No-one should under-estimate the value of a website. It’s a reference point, a reassurance to the user that yours is a business that offers them a solution that fires up their interest.

Some folk argue that they don’t need a smart, up-to-date and effective site to be able to build a business. They have a site but don’t bother with it. Why then build it in the first place?

After discussion we decided to demolish the old site and build a new one, and, in designers’ parlance, we’re having a complete ‘make over’.

That started a debate. What makes a great website? Each of us has preferences in personal taste but good websites have one outstanding feature and several common features. The outstanding feature is that they have been built for the user rather than meeting any personal aspirations.

Users can be put off straight away by poor visual impact or complex navigation. Most users are impatient and will quickly move on if they have to delve through reams of text or the site is difficult to navigate.

When people visit a website they want something pleasing to the senses. Colours, style, text and image alignment, creative presentation of images and video clips, all contribute.

Research indicates that only around a quarter of text is read on any one page, so fewer words and more visual information is the key. Each page should have a specific focus or theme, aiming to provide an instant snapshot for the user.

And with the increasing use of mobile browsing and tablet devices, it’s also essential that sites can be viewed on a range of display areas.

The website must be search engine friendly. If this is done correctly, it could mean a huge boost in visitor numbers and the chances of improving the business’s visibility are greatly enhanced.

Time and time again would-be applicants seeking either work experience or full-time employment, simply address their letters and emails ‘Dear Sir/Madam’.

Creative PR and brand management agencies strive to ensure clients ‘stand out in the crowd’. So if students want to work in this environment, it’s simply not enough to send applications this way.

And in the current economic climate there are plenty of highly-skilled, experienced people in the market for a job, so employers are always looking for the stand out candidate.

Those that take the time and trouble to contact the office, introduce themselves and establish to whom they should send their CV are considered. In Encore’s case, during the course of 2011 that would be one or two out of dozens.

Those that aspire to a career in creative sectors must realise that completing a course at a university doesn’t necessarily make them an automatic choice for employers.

So, come on students, strut your stuff and make sure you get noticed. It just takes a few extra minutes to make sure your letter or email makes an impression.

After all, taking a positive and creative approach to presentation is something you’re going to have to do every day in your career.

Looking good in the dark

One former manager recently received this year’s PR Week ‘Communicator of the Year’ award. Take a bow Ian Holloway, now manager of Championship side Blackpool FC.
By some, Ian’s reckoned to be the most quotable man in football. Anyone who follows the game will know that he’s been fairly outspoken, but very witty, on a range of subjects, from the men who run world football to Ronaldo, from video technology to the length of shorts worn in the modern game.
You can spend a fair chunk of time reading his quotes on the internet, chuckling away to yourself. Don’t do it in the office – colleagues will think you’re going bonkers.
Some of his quotes are gems. For example: “I love Blackpool. We’re very similar. We both look better in the dark.”
But he counters that with affectionate remarks about the club, his team, his staff and the fans. He loves the place, even though it must be hard when the winter wind is blowing off the Irish Sea and frailer visitors to the seaside town are hanging on to lamp-posts in fear of their life, their legs outstretched horizontally in the gale.
Holloway’s skill as a communicator was perhaps best summed up by a national newspaper journalist. After a press conference the journalist remarked: “Ian Holloway wasn’t trying to be especially interesting, he just can’t help it.”
There is a view that there are three broad things you need to be a good communicator. You need good content and you must know it well; you should be confident; and you should have a connection with the audience.
If those are the ground rules Ian Holloway is indeed a good communicator and in an era of carefully constructed ‘sound bites’ and a caution about being blunt and to the point, Holloway just steals the show.

Betty's got big brand appeal

And, according to reports about the poll, Betty’s the person most likely to drive up brand value of anything she chose to endorse.

Americans who took part in the poll pointed to Paris Hilton and Charlie Sheen as the personalities to avoid for product promotion.

Betty was one of the cast members of the Golden Girls in the 1980s and she’s continued with TV and film appearances to this day.

According to a Reuters story she scored 86% favourable opinion in the survey – she topped other favourites such as Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford and Morgan Freeman, none of whom could be considered five minute wonders in the stardom and ‘celebrity’ stakes.

The survey indicates that some 44% of those questioned said they would be more likely to do business with a company/product endorsed by Betty. Apart from Sheen and Hilton, Britney Spears, Mel Gibson and Tiger Woods also fared badly.

The equivalent poll in the UK would make fascinating reading.

We seem overcome by our love of mindless celebrity status or someone who’s been lost in the jungle or locked in the house. Even the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons is on the act as a house guest, no doubt causing a few raised eyebrows and low brow comments among MPs.

And our nominations for the UK equivalent of Betty White, people with great brand value and ones we’d trust with product endorsement?

How about Dame Judi Dench, Sir Sean Connery, Joanna Lumley, Twiggy, Sir Bobby Charlton, Sir Ian Botham, and Peter Sallis?

