latest news from the orchard

December 30, 2011

Looking forward to 2012

Filed under: Events, Orchard, PR, Social Media — Tags: , , , , — orchardnews @ 1:56 pm

Despite its unfortunate associations with the Mayan calendar, at Orchard we are really looking forward to 2012. It looks set to be another year of innovation in our fast moving sector, with on-line PR where most of the real progress will be made. The team at Orchard have made some predictions, resolutions and observations about what they think the next year will hold for us.

Steve: 2012 will be a year when marketing budgets face a further squeeze as corporate belts are tightened further; we’ll have to work even harder to demonstrate the value that good PR delivered by professional practitioners can add in difficult economic times.

Harry: I’m looking forward to studying towards my CIPR Diploma in 2012. I’ll be dusting off my PR books and getting in the swing of writing essays again!

Brooke: Next year I am looking forward to some more fab events launching some new brands (shhhh can’t tell you about them yet!) into Guernsey and Guernsey Festival is going to rock, I just know it is going to feature in my PR highlights for 2012.  Oh did I mention I am getting married… I think my wedding is going to be a pretty big personal PR event for me!!

Pieter: I am looking forward to gaining more experience with the team at Orchard, assisting them with a wide variety of tasks and projects and putting my media skills to good use whenever I can.

Chloe: I am desperate to get started on a PR qualification! I am currently about half way to getting a degree with the Open University which I am really enjoying. I’m really looking forward to taking on something industry specific though and building on the knowledge that I have acquired as an account executive.

Emma: I am looking forward to conducting more media and presentation skills training. I think 2012 will also be the year that our clients will really get to grips with how the media has changed. By their nature, professional services firms are not known for being early adopters but the wave of proof demonstrating how useful social media is can no longer be ignored. I am looking forward to helping them get the best out of these new communication channels.

So there you have it – 2012 will be about big events, the wedding of the year, developing new skills and showing clients that PR delivers value for money. We expect it’s going to be a busy year.

Posted by Chris.

November 25, 2011

Pitching a tent outside Disneyland: Everyone is using social media, so shouldn’t you be too?

Filed under: PR, Social Media — Tags: , , , , , , , — orchardnews @ 5:04 pm

A smart move today by the IoD in Guernsey as they hosted a social media seminar for local businesses. A full house showed the interest locally in getting a better handle on the topic and there were good presentations from Katherine Salt, a social media consultant based in Jersey, and Nick Masters, head of digital for big four accountancy firm PWC. There was also an outing for the excellent Socialnomics video – jampacked full of great social media related stats.

Significantly however both speakers focused not on how amazing technology is, or how clever you can be with social media but rather on the people using social media. It’s part of their everyday lives, it’s useful and it’s fun. Businesses have to recognise that fact first of all before they can hope to devise a social media strategy that can bring them some benefits. The consensus (amongst the main speakers anyway) was that the key thing to recognise about social media is that it is a fundamental change in the way we communicate, not in the actual physical act of communication being online rather than in person, or through the media, but the way we act and react. Communication in a social media world is not a one way street – listening, as well as talking, is a vital skill.

Too many businesses spend too much time talking and broadcasting and not enough time listening to their customers, seeing what they are doing, seeing what they want and engaging with them on that level.

In terms of convincing Channel Island’s businesses that they should be making more concerted efforts in this area, the presence of Nick Masters will have persuaded a lot of people. To see a big four accountancy firm advocating the use of social in their business plan was great, and Nick had some very positive things to say about the benefits of a social approach to communication, both for the business and for their 150,000 employees.

My favourite comment of the day came from Nick who said having a static website with no social integration and no strategy for engaging communities was like pitching a tent outside Disneyland and expecting people to just come out and play with you. Social media is about jumping in and getting involved, communicating with your peers and listening to what they have to say. If you understand them better, understand their motivations and expectations better, you can provide a better service to them in the long run.

Posted by Chris.

February 23, 2011

Breakfast with the B48 Club

Filed under: PR, Social Media — Tags: , , , , , , , — orchardnews @ 4:14 pm

I love networking and I was impressed by what I found at Guernsey’s B4-8 Club today where my short presentation might well have been entitled: “PR, CSR, Social Media and The Princess Anne principle”.

B4-8 is a group of around 60 people from a wide variety of business sectors who meet together to listen to each other, share their expertise and experiences and, well, network.

Today’s talk looked at how far the media has moved from the traditional press and broadcast outlets that existed 15 years ago when I started Orchard.

It is more important than ever today to manage the external perception of an organisation because digital and social media have made everyone a potential journalist with access to an immediate medium. Also, clients and customers are more clued up and if businesses do not think and act in line with the thoughts and actions of their customers the latter will go elsewhere.

Corporate social responsibility must extend beyond charitable acts (as welcome and valid as they are) to an alignment of corporate conscience with that of the market.

And as for Princess Anne? I was managing the media surrounding her visit to Guernsey in June 2007 when she slipped and fell over in the centre of St Peter Port. The newspaper photographer missed it but the Channel Television footage was syndicated around the world over the subsequent 24 hours. If that happened today it would have been captured on a mobile phone and Tweeted or Facebooked around the globe in a matter of minutes.

It’s not an option to say: “We don’t do PR”. People are watching what you say and what you do – and they have the means to tell the world!

Posted by Steve.

January 31, 2011

The social web is changing marketing

Filed under: PR, Social Media — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — orchardnews @ 12:37 pm

Most Channel Islands professional services and finance sector businesses understand what they hope to achieve through marketing. Their aims are, generally, to promote their business so more people know about them, to showcase skills and expertise, as well as products and services, and to engage in conversations with referrers and potential clients.

These businesses are now having to consider how to position their brands online and this article by Emma Anderson was written for Contact Magazine to show why online networks are becoming so important to businesses and why social media is a significant channel through which business objectives can be met.

The full article is reproduced after the jump with many thanks to Contact.

(more…)

June 24, 2010

Twitter in the Channel Islands reaches a tipping point

Filed under: PR, Social Media — Tags: , , , , — orchardnews @ 10:16 am

It may be a global phenomenon, but in some ways Twitter has been a bit slow in catching on here in the Channel Islands. It is now starting to gain something of a critical mass, with key personalities in the islands taking up the service as a way of building brands and personalities. News outlets and the media have engaged, and breaking news now makes it to Twitter at the same time as it hits news stands and the airwaves. I’m now able to keep track of most local news via a few feeds, something that would have been impossible even a couple of years ago.

News breaking first on twitter will be the next step, and we reached a milestone of sorts today as well known and popular BBC Radio Guernsey presenter Gary Burgess announced on twitter that he was leaving the station.

Gary tweeted early this morning:

Some news from me: I’m leaving BBC Guernsey – final show is Fri 9 July. I’m taking a year out to fulfil a series of ambitions and projects

So it’s a tipping point of sorts: when the nearest thing the island has to a media celebrity is using Twitter to tell the island his plans it shows that it is becoming a useful communications tool, and something that we in the PR industry need to make sure our clients are paying more attention to.

Pinch of salt though: Twitter has not replaced traditional sources of Guernsey news just yet. The folks here at Orchard heard Gary’s news in the Television House car park a little while ago!

Posted by Chris.

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