We will be running a 'Hot Topic' seminar with the University of Portsmouth looking at how social media can best be utilised when it comes to business to business marketing.

Lizz Clarke and a guest speaker will be providing the talk, which will be followed by an open discussion.

This has only just been confirmed and more information will be provided soon, so please just save the date for now.

Schedule

• 6.00pm - registration and refreshments
• 6.15pm - Lizz Clarke and guest speaker
• 7.30pm - discussion
• 8.00pm - close

Parking

Free parking is available in the Milldam car park behind the Register Office off Burnaby Terrace. Click here for a map.

Over the past 20 years we have helped many organisations to overcome potentially brand damaging situations, whether it is a disgruntled employee going to a national newspaper or even a death in a supported housing service, in fact almost every eventuality apart from a burst oil well in the Gulf of Mexico – but perhaps BP should have given us a call!

We have good relationships with the media, we know what information they will require and they trust us. So in most instances we can quash a story before it makes the newspapers by having all the facts in place and a statement at the ready, or we can be well prepared ensuring we know who needs to be the organisation’s ‘voice’ and what they need to stay. This attitude and stance can sometimes result in gaining positive press.

We have recently produced some ‘PR Crisis Support’ business cards carrying all the contact details you will ever need in a potential crisis. So, if you would like us to send you a handful of these, or you know someone who might need us in an emergency, please email Zoe Mitchell with your full name, email address, organisation’s name and postal address and we will get them off in the post to you.

Social Media Day has been set up Mashable, the top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture, to celebrate the revolution of media becoming social. To join in with their celebrations they were asking organisations and businesses to hold a ‘Mashable Meetup’ where people could get together to learn more about the phenomenon, debate it and generally connect with the social media community.

We were one of 615 organisations worldwide to hold a ‘Meetup’, as over 10,000 people attended various events in New York, Sao Paulo, Paris, Brussels and Vancouver.

Presentation slides from the event can found here, but if you would like to know more about social media marketing and how LCM might be bale to help your organisation, please contact Zoe Mitchell.

To learn more about our approach and see some of our most recent work click here.

Altitude Partners LLP, the south's first regionally-based private equity, has appointed LCM to provide a range of integrated marketing services to help successfully launch the organisation.

The private equity funded, based in Southampton, officially launched today as the newly designed and built website went live and a media and direct marketing campaign got underway.

Work began back at the beginning of the year as we worked closely with Altitude Partners to establish targets and what route to market would best suit that audience and of course, fit within the budget.

A featured case study will be appearing on the website soon.

Common sense, jargon free marketing insights

Each blog posted will be produced and laid out so that you can easily scan the article to pickout nuggets of information that are easy for you to digest.

We hope you enjoy our posts and if there are any topics you would like covered please let us know.

The Action Group will seek to take advantage of the biggest digital communications opportunity since Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.

Business Southampton has already set up six working groups including those for the construction, cruise and marine industries, which have made serious inroads into developing and improving the way the city works together with its wealth-creators to ensure it attracts and retains growing businesses. Digital Southampton will be inviting some of the most influential visionaries in business to join the action group, to commercialise the opportunity afforded by the development of the semantic web at the University.

The initiative includes a series of open events, commencing with a working digital lunch at the Macdonald Botley Park Hotel on 26 March.

The next is a digital Masterclass, again held at the Macdonald Botley Park Hotel on 23rd April for those wanting to learn about the semantic web, how it operates and how it can be exploited by the region’s businesses.

Managing Director, Lizz Clarke, said: “The UK government is already using this new technology, and every day new applications are being developed to enable the general public to access government data. The technology was invented here in Southampton – we are determined that it gets commercialised here too."

Professor Dame Wendy Hall said: “In the mid 90’s people were convinced that the World Wide Web had nothing to do with them. In five years from now the new technology will be having a similar world-changing effect and the time to get involved is now.”

The convergence of three separate Chambers of Commerce – Southampton, Portsmouth & Fareham and North Hampshire – into one organisation in order to better serve the needs of businesses in the region meant there was a need to clearly communicate their goals and values to the business community.

LCM won the contract to manage and deliver the work for Hampshire Chamber last month, working in partnership with Deep South Media on public relations, after demonstrating what the selection committee called “vision, passion and the “wow” factor”. The team are now hard at work delivering a creative marketing communications strategy to ensure the convergence is a success.

Over 60 individuals – including Chamber staff, directors and members - attended the workshop run by LCM in order to share ideas on the new organisation and ensure that the resulting brand reflected the essence of the Hampshire Chamber of Commerce.

The collaborative approach to branding taken by LCM reflects the consultancy’s belief that it is vital to pinpoint the DNA of an organisation with a range of stakeholders before undertaking any branding or design work. It also demonstrates the Chamber’s commitment to working with businesses across Hampshire in order to better understand and support their needs.

Speaking after the event, LCM Managing Director Lizz Clarke stated: “Today has been an inspiring day. All of us at LCM are proud to be working with the emerging Hampshire Chamber of Commerce on their launch, and we are committed to getting their brand and their service offering right for the business community. As a local Hampshire business, we have as much invested in their success as anyone, and we are certain that we can support them in their goal to provide competitive services for Hampshire businesses to support their ongoing success and growth in today’s challenging commercial environment.”

