Gender equality

The figure stands at just 32% of the proportion of women in senior management roles globally.

In the UK, latest figures show that we sit at 33% of women in director level roles, and in a recent survey listed second internationally for our inclusivity across FTSE100 companies.

It’s a proven fact that having female leaders in positions of influence, serving as role models is not only critical to the career advancement of women, but stances on driving broader societal impacts on pay equity, changing workplace policies in behaviours that benefit both men and women, as well as attracting a more diverse workforce.

The need to work towards gender equality AND inclusivity across commercial operations is one that we all need to contribute to, to drive meaningful change for women across the globe.

Recently, there’s been some significant leaps in diversity at the top from the likes of M&S appointing Cheryl Potter as their non-executive director, making its boardroom a female majority, Helen Miles is Severn Trent’s new CFO and was the first FTSE100 firm to create an all-women board, Susie Wolff has been appointed the director of the F1 Academy in an unprecedented example and openly states she ‘hopes to inspire more women into sport’. While in contrast the press has reported that FIFA has been heavily criticised for the appointment of a female supermodel Adriana Lima in an ambassador role.

Germany has announced last week the introduction of the ‘feminist foreign policy’ with the aim to have more women in senior roles.

Culture and support

Ways in which you can develop diversity in your culture and support women’s growth:

• Prioritise sponsoring and mentoring for female employees.
• Listen and measure. Companies need a data-driven approach to real inclusivity
• Deliver unconscious bias training and development
• Improve policies, such as flexible working and take lessons from the pandemic
• Reduce the gender pay gap and make payment schemes fair and equal
• Be an advocate for inclusivity across the organisation

Brighter Directions are champions of women in business, and women in senior roles with many of our clients being female-run-operations, and having the honour to work on global life-changing campaigns over the past year such as new technology advances for Breast Cancer, innovative diversity campaigns for non-traditional industry clients, and currently also a challenging and emotive FGM campaign awareness across Africa. But we are also committed to our continued advocacy of women, including our unwavering support to the likes of the Women In awards globally, through to driving our own culture and inclusive operations.

So, as a final thought, let us take this opportunity to celebrate the incredible, talented women we have in our own business, who juggle everyday and still pull out all the stops to thrive… we are proud of the business we have, because of you….

The post Celebrate Women: International Women’s Day appeared first on Brighter Directions.

Today, February 17^th, is Random Acts of Kindness Day.  The day was started by The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, a non-profit organisation that began in the 1990s in Colorado, USA.

Kindness

Kindness has been scientifically proven to have positive benefits to our health.  It has been shown to decrease pain. stress, anxiety, blood pressure and depression.   And to increase our energy, happiness, oxytocin & serotonin levels and even our lifespan.

The idea behind the day is to pass on feelings of kindness and brighten up someone’s day.

As it says in our name, here at Brighter Directions we always aim to achieve brightening someone’s day And we find that being kind is at the forefront of our work ethos.

Support

From the smallest thing of complimenting each other to bigger acts of support when times are busy and tough.  Being kind is conducive to having the best atmosphere for a healthy work environment.

In truth, compliments are not small things. They inspire a better work ethic and increase productivity, and they take the least amount of effort!

We are a small team here and without supporting each other we would struggle to achieve our goals.  We start small with making cups of tea without being asked, but more importantly we help each other and take on work to relieve each other’s workload as necessary.

Without kindness we would not be able to work as the fantastic team we are!

#RandomActsOfKindnessDay  #MakeKindnessTheNorm

The post Random Acts Of Kindness Day appeared first on Brighter Directions.

Before the global pandemic, social media was being labelled as an addiction to millennials. The media was filled with ‘social media detox’ tips, telling consumers it is bad for their mental and physical health and is to blame for the depression rates rising. However, in 2020 everything changed for social media (just one of the many ways Covid-19 has affected society). This was the year we all turned back to technology rather than ‘detoxing’ to stay up-to-date with current events, be entertained, and most importantly, keep connected to our friends and family.

