Press and Bloggers - Vuelio

A Spotlight with Top Wedding Blog, Love My Dress

May 16, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Merryn Williams

Love My Dress is written by Annabel Beeforth and was recently ranked in the top 10 UK Wedding blogs. Created after Annabel’s own wedding in 2009, Annabel not only helps couples create their own perfect day but also writes about the importance of love and the value of marriage.

We caught up with Annabel to talk about the success of her blog, the Royal wedding, using social media, working with brands and the wedding blogger industry.

What makes your blog successful?
I think it’s a few things, but broadly it’s our consistent approach to the story and not just the images. In a world that is so image driven, we have always understood the need to tell the story too and our readers are constantly feeding back how much they appreciate this. We have always taken pride with the sensitivity with which we handle every wedding we share. We’re incredibly privileged to have been allowed access into these intimate moments in people’s lives.

Secondly, closed Facebook groups have had a phenomenal impact on the relationship we have with our readers. We have a really close connection to our audience now – this connection has helped us develop trust so that when we need to gain feedback or survey the community, time and effort is given willingly. Without realising it initially, we were creating a community of Love My Dress ambassadors in establishing these groups. We absolutely love being able to dip in each day and catch up with our reader’s wedding plans.

Also, we’ve always shown absolute loyalty to the wedding industry. My husband is a graduate in fashion design and formerly had his own design business. It was back in 2000, when social media wasn’t a thing, and having been through that experience with him has, I believe, given me a deeper insight into the challenges faced by small design/artisan business owners. He has also taught me so much about craftsmanship, the quality of design etc.

We are constantly trying to innovate. We’ve just spent months recreating our wedding directory from scratch and believe that our resource will set a new precedent for directories of its kind.

There are a lot of market forces at play right now that are making it difficult for many businesses to find their groove and thrive in our industry – showing these businesses support when they most need it is absolutely vital. For example, the full impact of Brexit has yet to seen but it’s going to have a potentially enormous and damaging impact on many small businesses in our industry – boutiques, for example, relying on shipping in designs from overseas; the import taxes and duties could end up crippling their cashflow. I’m absolutely passionate about supporting our industry and the wealth of creative and entrepreneurial talent within and I think this passion shows through in Love My Dress.

Also, the efforts we are making to increase the diverse nature of our site content is becoming increasingly more important. It’s a timely comment given the imminent marriage of a member of the Royal family to someone who is mixed race, but inclusivity and representation of women/people of colour on sites like ours is SO important in 2018. It’s absolutely not acceptable to have to scroll and scroll the Instagram feed belonging to a site like ours to find a person of colour.

You would be surprised how many major wedding publications/sites/Instagram feeds have no representation of women or people of colour on their Instagram feeds at all. We are working really hard to make those who feel marginalised within the wedding media world feel more included. This doesn’t just extend to people of colour but people with disability and LGBQT community too.

What’s your favourite part of a wedding?
The ceremony always gets me. These are intimate moments in people’s lives and how they choose to use the ceremony to publicly commit their love to another both fascinates me and fills my heart.

What’s your favourite kind of wedding?
I generally avoid the term ‘theme’ like the plague when it comes to weddings! It just isn’t a word that aligns with the way we present weddings to our readers – feels all a bit too ‘fancy dress’.

My favourite weddings, however, are always the most honest ones – the ones where the couple tailored the day as a true reflection of themselves and who didn’t overlook the reason they were marrying in the first place. I love intimate family weddings – children running riot, joy and laughter captured on camera in natural, non-posed fashion. They are always my fav.

How many weddings have you been to?
Actually, not that many! The last one I attended was in 2012! It was that of a disabled bride who documented her wedding planning journey through Love My Dress. It was an absolute joy and pleasure to be there on the day to see her exchange her vows with her fiancé.

Has wedding planning changed with the rise of social media?
Social media is the perfect platform for those seeking wedding inspiration as it’s so visually driven, but it can be a bit of a double-edged sword. Having so many ideas so easily accessible on screen can be both wonderful and utterly overwhelming at the same time. In fact, I personally feel the whole scene is rather saturated.

Pinterest and more so, my fave, Instagram, have revolutionised the way couples are planning their wedding. Many couples are finding suppliers through Instagram which is why it’s so important we show love and support to our clients through this powerful social media platform.

How do you work with brands and PRs for your blog?
There are, in my view, a small handful of excellent wedding PRs in the UK and I think that on the whole, most of them now realise that sites like Love My Dress don’t work in the same way a traditional print outlet would – we can’t, or at least, we don’t, offer free editorial. We’ve worked really hard to build our social following and create a site that is read loyally and believe that is worth paying for. But when the PR gets it, it can be a marriage made in heaven. We’ve worked with some absolutely wonderful clients thanks to successful partnerships with some great PRs. On the whole, PRs have, in our experience, provided access to an artisan/independent part of the market that we take great pride in supporting – artisan jewellers and independent dress designers for example.

What are the best campaigns you’ve collaborated on?
Jenny Packham, Pronovias, Goldsmiths, Emmy London for H Samuel Jewellers.

What do PRs always get wrong?
I think these days there really isn’t room for the kind of mass, depersonalised mail out that will always inevitably get binned. I will always take time to read a tailored PR pitch and respond, even if it means the pitch was unsuccessful. If it looks like the PR has made an effort to get to know us and truly consider the brand match with their client, then I appreciate that. Emails that arrive with a ‘Hi!’ or ‘Hello,’ and no name are always a big turn off as it suggests no effort has been made to get to know us. Why should we take any time considering and responding if this is the case?

What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator etc)?
To be honest I’ve been trying to veer away from the terms ‘blog’ and ‘blogger’ for a couple of years now because I don’t believe they truly reflect what we do now. We were definitely blogging back in 2009/10, but these days, we’re editing our own online platforms, creating content, establishing brand partnerships and innovating as best we can as we continue to pave a path that has never been trodden before.

I more often than not refer to myself as Editor – but even then that doesn’t truly capture the full extent of my role. Though the term ‘influencer’ sometimes irks me, I will use that too because I think in today’s social media vocabulary, most people understand this represents a site or individual with a significant following in their niche, which we undoubtedly are.

What other blogs do you read?
The Pool (though sometimes it’s editorial approach to weddings and lack of support for the wedding industry leaves me feeling really unhappy), A Playful Day, Blogtacular and Me and Orla.

Annabel and Love My Dress are both listings on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, vloggers, journalists, editors and opportunities.

AI and ethics

May 14, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, social media marketing, PR Media Analysis, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Artificial technology has been in the news recently, for all the wrong reasons. Google naively showed off the functionality of its new Duplex AI, while NtechLab has announced a new product to identify ethnicities (unfortunately not a joke).

Google Duplex
Google Duplex is a new AI assistant that can handle tasks over the phone. That’s right, Duplex is able to make phone calls and book appointments on your behalf. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, showed the assistant off at its I/O developer conference, including a recorded example of Duplex calling to book a haircut:

In the clip, Duplex is shown to be indistinguishable from a human on the phone. The crowd, unsurprisingly, loved it – even whooping when the AI sounds most human saying ‘Mmm-hmm’ to acknowledge a point made by the hairdresser. It’s not surprising, this is Google’s I/O developer conference – for these people, super advanced AI is a great achievement.

Unfortunately for Google, a number of people and news outlets have now raised concerns over not being able to tell the difference between people and computers.

What Google failed to mention is that the AI would identify itself, so the person on the other end of the phone would know it was chatting to a robot – but even that throws up questions and concerns.

What if the AI doesn’t understand a question it’s asked, or an accent? How many times is a vendor likely to repeat themselves or reword queries if they know they’re talking to a machine? And what does it say about society that people are now getting machines to book haircuts on their behalf?

Google suggests it can be used by businesses to automatically take bookings, though how many people want to call up to book a table at a restaurant and be handled by a machine?

There’s also concerns over the data Duplex gathers on individuals – for this to work you have to tell Google an awful lot about what you want booked, when, when you’re free, alternative times for the appointment, the details of what you’re booking and why. Under the GDPR, if this data is processed by Google then you have to be informed – imagine the conversation with your AI assistant if they have to explain all the ways the data will be used!

Recognising ethnicity

The other ethical AI story is even more concerning. Russian NtechLab is a group of experts in the field of deep learning and artificial intelligence; the website states they ‘like to invent algorithms which work in unconstrained real-life scenarios’. The only listed product so far is a facial recognition tool.

It’s the ‘coming soon’ section that raises concern, with a product called ‘ethnicity recognition’. There’s no further information, but the image suggests it will identify people’s ‘ethnicities’ based on their faces. It’s not clear why this would EVER be needed, nor how it could ever be accurate.

As Forbes points out, it’s amazing that these companies are able to create such tools, without seeing the ethical issues that are more obvious to those that don’t work in tech. Socialogist Zeynep Tufekci said: ‘Silicon Valley is ethically lost, rudderless and has not learned a thing’.

Artificial intelligence is not bad, it makes all of our lives easier every day and, as the CIPR’s ongoing #AIinPR study shows, it’s of great benefit to the PR and communications industry. When developing AI functionality, companies need to consider their responsibilities towards data subjects and clients. The GDPR comes into force on 25 May and the automation of data, for the benefit of AI, will be under more scrutiny than ever before. It’s hard to see how an ethnicity recognition tool will pass the new stringent regulation requirements.

