Blog

Low profile but established legal recruitment practice.

“They do what they’ll say they’ll do which makes them a fairly unusual PR consultancy.” Ros Kerslake, former Chief Executive, RegenCo – urban regeneration company.

One of our account directors, Nicola Pledger, is looking for answers, like the other 48% of the population, as to what Brexit now means for the UK.

Kinetic’s CEO and company secretary – Angela Podmore and her husband Mike – are cycling 101 miles in the Malvern Mad Hatter this weekend to raise awareness and funds in support of sufferers of pancreatic cancer.

Customer service is the topic of this blog, or rather the lack of it. We’ve been working with ‘retail guru’ Angi Egan – a coach who goes into businesses large and small and shows them how to give their customers more while improving their business.

I’d like to share with you how I spent my free time in December and over the Christmas break. While I did spend some fantastic time with friends and family, the majority of my time was spent researching and writing essays for the CIPR Diploma.

Long has it been in the making but I promised in my last blog that my next stop would be ‘churnalism’.

At Kinetic, we are all still relatively new to the social media game. We now all have Linked In profiles – although some need more information inputting than others.

Kristina Kanne’s guest blog – My time at Kinetic Communication is almost over. I still remember my journey to England and how feared I was…

No doubt about it: my first week on the job was a whirlwind of education and discovery.

I can’t quite believe this day has come – my last at Kinetic! As some of you know, I decided a few months ago that the time had come to re-evaluate my life and, mainly, my career.

It’s been a fairly quick rendezvous with Kinetic. A short but very sweet ride and I have enjoyed it all.

Two years ago, as a trainee broadcast journalist, I never would have pictured myself working at a communications agency. I’d been pre-programmed to assume any communications work, other than investigative journalism, was from the ‘dark-side’ of the industry. So when a friend told me about a ‘great’ company in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, I approached with caution.

I ran my first 10K race on Sunday (30 Aug 2009) in the Battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset.

It seems I’ve joined Kinetic at a time of great internal change. We’re looking to re-launch our new website soon, we’ve moved our blog onto WordPress and we’re encouraging our clients to embrace video and podcast technologies in support of their campaigns. Essentially we’re looking to offer multi-platform initiatives in support of our sustainable communication plans.

This blog is inspired by hearing the same sentiment echoed twice in the last couple of weeks.
First, by David Grove of Grove Industries at a speaker lunch organised by Birmingham Future. Mr Grove was making the point that sometimes the best companies in which to invest, buy or work with are those with a disengaged and disinterested management.

Businesses, like people, operate best when they’re governed by a set of values. That’s because values help employees understand the way in which they should conduct themselves and make decisions on behalf of the company.

“Words are not enough,” warned Hilary Clinton at a press conference today. She spoke regarding Iran meeting its international obligations for its nuclear programme but her comment is equally valid for any organisation concerning reputation.

It’s the end of my second week at Kinetic, and I’m beginning to feel that the intricate inner workings of an organisation, from cooking oil to accounting, may take a while longer to get my head around than I first thought.

On Monday 12 October, one of North America’s most popular holidays will be celebrated in my homeland, Canada. Thanksgiving is a day dedicated to giving thanks, remembering your blessings and (I certainly can’t forget this very important part) eating!

Not sure how many of you will remember back to July this year and my submission date for the CIPR Diploma. Well, results have now come through and, to my relief, I have passed. All the stress was worth it!

Any one listening to BBC Radio 4 Today programme yesterday (Friday 30.10.09) around 7.45am was treated to hear the difference made by someone’s who’s truly values-driven. Captain Chesley Sullenberger told of his heroic ditching of US Airlines Flight 1549 in January 2009.

Over recent years a growing number of news organisations have been forced to compete online for an increasing percentage of their audience. Many outlets have found that a traditional service is no longer competitive enough to survive in the current market.

So, a month on from our epic climb of Snowdon (and the 16 hour team-building day that went with it!), what is the lasting legacy? Other than the fact my toenails – which have gone through purple, black, green and yellow – are now about to fall off!

