by Gabriel St Aimee, Intern at Northern Lights PR

Without intending to evangelise, PR is needed for the BME community, not just for diversity but for the industry – despite the current debate.

PR could be used to alleviate the overly saturated careers, which the BME community is drawn to. Law is just one example of an overly saturated profession which is idealised among the BME community.

Being a BME myself I can safely say that PR needs PR among the BME community because it is not considered a career goal.

The truth of the matter is that PR is not a career pursued by the black community because it is not respectable – obviously I do not mean to cause any offence.

The BME community is very concerned about standing and PR just has not grabbed their attention. PR is nowhere on the radar. Every black person has a family member who is a doctor, lawyer, secretary or business owner.

What I thought of comms.

I did not know that communications was a career. It is not a publicised field as most PR practitioners come from writing backgrounds – no one comes directly into PR. When I thought of PR Aaron Eckhart “Thank you for smoking”, and Alastair Campbell came to mind. I knew that there was an element of creativity and networking but for some reason I did not think of the positive elements.

What you think now

When I think about communications now, I realise that I had the wrong idea. Communications is not advertising – it is also about communicating with a redundant workforce or a charity organisation. Mostly communications can be used to reach, those who are socially excluded.

How you can see the importance for the UK generally

Without good communications, people will continue to be excluded – whether from trains, products or government services.  If more people from BME communities look at careers in communications, it can only be good for the country. I am not intending to be sanctimonious as one of the Northern Lights interns. However everyone is able to provide valuable insights- in a field where creativity is the linchpin, diversity cannot be undervalued.

PR requires the best possible candidates for the job. As the field of PR currently stands it is not possible that PR in the UK is the best it can be. The Northern Lights internship programme is designed to give BME graduates experience in PR by working on real projects.  The projects completed for Northern Rail, Hallmark and Bradford University were all completed to a professional standard in three weeks.

Public relations is in every sphere of the working world, it just cannot be avoided. Relating to one another is something every individual does. Conversely PR practitioners do it on a wider scale through networking.

My view on the PR Week article: PR Agency Bosses Reject Idea Of Quotas In Drive To Improve Diversity

Introducing quotas into the PR industry is not the answer because I do not believe the industry would meet any quotas without change. Improving diversity within PR is a long term project that needs genuine commitment from organisations and industry.

Diversity needs to be real – any piecemeal actions would only put BMEs off PR.

Therefore programmes like the Northern Lights internship and Taylor Bennett’s Brunswick internship are the way forward. They are tackling the main issue affecting diversity in PR – practical experience. There is no doubt in my mind that BME graduates would help business and can be the foundations for a BME Prime Minister.

Don’t you think?

by Mohammed Waheed, Intern at Northern Lights PR

Student with high expectations

When you attend university you think you are the “bee’s knees” and you will learn everything you need to know to be very successful in your future profession, however, not everything is what it seems.

University PR

At university I was taught all about marketing communications and how to do certain things, without actually being taught (if that makes sense). We are taught about all these wonderful things we could do, but what they fail to mention is that in reality this is not the case.

Some of things we were taught included:

1. Living in a fantasy land where you have endless amounts of money. So you can do whatever you like and you will be successful. However, this “lala-land” is not what happens in the real world and you have to adapt to your surroundings.
2. We are also not really told about how to attract the media, except it is more a case of if you do something the media will come. There is no mention of how you would get them to attend.
3. Networking is not seen as being key and not something that is even taught. We get told all about these wonderful things but fail to learn about how to effectively network.

Real life PR

Whilst on the PR programme I learned how the real world operates. That, it is not easy and involves a lot of hard work, however, it is very rewarding when you see the results. I was taught that creativity is a key aspect and you will generally work with small budgets as I did with the projects that were given to us.

Whilst at Northern Lights I have been taught many things including:

1. How to blog effectively
2. How to structure a press release
3. How to utilise social media
4. How to write for different audiences
5. Steps to take in a crisis, and finally;
6. That networking is essential.

The master classes were full of fresh insight and it was nice to get a worldly perspective of PR rather than the fantasy one created at university.

