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Owners and Managing Directors need not apply on LinkedIn – discover best practice for your headline

April 30, 2013 by Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR Leave a Comment

What does your headline say on LinkedIn? If it simple declares you to be the ‘Owner’ or ‘Managing Director’ then you are missing a major trick on LinkedIn; you should be using this to promote the difference you can make to clients!

Your headline is the text that appears immediately beneath your name and is a key part to getting you found on LinkedIn and driving people to engage. Equally it is your chance to appear dull and uninteresting – so let’s get it right and use best practice for your headline on LinkedIn.

You reach this simply by clicking ‘Profile/edit profile’ on the LinkedIn menu and you have 120 characters to play with and you should do it today if yours describes you as ‘Owner’ or ‘Managing Director’ of your business. That makes you as anonymous as our silhouette pictured here and you will blend in with the vast majority of such profiles in LinkedIn.

Not that such a title is false, indeed you are the owner and/or managing director and I congratulate you! I too can claim both titles when it comes to Morgan PR! However, currently my LinkedIn headline reads: Berkshire-based PR & social media consultant. I help companies make sense of and money from Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn.

No doubt this piece of uncommon common sense instantly illustrates the potential that your headline has. Say something more powerful that explains what you do, better still the difference you make to your particular sector. Remember benefits are better than features! Throwing in a geographic reference will help too if you cover a specific area like PR and Social Media in Berkshire!

This will help with searches for your skills on LinkedIn and can also help someone be sure they have found you. If your name is not unique and someone is trying to track you done, explaining more about what you do could help them find you.

Remember, each and every time you tweak your profile those within your network will get an update about it.

If you’ve pimped your title and want to share why not post it below – and log in with LinkedIn and other readers will be able to visit your profile. I will offer free advice on every headline posted below!

Filed Under: Business tips, LinkedIn ·

Why you want business referrals from networking, not leads.

April 22, 2013 by Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR Leave a Comment

BNI Referral Slips

What do you get from networking? If you get leads it might be ‘notworking’ as leads need chasing. If you get referrals then you are probably a member of BNI; referrals represent a genuine opportunity to do business.

Here at Morgan PR we often go netwalking in Berkshire and Oxfordshire – which is like networking, but involves countryside and having a one-to-one walking the dogs and it does involve leads – for the dogs. It is the only time I am interested in a lead, as it safely gets the dog across the road. I don’t think a lead has any place in business except as a verb, mostly it is wasted noun and wasted time!

Dictionary.com defines as follows:

Lead (noun)

A suggestion or piece of information that helps to direct or guide; tip; clue: I got a lead on a new job. The phone list provided some great sales leads.

Here is the same website’s definition of ‘referral’:

Referral (noun)

A person recommended to someone or for something.

They are worlds apart are they not?

Imagine if I was down the pub (it has been known!) and overheard this on a neighbouring table: “Can anyone recommend someone for making videos for my website? Ideally they would need a studio in Thatcham?”

Now, having overheard I could simply take their details and tell Peter Cooke of Dudleigh Films about it… that would be a lead and he follows it up as a stranger to the person making the appeal and may or may not get the work.

Or… how about as I understand the benefits of referrals I politely joined the conversation and told them all about Peter? The work he has done for me and for clients and about the £200 deal he does for ‘talking head’ videos for your website… Already he has a much better chance of getting the work. How about if I asked if it was okay for me to get Peter to call them?

As a Director Consultant with BNI Berkshire I am responsible for the Bourne Chapter of BNI in Thatcham… where Peter Cooke is a member. So in the scenario where I had recognised an ideal referral for him I can now deliver that referral either online or at the meeting on one of the slips pictured above and the person would be expecting the call and already knows how great Dudleigh films is at producing video for web – from a studio in Thatcham.

Much more professional than a lead isn’t it?

At BNI members are given training that teaches them how to ask for ideal referrals – and how to find them. Having been specific (we’ve blogged about being specific in your 60 seconds) fellow chapter members can listen out for opportunities and even generate them, ensuring that you will not be left chasing leads to grow your business.

Do you have any strategies for getting good referrals? Share them in the comments. If you would like to learn how to truly network effectively do get in touch.

Filed Under: Business tips, Networking ·

Getting the most from your seat at BNI Berkshire

April 18, 2013 by Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR Leave a Comment

Most people know that when it comes to networking, BNI means business, however for many it is the wealth of training offered by the world’s largest networking organisation that truly helps them grow their businesses.