As for Google, the whole company is built on AI and for the most part, people are not concerned. Where Duplex has fallen down is by being too real. We’re not in Blade Runner* – society just isn’t ready for a world where it’s impossible to distinguish between computers and people, fiction and reality. At least, not yet.

*Insert your own favourite popular 80s’ sci-fi film here.

4 Instagram lessons from the Conservatives

May 14, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, PR Club PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Last week it was revealed that Conservative MPs had been briefed on their use of Instagram. A comprehensive presentation covers everything from downloading the app to specific dos and don’ts, but what can this guide teach the PR industry?

Published by the BBC, the guide is obviously quite simple in places (MP friendly) but there are key lessons that are always worth reminding ourselves of. Not only does Instagram have a ‘younger audience’, an obvious attraction for the Conservatives, but it also gives a chance to show ‘you are a real person who people can relate to or be inspired by’.

1. Context
One such ‘real person’ is defence secretary Gavin Williamson (of ‘Russia should go away, it should shut up’ fame), who was an early adopter of Instagram. He appears twice under the section ‘Good examples: people’ section, showing both ‘to-camera smiling shots’ and ‘context seen in the photos’ at an event.

Context is vital for any photo posts and the more that can be squeezed into the picture, the less work your caption has to do. Captions are much less likely to be seen let alone read, so for Instagram, the picture MUST paint a thousand words. Bear that in mind when creating a post, you may understand what event you’re at because you’re there, but if it isn’t obvious in the picture, the post won’t succeed.

2. Be playful
Another ‘Good examples’ section but this time for objects. The presentation uses Sam Gyimah’s Christmas post as an example of how to create ‘unique content’ that’s ‘playful’:

Christmas red box just arrived. Not quite what I asked Santa for #christmastime #christmas #christmasholidays #instagood #insta

A post shared by Sam Gyimah (@samgyimahmp) on Dec 22, 2017 at 10:45am PST

Instagram is a young platform and it’s a social platform. Being serious or formal is not really social’s style (with the exception of, perhaps, LinkedIn), so users should try to see the lighter side of life and have fun when creating posts. This is particularly relevant for corporate accounts or senior execs; if they want to appeal to the board or their investors, then social – and especially Instagram – probably isn’t the place.

Another way to be ‘playful’ according to the presentation, is making use of emojis and stickers. It highlights a post from Sir Peter Bottomley, who used the #TBT (throwback Thursday) sticker on an historical picture of him campaigning with Margaret Thatcher.

It may feel unnatural to used such ‘playful’ items in your communications but remember this is about appealing to the Instagram audience. If you want to make friends in a Missouri truck stop, you probably wouldn’t go in dressed like, or talking like, Jacob Rees-Mogg. Instagram is the same – if you want to reach people on Instagram, be more like people on Instagram.

3. Engage
According to the presentation, ‘High engagement = higher chance of attracting more followers’, which is true. It then gives specific examples of engaging, including: reply to comments, like comments, tag people in the text and include your location.

This is basic advice but it’s true. If you want to organically grow your following on Instagram, then comment on other people’s posts, like posts, follow other people, post regularly, engage with people that comment on your posts and generally be an active member of the Instagram community. It takes a lot of work and time, but being big on Instagram can make that work pay off.

4. Don’t post press releases
Instagram is not your newsroom, so it’s not a place for lengthy prose or adverts. The presentation highlights the types of posts that should be used sparingly, including James Cleverly’s quote when appointed deputy chairman of the Conservative Party:

I’m delighted to have been appointed as the Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party

A post shared by jamescleverly (@jamescleverly) on Jan 10, 2018 at 3:44am PST

As the BBC points out, Cleverly seems to have heeded the advice and now his posts are more informal.

A beautifully designed advert or company quote next to a portrait of your exec may look good in magazines or on your website, but once again it’s about context (think about Jacob Rees-Mogg at the truck stop).

Instagram is a place for beautiful photos of people, places and objects. It’s not a place for text-filled images or obvious graphic design.

Be you
The Conservative advice may be simple but it’s good. If you want to succeed on Instagram, be personable, be real and be you. Or, don’t be on Instagram.

Five Things: Leveson II, Klout, This is America, Martin Sorrell and #FuturePRoof

May 11, 2018/0 Comments/in Five Things, PR Pulse, social media marketing, PR, PR News Media Database, Media Analysis, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

This week’s Five Things includes the demise of Leveson II and Klout, Childish Gambino’s This is America, the return of Sorrell and the launch #FuturePRoof.

1. Leveson II – the sequel that refuses to start

Leveson II, the second part of the Leveson Inquiry, was already stopped by culture secretary Matt Hancock (“Are you on Matt Hancock?”), at the beginning of March. Now the Government has won a narrow victory against a Labour move to force it to start. Ed Miliband tabled the amendment to the Government’s data protection bill but it was narrowly defeated by 304 votes to 295.

Ed Miliband’s impassioned speech highlighted David Cameron’s previous promise for Leveson II to be carried out. Refusing to give way to other MPs, he also said it was a matter of honour for all politicians and asked the Government, ‘How dare you?’. Hancock responded: ‘The choice isn’t between doing something, and nothing. It is between doing something, and something better.’

Following the defeat, Tom Watson chose not to push for a vote on section 40, which in part would have required publishers to pay legal costs of both parties in disputes no matter what the outcome. This is clearly flawed as both Leveson-backed IMPRESS and press-made IPSO already allow for low-cost resolution.

There’s already suggestions the Lords will push the amendment back to the Commons for a second vote as the first was so close. We might not have seen the last of Leveson yet.

2. Out of Klout

What’s your Klout?* Is a question that many people working in social media asked each other seven years ago, but recently your Klout score has gone the way of your follower count on Google Plus. One of the most popular ways of measuring influence online, Klout was founded in 2009 by Joe Fernandez, who apparently built it to get a job at Twitter. It was bought by a private company, Lithium, in 2014 for $200m and on 25 May it will be no more.

25 May, I hear you say, isn’t that date significant for another reason? Why, yes. But amazingly, Lithium failed to mention the GDPR as a factor in Klout’s demise in the official statement. Apparently, Klout no longer meets Lithium’s long-term strategy.

Incidentally, Klout has been used as one of the many metrics that makes up the Vuelio Influencer Score, but thankfully we use such a broad range of complex tools that the loss of Klout will not have a detrimental effect on our unique measurement. You can read more about our influencer rating here.

Klout, on its own, has been criticised over the years for its algorithm which has, on occasion, rewarded questionable people with more influence than others. The secrets of the algorithm may have been forced into the open by the GDPR, but now we’ll never know.

3. This is America

It’s hard to know where to begin with Childish Gambino’s (aka Donald Glover) latest release, This is America. To call it a song is insufficient; the music and lyrics are powerful but that power pales into insignificance when compared to the video:

Articles and essays have already been written on this overnight cultural phenomenon (it’s on 75 million views in under a week). Discussions about the video’s ‘hidden meanings’, from his confederate trousers and Jim Crow references to the Charleston church shooting and ‘Death’ riding a pale horse, have filled social media and the digital press. It’s particularly pertinent following Kanye West’s recent comments that slavery was ‘a choice’.

It also follows Black Panther, which itself was itself a cultural shift but in a Hollywood/Marvel superhero kind of way. What Childish Gambino has done means so much more. It’s a violent, compelling piece of art, that continues to produce meaning with every watch, and it will fuel sections of the commentariat for weeks to come.

4. Martin Sorrell to ‘start again’

If only Klout would stick around, we’d be able to measure Sir Martin Sorrell’s when he ‘starts again’. That’s his vow this week, after abruptly leaving WPP. As reported by the FT, Sorrell was speaking at the technology conference in New York and said: ‘I’m not going into voluntary or involuntary retirement.’

As he never had a non-compete clause with WPP, Sorrell is free to set up a competitive ad company and target some of the $16bn business he helped build up over the last 33 years. He already has an idea for a new ad agency model, he said it would be: ‘more agile, more responsive, less layered, less bureaucratic, less heavy’. This is particularly surprising considering WPP’s hugely complex set up has been credited to Sorrell, and he was described as the only person capable of keeping it all together.

Sorrell said he would not wait long until he made his next move, so expect the new agency launch to appear in a future Five Things.

5. #FuturePRoof 3

Sarah Hall, agency owner and CIPR President, has released the third edition of her hugely popular #FuturePRoof series this week, a special edition marking the 70th anniversary of the NHS. Titled The NHS at 70 with Lessons for the Wider PR Community, the book features 25 chapters from 25 contributors, all of whom either work in or around comms at the NHS.

The health service is one of the UK’s most-loved institutions but is currently facing huge problems in terms of service delivery, funding and staff shortages. The book puts communications at the heart of the solution, championing best practice and excellent innovations to inspire the NHS to carry on fighting the good fight.

#FuturePRoof is also hugely inspirational to the wider communications industry with lessons across every communications discipline from internal comms and employee engagement to using new technology and measuring campaign results.

Find out more about #FuturePRoof online.

What did we miss? Let us know on Twitter @Vuelio.

*Me? My Klout score is 46 and I’m an expert in Blogging, Public Relations and Communications. And Buzzfeed, apparently.

#FuturePRoof: a journalist’s perspective of NHS comms

May 11, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, journalism, PR PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Following the launch of the third edition of #FuturePRoof, a special edition focusing on healthcare comms to mark the 70th anniversary of the NHS, we are discussing what wider lessons can be learned by the comms industry. In this post, we look at Denis Campbell’s contribution – A Journalist’s Perspective: The Good and Bad of NHS Comms.

