Sony Ericsson joins the Wolfstar client list

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Whoever said August is meant to be quiet? At Wolfstar we’ve never been busier with lots of activity on for existing clients and an exciting new one to announce.

Some of you have probably already seen the news (thanks to those of you who’ve emailed and tweeted) that we’re now working with Sony Ericsson. Initially our brief is working with the Global Communications and Public Relations team to help develop a social media strategy. But very soon you’ll be seeing the first results of our work.

There are lots of great things about this client, not only is it a great brand to work for, but more importantly that it’s a global brief looking at social media in a range of different markets, not just the UK.

XP: A PR Guy’s Musings blog

Wolfstar to work for a superstar DJ

I thought we better announce our latest bit of new business on the blog formally as I know not everyone needs to read our newsroom. We (Wolfstar) have won the contract to run a social media campaign for Chris Lake a world renowned DJ and dance music producer.

Chris has received critical acclaim and even managed to get into the UK charts last year with his track changes, in fact it reached number one in the dance charts in the US.

You can view our news release on this story here. Needless to say I and my colleague Seb can’t wait to get cracking on this because we both live and breathe dance music.

In the meantime, I have added a video of Chris in action at Space in Ibiza.

Have a good weekend.

Digital Communications is challenging search engine optimisation

There was an interesting article (paywall) which appeared in the last edition of PR Week which underlined a number of points I have been making in pitches to new clients recently. The main one is that search engine optimisation (SEO) has changed and is continuing to change and although buying into link farms and using SEO specific companies still works to a certain extent there is now a new kid on the block for getting high rankings on Google and that is using digital communications effectively.

In fact, the head of Google’s webspam team Matt Cutts issues a warning within the piece: ‘Buying or selling links that bypass (Google’s) PageRank (system) violates our webmaster guidelines. If a webmaster buys or sells links for the purpose of manipulating search engine rankings, we reserve the right to protect the quality of our index.’

Gaylene Ravenscroft, head of digital at Hill & Knowlton adds her point about the importance of social media: ‘Bloggers are becoming so crucial they underline PR’s importance as an integral part of the communications mix,’ she says.

The article itself makes some more interesting points - which I will let you digest yourself. However, it highlights a campaign by Volkswagen Commercial which it claims was successful. The campaign included targeting bloggers with press releases and essentially spamming them. This is not how we would advise our clients to go about their communications.

Social media companies and specialist public relations agencies should be advising their clients to engage in the social element, not in press release spamming, as the blogging community can often find this intrusive and you could do your brand/company more damage than good.

Simon Collister another public relations blogger has also written an interesting post on this article with his views - basically damning the use of spam as a communications tactic. I mean who really likes receiving spam these days anyway - I certainly don’t and I blog.

The article rounds off by making the final point: "So, if any traditional PR agency is dragging its feet on digital PR it may soon find its clients are not only considering other PR agencies for their digital work but also extending the remit for search agencies beyond web optimisation and into digital PR. Once Google toughens up, companies will be begging PR agencies to help."

Cross posted on: Norton’s Notes

Is social media a waste of time in business?

Here is an interesting blog post I found whilst researching something for a client this morning. Basically Jim Tobin from WebPro News takes an interesting view on how social media is just a distraction and adds nothing to your business.

It certainly got me reading and he does make some interesting points. The best of which is that you have been distracted for 30 seconds reading his article.

I decided to distract myself for a further minute while I commented on the article and pointed out that if social media is used correctly it can lead to new business pretty quickly - even if you don’t specialise in social media.

For instance, if a business adopts an effective social media programme it can provide better search engine rankings and web traffic for that company, which can often lead to further new business opportunities, as potential clients click through to your site.

Cross posted on: Norton’s Notes

Mysko let loose in Oslo

Amidst some much needed filing in my hectic inbox, I thought I’d get in a sneaky blog about my latest trip to Oslo. I arrived in Norway after a seven hour journey from the UK…. the sooner a new runway is built in Leeds the better! It seems you have to fly through Schipol to get anywhere other than the Costa del Sol.

