Blog

 By Amy Mullins, PR Account Coordinator (Social Media)

There are some exciting changes happening at icon.pr. In December, we moved into a new office with a beautiful modern fit-out and now we are welcoming six new members to the PR team.

On behalf of the everyone at icon.inc and icon.pr, I can confidently say that we are very pleased to be working with such bright and talented colleagues. They have come from diverse professional backgrounds and what we’ve learnt from each other already has been invaluable.

Without further ado, let’s get on with the introductions!

(L-R: Michelle Coffey, John Lindsay, Amy McAlister, Amy Mullins, Karen Pickering, Kate McKenzie)

Michelle Coffey, Director of Strategy

Michelle brings to Icon more than 20 years'  experience in strategic communications leadership, reputation management and media relations. An award-winning print journalist with more than a decade's experience at the Herald Sun and The Australian, Michelle has worked at Haystac Public Affairs (now part of the Aegis Group), the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games and most recently headed up the City of Melbourne's Corporate Affairs and Strategic Marketing branch. In her role as Director of Strategy at icon.pr, Michelle collaborates with Managing Director Joanne Painter to drive strategic insight across the Icon business, to deliver the most effective communications solutions for icon.pr's clients.

John Lindsay, Account Director

John's extensive experience in high profile reputation management, media relations and communication spans leading international brands across a diverse range of sectors including sport, education, NGO and corporate. Since arriving in Australia 11 years ago, John has headed up the communications teams for GM Holden, Oxfam and Tennis Australia, which includes the Australian Open. In his native Scotland, John led communications for the national government advisory body Sportscotland, and internal communications for the University of Edinburgh – one of the UK's leading research universities. With each organisation a brand leader in their respective sector, and offering very different challenges, John brings to icon.pr's clients a wealth of communications expertise honed at the highest levels.

Amy McAlister, Account Manager

Amy joined icon.pr in January 2012 in the role of Account Manager, responsible for building strong relationships with clients and providing strategic advice and oversight to PR programs and strategies. Amy has a broad range of experience across the government, consumer, healthcare and financial services industries, having worked for high-profile organisations including Coles, South East Water and Australian Unity. With close to five years’ experience in the corporate sector, Amy brings expertise in corporate communications, copywriting, media relations and strategy. Before joining the team at icon.pr, Amy was a Communications Adviser at Coles.

Karen Pickering, Account Executive

Karen joined the icon.pr team as an Account Executive in January 2012. She has a strong background in corporate communications, community relations, internal communications and events management. In her previous role as a Communications Officer at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Karen worked on a number of key projects including restructuring the hospital’s internal communications strategy and managing the Royal Women’s Hospital Gala Ball fundraiser.

Since joining icon.pr Karen has work across a range of corporate and consumer clients including Lifestyle Communities, GWA Bathrooms & Kitchens, Europcar, Fleet Partners New Zealand and G.J. Gardner Homes. She holds a Bachelor of Communications (Public Relations) from RMIT University and a Diploma of events Management from William Angliss.

Kate McKenzie, Account Coordinator

Kate began working at icon.pr as Office Manager and subsequently, took up the role of Account Coordinator with the PR team. Kate is a graduate student at The University of Melbourne, currently undertaking a Master of Publishing and Communications.

During her Bachelor of Arts (Communications) at Monash University, Kate served as Contributing Editor at the independent magazine Esperanto who published her writing and photography. She has also contributed feature pieces to a Melbourne lifestyle blog throughout the year. As well as her background in print media, Kate has gained experience in media relations across many sectors including retail, government and industry with clients such as Moose Toys, WorkSafe Victoria, and the Australian Institute of Architects Victoria. Her strengths include internal and external communications, creative thinking and attention to detail. 

Amy Mullins, Account Coordinator (Social Media)

Amy joined the icon.pr team as an intern and took the position of PR Account Coordinator (Social Media) towards the end of her internship in January 2012. Amy is completing a Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy and History) at The University of Melbourne.

Concurrent to her studies and work at icon.pr, Amy has cultivated an online profile writing about Australian politics and the media for ABC The Drum and is best known as the (formerly anonymous) blogger, Get Shortened. She has become a leader in debates around issues of gender, social inclusion, public policy and progressive politics online and on Twitter.

She has appeared on Triple RRR radio and was an invited guest at the Progressive Australia conference, held by the Chifley Research Centre in Sydney. Recently, Amy contributed to a chapter on Australian female political bloggers and gender dynamics in social media in a yet-to-be-published book by Scribe Publications on social media: politics, policy and journalism.

We'd love to say hi, so send us a tweet on Twitter: @iconpr 

By Amy Mullins, icon.pr PR Account Coordinator (social media)

In this era of increasing digitisation of communication, consumer behaviour and information transfer it is highly uncommon to discover a major company or business that does not have a Twitter and/or Facebook account.

