As it’s a bank holiday weekend, we’ve dropped our number of things you shouldn’t have missed to four! Happy Easter and bank holiday one and all.
1. Statues on ITV buildings
ITV is raising awareness of male suicide by unveiling 84 clothed statues of men atop its buildings in central London. Working with charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), ITV launched Project 84 on their flagship daytime programme This Morning. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 45, with 84 taking their lives each week. A change.org petition is calling to ‘Make suicide prevention and support a government minister’s reasonability’ and, thanks to the huge coverage of Project 84, has managed over 160,000 signatures.
2. Tommy Robinson banned from Twitter
Tommy Robinson, former leader of the English Defence League, has been banned permanently from Twitter. Twitter has suspended and blocked his account on a number of previous occasions but it is understood that due to his breach of its ‘hateful conduct’ policy, this will be the final time. He had over 400,000 followers when it was last blocked at the beginning of March. Robinson continues to operate a Facebook page, YouTube account and personal website.
This ban follows Facebook’s banning of Britain First earlier in the month, and possibly shows signs that social media companies are now more willing to come down hard on hateful speech and high-profile policy infringers.
3. Ecuador cuts off Julian Assange’s internet access
Julian Assange has had his internet access from the Ecuadorian embassy removed, following his apparent ‘interference in other countries’. Assange has been living in the London-based embassy for six years but has been digitally prolific in that time. The Ecuadorian Government said that it had removed his internet access because he had breached ‘a written commitment made to the Government at the end of 2017 not to issue messages that might interfere with other states’. It follows a tweet from Assange that challenged Britain’s assertion that Russia was responsible for the nerve agent poisoning.
The Guardian reports two previous occasions that Assange has been in similar trouble, in 2017 he was asked to stop discussing the Spanish Catalonia dispute by Ecuador and in 2016 his access was stopped as Ecuador feared he was interfering in the US presidential election.
4. More young people watch Netflix than BBC TV
The BBC’s Annual Plan for 2018 has acknowledged that Netflix is now more popular for children and young people than the BBC. The report states that 16-24 year olds spend more time with Netflix than ‘all of BBC TV (including iPlayer)’. In further damning news, the report says that 15-34 year olds spend more time each week listening to streaming music services than all BBC Radio. The report fears the BBC risks being overtaken by competitors, stating that 82% of children go to YouTube for on-demand content, half to Netflix and only 29% to BBC iPlayer.
As a reason for failing competitiveness, the report suggests funding has fallen 18% in real terms since 2010 due to the licence fee freeze and additional extra costs. The report claims that in the same period, ITV’s income has grown by more than 30% and Sky’s by 90%. It doesn’t detail the financial details of Netflix or Amazon.
The full report exposes the core practices of the BBC and is available online.
Seen something we’ve missed? Let us know on Twitter @Vuelio.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Four-things-1.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-29 15:09:432018-03-29 15:10:43Four Things: Project 84, Tommy Robinson, Julian Assange and BBC woes
Angie Silver writes Silverspoon London, the lifestyle and travel blog which has been ranked as the UK’s number one London Lifestyle blog. Covering the finer things in luxury London, Angie covers retail experiences, restaurant reviews and uncovers hidden gems! We spoke to her about the best places in London, how to run a successful blog and how she likes to work with brands and PRs.
What makes your blog successful? Even though blogging has changed so much over the years, the key to a good blog has always been content. I work incredibly hard on my content and produce around three blog posts a week. Photography was never my forte but I’ve worked very hard to get it to where it is today and I’m very proud of it.
Another key to blog success is relationships. In the four and half years I’ve been blogging, I’ve forged very strong relationships with brands and PRs who have returned to work with me again and again. My relationships and friendships with other bloggers has been one of the most significant aspects of the development of my blog. Not only do they provide a support network but we share each other’s content and champion each other’s blogs.
Finally, I’ve always kept it real! Stuck to my brand identity and kept my content authentic.
What’s the long-term aim of your blog? When I started my blog it was a fun hobby but eventually it turned into so much more. It’s given me opportunities that I never dreamed of, I’ve met incredible people and I’ve been able to be my own boss and make my own hours. Honestly, my long-term goal is to keep being happy creating content and exploring beautiful destinations.
Where is the best place in London? It’s hard to say the best place but the current popular places are the beautiful Instagrammable cafes. Top choices are Peggy Porschen, Saint Aymes and Aubaine in Selfridges.
Where is the best place to eat in London? It depends what food you like and what atmosphere you’re looking for but here are my top three:
For Michelin fine dining, Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester is the absolute best in my opinion.
Hakkasan is one of London’s top Chinese restaurants but it also has a buzzy and lively vibe.
Bob Bob Ricard is somewhere that will please everyone. The food is hearty and delicious, the décor is beautiful and there’s even a ‘Press for Champagne’ button at every table.
What’s the best attraction? Well you can’t miss the obvious such as Buckingham Palace, The London Eye and St Paul’s Cathedral but I’d definitely take the time to explore the more hidden side of London. I know a few people who specialise in coffee house tours or chocolate tours, which give a different perspective on the city.
If not London, where would you like to live? I love London but the busy pace of life can be overwhelming. When my husband and I visited Australia a few years ago, we fell in love with Melbourne and discussed how it would be lovely to live somewhere so laid-back. The food and the coffee scene there is outstanding too!
How do you work with PRs and brands? I absolutely prefer to meet face-to-face to establish a more personal connection. I also prefer to work on a long-term basis and develop a good working relationship and trust, rather than one-off campaigns or reviews.
I also think it’s very important that the blogger chosen for campaign is the perfect fit for the brand and market – that way everyone will get a return on investment.
What are your favourite campaigns that you’ve worked on? Last year I worked with the Mayakoba resort in Mexico. They flew me out to stay at the Rosewood Mayakoba, a spectacular luxury hotel, in order to create content for them. It was honestly a dream come true!
I also worked with Classic Collection to promote their trips to Santorini which was a dream destination for me.
What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator/writer etc)? I’m first and foremost a blogger because my blog is my main platform. However, I do think the term content creator is becoming more and more applicable to people in the industry.
Angie Silver and Silverspoon London are both listings on the Vuelio Database along with thousands of other leading journalists, editors, bloggers and outlets.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Angie-Silver.jpg430760Holly Hodges/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngHolly Hodges2018-03-28 08:00:312018-03-28 11:45:58The No.1 London Lifestyle Blogger: Angie Silver of Silverspoon London
Adrian York is a contributor to London Unattached, the London Lifestyle blog that recently ranked in the top 10 London Lifestyle Blogs in the UK, and author of The Hedonist. We caught up with Adrian to talk everything London, from the best place to eat, from the best spot to stand at night to see the city lights. We also spoke about blogging and working with PRs.
What makes your blog successful?
Firstly, London Unattached is a contributor blog with a really strong team of specialist writers who are experts in their subject area. I know I want to transmit the excitement I feel to our wonderfully loyal readers when I go to an inspiring concert, eat a wonderful meal or have an amazing trip. Secondly, our boss, blogging ‘legend’ Fiona Maclean, navigates the blogosphere with style, wit and grace and holds the whole thing together brilliantly.
What’s the long-term aim of your blogging?
To share fantastic experiences with our readers. At London Unattached we are given opportunities to sample the best of London, the UK and the world, and the mission is to give an honest and accessible view. On a personal note, I enjoy the process of writing about food, lifestyle, music, men’s fashion and culture whether it is for London Unattached, my own blog The Hedonist, or for online news portals such as The Conversation, The Independent or The Huffington Post. I’d like to keep on doing it and raise my profile as critic and cultural commentator. It provides a different space for me to operate in away from my day job as an academic and jazz musician.
Where is the best place in London?
I love to stand on Waterloo Bridge at night and look at the river and the lights illuminating the greatest city in the world.
Where is the best place to eat in London?
I’ve been eating out in London since the 1970s and have seen a huge change in the range and quality of restaurants. I love how London has become a major player in the global gastro scene so choosing one place is always going to be hard. I’m going to choose a tiny new place in Hackney called Nest that epitomises cutting-edge trends in fine dining.
What’s the best attraction?
The whole city is the attraction. See it all from the top of The Shard. Experience cutting edge theatre at The Young Vic, immerse yourself in the street hustle and small plate restaurants of Soho, soak up the glitz and designer fashion of Bond Street and enjoy incredible Indian restaurants in Southall.
If not London, where would you like to live?
Somewhere warm! I’d love to be an urban nomad spending a few months staying in a place to really get under the skin of a city and then moving on. Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, New York, Madrid, Athens, Rome, Tokyo and Lisbon would do for starters!
How do you work with PRs and brands? We are contacted by PRs who reach out to us when they have a product, event or launch that they want to publicise.
