We are the champions

Yay. We’ve proved that we’re more than ugly faces. We’ve just won a quiz! The brains that be at The Bridge Group (clearly this doesn’t mean me), answered questions on Twitter, housing, Christmas, and most importantly, joke punchlines, to become the winners of Inside Housing’s Christmas quiz.

We are now donating our prize money to our charity for the year D2D which is aiming to raise £25,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. It’s a great cause, please do check out the D2D website, and whether you’re a parent like me or not, I dare you not to feel a heart tug.

Thanks Inside Housing, and merry Christmas to everyone.

Nikki

Festive-filled fun film quiz

The Christmas spirit has reached The Bridge Group's office, with Santa's little helpers entering the design studio to produce a Christmas quiz.

For your chance to win the cinema tickets, and test your festive film knowledge, please visit our website.

Merry Christmas!

Michelle

Cattle, customers and a CIH book launch

It was a bright, cold day in November and the clock was striking seven-thirty when Nicola and I headed off to the launch of the new CIH book, Housing and the Customer on Friday.

The event pulled in a fairly diverse crowd, both audience- and speaker-side. Delegates ranged from housing officers of local stock transfers, through to communications directors of ‘top ten’ groups. The presenters covered national and regional providers, academic experts and consultants – including Neil McCall of @affinitysutton, Jo Richardson and Tim Brown of De Montfort University, Jane Chipp of Voluntas Housing, Lourdes Sharpe of Solihull Community Housing and Christoph Sinn of the CIH.

Our slot was a whistle-stop tour of branding in the housing sector. This covered a basic overview of how housing brands interact with staff, partners, suppliers and customers, and factors that providers need to be aware of to maintain their reputation in a permanently switched-on world. If you’d like a peek, feel free to browse the slides on the TBG Hub site. Also, a couple of people asked me for the links on brand monitoring tools – those referred to in the presentation were Addictomatic and Social Mention if you want to take a look.

We were fascinated by the acknowledged importance of internal culture and communications to getting customer care right. Several delegates posed comments and questions on how to get employees more engaged and inspired in an environment where cost-cutting is high on the agenda. In a week proposing radical policy reforms and apparently a fairer future for social housing, it’s clear that encouraging and rewarding employees is going to be business-critical for many organisations.

And what of the book? Part of the CIH’s ‘practice studies’ series, it aims to take housing providers through an overview of the changing provider landscape. Topics under the microscope include customer insight, change management, customer satisfaction, communications and social marketing. We’ve also proposed a new take on Arnstein’s ladder of participation for the 21st century – Winn’s wheel - which acknowledges that people will dip in and out of participation at different times, rather than progressing up and down a scale.

If you get a chance to read the book, we’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas and input. Pleaes feel free to add your thoughts to the #cihcustomer hashtag set up specially to monitor feedback on the event and book; or tweet your thoughts to me and I’ll reply as soon as I can.

Best wishes,

Kerry James

Online supermarket shopping - hats off to innocent

Our household is a fan of online supermarket shopping and Sainsbury's have yet to let us down - always on time, sensible substitutions and very friendly and helpful delivery drivers.

This Saturday we were most amused to receive these little chaps - innocent smoothies complete with woolly hats for the winter. This is part of Age UK's the big knit - a campaign being run in conjunction with innocent. The campaign aims to deliver 800,000 little woolly hats that will be put on innocent smoothie bottles being sold in Sainsbury's and Boots stores across the country from 3 November. For every hat knitted, Age UK will receive 25p.

If you are wondering where all those hats come from then at least a hundred of them were knitted by residents of one of our clients - Daventry & District Housing - as tweeted by our PR team a few weeks ago.

Anyway, aside from this great campaign, what interested me most about our smoothies was that we ordered banana. They sent substitute flavours (no problem there) but the packaging had a flash on them saying "banana free". As a fan of conspiracy theories I wondered if there was some malevolence on the part of someone from Sainsbury's.

