Creating content inhouse

How to start creating content in-house

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2020 is the year for in-house content creation. In 2019, a third of marketing teams surveyed by Canto and Sapio Research were planning to reduce agency spend and start sourcing internally.

If you’re one of the nine in 10 comms directors surveyed by Speak Media who still struggle with putting content together, getting started is going to be the hardest part. Skip the stage of staring at a blank Word doc and get straight to writing/filming/surveying with this advice from PRs already content with their content creation.

Content can come from anywhere… but surveys and suggestions are a good place to start
‘We’ve had success doing research pieces from surveys but also received coverage just by making sure that we’re watching what’s going on across media outlets and seeing what comments and added value we can offer. Suggestions from the team are crucial though, you have to have that buy in from the wider business. That’s when you get someone from an area completely unrelated to content and marketing come to you with an idea.’
Cartridge People SEO manager Andy Davies

There’s no such thing as a bad idea
‘I know its cliché, but it’s true. In our ideation meetings, we encourage people to be as adventurous and as wild as possible with their thoughts. There have been times where someone has suggested something that they thought was a ridiculous idea, but it ended up being one of our top performing campaigns due to its originality and wackiness.’
Liberty Marketing digital PR executive Emma Hull

‘We have a very healthy attitude towards ideas and never shoot them down early on, which I think is key to making people feel confident about sharing. Even if they aren’t gold, some ‘bad’ ideas can lead to greatness after a discussion. The truth is that if we established an atmosphere where only great ideas are expected to be shared, then there wouldn’t be much getting said. Instead, we never write off ideas and it’s that approach that can get us the best ones – even if it is after some tinkering.’
Add People senior content and off page SEO specialist Jack Bird

Watercooler walks: talk to people outside of your own team
‘Communicating content ideas to the people in your business is arguably more important than when you’re looking to talk to journalists. Other teams can act as that first set of eyes and offer insights that don’t just look at how it can help build the brand. There are techniques to try and help that idea sharing, such as the 6-3-5 method, and this is one we’ve found useful.

‘Regular meetings and shared sheets can be a good way to formalise things, but we’ve found that just by talking to other departments, even in passing, makes sure that everyone is aware of the type of content that’s being produced.’
Andy Davies

Make the most of the people and the skills you have around you
‘While you can utilise other sources, nobody knows your brand like you do and if you have in-house content writers, they will understand your business better, which pages are more critical and to add internal links to, how to add in your business goals or call-to-actions. There is a lower level of research required with inhouse content writers and the costs are far lower when writing in bulk.

‘The length of content required now is vastly higher than years gone by. We also need to not just look at the question we’re trying to answer when our audience arrives from Google, but their follow-up thought-track and predict their next questions, so they don’t return to Google for another search. This requires a lot of research around the subject area and associated questions, customer intent, as well as truly understanding our target audience and building out personas. This would be very difficult to do from outside and really requires staff members that are fully enveloped into our system and writing all day to help our content strategy.’
The Stag Company SEO expert and senior digital marketer Tom Bourlet

‘There are obvious advantages to creating your content in-house. Of course, these people already work for you and are already paid by you, so you don’t have to worry about allocating a budget for external work. Additionally, your staff already know the industry because they’re in it. They’re experts in the subject (hopefully!) and understand your client base.’
Carrington Communications junior PR account executive Leah Benthin

Created something great? Don’t just share it once
‘All too often great content is used once by one team and then gets left in the proverbial drawer, never to be seen again. This is such a waste. If good content is produced, I personally like to “wring it dry”. It should be used across multiple teams (where relevant) and also reused across different mediums too. For instance, there is nothing to stop a brand taking snippets from a longer whitepaper and turning these into social media posts, or likewise using some of that copy to draft an opinion article. They could even use that same copy to hijack the news agenda in a reactive comment, which can be distributed to the media. Doing this will not only mean you get far more eyes on that content, but will also guarantee a consistent voice, tone and message across multiple channels, too.’
Tribe PR MD and founder Holly Pither

Check what’s working
‘We use Google Analytics to look at the actual traffic and engagement of the blog, whereas Majestic is also used to look at the Trust Flow and Citation Flow, and Rank Checker to review rankings for longtail. As for content campaigns, we measure the success of these by making note of any links we have built.

While authoritative and trustworthy links are important to a website, coverage without a backlink is still a positive. It has become increasingly hard over the past twelve months to ensure that sites are linking back to a website as a lot of publications refrain from doing so as they think it is ‘harmful’ to their own site or they restrict this SEO benefit to affiliates.

Once our content campaign has been pushed, I check whether it is also being talked about on social media, too.’
Emma Hull

Still not sure about getting started with creating content in-house? If you can write an email, you’ve got the skills already
‘If you’re working in PR, then chances are that you’ve already written some of the hardest content around – emails. There are thousands of articles dedicated to writing the perfect one – hell, even just a decent subject line. With words such a valuable currency and attention spans so fleeting, it takes a lot of practice and talent to write a good message. That’s why I’m willing to bet that if you’re confident about writing emails, then you should at least have the confidence to try your hand at longer content pieces. Trust me, they’re a lot more fun.’
Jack Bird

Measure the success of your campaigns (whether sourced outside or in-house) with Vuelio media monitoring – find out more here.

Labour leader and deputy contests move to second stage as hustings begin

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As nominations for the Labour party leadership closed this week, five candidates made it through to the next round of nominations, and a further five candidates will contest the deputy leadership vacated by Tom Watson. The party has arranged a series of hustings starting in Liverpool on Saturday 18 January.

The next stage in the contest, with a deadline of 14 February, requires candidates for both leader and deputy, to secure the backing of 5% of local Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) or at least three affiliates – two of which must be unions. This Twitter account is keeping track of CLP nominations and of the first nine, Keir Starmer has six nominations and Rebecca Long-Bailey has three.

So far the country’s largest union, Unison has backed Keir Starmer, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has backed Lisa Nandy and the Bakers Union has backed Rebecca Long-Bailey. Of the affiliated organisations, environmental organisation SERA (formerly the Socialist Environment and Resources Association) has endorsed Keir Starmer, with further announcements from other organisations expected over the coming weeks leading up to the mid-February deadline.

Shadow Treasury minister Clive Lewis withdrew from the contest shortly before nominations closed, though he had put forward a radical manifesto that included supporting a second Scottish Independence referendum ‘if the Scottish people want one’ and pledging to set up ‘democratic Assemblies for the English regions, with real powers and budgets’.

Sir Keir Starmer is the clear favourite in terms of nominations from the party’s MPs and MEPs with 89 out of 203 MPs nominating him.

Shadow BEIS Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey has received the backing of the Momentum grassroots campaigning organisation and has been dubbed the ‘continuity Corbyn candidate’, though she received only 33 MP nominations. The Momentum online poll of members was overwhelmingly in favour of Rebecca Long-Bailey but oddly she was the only candidate offered with 70.42% voting in favour of endorsing her and 52% endorsing Angela Rayner for deputy leader. Just over 7,000 members of the organisation took part in the ballot with many presumably boycotting it due to only being offered one option. Ms Long-Bailey launches her campaign in Manchester this evening.

Wigan MP Lisa Nandy received 31 MP nominations with Jess Phillips and Emily Thornberry both receiving 23 nominations from their colleagues.

Emily Thornberry launches her campaign in Guildford today. Having first won her Islington South seat in 2005, she is the only candidate who was actually in the House of Commons when Labour was last in Government. She will say in her launch speech: ‘I’m standing to lead our party, because I want to be the woman, and I know I can be the woman, who stands up and leads the fightback against Boris Johnson.’

Whilst starting from a low base in terms of support in terms of early polling and MP nominations, Jess Phillips has built a big name recognition for herself through various interviews and TV appearances as well as her campaigning on education cuts and violence against women. She has said in a letter to party members: ‘The way to begin is to tell the truth. No more pussyfooting or pretending – we have to provide a version of the future that fills our hearts while being rooted in fact’. Her campaign slogan is ‘Speak Truth, win power’.

Keir Starmer launched his campaign in Manchester and has already generated a lot of attention with a video setting out his background as a lawyer taking on a wide range of pro bono work for trade unions, and environmental or human rights campaigns. He rose to national prominence as Director of Public Prosecutions and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service from 2008 to 2013.

Lisa Nandy has already made a foreign policy focused speech this week with a passionate defence of free movement and ‘the opportunities and benefits it brings’, but added that ‘this would have required recognising it has flaws, and not dismissing concerns as simply racist anti-immigrant sentiment.’

