Freelance PR Groups

6 groups for freelance PRs

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The part of freelancing that is working through uncertainty and unpredictability in sometimes solitary circumstances has been ramped up to 11 during the pandemic, which has impacted clients’ budgets, confidence and creativity.

Here are six groups to check out if you’re a freelancer looking for extra support, advice or a quick way to pick up new commissions and clients as the industry works its way towards recovery.

1) Leapers.co
For freelancers and the self-employed, Leapers has 3,500 members across 22 time zones. Join for access to its free supportive slack channel, regular articles on self-employment and mental health, and conversations with other freelancers. There’s the Slack channel for #askanything questions, #brainfood for inspiration or #littlewins for celebrating, and ebooks to download for techniques on looking after yourself while working for yourself.

2) No. 1 Freelance Media Women
Freelancers working across all areas of the media are welcome here, so that’s PRs as well as writers, photographers and designers. While this Facebook group was originally created back in September 2008 as a place for female freelance journalists to connect, there’s a flourishing and supportive community for people in public relations, too – PR Hour is at 11am every Monday.

3) The Work Crowd
In this crowd are over 2,000 freelancers working across marketing, digital communications and public relations. The platform enables freelancers to set up profiles to win project work, pitch and engage clients, and you can find highlights from recent masterclasses and its Bootcamp Series on its blog – topics include PR and reputation management, knowing your audience in content marketing and new markets and territories.

4) Freelance PRs
This private Facebook group is where freelance PRs and copywriters can connect with others who understand their working woes. Run ideas for new briefs past others in the community, get advice on, as the About page puts it, ‘all the bits that Gwyneth Paltrow never had to do in Sliding Doors when she gracefully set up her own PR agency and launched a restaurant with flowers in her hair’. Share, collaborate and support each other, without any naming and shaming of clients (bad 90s films, though – name and shame away).

5) The KitchenTable Community
Maybe sitting at the kitchen table on your own is losing its appeal and you’re considering starting up your own small agency to start taking on bigger projects. The KitchenTable Community is for solo creatives – freelancers, and staffers, too – to find others with the info and advice they need to get started. The way the community itself puts it as part of its mission statement: ‘people do their best work when they are happiest, and they tend to be happiest when left alone and given the freedom to base their career around their personal needs’.

6) The PR Cavalry
From the man that brought you the Freelance PRs Facebook group is The PR Cavalry. Nigel Sarbutts’ second outing on this round-up connects freelancers with agencies using a ‘PR Heat Map’ with over 700 data points to determine the right fit. A little like Match.com for commissions and projects, but without the awkwardness, perhaps.

If there are associations, unions or groups you’ve found supportive during your career in PR that we can highlight, please do get in touch and let us know.

CIPR-Employability-Hub

CIPR to support members effected by COVID-19 with Employability Hub

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CIPR has launched its Employability Hub in an effort to support members who have lost their job or are at risk of redundancy during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Hub will host webinars, skill guides and resources from third parties with advice for online interviews, improving LinkedIn profiles and finding employment. A video series covering the topics of ‘Coping with Redundancy’, ‘CVs and Interviews’, ‘Personal Branding’, ‘Mental Health’, and ‘Going Independent’ will feature presenters including CIPR Talent Partner Rohan Shah and Another Door’s Eleanor Tweddell.

The launch of the Hub is the latest in a series of CIPR initiates to support its members during the pandemic, including its confirmation of the availability of three-month payment breaks for members who have been made redundant, varying depending on years of membership.

‘In our recent COVID-19 member survey, just under half of respondents said they are looking for a job now or plan to in the near future,’ said CIPR President Jenni Field. ‘The Employability Hub is in response to this survey and feedback from members that they would like help to improve their employability. The Hub will continue to grow and adapt and be a great resource to anyone thinking about looking for their next role.’

Find out more and access the Employability Hub at cipr.co.uk/employability.

Sarah Ismail

Healthcare Blogger Spotlight: Sarah Ismail, Same Difference

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Same Difference is where blogger Sarah Ismail shares sides of health often ignored, including the progression of rights for people with disabilities and portrayals in the media. As a DisAbled writer herself, Sarah seeks to prove and highlight the ability of those with disabilities – read on for what keeps her passionate about blogging and how the coronavirus pandemic has changed how she approaches her work.

What initially drew you to blogging and what keeps your interest?
I discovered a political blog run by a journalist I highly respect and I wanted a blog of my own. I was born with Cerebral Palsy and have spent my life trying to prove my intelligence and my ability, with the right support, to do positive things. I know that all disabled people have the same ability and wanted to highlight this through Same Difference. That’s what keeps me going, too.

How have you had to change your approach to blogging, or your content, during the COVID-19 crisis?
I have launched a coronavirus category which contains stories of how COVID-19 has affected disabled people worldwide as well as tips on how to explain the pandemic to people with learning disabilities.

Have you noticed an increased focus on mental and physical wellbeing from the public during lockdown?
Yes, particularly exercise and mental wellbeing.

Is enough being done to break down stigmas around mental health issues?
More is being done in this area in recent years but there’s a long way to go.

What’s a topic you’ve always wanted to cover in more detail on your blog?
Rare conditions from the point of view of people living with them. Sadly, such people are very hard to find.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start blogging about health-related topics?
Know your topic well. Try to learn as much as you can about the topic you’re covering and be open to learning new things about it.

How do you collaborate with brands and which kind of brands do you really like working with?
I publicise information and events for charities and disability organisations. Being a disability issues site, some link to disability, however small, is a requirement for everything I publicise.

For PRs looking to work with you and your blog/website, how would you prefer they approach you and with what kind of content?
By email, with press releases linked to disability in some way.

What other blogs do you check out regularly (whether healthcare-related or not)?
Left Foot Forward and Lib Dem Voice.

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

Lucy Parissi

Baking Blogger Spotlight: Lucy Parissi, Supergolden Bakes

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If you’ve been bitten by the baking bug and are in need of new recipes to try, Lucy Parissi has a blog bountiful with straightforward ideas for bakes.

Read on for what goes into the creation of a successful blog like Supergolden Bakes and whether it’s possible to make something with Nutella that tastes bad (you may be surprised…).

What keeps you passionate about baking and blogging about it?
I have enjoyed baking since I was very young – it is what got me into blogging back in 2012. I find baking very therapeutic, but it is also creative and obviously enjoyable to sample and share the results. I don’t think I will ever tire of trying new baking recipes or giving traditional recipes a new twist.

How have you had to change your approach to blogging, or your content, during the COVID-19 crisis?
I started baking a lot more! Initially I created recipes that dealt with certain ingredient shortages (no eggs/yeast) and I also got bitten by the sourdough bug!

Have you tried any of the recipes that have gone viral/been popular during lockdown?
I tried the viral Dalgona Coffee (whipped coffee) and it is worth the hype! I actually created a whipped coffee cocktail for my blog.