I have some experience of launching internet propositions back in the day when the internet was new (I developed the marketing campaign that supported the launch of NatWest's Online banking). I am reminded how hard it is to retro fit an e-commerce proposition onto a traditional offline business.

Amazon is my favourite retailer and they show what can be done. Whilst the supermarkets now have enough infrastructure for an effective home delivery service there is still some room for improvement. Sainsbury's should be able to deliver what you order online by now.

The hats were cute though.

JB

Tory councillor arrested over stoning tweet

Tory councillor Gareth Compton has been arrested over a stoning tweet in which he allegedly called on a female writer to be stoned to death. In case you missed it, the BBC has the full details.

It was only six weeks ago that I blogged about Tattoos, hooligans and the gem of all bad quotes.

As a communications agency, we are constantly amazed at how people in the public eye or in senior corporate positions seem to forget that their every word is captured, analysed and disseminated almost instantly.

As we say in our beginner's guide to social media, if you've sinned on social media, chances are people will have the video, photos or screen grab to prove it.

If you don't have the time to download our free guide, remember our top five tips:

1. Be clear what tone of voice is appropriate for your brand, especially if you have a range of people representing you online.

2. Wherever possible, use social media to engage people in ways that will interest them, rather than trying to use it purely as a PR mechanism

3. If actively using social media, expect to put a significant amount of time into it; posting once a month won't cut the mustard

4. Posts are like weddings - once you've committed, it's for better or worse (and hopefully richer rather than poorer) - so deleting a few weeks later rarely works.

5. If you get negative comments from third parties, don't get involved in a 'flame war'; stay positive and get your tactics sorted. Mashable's guide on how to deal with negative feedback in social media provides some useful tips to handle this.

JB

Resident Involvement Champions National Conference - November 2, 2010

We recently exhibited and took part in the Resident Involvement Champions National Conference on November 2, held at Villa Park in Birmingham.

The theme of the conference was "Resident Involvement In Challenging Times" and more than 150 delegates took part in a range of interactive exercises and sharing of knowledge supported by keynote speakers.

All presentations and the output from various sessions will be uploaded to the RIC website so it's well worth a look.

The day was very successful and we were particularly pleased that our special prize was grabbed by one delegate. To prove the advantages of enagegement, we tweeted a secret password and Paul Cole from Derby Homes was the first to get to our stand to grab the chocs. Paul was one of the keynote speakers leading a session on social marketing and was able to say with some authority that the results of utilising social marketing techniques is free food!

Something that really grabbed our attention was how some of the ideas and themes being discussed at the conference were translated by Graham Ogilvie into cartoons. What a great idea to bring a conference to life - all the cartoons were displayed and during lunch participants had the opportunity to vote for their favourites.










JB

Housing associations’ annual report best practice

As one of the leading housing communication agencies in the UK, we have taken a lead in developing best practice for the sector's annual reports.

We sponsored a competition to find the best new-style annual report to residents in the Midlands. Residents and the Chartered Institute of Housing helped select Optima Community Association’s publication as the winner from sixteen entries.

The award was presented by our engagement consultant Ian Hembrow at the Resident Involvement Champions conference in Birmingham on November 2.

JB

Let's be frank - local knowledge counts

Selfridges has clearly put a price on reputation - £10k in this case. The payment comes after its Christmas window displays were taken by fans and family of Frank Sidebottom to be a copy of Sidebottom's creator Chris Sievey's work. The proximinity of Sievey's town of Timperley to its Manchester and Trafford Centre stores shows how local concerns do matter. His untimely death earlier this year also added to the fury of online fans, and gave an extra reason to show remorse.

Following negative coverage yesterday the store reacted with an apology, a credit added to the display and a payment to Chris Sievey's estate. Sales figures and footfall this month may well indicate if their tactic has worked. A local commentator's view that 'it's the kind of fuss Chris would have loved' shows that perhaps it's already made some moves to restore local faith.