She also was critical of Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement and has indicated that the UK should refuse to sign off on a US-UK trade deal until this is rectified, adding: ‘We must use trade to support climate action, not hamper it’. She is the first of the five candidates to face a grilling from Andrew Neil on his BBC show.

An article on HuffPost claims that Nandy’s team has a ‘preferential strategy’, taking into account the AV voting system used in the contest, to appeal for second preferences from Jess Phillips and Emily Thornberry supporters, which would bolster her tally if those candidates drop out at earlier stages.

As in the previous two contests won by Jeremy Corbyn in 2015 and 2016, non-Labour members have been able to sign up as registered supporters over a two-day period this week. In what could be a blow to the Rebecca Long-Bailey campaign seeking to build on the previous Corbyn surges in supporters of 180,000, only 14,700 paid the £25 to take part in this contest.

All eyes will turn now to the contest itself and whether the turnout of members, affiliated union members and registered supporters reaches the high turnouts of 76.3% in 2015 and 77.6% in 2016 when 422,871 and 506,438 respectively took part in the contests.

The Deputy leader candidates who all achieved the 22 MP nomination threshold are Angela Rayner on 88 nominations, Ian Murray on 34, Dawn Butler on 29, Rosena Allin-Khan on 23 and Richard Burgon on 22.

The results will be announced at a special conference on Saturday 4 April.

Sadiq Khan

Defending public relations from its ‘bad PR’ problem

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‘Too often, our industry is a soft-target for lazy attacks by those who lack an understanding of what public relations entails.’

The response from PRCA head of communications Koray Camgoz to last week’s City A.M. piece on Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s increased press office spend – reportedly £920,967.95 on communications officers in 2018-19 – will probably have resonated with anyone working in PR who’s had to explain their job to people unfamiliar with the industry.

At Vuelio, we hear the complaint a lot from our PR community that the industry is misunderstood and unjustly painted in a negative light, despite recent drives towards more transparency across the communications discipline.

Outdated notions of desperate grasps for publicity, unfocused ‘spray and pray’ mail merge campaigns and badly-timed phone calls persist particularly for journalists, who’ve probably had their own bad experiences with PRs.

Portrayals of morally questionable and Machiavellian PR people on TV and film haven’t helped – think Ab Fab, Siobhan Sharpe or Colin Farrell in Phone Booth when he says: ‘I lie to newspapers and magazines who sell my lies to more and more people. I am just a part of a big cycle of lies.’

This controversy was stirred up again by the report of a 26% increase on the Mayor of London’s press operation. For Koray, the negative interpretations are due to a misunderstanding of the aims of PR: ‘The article suggests Khan is ‘“more concerned about PR than policy”’, but what many fail to grasp is that you cannot have effective policy unless you understand the people you’re trying to reach’.

‘PR professionals play an essential role in helping businesses to understand these parameters. Our practice is not obsessed with publicity as has been reported – it encompasses a range of disciplines that are integral to any professionally run businesses.’

Defending public relations against decades of, well, bad PR is a big task, particularly when it intersects with politics (another oft-maligned career choice). Chapman Poole director Andy Poole feels there is a natural connection between the two communities: ‘Khan’s increased press office spend is hardly surprising. If anything, investing more in PR is a savvy move. He’s competing in a world of politics where the value of personality and reputation has become the ultimate currency’.

Andy continues: ‘The likes of Johnson, Corbyn, Trump and Sturgeon have all polarised public opinion and sentiment, and their personalities have played a large part in this. How often do you hear someone talk about politicians now, making comments like; “‘I like their policies, but don’t like them as a person”. Khan gets this. He knows ‘“personality”’ is just as important as what he’s saying and what he stands for.’

Increasingly, transparency and authenticity are expected from politicians and any public figure, business or service. In spite of its reputation for smoke and mirrors, the reality is that PR has evolved and is now more focused on highlighting bigger ideas around ethics and moral standpoints. This function of public relations is still overlooked or invisible to the public (as good PR often is).

For business expert Erica Wolfe-Murray, there’s good reason for the dim view: ‘PR and lobbying teams paid by large conglomerates have been seen time and again to reinforce vested interests that we know are bad for us, our health, the environment. Tobacco, sugar, fast-food, oil, fracking. These industries have used PR extensively to promulgate stories that science has long since proven deleterious. Is it any wonder that the industry is regarded with cynicism?’

‘Transparency, honesty and global responsibility’ is what Erica believes the PR industry must prioritise in order to overhaul its reputation – if not a rebrand in line with the evolution of audience engagement.

Erica continues: ‘Perhaps the term ‘public relations’ should be retired. I infinitely prefer the term ‘communications’ as it is about just that – communicating. In the past, PR was a one-way street. Your release, story or interview went out to a selected publication or platform as the intermediary between you and the public. Now public figures and businesses can have a two-way intimate dialogue with their fans, their critics and the customers – for everyone else to see.’

This back-and-forth dialogue between subject, PR and public has never been more transparent, yet PR is still often called ‘the dark side’ by journalists and much of its positive effects go unrecognised. For Stone Junction’s Richard Stone, the best defence is the work itself: ‘PR has the power to raise Governments, change the course of nations and build businesses, from scratch, into global players. The importance of PR should require no defence; you can topple or grow a business with a tweet if it’s done correctly. As professionals we need to hold ourselves to the strictest standards and deliver useful work using the budget we have — then the value of our labour will be obvious.’

The City A.M. piece on Sadiq Khan’s PR spend is not the first negative take on PR expenditure, and it won’t be the last. Koray Camgoz rightly summarises the value of investing in public relations in his response: ‘Ultimately, PR professionals build trust between organisations and their stakeholders by delivering honest, timely and accurate information to those who need it’. And so say all of us…

Anne-Gregory-AIinPR

CIPR #AIinPR report urges preparation for ‘the fourth industrial revolution’ of artificial intelligence

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Robo-PRs aren’t on their way to take over public relations agencies across the globe, according to the speakers at the launch of the CIPR’s #AIinPR Panel report at The Alan Turing Institute this morning. That our industry should still prepare for other possibilities of machine learning and AI (beyond cyborg comms experts) was urged by Chair Kerry Sheehan, co-author Professor Anne Gregory and Drs David Leslie and Bertie Vidgen.

The nature of our work will change over the next five years as the technology we use gets smarter – so how can PRs prepare for the unavoidable impact of AI?

One main takeaway of ‘The Effects of AI on the Professions: A Literature Repository’ for PRs is the increasing importance of ethics. How will we use all the new data we’ll soon have at our disposal, and where should we draw the line?

‘A positive – AI is free from bias,’ said Professor Anne Gregory on the automated data gathering and content generation that will soon be possible. ‘We have to govern ourselves, however. We call ourselves “ethical guardians” – we need to keep asking ourselves those tough questions. Just because we can, should we?’

Anne highlighted a future of people ‘AI-empowered’ and those who’ll be lacking, with PRs – reassuringly – being in a ‘privileged position’. Alongside the bonus of its access to new tech, PR is made up of people with skills that AI can’t duplicate. YetShe said: ‘Social and emotional skills – crucial in our profession – are going to be more important’.

For Anne, communication is what will put PRs ‘at the heart of strategy’ – translators of context and experts in meaning-making when it comes to reams of meaning-free numbers and statistics. This is encouraging for anyone who has picked PR as a career, certainly, but drastic changes are still on their way.

A big topic of discussion was that a whole rung of the PR career ladder – entry-level positions – will likely be taken away by machine learning. How we as an industry will look after and continue to nurture young PR talent needs to be prepared for within agencies, now. ‘The jury is out on whether AI will replace all our jobs,’ said Anne. ‘That it is going to change the nature of work is indisputable’.

Perhaps the most important key point from the launch of the #AIinPR report is that PR needs to start practicing what it preaches. ‘PR talks a good game, but doesn’t listen to itself’, said Kerry Sheehan of PR’s tendency to promote, publicise and then ignore useful reports and studies… such as the one being launched. AI will change the nature of work, across all industries. It will bring in new questions around ethics not yet covered by GDPR regulations, and spark new discussions around regulations and equality (can AI really be completely unbiased? We’ll find out)

PR is in a position of privilege as technology will continue to change how the world of work looks, but also a position of great responsibility.

‘This report doesn’t advise how to navigate the use of AI,’ admitted Anne, ‘But it is designed to enable direct access to a suite of resources for readers to inform themselves.’