During the early days of the pandemic, we utilised social media for the quickest source of information as TV broadcasts and newspapers could not compare with the speed news can spread in the online world. The demand for information on anything to do with Coronavirus was unprecedented to what the media had seen before. Social media not only got the latest news stories out the quickest, but they were also the most accessible.

With the national lockdowns and restrictions altering our lives drastically, we sought entertainment from social media more than ever trying to fill all our newly found spare time. There were booms in fitness trends, recipes, home improvement videos, crafting, dancing, and anything else to escape from the doom and gloom of the pandemic. This not only gave us the feeling of being united but helped reduce the sense of loneliness from being isolated. More people were finding their voice on social media, including a demographic that had not been the main consumer before, the elderly.

Throughout 2020 there was a huge growth in the 70 to 90 demographic on social platforms. All around the world, older generations were signing up and creating accounts to be able to communicate with their friends and family. Likewise, companies and brands that were not based online and some who did not use social media were now being pressured into creating an online presence to compete with those who had already captured their audience.

As our lives completely moved to be through computer screens, we as consumers searched for the feeling of the ‘real world’ online. We want to see real people with real lives to who we want to connect. This has led to the biggest increase in influencer marketing on social media. We seek inspiration for everything through these influencers as we want to feel a part of a community and find the socialisation that we now lack in person.

A reason influencer marketing is becoming more successful is due to the ability of the influencer to communicate with their audience through likes, replying to comments, Instagram lives, Q&A stories, etc. Through these outlets, they can establish and build relationships with their followers.

Brands need to acknowledge the changes 2020 has bought to the social media landscape and ensure they create community management and develop a strategy that incorporates having dialogues with their customers online. They must organise their values and develop a brand personality that their audience can relate to.

As people are not currently able to visit stores and experience customer service, they need to form that relationship elsewhere. By brands showing support for issues around the world that they believe in, it helps to make a positive impact on growing their personality and thus making them more attractive to the consumer. Utilising tools such as Facebook and Instagram lives makes the brand more authentic and personable and not just an online company. The ‘new normal’ for social media means that brands have to learn to embrace this new social aspect of the online community and develop their own personality.

If you are unsure how to increase engagement with your audience, why not start with our three top tips?

1. Create a content plan for your social media to post once or twice a week. Posting consistently is key. Ensure you including captions, graphics, and relevant hashtags in your plan. Then you don’t have to worry about planning a post last minute.
2. Arrange a Q&A session with your audience on your Facebook or Instagram story. Decide on a topic, for example, a new launch or customer service, and ask your audience for questions. Prepare your answers beforehand and post as a story or host a Facebook or Instagram live.
3. Organise a competition or giveaway. This is a great way to increase your followers, your engagement, and appeal to a wider audience. You can either host this as an individual or team up with another brand or influencer.

If you would like to hear more about how to develop your social media and engage your audience, we’d love to help. Contact us via socialmedia@brighterdirections.co.uk to discuss your business.

The post The ‘New Normal’ For Social Media appeared first on Brighter Directions.

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.

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

The post Employee Appreciation Day – Is caring about staff a backwards business model? appeared first on Brighter Directions.

Our men may be small in numbers, but they make up for it in skill, talent, and daily enthusiasm – let’s be honest, the boys have a hard time (boo for them), working with us crazy ladies day in and day out, but they take it with elegance and in all honesty, we think they wouldn’t have it any other way!

When our men are not dealing with the daily trauma of working with us, they are absolutely dedicated within their own roles, sitting across PR & Media comms, Content and Website digital management, the boys support a range of our clients, delivering effective ongoing retainer solutions and project campaigns.

Say hello to our amazing male team members, Ryan, Mark & Dan who let’s face it, deserve a little credit…

The post Celebrating our men (for a change) appeared first on Brighter Directions.

In essence, agile marketing is a tactical marketing approach which identifies and focuses a series of collective marketing campaigns, specifically high-value tactics with a view to continuously measure the impact and incrementally improve the results over a period of time.

Agile marketing is becoming very popular within tech teams who are looking to rapidly and efficiently build new products to complement existing propositions.

How can B2B marketers implement an agile way of working?

 As with all successful marketing campaigns, the idea of agile marketing must be taken up throughout your organisation, not just in the marketing department!