What’s the worst bake you’ve ever attempted to make?
I recently tried a three ingredient Nutella cake during the early days of lockdown. It looked fantastic but didn’t really taste good, which surprised me. I didn’t share the recipe in the end as I wasn’t happy with it.

Best tasting thing you’ve ever made?
This changes daily! The Biscoff Cheesecake and Chocolate Poke Cake I made recently have both gotten rave reviews.

For those who haven’t yet started baking, which basic tools would you suggest they stock the kitchen up with?
A hand mixer is great for beginners and very budget friendly. But if you intend to do a lot of baking, then invest in a good stand mixer like the Kenwood kMix or KitchenAid. Then you can build up your collection of cake pans and tools as you get more proficient and try new recipes and techniques.

Favourite TV chefs?
I don’t really watch that many food shows on TV! I like Nigella Lawson and Rick Stein, and enjoy the American Chef’s Table series on Netflix, though.

How do you collaborate with brands and which kind of brands do you really like working with?
I get approached by a lot of brands. The ones I enjoy with the most are those who allow me to approach a campaign or brief creatively without being boxed in by too many guidelines. I have enjoyed long term partnerships with several brands/campaigns such as Lamb, Try it Love it, Thermapen, Amarula and Angostura Bitters.

For PRs looking to work with you and your blog/website, how would you prefer they approach you and with what kind of content?
I prefer to create recipes and videos for my site as opposed to just on Instagram. I always enjoy using ingredients in a creative way and prefer to create original recipes. Other than that, I am open to all ideas! I have worked with brands on a freelance basis to create recipes and photography for their exclusive use. I used to work as a designer and art director on magazines and cookbooks so working as a freelance photographer and recipe developer is something I relish.

What other blogs do you check out regularly (whether baking-related or not)?
To be honest, I actually don’t have much time to read blogs regularly anymore! I keep up with new content on Instagram where I follow a lot of food bloggers from around the world. If a recipe or post catches my eye, I will hop on to read it. I recently discovered Lion’s Bread when I got into sourdough baking.

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Reflect and celebrate: the CovidComms Awards

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This has been one of the most challenging years for the PR and Communications industry prompted by COVID-19 and an extraordinarily intense and fast-changing news and stakeholder environment.

In response, we’ve seen shining examples of standout creativity, exceptional teamwork and round the clock press office support. It is a defining moment for the industry and why we’re delighted to partner with CorpComms Magazine to launch the CovidComms Awards.

Our webinar Reflect and Celebrate: the CovidComms Awards gives a chance to hear from Helen Dunne, Editor of CorpComms Magazine, as she talks to Natalie Orringe, CMO of Vuelio, on how the industry has been changed, why it’s important to learn from and celebrate the outstanding response to this crisis – and how communicators can be a part of the CovidComms Awards.

CovidComms Awards

Time to reflect and recognise

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The last five months have seen nearly every aspect of the way we work changed. PR and Comms teams have managed fast changing news and policy against a backdrop of job losses, media fragmentation and an increasingly complex stakeholder landscape. It has been hugely challenging – but has also prompted an outstanding response.

As we begin to adjust to the ‘new normal’, we want to create a record of lockdown and share lessons learnt but also celebrate the brilliant efforts made. This is why we’re delighted to partner with CorpComms Magazine on the CovidComms Awards that will take place in November. This week, I caught up with Helen Dunne, Editor of CorpComms, to discuss what they’re all about and how people can enter.

Our webinar kicked off with Helen explaining how she had been inspired to develop the CovidComms Awards by a series of conversations with industry leaders who were determined that the exceptional work since the crisis began wouldn’t be forgotten. In their view, too often the industry moves on without reflecting on what has gone before and the improvements that could be made.

For Helen, lockdown and the sustained crisis management had accelerated key trends that the industry had been trying to address for a number of years. How to make senior leaders more accessible and able to talk to internal and external audiences with authenticity. These are issues that have been quickly solved by Zoom calls where senior leaders are interrupted by children or pets and home decorations are on display.

The ‘radical transparency’ we’ve seen is part of a broader trend where PR strategy is increasingly aligned to customer and employee engagement. At last, internal and external communications are on equal footing with both critical to overall reputation.

Against this backdrop, Helen came on to talk about the awards and why she hopes people will enter. Firstly, the award categories have been designed based on what has emerged as critical during the crisis including leadership, wellbeing and comms designed for essential workers. The hope is for the awards to be as accessible as possible with reduced entry fees and nomination forms that require only 500 words (max). Judging will happen remotely and shortlisted alongside winning entries invited to share their insights with the industry. It will create a record that we hope inspires the industry into the future.

Finally, recognising that many still feel uncomfortable about ‘mass’ events, the awards night itself is being planned to be entirely virtual but with options for ‘at home’ celebrations to take place simultaneously. Knowing CorpComms, it will still be a night to remember even if radically different to what would normally happen!

To find out more, and most importantly, to enter before the early bird deadline on 4 September, go to covidcommsawards.com/about.

PRCAethics-Month

PRCA Ethics Council launches #PRCAethics month

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The PRCA Ethics Council has launched #PRCAethics Month with the theme of ‘The PoweR of Ethical PR’ to move PR dialogues towards ethics-driven action and behaviors.

Throughout September #PRCAethics will release educational content focusing on issues affecting the PR industry across the globe, building to the 2020 PRCA UK National Conference on 24 September, which takes the theme of ‘PR as a Force for Positive Change’.

The PRCA Ethics council has also confirmed a research audit project with the remit ‘to raise ethical standards around the world’, with results due in early 2021.

PRCA Ethics Council Chair David Gallagher said of the launch: ‘In a calendar year defined by utter disruption and chaos at transformative levels, one thing in our industry has remained steadfast: the importance of ethical decision-making, relationship-management and communications. This September, the PRCA will join once more with our members to drive ethics as a global topic to the larger public. It’s an inherent part of our organisational brand.’

Formed in May 2020, the PRCA Ethics Council is set to announce further appointments and ambassadorships. Recent members welcomed include Fletcher Marketing PR Senior Strategist Mary Beth West as Co-Chair.

More on #PRCAethics Month can be found on the PRCA website.

Sheena Thomson

PR Spotlight: Sheena Thomson, Conduit Associates

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‘Work-wise, nothing fazes me and I am known to bring calm to chaos and conflict’ – while 2020 is turning out to be a particularly tumultuous time for the PR industry, Sheena Thomson has the mettle to weather the storm. With leadership training in the Royal Navy, time consulting overseas in Thailand and the Middle East, and experience of stressful and sometimes life-threatening situations, crisis comms is just one part of the Conduit Associates founder’s particular set of skills.

Read on for Sheena’s advice on staying calm in a crisis, how well military skills can transfer to a career in communications and why working in PR is well worth sticking with.