A potential highlight on the busy training calendar in BNI Berkshire, where this author is a proud Director Consultant, came this week when National Director Charlie Lawson (pictured right) visited to deliver a powerful seminar on ‘How to get the most from your seat’

Charlie Lawson posed the question “When the going gets tough…” before recounting the tale of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton and the heroic escape when his ship Endurance was lost on the famous Trans-Antarctic expedition.

He posed the question again “When the going gets tough…” and in unison the assembled BNI members chorused back “The tough get going!”

However, contrary to Billy Ocean’s assertion Charlie Lawson suggested: “When the going gets tough… Stick to the system.”

We might not be facing the challenges that Shackleton did, he explained, but times are tough and the economic problems will be solved by small businesses; small businesses like us and across Berkshire, BNI Chapters are making a difference within local communities and the business done at these meetings, the referrals given leads to spending in the local economy.

He asserted that many within BNI were entrepreneurs who wanted control of our own destiny, however they needed to recognise that BNI has a system that works and by sticking to the system entrepreneurs flourish!

So this training session would focus on three key parts of this system:

Stories…
Being specific
Visitors

I want to tell you a story…

We are told the story of a travel agent who late on a Friday got a call from a bride-to-be on the eve of her wedding, distraught that a baggage strike had led to the cancellation of flights to their Caribbean destination; literally the honeymoon was over before it had started. However, the travel agent asked where the bride-to-be would be the next morning and scarcely 12 hours later delivered tickets to her as she prepared to get married, for the same kind of itinerary, but for Hawaii… the honeymoon would go ahead.

Naturally, we would all buy from that travel agent… and there is the point! Emotive stories with a villain (the strike) and the hero (the travel agent) help your fellow BNI members to refer business to you by telling those stories.

We each paired off and practiced telling those stories and some great examples were demonstrated and without doubt we saw the power of storytelling – incidentally, here at Morgan PR we have long stressed that great PR is simple telling stories and this reinforces that within a system to get more business.

In need somebody, not just anybody…

Forget BNI for a moment and think about the last time you went networking and listened to talented people delivering a 60 second presentation that told you absolutely nothing about who they wanted to meet? It is the main reason why networking turns into not-working for so many; without being specific you end up with leads rather than powerful referrals.

Charlie Lawson emphasised the importance of being specific and was reassuringly greeted with some scepticism from people who honestly believe they can help anybody, or any business. Surely they can, but without being specific…

Below is a diagram which reflects what we were shown and essentially you break down your general request and the closer you get to a job title within a business the more likely you are to get a referral and as was demonstrated in the room… often that was enough for someone to know the person in that role and offer an introduction.

Being specific works, specifically through people recognising the company, role or even individual you need to reach. Searching for them on LinkedIn can often reveal you might not know them, but you know someone who does. Also, while you might not know that precise business, you might have a contact within a similar company that would also make an ideal referral.

Treat visitors as just that, visitors.

The powerful session wrapped up with the importance of visitors and there was a long list of the difference that they make to the success of a chapter with every visitor representing the opportunity to do business.

However, how many of us are guilty of inviting someone with the specific intention of inviting them to apply to join BNI? Naturally we hope they will join as we know how remarkable BNI is, but that does not mean we should target them.

Charlie Lawson stressed that we should stop thinking about visitors as potential members. For why they might well be they will decide this for themselves when they see BNI working. When we invite people to come intending to sign them up…. we set ourselves up to fail.

If meetings are well run and stick to the system only two visitors are needed every week in order to grow organically.

The seminar wrapped up with a Q&A and plenty of people stayed on to network and it was great to see that the top man in BNI was in no hurry to leave and embodied the Givers Gain® ethos of BNI by speaking to everybody who stuck around and he encouraged them to connect with his @CH_Lawson twitter account too.

Use the comments below to share your stories and to find a Chapter near you visit the BNI website and please except a personal invitation from me to visit one of the BNI Berkshire chapters, not least BNI Bourne in Thatcham and BNI Hungerford.

Filed Under: Business tips, LinkedIn, Networking ·

Not networking… this is netwalking!

February 4, 2013 by Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR Leave a Comment

We went netwalking earlier today – that’s not a typo! Netwalking is like networking, only much more active and takes places in the gorgeous countryside and neatly exercises the dogs too!

I was netwalking with Oxfordshire business coach Rob Pickering from Action Coach and his dog Bella, who together with me and Teg strode out beneath a bright winter sun at The Holies, part of a trio of National Trust Properties that overlook The Goring Gap on the Oxfordshire/Berkshire county boundary. Teg is pictured right in a vista that takes in the swollen river Thames as it threads between Streatley and Goring.

