Lunch and Learn: Getting your brand story loved by the media

I'm here to help. I'm volunteering free advice calls of up to an hour as part of the Recovery Advice for Business scheme, over the next 6 months (from July 2020 when I joined Enterprise Nation). Please get in touch to see how I can help your business. Even in that short time, I can suggest opportunities that you can do yourself at no cost other than a bit of time and effort. Your business is worth that. In my experience the top themes that people value and want to hear about the most are music, food, drink, and cuddly animals. Link your public relations (PR) – words, sounds, visuals - to any of these and you can't go far wrong. You can see that daily in the way that businesses, small, medium and large, promote and advertise themselves. As a marketing consultant and PR, I know that I cannot overlook the essential value and benefits of whatever I may be promoting. Yet even when I was in the Civil Service working on communicating IT-enabled change, or internal communications for a major accommodation project, those themes of music, food, drink, and cuddly animals were still a go-to. They were hooks that often engaged people about what would otherwise be considered dull content. My love of music - hence the In Tune PR name - has also given me my greatest opportunities to write, from published editorial for online and in magazines including Blues Matters! And The American. The highlight to date was interviewing the Blues Brothers Band inc. Dan Aykroyd, Willie 'Too Big' Hall, 'Blue' Lou Marini, Steve 'The Colonel' Cropper and more and publishing 18,000 words across two magazines. One of those pieces has recently been re-published in a Classic Rock 'Best of' compendium. Press releases, website text, social media writing, brochure text, writing for flyers, all these are fun too. That fun is equally present when I am writing for clients from estate agents to manufacturers to removal companies and charities. Writing that conveys a message, or the character of a client, often in a way they couldn't do unassisted, is a real pleasure. That is why my business is named 'In Tune PR', because it is in tune with the clients, their messages, and the right delivery that will make a difference. Being a journalist myself helps me when engaging on behalf of clients with managers and editors working in print, radio, events, online and TV. It also means I can take the stress out of media engagement for people who would otherwise freeze when put before a microphone. Along the way I've picked up a couple of awards for contributions to diversity and society, which is the kind of thing that can happen when you are, like me, passionate about music, independent British businesses and people who make a positive difference in any walk of life. I work with other service providers (for example, specialists in branding, website design and social media) who share my values and professionalism. If any of this strikes a chord with you or if you have a story that I might enjoy telling, get in touch.