Up for a challenge or 10 in 2010?

Do something different in 2010!

As the New Year approaches, a series of creative, fun charity challenges has been launched by adventurous friends Ilona Woodward and Laura Aktins via their new website Planet Raucous.

Called '10 4 10', the aim of the series of activities is to raise money for 10 charities whilst having fun along the way. You donate via Justgiving, register for the challenge(s) you want and then the fun really begins.

Take your pick of 10 challenges, or complete all 10 and compete for an award…

The 'mountain high' challenge will appeal to those with a love of skiing or adrenalin sports. There are plenty of others to choose from including song recording, poem writing, design or even growing the most unusual plant you can imagine in the most inventive container and place you can think of.

I'll be doing the OX5 RUN at Blenheim Palace again in April but I have the whole year to complete the 10 4 10 challenges too.

Find them of Facebook and Twitter @PlanetRaucous

Could Twitter help solve a business problem?

Twitter personalities (above) suggested by Paul Armstrong of Kindred

Another packed room recently at the CIPR HQ - all gathered to hear if Tweeting is good for business. Read Paul's presentation here.

Before using Twitter for marketing or PR purposes ask: "Why use it? What's the business problem?" It could be used, for example to help drive more people to your website or provide a 'face' to your business. An upcoming feature of Twitter is the ability to create lists of key influencers for your business.

Setting up a Twitter account is easy - it's what you use it for that needs some thought. To engage with an audience consider being a resource too, be relevant, honest and clear.

Social media takes time, so you need to define the goals for using it and allocate time wisely. Have a presence on all relevant platforms but choose carefully which ones to spend time on. 37 million Tweeters across the globe is impressive, but there's around 316 million people on Facebook.

With a digital PR strategy in place, and perhaps some training in how to use social media platforms businesses can test out the benefits of Twitter and its counterparts. Happy Tweeting!

sharp end of digital PR

In a packed room at the CIPR with PR pros keen to be at the sharp end of digital PR techniques a show of hands revealed one or two in the room who had not yet explored Twitter or been within a mile of LinkedIn.

Maybe they will by now though, as speaker Rob Brown of Staniforth did a good job of extolling the virtues of social media for PR, explaining the uses of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for those yet to be convinced.

We're in a 24-hour rolling news society (he says) with news organisations now competing with bloggers for stories. News is instant and many media organisations are taking their business online, as you've probably noticed. The Guardian's podcasts are downloaded around 500,000 times a week whilst newspaper circulation figures are around 350,000.

Looking at the increasing value of digital PR to businesses wanting to inprove their online visibility and traffic to their website was interesting. It's an ever blurring line between PR and search, and they can work hand-in-hand it seems to deliver improved search results and higher Google rankings. PR copy is all-important too, providing essential 'content,' helping keep websites fresh and appealing to search engines. Search terms can also be widened by being used within PR copy online.

More on this topic to follow as there's so much good stuff yet to unpack...

The Twittering classes...

Twitter, Facebook and Stumbleupon... just how useful are such social media sites for businesses and what sort of results can actually be achieved?

A great PR result this week for search engine marketing experts SEOptimise. See their feature in In Business magazine, The Oxford Times, also on Flikr on the use of social media for business.

Andrew Smith interviews Stuart Tofts and Kevin Gibbons from SEOptimise on the latest social media marketing techniques for business.

An interesting read!

LinkedIn voted future proof

Business networking site LinkedIn has been voted the most future proof social media site in a new online opinion poll published today by SEOptimise.


Twenty-seven per cent of voters said LinkedIn would still be here in 2020. Facebook and YouTube came joint second with 25% of the votes each, followed by Twitter at 15%. None of the voters
expected MySpace to survive the next decade.



Thirty-nine per cent of businesses that voted in the poll are using social media channels such as Twitter, StumbleUpon and LinkedIn to boost their brand and drive people to their website. Thirty-nine per cent are using social media predominantly to build and manage relationships.

