Think about your avatar

April 2, 2013

The whole social media thing evolved at such a phenomenal rate that typically when most people joined the rush to be on Facebook or Twitter they simply scrabbled around and grabbed any old image for their avatar.

Bish, bash, bosh and with little thought to strategy, it was up there for all the world to see where probably it remains to this day.

But whether you’re online as an individual, a company or brand, we’d venture to suggest that the image you choose needs a bit more consideration.

As has been commented on ad nauseam elsewhere, if you’re online you should have a strategy….or at least have given some thought as to why you’re Tweeting, on Facebook or whatever platform you’ve chosen.

For strategy, read: who, what, where, when, and most importantly – why!  Oh yes, and how?

Who do you want to communicate with?

What do you want to talk about?

Where will you be doing it – at home, work, on the move?

When and how often?

Why do you want to?

How – what tools are you going to use – laptop, desk top, iPad, smartphone, TweetDeck, HootSuite?

Which brings us back to the image or avatar.  Your avatar should be – as the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) puts it – a ‘visible manifestation of an abstract concept’.

Some Top Tips

1. As a company or brand, using your logo as it appears in the corporate identity manual seems the obvious answer – but isn’t that just a bit too corporate and obvious?  It also completely misses the point behind social media which is about engaging with your audience and joining them in conversation on the same level, not preaching to them in the authoritative manner of yore.  If you do use a logo, at least come up with a creative interpretation to help communicate the brand’s personality.

2. Your avatar should be an expression of who you are or what your company is about.  It should also be distinctive and instantly recognisable, especially as your online reputation will be associated with the visual icon you select.

3. If you choose to use a head and shoulders shot, make sure it’s clear and recognisable as you or associated in some way to what you’re writing about.  And under any circumstances, do not use a cut out from your best mate’s stag do or hen party!

4. Use the same avatar to link your profile on different channels – this will aid recognition so your friends and followers can easily find you.

Here are a couple of examples worth checking out from Twitter:

Richard Branson gets trotted out as the exemplar of ‘best practice’ for so many aspects of business, and no change here. He is the embodiment of Virgin, so no surprise he chooses an image of himself over the brand logo: @RichardBranson   @RichardBranson
 Mipaa  @MajorGav

@mipaa does use its logo, or at least part of it and creatively.

Blogger @MajorGav employs a distinctive avatar that visually communicates his subject area.

 @ButlerSherborn  @SYMotorUK

Estate agents @ButlerSherborn took the lime leaf from its identity which stands out well from the crowd.

SsangYong @SYMotorUK utilises the badge on the front of one its cars, while the colour combination is both distinctive and memorable.

5. If you’re considering refreshing your avatar or even changing it to reflect a particular initiative, season or campaign, give this careful thought.  Aim for evolution rather than a complete change to retain some identifiable element to aid recognition.  Alternatively, use an evolved image temporarily and return to the master avatar in due course.

6. If you are ever tempted to apply a Twibbon http://twibbon.com/ in support of a particular cause, do make sure you remove it afterwards. It doesn’t look good to still be sporting a Remembrance Day poppy on your avatar weeks after the event!

For more tips on ‘Creating a Better Professional Online Profile’, click here:

http://www.commpro.biz/corporate-social-media-zone/social-media-marketing/twitter-who-10-steps-to-creating-a-better-professional-online-profile/


We are where we are – deal with it

February 15, 2013

New image 2013

OnStrategy consultancy launched to deliver real world advice

Whether we are on the brink of a triple dip recession or not is irrelevant.

No amount of navel gazing, wishful thinking for how things ‘could have/might have/should have’ been or indeed ‘once used to be’ will make things any different.  We are where we are and it’s not going to change any time soon.

Smaller budgets, reduced resources, greater demands for more from less are the new vernacular of business, sales, marketing and frankly anyone trying to cope financially.  Whether talking about your domestic housekeeping, a Government Department or an organisation’s marketing and PR budget, the language is much the same.

But whatever the current financial landscape there’s still a job to be done.  So could smart thinking be the way forward?

