PRINT profiling : Leadership WA workshop

Leadership WA is known for its unique leadership training programs. A vast number of professionals and individuals have taken courses from the organization and have seen a difference in their lives. I attended the first session of the PRINT workshop that was held at the Aloft hotel in Rivervale, Perth.

The session started at 12.30 pm and was hosted by Gene Howell, Leadership Development Manager. A couple of days before the session, participants were requested to fill a survey online, which would be used to create a PRINT profile. The survey was extensive and provided different scenarios and responses – based on each scenario and action, you can pick ‘a lot like me’ or ‘less like me’. Based on the answers, a score between 1-9 is allocated and major and minor motivators are identified. The results – that are handed over during the session – are comprehensive, covering the personality, potential best self behaviors and worst self behaviors (termed as shadow behaviors).

Gene explained how the major and minor motivators are linked to each other and what personality or behavior each number (between 1-9) corresponds to. He took the participants through detailed analysis of the PRINT report, talked us through possible behaviors and why we tend to behave the way we do. He also gave examples and insights on why certain individuals enjoy a specific type of work and how it is associated with their unconscious motivators.

There was also an activity after afternoon tea, where participants in each table were asked to make 15 paper cups in 20 minutes. The goal of the activity was to make us aware of our own strengths, motivation levels and shadow behaviors. The activity was effective since it did place a certain stress on the participants and while some coped well in pressure, some had trouble. Ultimately, we recognized our best self behaviors and our shadow behaviors which crop up from time to time based on situations.

The session also gave us an idea of what could potentially trigger our shadow behavior and some suggestions on how we could handle the triggers. Overall, the session was about creating self-awareness – which it did quite easily and simply. It helped me understand my motivators, potential shadow behaviors and helped me reflect on my actions and the way I work.

By Andal Shreedaran, Creative and Digital Consultant 

Perth Media Valued Contractors' Seminar 2017

From left: Perth Media Creative & Digital consultant Andal Shreedaran, transcription expert Janine Precious Taylor, our bookkeeper Jackie Roufail, and Red Head Communications cultural awareness expert Tanya Finnie who was a special guest.

Really great day yesterday at the annual Perth Media Valued Contractors' Seminar. Here is a picture of the best looking of those who attended! Perth Media Creative consultant Andal Shreedaran presented on the Future of Content Research, transcription expert Janine Taylor shared some of her international projects, our bookkeeper Jackie Roufail, of Jackstar Bookkeeping, had some great work-life stories and Red Head Communications cultural awareness expert Tanya Finnie was an excellent special guest. Thanks also to business coach and film producer Josh Horneman, supporter Patrick Horneman (Media Super), film maker Courtney Waller, graphic design student Nic Van Straalen, student Jack Jones, editor Torrance Mendez, and Matt Seeds, of Inspired IT. Thanks for taking the time on a busy Monday. Perth Media appreciates all of you, your work is first class, and impact substantial.

- Cate Rocchi

Blogging Tips: Media Training with Denmark Chamber of Commerce

Last week, we spent several days in Denmark in the remote south coast of Western Australia - one of the state's most beautiful spots. More than 20 came along to a Perth Media training session (facilitated by the Denmark Chamber of Commerce), and here are some of the tips we shared. Happy blogging!

1.     Go with your strengths: vlog, pics, individuals in the team strengths, photos, writing.

2.     The power of great writing is immense, to draw followers/customers.

3.     Positivity important.

4.     Sell your experiences.

5.     Promote events. Events generate news/customers/drives economic development.

6.     Design your blogs with your preferred social media in mind: instagram; twitter; facebook; linkedin..They all have different needs and different audiences, you can't tell/force your customers which social media to use.

7.     Work out how to share your content.

8.     Create content/blog calendar with deadline. Includes testimonials (3rd party endorsements); FAQs (frequency asked questions); video; long and short blogs. Blogs do not mean long columns. There maybe only one long blog each year, but make it a good well-written one.

9.     Content strategy has to be responsive; constantly changing; has to be flexible, and needs to respond to audience.

10.  Content strategy, needs to be seasonal. IE Christmas/Easter/Winter (bonfire themes; bushwalking); writers festival; Denmark Experience; Long table lunches; poetry/music festival, are examples. Festivals provide multiple ideas for content IE performer profiles; acts; reviews; insights of different skills for experiences, IE botanist walks; indigenous experts; cooks; films. Film tours/content on the back of Tim Winton’s Breath. Holiday packages around Breath tours.

11.  Look into possibility of outsourcing editing. Don't be delusional about your own copy/editing skills. It will impact on your brand.

12.  Quirky stories, are gold. ‘For outsiders everything is interesting,' says Creative and Digital consultant Andal Shreedaran at Perth Media. What is wonderful of Denmark and your own individual businesses?

13.  Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. For blog distribution and sharing the load for events.

14.  Always check facts.

15.  Understand copyright.

16.  Build your own collection of images.

17.  Use press release/presspack stories as blogs.

18.  Read, read, read. Seek out good writing, understand the difference between good, mediocre and bad.

19.  Read your own writing aloud. Make every word count. Be strict cutting, and work on making writing clear. Be descriptive but not flowery and over the top.

20.  Volunteer for charity to get experience as a blogger. You can write the stories of those that need assistance, while you polish your craft.