‘PR has a vital societal and organisational role to play in the debate on AI but it needs to better prepare itself with practitioners upskilling to work smarter and faster in their roles but also becoming equipped to advise on AI adoption and deployment within organisations and business, and to its stakeholders and society,’ said Kerry. ‘It is our role to no longer debate on our own swim lanes – we must help drive business and organisations forward. This report is the first step in that preparation and I am delighted our partners such as CBI, The Alan Turing Institute and the UK Government Office for AI are supportive of our work.’

Prepare for the upcoming impact of AI on your work: read more about ‘The Effects of AI on the Professions: A Literature Repository’ here. Want more about the future of PR? Check out our write up on the incoming rise of VIs (virtual influencers) and lessons from last year’s CIPR National Conference on ‘Preparing for the Digital Future’.

Sam Ajilore

Music Blogger Spotlight with Sam Ajilore, That Grape Juice

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‘That Grape Juice is effectively a site for music fans by music fans. We aim to inform, but also entertain in equal measure’. Here to entertain and inform us on music blog That Grape Juice, is Sam Ajilore who started the website as a hobby in 2007 and now draws in music fans across the world with in-depth features and interviews.

Read on to find out what makes the music sector such an interesting space to blog in, whether The Voice is still a good idea for new musicians and what lyric comes after ‘Hello’…

How did you get started with writing about music?
In school! My sister would always buy Urban magazines such as Essence, Pride and S2S – all of which I’d pick up and get lost in. The stories, the interviews, the reader feedback. It was such an immersive experience.

So, when blog culture had its initial boom in the mid-late 00s, I had a firm grasp on my Pop cultural palette and knew what the tone and approach of my site would be if I ever had one.

As history has it, I did launch That Grape Juice in 2007, but initially as a hobby. So to be here chatting with you, 13 years later (especially for this feature), is an honour!

What’s your favourite thing to post about on That Grape Juice?
At this point, it’s definitely original content! Celeb interviews, in-depth articles and editor round tables, as well as exclusive stories. Sure, the ‘trending’ finger-on-the-pulse stuff is the key driver (as is the case for most sites), but we have really realised the value of cultivating content people quite literally can’t find anywhere else.

What makes That Grape Juice different than others?
A few things! That Grape Juice has a distinctive tone of voice. It’s rooted in fact and is reliable, but it can also skew cheeky and get involved in the conversation it’s igniting.

Unlike pure celeb or gossip platforms (which I do enjoy, too), we also cater to the niche that are interested in music sales, industry trends and the behind-the-scenes happenings. Put simply, those who (like me) pick up a CD and get lost in the credits: who wrote what song, which label released it, so on and so forth.

That Grape Juice is effectively a site for music fans by music fans. We aim to inform, but also entertain in equal measure.

Mainly, though, I’d say it’s our emphasis on sparking discussion and debate. Humbly speaking, our comment section is popping! Which is something I’m really proud of; especially at a time where so much of the pop cultural dialogue has shifted to social media (an arena we also enjoy solid engagement in, too).

Do you think shows like The Voice and Britain’s Got Talent are still a good route into the music industry for wannabe musicians? What are the pros and cons?
I think it depends. On one hand, we live in such a DIY time that it totally makes sense for someone to appear on shows of this ilk – if the simple goal is exposure to acquire a bigger audience and leverage that towards a long-term plan. Winning, from that angle, would essentially be a bonus.

Yet, given how few stars are being churned out by such platforms these days, it does beg the question of whether it’s more valuable investing time and resources in direct-to-consumer approaches such as YouTube and playlisting on streaming services.

Ultimately, there are multiple ways of breaking in. The one consistent necessity though is having a DIY mentality. So, rather than waiting for a show to make one a star or dropping one song on YouTube with no strategy, it’s about having a plan. If it doesn’t work, then hatch another, then another and then another. Whatever the approach, acts today have to take agency over their careers if they want to advance.

Do you see the increase in the intersection of tech with music as a good thing – VR shows, holograms of musicians who are no longer with us?
I think it’s too soon to tell. I’m a tech geek at heart and a lover of spectacle, so I’m super intrigued about the elevation of the live music experience. At the same time, there are definitely ethical points of consideration that make it tricky terrain.

Beyond the growing fascination of reviving those who’ve passed away, I’d much prefer to see such technology used to cultivate exciting concert experiences for acts that are still here. Like a ‘Live In Your Living Room With _______’.

What was the first song/album you bought (and would you still listen to it)?
I honestly can’t remember! Much of my childhood was spent hounding my mum to buy us singles from Our Price, Virgin Megastore and HMV. By the time I was old enough to do so for myself, net culture meant anything you wanted to listen to was at your fingertips. Cornerstone albums for me, though, are Thriller, Janet and The Emancipation Of Mimi.

Favourite song lyric of all time?
Too many to name! But, I do find it fun watching what people follow with when singing the word ‘Hello…’

It’s pretty 50/50. Either Adele (‘…it’s me’) or Lionel Ritchie (‘…is it me you’re looking for’).

How do you work with PRs and brands?
On the PR front, it’s everything from content (hundreds of press releases a day), to arranging interviews, live reviews and original features.

With brands, it tends to be sponsorships and event coverage.

For PRs looking to work with you and your blog/website, how would you prefer they approach you?
We love working with PRs; it’s pretty much one of the most integral parts of our operation.

I think first it’s imperative those reaching out know the platform they’re contacting. For example, trying to solicit a feature for a heavy metal band on That Grape Juice is unlikely to yield fruitful results. While something of the pop or urban skew is much more on-brand.

I also find myself much more inclined to reply to personalised emails rather than the generic ‘Dear Sir/Madam’.

What other blogs do you read (whether music-related or not)?
I find myself super into lifestyle blogs of late. Randomly, interior design blogs, too.

Reach-the-right-influencers-with-the-Vuelio-media-database

Catherine West MP: Parliament has sent its solidarity to Australia. Now we must act.

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This is a guest post from Catherine West, the Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green and a former member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

For the past few weeks we have all witnessed the horrific images in Australia; vast swathes of precious fauna and natural habitat burnt to a crisp, with both animals and people losing their homes and, sadly, in many cases, their lives. Bush fires are not a new occurrence for Australia, but the sheer scale and ferocity of these fires, the huge impact on lives, and the global interest in them, is unprecedented and a warning sign of things to come.

At the first sitting of Parliament of this new decade, a decade likely to be dominated by climate change, the Speakers of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords – working together with members from all parties – sent their heartfelt solidarity to our colleagues in the Australian Parliament, and of course to the Australian people, who continue to suffer appallingly. We also sent our thanks to the fire fighters who continue to put their lives on the line to prevent the fires from taking even more lives, and their bravery deserves universal praise.

Although these sentiments by both Houses were welcomed by Members of all parties, we cannot sit idly by and rest on our laurels. In the coming decade it will be Parliaments, not executive governments, that will have the responsibility to ensure we don’t forget the horrors of this bushfire season and keeps the climate firmly on the agenda, regardless of the changing political weather and competing priorities of governments which come and go.

With the beginning of a new decade, we do have a real chance to make progress and prevent the scenes in Australia from happening again – while we still have time to do so. It is easily forgotten by many, but unless we take action over the next ten years to have a just transition to a zero-carbon economy it may be too late to prevent further climate collapse.

If we don’t, then people across the globe will continue to suffer as scenes like those in Australia, with disasters becoming more common and more widespread. It’s already clear that disasters are spreading, and we shouldn’t treat the Australian fires as an isolated incident. We are only a few weeks into 2020, but already we are arguably seeing one of the worst years for the climate in generations, with famine and drought in Zambia and floods in Indonesia, as well as the burning of Australia. These events should be treated as a wake-up call that we need to take collective action, and we need to do so now.

Climate change is not confined to national borders, and decisions that we take here in Westminster has a direct impact on the future of the global climate, not just our own. We can move forward from this, and work with governments across the globe to tackle the climate crisis and put a stop to the disasters. With the UK Parliament being the first in the world to declare a Climate Emergency, and the UK hosting the COP26 Climate Summit in November, there is a real chance for us to become world leaders in tackling the climate crisis and preventing further disasters.

The events in Australia demonstrate what awaits us if we fail to do so.

This blog post is part of a cross-party series on Vuelio’s political blog Point of Order which publishes insight and opinion to help public affairs, policy makers and comms professionals stay ahead of political change and connect with those who campaign on the issues they care about. To find out more or contribute, get in touch with Vuelio Politics.