Denis Campbell is the health policy editor of the Guardian and the Observer, so he spends a lot of his time writing about the NHS and working with the comms professionals within it. Campbell starts his chapter by pointing out the dilemma of writing such a piece in his position: ‘Why would I say anything at all, lest even a smidgeon of criticism alienates those whose goodwill, determination and professionalism I routinely rely upon?’

He goes on to explain that while most comms officers are ‘superb’, some are ‘unhelpful, unbecoming of their profession and… ultimately damaging to the NHS’. The chapter is important to #FuturePRoof because it’s an honest external opinion given for all the right reasons – to help improve the practices of the NHS.

Campbell breaks down his views, which are clearly lessons for anyone working in communications in any industry:

Be honest and accessible
For Campbell, the NHS needs to be honest about its troubles and not just follow ‘the Government’s fantasy version of events’. This is a broader lesson for comms – honesty builds trust and trust builds relationships, which is the foundation of good PR. When working with the media, if you lie, there’s a good chance they’ll find out the truth and that story will then be much harder to manage.

Campbell’s experience of NHS comms is clearly hit and miss. He writes: ‘I marvel at the effort senior managers and clever PRs put into coming up with entirely irrelevant answers. Do they think that will stop the story appearing?’

If a journalist is asking for information, chances are they have discovered there may be a story in that information. If you block them, it doesn’t mean the story goes away, it just means the journalist has to dig deeper. When presented with tricky media questions, finding out what the journalist is doing and why they want to know certain things, should be a priority, because you’re still allowed to form your answers in the most appropriate way to make your business look as good as it can in the circumstance.

But even if the journalist gives you nothing, don’t stonewall investigations; if it’s delaying the inevitable, be honest and make it part of the story you want to tell.

Have guiding principles
The NHS Constitution has seven principles that guide the NHS in all it does. Campbell is most interested in the last one: ‘The NHS is accountable to the public, communities and patients that it serves… The system of responsibility and accountability for taking decisions in the NHS should be transparent and clear to the public, patients and staff.’

He believes NHS PR practitioners should be bound by this principle – but what about organisations without principles? Many have cultures, objectives and aims – lots of offices display these proudly for all to see. But do we consider them when we’re doing comms? Comms is the voice of the company and should be key in developing company culture, ensuring it informs the way all communications is carried out.

If internal culture doesn’t match external culture, neither will survive for long and ultimately, you’re the bridge between the two.

Working together
Campbell is clearly in favour of the NHS and is keen to see it working in the best way it possibly can. But as PRs and comms, we often think of journalists as the enemy and we suspect they’re out to trip us up. Campbell acknowledges this but is reassuring: ‘NHS PRs’ background and talents lie in communicating. So why not spend more time and put more creative energy into communicating what their bit of the NHS does and who the staff are that make that possible?

‘Why not trust journalists much more to do a decent job and not be so suspicious all the time?’

If we all worked together, were honest and transparent, wouldn’t our industry be a better place, communications run more smoothly and improve the quality of public conversation for all parties?

What do you think about Campbell’s chapter? Can we do more to work together with the media, or do we risk losing control of the story? Let us know your thoughts on Twitter @Vuelio.

#FuturePRoof: The NHS at 70 with Lessons for the Wider PR Community, is highly recommended for both NHS comms pros and anyone else working in comms. It is available online.

#FuturePRoof: Cultural Graffiti and Sanctioned Dissent

May 9, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, PR News Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

The third edition of Sarah Hall’s #FuturePRoof, which focuses on communications within the NHS, launched yesterday. The 25 chapters, from 25 authors, provide key insight to both the inner workings of the NHS and to best practice in the communications industry. In this post, we’ll be looking at the chapter by social leadership consultant Julian Stodd, and what comms can learn from cultural graffiti and sanctioned dissent.

Stodd argues that in society, graffiti is ‘a voice that is claimed, not granted’. In our organisations there is ‘cultural graffiti’, which is when opinions and views are shared without fear of consequence. This ‘graffiti’ resides solely on social.

For the NHS, this is perhaps a more obvious phenomenon – sometimes anonymous, often critical but generally constructive doctors, nurses and patients discuss the NHS on social, outside their ‘formal’ space. Sometimes this grabs national headlines, the #ImInWorkJeremy hashtag was used widely when the health secretary criticised doctors for ‘not working seven-day weeks’.

Cultural graffiti is also apparent in other organisations; social has become the platform for office grumbles, unfiltered company news and customer complaints.

Stodd says that formal power doesn’t reach social spaces, ‘where cultural graffiti is scrawled and shared’. As such, organisations cannot control them and instead need to understand ‘social leadership’ and its fuel: reputation.

Social status is based on reputation, which on social is granted by communities. What’s significant is that social leaders don’t necessarily have formal power or any authority in traditional societal structures, so social leaders are easily overlooked or, worse still, underestimated.

Jack Monroe is a prime example – the budget food writer who won her Twitter libel case against Katie Hopkins, often has to explain on Twitter how, despite her social reputation (she has 126K followers), she still struggles to make ends meet. Her social fame and influence obviously does not translate to formal structures, but her social status is unquestionable.

So how does an organisation manage cultural graffiti?

Stodd says organisations need to listen and learn, which is simple enough. But more than that, he says as with real graffiti, organisations should sanction dissent. Graffiti artists know there are places they’re allowed to work, certain shops or spaces where graffiti has been allowed. For Stodd, organisations need to sanction cultural graffiti and understand the stories being told, wherever they’re being told.

We all know that social is the dominant force of storytelling in our society and it should be part of every comms professional’s strategy. Just because Wetherspoons closed all of its social accounts, that doesn’t mean it is exempt from cultural graffiti. The fact it no longer seems to care what’s happening on social could be a big mistake, as staff, customers and suppliers are free to discuss the company and tell their own stories.

Communications is all about telling the story you want to tell and if you lose control of the storytelling process, you lose control of the story. If we take the time to understand cultural graffiti, and how others tell our story, we can regain control of the conversation.

Do you listen to and understand cultural graffiti in your organisation? Or do you think it’s better to ignore the dissent? Let us know on our social space: @Vuelio.

#FuturePRoof: The NHS at 70 with Lessons for the Wider PR Community, comes highly recommended and is available online.

Kindness, convenience and joy: Curiously Conscious

May 9, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Besma Whayeb is the author of Curiously Conscious, the ethical lifestyle blog that was recently named in the Top 10 UK Green Blogs. Focusing on sacrifice-free ethical living, Besma writes about everything from natural make up to renting clothes. We caught up with Besma to talk about sustainability, working with brands in a beneficial way and technology connecting the green community.

What makes your blog unique?
My blog focuses on ways to live kinder that are convenient and add joy. It’s about being ethical and eco-friendly without making sacrifices!

Will we ever live in a fully sustainable world?
I don’t believe it’s possible to be 100% sustainable, however, there are so many ways we can get close to that. Renewable energy, electric cars, and better distribution of resources will accelerate us to a more sustainable world.

What are the biggest eco/green trends that we should all be aware of?
With Fashion Revolution Week just finished, there was a lot of talk about plant-based leather alternatives, and demanding transparency from fashion brands. Food-wise, more brands are moving towards sustainability rather than vegan/plant-based niches. And beauty is all about harnessing the power of plants to produce makeup that looks good and nourishes skin.

How is technology helping us be more environmentally aware?
Technology has been a brilliant way to connect the green community – no matter where our specific interests lie – and has seen ethical and eco blogging really grow.

Who do you think has the most responsibility when it comes to the environment (individuals/industry/media/government etc)?
Industry can make the biggest, and quickest change, but it’s hard to encourage whole businesses to move away from a focus on profit to also consider people and the planet. It’s why I write to inspire individual changes, and call on brands to take note – our demand for ethics will encourage the supply of better business practices.

How do you like to work with PRs and brands?
I’m particular about the brands I work with, as I’d like them to really benefit from featuring on my blog or social channels. In this way, I like to form relationships with PRs or Brand Reps, and work on a series of posts or sponsored content that is created specifically to achieve a campaign’s aims. I respect they understand their brand’s strengths, and they respect that I understand my audience’s preferences.

What are your favourite campaigns or collaborations that you’ve been part of?
I enjoyed being a Brand Ambassador for Yushoi last year; my posts were centred around finding balance, which is something I really encourage. I also found working with Fat Face was incredibly popular, especially with their organic cotton ranges, which shows how much demand is out there for ethical high street brands. And a personal favourite has to be visiting MacDonald Hotels’ Monchique Hotel & Spa in the Algarve – a truly five-star experience all round.

What do you call yourself (blogger/content creator/influencer etc)?
I’m a blogger first, but I think the term influencer is better considering the amount of work that goes into my social channels is equal to the time spent writing.

What other blogs do you read?
Other than my fellow bloggers in the Top 10 Green Blogs list, I love The Good Trade, Make It Last and Simply Liv & Co.

Besma and Curiously Conscious are both listings on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, vloggers, journalists, editors and opportunities.

Around the world with the TraveLynn Family

May 8, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Merryn Williams

The TraveLynn Family is mum Jenny, dad Jason and boys Arthur (four) and Ezra (two). They travel around the world, truly embracing a global sense of wanderlust and living abroad. We caught up with Jenny who told us about the misunderstood safety of travelling with young children, planning school around travel and working with PRs and brands.