Yet, the potential for micro-blogging tools to connect people and inform and influence opinion measures far beyond their current use. There is a great opportunity for organisations to grow their brand and reputation through an authentic engagement with potential consumers. And when I say authentic engagement, I mean to use the platform for its intended function. Many businesses in Australia still lack a complete understanding of how to effectively use these platforms, so should you engage, in most industries you will set your business apart and become a socially digital pioneer.

One of the most common examples of an inappropriately applied strategy is to solely broadcast media releases and company-related news on Twitter and/or Facebook. When this is done a business is guaranteed to discover a disengaged, diminishing and often mildly hostile list of followers. This is simply because Twitter was not designed for that purpose nor is it generally utilised by users for that reason.

Twitter and micro-blogging was designed to enable peers to instantly share brief ideas, memes, images, information and experiences that they subjectively believe to be important. As the information is transferred, the receiver will judge the importance of the information for themselves and read, share or dismiss the content.

Thus, in order for a business to transplant their ideas into this forum and build a favourable and widespread reputation, they need to have a conversation with users. This can understandably appear daunting in a fairly un-moderated new media environment where criticism and praise are both easily broadcast, but the benefits of effective micro-blogging, with few exceptions, outweigh the negatives.

So how can businesses overcome their Twitter timidity and harness its power to communicate with the ever-expanding and engaged online community?

1. Tailor the style, type and content of your information to each particular platform’s purpose. For success, Twitter requires businesses to tweet with brevity and wit or in a friendly tone, and for the information being broadcast to have potential sharing value. Users can perceive when an account is only interested in engagement that will lead to a direct outcome for the company - and it’s not a good look.

2. Encourage and support those who tweet relevant, useful and interesting content in your field of business by re-tweeting their tweets and perhaps by adding a comment before the RT. The beauty of Twitter is that it often provides you with access to unique web pages otherwise undiscovered and can expand your own business approach.  

3. Respond to questions, comments and recognition in a humble, honest and good-humoured way. The only time when it is best to not respond to tweets is when they are spam or deliberately attempt to provoke a negative response for its own sake.

4. Follow back users who follow you (some discretion can be applied) and in addition always be on the lookout for other valuable and interesting users that are mentioned in your feed.

5. Remember that social media is not a one-way street. It is a discussion that requires personal investment and a reciprocal relationship between users. There is no halfway. To have a Twitter or Facebook account for appearances- or promotion-only will signal to the user that you are not socially engaged, technologically savvy or customer-focused, whether this is true or not.

6. After you have engaged in this way, we at icon.pr would love to hear of your progress and wish you all the best. Business micro-blogging can be a genuinely rewarding experience, personally and professionally.

Further reading at the very informative Harvard Business Review blog:

Separate Social Media From Marketing. Anthony J. Bradley and Mark P. McDonald 

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/separate_social_media_from_mar.html

Social Strategies That Work Mikołaj Jan Piskorski

http://hbr.org/2011/11/social-strategies-that-work/ar/1

Social Media Success Is About Purpose (Not Technology) Anthony J. Bradley and Mark P. McDonald

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/social_media_success_is_about.html

Social Media versus Knowledge Management Anthony J. Bradley and Mark P. McDonald

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/10/social_media_versus_knowledge.html

How Social Digital Is Your Company? David Armano

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/10/how_social-digital_is_your_com.html

And for inspiration here are Australian Twitter accounts that are of successful business and organisation micro-bloggers:

@ReadingsBooks

http://twitter.com/readingsbooks

@EARLCanteen

http://twitter.com/earlcanteen

@headspace_aus

http://twitter.com/headspace_aus

@lamadrebakery

http://twitter.com/lamadrebakery

@library_vic

http://twitter.com/library_vic

@penguinbooksaus

http://twitter.com/penguinbooksaus

@madeinthenow

http://twitter.com/madeinthenow

icon.pr and sister agency Icon.Inc are settling into their new digs in Richmond’s iconic Rosella Complex.

Located in a converted warehouse, the new Icon HQ is the perfect setting for another year of growth. With more than double the floor space and a fit-out to die for, the office is an inspiring place to work – and play!

In between frantic end of year wrap-up the team managed to acquaint themselves with many of the area’s watering holes, laneway cafes and clothing stores.

We even found time to hold our inaugural Beer O’clock BBQ, complete with fake grass, deck chairs and rocking soundtrack thanks to Alick and the digital boys.

Did you know that the rental yields of well located, quality properties can be dramatically increased by sprucing up a property?

Property investment can be a complicated topic to get your head around. Cameron Deal from infolio speaks to Jenny Brown from The Age about his strategies when purchasing and renovating investment properties in Melbourne.

Those looking to discover the best types of properties and the best suburbs should head to the Domain website and have a read.

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