BAME community in PR

PR is not seen as an option within the BAME community, as there are not many success stories, or individuals who have pursued a career in PR. PR is not seen in the same light as other professions, however, with Northern Lights offering such a great programme they are aiming to change this. Northern Lights have already influenced 5 interns and from a personal point, it has made me actively seek others to pursue a PR career. Since being with Northern Lights I have been marketing PR through word of mouth, which I see as the best form of marketing. I have already interested a friend to apply for the Northern Lights programme next year and shared my experiences with him. I have also been quizzed by my sister about PR as she looks for a career. My sister has now accepted that PR is a possible career for her and is now actively researching the PR market to see if it is for her.

Do you agree with my views? Are there other steps that could be taken to attract more BAME graduates to take up PR?

by Liane Clarke, Intern at Northern Lights PR

The final week of the Internship and as we prepare for our final presentations to Northern Rail, Hallmark, Bradford School of Management and Northern Lights, each of us is reflecting upon the internship and our experiences. From the beginning we have encountered a schedule filled with workshops and presentations and even though many of us have had to struggle to get out of bed,  (We all Love sleep!) each day brought a new challenge.

All of the workshops presented us with new contacts and skills which not only related to the world of PR but also real life. It was also interesting to listen to many of the individual stories from the workshop leaders e.g. Justin McKeown, Jane Hustwit and Saeeda Ahmed.  The skills gained from the internship however, stretched far beyond those which could be gained from the workshops. For example we had to learn how to:

• Manage time
• Manage work and family commitments
• Work as a team

All of which I am more than sure will help in the world of work. From the workshops the skills which I feel may be most valuable to an individual going into the world of work are:

• Networking
• Personal Branding

From my understanding networking can be useful in almost any area of work, yet it can also apply to real life. Often people approach networking to gain new contacts or clients yet the lines of communication between that client must stay open. This can also be applied to any relationship as you can express an interest in a person at first and then gradually forget about them. A word of advice: You should try to never forget about these people as they may often help you when you least expect it.

Secondly, Andy Green taught us about the importance of personal branding. Many of the exercises given were there to help us create a better picture of ourselves and set our own personal goals. The more specific a goal is the more likely you are to achieve it!

Overall, the internship was worthwhile even though it was short, it is often true that the best things come in small packages, and it is surprising how much you can achieve in three weeks and how many new skills can be learnt. With that said…What skill do you think is most valuable in the workplace?

It is Northern Lights PR’s 20^th anniversary this year. To celebrate we wanted to do something new and different that reflected our values – had heart, made a difference and shared our PR skills.

When Heather McGregor of Taylor Bennett told me about their Brunswick Internship we knew this was it.  We wanted to run the northern version to encourage graduates from BAME communities to go into communications as a career – they are under-represented in this industry as the PR Week debate has highlighted.

It’s just finished and we are bowled over with the results – we also have four, maybe five, maybe even six graduates who want to go into our industry and have pledged to encourage others.

Here’s what we did, with tips if you want to do something similar.  We are a small business – anyone could do a version of this.  We paid our interns but in the current economy you could do this without.

1. Find an internship partner

Brunswick work with University of East London; we worked with Bradford University School of Management – a top ten UK business school.   Because the aim is to increase the number of people working in the UK communications industry, we specified UK residents.

The universities help to promote the internship – we were quite late starting this, but it’s best to start from September and interview around April.

2. How many interns and for how long?

We originally planned to copy the Brunswick programme – six interns for 10 weeks.  Because we were late, we only had six graduate applications and one second year under-grad.  We decided to cut out the one-day selection process and offer all the graduates a place (they all impressed us) – but only for three weeks.

With hindsight, ten weeks would have been extremely hard to manage.  Three weeks stretched us to our limit and in fact was enough to enthuse them and give them excellent communications skills – see their blogs written just after a week.

3. Ask for help from employers and CIPR members

We asked a number of employers if they would support us.  Northern Rail, Hallmark and the university gave us real life challenges

-        Northern Rail has just employed four community ambassadors to encourage more people to use the trains in areas where traditionally they don’t.  They asked for a toolkit and PR launch

-        Hallmark asked for ideas for new card ranges and PR launches

-        The university wanted a PR campaign to increase the number of applications for Masters degrees

Each of them gave a half day workshop – mix of masterclass and presentation on their challenge.

