The UnNoticed Entrepreneur

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How can you find exactly the right journalist in Asia for your story? One solution is Telum like it is. Jul 24, 2020

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Building a media database takes time and frankly is very expensive, and the really tough part is that journalists keep moving. This means that even the largest of agencies can't keep an up to date media list, and certainly, for companies, it can be tough even with a dedicated media team and perhaps a shortlist of top tier media.
Telum Media, founded in 2013, claims to be Asia, Australia and New Zealand’s leading media intelligence platform - their media requests, news alerts and media database drive better engagement between PR professionals and journalists.
Tim Williamson, Managing Director - Asia Pacific of Telum Media, tells me about the Asian origins of the business, their community-based model, how outsourcing media database research can be so much more cost-effective and efficient than trying to manage this in-house, and ways for companies to leverage their extensive in country research teams to ensure that the right story lands in the inbox of a journalist who is likely to run the story.
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Please visit our blog post on PR for business please visit our site:
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Jim James is the Founder and Managing Director of the EASTWEST Public Relations Group. He recently returned to the UK after 25 years in Asia where he was an entrepreneur. Whilst running EASTWEST PR, he was the Vice-Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, he also he introduced Morgan sports cars to China, WAKE Drinks, founded the British Business Awards, The British Motorsport Festival, EO Beijing, and was the interim CEO of Lotus cars

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The Talkwalkers are coming..How can social listening protect your brand in a crisis and help provide PR opportunities. Jul 23, 2020

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Did you know that you can track conversations about your brand across over 187 languages, not just text but also logos and in videos?
Social listening is the process of monitoring digital conversations to understand what customers are saying about a brand and industry online. It's a key part of public relations because social listening tracks the impact of the work being done by the company or their agency. This can be crucial during a crisis as it can help a company to listen to conversations which are out of its' control; Talkwalker was used by the HK airline which had mispricing on its website leading to a torrent of talk about cheap business class flights.
Talkwalker provides listening and analytics tools using artificial intelligence to more than 2.000 companies worldwide to protect their brands, measure their impact and gain the key consumer insights that drive purchase decisions. They have offices in Luxembourg, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Frankfurt and Paris.
I spoke with Sophie Clark about which languages they can cover, search for photos and video images, and applications including crisis management and sports sponsorship. They cover an astounding number of languages and Sophie explains some of the special features of Talkwalker including their own proprietary AI technology.
There is a free service available and the basic package is £ 6,240 per year which can be also purchased by agencies to serve multiple clients, as the business model is based on data allowances.

If you like this podcast, then subscribe to our newsletter here
Please visit our blog post on PR for business please visit our site:
https://www.eastwestpr.com/blogs/
Find us on Twitter @eastwestpr
Jim James is the Founder and Managing Director of the EASTWEST Public Relations Group. He recently returned to the UK after 25 years in Asia where he was an entrepreneur. Whilst running EASTWEST PR, he was the Vice-Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, he also he introduced Morgan sports cars to China, WAKE Drinks, founded the British Business Awards, The British Motorsport Festival, EO Beijing, and was the interim CEO of Lotus cars

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Soundbite - How David Beckham spoke 9 languages and how AI can help your PR. Jul 23, 2020

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Tune in for the full podcast on Youtube.
How can we create campaigns when we can't shoot with real models or spokespeople?
The answer is Artificial Intelligence, and it’s becoming accessible and affordable for companies to use in the public relations, training and many other applications at a

Advertising giant WPP sent unusual corporate training videos to tens of thousands of employees worldwide in English, Spanish and Mandarin - all less than the price of a movie ticket. The person doing the talking was an AI character generated by London based start-up Synthesia. In 2019 the company helped David Beckham appear to deliver a PSA on malaria in 9 languages, including Hindi, Arabic, and Kinyarwanda, spoken by millions of people in Rwanda. The application allows up to 34 languages to be spoken.
I talk about this and how the application can be used for many forms of presentations by public relations and marketing teams.
Why do we need this? Because viewers retain 95% of a video’s message compared to 10% when reading text but due to COVID it's increasingly difficult to bring people together for real-world shoots.
I also talk about the opportunity represented by Rosebud.ai which specializes in making the kind of glossy images used in e-commerce or marketing. Last year the company released a collection of 25,000 modelling photos of people that never existed, along with tools that can swap synthetic faces into any photo. More recently, it launched a service that can put clothes photographed on mannequins onto virtual but real-looking models.