What makes your blog unique?
I write about adventure family travel with young kids. My boys are just two and four years old and already they have been hiking in the Nepalese Himalaya, meditated with monks in Thailand, slept on overnight trains in India, and walked alongside giraffes in Malawi. As parents, my husband and I try to push the boundaries of family travel and are on a mission to dispel the myth that adventure travel needs to wait until the kids are older.

Before the kids came along, my husband and I were avid intrepid travellers and we soon realised that we only had to adjust are travel style slightly to continue our passion. In fact, I am currently writing this from the shores of Lake Malawi! We’re six weeks into a four month overland trip through Africa in a Land Rover Defender with roof tents. We started in Johannesburg and are making our way through Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana. Before this, we were living in India and called Bangalore our home for a year. We moved for my husband’s work and took advantage of all the new travel adventures possible on our doorstep; including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand and as much of India as possible.

How does ‘regular’ family life fit around travelling?
We still have a bedtime routine, battle tantrums, and negotiate the never-ending demands from our kids. We are still very much a regular family. Travel just creates a different backdrop to the challenges of parenting life, and offers different sensory playgrounds and novelties as we investigate new places together. Where we are perhaps different from your regular family is that we prioritise travel and take every available opportunity possible for adventure.

How are/will the kids be schooled?
My kids are not yet of schooling age, so thankfully we don’t yet have to negotiate term dates. As we’ve been living in India and now on a long-term travel adventure, they haven’t really experienced the nursery/pre-school system that so many kids have in the UK. However, we have playdates whenever and wherever possible, always stop for a playground, and I also have a bag of crafts, LEGO and magazines that comes everywhere with us. We find that our boys learn so much on the road from all the different experiences and social interactions. Plus, with all the quality family time together while travelling, we find they blossom.

However, come September, our eldest will be starting school. It will then be an interesting ball game managing our love of adventure family travel around the restrictions of term time. We’re still just working all that out.

What’s your best advice for people thinking about going travelling with families?
Don’t wait. These early years flash by so quickly in a sleep-deprived blur. Do something amazing that will create everlasting memories. Just travel slow, always have snacks handy, and take lots of photos.

What’s the best thing/place/experience you’ve had as a family while travelling?
This is a tough one as we really have so many amazing experiences to choose from. I could say it is reaching the summit of Poon Hill at 3,120m in Nepal, watching the sun rise over the Taj Mahal, or witnessing a herd of elephants bathing in the wilderness of South Africa. However, the best ‘thing’ about family travel for us is time. It’s the time to be on our own schedule, time not distracted by other commitments, time to just simply share day by day experiences together. Some of my fondest memories of this current trip in Africa is watching the boys put on a ‘show’ in the evenings by the fire, races into the sea after a long day on the road, or just snuggled in our tent together reading a book. It’s the time to actually stop and appreciate the little things.

Is the world a scary place with such young children?
Not at all. We find that travelling with young kids breaks down those barriers with strangers. People are often inquisitive of the boys and want to chat to us; even the hardest haggler in India cracks a smile with the boys around. It’s truly wonderful seeing the world through their eyes. Things can go wrong when travelling and the boys are completely oblivious to them. If anything, they normalise stressful situations.

Where haven’t you been that you still want to visit?
Oh, so many places! We are yet to explore much of the Americas. There’s still so much of Europe; Scandinavia and Greece have been on my list for far too long. And Antarctica – the ultimate adventure destination.

What should PRs and brands know about you?
I keep it real and push the boundaries. Adventure travel with kids so young of course has its challenges, but I want to inspire my readers to take on those challenges and reap the rewards.

What’s the best collaboration you’ve work on?
I’ve recently been collaborating with Malawi Tourism to demonstrate Malawi as a safe and wonderful destination to travel with young kids.

What do you call yourselves (bloggers/content creators/influencers etc)?
I prefer travel blogger or travel writer.

What other blogs do you read?
I’ve made some wonderful friends through my blogging journey so far. It really is a such a supportive network. Other family travel bloggers I follow from the UK include: Wandermust Family, Globetotting, Go Live Young, Mini Travellers, Mummy Travels, Tin Box Traveller, Travel Mad Mum – there are so many to mention!

The TraveLynn Family is listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, vloggers, journalists, editors and opportunities.

#FuturePRoof: The NHS at 70

May 8, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, PR News Comms, Press and Bloggers, PR Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

The third edition of #FuturePRoof launches today and documents communications in the greatest of British institutions – the NHS. Edited by Sarah Hall, agency owner and CIPR President, this edition of #FuturePRoof is a unique insight into every level and type of comms taking place in one of the world’s largest employers.

Titled, ‘The NHS at 70 with Lessons for the Wider PR Community’, the book features 25 essays written by a broad range of stakeholders, from those at the coalface enacting plans to those on the outside looking in.

It not only explains and recommends best practice for anyone working in any part of communications in the NHS– including real-life case studies with genuine results – it also delivers genuine insight and inspiration for the wider comms industry.

What’s the best way to engage disparate sub cultures within an organisation? How can new technology help change public attitudes? How do you measure the success of any of your campaigns?

#FuturePRoof delivers answers to all of these questions and more – always using the NHS and the brilliant people who work within it to provide lessons for the wider PR community.

Even the few niche NHS-specific elements are fascinating to an outsider; did you know emergency departments see more people in summer than winter?

This is the third crowdsourced book in the #FuturePRoof series, edited by top 10 PR blogger Sarah Hall. She said: ‘As you’d expect the book is once again jam packed with expertise from a forward-thinking cohort of comms leaders and advisers, striving to reinforce the strategic value of public relations within their organisations.

‘There are some very clear take outs and perhaps the biggest lesson for management teams, communicators and the wider public relations community is to embrace transparency, invest in skills and use real people to lead debate.’

The contributors for the book are, like millions of people in the country, hugely in favour of the NHS, and healthcare that’s free at the point of delivery. Though that doesn’t mean the book ignores issues within the organisation, rather it highlights how creative ideas can solve issues why comms professionals are best placed to turn the NHS’s fortunes around.

Sarah said: ‘The book comes at a critical point in the NHS’s history. The organisation is a living breathing case study of comms innovation as it manages competing political agendas and stretched budgets, while communicating ever more frequently with an increasing number of people with complex needs.

‘How its many teams join forces to implement one approach at scale is a pressing challenge as the face of healthcare as we know it changes radically.’

It goes without saying that this book is a must for anyone working in NHS comms, but more than that, everyone in communications (whether public affairs or public relations) can benefit from having #FuturePRoof on the shelf. We’re huge fans and we know you will be too.

#FuturePRoof is available in hard copy and on Kindle via www.futureproofingcomms.co.uk.

Five Things: Cambridge Analytica, Sainsbury’s, Elon Musk, Wright Stuff and Kanye West

May 4, 2018/0 Comments/in Five Things, PR Pulse, journalism, PR, PR News Media Database, Media Analysis, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

HAPPY STAR WARS DAY. This week’s top five things you shouldn’t have missed includes Cambridge Analytica’s demise, Sainsbury’s PR mistake, Elon Musk’s sales call, the end of The Wright Stuff and the latest Kanye Kontroversy.

1. Farewell Cambridge Analytica

Just when you thought a company had really got to know you, it files for bankruptcy. Cambridge Analytica, which was at the centre of the recent Facebook data scandal, has commenced insolvency proceedings. The official statement blamed ‘unfounded accusations’, which led to it being ‘vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas’.

Thanks to the pesky media reporting on the one-way-mirror-equivalent of corporate transparency, ‘virtually all’ of the company’s customers and suppliers have been driven away. There are now questions being raised about whether Cambridge Analytica, or its staff, will rise from the ashes and continue to operate in the shady world of political profiling.

As for Facebook, the social giant seems to have managed to leave the scandal behind – its earnings and results do not reflecting a company in crisis. However, with plans to get into the online dating game – where the level of processed personal data is extraordinary – the data issues may not be over.

2. We’re in the money!

In PR whoopsie of the week, Mike Coupe, CEO of Sainsbury’s, was filmed singing ‘We’re in the Money’ from the musical 42nd Street. He was, at the time, waiting to be interviewed by ITV about his company’s proposed £10bn merger with Asda.

As reported by the Guardian (which, incidentally, is serving up sidebar ads for Waitrose next to the story), Coupe expects Sainsbury’s to make £500m in extra profit from the deal. In a follow-up statement from the company, Coupe is quoted as saying: ‘It was an unfortunate choice of song, from the musical 42nd Street, which I saw last year. And I apologise if I have offended anyone’.

Straight-faced, a Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: ‘We all know these songs stay in your head. To attach any wider meaning to this innocent, personal moment is preposterous.’

Preposterous.

3. Elon Musk being Elon Musk

Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, took the unusual move of agreeing to let a YouTuber ask a question during an earnings call. Gali Russell is an NYU grad student and retail investor who owns 54 shares in Tesla, which he says is ‘pretty much my entire portfolio’. He tweeted Musk with the backing of 150 shareholders to see if he could ask a crowdsourced question; Musk replied, ‘Ok’.

Musk used the YouTuber to avoid answering standard earnings-call questions from analysts about business and finance. While he was saying, ‘Boring bonehead questions are not cool. Next. We’re going to go to YouTube. Sorry, these questions are so dry. They’re killing me,’ Tesla’s share price was tanking.