The topic... maximising the potential of social media marketing

The workshop provided the 30 plus attendees with an overview of the social media landscape, concentrating on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, listing the business benefits we have found using these channels.

Also included in the workshop was a demo of a microsite that allows you to update all your social media tools through one outlet - saving time and enabling you to be more consistent in your messaging.

We also highlighted the work we have been doing with the Sailors' Society on Twitter as an example of how to use it as an effective marketing tool and went through what an organisation needs to do to develop a social media strategy.

Finally, delegates were able to focus on the implementation of social media marketing in their own businesses by giving thought to who they would be trying to target and where those targets might be on the web.

The slides from the workshop can be found here on Slideshare. If you would like any more information on the workshop or you would like to discuss your social media concerns/needs with us, please contact George Roberts on 01329 825849.

LCM Managing Director, Lizz Clarke, said: "Having worked with many charities and social care organisations on their marketing and client winning strategies over the last 20 years we know how valuable their existence and the work of their staff is to our community, so it is a privilege to once again show our support for these awards."

The Wessex Charity Awards 2010 is organised by Winchester-based PAS Charity Recruitment and supported by the Daily Echo and it culminates in a glittering Gala Dinner and Awards Presentation on 30 September at the Winchester Guildhall.

Nominations for the five awards, listed below, will open on 01 March 2010.

• Charity of the Year
• Chief Executive of the Year
• Fundraising Team of the Year
• Volunteer of the Year
• Trustee Board of the Year

For more information visit the Wessex Charity Awards Website.

LCM’s remit is to raise the profile of the brand across strategically selected online and printed national and trade media, with the objective of increasing Web traffic and ultimately sales to the retail sector.

Managing Director of Candles Naturally, Kevin Clarke, said: “It was important for us that whoever we selected as our PR partner had an outstanding track record in public relations, which LCM has in abundance, and that they understood our business and how we operate, which they clearly demonstrated in their proposal.”

Today we ran an interactive workshop on how to 'communicate your brand through your Website', as part of the Portsmouth & South East Chamber of Commerce's series of Breakfast Briefings.

Just over twenty business leaders and executives braved the snowy conditions and icey roads to network, enjoy breakfast and of course learn about issues such as:

• How to make a Website useful to someone visiting
• How to effectively position an organisation & get across the right kind of information
• How to get more traffic to a site and generate engagement
• How to develop a brand identity

Lizz Clarke, Managing Director of LCM, gave a valuable insight into the ever-evolving world of the Web and how to effectively analyse your own Website.

The main message of the morning was to always put yourself in the shoes of the user whjen lookign at your Website and to ask yourself some of following questions:

• Who are our customers?
• What do they want and where are they?
• How do they get to our site?
• What is the task of the user when they come to our site?
• How easy does our site make it for the user?
• How do I measure a return?

The event provided some enthusiastic debate and the feedback was very positive.

The brand identity is an evolution of the organisation’s original style, and now reflects their brand promise of being expert, dedicated and friendly – words which were agreed upon by the everyone in the organisation following one of our ½ day brand workshops.

The logo is very clean, almost surgical, to reflect the sector in which they work and the icon, which is our brand specialist’s take on the view of a DNA strand from above gives the organisation something to use across other marketing material.

 Jim Wicks, Managing Director of PrimerDesign, said: 'We’re delighted with our new brand image. It really encapsulates who we are as a company. I’m certain this is going to be a great step forward for us.

You can see their the new brand 'in action' by visiting the PrimerDesign Website.

Zoë will be responsible for heading up our PR service offering, working with existing clients and bringing in new business, as well as implementing our social media offering - which we are currently developing.

Zoë’s background spans the commercial and charity sectors, covering a wide range of marketing and PR roles in varied and demanding markets including IT, engineering, recruitment, business services, software solutions, education and health and social care. She has achieved the Chartered Institute of Marketing post-graduate diploma as well as having a degree in English and Latin, giving her just the right combination of logic and creativity to fit well into the team.

She said: “I was looking for a new challenge in my career, and I was completely blown away by the enthusiasm and professionalism of everyone I met at LCM. It’s a can-do place where there is a chance to make a real impact and work with some great clients. The work is both diverse and challenging and it’s a fast-paced environment, but ultimately very rewarding and I am looking forward to driving a successful 2010 for LCM’s clients.”

Managing Director, Lizz Clarke, said: “Zoë has a wealth of experience to offer our clients, and her expertise in health and social care will be particularly valuable as more public and third sector organisations look for communications support for the personalisation initiative. Also, as her background is client-side, she is helping us to see things even more from a client’s point of view. We are delighted to welcome Zoë to the team.”

I'd like to discuss my PR requirement...

If you would like an informal chat over a tea or coffee with Zoe, to discuss your public relations requirement then please call 01329 825849 or email Zoe direct.

We will therefore close over the festive period, and on the three working days between Christmas Eve and Monday 04 January cover will be as follows:

Tuesday 29 December – office is manned
Wednesday 30 December & Thursday 31 December – please call Lizz Clarke’s mobile on 07917 160999.

Merry Christmas from The LCM team