Chris Smith

Can you, or should you engage in PR if you don't have regular news to put out? We speak to quite a few companies who quite understandably* think there isn't much point in doing PR if they don't have 'hard news'. They're often talking about funding, or the lack of recent news on that front. Or they might have great partnerships they want to shout about but these are under NDA or aren’t able to be publicly shared for other reasons. Yes, the tech and business media can seem fixated on covering funding and other markers of growth and success like big deals or impressive awards. Yet lots of our clients get regular PR coverage - sometimes 8 or 10 pieces per month, without ‘new news’. They might have instead: 🗞 A company growth, or ‘pivot story’ 🗞 A founder ‘hero story’ 🗞 Industry insight, from their sales team perhaps 🗞 Proprietary data which points to a trend 🗞 A new product, or a move into a new area which points to a trend 🗞 Staff stories - apprenticeships or longstanding members 🗞 Opinion - a new take, a strong view, an honest admission… *they should come to us for a strategy session where our team of PRs and ex journalists can take 2 hours to brainstorm and unearth stories & angles ⭐ #PR #news #marketing #techpr

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This article on PR Week yesterday offered nothing new in times of the PR recruitment market. It is hard. It has always been hard. Attracting and retaining the best talent is a constant challenge for PR agencies. Never in my 20 years' in the industry has there been a "easy" time for hiring. It has typically always been skewed to candidate led or client led. That said some of the challenges of course have changed, both with attitudes of candidates and agencies but also methods of hiring. I remember having to ring prospective candidates at their work desks to headhunt them, well before people would just send off generic messages! What I always say to candidates and clients is it is always evolving and always changing. The lows don't last, but nor do the highs for either side. Retaining your best people is always your first step in also hiring the best. Hiring for attitude and aptitude over "perfect on paper" almost always works better. Listen to your people, what are their priorities? Actually action things you discover. Listen to your recruitment partner, we have a huge amount of insight into the market and what candidates want, which processes are working and where people want to work. Oh and above all else. If you want to have the best teams, hire diverse talent. It makes commercial sense, you will do better work that reaches wider audiences and to top it off "a diverse and inclusive culture" regularly comes up high on priorities for my candidates. Yes times are tough right now but "this too shall pass". https://lnkd.in/eSBsQ-95

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Have you ever looked at my profile and wondered just what it is that Skout does? This is a great overview from our MD, Rob Skinner that sets out who we are, what we do and our areas of expertise. If any of this resonates with you, feel free to drop me a message and we can arrange a quick catch up to chat about how we can help you reach your strategic marketing goals. #b2bpr #b2bpragency

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Back in the early noughties these types of ‘formula’ were a handy tool for PR folk looking to secure coverage for all sorts of brands. Remember the formula for calculating the ‘beer goggles effect’?! Out of curiosity, for a bit of fun, I asked ChatGPT to come up with a mathematical model that quantifies the impact of thought leadership and visibility on investment appeal. I won’t share the whole thing, but this is the headline formula it came up with. II = B + (wV×V + wC×C + wP×P) + ϵ Here’s how it works: 🔎 Visibility (V): Increasing the public presence of the CEO or founders—through media appearances, conference engagements, and social media—raises the company’s profile among potential investors. 🤝 Credibility (C): Demonstrating a solid track record, supported by peer-reviewed publications, industry awards, establishes the company’s reliability and expertise. 🧑‍🔬 Perception of Leadership (P): These efforts culminate in a stronger perception of the leadership team, which is crucial for gaining investor trust. (Mathematician connections - feel free to challenge this! 😄) But there’s a much easier way of demonstrating my point: Visibility = Investment. You really don’t need to have a complex understanding of algebra to see that making your founders more visible - showing their leadership, their expertise, their strategic thinking - makes your life sciences business more investable. #ChatGPT #ThoughtLeadership #ExecutiveVisiblity #LifeSciences #MakeBusinessSocial 😁 I'm Chris 🗣️ Partnering with life sciences companies to raise their profile, visibility and authority Liked this post? Want to see more? 🔔 Ring the bell on my profile 🚀 Follow me ➡️ Connect with me