Russell’s questions focused on tech and Musk encouraged him to ask more and more – in total the YouTuber managed 10 while on the call. This approach may be appropriately quirky for Elon Musk but it’s a misstep in terms of company PR – the analysts were unimpressed and still suggest Musk’s optimism for the company’s success is unfounded.

4. No more Wright Stuff

Matthew Wright, host of Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff, has announced he is stepping down from his role after 18 years. The weekday mornings current affairs programme is one of Channel 5’s flagships and the channel has confirmed the show may continue with a new name and presenter.

Wright blamed the demands on his personal life and said he and Mrs Wright, ‘pass like ships in the night’ as he goes to bed at 7pm and gets up at 3am. BBC’s media editor, Amol Rajan, paints a different picture. The former audience researcher on the programme said: ‘Matthew Wright always said to me that he would stop presenting The Wright Stuff when it stopped being fun.

‘Recently, it stopped being fun.’

He blames the fact the show’s production moved to ITN, which brought huge changes and meant ‘its jovial and fun spirit struggled to make the transition into a new culture’.

Whatever Channel 5 decides to do, come the end of June/early July, there will be a two-hour Matthew Wright-shaped hole in the schedule.

5. Kanye West

He may be an international superstar but surely Kanye West’s greatest achievement is now appearing on his second Five Things post – two weeks in a row! Last week we were discussing Kanye’s controversial opinions getting him into trouble after he praised President “We are both dragon energy” Trump. This week, Kanye has upset everyone during an interview with TMZ, by claiming slavery was a ‘choice’.

Kanye said: ‘When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice. You was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all. It’s like we’re mentally in prison. I like the word ‘prison’ because ‘slavery’ goes too direct to the idea of blacks. Slavery is to blacks as the Holocaust is to Jews. Prison is something that unites as one race, blacks and whites, that we’re the human race.’

After he explains this radical viewpoint, TMZ staff member Van Lathan piles into Kanye for ‘not thinking’. Kanye tried to clarify his views on Twitter (where else!). I can’t believe anyone missed this, but if you did – here’s the video:

The number 1 green blog in the UK: Make Wealth History

May 3, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Jeremy Williams writes the Top UK Green Blog, Make Wealth History. Covering a whole range of environmental and sustainable issues, Jeremy believes that true change comes from the people. We spoke to Jeremy about the latest in green innovations, global environmental trends working with PRs.

What makes your blog unique?
I’m curious about lots of different things, so the blog is a fairly unusual mix of sustainability, development, politics, architecture, green tech and all sorts. And I focus on solutions. There’s plenty of bad news out there, and I’ll cover that, but I want the blog to inspire people to action rather than make them depressed about the state of the world.

Will we ever live in a fully sustainable world?
Yes, although there are two ways to end up in a sustainable world. One is to design it and shift towards it deliberately. The other is to wreck things so badly that industrial civilization becomes impossible. I’m a big advocate of the first approach, naturally.

What are the biggest eco/green trends at the moment that we should all be aware of?
For a long time, people have been predicting that renewable energy would fall in price until it became cheaper than fossil fuels, and then the shift could really accelerate. We’re at that point right about now. Look out in a couple of years’ time for a similar moment when electric cars cost the same as petrol ones.

How is technology helping us be more environmentally aware?
I’m a big fan of smart meters that allow us to see how much energy we’re using in real time. It definitely makes me more aware of what I’m using and how I can reduce it. I also really value phone apps that help me to identify birds, trees or wildflowers.

Who do you think has the most responsibility when it comes to the environment (individuals/industry/media/government etc)?
Responsibility is shared, but if you think about it, businesses won’t move unless the Government tells them to, and Government won’t move unless the voters call for it. So, it’s up to us to kick up a fuss.

How do you like to work with PRs and brands?
I’m fairly choosy about who I work with, as I often have to critique corporations or bad business practice, and I don’t want to be a hypocrite! But I do have regular book reviews and host affiliate links for books.

What are your favourite campaigns or collaborations that you’ve been part of?
I’m an ambassador for Kiva, the microfinance charity, and I love being able to point people to what they do.

What do you call yourself (blogger/content creator/influencer etc)?
I call myself a writer and campaigner if I’m talking about my broader work, as I also write books and research reports and all sorts of other things. But I’m happy to call myself a blogger when I’m talking about the blog.

What other blogs do you read?
There are lots that I check in on occasionally, but I’ll give a shout to Carbon Brief, Circulate News, From Poverty to Power and The Climate Lemon as some of my favourites.

Jeremy Williams and Make Wealth History are both listed on the Vuelio Database, along with thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists, editors, MPs and SpAds.

Make your lives greener with The Green Familia

May 2, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight PR, Press and Bloggers, Media Database Blog Posts /by Merryn Williams

Brenda Cuby is the author of The Green Familia, the family-focused eco blog that recently ranked in the Top 10 UK Green Blogs. We caught up with Brenda who told us about becoming more eco-friendly, society’s collective responsibility and working with brands.

What makes your blog unique?
We are aimed at those who wish to make green changes to their lives one step at a time.

Will we ever live in a fully sustainable world?
We need to believe in this and hope that by encouraging everyone to make changes that this will become a reality.

What are the biggest eco/green trends at the moment that we should all be aware of?
There is a shift in the plastic-free movements and this will keep pushing for those changes to be further followed through. The use of electric cars is something that is coming with all the major car companies now investing in this. As our natural supplies erode, we will see more people taking an interest in this area.

How is technology helping us be more environmentally aware?
Technology can be a big help with apps on your smartphone to help you control your heating, encouraging us all to be more eco-friendly.

Who do you think has the most responsibility when it comes to the environment (individuals/industry/media/government etc)?
We all have a collective responsibility to stand up and be counted. Individuals, by making changes to their buying habits, will force industry to make the changes needed. The media has a huge part to play and if they can showcase the valid and good reasons as to why we should all be turning our focus to a more ethical way of living then that is great, but again they will only do this if their paymasters i.e. industry, come on board. The Government should lead by example, if they made the changes needed to their departments it would soon filter down.

How do you like to work with PRs and brands?
I love to receive content from them that is unique and fits my audience, so I like them to work with me and not just send me any old press release.

What are your favourite campaigns or collaborations that you’ve been part of?
There have been many small Kickstarter companies like Ohyo bags through to the big companies like British Gas.

What do you call yourself (blogger/content creator/influencer etc)?
I call myself an ethical blogger.

What other blogs do you read?
My Zero Waste, The Rubbish Diet, Moral Fibres and Eco Thrifty Living to name a few.

CIPR income rises to £4.3m

May 2, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

The CIPR has announced a profit of £4.3m in its financial report, leading to the Institute’s biggest surplus in five years. The report shows that thanks to financial activity across 2017, reserves grew from £417,000 to £613,000.

The Institute cut costs from last year, which, coupled with strong gains across its Membership, Training and Qualification, led to a £230K rise in income. This is despite slight falls in income across its Awards, publishing, governance and groups.

Jason MacKenzie, vice president at the CIPR, said: ‘2017 was a landmark year for the Institute, across both quantitative and qualitative measures. 1,800 new members joined, member retention was higher than in recent years, our turnover was higher than for many years, our costs were down year-on-year, and we produced the largest surplus since 2013.

‘The drive to professionalism continued apace, with more members than ever before committing to continuing professional development, and numbers of Accredited and Chartered Practitioners growing strongly.’

The report also details a gender pay breakdown at the organisation, despite this not being a legal requirement (due to its size). The Institute is 57% female and 43% male but men are more likely to earn more money. Of the 13 men at the company, four earned more than £50K, opposed to the one female member of staff in the same bracket. Women also make up the majority of the lowest bracket: five women earn £15K-£25K opposed to two men.

The board and council are all volunteers so gender representation across the Institute is not completely linked to pay; both the current President and President-elect are female, and the board is majority female. The CIPR has made huge steps this year to improve the diversity of its board and the Institute is committed to reducing the gender pay gap in the PR industry, a pledge that is included in the CIPR Manifesto.

CIPR members have the opportunity to discuss the financial report at the Institute’s AGM in Newcastle on 12 July. The AGM is free to attend and features a talk from the former chair of the Social Mobility Commission, Alan Milburn. Find out more here.

How to improve your influencer relations

May 2, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Good relationships are built on trust and transparency – and this is exactly what our next webinar will be exploring.

We are delighted to be joined by Anne-Marie Lacey, managing director of Filament PR and Debbie Sharratt, independent PR practitioner and blogger at My Boys Club, at 2pm on Tuesday 15 May, to talk about improving influencer relations.

Sign up to the webinar here

Giving both the perspective of the PR and the influencer, this unique webinar will provide our audience with an insight into what best practice truly means.

Anne-Marie and Debbie have also written a guest post for us on the topic of ethical and effective influencer relations, explaining how everything from the approach and the pitch to the work and results is improved when ethical best practice is employed.

One of the major areas of influencer relations is disclosure: when to disclose, how to disclose and why to disclose. Our webinar will decode this tricky area and make it easy for you to follow the rules. Anne-Marie and Debbie will also be providing real-life examples to help you get it right first time.

The webinar will also explore:

How to use the ASA guidelines, CAP code, Google rules and social media secrets
Ensure that you not only abide by the rules but that you’re taking advantage of all the opportunities these frameworks offer.

How ethical relationships can boost your brand’s reputation and ROI
It’s difficult to underestimate the importance of working ethically, which should not be seen as a chore but as professional advantage.

What to do if your influencers break the rules
Not everything goes to plan but if you’re working ethically but your influencers don’t want to, what options do you have?

