This article was originally posted on: www.carnsight.com
Whether you’re creating a social media strategy for B2B or B2C, the end goal remains the same, to grow your business to the best of its ability. By now, we understand that having a social media presence is crucial for whoever your target audience may be. However, creating social media content for your business can be tricky when you are targeting both B2B and B2C. In this blog, we will be sharing three things to keep in mind for targeting either business or consumer, ensuring that your content is correctly transferred between the two.
B2C is all about connecting and building relationships with your everyday customer. A good way to do this is with storytelling. Your message should be delivered with emotion and share personal experiences or struggles that resonate with your audience, before offering a solution that to enhance their lives. This audience is broad and want a quick fix to their everyday problems.
B2B branding is a little bit different. Your aim here should be to portray your business as an active and credible player in the industry. You should be highlighting your company’s expertise as well as provide in-depth hard data to support your product or service. Your target audience is a lot smaller in B2B than it is in B2C, so you need to make sure your content is on point in portraying your brand as an industry expert. This content will, overtime, build awareness and increase interest, and tempt big decision makers of businesses into considering your product/service eventually making a purchase.
With B2C, you must step into the shoes of your consumer. Their perspective is important and should be used as a guide to your content creation. The language must be straightforward and in a relatable voice. Your tone must be casual and friendly. Be strategic, use emotion to your advantage, and leave any technical jargon at the door.
B2B on the other hand, is where you’re targeting big decision makers and other professionals who share your expertise. For this type of content, emotion should be left behind, and your focus should remain on providing detailed, comprehensive information about your product or service. Your tone should be professional, formal, and trustworthy.
It’s important to thoroughly understand where each audience is to tailor your content accordingly. There are many factors that can be considered here, but as a guide, this is what we recommend:
B2C: Facebook is the number 1 social media marketing platform according to workspace.digital. This is due to the mindset of users on the platform switching from business mode to consumer mode. Depending on what your business offers, Instagram is also a great place for B2C content. A report by Photonics states that 60% of B2C companies reported an increase in sales due to using these platforms.
B2B: LinkedIn is the clear and obvious answer here, with 97% if B2B companies using LinkedIn to share their content. Another popular platform for B2B targeting is Twitter, due to the platforms offering of fast feedback, being able to seamlessly jump on industry trends or simply to build brand awareness.
Need help growing your LinkedIn Business profile? Read our blog on four ways to grow your LinkedIn business page.
Social media can have a direct impact on your website’s visibility on traditional search engines like Google or Bing.
While it doesn’t have the same effect on SEO as with content marketing, social signals such as gaining more followers, likes, shares and retweets can increase your visibility to potential customers by increasing traffic to your site and helping you to rank higher.
In other words, while social media efforts don’t influence SEO directly, they do influence SEO indirectly.
Social media signals are activities that contribute to your page or website’s search engine rankings. Some examples of social signals include likes, shares, retweets and pinning.
Google has never explicitly stated that social signals affect rankings. But there’s no denying that the more traffic you receive through social media networks, the more your material will be shared. This may significantly affect how you rank in Google search results.
The social media platform you choose should be directly related to the type of business you run and your marketing objectives. It should also be determined by where your target audience prefers to spend their time. However, in terms of SEO functionality, the following social media and digital marketing networks offer several advantages:
We’ve established how social media impacts SEO. Now, we can look at ways to boost SEO through social media marketing. Here are four social media algorithms and SEO tips to help boost SEO on social media.
Did you know that social media profiles are frequently shown among the top search results?
Up 75% of customers use social media to evaluate brands before making a purchase. They look for reviews, genuine recommendations, inspiration, high-quality images and brand information. As a result, social media profiles should be optimised as part of your SEO strategy.
Optimised social media profiles can drive your target audience to your account and convert them into customers. Your goal is to make all your content accessible. Here are some easy ways of optimising your social profiles to get results:
Good social media profiles increase trust by giving your brand authenticity. They should be able to teach your target audience everything they need to know about your company in a matter of seconds. Your profile should sound natural, honest and carefully written, and it should showcase your own personality.
Creating and releasing high-quality content is crucial for social SEO.
It can enhance organic web traffic back to your website, improve search visibility and assist you in obtaining quality backlinks.