It’s important only to work with brands that relate to the demographic that you serve. At London Unattached and at my blog The Hedonist we focus on elements that will appeal to Gen X and baby-boomers.
What are the best campaigns you’ve collaborated on?
I really enjoy cultural and gastronomic trips around the world. I visited Hamburg for the ElbJazz Festival set in the city’s shipyards. I ate my way around Athens on a gastro walking tour of the city and explored the food and culture of Lake Garda in Northern Italy.
What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator/writer etc)?
I’m a blogger and writer.
Adrian York, London Unattached and the Hedonist are all listings on the Vuelio Database along with thousands of other leading journalists, editors, bloggers and outlets.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Adrian-York.jpg430760Holly Hodges/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngHolly Hodges2018-03-28 07:30:352018-03-28 12:18:56London Lifestyle spotlight with Adrian York
Spring Forward is a brand-new conference that will take place on 24 May in Bristol. The event is designed for women (with men also welcome) who are ready, or want to be ready, to take the next step in their career.
Sarah Pinch is the managing director of Pinch Point Communications and the chair of the Taylor Bennett Foundation. Sarah has long advocated the need for a strong professional network, particularly when encouraging women in business, and her latest venture takes that to the next level. She said: ‘Spring Forward has been a year in the planning. I wanted to put on something that inspires women to take that next step; but also equips them with real skills to do so.’
The conference will focus on three key areas that Sarah believes are vital to the success of women in the industry: culture, confidence and choice.
The event has a mix of big name speakers – including Karen Boswell OBE, the global CEO and managing director of Hitachi Rail Europe, and Nathalie McGloin, a female racing driver paralysed from the chest down – as well as intimate workshops and focus groups.
Sarah said: ‘We have two fantastic key note speakers in Karen Boswell OBE and Nathalie McGloin, both women at the top of their chosen professions in rail and motorsport. Karen and I worked together at FirstGroup and her determination, hard work and great love of life is infectious. She is responsible for all the new trains coming onto our railways in the coming years. And I met Nathalie recently and she is so inspirational, a successful female racing driver, who is paralysed from the chest down; she’s totally smashing it!
‘And we have a great panel, drawn from the public appointments office, school governors and charities to talk about how you can get board level experience through volunteering – so you’re ready for that next step in your paid employment.’
While the aim of the conference is to explore the issues of culture, confidence and choice, there will also be plenty of time devoted to networking, ensuring the professional benefits that come from being part of such a group are felt by every attendee.
This event is just the beginning of Spring Forward, with plans for the sessions to inform a white paper due out in summer: Women and the C Words: culture, confidence and choice. How do those words hold women back currently and what can we do collectively, to change that?
For more information, and to book your tickets, check out the official Eventbrite page.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Spring-Forward.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-28 07:00:352018-03-28 10:28:33Spring Forward: culture, confidence and choice
Vuelio is delighted to announce a comprehensive webinar about the GDPR for the communications industry. We’ll be joined by Rowenna Fielding, GDPR specialist at Protecture, the data protection consultancy.
The webinar GDPR for Comms – Expert Advice to Get It Right takes place on Wednesday 11 April at 11am (BST). Sign up for the webinar here.
The GDPR comes into force on 25 May 2018 and will be the most important change in data protection in 20 years. It affects everyone who deals with personal data, whether that’s names and email addresses or dietary preferences and pet names. Getting it wrong, or burying your head in the sand, is just not an option.
But don’t worry!
On top of our white paper and comprehensive guide, we have designed this webinar to specifically meet the needs of the comms industry. Rowenna will be outlining everything you need to do before 25 May and point out things you may have missed.
We’ll be covering all the main points of the GDPR and you’ll leave knowing:
The difference between legitimate interest and consent – and which you should use
When you’re a data processor and when you’re a data controller – and why it matters
How you can comply with the GDPR – and still communicate with everyone successfully
The webinar will be broadcast live and includes a live Q&A. If you have questions about the GDPR and working in comms, this is your chance to get them answered by an expert.
Join us, on 11 April at 11am (BST) and stop worrying about the GDPR. Even if you can’t make the date or time, we’ll send you a recording of the webinar afterwards.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/GDPR.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-27 09:47:472018-05-31 11:20:54GDPR for comms – expert advice to get it right
London-Unattached is a multi-author blog covering a range of lifestyle topics, with a strong focus on food and travel. Founded by Fiona Maclean, London-Unattached covers topics of interest to Generation X and up. Fiona told us about her best travel experiences, working with PRs and meat fruit.
What makes your blog unique?
London-Unattached is a contributor blog or blogazine – I work with six talented individuals, each with a different focus. So, for example, I have one writer who specialises in theatre reviews – she’s an actress and theatre coach for her day job; another is a university lecturer in music and jazz musician. We are all Generation X upward (over 45) so we address a niche that I believe is under represented but has a high disposable income and wants to explore. We all cover food (restaurant reviews and recipe development) and travel.
What’s your biggest aim with the blog/what would you ideally achieve with it? I’d like to get to the stage where we have, say, a quarterly print magazine to complement the online content.
What’s your favourite location in the UK? The Scilly Isles – I went last year and the islands had a wonderful Enid Blyton feel to them – very unspoilt!
What’s your favourite trip abroad? As always, it’s my most recent trip! I’m just back from Rodrigues, a tiny island the size of Jersey, 150 miles north of Mauritius. Although it lacked the ‘resort luxury’ of some of the other destinations I’ve visited, it made up for it in a big way by having totally empty beaches, coral reefs, a plethora of wildlife and some fantastic food (French Creole with a seafood bias)
What’s the best thing about blogging about your travels? Finding places like Rodrigues that I’ve never heard of but which are astonishingly beautiful – and then having the opportunity to share them with other people. Or finding a special feature that I know will be a hook for my readers – in St Lucia for instance, I’d have to highlight the luxury of the resorts as well as the activities, while in Bruges, for me, it was that the food was more than a match for the heritage and architecture.
Best meal you’ve ever eaten? Last year, at Dinner by Heston (sorry to be so obvious – but I still dream of the Meat Fruit!)
What one thing should PRs know about you? I’m more cautious on paper than I am in real life. Generally, given a bit of encouragement, I’ll have a go at things I’d say no to if you asked me ahead of time.
What are the best PR/brand collaborations you’ve worked on? I love doing recipe development projects. I really enjoy being given a challenge and creating something to use a specific ingredient or to pair with a specific wine. I’ve done one recently with Spanish Sherry and a couple with Grana Padano and Prosciutto di San Daniele including this set of festive canapes.
I also like working with a country destination on a long-term basis. One of my first press trips was to Portugal and I’ve subsequently been back every year and now have a wealth of content about a country I love. Last year, I worked with the Czech Republic for the first time, went on two trips to Prague, Pardubice and Brno, produced six blog posts and won their ‘Blogger of the Year award’. I think it takes time to get to know a destination well – so being given the opportunity to go back really helps.
What do you call yourself (Blogger/influencer/content creator)? Freelance writer (I do work on a number of other writing projects, from website development through to writing newsletters and blogging for other people).
What other blogs do you read? Too many to list. For quirky blogs I wouldn’t normally come across, I love the ‘Big up Your Blog’ group. It’s full of passionate and lovely people like Jill Creighton who writes Midlifesmarts and Suzanne Vickery who writes about her experience travelling the world as a House Sitter.
Fiona and her blog are both listings on the Vuelio Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists, editors and outlets.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Fiona-Maclean.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-26 15:06:092018-03-26 15:06:09Food and Travel: Fiona Maclean, London-Unattached
Huge congratulations to all the winners of the PRmoment Awards! It was a fantastic evening with winners across the whole industry, from big name agencies to smaller boutiques and specialist consultants.
We were proud to sponsor the drinks reception, which kicked off the event in style. It was great to see so many talented people in one place, able to let their hair down and celebrate their hard work over the past year. The volume of chat and excitement reached a crescendo by the time the doors opened for the awards.
The evening began with a welcome speech from the founder of PRmoment, Ben Smith. Thank you to Ben and the whole team at PRmoment for a great night. Hosting the awards throughout the evening was the hilarious Ellie Taylor (as seen at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2017!). The awards ceremony began with plenty of laughter, food and drink, but it was the awards and their winners that took centre stage.
Vuelio sponsored two awards: Event of the Year and Public Sector Campaign of the Year. Taylor Herring and Channel 5 scooped Event of the Year for their headline-grabbing pop-up restaurant, ran entirely by nuns serving soup. The pop up not only promoted the Channel 5 series Bad Habits: Holy Orders, but also offered diners a phone amnesty, possibly making it the first Instagram-free restaurant in London!