View the US poll at http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/

It’s one often applied to the senior manager responsible for selling their company’s products and services. But it does sometimes cause us some confusion.

Which part of Sales and Marketing comes first? Many would argue they are two distinct disciplines. Being a good marketer doesn’t make you a good salesman, and vice versa.

They would say that in some companies there’s a tendency to lump them both into the one job pot, meaning talented sales people struggling to step back from their natural role and make room for things that don’t do so easily.

For other companies it might be that the sales manager has responsibility for marketing but doesn’t necessarily deliver personally, other than to manage the function provided by an in-house team or external suppliers.

So, back to the debate about the marketer and the salesman; sorry, the salesman and the marketer.

There are sales people that can’t get their head around the need for marketing. Simply having a great network and the opportunity to meet, greet and schmooze is enough for them to function. They will challenge the need to spend money on marketing (even websites don’t do it for some) and appear to some of us to prefer to spend on travel and meetings.

While that won’t help the company’s carbon footprint and there are other ways of communicating (conference calls, Skype, etc.), they are essentially ‘people’ people and if they stay in the office too long they might go stir crazy.

Many marketing people feel that the sales people couldn’t do their job unless they (the marketers) have had the opportunity to warm the sales environment and improve product and service visibility. What good, they ask, is it trying to sell something no-one’s heard about, seen about or wants?

But there must be really good marketers who might struggle to close a deal even if their prospective customer was begging for it; closing a deal isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

It’s simple really. The marketing people and the sales people depend on each other. Neither is more important than the other; neither is dispensable. Both functions are absolutely integral to any business and there are sales people who understand and deliver good marketing activity. The roles can be undertaken by one person with the skills.

Inform, educate, persuade, and sell. Inform and educate is marketing; persuasion is a bit of both disciplines and sell is sales. They are linked and cannot be separated.

Actually, the thought of being two people prompted the memory of the late, very great Tommy Cooper. His split personality, dressed appropriately, plays the parts of a shy young girl and a sailor returned home from the sea. Enjoy the sketch.

Whether it will be good publicity or bad you can’t help but notice the power social media. To be in the top ten trends means to one of the most talked about topic(s) on Twitter in the UK. Twitter users talking about the same topic use the # tag; in this case it was #leicestercitycouncil

The topic came about after the BBC released a story headlined ‘Leicester City Council not ready for zombie attack’ at 8.51am this morning.

The report explains that a ‘concerned citizen’ had written a letter as a freedom of information request to the council asking what provisions they had in place in the event of a zombie attack on the city. Full story here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-13713798

The council’s head of information governance Lynn Wyeth, said she was unaware of any specific reference to a zombie attack in the council’s emergency plan, however some elements of it could be applied if the situation arose.

Some may argue that this could be an elaborate stunt and others may argue that there are a wide range of people with different interests living in Leicester.

From a PR point of view though this has been a great exercise for the council, to show how they deal not with zombie attacks but how they engage with their audiences throughout the county.

Leicester City Council has shown that despite this request being strange and largely irrelevant they responded with some humour and addressed the request in a professional manner.

What can we learn from this? Well, as we understand, an organisation big or small communicates in a thousand different ways and whether they wants to or not. It’s not necessarily what the message is, it’s how the organisation deals with it.

With so many organisations now using social media as a platform to promote their goods or services it’s important to remember that to engage the audience and not just target them with heavy sales pitches.

Social media should be an extension of the marketing activity a brand undertakes and even if the going gets tough with negative responses or comments the organisation should respond and interact with the audience to address issues or problems – in turn gaining credit from it.

Well, I think we’ve moved on since the 1960 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. For a start, we have far greater environmental concerns and, as a consequence, congestion charges in city centres.

It’s been revealed that the US government has been sent a London congestion charge bill for Barack Obama’s convoy, including his limousine, nicknamed The Beast.

According to news sources, Mayor Boris Johnson said the motorcade was charged, unlike the Popemobile, because roads were not closed.

The US Embassy says it’s exempt from paying “direct taxes” and it seems the US is not the only country with this view. There’s around £51m owing to the London coffers and the US, Russia and Japan are the top three in the list of non-payers.

The defence seems to be that 1960 Vienna Convention prohibits the imposition of this sort of tax on diplomatic missions. Diplomats have immunity so can’t be taken to court for non-payment.

Well, that was all well and good in the 1960 view of the world but more than 50 years on you’d think someone would have thought to update the rules.

Boris Johnson, an avid cyclist, has said previously that the levy is not a tax but a charge for services. Now I’m not keen on cycling everywhere but, like Boris, I think the clue’s in the title – charge not tax.

That might be a mute point to some but in the spirit of this ever-changing world, couldn’t diplomats just accept that such charges and fines should be paid by everyone?