Our meander through the woodland turned into something of a metaphor for many small businesses without a coherent plan or indeed how they deal with PR and social media without a strategy! That is to say sort of knew where we were, but had no real sense of direction, we overcame some obstacles only to double back on ourselves and eventually ended back where we started!

So maybe parts of a netwalk are like running a business and certainly it is spent largely talking about business, which ample time also spent on the dogs and admiring the views of course. Away from the anonymous hotel reception with coffee, or the homogenised likes of Starbucks and Costa, the creative juices flow with each step and the conversations are simply better. It is the one-to-one… and some.

A dog isn’t essential for netwalking, but a stout pair of boots and sense of modest adventure wouldn’t go amiss. It is a regular slot on the Morgan PR calendar and our clients often join us as for a netwalk and so do those we meet when traditionally networking.

I know Rob Pickering would happily go netwalking. So who fancies it? The chance to network while legitimately exercising your dog during the working day is a rare one as any business owners who are also dog owners know!

Contact Morgan PR if you would like to go netwalking!

Filed Under: Uncategorized ·

Let your public relations be inspired by McDonald’s… Seriously!

January 21, 2013 by Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR Leave a Comment

Now fear not! I am not going to spend this post puffing up McDonald’s as a firm of PR genius – in fact far from it I could list the myriad bungles – they are often spectacularly poor at public relations.

However I do want to talk about how consistently they deliver their food and what that could mean for your approach to public relations.

The idea behind the success of the Golden Arches is simple; walk into any McDonald’s, anywhere in the world, and the service and product will be consistent whether the interior is coffee shop chic or still plagued by plastic chairs bolted to the floor.

I don’t know how long you have to work at McDonald’s to get those five stars on your badge, or how many times you have to use the same script, but I bet staff need to be consistently consistent and so do you with your PR – and of course social media too.

Consistency is the key to building your enviable PR reputation. As we explain in the popular 30 Day PR Challenge, as you draw up your media list of target publications and websites and jotting down opportunities that spread out through the weeks, months and years and plotting to share them on social media, writing your blog and so on, just pause and consider how consistently you can deliver and maintain your PR? How will you measure if it is being successful?

It is better to start and maintain a low level of PR and social media and deliver it consistently rather than some grand scheme or launch which crashes and burns as the daily pressures of running a business become a time sensitive reality. The web is littered with abandoned blogs and what will a journalist make of that?

A great approach I use with clients is to ask them to imagine where the business will be in terms of PR and Social Media in a year’s time – and then to backfill how that can be achieved. It soon will become apparent if the plans are too grand – or if you need more resources.

Call Morgan PR today if you can imagine how a Public Relations and Social Media Strategy could help promote your business.

Filed Under: Business tips, Public Relations ·

The Joy of Six – exceedingly good advice from Mr Kipling

January 10, 2013 by Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR Leave a Comment

Mr Kipling wrote exceedingly good poems and not least this one, which underlines a fundamental rule for journalists and therefore one that anyone serious about PR should understand too.

I kept six honest serving men
They taught me all I knew
Their names are:
What and Why and When
and How and Where and Who.

How? What? Where? When? Why? And Who? These are six questions that all news reports and newspaper stories will have nailed down, often in the first few paragraphs. They answer the questions we ask as readers and viewers and when any of the six points are missing we can be left dissatisfied with what we are reading or watching.

Now, imagine your carefully crafted press release is perfectly delivered to a busy journalist that you have properly researched and guess what will happen when your joyful six is actually an infamous five, less than fantastic four or worse…

Having been a chief reporter on a newsdesk I can tell you precisely what happens. If I had the time, which I normally didn’t, I might have weighed up how good the story really was. If I had another release in front of me which was good enough to use and had the six points… well, guess what happened? Even farmed out to a journalist to chase up the missing information, you have created a reputation for sloppiness.

When we review press releases that have not been published this is often to blame and otherwise good stories have been spiked (not used) for omitting a vital point from the six that Kipling knew so well.

So here is your task for the day – visit The Sun and The Guardian online and find a major news story common to both. Find the six points in each. The Sun will achieve it in less than 200 words and The Guardian in closer to 500, but both will have them. Get into the habit of looking for these six points whenever you read and soon you will remember them every time you write.

Oh yes, just to be sure, I was talking about Rudyard Kipling and not the cake making Mr Kipling!

Filed Under: Business tips, Public Relations ·

Need firewood, Home Farm Logs deliver in Berkshire & South Oxon

December 13, 2012 by Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR Leave a Comment

Leaving aside the avalanche of media hype about freezing weather and a weather front dubbed the Beast from the East, it is getting chillier as winter progresses and nothing thaws frozen toes and warm the heart like a roaring open fire.

