May 11, 2013 · 19:27

Get on your bike and live London

It’s hard to find a place greater than London. I’ve tried Munich, I’ve tried Hamburg, heck I’ve even tried Coventry, but none of them are able to match up to that warm fuzzy feeling I get every time I look up in wonder at what London has to offer.

I’ve recently rekindled my love of life on two wheels aka the trusty pedal bike. I’m lucky. I’ve got a beautiful old racing bike that goes like stonk and puts a smile on my face every time I get on it. One of my new year’s resolutions was to cycle more, and I set a goal to cycle twice to work a week. I’ve managed for all but two or three weeks. It meant that my second goal of cycling 40 miles from London to Reading was a bit of a doddle. But I digress.

The reason why my pedal bike and my love of London go together is that I’m seeing the city in a new way. I used to be at the mercy of buses, tubes and TfL in general. Now I can go where I want, when I want. I’ve seen corners of the city that I would never have seen other wise. I’m much more knowledgeable about where things are and importantly, I’m fitter for it.

I’m not about to jump on the London Cycling Campaign or completely give up public transport – after all we do live in Britain where it rains just about every other half hour – but I do want to post some tips for becoming a cyclist in London.

1. Get the look

Helmet and hi-vis should be your best friends. Don’t even question it. No matter how slow you plan on going, safety is always number one. The risk isn’t worth it. Get yourself a decent helmet and some hi-vis gear. It can be quite expensive so head over to Wiggle where you’ll find some bargains.

2. Learn lots

One of the best things about cycling is that you can be completely self sufficient. It’s hard to know where to start with bike servicing, but it’s a real joy to get to know how to change brakes, grease chains and everything in between. Be curious and find out how a bike works. I only learn by doing so I headed to London Bike Kitchen, a great place set up by a brilliant lady called Jenni. For just £10 a year you can sign up as a member and for £10 an hour, use their workshop and all the tools to fix up your bike. You also get free advice and the best builders’ tea. It’s much more rewarding than handing your money over to a shop.

3. Look up

Look up around you and take in the great architecture in London. I’m constantly amazed by the differences I see in the space of 5 miles. Shepherd’s Bush to Richmond is amazing. Cycling has made me see the city in a whole new light.

Don’t believe me? Check it:

photo (10) photo (11) photo (12)

 

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April 1, 2013 · 13:07

A bit of a rethink

I’ve had a bit of a think.

I need to blog more. For those of you following so far I focussed a lot of my writing on PR and social media, but I’ve decided to branch out.

Something that is becoming more and more important to me is my Indian culture and upbringing and I will be writing more about how this has an effect on being a young professional today. Relax, it’s going to be somewhat light hearted. Like this:

photo (9)

CHAPATI MAN. I found their website and it looks like a good venture. Snacks and wraps in supermarkets and at festivals. However the key to really good Indian food is authenticity in my opinion. Countless times have I told friends that the sign of a good curry house is when Indians eat there. When it comes to curry standards, we’ve got the highest there are. It must be something to do with growing up eating daal chaaval and chicken saalan every night after school.

If I put my professional mind to work, Chapati Man needs to gain that authentic seal of approval. If people see it being eaten by Indians, they’ll trust it. A huge generalisation, but I challenge anyone to tell me that they haven’t wanted to try one of the curries they see their Indian friends eating.

Word of mouth within the Indian community is so important. It’s a PR-person’s dream. Find your target audience and get them to do the work for you – the power of earned media, whilst hard to measure, can be your most powerful marketing tool). There were countless times when my mum would discover a new restaurant or cash and carry and tell all her friends about it. Whilst she might now be starting to use Facebook, it’s still very much a case of old school seeding and awareness raising.

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March 18, 2013 · 22:14

Do you pass the ‘so what?’ test

Very early in my career I was told about the litmus test…the ‘so what?’ It was applied to everything, from new business pitches to selling in to a journalist, you should always be asking yourself, how will you answer if the other person sits there and replies’so what?’