We hope you can join us at 2pm on Tuesday 15 May, but if you can’t attend, don’t worry, you can sign up here and we’ll send you the recording either way!

The fashion editor’s guide to global travel

April 30, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Holly Hodges

Bonnie Rakhit is The Style Traveller. Bonnie was previously fashion editor at British Elle Magazine, Sunday Times Style and Grazia, and uses this expertise to show off the most stylish places on the planet. The luxury travel blog, which was recently named in the Top 10, gives a unique perspective on hotels, destinations and experiences.

We caught up with Bonnie to talk beautiful places, her favourite bloggers and working with a diverse range of brands.

What makes your blog successful?
I think authenticity has a lot to do with it. I only feature hotels and destinations that I have personally visited and stayed at myself, which means my reviews are genuine and honest. I also love aesthetically beautiful properties and locations so the blog should hopefully deliver a bit of aspirational wunderlust.

What makes luxury travel better than other types?
Everything! From the organisation, the service, the hotel decor and quality of food and staff. I’ve done my fair share of backpacking and loved it at the time; there is definitely a place in my heart for the good old days of roughing it. But a little older, wiser and few more pennies in the pocket, I feel like I’ve worked long enough and hard enough to deserve a bit of luxury on my holidays.

What destination would you suggest to first time travellers?
I think rather than easing yourself in, go big for your first destination and pick a location that is as far removed from your day to day life as possible. Go for adventure and stunning locations that will assault your senses. My top destinations of all time are India, Cuba and Brazil.

What about seasoned travellers?
I feel that if you’re an avid traveller you’ve seen and experienced so much already that you need to push the boundaries a little further and experiment more. If you’ve ‘done’ all the big tourist vacations why not try off-the-beaten-track places. Pick Anguilla rather than Jamaica, Boston rather than New York or Bilbao rather than Barcelona. There’s so much to discover wherever you go.

Is there anywhere on your bucket list you’ve yet to visit?
I’m currently planning a trip to Peru in August. But otherwise I still haven’t been to Hawaii, Tahiti or Fiji. The Pacific is still my oyster to discover.

If you could only take three items with you when travelling, what would they be?
My phone is a must, from photography to itinerary I can’t live without it. A scarf or wrap is so useful, covering off everything from a blanket on the flight, cover up in the cold or religious temple to beach towel and sarong – it’s a versatile bit of kit. And sunscreen!

What should PRs know about you?
I love all things luxury and aesthetic experiences. If it will make for a beautiful photograph and content, I’ll be there.

What’s the best PR/brand campaign you’ve worked on?
I’ve worked on hundreds of campaigns over the last few years from Mercedes Benz to Veuve Clicquot, from Peru to Prada and Primark. I also work with lots of hotels and tourist boards. If you think your brand or product will be a good fit for me then just reach out and contact me directly.

What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator)?
All of the above.

What other blogs do you read?
I like Angie Silverspoon for a more foodie perspective and also Feya from Fitness on Toast for all things health and fitness. I also love Aggie Lal from Travel In Her Shoes and Sam Kolder’s YouTube.

Bonnie and her blog are both listed on the Vuelio Database, along with thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists, editors, MPs and SpAds.

Five Things: Top 150, Millicent Fawcett, Facebook, Kanye and Daily Express

April 27, 2018/0 Comments/in Five Things, PR Pulse, social media marketing, journalism, PR, PR agency Press and Bloggers, Media Database, PR Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Much to Amber Rudd’s delight there have been other news stories this week. But with Prince Louis, historic scenes in Korea and Trump’s announced visit on Friday 13 July – you probably missed some of these…

1. PRWeek Top 150

Okay, so if you’re in it, it’s very unlikely you missed it. PRWeek has released its Top 150 UK PR Consultancies, which once again sees Edelman sitting pretty above the rest. Though with only 0.9% revenue growth year on year, 2019 may see a new contender for the crown. The mostly likely choice? Weber Shandwick. The multi-discipline agency has seen a massive 19% year-on-year revenue growth, and it’s now snapping at the heels of Edelman.

This ranking is the first without Bell Pottinger, which in 2017 ranked 13th. The top 20 in 2018 are no doubt benefitting from the redistribution of the fallen agency’s £27m of revenue.

Other key stats from the 150:

23 saw a fall in revenue, two didn’t change and the remaining 125 all grew – The Romans by 108%!
Only 27 agencies are based outside London, none of which make the top 20 (the biggest non-London agency is Pegasus in Brighton at 26 on the list)
Edelman has the most staff with 497 employees, and Steinreich Comms Group has the least with just nine
38 agencies shrunk, 21 remained the same and 89 took on more staff – Yellow Jersey growing from six staff in 2016 to 23 in 2017 (that’s a rise of 283%)
Finsbury is the best performing agency in terms of revenue per employee, with each staff member accounting for £294,118

2. Millicent Fawcett

A statue of the suffragist Millicent Fawcett has been unveiled in Parliament Square. The statue, which shows Fawcett holding a banner that reads, ‘Courage calls to courage everywhere’ celebrates 100 years since the Representation of the People Act (when the first women were allowed to vote). The statue has proved controversial, with the Guardian collecting views that the words on the banner are a ‘travesty’, or the statue is of the wrong person; City A.M. suggests Fawcett would be ‘outraged at today’s feminism’, as it is ‘creating an unnecessary victimhood narrative, to which women are encouraged to subscribe’; and the Spectator calls the statue ‘embarrassing’ as it is ‘timid, ponderous, confused’.

Fawcett’s statue is now one of the few in the country that represent real, non-royal women, which can only be a good thing and hopefully a sign of change.

3. Facebook joy

It wouldn’t be Five Things without a Facebook story but it’s rare that it’s good news. The social giant has posted record revenues in the first quarter of the year, despite all the negative press (covered here, here and here). Beating analysts’ expectations, the company brought in $11.97bn of revenue, which is up 49% from 2017. Twitter also benefitted from social media growth, posting a quarterly profit, with revenues up.

In further good news for the Zuck, the #DeleteFacebook campaign seems to have had no legs. Daily active users grew quarter-on-quarter by 48m to 1.45bn, and monthly active users are also up to 2.2bn. Both numbers are 13% up on the same quarter last year.

Repurposing the word ‘important’, Mark Zuckerberg said: ‘Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018. We are taking a broader view of our responsibility and investing to make sure our services are used for good. But we also need to keep building new tools to help people connect, strengthen our communities, and bring the world closer together.’

All this good news has been offset (a tiny amount) by Ofcom’s report that only 70% of British social media users consider Facebook to be their main platform, down from 80% last year. Of course, this means nothing when we see that Facebook is losing out to WhatsApp and Instagram, both of which it owns.

As a lot of noise around the Facebook scandal came at the end of March into April, we may yet see an impact from the deluge of negative news. So we’ll see it in a Five Things story in about three months.

4. Not losing fans and influencing people

Kanye West has become a prolific tweeter in recent days as he gears up for his new album. Among his many, many words of wisdom – including: ‘I don’t believe in horizontal hierarchy. If you build a ladder too high it’s actually most dangerous for the people at the top’, and ‘we have freedom of speech but not freedom of thought’ – were his thoughts on Trump. In two tweets Kanye said:

You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

If your friend jumps off the bridge you don’t have to do the same. Ye being Ye is a fight for you to be you. For people In my life the idea of Trump is pretty much a 50 50 split but I don’t tell a Hillary supporter not to support Hillary
I love Hillary too.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

And, almost like a joyous child:

my MAGA hat is signed ?????????????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/DrDHJybS8V

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

Trump responded to Kanye, saying ‘very cool!’

Rumours that Kanye lost millions of followers because of the MAGA hat tweet have been quashed by Twitter, who said any discrepancies in numbers are actually just ‘inconsistencies’. But that didn’t stop Kim Kardashian rushing in to Kanye’s rescue:

my wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don’t agree with everything Trump does. I don’t agree 100% with anyone but myself.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

We could obviously make this post go on and on, and surely books will one day be written on Kanye’s musings. Except his musings are a book, which Kanye is writing in ‘real time’. So maybe one day his musings will just be published, and all of us will have the Book of Kanye on our coffee tables. I look forward to chapter 26:

I’m nice at ping pong

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

5. Express concern

Trinity Mirror’s takeover of the Daily Express hit further trouble this week as Matt Hancock (Yes, the one who is, is a founder of, and is on: Matt Hancock) suggested there might need to be a public interest intervention on the deal. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is already deciding whether it needs to investigate the acquisition, so Trinity Mirror currently has to keep the Express and Star Newspapers as a separate entity until the CMA comes to a conclusion.

Though that didn’t stop them installing new editors across the titles. Gary Jones, who was made editor of the Daily Express, told a Government committee that some previous Express front pages were ‘downright offensive’. For some reason this was misconstrued by the British press as an ‘admittance’ of some sort of failure or guilt, rather than a new editor (from a left wing background) distancing himself from his paper’s past (of a right wing persuasion).

Read more about Trinity Mirror’s Express concerns here, including why the acquisition is very unlikely to be seen as a competition issue.

Did we miss anything? Let us know on Twitter @Vuelio.

Time for a blogging trade association?

April 27, 2018/1 Comment/in PR Pulse, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

This is a guest post from John Adams, blogger at DadblogUK.com, about the need for a blog association. Have your own opinions about this? Want to write a guest post? Email Jake O’Neill or tweet us @Vuelio.