So with the left over logs from last year dwindling we turned to Google to find a local supplier for Goring in South Oxfordshire, close to the border with Berkshire. The search engine delivered log delivery service just down the road with a good looking website, so we could be ecologically sound with our supplier.

However we wasted countless energy chasing the firm and none of our messages were answered and it was rather disappointing. Then we spotted a small advert for Home Farm Logs in the Goring/Pangbourne/Yattendon edition of Round & About Magazine.

We checked out the friendly and professional website for Home Farm Logs and wanting to be green ourselves were thrilled they took it seriously, even devoting a page to ‘The Green Bit’ on the Home Farm Logs website.

However, would they be responsive as we’d been down this wooded path before? We put in the call, which was promptly returned and Mark Metcalfe introduced himself and booked a time the next day.

He arrived on time with a cubic metre of seasoned hardwood logs – mostly oak, ash and birch, all split by hand and bone dry, ready to be stacked and used over the long cold winter!

Naturally impressed I wanted to ‘Like’ Home Farm Logs on Facebook and asked if they were on the most social of networks… they weren’t but Mark revealed he kept being asked the same question… well, it might have been Sunday but Morgan PR creates reputations with public relations and social media and it would have been remiss not to have helped…

So Home Farm Logs on Facebook now exists after Morgan PR created the Facebook page for the log delivery company and it is already attracting fans and within 24 hours had received their first order via Facebook!

It was rewarding to be able to help a professional company better represent itself and we’ve no doubt that Facebook fans will get great customer service as we did and hopefully avoid the pitfalls that the search engine approach delivered.

So are there lessons here? Absolutely, first and foremost has to be about customer service – the Google result failed to deliver on any level whereas a local magazine yielded a reliable local supplier. Also, crucially for businesses pondering on the value of social media, Home Farm Logs had satisfied customers asking about Facebook so they could promote the business to their friends – imagine how many more would do just that if the Facebook page was actively promoted?

If you need firewood check out Home Farm Logs, but if you need help with Facebook or any aspect of social media and public relations, you can contact Morgan PR!

Filed Under: Facebook ·

Adding video to Morgan PR with West Berkshire’s Dudleigh Films

November 30, 2012 by Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR Leave a Comment

Few can deny the appeal of video content on your website and on social media and this week Morgan PR has been working with Peter Cooke of Dudleigh Films to create some powerful messages to help Berkshire businesses understand the benefits of PR and how to get the most from their social media.

Dudleigh Films has a modern studio in Thatcham with a green screen background which makes adding after affects a breeze and for those who need it there is even an autocue device normally the preserve of television presenters and newsreaders.

We had allowed three hours to capture a host of tips and advice that will be shared on my own Twitter feed @Nigel_Morgan and the company twitter account @MorganPR and of course @DailyPRTips and @DailyTwitTips too. They will also provide valuable content for Morgan PR on Facebook.

Naturally, as the author of the 30 Day LinkedIn Challenge the filming also included some powerful tips to get the most out of LinkedIn which will feature within the daily updates we post on my LinkedIn profile. One video will reveal me telling you how important it is to use updates!

I learned some formidable front of camera skills at the sharp end of public relations as a press officer for Thames Valley Police in Berkshire where an ability not to get tongue-tied was paramount when making the public feel safe while appealing for witnesses while the scenes of crime wandered in and out of the crime scene behind me. A busy public speaking calendar also polishes the presentation skills.

Consequently we managed to get 97 different videos ‘in the can’ during the session and now the post production work has begun, to edit and add relevant images, sounds and a professionally produced indent to each and every video. A sneak peak has already revealed some great HD quality to Peter’s filming.

In a few short weeks the videos will start appearing here and across the web and will hopefully help hundreds of businesses improve their PR and social media… and no doubt a few will become clients too.

There are still more videos to make, not least one where our clients will explain the benefits of working with leading Berkshire PR and social media consultancy Morgan PR!

Dudleigh Films is a client of Morgan PR and clear a great supplier. We use Peter Cooke with our Media Training in Berkshire.

Currently Peter Cooke (pictured right) from Dudleigh Films is running a cracking offer for businesses and professionals in West Berkshire who are keen to create video content for their website and social media channels. For a mere £200 he will host you in his Thatcham studio for two hours and create up to six ‘talking head’ videos. The price includes subsequent editing.

This is a really excellent way to dip your toe into video and discover how it can transform your online profile.