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⚠️Risk taking - a key theme of Media 360 day 1. 🤖Covering everything from AI to customer insight the sessions have had some great commentary including a brilliant discussion on how brands can embrace risk in a pannel with Victoria Simpson - Clarke Ndubuisi Uchea , Linn Frost, Vicky Handley Dom Hyams Dave Edwards Todays nuggets: 💥 brands don’t just need to stand out against competitors, or in their category. They need to stand out against the noise of content consumers are surrounded with, the risk of being ignored is great if brands don’t consider this 📣 brands should think about engagement and attention, not just reach to make sure their messages are heard. Bold thinking with strong creative is the best way to capitalise on this 💯70% of people feel brands get it wrong when representing marginalised communities - inclusivity and diversity doesn’t have to be complex to be effective. It is risky for brands to NOT reflect their customers 👶 focus on the lived experience of your brand - take a risk, don’t just think beautiful creative, think about what the people who buy your brand (or you want to buy your brand) think 📰 15-29 year olds are actively dedicating deep attention to news content - particularly on social media. Take risks and break out from traditional advertising methods to engage this audience #Media360 #BrandBuilding #SocialMedia

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Here’s what’s (sadly) noteworthy in PR this week: massive media job cuts. What does this mean for PR? And what does this mean for journalists? Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the job cuts, and we stand in solidarity with our friends and colleagues in the media who are struggling during this time - whether you’re facing a job loss or trying to keep your head above water with a significantly reduced team. #publicrelations #PR

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So what does a General Election mean for your PR team? 💁‍♀️ 📰 ✨ If, like me, you're working on a variety of activities over the next month, you'll be considering how things will look in the run-up to the 4th July in the UK. You'll be asking: should I press pause or pivot my PR plans or should I just crack on? Here's my tuppence: 👉 There will -obviously- be an increased media focus on politics. The general election is almost certainly going to lead the news for the next few weeks - from debates, updates, and coverage of election-related events. This can make it challenging for non-political stories to land (or land well). 👉 Your audiences' attention will also be heavily focused on the election, which might reduce the impact of your PR efforts as people may be more engaged with political news and less with other areas of the media (ie. lifestyle, consumer finance, technology). 👉 Editors and journalists will likely prioritise political stories over other content, leading to less coverage and lower chances of your work getting featured prominently. Similarly, journalists who cover non-political beats might get roped into the GE coverage, so don't assume anyone is working BAU. So what can you do about it? Most of us won't want to turn the taps off entirely and if you're gearing up for something big, you might worry about missing your moment (and trust me, I know that sucks because I was meant to launch a campaign 9th September 2022). Consider your options. 1️⃣ Reschedule your PR diary - If possible, it might be time to pivot your activity so that anything major kicks off after mid-July (assuming it's a clean election and there's not another hung parliament / coalition situation). This will help you avoid the peak election coverage period, particularly if you're launching a bigger project or campaign. 2️⃣ Embrace newsjacking - You can't be afraid to lean into politics with a small-p for this one, but if rescheduling is simply not an option, consider tying your PR campaign to the election in a relevant and newsworthy way. 3️⃣ Go niche - Now might not be the time to hit up your pals at the nationals. Think about the smaller publications that have a different remit. Be creative if you're on the consumer side. If you have a B2B arm, hone in on it. Focus on niche publications and online platforms that might still have space for your story, even during the election period. 4️⃣ Break away from the usual earned media channels - Think about your owned options. Social media, email marketing, and other direct channels can help you reach your audience when the media agenda is too crowded. Using these channels also means you can be more reactive, entertaining, and consistent in your comms despite the saturation of election news. There you go. My starter for ten. What would you add? Or if you have a question about what you should do, drop a comment or give me a bell. 🔔

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ChatGPT - Explain public relations in the style of UK PR Futurist Stuart Bruce. Not perfect, but not bad attempt. 💡 I am Stuart Bruce. I can help you: 🚀 Modernise your PR and comms 🤖 Use AI for PR and comms 🔥 Protect your reputation in a crisis 📈 Improve your insight and measure your comms 🔔 You can ring the bell on my profile to see more posts like this. #publicrelations #communications #pr #aiinpr

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Do you realise that you’re sat on PR content? Content that will get you into the media- so you can reach more people and build your credibility and visibility through being elevated and celebrated. So often in business we just get on with what we think is normal. Book launches, event planning, thought leadership - we often forget to capitalize on it. The media can amplify your message, it can shine a light on your work, it creates a new level of energy around you when you step into celebration mode What are you doing in your business that you should be celebrating?? I’ll bet there’s something!!!

