This is the best PR story of 2012 so far. Although we are only a week into the New Year, I very much doubt whether it will be bettered throughout the rest of the year, on a number of levels!!

The PR story released by Young Mamalade and Halfords to the media via the Press Association this week, centred on the fact that driving with a heavy cold can affect driving aptitude and ability to the same extent as consuming more than four double whiskies. The story suggested that motorists who insist on driving when they are struggling with a heavy cold or flu could be causing thousands of accidents a year. Apparently according to scientific research undertaken by Young Marmalade and Halfords, reaction times dropped sharply, sudden braking became much more frequent and cornering became erratic as the motorist was less aware of surrounding traffic. (more…)

This post is filed under: Marketing for Blue Chip Companies, Marketing for Small Businesses, Marketing for SMEs, Media, Online / Internet Marketing, PR /Press Releases, Public Relations

When using Twitter to help market your small or medium size business, treat this social medium with care and respect the Twitter laws of protocol and etiquette. You should take a subtle PR approach to Twitter, not a Direct sales approach. If you apply this approach, Twitter is a fantastic social network that can be utilised by your business in order to build relationships with potential new customers and maintain a good rapport with existing customers. The PR benefits that can be gained by using Twitter correctly are enormous when it comes to raising awareness of your business, brand, products and services. (more…)

This post is filed under: Marketing for Small Businesses, Social Media

At Rhetoric PR, we are frequently asked to explain the difference between a  press release, editorial and an advertorial. So here is a brief guide.

A press release is a factual piece of information telling a story, that allows the journalist / editor to embellish and elaborate on it and tell the story in their own words. It should NOT use flowery, superfluous language. The press release should also be devoid of spin – it is not designed to be a marketing brochure for your company and it’s products / services and if it does present itself as one, the recipient will almost certainly press the delete button if the press release is sent as an e-mail or furnish the litter bin if sent as hard, paper copy!! Besides using a “hook” ie finding a newsworthy or topical angle or general point of interest, the press release should address five critical points – who, what, where, when and why. Anything more and essentially you are doing the journalist’s job and he or she will not take kindly to that!! So keep the press release objective and leave the journalist / editor to interpret it in their own words and put an editorial slant on it.

The aim of the press release is to entice the editor / journalist on a newspaper, radio or TV station to create an editorial around it, based on the merits of the story and it’s potential interest to the reader, listener or viewer. Editorial is another word for newspaper / magazine article or radio / TV feature. (more…)

This post is filed under: Advertorials, Editorials, Marketing for Small Businesses, PR /Press Releases

Blog writing is a very effective way of marketing your business, product or service. First of all, blogging helps to bring personality and soul to your business and brand, winning the trust and loyalty of your existing customers and prospective customers of the future.  Also constant blogging will improve the Google ranking of your company’s products and services, because Content is King. New, unique content helps with Search Engine Optimisation ( SEO ). Here are Ten Top Tips on how to Blog effectively. (more…)

This post is filed under: Blogs / Blogging, Marketing for Small Businesses, Online / Internet Marketing