#Sticksandstones...

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.  Not sure that Beth Tweddle or Stan Collymore would agree with that.

Twitter trolls reared their ugly heads once again last week – with Beth subject to abuse during a Sky Sports News Q&A session, which was meant to be promoting women in sport; and Stan facing offensive messages as a result of him suggesting a footballer may have dived to earn a penalty.  (I don’t know much about football, but pretty sure that footballers are prone to the odd dive or two...)

And while Beth has handled the abuse from Twitter trolls graciously, and Stan has now reactivated his Twitter account after initially taking it down – you can’t help but question the potential lasting impact that incidents likes these have, not just on the targeted individuals, but on social media itself.

Yes we live in a world of free speech, but should that mean, as a result of today’s technology, that we can target individuals in this way?  Happily, there do appear to be ramifications for this kind of harassment with two people who sent abusive tweets to campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez and MP Stella Creasy last year, being jailed on Friday.  But plenty would argue that Twitter could do more to report and manage this form of bullying; for many cases such as these will only serve to raise concern about interacting so openly online.

As PR consultants we encourage our clients to engage with their target audiences across a range of channels, including social media.  It’s a powerful tool that allows them to learn, communicate and build support, but it comes with its own pitfalls. Sticks and stones may well break bones, but, as Collymore and Tweddle will vouch, words can certainly be hurtful. Fortunately, damage can be mitigated through careful strategic planning, in-depth research and timely delivery. And, of course, some comfort can be taken from Twitter’s real time element – what’s news today is often quickly forgotten tomorrow.

Sam Kandiyali
Director

A bad day for British Gas? #AskBG

So the temperature outside is dropping and the dark nights are drawing in. Yes it’s that time of year again people, time to announce the annual round of energy price rises just as everyone starts to think about switching their heating back on.

So there we have it, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) gallantly went first this time with an increase of 8.2% for gas and electricity from 15 November. Energy was already high on the news agenda after the party conferences but SSE fuelled the fire, starting the speculation as to when the rest of the ‘Big Six’ and others would follow and how much higher would they go. Probably nothing unusual in this, the politicians and the national media have been doing the same dance around the energy issue at roughly this time of year for the last few years.

But then something remarkable happened.

British Gas announced an 8.4% rise in gas prices and 10.4% for electricity with dual-fuel bills roughly in the middle and rising by 9.2%.

While the news itself came as a surprise to no one, I don’t think anyone was expecting them to voluntarily line up the organisation’s Customer Services Director in front of a social media firing squad.

Unbelievable.

BG opened the floodgates themselves, inviting in an inevitable stream of criticism and, in my opinion, some well deserved loathing and abuse. But while it looked like a social media blunder of seismic proportions, surely they can’t have been so naive? So why did they do it? Here’s what they said:

"We know people are worried about rising energy prices and they want to talk about this – including on Twitter – and it's important we're there for them to talk to. That's why we offered a Q&A session with our customer services director. It was the right thing to do because we are committed to being open and transparent with our customers at all times. We also want to make clear rising prices don't have to mean rising bills and there is help available.”

What do you think? Personally, I think @jamesrbuk asked a very pertinent question, “Will you pass on the cost savings from firing your social media team to customers?”

Seriously though, I can see their rationale in using the Twitter Q&A as a tactic to tackle things head on and be seen to be ‘transparent and open’ with its customers, but the PR team should’ve known better. To me, their main mistake was timing.

Timing is essential for getting maximum impact but in this case it should’ve been more about having the right impact and this would’ve helped them to time the Q&A more appropriately. Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing? But hopefully BG will learn from this for next time. And you can guarantee there will be a next time, probably October 2014.

Rachel Meagher

Account Director 

Be careful what you tweet for...

Twitter is all about sharing news and opinions.  Therefore, it’s understandable that many of us turn to the real-time online network to vent our frustrations when services, products or providers let us down.

Even I’ve done it – as a sporadic tweeter – when left stranded in my car with poltergeist windscreen wipers that were determined to either burn a hole in the glass or drain my car battery.  It didn’t get me anywhere though; the tweet went unnoticed, or ignored, by my ironically termed ‘roadside rescue’ service. And so I was left, un-rescued, to juggle with the car handbook, fuse box and torch to end the squeaky misery.

For post grad law student Mark Leiser his complaint on Twitter this week certainly prompted a reaction.  Waiting for a delayed easyJet flight and feeling sorry for an armed forces passenger, Mr Leiser turned to Twitter: “Flight delayed 90min. Soldier going to miss last connection & @easyjet refusing to help pay for him to get to Portsmouth. Get right into em!”

The 113 character tweet resulted in airport staff approaching Mr Leiser, as he waited to board the plane, and telling him he couldn’t fly.  The staff claimed it was because of that tweet – did they deem it as disruptive behaviour or was the ‘get right into em’ threatening?  Eventually, Mr Leiser was allowed to board, but only after pointing out his right to free speech and referring to his status as a law student.

easyJet’s response to the incident certainly begs questions, particularly around staff protocol on social media.  Companies and their staff need to brace themselves for criticism and be on hand to respond quickly and appropriately.   

