By Jamie Gavin, inPress Online

When we set up inPress Online two years ago we had one clear objective in mind: To make PR Social.

And to achieve this objective we really had two strategies:

1. To Make PR Social From a Technological Standpoint
Firstly, having co-authored the first ever multi-platform Magazine Media Handbook for the Professional Publisher’s Association, and experienced first-hand with comScore the analytics charting the growth of social media, it was clear that media – and the PR industry with it – was headed for a sea change.

Media content was shifting from didactic to conversational, becoming increasingly consumer driven, and mass dividing across blogs, forums, and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

The targeting of traditional and digital media outlets is still hugely important, but now the goal-posts have widened to include social media publishing, community outreach, and having real-time conversations with customers directly online.

There is also much greater emphasis on monitoring the latest news stories and the pulse of our clients’ industries. By monitoring what is being said – both by the press and by consumers – in real time, we are able to genuinely engage with the relevant conversations of the day, and contribute something to those conversations.

In short, technology has changed the way the media works in recent years, and in order to run successful public relations campaigns businesses must change their communications strategies around this.

2. To Make PR Social From a Behavioural Standpoint
Even before you get to the technological advancements that are changing media, PR should be social from the word go.

From a personal point of view, I’ve always felt that quality PR has a prominent role to play in the generation of media stories, and have equally felt a duty to work with journalists directly to find out where we may be able to help.

If your sole aim as a PR agency is to take on a client and push their own messaging to your press contacts without any kind of understanding of what the journalists you are working with might be looking for in terms of content, then you are a spammer, not a PR.

At inPress Online we try to work as much as possible with the press to find out what journalists might be seeking and where – if at all – our clients might be able to fit into their plans, be it for data, insight, industry opinion, or even something as simple as image or video content to support a story. In this way we try to position ourselves as a kind of go between matching up clients with journalists and blogger communities, ensuring editorial integrity at all times.

Of course there will always be an agenda with paid content, but if all you are doing is pushing your clients products and services with no attempt to dovetail them to the issues of the day, then again you are unlikely to make the press.

Whichever way you look at it PR is becoming more social, and media itself is becoming more egalitarian – less centrally controlled – online. These changes can only bring about good things in the long-run and ultimately the success of businesses, PRs, and media outlets like will depend on their ability to embrace them.

While today’s news about Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram has raised questions over the onset of a new tech bubble, it undoubtedly underlines the importance of making image content easily shareable on the modern Web. Over Easter we also heard news of what looks to be another fantastic image platform, Pinvolve, which converts Facebook pages into Pinterest boards.

The Internet is becoming more visual, and this shift is already having a significant impact on brand marketing online.

Pinterest is a Social Networking platform on the move. According to Hitwise, the image curation site is now the third largest social media site in the US behind only Facebook and Twitter, with comScore adding a figure of 17.8 million visitors to that territory for February.

While marketers will argue back and forth over the ability of Pinterest to deliver direct ecommerce sales, there is an even more valuable lesson to be learned from its growth that exemplifies the Internet’s shift towards being a more visual communications platform.

Where the Web was once viewed as a largely text based platform, or ‘Information Superhighway’, we are undoubtedly seeing an increasing amount of rich media migrating online. According to the IAB and PwC, online display advertising grew by 13.4% to reach £1.13bn in 2011, and in the UK alone there are now more than 34 million Internet users watching videos online every month, according to comScore.

Take PR for example. Where static press releases were once mass-distributed to endless lists of journalists, we now increasingly find ourselves building online media hubs through which to draw press and consumers back to engaging content online – images and videos can be added to enhance the story and be shared seamlessly. Distribution wires are increasingly asking for image content to enhance written press releases, and as an agency we are creating more and more video content for our clients that can be shared around the Web.

Advertising too is benefitting from this shift. Where Google PPC was once viewed as the only option for brands and businesses online, rich display advertising is becoming increasingly popular as advertiser messaging follows the shifting patterns of content consumption from text to visuals.

Whether or not your business chooses to invest a significant amount of time in building a Pinterest presence specifically is not necessarily the point. Facebook’s recent shift towards its Timeline format for brand pages has placed an altogether higher emphasis on image content, as this e-consultancy article highlights. Google+, in-spite of its failings in other areas, remains an excellent destination at which to store your online image content due to the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) benefits it brings.

Whatever the platform the message is clear, more image and video content is needed in brand marketing online, as the Internet shifts from text to visual.