Michelle

Minimalist movie posters

Leigh

10,724 jacket potatoes and Lady GaGa

The Birmingham LG Arena celebrates its one year anniversary this October following a much needed revamp - costing £29m.

A great Midlands entertainment venue, for The LG Arena has also been recognised as one of the top arenas in the UK by a panel of industry professionals at the Live UK Music Awards this October. The only venue outside London to be recognised has seen 800,000 people attend concerts and events at the arena during the last 12 months.

As well as hosting a wealth of big stars (including Lady GaGa), the LG Arena managed to shift a lot of food and drink - 63,836 bottles of water, 26,179 burgers, 18,545 hot dogs, 10,724 jacket potatoes, 181,713 glasses of wine, 183,889 bottles and pints of beer and 38,485 cups of tea and coffee.

JB

I wish it could be Christmas every day

It is in Coventry.

First fully decorated, fully deployed Christmas tree seen in the Mount Pleasant pub in Coventry on 24 October.

I wondered if retailers were suffering so desperately in the recession that they have been forced to begin the Christmas sales push even earlier this year. Surprisingly, that does not seem to be the case.

Datamonitor, the self named home of Business Information, are predicting a bumper year for UK retailers, warning them to expect their best Christmas since 2007. They predict that 2010 will see spending increase by an extra £1.6 billion compared to Christmas 2009. Biggest winners will be clothing, food and grocery and health and beauty producing the largest increases. Online sales are predicted to grow by nearly 20 per cent.

Bah! humbug! to double-dip worries it seems...

JB

Talking up Talking Book

RNIB, the charity that supports blind and partially sighted people, is continuing its brand development strategy with a campaign to support its Talking Book service.

A fantastic program that helps nearly 40,000 people access books, it costs RNIB nearly £4m a year to run.

Classic brand building you might think but RNIB is incorporating a fundraising element to the campaign. As RNIB's Head of Marketing Vicki Cookson tells Marketing Week "We’re seeing a trend across the charity sector to build the fundraising message into all brand messaging rather than direct response activity."

JB

One year at TBG - one year wiser

"Don't be afraid of change." Well, it's easy enough to say but when it comes to taking the plunge it can be a little difficult.

A year ago I decided to take a leap of faith and leave leafy Cheshire to take a job at The Bridge Group. It was the biggest, and best, decision I've made.

Our job at TBG often involves encouraging people to accept change and make change, and I've found that after a year it's something our team does well.

Whether it's taking steps to embrace social media, launching a marketing campaign or developing a new logo, we aim to help people through every step of the process.

Change doesn't come easy to us humans, but we are all facing challenging times, whether in the spheres of PR, marketing or media, or housing and the public sector.

In my first year at TBG I have had my eyes open to a lot of new ways of working and have seen this as an opportunity for development and growth.

So don't be afraid of change. Or if you are a little scared, find a dose of TBG to help you through it, because with the right people around you change pays off.

Cheers,
Lucy

These are not the toasters you seek

Whilst fast forwarding through the X Factor adverts (is Sky Plus the best invention ever?) I caught a glimpse of C-3PO and R2-D2 on an advert (23/10/10). Intrigued, I went back and saw the Star Wars droids advertising Currys.

Being of the generation that queued outside the local cinema with our dads at least three times in 1977 to see the original film, I am fond of the franchise that launched a million lunch boxes.

Dixons Retail has licensed the characters for a campaign supporting Currys and PC World and is using the characters to introduce the strapline "Discover the greatest electrical store in our galaxy." M & C Saatchi are behind the ads and X Factor fans should get a chance to see them over the next few weeks.

Will the force be with them? Only Christmas sales will tell.

JB

Minimalist movie posters

Mind the Gap

Anyone see the new Gap logo earlier in the week? We didn't think much of it and it seems that feeling has been pretty universal. A press release on Gap's corporate site states that Gap has pulled the logo:

"Since we rolled out an updated version of our logo last week on our website, we’ve seen an outpouring of comments from customers and the online community in support of the iconic blue box logo." The full statement goes on to explain that they were experimenting with crowd sourcing.

