Pique a Little Pinterest

The rise of Social Media has catalysed the rise in visual content. Facebook has been a key driver in this, encouraging user and brand-generated images and infographics. Visual content is encouraged online by sites like Flickr and Tumblr. High quality cameras on Smartphones and apps such as Instagram have allowed us to upload original, quality visual content to the internet at an extremely fast rate.

This has now lead to the online world being flooded with visual content and Pinterest fulfils the need to curate this content in an easy-to-use interface. Basically an online pinboard, users can upload, pin from the web and share from other users images, or ‘pins’. These can then be categorised onto different ‘boards’. We're even seeing a recent development in the US of 'Pinterest Newsrooms'.

What are the Opportunities for Brands?

Trend Reporting:
Be one of the first to announce trends and improve your reputation in the industry. Become the 'go-to' online source for all the latest happenings in your industry. You will be attracting the same audience you want for your business, not just your Pinterest account.

Gain Feedback:
Do a bit of market research using your pins. What is getting repinned like wildfire and what is being ignored? What are pinners commenting on your pins? This is a great way to find out what people like/don’t like simply by monitoring the activity surrounding your pins/repins.

Crowdsource Ideas:
Want to know what your followers really want? ASK! Pinterest doesn’t have the same restrictions surrounding competitions as Facebook does. There are still guidelines, but it’s fine to run a competition straight from Pinterest without using a third-party app.

Define Your Content:
Just like all other Social Media channels, it is important to define your voice. You need to decide what your content will focus on. For each board, define what percentage will be pinned from your own content, from bloggers, media and other 'industry voices' in your circle of influence and of course, re-pins from other users.

Spread the Word:
While this is a great tool to raise brand awareness and spread knowledge of your products, it's best to keep self-promotion to a minimum. Roughly 2 out of every 10 pins should be showing your product/linking to your site. With each pin that you upload from a website, it will automatically link back to that URL. This means that when your website pins ‘go viral’, users are still linked back to your website as the source.

Key Communications Out-takes from RWC2011

Some of the team recently attended a PRINZ Event, ‘Inside the RWC 2011 Communications Plan’. I gained some great insight into the communications planning, lessons and legacies behind New Zealand’s most colossal event, Rugby World Cup 2011.

Auckland's RWC 2011 communications manager (at AucklandTourism Events & Economic Development), Simon Roche co-ordinated and lead Auckland's integrated communications programme leading up to and throughout RWC 2011. His team worked closely alongside stakeholders - rugby unions, venues, Auckland Council, CCOs, Rugby New Zealand 2011 and Central Government, to name a few.

As RWC 2011 was such an enormous event, Simon only had time to scratch the surface of his experiences during his talk with us but he still covered plenty of interesting ground. Read on for my key out-takes of his astute learnings from the role.

From the first discussion the RWC was up against a multitude of challenges. Aucklanders are notoriously apathetic, but without local support the event was destined to be a flop. One of the major challenges was inciting passion amongst Auckland residents - a tough crowd to please!

The RWC Overall Communications Strategy:

Main Goals
1. Development of Auckland waterfront

2. Auckland’s reputation as well as the overall reputation of New Zealand

3. Pride and community engagement I.e. Tidying up towns and suburbs

4. Transport – Bricks and mortar upgrades, as well as people actually using the transport system

5. RWC 2011 to work as launching pad to establish Auckland as an event destination, stabilising event logistics and processes simultaneously.

There were two major risks of real concern. First and foremost were the facility upgrades (I.e. ‘The Cloud’ and stadium renovations). How would they be funded and how could they ensure their readiness in time for the tournament?

The other main issue to deal with was too few or too many coming. If they went to lightly on promotional PR tactics, the event would be lacklustre and considered a flop, not to mention the monetary ramifications. Too many and facilities wouldn’t be able to cope, as well as crowd control issues.

Early on, surveys were done to gauge attendance numbers for opening night events. The resulting conclusion was the very great likelihood of a small turnout to the opening night. The recommendation to remedy this was a large marketing/promotional campaign aimed to boost Opening Night attendance numbers at both Eden Park and the waterfront.

Opening Night:
Part I: Media & promotion

Part II: Transport, event spaces in CBD

We are all very familiar with what happened on Opening Night. After what was clearly a very successful marketing and promotional campaign, the Auckland waterfront (including Fan Zones, The Cloud, Wynyard Quarter etc) was overwhelmed by huge numbers of ‘revellers’. Adding to that were severe transportation shortages.

When the first indication of overcrowding came to light, an emergency comms plan involving strong messaging to warn punters of large crowds was implemented. However, a combination of circumstances such as warm weather, it being a Friday night and the alcohol factor caused the issue to be greater than what could be managed.

Whether or not you are a fan of Len Brown, it was heartening for Simon to see Len prepared to bear the brunt of the opening night mis-haps. At an impromptu meeting at 1.30am on opening night, Len was asking the RWC Comms team what they needed him to do and how they needed him to respond. This is a refreshing reaction as figureheads are often seen trying to relinquish any blame in those types of circumstances.

After this incident, PR on the more popular events was reduced (i.e. popular music events at The Cloud) during game time to avoid further crowd control issues.

Success of the Fan Trail:

This was an innovative move and innovation tends to be met with either adulation at one end or cynicism at the other. The idea for the Fan Trail was initially born as a solution to transport issues. However, it was not intended to be a necessary evil, but a fun and integral part of the event that nobody would want to miss.

