An Infographic Is Worth a Million Words

One of the biggest challenges faced by both B2B journalist and PROs alike is making a story visually compelling. It’s relatively easy for consumer products, you often have a plethora of choices, ranging from lifestyle shots, to celebrity endorsements to something a little more artistic. However with B2B products, regardless how cool the technology or service is, you often only have access to pictures of either a big black box, a screen shot or of course your resident spokesperson.

If you take a minute right now and look through a traditional trade publication I am confident that you’ll see that in 99% of cases this is true. There might be some pictures that break this mould, perhaps someone sat at a computer or people huddled around a desk, but in most of the cases the image adds little ‘value’ to the article and was probably courtesy of Getty images rather than the company itself.

So what can we do? Do we start asking celebrities to lay across aforementioned black boxes to add some additional appeal?

Or do we start doing things differently and providing images that not only add value to the journalist but also to our clients?

Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. They allow “viewers” to quickly consume and understand complex information, and apart from that they are damn cool as well. They also have media appeal for both print and online publications, as well as being highly shareable via social media, and so they are quickly becoming an essential part of our PR tool kit.

However, one of the biggest challenges remains educating both PROs and their clients on how best to visually represent this information. So, here are top 5 tips from our experience:

• Think about the big picture. Just like any other PR activity, think about what you want to communicate and the action you want the “viewer” to take.
• Tell a story. Create a storyboard which outlines the story and messages you want to communicate and then start thinking about how you want to visualise this.
• Fit for Purpose. Just like lifestyle shots it’s important to consider how you want your Infographic to be used and how much branding you should allow. It’s better to be subtle and suitable for purpose, than overt and sat on the company’s website.
• Think like ‘Mad Men’. Pithy text that add value to the images and quickly communicate the point are essential to creating a good Infographic. Remember it’s a graphic visualisation and not a short story with pictures.
• Don’t just tag it on. Think about how your Infographic fits into the overall campaign and ties in with the story that the press release and other supporting materials communicate. The Infographic should support the story – not tell a completely different one.

The creation of an Infographic is obviously much easier when you have research to support it, but it can also be used to support product launches and thought leadership in my opinion. For instance, a new hardware product that is 100 times faster than the previous model could be graphically represented by a sports car vs. a rocket ship…..well you get the idea.

If you are interested in learning more about Infographics, I would definitely suggest checking out Mashable.com who are a great resource of innovative takes on the medium.

Facing the challenges of social media: managing the crisis

Everyone talks about the great opportunities that social media offers to engage with customers in new ways. But, there’s another side to the story that’s less appealing.

Recent research shows the social media crises are on the rise and it seems businesses are unprepared. The good news is that 76% of the crises examined in the report could have been prevented had the brand been prepared to respond. According to the same research the top three reasons for the crises were lack of internal social media education, absence of professional staff to monitor and handle social media issues and lack of an emergency plan.

These results clearly demonstrate that despite the buzz around social media brands are not confident about using the medium when it comes to crisis situations. So how can businesses get the most out of social media and ensure they can effectively handle a potential crisis?

Taking social media seriously is maybe the most important advice to be given when it comes to managing social media crisis. Underestimating the power of the medium can have damaging consequences for the business.  Monitoring social media regularly and developing an effective strategy that enables companies to deliver a consistent message across all communication channels is a necessary step in reducing the potential damage of such an event.

Having dedicated staff to handle social media issues is also a good way to ensure that your business will be better prepared to react effectively in an emergency situation. Another important step to consider is using the social media channel to choose the direction of your social media strategy in a crisis situation. Monitoring the reaction of your target audience for example could provide organisations with useful tips on how public opinion is changing and help them select the most appropriate course of action.

Sweeping reforms for UK intellectual property laws

The recent changes in the law have meant that may be copy right laws are finally growing up in the UK. I don’t often quote Vince Cable but he did seem to hit the nail on the head the other day when he said that “Opening up intellectual property laws can deliver real value to the UK economy as well as the creators and consumers,” “We can’t carry on saying that businesses should embrace technology but then not allow consumers to use everyday technology to play works they’ve paid for.”

The government has announced that it plans a radical overhaul of several important intellectual property laws ministers said that the system needed serious updating if it was going to reflect the changes in the real world that have happened over the last generation.

Amongst the changes will be:

• That the UK should have a Digital Copyright Exchange; a digital market place where licences in copyright content can be readily bought and sold. This could add up as much as £2 billion a year to the UK economy by 2020. The Government will announce arrangements for how this work will be driven forward later in the year.
• Copyright exceptions covering limited private copying should be introduced to realise growth opportunities. Thousands of people copy legitimately purchased content, such as a CD to a computer or portable device such as an IPod, assuming it is legal. This move will bring copyright law into line with the real world, and with consumers’ reasonable expectations.
• Copyright exceptions to allow parody should also be introduced to benefit UK production companies and make it legal for performing artists, such as comedians, to parody someone else’s work without seeking permission from the copyright holder. It would enable UK production companies to create programmes that could play to their creative strengths, and create a range of content for broadcasters.

