Electrum’s KiiDocs Lite Help Fund Managers beat EU UCITS* KIIDs’ July Deadline

Electrum, the leading automated documents provider launches a low cost solution enabling fund managers to comply with new EU regulations to produce Key Investor Information Documents (KIID) before July 1.

Edinburgh, UK. May 2012. Electrum, the leading automated documents provider, is warning fund managers that time is running out to complete the Key Investor Information Documents (KIID) for UCITS* investment funds . KIIDs are designed to make it easier for investors to compare funds from different providers from across the EU, by standardising and streamlining the presentation of key information. The EU regulation deadline for KIIDs is 1 July 2012. 

*UCITS are Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities.

To help fund managers meet the deadline, Electrum, whose clients include Standard Life, Schroders and Kames Capital among other market leaders, has produced a low-cost version of their “KiiDocs”  product: KiiDocs Lite.  KiiDocs Lite makes it easy to gather and review the information required for the KIIDs, and turn that information into fully-branded PDFs within minutes.

Stuart Harper, Electrum’s MD says, “From our competitor analysis and client feedback, KiiDocs Lite typically halves the cost of producing KIID compliance documentation. Clients have also given us positive feedback about how quickly they can have draft KIIDs.

KiiDocs Lite is a hosted application accessed using a web browser. It is available on an all-inclusive basis, with no set-up charges, for an annual fee that is dependent on the number of KIIDs produced.

Since no locally-installed software is required, new clients can start using KiiDocs Lite immediately.

The KIID information is entered using an Excel spreadsheet pre-populated with named columns for all the required pieces of information. A sample spreadsheet makes it easy to see what goes where. Clients simply fill out the spreadsheet using one row per fund / share class and upload to the KiiDocs system. The generated PDFs are easy to customise with logos and corporate colours. The system also automatically creates the requisite Synthetic Risk and Reward Indicator (SRRI) graphic and past-performance chart. KiiDocs Lite ensures that the content fits the prescribed two-page format by shrinking the font size where necessary (a warning is generated if the text becomes too small).

The KIIDs must be reviewed and updated at least once per year and KiiDocs Lite makes this very easy. Simply update the relevant parts of the Excel file and upload to generate new documents. KiiDocs Lite has a built in audit trail showing the complete history of each document, allowing any version of the uploaded data or the generated documents to be downloaded at any time.

Background Information on Electrum

Electrum is a Microsoft Gold Partner that specialises in automated document and reporting solutions for the financial services sector.

Electrum has clients in major financial centres in the UK, Europe and the US.
Established in 1998 at Edinburgh, Electrum has a strong history of developing first-class document automation solutions.
Electrum products include:
Automated Documents: High quality solutions for print or web ready documents in a range of formats including Office and PDF, such as:

·         KiiDocs: automation of the production of Key Investor Information Documents as part of the UCITS IV directive.

·         DocGen: Automatically create print ready professional standard documents containing text, tables and charts from spreadsheet data

·         Factua: automatic generation of print-ready fund factsheets

·         Slide Library: Automatically create and update branded, consistent PowerPoint presentations from a library of approved slides.

·         Presentation Library System: automatic generation of Microsoft PowerPoint or PDF presentations from a store of approved slides

·         Proposal Template: Produce compliant proposals from a library of approved content

Document Management & Workflow:

Solutions based on MOSS 2007 & WSS3 as standalone portals or part of a larger Microsoft based Electrum solution stack. Examples include:

·         Virtualboardroom: Automatic consolidation of hosted documents into one professional print-ready pdf for board packs, consolidated reports and proposals

Microsoft Office Templates & Add-ins:

Ranging from simple templates & add-ins to the automatic generation of large and complex documents and PowerPoint presentations, e.g.

·         Smart Templates:  brand-specific templates allow complex designed documents to be simply produced in-house using Word. A branding toolbar has buttons to automatically create complex branding elements such as tables, charts and side-bars. Plus document-specific business logic. Can be integrated into larger systems.

