I recently took part in a Dragons' Den event where I was a Dragon, along with three other eminent business people.

In one respect, it was a very different way to spend a morning. I learned much about the approach taken by the start-up businesses we met. But in another way, I realised it represented some of the conversations I have with potential new clients who have gone ahead and started a business without enough prior preparation and thought.

Our brief that day was to imagine ourselves as the Dragons on the TV programme, with a large pile of money on the desk in front of us. Which business would we invest in? The start-ups we were seeing had been briefed to use the time with us as a useful opportunity to practice what they might well have to do in the real world later on, but in a safe and 'friendly' environment.

Photo source: Thameside Media

First of all, it was particularly interesting to see that none of the start-ups actually asked for an investment. If you don't ask, you don't get, right? Will there be investors lining up to contact the start-ups, begging them to let them invest? Unlikely.

Secondly, each was incredibly emotionally involved in their businesses which is perfectly natural, but there needs to be a reality check which can't take place if you can't disassociate yourself from your business persona. 

My next observation was that some of the candidates had taken a perfectly good hobby and thought they could make a business out of it. Whether they'd read something in a magazine which said it was easy to do so or not, I don't know, but there had been little or no market research (professional or not) to see if there was a need for the product/service nor any real life experience or consideration of sourcing products, manufacturing, distribution, business management or marketing.

At some point, our role as potential investors turned into 'critical friends', and our feedback became as realistic as it had to be. Some must go back to the drawing board; some did have a sound business idea but needed a rethink on their strategic direction and some should go get a job working for someone else. 

Did we feel we could 'invest' in any of those start-ups? Sadly not, but let's hope the start-ups took on board our advice and will come back to us another time to wow us into handing over our imaginary dosh.

Managing social media for a charity

Guest blog by Kerrie Carter, Worthing Churches Homeless Projects

As a PR and Social Media Apprentice, I know first-hand what it takes to get a charity noticed online. There are so many platforms out there and it can sometimes be hard to choose which is best for the needs of your particular charity. You should really stick to two and do them well. Develop these platforms so you have a good following on each, aiming for key decision-makers and opinion-formers. It’s important that your followers should be invested in the service you’re providing.

Working for a charity that helps the homeless, I have to be incredibly careful about the message I put on social platforms as it can so easily be misinterpreted. There is a huge stigma attached to the topic of homelessness and every person has their own opinion to give, which they like to do on social media. It’s important to be neutral to all of this and remember your charity’s aims; those are what you have to deliver no matter what.

Besides, the majority of people who follow you on social media are genuinely interested in the service you give and want to support it in any way, and that’s the valuable thing you need to focus on.

Facebook is a popular platform for our target audience so I tend to post on there the most as we get more engagement. Occasionally we get a negative comment which I may hide if likely to cause offence to clients/supporters, but in most cases I don’t delete a comment as everyone is entitled to their opinion. When posting, I try to stick to the same tone and this is reflected by my colleagues as well so the audience knows what to expect from the charity. We also get the chance to be quite personal as it’s a fairly small, local charity and those in our area are the audience we want to be targeting. I find posts with photos attached to them always work the best for our audience as they like to see the work the charity is doing.

Twitter, on the other hand, is less prominent for us. We get more support from local businesses on here but mostly through the form of retweets and favourites. When we team up with other organisations, Twitter is a valuable tool for tagging and updating people on what’s happening. The same goes for fundraising events however, it’s easier to document these through photos on Facebook as this is where our dominant audience lies.

Scheduling tools like Hootsuite are brilliant for managing your social media accounts and for us, ensures there is content going out over the weekend so the account doesn’t suffer with loss of traffic.

There are other platforms we are considering using, such as Pinterest or Instagram, and we do post appropriate videos on YouTube, but since our following is constantly growing, Facebook and Twitter are the main forms of promotion. They are easy to use and can put out a powerful message although restricted to 140 characters on Twitter. Now that’s what I call effective marketing.

Kerrie had 1-2-1 social media training with us as part of her development as an apprentice with Worthing Churches Homeless Projects www.wchp.org.uk

My favourite new way to learn : webinars

I love webinars.

In what other context can you join experts in their field without having to leave your home or office, have the ability to raise any number of pertinent questions, wear your PJs if you want (if you work from home, naturally!), avoid hideous traffic jams/train delays/arriving late through no fault of your own and upsetting rows of tutting people, all for free and at a time that (more often than not) suits you?

OK, so some are in the middle of the night if they’re in a different time zone. But you can always ask to see the webinar afterwards.

And that’s another thing. I love that you get access after you’ve attended a webinar just in case you missed something or want to revisit a particular point.