If you want to tell visual stories but can't get the people to a shoot, or frankly want to save time and money, AI technology has become so powerful that it is making a greater impact on the audience than humans with dubbed voices. According to RealEyes testing, the improvement can be upto 1,200%
Listen to how AI and this new breed of martech companies could solve the problems presented by COVID, and even creates opportunities regardless of the health of the world.
If you like this podcast, then subscribe to our newsletter here
Please visit our blog post on PR for business please visit our site:
https://www.eastwestpr.com/blogs/
Find us on Twitter @eastwestpr
Jim James is the Founder and Managing Director of the EASTWEST Public Relations Group. He recently returned to the UK after 25 years in Asia where he was an entrepreneur. Whilst running EASTWEST PR, he was the Vice-Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, he also he introduced Morgan sports cars to China, WAKE Drinks, founded the British Business Awards, The British Motorsport Festival, EO Beijing, and was the interim CEO of Lotus cars

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How did David Beckham speak 9 languages and demonstrate that AI can improve video performance by 1,200% Jul 22, 2020

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How can we create campaigns when we can't shoot with real models or spokespeople?
The answer is Artificial Intelligence, and it’s becoming accessible and affordable for companies to use in the public relations, training and many other applications at a

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How can you 'Gather Voices' to make a compelling story for your organization? With video as explained by CEO Michael Hoffman. Jul 21, 2020

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Video is the most powerful and effective way to drive engagement online. While Zoom and other programs like it are nice, asynchronous video holds the key to successful communication for organizations, especially at this critical time.
Michael Hoffman is the CEO of Gather Voices and an expert in the use of video in marketing and digital engagement, and he joined me from his office in Chicago. We spoke about how his service is transforming the public relations and engagement for organizations by providing a technology which enables everyone to contribute from their mobile devices content which is then collated, compiled and branded for social media and other uses.
Whilst traditional video is top-down, Gather Voices is different. Michael's passion for it begins with its name. Whether for associations, hospitals, marketing agencies or other businesses, it gathers the authentic, compelling voices of people speaking from the heart.
One case that Michael shares is of the The Emergency Nurses Association in America . The ENA is dedicated to advancing excellence in emergency nursing. Member contribution is one of their core values — and for their 2019 annual meeting, they used Gather Voices to collect 70+ member video stories. ENA is using these videos to support a full year of member engagement.
We also talk pricing, it's very reasonable, and share details of how to get started with gathering the voices of an organization to create a collective voice.
If you like this podcast, then subscribe to our newsletter here
Please visit our blog post on PR for business please visit our site:
https://www.eastwestpr.com/blogs/
Find us on Twitter @eastwestpr
Jim James is the Founder and Managing Director of the EASTWEST Public Relations Group. He recently returned to the UK after 25 years in Asia where he was an entrepreneur. Whilst running EASTWEST PR, he was the Vice-Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, he also he introduced Morgan sports cars to China, WAKE Drinks, founded the British Business Awards, The British Motorsport Festival, EO Beijing, and was the interim CEO of Lotus cars

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8 Crisis Management Tips for your business learnt from the #Wayfairgate conspiracy theory. Jul 20, 2020

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When furniture company Wayfair (NYSE:W) was accused of trafficking children through its website, the Company displayed a composed response, but the very spectre of the story has sullied the name of the retailer. It could have been worse but for the careful management by the PR team in Boston, M.A.
In this episode, I share 8 tips to ensure that a company is crisis ready, and some cautionary notes about how social media influencers are sharing unsubstantiated theories which can kill brands.
In response to the conspiracy theories which started on Reddit, the Wayfair Spokeswoman gave an excellent response which was explanatory, authoritative, and explained corrective action.