Kindred for HM Treasury & The Royal Mint won the Public Sector Campaign of the Year award. Kindred were tasked with getting the public and businesses excited for the launch of the new pound coin and did just that with the ‘New Quid on the Block’ campaign.
The only way to end any good awards ceremony is with plenty of dancing and there were many shapes being thrown! Thank you to everyone who attended (especially everyone Vuelio got to speak to) for a brilliant 2018 awards, and well done again to all the winners.
Five Things You Shouldn’t Have Missed this week includes Facebook’s latest woes, political parties using data, Brand Ant & Dec, Count Dankula and Bumble swiping left on Tinder.
1. Facebook’s $50bn comms disaster
The news that Facebook allows companies to collect and use personal data for commercial gain should be surprising to no one; it’s literally the company’s business model. But the story this week that data firm Cambridge Analytica bought data from a Cambridge professor’s Facebook app to create 50 million profiles – which possibly contributed to Trump’s presidential victory – has hit the public like the elephant in the room on a rampage. We’ve explored the ways in which Facebook has suffered, and covered the four crisis comms mistakes it made.
The biggest of these is the initial absence of Zuckerberg and then his eventual explanatory Facebook post, which has been described as ‘totally insufficient’. (Facebook has now published open letters in a number of newspapers, possibly emulating Bumble, story below).
The alleged breach led to Facebook’s share price taking a big, $50bn-dollar hit – but is this the end of the social giant? (Probably not).
2. Political parties exclude themselves from new data laws
Talking of data being used to profile people for political gain without the individual’s knowledge or consent – the Independent has reported that UK political parties are excluding themselves from the new data laws so they can still use personal data ‘to find out how people are likely to vote’. The Independent directly linked this story to the Cambridge Analytica debacle, but the public outrage (obviously via the front pages of national papers) hasn’t followed.
The Independent reports, ‘All the major parties have agreed to the exemption from new data protection laws, arguing it clarifies their widely recognised right to canvas voters in order to target possible supporters.’
If you’re not a political party, and you’re worried about complying with the GDPR law, check out our comprehensive guide (which is a form-free download).
3. Brand Ant & Dec
Ant McPartlin was charged with drink driving this week after he was involved in a multiple-car collision. The troubled star is back in rehab, leaving his significant other, Declan Donnelly, to present the final two episodes of Saturday Night Takeaway alone. This is an historic moment for brand Ant & Dec – the pair that work exclusively as a duo to the point that they always stand the same way (Ant then Dec), are temporarily split up. Brand Saturday Night Takeaway has to continue for the final episodes, as the finale is competition winners in Orlando (Cat Deeley has been mooted to stand in as co-host, but probably not as Prozac the giggle fairy).
Brand Suzuki has ended its contract with the duo, but will continue to sponsor the programme (family friendly automotive brands generally avoid drink driving ambassadors).
Brands Britain’s Got Talent and I’m A Celebrity are later in the year so may continue as normal if Brand Ant & Dec recovers. Which, as long as Ant gets better, is almost a certainty. In terms of crisis comms, Ant has done everything right: he has been honest, admitted he’s struggling, and gone to rehab. Everyone is communicating about the situation and working together for the best outcome. Ant & Dec’s place in the nation’s hearts seems to be secure.
Long live Brand Ant & Dec.
4. Count Dankula and the free speech debate
Ah free speech and social media. This week the endless debate has a bizarre advocate – YouTuber Count Dankula, who was convicted of making a ‘grossly offensive’ video after he taught his girlfriend’s dog to react to phrases such as ‘Sieg Heil’ and ‘gas the Jews’. The UK doesn’t have free speech laws like the US*, but globalisation (spearheaded by the rise of American-based social media sites) has created the illusion that we do. Count Dankula, real name Mark Meecham, was considered to have committed a crime in line with existing UK law on offense. Open and shut case, right?
Wrong. Conservative West Yorkshire MP Philip Davies is now demanding a debate on freedom of speech. Davies said: ‘We guard our freedom of speech in this House very dearly indeed…but we don’t often allow our constituents the same freedoms.
‘Can we have a debate about freedom of speech in this country – something this country has long held dear and is in danger of throwing away needlessly?’
Once again, the responsibility of YouTube as host of such content is being overlooked. Perhaps Logan Paul and Cambridge Analytica didn’t actually happen.
5. Bumble swipes left on Tinder
Tinder and Bumble are at loggerheads, with Tinder’s owner, Match Group, filing a lawsuit for alleged intellectual property theft. In what is partially a PR war, Bumble has come out fighting with a stinging full-page advert in the New York Times titled ‘Bumble swipes left on Match group/Tinder allegations’. The open letter to Match Group continues the Tinder-swipe theme: ‘We swipe left on you. We swipe left on your multiple attempts to buy us, copy us and, now, to intimidate us.’ [bold text as printed]
Bumble has also scored PR points for making their women-first approach (the app’s USP is that women have to make the first move) very clear: ‘We – a woman-founded, women-led company – aren’t scared of aggressive corporate culture’. The letter uses the alleged ‘bullying’ by Tinder to describe how their platform is designed to be safe for women.
This is a master stroke by Bumble, and even using a traditional newspaper ad to run the advert, is a touch of genius – tying this modern tech company with tradition and therefore traditional values (oh hey Facebook). Obviously Match Group is massive, but Bumble has ensured the ball is firmly in their court (hopefully next week’s Five Things will include an incredible response!).
*For example: offensive comments, inciting hatred, inciting someone to commit a crime and legitimate threats are all illegal in the UK.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/23-March-.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-26 08:40:342018-05-31 11:21:00Five Things: Facebook, the GDPR, Ant & Dec, Count Dankula and Bumble swiping left
On a long enough timeline, the life expectancy of all social media sites drops to zero. Facebook is suffering, but is this the beginning of the end or just another bump in the road?
The Cambridge Analytica story is known to most people now. The large data company bought 50 million data entries from an academic, who had harvested it off Facebook for the purposes of ‘research’. It then used this data to some, as yet, unclear extent (against Facebook’s rules) to help political movements around the world including, according to its own claims, a contribution to President Trump’s victory.
After months of investigative research by The Observer, an undercover reporter from Channel 4 was able to film CEO Alexander Nix making bold claims that the company led politicians around the world into honey traps and bribing officials. He has since been suspended.
For Facebook, the news was damning. After the report was broadcast, and following work from the Observer and the New York Times, some $50bn was wiped from Facebook’s stock market value.
It has since recovered slightly but at one point was 10% down.
Facebook then made a series of seemingly rookie moves in terms of crisis comms: the company suspended whistleblower Chris Wylie’s Facebook and Instagram accounts; its chief of security Alex Stamos is reportedly leaving the company but nothing has officially acknowledged this; Facebook went into the offices of Cambridge Analytica to ‘investigate’ on the evening of the report, a day before the ICO were able to apply for a warrant; and, perhaps most damaging, Mark Zuckerberg was kept from making a comment until days later.
When a listed company takes a dive on the stock market, with investors and clients threatening to sue, advertisers pulling their ad spend, and governments around the world discussing heavy regulation, a CEO needs to respond swiftly to show someone is in control and the situation is being handled.
Instead, we waited four days for a Facebook post to appear, in which Zuckerberg acknowledged Facebook has ‘a responsibility to protect your data’, and ‘if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you’. He explained a timeline of events that led to the crisis, and says that it was a ‘breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it’.
Is this too little, too late though?
This article from MarketWatch certainly thinks so. It quotes Davia Temin, a management consultant who said, ‘This is a totally insufficient response, both operationally and emotionally. Yes, it is prescriptive, yet strangely hollow, limited, unemotional, and lacking any form of apology.’ Temin says that the company should be responding to such a crisis in 15 minutes, because on social media, 15 minutes is an age.
Deleting your Facebook account is now in vogue, thanks in no small part to some big names including the co-founder of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, who tweeted: ‘It is time. #deletefacebook’. WhatsApp, of course, was sold to Facebook in 2014 for $19bn. This issue is damning for the social giant, but as people are pointing out (mostly on Twitter), all the big social companies collect personal data and sell it to advertisers and third parties.
So, if Facebook now fails (and presumably the likes of Twitter, Google and Amazon remain healthy), it will be largely because it didn’t handle its comms correctly to get itself out of this hole.
Obviously, the state of social media, the collection of data and third party access is going to become VERY exciting after the GDPR comes into force. If, for example, the ICO decided Facebook had allowed the data breach through negligence and it was after 25 May – the fine would have been up to $500m.
Imagine.
If you’re unsure about GDPR, and not sure how it’s affecting the comms industry, download out our comprehensive guide.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Mark-Zuckerberg.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-22 14:16:062018-03-22 14:16:06Is this the end of Facebook, or just a comms disaster?