Bespoke Development & Consultancy:

Helping to make businesses run more efficiently, effectively and productively.

·         Expert consultancy across a wide range of sectors for clients of any size, from farmers to designers.

·         Bespoke development services, mainly web-based, using a variety of languages and platforms.

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.uk PHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

Member of Blogflux directory:




Featured at BlogTopList:


hotell london
Vote for our blog here:






PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.uk PHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

Edinburgh PR Agency Offers Publicity Clubs Support to Small Businesses

Publicity Clubs - shared-cost consultancy for ambitious small business owners.

PHPR's first Publicity Club has been running for nearly 3 months in Edinburgh, meeting monthly to help members develop and implement a series of 4 x 90-day Publicity Action Plans designed to deliver clear business objectives. The meetings provide support, motivation and training to get the right marketing, sales, PR and social media activity all pulling together towards a strategically-planned and profitable future. Publicity Clubs members also get direct 1-2-1 hands-on support  in-between meetings. 
PHPR's pilot Publicity Clubs has attracted interest from business owners in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

How Much Do They Cost?

The pilot group will deliver up to £1,000 of publicity support each month to each participant for £200, subject to a year's contract and non-disclosure agreements to build an effective Publicity Clubs group.

What Do Publicity Clubs Offer Me?

Work with a small group and split the investment in professional publicity support to get:
Monthly publicity generation, planning and on-going email support

Pro PR support for planning and strategy to maximise publicity efforts and create rolling 90-day Publicity Action Plans,

Plus hands-on support to produce:

1) Clear sales messages

2) Effective web copy with website clinics - including testing each others' sites out

3) Marketing materials

4) Content generation for Google domination with easy to use templates to tease out the details to create content (video scripts, press releases, articles, expert guides, e-book formats, white papers, blogs and associated social media posts.)

5) Social media on steroids: why post to one when you can reach scores with a few more clicks? We show you how.

6) On and offline press releases and/or article marketing - properly and comprehensively distributed

7) Video training: one video is equal to >50 pieces of text online according to Forrester Research - we show you how and provide expert sessions to make your own

8) Online name protection

(All proven to get the businesses noticed online and in the media.)

Plus Added Value:

9) Structured peer-group support

10) Guest expert insights

11) A working lunch

What Does PHPR Know about Small Business Publicity?

Founded in 1986 as Penny Haywood PR, PHPR was set up by Penny Haywood who worked on shoe-string publicity in fringe theatres, where she discovered how to make creativity and a brass neck serve as a publicity budget. She found out how to do PR on a local, national and international scale at the Bank of Scotland where she helped launch the world's first online bank (HOBS - Home & Office Banking) in 1985. HOBS opened Penny's eyes to the business and PR potential of technology and she has been online ever since.

She set up a PR and editing business. The business start-up course she attended had only one piece of publicity advice: advertise. Knowing that few start-ups could afford advertising, she ended up taking that part of the course. A participant got onto national TV a few days later and the word spread fast. Penny was in demand, teaching DIY PR skills to small business owners on top of her day job: running her PR business.

The DIY PR courses started by finding out what was already working for the smaller business owners, and gradually Penny built up a complete set of sales, marketing and PR techniques that were proven to work in smaller businesses. After ten years of training thousands of smaller business owners in DIY PR, she was persuaded to write DIY PR, the small business owner's guide to 'free' publicity (Batsford, 1998, paperback).

With the widespread advent of social media, the opportunities for small businesses to punch well above their weight and dominate market niches has never been greater - or cheaper, But the most precious commodity is now time, Penny believes that an integrated approach to both online and offline publicity maximises opportunities and produces consistency. She warns: "Ad hoc efforts by time-pressured business owners often does the opposite: it pulls the business reputation in several different directions, loses focus, confuses the messages and leads to lost opportunities. Less is more and most business owners don't do enough with their best publicity material. We show them how to save time and increase the impact, and we'll help create content that works on and offline."

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.uk PHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

Puzzled by the Facebook Changes? Consult the Attacat Brain!

