Don't be scared of being a twit

Reblogged from V Formation marketing wire:

So you’ve pretty much got the hang of Linkedin and quite a few of us are proficient facebookers, albeit away from the corporate world. So why do so many of us find Twitter to be a tad too scary? Is it the 140-character limit? The fear of posting something that is more twitty then witty? Twitter is perfect for content-rich industries such as professional services and a quick brainstorm in the…

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Lights, Camera, Action! (or How to Prepare for Interviews with the Broadcast Media)

Diane Wood

Your excellent planning and proactive approach to your PR has worked, and now you have the opportunity for a TV or radio interview. It’s a unique experience being interviewed by broadcast journalists, whether live or recorded, and you need to be able to think on your feet and deliver your key messages in an engaging fashion. As with many things in life, preparation is the key to ensuring you make the most of this opportunity.

V Formation’s public relations expert Diane Wood shares with you  a selection of tips for preparing for a fluff-free interview:

 Checklist for Broadcast Media Interviews

1. Before the interview, decide exactly what it is you want to say, highlighting one or two key points, and keep these front of mind to maintain focus throughout the interview.
2. Get your key points across, regardless of questions and distractions. Make sure your answers are simple, to the point, and don’t use acronyms, clichés or business-speak, jargon or catchphrases.
3. Don’t let the interviewer butt in without a fight.
4. Politely refute any incorrect statements.
5. Stay off the defensive.
6. Don’t get angry.
7. Avoid getting sidetracked; remember your one or two key points.
8. Be positive.
9. Look and sound alert.
10. Try to anticipate surprises and let the viewer/listener know about any surprise questions or angles that do occur.
11. Avoid addressing the interviewer by name.
12. If the interviewer rephrases your statements, make sure they are right. Correct them if they aren’t.
13. Try and minimise the ‘errs’ and ‘ums’, ‘so ons’ and ‘so forths’.
14. Don’t worry about filling any embarrassing silences, leave that to the interviewer.
15. Only hesitate if it is deliberate; it is okay to be considered with your response.
16. Know the facts; remember you are the expert (which is, after all, why the interview has been scheduled!).
17. Don’t volunteer irrelevant information.
18. Watch for the interviewer getting in a damaging or inaccurate last word.

Still feeling wobbly? V Formation can put you through your interview paces and help you feel confident about facing the broadcast media. Get in touch to find out more.

Make your Linkedin profile work harder for you

Sue Carr, marketing and communications consultant at V Formation Ltd

With 8 million users in the UK alone and a growth rate of around one new member per minute, Linkedin has become the world’s largest professional online network. Given this rate of growth, it makes good business sense to be involved and, whether you are a fan of social media or not, many of your potential customers will be using Linkedin to find out more about you and your credentials.

Through our Linkedin workshops we regularly have conversations with business people who have fledgling or unpopulated Linkedin profiles and are consequently struggling to realise any benefits from it. Maximising the benefits of Linkedin needs to be neither daunting nor time-consuming once you’ve made the small investment of building a compelling profile.

In this blog, V Formation’s Sue Carr sets out some top tips for building a Linkedin profile that can work for you and your business:

1. Think carefully about who will be looking at your profile and make it relevant to your audience. Ensure your profile addresses their needs and what you can do for them
2. Add your job title but make sure it is understandable to your audience. For example, if you are an Associate in a law firm, add your specialist legal area as well.
3. Include an appropriate photo so visitors know it is you!
4. Keep your summary concise and meaningful, with a punchy paragraph stating clearly who you are and what you do – and how you can help.
5. List your specialities in keyword format – eg: ‘commercial contracts’ ‘trade mark advice’ copyright law’ as this improves your findability when people are searching for specific skills.
6. Ask for (and give) recommendations. These provide valued character reference and add to your credibility.
7. Add links to your company website(s) and your blog site.
8. If you want potential customers to get in touch with you, make sure you have your email address and/or phone number on your profile and consider including it in the “Headline” or in the summary section.
9. Join groups where your customers and prospects are active and get involved with the discussions – both by starting topics and commenting.
10. Use the ‘add sections’ facility to highlight language skills and published works.
11. Stay visible through regular updates to your status and taking an active role in discussions and groups.

I like to view Linkedin as a virtual and ongoing networking event, with different discussions taking place with different groups of people. But, as with ‘real life’ networking, to get anything out of it, you need to participate.

V Formation offers in-house, tailored Linkedin workshops from £20+VAT per participant. To find out more email Sue or Hilary.

Making the case for PR

In the first of a mini-series of V Formation blogs designed to demystify PR, we consider the case for including it in your marketing mix and what you could – and should – expect PR to deliver.