Of course the answer is yes; but where’s this thinking going to come from.  ‘Bright young things’ have bright, young – and largely unproven ideas and suggestions, which was all well and good in the Silicon Valley-esq and Nike ‘Just Do It’ way of the late 1990s and early Noughties, but…

Well exactly: there’s a but.  That was then and this is now.

Maybe the time has come to invest in some real world experience. Experience that will deliver a pragmatic, risk reduced way forward and one that needn’t cost a banker’s bonus especially if you buy it in by the day rather than add it to the payroll.

With this in mind, welcome to OnStrategy - the consultancy solution from LawsonClarke.

And the difference is?

It’s pure consultancy that’s delivered simply

  1. Meet – the first meeting is free
  2. Tell us your problem, discuss openly and honestly
  3. We’ll apply our lifetime experience gleaned from many years of brand engagement to come up with some pragmatic solution options, all to a pre-agreed scope, scale and cost.

What for?

  • Strategic thinking
  • Reputation auditing
  • Review of issues/crisis management
  • ‘What if’ scoping
  • Review of resources, internal and external
  • Recommendation of solutions

Simple.  End of.

If you’re a client business, we promise not to sell you anything else.  If you’re an agency, we’ll happily work alongside you to the best of our combined ability for the good of your client.

Real world advice.  Drawing on our intuition and born out of 40 years brand/marketing/PR management experience, and over 30 years creating and running our own successful business.

Call us.  The initial meeting is free.

Tel:     +44 (0)1285 658844

E-mail: onstrategy@lawsonclarke.co.uk


Welcome back to the LawsonClarke blog

November 14, 2012

We know we’ve been pretty quiet recently – sorry about that.  That’s because we took a bit of a break, put our heads together and considered exactly what we wanted to be talking to you about.

Setting objectives is an important part of social media, but now we’ve got it all sorted and as part of that we’ve appointed a new member to the team – Lisa Smith.

Lisa has joined us as a consultant to head up our social media offering; she has over 15 years comms experience and spent the past three years focusing on social media as digital media manager at the restaurant group, Nando’s.  Lisa will be bringing our blog and social media channels to life and adds another string to the bow of many talents at LawsonClarke.

We began delving into social media several years ago with the launch of our own blog and @LawsonClarke on the now omni-present Twitter.  We have had some great results on behalf of clients as well, and looking forward to working with others to maximise their social media potential and online reputation management.

Speaking about her plans, Lisa said: “One of the first areas I will be focusing on is the LawsonClarke blog.  It’s the ideal place for sharing agency news, opinions, knowledge and hopefully some fun stuff too.  We’re working with some exciting clients and it’ll be great to be able to share some of our experience and successes.

“On a wider spectrum, the renewed focus on social media means we are able to advise and offer clients a whole new portfolio of expertise to maximise their PR and marketing potential, reach new audiences and most importantly share and listen to what those audiences are saying.”

Exciting times ahead! We’d love this to be a place where people can comment and share their views, so please feel free to add your thoughts below.

More soon…



Transparency on-line – there is no hiding place

March 19, 2010

Nestlé faces Facebook crisis over Greenpeace rainforest claims

Like it or not, warts and all, your reputation is now on-line for all to see. The critical points are:

i. Are you keeping an eye on it?

ii. Are you listening to what’s being said?

iii. Is someone sufficiently senior and competent engaging with your audience and responding appropriately?

Read PR Week’s report on the current Nestlé situation:

http://www.prweek.com/news/rss/991636/NestlE-faces-Facebook-crisis-Greenpeace-rainforest-claims/


PR moves up the food chain

March 17, 2010
 
After years of being the ‘poor relation’ of the marketing mix, PR is coming of age.

This article by Gideon Spanier appeared in The London Evening Standard on Monday 15 March, 2010

Who does a CEO call first in crisis? The PR men

The recession has been brutal for most of the marketing industry but few sectors have performed better than public relations.

Last week Tim Bell, chairman of PR and advertising group Chime Communications, unveiled an impressive 15% jump in annual profits at his PR division which includes the firms Bell Pottinger and Good Relations. Lord Bell says Chime is capitalising on a long-term trend — the growing importance of PR for both corporations and high-profile individuals.