According to the BBC more than 2,000 people wrote comments on Gap's Facebook page showing the iconic brand has a passionate following. If only the Olympic Committee had experimented in crowd sourcing when they developed the 2012 logo.



JB

Minimalist movie posters

Leigh

Home sweet home

It's nice to know that tbg is again leading the way in best employer practices. New research out from the TUC today highlights that one in five workers want to work from home, but are being prevented from doing so by their bosses.

As one of the lucky few it seems, I agree that the lack of distractions can boost productivity. And cutting down the commute helps my carbon footprint and morning motivation. Although I must admit, tea breaks without colleagues aren't quite the same. BT's reported saving of £2.2m seems a good enough replacement though for a shared snack.

Now to sort Skype so there's no excuse for missing out on office life.

Michelle

The Real Thing still number one

Brand consultancy Interbrand has just published the top 100 brands for 2010. No prizes for guessing that Coca-Cola is ranked number one for the 11th consecutive year with a value estimated at US$ 70.5 bn.

Top risers are Apple, Google and Blackberry and top fallers Harley-Davidson, Toyota and Nokia.

The UK's top performers are in the financial services industry with HSBC ranked at 32 and Barclays at 74.

JB

OMG its the IMF

Now, I'm not one of the texting generation (I can remember the day in 1990 when everyone in the office got a shiny new PC on their desk and was told that e-mail was going to change our lives forever and make everything a whole lot simpler. Half of that statement was true).

Anyway, predictive texting is as inexplicable to me as The White Company (what do they sell? Candles, towels, toiletries -we deserve to know the truth).

Anyway, I was amused to see my phone change OMG to IMF but I have no idea why or how. How I LOL'd.


JB

Boots make product recall simple

Loyalty schemes vary in quality but I think the Boots Advantage Card is probably amongst one of the best. There is much debate about the effect of loyalty schemes on customer behaviour. This recent article in Marketing Week effectively outlines the arguments but I tend to share the views of some of the posters - the point of loyalty schemes is more about providing transactional information to the retailer allowing them to target communications and pricing offers to their consumers.

Anyway, Boots recently wrote to us with a product recall for Simple Nourishing Body Wash over a quality issue. Thanks to the Advantage Card Boots was able to do this. Result? My wife's approval of Boots is intact and Boots has notified a lot of consumers it knows have purchased the product allowing accurate exchange.


JB

Minimalist movie posters

Here at the creative heart of The Bridge Group, we are often tasked with conveying complex messaging through efficient design. We recently took this a stage further by designing a series of minimalist movie posters.

Watch out for more posters over the next few months.

Leigh Cunningham

Tattoos, hooligans and the gem of all bad quotes

Pim de Lange, Director of Stena Line's North Sea route, has become the latest in a long line of business leaders to prove that communiation skills and leadership are not always linked, saying that UK workers are "quite fat and covered in tattoos". The usual defence of context has been made but surely even if these views are held in private there can't be any context where they can be uttered in public?

I am reminded of a couple of other quotes taken out of context. Gerald Ratner famously called their jewellery "total crap" and David Shepherd (marketing chief of Topman) called their customers "hooligans".

JB

Big Mac and a beer

Marketing Week highlights a campaign about to break for the Football Association (FA) to encourage people to become a grassroots coach or referee.

This is being done in conjunction with co-sponsors McDonalds and Carlsberg. A terrific thing for the FA to promote (I’ve always found the community aspect of football the most compelling) but I always wonder if football attracts the most appropriate sponsors.

As an Aston Villa fan, I was delighted last season (2009/10) when the club gave away their shirt sponsorship for free to Acorns (a Midlands based children’s hospice). I think this highlights that even in the commercial world of football it is possible to work with the local community in a positive way.

JB

My favourite agency joke

With Russell Brand still lamenting the impact of his Sachs joke today, I thought I’d share my more tasteful agency favourite.

