The charity at the centre of the Downing Street bullying scandal reopens today after raising serious questions over the Prime Minister’s suitability to lead the country.

Bullying in any capacity is vile but it has to be asked that in the work place, especially one as high pressure as Downing Street, is there a fine line between bullying and being an irate boss?

Gordon Brown is accused of shouting at his staff and shoving them aside, and while nobody can condone this, what exactly did these so called victims of Mr Brown expect when accepting jobs in Downing Street? Is it conceivable that they went into the role without having considered the high pressure environment that would naturally exist in such a place?

Now, I don’t want to seem callous, I have been the victim of the aforementioned shouting and shoving and I know that it can be thoroughly upsetting (I should point out now this was while waitressing in a restaurant a VERY long time ago and not in the lovely WEPR offices). However, if restaurant bosses and head chefs can get so worked up about an overdone steak what would they be like facing economic meltdown and bomb threats?

Surely if you work in an environment such as Downing Street you must expect that the atmosphere will occasionally lead to angry outbursts. Why is Gordon Brown facing this media scrutiny when another famous Gordon, Chef Ramsey, can say what he likes to his staff without a national bullying charity singling him out for criticism?

The problem is that Gordon Brown is an easy target. Despite shedding the occasional tear to Piers Morgan and having a very popular, media-savvy wife, he can seem cold and aloof and claims like this just stick too easily.

You can’t imagine someone making similar allegations about the silky smooth Blair, but I would hazard a guess that around 9/11 or 7/7 he wasn’t above the odd outburst. Personally, I wouldn’t have relished the thought of having worked in Downing Street in the Thatcher era either. The nickname the ‘Iron Lady’ hardly conjures up images of a boss to confide in, does it?

On a serious note, it must be awful to feel like a victim in your own workplace and if people do feel that they are they are being treated unfairly they should contact organisations like the National Bullying Helpline. However, it might be worth changing your boss’s name, just in case...

Katherine Williams-Davies, account manager

The Sun newspaper made its own headlines this week with the announcement to ditch Labour in the run up to the next general election. So should Gordon Brown really be worried?

Many political commentators see this as a massive blow for a Labour party already suffering in the polls believing that The Sun has the power to swing public opinion towards one party or another. But, can the opinion of one newspaper, even if it has the largest circulation in the country, really affect the outcome of a whole general election?

Certainly in 1992 and 1997 The Sun claimed that they had played an important part in first the defeat and then the victory of the Labour party. Famously, in 1992 they showed their colours with the headline, “If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain turn the lights out”. In 1997, they announced their about face with the declaration, “The Sun backs Blair” just before the party’s landslide victory in May.

However, can it truly be said that The Sun sets public opinion or would it be more appropriate to say that it is led by it? Surely, a newspaper’s main aim is to sell papers. Therefore, they are unlikely to try and alienate the majority of their readers by going against their political feelings.

A potentially telling sign is the fact that The Sun’s announcement came a day after Ipsos Mori announced that their latest opinion poll had seen Labour drop into third place with 24% of the vote behind the Conservative’s 36% and the Liberal Democrat’s 25%. This would indicate that Labour is already in a pretty weak position.

If history is an indicator, Gordon Brown should perhaps be a little worried. While a newspaper, especially with today’s declining readership figures, may not be capable of swaying the opinion of a nation, The Sun, like rats off a sinking ship, knows when a battle is already lost. In Gordon’s own words, "It is people that decide elections, not newspapers” and it seems The Sun believes the people already have.

- Katherine Williams-Davies, Account Manager

My top ten tips for businesses using Twitter;

1. You only have 140 characters (including spaces) so keep your message tight.
2. Provide helpful information others can use.
3. Monitor what people are saying about you.
4. Use outbound links as much as possible.
5. Put your website address on everything.
6. Survey your competitors’ messages.
7. Update your account regularly.
8. Keep your message simple.
9. Be human.
10. Don’t just transmit, take part.

