At Wildfire, we work closely with brands to guide them through the world of social media, to create an effective presence that really delivers results. But to the uninitiated, managing a public space to share information, engage with customers and increase brand recognition could sound incredibly complicated – or even worse, expensive!

But actually, when you break down the core elements of running an effective social media offering, it’s really quite straightforward and just needs time, planning and a long term commitment to keep up activity.

How do we know this?

One of our long term clients, set-top box manufacturer and digital giant Humax, has recently been recognised by Get Connected magazine as a shining example of how effective Facebook can be to handle consumer engagement correctly. As the columnist George Cole points out, “the best companies are doing what Humax has done, they are embracing the internet’s potential”

Check out our top five tips for using Facebook to engage your customers, or contact our team to find out how we can help you to devise a social media strategy that works for your business.

1. Post regular updates
2. Reply to criticism as well as praise – face things head on
3. Offer exclusive content to your fans – competitions, videos and savings
4. Keep it interesting – less corporate, more inviting
5. Take part in discussions, encourage your Facebook fans to become a community

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I was quoted in an article in PR Week today, responding to a survey the publication ran looking at reactions to The Times paywall. The PRWeek/OnePoll survey of 3,000 members of the public found 78 per cent did not think the paid-for model would succeed and 67 per cent thought its previous users would visit other newspaper sites instead.

As I said in the article, the problem for The Times is that putting the entire site behind a wall, most potential readers will just stay away:

“By putting its entire site behind a paywall, The Times is hoping the strength of its brand will convince a small, but hardcore, segment of readers to stump up some cash. The obvious question therefore is whether the brand alone is strong enough to convince users to subscribe. If the brand isn’t strong enough, the focus is on whether The Times generates enough valuable and unique content to convince visitors to pay. The challenge for The Times – and its competitors – is to achieve a balance between free and paid-for content. Publishers should provide general news for free, but charge for niche content.”

“It’s an empty world”

This follows comments from US media columnist Michael Wolff, writing on the Newser website claiming that hardly anyone is subscribing to The Times:

“My sources say that not only is nobody subscribing to the website, but subscribers to the paper itself—who have free access to the site—are not going beyond the registration page. It’s an empty world.”

Wolff continues in a more controversial vain and even questions the influence of The Times for the PR industry:

“The wider implications of this emptiness are only just starting to become clear. A Murdoch and Fleet Street veteran with whom I’ve been corresponding about the paywall reported to me on his recent conversation with an A-list entertainment publicist: “What was really interesting to me was that this person volunteered a blinding realisation. ‘Why would I get any of my clients to talk to the Times or the Sunday Times if they are behind a paywall? Who can see it? I can’t even share a link and they aren’t on search. It’s as though their writers don’t exist anymore.’””

I’m not going to start suggesting that clients simply ignore The Times (after all, the print edition still has a fairly impressive readership), but at a time when PRs need to focus on influence and ROI, it’s not something that should be ignored.

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It looks as though the BBC website’s long awaited redesign is about to be unveiled on the public – you can see a gallery of screenshots on the site.

When the UK’s most visited online news portal makes significant changes, those involved in PR need to sit up and take note. The benefits of getting coverage on the BBC are pretty obvious – a link alone can do wonders to your SEO – and it remains the holy grail for many companies.

One of the most interesting developments from the screenshots seen so far is the addition of social media sharing links including Facebook like and tweet this as well as options to email and print articles. My initial reaction to this move by the beeb is “about time”, but it’s still significant and demonstrates the importance of social media for traditional news sites.

Is a new lick of paint necessary?

We’ve work with a number of design agencies and so are well aware of the time and effort that a new website requires. We are also in the final stages of redesigning wildfirepr.co.uk and while we don’t suggest our project is anywhere near that undertaken by the BBC, it has still been a complicated and time-consuming process.

So is a regular refresh important and necessary for businesses? Has the rate of refresh for websites increased in recent years?

The BBC seems to have put the emphasis on making user experience improvements to the site and this I guess must be the main driver for any business. While the actual conversion point for the BBC might be different to a more commercial or ecommerce-focused site, it all amounts to the same thing; a new site needs to work harder to achieve its ultimate goals.

I imagine there will be some nervous people when they decide to flick the switch later this week!

What do you think? Is it an improvement?

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Following the launch of The Times paywall earlier this month, there’s yet another study out today suggesting that Murdoch’s experiment might be doomed.

A YouGov survey of UK adults found that 60% were willing to pay for a ‘quality newspaper’, but whilst 44% said they preferred to pay for newspapers, from which they expected better content, only 2% would pay to access news online. Even more ominously for The Times, a further 4% said they would only pay for information if it wasn’t available elsewhere. 83% said they would never pay for online content.