By distributing long-form content such as a high-quality blog post, written with specific keywords via your social platforms, you can encourage your social media followers to share your content further. This will boost your content marketing strategy and strengthen your social signals by amplifying reach through social SEO.
Be wary though, using too many keywords, otherwise known as keyword stuffing, can be frowned upon by traditional search engines and may have a negative impact on your online visibility.
Traditional SEO stands you in good stead when you aim to create valuable content based on a customer’s needs, so be sure to stick to the most relevant and important keyword clusters.
Search engines and shareable content go together like bread and butter. The more people that engage with and share your content, the wider reach you’ll have on keyword search pages and the better your social media visibility. You’ll also generate more backlinks, or inbound links, and enhance brand recognition.
When you publish content that your audience will want to share, it can help Google with the indexation of relevant searches for your posts. This can lead to more organic search traffic and better Google rankings.
Did you know that the images you upload to your social media accounts can actually make a difference to your social SEO? The act of making the images you publish with your social media posts as SEO-friendly as possible is referred to as image optimisation.
Optimising the images across your social media platforms can improve user experience. Search algorithms also tend to prioritise the images that follow best practices, meaning you could appear higher up in search results, improve website traffic and reach more potential customers.
Here’s how you do it:
Image optimisation across all your social networks is a simple technique that may make a major difference in your social media marketing efforts.
A high-quality image will also boost your overall social media performance. It can improve the appearance of your brand by making it more appealing, intelligible, relatable, and memorable.
One strong tactic for improving your social SEO and social media strategy is to use social listening. This is the process of monitoring online conversations on major social platforms and media networks to learn what your audience is saying about you. It’s also a great way to keep track of your competitors.
Social listening can help you find opportunities for link-building. You may discover that your brand has been referenced on blogs, forums, Facebook pages or news sites. You can find these mentions using a social media monitoring tool and contact the writers to ask them to include a link to your site.
Social listening is an effective method for conducting audience research and learning what people are talking about in your sector. This will help you in discovering new ways to contact your target audience and increase your social media presence.
Social media helps SEO in several different ways. The best method is always the successful combination of social media and search engine optimization efforts.
Marketers everywhere understand the importance of having a blog on a business website, either for SEO purposes or to provide a valuable information resource for customers and prospects, but one of the biggest barriers to business blogging is finding the time to come up with content and write copy.
Copywriting for a consistent business blog requires time – something most businesses do not have in abundance. Even marketing agencies are often so busy looking after customers, including writing copy for their client’s business blogs, that they don’t have time to update their own. It’s not easy! But it is possible with a little help from a freelance friend.
A great solution for the time-poor is to employ a freelance copywriter. They offer a cost-effective solution to generating consistent copy for your business blog, and the flexibility to tailor a solution to your business. But what do you need to think about before you take this step? What do you need to have in place before employing freelance help?
Implement one point of contact
To get the most out of freelance support, appoint an in-house contact to manage the process. This doesn’t have to be a time-consuming role, in fact with the right freelancer it shouldn’t be, but there does need to be one consistent person to liaise with. And only one! Too many and communication could get messy. With one internal person liaising with the copywriter, all ideas from within the company can be managed and filtered to ensure clear priorities are passed on. It also means the copywriter is clear who they need to supply the finished work to and who to direct any questions to.
Work out an internal process for managing the freelancer
Following on from the idea of having one individual for freelance support to deal with in the company, there should be a clear process in place too. Who is going to come up with the ideas for the blog – internal staff, the freelancer, or both? How will this process be managed – who will the ideas go to and how will they be prioritised? What will happen to the copy supplied? What will the approvals process be and how will you let your copywriter know their work has been signed off? These are all things to think about prior to engagement.
Set communication preferences
It’s worth considering how you want to work with a freelancer before you hire one too. Do you prefer to speak to people on the phone, or would it suit your other commitments better to interact mainly by e-mail? Thinking about this up front will help establish a better relationship and might even help you find the right freelancer for your business in the first place. Clear communication channels are a must for any successful business relationship, and interacting with a freelance copywriter is no different.
Talk about the money up front
As well as considering how the relationship is going to work day-to-day, it is also worth thinking about the payment process up front too. If you want regular work from your business copywriter, you may be able to agree a monthly budget and regular invoicing system for work completed in the previous month. If, however, you are looking for a one-off project, you can expect to pay a deposit up front, with the rest of the payment due on completion. (Read more about ad-hoc Vs consistent blogging here). Whichever path you choose, it’s important to think about your needs, the freelancer’s requirements, a budget for the work you want completed, and discuss payment terms openly before embarking on a relationship to avoid any difficult conversations further down the line.