But here is a lesson also for Mr Leiser and other tweeters out there – be careful what you tweet for, the written word can all too often be misinterpreted.

Sam Kandiyali

Director

I'm coming off Facebook

Reading an article titled: ‘Is Facebook really dead for young people?’ on prweek.com yesterday afternoon, reminded me of the many occasions I’ve heard chums declare ‘I’m coming off Facebook!’

And I must admit, when my own mother’s friend request popped up in my notifications, it somewhat tarnished its appeal for me.

Undeniably, Facebook is still the centre of the social media ecosystem – with its more than one billion users, who are responsible for 1.13 trillion "likes", 219 billion photos and 17 billion location check-ins (and counting).

But with the rise of image based social media - the likes of Snapchat, Instagram and Keek - it’s a subculture that is evidently more conducive to the U25s lifestyle. We like things to be sleek, smart, quick and visually pleasing to keep us hooked... as our attention spans are dimensioning by the second. Visual stimulus is nothing new; the age old saying “a picture is worth 1000 words” says it all.

When Hunter wellies launched a competition on Instagram it was a huge success, not just because of the overwhelming response, but it successfully started to pave the way for an engaged and connected Hunter wellie wearing community. Hunter could get a crystal clear picture (not metaphorical) into the where, when and what its consumer audience was doing: Priceless.

These platforms are far more compatible with the demands of all things mobile – who doesn’t have a camera on their phone?!

The PR industry is about keeping abreast with new developments and growing trends - finding creative ways to communicate and engage with our target audiences and the opinion formers. As far as I can see, with the increasing demand for all things to be mobile, the growth of visual social media just offers our industry more opportunities to communicate in creative and impactful ways.

As for Facebook, there’s no doubt that its future is safe for the short term, always developing ways to be more intrinsic, I’m sure Zuckerberg has something up his sleeve to keep Facebook at the forefront.

Alex Underwood
Account Executive

Back to the Future

The new year is often a time when you find yourself reflecting on the previous twelve months; whether it’s the highs or the lows, the people we met on the way, or the monumental events that took place. Some may say we can learn from the past and face next year’s opportunities with a new perspective. But is there something to gain from reflecting back 100 years ago...to 1913?

Technology and censorship

On the 1st January 1913, the British Board of Film Censors (later to become the British Board of Film Classification, BBFC) was given the authority to classify and censor films. Like the press, it endeavoured to become a self-regulating industry, and it is a structure that successfully remains in place today.

As cinema became a ‘socially powerful mass-medium’, governments once feared its effects as some nations famously produced propaganda films. This is a fear that can easily be related to the present day usage of social media. The current mass-medium tool which has no official regulator, policing system or governmental control, other than ‘The Twitter Rules’, continues to instil fear in some.

The ever tricky tightrope act between ensuring freedom of speech, without breaking the law or abusing its power, will more than likely be a debate we continue to see trending in 2013. However, from a system that was put in place 100 years ago and still remains as effective today, we can perhaps derive some hope that this debate resolves in a fair, just and ethical way, contributing positively to the changing face of 21st century PR.

Alexandra Underwood
Account Executive

A way with words

It’s been a busy few weeks here at Target PR, from organising our upcoming ‘One Day Wonderland’ pop-up shop and balloon race in aid of Sue Ryder, to our everyday work, great things happen at 105-107 Bath Road and we'd like to share it with the world. Well, the world wide web to be precise!

In recent weeks you may have noticed that we’ve done more than just dip our toes into the social media swimming pool, we’ve been going all out giving you daily insights into what goes on here at Target HQ. But we didn’t just dive straight in, oh no, we put together a list of hints and tips to make sure everyone in the team was on the right track.

So if you’re stuck for words, or need help deciding whether that tweet about what you had for breakfast is really necessary (it’s not), why not take a look at our favourite top tips and let us know what you think:

1.    First and foremost be yourself, but be cautious. It sounds obvious but don't reveal information that you feel could be potentially sensitive or confidential – you don’t want to let the cat out of the bag!

2.    Internal issues can arise and disagreements do happen, but public arenas, including Twitter, Facebook and blogs, are not the place for these to be aired. Enough said.

3.    The best posts are the ones that signpost information available elsewhere and encourage conversations. Content is king and stuff that works includes: a behind the scenes look at a day in your shoes, insight on and responses to the latest and greatest industry news, or even a guest post from a client that’s benefitted from your help.

4.    If the post is related to a news story, link to it and respond to it, don’t spend time repeating it. After all, people are coming to you for your opinion and insight. As Baz Luhrmann once said, “Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off and recycling it for more than it’s worth”.

5.    Enjoy it!

Zainab Rahman

Account Executive