New Client: Dental Concepts

The Sunny Bird PR team are extremely pleased to announce they are working with the expert team at Dental Concepts. With over 47 years combined experience in the dental industry, husband and wife team Dr Manish and Dr Shilpa Chitnis are leading the way in providing expert dental care across the south coast, with two clinics in Hampshire and the latest which has just opened in Canford Cliffs, Dorset.  

The couple share a passion for transforming people’s lives through the power of their smile and since opening their first branch in 2010, have carried out thousands of both NHS and private treatments to its esteemed patients; from dental implants to invisible braces to root canal treatments. Not only are they renowned for providing exceptional dental care, but also ensuring the patient journey is as comfortable as possible from the moment they step into the practice.

The new clinic, minutes away from the world-famous Sandbanks peninsula is located inside the destination salon at HNB, which is home to the most innovative hair, beauty and medical aesthetic treatments. Dr Manish and Dr Shilpa chose this venue to be a part of an all-round approach to beauty and wellness, with a special focus on cosmetic and advanced dentistry.

The team at Sunny Bird PR will be helping to introduce the brand to regional press as well as profiling the founders positioning them as experts in the dental industry, to gain the recognition they deserve. We will also be reaching out to influencers and initiating creative PR campaigns to maximise Dental Concepts’ online exposure and increase brand awareness.

Sunny Bird, Founder of Sunny Bird PR, commented: “We are beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such a great company, which is paving the way for patient comfort in dentistry whilst championing the increase of health and wellbeing, one smile at a time!”

Tips on Creating News When There Isn't Any ‘New’ News

The key to successful PR is consistency and connecting with your audience through the use of engaging and exciting content. However, there will be times (such as lockdown) when you have nothing obvious to shout about, so how do you create ‘new’ news when there isn't any? We’ve got some tips for you below…

---

Awareness Days

National and international awareness days exist for almost any topic or item you can think of from ‘National Work Life Week’ to ‘National Cupcake Day’. Websites such as awarenessdays.com have a full list which you can browse to find a day that could work for your brand or business.

Examples of how you can make the most of these awareness days include: pitching your product as gifts for Mother’s Day or Christmas, donating profits to charity for Breast Cancer Awareness month, or compiling a feature on the top tips for quitting drinking for Alcohol Awareness Week (if any of these relate to your brand or business of course). Creating news surrounding awareness days is a great way of forward planning and helps takes the pressure off during the quieter months.

Add these days into your PR calendar and remember to send your pitch and press release out at the right time to hit your chosen publication. Monthly magazines, for example, work on each issue three to five months ahead of being published.

If you can’t find an awareness day that works for you, then you can even come up with your own and then register it. This costs around £200, but you can then claim this day as your own and build PR campaigns around it for years to come!

Reactive Media Relations

Jumping on the back of topical news stories is a very effective way of making the most out of content that is already present online. For example, you can look at what is happening in the news at the moment and offer expert comment or advice from your brand expert or founder. This is also a great way of keeping your business in the news and places your spokesperson as a leading voice in their industry. A great tip is to set up Google Alerts for key words and topics that relate to your brand, that way you’ll never miss an article that could be relevant to you.

Awards

Who doesn’t love the idea of winning awards? Entering awards is a brilliant way to build brand awareness and it’s the gift that keeps on giving.  Sometimes it can take months to go through the process from entering or nominating your brand of business, to shortlist announcements, to becoming a semi-finalist and then (fingers crossed) a finalist and winning the award! This gives you nuggets of news to drip-feed to press over a long period of time.

Journalists also like to follow up with a story, so if they feature your shortlist news, they are likely to feature you winning too. You can add the news to your blog, post on your social media platforms and send the news to trade and local press. This is also a great way to achieve recognition for your brand whilst attracting new customers and clients as a result.

Can’t find any awards that work for you? You can create your own and use your social media platforms to ask for nominations. For example, for our internal fashion brand the Perfect Dress Company, we helped them create the Incredible Women Awards which celebrate inspirational women for all of their hard work. We called on the Perfect Dress Company community to nominate women in their life that were unsung heroes. This was a great way to increase customer engagement and make the audience feel involved in the brand as well as raising spirits and spreading positivity. 

Reviews

Customer reviews are a great way of attracting new business, as consumers are more likely to use a product or service that has positive reviews. Encourage your previous customers to leave a review either on your socials or via email as this will make your business more appealing and trustworthy whilst also enhancing the sense of community and brand loyalty. Once you have these reviews then you can post them onto your socials as a way of thanking the customer and subtly singing your praises. Happy customers are more likely to leave a review and recommend your business to others if they feel valued and appreciated!