Tell us a bit about your career so far and what led you to PR…
My career always seems to raise eyebrows as it has been pretty unconventional. After studying fashion, I went into retail and ended up as a production buyer for Laura Ashley. As much as I enjoyed it, I felt it wasn’t challenging enough, so joined the Royal Navy to get leadership training and follow a clear career path. Although I specialised in personnel selection, my last job before leaving was running the press office at the huge Royal Navy base at Faslane in Scotland. It is home to the strategic nuclear deterrent, so it was a busy job. It was a mix of issues and crisis management, community engagement and traditional media relations. It was a great start to my PR career, and I have stuck with PR since.

What helped you decided to start your own consultancy, and what were your initial aims with Conduit Associates?
I had established a small consultancy before in Thailand and enjoyed the independence this gave me. I was living in Thailand at the time it became politically unstable, leading up to the military coup in 2014, so decided to return to the UK. I had been overseas for nearly 12 years, including time in the Middle East, so when I came home, I found the job market had both changed considerably and it took time to see where my skills and experience fitted in to the market. I decided to return to my roots specialising in issues and crisis communications, setting up Conduit Associates. This also enables me to still support my clients overseas, as well as build my client base in the UK.

What skills from your military background transfer well to public relations?
Teamwork is essential in the military environment, and effectively leading or working with people is at the heart of any mission or task success. This has been the most directly transferrable skill. Understanding the true concept of strategy and tactics, both military disciplines that have transferred into the civilian space, are the other skills that have remained with me throughout my career. They have provided me with a natural instinct to think short, medium and long-term with any PR task or client brief.

My training from psychologists as a personnel selection officer was also useful. My job for five years was to interview people, listen, analyse the answers and evaluate. These listening and analysis skills have also remained with me throughout my career and transfer extremely well to public relations, in particular crisis communications.

How has lockdown changed the way you work?
Before lockdown, I worked from home two days a week, and spent the remainder in London in front of people or working remotely. So, for me, the biggest change is that I am, of course, now in front of people on screens. I have adapted pretty well, although part of my offering is soft skills training, and there are limits to what can be achieved online when you are developing individual skills, confidence and capability online in our respective home environments.

Do you think the PR industry can ever return to the way things were before the COVID-19 crisis?
I don’t think any industry or sector can completely return to how things were before the COVID-19 crisis. I think it is a watershed moment as we have all seen what is possible when we are compelled to adapt and change. In normal times, change and transformation of any kind takes effort and planning, but this has been blown out of the water as we have pivoted to pretty much whatever we need to do to keep productive and present. We have also seen such monumental change in all sectors, many of which simply won’t return to how they were before e.g. retail, aviation, etc. The PR industry will be no different. We are already seeing new agencies and restructuring of in-house teams to reflect PR and communication needs going forward as the economy starts stepping towards recovery.

Having worked in hostile environments during your career, how do you deal with work-related stress now?
My mantra is to ‘take a moment’ if I feel stressed, and walk away from the task – or whatever the trigger is – to recalibrate my thinking and put things into perspective. It doesn’t happen often, though; I have been in so many stressful situations dealing with both dangerous and sometimes life-threatening situations during my time in very busy press offices in my post-conflict days. These days, my stress threshold is very high and rarely triggered. This is why crisis communications is such a great fit for me. Work-wise, nothing fazes me and I am known to bring calm to chaos and conflict.

Which particular sectors among your client base do you see making the quickest recovery post-pandemic?
I think we are already seeing the shoots of recovery through consumer and healthcare demands. We have all been locked up and had our freedom of movement restricted, so the leisure, fitness and travel industry will continue to adapt to the demand, despite the obvious public health challenges. People want to get out and enjoy themselves again!

The UK tourism sector in particular will recover quickly. I also think we will see a return, in part, to manufacturing of goods of national strategic importance that had moved to offshore production. A good example is PPE. We simply couldn’t get enough of it when we needed it most and were completely dependent on offshore supplies, with luxury brands like Burberry manufacturing scrubs in response to desperate hospital pleas. The stockpiling strategy failed too, compounding the issue. We may pay more for UK manufactured goods, but we will have flexibility and access to them when we need them. There will also be the added benefit of transparent governance in the supply chain and we won’t be flying goods around the world.

With so many journalists being furloughed, has contact with the media been harder over the last few months?
I have not experienced issues with this – I have always found news desks helpful in signposting and directing me to who I need to speak to when routines are disrupted, for whatever reason. In general though, I think it is quite worrying how journalists have been furloughed – they are absolutely critical to society as they are there to hold people to account on behalf of the public. In fact, I blogged about it a few weeks ago. We need journalists and, along with all other severely impacted sectors, I hope journalism recovers quickly.

The PR industry has a diversity problem – what can agencies do to create diverse teams and promote people from a variety of backgrounds into higher roles?
Talent is talent, and I am a firm believer that everyone deserves a chance to let that talent shine. Racism is a blight on society – I still struggle to understand how people can discriminate on the basis of skin colour. Skin is an organ which we all have, just like the rest of our vital organs, so why some people think the colour of an organ makes us different, to me, just doesn’t make rational sense. Our brains and hearts underneath the skin are the same and I wish that mindset was more widespread as our brains and hearts is what drives what we bring to society as individuals, among many other things.

Back to the issue, I believe an integrated approach works best, based on my experience working with diversity and other cultures overseas. Provide talent with the opportunities that will allow their interests and skills to shine vs opportunities that tick boxes. Be courageous and bold, and where systemic issues and biases linger, sort it out. But most of all, take action to rectify the problem, as diversity is part of our society and it needs to be the case in the PR industry also to properly serve the needs of our society and our clients.

What have you enjoyed most about your career and what advice would you give to those considering working in the PR industry?
There are many things to draw upon, but I think the reason I have stuck with PR for so long is that it always gives me the opportunity to be constantly curious, be a great listener, be analytical and think through problems, strengths and opportunities. I also enjoy developing and applying creative and relevant ideas and recommendations, but most of all, using my seemingly natural people skills. I think this is what has helped define my success, along with seizing opportunities as they present themselves. Of all these skills, being a people person is the most important for a successful communicator, regardless of what discipline you choose in PR. My advice – if you have any or all of these skills, PR is a good fit and can be immensely interesting and rewarding when you seize opportunity. Even in these challenging times, opportunity is already starting to re-emerge.

Taboo topics

5 tips for approaching taboo topics in healthcare comms

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This is a guest post from Abbie Moujaes, marketing manager at online clinic for men Numan.

‘Do something about erectile dysfunction’. That’s the tagline that runs across Numan’s TV ads on Sky Sports, on our social posts dotted between holiday snaps, and is the driving force behind all of Numan’s comms. Awkward? Yes. Effective? Definitely. When it comes to taboo topics in healthcare, the best approach is head-on.

1) Be bold… and be everywhere
I’ll never forget my surprise when I learned that Bodyform’s 2017 Blood Normal campaign was the first time red blood had ever been shown on an advert about periods. Only then did it dawn on me how strange it was to use the blue liquid of the ads before. If you’re trying to get people on board with taboo topics, being bold and doing things that defy the norm can pay off massively in terms of coverage and brand awareness.

