If you only do one thing this month...
...get your staff on board
You are probably very good at letting your customers know about your latest products
and services but how well informed are your staff? It's so important to keep your team
up-to-date and engaged.
Good internal communication builds a committed and high-performing workforce that is focused on achieving the business’s goals. Informed, engaged employees are less likely to leave, more innovative and work harder for the organisation. Staff who understand what the company is doing and why, can advocate on its behalf. Ignore them at your peril.
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Fired up for festival February
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| Photo shows: (l-r) Ryan Forster from Spinning Top Films, exhibitor at this year's Venturefest Yorkshire, with Partners Group account manager Hannah Trinder and a JORVIK Viking Centre Viking trader. |
This month we’re busy launching two of the city’s largest events.
It’s all about Vikings and entrepreneurs, as we work alongside the organisers of Venturefest Yorkshire - the one-day expo for science, technology and high growth entrepreneurs – and York Archaeological Trust on the 27th annual JORVIK Viking Festival, which will culminate in a Festival of Fire finale at York Racecourse.
Targeting two very different audiences, we are working with the event organisers to help bring people to York to enjoy the events, and demonstrate both the entrepreneurial talent and cultural heritage Yorkshire has to offer. Says Kay Hyde, PR manager at VisitYork, “It is the 800th anniversary of York's Charter this year. York has a programme of events to rival all other cities and these two festivals play a vital role in encouraging inward investment and attracting visitors to the city. It is important that events of such wide-reaching appeal are publicised in a well targeted way to ensure their success and we’re delighted to work closely with The Partners Group in spreading this message far and wide.”
Hannah Trinder, account manager, says, “We have long standing relationships with these two events. We’ve worked with Venturefest Yorkshire since its inception nine years ago, and this is our fifth year supporting the York Archaeological Team to help promote the JORVIK Viking Festival, which attracts visitors from all over the world. “While on the surface the two events appear to be poles apart, the PR campaigns we are running share the common goal of getting the word out to the right people and attracting them to attend and take part.”
Venturefest Yorkshire takes place at York Racecourse on 8 February. See www.venturefestyorkshire.net for programme information. JORVIK Viking Festival events take place at venues throughout York between 11 and 19 February. Visit www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/viking-festival for programme details.
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How to keep your blog interesting and fresh
We help a number of our clients to write their blogs and are often tasked with helping them
to keep the posts interesting and fresh, including coming up with inspirational topics.
When you first start a blog you tend to have a few ideas in mind and the first blog posts come thick and fast. But after a while you may find it a chore to maintain the momentum.
So we thought we’d share a few tips:
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Don’t neglect the obvious - the key in creating great blog content is to take a second look at the things that seem mundane to you. The things you know by heart and take for granted have big potential for your blog content. Don’t make assumptions about your blog readers; don’t think that they have the same level of knowledge and experience as you - get sharing! |
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Change your mindset – don’t just think about content for your blog on the day you have to write it. Open your mind, read a lot – including other people’s blogs - and watch the news with a thought to converting what you learn into an interesting blog. |
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Use pictures – they say, “a picture paints a thousand words” so if you’ve got a good image that tells your story then use it. Photos that have impact only need a few lines of text but your message is still communicated. |
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Answer burning questions – in business you may be asked the same questions time and time again. It may be about your product or service or about an issue in your industry. If people are asking you these things face to face then your blog readers will also want to know the answers. |
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Capture your thoughts – ideas and inspiration can come and go in a flash so make sure you capture them. Jot them down on a piece of paper or on your phone and return to them later when you have the urge to develop them into a blog. |
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Quality not quantity – focus on creating excellent content that informs, educates, interests and sometimes amuses your readers. If your content doesn’t hit the mark then don’t publish it. |
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Waterstones: a drop in character?
Waterstones, the bookshop, has dropped the apostrophe in its trading name and logo, sparking outrage among some of its customers.
The company, which was founded by Tim Waterstone, has decided it is more "practical" to ditch the apostrophe in this digital world. James Daunt, the managing director, who took over the chain last year following a change of ownership said: “Waterstones without an apostrophe is, in a digital world of URLs and email addresses, a more versatile and practical spelling."
John Richards, the chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society said: "It's just plain wrong. It's grammatically incorrect. If Sainsbury's and McDonald's can get it right, then why can't Waterstones. You would really hope that a bookshop is the last place to be so slapdash with English."
So has the world come to an end or is this a sign of the times? Either way it was a great PR opportunity and hats off to the Waterstones PR team, who saw the 'rebrand' discussed on Chris Evans' Radio 2 breakfast show and by Guardian bloggers, among others. It has even spawned a twitter feed for the now redundant @sadapostrophe, who now regrets turning down work with the likes of Frank's Cafe to pursue the bright lights of national book retail.
As a PR consultancy, whose job it is to communicate clearly and ensure messages are understood, we’d quite like the apostrophe to stay. But we appreciate that language evolves - it always has, and always will - and the digital age will see it happening more and more as language adapts to become more 'web-friendly'. The trick is to stay ‘reader-friendly’ – using grammar and punctuation to facilitate clarity of expression and enable our thoughts to be better understood.
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