A way that you can get press coverage from reviews would be to offer samples of your product or service to journalists in exchange for a review in the publication they write for. If you are a restaurant or hotel then you can invite journalists on press trips (when they are open again!)

Case Studies

Similar to surveys, sourcing your own case studies is an excellent way of adding value to your brand by using real life examples. People who have tried out your product or service can share their story and speak about your brand in a positive and interesting way. Case studies are a valuable asset to have for press, as they help the reader to engage with the story. Also using brilliant high-res imagery such as before and afters is a sure-fire way to get your brand noticed.

---

If you’d like to find out more or see how we could do this for you, then just email hello@sunnybirdpr.com

Facebook Algorithm Update

Anyone that knows the team here at SBPR will know that we live and breathe all things social media. We love it so much that we even host our own social media courses to pass on all we know to businesses who are doing it for themselves.

To make sure that our social media courses are the best they can be, the SBPR team are always researching the latest algorithm changes and here’s the latest from the giant of the social channels, Facebook.

Audience

With PR and social media, the first thing you need to do is to think about who you are talking to, who are your audience? Age, demographic, gender, location, interests etc, and from that you can get a better idea of what media they consume. And with so many social media channels to choose from nowadays, it’s good to sit back, think about your audience and where they spend their time when they’re socialising online. Facebook’s audience are predominantly 25-34 year olds with a 50/50 mix of males and females, so if that sounds like your kind of audience then carry on reading!

SEO

In a similar way to filling out Google My Business, filling out your company page on Facebook makes your SEO very happy so make that your first port of call. Everything from opening hours, location, phone number, website etc – the more information the better.

Posts

A common objective we hear when it comes to social media is to get new followers, but why concentrate on the people you don’t even know yet, it makes much more sense to prioritise your existing fans. It keeps them happy and engaged and they will organically entice new members by sharing and telling their friends how great you are.

The average organic reach of posts on Facebook is between 1-6%, usually around 3%, so make sure you check out your analytics and see how your posts are doing and try to improve on that, we suggest aiming to improve your post reach by 25% each week.

So, how to keep your existing fans happy and improve your post reach? Here’s an easy checklist:

• Mix it up – try not to post all videos, or all images, try an even mix of videos, links, images, memes etc and then rotate.

• Give it up - don’t bother boosting content that’s not doing well, if it’s not doing well by itself then FB doesn’t like it. It works much better if you boost content that FB does like and that is already doing well. And if you are boosting, don’t rely on FB’s automatic audience choice, go in and check that marries up with what you think.

• Keep it simple – did you know that the scrolling speed of your thumb down your FB newsfeed is the equivalent to driving past a billboard at 60mph?! Think about that the next time you create an image with loads of text – you have approximately an nth of a nanosecond to get people’s attention and get your message across.

• Emoji it up – whether you’re emoji obsessed and only communicate in pictures now, or if you have no idea what they mean – you need to use at least one in each of your FB posts as they increase the reach of your posts by 33%. If you really can’t stand them, you can just use an arrow emoji to point down to the post – and try and avoid the 🍆!

• Keep it real – your content should always be authentic, it doesn’t have to be original, there are bound to be lots of people talking around the same subjects you are, you just need to make sure that your ‘voice’ is real and therefore authentic and relatable.

Engaging

We always say that engaging with your audience on Facebook is the most important action. In fact, we say that out of all the time you spend on your social media channels you should spend just 20% of your time broadcasting or posting, and 80% of that time engaging and talking to your fans.

The average engagement rate of posts on Facebook is a very low and sad 1%. To boost that and get more people talking to you try commenting on your own posts and others’. Comments are the best type of engagement, followed by shares. The Facebook algorithm will reward you for these types of engagements so comment away!

Facebook doesn’t like rubbish posts and will punish you for doing too many posts which get low engagement, so it’s way better to do a few really engaging posts than lots of average ones. And try your best to avoid saying things like ‘comment below’ as Facebook sees this as spam, ask questions to gain engagement, even better ask these questions in the comments.

Videos

We all know videos outperform image and text only posts and just for fun every month or so Facebook changes its mind about how it wants its videos to keep us all on our toes. At the moment it is not prioritising any videos under 60 seconds, videos should be over three minutes if possible. It is also imperative that videos come with subtitles for the mute scroller and should always have a call to action at the top of the video with snappy captions.