Jo-Middleton

Slummy Single Mummy to share the Untold Stories of parenting bloggers

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Award-winning parenting blogger Jo Middleton has launched Untold Stories – a space on Slummy Single Mummy where parents can anonymously share the issues they struggle with.

Finding a balance between public and private as a blogger sharing her parenting life, Jo’s aim with the section is to create a ‘safe, non-judgemental space for support and feedback’. As a popular blogger in the sector – number one in the Top 10 Mummy Blogs – Jo provides advice on food, money, love and travel alongside family life, as well as answers to other issues she faces in her Rants section. The parts of life that don’t fit neatly into these topics is what she’s now hoping to cover.

‘As a writer in a public space there is always a balance between sharing enough to connect with people and keeping enough private that you respect other people’s privacy,’ said Jo, of the difficulties of balance in blogging and parenting. ‘Talking to other parents and parent bloggers recently I’ve found that it’s not just me that finds this hard.’

‘What I’ve decided to do is create a space for people to anonymously share their stories – the sort of stories that we normally keep to ourselves but that shape our lives.’

With the pressures of sharing a successful family life now extending beyond those blogging or vlogging as a parent and to anybody with a social media presence, the less than perfect elements and vulnerabilities that come with modern life can be harder than ever to share with honesty. When even those with carefully locked-down Facebook profiles for close family rarely share authentically, online spaces for parents to ask questions and find others with the same issues, anonymously if needed, are increasingly important.

‘For me, as a parent using social media, it’s not so much that I don’t WANT to share the less Instagrammable parts of my life, it’s that I don’t feel able to because everything I share is accessible by my children,’ said Jo. ‘I’ve loved how the more “real” side of parenting has become so much more talked about online, but it’s normally focused on parents of younger children and can tend to be a little tongue in cheek, a bit more – “fish fingers for tea again lol!”

‘For me it feels like there’s a real gap in this kind of content but for parents of older children, because we are much more restricted by what we can respectfully share. This is the issue for me, that as much as we all want to be honest, sometimes you just can’t. Having spoken to several parent bloggers with teenagers I know they feel the same.

‘I’d also like to dig a bit deeper than the daily grind and pick out some trickier topics that might not otherwise be spoken about. Ultimately parenting can be a lonely business and I want other parents to feel like they’re not alone, that other people are experiencing the same struggles.’

Believing there to be a gap online between what information is available and genuine support for parents, Jo is open to suggestions about subjects as well as contributions for Untold Stories. More about the launching section can be found on the Slummy Single Mummy blog here.

Holly Pither Tribe PR

PR, social and comms predictions for 2020

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This is a guest post by Holly Pither, MD and founder of Tribe PR.

January is always a great time to reflect on the year just gone, and spend some time thinking about what’s to come. For me, 2019 was year full of ground-breaking marketing campaigns, exciting PR activations, big tech advances, what can only be described as influencer madness and some big industry shakeups too.

But what does 2020 have in store? To find out I have crowdsourced some industry heavyweights for their opinion and here’s what they’ve been saying…

B2B comms will get more human

I have always felt that B2B marketers and PRs have set themselves apart from their fellow B2C professionals, and certainly up until a few years ago the nature of their work and how they talked to their audience was, in fairness, quite different. However, the last few years have brought B2B and B2C comms much closer together. And now instead of a corporate brand talking to its corporate customers in a professional and (dare I say it) staged manner, it should be talking to its audience in a very different tone; a human tone.

Today, and moving forward, good brand communication will be all about engaging directly with people, understanding what makes them tick, responding to their needs and then consequently turning them into brand advocates. Never before has the mantra that we live and breathe here at Tribe PR; ‘people don’t buy brands, they join them’ been more true.

Influence marketing will move away from influence to focus on talent

When I asked William Soulier, CEO and co-founder of Talent Village, about his 2020 predictions, he contended that the future of the influencer marketing industry needed to move away from influence and prioritise talent.

He said: ‘Certainly, one of the biggest challenges the industry faced in 2019 were the vociferous headlines and editorial pieces forecasting the demise of influencer marketing. We predict 2020 will be about rebuilding trust in the industry, which can be achieved by working with true talent over and above influence.’

William said that by Talent Village adopting a talent-led approach, they will be ‘better able to solve growing concerns regarding fake followers, promote diversity and increase advocacy as we continue to focus on building long-term partnerships and deliver authentic and credible results’.

Prioritising advocacy over loyalty

The words ‘loyalty’ and ‘advocacy’ often get mixed up in the whole host of buzzwords we use across the industry on a daily basis. Loyal customers are people who keep returning to your brand, but they might not actively be talking about it to other people. On the other hand, brand advocates are people who are both loyal to your brand and proactively share it. The big difference is that your advocates will tell your story for you. I think 2020 has to be about turning brand loyalists into brand advocates and getting them to play a part in your storytelling, too.

An increased and renewed focus on purpose

Annabel Wallis, marketing business partner at Outsource UK, explained that while digitalisation and AI is pushing people further away from real interaction, she thinks that in 2020 there will be increased focus on the ethos and purpose of business (wholehearted values).

‘I anticipate the balance between ethical consumerism and convenience will tip towards the former, especially as climate panic grows,’ Annabel said. ‘Digital can only help with this as long as its purpose is wholehearted, so programmatic advertising will go into overdrive.’

Removing Likes means we need to work harder to create standout content

When Instagram announced last year that it was removing likes, it said it was predominantly to remove the element of ‘pressure’ and to stop it feeling so competitive on the social platform. Certainly, this decision by the social giant has made waves in the industry, with many worried about how best to measure their activity moving forward if likes are removed. But I believe that with the removal of likes, brands will need to engage with their followers on a much deeper level. This can only be a good thing, especially as content will have to be far more interesting, engaging and authentic.

I think it will also force B2B brands to become more personal and talk to their audience on a far more human level (which is all so often missing B2B brand communications). As William Soulier says, by Instagram removing likes, brands will need to ‘realign their affiliation with the right kind of talent; those who match their values and have the credibility to talk authentically in this space to create good compelling and authentic content’.

Integrating paid and earned

MD and owner of  Cherish PR Rebecca Oatley believes that 2020 will see more of an integration of paid and earned media – ‘I see PR agencies being more proactive in negotiating digital spend alongside stories. We will see this with influencers in particular’. She said that Cherish is already running whitelisting within their influencer campaigns and she expects this to become more prominent in 2020.

Brands will need to accept that they can’t be everything to everyone

If a brand is 100% clear about what they stand for, then they will always find that some people will be left out – and that’s okay. I think 2020 will be the year to reassure ourselves that we cannot be all things to everyone. I would like to see brands using 2020 to focus in on their key messages and ensure that they know exactly who they are trying to bring into their tribe, and likewise who they would prefer simply didn’t join.

Creating human connections

As a result of the widely-publicised issues around data privacy, the novelty of social media wearing off and the poor use of automation and personalisation, we are seeing more and more consumers rebelling against the overuse of technology.

Paul Sutton, the digital marketing consultant behind Digital Download Podcast said, ‘as a society, trust has plummeted and we’re clamouring for genuine connections with human beings. Marketers with any sense of the real world are trying to follow suit, some with more success than others as this is a mindset shift for many. Though it’s been prompted by advances in mobile and internet technology, the explosion of podcasts is a prime example of the sort of ‘authentic’ content that people are now demanding. Whether it’s audio, video, imagery or written content, the medium in 2020 will be less important than the marketer’s ability to create a human connection’.

It feels that the ways we will absorb our news and the platforms on which we will do so will be more extensive than ever before. With this in mind, it feels that the words ‘content, content, content’ will continue to fill our inboxes and weekly update meetings for a long time to come (even if we do all shudder at the word). Though hopefully that content will be more human, more personalised and far more authentic.

As Natasha Hill, MD of Bottle so eloquently sums up when she reflected on the coming decade, ‘the ‘news’ will be read, watched, listened to, on many more platforms than Ofcom currently bulk into Other Online Media’.

And what an opportunity this presents…

Holly Pither is MD and founder of Tribe PR. Tribe PR is an independent communications agency, specialising in earned media to help organisations of all sizes increase their brand advocacy. Holly has built the business based on the mantra that ‘people don’t buy brands, they join them.’

2020 New Year Resolution

UK PR New Year’s Resolutions: more video, team lunches and headspace

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Made any New Year’s Resolutions for 2020? We asked members of the UK PR industry what they were hoping to achieve this year for their agency, their clients and themselves – read on to see which aims are realistic and worth taking on in your own teams… and which resolutions might have been broken already.