2) Get into the detail
While 60-second TikToks and 50-character memes seem like an appealing way to communicate, there’s still much to be said for longer-form content. When a survey at Numan found that over 62% of men thought that the penis was a muscle, we wrote a book explaining exactly what the penis was, how it worked, and why it sometimes didn’t. We called this the Book of Erections. Written by an NHS doctor, this was more than an attention grabbing PR headline – it followed a genuine need for men and women to have more information about the male body. Health issues are complex and there can never be too much trustworthy content about them.

3) Get expert help
There’s a lot of B.S. out there when it comes to medical information in the tabloids, social media and even on TV. Pseudoscience fills our feeds and minds with inaccurate and often conflicting information. Creating a group of like-minded, scientifically-educated professionals who can clear up the space and provide a trusted, reliable voice when it comes to health issues is one of the best things you can do. Joining forces with already established campaigns can also help your cause. Numan’s team of GPs, clinicians, nutritionists and psychosexual therapists will be at the forefront of comms during Urology Week in September – a campaign with its own aim to ‘break the taboo around urological issues’.

4) Talk to your customers
Reading reviews, receiving regular updates from your customer service team, setting up calls (incentivised, if necessary) with customers can do wonders for your comms strategy. Who better to help you get a first-hand experience of the awkward subject at hand? And if you don’t have direct access to customers, or want to get a feel for people that haven’t yet sought a solution, try sites such as Reddit for some in-depth conversations about practically every health topic out there.

5) Find those success stories
Focusing on a positive solution can help break the taboo around any issue. Sharing success stories, complete with customers who are proud to reveal their identity, images to boot, are a sure-fire way to communicate the goals of your company. They publicise the outcome rather than the problem, giving confidence to others that they can reach the same result.

The hard part – finding customers who are willing to do this. But, if you’re doing all of the above, sooner rather than later, this should be easy.

AIinPR Ethics Guide

CIPR and CPRS publish world’s first AI in PR Ethics Guide

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The Chartered Institute of Publication Relations (CIPR) and the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) have published an AI in PR Ethics Guide to provide practical advice on working with AI build and deployment teams to make ethical decisions.

Taking the position that public relations practitioners have a responsibility to act as ethical guardians in the use of artificial intelligence, the guide posits that the industry must have a working understanding of its possible applications and ask the questions tech AI seniors and specialists may miss.

While legal regulations can often be too slow to keep up with modern technologies, PRs are urged by the AIinPR Panel to help keep their organisation’s use of AI ethical and safe when it comes to products, tools, platforms and services.

The panel said: ‘Understanding ethics is hard enough, understanding the potential pitfalls and ethical challenges of AI makes it even harder.’

‘We wanted to do two things with this guide: first, take public relations professionals through a decision-making framework that will educate them on AI itself and the bigger issues it generates. Second, guide them through some challenging ethical specifics such as using the LinkedIn Insight tag and facial recognition software. Writing this guide has been new territory and a huge and complex job.’

AIinPR panel chair Kerry Sheehan believes knowledge of AI is essential for the public relations industry going forward:

‘With the possibility of serious negative consequences, to businesses, organisations and society, springing directly from AI projects, there needs to be the utmost focus by PRs on ensuring ethics is at the forefront and ethical standards are upheld. AI readiness isn’t just a tech issue, it is an ethics issue.’

Find out more about the CIPR AIinPR Panel and download the new ethics guide on the website. Read up on the launch of its literature repository ‘The Effects of AI on the Professions’ here.

BBC Proms

Is Rule Britannia a dead cat?

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Dominating much of the news cycle and the Twittersphere these last couple of days is the story that the BBC’s Last Night Of The Proms will feature the song Rule Britannia (after initial reports suggesting otherwise) but it won’t be sung.

The Sunday Times was first to report that Rule Britannia ‘faces axe’ in what it called the BBC’s ‘Black Lives Matter Proms’. It said the song was facing a backlash because it had ‘perceived association with colonialism and slavery’. This story led to a spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying the traditional songs should not be dropped from the Proms, a line that was repeated by many other Government ministers .

The BBC then confirmed Rule Britannia would be played, but without a live audience it would not be sung. However, it did state that the singing was expected to return next year when the audience came back.

This failed to quash the story.

The lack of lyrics was seen as a continuation of the original accusations that the BBC Proms was being ‘wokewashed’. Today, Johnson waded into the row again, saying he ‘cannot believe’ it won’t be sung, adding: ‘I think it’s time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history’.

Is this storm in a teacup a genuine concern or part of a ‘dead cat strategy’ following the recent exam fiasco that has today led to Ofqual’s chief resigning?

Using our sister brand Pulsar’s TRENDS, we can compare the volume of conversation in the last week about the exam results with the Rule Britannia/Proms debacle and today’s political pressure point, whether masks will be worn in schools or not.

Rule Britannia Exams

The graph clearly shows that Rule Britannia now dominates among the three issues, though the exams conversation was already in decline. What it seems to have done is filled the vacuum, giving the political commentariat, and daily magazine show broadcasters, something to focus on beyond the schools and exam results chaos.

Left-wing commentator Sunny Hundal identifies this as ‘elaborate trolling exercises’ fueled by the ‘right-wing media and politicians’.

A true test of the story’s ‘dead cat’ potential is when we look at it in comparison to the political story of our time, which always accounts for a sizeable portion of the political discourse: Brexit.

Rule Britannia Brexit

As the graph shows, the Rule Britannia row today surpassed Brexit on Twitter indicating its current impact; expect to see it feature across all of tonight’s new bulletins.

Is this a dead cat? If we go back to the BBC’s statement, which has been backed up by outgoing director general Tony Hall, the song lyrics have been dropped due the lack of artistic capability to make it work without an audience. That suggests the culture wars element to the story is fabricated and the perpetuation by MPs and political commentators is unwarranted. In that respect, yes it is.

But at the same time, there isn’t a major scandal or ‘bigger issue’ that this is drawing attention away from, so its prominence in that respect is more unusual for a deadcatting tactic.

Perhaps the real story is the ammunition this provides for critics of the BBC, which is regularly attacked in the mainstream press. This final graph shows a slow but steady rise in BBC detractors alongside the Rule Britannia furor.

Rule Britannia dead cat

Caroline Coskry

PR Spotlight: Caroline Coskry, Chief Executive, The Oracle Group and Marketing On Board

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After work experience with a police station, Caroline Coskry dropped early dreams of becoming a paramedic or policewoman and went in a very different direction – work experience for the comms team at St George’s Hospital, paid work during the summer, five years at TTA and then time at Golley Slater, Think BDW and Adventis Group.

Now ten years since her launch of creative communications agency The Oracle Group, Caroline has put all of her experience into pushing the reputation of public relations forward and is now hoping to help out smaller businesses with new venture Marketing On Board.

