Journalist of the Month

This month’s journalist of the month is interiors connoisseur Lara Sargent! Lara is a Freelance Interiors Journalist, writing across titles such as the Telegraph, Livingetc and Ideal Home. You may also recognise Lara’s name if you’re a regular reader of the Metro, as she writes the coveted weekly Hot List, and the home trends guide.

Lara took some time out this February to answer the Sunny Bird PR questions…

What are the 5 words that best describe you?
Hardworking, inquisitive, sociable, loyal and slightly ditsy (I know that last one is two!).

What magazine do you love reading and why?
I really love reading the content on Sheerluxe.com…it’s a really engaging site for fashion, lifestyle and interiors (and I particularly like the Behind The Scenes videos showing life at a busy magazine HQ). Do subscribe if you don’t already...

What is your favourite book? 
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 

Which song makes you dance?
Common People by Pulp. It reminds me of living in London in my 20s in the midst of the whole Britpop era. Fantastic! My children now love it too (which makes me feel ever so slightly old).

What has been your best career moment? 
My best career move was going freelance. I’ve had so many great opportunities to write for such a wide variety of publications including the Telegraph Magazine, Livingetc, Ideal Home, and of course Metro which I love! I still write for trade title Essential Kitchen & Bathroom Business magazine - I first cut my teeth in the interiors world on a trade magazine and it’s an invaluable experience for getting a good grounding in the industry.

What advice would you give your 20 year old self? 
Keep listening to those Indie bands and have fun (which of course I did by the bucketload!).

Where are you happiest?
By the sea. My husband and I came back to our hometown in Wales when we had our first child and we live just a five-minute walk from the beach. I start every day with a quick 20-minute walk around the coast with one of my best friends and their dog - it really sets you up for the day!

Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?
I’ve just binge watched Cheer (a reality cheerleading programme on Netflix) and I’d love to have a chat with Monica the cheerleading coach…she is so tenacious and hardworking.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
To fly! I’d love to see the world from a different angle.

If you had to ask us one question what would it be? 
What would be your dream campaign to work?

Lizzie: I would like to work on a campaign that helped to impact meaningful change in society – it must be a great feeling to be a part of something that’s made a difference!

Josh: I would like to work with on a campaign with lots of over-the-top and wacky stunts!

Grace: I would love to work on an influencer-driven skincare or makeup campaign, I find it incredible to see how much reach and growth that influencers can bring to a brand.

Annabel: I would love to work on a campaign that focuses on raising awareness and making a positive change in the mental wellbeing of young people, especially with social media always on the rise.

Laura: My dream campaign would be to work on a fun PR stunt, like when Aperol Spritz created a canal in London where you could sip on cocktails and float down a bright orange river!

Join the Syndicate - Your Exposure Depends on it!

Syndicated press. What is it and how can you use it to your brand’s advantage?

Content syndication is a method of republishing content on other sites in order to reach a broader audience.

For example, you might have noticed our Alcohol Awareness Week case study for our client Chris Hill featuring on other news sites such as WhatsNew2Day, Evoke, Headlinez Pro and TW News following its publication on the Mail Online.

Syndicated content not only increases your reach and brand awareness, but it also builds links within other sites and can help drive more traffic to your company domain. This method of exposure is particularly useful if you’re a smaller publisher or business who wants to reach a larger audience through a more authoritative site.

So how can we use knowledge of syndicated press to our PR advantage? Let’s look at the different ways in which press content can be syndicated!

Organic Syndication:

It may be difficult to believe, but there are plenty of news sites out there in the internet space that operate solely on their own and don’t require the manual upload of stories from say a journalist or blogger.

Instead, these little news-gems upload stories automatically by analysing the web for the most recent, most read and most topical stories from a mixture of different press including national, specialist and regional news.

This means that by getting your brand story onto the Mail Online for example, your story, in the eyes of online algorithms, becomes one of the most read and topical news stories available on the web.

This is the time when these sub-sites begin taking that content from the Mail Online domain and republishing the story to their own readers. They might syndicate pieces of content in their entirety, edit articles down to a shorter piece, or just publish a selected excerpt.

The exact details can vary from one publication to another but the more sites that do this, the more coverage you’ll get and the higher your reach and domain authority will be as a result!

To readers, it looks like any other article written on a news site – the only difference is that the content is listed as previously appearing elsewhere, which is usually indicated on the page, like this:

Publicist/Journalist Syndication:

Syndication in the media industry is not as new as it sounds. Many of the current publishing companies such as Newsquest, Reach PLC and Johnston Press still regularly push out the same content to different new sites they own.