Filed Under: Business tips, Facebook, LinkedIn, Public Relations, Twitter ·

Michael Gove does PR homework over return to O-Levels

September 3, 2012 by Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR Leave a Comment

Do you go misty-eyed over O-Levels? I was in the final year to take them back in the summer of 87 and they already felt as if they’d been dismissed by the new kid as GCSEs were ushered in.

Fast forward a quarter of a century and students, teachers, unions and politicians were up in arms as Education Secretary Michael Gove effectively dismissed them and called for a return to O-Levels just as the latest crop of 16-year-olds were sitting those exams.

He was lambasted from all sides and criticised for, among other things, not recognising that many students, often from poorer backgrounds, were not able to flourish with the traditional O-Level exam, but had with GCSEs. It appeared to be quietly put to one side as we got excited about Jessica Ennis and GB team mates instead.

Fast forward to the exam results and those critics were in uproar over inconsistent marking and threats of legal action and it was a sorry mess… step forward Michael Gove today, a man tipped to keep his seat at the cabinet table in the imminent reshuffle, and he condemned the GCSEs as not fit for purpose and pledged an O-Level style exam most students could take by 2014.

Listening to him on Radio 4′s Today Programme, he said of the exam problems:

“It reinforces the case for reform in GCSEs. My heart goes out to those who sat their exams this summer because I don’t think the examination was designed in the most appropriate way. There were inherent problems with the system.

“In fact, what we need to do is replace GCSEs with new exams. I think everyone who sat the exam was treated in a way that wasn’t fair.”

Master stroke. The criticism is more muted this time. Partly because schools are not quite back in session and nor was Parliament, but crucially, much of the powder spent on taking pot shots at Gove has been left damp by criticism of the very exams he wants to replace.

Now, Machiavelli would be proud of Gove. It was trailed the marking of the exams would be tougher this summer and in that knowledge he attacked GCSEs, albeit with crass timing for the students. The results came and his critics took aim at the exam marking and up steps Gove to agree with them and push forward his nostalgic agenda for O-Levels. Clever eh?

If by some mishap in communication he didn’t anticipate the criticism of the results, he has still been nimble enough to let it play out and then step in and capitalise on the opportunity to push his agenda.

So what PR lessons can we learn from this? Clearly if you are setting the agenda and have some knowledge of future announcements you can play this game to mitigate criticism for a project or scheme that may be unpopular. Or at the very least recognise that when the news agenda switches to support your own aims you might be able to ride the coattails to success.

Do you need help with your public relations? Whether you need the ninja-like moves of a Government Minister, or some coverage in your local paper or online, contact Morgan PR today on 01635 812069.

Many thanks to Regional Cabinet for the photograph.

Filed Under: Politics, PR Crisis, Public Relations ·

Prince Harry, strip billiards and the stable door school of PR

August 23, 2012 by Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR Leave a Comment

Once upon a time the delusional mantra went ‘What goes in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ and more realistically now goes ‘What goes in Vegas, stays on Google’, or Facebook, or Twitter – something Prince Harry now realises.

Anyone with internet access has probably seen the photographs of the naked Prince Harry surrounded by equally undressed young women during a game of strip billiards in Las Vegas, but you will not have seen it in the British newspapers, well, not yet anyway.

Why? Well, by sabre rattling at the post Levenson British media the Royal PR machine has managed to stop the photographs being published in the UK… but if you search on Google images for ‘Prince Harry naked’ you will find the images published on gossip website TMZ and hundreds of other websites too.

The word on social media and especially Facebook is favourable towards the Prince; he is a young guy who has fought for his country and he is simply letting off steam! I mean, which of us hasn’t cavorted with strippers in Vegas? No? Okay… moving on, the British media would have probably echoed this given the chance, but instead they are posing up faked photos and highlighting interference from the Palace, who claim any publication would invade his privacy.

So the Palace, which has apparently been rehabilitating the party-loving Prince in the eyes of the media, now looks as out of touch as married footballer Ryan Giggs did hanging on to that injunction which stopped the media from naming him as having an affair with Imogen Thomas, even though we all knew via Twitter and the like.

The web has changed crisis PR and this approach of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted and written its memoirs of a life at stud is nonsensical. Faced by a widely known crisis, keeping quiet is rarely an option, but trying to prevent further coverage simply isn’t an option and the Palace PR should have known better.

If you’ve been caught with your pants down, literally or figuratively and need some crisis PR advice, contact Morgan PR today on 01635 812069

Photo Credit: With thanks to Vix_B via Creative Commons on Flickr

Filed Under: PR Crisis ·

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