The government believes that by updating the current laws it will aid growth and adding billions to the UK economy. And right now, the government needs all the help it can get to stimulate the economy.

Want to win the Election? Make sure you’ve got a strong social media communications campaign….

A Daily Telegraph article which explores the rising importance of social media for grassroot democracy activism in China, prompted me to write this posting.

The popularity of Twitter-like microblogs and internet chat forums has made it harder for the Party to control the system  with  more than 100 “independent” candidates standing for local elections in China.

Social media tools have been increasingly influential in election campaigns elsewhere.  The US presidential and UK General Election are two of the most recent examples of the impact of social media on large-scale campaigns. Obama’s presidential campaign was one of the biggest success stories in this regard with his social media programme driving more than 5 million new supporters, 8.5 million visitors to his website and 80 million YouTube views.

Last year the UK witnessed its first general election in the social media age with almost half of the population turning to the Internet for information about the parties and candidates.  A study of the elections revealed that 97% of the polled participants used Facebook during the election and the majority of 18-24 year olds preferred online media as their primary source of information.

Furthermore the social media space was inundated with comments and tweets providing real-time opinion and information about the progress of the election campaign. The immediacy of the social media ‘coverage’ could not be matched even by good old TV, with Twitter and online forums quickly becoming the harbinger of public opinion trends.

The recent experience clearly shows that social media is no longer a nice to have addition to political campaigns but a must-have tool which should be integrated into the overall communication strategies. The strength of the online medium is that it enables different levels of engagement with the audiences, i.e. on personal, social and political level.

It will be interesting to see how social media usage in election campaigns will evolve with the development of new technologies. In upcoming elections campaigners will be able to use mobile apps, geolocation tools and users’ data to tailor political messages to smaller areas while encouraging people to engage in interactive conversations on the go.

The ‘personalisation’ of political messages will be further enhanced by a deeper interaction between traditional and social media, empowering people to take active role in the political ‘conversation’.

The Royal Wedding: A Fairytale PR Opportunity

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for last 5 months, you may have noticed the media frenzy surrounding the impending Royal Wedding. Whilst regular updates on the guests (Fergie has not been invited,) best man (Prince Harry, of course) and bridesmaids (small Royal children) have fuelled the nation’s anticipation, the real stars have been the creative minds behind the many opportunist PR campaigns.

Following the announcement of the engagement at Clarence House, QVC released the Epiphany Platinum Clad Diamonique Oval Cluster Ring, a replica of the engagement ring for snip of the price at only £34.42. VisitBritain created a royal wedding itinerary complete with a tour of St Andrew’s, where the couple “went from students to soulmates.”

Boutique Hotel, Ten Manchester Street, offered all engaged couples called William and Kate a complimentary afternoon tea with chilled bottle of champagne, and confectionary brand Swizzels Matlow, created a mosaic image of the couple using Love Hearts, though it takes a few minutes of to realise the couple is William and Kate.

Even toy brands got a piece of the action. At Toy Fair Sylvanian Families launched its Royal Wedding Celebration Set featuring two rabbits called Catherine Chocolate and William Balmoral, with the help of a Wills and Kate look-a-like for a photo call. Lego issued a series of images depicting their take on the big day using mini figures and building blocks to represent the monarchs and Westminster Abbey.

Topping the list of more bizarre announcements: Benidorm Tourist board invited the happy couple to honeymoon on the island with a promise of “unforgettable days very near of your British people.” Whilst Revolver Entertainment has gone to the lengths of producing a film – Will & Kate: The Movie – a fictionalised documentation of their love story, shot in LA.

So why has the wedding served PRs to well?

Firstly, love them or loath them, the Royals get column inches. Like a good celebrity brand ambassador they have high profiles and are of interest to both the media and the Great British public. Secondly, weddings are one of the few events that almost any brand can be linked to. From Travel and Tourism to Food and Drink, and everything in between, there is a Royal Wedding themed story within almost every industry.

Thirdly, it’s a celebration, and celebrations mean special limited edition offers, products and services i.e. something ‘new’ to approach media with. Another key factor is that details of the day have been kept under wraps meaning PRs can take advantage of the nation’s curiosity to speculate and make assumptions to help their clients take centre stage.

Although it might seem like an easy target, securing standout coverage with a Royal Wedding-related campaign takes skill and PR nous. This has been demonstrated by the varying success of the stories over the last 5 months.

All that’s left for Wills and Kate to do is say “I do,” marking the start of their happily ever after, and the end of the PR coverage fairytale.