We then asked the regional CIPR committee if they would help – and Andy Green, Justin McKeown, Nigel Keenlyside, Prof Ann Gregory, Gary Taylor and Northern Lights colleagues all did masterclasses on aspects of PR.

A number of our partners stepped in to do sessions on careers advice – Jane Hustwit and Saeeda Ahmed – and specialist areas such as Tinderbox Media on social media.

Andrew Palmer, regional director of the CBI, joined us for a social BBQ one evening so the interns could practise their networking skills!

4. Working at Northern Lights

Our office has no spare desks.  So Bradford School of Management offered a room with computers and log-in details for the interns as a base.  And they came to our offices twice a week – and worked in the dining room of the house next to our office.  They all had laptops and accessed our wireless network to do research for their campaign planning.

5. Inspiring the interns

At the interviews, we spelt out to the interns that if they joined us they would have to ‘hit the ground running’.  When they saw the schedule just before they joined, it was a reality shock.

We were paying the interns, they were employees and we made it quite clear we expected a lot.

There were tensions in the group – they are all ambitious and this is to be expected.  This was the toughest part from our side.  We had to spend a lot of time listening, coaching and guiding the individuals and the team.  But this reaped the most rewards – though we did lose one intern at the end of the first week.

We did do an ‘ice-breaker’ team event on the first morning – and cooked a supper one evening to spend relaxed time with them.  With hindsight we probably need to allow for more team building.

We set the bar high and our interns responded.  They carried out research in the evenings and weekends and worked late on their presentations.

6. What our interns achieved

On their final afternoon, our interns did four presentations of half an hour each, back to back.  It would kill a lot of PR professionals – but the interns were not fazed and delivered superbly.

Northern Rail, Hallmark and the university all joined us to hear their presentations.  Alex Glen of Hallmark said they had given him ‘900 campaigns’!  Richard Allen of Northern Rail was delighted and expects to implement their campaign and the same with the university.

Their final presentation was to the Northern Lights team – what did they get out of the internship and should we do it again?

The resounding answer was yes, we should repeat it.  And all of our interns have personally committed to spread the word about communications as a career – in schools, at the university, with family and friends.

Already our interns have been offered jobs and further work and workshadowing.  They were given chances to die for – and have absolutely picked them up.  They have been a credit to our business.

Thanks to everyone who helped us – particularly to Taylor Bennett for generously giving endless advice, practical support and the structure of a programme that worked.

by Shaheeb Tanwir, Intern at Northern Lights PR

PR & Communications- It’s a lot of things to a lot of people, but seldom accurately described. It’s a highly important, charismatic, and dynamic industry that demands the utmost respect from the world as any self respecting industry would.

Similarly, any self respecting industry is constantly at the forefront of technological advancement. PR & Communications has been rather slow on the uptake; however, it is a case of better late than never.

What media did PR use?

Traditionally, PR professionals stuck to media such as newspapers, magazines, TV and other print media to communicate with audiences. With the dot com boom in the late 1990’s they began using basic websites to send out messages to people. Ultimately, whatever media the audiences use for news and entertainment is a viable target for PR campaigns; hence PR had to follow audiences onto the limitless expanses of the World Wide Web.

So what’s all this social media kerfuffle?

Darcy DiNucci first coined the phrase ‘web 2.0’ in 1999, and in 2004 it was thrust into the limelight with the O’Reilly Media and Media-Live conference on the subject. Post web 2.0, web users could use the internet on a multitude of devices, it allowed for greater interoperability, it allowed them to run software applications entirely through a browser, and also offered a great degree of user generated content and user interaction. The technology gave birth to unique business models and gave everyday individuals a chance to publish thoughts and feelings within seconds.

What does it mean for PR & Communication?

Ever tried telling a PR consultant that what they do is glorified advertising? Don’t try it! The reaction isn’t pleasant. Truth is, if people think PR is a form of advertising then they are far away from the truth. If advertising is the process of telling audiences something then PR & Communications involves communicating with the audience and integrating them in a respectful manner. In PR, one cannot simply talk at people – if you think you can, then look at some failed social media campaigns such as the Nestle campaign (remember, Greenpeace vs. Nestle?).

