a reality. Whether it's automated processes or a greater ability to share information quickly and effectively, the world of PR work is changing rapidly before our eyes. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast I talk to Rich Leigh, founder of Radioactive PR, about his decision to switch his agency to a four day work week without cutting pay. We discuss what prompted the initial idea, how clients and staff reacted after an initial trial, what enabled him to make the change a permanent one, and whether others should or will follow suit. Here's what is discussed in this episode: How the idea for a four day work week came about How you can balance conscientiousness, hard work, reward & fun How processes & technology are changing within the PR industry How digital technology facilitates better working processes & ways of working Why doing something different to make people feel valued attracts talent Why the profit margin of a business is not the be all and end all Why PR agencies no longer need big London offices How clients respond to innovative initiatives like a four day work week What is the impact on work/life balance   Subscribe: Apple Podcasts I Android Podcast Apps I Email I RSS   What to do Next I'd love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. If you enjoyed today's show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. You might also want to check out Digital Download Membership, which is like having an army of expert mentors to turn to who keep you updated with the latest digital and social media developments and provide feedback and opinions on your ideas. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you'd be able to take a couple of minutes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, as this helps others discover Digital Download. Thanks for listening!

This week on the PRmoment Podcast I interview co-founder and executive creative director at The Romans, Joe Mackay-SinclairJoe launched The Romans less than 4 years ago and already it has a fee income of about £3.5m and employs 30 people.Here is a summary of what Joe and I discuss:Whether he regrets Mother investing in a minority stake in The Romans, or whether he wished The Romans had remained independent 35 secs How the partnership with Mother has benefited The Romans 2.20 mins Why we all need some mentors in our lives 4.20 minsWhat does the fact that virtually none of The Roman’s clients are Mother’s clients say about the need for integrated agencies 4.45 mins What do clients want when they are purchasing marketing services 6.45 minsWhere The Romans are currently winning work 7.30 secs Why good work is the key ingredient in the growth of a PR firm 8.35 mins Why Joe decided that a career in PR was for him 8.40 mins How Joe moved from working in digital agencies to a creative director at Burson Marsteller 10.30 mins Whether Joe enjoyed watching PMQs and working with Tories 12.32 mins Why he decided to start an agency 13.35mins Why winning a Cannes Lions Awards with the British Legion while at Burson Marsteller was an incredible moment in his career 14.30 mins Why Joe didn’t enjoy garden leave 15.35 mins Why Joe wants to make work that his Mother is proud of! 18.50 mins Why Joe doesn't believe any agency in public relations has a unique proposition 19.25 mins Why Joe was sick 6 times before the first pitch he ever did! 21.50 mins What Joe believes the role of a creative director should be 23.30 minsHow to create an environment where creativity thrives 25 mins Why Joe had to cancel a pitch after an all nighter at The PRmoment Awards 26.30 minsWhether The Romans are still The Millwall of PR 28.10mins How The Romans want to capitalise on its good start 29.20 mins Why PR firms launching new divisions is “a bit old hat” 30 mins Why Joe is bored of the “endless Cannes introspection” 30.58 mins Why great creativity is often a “kick the dog moment” 34.10 mins