Employing freelance support of any kind can require a bit of a deep breath if you’re used to doing everything in-house, or if you haven’t used external resources in this way before. But with a little forethought, utilising a flexible third party to pick up the slack from your busy workload can be hugely successful.
Originally posted to: www.carnsight.com
Ethical, organic link building is central to topping the charts when it comes to Google’s search engine ranking factors. Quality backlinks are prized possession, and one of the ways that they can be earned is in the press/news media. However, while we as PRs will always strive to earn these SEO wins, we can’t always guarantee them. Before we explain how to approach backlinks in PR, let’s lay some groundwork for technical terms.
The world of SEO is full of technical terms and concepts that can be confusing at first, so let’s get the lingo down before we go any further. Here’s what you need to know:
As SEO has squarely cemented itself into digital environments, more and more media outlets are introducing specific policies regarding backlinks and the inclusion of external links their content. For instance, some publications strictly adhere to a no-follow policy, meaning that any included links do not contribute to SEO efforts. Some might offer to include a link but limit its visibility – the link is embedded and clickable, but not coloured or underlined to differentiate the text and indicate link presence.
Others – especially larger entities – have begun to monetise this service and may charge for including backlinks or only allow them within certain types of content, like guest articles or sponsored posts. Hence, these emerging structures/frameworks often mediate the relationship between PRs and journalists when it comes to including backlinks and must be respected to practice good media relations.
It can be controversial, but the general consensus is that you there is a certain etiquette around asking a journalist to provide backlinks. We typically recommend taking a proactive approach. Offer up the links in a more appropriate, subtle way by linking them in your press release or correspondence so that they are there if the journalist wants them. We’ll discuss more about how a journalist might make this decision further down.
Some journalists/outlets may also view PR attempts to secure backlinks as compromising the integrity of the news outlet and blurring the boundaries between advertising and independent journalism, while others consider it presumptuous and some even write off a PR as ‘asking too much’ when ‘free’ publicity/exposure of a story feature is already on the table.
While a good PR agency will have forged strong, mutually beneficial relationships with journalists and often work with them to pitch a story, it’s important to remember that Journalists are independent individuals. They operate with their own principles and purposes and aim to satisfy and engage an audience of their own. PRs will always try to be strategic and work with Journalists and audiences who align with the story well to maximise coverage, but journalists ultimately determine the final content and format in of a piece for publication. They make decisions based on the newsworthiness of a story, its relevance to their audience, and their editorial guidelines.
So, what this means, is that backlinks are often a grey area – the decision can be entirely discretionary and up to the journalist, or it may be mediated by editorial guidelines, outlet policies, or reader preferences. It’s important to remember that it is also increasingly difficult for journalists to keep smaller, niche publications going in an oversaturated news market. They often have to work hard to find new ways to fund their platform; hence, backlinks have become the latest resource for monetisation.
Of course, we will always do our best to nurture a reciprocal relationship with journalists and the press to engender positive attitudes and encourage ethical backlinking. However, like many elements of PR, this is an art and not a science. We can’t guarantee a backlink in coverage, but we will certainly do our best to secure them.
At JMP, are delighted to welcome Matt Joy to our growing team, joining as Managing Partner.
Matt has a wealth of industry experience, having spent more than 10 years in the sports industry, and most recently four years at a strategic brand agency.
His previous roles have included five years as Marketing Manager at Stoke City during their Premier League golden years, before moving south and helping create the Marketing team at Bristol Sport during the rebuild of Ashton Gate. Following that, he spent four years at Mr B & Friends in Bristol.
In regards to his responsibility at JMP, Matt will be a crucial cog in our ability to excel as an agency, offering additional strategic insights and creative campaigns to our clients.
Managing Director Joe Meredith expanded on this.
“It’s a significant role, the biggest addition we’ve ever made to the business,” he said.