Remember what we said about users being able to generate content and interact with one another post web 2.0? Well, that is the lynchpin of social media marketing’s future success.

So how should PR make use of social media marketing?

Answer: in much the same way as traditional campaigns are run.

See, a wise, not-so-old Director of  Centre for Public Relations Studies Prof.  Anne Gregory PhD reminded me of how a good social media campaign should be run. One cannot talk at people by telling them what to believe, but rather ‘infiltrate’ the relevant community, create a following, and influence a perception amongst a mass of people. You can only nudge a conversation or an opinion in your favour without resorting to tacky advertising tactics.

Perhaps in the future the PR industry will be at the forefront of new technology, perhaps PR will lead the way in utilising the semantic web and the personalisation web 3.0 will offer?

For now though, we can sit back and enjoy the creativity of PR professionals in utilising the internet.

by Nafisa Shafiq, Intern at Northern Lights PR

Another week of the internship has passed and this week the session that has interested me most was based on networking. I’ve not had any ‘real’ experience of networking, and Victoria Tomlinson’s do’s and don’ts have all been useful.

In general, like many others I believed networking was all about me.

Selfish? Yes!

But honestly, I thought that networking was all about getting ‘me’ out there.

From what Victoria said, this is not the case. Networking is all about engaging with others, finding out what others do and how they can be helped. Many aspects of this do come with conversation, but just like any assignment or exam, research is necessary.

Here are 6 tips that I took away from Victoria’s session:

1. Show your personality when you are talking to others – it’s important to let others know who you really are. This helps them to remember you.

2. Deliver what you promise – if you’ve told someone that you’re going to do a task, do it! It always leaves a positive impression.

3. Before meeting others, research them. With social media and the internet this is something that can be done easily and shows others that you have a real interest in them.

4. Think ahead – the research will help you to think about the questions that you can ask others. And helps with the conversation too!

5. Be proactive – follow up with the people that you’ve met and activities that you are aware of or have been involved in. “The earlier, the better!”. This shows that you genuinely care and are interested.

Which leads on to the final tip…

6. Everyone you meet gives you something whether it be knowledge, contact or referrals – “don’t dismiss anyone, ever!”

Following Victoria’s session we all met Paul Dickinson, the UK’s Managing Director of The Alternative Board and Andrew Palmer, Regional Director of the CBI. Both provided us with their insight into networking.

Their departing words were to:

Do something YOU enjoy!

Do something YOU find rewarding!

The words ‘be passionate’ were also used throughout the day. Something I believe is key.

What do you think? Are there any tips that you would recommend? Or even not recommend?

by Gabriel St Aimee, Intern at Northern Lights PR

My first week as a PR & Marketing intern with Northern Lights has just ended and WOW!!! My Student Brain is fried. I have learnt so much but it can all be summarised into one theme- getting it right for the other person is necessary in PR.

What I mean is that there is a human element to everything- I gathered this from my master classes in press releases, photography and CV skills. I would like to thank Ruth Badley, John Furlong and Jane Hustwit for the exciting talks.

The target is always the Human being. Newspapers do report the facts but there is another side just like with finding a job and taking a photo. It is all about relating with your target audience and making your CV or Press Release relevant by enhancing certain elements. Saying that the reason you want to work with a company is because of their community ethos is very similar to a photographer darkening a raw image or a sub editor writing a headline “Man bites dog”.

In PR achieving greater intimacy with a subject flaunts your ability to solve their problems. Really simple. I would stress that whatever you do to suggest intimacy with your subject there is still an aura of professionalism.

I am a Modern European Historian- an academic, according to my degree, so PR sounds like a mountain to me. I had no knowledge of PR or Marketing except for the misconceptions I had of political “spin doctors”.

However I have learned that it is not that difficult, providing you remain open (creatively) and there is no such thing as an original idea; “The best ideas are nicked from somebody else but done better,” according to Victoria Tomlinson.

Being open to ideas fosters a positive working environment and creativity. Therefore, if you are better able to provide a service you need to let it be known and that is what I have learnt from my first week.

My blog is based on the session with  Victoria Tomlinson and Karyn Fleeting, so I would like to thank the two PR entrepreneurs.

Feel free to challenge my perspective on PR.