Realistic goals and a ’mint’ office
Stone Junction managing director Richard Stone

Richard Stone
‘Our main resolution for the year ahead is entirely retention based. While the new offices [with a working bar!] should give the team additional and comfortable space to work, we’re also improving our working benefits every year to include more holiday, additional spend in vouchers, CIPR accreditation, charity days and more.

I’m passionate about making this a mint place to work and so looking after the team here is always a priority moving into every new year — plus we figured this resolution was far more realistic than giving up alcohol.’

Team bonding/outside lunches
Hockerty.uk marketing manager Salva Jovells

Salva Jovells
‘We have a small office in Zürich with six people but everyone is in the marketing team. So for this year, we are planning to create stronger bonds by having group activities three times a year and outside lunch every month.’

Worldwide domination with video (kinda)
PHD Marketing & Strategy managing director Jo Stephenson

Jo Stephenson
‘To use video more regularly for our clients, particularly in our core sectors of print, packaging and biosciences. We’re also resolving to push our international communications forward, by seeking a translation partner that retains the technical detail we’re known for, across the globe.’

Adapting and tailoring
Cherish PR managing director Rebecca Oatley

Rebecca Oatley
‘2020 is going to be a very different year for the UK. Fresh out of Europe, the UK will be negotiating and entering new trade deals with the world and potentially could begin a new era of national pride. With that said, my resolution is to help new businesses adapt and tailor their communications to a wider agenda, which means that they begin and remain relevant and stay in the minds and the hearts of their customers.’

Veganism
Mad Promotions director Karin Ridgers

Karin Ridgers
‘I am looking to work with even more vegan brands in 2020. It is my biggest passion and as a vegan for nearly 25 years seeing this growth is incredible. Even five years ago it could have put off a journalist – now they love it! (I run www.veggievision.tv as well as working in PR, so always welcome hearing vegan news).’

Outsourcing, podcasting and cutting down on snacks
Boss Your PR founder Fiona Minett

Fiona-Minett-BYPR-Featured
‘Outsource and collaborate. My focus is on supporting and training small businesses in tackling PR, but it’s easy to get distracted by the day-to-day of running a business, so, I’ll be expanding through outsourcing but also looking to collaboration when it comes to communicating the power and potential of PR for small business. Plans are in the works for a podcast with women’s network DiscovHer and I’m exploring weaving in a charitable collaboration which I’m really excited about. Also, I’m determined to keep my office tidier and stop snacking so much (one of the perils of being a ‘homeworker’)!’

Fewer! Exclamation! Points!
Hallam PR specialist Rebecca Peel

Rebecca Peel
‘Be a bit more sparing with the enthusiasm! I don’t talk! like! this! in real life… so why do I include so many exclamation marks to clients? I’m going to limit myself to just one per email unless I’m telling someone news which is out of this world.

I’m also going to promote myself more – being seen as credible in the industry is so important, and I might be good at promoting others, but what about myself?’

Remembering there’s a world outside of work
PR consultant Natalie Trice

Natalie Trice
‘Mine is to make sure that I get up from my desk and walk on the beach with my dogs every day – with my phone turned off. Quite often I am here all day, not looking up from plans and media requests and forget that there is a world out there and that I need to get some headspace and exercise.’

Starting better habits in 2020? Let the Vuelio Media Contacts Database help (find the right journalists, influencers and bloggers for your campaign, all year round).

UK Government

Private Members’ Bill ballot: The 20 successful backbenchers

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20 lucky backbench MPs won the parliamentary lottery today in the Private Members’ Bill ballot.

Their numbers were drawn by Parliament’s new principal Deputy Speaker, Dame Eleanor Laing, who is also known as the Chairman of Ways and Means.

The MPs will have the opportunity to introduce their chosen Bill initially on Wednesday 5 February and then will have priority in terms of parliamentary debating time on 13 sitting Fridays during this session of parliament.

Parliament’s Guide to Private Members’ Bills (PMBs) sets the context for how they operate:

‘As with other public bills their purpose is to change the law as it applies to the general population. A minority of Private Members’ Bills become law but, by creating publicity around an issue, they may affect legislation indirectly’.

The Hansard Society’s Guide to PMBs also explains that these new Bills must not increase Government spending or alter the tax system:

‘The primary purpose of a PMB cannot be to create a new tax or increase Government spending; these are permitted only as secondary effects. And a PMB cannot be used to duplicate a decision that has already been made by the House of Commons earlier in the session.’

In the previous session of parliament, nine of those MPs saw their Bills pass into law and become Acts of Parliament:

For MPs drawn towards the end of the list, they should still get the opportunity to raise their issue in the House of Commons, and to further their campaigning objectives.

Labour MP Jim McMahon is an example of this with his ultimately unsuccessful campaign to reduce the voting age to 16 in the previous parliament.

The successful 20 MPs drawn in today’s ballot were:

  1. 1. Mike Amesbury
  2. 2. Darren Jones
  3. 3. Anna McMorrin
  4. 4. Laura Trott
  5. 5. Chris Loder
  6. 6. Paula Barker
  7. 7. Philip Dunne
  8. 8. Dame Cheryl Gillan
  9. 9. Mark Francois
  10. 10. Dr Ben Spencer
  11. 11. Bim Afolami
  12. 12. Dr Philippa Whitford
  13. 13. Peter Grant
  14. 14. Alex Cunningham
  15. 15. Mary Kelly Foy
  16. 16. Andrew Mitchell
  17. 17. Bill Wiggin
  18. 18. Kate Osamor
  19. 19. Simon Fell
  20. 20. Carol Monaghan

Leading charities and campaigning organisations will be busily contacting MPs on this list to ensure they are briefed on various burning issues, now that they have a unique opportunity to put them right.

The House of Commons Library advises: ‘With limited time available for the consideration of PMBs, generally only bills with Government and cross-party support are successful’.

The arcane parliamentary conventions around PMBs also mean that no formal speaking time limits apply, and this often sees Bill being ‘talked out’ or filibustered due to lack of sufficient parliamentary time on a sitting Friday.

Controversially, MPs who do not support a Bill for whatever reason merely need to shout ‘object’ at the appropriate time to halt its progress through parliament. This famously happened to a Bill in the previous session to ban ‘upskirting’ after a major campaign by activist Gina Martin, who was herself targeted in this way at a music festival.

After Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope blocked the initial PMB, this issue was later taken up by the Government which brought forward its own Bill that came into force in April 2019.

Gina Martin and the Ministry of Justice received the 2019 Cause-Led Campaign award at our own Vuelio Online Influencer Awards for this ‘exceptional’ campaign. The award judges said that: ‘Gina proved her role as a trusted and authentic influencer who used her profile to make positive change happen on an issue that had been damaging to women across the UK.’

IR35

PR industry bodies respond to proposed IR35 off-payroll working rules

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The PRCA and CIPR have called for the Government to reverse or rethink the IR35 proposal, highlighting the negative impact it could have on freelancers.

The proposed changes will task UK medium and large private sector businesses with full responsibility for setting the IR35 (tax status) of their contract workers from April 2020. Aiming at cutting down on tax advantages gained by disguised employment through limited companies, the conclusion of the review into pay legislation (due in mid-February) could result in extra cost and legal ramifications for the freelancer community – already an often under-supported part of the industry.

‘According to the latest industry census there are more than 8,500 freelancers operating in the PR industry, many of whom will suffer greatly from the effects of these rules,’ said PRCA head of communications and marketing Koray Camgoz.

‘Now more than ever, we need an agile economy that values and rewards the contributions of freelancers. IR35 has already had a chilling impact on independent practitioners in the public sector, and it poses a genuine danger to the broader freelancer community.’

CIPR warned against rushing into the review, Dominic Ridley-Moy said: ‘The Government’s review of the off-payroll legislation is extremely disappointing. Introducing IR35 to the private sector, following such a short consultation period, highlights the Government’s complete disregard for the freelance sector.

‘As we near a resolution to Brexit, the government should be doing all it can to help create an entrepreneurial Britain, rather than crush it. We therefore call on the government to scrap the review – and give it the proper attention it deserves – so that freelancers, in all professions, are given the opportunity to flourish.’

Read the full statement from PRCA on the IR35 proposal here and CIPR’s response here.

New MP Briefing: Education

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While Brexit and the tensions in the Middle East are likely to dominate the next few weeks in the House of Commons, the focus will also be on domestic policy for the first time since before the 2016 referendum. 

While the UK’s future relationship with the EU and agreeing a trade deal in the short time frame of the next 12 months will be challenging, the 80–seat Conservative majority means the Government can at last move on to the domestic legislation that Boris Johnson has championed since taking office in July 2019. 

