Posts Tagged ‘Nellie PR’

Nellie PR wins new PR account

Nellie PR has been appointed by the Nottingham-based call answering business, Answer-4u to handle all its public relations and social media activity.

Based on Talbot Street in Nottingham, Answer-4u employs over 130 staff and last year handled well over a million calls on behalf of its business clients.

Nellie PR will be working to raise the profile of Answer-4u in the region and amongst small and medium-sized businesses, as well as helping the company to overhaul its social media communications activities.

Answer-4u was set up in 2004, but now enjoys a turnover approaching £3 million and is looking to double that by 2015. It provides call answering services to over 1,700 businesses.

Speaking about the appointment of Nellie PR, the company’s co-founder and director, Glenn Harrison, said: “Up until now, we have been going about our business quietly.  We now feel that it is time for us to start making some noise about the things we are doing, and Nellie PR has the experience and drive to help us to generate more attention and profile.”

Ellen Carroll, director of Nellie PR, added: “We are really looking forward to working with Answer-4u.  The company is really fast moving and ambitious for its future – all in all, a great entrepreneurial business that will benefit significantly from public relations and social media.”

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

We have appointed Nick King as our new account manager.

Formerly the PR and media manager at the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) where he was responsible for promoting support services for businesses, Nick also has almost 20 years experience in the communications industry and has previously managed clients in sectors as diverse as brewing, chemicals, logistics, healthcare and professional services.

Speaking about his appointment, Nick said: “I am joining Nellie PR at a very exciting time for the business, as it is beginning to grow very rapidly. The company has established an excellent reputation for the quality of its work and client service, and I am confident that I can play a significant role in helping Nellie PR to achieve its ambitions for the future.”

Nellie PR was established in 2007 by Ellen Carroll, who was previously the public relations manager at FTSE 100 company, Experian. Over the last four years, the business has grown steadily, building up a loyal client base of companies in a range of industries.

Ellen commented: “My aim has always been to build up a business with experienced professionals, like Nick, who can provide clients with a comprehensive communications consultancy service. Too many agencies try to fob clients off with junior staff who do not have the experience to provide the service that they deserve.

“We are looking to grow the business still further this year and would love to hear from any other talented PR professionals out there who would be interested in joining our team.”

If you are interested in joining the Nellie PR team please do get in touch.

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.