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Clearly PR has hit 13,200 viewers of its content this year so far - not literally of course, that would be disastrous for our own PR. There is a theme that has emerged over the type of content which resonates the most. After the home, about, team, and careers pages, the most accessed content away from the structure of the site itself has been as follows: 1. CASE STUDIES: This supports the assumption that customers want to look beyond the bling and see if you really do deliver on your claims. We're very happy about this as we've got some absolute crackers on there, with one case study in particular taking centre stage (https://lnkd.in/encEz3Uu). 2. INSIGHTS: B Corp to B Corp Newsletter - our free fortnightly newsletter aimed at helping fellow B Corp businesses to get more from their PR. No sales, no sign up required, just great insights and real-world practical PR ideas for businesses to consider for their organisations (https://lnkd.in/eaHgpptz). 3. ORIGINAL RESEARCH & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Greenwashing Index report - an analysis of the prevalence of 'greenwashing' mentions in the UK media. Did you know that mentions increased more than 50% in the six months to 31st December 2023? (https://lnkd.in/eRYk_dqr) 4. TOPICAL COMMENTARY: Sunak's comms team screws up again - thought leadership piece on a trending story that caught the media's attention (https://lnkd.in/gpwpu4_k). 5. HOW-TO: How to get media coverage as a new B Corp business - this was a piece to camera that I recorded that provided a number of tips on how B Corps can get the attention of the media at a time when being a B Corp is no longer newsworthy (https://lnkd.in/eZYgfKds). So, in summary, content that adds value, offers possible solutions to everyday business challenges, sparks new ideas and innovations, and backs up your claims of how good you are as a service or product provider to those consuming it, is picked out by your audiences which in turn helps you stand out. Hope this helps you when planning your own content calendar for 2025! #PR #ContentMarketing

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As discussed during the PR Moment Agency Growth Summit last week, awards contribute to reputation and awareness which in turn are key drivers for your pipeline in 2025. So if you are looking to get a head start on your growth ambitions for the year ahead, now's the time to start capturing the great work your team and your agency have done for clients. Keep in mind that clients buy from agencies who do great work and who can demonstrate expertise in solving the problems they are facing. If that's not a reason to hit the PRmoment Awards 2025 early entry deadline of 13th December, I don't know what is!! #growth #agency #agencynewbusiness #PR #PRAgency

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PR Week asked me to provide an instant reaction to today's UK budget announcement. Here it is. Link to the PR Week story in the first comment. Labour has said from the beginning that they wanted to prioritise serious policy-making and responsible governing. But since taking office, their communications approach has made their policy workings appear chaotic. As a result, this budget has been a particularly gruesome exercise in public sausage-making. Having finally reached the formal red box moment, the resulting sausage looks edible, and even enticing. Delivered with confidence, the Chancellor found means to invest in key areas of the UK economy, provided funding to stabilise the NHS, and support substantial capital initiatives. Still, much of the burden of rising taxes falls on business. Increased employer NI and a significant increase to minimum wage will make it harder for businesses to expand payrolls. She’s been careful to reassure gilt markets, and the price of UK government debt dropped substantially during her speech, although it has ticked upwards this afternoon. Follow-on analysis will focus on whether Labour over-egged its doom and gloom messaging in the run-up and whether the economic strategy goes far enough. But considered in the round, the Chancellor’s proposals read as reasonable and responsible given the UK’s fiscal realities. She has also projected a greater degree of certainty and predictability. And with global upheaval and unpredictability sure to surge following next week’s U.S. election, this budget might help position the UK as a bastion of relative calm and normality in a messy geopolitical landscape.

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70% of the PR sector got a pay rise in the last year. This is down from 79% in the previous year. A survey of over 400 UK in-house and agency corporate communications professionals from The Works, found that 82% of in-house and 76% of agency employees were “feeling OK to very happy” with their pay. This is an increase of 4% and 13% respectively, on the previous year. The Works said this highlighted how a soft market and companies tightening their comms budgets had “taken their toll” on the industry as the reason for the drop in pay rises. It’s really interesting to see the comparison between in-house and agency professionals salaries, bonuses and pay rises.

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What is Havas set to lose here though? Surely the concern is that major businesses start to no longer see value in B-Corp - ad agency networks are unlikely to favour it over big fee paying clients unless it’s expected of them to gain those accounts. If there isn’t a major consequence then what will stop others from simply doing the same thing? 🌍😳 #advertising #environmentalism #shell #Havas #bcorp

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Only one more sleep until the PRmoment Agency Growth Forum which features a stellar cast of presenters including yours truly! To all those attending, I look forward to catching up with old friends and to meeting new ones. My 20 minutes will cover: ➡ Positioning - why it's so important to know who you are targeting ➡ Planning - five steps to building a strong pipeline stream ➡ Performance - an explanation of why pipeline management is a numbers game ➡ Practicalities - six actionable tips to help with you pipeline thinking Plus - the added bonus of introducing six great thought leaders who contribute to this space (names BTW - not on stage 😁 ) Sound good? I believe you could still sneak in with an online ticket which could be bought by visiting: https://lnkd.in/ehsXgxJz. But if you can't attend and would still like to find out more about how to build your pipeline, I will happily hop on a call and use my deck as the basis for an informal chat with you. Just DM me and let's go from there. #PRAgency #PR #Agency #Growth

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