I was just thinking that running a PR business - or any business in fact - can be likened to running a theatre company. 

For a PR or marketing firm, you will have some clients on the public stage - doing their thing, presenting their companies and products to the world. You have some new business clients, waiting in the wings, ready to join in the production and shout about what they do. 

Of course, if you are a manufacturing business or a service company, you may have some products on stage, with a whole line of new products and services under development, waiting in the wings, until their time comes and they take centre stage.

We have a number of different audiences - some will be regular audiences who want to hear about the latest goings-on, on the stage. Some might come every night out of habit. Others could be new or irregular audiences, but they all want to be entertained with good, timely updates, accurate information, interesting and amusing anecdotes. They want to know who the latest players are - the biography of a new leading man or lady, for instance. Who are they, why are they here? What expertise and extra energy can they bring to the show? What part are they playing? 

So, you know what I'm going to say, don't you?  Yes - who is putting up the posters?  You might have the very best decor, front-of-house, seating, lighting, sound.. but unless those wonderful posters are up in the street outside, the audience might just be passing on by.

What you need is someone who knows where the audiences hang out, what special media they read, who exactly will be interested in hearing about your lovely play - or even if the play itself needs a slight re-write. 

Grab some attention for your business - and if you want some advice on where public relations and customer loyalty fit into the marketing mix, do get in touch.  

Good luck with your group's next performance!  Curtain up is just a day away. 

My first ever poem

I am racking my brains to recall to mind my first ever poem. I remember clearly writing it, carefully crafting every word, every line, with a spirit that came from ... where?  A sense of wonder at nature and a love of writing came together to produce something that I was so proud of, at the tender age of 8.

I had written my first story - typed out on a type-writer that I had requested for Christmas - at the age of 7.
But, this blog is not about the story (the Rock Fairy). That might be for another day.

In honour of my client, CPRE Hampshire's children's poetry competition - newly launched for 2014 - here is my first ever poem.


"Flowers".

Big flowers, small flowers,
Pink flowers, red,
All sorts of different flowers
In the flower bed.

Tulips from Holland
[Roses] from France
Do thistles come from Scotland?
Well, we've got a chance.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
...


That's all I can remember...  I do hope that I have kept it at home somewhere, so that I can share the whole poem with you!

If you know a child who has a sense of wonder at the natural world, and they can also dream and write, why not ask them to lay down a few lines in ink, and send it in to the team at CPRE Hampshire?  If it's good enough, why, even Sir Andrew Motion, the former Poet Laureate might well get to read it!

Thank you for reading.  Here is a link to the Competition

Keren.

Thinking of changing my Twitter handle

When I first went onto Twitter, I did so as an experiment, to teach myself how to use it.  In case I completely messed up, I was keenly aware that I would wish to do so 'incognito'.  One may laugh, now! I chose a username that sounded quite catchy, to show that I was trading as a PR consultant at Mainline Business Centre in Liss, East Hampshire.  MainlinePR was born.  Crucially, however, it was not my trading name, which had built up some reputation amongst my clients, colleagues and associates in the East Hampshire vicinity. The trading name for my business is, in fact, Compege - with the tagline 'ideas for competitive edge'. It has been a PR consultancy, and it now offers Customer Loyalty Management in addition to media relations.

Within a matter of weeks (or was it days?) I found that I had around 40 to 50 followers. Wonderful.  I was faced with an important choice - keep @MainlinePR or change the handle to @CompegePR?  I was still reluctant, at that point, to 'go public', and didn't relish the thought of losing the valuable followers and friends whom I had just made.  So there we are - fear stopped me from changing it.

And fear is what has kept me here so far.  At 1,048 followers at last count, I find myself in a dilemma.

My website has just been updated, and I am on the cusp of a new business plan. A colleague may well join me at the end of this year - sometime between November 2014 and February 2015; that is the plan. There are exciting chapters waiting to be written in the story of Compege.

I shall have to bite the bullet and shall almost inevitably change the Twitter handle to CompegePR.  The thing is, being an emotional old 'kinesthetic' kind of individual (thanks @Relationshiptraining for that insight!), I shall miss my dear @MainlinePR handle.

At the end of the day, will the change make any difference, be it negative, or positive?

What do you think?  What shall we do?  All feedback welcome - if you don't care, then that's fine by me.

Keren.

Apostrophes - use them or suffer the consequences

Apostrophes can do some clever things to show us the true meaning of what somebody is saying.
But they have a horrid name.
Shall we call them something different? What about an apo?

This is how you use an apo:-

1.  Ownership 

Apos are used for ownership, so you know who something belongs to.
The rule is that you add the apo to the end of the name.


Example:  This is Dave's pencil.
There is one chap called Dave and he has a pencil.


If something belongs to more than one person, you simply add the apo to the end of that name.

Example:  The smelly socks belonged to the boys.
They were the boys' smelly socks. 

Example:  The flags belong to the people.
They are the people's flags. 


2.  When you miss out a letter

Apos can also be used when you miss out a letter from a word.

Example:  You have made up a new game.
                You've made up a new game. 
(The apo has been used instead of the 'ha').

----------------------------------------------------------------------


Apos look just the same as little marks called inverted commas, which are single quotation marks that are for quoting a particular phrase that someone has used.


Example:  The man bought a new red Mini. 
He called it his 'little runaround'. 




----------------------------------------------------------------------

A common mis-use of the apo is when people think that they have to use it for a plural, when they have more than one thing.

Example:   This is one of my welly boots.
The plural is:-  I am wearing two wellies.