The Times currently charges £1 a day or £2 a week for access to online content. It remains to be seen how the move will pan out, despite The Times saying that whilst they expect user numbers to drop, their audience will be smaller but more committed and loyal.

Time will tell, but the signs don’t look good.

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Some fascinating research out this week from PR Moment and Daryl Wilcox Publishing sheds light on the pressures and stress journalists now have to deal with and also how their relationship with PR has changed because of this.

The survey asked a broad spread of journalists to comment on the pressures they now found themselves under, with the vast majority saying the need to produce content for multiple channels has shortened the news cycle. Over 80% said they cannot offer the same level of insight as they would have been able to previously, but on the flipside, nearly 60% said they now depend more on PR support.

This merely confirms what many PRs will tell you based on their own dealings with journalists. It means it is even more important than ever for PR agencies and brands to produce great newsworthy content (targeted at relevant journalists) in a format that is helpful, useful and interesting for journalists.

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As magazines and newspapers around world continue to shut down, go into receivership and move online, Future Publishing has taken the bold step of moving its online brand Tech Radar into print.  We talked with Gareth Beavis, Phones Editor at the online technology portal to find out more.

Gareth explained that the publishing giant plans to produce a series of print specials that will be available from news-stands from 6 July priced at £7.99.  The first edition will be a 132-page guide to smart phones and will feature information and reviews on 100 devices.

The move comes as Tech Radar broke the one million unique user mark in May, attracting a total of 1,044,480 visitors and growing its audience by 186% year on year.  A readership that traditional consumer tech magazines can only dream of.  But will Tech Radar’s online success help drive sales of the print guide?

According to Gareth the same commitment to content  that drives online success will help the print guide off the shelves:

“The key to our growth has been our commitment to providing high quality content.  We are regularly the first to market with reviews, advice and information on the latest exciting new products.  Our easy to read and straight forward approach means readers are armed with the information they need to get value for money from all their tech purchases.”

“Feedback from our readers has told us that when it comes to buying an expensive piece of kit such as a smartphone, consumers like to have an in-depth yet independent overview of the options available.

“By bringing together our recent reviews from the website, together with other top tips, our print specials provide a handy guide to leaf through and refer to before splashing out a considerable amount of cash.”

It’s a bold move by the publisher and one that could introduce Tech Radar to a whole new audience as well as giving traditional magazine formats a run for their money.  And it represents yet another step in publishers’ attempts to persuade consumers to pay for content that is freely available online.  One the the Wildfire team will be watching with interest.

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I’ve written a few critical blog posts about (traditional) media over the last week. But the full impact of the change that is happening in traditional circles has really become evident today with the sad announcement that the Mirror Group is to make around 25% of its editorial staff redundant.

The Guardian has published the letter that has been sent to all staff and there are some particularly telling elements to it. Here are some of the most interesting sections:

The problem for the newspaper industry

“Technological advances and the proliferation of new and faster platforms like smartphones has seen the erosion of all newspaper circulations, however much our rivals try to disguise it. The Sun alone has spent in excess of £37m in the past 12 months subsidising its cover price. The Mail has burned through £28m on DVDs and other promotions in that same period. We simply don’t believe in throwing money away like this.”

What the future looks like

“It is clear that the future of media is weighted towards digital, but at this stage in the global media revolution revenue streams for content providers like us are unpredictable and comparatively small. Fractions of pennies to our previous pounds. Of course, revenue streams will emerge – all publishers are beginning to experiment with different models – and they will grow, but not quickly enough to offset the dramatic decline in ‘old media’ revenues that now threatens us.”

How to be successful

“While we are totally committed to continuing to publish vibrant, quality newspapers they are not exclusively where our long-term future lies. It is clear that our traditional skills and processes have to change to embrace these emerging platforms and keep our world famous titles in good health. And it is clear that we cannot continue to do what we do in the way that we have always done it. We simply have to evolve…The successful launches of mirrorfootball.com and 3am.co.uk clearly demonstrate our ability to create compelling new digital products.”

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We are all now confronted by more and more ‘media’ on a daily basis than at any point in history. Whether it is the traditional press, Twitter or blogs, we have gone way past ‘information overload’ to total saturation point.

But with so much media on offer, it is vital for brands (and their PR agencies) to know exactly which channels work best for which audience. In that way efforts can be focused on the media that are mosthe t appropriate to realise the objectives for a particular campaign or activity.

I was interested then to read some new research from Ofcom, which reveals that, for the first time, British web users say they trust online news sources more than television bulletins and newspapers. Although both were pipped to the post by radio (66%), 58% said they trusted online news and 54% believed TV the most. People aged 25 to 34 were by far the most confident that TV news was accurate, with women more convinced than men.

On the back of what was a fiercely contested general election, you have to wonder how much the obvious bias of the Murdoch press potentially affected these figures. The press was deemed the least trustworthy medium, with more adults saying they thought newspapers were unreliable than said they believed in them.