Why should people care about what you have to say? What makes your message stand out above others’?

It’s hard to get to the ‘so what’ sometimes. Ideas become convoluted, time sheets need to be filled out and other priorities take over. You can end up churning. However after a weekend of R&R let me rekindle an interest in TED talks and get to grips with the ‘so what’ again. If you haven’t seen any TED talks yet, the concept is simple. Inspiring speakers talk for 20 minutes on their specialist topic – the talks are all online and they’re all free to watch. (I love the internets.)

If you choose to watch just one, choose Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action. I watched it again and it made the litmus test somewhat clearer. In the talk, Sinek talks about the golden circle, the inner circle is why, followed by how and what. If you try talking about what you do/sell and how you make it/sell it, people will buy it, but they won’t believe in it. E.g. “this great fridge is made by company x and it manufactured in a lean factory in southern Europe” is a weather proposition than “company x believes in the style and heritage of southern Europe and bringing that into people’s homes and works using lean production to create affordable fridges’. The latter, he would purport, is stronger, as the consumer can identify with the same core as the brand, the ideal of style of heritage of southern Europe.

In the talk he keeps repeating (a seasoned public speaking tool) the line ‘people don’t care about what you do, they care about why you do it.’

It’s true. Whilst he cites Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs, the poster children of having a passion, it’s easy to see that in current day PR and social media. 

The brands that people want to ‘engage’ with, i.e. read about, click on, like and share, are the ones that have a why. They have a purpose that people want to be part of (remember membership vs. ownership?) and associate with. This month’s Wired magazine featured a great quote: “marketing messaging relies largely on inadequacy. This is out of step with the supportive and reassuring nature of social media.” Social media reassures us, gives us something to be part of and most importantly, offers a way for companies to help people feel a connection towards them. The trouble is, if you don’t have a core ‘why’, then what are you founding the connection on?

That’s the so what? If you’re a business that doesn’t have a why, whether it’s a founder’s dream, a collective’s aspiration, or a common cause employees believe in, then you’re not going to pass the test.

And if you don’t pass the test, you’re not going to resonate in modern day communications. 

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March 3, 2013 · 22:12

Why isn’t PR a diverse industry?

PR isn’t a diverse industry.

There, I said it.

Only 8% of PR practitioners are from ethnic minorities. This is according to the PRCA, reported this week on the Guardian. I’m saving the reasons why this needs to change for a future blog post, but today I’m going to explore why, in my experience, PR isn’t a diverse industry.

It starts at home

Doctor. Banker. Lawyer. Accountant. These are respectable professions for anyone faced with a standard BME upbringing. Whilst David Cameron was recently in India ‘welcoming’ new students to the UK, it’s worth looking back at migration patterns and the impact that had on where we are today. In my experience to date, Indians who made the move in the 1970s to Britain had to bring a skill. A universal skill that could be easily transplanted from their homeland to the British Isles.

Similar to attitudes towards marriage and education, the hang ups related to professions still exist. I can’t speak for all minorities, but parents of Indian children will still express pride at their offspring becoming a doctor, banker, lawyer or accountant. If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard “but so-and-so’s’ son has a job at this-or-that bank” I’d be a millionaire. Simply put, within many BME communities, anything other than these professions is not respectable.

That isn’t to say that those who chose that path are doing it out of obligation, but what it does mean is that anyone looking to pursue a career in media, marketing or perhaps hospitality needs either very open-minded parents or a hardened determination to make it.

One foot in the door

Let’s say you’ve made that decision to go against your parents wishes and force a career in PR or something similar, you snag a break and land yourself an interview. Mubarak! However referring to that 8% stat above, once you get your foot in the door, you look around and struggle to find ‘someone like you’ in the room or even the office.

Again for many this isn’t important, but for a lot of people (myself included) it’s important to look around your future peers and be assured that there are others who are similar to you (be it gender, race or even dress sense) that you know you will be able to learn from and work well together with. In my working life so far I have only met one other British male Asian doing consumer PR.