So, is PR in its traditional perceived form dead? Not a loaded question in the slightest! Three things have got me thinking about this – completing the CIPR Diploma, climbing Snowdon, and starting on the CIM Diploma.

I recently attended an Employer Engagement event at Birmingham City University. This entailed three hours of ‘speed dating’ with over 40 students from the university studying PR, advertising, business studies and psychology.

A man who updated his Facebook status during his own wedding ceremony has caused controversy across the world. For many, the social media ‘prank’ was simply one step too far. But for others, the stunt generated the sort of free publicity many people only dream about.

If you’ve not yet caught up then take a look at the BBC and track back through all of the links – sponsorship deals falling away, mistresses coming out of the woodwork and a fairly bizarre crash outside his house in Florida two weeks ago.

In my last blog we talked about how one man became an overnight sensation and drove traffic to his internet business through an online stunt which went viral. In this blog we’ll be talking about how social media has changed the way in which organisations and individuals interact with each other.

There’s a whole world of people out there who are interested in what you have to say. Or at least, there could be, if you have something worthwhile to say and start saying it online. Online Journalism blogger, Paul Bradshaw, is an excellent example of how an individuals’ personal reputation can develop successfully online and spill out into the ‘real’ world.

Business groups like the Federation of Small Businesses and the Forum of Private Business have warned that the economic cost of absenteeism this week because of the snow could reach £2 billion. It was estimated that 10% of the 30-million strong workforce couldn’t get in to work yesterday and the figure is a lot higher today.

I read an interesting piece of news from the Guardian Media group over the Christmas break, detailing some new roles within the business for an online local news project. Interestingly enough, this was something I was chatting to a friend about over a drink recently, and we both came to the same conclusion – it is inevitable.

Should businesses and individuals be charged to access news content online or forward links to particular stories? Endorsed by the PRCA and CIPR, online news service Meltwater is taking the Newspaper Licensing Authority (NLA) to court over their attempts to regulate online news distribution.

According to a recent survey by PRmoment, PR is seen as the least untrustworthy profession by the general public.

I read an interesting article in today’s Times from Ali Campbell on election poster campaigns and was refreshingly surprised at his level of insight. ‘Here’s a seasoned political communicator with a handle on two way comms’, I thought, as I read his views on social networking and the power of digital conversation.

We’re working on a number of new business opportunities in the leisure and tourism sector at the moment. As part of that, we were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to spend 24 hours in Cornwall a few weeks’ ago.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a great social media workshop recently hosted by a talented bunch of social media students at Birmingham City University.

For those Social Mediaites that don’t already know, there’s a war going on, and its a sticky one between the public sector and the web. I was fortunate enough to find this out at a recent event, excellently organised by the Social Media students at Birmingham City University, called Authority 2.0.

We recently attended a lunch at Bank in Brindleyplace (very nice food!) with the PRCA Midlands group and representatives from PRCA HQ in London. The PRCA is putting a lot of time, energy and resource behind campaigning to see PR recognised as a professional industry and this includes media relations, some newly-launched qualifications and the Find a PR Agency service (FAPRA).

I left Birmingham University last summer with a 2: 1 Honours Degree in Media, Culture and Society, wide eyed and keen to enter the world of public relations.

Recent weeks have seen the PR industry come together to discuss evaluation (again) and come up with innovative new solutions (again) to justify our existence to clients (again). You can read some of my thoughts on the Barcelona Principles on my blog.

Recently, I’ve had the privilege of doing a little work with Birmingham Future, thrive and BVSC – the Centre for Voluntary Action on a campaign – Become Richer, Work for Nothing.

The phrase ‘listening to your customers needs’ sounds like such a 1980s business cliché, albeit one that still rings true for any business. Keeping up with what your customers needs are, however, can be a tricky thing to do, especially in the digital world where information, attitudes and demands are carried so quickly via the web.

I’ve just returned from the First International History of PR Conference and wanted to share a few thoughts from the practitioner perspective of attending an academic conference.