We're in this together

To our Gem family,

We are here to help you get through the coming weeks, whatever is thrown your way. 

We need to continue to market our businesses to remain at the front of customers’ minds. We must also prepare for a time when life returns to normal. 

During my 20 years in the media industry, I have helped businesses survive extremely troubled times. Not just survive but thrive. 

We are diversifying our services at Gem PR & Media. We, like you, are adapting to the new world. 

So, here’s what we need to do. 

We need a plan. A plan for now and a plan for when the pandemic is over. 

In addition to our existing services: social media, blogs, PR (copywriting, award entries, media relations), email marketing, training, and crisis comms, we are adding continuity plans, tailored comms plans, and marketing budgets to the mix. 

For more information email hello@gemprmedia.com or give me a call on 217 210 1589, let’s talk it over, and come up with a plan.

We will get through this together.

Gemma

#BeAGem#SpringfieldTogether

I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘success’ lately. What is success?

I used to think that success was working 60-plus hours a week. I thought the more employees we had the more successful our business was. I thought that if I attended everything I was invited to and never said ‘no,’ that was a success. I was wrong. 

It’s not about the input (number of hours), but instead the outcome (results). I concentrate now on what I can achieve rather than how long I work. Thankfully the clients I have, the relationships I’ve built, and two decades of writing for the media (I started writing for my local newspaper at 16) mean I’m able to complete my work successfully in a reasonable amount of time so that I can spend my free time with my family. Now, that’s a success. 

I’ve also come to realize that we don’t need an office full of employees, instead, we contract experts in their field. I’m the first to admit what I can and cannot do for my clients, which is why I surround myself with talented people from fellow local and independent businesses, whether videographers, graphic artists, or web designers. 

I’ve also learned that my clients are my greatest asset. Their referral means everything. If I continue to do a great job for them others will follow. Yes, I still like to network, but I’m more selective these days about how I spend my time. Often, I’ll arrange face-to-face meetings over a coffee or join organizations that expose me to new people. 

So, success in 2020 at Gem PR & Media means working hard and playing hard (and when I say playing hard I mean baking with the three-year-old and cuddling our three-month-old), it means continuing to offer the best service to our clients – thinking outside of the box – and meeting new people and giving them genuine attention. It’s going to be a great year. I hope yours is a successful one too! 

Five years of Gem PR & Media

It's been a long time since I posted, it's been a busy few months. It's also five years since I launched Gem PR & Media from our dining room table in Guernsey. And sure, we have 250 #FiveYears of #LipSmackingService Serious Lip Balms to gift to our friends, family, and clients (let me know if you’d like one and I’ll make sure it happens), but I also wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

It’s been vital to our survival that we love what we do. That’s what it comes down to. If money is more important than doing what you love that’s ok too. But for small business owners, we do it because it’s what we're meant to do. 

Celebrate the good times. Do not dwell on the bad times, they will pass, and you will get through. If you mess up admit it, apologize, and move on. Know that if something isn’t your fault, and you did a good job, you can’t win them all. 

Listen to advice from your peers. Not all advice is good, but in time you will discover those whose advice is invaluable. 

Stay true to yourself. That gut feeling has always been a strong indicator for me. If I feel something is off it usually is. 

Do good. As a business owner, you have the power to leave this place in better shape than when you found it. Give your time wisely and use it for good.  

If you can’t stand up for your industry then help make it be a better one. Lead by example. It’s ok if others follow I genuinely believe that.

Go the extra mile for your clients it will make all the difference. 

Finally, recognize your accomplishments and those that have helped you along the way.

So thank you to everyone that has supported us over the years we appreciate it, we really do! 

Small Business Week 2018 in Springfield keeps us on our toes

It’s National Small Business Week and, like most small business owners around the world, no two days are the same. 

So when we got a call from the Governor’s office on Tuesday at midday to ask if we could help pull together a visit to Sangamon Reclaimed – and a roundtable with other small businesses in Springfield, Illinois, for #SmallBusinessWeek at 11am the next day - we jumped into action.

It was a rather whirlwind 24 hours, but a lot of fun. It was a great opportunity too, for Brian Frieze, Sangamon Reclaimed founder and owner, and his team, and other small local businesses such as Serious Lip Balm, Sensible Innovations, and Free Press Coffee to talk about the subject of small businesses - and their importance to the economy – and to gain exposure through local media. This was such a great public relations opportunity for our client and - as expected - everyone also shared out the occasion on social media.  

Here are some of our favorite photos from the day. You can see more on our Facebook page or Instagram.

Engagement on Facebook is up

The beginning of 2018 brought with it major changes for social media managers, especially for those using Facebook. But the platform’s decision to favor content that’s shared, or engaged with, wasn’t a bad one.

Of the Facebook pages that we manage we’ve seen a decrease in organic reach, that’s for sure. But engagement is up. That’s right, from our experience, more and more followers are engaging with posts; reacting, commenting, and sharing the content on business pages. Changes to Facebook’s algorithm means loyal followers, those that have engaged with your business page previously - what some call ‘superfans’ – are seeing the posts in their feeds. And because these are your loyal fans they are taking the time to interact with the posts and page.

In turn, we need to reward these loyal fans with great content. The more engaging the post the faster it will be gain a reaction, share, or comment, which in turn improves organic reach. And, the posts that reach the greatest number of non-fans are those which receive the most engagement from existing fans.

So much of it is about timing. Yes, you may find that your post reaches the greatest number of people at 7, 8, or 9pm but (and this is a huge but) that post may have been circulating people’s feeds for hours and its reach may go even further if there’s been an opportunity for your fans (and non-fans) to engage prior. Just give it a try.

It’s rare that we post text only, so when I say images remain popular I actually don’t have much to compare this by other than knowing, as a former news editor, pictures paint a thousand words and I’ll almost always choose cute babies or puppies for the front cover.

The posts that do the best are the ones that appear spontaneously, or at least in the eyes of our fans. So, if we take the Local First Springfield Facebook page for example, the posts that gained the most engagement over the past month were our visit to see members exhibiting at the Illinois Products Expo, the day after the opening of Free Press Coffee on MacArthur and the Saturday morning we dropped into Custom Cup Coffee and Three Twigs Bakery. What’s also important to note is the pages that we tagged in these posts have a decent following – and most importantly – a loyal fan base AKA superfans, or what I call brand ambassadors. And, what’s even more obvious, is that you can’t fool fans. They know when you’re sharing ‘real time’ content. And that’s key. So, what’s the answer to increasing engagement (and reach)?

• Post about your tribe, whether that be your members, clients, customers, staff, donors, or volunteers.
• Post photos taken in situ; they don’t need to be perfect.
• Share photos of people, places, and pets (but please don’t fill my newsfeed with photos of random dogs standing on their head - it needs to be relevant).
• Tag, tag, tag those you want to interact with, those that you’re confident will interact with you, and those who also have great engagement.
• Be timely, don’t get caught up in needing to post at 8pm because that’s when the greatest number of your fans is likely to see your post. You want non-fans to see your post too … post when it’s time appropriate and allow your posts to gain momentum.
• Sharing others’ content may not gain you much in the way or reach or engagement, but, it will develop a potentially mutually beneficial relationship and … you may even gain some of that page’s fans.

Remember you’re in it for the long run and you have to be able to adapt, quickly, to changes in Facebook’s algorithm. But until the next change, this is what we’re (mostly) sticking to.