Karen Beddow writes Mini Travellers, the family travel blog that frequently gets ranked among the best in the UK. We caught up with Karen to talk about the uniqueness of her blog (according to the views of her readers), the best PR and brand collaborations she’s worked on and working with her kids to make the blog amazing.
What makes your blog unique?
I actually asked this question of my readers a few months ago and I got some lovely replies, a couple of my favourites were: ‘Makes people realise that it is possible to do cool and interesting things as a family’, and, ‘I love the fact that you cover everything from Rwanda to Disney and days out at home; something for everyone’. They put it much better than I could do myself.
What’s your biggest aim with the blog/what would you ideally achieve with it?
In fairness it has already done it as the blog has allowed me to work from home, take the children to school and collect them, and have all the school holidays off to travel.
How do you plan your travels? We plan our travel around flight deals, meetings we have had with PRs, reading lots and lots of other travel blogs that inspire me and sometimes just a gut feel that we have to go somewhere!
What’s the best place you’ve ever been to?
This is a really really hard one. Probably for the experience Rwanda – the whole trip was incredible and we’re off to Malawi as a family at easter as it worked out so well. For relaxation, a villa in Sivota, Greece with Simpson Travel as it just worked on every level.
How do your children feel about the blog?
They absolutely love it and are really proud of it. They know that it brings them great opportunities.
What one place haven’t you been that you want to?
Chile and Argentina – I’ve had two trips that I’d booked that had to be cancelled for different reasons so it is very high up the bucket list.
What’s the best day out in the UK? Oh I think that’s a tough one to answer, so many but for so many different reasons. For us, it is usually a day at a beach with a really big picnic, some sun and lots of friends.
What do you call yourself (Blogger/influencer/content creator)?
Blogger
What other blogs do you read?
Lots and lots but I recently met a couple on a trip to Morzine who are travelling the world and I was genuinely inspired by their amazing story. They were a really lovey couple too.
Karen Beddow and Mini Travellers are both listings on the Vuelio Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists, editors and outlets.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Karen-Beddows-mini-travellers-2.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-22 10:15:282018-03-22 10:17:13Blogger Spotlight: Karen Beddow, Mini Travellers
Craig Landale is the founder and editor-in-chief of Menswear Style, which won the Best Men’s Lifestyle Blog and Best UK Blog at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2017. We caught up with Craig to find out what it takes to make the UK’s best blog, what you need to be a full-time blogger and the best advice he has for PRs and brands.
We also put Craig on the spot with five quickfire questions – full video below!
Tell us about Menswear Style
Menswear Style started as a hobby. I left my job in Leeds as a digital marketing manager for a big clothing company and I wanted to keep writing content. I quickly started receiving emails from PRs and brands asking me to review their clothing. At first, they were just asking me to review and there was no talk of money but then the blog started to get more hits and traffic. I started to give the blog more consistency and was updating it every other day. I’d say six months into its existence I started to get good traffic, and good partnerships were coming through.
How do you feel about going from a hobby blog to a successful professional blog in such a short time? I think today it wouldn’t happen because the industry is saturated – there’s too many influencers and too many bloggers. In 2012, I think I was just in time to enter when the market wasn’t so crowded. Even when I was working in men’s fashion I would only look at a handful of reputable menswear blogs – sites like FashionBeans, Highsnobiety, HYPEBEAST – I couldn’t have counted more than 10 really. So, I was able to get a good share of voice and get my name out there quite easily.
After a year, I quit doing the consultancy completely and the blog became my full-time job.
What was it like going full time? It was rapid growth at the time. I used to be amazed at the analytics, I would watch the real-time traffic and see articles go viral with thousands on the site. I had studied at the Chartered Institute of Marketing and my experience working in digital marketing meant I could put everything into the blog. That was an advantage I had over some other bloggers, because not many had any SEO or digital marketing experience at the time.
Now the industry has been here for a short while, there’s some rules and guidelines you can follow, but at the time it was unknown territory and giving up my full-time job to leap into the unknown was a bit scary.
I don’t think I could do it today; I’m a father, I have a mortgage – I feel like the battle of the mind would weigh towards a secure paying job.
You said you were making the rules, what do you wish you hadn’t done and what are you glad you did do? I used to spend a lot of time on affiliate marketing, which didn’t really go anywhere – it’s really difficult to make money from it (especially nowadays) so I feel like I wasted a lot of time on that.
I also put a lot of emphasis on banners because back then they made a lot of money, but now there are pop-up blockers and ad blockers, and it’s not something that makes as much money anymore. Even with sponsored content, I didn’t know what to charge – I would pluck a figure out of thin air!
Because I didn’t really know what I should be charging, I massively undervalued myself. I didn’t update my media kit for a few years, but a lot of brands were really honest and would say my prices were way too low.
I thought that until demand was more than I could keep up with, I would keep it low. But I have realised that the perception of having a high price can be higher quality as well – if a brand sees that a price for a sponsored article is a higher price, they feel the value they’re going to get back is good traffic, good engagement and good exposure. Low prices would make them feel like you didn’t have the traffic or engagement.
Now I’m not so cheap but I still give good value.
Well you have the Best UK Blog and you can’t beat that! How do you feel about winning twice at the Vuelio Blog Awards? It was amazing. I’ve been going to the Vuelio Blog Awards since the first year and I’ve always been up against women’s fashion bloggers. At times I think I was the only man in the category. I knew I wouldn’t win that award – the womenswear industry is like the Champions League and menswear is the Championship. That’s just because of the size of the industry – the millions spent by women compared to men, it’s much higher and even though menswear is growing at a rapid rate, it’s still nowhere near.
Luckily for 2017, you brought in the men’s lifestyle category and I thought, I’ve got a really good chance. I was hoping I would win it – I had a feeling Ape to Gentleman could take it because that’s a website I use for inspiration and I know they’re good and reputable. And then I won – and it was a huge relief! Finally, I had won an Award at the Vuelio Blog Awards!
When it came to the final award, Best UK Blog, usually my wife and I try to sneak off just after it’s announced because we’re not night owls (we like to sleep). We were getting ready to sneak out and then it was announced.
It was a massive shock.
I thought it would be a women’s fashion blogger, or interiors or politics – I did not expect it to be menswear. My menswear friends and other nominees were amazed as well and so supportive. We’re a close-knit group – we’re always at the same events and know each other – they thought it was amazing for menswear blogging and the industry. The highest accolade has gone to a menswear blogger, so it’s a victory for all of us.
What’s the menswear blogging community like? When you go to events and on press trips, you bump into the same people and everyone’s friendly. I’ve been doing this since 2012, so I’m one of the older guys. Now I don’t go to as many events as the other guys but when I first started, I went to everything. I was at an event every night of the week with my wife. We used it as our way of socialising in this new city we’d just move to, for free. But now I’m a father, I handpick the events I go to because it can be overbearing. I have a team of freelance writers as well, so I usually pass it down to them.
What’s your day to day? I’m writing content, doing social media, I edit every article that comes in from the team and I take care of the commercial side. I deal with all the brand and PR emails – some have great budgets and I’m happy, some aren’t a good fit so I turn them down. There are some who don’t have a good budget but they’re doing work I admire so I do work for free, but it has to be a brand I really really like. If it’s an up-and-coming brand I might be interested in featuring them.
Who is the competition? Other bloggers are definitely competition. When a brand pitches a brief, they’re going to bloggers and publications. I always want to make sure we get a look in, the engagement we get on social media is fantastic and I want to make sure the brands know about that. I also put the last three months of google analytics performance on the blog so it’s clear for PRs to see what we can achieve. I’m not taking it for granted that anyone would know who Menswear Style is, you can spend a long time getting to know PRs and then they could leave the industry and a new wave of PRs could come in who don’t know you anymore. Especially as I’m going to events a lot less – out of sight, out of mind.
What are your dos and don’ts for PRs? The big don’t is when a brand just sends out a blanket email to everyone and you can tell. The worst is when they forget to BCC and then someone replies and you end up getting hundreds of emails.
Also, if the email is too long. It sounds bad, but when you have lots of email pitches to get through, you want to read one paragraph to find out what they’re after. Some brands come through and they know exactly what they want, and they’re up-front about budget – making it clear if they’re willing to pay or not. I always ask about budget to make sure we both know how to work together.
I have a lot of brands coming back year on year. The majority I’m working with now, I’ve worked with before. The competitions we host are really successful; some brands will come back every year or season to do a competition. The entry method also has opt-in forms, so it’s good for their email marketing, and brands keep coming back for those.