We know Facebook can seem a bit overwhelming, but we also know that if you work with Facebook and keep it happy then it can do wonders for your business which is why we think it’s really important to share the knowledge we have. If you’d like to find out more about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Linked In, you can book onto our next online course on Thursday 18th February. It’s on Zoom from 10am – 2pm and is designed to give you all the tools, tips, and tricks to not only do your own social media and do it well, but also how to beat the algorithms and save time.

You can find out more about our Reaching Millions Social Media course and book your space here.

If you try out these tips we’d love to hear from you and find out how you got on, email the team and let us know – hello@sunnybirdpr.com

SBPR Best Bits 2020!

We know 2020 hasn’t turned out quite as we all expected, and let’s all hope

for a more ‘normal’ year in 2021!

In true Sunny Bird PR style, we’re focussing on the positives and taking this opportunity to look back at the year that’s been, and most importantly, to wish you a very merry festive season however and wherever you’re spending it this year. Here’s to next year!! xxx

As the SBPR team adjusted to working from home, we realised just how much we missed the buzz of agency life – turns out talking to the cats isn’t the same! We were lucky enough to have some amazing support this year from some really fabulous interns Chiara Betti, Taylor Nash and Lauren Batterson. We also have an incredible extended team that we couldn’t live without, so thank you Robin Hartey, Anthony Wakeford-Brown, and Steve Coates who have been a massive support this year. This year we also celebrated Laura Booth’s promotion who is now an Account Manager – very well deserved!

---

Here are some highlights from the team:

Lizzie, Account Director: “My highlight professionally is seeing how the Reaching Millions Board has grown this year. We’re now supporting lots of businesses and getting them the results they need to drive their businesses forward. I’m also incredibly proud of how the team has pulled together to adapt and overcome to our new ‘normal’ under lockdown. A tough year for sure, however there is much to be thankful for!

Laura, Account Manager: “My best part of 2020 was working on our innovation hub brand, Perfect Dress Company, and seeing the success despite a challenging year! I loved going to Manchester and working on my first TV advert and also a highlight of the year was getting promoted to Account Manager! In 2021, I’m looking forward to continuing to grow the fashion brand, as well as working on some exciting new campaigns for our PR clients.”

Grace, Senior Account Executive: “I’d have to say the best bit about 2020 is all the new businesses we have had the pleasure of working with, it’s been great to introduce new products and businesses to the press! I have also really enjoyed managing the Perfect Dress Company social media account, we are so close to 10,000 followers now! Go and follow if you’re not already.

I would like to add that I am so proud of how the team pulled together and went above and beyond in what was tough and challenging year for everyone. We were all affected by Covid, our businesses, our families, friends and loved ones, and the team were incredible. We’ve rallied round, made sure everyone’s okay WFH, looked out for our clients, and I’ve just been so impressed, we’re stronger than ever now!

---

We have been so lucky this year to work on some really exciting projects for our clients, and we’ve been even luckier to start working with some amazing new clients, so a big thank you to those that joined us in 2020!

---

This year we moved our Social Media and PR Courses from the office onto Zoom which took a bit of getting used to (not as much chatting or prosecco!) but we loved them just the same. This year we’ve welcomed over 200 businesses on our courses, thank you to all that attended, your amazing testimonials mean so much.

We are holding our next Social Media Course on Thursday 18th February 2021, which is currently online, you can book your tickets here and you never know, hopefully we can see you all in person soon!

We also posted out over 300 copies of our Reaching Millions! PR & Publicity Bible to people and businesses across the country in 2020, this is a step-by-step guide that we put together last year to help people do their own PR, little did we know how handy our book would be this year. If you haven’t got a copy yet, we still have some and you can order yours here.

IIn between courses, lockdowns, workshops and strategy clinics, we achieved some amazing results for our clients this year. So many to choose from and so little time, so here’s a snapshot:

We achieved over 30 pieces of coverage in just four months for our luxury home fragrance client Nostara. Nostara’s candles and diffusers have now been seen by over 3.1 million people in publications such as New! Magazine, Country and Townhouse and The Mirror.

The team achieved some fantastic broadcast coverage for our clients including Alice Morrison who spoke to BBC’s Good Morning Scotland about her Moroccan adventures, Step Associates spoke to BBC Radio Four about their greenhouse project, and Damien Lee, founder of Mr Lee’s Noodle’s, was interviewed on Sky News! We secured an exclusive interview in The Sun for the youngest ever finalist of The Apprentice, Camilla Ainsworth, as well as national award nominations for luxury CBD brand CANNADOX and BAO Skincare.