Press, or media, relations activity is a core element of many businesses’ communications strategy – particularly in knowledge-intensive sectors such as professional services. When approached and implemented carefully, PR can prove a highly cost and time effective tactic for achieving overall business objectives and strategies, as well as raising awareness within a target community and audience.

PR is about being noticed, heard and understood, by the right people, at the right time, and in the right place.  PR is one of the most effective marketing tools in the communications mix, as it can harness the influential power of the media whilst retaining its credibility with the public.  Unlike advertising where coverage is secured through paid for space, genuine editorial coverage achieved through PR is due to its relevance for that particular medium.  This perception of impartiality makes it all the more believable to the public.  Reaching your target audience through the appropriate media, with clear, informative and interesting information is paramount to a successful PR campaign.

There is no guarantee that PR will create the coverage anticipated or hoped for, as we can only influence, rather than control!, what appears in the press. Moreover, the skill lies in identifying angles for stories that are most likely to generate interest with the key media so that they identify with a genuine relevance to their readership or audience.

Developing good relations with these key, and very often most influential press and editors, is a main objective in order to generate their interest and commitment to the story and hence coverage of it.

As a very brief overview, PR delivers a number of benefits for profile-raising activities:

• PR is more cost effective than advertising, delivering more return on the investment
• Editorial with readers of press and TV etc viewers, carries more credibility than an advertisement
• It can target a diversity of publications and media with a range of stories
• PR has the potential to generate leads and enquiries
• Press stories can be adapted for other marketing material, used in online and social media activities, mailed/emailed to a contact database, etc.
• And on social media – recent research estimates that more than 80 percent of journalists use Twitter to uncover stories or find answers/commentators (check out our earlier blog don’t be scared of being a Twit to make the most of your followers and those all-important 140 characters!)

Next we will be helping you to create a PR Handbook as well as giving you some top tips on dealing with broadcast media.

Find out more
V Formation has a strong track record of helping professional practices, family businesses and ambitious SMEs to build successful relationships with their key media. For help with making PR work for your organisation, contact V Formation’s Diane Wood or call 0115 822 6364. You can also follow Di on Twitter.

www.vformation.biz

Top tips for marketing on a shoe-string

Tight budgets and reduced teams can prove a real challenge to professional services marketers tasked with delivering the same or better results as before. However a review of current activities against the firm’s objectives can help you refocus your efforts to ensure the desired results are achieved or exceeded. In this blog, V Formation’s Sue Carr gives some top tips on meeting the challenge of limited resources.

Increasingly marketers that we speak with are faced with the picture below of reduced budgets and smaller teams, whilst trying to deliver increased profile, more new business and increased client retention.

Having been in that position a few times ourselves, the challenge is to be smart and creative with the reduced resources available. Whilst a daunting prospect, it is still possible to have effective marketing plans that deliver and exceed objectives set by the senior management. By following these top tips, professional services marketers can turn this challenge into an exciting opportunity:

1. One of the first steps to take is a review of your current marketing and business development initiatives, carefully assessing the return on investment against the marketing and business objectives set for the firm.
2. A substantial proportion of many professional practices’ marketing budgets is spent on unfocused corporate entertainment. It is often a ‘protected’ element of the budget that  lacks focus and joined-up thinking. Insist on a clear strategy for entertaining that strikes the appropriate balance of client relationship management (with the right clients), entertaining of key and active referrers and intermediaries and reaching a mix of targeted prospects. By aligning the corporate entertainment budget more firmly to the firm’s objectives, it can help to secure relationships and win more business.
3. Ensure that any sponsorship spend is part of a focused and targeted strategy and in line with the objectives of the firm. There is far more to a sponsorship deal than a logo and branding and it’s important to build close relationships with the supplier to ensure that you can extract maximum value from your spend. And review your sponsorship deals year on year to check that they are still relevant and delivering a return on investment.
4. PR can have excellent results if embraced properly as an integrated element of the marketing plan. With a wide range of channels available to communicate news, updates and messages, PR can be one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to reach your target audience.
5. Keep direct marketing focused and the target audience tight. Avoid the scattergun approach to keep costs down improve the response rate. Use digital channels and social media effectively as part of your marketing programme. And most importantly, ensure campaigns are followed up to maximise success.
6. Regularly review your suppliers as this can help you earn considerable savings.

If you find yourself faced with the challenge of reduced resources, the key is to remain focused and keep your marketing efforts aligned to the firm’s objectives. Through careful planning and creative tweaking of the marketing plan to ensure you use existing channels effectively as well as embracing new channels – it really can be possible to do more with less!