An ad exec dies and his soul is met by St Peter who offers him the choice of Heaven or Hell. He asks to see both and first visits Hell. When the lift doors open he is greeted by a huge crowd of friendly people and they eat a fine meal in sumptuous surroundings and party for hours. He then visits Heaven. When the lift doors open he is greeted by a scene of tranquil contemplation, harp playing and poetry recital.

St Peter asks him for his choice. “Well, Heaven was nice but Hell seemed more of a party place so I choose Hell”.

This time when the lift opens he is greeted with a scene of total desolation and the Devil with a whip in his hands. “I don’t understand – yesterday there was a party, feasting and dancing all night”. The Devil just shrugs. “Yesterday we were pitching. Now you’re a client”.

JB

Free lunch

They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Well, at The Bridge Group there is.

During my interview I was told that a nice lady called Monica made us lunch every day. Not that I didn’t believe everyone but as a veteran of four weeks I am delighted that everyday I find a lunch in the fridge with my name on it. The basket of crisps and chocolate bars is a step too far though.

JB

Birthday bubbly

The drinks are on us - well, at least they are for Alison Steyn, of North Hertfordshire Homes. She's the lucky winner of our e-zine tenth birthday competition. The bottle of champagne is on its way.

Thanks to everyone else who entered. Better luck next time - we promise not to wait ten years before giving you another chance to win!

Michelle

A new mug in the office

Wherever you go, whatever you do, there is one underlying truth about starting a new job – and that is mug politics.

‘What could be easier than making a cup of coffee?’ you may ask. But for the uninitiated, there are all manner of potential pitfalls to using the wrong mug.

Big ones, small ones, cheap ones, china ones; everyone has their favourite, and that’s before you get to those special ones with sentimental value.

But not so at The Bridge Group.

Turns out it’s different to your average agency. As the new mug in the office, I find the team are friendly, quick, witty, creative – and most importantly, down to earth.

They’re straight talking and have a no-nonsense approach; just my cup of tea.

Who knows, I just might take the plunge and bring in my own mug tomorrow…

Anna

Jon done Goode

Well Jon's back in the office after his honeymoon in the beautiful Scottish highlands, so I guess that must mean the big day went as planned, with no awkward objections during the ceremony or wardrobe malfunctions whilst walking up the aisle.

There have been no horrifying stories of stepping on toes during the first dance or getting embarrassingly drunk afterwards, so it's full steam ahead into happily married life.

Whilst getting used to the extra weight on his finger and trying not to think about which wedding gift from the John Lewis wish list would look best in which room of the house, he's having to fend off the multitude of questions about the big day from everyone in the office.

Luckily for Jon, Monica was on hand with his favourite chicken and avocado baguette to ease him back into the office routine. His only worry now is finishing the renovations on his house, nothing too big then?

The Bridge Group's congratulations go out to Jon and Kath and we wish them all the happiness in their marriage.

Scott

When search terms are too much, too late

The sheer amount of money lost might have led BP's chief executive to make the final step towards resignation, but could better social media communication (as well as limiting the yacht trips) have helped his and the company's reputation?

With the USA administration hanging on to every word, 'PR gaffes' as they've now been dubbed were always going to be hard to avoid, but the BP team did find time to lay down the law online - or at least try to.

By purchasing the search teams 'oil spill' and 'gulf spill' BP plumbed new depths in social media terms by seeming to try to control who saw what. It also ensured a prominent link to its site and clean-up methods. But with pictures of the damage already being posted by others, and the disaster the talk of twitter days earlier, was it all a bit much, too late?

The communications team's response that the intention was to make the information on the leak more accessible may well be true, but unfortunately a sceptical public and media all thought it a little too slick.

Michelle

Number's up for competitors

It's normally words we pay attention to, but sometimes digits do the deed.

A bit of self-congratulation goes a long way, but we've been named as the ninth biggest public sector agency in the UK according to PR Week, retaining our position as the number one in the Midlands.

Thanks to all our clients for making this achievement possible.