Just think, that if Devon County Council really bans the use of apos, as in this article, there will be mis-spellings of plural words, and nobody will know if there was one baker or more than one baker who had a nice view!

For the record, for history, for understanding, for communication, this does matter.

With thanks to @BunkyBowers for highlighting the article quoted herewith.

Keren. 

Common grammatical and spelling errors - tips

Here are some common grammatical and spelling errors, corrected with explanations. Hope those who need it, find it of help and interest. We all have our 'mental blanks' on these things - myself included. I always want to spell Gorgious with an 'i' but, of course, it is: 'Gorgeous'. 



WHOSE / WHO'S

Whose book are you reading?

Who is that, looking through the window?  Who's that, looking through the window?
EXPLANATION:  Who is that - miss out the 'i' of is and say:  "Who's that...?"

The man whose Caterham 7 I was riding in...

BRING / BROUGHT - BUY / BOUGHT

Are you bringing your sister along?
Have you brought your sister with you?

EXPLANATION:  Bring has an 'r' in it, so the past tense is 'Brought' (with an 'r').

What did you buy?
I bought a lot of lovely new items to fill up my empty wardrobe.
I also bought you a teddy-bear, which doesn't have an 'r' in it.

The bracelet that I have brought with me today has an 'r' in it.

The teddy bear that I bought for the baby has no 'r' in its tummy, because the verb 'Buy' has no 'r' in it.


WOULD HAVE, COULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE - MUST HAVE

Whenever you would like to use an 'of', hold on.
You would have liked to use the word 'of', because it sounds right, but look:-

EXPLANATION: I would have thought that you would have known that already.
Now miss out the 'ha' from 'have and it becomes:  I would've thought that ...  TA DAAAAR! Easy :)

"It must have been love, but it's over now....
It must've been good, but I lost it somehow."

Well, who would've thought it!?

He should've gone across the road and seen for himself.

I could've said it right, but like I didn't know it was could've and thought it was just Could Of, like.

STATIONERY / STATIONARY

When you think you need some writing paper, use the 'e'.

When you are standing still, and cannot move an inch - you are stationary, with an 'a'.


DEPENDENT / INDEPENDENT / DEPENDANT

Depending on the instance, you would need to say that Bob is dependent on someone else.
If we are talking about Bob, he is a 'dependant'.
However, it's rather confusing and this is possibly one that I should not have included here!

WHAT ELSE?

Do let me know of your own personal 'bug-bears' or mental blanks and let's see if, together, we can make the world a nicer, easier, more readable place.  Words is important, that's wot I reckons.

When should you use PR?

I gave a short presentation to a client committee today, and came away with a new business enquiry in my pocket. Did I do anything to deserve this? Well, yes, the answer is that, although it was unexpected, my nine years of work for the client has reaped a new dividend.

A lady's contact is starting a new business. It happens to be local. The lady has experienced first-hand what my PR style is and what kind of results she can expect. Donc: new business enquiry.

It always strikes me that one doesn't need PR in certain circumstances. One of the best ways I used to get leads was through working for a client (or two) at a trade show. I began with one client at a trade show; in subsequent years this became two, three, four clients in the same industry, UK and abroad, at the same trade show. 

Good work and good services, providing what the customer wants and achieving word-of-mouth marketing - this can speak volumes. You don't need proactive media relations or events when your 'public relations' is done through face-to-face communications and by others recommending you to friends and colleagues.

Now, if nobody has heard of your new business, your service or products, then you will need proactive public relations through building a relationship with editors, gaining momentum through coverage as well as other marketing methods and word-of-mouth recommendations. PR's a long-haul activity. It will need to bubble along for months, or years, to achieve the clear aims of the organisation.

Equally, PR will not succeed on its own (unlike I've heard from others). I believe that you need a range of coordinated marketing activities and the finance in place if the business is going to succeed. But we can be a critical part of the team.

To paraphrase one chap today: "Keren is a very important part of our success". Another nodded. That's two heads I need to nod, nodding. Result.

The imperfect tweet

I sometimes spend more time than needed in writing a tweet.  Sometimes it's worth it - sometimes I abandon the attempt and the moment has gone. Do you find the same?

Personally, I dislike scheduled tweets, as I like to know that what I'm saying will be well-received. It could be hard to quickly reschedule insensitive marketing-led tweets in cases of emergency or disaster.

On most occasions, I tweet from the heart, naturally and they come thick and fast. But one has to have a confidence of spirit to know that this will 'work'. The tweets almost invariably receive a response from one quarter or another amongst followers, or a Retweet (RT).

It has occurred to me that the imperfect tweet is a necessity on Twitter, because time flies and the timeline passes within a matter of seconds or minutes. Say what you mean, what you want, as long as it's within your communications strategy (informal or formal).

Likewise, we should not be knocking those who get it wrong by accident. Yes, we should question and call to account people who are acting unlawfully, immorally or inaccurately. But, let's judge less quickly when the error is just an imperfect tweet in its natural state; a second or two of subjective opinion, that may raise eyebrows if spoken face-to-face but equally may not even be heard or noticed.

Live tweets use the 'spoken written word'. I believe that's an important distinction from a conversation that is a face-to-face or a written letter or email. There may be a specific name for it one day. In the meantime we can refer to 'online chatter' or 'online word' with thanks to @WeeChrissieB; or 'online narrative' @benjdunn and 'Verbatim' @MikeWooles. If I worked for a lawyer, I might be able to give you the legal low-down.

The point is, let's be receptive to imperfect tweets as we would in a conversation, but be aware of the consequences as we write! Quite a balancing act.