Over the bank holiday weekend, Imperial College London opened its doors for the annual Imperial Festival – two days of art, music, theatre and science. I popped along for a talk on science communication, given by five masters students who shared with us their latest projects. Science communication can be anything from leaflets in a doctor’s surgery to Robert Winston’s latest Horizons documentary, and the students’ projects aimed to express science communication using new and creative mediums.

One project which had proven particularly successful was The Brian Cox Effect – where an image of Brian Cox depicted as Jesus was plastered across the back streets of East London, along with the hashtag #TheBrianCoxEffect. The campaign sent the Twittersphere abuzz with people tweeting the images and even lead to an article in The Guardian discussing the divine comparison.

What’s more, the festival itself was a great form of science communication with scientists on hand to explain their research and give live science demonstrations. The crowds seemed truly engaged as they chatted to researchers and participated in experiments. And with thousands attending over the course of the weekend, it was great to see the passion and enthusiasm for science burning brighter than ever.

Are you a Nerd? It’s often a term that comes with some degree of negativity, but one we think describes real expertise and genuine enthusiasm and passion in a particular field.

Surely all PR professionals should aspire to be nerd-like? To investigate this, a group from Kaizo visited the Festival of the Spoken Nerd at the Bloomsbury Theatre last week, could we all be nerds too?

Festival of the Spoken Nerd is a comedy show based around science and maths. The cast consists of Helen Arney, an award-winning singer, stand-up mathematician, Matt Paker and BBC One science experimenter Steve Mould, as well as regular special guests.

The show began with a large-scale domino chain experiment to showcase how different styles of circuits work, with over 1,000 dominoes to set up on stage. Following this, highlights included; a song by Helen accompanied by Matt using an overhead projector (yes they still exist) and Steve using his laptop to illustrate the song, in mathematical equations, graphs and similar. Other lessons included learning how to do basic computer coding to launch a virtual fireworks display and how all computer screens are made up of tiny rows of spread sheet cells (it’s true, try putting your phone under a microscope).

Sides splitting and smiles aching, the night was great entertainment, but it was also gratifying in how it supported some of ways we work with clients.

Most importantly, it reinforced the need to combine energy and genuine insights into a topic, with creative and inspiring ways to tell your story if you want to make a genuine impact on the audience.

So my final declaration is … if this is what a nerd does then I’m a nerd and I’m proud to be one!

Ten years ago the world was split into people who thought that ecommerce was a fad and those that thought eventually people would only buy things online. Today the world is split between those that think social media is the domain of sad people with no lives who have no value to brands or businesses, and those that think it is the panacea for marketing to consumers or business buyers. In both cases, both groups are wrong and the truth lies somewhere on the scale between both extremes – depending on your business and who you are trying to reach.

Everywhere I look I see extreme views when it comes to social media. Brands that have built likes through competitions are told that this is a waste because most will be non-prospects. But this overlooks the connection potential of the personal network of these contest takers. It also overlooks the fact that the competition could provide the foundation for a productive emarketing campaign or affiliate marketing opportunities.

The counter view is to be very targeted so only those people who are the perfect demographic should be attracted to engage. Logical I know, but it pre-supposes that you really understand the true potential of your brand or product. Is its appeal genuinely limited to a tight demographic, or will consumers see it differently if given the chance? A few years ago we were asked to launch a product that was thought to have very niche appeal. We gave it to consumers ahead of launch and they felt it had value for almost everyone. The result? The brand changed its retail strategy and secured mainstream listings and the launch was the most successful in the 50 year history of our client.

If you want a healthy lifestyle, all the gurus talk about moderation in all things. So if you want a healthy social media presence, would moderation in all things be similarly good advice? In my view engaging with consumers on social media has a number of powerful benefits if you avoid these don’ts:

• Don’t be too narrow with your demographic. We recently organised a social sampling exercise on Facebook. One consumer said: ‘Thanks for the sample. They weren’t ideal for me so I gave them to my mother. She absolutely loves what they have done for her hair!’.
•  Don’t underestimate the value of social media feedback.  Because consumers will tell you how it is, the context they provide will help you to switch off people you could never satisfy and attract those that you can. A hotel review that says: ‘Fabulous service but 40 minutes from the nearest night life’; will deter the clubbers and attract those who want to chill out and relax.
•  Don’t miss out on the potential for more targeted messages. By capturing a broad community of followers, you have created the opportunity for more targeted messages using email marketing and other techniques
• Don’t forget consumers come together on social media to discuss topics where they have a common interest. You will build an active following who will genuinely ‘like’ you (and not just like your page) if you add value to the topic they care about
• Don’t miss out on the reach of friend networks. Social media is built on benevolence ie the desire to do dome good for others. As a result people will share things they think are right for their contacts. All you have to do is make sure you make it easy to share everything you say or offer by adding share buttons
• Don’t forget to monetise your social media activities. This may seem obvious but I rarely see good examples of where social media interaction includes the direct opportunity to convert to a purchase. This doesn’t mean you have to be dominated by offers, but it should mean that if people are showing interest by consuming relevant content, you provide them with the opportunity to buy.