Now to crack on and continue with the 2010/2011 work...

Michelle

Write up for new CIH text

Putting pen to paper isn't anything new for our team, but writing text for a best practice book is. Our managing director, Nicola Winn and I are currently writing material for a new Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) publication on marketing and customer insight.

The co-authors are renowned high-calibre housing professionals - including Jo Richardson and Tim Brown of De Monfort University, John Perry and Mark Lupton at CIH and Nicola Yates from Kingston-upon-Hull City Council - so we're excited to be in such good company.

Our chapters explore the relevance of branding, communications and marketing to the social housing sector. They showcase some of the great work that housing organisations do every day, with case studies from registered providers and communications agencies across the globe. These include references to our 'captivating campaigns' competition winners, Accord Housing Association and Friendship Care and Housing. There may also be a few surprises, with references to Mary Portas, Lego and the Spice Girls currently in the mix...

The book is due to be published in the autumn. Watch this space for details, and wish us luck!

Until next time,
Kerry

Tasty contract wins

Some food for thought this month, with several contract wins.

For starters, we've branded designer cake-makers Bake Boutique (who also kindly provided us with a birthday treat) and produced a hearty website for the English Beef and Lamb Executive. We've also been busy proofing and designing a multi-language publication as part of our work with the Home Grown Cereals Authority.

Moving off the menu, we've secured spots on a number of large frameworks - including design services for Coventry City Council and marketing and communications activity for Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council.

All that makes me quite hungry - where's Monica when you need her!

Michelle

Line up for the festival king

Our head of design, Leigh is turning into the festival king of TBG - with two stage appearances so far this year, and a third lined up in September.

So far, Echo Empire has notched up slots at Snowbombing 2010 in Mayrhofen - supporting the likes of The Editors, Doves, Fat Boy Slim and the Enemy - and the BBC Introducing stage at Wychwood Festival in Cheltenham. 

Now hot off the press, the band is now confirmed for Uplifted 2010 at Malvern in early September.  

Sadly we don’t have footage from the latest events (boo). But if you’re feeling a post-Glasto low, watch the band's Godiva '09 performance on YouTube (hurrah). No wellies, dodgy burgers or queues for portable loos required…

See you later,
Kerry

Whitewash in the pink house?

The pink TSA might be facing a whitewash, but commitment to tenant involvement and local offers apparently lives on.

Whilst the ink hasn’t yet dried on new government policy and ‘Grant cuts’ now has a whole new meaning, there’s no sign as yet that providers can forget about the 1 October deadline for annual reports.

The Bridge Group is helping a few organisations to develop local offers and reporting frameworks. That includes helping people to decide what consultation methods will work best for their residents, organising local events and helping to develop report styles that will get people talking and shaping their neighbourhoods.

If you want to make sure that you’ve got all the basics covered, you can get your hands on our ‘bright ideas for annual reports’ guide for free.

And if you need a spot of extra help, we can help get people fired up without burning holes in anyone’s pocket… just email us or call on 024 7656 0440 to find out how.
Michelle

Hook up for Goode guy

Congratulations to our communications consultant Jon Goode on his forthcoming marriage to the lovely Kath. 

Oxfordshire's wedding of the year is set to take place next week, and no detail has been left unattended. The photographer’s booked, hats are under construction and John Lewis shareholders are rubbing their hands with glee as the wedding list gets snapped up.

If you know the happy couple, feel free to post them a lovely message below. Or maybe tweet Jon with some words of congratulations, speech ideas or hot tips for a happy marriage - yes, preferably involving people living on the same continent...

Seriously, we're delighted for them both and hope the big day goes brilliantly. Watch this space for exclusive pics (subject to a little persuasion)! And Jon - make sure you throw some decent shapes and moves on the dancefloor, you might even make it into Mashable's list of top wedding dance videos :)

See you soon
Kerry

Seven steps to a savvy social media profile

Starting out in social media and need some quick tips on how to make a positive impact? Here’s a little food for thought…

1. Know what you want 

Before you put fingers to keyboard, be clear what you want from your social media life. Do you want to be seen as a thought leader? Position your brand in a certain way? Or talk to as many people as you can about a given topic? Your social media profile needs thinking through... so get a strategy together and make it part of your overall communications.