So what does this mean for businesses and PRs?

First, a few health warnings. The first point to make is that trust doesn’t necessarily equal influence. The second is that this is a widespread consumer survey and so the conclusions are painted with a very broad brush. It would be fascinating to drill down into specific audiences for example and see if the figures altered at all.

But, in general, we can use this as evidence that the online world is continuing to dominate our everyday lives and is becoming increasingly influential over everything from political viewpoints, buying decisions and industry thought-leadership.

I also wonder to what extent social media is having an effect here. Networks like Twitter and Facebook, not to mention bloggers, are quicker than ever to pick up on inaccuracies that are reported by the traditional media, giving a unique and immediate spin on what used to be trusted sources.

Unfortunately, the survey doesn’t tell us whether we trust our communities on social media more than traditional media outlets, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we did. It  does reveal  however that almost half of the UK population has created a profile on a social networking site, and adds that adults were becoming more savvy about who they befriend online. It also said the proportion of internet users with a social networking profile had doubled since 2007.

The media landscape is increasingly fragmented and is constantly changing. All this means is that the audience-centric approach that we take here at Wildfire is more important than ever, making sure the right channels are used in the right way for your business.

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The Times has been busy promoting its new look website (see above) in advance of its launch, which will coincide with the construction of the paper’s paywall.

[Incidentally, on the look and feel of the new site, I can't help but think they've basically taken a leaf out of the New York Times and Guardian websites - hardly original is it?]

On Tuesday, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and his Times counterpart John Witherow, clashed on Radio 4 when discussing the paywall move.

Witherow admitted that the move would decimate The Times’ online readership by “easily” more than 90% but countered that it would be “perilous” to continue to focus solely on advertising as the sole means of online revenues. In a clear stab at the Guardian, he proclaimed:

“The danger of this other model is that gradually the journalism will diminish, it will get poorer and poorer, you won’t be able to afford things, you won’t be able to do things and so everybody is poorer as a result.”

In the other corner, Rusbridger countered these claims stating, “if you erect a paywall around your content you kind of go into a vault of darkness”.

As I’ve said before, the key to all of this is ‘value’. If The Times really can do as Witherow says and offer unique content that cannot be found elsewhere, then they might find a big audience willing to pay. I have my doubts as to whether they will achieve this however.

As for advertisers (and indeed PRs), who would you prefer to target, 100,000 or so subscribers to Times Online or the 32m people worldwide that use the Guardian every month?

Seems a no-brainer…

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Over the last few months we’ve discussed the challenges facing the UK’s press, from national newspapers like The Times introducing paid-for content, to the closure of Revolution, and then Media Week going to online only.  So it comes as no surprise that one of the UK’s longest running magazines has been facing a few hurdles.

A few weeks ago, Channel 4’s Cutting Edge show brought us The Lady & The Revamp, an inside look into the 125-year old women’s weekly magazine, The Lady.

Injecting a fresh approach to win over new readers, while ensuring The Lady’s long-standing and loyal fans remained happy, was proving to be a challenge for a magazine used to blessing its front covers with photos of cats and owls.

Author and journalist, Rachel Johnson, stepped up as the new Editor and set about modernising the ailing publication to appeal to all modern women aged 45 and over.

And it wasn’t long before she started making radical changes. She cut old favourites to make way for fresher, more risqué material such as ‘The Gents’ – a feature written from a male perspective; Rachel also introduced The Lady’s first Agony Aunt, the Duchess of Devonshire.  Focusing the re-launch efforts on a Christmas double issue of magazine, they also went for some celebrity appeal by featuring legend Julie Andrews as the December ‘cover girl’.

Rachel Johnson also set the publicity wheels in motion to go beyond securing the primetime slot on Channel 4. In addition to obtaining televised interviews with some of the UK’s top broadcasters, she managed to secure a feature spread in the Sunday Times magazine. This piece of coverage wasn’t well received initially, with its reference to Rachel putting ‘dancing shoes on a corpse’. However, as Rachel (rightly in my view) pointed out, the Sunday Times could have said a lot worse or not even featured the magazine at all.

The results of her efforts? She set a milestone for the magazine, with the December issue seeing its circulation figures rise by 20 per cent. The Agony Aunt feature was also well received by readers who were initially concerned by the publication’s new direction.

Radical changes to any product will always draw criticism but by stimulating debate, readers were reminded of why they loved the product in the first place. There will always be those who will lean more towards the traditional but alterations are seemingly necessary to meet the changing needs and expectations of today’s media consumers.

Rachel Johnson recognised that The Lady was missing out on a younger readership and knew it was necessary to update in order to cast a larger net. While PR efforts are often focused on generating positive coverage, sometimes creating a little debate and controversy can be just as effective.

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