The possible beginning of a career….

by Mohammed Waheed, Intern at Northern Lights PR

The Northern Lights PR internship intrigued me and I felt it was an opportunity that was not to be missed.  The interview went well, however, I expected rejection as I wasn’t a Bradford University student but hey presto, I was accepted!! I was told I had to “hit the ground running” as long we didn’t have to physically run around I was going to be fine and learn a lot.

The first week of the internship seem to approach quickly and I felt I was ready; the suit was washed, ironed and ready to make an impact. I was already nervous as my university results had been posted out and now it was my first day (by the way I got a 1^st class honours).

Unexpected!

I have however, been left a bit surprised at times already. I found the project with Northern Rail a real challenge. Being naive I just expected to be given some research and told what to do. Furthermore, finding out that my CV and interviewing skills were not great came as a surprise and made me question myself “Why did I get hired if my interview skills are poor?”

The DON’TS in an interview

1. Speaking too fast
2. Not understanding or hearing the question (which is apparently very common in interviews, especially for the first question).
3. Not having my hands on the table
4. Repeating things

However, as with most things there are not only negatives but also positives:

The DO’S of an interview

1. Using examples to answer a question is a great way to sell yourself
2. Ask questions
3. Eye contact
4. Flatter the company (talk about them and tell them why they are great)

We were also taught about blogging and how it can make an impact. My view of it as being a great way to attract business was non-existent, until the master class. Here I am a few hours later writing my first blog!!

The best part of the week was meeting John (photographer). It isn’t only because I am photogenic (ok, that’s a lie). John thought jumping around on the trampoline would make a good picture. I just thought it was my chance to “goof” around and act like a kid, however, I was…. and have been very professional since then. That is until I see the trampoline again!!

Any advice from you on the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” in an interview would be helpful? Or any interview stories you may want to share?

My last blog covered the tips I took away from the CIPR Northern conference.

But I couldn’t cover all the gems I want to share with our clients in one blog.  So here are the follow on points on social media that every business certainly needs to be thinking about and most should be taking action.

1. The internet as it is now

Thomas Power picked up on an article that John Naughton of the Observer wrote last week about doing business in the world of social media, The internet:  Everything you ever need to know.  He referred to the scholar Manuel Castells who says that we are now at a stage he refers to as ‘informed bewilderment’.

John’s article is packed with thought provoking points.  The one that hit me is ‘our intellectual property regime is no longer fit for purpose’.  Challenge for the lawyers here.

2. The next big job in communications

Is the community manager going to be the next big job in communications?  I mentioned in the previous blog that Thomas Power said he reckons it takes a minimum of three years to build an online community, probably five.

Many businesses are seeing social media as the new cheap PR.  But I don’t think it’s about lower costs, but costs spent very differently and with quite different returns on investment – both in terms of timescales and the process.

Philip Kotler of the FT talks about social media being about sharing of minds, learning to love the company and then transacting when they feel comfortable.

Actually, this is similar to the way we do business through networking.  We meet people, get to understand their business, offer them help, introduce them to useful people, share our ‘gold’ – and eventually others want to do business with us.  That process can take months or more likely years.

The process for social media is very similar.  It’s just the contacts you make are far wider, and the information and help that you share goes everywhere.

So coming back to the ‘community manager’, businesses probably need to

-        Restructure their marketing and communications teams and the weight of who does what

-        Reallocate budgets

-        Change their ROI criteria and timescales

-        Ensure their community manager really understands relationships – and from my experience these skills come more naturally from a PR background than a marketing one

3. Blogs are the heartland of social media

This confirmed my own thoughts.  Thomas sees blogs as the core of social media, the others such as Twitter and Foursquare are connecting to and adding value to blogs – not really the medium on their own.

Blogs contain the meat of what makes social media so helpful and interesting to companies.

4. Journalists love Twitter

Rory Cellan Jones neatly demonstrated how he uses Twitter as part of his everyday journalist research.  It is almost a ‘living version’ of Google.

Rory has two Twitter accounts, with (thousand) on each.  So his reach is pretty phenomenal.

Have a look at the sort of questions he asks.

5. Create community champions

Most clients still think that if you want to blog, you write down some thoughts, press Publish and sit back, waiting for the comments to ping in.