A decade ago, the first person a CEO might call when facing a major decision or crisis was his lawyer or financial adviser. Now it’s a top PR.

“The world of communications has changed,” says Bell, a founder of Saatchi & Saatchi and Margaret Thatcher‘s PR guru. “Now communications companies are invited to the top table at the first meeting. Look at the Greek Government [during its current economic crisis]. The first thing they did was tender for a PR company.” He adds dryly: “You could argue they should have started by doing something with the economy rather than find a PR agency.”

Top advisers such as Brunswick‘s Alan Parker, Finsbury’s Roland Rudd, and Matthew Freud of Freud Communications are hardly known outside the City, Whitehall and the media. Indeed they strive to stay in the shadows. But they can earn as much as a FTSE chief executive. Latest accounts show Rudd earned £2.9 million.

These external PRs do more than handle publicity and manage the financial calendar, with crisis management thrown in as required. They have top-level contacts that the client’s in-house PR can rarely hope to match. And increasingly, they are looking beyond PR — to offer strategic direction and political advice in the mould of a management consultancy such as McKinsey.

“PR has certainly moved up the food chain in the last five years,” says Danny Rogers, editor of PR Week. “Reputation is your biggest asset in the modern world.” The internet and 24-hour news have made it more important for a CEO to “know who the custodian of their reputation is”, he adds. “Media and public scrutiny of corporations, brands and individuals has increased. Your reputation can be destroyed so quickly now because it is so global.”

The dramatic safety recall of Toyota cars and the allegations surrounding England footballer John Terry‘s love life are two recent examples of how fast reputations can fall — for a business or an individual.

Many PR firms are privately owned and don’t disclose much financial detail but stock market-listed Chime’s past results give an indication of how demand from clients has grown. Between 2004 and 2009, profits from PR rose in successive years by 24%, 24%, 9%, 30% and 15%. Turnover almost doubled to £67 million — albeit with some help from acquisitions.

Historically, most of Chime’s revenues came from the UK but international clients are becoming more important. Bigger players have also seen growth in global PR. WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, who controls a string of PR agencies including Hill & Knowlton, Ogilvy, Burson-Marsteller and Finsbury, told the recent FT Digital Media conference that when his team conducted an internal review of the past five years, it found that the PR division was among the best performers and “has shown consistent growth” with annual turnover of £796 million — although profits did slip in 2009.

Sorrell argues that investors should rate PR more highly as a revenue source, particularly as he believes it will have a growing role on social networking websites where “the invasion of that [space] by commercial messages” such as brand advertising “is not necessarily a good thing”.

No PR firm has been immune to the recession, of course, as clients cut budgets. In the City, a dearth of takeover deals has meant lower fees and redundancies. But Rogers, who is about to publish PR Week’s annual survey that tracks spend across the industry, believes that revenues were roughly flat last year. If that proves to be the case, it would be a decent performance considering advertising fell 12%.

Sorrell has suggested that part of the reason that PR has thrived is because it is relatively cheap for clients compared to, say, buying an ad campaign.

A PR firm’s basic retainer looks relatively modest — typically between £5000 and £25,000 a month, depending on the amount of work, with major clients paying £50,000 or more. Crisis management costs extra.

City PRs have tried to follow the same model as bankers and brokers — by offering lower retainers but then charging higher rates and “success fees” during a takeover or fundraising. But despite their growing influence, they do not charge the same as bankers, who might earn 0.5% of a mega-deal.

“One of the big challenges for a lot of PR people is that they still struggle to charge for they value they bring,” argues Rogers.

Surveying the PR industry, it’s notable how at many firms power remains in the hands of the founders, even if they have sold out to bigger conglomerates.

Some insiders complain that it is difficult for lower-ranking staff to join the “partnership” — the handful at the top who share the bulk of the profits.

“We are on the brink of a wave of start-ups,” predicts Rogers. “Good talent is getting ready to break away.” New agencies are likely to focus heavily on digital, handling internet search engines and social networking, as well as PR.

