headstream PR

Beauty bloggers meet The Body Shop Community Trade representatives from Nicaragua and Peru!

Naomi — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:46:48 +0000

As many of you are probably already aware, The Body Shop has been committed to purchasing natural ingredients, accessories and gifts through their pioneering Community Trade programme for a number of years. The programme directly benefits over 25,000 people across more than 20 countries and provides a fair income, for work in fair conditions, for all of those involved.

Over 65% of products now include the benefits of Community Trade giving customers high quality products as well as the opportunity to demonstrate their ethical purchasing power.

To celebrate Fair Trade Fortnight (22nd February – 7th March) we were given the extremely rare opportunity to invite some of our beauty bloggers to meet the Brazil nut oil and sesame seed oil suppliers for The Body Shop, who visited from Peru and Nicaragua to share their experiences.

Gaston, who works for the cooperative that supply The Body Shop Brazil nut oil, described the positive effects of trading with The Body Shop and the environmental story behind the ingredient, whilst Nick, the representative from the sesame seed oil supplier gave a true insight into how trading with The Body Shop has benefited local communities and what it means to them.

It was amazing to meet the people behind the products and for the bloggers to hear about Community Trade from the horse’s mouth. Some of the products were also showcased through relaxing hand massages and nail treatments which were very popular!

Nick, the sesame seed oil supplier from Nicaragua

Gaston, the Brazil nut oil supplier from Peru

Our beauty blogger friends

Planning a Content Strategy

Steve — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:27:05 +0000

A core part of any social media strategy is the content element. Whether the brand is adopting various outposts or embarking on an influencer network programme a well thought out content strategy and plan is going to be important, in fact if the brand is doing both of these plus has a website, a comprehensive content strategy is critical.

To formulate a content strategy can be a difficult process partly due to the many considerations and partly due to the number of stakeholders. So, to help our clients we have a simple 9 step systematic process.

First off we suggest setting some principles, this allows for a healthy discussion around authenticity, transparency and humility as well as the clients views on engagement.

Next we get into the ‘Why’, clarifying objectives, linking them with appropriate metrics and if possible setting targets.

‘What’ comes next covering stage 3 Substance and stage 4 Sources. Substance focuses the mind on what topics, subjects and point of views the brand wants to have as well as considering the type of social currency value – entertainment, useful, monetary, information or personal value.

Sources looks at who is going to be creating or producing this content, from employees to agencies to crowd-sourcing.

Next we get into the ‘How’, who’s going to be managing the content, which social and digital channels will the content be going out thru, which formats are most appropriate and a schedule over an agreed time period.

Lastly, with active listening in place we are able to constantly review the conversational effect of our content against our objectives and the brand will be able to respond in accordance with their engagement policy.

Posted via web from Steve Sponder’s Blog

What can a 2 year old teach us about social brand strategy?

Chris — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:17:34 +0000

http://www.slideshare.net/buckersphere/brand-summit-2010-social-media-day

Yesterday, had a cracking day in the company of some people interested in social media. Here are the bits of the story I told about the role creativity has to play in creating brand strategies that excite!

Chapter 1: Meet Benjamin Buckley – What can a 2 year old teach us about social media strategy? Well, quite a lot actually.

1. Life is augmented – not about platform or technology – real and virtual environments are combined.

2. Wireless, but connected.

3. Blended and seem-less brand experiences.

4. Content moves between media – portable and sharable.

5. Content has value – utility, entertainment, personal value, information and monetary.

6. Things have to be worth doing!

Chapter 2: Where do social ideas come from?

1. It’s not blank paper we fear, but blank screens.

2. We live in a three screen nation.

3. Was your brand built for a pixel world?

4. Our advice? – focus on people by doing an engagement brief – be better creators by telling better stories.

5. Lovingly borrowed from Chip and Dan Heath – Made to stick: be masters of exclusion, generate interest and curiosity that lasts, explain things in concrete ways, let people test ideas, make someone feel something about your content and multiply stories through exciting story telling.

6. The barriers? tools are limited, budgets run out and we don’t focus on what is in it for me.

Chapter 3:

1. Active listening is about finding out what people care about and is more than tracking and measuring ROI.

2. John Carver (policy governance guru) reminds us that it is better to measure less of the right stuff, than all of the wrong stuff.

Chapter 4:

1. Appropriate social behaviours come from being compelling, true, authentic and transparent.

Chapter 5:

1. Win-win relationships happen when you understand people better.

2. Results are not what you might expect in social spaces.

3. People love content about them.

Posted via email from Thoughts from Chris Buckley

Stopping crime…one tweet at a time.

Naomi_M — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:50:13 +0000

The Metropolitan Police have joined Twitter as the newest way to stay in touch with local communities and communicate the message that they are helping to reduce crime in people’s local areas.