There’s been a fascinating conversation on Twitter recently. It was sparked off by a post on the Dad v World blog.

While David, the author, was questioning the merits of being known as a dad blogger, it created a lot of chat about changes in the blogging world. Some questioned the way blogging has become monetised, others felt it was acceptable, others sat on the fence but acknowledged blogging has become more competitive over recent years.

I launched my blog, Dadbloguk.com, six years ago. In that time, I have noticed an increasing number of people have turned blogging, not to mention vlogging and Instagramming, into an occupation. For some time now, I’ve been wondering if we’ve reached a point where some form of trade association for bloggers would be a good idea.

In fact, I’m not the only person to have had this idea. A short while ago I was quietly approached by what I’ll euphemistically call an interested party. I was asked whether a trade body was needed for the blogging community.

The approach was very timely. I had, just days previously, joined the Federation of Small Businesses. The FSB is a great institution that offers SMES some amazing services. You can call upon it for crisis communications help, it’s presently offering members workshops on the GDPR, it will help you out if you find yourself on the wrong end of a tax investigation by HMRC and so on.

It doesn’t, however, provide specific, targeted services for bloggers. Blogging is specialism that requires special skills and knowledge and, at this point in time, bloggers have no body to represent their interests.

Here are a few issues I think a trade body could help with:

Continuous professional development
We all need to know about the GDPR. We all need to keep up with the latest SEO developments and learn how to use social media channels effectively. A trade body could organise events and workshops to help its members keep their skills up to date.

Late payment assistance
A trade body could help bloggers when invoices go unpaid. It’s easy to ignore one blogger chasing up an invoice. A trade body, however, would be much more powerful and repeat offenders would find it harder to do business with reputable bloggers.

Code of Conduct
This, I feel, could massively help both bloggers and the PR industry. Let’s just take the issue of paid-for content as an example.

We’re all supposed to be playing on a level field and declaring paid-for content. Yet we all know that not everyone follows the rules.

Members of this yet-to-be-established trade body could abide by a code of conduct requiring them to declare paid-for content in line with Advertising Standards Authority rules, just as the print industry has done for years. This would make life much more difficult for those unscrupulous PR and SEO agencies that frequently ask bloggers to host paid-for content without declaring it or pay tiny amounts in return for bloggers taking part in link building schemes.

Think also of those bloggers who ask for and receive expensive review items and then never do anything with them. This harms the reputation of the blogging industry. If bloggers signed up to a code of conduct, it would give our colleagues in the PR industry some comfort that we were going to produce the goods.

Representation at Government level
Yes, yes, I know this sounds very boring, but I think this is one of the most compelling reasons for the establishment of a trade association for bloggers. The Brexit talks are a fantastic way to demonstrate this.

Representatives from the motoring, fishing, farming and financial industries have been consulted as part of the Brexit talks. As bloggers, we need standardised technological protocols and data protection regulations with the EU and beyond. Without it, it would be very difficult for our blogs to operate.

Who is lobbying for bloggers’ interests at this point in time, to ensure this happens? I’ll tell you who: no one.

Press regulation is another issue. At one point it looked like bloggers were going to fall under the remit of the press regulator. Thankfully it didn’t happen, but there was no trade body in place to argue our case.

Limits of any trade body
While a trade body would be an amazing development, I think it needs a clear remit. It shouldn’t be a union, I don’t think it should negotiate rates of pay. Us bloggers are probably a little too individualistic to want to be constrained by union rules!

Challenges of setting up any trade body
I have heard it said that it would be ‘too difficult’ to set up a trade body for bloggers. I think that’s very defeatist.

The closest organisation I can think of is the National Union of Journalists. The NUJ represents news reporters, features writers, trade journalists, broadcast journalists, freelancers, staff writers, photographers, sub-editors, editors, art critics, political correspondents and so on. Yes, okay, it’s a union so not quite the same thing as a trade body, but if the NUJ is such a broad church, then a blogging trade association could represent fashion bloggers, news podcasters, travel Instagrammers, mummy and daddy bloggers and so on.

I imagine there would be some resistance from people who either make very small amounts of money from blogging or who do it solely as a hobby. I can see ways around this, but there are very few occupations where you don’t get professionals and amateurs rubbing along nicely side by side.

You get professional and amateur sports people, professional and amateur photographers, writers, actors, painters and so on. Yeah, okay, the day I see an amateur fire fighter tackling a blaze I’ll get very concerned, but you get my point.

Often, it’s a career path: you start off as a hobbyist and become professional. Blogging is no different.

Blogging is no longer ‘new’ media. It is established media and no properly organised media campaign takes place without the involvement of bloggers. A trade organisation would help give us the respectability we deserve but frequently don’t get.

There could be different tiers of membership depending on income, age of blog etc. maybe those blogging for the love of it could receive associate membership. Who knows, but there are possibilities to explore.

Final thoughts
Setting up a trade body for bloggers would have its challenges. It would definitely have its opponents.

I personally feel that the industry has developed to a point where it would be no bad thing. It would provide some security and protection both for bloggers and to the people we work with in the PR and SEO agencies. I think there’s real potential for it to drive up standards and to make it a recognised and understood occupation.

What do you think? Would you be tempted to join a blogging trade body? Do you think it could drive up standards? Would it bring some respectability to the blogging world?

One final thought, if I ever saw an amateur firefighter, I’d probably ask for a selfie and post it to Instagram. I am, after all, a blogger and, trade body or not, that’s the kind of thing we do.

Emma Spencer: Relaunching The Emasphere

April 26, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Emma Spencer is ‘the poser’ at The Emasphere, the luxury travel and lifestyle blog. Recently relaunched by Emma and her partner Tim, The Emasphere tracks Emma around the world, and showcases the restaurants she eats at, the outfits she wears and the beauty products she uses.

The Emasphere was one of 11 blogs we said you needed to follow in 2017 – and now we can reveal why we were right!

Why have you relaunched The Emasphere?
My partner and I kept saying we needed to change it up and do something different in the blogging sphere. We finally had our photography style down, and we were getting recognised for our quality content and crazy poses. But there was something missing. We didn’t have a proper strategy, and to be honest with you, we couldn’t properly describe what The Emasphere was all about, apart from being a blog where I shared my favourite things. So, we knew something had to change.

We wanted to create a good strategy, so we had a clearer direction of where we were going and what kind of content we wanted to produce. We also wanted to stop creating content just for the sake of it, and focus more on quality and adding value to our readers. We wanted to build a website, which not only looked good, but was easy to navigate, showcased our imagery well, and moved away from that ‘blog’ look and feel to become more of a professional online lifestyle destination.

In regards to content, we still have a mix of travel, fashion, lifestyle and beauty, but are now introducing more food, wine and dining articles; having regular interviews with unique brands and go-getting entrepreneurs; highlighting cool and individual brands I love (this includes lots of Australian brands); and providing both luxe and attainable travel advice, from hotel and restaurant reviews, to 48 hour travel guides. As I’ve always wanted to be a TV presenter/actor, so we’re also focusing more on YouTube this year!

What makes your blog successful?
Our quality content is definitely something that stands out. We put a lot of time and effort into creating editorial-worthy imagery and valuable content. By heading to theemasphere.com or our Instagram feed, our readers and followers know they’ll come away with advice or inspiration, whether it’s in travel, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, food and drink.

We profiled you at the beginning of 2017, what have you been up to since?
Travelling a lot! My partner and I aim to go to a new destination each month, so we’ve been here there and everywhere – from eating pasta and drinking wine in Rome, to skiing in the French Alps. I also spent a couple of months back home in Australia last year, while my partner sorted out his visa. We realised although we love Australia and love spending time with our family and friends, we really enjoy living in the UK. There are so many opportunities here, both professionally and personally. We also love the fact we can easily jump on a plane and spend the weekend in another country! Apart from travelling, I’ve been working on building The Emasphere and moulding it into a lifestyle destination!

Who/what is your favourite fashion designer/brand?
That’s a hard one! I’d have to say I love Australian brands so much. Every time I wear something from an Aussie label, everyone falls head over heels! Some of my favourite Australian brands include Talulah, C/MEO Collective, Finders Keepers, ASILIO, Thurley and Dion Lee.

What’s the best place in the world to visit for a weekend?
Anywhere with good food and wine, ha! Rome is without a doubt one of my favourite cities in the world. The food and wine are to die for, the culture and ambiance are both romantic and dreamy, and the Roman style is so unique and sophisticated.

Is there anywhere you haven’t been that you would still like to visit?
There are so many places I’d love to go to! I’m dying to go to the Amalfi Coast, New York, Greece, the Maldives, Provence, Bahrain, Oman, Dubai, South Africa… there are still so many areas of the world left to explore!

How important is social media to your blog?
Social media is super important to help you build your online presence and promote your blog and brand. Our largest social platform is Instagram, where we’ve been able to present The Emasphere’s aesthetic and our quality imagery to a large audience, giving them a snippet of what the brand is all about. Instagram is also a great way for our followers and readers to find out more about me as a person, by seeing daily personal insights, from where we’re travelling to and what restaurants we’re eating at, to what I’m wearing and the beauty products I’m using.

What should PRs know about you?
I’m a full-time blogger, originally from Australia, but I’ve been based in Liverpool in the UK for nearly three years. Although I’m based up north, I do come to London regularly for meetings and events. I have a mixed audience, predominately from the UK, Australia and the US, so I have the ability to introduce Brits to Aussie brands and vice versa.