Whatever happens, reputation matters. So we can be sure there will be plenty of work for the PR industry.


The LawsonClarke blog brand-daq – March

March 3, 2010

Which brands are up, down or resting on their laurels.

This entirely subjective view will be updated periodically.

Up

Skoda – it’s ‘Superb’

So it might be based on a Volkswagen, but you’ve got to admire the transformation that is Skoda.

In 1997 I wrote a piece for The Independent in which I spoke about the steps the company was taking to return to its once proud roots of engineering excellence.  See: http://bit.ly/bXPxrp

At that time Skoda was just starting its recovery from being the laughing stock of the motor industry, but it was surely going to be a long haul.  13 years later, and having consistently developed and honed its products back to its DNA – affordability and reliability – Skoda has a range of cars that people are proud to drive.

The Superb, its latest offering, might sound a tad immodest even in a marketing-led world rife with hyperbole, yet it is a name the press has had no difficulty endorsing.  Auto Express says: “Superb by name and nature, Skoda’s range-topper goes straight to the top of the class”, while this review from The Observer is also not untypical: http://bit.ly/acrGYA

Brand recovery takes time, patience and a consistent approach, and Skoda is a textbook example others would do well to emulate.

Down

Lloyds Bank - the most complained about financial group

A good reputation is all about trust, and you’d have thought that ‘the banks’ – by which I mean the high street brands we mostly have to engage with – would understand that establishing and maintaining trust is essential to the success of their businesses.  Patently not. http://bit.ly/9FRcLQ (Telegraph.co.uk).

Once upon a time, we held our bank manager in high esteem, and were proud to save our hard-earned within the vaults of his once trusted branch.  But then things started to go wrong.  Customers became accounts; bank staff skipped the more personalised approach to customer service and no longer knew us by name.  We were bracketed into socio economic groups and ‘sold’ credit cards and insurance policies.  There was little attempt to understand our individual needs, and anyway, why make the effort?  They changed jobs every 18 months and disappeared off to ‘regional office’, and not long afterwards their branches began to close.  That solid, stone-built edifice on the corner of the high street – once an icon of trust – became a Loch Fyne restaurant.

Then there were the dubious bank charges.  And when we called to discuss these and other matters relating to our money, our enquiry was ‘off-shored’ to a call centre in Mumbai, Middlesbrough or wherever.

So are we really surprised to hear that Lloyds Banking Group, created from one of the most trusted names in the high street, has clocked up debts of £24billion http://bit.ly/9JEHOu (Management Today)?

The saying “look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves” seems to have a hollow ring to it.  If the banks can’t look after its customers and their modest sums of money, what hope for the taxpayers’ billions….?


The LawsonClarke blog brand-daq – February

February 17, 2010

Which brands are up, down or resting on their laurels.

This entirely random view will be updated periodically. 

 

 

Up

 

British Airways – for announcing a jet fuel production facility that will create aviation fuel (Avgas) from food waste.  A huge investment, but right ‘on the money’ from both an environmental and PR perspective, it will also add a welcome boost to employment in east London once the Olympics have been and gone. http://bit.ly/bFbAAL

 

Toyota – the brand has taken a real pasting from the national media over its recent recall programmes – unjustly so in the opinion of the specialist motoring media – yet the UK management has done an exemplary job in communicating with its stakeholders, including customers, dealer network and the media.  Kept in the headlines for over two weeks, the brand’s recovery is already well under way.

 

 

Down

 

Ryanair – why does Ryanair seemingly hold its customers, staff and competitors in such low regard.  Everyone loves Stelios (Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou) founder of EasyJet and acknowledged pioneer of the budget airline phenomenon (albeit following in Freddie Laker’s jetstream), so publishing a ‘knocking ad.’ calling him a liar is somewhat shooting yourself in the foot. http://bit.ly/bXAEXX.  Ryanair chief executive, Michael O’Leary clearly hasn’t grasped the fundamentals of reputation management, and one of these days will have a major PR disaster to deal with.  At that point, his well of goodwill will be empty, and no one will run to his defense.