What did you want to do differently from other agencies with The Oracle Group when you launched ten years ago?
Honesty and fairness are two things which I value the most in business and unfortunately PR doesn’t have the greatest reputation for either of these. Together with the old-fashioned retainer that clients would pay regardless of the level of service (which can only really work on crisis comms), it didn’t sit right with me and I saw an opportunity to offer something different.

At Oracle, we are very open with our clients from the moment we pitch. We provide training in how PR works and ensure they have a real understanding of what works and what doesn’t. For example, we aren’t led by the client. If they hire us, it is for our advice and knowledge of the press and an exemplary level of service that begins from day one and doesn’t drop off, which is why we have an excellent record for retained clients.

What led you to launch Marketing On Board?
I came up with the idea for MOB a few years ago but it really needed the right time to launch, which is now. Small businesses won’t grow unless they have some idea of who their clients are, where they are coming from and what makes them engage. For many small businesses and start-ups, their skill is their service or product, not digital, social media or marketing. With MOB they can tap into a service that offers support as and when they have a small budget to spend on marketing but without the large retainer fees. The offering is very different to Oracle in many ways. It’s simple but effective marketing for small businesses who need help to grow.

Has lockdown changed the way you work?
It has in terms of how audiences are consuming news and where from. Digital PR and social influencers are such an important part of marketing now, much more so than before. Newspapers have changed significantly over the last three-four months and we have had to adapt quickly to find out what journalists are looking for and how to keep the coverage coming for our clients. I must say I am incredibly proud of how my team have adapted during this time in order to facilitate the changes and achieve some really amazing headlines, including the front page of the Evening Standard, which is very unusual for a property-led story!

Do you think the PR industry can ever return to the way things were before the COVID-19 crisis?
The good thing about the PR industry is it can adapt quickly. Everyone wants their voice heard, particularly in these times, so the business is definitely there for the taking. But it is competitive and unfortunately some won’t survive. I’m of the mind to never return, only to move forwards, whatever that may bring. So, even if the industry could return to the way it was before, the question is, do we want it to or indeed, should it? I see it as a good opportunity to revive it!

With so many journalists being furloughed, has contact with the media been harder over the last few months?
Contact has been easier if anything – journalists seem to have more time to discuss ideas and are happier to receive phone calls and pitches with relevant content to the world we are currently in.

The PR industry has a diversity problem – what can agencies do to create diverse teams and promote people from a variety of backgrounds into higher roles?
From my point of view, the people that are best at the job get promoted, regardless of their background. We ran a campaign a few years ago to try to encourage more males to apply for roles at The Oracle Group and we did have some good candidates. We employed one of them and it really helped the balance in the office, which is something I think is incredibly important – 20 women altogether is not always a good thing. However, I still will only ever promote or hire the best person for the role.

What do you love most about working in the PR industry, and would you recommend this as a career?
PR itself is diverse; every day is different. The opportunity to work with a wide variety of people and clients, the fast pace of media, particularly digital media and how consumers behave and engage with products and services. I find it fascinating and for those who are happy to be thrown into the deep end with weekly challenges, it is perfect… Just make sure you can write. As so many PRs can’t!

DIY Daddy

Parenting Blogger Spotlight: Nigel Higgins, DIY Daddy

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Painting, decorating, family blogging – jack of all trades (and master of parenting blogging, in particular) Nigel Higgins shares what led him to become DIY Daddy and what he thinks could be the long-term effects of lockdown on families across the globe.

How did you originally get started with writing about parenting?
I started out writing my blog about parenting literally by accident. I’m a painter and decorator and about seven years ago I fell from a ladder while working and broke my wrist in four places. After about three days at home and bored out of my brain, my wife suggested I started a blog and DIY Daddy was born.

What’s your favourite thing to post about and why?
Over the years my favourite types of posts have changed, but what I’ve always found most satisfying are personal posts about me and the struggles I have had at different times in my life. In particular, my struggle with depression. I found a great form of therapy in writing about it and it’s helped me identify when I may be heading towards a bout of depression.

How have you had to change your approach to blogging, or your content, during the COVID-19 crisis?
I haven’t really changed that much. I decided I didn’t want to write content that was constantly referencing COVID-19. I have had posts that were related to COVID-19 but I kept it to a minimum. My collaborations with brands didn’t really slow during lockdown so I was able to mix up my content with an element of organic and paid work.

How will lockdown have the way co-parents share responsibilities – will we see more men embracing being stay at home dads?
I’m sure that many men will change the way they approach parenting, especially if they are the main breadwinner. They will have had an insight into how difficult it is to parent 24/7. I definitely don’t think there will be a rise in more dads becoming stay at home dads, but hopefully they will share the family duties a bit more evenly.

How would you recommend parents balance working from home with their family duties?
Every family dynamic is different and, of course, now working from home is obviously something that has to be added into the situation as well as home schooling. For us as a family, from the beginning of lockdown we organised how everything was going to work out, but when it didn’t go to plan we didn’t worry about it. We would adjust our day accordingly. My advice is to be organised and just go with the flow until it settles into a routine.

Best no-fuss stress-free family meal for busy times?
Spaghetti bolognese is easy to make, can be cooked in advance, and makes for a very stress-free mealtime.

Did you get what you wanted for Father’s Day this year?
I got exactly what I wanted – all of my children together for a couple of hours. It was a bit different as it was in the garden (socially-distanced, of course).

How do you collaborate with brands and which kind of brands do you really like working with?
I collaborate with brands in many different ways. It could be reviews or sponsored posts. I like to work with brands that are in keeping with my blog. The brands I prefer to work with are those that make a brief challenging and interesting.

For PRs looking to work with you and your blog/website, how would you prefer they approach you and with what kind of content?
I’m happy to be approached in whatever way suits the brand. That could be email or a phone call. I’m happy to cover any content as long as it is relevant to my blog.

What other blogs do you check out regularly (whether parenting-related or not)?
I regularly read Dad’s Delicious Dinners, and I read a lot of cycling blogs. Too many too mention. However, I’m a big fan of As Easy As Riding A Bike.

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Making a Difference

5 tips for marketing professionals who want to make a difference

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This is a guest post from the team at AM&A, a PR and marketing agency specialising in sustainability, travel, lifestyle and culture.

We are currently standing at the crossroads of our planet’s future. The climate emergency is at a critical point, social justice is at the forefront of our global consciousness and we, as a species, have some major choices to make soon.

Here are five top tips for how you and your organisation can help make a difference and improve the world through marketing.

1) Create a conversation
The development of digital media over the last decade has made a huge difference in the way we receive campaigns. For a long time, communications had been very one-way and broadcast to audiences. Now, it’s essential and even expected that audiences are engaged in conversation, especially campaigns that have some form of social justice element. If your company has expertise, this may mean holding back slightly to engage people in conversation.

Tip: By empowering people to come up with their own answers to problems, you increase the amount of people who form an opinion and become actively involved.