By now you may have noticed the changes to the Facebook pages. I personally much prefer the ability to change the look and feel of the pages with photos and images rather than contract out html landing pages.

As a champion of smart thinking for small businesses, I do like the focus swinging more to engaging content and away from rampant commercialism.

For those that may not have had time to sort out their page: my friends at Attacat, the internet marketing agency based here in Edinburgh, wrote a short guide to help people get ready for the changes. Penned by the lovely Joel, it's worth heading over to the Attacat brain to see the guide and get busy creating engaging content.

If you need inspiration re content creation for social media, blogs and press releases, articles and expert guides, white-papers, newsletters, videos etc, that's a big part of what we do, so do get in touch.

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.uk

PHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

Small Businesses

Meeting Cartoon by Andertoons

The great thing about running your own business is that you're unlikely to be arguing with yourself too often! Viva sma' biz!

NB: www.andertoons.com is a neat source of additional illustrations to brighten up your blogs and sites, presentations etc.

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

Twitter Bios for Effective PR

Setting up a new Publicity Clubs' Twitter account, and looking for some useful people to follow for our new band of members*.

Ran some searches and rounded up the usual suspects. Then started getting fascinated by the different approaches to writing Twitter bios taken by a group of mainly comms pros.

Some left their comms creds at the door as they created hopelesslessly fragmented bios.

Some put estate agents' abbreviations to shame - including no spaces after punctuation, showing little respect for readability or the reader.

A lot of self-confessed caffeine addicts and other proudly boasted tame excesses that seemed rather twee attempts to sound interesting.

A few were genuinely funny (imo), like the "Digital Cat Herder. I clean up on Facebook and Twitter after the Kids You Hired had their fun" (@StephenCaggiano) - irresistable!

So many superflous ! marks hopefully inserted to add interest or emphasis, but just spell out: I'm too lazy to be genuinely interesting.

Some with so many @ links, they make your eyes spin. You just know they have bitten Satan's SEO apple (SEO at all costs and to hell with the content).

Some seem interesting at first, then you discover your interest has been snared in one language - but they mainly tweet in another. For example, I was tempted by the description: "PR snorkel". Seemed curious enought to warrant further investigation, only to discover Remco Janssen tweets mainly in Dutch. Prolific Tweeter though. If you understand Dutch.

And some that deliver what they do with an interesting hook in 7 words or less and stand out like a cool clear draught of fresh spring water, compared to murkier waters.

@publicityclubs to see who we have followed.

Our Main Twitter account is @PennyHaywood run by PHPR's MD as we wanted to demonstrate the personal input from the top. Our other Twitter accounts are holding spaces to protect our brand names: #PHPR and #Publicity Clubs.

*Publicity Clubs for small business owners who will be enjoying shared publicity consultancy and support, starting on Feb 23rd. The group will meet monthly thereafter in central Edinburgh on the last Thursday of the month

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

2 Weeks until First PHPR Publicity Club Launches in Edinburgh!

PHPR's pilot Publicity Clubs are attracting business owners from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh and there's only space for two more participants!

There's just two weeks to go until PHPR's first Publicity Club launches at noon in Edinburgh at HSBC's regional HQ at 1st Floor, Hobart House, 80 Hanover Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1EL.

Who Are Publicity Clubs For?

PHPR's Publicity Clubs are for smaller business owners who need cost-effective on and offline publicity support to get the right marketing, sales, PR and social media techniques all pulling together towards a strategically-planned profitable future.

No two business owners are the same and the Publicity Clubs will help owners play to their communications strengths, (and offer time-saving tips) selecting the right tools to help them succeed.

The Publicity Clubs will allow business owners to develop a 90-days Strategic Plan, broken down into priorities and actions. Then support the implementation of that plan with direct 1-2-1 hands-on support and delivery in between meetings, plus group support, motivation and training at the meetings.

How Much Do They Cost?

The pilot group will deliver up to £1,000 of publicity support each month to each participant for £200, subject to a year's contract and non-disclosure agreements to build an effective Publicity Clubs group.

