Due to the last few years, certain principles have come to the forefront of what is necessary for employees to embrace and adapt to, and organisations to consider for future hires. The following are some of the relevant principles of the future employee:

Flexible working

Having the freedom of flexible working has become a high priority since the pandemic forced this way of work on us.  Employees have become used to the freedom of home working and aimed with the knowledge that the company needs can be met in this way, going back to full time office based jobs will not be an option for many.

Building your own career path

The traditional career path is no longer expected of the future employee. They will now be encouraged to look at their own way of progressing.  Building their own networks, sharing valuable ideas and utilising feedback will be encouraged and contributions will be recognised.  Showing leadership in this way can put employees on the path to becoming a future leader.

Information sharing

In the past employees have kept information to themselves in the hopes of getting ahead, now they freely share information with colleagues and collaborate on ideas together.  More organisations are moving to a structureless establishment to remove the hierarchy amongst peers, therefore encouraging employees to share ideas and information to work together for the benefit of each other and the business.

New ways to communicate and collaborate

Once relying only on emails and phone calls, future employees are embracing new technology and new ways to connect.  Zoom calls, Team meets and new apps for fast efficient communication are becoming the new normal.

Continuous learning

Future employees can no longer rely on just what they already know, to succeed employees will need to commit to lifelong learning.  Having the skills, ability and willingness to learn new things, how to access this information and how to apply it to their continuing work role is possibly one of the most valuable principles.  This links in to sharing information as companies don’t always have formal training programmes to adhere to.  Accessing online learning sessions, internal teaching and face to face interactions employees can share this information with others to teach and also learn from each other.

At Brighter Directions we pride ourselves on already having these principles as part of our company’s culture, if you would like to work as part of a supportive, friendly and empowered team then please contact us to discuss what vacancies we have available.

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Add a Festive Flair to your Branding

By adding Christmas-themed elements into your logo or social media profile photos, this can help keep your brand fresh and updated. However, insure the changes do not negatively impact your brand. The cost of these small adjustments can be justified by the fact these images can be reused each year. Also, feel free to alter any promotional offers or other social media imagery to have a more festive theme.

Holiday themed content

There is no shortage of light topics to write about over Christmas, this can be across your website, social Medias and in your email marketing campaigns. The general rule for content marketing is that only 20% of your content should promote your brand whereas the other 80% should be adding value to your customers lives. There is more leeway in this over the Christmas month, your regular postings can still be valuable however they can have more seasonal appeal. For example, a restaurant could share their chefs favourite holiday dish or a beauty salon could provide discounts for festive treatments.

One way you can share content without being overly promotional is through short, helpful videos. You can also use email marketing to share Christmas-specific offers and information, this could even be styled in an advent calendar format. Whatever form of content you decide to use, just make sure the festive themes aren’t too overwhelming and are nicely balanced between promotional and valuable.

Targeting the right audience

Although your advertising budget should be spent mainly on Christmas-themed ads, these should not replace your regular advertising. The best way to control this is by allocating a specific budget to your Christmas advertising for an assigned period. Planning your Christmas advertisements should be in unison will your regular ads, so when the festivities stop, your regular ad scheduling continues. By having both regular and festive advertising happening at the same time, you can target specific keywords and adjust your audience so everyone sees the ad that is most relevant to them.

Gifts

Whether you provide products or a service, you can always talk about gifting in the festive period. It could be a list of gift ideas, the selling of gift cards or promoting your own gift sets, any can be done online or in-store. If you know your audience then make sure your gifting is tailored towards them however if your looking to expand your consumer base, then your gifting should cover a broad range of interests and ages.  

Holiday decor

Finally, you don’t want to neglect creating the right atmosphere for this time of year. While our first point was adding the festive flare into your branding, don’t forget to add it into your business as a whole. This can be done by decorating in-store, presenting festive refreshments to customers or simply offering a gift-wrapping service online. However, it depends on your budget and what would be appropriate to your target audience.

Most of these points can be adapted for different business types and can work on many different marketing channels. There are so many marketing opportunities out there now but it’s all about what is suited to your brand and its customers. If you’re looking for marketing help over the festive period, then please let us know here at Brighter Directions. We offer outsourced services covering PR, Social Media, Content and more. Call our office today on 01246 586 330 to discuss your requirements.

The post Christmas Marketing Ideas appeared first on Brighter Directions.