2) Know when you have won
When creating a campaign, aim to work backwards from a single goal. You can never have a good campaign with multiple objectives; you need to know when you have won. For an issue like climate change, for example, you can’t just have a climate change campaign, you’ve got to define what it is in the short and medium term that you are going to achieve.

Tip: Think about the ‘photograph moment’. Whether it’s a piece of legislation being passed or a number of sign-ups to a petition, you have to have a clear idea of what that ‘winning moment’ looks like. Then you can focus on achieving it.

3) Tell stories and write from the heart
The human angle is always the strongest way to form a connection between the consumer and your campaign. The new digital age makes storytelling easier and more immersive than ever before, meaning we can form deeper connections and mobilise people in huge numbers.

Tip: Whether you are writing copy, creating visuals or designing graphics, your passion and the story have to cut through the noise.

4) Identify and know your audience
It may seem obvious, but the starting point of any kind of communications initiative has to be ‘who is it we are trying to reach?’. The approaches and messaging that will work for one segment of your audience will almost certainly not work with another. However you decide to segment, be it social class, age or income, it’s vital to understand what each of these groups want to hear.

Tip: There’s no right or wrong, you just have to know which audience you are talking about and not generalise too much. Once you have done this, you need to really get to know that audience and learn what makes them tick.

5) Be an activist
Be an active part of the story. As a marketing, PR or digital person you need to immerse yourself in what the story is and capture it for yourself. Be an activist in the sense of ‘being active’, whether it’s rebuilding, rewilding or marching – get in there and tell the story for yourself.

Tip: There are plenty of brands that tag along with the ‘make the world a better place’ attitude, but they don’t always walk the walk. It’s important that as an organisation or as an individual, you really live that mantra if you want to make real change.

Daddy & Dad

Parenting Blogger Spotlight: Jamie Beaglehole, Daddy & Dad

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Finding a lack of real-life accounts of the adoption process when adopting their own children around seven years ago, Jamie and Tom started Daddy & Dad to share their experiences with others starting on the same journey.

Jamie tell us what goes into creating a super successful parenting blog (Daddy & Dad feature in our Top 20 UK Parenting Blogs and Top 10 UK Dad Blogs), how you can join in with Pride At Home UK on Saturday 29 August and why there’s no better time to get political.

How did you originally get started with writing about LGBTQ+ parenting?
When we adopted our sons almost seven years ago, there was a void where ‘real life’ accounts of the adoption process should have been. We were presented with loads of corporate information about adoption, but it lacked feeling. I was already writing blogs for brands at work, so I decided to put my creative aptitude to good use and start a blog about our experience. And so, Daddy & Dad was born!

Before I started the blog, I consumed Helen Fielding’s and Dawn French’s novels and Miranda Hart’s book – I really wanted my blog to read as a first-hand, humorous peek into our lives.

The fact we’re LGBTQ is supplementary, really, to the key message of adoptive parenting with all its unique challenges and milestones.

What’s your favourite thing to post about and why?
While we plan content about adoption, tech reviews and travel, my favourite blog posts and articles to write are off-the-cuff, spontaneous accounts of something funny that’s happened that day. The boys squabble (a lot) and they’re quite a handful, with bags of personality. They have a wonderful, innocent sense of humour. Their chirpy outlook on life provides me with more engaging content than any parent blogger would ever need! I often write about their behaviour, or their reaction to punishments or household chores – that kind of thing is a joy to write.

How have you had to change your approach to blogging, or your content, during the COVID-19 crisis?
As a Leicester-based family, we’ve been looking forward to the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. Life at home used to be quite varied, spontaneous and interesting. But over the last five months-or-so our routine has become quite repetitive – not so easy to draw inspiration from.
However, our work with brands has flourished during the pandemic, as businesses utilise blogging families like ours to promote a healthy, active lifestyle at home. As a result, we’ve produced a lot of home, baking and garden-based content in partnership with brands like eBay, Google and Tesco. It’s a new direction for us as we were previously quite an out-and-about, ‘days out’ type family but it’s kept us very busy and we’ve made some excellent memories.

How are you celebrating Pride this year?
When we heard our local Pride events were cancelled, I teamed up with mum-blogger Kate (of LesBeMums fame) to come up with a positive way to celebrate our LGBTQ community and boost our visibility.

So… on August bank holiday weekend, Saturday 29 August, we are hosting this year’s biggest family-friendly virtual Pride event – Pride At Home UK! We’re encouraging our LGBTQ friends, families and allies (so, basically everybody) to get out into their garden with their pride flags, to enjoy a picnic or BBQ together and to flood social media with pics using the hashtag #PrideAtHomeUK.

Meanwhile, Kate and I been very busy assembling a team of amazing LGBTQ pop and drag stars to put on an exclusive set in the afternoon of the event. It’ll be broadcast from our Facebook pages and it’s free to join in (https://www.facebook.com/events/296640968012578/).

Have you been covering the intersection of race and LGBTQ+ issues on your blog?
Our blog is home to parenting content, predominantly although we do host LGBTQ special guests, Q&As and opinion pieces, too. In support of the #BLM movement, I enlisted the help of some influential BAME and ally friends, including Beverley Knight, Gabriel Sey and Steven McKell to produce a blog post, celebrating our BAME childhood heroes.

Instagram has become our main channel for sharing supportive stories, posts and comments about LGBTQ and race issues. As a same-sex family, we’re well-tuned into issues of discrimination and prejudice. So, we’re using our biggest platform to share messages of inclusion and diversity wherever we can.

What is one thing you wish straight cis people would take on in their day to day lives to be better allies to LGBTQ+ people?
Oh god – I don’t wish to get political; there is a time and place, but I think this is it. We know that people generally subscribe to issues that affect them directly – Brexit, COVID-19, the BLM movement and the economy are top of the pile. That’s what our allies are currently focused on. Meanwhile, we’ve noticed they’re not being nearly as loud and outraged when LGBTQ rights are debated.

Behind the smokescreen caused by these prevailing issues, our Government, and particularly our Minister for ‘equalities’, are quietly rolling back the rights of LGBTQ people. That might sound a little extreme, but unfortunately it’s true. Our leaders are aligning with trans-exclusionary radical feminists and far-right leaders from other countries. Our own PM sent a public message of congratulations to the Polish PM, Andrzej Duda – a dangerously anti-LGBTQ political figure. He’s declared ‘LGBT-free zones’ in Poland, equal in size to a country like Hungary, forcing innocent LGBTQ people into hiding and removing all their rights. Where is the outrage from our allies? We’re not seeing it.

We’d like straight, cis people to speak out – be outraged, stand up for us. As LGBTQ influencers, our audiences are modest and arguably niche – we depend on our straight allies to shine the spotlight on issues affecting us. After all, a country that’s inclusive to LGBTQ people is a country that’s inclusive to everybody.

How do you collaborate with brands and which kind of brands do you really like working with?
We partner with brands to create social media content for Instagram. We incorporate our sponsored content into our feed and stories naturally so we generally look for campaigns that fit seamlessly into our everyday family life. At the moment, that means home and garden, supermarkets, home technology, home entertainment and toy brands are working with us to promote an active, healthy lifestyle at home.