It’s media, Jim, but not as we know it

February 9, 2010
Okay, let’s get the bad news out of the way.  In 2009, traditional ‘dead wood’ printed media had a torrid time: thelondonpaper – folded; LondonLite – gone; Evening Standard – now free; Birmingham Post – reduced from daily to weekly.

All these developments took place in just a matter of weeks, but what’s next and what are the implications for PRs?

Global advertising spend was predicted to fall by around 10% by the end of 2009, with the UK worst hit with a fall of around 13.1%, and a decline of 2.5% forecast in 2010.

From a PR perspective that means less editorial space and fewer employed journalists to talk to, making it a lot harder to get your news covered and your features placed.

But there is good news, and that is that we’ve seen an exponential growth in citizen media with online communities increasingly breaking news and emerging as key influencers. 

With 58.4 million global visitors in September 2009 (excluding mobile or desktop app usage), Twitter is being adopted as a mainstream communication channel, offering PR opportunities for monitoring rising trends, talking with influencers, and broadcasting news, both directly and through social media’s powerful word of mouth.

Internet advertising is expected to grow 9%, and that will drive the traditional media to look for new on-line outlets.

On-Line PR has really taken off in the past 12 months, resulting in new opportunities as both ‘branded’ on-line news channels increase their presence, and ‘citizen journalists’ also extend their influence. A year ago, few of us had even heard of Twitter but it is already favoured by Fortune 100 companies (54%) over corporate blogs (32%) and Facebook (29%) as the social media platforms of choice.

Twitter has seen a 3 digit growth in 2009, and was on track to reach 18 million users by the end of the year. It is claimed that 19% of internet users in the USA are already on Twitter.

In the UK as elsewhere, Twitter is being adopted as a mainstream two-way communication channel, both for talking to the media, and as a way the media can talk to their audience.

What’s the evidence?

  • Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy invites the Twitteratti to give him interview questions ahead of news programmes
  • Chris Evans features Twitter reaction on his Radio2 Breakfast show – instant feedback, live on-air
  • Fifth Gear sought Twitter consensus before deciding to send Vicki Butler-Henderson on a car launch
  • Car magazines – trade and consumer – are talking to their readers as well as manufacturers, and Tweet frenetically from motor shows and car launches
  • PRs are releasing news and images on Twitter ahead of sending out press releases. Tuned-in journalists are therefore getting a heads-up on news before their competitors
  • The Today programme Tweets about what’s coming up, and how a particular programme or interview went
  • Tuned-in journalists follow PR Twitter sites to gather news and to keep in touch with the rumour mill

In terms of crisis PR management, the term Twitterstorm has been coined for the instant and voluble feedback to things an audience has an opinion on. Just ask Jan Moir/Daily Mail about Stephen Gately; AA Gill about shooting baboons; and lawyers Carter Ruck about Trafigura and The Guardian.

Meanwhile, to maximise the communication around its recalls crisis, Toyota GB employed almost every form of on-line PR to stay in touch with its stakeholders; from YouTube video statements from its MD, to Tweets to customers, dealers and the media. This level of transparency and openness had never been seen before, and won the PR team much support and admiration from the specialist press and the industry, including their competitors.

So what does this mean for PRs?

Clearly social media is not just a fad.  The clued-up are already fully immersed, communicating direct 24:7 with online media and new influencers, refining their contact lists of journalists and bloggers and actively embracing Twitter et al into their PR programmes.

And more importantly, keeping tabs on the next new change lurking just around the corner.

It’s not media as we knew it, but, if you’re not engaged with this rapid level of evolution, you’ll probably be changing your career.

This article has appeared in marketing and PR magazine The Drum http://www.thedrum.co.uk/indepth/1961-the-pr-impact-of-a-dying-press, and an edited version was published in the Winter 2010 issue of revolve, the members’ magazine of the Motor Industry Public Affairs Association (MIPAA),  http://lawsonclarke.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/mipaa-text4.doc.   It has also appeared on Fresh Business Thinking http://www.freshbusinessthinking.com/business_advice.php?AID=4838&Title=

You can follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/LawsonClarke

© – LawsonClarke Ltd, February 2010


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