Negativity… sorry, let’s get back on track. So I arrived in snowy Oslo, jumped on the speedy train into the city centre, where I was greeted by our client Fronter UK. The time was late, so after we enjoyed a £10 pint, I hit the hay and got some kip ready for a big day ahead.

I spent the morning with seven UK learning authorities at Kastallet School, south Oslo. We received presentations from the head mistress and supporting ICT teachers. The idea was to get a feel for how Norwegian schools had embraced the platform, pro’s, con’s etc. All in all, it all went down rather well, but then came the pièce de résistance! Three young lads, no more than 14 yrs old stepped in… and without their prior knowledge – so did NRK and the Dagsavisen! They gave an awesome 20-minute presentation, again talking through how Fronter had allowed them to increase communication and student interaction. The Dagsavisen asked one of the lads: “although this new technology has its benefits, doesn’t it mean you have less freedom to occasionally ditch the odd piece of homework”… with a cheeky grin on his face, Robin Svendsen replied… “well….you can’t help it if the net’s down can you…?!” There’s always a way!!!

After lunch I spent the rest of the day bonding with the marketing team, ironing out details for BETT 2008 etc – it really is amazing how much more you can get out of face-to-face meetings.

Six o’clock – time for a swift £12 pint (increased price due to plush venue at Aker Brygge) and some Bacalao. The walk home past the palace, winter market and numerous go-go bars was interesting. No real gossip on that note – just quite a surreal way to finish the night. Before sleep, I had one last check of the email and phone – text from Mum (living on the west coast – oil capital of Norway, Stavanger).

<<WE SAW YOU ON NATIONAL TV TONIGHT!!! SEE YOU IN TWO WEEKS FOR JUL!! MUMXX>>

It turns out the local TV story filmed at the school that morning had made it to the nationals, and Seb had been caught on camera. Nice way to finish a very productive day. The following morning I sipped my coffee at Oslo airport and quietly enjoyed the double page spread that had made it into the Dagavisen.

Social media newsrooms - it’s time to stand up and be counted

Whilst trawling the Internet doing some research for a high profile consumer technology client - who shall remain nameless - I noticed that hardly any of the big consumer brands around the world have dedicated social media newsrooms to share their news content with journalists and bloggers.

A social media newsroom, enables rich media content such as podcasts, vlogs and social media news releases to be properly shared and signposted, making a company’s news stories more accessible.

To be honest, there are precious few examples to highlight but GM and Electrolux, are two which immediately spring to mind. Stuart recently made a few interesting comments about Electrolux’s on his blog.

Last week, PR Week dedicated an entire 24-page supplement to the importance of digital and social media with opinions from several people across our industry. They were all (roughly) providing a similar message, which was that PR companies, clients and marketers must all sit-up and take notice of the social media revolution or risk being left behind.

It’s true that a lot of brands do need to wake up to what’s happening in public relations, so I am disappointed to see just how many of them still don’t have an actual working social media newsroom.

OK, here comes a Homer Simpson ‘Doh’ moment, as amazingly we (Wolfstar) don’t have a fully interactive social media newsroom yet either. I can hear the phrases ‘cobbler’s children’ and ‘practice what you preach’ ringing in my ears already.

Hmm, sorry about that and you do have a point but the only response I can give to this is that we have been so busy advising and our clients with their content that we haven’t made our social media newsroom fully interactive - DOH! Don’t worry though it’s on its way - watch this space!

If brands and marketers really do want to differentiate themselves in 2008, they could indeed look into opening a social media newsroom at the very least, as this will mean more journalists and consumers alike will be able to share, comment and bookmark their all important news content.

The ‘lovely’ Rosalind O’Rourke joins the Wolfstar Pack

Hi! My name is Rosalind O’Rourke and it’s my first day of work experience here at Wolfstar. I am currently a third year student at Leeds Metropolitan University studying public relations.

Originally, I come from a tiny little village in Ireland called Derryvale (the sort of place where everybody knows everybody and everybody’s business) and I was dying to escape to somewhere more interesting, so I decided to do my studies in England.

I’d heard about the city of Leeds from family and friends who had visited and loved it. So I thought it would be a good place for me to go and I have never looked back since. I love everything about it, the city lifestyle, the student life and the shopping of course!