- Katie Chappelle, digital media manager

There was a time when the only champions fighting for consumers were the Trading Standards Association or BBC Watchdog, but the rise of the internet has allowed an increasing number of individuals to don the gloves and come out fighting.

Consumers with a gripe are no longer limited to sending off an angry letter, fruitlessly visiting a customer services desk or ringing a ‘helpline’ where nobody can actually assist them.

Instead, an increasing number of individuals are choosing to blog about their frustration, rant on Twitter, air their grievances on a forum, link up with others on social networking sites or take on corporations single handed via a range of online outlets.

Networking sites, such as Facebook, offer the perfect opportunity to ‘meet’ other individuals who share a similar interest and create groups to discuss music, television programmes, or an enemy in common.

Easyjet found this to their detriment after a group of passengers became stranded in Corfu earlier this year and a law student on board created Facebook group to take legal action against the airline. To date the group has over 80 members and resulting news coverage has been seen throughout the world. The passengers’ fight to receive an acceptable level of compensation continues, but whatever the resulting payout may be it is likely to cost less for the company than the damage to its reputation in the process.

American Airlines found themselves heavily paying the price after incurring the online wrath of customer Dave Caroll who aired his homemade video complaint on Youtube.

The ‘song and dance’ over a broken guitar could easily have been settled for a couple of hundred dollars, but after the video received over 5million views in just two months and negative publicity followed the company’s share prices plummeted. Dave Carroll’s catchy revenge track reportedly lost American Airlines 10per cent of their share value - a staggering $180million. That could have bought a lot of guitars!

An increasing number of consumers are not only using ‘mashup’ sites like Tripadvisor to feedback about their holiday and hotel experiences, but also to research before they book. According to the 2009 annual Thomson and First Choice trends report half of holidaymakers surveyed use reviews for insight into their holiday or hotel destination, with 80 per cent of them mostly trusting the feedback that they read.

The rise of user generated content websites has satisfied an increased interest in ‘peer to peer’ recommendations which are often trusted more than the websites of the companies and information they have released themselves.

Whilst negative feedback on review sites may initially harm the reputation of a company and potentially dissuade a customer from making a booking, they do at least offer the opportunity to post a response if they wish to. Others may only be able to watch as their rating and share prices fall back down to earth with a bump.

- Victoria Whittal-Williams, Account Executive

Advertising and advisory campaigns urging people to take action against something - be it drink driving, domestic violence or smoking are usually hard hitting, shocking and even scary. The aim is to leave a lasting impression and change behaviours. But the problem is that their effectiveness isn’t always easy to measure.

Dwr Cymru Welsh Water and other utility companies around the world have for many years taken this ‘don’t do it’ approach, giving people serious and useful advice on not throwing inappropriate items down the toilet and causing blockages. But there are so many similar campaigns, the challenge is how to make people take notice. So we thought we’d try something different.

The main long-term target for behaviour change is teenagers – particularly teenage girls. So we decided to enlist the help of Welsh teenagers to promote what we called the ‘Dirty Dozen’ campaign. It’s a spoof cowboy film, starring pupils of Ysgol Gyfun Garth Olwg, Church Village, near Pontypridd.

The star is 16 year old Jay Worley, who acts the part of a tough sheriff determined to put a stop to the Dirty Dozen – helped by five fellow pupils. The film, set in an old style Wild West saloon bar (actually the pub next to our offices), is being shown on the large screens at the Eisteddfod and has been covered by the BBC, newspapers and radio stations across the country.

An effective campaign can be measured by newspaper coverage and in the number of hits to websites where the information is on show. But this is a very long-term campaign. Ultimately, it’s a long way down the line as to whether people respond and change their behaviour. So, will the Dirty Dozen be successful? Only time will tell, but according to a number of viewers this is certainly hitting the right buttons, is memorable and takes a refreshing approach to tackling a serious issue.