This can be anything from a regional output to an international output depending on the company’s size. However, understanding how they work can be very beneficial when looking to maximise a story or brand’s exposure.

Let’s look at the way the publicist Newsquest, operates in terms of their syndication.

Newsquest, a relatively smaller publisher than TI-Media or the Daily Mail Group, syndicates stories by region. This means that by publishing a story on any title from their South West title base for example, will result in a further appearance in each of the below titles, maximising your story’s reach and domain authority with up to 13 pieces of regional coverage rather than just one.

Other publishers such as Reach PLC now even have a ‘shared content unit’ which details a full team of journalists whose job is to push out non-location specific news content to regional press across the UK in both print and online formats.

Understanding the operations of these publishers is handy a tool for any writer or small business looking to build a higher domain authority and enhanced SEO.

So why try it?

If your brand has excellent content but limited traffic and exposure online, then your ideas are somewhat wasted by living where eyeballs are minimal.

Syndicating your content to a third party or making use of how the UK publisher companies operate, can get better use out of it, placing it in front of the types of audiences you want to attract to your site!

Not to mention that with a large website audience, syndication websites often have large social followings as well. Between their own social promotion of syndicated content and their audience’s subsequent social shares, you can gain a lot of visibility by syndicating on top of your own reach.

This can help your online audiences grow at fraction of the cost and effort!

New Client: Festival of Enterprise

The team at Sunny Bird PR are thrilled to be working with the Festival of Enterprise, the UK’s leading business event.

The event is designed to attract businesses, small and large, from all over the country to learn from one another. Businesses are given the opportunity to hear from leading CEOs and brand founders in TED style talks, as well as being able to build new relationships, gain referrals and ultimately grow their businesses.

Speakers at the event include the youngest ever Apprentice finalist, Camilla Ainsworth, Candy Kittens Founder, Jamie Laing, and Founder of Jimmy’s Iced Coffee, Jim Cregan.

Not only are there over 100 speakers at the event but business owners can choose to exhibit, showcase what they do, and get the attention of hundreds of business owners.

Sunny, Founder of Sunny Bird PR, commented: “The event will be of particular interest to businesses who are looking for funding, to develop strategies, and a great opportunity to network with top business influencers. A really great event that we’re thrilled to be supporting.”

Journalist of the Month

After the festive break, we caught up with regional journalist Marion McMullen from Reach PLC’s shared content unit.

A section of the media that push their content out to regional press across the UK thus spreading the good name of our clients for everyone in the country to see in one go!

Marion and her team produce material across a range of product portfolios in print and online including travel, fashion, food, films and books.

Before working on 2020’s new and exciting projects, Marion was able to give us 5 minutes to answer SBPR’s most important life questions…

What are the 5 words that best describe you?

Busy, busy, busy, busy ...sleep.

What magazine do you love reading and why?

Women's Health Magazine - keeps me motivated to head to the gym.

What is your favourite book? 

I'm a sci-fi geek so anything by Peter F Hamilton.

Which song makes you dance?

Anything except country and western .... and Christmas carols.

What has been your best career moment? 

Answering this survey.

What advice would you give your 20-year-old self? 

Drink more coffee.

Where are you happiest? 

In the audience for the opening night of a new show.

Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?

I'm an utter disaster in the kitchen so I'd have to invite someone who could do all the cooking like Mary Berry or Jamie Oliver!

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

The ability to eat and drink everything in sight and sport perfect abs.  

If you had to ask us one question what would it be? 

What's the best thing about your day?

Josh – Working with a such a diverse range of clients.

Grace - When we get a great piece of coverage come through.

Annabel – Working out the figures for how much we’ve achieved! When we can give our client tangible measures for success such as reaching over 750,000 people with a piece of coverage or gaining 1,000 new followers on their social media in a week it’s exciting.

Lizzie - Not knowing what the day is going to bring – the beauty of working in an agency – no two days are the same!

Laura – Weekly yoga!

New Client: Brymor

The team at Sunny Bird PR are delighted to announce that they are now working with Brymor Construction Ltd.

Brymor Construction Ltd is a collaborative, flexible construction business delivering a professional, seamless approach to construction projects. With a strong focus on in-house technical resources they provide innovative solutions for their clients, building strong relationships as a result of their open and honest approach.