"The products in question are industrial grade cabinets that are accurately priced," a Wayfair spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. "Recognizing that the photos and descriptions provided by the supplier did not adequately explain the high price point, we temporarily removed the products from site to rename them and provide a more in-depth description and photos that accurately depict the product to clarify the price point."
Leaning from Wayfair as a case study, I list here and discuss in more details the contents of crisis management workshops which I have facilitated with companies:

Have key statements ready for each eventuality
Plan scenarios for likely events and messages
List of the key spokespeople for each occasion
Determine the level of alert and find the appropriate level of spokesperson
Have photos of key spokespeople ready with different sets of clothing/situation
Keep an up to date list of media & influencers to hand
Plan the scheduled release of information
Ensure that your brand has an authentic and well-explained story in the market

A crisis can be like a fire, one small spark can ignite a wildfire; good preparation means having a fire extinguisher always ready to douse even the smallest of flames.

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How can you have your article on CNN and 10,000 leading outlets? The answer is Native Discovery and I'll introduce 2 of the best platforms for your PR. Jul 18, 2020

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In this episode, I'll share how to place your articles, infographics and video into 10,000 of the worlds best media outlets including: CNN, BBC, AsiaOne. The answer is using platforms called Outbrain and Taboola. It's called 'Native Discovery.'

In Public Relations we have:
Earned Media - traditional PR
Owned media - your own channels
Shared media - social media 2 ways street, where people amplify by resharing
Paid Media - long-form content but paid distribution; it's the equivalent of the old ‘advertorial supplements.’ It now has the trendy term of 'Native Discovery' or what I like to call content syndication.
Content syndication is the process of publishing and promoting you content, such as articles, blogs, and videos, on third-party websites and without doing all the work of posting them to each outlet. Quality content syndication networks typically have large, established audiences, and higher domain permissions and so it's a great idea to take advantage of them and it isn't as expensive as you may think.

Whenever you share your content on these platforms, you can increase your site’s visibility and brand’s credibility. It can also improve your SEO.

So I talk about Outbrain..is one I have been using.
Outbrain helps over 1 billion people discover content, products and services that may be of interest to them.
The big brother to Outbrain is Taboola, which claims to be the #1 discovery platform. 1.4bn users per month, 10,000 publishers and brands, with 50x more data than the NY Public Library! [I've never been but if they claim that then it must be a lot of data.]

I also explain why Slidehare should be part of any company's public relations strategy, not least because it has 80m users and it's free!

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We become what we wear, and that makes a difference to our business performance. Professional stylist gives free tips on what to buy for your wardrobe and tax deductions you can claim. Jul 17, 2020

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Professor Karen Pine from the University of Hertfordshire wrote a book entitled "Mind What You Wear" in which she writes that specific clothing - including even superhero T-shirts - can make people more confident in all sorts of situations. Professor Pine explains 'that not only that we are what we wear, but that we become what we wear.’ And so it's important to pay attention to this part of the way to turn up for work; even if it is on zoom!
Nick Hems is a UK based style consultant and shares what he would buy with GBP100, the colours we should all have in our wardrobe, and the importance of having clean shoes.
We also make the point that different countries treat clothing in different ways as a tax deduction, but it is worth checking. In Australia a company can claim a deduction for the cost of buying and cleaning occupation-specific clothing, protective clothing and unique, distinctive uniforms. In America to claim a deduction for buying clothes, the clothes have to be mandatory for your job and unsuitable for everyday wear. In the UK for example, nurses and midwives can claim for replacing shoes, socks and underwear. So it can literally pay to have the uniforms cleaned regularly.
Karen O'Brien, VP, Global Social Media, Brand and Engagement at Western Union sums up the conversation nicely, “As my career has progressed, I've found that dressing authentically has made me feel more confident and powerful. I naturally gravitate toward classic clothing and colors, but I invest in signature accessories that express my personality and femininity.”
Contact Nick Hems at www.nickhemsstyle.co.uk, @iamnickhems on Instagram and Facebook
If you like this podcast, then subscribe to our newsletter here
Please visit our blog post on PR for business please visit our site:
https://www.eastwestpr.com/blogs/
Find us on Twitter @eastwestpr
Jim James is the Founder and Managing Director of the EASTWEST Public Relations Group. He recently returned to the UK after 25 years in Asia where he was an entrepreneur. Whilst running EASTWEST PR, he was the Vice-Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, he also he introduced Morgan sports cars to China, WAKE Drinks, founded the British Business Awards, The British Motorsport Festival, EO Beijing, and was the interim CEO of Lotus cars