If you avoid these six don’ts, I think you will increase the likelihood that your social media presence will pay off. But I’m sure you have some more don’ts we could add to the list. Please share them here.

Whether it’s Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Linked In, Google+, Instagram, Flickr, or Vine, social media is now offering businesses and brands more commercial and not just creative and campaign opportunities.

Take the recent shift by Facebook into the realm of money transfer for instance. Whilst many may believe that Facebook is simply reserved for commenting on friend’s walls and liking pages, the social networking site has moved to incorporate brand pages, host competitions and surveys, and now offers users the ability to transfer money to other Facebook friends at a competitively low fee.

The service uses online service provider, Azimo, and demonstrates that Facebook – like other social media platforms – is rapidly adding a more commercial component.

Online sampling is another example of businesses using social media for commercial activity. These can be in the form of physical products trialled by a brand creatively such as on Instagram, as was done by Rimmel for the launch of its Scandaleyes mascara where participants received a Rimmel gift pack if their photo received the most likes.

To make your social media activity more commercial, why not ask yourself the following?

• How could I use the functionality of each social media platform to my advantage? For example, by monitoring tweets you could identify potential triggers for purchase and respond accordingly
• Will my target audience engage with my content? And if so, how can I use that to trigger the opportunity to buy?
• Could a social network help me capture data for use in more traditional marketing campaigns? The reality is that, set up the right way, activity on a social network can provide invaluable data as the foundation for wider marketing. With so many platforms available for people to use at any point throughout the day, the data opportunities for your business could be significant.

New developments in technology teamed with innovation and creativity, are leading to new ways for businesses to be present on social media. In fact, last year Kaizo proved via its Unilever VIP project on Facebook that people are very happy to have a direct relationship with brands that can have commerce at its heart.

In addition to adding a new platform with which to reach consumers, businesses can also gain valuable data about their target using social media.

A business can use:

• Facebook to gauge sentiment of an experience a consumer is having to feed in to product development
• Twitter to see trends about consumers having the same experience
• Instagram to monitor how many consumers are sharing photos of the experience
• Youtube to gain shareable video content of the experience
• Google Places to record how many people are going to a place for an experience
• Tumblr to target key bloggers writing about the experience

Communities are becoming more commercial, this could be a real opportunity for your brand.

At the end of 2012 the leaders of two London agencies caused the closest thing in the PR world to a ‘diplomatic incident’ when they claimed, in an interview with PR Week, that standards amongst New York agencies are low, with clients paying “through the nose for what they describe as bog-standard PR”. The US industry was, of course quick to bite back suggesting that anyone who thinks they can pitch up in NYC with this attitude is unlikely to succeed.

I watched this incident with interest, not only because a bit of industry mud-slinging is always entertaining, but because having worked in agencies on both sides of the Atlantic I feel like I have something to contribute to the debate.

Now the NYC PR world is by no means perfect, but I certainly learned a few valuable lessons during my time in the Big Apple:

1. There’s no substitute for enthusiasm
When I first moved to New York all of my friends were expecting me to start complaining about the relentless positivity that we Brits associate with Americans. But I actually found it really refreshing, especially in the workplace. To survive in the PR industry in New York you must have a can-do attitude, the word ‘no’ is very rarely spoken. That doesn’t mean that New York PR professionals don’t push back on clients – far from it. Because clients know that their agencies will bend over backwards to get the job done, when they do push back, they know it’s for a good reason.

2. Regional media shouldn’t be an after thought
In response to its London based critics the US PR industry was quick to point out the scale and complexity of the US market. Compared to the extremely London-centric UK market the US is indeed complex with multiple media centres in multiple time zones. That doesn’t mean you can’t run a national campaign from New York, but it does mean that you need to take time to understand the regional media landscapes, get to know the journalists and understand what makes news in Chicago, Sacramento or Dallas. PR professionals in the UK would do well to remember that there are more opportunities with media outside London than offering a regional breakdown of survey stats, and with the much of the BBC moving to Salford perhaps they finally will.

3. Earned and paid media need to work together
A criticism I have often heard levelled at the industry in the US is that there are too many paid opportunities – particularly in big media like the daytime talk shows. It’s true that there are paid integration opportunities but that doesn’t mean that PR is somehow easier or less effective. The best campaigns employ a combination of earned and paid media to drive credibility and reach. This is especially true online, where you can have the best, most engaging content imaginable but if no one sees it you are unlikely to meet your business objectives. PR and media buying agencies need to work together to amplify earned media through paid and vice versa.

And one bonus lesson, this time from London

1. Bigger isn’t always better
I think this may be what PR Week’s interviewees were getting at when they criticised the New York industry. Blue chip clients in the US tend to stick to a small roster of big network agencies, often at the expense of creativity and fresh thinking. When you consider the scale of their campaigns and the sheer size and complexity of the market it makes sense – they want to be confident that their agency has the infrastructure to deliver. However, in London, small agencies with big ambitions have shown time and again that they can deliver for big brands, both in the UK and across regional and global programs. Which is why ultimately, when I moved back home to London I decided to move on from a global network and join Kaizo.