Social Media Academy Announces Training Workshops for October


The Social Media Academy has announced its programme of training courses to be held throughout October. Details on each course can be found by clicking below…

Charity Social Media Marketing/PR and Fundraising, 4th October
Facebook Marketing and PR, 5th October
Advanced Social Media Marketing and PR Masterclass, 6th October
Twitter Marketing and PR, 10th October
How to Drive Retails Sales with Social Media, 11th October
Technology Social Media PR and Marketing, 12th October
Travel Social Media Marketing and PR, 13th October
B2B Social Media Marketing and PR, 14th October
Advanced Social Media Marketing and PR Masterclass, 17th October
Facebook Marketing and PR, 19th October
Twitter Marketing and PR, 20th October
Finance Social Media Marketing and PR, 24th October
Amplifying Advertising Campaigns using Social Media, 25th October
Facebook Marketing and PR, 26th October
Hands-on Social Media Masterclass for Marketing and PR Agency AEs and AMs, 27th October
Social Media Marketing and PR – Special Bristol Day, 27th October

 


Paul Barnett, Social Media Academy Workshops


Social Media News 05/09/11 – 11/09/11


Each day, @smlupdates tweets top social media and digital marketing news, tips, discussions and comment. Here are our five most popular articles from last week:

52 Types of Blog Posts that Are Proven to Work - Coming up with interesting types of blog posts can be a tricky business. This article by ProBlogger fixes that…

Infographic: The Growth of Social Media in 2011 - If you want stats on how social media has grown, you got it…

Social Creative: Nando’s Noise adds extra flavour to brand - Case studies of big brands using social media always go down well. Here, everyone’s (?) favourite serve-yourself-chicken restaurant’s new campaign gets the treatment.

What’s the R.O.I.? A Framework for Social Analytics - Here, Brian Solis attempts to dig deeper into the tricky question of ROI from social media.

Social Media Screw-ups: the updated history from Kryponite to Kenneth Cole (and beyond) - If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from writing these posts, it’s that our followers revel in the misfortune of others! More examples of where social media went wrong here.


Paul Barnett, Social Media News: Weekly Round-up


Upcoming Conference: Social Media and Public Sector Communications


Later this month, the Social Media Academy plays host to Social Media and Public Sector Communications, the country’s only conference focussing on the major trends affecting communications in the public sector today.

The day will address the unique opportunities and challenges presented by the fast rise of social media at a time of substantial budget shifts across the public sector. Discussion will centre on the effects of social media on communications plans, how it can drive ROI and how best to manage budgets and resource for maximum gain.

The programme is packed with the latest game-changing thinking, including up-to-the-minute case studies from public sector organisations that are pioneering social media engagement across the UK. The day will feature:

  • Best practice campaigns across all major social media platforms
  • Absolutely up-to-date tips and tricks for effectively engaging all different forms of social media including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, LinkedIn, forums, podcasts and iPhone apps
  • Tips on how to guard and protect your reputation online
  • Detailed guidance on how to measure and evaluate social media activity

Speakers on the day include:

  • Martin Thomas, author of Loose and Crowd Surfing
  • Lisa Mane, Head of Social Media, Central Office of Information
  • Andrew Walker, Co-founder, Tweetminster
  • Graham Lee, Chief Executive, Social Media Library
  • John Williams, Head of CRM Planning, Marketing and Communications, London Business School
  • Maurice Flynn, leading UK LinkedIn expert
  • Rory Natkiel, Digital Marketing and Insight Manager, Great Ormond St Hospital Children`s Charity
  • Diana Mackie, PR Manager, Institute of Fundraising
  • Richard Stokoe, Head of Communications, London Fire Brigade
  • Martha Roberts, Head of Customer Service Communications, Royal Mail
  • Steven Henman, Customer Services Channel Manager, Royal Mail

Social Media and Public Sector Communications takes place on Wednesday 21st September, 2011 at Broadgate Tower, London and costs £395 per delegate.

To book a place, please call (0)203 468 2802 or book online.

 


Paul Barnett, Social Media Academy Conference


Blogging In The UK: The Top UK TV Blogs


Apparently we watch four hours of TV a day on average here in Britain. Which is quite a lot of TV. So, there are quite a lot of people, online, talking about TV. This week, SML Blog delves into those glued to the gogglebox and find out who they are, what they’re talking about and how they’re doing it. Plus we’ll pick out a handful of top UK film blogs.

Last time I checked it took me about five minutes to go all the way through the channels on my TV and back to the beginning again. That’s far too much TV for one person to cover. What with the time it takes to watch and write about too, it means there are very few amateur home bloggers who concentrate solely on TV. Instead, what we find is a mixture of blogs like Dolly Mix, which features the occasional TV post and media publisher blogs that cover celebrity, film, pop music and gossip with TV included as part of the mix (Digital Spy, Holy Moly and Hecklerspray are good examples). So, within those who come under the topic of TV, there are only a smattering of those dedicated purely to TV.