Tanya Joseph gave a great example at this week’s first PRCA Diversity Network meeting of a pitch she experienced. The pitch was related to engaging with a diverse group of people, and she was faced with four white middle-upper class men. As an accomplished communications practitioner, Tanya could see the problem, and indeed irony, with this and rightly fed back her feelings. However for someone entering the industry, being faced with a similar audience in your first or second interview could be a) extremely daunting and b) a total put off for forging your way into PR.

Adapt or adios

Having studied German diaspora at university and being a British Indian, I’m familiar with the issues with adapting two cultures in order to make it work for you. On the one hand, being from a minority is a point of difference that can help you to excel and stand out, on the other you have to adapt it and mould it to the culture you’re in and the ways of working it brings with it.

For many this is very difficult. Hybrid ethnicities often tend to stick together. The professions mentioned have a higher percentage of hybrid minorities working within them, thus making it easier to find people from the same background and not have to adapt (or flex) your culture too much. In diasporic terms, you are not between two stools or ‘on the bridge’ because you’re able to find one side that works best for you.

A Change is Gonna Come

Those are just three thoughts as to why I think PR isn’t a diverse industry. Not for much longer. With the PRCA Diversity Network, the CIPR Diversity Working Group and the Taylor Bennett Foundation all working hard, a change is gonna come as Sam Cooke put it.

Stay tuned for more on how I’m getting involved. If you’re reading this and want some advice hit contact; I’d be happy to help.

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February 24, 2013 · 13:33

Things the Internet taught me this week: three

The Internet is a wondrous thing and this week it taught me the following:

BillPin

One of the best things of eating out when I lived in Germany was that the waiter or waitress would carry around a fashionable bumbag and ask at the end of the meal ‘bezahlen Sie getrennt or zusammen?’. Are you paying separately or together? Separately always for the win, and each diner could pay what they owed using cash. Cash I say!

Such fashionable bumbags have yet to take off in the UK, however BillPin looks to save the day. A handy app that helps you to remember how much you owe your friends for bills, food and other such extravagances. Check it out.

Twitter hacking

Another week, another Twitter hacking. Following HMV’s fail, this week Burger King was the victim of a Twitter hacker (Twacker?) Increasingly such occurances are hitting the mainstream media, with Sky News and BBC News covering it. More worrying, as tweeted by Matt Muir, the likes of MTV are trying to fake their own hijacking to gain attention. There’s a question to be asked here: who’s in charge of your social media channels? Is it still the intern or most junior staff in the building? Maybe you ought to rethink…

Vine

It took a while but I finally got round to playing with Vine last weekend. And it’s fun. There are thousands of articles out there praising or damning it, but the only real way to form your opinion is to give it a go. Which is exactly what I did. Fun times. I’ve also started to see some Vine celebrities appear. It’s only a matter of time until we see the next wave of ‘Vloggers’ on the platform…Get thinking PRs.

Check out these creative uses of Vine on Mashable.

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January 30, 2013 · 22:25

A cold, wet and windy brainstorm

Brainstorms are tough. On the one hand I love them, on the other I loathe them. Why such disparity in my thoughts?

It comes down to how they’re run. Free-flowing creativity should be easy, right? Wrong. You need some rules. There are some here that will help you. For me, the top three rules (are you starting to notice a trend on my blog? I like things in three. They’re memorable. Like education, education, education).

1. You need a ticket to enter the brainstorm

Brainstorms need some kind of barrier at the door. Make your participants earn their place (i.e. a ticket) by ensuring they’ve done their brief reading beforehand. Ask them to write down one or two ideas that they show you on entering the room. This means they have thought about it with their own minds without looking around the room for approval or sometimes likely, disapproval. Sometimes groupthink isn’t the most productive way of generating new ideas.