Sunny Bird, founder of Sunny Bird PR, commented: ‘We are thrilled to be working with such a well-established brand that prides itself on excellent service and delivery with such strong core values. The team are all very much looking forward to working with Brymor in 2020.’

The SBPR Social Media Challenge

Every January the Sunny Bird PR team take on a social media challenge, which sees the team go head to head to win a holiday abroad!

At the beginning of this month, each team member presented their yearly review of the SBPR social media channel they manage, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. We analysed our engagement, reach, impressions and followers and pinpointed the content that worked, and the content that didn’t work so well from 2019. Using this information, and up to date research into social media trend forecasts for the year ahead, the team have now prepared their January social media strategy for each channel.

What is the Challenge?
The challenge is for each team member to organically increase all the social media statistics on the channel they manage by 100% compared to December in just one month. This means doubling engagement rates, post reach, post impressions and follower increases.

Of course, successful content is not one size fits all, each social media platform has different algorithms and measures of success. If the team are going to succeed, they will have to work hard, do lots of research, carry out lots of split testing, create bespoke content and unmissable opportunities for their audiences to engage.

Why do we do it?
With social media algorithms constantly adapting and changing, no business can afford to be complacent with their social media strategy. At Sunny Bird PR we pride ourselves in being social media experts, which means we always reflect and put into practice our own up to date knowledge across the SBPR social media platforms as well as providing this service to our clients.

Who’s doing it?
Laura is all business on LinkedIn and her tactic is: “To engage more with other users on LinkedIn to create meaningful connections and improve the engagement on our own LinkedIn page.”

Josh will be putting all of his creativity into 180 characters on Twitter where he will: “Include call to actions within each post to maintain engagement.”

Grace is going to be stunning Instagram with beautiful imagery and engaging stories: “I am going to create aspirational imagery to feature on the feed with informative captions and lots of well thought out hashtags.”

Annabel will be sharing all of our news and updates on Facebook, and asking for our community’s feedback: “My Facebook content will start conversations through sharing Sunny Bird PR’s knowledge and asking our followers for their opinions in 2020.”

How will we stay on track?

Every Monday in January the SBPR team will meet and discuss what they have achieved for their social media channel in the previous week, analysing each post and engagement, discussing how they can improve for the next week – if we want to smash our goals, we should be improving by 25% week on week!

These meetings are an opportunity to celebrate successes, offer honest critiques, and where the whole team can make suggestions for improvements. By discussing our progress as a team, it means we all gain a strong insight into each social media platform – preparing us for when we switch up our platforms in 2020.

Our next social media course is from 10AM-2PM on Thursday 20th February, tickets are available on our website www.sunnybirdpr.com/social-media-course. At this course we will share our tried and tested social media tactics to help you maximise your social media presence and use it to the best of your advantage. This half-day course will teach you everything, from paid for advertising to organic reach and all the jargon in between.  

Building A Community on Social Media

When it comes to creating a direct line of communication with your audience, there is no tool more valuable than social media.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn aren’t just platforms for you to share your brand’s content with your audience, they also provide you with a way to communicate and engage with your brand’s followers creating your very own community. Brands that do this successfully are rewarded with organic brand champions and ambassadors as well as a sounding board offering a valuable insight into what is, and isn’t, working for their brand.

Two brands that have successfully created engaged social media communities are Jimmy’s Iced Coffee and Bliss Sanctuary for Women.

On Jimmy’s Iced Coffee’s social media accounts the team frequently share content posted by their community, and they respond to every comment in their unique and funny brand voice.

Bliss Sanctuary for Women make sure that their posts address their audience in first person, and use images of real guests who have visited their sanctuaries.

The social media shop window

You should approach your brand’s social media in the same way that you would your shop window if you had one. It is the first thing a potential customer sees when deciding whether they will engage with your brand.   

This means that social media isn’t just a shop window for content, it offers your potential customers an insight into how you deal with customer service issues too. If a potential customer browses your social media pages and sees that you are not creating a community with your audience, not answering their questions or listening to their opinions they are likely to take their business elsewhere.

So how can you build your community through social media? We have compiled some tips below to help you get started:

1.) Actively communicate

It might seem obvious, but communication is the foundation of all successful social media platforms. Brands which respond to comments, ask questions, and involve their followers with brand decisions gain not only the trust, but the respect of their followers.

2.) Be consistent with your engagement

Consistency is key when it comes to social media. Set aside half an hour at the start of every day and half an hour at the end to completely dedicate time to your social media engagement – this might be answering your audience’s comments, tagging them into posts, following new accounts or sending responses to messages.