The competition from influencers is also strong, but I’m not so worried about them because what I do and where I make my money is through the blog. They’re making money on social, like Instagram. For me, social is not a commercial stream, it’s a chance for people to see ‘behind the scenes’ at Menswear Style and to share our blogs. I add it on as a sweetener, if a brand books a brand-focused article, which means we write about their brand, we add it on but we don’t do Instagram posting for money. I’m not personally an influencer.
What’s an influencer? An individual that’s living the lifestyle that people like to watch. It’s usually on Instagram, the insta-influencer is rising rapidly. They’re the new celebrity, kids nowadays don’t know traditional celebrities, but they know who influencers are.
I call myself a blogger and digital content creator, when I’m trying to explain my job to people. I think the average guy our age, would probably not realise blogging is a full-time job, and think it’s just a hobby. They probably know you can make money but not enough to replace a salary. But I think teenagers today know this is the career they want. You could probably ask a class of 12-year-olds and half would say they want to be a vlogger, blogger or an insta-influencer. They’ve grown up with technology and they’ve seen it work.
What’s next for Menswear Style? People ask me this and I always say I want to continue – when things are going good, don’t fix it. I’m always tweaking the website, but no drastic changes; the categories are great, the streetstyle is great, it’s all just going great. I might get ‘radical’ ideas, but I they’re always little things being added on, nothing major.
I do want the articles to be a bit longer though. When I first started it was about shorter articles (300 words), but I know longform is coming back and they please Google too. I want stories to be a bit more interesting, not just about a new collection but about the person who made the clothes, the area they were made in or the traditions in manufacturing. Just something more engaging than the bare facts.
Quickfire Five – VIDEO
Craig Landale and Menswear Style are listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists, editors and outlets.
DriveWrite Automotive is a leading auto blog written by Geoff Maxted. Including car reviews and features about the driving life, DriveWrite Automotive recently featured on the Top 10 UK Automotive Blogs. We spoke to Geoff about branching out his writing, issues facing the automotive industry and working with brands.
What makes your blog unique?
I don’t follow the motoring journalist herd, avoiding endless car reviews of vehicles that everyone else is reviewing. I am less concerned with the very latest thing. I am very much trying to present things in an original and varied format that responds to the broad topic of ‘automotive’ and always taking care with grammar and spelling. You won’t find any profanity on my blog.
How and why are you now branching out as a writer?
I am certainly broadening the scope of DriveWrite, although non-automotive work will be on separate blogs in due course. My experience of writing has led me to other avenues and I am now very experienced in writing to order and to a brief, regardless of the topic. I welcome commissions.
What’s your favourite car?
Audi R8 V10. That’s me in the mugshot, driving one.
How important is photography to automotive blogging?
Very important. I am a former lecturer in photography so always strive to make my images as good as possible. I have recently upgraded my cameras and this year will be shooting video for the first time. Video is the way to go now for almost any blogger.
How difficult do you find it to convey an experience in a blog post?
I like to write creatively and don’t find conveying a mood or feeling or experience difficult.
What’s the biggest issue facing the automotive industry? Convincing the public to move with the times. The attempt to persuade people into electric cars for example has been half-hearted in my opinion. They really are good vehicles.
We’ve discovered that for many bloggers, social media has become the new comments section. How important is social media to your blog?
Very. There’s a lot of garbage on social media and it is important to rise above it. The popular mediums are vital to getting the good word out there. Word of mouth still has its place too. You need readers talking to others.
What are the best PR/brand collaborations you’ve worked on?
I can’t really name one. It’s always best to be on great terms with collaborators.
What do you call yourself (Blogger/influencer/content creator)?
It’s what other people call me that’s important. I want to be known as a writer of quality first and foremost.
What other blogs do you read? Leisure time? What’s that?
Geoff Maxted and DriveWrite Automotive are listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists, editors and outlets.
New York-based Relevance International recently opened its London office and has its sights set on more. With a raft of clients from the luxury, real estate and corporate worlds, Relevance International has come a long way since its launch in 2012 – driven by its founder and CEO, Suzanne Rosnowski.
Relevance’s London office recently announced two appointments, Anita Gryson as associate director and Alice Lacey as account director, and it has been named global public relations agency for The Royal Atlantis Residences in Dubai. So, how does an agency go from seemingly humble beginnings to taking on the world in just six years?
Luxury and prestige brands have a global client base, and it can be a challenge targeting such an expansive audience. For Suzanne, finding this audience and, more importantly, reaching them with the right messaging is an ‘art form’ for which Relevance International has an unwavering passion. Growing a global presence is part of this challenge, and the new London location – coupled with an engaged affiliate network of publicists – aims to tackle it.
We’re delighted that Suzanne Rosnowski will be joining Vuelio for a live webinar on Tuesday 27 March, at 2pm (BST). She will tell us how she grew her agency for the global stage, how US PR differs from UK PR, and why she has her sights set on even more locations across the planet.
Suzanne will also discuss the PR industry more broadly, and has a wealth of experience to talk with authority on everything from social media to the benefits of being a partner at a firm. We will be exploring a huge industry issue – the ethical dilemmas around paid/earned media, with Relevance’s position of not blending advertising and PR, part of their global approach. This is particularly significant when considering the rise of influencer marketing and paying for coverage.
The webinar will also include a live Q&A with the audience, so if you have any burning questions, and want answers from the top, this is the webinar for you.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Suzanne-Rosnowski.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-19 11:33:002018-03-19 11:33:00What does it take to be a global PR?
This week Five Things You Shouldn’t Have Missed includes new social media laws, Facebook taking responsibility, the Metro’s moment in the Sun, (Fer)Nando’s and BuzzFeed’s unlikely victory.
1. Matt Hancock to rewrite social media laws
Not content with launching his own social media platform, Matt Hancock, the culture secretary, has now suggested the UK could write ‘world-leading’ regulations for technology companies, thanks to Brexit. No longer bound by EU rules, a post-Brexit Britain would be able to create ‘forward-looking’ legislation appropriate for the 21st century. Hancock said new laws would support ‘the innovation and the freedom that these social media platforms bring but also ensures they mitigate better against harms’.
Areas Hancock has suggested the law could be changed include making a new legal status for social media companies between traditional platforms and publishers, changing competition laws and tackling fake news. Hancock doesn’t actually want to make platform owners responsible for the content they publish as he is a platform owner himself. He said: ‘I can’t be liable for what they publish, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to allow them to publish it, because I can only be liable for what I publish.’
Five Things is very excited to see what Matt Hancock’s next plan is to make his time as culture secretary historic.
2. Facebook bans Britain First
Talking of platform owners becoming responsible, Facebook has removed Britain First and its leaders from the platform. The removal was due to the far-right group ‘repeatedly’ violating community standards. The page had achieved over two million likes at the point of its removal.
In a detailed blog post, Facebook explained that people are allowed ‘different views’ and that they are ‘very careful not to remove posts or Pages just because some people don’t like them’. However, Facebook goes on to say: ‘There are times though when legitimate political speech crosses the line and becomes hate speech designed to stir up hatred against groups in our society.’
Facebook gave the group a ‘final written warning’, which was ignored as the group continued to post content ‘designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups’.
This decisive action is huge news, because the social media giant has taken a clear action against a page with millions of followers and published its reasoning. There is now little excuse for it not to take action against other, similar rule breakers.
3. Is The Sun setting?
The Metro now has more printed copies in circulation than The Sun, though both have experienced year-on-year falls. The Press Gazette reports the latest ABC figures, which show the Metro’s 1,472,437 copies in Feb, while down 0.25% on 2017, was greater than The Sun’s 1,465,000 – down 8% on 2017. To make matters worse, The Sun’s number includes its Saturday edition, whereas the Metro only prints Monday-Friday.
Ted Young, editor of the Metro, said: ‘This is a massive Metro moment and one which demonstrates the demand for our trusted and loved product with a young, professional audience on their morning commute in every major city every weekday morning. As long as the appetite is there, we intend to remain the largest distributed newspaper in Britain.’
The Sun is still the UK’s best-selling daily newspaper by some margin. Every priced national paper experienced a fall in circulation, the biggest being The Sunday Mirror (-20.18%), Daily Mirror (-19.04%), The Daily Telegraph (-18.06%) and the Sunday People (-17.93%).
4. Nando’s and Fernando’s
Within weeks of Nando’s proving that a potentially reputation-damaging story (their chips coming from McCain) means nothing to loyal Nando’s fans, its back in the news – now accused of attacking a small business. Due to what appears to be copyright infringement, an independent peri-peri restaurant called ‘Fernando’s’, which has a cockerel logo among other similarities, has been asked by the chilli chicken phenomenon to cease and desist.
Fernando’s struck out, claiming Nando’s is ‘threatened’ by its success. Fernando’s owner Asam Aziz, who claims the inspiration for the name is from TV’s Take Me Out, said he is being bullied by Nando’s (full legal name: Nando’s ChickenLand Limited – which sounds like the best theme park ever!).