By following your local police department, you are able to see operational updates on the policing of events, information from the emergency services in your local area, as well as crime prevention advice.

I am following Hampshire Police, and I have to say, I find it really interesting getting updates from court, and local arrests and think the scheme does work really well.

It allows for us to comment on their work, and continue to remain in contact with them through their feed.

This is particularly good for people on the move, as you can remain updated with instant information through twitter, at a local level, straight to you.

The service has certainly started well, with a great response from the communities it is communicating with, and other areas soon to join.

I certainly hope that the police keep up with social media, and keep on the tweet.

The convergence of film and gaming #yam

Steve — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:32:49 +0000

via film30.de

Posted via web from Saw this and thought of you…

Social Media accounts for 18% of search market #yammer

Steve — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:20:11 +0000

via briansolis.com

Posted via web from Saw this and thought of you…

Best bits of Figaro Digital

Chris — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:13:21 +0000

Last week, I spoke at the Figaro Digital seminar on social media. It's always great to hear what others have to say, so here are a few of the best bits for me.

For those who still need a little convincing, we saw some compelling numbers around the adoption of social media by marketers. The rapid consideration and inclusion of social spaces in communication planning and branding is impressive. Also interesting was the number of people who feel training is a key area. It's nice to know brands recognise the importance of understanding what makes appropriate social behaviour in social media, rather than treating it like any other channel.

Tony Effik, Chair of the social media council at the IAB, captured a very simple truth that can be lost in all the noise around social media; people are still people. Some things change, other don't. In social media, we have found another form to express our basic social needs.

The Dunbar number, the magic 150, was highlighted as a phenomenon that continues to play out in social relationships.

Whilst we have the capability to reach many, do we have the capacity to maintain intimate and meaningful relationships with such large numbers? Anyone who has experimented with technology to swell followers and friends alike is probably at risk of pushing messages, rather than building relationships.

Nick Jones, Director of Interactive Services at the COI gave an interesting insight into how his clients perceive social media. As the Government's centre of excellence for marketing and communications, how this organisation approaches the opportunities presented by social media, and how it mitigates the risks, is very useful guidance for us all.

The quote from William Perrin (Policing 2.0 conference, National Policing Improvement agency) perhaps reminds us all of how our fears around social media need to be put into context?

"If you can let police walk the streets with guns, you can manage the risks of letting them use Facebook".

Posted via email from chrisbuckleyuk’s posterous

For all you Winter Sport fans!

Naomi — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:08:55 +0000

The wait is nearly over as the Winter Olympics starts tonight with the Opening Ceremony on BBC Two and BBC HD at 1.45am!

From biathlon to bobsleigh; curling to cross-country; skiing to skeleton and snowboarding to ski jumping, the BBC TV team of roving reporters will provide intelligent, informative and exclusive insight on all the action in Canada.

Full details of BBC coverage can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/winterolympics

And you can stay up to date with all the latest news and information via Facebook and Twitter:

www.facebook.com/bbcwintergames

www.twitter.com/bbcwintergames

Google gets ready for battle with Buzz

Fiona — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:44:49 +0000

Yesterday saw Google launch its own social networking site, Buzz, against established rivals Facebook and Twitter – but is there now too much choice for where people visit to catch-up with their friends?

Google Buzz allows users to share personal updates, photos and videos. Anyone using the existing email service, Gmail, will automatically be able to use the service, meaning the network already has hundreds of millions of people.

Whilst a bold move on Google’s part, the industry reaction seems to be that it will never be able to compete with the likes of Twitter and Facebook as it doesn’t offer anything over and above the existing capabilities of these platforms.

One major concern that has been raised is around the privacy of the service. In order to quickly populate your list of friends, Buzz automatically follows other Buzz users that you frequently communicate with through Google’s other services such as GMail and Google Talk. While this automatically gives you a populated list of people to follow and allows your most common contacts to see your status update, it also makes your Buzz friends list public by default.

But being so new only time will tell whether Google Buzz will really take off.

If you’re signed up and are loving/hating the service let us know your thoughts.

Count-down to Figaro Digital social media seminar

Chris — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:17:34 +0000

Looking forward to talking at the Figaro Digital seminar at the Hospital Club on the 10th Feb. My chosen subject? Social media disruption and its impact on the conventional marketing model.

We're all one click away from the perfect job, the ideal product, a damning video diary or the five star review. But for those looking to engage this hyper-connected audience, it’s not about blindly rolling out the latest tactics on the latest platform.

Brands need to develop their social brand strategy. The challenge is to navigate this changing landscape and create socialised brands that are valued by their communities, and deliver value back to their organisations. Put in simpler terms – create win-win relationships.

Posted via email from chrisbuckleyuk’s posterous