3.) Step outside your own feed

Social media isn’t just about the space that your brand calls home, but the space that your followers, competitors, fans and collaborators curate too. Take the time every day to comment, like, share and engage with the content produced by these accounts. Both the Instagram and Facebook algorithm will prioritise your content if it detects that you are making meaningful connections with your followers – which means the more conversations you are having, the more your content will be seen.

4.) Make use of social media tools and trends

Instagram stories are more than just a feature to post quick snippets and videos. You can use stories to host polls, schedule Q&As, quiz your audience and much more. Stories that ask for involvement from the audience stand out, and when your followers see that you are asking for their opinions, they will want to be involved. 

5.) Keep it real

Making the most of real-life events and moments for social media content is an essential way to raise your brand’s value in the eyes of your customers. Showing your customers that your brand exists outside the screen builds your credibility, and keeps your brand feeling human. From working with influencers, highlighting your staff, shooting content at events and inviting your community to try products, there are many ways that you can bring your brand to life in your content.

For example, if you are a fashion brand, you could consider using a social media influencer that your community admires to promote your product. This activity could be as simple as sending an influencer a gift and asking them to share it on their social media platform.

An engaged social media community is an invaluable asset for businesses and can help to increase brand reputation, grow brand value in the eyes of the customer, and to receive constructive feedback. By dedicating your time to building your own community, we guarantee that you will see positive, tangible results for your business.

If you would like to learn tried and tested social media tactics to help you maximise your social media presence, grow your online community, and use it to the best of your advantage, then join the SBPR team on Thursday 20th February 2020 for our Social Media Masterclass.  Our half-day course will teach you everything, from building your community to increasing your organic reach and everything in between.

https://www.sunnybirdpr.com/social-media-course

Journalist of the Month

This month we are catching up with Emma North, a freelance journalist who has written for titles such as Glamour, ELLE, Vogue, The Telegraph and Fabulous magazine! Emma will be heading to our client’s luxury women’s only retreat, Bliss Sanctuary for Women in Bali, with her mum in January, but before she heads off Emma has taken 5 minutes out to complete our SBPR Journo of the month questions…

What are the 5 words that best describe you?

Loyal, calm, friendly, empathetic and creative

What magazine do you love reading and why?

Ooh - I love reading Cosmopolitan for their up-to-date and engaging topics. They always seem to be one step ahead of everyone else in terms of controversy and interesting reads. I also love to read Grazia for the celeb gossip and beauty pages. Joely Walker is my female crush. 

What is your favourite book? 

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker 

Which song makes you dance?

Crazy in Love - Beyoncé. It used to be my ringtone in the days before iPhones. Every time I hear it, I think my LG flip phone is ringing and I want to dance.

What has been your best career moment? 

Having my name credited in Funmi Fetto's beauty bible book, Palette.  I assisted her as beauty assistant which was a dream come true. I reached out to Funmi years ago and she's been my mentor and inspiration ever since. Big love to her.

What advice would you give your 20 year old self? 

If you're scared - don't waste your energy worrying and do it anyway. What's the worst that can happen?

Where are you happiest? 

I'm happiest at home in Devon, with my dogs and my family, eating pasta. Or on a Caribbean beach... I can't decide.

Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?

I can't choose just one! I'd have to say Freddie Mercury or Mahatma Gandhi. Freddie would be so entertaining and charismatic. Gandhi would explain to me how I can find peace in this crazy world. 

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

I was cabin crew for 4 years and spent my life on long haul aeroplanes, jet lagged and exhausted. For that reason, I always swore if I had a superpower it would be teleportation. Travelling sucks. I'd like to be able to click my fingers and be somewhere instantly... primarily for naps.

If you had to ask us one question what would it be? 

Are there any clients that you dream of working with and why?

___________________________________________________________

Josh - Paddy Power – they do crazy and outrageous stunts to get them noticed in the busy betting sector and I’d love to be part of the creative.

Lizzie - Farrow and Ball – just because I love them so much; their ethos, branding, colours, and style!

Annabel - I would love to work with a brand which creates Christmas decorations - I am absolutely obsessed with the decorations that Paperchase makes, and I love their stationary too!

Grace - I would love to work with Nars, the make-up brand. I love their make-up and their campaign imagery. They always collaborate with amazing celebs, host incredible events and can be quite controversial with their branding!

Laura – I would like more travel clients and luxury retreats in places like the Maldives, Caribbean etc. – mainly so I can visit them!