But tough times have led experts to predict that 2011 will be the high street’s toughest Christmas in decades.  The biggest names have already started slashing prices to help stimulate sales.  But what can digital PR do to help tempt shoppers through a retailer’s door?

Bell Pottinger North has a track record in effectively using social media campaigns to increase footfall and sales for retailers including Asda, Leeds Corn Exchange and Bagel Nash.  Here are our top five tips for effective social media for retailers.

1. Experience

Alongside the right products and prices, shopping choices are based on experience too.  Experiential activities and great events in store are vital to engaging key audiences by creating memorable and impactful first-hand experiences with your brand.

How can you translate this into a positive and engaging experience on social media?  Think about how you can entertain, add value or what will attract interest.  At this festive time, facebook special offers, YouTube competitions, interactive games and music are all useful tools.

2. Opinion formers

Being featured within a ‘Christmas gift’ article in the Sunday papers has long increased product sales, but the rise in social media has created new influencers who have the power to recommend your product to a far larger customer base.  Active on twitter, or writing a blog, they’ve built active, loyal followers.

So pinpoint the right bloggers for you and take time to build a relationship with them.  Be it mumsnet to reach yummy mummys, gransnet for the more mature customer or Engadget for the gadget lovers amonsgt us.

3. Peer-advocacy

Only 11% of people in the UK use social media to complain.  The vast majority use it to share, help and praise companies and products.  Not only do views influence friends and family, but 41% of people are influenced by the views of total strangers.

Put in place vehicles to enable customers to comment and recommend your products.  From enabling purchases to be shared and then rated on facebook, twitter and email; to mobilising the 8 million registered users on Foursquare; social media enables truly creative customer recommendation programmes.

4. Online

Don’t forget that the battle for sales is increasingly being fought online too.  Mega Monday on 28 November was the start of what analysts believe will be the start of the busiest two weeks of internet shopping in the UK. Sales are expected to topple £3.7bn, an increase of 14% on last year according to IMRG, the trade body for the UK’s online retailers.

Since Google changed its ranking criteria this year, how you choose to conduct your social media activities now has the power to increase your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and so visibility online. This will significantly increase traffic to your website.

For an instant way to secure additional sales before the end of the Christmas and New Year sales season, combine SEO with pay per click (PPC).  As a special stocking Christmas bonus we can set you up with an effective PPC campaign and give you your first £75 free!

5. Groupon

No digital retail strategy would be complete without consideration of the controversial deal-of-the-day services such as Groupon.  They have seen incredible growth in the UK, with Groupon having gained over six million members in Britain alone.

Despite clearly getting your name and service in-front of a local market, it is essential that a financially beneficial deal is agreed.  It is also important that offers are used to build repeat sales, not used as a tool to gain instant cheap sales.  Heed warnings from The Telegraph, FT and The Drum, who all suggest trouble is brewing due to increasing numbers of disgruntled customers.

“While some good product placement and a loving endorsement from Peter Andre might be great PR for the latest aftershave or book launch (or maybe not!), Peter’s wise words probably won’t instil much confidence in the ability of a law firm to do its job – a different approach is clearly needed!

“In the professional services sector, credibility, trust and reputation are the core of your proposition and therefore it’s vital your public relations campaign is geared toward protecting and reinforcing this.

“For nearly a decade, Bell Pottinger North has shaped, managed and protected the public perception and wider understanding of law firms, accountancies, architects etc. and not once have we felt the need to drop a senior partner out of a light aircraft with a strategically branded parachute.

“We work with firms of all shapes and sizes to create and implement effective results-driven public relations and wider communications campaigns that are bespoke to our clients needs.

“We do this through a slightly more conservative approach that resonates with and targets the people that our clients want to do business with.

“Through a variety of PR techniques and wider marketing mix disciplines, we effectively position our clients’ brands and differentiate them in an increasingly crowded market. We want to increase your brand’s awareness specifically to help change the buying perception and behaviours of your target audience.

“In today’s media-savvy and media-hungry society, audiences instinctively look beyond advertising. Editorial coverage is far more credible and carries the tacit endorsement of the journalist. This ‘no tricks or gimmicks’ approach reassures clients that the message you are delivering is genuinely true and can provide reassurance in these difficult times.

“Our ‘horses for courses’ approach means that, every day, we are delivering punchy, targeted PR campaigns for our clients that keep them in the public eye, establish trust and help to deliver the credibility factor.

“It’s our job to control the messages that the media receive about our clients and their services in an appropriate way that does not detract from or diminish its strength.”

It is understandable.  We have all been on courses where the environment, speaker and group have inspired us to make a change in our habits, but then everyday life erodes our enthusiasm. 

We are working with NHS organisations to reduce this drop out rate by using social media to maintain the interest, team spirit and motivation created on public health courses. Creating engagement online is an effective way of building communities with a purpose – to reduce drop out rate; improve health outcomes and improve the return on investment of courses run.  