This week on The PRmoment podcast I’m catching up with Neil Hedges, founder and partner at communications firm Headland. Neil has worked in the UK PR scene for nearly 40 years – so he knows his way around. Before setting up Headland, Neil was one of the founders of Fishburn Hedges – arguably UK PR’s pre-eminent PR shop of the 1990s and most of the noughties. Here is a taster of what Neil and I discussed: How Neil started his career in advertising and decided to move to public relations 0.46 Why PR’s current need for planners is history repeating itself 3.15 Why his time at time at Valin Pollen had a big influence on the rest of his career 4.15 Why a consultancy business is always likely to have very busy periods and some fallow ones 6.45 Why did Neil leave Valin Pollen? 7.20 Why Neil has never bought a business 9.20 How did the genesis of Fishburn Hedges come about? 10.10 Why there was a lot of mediocrity in PR firms in the 1990s 10.40 Why Fishburn was trying to build a business across corporate, financial and public affairs 11.20 Was Fishburn's growth uniform, or did it come in fits and starts? 12 mins Does Neil regret selling Fishburn to Abbott Mead Vickers, which was part owned Omnicom in 1996? 14.50 What was it like shifting from a privately owned business to a publicly owned business? 18.40 What was it like trying to run a publicly owned PR firm in 2008/09? 19.16 and 22 mins Why the response to the financial crisis shook his faith in America 20.15 Fishburn Hedges was the corporate PR shop in London throughout the 1990s and most of the noughties that most of its rival firms attempted to imitate. But in the end, its run of revenue growth came to a sharp halt. Neil tells us why 25 mins How agencies have their periods of ascendancy and tend to plateau 25.40 Neil tells us why he decided to try and do it all again and launch Headland 28.20 and 31.10 Why very few publicly owned PR firms have a financial PR offer 30.05 Why Neil chose a partnership model for Headland 32.15 Why Neil has ambitions for Headland’s partnership to last many generations 33.40 Why Neil’s long-term business relationship with Dan Mines has lasted so long 38.30 Why PR businesses, in the end, suffer if they are managed by practitioners 40 mins How Headland has grown so rapidly in the last three years 42.15 Why Headland runs a graduate scheme 48.15

Sign up for a Plex Pass: http://lon.tv/plexpass - This week I talk about why marketing departments are bad for the future of social platforms, Apple's big leak, and more. NOTE: the task management segment was bumped to next week due to time. See all of this week's mentioned content: http://lon.tv/ww216 and subscribe! http://lon.tv/s VIDEO INDEX: 00:56 - Supporter / Member Thank Yous 01:25 - Ad: Plex http://lon.tv/plexpass 02:37 - Extra's Channel week in review: http://lon.tv/extras 03:01 - Week in Review : Main Channel 04:22 - News: iPhone Xs & Apple Watch Series 4 Leak 08:23 - Apple Watch a sleeper hit? 09:28 - On My Mind: Week 80 09:35 - Almost to 200k! 10:15 - Windows Central Influencier List 10:50 - Speedometer Benchmark and Chrome improvements 12:13 - Q&A For You: Comparing browser benchmarks 13:28 - Why PR, not marketing, should communicate with creators 21:27 - Q&A : iPad vs. Surface Go 24:19 - Q&A: Windows 10 Needs a "Lean Back" TV Interface 26:43 - Channel of the Week: http://lon.tv/macsparky 27:40 - Coming up this week 29:48 - Supporting the channel 30:47 - Connecting with the channel Subscribe to my email list to get a weekly digest of upcoming videos! - http://lon.tv/email See my second channel for supplementary content : http://lon.tv/extras Join the Facebook group to connect with me and other viewers! http://lon.tv/facebookgroup Visit the Lon.TV store to purchase some of my previously reviewed items! http://lon.tv/store Read more about my transparency and disclaimers: http://lon.tv/disclosures Want to chat with other fans of the channel? Visit our forums! http://lon.tv/forums Want to help the channel? Start a Member subscription or give a one time tip! http://lon.tv/support or contribute via Venmo! lon@lon.tv Follow me on Facebook! http://facebook.com/lonreviewstech Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/lonseidman Catch my longer interviews in audio form on my podcast! http://lon.tv/itunes http://lon.tv/stitcher or the feed at http://lon.tv/podcast/feed.xml Follow me on Google+ http://lonseidman.com We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