By Jamie Gavin, inPress Online

As a previous employee of both comScore and the Professional Publishers Association (PPA), who share an office – and a history – with the Association of Online Publishers, I was delighted to see that comScore has been selected by UKOM to provide the industry standard for online audience measurement in the UK.

UKOM, for those that don’t know, is the ‘UK Online Measurement’ Company. Comprising of trade associations including the IAB, AOP, ISBA, and IPA, the key focus of UKOM is to provide a single currency through which advertising can be traded between advertisers, media agencies, and online media owners.

Having worked in online analytics in one form or another from every point of this triangle, and now increasingly as a buyer for clients through the Agency Planning side of inPress Online, I can well understand the importance of the industry’s move towards a unified planning currency.

For those outside the media industry this move is also significant, as it represents a ‘growing up’ of digital media, and an understanding as an industry at large that in order to properly regulate the vast amount of ad-spend now moving online, more standardised metrics are needed.

Whether or not a third party ‘referee’ as comScore has come to label itself in the more recent years will be as valuable to the future as it has been to the past of online analytics is another question entirely, especially with the free capabilities now on offer from Google services like their Ad-Words or Ad-Planner services. However, in the world of online display advertising UKOM is undoubtedly a positive step in the right direction as all forms of online media come together to converge online.

inPress Online was this week pleased to launch a brand new website for our newest client, Concrete London.

A subsidiary of Mixamate Concrete & Screed, who we having been helping to shift budget from the Yellow Pages into digital over the past twelve months, Concrete London was launched at the beginning of 2012 partly on the back of the growth that Mixamate has enjoyed during this period.

Website design and build is a service that people don’t often associate with inPress Online — partly because of our strong Social Media PR focus.

However, in order to achieve the best results an integrated strategy and an ‘All Roads Lead to Rome’ approach are essential to success in modern PR & Marketing and we have award-winning designers and developers on-board to help us facilitate this implementation.

This particular site was designed in-house by the inPress team, based on the client brief for a really sleek and simplistic looking design but with a modern feel. It features fully interactive image and video content, and has been completely SEO’d to assist in the Google rankings.

In addition to the new website, a dedicated Twitter account is due to be launched, which will enable us to capitalise on Mixamate’s existing Twitter audience of over 1,000 followers.

These platforms will be supported by additional digital marketing tactics including SEO, PPC, offline display advertising and of course surrounding PR. It is this kind of digital marketing legwork that really helps us to supplement our traditional PR approach even further.

Whatsmore, this type of brand building really helps to establish brand recognition and affinity when it does come time to make the headlines, ensuring a joined-up approach of branding and direct response.

To find out more about our joined-up approach, which can help to build in significantly higher value than that of a traditional PR company, please get in contact with us directly via our contact page.

The Waterloo Energy Academy, which inPress Online helped to launch in February, has this month sent its first batch of Home Energy Assessors out into homes in the Waterloo area of London.

A whole team of newly trained volunteers are visiting Waterloo residents this month to provide a free report on potential fuel savings and energy efficiency in the home.

The pilot scheme, which was run by the Waterloo Community Development Group and social enterprise, Sustainable Communities in in February with the help of Government funding, proved to be a huge success, with further Academies already having been run this month due to high demand.

The project sees 18-26yr olds benefiting from free training and certification in the growing energy & environmental sectors, and in turn creating value for the local community by way of actually going into people’s homes and assessing their current energy usage.

The preliminary project launch has also been a success for social media, with details of the event being published across Facebook and Twitter rather than the Waterloo Community Development Group’s existing website.

The Group’s new Twitter account, which corresponds in name and content to the existing Waterloo Community Development Group Twitter account, has already received more than 300 followers, and helped spread the word about the scheme throughout the local community. With widespread local press coverage already achieved, and another set of successful events looking set to take place this month, the Waterloo Energy Academy looks set to go from strength to strength!

For further details please join the Waterloo Energy Academy on Facebook and Twitter.

Much has been made in the press recently about Facebook’s apparent ‘failure’ to monetise itself as a direct ecommerce platform.

While the social networking behemoth is a great destination for marketers and advertisers alike, it is simply not a sales tool. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that these over-simplified attempts to monetise Facebook have been unsuccessful.

Nor, indeed, are brands as obsessed with accruing Likes to amass consumer ‘data’ as many in the industry would have us believe. Analytics plays a huge part in determining marketing ROI, but the “doing” in terms of lead generation will always come first to businesses before the “counting”.