We couldn’t have been more proud when our very own Perfect Dress Company won the Successful Women Innovation Award 2020! We also secured an amazing 85 pieces of coverage for our fashion brand reaching over 14.7 million people and the Perfect Dress Company’s Facebook and Instagram has now reached over 550,000 people!

In 2020, the SBPR team secured over 1,600 pieces of coverage for our clients reaching over 178 million people worldwide and if that space had been bought in advertising it would have cost our clients over £84 million! Go team! 

---

This year the team have achieved some incredible results on the SBPR social media channels with our Facebook page reaching over 86,000 people, which is double last year’s reach. We had over 365,000 impressions on Twitter and a 50% increase in followers on both Instagram and LinkedIn!

Keep your eyes peeled on our social channels in January for our yearly challenge where we have to grow the SBPR social channels by 100% compared to the last month, who’s going to win that holiday this year?!

---

Finally, I would just like to say a huge thank you again to everyone who has supported and worked with us this year! This year will go down in history, not just because of Covid, but because it has been one of our most challenging but also one of our best years yet.

How the Reaching Millions Board Benefits Businesses in Lockdown

As we settle into our second lockdown, the team at SBPR are busy working hard on a number of new clients that have joined the Reaching Millions Board since the beginning of the last lockdown. The Reaching Millions Board follows on from the Reaching Millions PR and Social Media Courses and are designed to give businesses the tools they need to action their own PR and social media strategies. It enables Board members to take PR/social in-house with us to fall back on, use, and to keep you on track.

At £450+VAT per month, the Board has proved hugely popular this year as businesses are looking for PR or social media support without the full-retainer monthly fee. The Board provides previous course attendees with an exclusive monthly meeting with a member of the senior SBPR team. We ‘meet’ once a month (either via Zoom or on the phone), with the first meeting used to create a timing strategy which will reflect the member’s PR or social media brief ensuring that we reach those objectives, and hit KPIs.

After that, the meetings are about looking back and discussing the month that’s been, the successes and challenges. And then the month coming, following the timing strategy, we can see what’s planned and work out together who, and how, each activity will be actioned. Board members also get three hours of our time each month, this can be used for anything from checking and editing press releases, creating social content, social engagement, creating media lists etc. Another attractive feature of the Board for businesses, is that the SBPR team also share any relevant journalist requests with you and let you know of any news in the media that you could comment on.

Since March this year we have welcomed the following Board members:

 Planet Doctors, a community initiative focussed on many issues surrounding climate change who are using the Board to set up Growers Groups on Facebook across the UK encouraging communities to grow their own fruit and vegetables in their gardens.

Orangutan & The Holt, a leading consultancy that designs incentive, membership, and loyalty programmes who are using the Board to support with PR; writing press releases, curating targeted media lists, and pitching.

BAO Skincare, a certified vegan, organic, natural and handmade skincare brand who are using the Board to help secure coverage in key media. SBPR have supported BAO by compiling press releases, profile pieces, product deck, targeted media lists and then pitching.

CANNADOX, a range of premium CBD products who are using the Board to run an influencer campaign. The SBPR team are researching suitable influencers, reaching out to them on Cannadox’s behalf and securing partnerships and reviews.

House of Heels, a boutique shoe shop who are using the Board to set up, curate content, and manage their social media channels for them, as well as supporting them with their PR by creating a regional press release and then pitching to media.

Goldman Laboratories, a dietary supplement brand offering raw, natural and high-quality vitamin C, D3 and Glutathione, are working with the Board on their PR, the SBPR have compiled press releases, a product deck, and targeted media lists.

To find out if PR could help your brand reach the next level, book onto our next Reaching Millions PR Course on Thursday 26th November from 10am -1pm. On the course, the SBPR team will take you on a PR journey from understanding the importance of developing three key messages, how to position yourself as the expert, how to get your brand reviewed, how to use case studies, to what to do when you have no ‘new news’.

The second half of the course focuses on how to pitch to journalists and includes what to include in a press release, tips for crafting the perfect pitch, how to build a result-delivering media list, and how to approach journalists, bloggers and influencers. The course is on Zoom and costs just £45 and is the perfect introduction for potential Reaching Millions Board members.

To find out more and book your space visit https://www.sunnybirdpr.com/online-course-pr-and-publicity

New Client: Musica

The team at Sunny Bird PR are thrilled to announce they have started working with Musica Music and Wellbeing CIC. Established in 2010, the organisation is shaking up the world of dementia care by embedding music into the daily care of people living with the condition. Musica supports people living with dementia, and their caregivers, to use music in their daily lives to support wellbeing. The innovative enterprise has also launched a free online introduction to music in dementia care.