For help with tackling the challenge of limited resources contact V Formation’s Sue Carr or call 0115 822 6364. Follow Sue on Twitter.

www.vformation.biz

Don’t be scared of being a twit

So you’ve pretty much got the hang of Linkedin and quite a few of us are proficient facebookers, albeit away from the corporate world. So why do so many of us find Twitter to be a tad too scary? Is it the 140-character limit? The fear of posting something that is more twitty then witty? Twitter is perfect for content-rich industries such as professional services and a quick brainstorm in the V Formation offices has thrown up this handful of unbeatable reasons for joining the Twitterati:

1. It’s based on trust. If people like what you write, they will follow you. If they don’t, they will disappear.
2. It lets you engage directly with current and potential buyers of your products and services.
3. You can reach huge audiences – 50 ‘retweets’ can put your content in front of thousands.
4. It’s cost – and time* – effective.
5. If your clients and influencers are in the tech, media, internet, fast growth and start-up spaces they WILL be on twitter.
6. It’s the best news feed! From the Apprentice results through to the Euro Crisis Summit, Twitter gives you a quick and intimate picture of what’s happening.
7. Twitter can help you drive traffic to your blog and your website – and you can measure it through analytics.

*Keep focused and don’t let yourself be lured down alleyways of interesting (but perhaps irrelevant) content.

Getting going

It’s quick and easy to set up a Twitter account. Simply go to www.twitter.com and follow the sign-up process.  Take five minutes to create a proper profile – would you engage with someone if you didn’t know whom he or she was or what they represented?

And then start to seek out the people you want to follow. You can use the ‘Who to Follow’ tab and see Twitter’s suggestions or type in your own search terms for people or companies you are trying to find.

You may be surprised to see just how many of your clients are already active Twitterers. Don’t be disheartened if your follower numbers take a while to build; if you moved to a new town you wouldn’t expect to be acquainted with everyone by the end of the first week…

Now it is time to find your voice. 140 characters do not allow for perfect prose or perfect advice. Keep your tweets (messages) short and tidy and don’t agonise over them! We give our clients (and ourselves) a few key rules for Twitter activity – and these are relevant for Linkedin too:

• Be polite – thank people for retweets, follows, and mentions.
• Be generous – share and retweet interesting content from others.
• Be useful – seek out content that will interest you and your followers and tweet a link to recent and relevant articles.
• Be honest – how many new clients wins this week? Honestly?!
• Be appropriate – or perhaps this should read ‘Don’t tweet when inebriated…’
• Be respectful – don’t hard sell or over-promote. Twitter is not about shouting at people until they give in; it is a communication platform.
• Be findable – Use the # symbol so you can be found in content searches more easily – eg: ‘just found this great article on #leadership development from @xyz’
• Be selective – it makes perfect sense to link your Twitter and Linkedin pages, but please don’t indiscriminately feed your tweets through to Linkedin. Twitter is a vehicle for quick and regular updates and your Linkedin connections may not appreciate their updates page being cluttered up by Twitter activity. Better to actively direct any relevant tweets to your Linkedin profile by including ‘#in’ in your tweet.

And do make sure you have a decent social media policy in place – we can point you in the direction of some sensible lawyers should you need one.

Find out more
For a friendly chat about how you can harness the power of Twitter, contact Hilary. You can follow the V Formation team on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hilarycampton, www.twitter.com/sue_carr, www.twitter.com/DiWoodDWPR

Is anybody listening? The value of open dialogue with your clients.

As marketing and business development budgets continue to be ‘sticky downwards’ it can be tempting to cut expenditure on client listening programmes. We are often guilty of complacency when it comes to client loyalty and we perhaps forget that they too are facing their own commercial pressures and may be vulnerable to being poached by a hungry competitor.

Listening to your clients’ needs and acting on this feedback can help you to protect your valuable relationships. An ideal client listening programme involves face-to-face meetings with a cross-section of clients to gain an independent assessment of the strength of the relationship and to understand areas in which the firm is excelling and areas where improvements can be made.

It’s important to use an independent interviewer, whether from within the firm or an external provider. An independent reviewer will be less likely to ‘edit’ the responses before feeding back and, in V Formation’s experience, clients will generally open up more to an independent interviewer. Done properly, client listening programmes deliver real in-depth, quantitative and qualitative knowledge that can be used to strengthen client relationships and guide future developments and innovations.

Investing in such a programme may seem to be an additional cost, but if it generates greater client loyalty and provides you with insights into how you can improve your service, then it will swiftly pay for itself. And at the end of the day, if you are not listening to your clients, someone else will be! Talk to V Formation to find out how you can deliver a clear payback from client listening programmes.