Read the brief for admission

2. No idea is a bad idea. But some might be

A colleague of mine has a great story from the company grad day when someone launched themselves across the room to reject an idea from their peer. ‘Poor show!’ you cry. Possibly. If that person could have justified why they didn’t agree, I don’t see the problem.

Yes no idea is a bad idea. But sometimes an idea can be a little raw and needs someone to object to it for it to get refined and built into something better. It’s about how you treat what you hear and how you decide to build on it.

Don’t do it!

3. No Internet please, we’re brainstorming

I have seen the so many sessions killed by e-mail checking, fact checking and creating a physical barrier behind a laptop screen. There should be no Internet access in a brainstorm because there should be equal information within the room. How about investing in a WiFi-Free zone a la KitKat?

Lovely idea from KitKat

Then, and only then, can great ideas come to life.

Those are my three rules, what are yours?

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January 8, 2013 · 00:26

What is PR?

Two and a half years into it and I still struggle to respond.

Amongst the gluttony and excess television that Christmas brought us all there is one question that kept cropping up amongst family and family friends; so what do you do, then?

I work in PR.

Simple answer, however the next question required more thought; no but what does that mean?

Well. What is PR? Sure there are hundreds of definitions available online, indeed America’s PRSA redefined PR last year as “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics” and no doubt prospective graduates are repeating back in interviews but today, what does it really mean to work as a PR professional? Rather than ending this blog post with a video of Ab Fab (I wish I could) here are the three things I think PR is today:

1. It’s all about meejyah (media) darling. (Sorry, couldn’t resist the Ab Fab reference)
Well yes, that’s obvious, isn’t it? If you work agency side you have a set of clients who want your access to their target media and if you work in-house you are in charge of spreading your company’s message in the media.

Aside from conferences, gone are the boozy lunches and dinners; replaced coldly by the Gorkana and the Google search. Shrinking editorial teams and tighter budgets aren’t allowing for them.

Don’t get me wrong, the ability to schmooze is still really important, but the ability to keep on top of the never ending daily beat of news presents a greater challenge.

A PR needs to be a pro at the Google search in order to answer the following questions; Who’s writing about the event your client is attending? What do they think? What else have they written? Are they tweeting about it? What sorts of comments do their articles illicit?

Most importantly, how are you going to try and convince the media to take interest in what you have to say?

2. It’s just Facebook and Twitter, right?
No.

If you’re ‘digital’ then it all becomes about social media. If you start working in PR you might be managing a community or tweeting on behalf of a brand because you’re young and ‘da yoof’ get it, right? So you could say that your job is a professional Facebooker, a dream job for many.

This is unsustainable and soon won’t be true. The most intelligent PR pros I’ve met are thinking more strategically about how your client or brand should fit on social media. Is your client really (no, I mean it, REALLY?) a social one? If its not then don’t force it. You’re wasting your time. Nike and other companies deciding to move their social media in-house is a perfect example that tweeting and posting on Facebook isn’t going to be in the longer term job description for PR pros.

To that end PR is about understanding how to represent companies responsibly online and making sure that social media fits if necessary.

3. It’s all about the right coverage
Generating coverage is a great feeling. From finding the journalist’s name on Gorkana to making the call to selling the pitch and following up, when it is in print or online that’s a warm feeling to show off what you have done. That’s a great personal achievement, but let’s look at the bigger picture.

Sometimes it is about AVE (reference previous blog post) or the volume of coverage generated to prove a job well done. Nowadays, however, it’s about the business impact of coverage. Has that piece in the Mail Online actually led to an increase in sales? You may have gotten 15 pieces of coverage, but are they in titles that appear highly in the Google Page Rank?

Going back to the question; but what does PR mean?

I could have said it is about meeting and greeting journalists but there is so much more. What I should have replied is that it’s being a master of the Google search, understanding what social media is doing to how we behave and are influenced and its about generating business results as a result of coverage in the right places.
That’s the answer I should have used.

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