Taking action on the information you find is what sets social listening apart from social media monitoring which is all about collecting data, allowing you to look back at what has already happened.  Social listening goes beyond numbers and looks at the mood that your social media posts create and how people feel about your brand and your competitors.

The online mood your company creates is also known as social media sentiment; keeping track of this is an important part of social listening. Social listening allows you to recognise a change in sentiment; you can track in real-time positive or negative responses and react accordingly. Interaction with consumers is great when it ends in positive sentiment however when something goes wrong, social listening can help stop PR disasters escalating by recognising the consumer reaction as soon as it happens.

Your customers share information about what they do and don’t like about your brand each and every day, social listening can help you understand this information and utilise it. Not only will people be speaking about your brand, but they’ll also be speaking about your competitors too. You can analyse the market through the eyes of your customers and help seek out opportunities and threats in the industry. Getting to know how people feel about your brand can help you know what is going right with your marketing and product development strategies.

If you care about your customers and their insights then you should be using social listening as a tool in your marketing strategy. If you feel you aren’t getting enough interaction in general, social listening can help you alter your strategy to gain an increase in your interaction numbers.

If you are looking to implement social listening into your marketing strategy but unsure where to start, Brighter Directions is here to help, call our team today to see how we can help on 01246 586330!

The post What is social listening? appeared first on Brighter Directions.

5th September is the selected date as it commemorates the anniversary of the passing away of Mother Teresa who worked tirelessly to overcome poverty, distress and suffering of the poorest in the world.

International Day of Charity serves to enhance and increase social responsibility amongst us all, solidarity and to increase the public’s support for charitable causes. This day is a great opportunity to raise awareness and provide a platform for charity events to take place on a global scale, as well as create influence on how ‘anyone’ can do a little bit…

Everyone knows that community and great causes are very close to our heart at Brighter Directions, and always has been.

We try and ‘dot our bit’ as much as possible to help support charities and causes, whether it’s a pro-bono project or ongoing assistance at cost. Admittedly, they are not huge things, but it is a small way that we can put commerciality aside and use our skills for the greater good of others. It’s not a business decision, it’s a personal one, but one that we are very proud of and committed to continue.

Our team are equally as committed to this ethos as the business – we all ‘donate’ our time and care to support a local cause that helps people into work, through mentoring, guidance and work experience programs – as well as our ‘fun’ annual charity fundraising event.

#dosomethinggood #giveback #feelgood #inspireothers

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It is said to be the fastest-growing language in the UK – with more than 2,800 symbols available to use ranging from the traditional through to more exciting icons such as buildings, animals and scenery.

However, despite the huge influence of emojis, in business, we need to be acutely conscious of the decisions we make in our marketing and communication efforts, and this case is no different.

There are many of the fun emojis that actually hold very different meanings in different countries and cultures, that companies should be aware of.

This article created today by SKY shows some of these examples, you can read more here.

Unsure about your social marketing strategy? Give us a call…

The post World Emoji Day 2019 – Using for the good of the business appeared first on Brighter Directions.

In marketing, it can be all too easy to discuss and discard some of the ‘softer’ marketing tactics as ‘intangible’. However, in my experience of marketing for the last twenty years, everything is measurable, if you find the right tracker and goal metric!

A superb recent example of the importance of both points (audit and continued impact review) is with one of our clients, a tech company who was spending a significant amount of budget on Google Adwords each month.

After recently taking over their marketing division entirely, we completed a full audit of all their marketing output, including the SEO campaigns. This technical review looked over the previous 12 months campaigns, results, impact and goal conversions as well as comparing campaigns alongside other direct marketing activities and found that some of the campaigns were, in fact, engaging a less profitable audience segment. This ‘update’ reduced the marketing spend from £20k per month to £11k per month.

The success was that the impact (stats/ conversions) did not go down, despite this reduction in spend! In fact the impact increased by +30%– utilising a small segment of the budget on other, more targeted, direct content marketing activities, including social media.

After two weeks, we audited the campaigns again, and assessed against previous campaigns run, but not continued, as well as the intermediate analysis from live campaigns – as a result, we reduced the spend a further 25%, saving a further £3.5k per month!

All in all – this activity saved the company a significant amount of ‘unnecessary’ budget and directed to other, more profitable and impactful marketing activities with some sound intelligence and direction.

One of our true values is the ethos, passion, and dedication we have to our clients – we work on your marketing tactics (and budget management) like it was our own… as true partners and part of your company team.