Our favourite campaigns tend to run over several weeks or months, adding consistency and taking our followers on a fun journey with us. eBay work with us each month on a ‘mini-makeover style’ challenge where we spruce up a corner of our home or garden with items sourced from their small businesses. We also work with Tesco Food ad-hoc on their Food Love Stories – creating recipes and dedicating them to people we love. Also, brands like Google, Fitbit, Vodafone, Mars and Sky have appeared on our Instagram feed this year.

When we collaborate with a brand, we get the whole family involved. Content featuring the family performs really well because people love to see all four of us having fun together.

For PRs looking to work with you and your blog/website, how would you prefer they approach you and with what kind of content?
We love to hear from brands and their PR agencies. We’re very approachable – happy to be contacted via Instagram DM, although email or phone are best for a quick response. What kind of content? We’re open to suggestions!

What other blogs do you check out regularly?
Oh gosh, loads. I love the LesBeMums for their days out and Howeydon for his stylish ‘father and son’ and skincare ideas. Fran at Whinge Whinge Wine is great for a dose of parenting realness and the girls from Our Transitional Life are inspiring. My favourite dad bloggers are probably John and Tim from Dad Blog UK and Slouching Towards Thatcham, respectively – they’re both great fun to read but include serious, enlightening opinion pieces. I do a lot of blog-reading in the evenings; I could probably list about fifty faves!

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Social impact

PRCA launches drive to highlight social impact suppliers

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The PRCA is inviting charities, social enterprises and community businesses to apply to join a supplier directory launched to highlight positive social impacts.

Relevant organisations offering services and products for PR and communications agencies can apply online to have their credentials assessed by the PRCA Council. The Directory is due to be finalised by the end of this year, with applications closing on Friday 18 September.

‘The social impact of PR is hugely important, but hardly talked about,’ said PRCA Director General Francis Ingham of the need for the Directory launch. ‘From the impact of campaigns on target audiences to hiring more PR apprentices and encouraging workforce diversity, the communications industry can have a hugely positive role to play in the world.’

CharityComms’ Head of Membership Sarah Clarke also sees this initiative as another way the PR and communications industry can make a difference:

‘The charity and non-profit sector offers a wide range of services, such as venue hire or courses and training on everything from team building and mental health first aid to diversity and digital skills. By using charities to fulfil their supplier needs, companies can play a vital role in making a positive social impact.’

In its analysis of the social impact of PR and comms agencies in 2019, the PRCA found that 80% of practitioners have helped meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through their work, while just 17% had chosen to use social enterprises in their supply chain.

Find out more about PRCA’s social impact Directory on the website.

Collective creativity that arose as a result of the pandemic

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This is a guest post from Alec Samways, CEO and head of creative strategy at Splendid Communications.

Alec SamwaysThe seemingly never-ending newsworthiness of a pandemic that has delivered daily stats, statements, scares and scandals for weeks on end has meant ‘hard’ news dominated media space and ‘softer’ consumer PR campaigns needed a rethink. Here are a few strategies that I believe will continue to work however COVID-19 continues to dominate the media.

Bringing people together virtually
The events business has been sadly decimated by coronavirus, but smart operators have found clever ways round the constraints. Defected Records were quick to show a positive way forward in the first week of lockdown. Taking over an empty Ministry of Sound nightclub, the record label’s resident DJs played back to back sets for a ‘virtual festival’ with label boss Simon Dunmore diligently cleaning the DJ decks between sets with antiseptic wipes. It was livestreamed on the label’s social channels and garnered a huge global audience, showing that even while under siege from a pandemic, virtual connections can harness an inspiring community spirit. We at Splendid went all in on the virtual dancefloor. I was also impressed by the way Ascot at Home generated all kinds of content ideas to engage racing fans from their living rooms and Lost Horizon took things to the next level with an amazing online AI festival experience.

Using spare time for good
Those of us lucky enough to have been working safely from home have regained time formerly lost to a daily commute. There have been so many examples of brands and celebrities encouraging us to use that time for good. We carried out research for the Tesco Food Love Stories campaign that revealed a fifth of households were now cooking every meal from scratch (and long may that continue). I’m a big fan of Joe Wicks, and his daily free PE lessons were a boost for those of us struggling to adapt to home schooling; his boundless energy and enthusiasm helping parents and kids start the day well in challenging times. Let’s hope there has been an increased awareness and better habits formed for healthy eating and exercise as a result of the crisis.

Finding creative ways to support serious messages
Lots of brands and their PRs have played it safe during the pandemic. Faced with business closures or the challenges of operating within social distancing guidelines, many decided to communicate strictly by the rule book or not communicate at all. I take my hat off to Burger King and its hilarious attempts to promote social distancing in novel ways, from its 2m wide cardboard crowns in Germany and adding an extra onion option to its burgers in Italy. For ultimate creativity though, my prize goes to the New Zealand government, whose response to the crisis in general was a masterclass in empathetic leadership communication. In a campaign to highlight the dangers to children of increased time spent online during COVID-19, ‘Keep it Real Online’ featured a video where porn stars arrived at a family home to tell parents what their son had been up to on his computer. Other videos addressed violent content, grooming and cyber-bullying.

Spreading hope and supporting good causes
Captain Sir Thomas Moore emerged as a hero of coronavirus with his charity fund-raising efforts and the subsequent national spotlight came at just the right time. When the centenarian legend told the nation ‘We will get through this and come out of it stronger, more united and ready to face any challenge together’ it was exactly what we needed to hear. More recently, artisan candle producer Earl of East found a rather unique way to remind us there is hope for a life beyond the virus with its ‘Scents of Normal’ range. Three candles supplied the smells of pub, festival and cinema. The scent descriptions made us both chuckle and excited to return to each of those environments. Proceeds from the sales of candles went to Hospitality Action meaning what would otherwise have been dismissed as a cringe worthy gimmick was for a good cause.

Digital Presence

5 tips to up your digital presence

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This is a guest post from Charlie Terry, founder & managing director at CEEK Marketing.

Every modern-day PR knows that adding an element of digital marketing to a campaign can work wonders, and with the decline of print media it’s almost a necessity to implement it not only to your clients strategies, but your own! Here are five tips for upping your digital presence.

1) Reviews are key
Invent and create innovative techniques to encourage your clients/audience to leave reviews on Google my Business (GMB) or TripAdvisor. Optimal reviews should always be keyword and location-driven. GMB also provides indispensable analytical tools as members list their location, phone number, and website. We recommend displaying google review widgets on business websites to add customer value.

2) Guest blogging
Create valuable optimised content and exchange SEO value with other brands by guest posting on each other’s website blogs. Utilising the keywords you want your business to rank for is key, make sure you do a previous competitor check and create similar but improved content. Create a mixture of news and industry updates and long-form evergreen content that will be relevant to your customers today but also in 12 months’ time. The technique is to produce content that offers general industry ‘tips’ and ‘how-to content’ with lists. Backlinks are an inbound-marketing priority which could significantly boost your digital presence if done correctly.