A Nando’s spokesman tried to reduce the heat, by saying: ‘We are really proud of our brand and we know it means a lot to our customers. That’s why whenever we think there is trademark infringement we try to sort it out amicably’, which seems balanced from a brand that is seemingly untouchable.
5. BuzzFeed wins News Website of the Year
BuzzFeed (LMAO, ROFL, WOW), a viral site famous for listicles, scooped the biggest digital prize at the Press Awards this week winning News Website of the Year. The achievement is huge for a site that launched in 2013 and is more well known for its ‘Which Friends character are you’ type articles than serious journalism. But in recent years, the site has gained a reputation for ‘proper’ journalism particularly in government and politics – breaking a number of stories in the last 12 months and being an outlet for many leaks. Jim Waterson, outgoing political editor, may be disappointed that the Guardian, his next employer, was only awarded Highly Commended in the same category.
Other notable winners include the Financial Times scooping Newspaper of the Year and News Team of the Year (for The Europopulists); the Daily Mail winning Campaign of the Year for ‘Turn the tide on plastic’; Tom Harper, Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Richard Kerbaj who won ‘Scoop of the Year’ for finding porn on Damian Green’s computer; and Mark Townsend of the Observer, who won News Reporter of the Year.
Congratulations all.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/16-March.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-16 14:05:572018-03-16 14:05:57Five Things You Shouldn’t Have Missed – 16 March 2018
Becky Moore is the owner of Global Grasshopper, a leading travel blog with a small team of writers and photographers. Covering the hottest destinations, coolest hotels and advice for all travellers, Global Grasshopper has created a huge dedicated audience who love the stunning visuals and insider tips.
We spoke to Becky about conquering the world (in travel blogging terms), beautiful holidays and working with brands.
What makes your blog unique?
We try to steer away from writing about all the major tourist resorts and focus on the world’s most beautiful, unique and under-the-radar places instead. We also strive to create our posts with a lot of care and love, using only very high-quality photography and video footage (produced by our team’s professional videographer Gary Nunn).
What’s your biggest aim with the blog?
To continue making content that people want to read and watch and to maintain and increase our rankings in Google. We have a very popular category of the most beautiful places to visit in each country, which we always get great feedback on! And although we already feature the most popular travel destinations, I’d eventually love to cover every country in the world. One day!
What’s the best place you’ve ever been to? Havana. Havana is a city that it’s impossible not to be happy in. I first visited a few years ago when I was going through a particularly bad time in my life and it instantly lifted me. Aside from the music, architecture, dancing, sunshine, cocktails and unique way of life, Cuba’s biggest asset is its people. It’s a place where you will be greeted with warmth that is unrivalled in any other places I’ve visited, and it’s a country you’ll leave with far more friends than when you arrived!
Where haven’t you been that you’re desperate to go to? I’m a huge Scandinavia fan and although I’ve been to many places in the region I’m still longing to explore the fjords in Norway. The UNESCO-protected fjords cut into a series of towering mountains and is a place where waterfalls cascade down mountainsides, and where glaciers never melt. The area is said to offer some of the most unspoilt and spectacular scenery in the world.
Hotel of self-catering (or camping, hostels or air bnb)? If I visit a city, I always seek out the most unique hotel I can find, whether its artistic, designer or just something very different like our collection of cool and unusual hotels in London for example. It always makes a trip far more interesting and also makes great content for the blog too!
If you could only holiday in one style for the rest of your life and had to choose between luxury and shoe string – which would you do? That’s actually a tough choice because I love a beautiful, plush hotel (who doesn’t?) but backpacking on a budget can ensure you meet lots more like-minded people and enable you to see a much more local way of life. At a push though, I’d probably opt for the luxury!
How important is social media to you when you’re away? A big part of running a blog professionally is keeping up with social media so it’s very important to me, although I do like to give myself digital detoxes now and again too. I think it is really important for your health!
What are the best PR/brand collaborations you’ve worked on? We’ve been lucky enough to work on some really fantastic campaigns including Borneo, Chernobyl and Montreal (to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada) but a campaign that recently stands out was working with Vauxhall to help promote their new Mokka X car. We were challenged by Vauxhall to see how much fun we can have in 48 hours in their newly launched mini SUV so accompanied with Gary (the team videographer) I took a road trip to the surfer’s paradise Newquay in Cornwall. We were really lucky with the weather and the scenery was so beautiful and, combined with Gary’s drone footage and creative talents, the video instantly took off on Facebook and YouTube, going viral.
What do you call yourself (Blogger/influencer/content creator)? A blogger, travel website owner or content creator usually (depending on the day)!
What other blogs do you read? I’m a bit of science and health geek so one of my favourite blogs is SelfHacked.com which is a great site full of really interesting health hacks and tips.
Becky Moore and Global Grasshopper are listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists and editors.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Becky-Moore.jpg430760Holly Hodges/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngHolly Hodges2018-03-15 14:34:342018-03-15 14:34:34Blogger Spotlight: Becky Moore, Global Grasshopper
Sarah Anguish is the author of Boo Roo and Tigger Too, which recently appeared in the Top 10 UK Mummy Blogs. Sarah is Boo, the mother of the family and features the life and adventures of her family including Roo, 10, Tigger, 6, and Piglet, 1.
We spoke to Sarah about the dad blogs, the mummy blogger community and working with PRs (and a big tip of what NOT to ask!).
What makes your blog successful? Success is all relative to the individual. Some will say it is landing a major campaign or receiving a high paying collaboration, but to me, a successful blog is one that people want to read, although I’m sure my friends and family make up a large proportion of my visitor stats! It is for the mum who stumbles across my blog at 2am searching for advice on how to deal with night terrors for her child; the mum who is returning to work following maternity leave and wants to know how to manage family life and a career. They are what I quantify as success, I have assisted them in some small part and hopefully managed to let them know that they have this and that others have gone through the same thing.
Why did you start your blog? While on maternity leave with my second child I read lots of parenting blogs. With no friends who were also at the baby stage, I found comfort in their tales of teething, sleepless nights etc. However, the majority of blogs that I read were all about stay at home mums. As I was due to return to work following maternity leave, I decided to start a blog to showcase what family life is like when you have to juggle children, childcare and working life. Spoiler alert – it was difficult, very difficult at times, especially when my son was ill.
How are mummy blogs different from dad blogs? Dads tend to get the rough end of the stick when it comes to parenting, with it often said that dad is babysitting the children while mum is out. That is not the case, with dads being just as much a parent as the mum. The rise of dad blogs has helped showcase that dads aren’t the stereotypical breadwinner there to kiss little ones goodnight like we see in Mary Poppins. Times have changed, dads are very much part of family life and dad bloggers are challenging ‘traditional’ perceptions.
What’s it like to be part of the mummy blogging community? The mummy blogging community is very much like having an extended family, affectionately referred to as the friends in my computer. Over the years I have gained some wonderful blogging friends who have been on the other end of a tweet, a Facebook message or an email whenever I have needed them. There is always someone ready to answer a question, advise you about plugins and what Instagram hashtags you need to use.
How do you plan content with the kids? There are aspects of my blog which the children are very much part of, reviewing items that we have been sent to try out for example. The older two children are now at the age where I leave them with a new toy or game to unpack, assemble and play with before I get involved and ask them questions. I find that they are much more honest in what they think of something if they have been part of the process.
When it comes to days out, I usually tell them ahead of time that there will be parts of the day where Mummy needs to get some photographs. Explaining that once this is completed the rest of the day is all about fun. My eldest will often take photos while we are out and will point out ‘Mummy, do you think you should get a photo of that?’.
How do you feel about your kids growing up and reading the blog? (Are there any posts you DON’T want them reading?) My eldest daughter is very much aware of my blog! She is very proud of the ‘work’ that I do and is happy to tell anyone who asks her (including her school teachers). There isn’t any content on my site that I would be unhappy with her reading. This was something I was always conscious of when I started blogging. That being said, posts regarding having post natal depression may stir up further questions from her that I might be uncomfortable with.
What’s your favourite collaboration with a brand or PR? Over the past year I have been working with AVIVA alongside the AVIVA Community Fund, having the opportunity to witness first-hand what the funding will do for community projects and causes within in my local area. Budget cuts and lack of available grants mean that a large number of much needed community services are struggling. The community fund offers these groups the opportunity to submit a bid for funding, which if successful will enable them to provide a bereavement room in the local hospital linked to the delivery suite. This is a place to offer families in need of a quiet space required to start their grieving process.