By placing performers along the Fan Trail before every game, it became an entertainment factor in itself that generated buzz and drew bigger and bigger crowds. By the final game, it drew 41,000 punters! Clearly, most of these were not attending the game, but the success of the fan trail was such that people seized their last chance to join in the atmosphere of the pre-game wander to the stadium.

From day 1, many people came to see Queens Wharf. Either all the bad publicity was good publicity as people came out of curiosity to check it out, or they were simply overseas visitors who were unaware of the flack the initiatives had received.

The Final Night:

The pressure was on. RWC Comms and many members of the public felt that the media had blown the Opening Night issues out of proportion. This time they were determined to manage the issues, including media, more effectively.

Social Media played a crucial role throughout, communicating the same key message to all the different components of the events, ensuring the message remained consistent and unscrambled when it finally reached the punters.

Announcement boards, loudspeakers, Social Media and staff on site were the key communicators, constantly updating with the same message. The tactic was to fill up Queens Wharf first, and so on, until Aotea Square was filled 10minutes before the game started - the optimum result! The experience learned from this is that it is easier to manage in multiple venues for celebrations than cramming into one.

Finally, how do you plan a victory parade, without anyone knowing you are counting your chickens or jinxing the team? Very carefully, it would seem. All media were warned beforehand, and all bar The Herald manage to keep it under wraps.

Lessons Learned:

A great lesson learned was how to handle proactive media. As long as you provide a friendly environment and encourage them to approach for stories off their own bat, plus some media liaison, guidelines & regulation will generally be adhered to.

Cultural differences must be respected. A variety of team welcomes were required, so a well-researched plan was put in place to accommodate all different cultural needs and aspects.  Also, there is no better ambassador for Auckland than a visitor who has been here and had a good time.

In hindsight, Simon stresses the importance of and international tourism program (in this case run by Tourism New Zealand); the importance of international media and creating strong relationships in this area; and just how instrumental the rugby players themselves were in getting international coverage.

Communications is a temperamental industry. All in all you need to be prepared for anything and to learn from your mistakes!

By Bridget Bisset

Subediting Tip: Write Clearly to Get Your Message Across

‘IT PAYS TO CHECK: Document editing for workplaces’ was an all-day PRINZ course. It was held by Howard Warner, a specialist in Plain English editing at Plain English People.

The main objective of the course was to define editing and gain a better knowledge of editing processes, particularly for workplace documents.

It is extremely important to have easily readable, professional-looking documents in every aspect of your business. Even with informal documents you need to write in a way that ensures clear communications, including emails and memos.

Often, your business will only ever be viewed in writing. Every piece of text that represents your company needs to be consistent with the brands overall voice and message. First impressions are often made in written form. The more clearly you write, the more accurately your message will be get across.

The reader is the most important factor to think of when editing. If you do not make the text easy to read and compelling for them, it won’t get read. The message will not reach your audience and you have wasted your time.

The main point stressed was the “who, did, what”. This refers to the subject/verb/object/adverbial structure of a clause, which sentences are built from. The brain naturally processes information in this order. They are the key points every reader wants to know.

The second point was to “use more full stops”. This allows the reader to pause, giving them time to absorb and process information. If your subject matter is dense, sentences should be short and worded simply.

I learned that there are no solid rules with some grammar principles. Linguists have found that words that often go together begin as separate words. They are then hyphenated, finally becoming one word over time. There are no clear rules for these occurrences. It is a matter of consistency and preference. This is where a style guide is needed.

A style guide lays out a clear set of rules for how to go about specific grammar grey areas. This includes how a brand name is written. Will ‘the’ be capitalised in your name? How will it be referred to if a shortened version is needed?

Every company should have a style guide outlining all these preferences. This will ensure consistency across all documents. Often companies don't have a comprehensive guide. The solution here is to use a standard style guide, such as Fit to Print by Janet Hughes and Derek Wallace. As you edit you should jot down guidelines, specific to this document, in a style sheet. Reference this sheet throughout the rest of the editing process.

Professional editing is done in passes. The first time you pass through the document you will focus on structural editing. This ensures sentences on the same topic are within the same paragraph. Paragraphs also need to be in the relevant order. This is not necessarily chronological, but the order that will make the most sense to the reader.

The sentence-level editing pass comes next. Sentences are to focus on one idea each. Word choices are carefully considered and anything unnecessary is removed. Sentence structure will adhere to the ‘who, did, what’ principle. This is also the time to tidy up punctuation.

A ‘fine-tuning’ or ‘proof-reading’ pass comes next. This is where you double-check for spelling and typos. It is also time to refer back to the style sheet and style guide, ensuring all instances are consistent.

Finally, we reach the formatting pass. This can be merged with the third stage, depending on the complexity of the document. This includes visual elements, so look for things like white space. There should be plenty of this to break up large blocks of text and help the reader follow the text easily. Large lists should be broken up into bullet points. You also need to consider things like typography – is the text easy to read? Test navigation details such as sub-headings and page numbers for usability.

Overall I really enjoyed the course. It was great to get a professional perspective on the finer points of editing. Editing in passes is something I will now use on every document I edit. Of course, many points I already had (and should have) learned.

It was great to get a refresher and drive some of the key points home. It cleared up several grey areas for me that will have me investing in a generic style guide and going through the finer details with every client.

By Bridget Bisset