“It’s something that I feel we’ve both wanted to happen for a long time. Everything just needed to align. Matt is in a position to elevate the offerings of JMP and I’m really excited to work with him to take JMP to the next level ”
Matt expressed his excitement about what lies ahead, for both himself and JMP.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “I’ve known Joe since I initially moved to Bristol and how he has grown the agency in that time has been great to see. It’s an exciting time to now get involved and add to the recent successes.
“My role is going to be quite broad but ultimately I will have a real focus on the growth of the agency. First of all to define who we are, our offerings and identify where we can add real value to our clients, both current and new.”
Matt joins our newly-formed Senior Leadership Team, alongside MD Joe and Operations Director Vicki Theobald.
Business blogs are essential marketing tools to inform existing and potential customers, increase brand awareness, and establish credibility. Whether you already have a business blog on your website or you’re considering adding one soon, the amount of copywriting required to make a success of your business blog is daunting.
Forget the SEO aspect for just a moment…and sourcing images…and coming up with ideas for it, the copywriting aspect alone is time-consuming and requires skill and dedication. Bearing that in mind, who is going to take responsibility for your blog and make sure it is regularly updated? Who is going to drive it and make sure they get the information they need to pull all the content together?
Options for copywriting your business blog
Perhaps you have an in-house employee in mind, who enjoys copywriting, or who you feel has some spare capacity. Perhaps you are considering outsourcing to an external freelance business blog copywriter. Or perhaps you want to give it a go yourself because only you know what you want to say and how you want to say it. (If this sounds like you but you know you’re time poor, you might find this article useful – ‘Will my business blog still sound like me if I outsource’).
Having worked in a marketing agency and been given responsibility for the company’s blog, and now working as a freelancer with companies outsourcing their copywriting needs to me, I have been on both sides of the blog writing fence and can see the pros and cons of each. So, if you have been agonising over this decision for a while and have delayed doing anything with your blog as a result, here are some advantages and disadvantages of in-house versus outsourcing.
In-House – Pros
If you employ someone to look after your business blog in-house or use an existing member of staff for your copywriting needs, they are a permanent fixture in your business. You can call on them whenever you like and keep a close eye on how things are progressing.
Someone who works within the business will also always be closer to the ‘action’ and other internal employees, to be able to download any necessary information for the purposes of copywriting for your business blog. Their level of access and perhaps even the way they extract ideas and information from others in the business, can be more informal and therefore possibly more effective.
In-House – Cons
When you give an internal employee the task of copywriting for your business blog, there is always the chance that when things get busy, they will get pulled onto other ‘more important’ tasks. Most businesses quite rightly put their customers’ needs before their own and so if there is something that needs to be done for a customer, your own blog will get pushed aside.
In addition, it might become more disruptive to have a copywriter working in-house. Because they are an employee, they might feel they can ask for more input from their fellow employees and become more of a nuisance than a freelancer who wholly considers it their responsibility to generate content for your blog.
Another downside of using an in-house copywriter is the cost. It is far more expensive to employ someone full-time, or even part-time, when you take into consideration salary, insurance, and benefits, than it is to recruit freelance support.
Outsourcing – Pros
The first and perhaps most obvious benefit of outsourcing copywriting for your business blog is that it is more affordable. You only need to pay for the hours worked, or deliverables produced, not an entire salary. On top of this, you have flexibility in the relationship too, so if at any point you need to reduce your costs, you can pull back a bit on the amount of work you outsource, and similarly increase the work when you need additional support.
Employing freelance support for your business blog is also likely to mean better consistency too. Unlike an in-house employee, a freelancer won’t get pulled onto other jobs. There is a slightly different attitude when you are dealing with a customer, as a freelancer is, than when you are an in-house writer writing for your own company.
By outsourcing the copywriting of your business blog, you can also benefit from a range of experience. Freelancers work with different companies simultaneously which means they have a breadth of knowledge and experience to bring to your blog.
Outsourcing – Cons
The downside of outsourcing your business blog, however, is that it is unlikely any freelancer will gain the same level of access to your employees as an in-house copywriter will. They’re not there to see the day-to-day work being completed, interaction with customers, and overall business culture.
Another concern with employing freelance support is whether they will always have time for you. What if you need a business blog written sooner rather than later and they’re not available? Of course, planning ahead and building an ongoing relationship can help with this, but it is a consideration with outsourcing that you don’t need to worry about if you employ an in-house copywriter.