This week, on the PRmoment Podcast, I’m pleased to welcome founder and managing director of W Communications Warren Johnson. Warren established W nine years ago and the business now has a fee income of circa £7.5m. W is the largest of a group of independent consumer agencies in London which are leading PR’s fight for creative work. Here is a flavour of what Warren and I discussed: Why he once left a career in PR to be become a builder Why if you’ve worked for someone for 10 years – you don’t really know what you know. Why he didn’t want to start W Communications Why Warren fell out of love with PR – first-time round Why Warren is a better senior PR person than a junior PR person Why Warren is ultimately driven by commercial success, not the quality of work Why people who confuse PR as a form of art are misguided Why Warren decided to self-fund his business, rather than taking backing or getting a partner What the growth path was of W Communications, from year one to now Why you work harder if you don’t have a backer Why PR firms shouldn’t need investment Why a sole owner business is often more collaborative Why Warren is more proud about his business success, than PR success. How W has kept growing and broken the £7m fee income barrier Why Warren has never written a business plan for W Why Warren believes any proper entrepreneur has to blend their business and personal lives Why social energy creates opportunity Why W bought in Mark Perkins as executive creative director and Adam Mack as CEO about a year ago Why W has bought a number of smaller PR firms in recent years Why W has managed to win larger clients in the last 12 months How PR firms with circa £1m fee income often struggle to grow Warren’s regrets and learnings about the House PR integration with W Communications Why Warren doesn’t want to buy firms and merge them into W Communications Why Warren has not sold W Communications Why, if an independent business is growing, most deals mean that the buyer is paying the founder from his or her own profits Why Warren expects a new wave of buyers for PR firms in the next five years Why PR people are the most agile and entrepreneurial of all the marcoms disciplines Why Warren believes PR firms will be competing with ad agencies for the big creative budgets sooner than people think Why the PR industry needs more swagger

This week on the PRmoment Podcast I’m pleased to welcome founder and CEO of Lewis Communications Chris Lewis. Chris established Lewis 25 years ago and today it is a truly global agency operating in 26 markets with a fee income of £50m and circa 500 employees. Lewis is the only current example of a British-owned PR and communications firm that has successfully scaled its business globally. Here is the flavour of what Chris and I discuss Why survival was the primary objective for Lewis Communications when Chris started the business 25 years ago How a lucky break (literally) gave Chris the opportunity to start Lewis PR How Lewis PR grew in the early years Why in a consultancy business it is always a team of leaders who is responsible for the growth of the business, not an individual leader Why PR firms must change their mindset when it comes to training and staff development Why good leaders should not be authoritarians, but water carriers Why Chris wrote the book The Leadership Lab on how leaders must utilise a wide enough diversity of opinion Why the growth of Lewis can be tracked by the arrival of people within the business How Chris found the right people to help him grow Lewis PR Why many PR people are brilliant professional advisors, but not commercially successful Why there is a fundamental difference in the professional culture between marketing services firms and professional services firms Why no Private Equity firms have sold a PR firm for more than they bought it for Why controlling your own balance sheet gives you control on how you invest Why the current environment of rapid change in the marcomms sector means that investment in technology and people has become even more critical Why the model of PR firms talking to their clients everyday gives communication firms a competitive advantage Whether Chris fears for the future of public relations Whether marketing has become a tactical business function, not a strategic function Why protecting the reputation of a brand has become far more complicated Why British businesses have a tremendous advantage globally; from timezones, to travel, to law and language Why Chris is surprised that more British PR firms have not scaled more rapidly internationally The three pieces of advice Chris has if you are thinking of setting up a PR firm Why profits are the byproduct of a business having a healthy culture Why most successful people are built on a litany of failure What re-investment looks like in a PR firm Why Chris wrote the books Too Fast To Think and The Leadership Lab Why leaders should never feel like that they are the brightest person in the room - their job is to make their team feel like the cleverest people in the room. Why the providence of certainty is mediocrity Why humility is a vital leadership trait The future plans for Lewis PR

Public relations has had issues with measuring return on investment for, arguably, the entirety of its life. Competitive disciplines such as digital marketing, advertising and SEO have mopped up business for little other reason than PR has struggled to prove its worth. A new methodology, however, promises to guide PR professionals towards a process that demonstrates its value once and for all. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast I talk to Iliyana Stareva, Global Partner Program Manager at HubSpot, whose book 'Inbound PR' presents a methodology for public relations that moves the conversation firmly away from being one about reputation management to being one about the bottom line. Inbound PR looks to firmly establish PR as a management discipline, something that CIPR President Sarah Hall pushed heavily on S1 E2 of this very podcast. Here's what you'll learn in this episode: What is inbound marketing What inbound marketing does really well The role of content in inbound marketing How public relations can impact the inbound marketing process in a positive manner How inbound PR differs from inbound marketing What to adapt an inbound PR methodology Why PR entrepreneurs are driving the adoption of attention to revenue in public relations Why business results and reporting are so important to agencies in 2018 What the right things to measure are Whether reputation management is an excuse for not measuring business impact How you go about adopting an inbound PR model What's involved in jumping from a traditional PR model to the inbound model   Subscribe: Apple Podcasts I Android Podcast Apps I Email I RSS   Useful Links from Today's Show Inbound PR from amazon.co.uk 2018 PRCA Census Ilyana Stareva blog The 4R model of evaluation from paulsutton.co   What to do Next I'd love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. If you enjoyed today's show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. You might also want to check out Digital Download Membership, which is like having an army of expert mentors to turn to who keep you updated with the latest digital and social media developments and provide feedback and opinions on your ideas. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you'd be able to take a couple of minutes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, as this helps others discover Digital Download. Thanks for listening!  