What Do Publicity Clubs Offer Me?

Work with a small group and split the investment in professional publicity support to get:

Monthly publicity generation, planning and on-going email support

Pro PR support for planning and strategy to maximise publicity efforts and create rolling 90-day Publicity Action Plans,

Plus hands-on support to produce:

1) Clear sales messages

2) Effective web copy with website clinics - including testing each others' sites out

3) Marketing materials

4) Content generation for Google domination with easy to use templates to tease out the details to create content (video scripts, press releases, articles, expert guides, e-book formats, white papers, blogs and associated social media posts.)

5) Social media on steroids: why post to one when you can reach scores with a few more clicks? We show you how.

6) On and offline press releases and/or article marketing - properly and comprehensively distributed

7) Video training: one video is equal to >50 pieces of text online according to Forrester Research - we show you how and provide expert sessions to make your own

8) Online name protection

All proven to get the businesses noticed online and in the media.

Plus Added Value

9) Structured peer-group support

10) Guest expert insights

11) Discounts and deals

12) A working lunch

What Does PHPR Know about Small Business Publicity?

Founded in 1986 as Penny Haywood PR, PHPR was set up by Penny Haywood who worked on shoe-string publicity in fringe theatres, where she discovered how to make creativity and a brass neck serve as a publicity budget. She found out how to do PR on a local, national and international scale at the Bank of Scotland where she helped launch the world's first online bank (HOBS - Home & Office Banking) in 1985. HOBS opened Penny's eyes to the business and PR potential of technology and she has been online ever since.

She set up a PR and editing business. The business start-up course she attended had only one piece of publicity advice: advertise. Knowing that few start-ups could afford advertising, she ended up taking that part of the course. A participant got onto national TV a few days later and the word spread fast. Penny was in demand, teaching DIY PR skills to small business owners on top of her day job: running her PR business.

The DIY PR courses started by finding out what was already working for the smaller business owners, and gradually Penny built up a complete set of sales, marketing and PR techniques that were proven to work in smaller businesses. After ten years of training thousands of smaller business owners in DIY PR, she was persuaded to write DIY PR, the small business owner's guide to 'free' publicity (Batsford, 1998, paperback).

From her experience of working with smaller business owners, Penny knows that smaller business owners don't distinguish between PR, marketing and sales: it's all 'publicity' or 'promotion'. Yet PR, marketing and sales are still trained and accredited separately in the UK. Marketing experts have credited the DIY PR book as being the first to pull all three core publicity disciplines together.

Today, the online publicity opportunities afforded by Google and social media are pulling PR, marketing and sales into one integrated process, but many publicity advisers are still offering their own narrow disciplines. Plus online SEO and social media advisers often ignore the fact that businesses, and their potential clients' decision making processes operate both on and offline.

Penny believes that an integrated approach to both online and offline publicity maximises opportunities and produces consistency. She warns: "Ad hoc efforts by time-pressured business owners does the opposite: it pulls the business reputation in several different directions, loses focus, confuses the messages and leads to lost opportunities. Less is more and most business owners don't do enough with their best publicity material. We show them how to save time and increase the impact, and we'll help create content that works on and offline."

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

Getting Business Cards Right

I like business cards! Done well, they are miniature artworks. They convey that vital first impression of your business when you meet someone at a networking event. They are also one of the few things that people are likely to keep, long after the flyer and other printed materials have been recycled.

So I was on design overload going through a backlog of business cards between Xmas and New Year. What struck me was: there were a few outstandingly badly designed cards - and they all came from design companies and professional marketing specialists!

Without naming names, there was a badly laid out card in heavy gothic script - in pink lettering. Not being a girly goth, that was a real turn-off. It was difficult to read, so failed to perform its most basic function. I'd guess it would be impossible to scan with a card reader or smartphone - if there had been enough info to go into an address list. As it was, a name, website and hotmail address is not really enough to convey a quality impression. It was the business card equivalent of a white van.

Another 'white van' business card also hid the three initials that made up the name of the design company in three tiny smudgy pictures.