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Shoppertainment is saving China, so what can it do for your business? Here are 6 platforms you can use for live stream commerce. Jul 16, 2020

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We are joined by Charles Yan of EASTWEST PR Beijing office to share insights on live stream e-commerce in China because China's economy is being rescued by this new 'shoppertainment' phenomenon, and we can learn from their experience.
Livestreaming can be broken into 2 categories; content-oriented streams and online retailers offering live streaming.

In 2019, Dacast earned the Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award for Best Small/Medium Business Video Platform and Runner-Up for Best Education Video Platform. The Starter plan is ideal for newcomers with 100 GB of bandwidth, 20 GB of storage, at just $19 per month billed annually.

Founded in 2004, Boston-based Brightcove is one of the oldest online video platforms in-game. Its product offerings focus on cloud encoding, live streaming, and VOD (video on demand) hosting. Mainly targeting huge clients, Brightcove offers two pricing plan levels. These include the $499/month (billed annually)

IBM Cloud Video (formerly UStream) Basic streaming accounts are free, with advertising supporting IBM Cloud Video. Paid accounts remove advertising and grant access to advanced features. Enterprise accounts allow for full custom branding and offer analytics, multiple live channels, content syndication, and more. Pro accounts range from $99 to $999 per month
In 2017, Vimeo acquired the Livestream platform. Starts at $7 per month but not always available in China and their site is not a shopping destination of course.

What none of these do is deliver the audience…which is why we go back to Taobao FB, Youtube. These other services are great if you have a destination site or presence somewhere that people will go to visit.

If you’re a registered Amazon Seller, all you need to do is download the Amazon Live Creator app, and you’ve done most of the work. You can stream using the smartphone’s hardware, or you can opt to use a discrete camera setup.

Finally, a new entry and working with Shopify, founded in 2016 is Livescale which allows Product details imported directly from an e-commerce platform, display along with the LIVE streaming video.

But of course, these all require that people know about the product in the first place, which takes back to PR!

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How can you measure the work your team is doing on PR? This tool is free and effective way to manage the PR activity of your team. Jul 15, 2020

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Business owners need a simple number which they can ask for from their marketing teams which will tell them how much work is being done to get the company noticed. This is because it's important to measure the input to the activity, as that's the best way to know what is likely to be the outcome. As glamorous as page views and fanciful numbers of followers is, these are not within the control of the company.
Introducing the best way to plan, measure and manage the public relations of your team - the Active Communications Index.
Content x Frequency X Channels = Active Communications Index
I explain how to use our templates to plan the storification of the business, and the templates to enter the frequency and channels the company is using to share it's news and activities.
The ACI simplifies the process and enables the management team to have a transparent measure of work being done by the team each week.
It also shows the power of content repurposing, frequency and the power of amplification.
I also talk about SPEAK|pr - our 5 Step Methodology for entrepreneurs to manage their own PR. Do please come and download a free copy along with our Technology Applications Director with over 100 free marketing apps listed.
http://www.eastwestpr.com/speakpr
If you like this podcast, then subscribe to our newsletter here
Please visit our blog post on PR for business please visit our site:
https://www.eastwestpr.com/blogs/
Find us on Twitter @eastwestpr
Jim James is the Founder and Managing Director of the EASTWEST Public Relations Group. He recently returned to the UK after 25 years in Asia where he was an entrepreneur. Whilst running EASTWEST PR, he was the Vice-Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, he also he introduced Morgan sports cars to China, WAKE Drinks, founded the British Business Awards, The British Motorsport Festival, EO Beijing, and was the interim CEO of Lotus cars in China. He kept a diary here.

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