Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Hello, my name is Nick King and I have just been appointed as the new account manager here at Nellie PR.

I have more years experience than I care to remember in PR and marketing, particularly in the business to business side of communications. Prior to this role, I worked as the PR and Media Manager at the East Midlands Development Agency, focusing particularly on the promotion of their support services for business.

In other positions I have held, I have managed clients, including Christian Salvesen, Scottish Courage, BASF and Courtaulds, as well as local businesses including RH Freight, Fraser Brown Solicitors, Coldseal and also several businesses in the healthcare sector. In addition to PR, I also specialise in writing search engine optimised copy for websites, so if this is a service you may also require I am happy to help.

After a couple of discussions with Ellen Carroll just before Christmas, it became clear that my skills matched the profile of the kind of person she was looking for to help develop the business, and I was itching to get back into the cut and thrust of a PR agency, so here I am and I’m really looking forward to working with the clients, suppliers and all of the other people who work with Nellie.

Outside of work, I am very keen on sport, particularly racquet sports like badminton and squash, I also play touch rugby (quite badly) and also try my hand at fencing, so if you are ever up for a game of anything, let me know. I also used to work as a party DJ, and if you upset me I will be forced to put an annoying cheesy old song into your head for the rest of the day!

Please feel free to drop me a line if there’s anything that you want me to help you with or just want some advice about. Also, if you want a game of badminton or squash to work off some of the excesses from the festive period, I’m happy to oblige, because I need to do that too!

Posted by Nick King, PR manager at Nellie PR

So, you’ve got your blog, you’ve got your Twitter account and you’re fully engaged on Facebook. Your brand and social media are now synched in an Internet form of harmony and you’re conveying your message well. Three cheers for you

But are you over compensating? And what’s the real reason you’ve just wrote that blog post? With so much ‘banter’ going on through Twitter and so many updates to like, retweet or share, social media can suddenly turn from being your brand’s best friend to something rather damaging to your business.

Whilst engaging with your audience is great, time can easily get carried away and soon enough your other half is calling you asking where on earth you are.  And, we haven’t even touched on those time-thief iPhone apps.

However, with sensible planning and a bit of restriction, you can really make the most of your digital PR platforms as well as being highly productive in other areas. Like most things in life, it’s all great in moderation. So give us a shout at Nellie PR if you want help taking back those time-thieves and creating an effective social media strategy.

In the meantime, here’s some tips I’ve picked up as a PR intern:

•    Objectives: What do you want to achieve from social media? Do you want to create awareness of your brand? Do you want to use Facebook to find out more about your consumers? Do you want to contact old colleagues on LinkedIn and add to your client list? Create an objective and have it written on the brightest Post-It Note you can find and stick to it
•    Don’t add your friends: It sounds simple enough but you’d be surprised at how many businesses follow their partner on Twitter or add their best friend on Facebook. If you don’t add them, the temptation is less likely to be there to check to see how bad their hangover is or where they last checked-in on FourSquare
•    Start the clock: Aim to dedicate a certain amount of time to certain social media platforms. Are you going to spend two hours a week writing blog posts? Are you going to spend twenty minutes of your lunch hour on Twitter? Stick to a time plan, you’ll sharp see the effect it has on your productivity in other areas.

Like everything, it’s all about resisting temptation and distraction. Someone you follow Tweets a celeb story? Click! You’ve just wasted half an hour on Heatworld.com. Your friend just happens to fancy a chat? Soon you’re swapping Saturday night stories over MSN. Keep your business head on and your hand out of the social media cookie jar!

 

Posted by Hollie-Anne Brooks, PR intern at Nellie PR.

Content marketing – no need for another dress.

 

I spent last Saturday afternoon shopping for a new outfit to go out in that night.  It’s something I’d not done for a long time. “Surely not, Ellen?” I hear you ask. “I thought you PR types were always at one party or another. In fact isn’t that what PR’s about?”

 

Well, no, sadly the life of a PR isn’t quite as glamorous as that. But I do get along to the occasional (OK not that occasional) night out. No, the real reason I’d not bought a new party frock for a while is because I do what most people do with their outfits – I’d been re-using them. I’d worn the same one at different parties knowing that no one there had seen it before. And where I was seeing the same people again I’d put different pieces together in new combinations.

 

But last Saturday the time had come. I had to bite the bullet and hit the shops. I found a lovely dress, and it was a fantastic party, so it all ended well, but it did get me thinking about how we’re increasingly doing the same thing with marketing material these days (re-using it for a different audiences, I mean – not taking it out and dancing with it on Saturday nights).

 

It’s an idea that makes such perfect sense it amazes me that more organisations don’t do it. Very often we meet a potential new client and we describe the vast array of press releases, whitepapers, presentations, training material, how-to guides and so on that we’ve produced for our clients, they raise their eyebrows and ask how much this all costs. They’re amazed when we tell them how much, and then we explain that it’s cost very little because much of the content has been created once and then re-purposed.

 

To give you just one example, we recently took an e-book we’d produced for one of our clients, and we used it as a website download, in e-mail newsletters, for top tips articles, as content in articles and blogs, as the basis of a live webinar, as well as several events and training sessions. The messages we developed in that e-book appeared in the marketing press, and in social media such Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

You see how much can be done with the one piece of content? It’s also incredible how using content in a new way can bring it to life. Just as the same skirt can be transformed by the right pair of shoes, or a more appropriate event, so what wouldn’t quite work as a press release can really galvanise response when used as, say, a blog post.

 

What’s more this tactic allows our clients to put out a high volume of outstanding content, reaching more and more people, all for a surprisingly affordable investment of time and money. There aren’t many marketers right now who aren’t looking for ways to cut costs – this is one that everyone can implement right now.

 

If you’d like to have a chat about how we can help you do this, then don’t hesitate to call us now on 0115 9220540 or drop us an email at hello@nelliepr.co.uk. We’d love to hear from you.

It’s been a busy few months and we are very happy to announce the arrival of some very impressive new clients joining the Nellie PR VIP list.

After some early project work last year, Nellie PR has been appointed to handle the regional PR for David Nieper, as the fashion house gears up to celebrate its Golden Anniversary.

The designer and manufacturer of lingerie, nightwear and clothing for women, employs over 240 people and is famed for its attention to detail. All its collections are designed and made in England from its headquarters in Alfreton, Derbyshire, where the company also has its own boutique shop. Nellie PR won the regional PR account after being recommended to David Nieper by a journalist.