If you are looking for support across areas such as Content Marketing, PR & Media Relations, Social Media, or generally to assess your Marketing Strategy – give us a call and see if our ethos and customer-centric approach aligns with yours, and how we can help you save money and become more efficient across your marketing!

T: 01246 586330

E: marketing@brighterdirections.co.uk

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1. Inconsistency

Although there are many forms of social media that all require a slightly different tone of voice, your message throughout your post should be consistent. Not only your message, but your overall posts should be scheduled and regular to ensure you keep your audience interested and engaged.

2. Automation gone wrong

Scheduling can take time so automated scheduling websites can help manage your posts and interaction over a range of sites. However, a team member should always monitor social media posts, so customers can receive personalised replies and embarrassing mishaps are avoided.  

3. Ignoring your followers

Although social media is a great outlet for posting information about products and services, it is also a strong method of interaction that should be used between a brand and their customers. Therefore, it is important to answer all customer questions or queries, social media should be used as a form of communication which in turn, can help build brand loyalty and a strong brand image.

4. Not measuring your social media metrics

One of social medias great benefits is its ability to track interactions when posts are made, this is a useful feature for businesses as you can see if your goals are being achieved via social media metrics. This helps you plan for future goals as you can alter your objectives according to the results of your current content.

5. Forgetting to be personal

It is a common fact that people buy from people, so revealing the individuals behind your brand will help gain you more genuine followers. Even if you’re a corporate brand, by posting the occasional funny photo or inside joke you are more likely to gain interactions and create a more genuine brand image.

6. Repeating yourself

Finding another purpose for content on a different social media site is perfectly acceptable however, bombarding your followers with the same content repeatedly is not. There is a small variety of popular social media platforms so repeatedly using the same content can quickly become an annoyance to your followers. Try to use a varied amount of posts across your platforms or ensure you use a different format if you need to repeat yourself.

7. Not taking social media seriously

Although social media is seen as a modern and fun media outlet, when used for business it becomes a part of your internal marketing strategy. Therefore, all team members should be aware of its importance to ensure there are no social media fails. Typos and grammatical errors may seem like minor mistakes, but would you want them to be representational of your brand?

So although building a social media presence for your company might be difficult, with these tips on what NOT to do, you will be more equip on how to make your brand more visual online. Building a social media following requires patience, consistency and commitment to learn what your customers need and want from your social media platforms.

If you require any help or assist in building a social media presence or just keeping your posts more consistent, please let us know here at Brighter Directions. We offer outsourced services covering PR, Social Media, Content and more. Call our office today on 01246 586 330 to discuss your requirements.

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There’s little doubt that we need to create cultural and social norms that give women the connections and context they need to succeed in all commercial environments. There are still not enough women in leadership roles (nowhere near enough) however, by networking and conversing with likeminded and driven women, to gain/share advice and learn to avoid the mistakes they made. Networking is a beneficial skill. It improves your ability to not only learn from others experiences but to also discover new passion and spark from fellow professionals.

It’s proven that women are some of the most motivational and positive communicators and influencers. A fact we have appreciated first-hand through the many campaigns we’ve been a part of, such as Women In Sales Awards, Enterprising Women and Women In Business celebrations and the tremendous talent showed year on year emerging from businesses, yet, these are still a minority.

Influence is power and power can be gained through asking questions and participation in senior situations. Research shows that men are the loudest in the business meetings, men ask the most questions and men are confident with their communication. In comparison, findings show that women, regardless if more qualified, knowledgeable or experienced across a subject matter, are the ones that take a back seat, and this needs to change.

Women are born communicators. Some insights state that women are more emotional, but instead of this being a negative statement, we need to realise that’s logically the reason why we find it easier to converse at multiple levels, and the ‘emotional’ part of our communication style is used to gain authority and influence, such as inviting others for contribution, using empathy to solidify relationships with colleagues, clients and stakeholders, and bridging the gap between commercial strategy and the people that drive those agendas forward. All of which are significant senior skills.

I’m often asked why we promote ‘women’ so much as an organisation – we are founded by a woman, we are a female-dominated team, we are passionate about the development of women in senior roles, not only across our own organisation but as a wider goal – why?

The answer is simple, because we believe that women (and men) are capable of amazing work, we just don’t shout about it enough, or have the confidence to elevate each other, and quite frankly, we don’t have enough peer support through c-suite to drive this strategy.

One of my many mantras is ‘building others up doesn’t dampen your own success” and this statement is incredibly ardent for women in business.