A third designer had placed good quality contact information on one side. The other side was completely given over to what I presume was the corporate identity. The design was so faded that most of the company name was invisible. Maybe it worked on a better-printed large format?

Another designer had handed me a nice, minimalist design card - with minimal information to match. So minimal, he hastily scrawled his first name onto the card - which kinda spoiled the overall effect. Weeks later, I couldn't read it.

As for the marketers: I have two cards that look as if the logo has been done by an amateur. They are so lightweight, they lack impact and don't line up with anything. One has their contact details so near the edge of the card, they are in danger of being trimmed away. They make the card appear lopsided as the side margins don't match. To my eye, it doesn't look professional. At least there's plenty of contact info - if you can read it. The writing is in a small, lightweight font.

The other marketer has a very basic logo containing the three initials that form the company name. Two of the initials are in black on darkish grey shapes with black edges. It all looks pretty ropey to me. There are two pieces of spot colour. One is on a tiny line of print that is unreadable - why? The card is so small and thin, it looks like every penny spent on it was grudged. When it comes to business cards, size does matter, but beware odd shapes and sizes that may not fit into your contact's card holders. At least the contact info on the card in question was very detailed and readable, but it could do with more room to make the design look better.

At least the designers had all chosen a decent-sized heavyweight card and two had specified a varnish coating.

So, what can we learn from these examples?

That little card rectangle has to do a big job in a small space, so it deserves design time and attention. There's an increasing amount of digital information that needs to be fitted in alongside the basic contact info. Everything from QR codes to website, email and social media handles. Plus key credentials: awards and kitemarks. Yet overall, it has to be an attractive example of your corporate design.

It is a real design challenge to get it right, incorporating a logo and/or name-style that is capable of generating impact in applications from a few square millimetres on a card, to being used effectively on a pop-up banner or van. Small wonder that some are tempted to skimp on the practical details by using typefaces that are too small, or squashed together (kerned) so that they are hard to read. But if you can't be contacted easily, what's the point?

On my own card, I used heavy card, a strong colour and design and kept the info readable and gave space to the design, but, to do that, I used both sides of the card. As Ian Mackay of Epitome Solutions pointed out: that means the full info can't be scanned in one go. With the advent of smartphone scanners, it is time for a re-design. If I can't get everything onto one side, I need to put full information on one scan-able side and use the other side for corporate design impact. I could use a lighter card, folded to create a solid feel, to give me a 4-sided card. Possibly with a partial fold-over to entice people to open the card out?

If the visuals are the first thing that are noticed on a business card, touch is a close second. The tactile qualities are all about the choice of card and the surface finish. Card varies in thickness (measured in microns) and density (measured in grams per square inch: gsm). Of the two measures, gsm is usually quoted and I would usually specify at least 350 gsm or higher to give the end result a quality feel. However, density affects the rigidity and feel of a card, which is why I would want to see a sample before confirming a business card order.

In fact, I would want a printed sample because the card surface is also critical to the look of a card. If it is porous (uncoated), the ink sinks in and loses a lot of the colour vibrancy. This may not matter for a simple design with no solid blocks of colour. A coated surface will give a marked improvement in the colour reproduction and allow the print to 'float' on the surface.

A printed sample will also give you a feel for the density of the ink used by the printer. Some inks are better than others and ink density is affected by temperature, humidity and the moisture content of the paper which varies from day to day. Printing is part technology, part art - and a whole lot of skill to achieve a good end result. If you need to match a specific colour to another piece of print, supply a sample to be matched and stipulate the colour match is material to the satisfactory end result. Proofs rarely give you a precise colour match because they are often printed on another machine.

Specifying printing a final satin varnish on the card gives an attractive silky feel that suggests attention to detail and a quality operation.

If you can't be bothered to manage all that print detail, use a designer who is ordering print regularly and stipulate the level of detail required to "print you happy".