The CIPR's Artificial Intelligence (AI) panel has published new research revealing the impact of AI on public relations and communications practice. It highlights where AI is already impacting skills, predicts the impact on the profession in the next five years and makes interesting and, depending on your perspective, challenging reading for anyone working in communications. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to past President of the CIPR Stephen Waddington, who is leading the #AIinPR panel, to unpack the new report. We look at the impact that technology is already having on PR and communications, discuss how this will increasingly affect skills and job roles over the next three to five years, and we talk about what communications practitioners need to do in order to protect themselves and take advantage of new opportunities. Here's what you'll learn in this episode: What the purpose of the CIPR's #AIinPR panel is What the findings of the panel's first report are What is true artificial intelligence and what is simply automation Which PR skills don't contain an element of AI, and which are under threat Which job roles are most at threat from artificial intelligence What are the AI opportunities for communicators Why PR has to evolve to being a management function rather than a tactical discipline Why communicators have to invest in software tools What the adoption and impact of AI is likely to be in the next five years Why voice marketing is such an important technological trend for PR Why it is vital to seek out information, training and professional learning   Subscribe: Apple Podcasts I Android Podcast Apps I Email I RSS   Useful Links from Today's Show Research Project Reveals Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Public Relations from the CIPR #AIinPR hashtag on Twitter PR as a Management Discipline podcast How Voice Recognition is Impacting PR & Comms podcast The Cluetrain Manifesto  Artificial Intelligence in PR latest from Wadds.co.uk   What to do Next I'd love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. If you enjoyed today's show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. You might also want to check out Digital Download Membership, which is like having an army of expert mentors to turn to who keep you updated with the latest digital and social media developments and provide feedback and opinions on your ideas. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you'd be able to take a couple of minutes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, as this helps others discover Digital Download. Thanks for listening!  

Podcasting has undergone a massive resurgence in popularity over the last couple of years, and the boom shows no signs whatsoever of slowing down. In fact, with Google entering the fray listening could as much as double in the next two to three years. Communications professionals, however, seem to be reluctant to embrace podcasts as a medium perhaps due to unfamiliarity with the technology and processes. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to MD of Brighter Comms and self-confessed podcast geek Sara Robinson in a bid to demystify the content form of the moment. We chat about why the opportunity for PR is ripe and how, if they act quickly, brands can leverage podcasting to maximise their messaging. Here's what you'll learn in this episode: How popular podcasting has become and why it's booming How voice recognition technology and Google are further driving podcast adoption When and where people listen to podcasts Why people listen to podcasts What sort of people listen to podcasts What the opportunity is for brands Why research and audience insight are key What makes good content for a podcast Why PR and communications has such a great opportunity due to storytelling Why the barriers to entry for podcasting are low   Subscribe: Apple Podcasts I Android Podcast Apps I Email I RSS   Useful Links from Today's Show 2018 Podcast Statistics and Facts from Podcast Insights Seven Reasons Your Brand Needs a Podcast from Spin Sucks Inside the New Google Podcasts Strategy That Could Double Audiences from Pacific Content RAJAR Midas Audio Survey Digital Download Live podcasting workshop   What to do Next I'd love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. If you enjoyed today's show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. You might also want to check out Digital Download Membership, which is like having an army of expert mentors to turn to who keep you updated with the latest digital and social media developments and provide feedback and opinions on your ideas. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you'd be able to take a couple of minutes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, as this helps others discover Digital Download. Thanks for listening!  