For marketing anaylsis on the results see www.seoptimise.com/blog

Taste of London’s best with festival vibe

A summer’s evening spent sampling weird and wonderful foods from London’s top restaurants seemed a pretty perfect way for anyone who loves food and wine to spend a few hours. Teemed with a festival vibe, including live music and celebrity chefs, Taste London was a huge amount of fun and even educational. The raspberry mousse dessert from Tom’s Kitchen topped my favourites. Trying pig’s cheek was a first for me. It was a slightly odd texture, but, served with scallops, not too bad.


Meeting the chefs behind London’s best restaurants was a lot of fun. Jun Tanaka from The Pearl was happy to oblige with a photo.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s lively Q&A session was a blast. It was amusingly compèred by TV wine expert Olly Smith who is loud and also a fairly good singer, it emerged. Hugh, well-known to champion a range of ethical issues talked at the beginning on the Landshare scheme which drew some support from the assembled fans.

I didn’t get round to trying the Wagyu, and missed out on some of the amazing-looking Thai cuisine, but I guess there’s always next year...

Is social media future proof?

Which social media channels will be still be around in 10 years' time? Will Facebook, YouTube and Flickr survive the test of time or will new channels continue to emerge? Hundreds of jobs are on the line at MySpace (guardian.co.uk), whilst mirco-blogging site Twitter is booming and boosting Dell's sales (PC Pro). New business tools are rumoured to be launched this year on Twitter and brands like Apple use the channel to create buzz for their products. As reported in the Telegraph the site has even helped chef Greg Wallace find love (ahh).

Have your say on the future of social media with SEOptimise's online poll running see www.seoptimise.com/blog to take part.

Asbestos, Twitter and graduate jobs

It’s been a varied couple of weeks in the world of GBPR. From Asbestos awareness seminars for business and building owners, the use of social media such as Twitter for businesses to the job market for graduates – variety is indeed the spice of working life here. See http://www.oisltd.co.uk/ for free asbestos briefings in Oxford on 3 and 5 June.


For those relatively new to blogging, SEOptimise has inspired huge respect with its AdAge Power 150 List blog – see www.seoptimise.com/blog. The Top 10 Popular Posts section is good for practical advice on online marketing and SEO. Impressively, the blog has more than 2,600 readers and is followed by more than 1,770 Twitter users.


Recent social media news includes new business tools likely to be introduced this year on Twitter, and Confused.com holding the first PR pitch via Twitter ‘Twitch’ (see PRWeek) - it’s certainly an ever-changing and exciting area to be working in.


A more challenging, but not necessarily as gloomy as portrayed topic is the job market. With the recent news that jobs for graduates and school leavers are harder to come by this year than ever before, GBPR has been working with independent recruitment agency Allen Associates to advise on what graduates can do to secure work. http://www.allen-associates.co.uk/

Media frenzy - charity success

April was a busy but successful month organising the PR around the OX5 Run - a charity fun run which David Cameron joined in to raise money for the Oxford Children's Hospital.

More than 700 fun runners jogged the five-mile route around the grounds of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. Hailed as the most successful OX5 Run to date for the hospital - it’s expected to raise over £50,000 once all the sponsorship is received at the end of June.

My client recruitment firm Allen Associates, sponsors of the charity fun run,

were delighted with the media coverage leveraged in the regional media, (BBC Oxford, JackFM, Oxford Mail, BBC TV South and ITV Meridian) and with the national media attention on the day and post- event (Daily Telegraph, Metro, Hello, Daily Express, Daily Mail etc).

Inviting David Cameron to come along to support the race was a key to the event's sucess - I think his presence there, and the fact he not only started but ran the race, played a huge part in inspiring people to take part.

I also committed to running the five miles around the grounds to raise funds for the hospital. So after briefing PR photographer John Hunt to take the essential set up shots with my client - the event's sponsors - and organisers with David Cameron, and greeting the national media, I headed to the start line. Ending up in the front row line-up having organised the photos I was worried about being trampled by the serious runners, but was able to make way for them OK, phew.

I finished the route in 47 minutes, just three minutes behind Cameron! I was pretty happy with that - being my first ever fun run. My Dad ran with me to help spur me on, so I owe a lot of my motivation on the day to him.