East Communications | Our Community

Our Social Aims

“It’s exciting running a PR and marketing agency as a social enterprise. Our highly professional team not only provides a top service to our clients, but we give something extra, which is motivated by a real desire to make a difference in our communities.
We are lucky to be trading in a very social enterprise-friendly city. We get a lot of support and encouragement being part of the lively Brighton social enterprise scene, and are happy to share this with others to benefit their organisations.”
Anne O'Rourke
Business Development Manager

What is social enterprise?

The ‘official’ DTI description of a social enterprise is: “Businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.”

Social enterprises are businesses that trade in the market with a social purpose. They are not defined by their legal status but by their nature; social aims and outcomes; the basis on which their social mission in embedded in their structure and governance; and the way the business uses profits generated through trading activities.

East as a social enterprise

East is the first PR and Marketing Agency in the UK set up as a social enterprise. We are driven by our social aim which is to help create sustainable, communicative communities. This stems from the belief that communication leads to strong communities; to understanding, trust and opportunities.

Our structure is simple – we have a non-executive Board of Directors from the marketing, social enterprise, business and community sectors, all of whom volunteer their time to help drive the business strategy.

Our social aims:

• To empower and enable community and voluntary organisations and social enterprises to communicate effectively and be heard
• To provide supported employment, training and work experience for people facing barriers to employment
• To raise the profile and promote the benefits of social enterprise

In practice this means:

• We run regular PR Surgeries in Brighton which give local community and voluntary groups the opportunity to expand their PR and marketing knowledge free-of-charge, with the support of an experienced communications professional.
• We provide stimulating and fun work experience and volunteering opportunities to those interested in developing their PR and marketing skills.
• We actively promote our social enterprise status, and the benefits that this brings to us and the wider community, both within and outside of the social enterprise sector and to our clients.

For more information visit

Small Business Service
www.sbs.gov.uk/sbsgov

Shop Social Enterprise
www.shopsocialenterprise.com

Social Enterprise London
www.sel.org.uk

Community Action Network
www.can-online.org.uk

Social Enterprise Coalition
www.socialenterprise.org.uk

Resources

PR Surgeries

East Communications is currently running free of charge PR surgeries (I hour consultations) for community and voluntary groups. For details of future dates, and to register your interest, please contact Louise at East. louise@eastcommunications.co.uk or call (01273) 604 603.

What is PR?

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations defines PR as follows:
“Public relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between and organisation and its public.” (www.cipr.co.uk)

The Public Relations Consultants’ Association suggests the following regarding the development of reputation: “A good reputation is not earned overnight. It has to be carefully cultivated as understanding and support develop. The management of reputation has to be carefully undertaken with integrity and honesty. It is very fragile and can be lost quickly if words or actions are found to be out of sympathy with reality.
A virtuous circle is created when a good reputation raises expectations about the kind of products or services a company supplies, and the quality of products or services enhances the reputation.”
(www.prca.org.uk)

PR Techniques

Putting together a PR plan

A PR plan helps you communicate with the people you want to reach and achieve your goals. A successful plan can boost your organisation’s reputation, help you recruit high calibre staff or volunteers and attract the attention of new clients and funders. It can form part of an integrated communications plan – a longer document which often includes planning of the use of newsletters, leaflets, websites, merchandising and direct mail.

Before you start you will need to think about what you want your plan to achieve, who you need to communicate with to achieve these goals and what your key messages will be.

To put a simple PR plan together, get a sheet of paper and write down everything that’s just happened, or is due to happen over the coming 12 months, that might interest the media. This could include winning an award, running an event, launching a new service or getting the results of an interesting survey. Next, create a simple PR calendar so you know what’s happening each month and add to it as more ideas come to mind. Then send out a steady stream of carefully targeted and timely press releases to your target media remembering to let the media know who your spokespeople are.

Even a simple plan can reap rich rewards and gain your organisation thousands of pounds worth of ‘free advertising’ in the media. It can enhance your reputation externally with clients and funders and can also make your staff or volunteers feel good about working for an organisation which is in the news for all the right reasons.

Call us on 01273 676395 to discuss your PR and Marketing requirements.

Writing a press release

You have some news, but how do you make your press release stand out from the dozens received every day by journalists? Remember that journalists are busy people and the easier you make their job, the more likely they are to publish your story.

Always include the five W’s in your press release to improve your chances of getting to the first goal – a journalist actually working on the story.

1. WHAT – what is happening?
2. WHY – why is it happening?
3. WHO – who is involved?
4. WHERE – where is it taking place?
5. WHEN – when is it taking place?

How you present that information can make all the difference between a positive story being published and your press release ending up in the bin. Bear the following points in mind and you’ll be on the right track:

1. Is the story new, or does it involves a significant development or achievement?

2. Is the key point up front?

3. Be careful that you haven’t let something slip that might give the story a twist you don’t want. Look at it again and try to see potential trouble spots.