Content
In terms of content TV blogs feature a high amount of reviews (75%), slightly less than the UK blogging average when it comes to features (74%) and underperform compared to other topics when it comes to comment pieces (52%). In terms of advertising, TV blogs reflect the UK average, with around 46% of blogs carrying ads.

Who’s Blogging and How?
TV bloggers tend to be a little younger than the average age of the UK blogger, with the 25 – 34 range dominating at 37%. In terms of gender, men dominate and outperform the UK average in this sector with 66% of all TV bloggers. The type of blogger that we see in this area is led by journalists (34% – more than twice the national average), as reflected by the fact that media publishers account for more than double the average number of blogs with 30% of blogs produced by publishing houses. London bloggers dominate in TV, scoring around 17% above average (59%), most likely due once again to the dominance of media publishers in this area and their tendency to be based in the capital.

5 Top TV Blogs
Unreality TV
Trashy TV is the order of the day here. Focusing mostly on reality shows and soap operas, Unreality TV also covers pop music and celebrity news, as well as a decent US TV news section. Whilst the site doesn’t feature a huge amount of interaction, it’s regularly updated, stays on-topic and has a good social following on Facebook and Twitter.
Blog Score – 9

The Medium Is Not Enough
Written by a UK media journalist, The Medium Is Not Enough is a light-hearted look at TV, often from the US, but also from the UK. With varied, well-written content, the blog features healthy engagement and features well in search engines.
Blog Score – 8

On The Box – Channel Hopping
The blog of this TV listings resource features a healthy balance of news, reviews and features on all aspects of UK television. Again performing well in search engines, this blog is a common stop-off point for those looking for TV info.
Blog Score – 8

Life of Wylie
Having written about TV for 25 years, Ian Wylie is an influence voice among TV writers. Unusually for the topic, he stays away from the link bait that is celebrity-based reality TV, preferring to focus on UK dramas. This has led to a blog with a loyal, connected following.
Blog Score – 7

TV Scoop
Produced by publisher, Shiny Media, TV Scoop is very much the archetypal TV blog, centring on celebrity, reality TV and soap operas. The site is mainly news-based but also carries a number of feature articles.

Blog Score – 7

by Paul Barnett


Blogging In The UK, Paul Barnett


What’s in a Name? The Fragile Relationship Between PR and Bloggers/Journalists


Being a fan of good music, I follow @brainlove on Twitter. John runs a record label called Brainlove. He is not a man called Brian Love, that much is evident from his Twitter profile, where it says in quite big letters ‘John Brainlove’. Look…

About a month ago, I noticed this tweet..

…and it made me chuckle. It was mainly the name ‘Brian Love’ that did it. But still, it’s the kind of tweet that I see all too often – people complaining about PRs getting their names wrong. So, I did a quick search on Twitter and found, pretty quickly, two other people, Hannah Hobson from the Bow Dream Nation blog and Leigh Campbell, Beauty & Lifestyle Editor for Cosmopolitan Australia, with the same issue. So, I thought I’d ask them some questions about what happens when PRs get names wrong. Here are the highlights of their answers:

How does it make you feel when you receive a PR approach with an incorrect name or none at all?

  • “If they can’t get my name right, I’m not reading further.” (JB)
  • “It makes me really annoyed. It’s unprofessional, wrong and bad manners. I get the impression they are probably not that bothered with you in the first place if they get your name wrong.” (HH)
  • “I feel as though they haven’t bothered to do any research into their ‘target’ publication in which they wish their product to appear.” (LC)

What does it do to your image of the PR person who made the error?

  • “When a PR gets my name or another detail wrong I would automatically think they are incompetent and not a reliable person to work with.” (HH)
  • “It’s probably not their fault – they’ve probably been dropped in the deep end on a minimum wage or sub-zero wage internship with no training.” (JB)
  • “It’s such a fundamental mistake to make – and by doing so, sending the release/kit in the first place has been made redundant as I delete/dispose.” (LC)

Would it make you less likely to want to work with that PR person/company on the campaign in question or on future campaigns?

  • “Absolutely. If they can’t take the time to learn my name and its correct spelling, I don’t offer my time in learning about what they’ve approached me for.” (LC)
  • “Yep, straight in the bin, and once you have bin status, it’s very hard to claw back any credibility.” (JB)
  • “It would make me less likely to work with the person in the future but if they emailed to apologise or something similar I would give them another chance. Of course if it happened more than once them I would definitely not want to work with them again.” (HH)

The lessons for PRs are there for all to see.

by Paul Barnett


Paul Barnett, Social Media Tips and Tricks


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