How to boost brand awareness and links with PR You might not realise it but PR and SEO go together like jam and scones. While some people like to keep their digital communications in neat little pots, the truth is that the lines are very much blurred these days. If you can write a press release that generates real media coverage, it will boost your SEO efforts with traffic, awareness and those all-important links. So how can small businesses and DIYers use PR to boost their SEO? In this episode of the podcast I’m talking with Mez about how his agency uses press coverage and PR to build Google juice for their clients, and how you can too. Tune in to learn: What PR is What influence outreach is Why PR helps SEO Mez’s tips for building media awareness Mez’s tips for influence outreach How Mez measures PR and SEO success  https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/pr-using-media-boost-seo/

Public relations had a turbulent year in 2017. With a perceived lack of self-confidence and new technologies such as artificial intelligence, messaging bots and voice recognition looming on the horizon, the industry faces a potentially defining 12 months ahead. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to 2018 CIPR President and author of #FuturePRoof Sarah Hall about the way the public relations industry is developing and some of the big opportunities and threats if faces in the near future. Here's what you'll learn in this episode: What the CIPR's role is in its 70th anniversary Whether the PR industry has a confidence issue Why PR needs to be more bullish in order to become a management discipline Why PR is sleep walking into the serious threat of AI and what we can do about it How the roles of PR people are changing due to automation How and why CPD and training needs to develop to be more agile What the big opportunities are for PR and comms in the near future   Subscribe: Apple Podcasts I Android Podcast Apps I Email I RSS   Useful Links from Today's Show The #FuturePRoof project A Christmas Wish for the PR Industry on PaulSutton.co Your 2018 CIPR Plan: Seeking Your Views on Sarah Hall Consulting PR Must Assert Itself as a Management Discipline on PR Week   What to do Next I'd love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. If you enjoyed today's show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. You might also want to check out Digital Download Membership, which is like having an army of expert mentors to turn to who keep you updated with the latest digital and social media developments and provide feedback and opinions on your ideas. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you'd be able to take a couple of minutes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, as this helps others discover Digital Download. Thanks for listening!  

Today we're interviewing Colin Byrne, CEO of Weber Shandwick UK and EMEA – in the latest of our series of interviews with some of the most high-profile leaders in UK public relations. By day Colin is CEO of the UK's most award-winning PR firm, with 35 years’ communications experience, by night he's a writer, aspiring novelist and musician. His PR experience spans domestic and international public relations. He joined Weber Shandwick in 1995, rising to lead the public affairs practice in London in 1997. He is now CEO of the firm’s UK and EMEA network and a senior member of the global management team. He’s recently announced he’ll be stepping down after more than 20 years at the helm. After several years in private and not-for-profit sector PR, Colin joined the British Labour Party’s communications team in 1987 and was quickly promoted to head of press and broadcasting. He was press aide to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Jack Straw. He is a visiting fellow at The Reuters School of Journalism at Oxford University and a trustee of ActionAid UK and The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Colin and I discuss: How he began his career in public relations, finding himself as a press officer at the Automobile Association having previously been unaware that PR existed! How he was very interested in politics from a very early age. Why a letter to Peter Mandelson (then comms director at the Labour Party) in response to an interview Mandelson had done with the Guardian transformed Colin’s career. Why having a mentor was critical to his success. Why Colin never wanted to work for a PR agency. How he enjoyed his time “as a reasonably prominent moth around the Blair flame”.. The challenges of being an agency CEO. The importance of PR people embracing new technologies. Why he’s planning on going “from a well-remunerated senior PR professional to being a penniless aspirant writer”. Why most of the change in public relations over the past 50 years has happened in the last 10 years. How social media and Cannes Lions opening up to PR firms has driven this change. Why we need more kids in PR who are like Jamal Edwards. Why we are living in era of excellent public relations work. Why PR must own the idea. How public relations must recruit from other creative professions, rather than merely recycling “our own”. Colin’s advice for people entering public relations as a career today. Why public relations is now a profession, not just a job, and therefore it needs to act like a profession.