Where Facebook is concerned, amassing large audiences allows brands the opportunity to communicate with consumers on a daily basis, in a more casual, conversational, and importantly ‘opted into’ environment. In this way the Facebook relationship you forge with your customers will be far more superior to the email marketing database you create, ensuring a two way conversation at all times.

But the minute you try to take advantage of this relationship and begin to sell to your audiences at every possible opportunity, you risk diminishing your good will bank and ultimately this will jeopardise brand reputation.

The fact is that “social media” is called social because it is just that – a natural progression from the didactic media of old to an altogether more egalitarian incarnation. Media is a platform through which to spread content, messaging, and now conversation – it is not a transactional tool.

But even before the conceptual arguments for not selling directly on Facebook is realised, marketers must surely understand that the logistics of Facebook commerce simply do not work.

Tools like Google, Amazon and eBay have done a great job of simplifying the online shopping process in recent years, encouraging users to shop across product categories and price ranges to find the best deal regardless of brand. While some retailers have maligned the loss of brand identity online because of this formula, others have capitalised on the changing face of online retail by optimising their sites – and their products and brands – for search engine optimisation and direct selling online.

Where Facebook and the wider social web are helping to redress this balance, is by providing a platform through which to let the personality, individuality, and unique selling points of your brand shine out once again online, removing the automation.

This is where the possibilities lie for brands on Facebook, in generating genuinely engaging PR, promotional, and advertising campaigns, to demonstrate personality and brand individuality.

We’ve said it so many times before, but automation and direct selling are two of the biggest turn-off that brands can demonstrate online. In the case of Facebook, which is predominantly a branding channel albeit one used to generate additional traffic to your site, any attempts to sell directly could actually be harming your business, rather than helping it.

Afrikan Boy famously burst onto the scene 5 years ago when he appeared on a remix of the smash MIA hit Paper Planes. Here he talks to inPress Online MD, Jamie Gavin, about the industry, British multi-culturalism, and the changing face of Global media…

It’s been 5 years since we heard you drop on the MIA Paper Planes remix. What have you been up to since and what’s coming up next?

Times flies! lol, since then ive graduated from University, started my own fitness brand and will be bringing out a Workout DVD to follow that in a few months time.

Also been busy in the studio working on several EP’s/Albums with artists and bands all across the globe.

There is obviously a strong African theme running through your work in everything from your name through to your lyrics. Is that something you are particularly conscious of and who are your biggest influencers?

Yes that is a theme that will die with me even after my career has ended, my style is an example of multi culture in Britain, even down to my styling and the clothes i wear for performances and just everyday life also includes some form of Afrikanism. It keeps me alive and different. My biggest influences range down from MC’s such as Dizzee Rascal Kano Ddouble E from back in the day to the Nigerian Superstar’s Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Sir Shina Peters.

And of course, we have to ask, what was it like working with MIA?

Working with MIA is a blessing, Shes soo creative and involved in her work but also carefree, Shes given me tons of great advice as to where she sees Afrikan Boy could go!

What did you make of the (over)reaction to her giving the finger during the performance with Madonna at the Superbowl?

Lol Funny you ask that, we spoke on the phone a week before she did it, we were talking about doing something crazy and what might happen at the event since shes going to be sharing the stage with the worlds greatest female artists Madonna and Nicki Minaj . Personally i think the media over reacted to her middle finger like Adele flipped her Middle finger at the brits when they cut her off and ITV the next day gave her an apology ! Still a middle finger ! but different people.

How are digital distribution and social media changing the game in terms of the music industry?

It gives the people and artists more power and takes away power from major labels who used to run the whole game! 2012 an artist can record, shoot their video and upload their track onto itunes using certain applications. its become easy to connect to people all over the world! Worldtown gang!

Last we heard you were studying for a Psychology degree at Brunel University. Do you feel that kind of study has helped you breakdown human behaviour/emotion even further in your lyrics? Or do you see psychological study and the kind of anthropological analysis you run through your lyrics as being one and the same?

Yeah 100% i use what i’ve learnt in everyday life if applicable. Ofcourse i cant psycho-analyse in every song i do as i dont think my audience would want to hear that but it definitely plays a role in how i want the music to feel and come across to the listener. Music is a psychological process, it can invoke very strong emotions and thoughts, music can make people frisky (no tinie) it can make you sad, reflective, joyful, thankful, uplifted and more. Its up to the Artists to deliver the emotion they want.

And finally, what practical advice would you give to give to a young artist looking to break into the music industry right now?