What should PRs know when contacting you? Please don’t ask me to tell you what makes me unique. If there is one question that makes me shudder it is that one. I am me, a wife, a mum, a friend – nothing that I would say is special and certainly not unique. Like most people, I am just taking each day as it comes and fantasising about the days when I got more sleep.
What do you call yourself (blogger/content creator/influencer)? I would class myself as a blogger, someone who is journaling life online. I’m sharing the mix of family life, home, travel and everything in between.
What other blogs do you read? In the good old days of Google Reader I would often scroll through my feed while I was up for night feeds or one of the children was sick; reading new posts from all the blogs I had subscribed to and waiting for the latest installment of family life. Thankfully my Bloglovin feed still allows me the same service, so whenever I get five minutes down time I really love flicking through the mixture of content published.
I like to think of blog reading like my eclectic music collection – it depends on what mood I am in as to which blogs I turn to. So I’ll share three different ones from various genres:
A Beautiful Space
Becky inspires me to make the most of my home. Whether I am looking for a complete overhaul or just looking to freshen up a room or two. With some great tips and ideas on how this can be achieved on a budget, A Beautiful Space is always a winner.
An Organised Mess
Debbie shares life on the south coast of Wales with her three children. Her amazing party planning ideas make me want to hire her as my own personal party planner! Alongside this, she shares the highs and lows of family life with the juggling act of working away in London.
Mum in the Madhouse
Jen offers the perfect mix of crafts that I can actually achieve with the children, a dose of family life and some beautiful recipes – everyone needs to make her carrot cake, it is truly amazing!
Sarah and Boo Roo and Tigger Too are listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists and editors.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Boo-Roo-and-Tigger-Too.jpg430760Merryn Williams/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngMerryn Williams2018-03-13 11:19:572018-03-13 11:23:05Blogger Spotlight: Sarah Anguish, Boo Roo and Tigger Too
Rachel Miller is the author of the hugely popular All Things IC, which was recently ranked in the Top 10 UK PR Blogs. Specialising in internal comms, Rachel is a consultant and trainer and has worked with some of the biggest brands in the UK.
We caught up with Rachel after she featured in the ranking to talk relationships between influencers and PRs, issues facing the PR industry and her advice for people wanting a career in comms.
What makes your blog successful? I’m proud my All Things IC blog has helped thousands of practitioners learn about communication, PR and social media through the 1,200 articles I’ve published.
What makes it successful? Readers tell me it’s the fact I’ve been consistently publishing articles since 2009 to help solve their problems. I take time to listen to what the gaps are in their knowledge and ensure I have content to help them develop professionally. This is now at the core of my consultancy and readers know I save the really good stuff for my clients. However, anyone can access internal communication ideas and inspiration daily.
What has writing a blog taught you about the way bloggers see the PR/influencer relationship? I started my career as a journalist in 1999, but it wasn’t until 10 years into my career that I started to work out loud via my blog to share my thinking. Blogging has underlined the importance of relationships and professional networks.
Forming effective relationships was critical to my success as a journalist and, over the years, those same skills have been amplified and enhanced by my work as a consultant and blogger.
My work has taught me the most powerful influencers an organisation has are its people. Peer-to-peer communication from employees can transform a company from the inside out.
My blogging strategy from day one has been to be fiercely independent. I’ve never accepted payment to blog or had a sponsored post. The only adverts you’ll find on my website are the latest comms vacancies on my jobs board. I know my readers value my independence and I’m transparent about the way I work. For example, if I receive a guest pass for an event, I always declare it and take the trust my readers place in me seriously.
What’s the biggest issue facing PR today? So many! I think trust, or lack thereof, is a huge one. With fake news on the rise, we need to be smarter when it comes to ensuring our organisations are honest, credible and truthful in their communications. Professional communicators need to take accountability and champion authenticity at every opportunity.
What are the biggest changes to the PR industry you’ve seen over your career?
The way we work and where we work has changed dramatically. The smoke-filled newsroom I stepped into the week before my 19th birthday as a trainee journalist – with faxes, a dark room, a microfiche machine and one computer able to access the internet – is in stark contrast to the way I work today.
That accessibility to content, ideas and ability to share from devices that fit in the palm of our hand has increased the ‘always-on’ mentality. However, it’s also created opportunities for practitioners to design and deliver workflows and patterns that suits them.
We’ve also shifted from content creators to content curators and that opens organisations up to a vibrancy and reality we’ve not experienced before.
Will print die out altogether? No. Print is thriving in many organisations as the most appropriate way to get information to the right people at the right time. There’s a booming business in internal communication for print.
I always want to see how employee voice is amplified and how it is coupled with opportunities for two-way communication. You need to combine print with two-way channels and chances for your workforce to play an active part in shaping your company’s ideas, conversations and culture.
What’s the best social platform? A medium is only social if it allows for interaction and I interact in different ways across various platforms. For example, LinkedIn is how I share content and promote the work practitioners are doing, I work out loud and network via Twitter, I use Pinterest to spark visual inspiration before creating a talk and use closed Facebook groups to connect with other entrepreneurs in my professional life and fellow parents in my personal life.
What’s better, agency or in-house? I spent a decade working in-house and loved it. I’ve been running All Things IC consultancy for five years and cannot imagine doing anything else. One of the many joys of my role is the opportunity to work closely with in-house practitioners and teams. I run monthly masterclasses to train them and offer 1-2-1 mentoring and team days. So, I’m fortunate to have the best of both worlds through the way I’ve designed my business.
What advice would you give someone looking to work in comms? Do it! Learn as much as you can and be constantly curious. Ask questions and join networks to discover other practitioners. I’ve featured 200 comms pros on my blog over the years and love learning from their stories.
How do you work with PRs as a blogger? I rarely have good experiences! It’s so frustrating to be subjected to pitches that start: ‘Dear blogger’ – if you clearly haven’t taken the time to discover my name or understand my niche, that’s a relationship which is a non-starter.
My readers love peer-to-peer communication and learning from each other. They want to read articles from other professional communicators and how they are solving their organisation’s problems.
If I’m pitched a product or service I say no the majority of the time. However, if a tech provider comes to me with a brilliant client story, written by the client, I’m more likely to consider it. I’m protective of my blog and want to uphold its quality rather than dilute it with inappropriate content. In short: my blog, my rules.
What’s your favourite PR campaign from the last year? I don’t have a particular favourite, but enjoy reading the number one blog on the PR ranking, PR Examples to discover who’s doing what.
What other blogs do you read? I read so many blogs! I’m a regular reader of the ones on the top 10 list, which I’m honoured to be part of. I’ve also been trying to uncover new voices and bloggers within the IC world and offer them a platform over the past few months.
Rachel Miller and All Things IC are both listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists and editors.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Rachel-Miller.jpg430760Holly Hodges/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngHolly Hodges2018-03-12 14:48:312018-03-12 14:48:31Blogger Spotlight: Rachel Miller, All Things IC
The Taylor Bennett Foundation has further strengthened its relationship with PR membership bodies, the CIPR and PRCA. The organisations have offered reduced-price membership to the Foundation’s alumni in order to improve access to their services, but also to help deliver on their commitment to tackle the industry’s diversity problem.
The Taylor Bennett Foundation is a charity that provides traineeships, mentoring, and internships to BAME graduates. Over 200 graduates have been through their traineeship programmes and alumni now work for a variety of comms teams both in-house and at agencies.
Sarah Stimson, chief executive of the Taylor Bennett Foundation, said: ‘Access to membership bodies is important if the industry is to improve ethnic diversity. This commitment from the PRCA and CIPR demonstrates the appetite to diversify their membership.’
The lack of diversity is now a major sticking point in the industry, with statistics like 91% of the industry is white, being particularly hard to swallow. Though future generations of the industry are more diverse (in 18-24 year olds, the white workforce drops to 79%) there’s obviously more work to be done. PRWeek’s recent Power Book, in which 96% of the 404 industry leaders were white, shows how ingrained this issue is.
Access to industry bodies, like the CIPR and PRCA, help those from BAME backgrounds progress in their careers, furthering the initial work of the Foundation’s programmes. It also encourages more BAME grads to get into PR, knowing there is further opportunity as their career progresses, and helps to diversify the industry’s collective voice.
Matt Cartmell, Deputy Director General, PRCA, said: ‘We are delighted to further strengthen our relationship with the PRCA’s Charity of the Year, the Taylor Bennett Foundation. By offering its alumni a 50% discount on the cost of individual membership, we aim to support more BAME practitioners as they develop their careers as PR and communications professionals. And by making this announcement alongside the CIPR sends a clear signal of the importance of the Foundation to the growing diversity of the industry.’