And finally, what if you hire a bad one? How do you know which one is right for your business? Unfortunately, not all freelance copywriters are conscientious and even those that are simply may not fit with your team or your business culture. These Frequently Asked Questions about hiring a freelancer might help you through the process and ensure you find the right one for you, should this be the route you choose.
In summary
Building a successful business blog isn’t easy. Sometimes when you set out, it feels like it might be. You have lots to say and you have carved out time in your week to make it happen, but the reality is very different. Maintaining a consistent flow of content and copy requires complete focus and of course, a level of skill to get the words down on the page in the right way. The only way to make sure it happens is to have a dedicated person in charge of copywriting for your business blog. Whether you opt for in-house support or choose to outsource, getting that resource in place sooner rather than later is the best way to kickstart the blog you’ve been dreaming of!
Originally posted to: www.carnsight.com
Carnsight’s business owner and PR expert Jess Morgan recently had the exciting opportunity to speak at a student networking event for those studying sport business at Ashton Gate (thanks to Sophy Wells for the introduction). Jess seamlessly translated the team’s skills for promoting a business through PR to help those who want to promote themselves as individuals. If that sounds like you, then here’s a summary of the 7 steps to PR yourself that she covered on the day.
As we all hopefully know by now, PR is not all champagne and schmoozing.
Dictionaries like Merriam-Webster will say that PR is “the business of inducing the public to have understanding for and goodwill toward a person, firm, or institution”. However, at Carnsight, we say that PR is about creating strategies and campaigns to showcase great work and achievements. It’s about getting noticed by the right people, at the right time. So, let’s get you noticed.
Questions of value and motivation are valid – what’s the point in PRing yourself, what benefit does it actually bring? To start, investing in getting your personal brand out there allows you to max out your advantages in a way that you can control and gives you an undeniable competitive advantage. At the end of the day, PRing yourself is not about pretending to be something you’re not. Instead, it’s all about putting your best foot forward, and that’s something we can all do.
Look to the horizon with a future thinking, bigger-picture mindset; set yourself up for the end game and then think about the steps to get there. As with PR, it’s often best to start at the end. Think about what you want to get out of your PR, and create a tangible image of the late-stage achievements you’ll aim for.
Do you want to be considered for a particular position, role, or placement? Get your foot in the door at your dream company? Or achieve something else entirely? Start with that and then you can plot your path to get there.
Leave no stone unturned. We explore more on PR touchpoints in this earlier blog post, but as a quick overview, it’s important to at least consider the followingtouchpoints:
Remember that your communication, presentation, and interactions reflect on you, from the texts you write to the emails you send to every meeting and greeting. From the security guard in the office to the receptionist, to the person getting you a glass of water. In an interview – and every interaction – it’s important to give a good impression.
Our advice: build every bridge you can and remember never to burn them. Even if the connection doesn’t seem as though it will immediately serve you or your current path, it is still valuable to maintain it. Above all else, strive to be consistent and helpful always.
Presentation and first impressions can count for a lot when PRing yourself. Showing yourself on a good day (even if you have to fake it until you make it), and ensuring you have enough substance can be key to acing these factors. Be the best version of yourself and don’t shy away from showcasing what’s unique about you. Lean into your interests and experiences, use images or even videos that you love. Authenticity goes a long way, and it’s usually something people pick up on for the better when its genuine.
Just like PR, it’s about telling a story here as well. Except this one should centre around you. It should put your full self on show – not just the professional bits. Showcase the person behind the achievements, the CV, the experience. Remember the elevator pitch? Nurture the spark and pin down the details of your own until you can pitch yourself in your sleep. It should become an effortless, natural, and genuine skill to do so in a way that is upfront but not boastful or arrogant. Sometimes you have to be your biggest cheerleader, so it’s important to be able to summarise your achievements and proven value in a work environment.
Step outside of your echo chamber and get some inspiration. Consider what others are sharing, gauge what works and what doesn’t. Borrowed interest, for example, can do a large part of the work for you. As defined by The Next Wave, “borrowed interest is the intentional association of an unrelated theme, event or image with a product, service or subject being presented, to attract attention otherwise not anticipated”. Consult a diverse range of sources to give you inspiration, from professional arenas like LinkedIn to trending content on TikTok.
Last but certainly not least, let’s run over the things you need to get right to form a good foundation. Like we said, first impressions can make all the difference, so it’s important to get your basics right from the ground up.