The Chief Executive and Founder of Musica, Rosie Mead, is a PhD candidate researching music in dementia care. She says “the benefits of music in dementia care are significant, the use of familiar music delivered in a responsive way can help to reduce agitation, anxiety and improve wellbeing, social interaction and quality of life. This isn’t magic, it’s science.”

Sunny Bird, Founder of Sunny Bird PR, commented: “We love the work that Rosie does, dementia affects so many of us and our loved ones. Musica’s workshops and programmes really make a difference to the lives of so many, and we’re delighted to be able to work with the team at Musica to help raise awareness of the amazing work they do.”

Journalist of the Month

Jenny Proudfoot, the Features Editor at Marie Claire, is our Journalist of the Month. When Jenny’s not bossing the world of fashion and journalism, she can be found tucked up with a cup of proper coffee and a glossy mag. Jenny took some time out for us this month to answer our SBPR questions, and here they are..

What are the 5 words that best describe you?
Warm, charismatic, funny, strong and determined.

What magazine do you love reading and why?
I buy a Marie Claire magazine in every country I visit, from France to USA - it’s become an airport tradition to pick one up for the plane to wherever I’m going - even if I don’t speak the language. I absolutely love reading the Sunday Times Style (I want to work there one day - call me) and also up there are Stylist and Vogue - I love them and have worked in both offices so it helps that I know both teams are wonderful.
 
What is your favourite book?
Can I have three? (SBPR say yes of course you can!) Normal People by Sally Rooney had the most emotional effect on me (I fell in love with Connell). Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is probably my favourite book currently - I can’t fault it, I thought it was perfect and would recommend it to anyone. Then finally, Women and Power by Mary Beard - a manifesto that everyone should read.

Which song makes you dance?
It’s a toss up between Bring It All Back by S Club 7, I Got You Babe by Sonny and Cher and Still Young by The Cat Empire - I’m aware that’s not your average mix, but if you’re partying at mine in Battersea, that will be your soundtrack.

What has been your best career moment?
Becoming a Features Editor was a huge milestone - it has always been my dream, but for me I think it has to be some of the amazing travelling I’ve done with the job. From covering the Women’s World Cup in Paris and exploring the backstreets of Tokyo to sailing to New York, working the Toronto Film Festival red carpet and reporting on the Formula 1 Pit Lane in Monaco - it’s those kind of pinch-me moments where I can’t actually believe that this is my job.

What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?
Don’t let anyone make you believe that your dreams are too big. You can achieve anything you want to with hard work, self-belief and kindness. And if people underestimate you, prove them wrong.

Where are you happiest?
I’m happiest when I’m one glass of Sauvignon Blanc down at a South London bar with my loved ones. I’m so in love with London and I’m happiest when I’m just exploring and being a tourist in my city with my people.

Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?

Gloria Steinem would be my number one dinner guest, with Reese Witherspoon as her plus one. They are game changers in the feminist movement and I would just love to be in their presence, pick their brains, hear all of their stories and hope that some of their energy would rub off on me. And I know it wasn’t part of the question, but I’d cook them Delia’s hot crab soufflé and Scandi-style Smorgasbord. Reese seems like she would bring an amazing home-cooked pudding.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
I think it would have to be healing people because it actually helps others, far more than something like being invisible. But, if having Bernard’s watch counts as a superpower, I might have to go with that instead for the nostalgia.

And then a question from you to the SBPR team…
What is the most common misconception about your job?
That all we do is fanny around with press releases and drink prosecco - ok, we do drink prosecco!

New Client: Goldman Laboratories

The team at Sunny Bird PR are delighted to announce they are working with the innovative Goldman Laboratories. The forward-thinking healthcare brand designs, manufactures, and distributes special dietary supplements for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, as well as for end-user consumers.

Goldman Laboratories is proud to provide the best food supplements that are available on the market. Working closely with surgeons, general practitioners, physiotherapists and nutritionists, the team at Goldman Laboratories carry out extensive research to ensure the premium quality of its products. The brand’s reputation has been built on providing the best products and services by defining each person’s well being and health as its core objective, for each of their clients is considered unique.

Sunny Bird, Founder of Sunny Bird PR, commented: “With our years of experience in the health and wellness sector, we know that Goldman Laboratories is offering a service and a product far superior to its competitors. It’s a busy market-place but there’s always space for the best in class. The team are very excited to start working on this campaign and to see those results come in, watch this space!”