4. Does your story have a human interest angle? News stories are about people, so include a real-life scenario if you can.

5. Any big names? If a well-known personality can be tied into the story in any way, you could be in business.

6. An eye-catching, good quality photo can persuade a journalist to follow up a story.

7. Readers might know nothing about your organisation so don’t confuse them – keep language simple, avoid jargon and spell out any abbreviations or acronyms. Make sure you avoid spelling or grammatical errors.

8. Make sure you always include contact details at the end of a release – your name, phone number and email address, and your website address too if that’s relevant.

Developing media contacts

• It’s usually a good idea to send your news story by 10.00am the day before you want it published.
• If you would like a newspaper photographer or local TV to attend your event/photo opportunity, they will need at least two days’ notice.
• Remember you can embargo a story, i.e. send it one day but don’t have it published until a later date. If you want to do this write a note at the top of the press release saying “Embargo – date”. However, do bear in mind that by embargoing things you run the risk of them getting lost.

Organising a photo opportunity

Newspapers and magazines are always on the look-out for eye-catching photos which illustrate the news or tell their own story. Digital cameras and email mean it’s easier than ever to get your photo to a publication in an easy-to-use format, but that also means publications receive dozens every day so your picture needs to stand out and be professionally presented.

Hints and Tips

1. Even if you’re expecting a newspaper photographer to attend, make sure you have a camera with you because he or she might be diverted to a breaking news story at the last minute.

2. If you are taking the photo, make it as interesting and appealing as possible. Newspapers want to attract and entertain readers so out-of-the-ordinary pictures are popular, along with photos which include children and animals!

3. Always provide information detailing who’s who, from left to right. Most publications will want a first name, a surname and any other relevant info, such as job titles. Always double-check the spelling of people’s names.

4. You will need to write a brief caption (a paragraph explaining what’s happening in the picture) or provide a press release which gives the details that a journalist needs.

5. If you’re taking a photo it’s a good idea to get everyone in the photo to sign a consent form, especially if children are involved (you will need to get consent from a parent or guardian).

6. It’s best to email your photo to the picture desk. Ideally the photo (or photos, if you want to send a couple) should be in jpeg format, not too large – about 1 megabyte in size after compression – and of good clarity (at least 300 dpi). Always attach a caption and some brief information to explain the photo.

Producing a newsletter

A newsletter provides a versatile way of getting your messages and information across to the people you want to reach. With careful planning and a willing editor, you can produce a cost-effective publication that successfully raises awareness of your organisation and enhances its reputation.

Hints and Tips:

1. What’s the point of your newsletter? There’s no point in producing a newsletter for the sake of it – you must have some news that you want to communicate. Your task is to make sure the newsletter is interesting, accurate and well-produced to convey a good impression of your organisation.

2. How much will it cost? That depends on what you want to produce; for example, an e-newsletter will cost far less to produce (and to distribute) than a glossy printed publication.
If you decide to print hard copies of your newsletter, will you print them in-house or use a professional print company? Will the newsletter be in black and white or full colour, and how many copies will you need?
Give some thought to what your audience might expect. If your organisation is not-for-profit, for example, you will want your newsletter to look professional without giving an impression that you have spent too much money on it.

3. Who is going to produce the newsletter? You will need people to research and gather information and write articles, take photos, oversee the design of the publication and project manage the newsletter’s production (preferably the editor). One person could do all these tasks, or they could be shared between several individuals.

4. What shall we put in the newsletter? The content of your newsletter depends on who your audience and your messages. For example, if you’re producing a residents’ newsletter, it will need to be bright and eye-catching with lots of relevant, local info and photos of local people. However, if your newsletter is aimed at potential funders, you might want to highlight your organisation’s successful use of former funding through human interest stories.

5. Avoid jargon and obvious mistakes. Keep copy to the point, tell the whole story, make sure it’s relevant to your audience and avoid any grammatical howlers. Make sure at least two people proofread the completed newsletter before it goes to print so errors can be amended.

6. Distribution. If you’ve produced an e-newsletter, you can simply email it to your key contacts with a minimum of fuss and expense. If your newsletter is printed, there are a number of ways to distribute it including the use of the postal service or a mailing house.

7. How long does it take to produce and distribute a newsletter? A lot longer than you think. Timings depend on the size of the newsletter but, as a general rule, leave at least three weeks for writing of copy and layout. Printing could also take up to three weeks and you’ll need at least a week to organise distribution. Careful planning beforehand will cut down delays, but it’s best to schedule in at least a week of spare time at the end of the process so you can still meet your deadline without tearing your hair out if things don’t go entirely to plan.

Our Values

Our Social Aims

Resources