It takes them time to understand the time and budget needed to get those blogs being noticed and even harder, generating responses.

Murray Newlands gave a number of tips for this process of getting a blog noticed

6. Linkedin and Facebook merging – just a matter of time

I can’t now remember who gave this prediction – and I guess it’s no rocket science.  I just hadn’t thought about it, but it seems highly likely that these two will merge some time – apparently there are links between them at board level.

What would a merger mean?  Facebook is already hugely powerful in terms of its databases of contacts and information.

Source: www.clickymedia.co.uk

Tied up with Linkedin – will this become a monopoly over our identities, more powerful than any one nation’s database of its inhabitants ?

OK, these tips may not exactly transform your business but they are very good.  And I’m following one of the tips myself which is to do better blog headlines.

I’ve spent the day in Durham at the CIPR’s northern conference.   It’s not often you are able to say that every speaker was good, engaging and you were able to get valuable tips from each session.  Well done to the organisers and thanks to the speakers.

I’m going to give a snapshot of what I took away today and plan to develop some of this in more detail at a later date – after I’ve had some sleep!

1. Good blog headlines

Murray Newlands gave us his hot topics from the London conference last week on Social Media Marketing.  Sue Keogh’s presentation was apparently one of the highest rated – you can access all her slides on writing good copy for tweets that travel.  Very clear and helpful.

I particularly liked Smashing Magazine’s formula that she mentions, for a good blog headline

Number + adjective + design item + sticky message

Examples she gives are

83 Wordpress themes you (probably) haven’t seen

7 awesome CSS3 techniques you can start using right now

2. Three great books recommended by Thomas Power

Thomas Power is a highly engaging speaker.  A visionary searching the world for the next big thing, he is at the cutting edge of technology and social media.

He recommended three books for building online communities (and he said to read them in this order)

Free by Chris Anderson

Engage! by Brian Solis

Trust agents by Chris Brogan

3. 3 years to build an online community

Yup.  Three years minimum according to Thomas – and probably five years.

Even though we say to our clients that social media takes time, I was surprised to hear the expert saying it takes quite this long – and actually, reassured.

4. Iphones change the way you behave

Again, this is from Thomas.  He reluctantly said goodbye to his Blackberry last year and bought an iphone.  It’s taken him five months to get used to it but he is now your classic convert – completely devoted.  He said that once you get an iphone, it is ‘goodbye web pages, hallo web stream’.

He is using an App called My6Sense which you can apparently educate like a dog to sort out all your information into what you really need to read.  It takes around 50 to 100 hours, spending an hour a day for about three months to get it to where it is really useful.

Before he found this software, Thomas said he had been saying to his wife ‘I can’t do this anymore, all this information, I can’t cope’.  Again, it is reassuring.  I am concerned about the volume of information hitting you when you start in social media.  Up to a point it is energising, but if the rest of your life is particularly stressful (kids doing exams or gap year, winning new business, looking after client crises and the other priorities) then I reckon social media could send some people over the edge!

So it seems My6Sense is the magic we all need to sort our lives out.  Though it sounds even harder work getting there.

5. My first 16 tweets

Rory Cellan Jones, another lively speaker, took us back to those heady days of our youth when we were all starting out in social media.  OK, that was 2007 for Rory and Christmas 09 for our own first tweets (and earlier for blogs)!

In preparing his talk, he tweeted asking if anyone knew how you can find your first tweets.  Someone came back to mention Mytweet16.   This all neatly made the point about how journalists are now using Twitter for research in their daily lives.

6. Smooth management of your Twitter accounts

We use Tweetdeck to manage ours and client Twitter accounts.  A useful tool to see several accounts on one web page, along with Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube and so on.

Chris Stainthorpe from BGroup gave us some other useful sites that will do the same

Tweetie

Seesmic

Twhirl

I want to reflect on some of the other points made by the keynote speakers for a future blog – about the role of social media in a business and the amount of time it is demanding.  Particularly how a chief executive should be directly engaging with his or her audiences.  Thomas Power was saying that if Tony Hayward of BP had been using social media and responding direct to the comments and criticisms, he wouldn’t be where he is now.

I think my view is that Tony Hayward is just not a good communicator and social media would probably have made the problem worse.

What do you think?