This means no typos, and no mistakes. Proof it, print it, and proof it again. Ask for that second opinion, re-read your email, scan over that document before you share it. Small mistakes may seem small and inconsequential but that can be costly, so always try to minimise the risk.
It’s also worth investing the time and resources you have on hand into creating a professional looking photo. Jump over to our article here to cover off all of the do’s and don’ts of good headshots.
Elsewhere, strong opinions are fine, but avoid anything too controversial. Remember you’re representing your professional self here too. Check over your old social media presence, because employers will too, and these days they know what to look for.
You can’t step through a door you haven’t first opened. PRing yourself is about being proactive, considered and genuine. Remember these 7 steps to PR yourself, like how starting at your end point often makes for a clearer way forward. Think ahead, keep the above in mind, and be confident in your ability to PR yourself
Originally posted to: www.carnsight.com
Let’s be honest, meetings are kind of a necessary evil when it comes to the corporate world, but there’s been a lot of talk in the media recently about just how necessary they are. With spring in the air and spring-cleaning season upon us, now could be a great time to spring clean your diary and tidy up those endless meetings.
Understandably, 2020-2022 saw a huge increase in the average number of meetings held. I think because we were all massively craving human connection during lockdowns. The thing is, that increase in meetings seems to have stuck and we’re all having more meetings than ever before. A recent report from Otter.AI on the cost of unnecessary meetings showed that employees are frustrated by the current volume of meetings. Almost half (46%) agree that they have too many unnecessary meetings in their calendar.
A lot has changed in the past few years, including how we define, expect, and run meetings. More people work hybrid roles and it’s far less common to travel for work and thus virtual meetings are still being used as a way to bring people together in one place. While virtual meetings were used to form connections and boost employee morale during the Covid lockdowns, too many virtual meetings are having the opposite effect today and arguably, we’ve all become a little too reliant on them. The takeaway: Just because you can, and we did, doesn’t mean that we still should. Perhaps it’s time to reassess and clear out the cupboard.
Meetings aren’t always useless, though. In fact, a well-run meeting can be incredibly valuable, but perhaps during the lockdowns, we all got a little bit too used to having a meeting for the sake of talking to another person in a day of being locked away inside. Now we have to get back into the habit of interrogating the purpose of meetings before we send over that diary invite. Here are some tips for things to consider when sending or agreeing to a meeting invite. Take each meeting (especially reoccurring meetings) in your calendar and ask the following questions:
Before putting a meeting in the calendar, it’s vital to ask what the purpose of the meeting is.
What do you want the meeting to achieve? What needs to be done in order for everyone at present to consider it a success by the end? What are the ‘must’, the ‘would be nice to’ and the ‘if there’s time’ goals of the meeting?
Though agendas are a pain to write, and often go unread, ensuring everyone who’s coming to the meeting at the very least knows what that meeting needs to achieve is very important. It’s also important that everyone who’s been invited to the meeting comes prepared with anything necessary to achieve those goals as efficiently as possible.
It’s worth noting that connection and morale are still valid reasons to hold a meeting. It can be nice to check in with your team in the morning, everyone with their coffees and a smile. However, you have to be sure that that purpose has been established in advance, that everyone is on the same page and ask if a meeting is really what people need for morale at that moment, or if another event, activity or treat is better suited.
But really.
Having too many attendees is a surefire way to lose control of a meeting. It’s also incredibly frustrating to be sat in a meeting with nothing to contribute and nothing to take away – those meetings are serious time sucks!
Think carefully about who needs to be present. Ensure everyone is given the space and consideration that add to the conversation. And also respect those who aren’t as vocal in meetings, remembering it’s about the end goal and establishing what’s necessary to achieve that, not waffling for the sake of it.
And when you decide, stick to it! Overrun meetings seem to be an epidemic! When the expectation is that the meeting will overrun, it’s much more common for people to go off track or meander. The workday is busy and there’s also a limit to how long people can concentrate when it comes to meetings, so keep it short and sweet where possible (ideally 30mins max). If a longer meeting with multiple goals is necessary, consider scheduling in breaks.
