Social Media - Work or Pleasure

Last week we noticed a new kid on the block for Social Media and apps. This new app is called BranchOut and is connected to Facebook, which now boasts more than 25 million registered users.   The concept is that BranchOut allows users of Facebook to leverage their Facebook friends to find jobs, recruit talent and strengthen professional contacts.

But then isn’t that what LinkedIn is for, so you can use your contacts to find a new job, recruit talent and strengthen your professional contacts? LinkedIn, in case you’ve missed out started as the social media site used when looking for a job.  It started in 2003 and now has 2 new members per second and 150 million members. LinkedIn has now become a key search engine when trying to find out about companies and specifically their employees.

A quick search on Google revealed over 345 different social media network sites with more appearing every week.  Some of those admittedly are aimed at specific groups, such as Asian Avenue, which caters for the Asian American community, but there are plenty of other sites that do very much the same as the main contenders we all hear on a more regular basis Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Google+.

So where should the line be drawn between business and leisure?  With more online activity, the two areas seem to have blurred over the last few years.  Will those who have Facebook accounts and post picture of their weekend ‘antics’ on the site need to tidy up their act if they then start job hunting and link into BranchOut.  Will we have more ‘gossip’ appearing on LinkedIn.  There have already been some well publicised cases where employers have searched employees on Facebook and have not been overly impressed with what they have found. At least for now on LinkedIn you don’t know what party your contacts have attended recently!

Twitter however does appear to have successfully straddled the areas of business and leisure.  Perhaps because the information or Tweets are just 140 characters long and there is no chance to get into too much detail.  It works on both platforms.

With this huge pool of information we need to be careful about how much benefit we are really getting from the sites. Which are best to use? How much information do you want to reveal about yourself? Or what you want others to know about you. 

We just can’t guess where social media will go in the next few years, for now it seems to dominate new feeds and information feeds.   Who can tell, but it’s something to keep a watchful eye on and make sure you know where the line is between your business contacts and your leisure time friends.

Now where did I put my note pad and paper……………………………

We would love to hear your comments on BranchOut and how you view social media in general?

Please comment here or find us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/boxpr_ltd

Back to School for Box PR

This week Box PR has been back in the classroom. We were invited to Southampton Solent University to guest lecture about PR (Public Relations) in the real world and in particular to assist them in writing a press release about a product launch for their assignment.

Box PR regularly writes press releases about company news, new product releases and product successes, just as a start. There are several stages to writing a press release:

1.      Collating the facts and information to write the press release. 

2.      Writing a factual and informative press release. 

3.      Issuing the press release in the correct format to the targeted audience. 

4.      Following up with the media with regards to images and further information. 

5.      Collating press cuttings and media clippings.

Step 1 – Collating the facts

PR stands for Public Relations, which is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Box PR looks to manage the reputation of our clients by reviewing and controlling the messages they send out to their employees, customers, potential customers and the media.

Therefore when writing a press release we look after that reputation, in order to earn understanding and support for a company, product or service whilst influencing opinions and behaviour.  Everything we do is a planned and sustained effort to establish, maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between our clients and its publics.

It is important that the release gives a rounded view and is written in the third person, to make it as straight forward as possible for journalists to repeat and share with their audiences.

Step 2 – Writing a factual and informative press release

Headline

Purpose to grab your audience’s attention

Select key words – good for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Opening Paragraph

Brief overview of key facts, dates that you want the reader to take note of and remember.

Main Body

Be compact, don’t waffle, avoid repetition and fancy language and Jargon.

           

First couple of paragraphs

Who, what etc.           

            Who is it about

            What is the actual news

            Why this is news

            When/what – is the product launching/event happening

            How – how has it come about

Conclude

Draw all the points together

Picture

A picture tells 1000 words, always try and include where possible

END

Always mark the end of a press release

Boiler Plate

This is a paragraph about the organisation, what it does – general info for the reader prior to publication

Contact info

They need to know who to contact if they want further images or additional information make it easy for journalists!

Length is a tricky one – how long is a piece of string – initially try and stick to 1 page

           

Step 3 - Issue the Press Release

It is important that all news is circulated internally prior to publishing it outside to customers and the wider media audience. Circulate via company email, add the news to a noticeboard so all employees even those who do not have access to emails know what is being circulated.  Upload to the company website and circulate via social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and You Tube if applicable.

Once the release has been circulated internally then it is time to think about the wider audience:

•  Who are your key editors that should know about the “news” from the company.
•  Online and Offline editors, they are rarely the same person, so make sure both are targeted
• Customers, your existing database
• Potential Customers
• Target list, people you may want to tell rather than them hearing about it in a the press

Step 4 – Follow up with the media

When you send out a press release, some journalists will simply extract what you send and use the picture to publish straight online whilst others will want further information or high resolution images to put into print. It’s important to answer all questions where possible to ensure your message is balanced and portrayed correctly.

Step 5 – Collate press cuttings

Don’t let all your hard work go to waste, keep records where all your hard work appears in the media.  This helps you keep track of the messages you send out, who is interested in your releases, and the audience they reach.

In summary

PR must follow overall strategy of the company

All communications must be clear, concise, factual and targeted

All news must be promoted internally first

Tell appropriate media

Follow online and in print and record cuttings

But if in doubt contact the Box PR team, we are more than happy to help and advise you where we can.  Simply email hello@boxpr.co.uk

See you next week!