Of course, card is not the only material used for business cards. They can be printed onto plastic, for example, which would work well for situations where the card is likely to consulted in wet or dirty situations, or where the "card" can doubled up as a tool - possibly for measuring something small and relevant to your business? Or an emergency ice-scraper for car windscreens? There was a vogue a few years ago for printing onto transparent plastic. It could look very good, but often only when sitting on a light surface. On my black desk, they were usually unreadable.

One little card, but oh, so many choices!

No wonder the Japanese - who do know a thing or two about fitting good things into small designs - have elevated the presentation and receiving of a business card to a ritual level. But that's another story. Google 'meishi' if you need to know more about that.

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

On the 12th Day – Get Talked About

There’s nothing more credible than a happy client referring you. They’ll tend to do that immediately after using you, so give them the tools to do that and encourage the referrals. You may even manage to capture some on video for the website.
Oddly, most cash rewards for referrals don’t work too well. Some people feel awkward and that inhibits the whole referral process. If they sound you out on incentives, that’s a different story. Especially if they are genuinely enthusiastic and have a suitable client base. They are in a position to spend some additional effort on marketing you. They may be exploring turning into part-time sales agents for you.
Otherwise, a bunch of flowers or a bottle of something nice might work better than cash – especially if it is unexpected. The more you can find out about people’s preferences the better and this is a case where social media could well help you.
Need inspiration?
We have over 100 ways to generate referrals on offer at the Publicity Clubs. It’s the fastest and most credible way to boost a business. We even know of companies that write referrals into their contract or Terms and Conditions, provided that the customer is satisfied, of course.
PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

On the 11th Day – Tell Stories

Once Upon A Time

It’s one thing to have nailed a clear succinct description of what you offer. It’s quite another to develop and sustain interest in the company and its brands.

Fortunately people have sat around campfires for millennia entertaining each other with stories and songs. While singing might be a marketing step too far for most of us, we are hard-wired through evolution to remember stories.

Sooner or later you’ll need to develop or capture the cracking tales that make up the backstory about your company and add them to your Blog Inspiration Folder.
How it all came about.
The passions that inspired the products or services.
The lengths you went to develop them so they inspire others in the company to emulate you.
The epic first breakthrough sale that nearly got away.
The quirky start-up premises.
The people that went the extra mile (with examples).
The idea that got you out of bed to create this.
The reason why your company is different.
And why it is so darn good.

All to support the big inspiring vision. That core ethos and the stories around it will carry the company and ensure that people within the company know intuitively how you go about things as you grow.

Plus all this makes for a far more interesting and memorable read than most website About Us pages. In an era where people see thousands of corporate identities every day, unless they are in a very remote rural area without electricity, standing out means being memorable.

Stories are the stuff to kick-start inspiring blog pieces, or enliven newsletters and stimulate chats around the coffee pot. It’s the personality of the company. And the stories will march on in the imagination of everyone that hears them if they are vivid enough.

Stories are heep big company magic. Use them well. Need inspiration? Did you know that there are only 7 basic types of stories? The archetypes?

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

On the Tenth Day – Get Social!

You know that writing you resolved to do yesterday, or the blog pieces the day before? Well, today’s top tip you can do right now to help get you and your company better known in 2012 is to resolve to re-cycle your blog pieces and articles into social media posts that you can use to drive traffic to your blog or media article. Or get someone else to do it for you.

There are thousands of social media sites, many with good traction to provide heavy duty SEO links to your website or blog and those links will boost your search position on Google.
Social media posts (excluding blogs) fall into three size categories and you can post to a several sites at once, grouped according to size, using Ping.fm or HootSuite (which uses Ping.fm and adds scheduling and monitoring tools to your armoury.

The three sizes are:
1) Status updates (like Facebook) which usually offer c 256 characters plus a photo or video option, plus a link
2) Microblogs like Twitter with 140 characters (suggest using 120 so you leave room for someone to re-tweet). You can add a photo plus a link to the blog or article
3) Social Bookmarking sites like DIGG, where you just post the link.

You’ll notice that I haven’t addressed engaging with followers on social media. Engagement is the real point of social media, but you need to develop a presence so you get noticed first.