At its core, the Scrum (the name for the agile process) aims to align marketers with an organisation’s business goals and sales staff, improve communication, and increase the speed and responsiveness of marketing.

To implement an agile marketing campaign, you need the tools and practices in place from the start. Check out these four core principles when planning an agile campaign:

1. Choose the right metrics + measure from the very beginning
2. Develop a framework and clear process
3. Use services and tools that can help you analyse your users behaviour
4. Evaluate, prioritize and implement

A great demonstration is this graphic:

Agile Marketing incorporates various multi-layered marketing activities and channels, often working in conjunction to test, set and measure the impact of audience engagement. Content is a huge and vital part of an agile marketing journey.

To discuss your content marketing activities, call our professional team on 01246 586330.

The post What is agile marketing and how can it help you? appeared first on Brighter Directions.

In a post in its newsroom , Facebook wrote:

People have told us that they dislike spammy [sic] posts on Facebook that goad them into interacting with likes, shares, comments, and other actions. For example, “LIKE this if you’re an Aries!” This tactic, known as “engagement bait,” seeks to take advantage of our News Feed algorithm by boosting engagement in order to get greater reach. So, starting this week, we will begin demoting individual posts from people and Pages that use engagement bait.

The guidelines on what kinds of language will be accepted (or not), are at this stage, still somewhat loose, but what it does mean is that Company Pages will certainly be affected, particularly those that encourage competitions or increased audiences using the methodology.

The general rule of thumb is that if you don’t want to be caught out and penalized for just trying to encourage more reach – then, stick to content which engages users and provide interesting posts, rather than playing the click more game!

** Are you looking for assistance to develop your Facebook presence and want to stay within the guidelines of Facebook for maximum output? Contact our professional and friendly team today for a free initial consultation on 01246 586330 ** 

The post Bye bye ‘Like and Share this post’ competitions in Facebook appeared first on Brighter Directions.

Twitter announces “Sometimes we need more than one Tweet to express ourselves.  A thread on Twitter is a series of connected Tweets from one person. With a thread you can provide additional context, an update, or an extended point by connecting multiple Tweets together.”

You’ll see from the sample below that a thread has great benefits from a commercial perspective, such as:

• You can add more text/ characters outside of the limit, so if you have something to say that is longer than an extended tweet – this is great!
• You can use it to tag certain topics or themes in your posts, for example, if you are attending an event and are live tweeting on the day, this provides a great tool to say more and capture more engagement from audiences by saying more.

How to create a thread:

It’s so very simple – click ‘add a tweet’ and you’ll see a small + icon at the bottom of your screen, next to the usual ‘post’ button – as shown below. Simply type out your posts in each thread – then publish – and ta-dar, they all publish together on your feed!

Once you have posted a thread, you can always add additional Tweets from the thread detail page. Simply click or tap Add another Tweet to post additional Tweet(s). 

For help with your Twitter marketing, call our experts today at Brighter Directions on 01246 586330 or email info@brighterdirections.co.uk

The post Twitter adds ‘thread’ to expanded tweets! appeared first on Brighter Directions.

It is my third year judging, each and every year I think the level can’t get higher, and each year I’m blown away! The day consisted of tremendously high caliber, passion and skill – you ladies sure know how to make it hard for us judges! I can honestly say that every person we saw, met and engaged with are all truly inspirational. All the finalists are absolutely deserving winners! So congratulations to each and every one of you!

We look forward to celebrating with you all on the 5th for the awards ceremony – whatever the results you can rest assured that you are deserving and recognised for your fantastic contribution to sales and your company – please be very proud of yourselves!

The photos are now live too, take a peek: https://lnkd.in/g-aSXDA 

Lastly, I would like to say thank you to all the other judges I met again, and new friends made on the day. It’s an absolute pleasure to meet other women, and men who have a high standard and passion for the sales industry and I look forward to building relationships more in the future with you wonderful lot.

See you on the 5th and again thank you for my involvement, I look forward to this event each year!

Love, Claire

x

The post Women In Sales Awards 2017 – Congratulations to all the finalists! appeared first on Brighter Directions.