Unlike most of my friends I am not doing a placement year. I chose not to do one because I had a lot going on during my second year at home and found myself spending most of my free time travelling back and forth. Because of this I didn’t think it would be fair on either party, as I wouldn’t have been able to put as much effort as I should into a full-time role. I don’t regret this decision at all - I chose to concentrate on my work instead and came through second year with marks that I was really pleased with. And I’m certainly not wasting my year out, I’m fitting in as much work experience as possible and building up my portfolio, so I can go my into my final year with one as good as my course mates.

I spend a lot of my spare time doing typical student stuff, drinking, shopping, and generally spending money that’s not mine! I also work in the Arc in Headingley to help fund this lifestyle. I have been there for over a year now and really enjoy it, everybody that works there is such good friends and most of us are students so the social side of it is great!

Before coming to university I didn’t know a lot about public relations, I originally wanted to be an actress but my careers advisor introduced me to it and told me I had the perfect personality for the job, and I have to say he was right.

I instantly loved the world of public relations and I knew I had a natural enthusiasm for it. Wolfstar is now introducing me to social media and WOM marketing, which I am already developing a massive interest in. I really like their attitudes and views on public relations and engaging with the consumer - so I am hoping I will learn a lot from the team during my time here.

Technorati Tags: Students,Work Experience,Leeds,Yorkshire,Wolfstar,public relations,social media,social metworking,university

Vacancies Full - No more room at the Inn

Following a recent post by me on our blog asking students to apply for some work experience, I am happy to say we received several enquiries which were all very interesting and equally different.

A special thanks goes to Mr Richard Bailey for highlighting the vacancies in his class at Leeds Business School.

You will all be pleased to know, we treated each of them fairly, and they didn’t seem to find the assault course, aptitude tests and 10 mile run too difficult. After they finished their 1,000 press-ups, the truth serum was injected (joke) and then the polygraph test was given thoroughly. Surprisingly, after this, they did seem to relax a bit and settle into the six-hour interview procedure.

Unfortunately, after all of this we did only have two spaces available and they are now filled by the lovely Claire Thomas from Stockton and Rosalind O’Rourke.

As this is Wolfstar, we will be making sure they introduce themselves properly to the world on the blog on their first day - so make sure you look out for that. We will also be asking them to provide us - and you courtesy of the blog - with some interesting insight into the world of being a PR student in Leeds.

If you are still wondering how did anyone get past our legendary lie detector test - here are some quick tips how to cheat one.

Thanks to everyone who contacted us….

Technorati Tags: Job Vacancies,students,public relations,social media,marketing,social networking,Leeds,Yorkshire

Great media coverage for Wolfstar and our clients

Last week everything was go, go, go with new client wins and pieces in the papers. I personally was extremely happy when we got a mention in the Yorkshire Post about the launch of Wolfstar - ‘Trio launches new consultancy’ (not online, but syndicated) particularly because my name appeared somewhere in the middle! My first mention in the press, I’m definitely moving up in the world. It was a great introduction for us and couldn’t have come at a better time.

This piece was followed by more great coverage for us, including Wolfstar’s launch story in EN magazine and a piece in PR Week [paywall] about WOM-UK’s appointment of Wolfstar. Last week Custard PR director Gareth Davies also gave “Stuart Bruce’s social media-focused agency” a mention in his letter to PR Week about social media. Not only is Stuart my boss here, but also the treasurer for WOM-UK. 

Client Softalk also bagged a full page review in Personal Computer Magazine about Softalk Share Server which allows you to share folders in Outlook without using Microsoft Exchange.

The icing on the cake for me was coverage in the Yorkshire Evening Post about female pay rights protestors in Leeds (mainly because I had a hand in this one). Protestors from the Fawcett society were campaigning to close the pay gap between men and women (equivalent of an average £4,000 a year or £188,000 a year  a lifetime career, I can hear all you ladies gasping in shock) including a photo stunt using two very cute babies (one of them Stuart’s little one) and a whole wad of cash.

All in all a very successful week I think.