Would it benefit you to hold one, or more? Here’s why you should consider being a webinar host:

You get to reach the people you want to reach – in a session that almost feels like it’s one-to-one

Find out what your target audiences want to hear about; it’ll show you what’s hot and what’s not in your sector. People are more likely to ask questions during a webinar without having to worry about putting their hands up in front of others, if they’re of a timid nature.

You can get across your key messages without sounding like you’re ‘selling’ and therefore people will be more likely to respond favourably.

Increase the reach – a webinar is for life, not just for the moment

Your messages will live on after the webinar is finished, through the ability to let people see it after broadcast. So don’t forget to give it some SEO welly too so you edge up those Google rankings.

Use different ways to grab interest

Show the breadth of your expertise by reinforcing what you’re saying through more than just talk. Use slides, animation, polls and any other method which captures the imagination without being visually unappealing or annoying.

Be a cheapskate

So much cheaper and easier than holding an event, webinars are also value for money as your database will grow with each one.

What’s not to love?!

Crisis? What crisis?

Every day brings a fresh batch of crisis situations, happening to businesses and organisations of all shapes and sizes, so it's no point thinking it'll never happen to yours.

Today's offerings include an execution, fraud, breach of duty of care, fire, massacre, trade pacts, taxes, raging hormones, social media posts, loss of drinking water through burst main pipes and a plethora of other situations. 

Depending where you work, these can range from murder, drugs raids, to fat cat salaries, food safety, outbreaks of disease, petty theft to a closed sign on a shop when it should be open, and everything in between.

So it makes sense to have a proper Crisis PR Management Policy on the shelf for when you do need it. This will cover who's in charge - and there should only be one person in charge when a crisis hits - to, if it's a housing issue for example, where people should be temporarily housed. If it's the drinking water case above, how long will it take to repair and what will you do to make people's lives run smoothly in the meantime?

Your policy needs to cover who does what, who says what and why, and who is going to investigate the situation and speak to the media. If you don't plan for this sort of eventuality, you can expect (in the worst case scenario) journalists to be camped outside your premises or even your home, waiting for the slightest glimpse of you and that's not very nice at all.

Make sure you regularly brief the media, if that's the appropriate action, and let them know when the next briefing will be. Even if it's to say you can't give any update, it's still communicating which is what people want in times of crisis. How many times do you hear that airlines haven't kept passengers in the loop while they spend many hours delayed without any information? It's relatively simple to avoid this, keep your customers informed and keep them customers in the future.

You'll also need to connect your policy to your Business Continuity Plan. This will ensure your business will carry on as seamlessly as possible if, for example, your premises are no longer available to use (through flood, fire, vandalism, riots etc). Where will your team go to work? How will they communicate with your customers? Mobile phones, social media?

All this needs careful planning and prior preparation. The odds of you being kidnapped and held hostage may be slightly lower than a four-hour power cut, but it's always better to think ahead and be prepared!

Is the customer always right?

Despite our in-built response mechanism to believe the customer is always right, is this true?

As a service provider, our clients are buying in our years of expertise and experience, our professional qualifications, adding all of this to their teams and commercial weaponry. Each client has a choice about whether to do this or not, based on their ability to shop around, listen to recommendations and referrals, check out our quotes, hear our initial ideas and choose whether they trust us to deliver outcomes and advice worth taking up.

But how often do we provide our best advice only for clients to ignore it and to come back at a later date saying "We should have listened"? Thankfully not that often, although our reaction is tinged with a slight sadness and frustration that time will have been lost and efforts will have to make up for further slippage in reaching objectives.

If we have toothache we go to the dentist, we don't try to fill the tooth or take it out ourselves. So it makes sense to choose your business advisers, consultants or mentors very carefully - take into account personalities, approach, gut feelings, recommendations, testimonials, previous work, a mutual sense of humour and likeability. Then, trust them or at least give them a chance to prove they can be trusted; because they should be bringing their best work to the table, to the benefit of you and your company.

It certainly takes a degree of confidence and the ability to let go of the reins in favour of someone whom you consider knows more about a topic than you do. Some executives are unable to do this but the ones who do, get the best results. 

Listen to your consultants or advisers, ask questions, calmly consider then make your decision to take their advice, or explain why it might not work. Try a different approach to the issue to make it work if necessary; it may be something has not been passed on correctly or some information is missing. If you decline every piece of advice on the basis you know better, you have to ask: why employ anyone? It's a waste of time, money and effort on everyone's part.

Similarly if there are issues communicating or your relationship of trust is compromised, it's probably better to make a change. 

Working in partnership with a client should be a joy, filled with successful outcomes. We have certainly found that's the best way to work.