As participants choose to spend an increasing time on social media sites, it’s a perfect communications channel to fit in with their lifestyle; be where they are.  People in the UK now visit 16 facebook pages every day.  And it’s not just the domain of the younger participants.  People aged over 50 account for 42% of all social networking users; baby boomers and seniors have embraced this platform.

When setting-up a social programme to support the in-person course, key elements to consider include:

• Security – participants may not want to let friends and family know of their participation or progress.  This must be addressed in its design.
• Keep it regular – regular posts will keep it fresh and interesting.  Also consider using a mix of pictures, polls and events; do not stick to just one type of content.
• Keep it local – rather than push national stories through this channel, the group is local so add as much value as possible informing them on local developments such as fitness courses or local food offers. This group will work best if it feels like a community.
• Instigate conversations – building two-way or group conversations will help strengthen relationships. Instigate a response.

Good healthcare courses create interactive dialogue, enable user-generated content and build communities – all elements brought by social media.  We can see a future when all courses are supplemented with a social media strategy. 

Last month the top five accountancy firms in Manchester were recommended, reported, discussed and searched for over 3.4m times on-line.  The leading players have woken-up to the power of digital media.

But the vast majority of accountancy firms have yet to build a digital reputation strategy that harnesses social media to deliver its business goals.  This is a huge opportunity forManchester’s accountancy practices.

When you look at an accountancy firm’s business model, the challenges it faces and its audience, it’s a perfect fit for social media:

• Most business comes from referrals and word of mouth.  This is a fundamental facet of social media.  It enables relationships to be strengthened and new ones to be formed, first on-line then in-person.
• Practices need to demonstrate their prowess over their discipline.  Social media is a vehicle for professionals to establish themselves as thought leaders; most importantly for their views and advice to be delivered to their target audience when it matters.
• The finance community is already there. From financial directors, solicitors, financial journalists to the Bank of England, the financial community is already sharing opinions, making connections and researching services on-line already (see first paragraph!).

However, unless a firm’s social media activities have been designed to meet specific business challenges, created with a complete picture of online activity, and executed in a manner that fits the medium, any investment will not be fully realised.

Although every organisation’s situation is unique, the five most popular missed opportunities made by professional services on-line include:

1. No search engine optimisation: After investing time and budget perfecting a website, no/minimal activity is undertaken to ensure prospects find it.  Search engine optimisation helps organisations to rise through Google search results.  Try it.
2. Be where your prospects are:  LinkedIn dominates across the professional services market yet only 28 out of the top 100 accountancy firms in theUKhave completed a LinkedIn company page.  Be there and do it well.
3. One-way communication:  Conversations are always best when they are two-way.  Social media is built to facilitate two-way and group conversations.  That’s what makes it engaging.  Make sure you are.
4. Crisis communications: Ensure corporate social media policies are in place and communicated, 70% of employees have no idea if their company has a policy.  Crisis communications processes should incorporate issues unique to social media and scenarios should be regularly tested.
5. Measure it: Like all marketing practices, it is essential that all social media activities are specifically measured and tracked.

Social media offers a huge advantage for accountants in Manchester.  As a PR agency who has worked with many of them, we know the intellect, talent and wit that exists.  We look forward to helping Manchester’s professional services leap ahead of their competition online.

To discuss how we can help you establish an effective digital reputation strategy contact lhenshaw@bellpottingernorth.co.uk

We have spent time  polishing up our shiny new SEO  service.  Our search guru Joe can talk for Yorkshire about the bits and bytes of how to make sure our client’s web pages come right at the top of Google’s search results. We can advise  exactly how and why  our clients need to “massage” their web sites to rank top for “red-widgets” or whatever.  It’s clearly going to be an exciting time with a number of clients already signed up.

But the really interesting thing isn’t the service per se.  Now matter how good the SEO we offer  the results we ultimately  gain for a client will be primarily dependent on about 10 secs in the life of potential web visitors.

How come?

You want to  buy let’s say a new chicken coop.  You sit down in front of Google and type something into the search box.  Only takes you 10 seconds, but in those 10 seconds your choice of search term decides which pages you will see and where you get your chicken coop from.

Leave aside all the techy mumbo jumbo, the page rank and “link juice” etc., the better we understand those 10 secs; the better we understand the psychology of the desire for a given product or service then the better we can ensure that the right pages, with the right content appear at the top of search results.

Back to marketing 101 really and buyer behaviour classes.  ”Understand your customer better and you will sell more.”

Simple really.  (Just not easy).

I understand it, I use it, I don’t believe it’s a modern day case of the emperor’s new clothes.  I can see the advantages of Facebook, Twitter, youtube and Linked In (add or delete according to taste, fashion and whim) as plain as, well as plain as the lovely ermine trim on that shiny new emperor’s cloak, but I do have an issue with over-sharing.