21.  Identify your passions, your strengths, your interests.

22.  Tell only best stories, and start with the very best one first. Focus also on the opening para.

23.  Understand google rankings and the reason blogs impact on business sales.

24.  Develop relationships with other companies/bloggers/publications.

25.  Understand importance of themes in content creation and promotions.

26.  Do something every day, as part of your BD.

27.  Appeal to different target markets of your products. IE kid friendly; backpackers.

28.  Content strategy: incorporate key words, such as ‘Denmark’ ‘tourism’.

29.  The only thing stopping you writing and promoting your business is you.

Or too busy, call Perth Media now. We can help with a content package right now! cate@perthmedia.com.au

Perth Media Blogging with Denmark Chamber of Commerce Next Week

Perth Media blogging workshop next week is on track, organised by Denmark Chamber of Commerce, 22 have booked. Thanks to Liz Jack, Anna Boaden and Claudia Simpson at the Denmark Chamber of Commerce and Jody Ovenden at Celestine Retreat for her encouraging support.

Looking forward to assisting writing skills and developing grassroots expertise.

Perth Media creative and digital consultant, Andal Shreedaran, is also presenting her 'Future of Content' Research, remotely.

Our International Women at Perth Media

Perth Media would not be the company it is right now but for the valuable input of three creative, smart young women. Andal Shreedaran, who among many things is a podcasting expert and content trend researcher and presenter. Andal has recently joined us from Bangalore (India). Laura Murphy has brought a keen eye for graphics and love of writing. Laura hails from Ireland and is working on research into Instagram effectiveness and ideas.  Chanelle, originally from Perth, has started a Perth Media internship and is currently preparing research into Facebook trends in social media, and has already offered technical expertise. Thank you team, it is a pleasure to know and work with you.

Cate Rocchi (CEO of Perth Media)

Rise of Infographics

Infographics are increasingly a big part of content strategies.

Here is one designed by Perth Media creative and digital consultant Andal Shreedaran. It helps our customers quickly understand what services we provide.

Digital and Social Media Audit and Content Management Action Plan

By Cate Rocchi and Andal Shreedaran

Content creation, blogs linked to your website and social media management can improve the google ranking of your company and boost its digital footprint. We are here to help and Perth Media is offering 2 initial options throughout January and February, 2017.

Option A, Starter: $550 (1-hour meeting and 2 hours research for written report and action plan); Option B, Standard: $950 (2-hour meeting and 5 hours research for written report and action plan)

The plans include: mapping your digital footprint, audience mapping, strategy analysis and evaluation, and social media planning and strategizing.

Call 0428431699 or email cate@perthmedia.com.au

5 Better Ways to Promote Content by Andal Shreedaran (Perth Media Creative Consultant)

In this era of information overload, content is the king. But, content creation, however taxing it may be, is only half the work done. The rest of the work is promoting the content and ensuring it reaches the right audience.

The key to nailing content promotion is to do it efficiently – many companies struggle with content promotion not because they don’t spend time, but because they spend too much time on irrelevant and lackluster content. It is important to establish an objective – is it increased brand visibility, are you looking at lead generation and conversion or increasing blog traffic? It is also important to know who your target audience is and to make a decision whether the content be textual, visual (posters, infographics), audio (podcasts) or video.

1.      Email. This might sound old school, but email is still a wonderful way of reaching your target audience. Sending links to the article or blog post through newsletters or notifications is straightforward. Remember, people who have signed up for subscription have done so to know more about the company and the resources it can offer. If this sounds too simple, there are a lot of ways through which you can spice up email marketing – drip marketing  for one, is a great tool to send automated and tailored email alerts to your audience. Through drip, you can target each member in your audience specifically – including his/her name, what interests them most about your company and relevant content based on which page they have spent most time on. Email is also a simple tool to cross-promote your social media pages.

2.     Social media. The next and the obvious platform to promote your content is social media. Depending on the objective, content can be shared either on (or all) of these – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, SnapChat, SoundCloud, etc. While all content can go into all these platforms, a social media strategy on what to post where will add more value – For e.g., videos work great in Facebook and SnapChat, podcasts in Soundcloud, professional posts and infographics in LinkedIn, images and posters mainly across twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

The timing of the posts is also very crucial. Analytics will tell you what part of your audience is active on each channel and at what time. Posting relevant content at the right time will increase views and audience engagement. If it is overwhelming to handle so many social channels, there are social media tools like Hootsuite, Buffer that help bring all of the channels in one place. You can also use these tools to post curated content at pre-defined time. 

3.     Increase SEO through backlinks. While the content you have created may be interesting, backlinks to the relevant page in your website or other pages increases traffic and search engine rankings. A very simple way to create backlinks is to ask your team to share the link to the content on their social media pages. SEO improves when content is shared multiple times – this is recorded by search engines which will give your content a better ranking.

4.     Influencer outreach. Identify your influencers – influencers can be media, bloggers or top-level professionals in your industry and/or sources whom you have used or mentioned in your content. Reach out to these influencers and tell them about your new article or podcast and ask them to share it to their network. Content shared by influencers is seen not just as interesting but also trustworthy. Apart from getting more traffic, your brand’s credibility grows – third party endorsement is invaluable for a brand or product.

5.     Syndicate content. When done right, content syndication can genuinely boost revenue. You can use sites like Medium, StumbleUpon, Scoop.It to post your content. Through this, you can reach out to a wider audience. This will increase authority and credibility. Apart from these, content can also be posted in LinkedIn. It is usually not recommended to re-post the article on multiple sites as it can pull down your Google ranking, but you can post excerpts in these sites and provide a link to the content page on your website to read the entire article.

For content to reign king, it is imperative for it to be shareable, relatable and understandable. Simple but impactful content can do wonders to the brand and product sales. Hitting ‘Publish’ is only the beginning – promoting the right content at the best time is crucial for success.