3) Content Marketing
Highly engaging and branded content which is consistent throughout. Invest in graphic design, photography and videography services and make yourself remembered. Brands need stories. Make yourself heard, get in contact with local podcasts and share industry insights. Podcasts are a great way to create your own self-brand and advertise your business on multiple platforms.

4) Brand Trust
Work with macro and micro-influencers in your space who will add indispensable and cost-efficient value to your product/brand while creating unique curated content which is relevant to your targeted audience. Remember that their following trusts their opinion! Influencers are like any other client and can be approached from all angles, from gifting experiences in exchange for content to paid partnerships that can lead to long-term business relationships.

5) Website optimisation
Ensure the health of your website is sharp and check simple but unnoticeable things such as ‘alt tags’ or image descriptions, keyword optimised content and correct contact information (NAPs: name, address, phone number).

image of a man blogging

The evolution of blogging

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What started for many as a creative outlet has now become a full-time career, as our Influencer Survey 2020 showed there is a record number of bloggers who are professional, with their work providing their main source of income.

At Vuelio, one of the things we’re famous for is our weekly blog rankings, celebrating the top 10 blogs across a huge variety of categories, including mainstream topics such as fashion and parenting to more niche interests like craft and beer. Many of these bloggers have told us they started out wanting a place to share their thoughts on topics and issues close to their heart. With the explosion of influencer marketing over recent years, blogging for a lot of those in our rankings has gone from being a hobby to a full-time job, with blogging now an established career path.

Not only has blogging become a profession, but blogs have become credible sources of information, with people following their favourites for recipe inspiration, beauty tips or fitness workouts – all of which have been particularly useful in lockdown! This has allowed creators and their audiences to share experiences and led to the creation of new communities.

A perfect example of community is with mental health bloggers. Last month we sponsored the Mental Health Blog Awards, which brought together and celebrated the work of those blogging, podcasting and vlogging about mental health.

And in a few months, we’ll be celebrating our own community of bloggers, vloggers, podcasters and influencers at the annual Online Influence Awards. For the first time, nominations are open for a chance to be shortlisted, before our independent judging panel selects winners. There are 14 categories from fashion, food and fitness to disruptor and newcomer – and entry is free.

The phrase ‘write what you know’ has never been more true when it comes to blogging, so whether you’re passionate about pets or bonkers for baking why not get creative and share your love through the power of words with your very own blog – and if it’s before 9 October, you could be our next Best Newcomer.

Top 5 tips for starting a blog

1. Find your passion and stick to it – a single topic or niche can help you grow a loyal and engaged audience

2. Don’t waste time trying to be everywhere at once – work out what channels work, and don’t work, for you

3. Post consistently – if it’s once a week or once a day, a consistent schedule keeps your audience engaged

4. Read other blogs and comment – blogging is a community, you don’t have to be part of it but if you’re looking to reach more people then the community can help you grow

5. Make sure you’re listed in Vuelio – only blogs listed in the Vuelio Media Database can be ranked in our top 10s

tips for selling in a crisis

How to sell in a pandemic

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This is a guest post from Darryl Sparey, Managing Director at Hard Numbers.

“I sell ice in the winter, I sell fire in hell / I am a hustler baby, I’ll sell water to a well.”

These are the words of philosopher, poet, business mogul, tech entrepreneur, philanthropist and billionaire Shawn Corey Carter, also known by a host of other nicknames, including Jay-Z.

And that ‘can-do’ spirit, the mindset that whatever adverse conditions you face you will find a way to succeed, the focus on results over externalities, are things that definitely speak to anyone founding an agency or a business in a global pandemic, and the ensuing recession that has followed it. The market conditions aren’t quite ‘hell’, but they’re not far from it.

And yet new agencies abound in 2020, despite the challenging headwinds that face us. Coldr, Shook, Play, Boldspace, Mixology Communications, Priestley, Authentic Comms, Made by Giants, and a host of others have all started in the last few months. And another agency that’s been added to this crowded starting line-up is my own, Hard Numbers. The thing that will define success or failure for all of these agencies, including my own, will be our ability to create opportunities to pitch for and competitively win new business.

Fortunately for me and the Hard Numbers team, I’ve a wee bit of experience on the business development side of things, which has been incredibly useful in the last few weeks. So here’s a few things I’ve learned from the last twenty years, which I’ve been putting into practice in the last two months or so…

1) Have a demonstrable, provable point of difference
There are thousands of agencies out there, and as many freelancers. It’s a buyers’ market. So your proposition needs to be genuinely differentiated. You need to have a unique selling point which is of benefit to your prospective client, and defensible externally. And ‘we’ve got great people’ or ‘we’ve won awards’ does not cut the mustard, because everyone else is saying that.

2) Have an idea of your ICP/define your Ideal Customer Prospect
This should be based on your current or previous client expertise, and the desired sectors you want to grow in. You should know the size and stage of business that you do your best work for, and the verticals they are in (clue: it is NOT ‘B2B businesses’) and the typical role that you sell into within these organisations. Then go and find these prospects online. This is your prospect database.

3) Shy bairns get nowt
My fiancé is from the North East, and she bought me a keyring with this saying on. It goes everywhere with me, literally. And it means, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Business is not won by waiting for people to ask you.

4) Always be getting commitment
Like shell suits, smoking in PG movies and Calvin Harris tunes, ‘always be closing’ was acceptable in the 80s. But things are different now. At every stage of the sales process, you should be looking to secure your prospects’ commitment to the next stage. If not, you’ll run the very distinct risk of being ghosted, and there’s no Peter Venkman or Egon Spengler to help you out in that scenario.

5) Make time for new business
Too many agency owners run to the comfort of existing client work, or think that ‘liking’ stuff their prospects put on LinkedIn is sales. You need to carve out dedicated time in a disciplined fashion on a weekly basis to make approaches, set-up calls and meetings, and get in front of your target prospects.

6) Use a CRM
You cannot manage a pipeline effectively on a shared Google doc or spreadsheet. Invest in a CRM system to help you manage your contacts, visualise and forecast your pipeline, and execute marketing campaigns. HubSpot is a CRM which is free to use, and there are many others like Pipedrive, Sugar CRM, Copper, Insightly and, the big one, Salesforce. If you’re serious about it, plug this data into QuarterOne, and give yourself unrivalled ability to forecast pipeline. If you’re at a larger agency and you’re REALLY serious about it, use Kluster’s AI product to diagnose problems in your sales acquisition strategy.

If you do all of the above, you’ve got more than a puncher’s chance of having success, in any climate. And whether you find yourself in the coldest winter, with nothing to sell but ice, or somewhere rather hotter (which, frankly could be anywhere in the UK based on mid-August) with just fire to shift, you’ll be OK.