I really don’t want my iPhone cluttered up with the stresses of other people’s school runs – I have enough stresses getting my real-life kiddies to school in uniform, with spelling revision done and school dinner money in hand without someone else who I maybe work with or know fleetingly and in a weak moment, have connected with, telling me about their skinny latte or their vodka hangover.

It’s painful in the extreme, wasteful of the medium and frankly incredibly self indulgent. Did you call or text 212 people when you were planning a loft clear-out in the past?  Do you feel it would be a justifiable use of their time to read about your Monday morning blues? Come on. Get some self control. Just because it’s easy to use, please don’t exhaust it.

Let’s preserve social media for the good stuff that it does so well. Yep, if you’re a festival organiser, tell everyone the tents are going up. The chances are your followers are keen as mustard to know the news.  If you are a Corrie actor then tell people that you have just filmed an amazing traffic accident scene (it’s always a car crash isn’t it?) But if I know you as a lawyer then please keep in mind that I want to believe that you are trustworthy and competent and I am not as keen to know you are still hung over on a Tuesday from a stag weekend in Amsterdam.

Friends, please keep me in the loop, but make it worthwhile. We’re all struggling to squeeze 28 hours into 24. Tell me about your upcoming 40th birthday party (if I’m invited) or the Mark Warner kids travel free offer that’s just about to end but don’t clutter my life with your choice of clothing for the day. Yes, by all means blend your personal life with your work persona – we are all people – but don’t confuse the two and if you are technically savvy enough to have linked all your social media together, then remember that what’s grist to the Twitter mill doesn’t necessarily play out as well on Linked In.

And while we are on the subject, please think on before you cc 10 people in on an email. Do the decent thing and remember they will have to actually read it before they realise it’s non-essential to life and delete. Oh and don’t be using social media to appeal for donations to charity that are thinly disguised opportunities for you to achieve a lifelong dream. Fine, ask for cash if you’re sitting in a bath of baked beans but not so you can explore the Inca temples in Peru. Here’s the news: I want to go too and I don’t want to pay for you to get their first.

So please before you post an update on yet another mundane page in your life, think about the preservation of the channel for all our futures. If we abuse it, people will turn off and take down those Facebook pages or worse still, stop following you.  We need a new social order. Please adopt immediately.

That may sound a bit dramatic, but essentially it’s true. Think of BP’s reputation before the ‘Deepwater Horizon’ disaster last year. It wasn’t so much the estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil that were spilt into the Gulf of Mexico that damaged its reputation; it was more BP’s response at the time of the crisis, specifically that of its chief executive.

Bell Pottinger North builds and manages better reputations for its clients and in today’s turbulent economic climate, this has never been more important. Despite the doom and gloom, UK plc is being advised to spend, invest and grow its way out of the economic crisis. In times of uncertainty and prudent spending, a brand’s reputation is key and offers the reassurance for consumers to spend in austere times.

The worrying thing though is that ‘trust’ seems to have been one of the victims of the downturn. Companies and organisations that have continued to invest in their brands, communicate effectively and build on effective credibility base will be best placed to survive and thrive in the future.

In the majority of sectors, credibility, trust and reputation is the core of your proposition. It’s vital then to protect this reputation no matter how squeezed the budget is. That’s exactly where PR can help – a clearly planned and targeted communications campaign will help to develop and protect a company’s reputation, giving its customers the trust they need to carry on spending and ensuring the maximum positive impact on the bottom line.

As Bill Gates once said: “If I was down to my last dollar of my marketing budget, I’d spend it on PR!”

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The Pottinger Belles prepare for their camping challenge

The case in question I am referring to is that of Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins, who was lambasted in a recent documentary, ‘Katie: My beautiful friends’.

In said documentary, a burns survivor, Emily Savage, criticised Jenkins for an apparent quote she made in a paper appearing to bemoan her good looks, saying that ‘it’s difficult being beautiful’. Savage said she was annoyed by Jenkins’ remarks, asking whether she would rather swap lives.

Faster than the speed of lightning, Jenkins’, apparently after seeing the documentary, tweeted the show’s host Katie Piper, denying the quote and asked to be put in touch with Savage. Jenkins’ then had a tweet conversation with Savage, again denying the quote and even offered free tickets to her next concert. Situation resolved.

How do I know all this? Not because I follow any of the three women, but because the whole saga was reported in the Daily Mail the next morning, along with the twitter transcript for posterity.

Now, I may be cynical, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a PR guru doing an A-class job behind the scenes. If not, how did the Daily Mail get wind of this so quickly?

Put simply, Jenkins and her PR team did not just need to explain the misquote to Savage, they needed to share it with the world, to avoid any negative PR. That’s why Twitter was the channel of choice, rather than the traditional phone call or holding statement.  

I may be wrong, and the fleet-of-foot idea may have genuinely belonged to Jenkins, but don’t be surprised if you see a smiley Tweetpic of Jenkins and Savage, at the former’s concert, splashed across the DM in weeks to come.