Put your EVERYTHING INTO YOUR CAREER! BECAUSE YOU GET WHAT YOU PUT IN. Wake up everyday and try to write, try to better your craft because theres alot of other hardworking artists out there doing the same thing. Enjoy what you do first. The music industry aint a nice place and is often confused. Stand your ground. Stick to what you believe in.

In what was his second appearance on the station, inPress Online company founder and MD, Jamie Gavin, joined Mick Coyle on the City Talk breakfast show last week to discuss the morning’s news.

You can have a listen to the full unedited version of the 10 minute slot below, which includes nuggets from the inPress MD such as “I always thought the phrase was ‘glass elephant’” and in relation to Nike’s forthcoming production of the new Everton FC shirt, “Do Nike no something we don’t?”

Always look forward to being involved in the Liverpool Media scene, both in our capacity as online press and social media experts and more generally to review the news, and will hopefully be broadcasting again from City Tower very soon!

by Jamie Gavin, inPress Online.

Recent data from my former company comScore showed what the industry has suspected for a long time: Google+ is struggling to gain a foothold as a social media platform within its own right.

It is fair to say that Google+ is rubbish… if you use it in the wrong way.

Don’t get me wrong Wayne’s a great footballer, but I’m sure if Ferguson started playing him in goal every week instead of de Gea, the Man Utd fans would have an issue with it. That’s a bad analogy of course because Rooney could probably play anywhere, but the point is Google+ cannot.

Here at inPress Online we use a system of Social Media PR to help our client’s target audiences in what we believe to be the three crucial areas online: the online press, social media, and the Google rankings. For the traditional equivalents you might well refer to display, word of mouth, and the classifieds. The important thing is that this approach not only works but is also extremely efficient in its distribution of communications across the Web.

We use a number of social platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to communicate with consumers and journalists directly online.

We also include the branded website in this group since it provides a rank-able – and importantly measurable – platform of engagement for our clients, as well as providing a direct response mechanism and a central hub through which all other PR and marketing can flow.

You will notice however that Google+ is not included in this list of platforms. Does this mean that we hate Google+? Does it mean that we don’t use it?

Far from it – Google is making giant leaps forward right now in the area of social search and any company in the world – already tech-savvy or otherwise – would be mad to miss it.

There are numerous SEO benefits to using Google+ in your digital marketing – not to mention PR strategy – and of course how much emphasis Google+ gives to its own software as opposed to third parties is still a huge ground for debate when it comes to the rankings. It is also an incredibly useful step forward in the amalgamation of numerous existing Google accounts, making the technical publishing process significantly more joined-up.

It can also be said that Hangouts, like everything that Google seem to be doing in video right now, looks like a good shout. Barack Obama has famously used it, and at the end of the day if Barack Obama told me to put my hand in a fire I’d just need to check how long he wanted me to leave it in there for.

There is also the issue of Facebook and YouTube – how long is it before Google pulls the plug and prevents FB users from embedding YouTube videos into the social sharing site? It’s unlikely, but it could happen, and again we should all be prepared for that eventuality.

No Google+ is a great back end tool – but it is not a destination, certainly not at this stage anyway, and in marketing it in a way that smacks of taking the existing Facebook product and putting a bottle opener on it or something, the search giant has done both its product and its brand a great disservice.

It can also be pointed out that Google+ is just one of up to 25+ publishing and analytics tools that we will use on any one account, which range from everything from Google Ad-Words and Ad-Planner, to packages like Flickr, SlideShare, and LinkedIn.

There are ways to play Google+ to maximise its usefulness, like pulling Ledley King off 20 minutes from time to help spare his knees. But if you think that he is going to go up front for you and score an overhead bicycle kick, based solely on what you’ve seen from him in the centre-back role, it’s just not going to happen at this stage I’m afraid – Facebook IPO or not.

It’ been a busy year for inPress Online to date, and with London Fashion
Week in full swing we are pleased to announce the welcoming of our
brand new fashion client, Zuku by KSO.

Zuku provide an eclectic range of British and Irish designs, focussing on unique fashion and providing a personal shopper service from the company’s flagship boutique in County Kildare, Ireland.

inPress Online will be handling a range of disciplines for the company, ranging from PR and social media, to e-commerce platform design and the strategic planning of the company’s International expansion over the coming 12-24 months.

It is a very proud moment for the team and represents our first soiree into the fashion sector, having previously worked in the media, entertainment, theatre, technology, manufacturing, construction and property sectors.

For more updates on this exciting new client win please stay tuned to our blog, and in the meantime for more information on how inPress can help your brand online please do not hesitate to get in contact on info@inpressonline.com.