Nicola Roberts, Account Director, Warwick Emanuel PR

1- You now think in sentences of 140 characters or less.

2- Whenever a big news item breaks, you can’t wait to log on and see what others are saying about it on Twitter.

3- You log into your Twitter account before checking your emails, or Facebook.

4- If something funny/annoying/ unusual happens to you, your first thought is how you’re going to tweet it.

5- You scorn any friends/colleagues who aren’t on Twitter….if they’re not on Facebook either, then they’re not worth talking to.

6- You break into a sweat when going on a plane/watching a film at the cinema/climbing a mountain with no signal – as you won’t be able to monitor your incoming tweets.

7- You’re considering getting an iphone - purely “because it’s so much easier to tweet on the move.”

8- You rely on Twitter’s trending topics to tell you what people are talking about, above BBC News’ ‘most read’ news items.

9- You discover a new comedian/singer /product and immediately log on to see if they have a Twitter page.

10- You tell your Mum to join Twitter, so that you don’t have to keep phoning her to chat.

Oh dear, I’m already displaying signs 1-9….. Mum, I’ll call you later, I promise (!)

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR

On the night of Sunday 21st June, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was at the Much Music awards in Toronto, where he was presenting an award. Perez, who’s an avid user of Twitter, was posting messages throughout the night, commenting on the performances - until the early hours of the morning when he simply posted;

I'm in shock. I need the police ASAP. Please come to the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel now. Please.

Whether Perez had called the police himself or was just relying on his twitter followers to do that for him is unclear. His next post read;

I was assaulted by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke.

He kept tweeting similar messages until the police turned up. Within an hour Will.i.am had opened his own Twitter account in retaliation and posted;

i just made a twitter account because it isnt cool for someone to blame you and blast you with lies...

He went on to link to his video statements on dipdive, to which Perez responded on Twitter;

@iamtherealwill There are multiple witnesses. You can deny all you want. The truth is the truth and I am telling the truth.

Perez then went on to record his own video statements on his blog.

The incident is now said to be in the hands of the authories…..but this just shows how powerful social media is for getting your message out there, and how quickly you need to respond if you find yourself in a crisis situation.

What happens next in the Perez/Will.i.am drama remains to be seen, but it’s likely to be played out very much in public - and you can bet Twitter will be the first place to see the latest developments.

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR

There has been a steep rise in the number of professionals using social networking sites for work as well as play, and now other groups are catching on to the benefits of getting online. But how trustworthy are these sites really for sourcing accurate information or getting your message across to the masses?

Earlier this week it was reported that after security forces in Iran blocked telecommunications and email to limit dissent, protestors made the most of access to micro blogging site Twitter to issue ‘cyber warfare guides’ to confuse the government.

Whether this was successful is not known, but it is suggested that false accounts were set up by government agents during this period to spread disinformation and thwart the protestors’ plans.

As with much of the content of the internet, it can be difficult to know if what you are reading is actually true or placed there for alternative reasons. The reliability of Twitter was undermined by an article in Metro this week which states that the website has been voted ‘Britain’s least trustworthy website’ by polling specialists OnePoll, as users are essentially able to assume any identity.

Most trusted website is deemed to be Martin Lewis’s moneysavingexpert.com. However, OnePoll’s proud declaration to be voted ‘top pick’ on the consumer advice website suggests that their poll results may not be entirely reliable themselves….

Victoria Whittal-Williams, Account Executive, Warwick Emanuel PR

Expect a bit of a scrabble if you’re trying to log on to Facebook tomorrow (13th June 2009) at 05.01am GMT. The social network is launching its custom usernames service, which means you can now register www.facebook.com/yourname as your own, rather than being given a random jumble of numbers, which is what happens now.