That's why we suggest generating and recycling appropriate content so that time-pressed small business owners get going time-effectively: with minimum effort for maximum exposure. Doing more with less effort.

Get notifications from your social media accounts to your inbox to stay on top of engagement until you can justify hiring or outsourcing help.

Picture credit: tungphoto:http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1708

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

On the Ninth Day – Get Writing!

You know that Blog Inspiration Folder you started yesterday? Well, today’s top tip you can do right now to help get you and your company better known in 2012 is to resolve to re-cycle your best blog pieces by re-writing them in an article format – or getting someone else to do it. But check first before spending time or money.

Look out for relevant publications your potential customers might see. Maybe trade publications or members’ magazines for organisations you belong to? Plus relevant specialist magazines and local media. See where your material might fit in, then email a short note to the editor outlining your article idea and why their readers might find it useful. Add a couple of sentences about you and your company, so that they can see you know the sector.

Quite often, an editor will respond saying they’ve just covered that angle, but suggest another idea. This is important - this idea has been suggested because they know their readers are interested, so you have a high chance of publication. Accept if you can and ensure the article sticks to the editor’s brief in terms of length, tone and content, including any graphs or pictures. You can always re-purpose this piece later for your blog – but not before the publication that commissioned it has appeared. It was their idea after all.

The rule is to avoid overt advertising: you are aiming to demonstrate expertise. Offer insight so that people are drawn to you for advice. It’s their paper and ink or web presence they’re investing in your article. If you supply advertising copy, or text with too many search terms and links (for online copy) you’ll be passed to their advertising sales team and are unlikely to be given a second chance at supplying editorial copy.

Need inspiration?

Seek it in the publications you hope to conquer!

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

On the Eighth Day – Get Blogging!

Today’s top tip you can do right now to help get you and your company better known in 2012 is to resolve to blog regularly.

Start a Blog Inspiration Folder in a spreadsheet or Word table, or collect references in EverNote, a Wiki, or a mind-mapped knowledge base like FreeMind. Whatever suits you best.

Collect links to articles and snippets of info, notes, quotations, diagrams and pictures (but watch out for copyright conditions). It will become a resource for any sort of content, whenever you need ideas for a newsletter, an e-book or an expert guide. A special report or a survey. Articles or press releases.

A big tip is to research or develop picture or video ideas at the same time so you can illustrate the ideas well as opposed to scrambling around for a generic and dull library shot at the last minute. Just remember to fully re-write any text that has inspired you if you are not acknowledging it as an attributed quotation because copyright is usually automatically invested in the originator.

Blog ideally once a week, whether that’s outsourced or done in house. According to the inbound marketing experts: Hubspot.com companies with blogs attract 55% more visitors to their websites than those that don't have them. That’s double the opportunities to convert visitors into sales.

Companies with blogs also have 97% more inbound links which signal authority to search engines, increasing the chances of getting found in search engines. Plus a staggering 434% more indexed pages. More pages improves your chances of being found in search engines.
However, that’s blogs with content going onto your own domain name (as opposed to going onto the blogging software site). Make sure the blog is set up on your own domain.

Blog content goes into Google really fast: within an hour or so, compared to weeks or months for a static website, so you can use your blog to boost traffic quite quickly.

Need inspiration?

Enquire about the Publicity Clubs – one of our months involves a blog-a-day challenge. Even if you don’t manage to finish it, you’ll have 30 ideas for blog pieces to write or outsource: that’s more than 6 months’ worth if you have decided to post one a week!

Picture credit: Pixomar: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=905

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

On the Seventh Day – Get Engaged With the Media!

The access that key media and bloggers provide is so important that today’s top tip you can do right now to help get you and your company better known in 2012 is to resolve to help the media and bloggers whenever you get the opportunity. Even if it’s not obviously going to boost your business – that will really impress them that you are helpful and get you into their address books.