Thank you for inviting me to the meeting. I appreciate the opportunity to participate, but I regret to inform you that I won’t be able to attend due to some urgent matters that require my immediate attention. Kindly share any notes taken during the meeting, and I’ll make sure to review them. I look forward to catching up with you at a later date. If there are any actions required from my side, please do let me know, and I’ll be glad to oblige when I have the capacity.
Meetings can be helpful and productive if done correctly. And the truth is, nailing the formula is difficult. I’m not sure we’ve even got it quite right yet, but it’s something we’re working on internally.
Remember that it’s important to assess the necessity of each meeting and make sure it’s well-planned. With the right approach, meetings can be a valuable tool for communication and collaboration.
You can find more productivity tips elsewhere on the Carnsight blog, including our review of Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Originally posted at: www.carnsight.com
Artificial intelligence (AI) is arguably the buzziest of all the buzz words making headlines right now; it’s starting to feel as though it is literally everything, everywhere, all at once. From the infamous ChatGPT to Tesla’s self-driving cars to Amazon’s Alexa, AI has arrived and it’s here to stay. But what does AI mean for PR, and how exactly can it enhance PR?
A useful tool
As we’ve discussed before, being open-minded is what will get you results in PR, and that includes being open to new technologies that can help you along the way. AI-enabled task automation has been simplifying PR processes for longer than we may all realise. It’s found a particularly useful niche in media coverage analysis tools, like Hootsuite and SemRush. Data insights based on real-time results boast increased accuracy and reliability when it comes to decision making, reporting, and evaluation.
Better still, AI review functions are a great grammatical tool for proofing a PRs work, giving advice on flow or structure. It can synthesise large chunks of information to educate PRs quickly on niche topics. It can also provide speech-to-text dictation for interviewing clients or jotting down thoughts for a press release. AI can even take a PRs to-do list and use data to create an optimised schedule.
What’s ethics got to do with it anyway?
The role of ethics is at play here too. That’s a more in-depth post for another time, but one key take away is that AI should be used positively as a tool and an aid, but it should not take on the role of the individual. Using AI to come up with work rather than merely fine tune it can be critiqued as not genuine. It takes away the human spirit and individuality that grounds good-faith, mutually beneficial PR.
‘A force for good fraught with danger’
AI in PR is definitely a work in progress. For example, the use of chatbots as an additional communication channel can be complicated by bias. Even when programmed carefully, it can still lack sensitivity and human-centred contexts that are critical to managing relationships in PR. AI bots can also compute inaccurate or incomplete data and negatively influence high stakes, potentially escalating a PR problem rather than diffusing it, or creating one where there wasn’t beforehand.
Here at Carnsight, we think it all comes back to balance. Make conscious decisions about how, when, and where to use AI to enhance your PR more effectively. Keep automation for the activities that aren’t people-facing or high stakes, where you can afford to save time and increase accuracy.
PR will always be people focused
The Chartered Institute for Public Relations confirms that 59% of PR skills are predominantly not candidates for AI. People are the heart and centre of what drives PR. While AI may be a handy tool in the working professional’s tool kit, it’s not about to take the wheel.
Widely considered the most effective marketing medium, videos bring life to the brands that were once dependent on static and print. And whilst it has been hugely popular for the best part of a century, it has only grown more prevalent in recent years with the widespread uptake in smartphone and social media usage. For marketers, educators, and storytellers alike, video helps to engage with audiences in a far more immersive and memorable way. It can be formatted and stylised to specific guidelines, and most importantly, can simplify complicated messages comprehensively.
Cut forward to 2023, and we simply can’t get enough of it. We’re averaging a lengthy 95 minutes a day on TikTok, using YouTube to answer 1 in every 4 search queries, and collectively uploading 82 years of video content to YouTube daily. So, if you’re not doing everything in your power to make video work for your brand, you’re missing out on a sizeable opportunity.
Video can be used to suit a wide range of different formats and styles, from short-form social media content to long-form documentaries, making it a highly versatile medium that can be tailored to specific brand objectives. But with video being so widely consumed, we’ve grown to become connoisseurs of the moving image. Consumers have no time for slow starts, are becoming easily distracted, and can sniff out branded content a mile off. This shift in behaviour directly factors into the way that leading brands now develop their video content and should also factor into how you develop your own.
We’ve delivered short and long form video for high calibre clients across a variety of global markets. If you’re looking to leverage great video content for your brand, drop us a line today and let’s talk. No strings.
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