This will of course, increase your profile’s shareability - much like Twitter and MySpace - and could increase your branding strategy. But some users are concerned about cyber-squatting. This is seen regularly on Twitter where people set up fake accounts pretending to be celebrities or companies and then post tweets supposedly to be from them. But these are often obvious and soon get found out. It is not easy to pull the wool over people’s eyes in the world of social media, and I expect the same thing will happen with Facebook usernames!

But it could be a worry for brands and trademarks – someone squatting on your company name could reduce your searchability and compromise your message. Our advice; if you really want to make sure no-one can compromise your brand, get on there at 5.01am. If you already have all the Facebook friends you need, stay in bed…….

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR

‘just had my tea now its a game of dominos with my friends’ and ‘had a very nice lunch going to watch a film this afternoon i think we are watching the sound of music’ – just some of the tweets recently posted by 104-year old Ivy Bean, also known as ‘the oldest person on Twitter’.

The story of ‘IvyBean104’ micro-blogging about life in a care home was featured in The Telegraph and The Sun, amongst others, and at the time of writing this, Ivy had 13,122 followers on the social networking website.

But there was outrage from some media outlets, when it was found that the whole thing was part of a publicity stunt – set up by technology support company Geek Squad. Social media is often seen as an outlet for citizen journalists, ordinary people giving their opinion about events, who don’t seem to like it when companies hijack the conversation in disguise. And normally this is right – pretending to be someone you’re not in social media is just misleading and leads to a lack of trust. But the Geek Squad made it obvious that the press release had come from them, and it generated mentions in the daily press – as well as countless online magazines and blogs.

It’s been called a ‘self-serving, cynical PR stunt’ but Ivy Bean – who claims she is using Twitter because she is bored of Facebook – now has a worldwide reputation for being the Grooviest Granny in town.

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR

On a BBC trailer vox pop for a BBC radio programme:
Reporter to member of the public “Do you know what the Privy Council is for?”
Reply: “No, we’re from Southampton.”

Nominated by Wynford Emanuel, Director of Warwick Emanuel PR

So, was the ‘Best Job in the World’ the best PR campaign we’ve seen so far this year?

While many are full of compliments for its simplicity, there have been quite a few newspaper and online articles questioning its effectiveness in attracting people to Australia’s Queensland.

It was certainly well-focused. As the UK is a prime target for potential tourists there was a lot of PR activity here. And is it much of a surprise that a Briton won, resulting in massive UK publicity?

But here’s the clincher: we all know about it, many of us have discussed it and you’ve been reading about it. There’s not much more you can ask for. And only in about a year’s time will we know whether it had the desired effect in these belt-tightening times.

And as a Queensland fan, it reminds me that I’d love to go back. So it’s a thumbs up from me.

- Wynford Emanuel, Director, Warwick Emanuel PR

Business people do some funny things in a recession. All of us need to cut costs and eliminate waste – but sometimes it’s hard to fathom the logic.

Where does the axe often fall first? On the marketing & PR budget! The average spend is down 15 per cent so far this year, apparently. It’s hard to understand. You cut your marketing budget to save money and then fewer potential clients and customers notice you. It can accelerate a downward spiral.

But there is a different way, and it’s all to do with spending smarter. You could divert some budget to non-traditional approaches – ones that get you talked about. It’s all about New Media. There are great opportunities to reach audiences via low cost films and podcasts that reside on your website, and even on YouTube.

A short but well-crafted film can get your message over brilliantly. It is inexpensive, long-lasting and brings a human touch – and also helps people think they know a bit about you. And if you make it entertaining, your video can spread like wildfire. Remember Cadbury’s viral of a drumming gorilla? A huge success.

More modest budgets may focus on simple case studies showing what you can do, like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEd3ls-BwIY

Or this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP7cqhVgEfM&feature=channel

And if you want to get your message over in a totally different way, you could take this approach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0DEq94KYV0

And you can back these up with well-designed ezines, podcasts and blogs. But that’s another story.


- By Wynford Emanuel, Director of Warwick Emanuel PR

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