Media usually need unique quotes to differentiate their version of your story from their competitors, but many larger organisations are slow to get back to smaller media outlets, so that often gives helpful spokespeople from smaller businesses an opening to get media mentions. Just one media mention opens the door to thousands of people and gives you a lasting claim to boost your credibility on your home page and email signature (and any other marketing materials) : "as seen in ...." It's almost as good as winning an award!

Need inspiration?

We do our best to help the media with enquiries if we can think of anything useful to offer. Even when unsolicited. I remember helping a key writer on a top national newspaper with a communications project he’s been asked to do for a not-for-profit organisation. I found his information and spotted a gap. I sent an unsolicited draft to fill it and politely explained why, thus flagging and fixing the problem in one go.

I didn’t have any press releases relevant to that writer after that for some 18 months, then one day, we included him in a press release distribution. I got almost instant feedback, a piece on his influential blog plus a long exchange in the comments section. He still answers my emails personally.

Several times, I have helped editors of new publications by providing articles at a time when they were unproven and not even on the radar of most media database providers. It’s always created a great vibe and my calls and emails get replies years later.

Top Tip: get in early!

If you encounter a new start-up blog or publication in your space and the content and attitude seems reasonable, remember that getting in early creates a warm glow that lasts if the new venture takes off.

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

On the Sixth Day – Getting Personal

The media and certain key bloggers are able to deliver a personal recommendation from a trusted source to thousands of people.

So today’s top tip you can do right now to help get you and your company better known in 2012 is to understand what individual writers are writing about and personalise your cover note when you send them a release.

Need inspiration?If we’ve seen a writer addressing a topic relevant to a client we’ll put a note on the release maybe saying:
"Liked the piece you did last month on XYZ. If you’re revisiting the topic, our client has some good points to make on this – including the following - see attached release."

How do you research a media list?It's worth capturing the names of people that are writing on areas that impact your business. It's also possible to Google your key industry sector + magazine.

But even if you have a press list already, we find we usually double and sometimes treble clients’ lists, adding hundreds of thousands to your potential audience. It’s amazing how many extra relevant media opportunities we can find using the “stated interests” provided to our pro media database researchers by individual writers, broadcasters and bloggers.

We can break down both online and offline media not only by geography and publication frequency, but also on key consumer or business sector interests.

We’re giving Publicity Club members press release distribution to pro press lists six times a year (or an equivalent article distribution to online sites).

Picure credit: Stuart Miles http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2664

PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv

On the Fifth Day - Getting Real or Selling Yourself Short?

Exaggeration may make you feel good at the time, but it is a super-fast turn-off for everyone else and you’re kidding yourself if you think that anyone else actually believes you. Or if they do at the time, they’ll feel let down later and you’ve broken their trust. Exaggeration also fails to describe what you do actually offer, so it costs you relevant sales enquiries.

So today’s top tip you can do right now to help get you and your company better known in 2012 is to run a word search on your own web copy for terms like solutions, architecture and outcomes.

I’ve noticed solutions and architecture are used in pretentious and exaggerated copy when the terms are not being used literally.

Google “architecture” – a recent search produced on p1: “enterprise business architecture” – what they meant was: software.

‘Solutions’ can mean anything from contact lens cleaning solutions to problem solving, so the term is so general and so widely used as to be virtually meaningless. It’s a cop-out word that replaces what you actually do with a meaningless term. It did have a purpose when IBM went from selling computer hardware to focusing on consultancy. The first appearance of IBM adverts claiming to sell solutions certainly jolted me out of my preconception that they were a hardware provider, so it did the job stunningly well.

Selling Yourself Short?At the opposite end of the scale, are you accidentally under-claiming? Beware using the term “outcome” or “outcomes” because many outcomes just happen regardless of causes or intention. So unless you want to sound ineffectual, ban the word from your vocabulary. If you feel you have to use outcome(s) because it is ingrained in your clients’ culture, qualify it by adding the word ‘positive’ in front to remove any doubt.



PR blog posted by Penny Haywood Calder at PHPR Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. URL: http://www.phpr.co.ukPHPR TV Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PHPRtv