With the largest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher achieved in 1987, and with Conservative MPs elected across the north of England and north Wales for the first time, it is clear that the Government will now ensure that key public services are better resourced. 

Education funding is likely to be a factor in this increased public spending given Boris Johnson has repeatedly promised to ‘level up school funding’.  

The Prime Minister’s speech in Downing Street the day after the election victory spoke of ‘providing better schools’ alongside a plan to deliver ‘better infrastructure, better education, better technology.  

The Queen’s Speech, which was summarised by the Vuelio Political Monitoring team, set out the Government’s plans to give schools ‘a multi-billion-pound boost, investing a total of £14 billion more over three years’. This increase is in addition to an extra £4.5 billion for teacher’s pensions. 

Increases in spending for this sector mean that by 2022-23, the core school’s budget will be £7.1 billion higher than it is currently. Teachers’ starting salaries will also be increased to £30,000 nationally by September 2022. 

The Government has also pledged to renew its focus on further and technical education, providing £400 million for 16-19-year-old education, and investing in preparation for the roll out of T levels before the courses start in September 2020. The Queen’s Speech also pledged to invest an additional £3 billion in a ‘National Skills Fund’ over the course of the Parliament and to establish 20 new Institutes of Technology, offering higher technical education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

As the public affairs community, education campaigners and politicos get to know the intake of 140 new MPs and 15 former MPs returning to the Commons who served before the 2017 General Election, the Vuelio political team has profiled 19 MPs with a background in education. 

The Briefing includes Jonathan Gullis, the new Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, who was previously a secondary school teacher in Birmingham and a trade union representative for the NASUWT, and Labour’s new Cynon Valley MP Beth Winter, who was a communications officer for the University and College Union (UCU) Wales. 

It also includes Edward Timpson, the former Minister of State for Children and Families from 2015 to 2017, who returns to the House of Commons having lost his former constituency in 2017 to Labour. 

The Briefing also profiles Conservative MP Laura Trott, a former head of family and education policy at 10 Downing Street. She has pledged to campaign for a new boy’s grammar school for her Sevenoaks constituency, which was previously represented by the former Defence Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon.

Get in touch with the Vuelio Political Team if you have any question regarding these briefings or if we can help your organisation get to know the 2019 intake of MPs better.  

New MP briefing: Health

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As 140 newly elected MPs return to Westminster this week, the Vuelio Political team has been getting to know the new intake for our clients and stakeholders. 

Aside from Brexit, which is clearly going to dominate this session of parliament as the UK formally leaves the EU by 31 January and begins trade negotiations, it is clear from the 19 December Queen’s Speech that domestic policy will also feature much more in the coming months. 

The NHS, and ensuring it is adequately funded going forward, was a major issue of the General Election and this also featured heavily in the Queen’s Speech.  

Vuelio has written profiles for the 17 MPs who have a background in health, including two Conservative MPs who served in the House of Commons previously but were defeated by Labour in 2017: Amanda Solloway and Jason McCartney.  

The NHS legislation set to be debated in this parliament, which was also listed in the Vuelio Queen’s Speech Summary, includes an NHS Funding Bill, the Medicines and Medical Devices Bill and the Health Service Safety Investigations Bill. The Conservative Party election manifesto and subsequent Queen’s Speech also included sections on mental health reforms and social care reform, after the latter issue dominated the previous 2017 general election and was a factor that deprived the then Prime Minister Theresa May of the party’s majority.  

Boris Johnson’s manifesto and Queen’s Speech sought to achieve ‘Cross party consensus on a long-term plan for social care reform’ and as well as promising an additional ‘£1 billion for adult and children’s social care in every year of this Parliament’, the only stipulation listed was that ‘Government will ensure that nobody needing care will be forced to sell their home to pay for it’. 

With such a high number of new MPs elected, the Vuelio Briefing will be useful for public affairs professionals, campaigners and politicos wishing to get up to speed on the new House of Commons, especially those with an interest or background in health. This includes the new Conservative MP for Crewe and Nantwich, Dr Kieran Mullan, who is an NHS A&E doctor and was involved in local campaigns to secure additional funding for Crewe’s Leighton Hospital. The new Labour MP for Enfield North, Feryal Clark, has a local government background in health, as the Cabinet member for health, social care, leisure and parks on Hackney Council. She was also a Deputy Mayor of Hackney and her brief included responsibility for adult social care, older people strategy, health devolution and integrated commissioning and mental health. 

The new Lib Dem MP for Twickenham, Munira Wilson, succeeded the party’s former leader Sir Vince Cable, and she now has the largest majority of the party’s 11 MPs. Her previous role was Corporate Affairs Director for a science and technology company, focused on Brexit and health policy issues, and she has also worked within health and children’s charities. The Briefing also includes newly elected SNP MP Dave Doogan, who held the Health and Social Care brief when he was leader of the opposition on Perth and Kinross Council. 

The Vuelio Briefing on MPs with a background in Education will be published later this week. 

Get in touch with the Vuelio Political Team if you have any question regarding these briefings or if we can help your organisation get to know the 2019 intake of MPs better. 

The Creative Shootout 2020 finalists

Finalists announced for The Creative Shootout 2020

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Eight agencies have made it through to the live final of The Creative Shootout 2020 on Thursday 23 January, which will be held at Picturehouse Central.

The eight finalists were chosen by a high-profile judging panel after they had all submitted their 60-second content. The finalists will take to the stage to show off their creative clout for a cause that needs bold solutions: homelessness. This year The Creative Shootout’s charity of the year is Crisis, who will provide the all-important brief on the day, which the agencies will use to create their 10-minute live pitch in the hopes of taking home the top prize.

The eight PR and marketing agencies who have made the final cover a range of disciplines:

  • Alpaca Communications – PR agency
  • Epoch Design – Design consultancy
  • Fever – PR, social and influencer agency
  • FleishmanHillard Fishburn – Communications agency
  • Grayling – Integrated communications agency
  • Haygarth – Brand engagement agency
  • TracyLocke – Advertising agency
  • Wavemaker – Media agency

To enter The Creative Shootout, these agencies had to submit a 60-second piece of content to demonstrate their creativity.  The entry format was open and not restricted to a specific type of content.

Creative Shootout founder Johnny Pitt said: ‘With entries ranging from ads to vinyl records, to films and bespoke board games, the entry creativity was jaw-dropping this year. The Shootout exists to showcase the extraordinary talent and thinking in our industry, whilst giving back – and year five looks set to be a blockbuster of a live final.’

At the live final, the finalists will draw straws to determine the running order with each agency having just 10 minutes to pitch their idea to the judges and a live audience of 350. The winning agency is crowned on stage and will get to work with Crisis to see their idea come to life, aided by a £10,000 prize fund – as last year’s winner Wire did with A Plastic Planet.

Matt Downie, director of policy & external affairs at Crisis said: ‘Ending homelessness will require brave people and brave thinking. The Creative Shootout is about just that, and everyone at Crisis is looking forward to seeing what happens in January.’

Vuelio is proud to sponsor The Creative Shootout for the third year in a row and we are looking forward to seeing the creative ideas from all the finalists.

The 2020 judging panel includes:

  • Victoria Buchanan, executive creative director, Tribal Worldwide
  • Kate Davies, head of brand, Guardian News and Media
  • Matt Downie, MBE, director of policy and external affairs, Crisis
  • Nils Leonard, founder, Uncommon Creative Studio
  • Elspeth Lynn, executive creative director, Geometry
  • Johnny Pitt, founder, The Creative Shootout
  • Laurent Simon, chief creative officer, VMLY&R
  • Gary Wheeldon, co-founder, Talker Tailor Trouble Maker
  • Ann Wixley, executive creative director, Wavemaker

Want to attend the live final? Get in touch here.

Get to know your customer

5 ways to get to know your customer

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No matter what kind of comms you do, you need to know your customer; who they are, what their goals and daily challenges are, and why they buy your product or use your service. Great customer insight leads to the right messaging and makes a bigger impact on your business.

You can only get this insight by listening to your customers and target audience, and there is a wealth of knowledge to be uncovered in your customer-facing teams. So, here are five ways to get to know your customers:

1. One to one interviews
Interviews are a great opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of your customers’ challenges and goals. For example, we regularly interview customers to find out more about how they use Vuelio and what challenges they have that we could help them overcome.