I was incredibly lucky, that throughout my corporate career, in a very male-dominated environment, I had tremendous backing from incredible female (and male) leaders, manages and colleagues who worked together to achieve common goals and support one another, both in the commercial role and to drive my career progression. A methodology I hope that I have carried through to my business and one that I’m passionate about continuing to push across my industry.

International Women’s Day shouldn’t be about bashing men, (although I admit, sometimes they deserve it!), or putting stoke on the fire to the ‘poor women’ topic – it should be about celebrating diversity and understanding that women do have different challenges and experiences across their careers, but the key is being aware of those and inspiring the females in your organisation to excel and rise, which is as simple as recognising this fact and putting equality at the heart of a business, in reality, it should be an easy fix… but the figures still speak for themselves.

So, instead of the traditional ‘women are great’ posts that will no doubt flood our timelines this week, let’s celebrate by recognising and appreciating the superb women we have across our businesses – shout about how and why they are great, what their achievements have been, what its meant to the business and bottom line – and why we, as business owners are better businesses culturally and financially as a result of being a diverse organisation.

Claire Curzon

MD – Brighter Directions

The post International Women’s Day – Creating your own work culture appeared first on Brighter Directions.

Employee appreciation has been around forever in reality, (as some of us older ones will recall), we grew up in an environment of work where we compliment those who have done well, recognise hard-work with a social pint after work, and local businesses give out bonuses for company growth – but has this methodology changed over the years?

Global brand Apple recently announced the biggest trend of 2018 was self-care, and this trend is expected to follow into 2019. Self-care is now seen as an essential part of life and not just a luxury; studies also show the link between mental wellbeing and job performance. This is this is why corporate wellness is such a fast-growing industry with HR and wellness professionals have put together strategies to keep employees happy and healthy.

But are they a minority nowadays, and something that only corporates and larger brands are committed to? We think not…and nor should it be.

To us, who proudly boast our ‘family ethos, ‘caring nature’ and ‘team at the heart of everything we do’, these terms aren’t simply marketing gimmicks and words on a website – they are the values in which we operate.

Well-being of a team isn’t as simple as it was back in the day. Additional thought should be put into new challenges affecting our population, such as financial constraints on a difficult economy, family frustrations as work is both harder to come by, and more necessary, and burnout and stress have become much more apparent in the world of work, at least since I started my career. I’m not saying there weren’t stressful situations when I was c-suite management, because of cause there was, however, I notice that my team also carry ownership and a much stronger investment in how we do business, nurture clients and do the best job that they and we can, and that in turn is obviously going to impact stress levels.

It’s important to let staff take time out to relax and recharge.

Personally, I couldn’t run a  business where I didn’t care about my team, and their well-being, both personally and at work.

There are several ways to do this, depending on your business model, and the people you have within your team. There isn’t a right way to be conscious or implement well-being structures in an organisation, it can be as simple as celebrating pancake day and cooking/ sitting together eating and catching up, NOT about work (as we most certainly will be next week!), through to profit bonus and creating better work environments and cultures, which undoubtedly, all contribute towards a nicer place to work.

Today is a great day to assess your current culture, and how you support your team on the whole. This day shouldn’t just be a day to celebrate; it should be an ongoing methodology of progress to do better.

Lastly, thank you to all my amazing team who every-day does such a tremendous job supporting our clients, and each other – you are awesome!

Claire Curzon – MD, Brighter Directions

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LinkedIn provides a modern and professional way to contact business owners or potential employees. With over 500 million professionals worldwide, LinkedIn is a great platform for networking, people can share about both their personal and professional lives. People post stories and document their successes and failures, this is a great and honest way to connect with people. LinkedIn can be used to maintain links with professionals and keep yourself visible for any future opportunities, to ensure you don’t get overlooked.

LinkedIn hosts a lot of data that can be used to specifically target your advertisements, gather information about their performance and see who engaged with them. This can also work with job advertisements as LinkedIn is now one of the biggest social media platforms for recruiting.  It allows head-hunters to prepare for interviews before engaging with perspective candidates and it gives the interviewees the chance to create a good impression via their online presence.

Overall, LinkedIn is a great platform for all types of networking, if you’re in need of any help integrating LinkedIn into your networking plan then let us know. At Brighter Directions we offer outsourced services covering PR, Social Media, Content and more. Call our office today on 01246 586 330 to discuss your requirements.

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