Renee Wilson is the president of the PR Council, the professional trade association for agencies practicing public relations, within the world of marketing and communications. The PR Council has 110+ members representing more than 11,000 employees in the US. PR Council advocates for and advances the business of communications firms by building the market and the value of firms as strategic business partners. Previously, Renee spent 11 years at MSLGROUP most recently as a member of the global board of directors; and the firm’s Chief Client Officer, responsible for liaison with senior clients and the agency’s international client engagement program, which she created. She is also the former President of MSLGROUP in North America. Renee was president of the 2014 PR jury for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and served on one other Cannes Jury in 2011. Renee spent four years living and working in London for another international PR consultancy. During this time she managed the EMEA communications for brands within Kellogg's and Johnson & Johnson. Renee is a regularly featured speaker at various international conferences and most recently presented at the United Nations International Women's Day Conference, SxSw Social Good Hub, 2015, ColorComm and espnW 2015. A Cannes lion award winner herself, Renee’s teams have won more than 25 awards for exceptional, breakthrough work. A long-standing proponent for diversity, she sits on the Advisory Board for the Young Women's Leadership Schools of NYC and is a member of the NY Women in Communications. She has guest lectured on international communications at NYU and Baruch.   “The credibility that comes with an output from a public relations campaign -- how do you put the value on that?” - Renee Wilson What you’ll learn about in this episode: What the PR Council does Why “PR” won’t be called “Public Relations” in a few years Why PR people have to be at the table to identify business problems Why PR and social are one in the same Why agencies have to look to the future Why digital storytelling is going to be so crucial going forward Why there’s no cheat sheet for lifelong learning What measurement looks like in PR today and why proving ROI is challenging Why agencies do more project based work than AOR work these days (and why you need to make sure your project is long enough) Ways to contact Renee: Website: prcouncil.net Email: rwilson@prcouncil.net Twitter: @ReneeW

Described by Bella NYC Magazine as being passionate, energetic, and full of life, K2s founder and CEO, Heidi Krupp-Lisiten, is right at home in the world of marketing, promotion, and media. With over 25 years in the field, Heidi has become recognized as an industry leader who works closely with her clients to develop innovative 360-degree brand platforms designed to engage consumers, excite media, drive awareness, and most importantly, deliver quantifiable business outcomes. As the head of K2, Heidi provides multi-disciplined marketing solutions, including unique strategic PR programs, on behalf of globally recognized brands such as Weight Watchers, Ann Taylor, Gaiam, and Everyday Health. Notably, her recent work with Nerium International (the fastest growing direct sales company in the world) has helped them to achieve their U.S. goals and expand into other countries. After earning a Bachelor's degree in journalism and communications from Ohio University, Heidi moved on to play an integral role at ABC News 20/20, amassing an impressive string of production and publicity credits (including her first publicity credit for her work with Barbara Walters). It was while she was at ABC that she discovered her true calling as a PR professional and entrepreneur. This discovery led her to establish K2 in 1996. Heidi is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native who now resides in New York City with her husband, Darren, their son, Caden, and beloved dog, Isaac.   “You have to find a clever way in. You can’t just take no for an answer.” - Heidi Krupp-Lisiten What you’ll learn about in this episode: How Heidi got into PR and how she ended up doing “Chicken Soup for the Soul” Tactics Heidi uses today that she didn’t use when she started her firm The three strategy questions Heidi always asks Why if you can’t leverage it -- don’t do it Why you, your team, and your clients need to celebrate wins together Why you shouldn’t ever take business personally Why nothing is private anymore makes everything PR Why you need to get ahead of the conversation and anticipate everything that happens Why PR is all about strategy Why you shouldn’t necessarily spend all of the budgets that you have Ways to contact Heidi: Website: kruppkommunications.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/kruppkommunications Twitter: @KruppKomm LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company-beta/231046