2. Focus groups
Group sessions are great for testing out new ideas and finding out more about a specific set of problems. There are pros and cons to focus groups, but they work best when you select a group of customers from your ideal target segment, run them yourself and keep the conversation from your brand as neutral as possible.

3. Feedback surveys
Keep them short and sweet and always provide a free text box to let your customers get their gripes off their chest. NPS and customer satisfaction surveys are good for measuring the overall happiness of your clients and will help to uncover things you can address using comms.

4. CRM data
Everyone in an organisation uses a CRM to some extent. Here you’ll find a wealth of information and feedback from your customers and how they’ve interacted with your customer facing teams. What do they buy? Who are they? How much do they spend with you? Which competitors are they reviewing?

5. Social Media
Use a social media listening tool like Vuelio’s sister service Pulsar to discover what your customers are talking about, what issues are important to them, what brands they like and who influences them.

Get in touch to see how we can help you track the conversation and your campaign’s impact.

Fake News Conservatives

How the election was won and lost on social media

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Vuelio’s sister company, Pulsar, tracked the general election campaign across social networks and other web sources during the campaign from 6 November, when parliament was dissolved, to polling day on 12 December. 

Pulsar’s analysis of the general election campaign across social media suggests Labour had unlocked the formula for success online. So great was the difference in Labour’s, and specifically Jeremy Corbyn’s, online impact compared to Boris Johnson’s and the Conservatives’, that it was clear the heavy landslide result came as a shock to many on the night.

Further analysis of the results reveals an online campaign of two sides: one clearly focused on Brexit and the other focused on generating support among its engaged following and attacking the current Government over its claims and record.

This is evidenced in three key areas: what the successful party candidates were sharing on social media, how both made claims of ‘fake news’ against their opponents throughout the campaign and how the parties reflected the most-discussed topics in the public sphere.

What candidates shared
The infographics below show the most widely shared links by successful Conservative and Labour candidates. For Conservatives, the party’s manifesto comes out on top and it is closely followed by the party’s alternative Labour manifesto to respond to the opposition document, which was so positively received in 2017. A second alternative Labour manifesto, CostofCorbyn was also widely shared by the Tories.

A link to encourage voters to ‘register to vote’ before the deadline was shared over 100 times, which contrasts starkly with the same link being shared over 2,500 times by Labour candidates. This shows that it was far more in the interests of Labour to boost voter turnout through social media and to encourage those who might not be registered to vote to take part in the election.

Labour campaign sites to help voters were also among the top links shared including the party’s ‘polling station finder’, Labour campaign events, Labour’s Fair Tax Calculator and other Labour manifestos covering specific policy areas including Nature, the Green Industrial Revolution and ‘your personal manifesto’.

Fake news
Analysing mentions of the term fake news by Conservative candidates during the election campaign shows several spikes. The biggest, on 27 November, came when the Conservatives used the term to attack Corbyn’s financial plans, claiming they would cost every tax payer rather than just the wealthiest.

Other spikes include 19 November when Corbyn was attacked following the leaders’ debate; 5 and 6 December relates to the dossier Corbyn released which was linked back to Russian sources; and on 9 December, the story about boy on the hospital floor in Leeds was published, which was initially accused of being fake news.

Fake News Conservatives

For Labour the mentions of fake news follow a similar trend following the leaders debate on 19 November, the dossier being released on 5 December and the Leeds hospital story. However, the Leeds story spike among Labour candidates on the 10 December, following the previous day’s accusations that the story was fake news, which itself turned out to be false.

Labour candidates also collectively attacked Boris Johnson’s campaign on 1 December, accusing him of spreading fake news and running a campaign of misinformation.

Most discussed topics
This chart shows the key topics of the general election campaign by topic, which indicates that Brexit and the NHS account for over 50% of general election-related social media posts. The economy is the third most popular topic on 9.9% of posts with 9.3% for racism.

Most discussed topics

Brexit and NHS were two of the biggest topics also being discussed by Conservative and Labour candidates respectively. The question of racism, particularly around antisemitism and islamophobia, featured less heavily in the candidates’ discussions than it did in the public debate.

Conservative Candidates’ word cloud:

Conservative word cloud

Labour Candidates’ word cloud:

Labour Word cloud

Given that the Conservative campaign focused entirely on Brexit and the NHS was a Labour primary policy platform, this is perhaps unsurprising.

The overall strength of Labour’s digital campaign and the number of its members sharing the party’s message and policy pledges show it was clearly able to dominate the social media space during the campaign. However, the Conservatives were able to make up for this with paid digital advertising targeted to the right demographics in their key constituencies, a single clear campaign message and a broader voter base outside of social media users.

As the analysis of the 2019 campaign is now conducted and two parties begin to select new leaders, it is worth reflecting on David Cameron’s 2015 comment ‘Britain and Twitter are not the same thing’. Dominating the social media conversation and ensuring your party’s messaging is loudly and widely shared is not, on its own, sufficient to win.

Find out more about Pulsar, the audience insights and social listening platform. 

PRCA-appointments-2019

PRCA Council announces chairman and vice-chairman for 2020

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Simon Francis CMPRCA and Julia Herd CMPRCA have been confirmed as the chairman and vice-chairman of the PRCA’s PR and Communications Council for 2020.

On his appointment to chairman, founder member of the Campaign Collective and chair of PRCA Charity & Not For Profit Group Simon Francis commended the council’s ‘bold steps in agreeing a definition for social impact, but we need a dedicated drive to move this agenda forward.

‘Demonstrating our social impact will improve recruitment and retention, ensure we are talking the language of board rooms and procurement teams and show to the public that we are a globally aware, responsible profession. As part of the social impact agenda, we will be encouraging PR and communications agencies to ‘buy social’ from social enterprises in 2020.’

Five in a Boat managing director Julia Herd also highlighted the important work the council will continue in 2020: ‘I look forward to contributing to the advancement of the stature and standing of comms professionals everywhere. Placing our members at the heart of change and driving forward the industry in a positive way will be key for me.’

Enabling consultation of senior practitioners as an industry think-tank, the PR and Communications Council aims to advise on best practice for those in the professional and to inform strategic priorities for the PRCA.

Amanda Coleman and Jessica Ozdemir were thanked by PRCA director general Francis Ingham MPRCA for their work leading the council throughout 2019.

The winning 2020 council manifestos can be read here on the PRCA website.

Content-Screen-Featured

Investment increased in-house for content creation in 2020

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UK PR and marketing firms are confident in their in-house abilities to create quality content for campaigns in 2020, according to research from digital asset management specialist Canto and Sapio Research.

Analysis of responses from decision makers in SME, enterprise and blue-chip marketing departments found an upcoming average increase of 9% in PR and marketing content creation, with a third of marketing teams planning to reduce agency spend and create more content in-house than a year ago. In bigger companies with over 100 employees around half (49%) plan to in-source more of their content next year.

One of the barriers the companies surveyed frequently come up against with sourcing content includes information silos within their organisations – 71% of respondents cited examples of missing or overlooking potentially useful content due to employees not sharing outside of their own teams (a factor also raised in a recent study from Survey Media). More than three quarters of the respondents (80%) believed that content is often buried within the business and hard to find.

Unsurprisingly, improving the ROI on content produced in-house, as well as that sourced from outside, will only get more important – 51% intend to make better use of market research to get clearer results on what’s working next year. 42% are planning to use better technology, 37% will repurpose existing content, 34% will implement better measurement and 29% will reduce their spend on agencies.

‘What is clear is that higher content output must demonstrate value for organisations,’ said Canto’s head of UK business development Mike Paxton of the growth in content creation due to happen in-house. ‘Research shows that the need for high quality content is only growing in significance as brands continue to battle to boost awareness and reputation in crowded markets’.

Measure the impact of your content and campaigning with media monitoring from Vuelio.

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Pet Blogger Spotlight with Hattie Day, The Cornish Dog

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‘I try my best to portray a realistic representation of owning and fostering dogs, sharing both the good and bad sides,’ says Hattie Day about her aims with The Cornish Dog. ‘It’s all part of the fun of having dogs!’

Since 2017, Hattie has been posting about her adventures around Cornwall with dog Woody. Now also out adventuring with Hen (who joined the family in June of this year), Hattie is an expert on the best walks the area has to offer. Read on to find out how Hattie hopes to help more dogs find their forever home and what she loves best about the pet blogging community.

