Kindness is a focal point for people around the world this week. Monday is Random Acts of Kindness Day, and it’s good to see more and more people recognising and embracing the spirit of such a symbolic day.

It’s important to remember that kindness is a state of mind, it’s far more than simple actions – opening the door for someone, buying them a coffee, paying them a compliment, etc. Whilst all of those actions contribute to a kinder society, and can certainly make a difference to the individuals in question, kindness is really a mindset. It’s about being cognisant of those around you – if you are aware of yourself and others, you will pay attention to how your actions impact others, and naturally become a kinder person.

Getting back to the day in question however, it got us thinking about how we can be kind in our communications, and those acts of kindness that could make a difference, purely from our communications with others. So, in no particular order, here are our top five:

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Would you like to develop a cost-effective PR strategy that brings you more business?

Times are tough. We’re all working to tighter budgets, with increased competition – it’s a much harder sell. So what can you do to get ahead quickly and without breaking the bank?

It’s now that you should be investing in a strategic PR and marketing strategy. Your product or service may be amazing, but if no one hears about it, you’re on a highway to nothing. With the right PR, you can increase awareness, loyalty and sales among your existing pool of customers/supporters, as well as reaching new audiences of potential customers.

For those looking to develop their own cost-effective PR strategies, we will be running a workshop on PR Skills in Dubai on Wednesday 26^th February, including refreshments, for AED 249.

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Public relations has been a much neglected part of the marketing mix here in Dubai over the last year or so, with people focussing more on the bright lights and shiny promise that social media seemed to bring. However this fascination is calming down now, with people realising that this form of communications is not a one-trick pony, nor an instant sales generator as they perhaps first believed. As with all forms of communication, social media needs a clear focussed strategy, dedicated resource, time and money – and even then the results will not appear overnight!

We’ve been really encouraged to see more enquiries coming for PR again over the last month, as people remember the power of traditional media and journalists/producers/presenters/broadcasters, and realise that they need a strong integrated marketing mix for success.

If you’re not sure, check out these four reasons that you absolutely cannot afford NOT to do PR:

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There seems to be a lot of interest in crisis communications at the moment. Is that a symptom of the times? The lack of trust in institutions, the rise of fake news, increasing data security breaches and leaks, and the increasing transparency of our lives through the internet and social media, all contribute to increasing concern about our online reputation and security.

We’ll be running a session on Crisis Communications in Social Media for the PRCA this week (message us if you’d like more information), and it was also interesting to note that in last week’s BBG and AmCham breakfast event on PR and Reputation Management, crisis communications was a hot topic, fuelling a lot of the questions.

We’ve previously talked about ways to try and prevent or reduce crises and issues from occurring, so in this week’s post, we’ll look at the eight essential steps to take if and when a crisis does break:

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We had a client event at the weekend, a big one, to which I had invited a number of key UAE media. It was a lifestyle event, and we were inviting media purely as a relationship builder and to develop familiarity and favourability with the brand and its spokespeople. As the day wore on, conversation turned to the media/PR industry and it was interesting to hear feedback directly from the journalists about their experiences at PR events around Dubai, experiences which completely undermined the purpose of the invitation in the first place, leaving the journalists with a bad taste in their mouths.

From personal experience, most of these mistakes come from the right place in the beginning, and are often the result of staff being too keen! Meaning that a simple mindset shift could be enough to potentially stop them from happening. So what do we need to stop doing?

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Most of us were caught off guard by the recent storms. If you had looked at the weather forecast last week, you may have seen that it was predicted to rain over the weekend, but you may not have expected the deluge of rain we’ve had here in Dubai over the last few days. We’re lucky here in the UAE that the weather for most of the year is pretty constant and predictable. There are only a few weeks per year where we experience rain and storms, but when they come, these often bring the city to its knees. As residents here we need to be adaptable to these conditions – we may not know exactly when they will occur and the impact they will have, but there is a certain amount of preparation we can do to help us be ready.

These storms can be seen as a great analogy for social media issues…

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OK, hands up… How many of us have made New Year’s resolutions to give our social media a shake up? Whether that’s to get business channels started properly, to fix a strategy and make posts more regular and strategic, to get started on a new channel, to proactively start targeting, or to simply to freshen up our content, most of us (myself included) are including social media in our list of areas to develop in 2020.

We now have a list of dates for our upcoming social media workshops for the next few months, so while these New Year’s resolutions are still fresh in your mind, and before you get caught up in the daily hustle, get organised and do something your future self will thank you for by signing up!

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Hopefully by now you already have your marketing communications strategy, and all of the PR and social media activities confirmed for 2020.

Make sure you’re not just reinventing the same old campaigns you did for 2019 however; the world and the technology we use has changed a lot over the last twelve months, as have all of our researching and spending habits. You need to look at your marketing plan with fresh eyes to make sure it continues to be relevant and successful in engaging your audience and driving your desired results.

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We’re on the final countdown – only three little doors to open on the advent calendar…

It’s been a tough year, and it’s easy to get caught up in the trials and tribulations, but as we finally embrace the festive spirit (if you haven’t already), we wanted to take the time to be grateful and say thank you to the people who have supported and encouraged us throughout the year (in no particular order):

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