Kristen Ruby is the CEO of Ruby Media Group, a full-service Public Relations and Social Media Agency in Manhattan. Ruby is one of the preeminent social media experts in America. Ruby is a pioneer in the world of social media and tech trends and is a frequent on-air contributor to FOX Business, Good Morning America and countless other networks. Kris was chosen by the Business Council of Westchester as the youngest “40 Under 40″ Rising Stars. Most recently, Ruby has been featured on Bravo as “one of the pre-eminent social media experts in the field.” For more information or to book Kris Ruby for a segment, visit www.krisruby.com.   “You should hire a PR person if you really want someone to package your brand properly and get you out there.” - Kristen Ruby What you’ll learn about in this episode: Kristen’s article “Top 10 Signs You Shouldn’t Hire a Publicist” Why a publicist cannot get you instant, overnight results Why you shouldn’t hire a publicist if you don’t want to do any work Why you need to dedicate the time to do the thinking required for thought leadership Some of the unrealistic expectations placed on outsourced PR that isn’t placed on in-house PR Why you shouldn’t do PR because you want to be famous Why a good PR person cannot accept money for a story they know won’t get place Why PR cannot solve inherent business issues Why you have to be willing to drop everything when the journalist is ready Reasons that you should hire a PR person Ways to contact Kristen: Agency website: rubymediagroup.com Personal website: www.krisruby.com Twitter: @sparklingruby Instagram: @krisruby Twitter: @rubymediagroup Instagram: @rubymediagroup LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/krisruby Resources: Top 10 Signs You Shouldn’t Hire a Publicist, Kristen’s article for Observer

Pr remains as important today as it's ever been.  But what is PR?  What do businesses need to think about when considering engaging in PR?  How can someone graduating in 2015 get a start in the PR Buisness. We hear from Cathy Martin Fashion Guru & PR Boss of CMPR in Belfast who specialise in beautiful communications that evoke feeling and leave a lasting impression.  Cathy shares her insight on getting started in the PR Business, Why Pr is important for Businesses, PR Tips for Businesses & how to develop a Career in the PR Business.    

Stacey Sherman, who runs RSP Entertainment Marketing, knows what it takes to execute a successful PR campaign. And on this WeSpin Recipes podcast episode, she shares the harsh facts you might not be aware of regarding publicity. Listen to the show to learn what exactly to expect from a publicist, how much a PR agency charges, the typical response rate from press, and how to start a PR campaign on your own if you can’t afford hiring a professional yet. And, by the way, if you thought that getting bad feedback from media was bad – you were wrong. Some of the topics covered in the episode: - Why PR is more difficult even than what it seems - At what stages of a music career to work with a publicist? - Setting clear expectations before hiring a PR agency - When negative feedback from press is good - How many times to follow up with each media contact - A checklist for organizing your own PR outreach - A typical cost of a PR campaign Go to http://wespin.co/wsr36/ for the show notes and http://getacard.wespin.co/ to learn how to get a free WeSpin postcard by supporting the podcast.

Katana and co-host Jill Anne Jordan will be interviewing Public Relations/Marketing Expert and Bestselling Author, Gail MartinStarting Up Your Business Without Breaking the BankJoin us as we discuss:* Why PR is a start-up’s best friend * YOU are your best marketing weapon * Social Media and the Internet--still vital even for a local businessGail Martin spent nearly 20 years in Corporate America before she founded DreamSpinner Communications as a way to help small and medium-sized businesses gain corporate-level marketing help at an affordable price. Her MBA is in Marketing and Management Information Systems. She’s also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer fantasy series, including The Summoner (2007) and The Blood King (2008).For more information about Gail Martin, visit her website, www.DreamSpinnerCommunications.com. 

The WoMEN: What Mom Entrepreneurs Need Teleseminar Series offered by Lara Galloway, The Mom Biz Coach, continues with special guest, Elena Verlee, author of "How to Do PR in Your Pajamas." Elena will join us and share her tips for mompreneurs. Tune in and learn: Why PR is critical for mom entrepreneurs; how PR helped sell an online business in just nine months; why PR is cheaper and more effective than advertising; the four things you’ll need (which you may already have) to do your own PR. Join Lara Galloway, The Mom Biz Coach, the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month in this free teleseminar series designed to give mompreneurs all the tools and resources they need to succeed in busienss and life. For more information on upcoming speakers and topics (and to receive the freebies and special offers the guests make to my listeners!), go to www.whatmomentrepreneursneed.com and fill in your name and email address.