We pride ourselves on creating quality content, with editorial-worthy imagery and in-depth, well-written articles. Videos are a new thing for us, but they’re something we’re focusing a lot more on this year. I love working with a mix of brands from travel and fashion, to food and wine, to beauty and lifestyle, and discovering new and unique brands and destinations.

I love creating stories with our content. Our audience knows whenever we travel somewhere, they’re going to be taken on a journey, which will not only inspire them to go to the destination, but they’ll have all the information they need to have a great trip, including what to wear, the best places to eat and drink, what stylish hotel they should stay in, and how to get there. I’ve been told quite a lot recently that our travel content has spurred on our audience to book more trips this year, which is super exciting!

What are your favourite campaign collaborations?
Recently, Havaianas Europe (who are represented by Alter Agency) had an opportunity to take one person from the press in the UK to Lisbon to interview Naia Cheschin, a Brazilian illustrator and graphic designer they recently collaborated with to create beautiful bespoke prints for the brand. I was chosen to go on the trip, which was a huge compliment to me; I was absolutely thrilled. While I was in Lisbon, I interviewed Naia, and as I really want to get into presenting, this was a dream come true.

On top of that, while we were in Lisbon, I was also able to create and style content for Havaianas, to show how you can style their latest range of sandals with any kind of outfit, from casual to dressy.

Having the ability to work with a brand you’ve loved for years and come up with and create fun content for them, is what I enjoy most about my job.

Collaborating with rentalcars.com at the beginning of the year, was another amazing campaign I worked on. We spent a week skiing in the French Alps, while sharing our journey of renting a car and driving around and exploring the Alps.

It was our first time in this area of France and our first-time skiing, so it was an incredible experience. The content we created for the trip has been our best yet and we had such incredible feedback from rentalcars.com and our audience. With the outfits I wore and the wonderful car we rented, we were able to successfully show how to take on the slopes stylishly.

What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator)?
I call myself a blogger, but as I create videos and imagery, and work a lot with social media, content creation is the core of what I do. So, I guess I can call myself a content creator too!

What other blogs do you read?
I read a variety of blogs, some of my favourites include Margo & Me and Harper & Harley for fashion and beauty, and Wood & Luxe for travel and wellness.

Emma and The Emasphere are listed on the Vuelio Database, along with every other Vuelio Blog Awards winner and thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists and editors.

PR industry welcomes £1bn AI investment

April 26, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Government PR, Comms, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

The Government this morning announced a deal to back the British artificial intelligence industry with £1bn of investment, including £300m of newly allocated Government funding.

More than 50 businesses have contributed to the £1bn fund, including Hewlett Packard, BT, Rolls Royce and the UK Space Agency. The investments are being spread across a vast number of projects as the UK looks to seize on the potential £232bn opportunity AI can bring to the UK economy by 2030.

The PR industry has welcomed the announced investment, with the CIPR’s #AIinPR panel commending the focus on ethics, knowledge and skills. Among the projects receiving investment include a £9m Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, which will advise on the measures needed to enable and ensure safe, ethical and innovative uses of data-driven technologies.

The CIPR also praises the fund’s focus on developing AI skills, with announced training for 8,000 specialist computer science teachers and funding for 1,000 new AI PhD places by 2025.

Ketchum’s Stephen Waddington, who leads the AI panel, said: ‘The deal places ethics at the heart of the country’s AI strategy, in line with our previous calls for Government to claim a leadership position in education, investment and the development of AI.

‘The CIPR’s #AIinPR panel has found that while the current use of artificial intelligence in PR is limited, it is likely to have a greater impact over time as it enables the elimination of repetitive, administrative roles and automation of simple tasks and workflows.’

AI already plays a big role in Vuelio software, with much of our product now intelligently automated to provide our clients with the best results.

Joanna Arnold, CEO of Vuelio, said: ‘We’re delighted with the Government’s investment – AI plays an increasing role in all of our lives, and it’s fundamental to the work we do at Vuelio.

‘We are continuing to develop Vuelio’s AI capabilities to better support communications, whether PR and marketing, public affairs or other stakeholder management activity, and look forward to seeing how we can work within the new framework to further enhance AI’s role across the industry.’

Find out more about Vuelio software and how you can benefit from our artificial intelligence.

MK: The Best PR Blog in the UK

April 25, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight, Blog Awards Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Marcel Klebba is MK, author of the eponymous blog that was crowned Best PR, Media & Communications Blog at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2017. MK started his blog while studying at university and it provides a unique insight into a PR student turning pro.

We caught up with MK to talk about winning his award, the importance of mentors and reaching high profile people.

What’s your background?
I’m originally from Poland. Four years ago, I came to study PR and advertising at the University of Westminster and while I was studying I aimed to get as much work as experience as possible. In my final year, I started a blog, which became my playground to explore ideas, connect with likeminded people and learn more about the industry.

You studied both advertising and PR, how did you choose one over the other?
I don’t think I would be the right fit for advertising. PR appealed more to me, because I’ve always loved media and been surrounded by it growing up. I really appreciate the power of media and PR, and I wouldn’t be exposed to that so much in advertising.

You’ve interviewed some really high-profile journalists, is that thanks to you or the blog?
The blog is massively helpful when it comes to approaching people, because I can say: ‘I’ve got a platform and I want to interview you/I want your opinion/I want your quote – just for my blog’. I think that’s very enticing for people. Twitter is also a great place to chat with people, especially journalists. I don’t think journalists like to be pitched to on Twitter but it’s definitely a good place to build a rapport and relationship.

Does connecting with people through the blog help you professionally?
Definitely. Whenever an email pops up in a journalist’s inbox with my name, and they saw my name on Twitter the other day, it’s probably more likely to be opened and read. And they know I’m not going to jeopardise the relationship we’ve built with a bad pitch.

It sounds like having a blog has helped you a lot, do you think other PRs should have their own blogs?
I don’t think blogging is for everyone – it’s a massive commitment. Blogging is a great idea for PR students, but there are so many sites that have been abandoned after a few posts. It’s great from a career standpoint, but people should be aware that it’s a responsibility, and a blog needs to be constantly updated and it needs attention.

You mentioned students, and they make up some of your readers. How do you interact with your audience?
Through Twitter mostly – it allows to see who is interacting with my blog and commenting on my posts. Also, I get feedback from PR students that enjoyed my blog, which is great, and other people in the industry including my colleagues.

Talking of industry colleagues, I know how important mentors and mentorship is to you. What roles do they play in your development as a blogger and PR?
It’s huge. I started the blog because two people specifically – David Gallagher, then Ketchum but now Omnicom PR Group, and Stephen Waddington – told me I should be writing in order to have a great career. There always seems to be people around you that supply you with good advice, and it’s always good if you’ve got an issue or questions, to go to them directly. I wrote a blog post about mentorship, and in that I wrote that it doesn’t have to be one-to-one sessions, it can be reading something they’ve written or listening to a podcast they’ve made. In the digital world, mentorship can be more virtual and those people don’t necessarily even need to know they’re mentoring you.

You’re at the Vuelio Blog Awards, sitting with, among others, your mentor Stephen Waddington (pictured above), and you win the Best PR Blog award. What’s that like?
A little bit of imposter syndrome. It was huge, a highlight – I didn’t believe it and I definitely wasn’t expecting it. Now, I feel like I’ve got a mission and I still need to plough through, even if there’s difficult times or I’m lacking inspiration. I need to think how I could bring value to the industry and tell people things they might find interesting or to engage people who are just starting out and are thinking about a career in PR.

What’s the community of PR bloggers like?
I think it’s small, but everyone has their own speciality: Ella Minty is all about reputation and the power of influence, Stephen Waddington is all about the tech and professional practice, Scott Guthrie covers influencers, PR Examples covers stunts, and Richard Bailey is doing amazing work bringing everything together and supporting student communities with PR Place. There are also some really remarkable student blogs, including my friend Orlagh Shanks’, Jessica Pardoe’s, as well as the community blog Ulster PR students.

What’s your speciality?
Careers, starting out in the industry and documenting my journey.

You’re making a name for yourself in the PR world, what do you think has contributed to the opportunities?
Because of the blog, I built relationships. I was recently on a panel with Women in PR about personal branding and the people from the panel knew that I wrote my dissertation on personal branding, and I wrote about the dissertation on my blog. So, I think it’s everything all together.

The blog leads to so many opportunities. We are in a niche area – so I’m not a beauty blogger and I’m not getting free cosmetics – but the biggest benefit of having a blog is building relationships with likeminded people. In the last year, I’ve been running the Four PR Questions series, which is all about interviewing high profile leaders and I think this made me connect with other people and get my name in front of them.

What are your top tips for reaching high profile names for interviews?
The majority of people who are afraid of reaching out to the high-profile figures, think they are not reachable. They’re afraid of failure. I was rejected loads of times and lots of people didn’t respond, but there are plenty who did respond and let me interview them.

I think it’s a case of trying and not being afraid you’ll be rejected, because rejection will happen. Also, high profile people are just human – and if there’s someone junior approaching them – they will be impressed.

What are your future plans?
Obviously I want to remain in Vuelio’s Top 10 PR Blogs. Professionally, I want to stay in the agency side of things, and start managing people and thinking about strategy, and implementing digital. I want to keep learning and be challenged every day.

Marcel Klebba, MK, is listed on the Vuelio Database, along with every other Vuelio Blog Awards winner and thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists and editors.

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