2. Show who you are

Once you know what you’re aspiring to, it’s time to find your niche. What makes you stand out from the crowd and worth talking to? Is it something you do better than anyone else? Broader service offerings than your peers? Or something unique about the area you serve? Whatever makes you distinctive will help build your presence.

3. Look before you hook

In the early days, it’s easy to get carried away and hook up with everyone who wants to be your friend. But alongside many inspiring, engaging and genuine people, others will gladly help you part with your money, passwords and reputation. So be careful to check people out before you follow them, and if their profile or brand may affect yours, think twice. 

4. Engage like-minded people

There’s a lot of noise out there, so engage people with common or complementary interests. This might be the industry you work in, a shared passion for cupcake-baking, or raising money for the same charity.  You don’t have to find every post fascinating; just enough to catch up now and again, learn something or share a smile.

5. Remember it’s social media

Social media is all about engagement. So don’t push the PR too much; there are plenty of consultants online already doing that, after all :) Instead, look for places where you can add value. Share experiences, case studies and ideas; look for ways you can help other people; and thank people who support you. To quote Justin Timberlake, "what goes around, comes around"… so think of yourself as being part of one big global community.

6. Watch what you say

Social media sites are a fabulous way of building your profile; search engines can elevate your profile and help put your name in front of a bigger audience.  But if you’re representing your organisation, remember to engage brain before mouse; what sounds funny to one person may be downright offensive by another. Recent social media #fails prove this point - such as the accountant who threatened an airport, the politicians who published and were damned and the employee sacked for extracurricular blogging - and take care.

7.          Don’t fence people in

Social media has a life of its own, so don’t ever kid yourself that you can control what happens in your part of the interweb. The KitKat kerfuffle is a classic example of how attempts to control a message can backfire.

If things do go wrong, try to stay positive. At least by being here you can see what’s going on, chat with people and contribute to the debate. It’s not easy dealing with negativity, so think like a Scout and be prepared. Make sure your social media strategy and policies take account of potential crises and how to handle them. Be open, honest and try to resolve things as far as you can. For further information, Mashable’s guide to handling negative feedback is a good starting point.

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post. If you’ve got any comments, feel free to post them below. And if you want to read something a bit more detailed, try our beginner’s guide to social media for a more comprehensive guide.


Best wishes,
Kerry

Wine, winning and Winn

Last night Ian and I spoke at the National Housing Federation's What We Are Proud Of awards dinner for the East of England region. And what a night it was.

Our appropriately-named MD, Nicola Winn turned up to support the proceedings (otherwise known as checking that we didn't say anything overly embarrassing). The reference to 'hanky wanging' went down pretty well despite a couple of pronunciation scares, and my teenage adoration for the mighty Kajagoogoo drew the expected response.

Of course, an after-dinner slot like this is essentially a pretty light-hearted event; the real highlight of the evening was the amazing award presentations which have done so much to transform people's lives... and that's ultimately what the housing sector is all about.

Well done to all of the presenters for their hard work and brilliant achievements. The winners, Flagship Peddars Way, delivered an excellent and moving presentation on the Oak Trees independent living scheme. The resident presenters in particular were living proof of the qualities we attributed to winners, namely memorable, passionate and focused.

Best wishes,
Kerry

First post, the past

Welcome to The Bridge Group's blog. We're a PR Week top 150 agency that provides communications, design, engagement and marketing support to clients across the UK.

In this blog we'll chat about hot PR topics, cool designs and random stuff that takes our fancy. We'll also share case studies, 'how to' guides, job opportunities and the odd bit of team gossip.

If you'd like to link up online, do say hello on Twitter or post your thoughts, ideas or comments.

Catch up soon,

Kerry