Sarah Hall, CIPR President 2018, said: ‘Embracing candidates from all backgrounds isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s good business sense. The Taylor Bennett Foundation is making a real difference to our industry and the success of their alumni is testament to the Foundation’s outstanding work. The CIPR is privileged to support the Taylor Bennett Foundation and our partnership will grow stronger as we strive towards a more inclusive public relations industry.’
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Taylor-Bennett-Foundation.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-12 13:30:302018-03-14 13:58:59CIPR and PRCA team up with the Taylor Bennett Foundation
Scott Guthrie is a Top 10 PR Blogger who bases his eponymous blog on his varied and detailed experience. We caught up with Scott to talk about the power of influencer marketing, the advantages of different social platforms and his advice for PRs.
What makes your blog successful? I write a lot about influence; specifically influencer marketing. Here, I’ve identified a sustainable niche in which both clients and industry peers are interested and are actively seeking fresh information which helps get their collective heads around the subject.
Consistency is key to a successful blog. I aim to publish two to three times each week. The content is a blend of tactical how-to pieces and longer thought pieces about best practice and where the industry is headed.
What has writing a blog taught you about the way bloggers see the PR/influencer relationship? I’m surprised by the lazy blogger outreach by some PR practitioners.
What’s the biggest issue facing PR today? Public relations shouldn’t be compartmentalised. It shouldn’t be about being the publicity arm of the company. Rather it should be about helping firms do and be what they say they do and who they say they are.
Technology has enabled several disciplines to blur. This will continue at pace, further blurring where PR, marketing, SEO, advertising, HR, customer service start and stop. The industry must accelerate its reinvention if it hopes to access marketing spend. I see this as a colossal opportunity rather than an issue.
What are the biggest changes to the PR industry you’ve seen over your career? The media landscape has fragmented over the last decade or so. The PR industry has matured to embrace that change. Public relations is evolving from media relations to influencer relations, and then from community management to social business. The new model of public relations is no longer obsessed with publicity via Earned media. The PR discipline is blurring into other roles formerly the preserve of marketing and advertising. Today’s PR practitioners must be fully conversant in the skills required to activate communication programmes which utilise Shared media, Owned media and Paid media as well as Earned media.
Will print die out altogether? I have online subscriptions to the Financial Times and the Australian Financial Review. I also read the Guardian online. Newsprint is both so old fashioned and a sustainability issue waiting to happen. Will print die out altogether, though? No, there will always be a special place reserved for print. Monocle, the high-production international affairs, culture and design magazine is a good example of the power of print. Monocle knows its readers and tailors its product both in terms of content and collateral to that audience, beautifully.
What’s the best social platform? Ha! The best social platforms are where your customers and your peers hang out. They are places where you can listen to customers and prospects express their pain points and suggest solutions. Where you can further discussions and share ideas about best practice with your peers. For me, that’s predominantly Twitter and LinkedIn – and Facebook for private groups.
What’s better, agency or in-house? From an influencer marketing perspective it can’t be a binary answer. The role that in-house and agency play is evolving as the discipline matures and brands become more knowledgeable about the subject matter. When you’re trying something out, testing the water, it makes sense to de-risk it as far as possible and outsource the function to an agency. Once proof of concept has been made it’s time to bring facets in-house. But both agency and in-house teams have valuable roles to play.
In-house teams are best placed to nurture relationships. And to maintain these relationships between influencer marketing campaign ‘spikes’. They’re boundary spanners linking networks both internally and externally. Internally to build alignment with other departments – it might be product development, marketing, social, SEO, customer services, however the firm is organised. Linking networks externally – to work better with agencies.
Agencies can add value by:
Making data-driven recommendations on new and rising influencer talent.
Looking over the brow of the hill to what’s likely to happen next in the influencer marketing space. Then counselling their clients accordingly to grab opportunity and swerve issues.
Advising on best practice
Helping marry communication goals with corporate goals
Providing an extra pair of hands in campaign execution
What advice would you give someone looking to work in comms? Read widely. Write often. Start a blog. Have a point of view. Tap into a community. Be useful to that community. Put yourself in the way of every new opportunity. Always say ‘yes’ when asked to contribute.
How do you work with PRs as a blogger? As a fellow PR practitioner, and member of both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), I work with PRs as peers. Through my blog I try to articulate current best practice and look to the future, anticipating how the industry will evolve.
What’s your favourite PR campaign from the last year? In terms of success rate, you’d have to go a long way to better watch maker, Daniel Wellington’s influencer marketing always-on campaign. While many brands are still testing the water with influencer marketing, DW ascribes to the Australian sporting aphorism: ‘Go hard or go home’.
DW has put influencer marketing front and centre of its communications efforts. The brand pays celebrities for sponsored posts and gifts watches to lesser-known micro-influencers. In exchange, they post photos of themselves wearing the watch, often accompanied by a unique money-off code for followers. The images are high quality and display an attainable luxury lifestyle.
Is their approach innovative? Scale of operation aside; not really. Does it work? You bettcha. Last year, DW grew its social media follower base by a third (31%) to 3.7m. It generated 137k brand mentions in 2017. In 2016 the company posted profits of around £100m. Not bad for a start-up, today entering its seventh year.
What other blogs do you read? I’m an avid reader of professional and personal blogs. There will be loads that I’ve overlooked in my quick list but the few that instantly come to mind are: Spin Sucks, Ste Davies, Stephen Waddington, PR Place, Influence and Ella Minty.
Scott Guthrie is listed alongside his blogon the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists and editors.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Scott-Guthrie.jpg430760Holly Hodges/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngHolly Hodges2018-03-12 13:30:292018-03-14 12:27:54Blogger Spotlight: Scott Guthrie
The National Trust got themselves into a jam over the weekend, foolishly advertising a Mother’s Day cream team in Cornwall, with a picture of a scone where the cream was put on first!
Outrageous, huh? For those that didn’t know, cream then jam is how people in Devon have their scones, while jam then cream is the Cornish way (most middle class dispute ever? – scone rhymes with gone, FYI).
Needless to say(!), the locals in Cornwall were ‘angered’ (as reported by the BBC) at the mistake made by the National Trust’s Lanhydrock property in Bodmin. Some said they would cancel their memberships over the blunder, some said it was ‘horrifying’ and some even went as far as to say it ‘made them feel sick’. Quite.
So, what did the National Trust do to remedy the situation AND totally ace their crisis comms?
The Trust came out all guns blazing, apologising and printing #JamFirst badges for all staff to wear, in support of ‘a proper cream tea’. They also clarified that any ‘rumour’ they were renaming the property to ‘Jamhydrock’ had no truth.
In a Facebook post, they explained that the member of staff responsible for the original offending post had been ‘reprimanded’ and ‘marched back over the Tamar’ (the river that forms most of the border between Cornwall and Devon). They assured their ‘Cornish community’ that the ‘catering team would never make such a heinous mistake’. Also, that the jam and cream are served in little pots so, ‘the order of their application is not subject to such appalling error’.
The post concluded: ‘Rest assured, your mothers are safe here’.
The post managed headline news at a number of outlets, all of which painted the National Trust in a good light despite this being their ‘crisis’.
What should the PR industry learn from this?
Don’t underestimate how much an issue matters
Outside of Devon and Cornwall, this argument might seem trivial* but the order is a genuine part of both counties’ identities and this really does matter to locals. Can you imagine the national scandal if a UK Prime Minister declared they preferred Bratwurst to British bangers? Good crisis comms approaches problems with empathy, not sympathy; don’t look at the situation as you see it, step into the shoes of those affected.
Use humour
This obviously depends on the crisis and wouldn’t be appropriate for all problems. By using humour to respond so dramatically (tongue firmly in cheek), the National Trust made this issue seem more serious a crisis that they then had to tackle. It was the Trust’s sense of fun – marching the offending employee back over the Tamar, for example – that helped the story to gain traction in the press. Most importantly, the humour wasn’t making fun of anyone but making light of the problem.
Don’t forget to follow up
The mistake, still on the property’s Facebook page, was followed by the humorous apology. But it was arguably the badges that really helped take the story to the next level (and gain nationwide attention). Using a second Facebook post, and for presumably little cost, the Trust has managed to follow up, support the original victims of offense and gain positive coverage. Every crisis should teach you lessons, and showing that you’ve learnt from your mistake is vital to conclude a successful crisis comms process.
*Though the disagreement has just started in our office – PR Club is all for cream first, because it’s like the butter and needs a firmer base to spread on. Disagree? Tell us on Twitter @Vuelio.
https://www.vuelio.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Jam-First.jpg430760Phoebe-Jane Boyd/uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Vuelio-PR-Comms-Public-Affairs-Logo.pngPhoebe-Jane Boyd2018-03-12 10:19:202018-03-12 10:19:203 Crisis Comms lessons with Jam and Cream
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