How did you get started with blogging about pets?
I started The Cornish Dog shortly after adopting my black working cocker spaniel Woody in 2017. He was the first dog I’d owned in Cornwall and while I knew there were so many exciting new walks to explore, I wasn’t sure where they were or what to expect. In the early days, Woody’s recall was unreliable and he still loves running off and exploring on his own. I wanted to know it was safe to let him off without having to worry about busy roads, fields of livestock, steep cliff falls or other hazards. I started The Cornish Dog as a way of reviewing our walks to help other first-time dog owners and those visiting Cornwall better plan their dog-friendly adventures.

What’s your favourite thing to post about?
I really enjoy posting about new walks and beaches we’ve tried. This summer we embarked on a 125-mile hiking adventure on the Cornish Coast Path, tackling the whole of the North Coast. I can’t wait to share the rest of our 300-mile adventure next year!

 

I also love sharing our experience as fosterers for Spaniel Aid UK. Since signing up in February 2019, Woody and I have fostered six dogs. Of course, we also failed as fosterers and adopted Hen (short for Henry) in June 2019. Through fostering for Spaniel Aid, I hope I inspire others to consider fostering or adopting a dog of their own. I believe every dog deserves a life full of adventure and I want to help dispel the negative stereotypes of rescue/adopted dogs while doing my bit to help them find their forever homes.

What are the best things about the pet blogging community that other blogging sectors might not have?
I really value the diversity of the industry and how approachable the community is. When I first adopted Woody, I reached out to a number of dog accounts I followed to ask all sorts of questions. Owning a dog can feel daunting at first but knowing I had friends to turn to online to help me through was really reassuring.

I also love how adventurous the community is and I’m so grateful to be a part of it. I’ve made friends with owners across the UK through The Cornish Dog and have been on so many incredible adventures. There’s no way I would have climbed Snowdon, visited The Cotswolds or hiked the Coast Path had I not started The Cornish Dog.

 

What are your thoughts on pets/animals becoming celebrities through blogging and featuring on social media?
I don’t consider Woody and Hen as celebrities and it definitely wasn’t my aim when starting The Cornish Dog. I do worry that the rise in pet influencers could negatively contribute to the number of dogs being surrendered to rescue centres and organisations every year. I’m very conscious of this and try my best to portray a realistic representation of owning and fostering dogs, sharing both the good and bad sides. After all, neither Woody, Hen nor any dog is perfect; they’ve all got their quirks and some days are definitely better than others. It’s all part of the fun of having dogs!

I would never advise getting a dog based solely on accounts you follow on Instagram and it’s incredibly important to thoroughly research every aspect of dog ownership. Different breeds have different needs and it’s vital you choose a dog that fits into your lifestyle – and remember owning a dog is often a ten plus year commitment.

Is there something you would never feature/write about on your blog?
The Cornish Dog is all about inspiring others to get outside adventuring with their dogs and my website attracts readers with similar aspirations. I often discuss difficult topics on my blog, particularly surrounding sustainability and the dog industry, and am always open to new topics and projects. However, I would never write a feature that doesn’t align with my audience, their aspirations and outdoorsy lifestyle. My readers always come first and I often turn down partnerships that I feel aren’t relevant or in alignment with The Cornish Dog’s brand.

Do you think it’s necessary to have pets of your own to blog about pets/animals?
Not necessarily, but it definitely helps. It depends what your niche is and the topics you choose to discuss. I found Rachel from The Paw Post’s articles about losing her dog Daisy really insightful and reassuring, as it’s something I definitely worry about as an owner.

For me personally, I know The Cornish Dog wouldn’t exist if I didn’t have dogs of my own. Having Woody and Hen helps me tailor my content to other dog owners and really relate to their experiences and struggles. Walking is so different when you’ve got a dog in tow and both Woody and Hen’s quirky personalities definitely bring added charm to the articles and features I write.

Which are better, cats or dogs?
Seeing as I’m allergic to cats, I’m going to have to say dogs!

How do you work with PRs and brands – are review products and new launches useful?
I often work with PRs and brands to promote dog friendly things to do in Cornwall. We’ve been invited on a number of complimentary stays across the Duchy in exchange for blog posts and features on social media. Occasionally we receive products to review too, with a particular focus on sustainability and eco-conscious brands.

I am also a photographer by trade, working with dog businesses to shoot product and lifestyle photography for their websites and social media. I’m very grateful for every opportunity the dogs and I receive and enjoy hearing how our projects positively impact businesses and brands.

For PRs looking to work with you and your blog, how would you prefer they approach you?
Email is the best way to contact me if you’re interested in working together. My portfolio contains examples of my work, as well as testimonials and case studies from previous clients.

What other blogs do you read (whether pet-related or not)?
I enjoy reading blogposts about outdoor adventure, both in the UK and abroad. I love learning about climbing, long distance hiking, water sports and (of course) adventuring with dogs. Some of my favourite accounts include @ace_the_jrt, @cockapoomarley, @mywhiskeygirl, @mycaninelife, @roman.around.scotland, @trailsandbears, @theadventuresofjosieandedie and @jessyyandthewonderdogs.

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Trolling

The Antisocial General Election campaign?

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Vuelio’s Sam Webber highlights how candidates of all parties are facing high levels of abuse in this election campaign and how many are using social media to highlight what his happening on the ground in different constituencies and to call it out. One challenge for the next government through the Online Harms White Paper will be to improve the online environment for users and to ensure it is regulated more effectively.

As votes are cast in today’s General Election, parties and policies aside, one of the more damaging aspects of the campaign has been the abuse directed towards candidates and party activists. This is often intensified by or begins on digital platforms.

Social media has also offered candidates the opportunity to highlight what has been happening on the ground in different constituencies, which might not otherwise be picked up beyond local or regional press. While not exclusively, this abuse seems to be directed more heavily towards female candidates of all parties.

Labour candidate Natalie Fleet, defending the Labour seat of Ashfield, tweeted a photo of her Nottinghamshire campaign HQ with its windows smashed.

Tweeting out a photo of the damaged shop front, she said: ‘This is the reason those that love me didn’t want me to do it. It is hard, yet I can’t stand by & see #Ashfield left behind.’

She spoke to the Guardian about the attack: ‘It’s deliberate, it’s targeted and it’s not very nice; and, unfortunately, in this climate it’s also predictable.’

A Liberal Democrat candidate, Hannah Perkin, standing in Faversham and Mid Kent said last month: ‘I have the police coming to my house tomorrow following personal threats to the safety of myself, my friends and my family. I am standing up for what I believe in. When did we lose the ability to do that? Honestly heartbroken.’

Luke Pollard, the Labour candidate for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport also reported a case of homophobic graffiti on his campaign office to the police. He said: ‘There is no place for hate in our city and I will continue to call it out wherever and whenever I see it… There is no place for hate but with each attack more and more people stand up against it.’

Only this week, the Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani tweeted out a photo of racist hate mail she received and said: ‘Today’s post – so I’m the racist & being told to go back to where I come from?’

While the number of MPs standing down at the 2019 General Election at 74, is lower than the 1997 election where 117 MPs stood down and 2010 when 149 stood down, many have noted the number of MPs and primarily women who have stepped down citing the pressure of serving in the House of Commons since the EU Referendum and indeed citing social media abuse.

Among the 74 people are a significant number of female MPs who have served as cabinet ministers including Nicky Morgan who took the rare step as the serving Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary to announce she would not be contesting the election as a Conservative candidate. Morgan said part of the reason for stepping down included the abuse she received for ‘doing the job of a modern MP’. She added: ‘I think the abuse, because of the platforms, because of how strongly people feel about the current political situation, that has changed enormously in the almost 10 years since I started’.

Justine Greening, Amber Rudd and Dame Caroline Spelman also stood down as well as prominent opposition MPs including Gloria De Piero, Heidi Allen, Labour deputy leader Tom Watson and former Conservative minister and brother of the Prime Minister, Jo Johnson.

As the campaign concludes this week, the National Police Chiefs’ Council told the Press Association 198 reports around candidate safety had been made between November 15 and December 4 and that around half were serious enough to be treated as crimes. The majority of these were allegations of malicious communications online, but there were also reports of criminal damage and harassment.

Vuelio’s recent White Paper, The Politics of Social Media, which was discussed in a fringe meeting at Conservative Conference attended by Nicky Morgan looked at the changing role of social media in British politics. The 2019 campaign has only highlighted the importance of online campaigning even more. The next stages of the Online Harms White Paper, which seeks to improve the online environment for users and tighten up regulation will be a major issue for the incoming Government whatever the result of today’s election.

 

Sam Webber is External Relations Manager at Vuelio. He is a prospective parliamentary candidate in the general election, standing for the Liberal Democrats in Erith and Thamesmead.