A game of two halves

By Martin Cahillane

For most students the events of the last six weeks have come as no surprise and nothing new has really been learnt about the way of the world: A Brit promises much at Wimbledon but is ultimately outclassed; Spain effortlessly dominate the Football whilst England reach their customary Quarter-Final; Bankers have proved just how trustworthy they are; and the British Summer seems to be slipping away from us by the day as it so often seems to do. However, my internship thus far has allowed me escapism from the disappointments of the above and taught me a lot about the way of the Fire and Marketing worlds.

Week one and two at the FIA involved Monica and Becky bringing me up to speed with the operations of the Marketing department in particular the interaction between the FIA and its members through the use of Social Media. Two great people to learn from! They have both pioneered the use of Social Media and gave excellent presentations at a recent Social Media Workshop, showing members the proverbial ropes of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Blogs. The fact that the FIA has over 1,200 followers suggests they are doing something right! My role within the team involves posting the news from the website on to Twitter daily, interacting with followers by doing things such as Follow Fridays, writing the odd blog or two and uploading members’ news to the FIA website.

During the first couple of weeks it was good to attend breakfast briefings with the FIA’s web designers and PR Agency and discuss future technologies and external factors that are having an impact on organisations.

An ever present feature of my Internship so far has involved preparing for Events. Whether it be constructing invitations or promotional emails, writing press releases, posting flyers or preparing event packs, it seems a day doesn’t go by without a member of the FIA team working hard to make their events a success. It was good to finally attend the Fire Safety Seminar at the London Fire Brigade Training Centre, Southwark to see what the FIA does best. I was involved in collecting the feedback from the event and the response forms indicated that the FIA provided an outstanding and effective event for the vast majority of attendees. It was brilliant to see that the exhibitors held the FIA’s effort in such high esteem and the presentation that I managed to catch helped me understand a lot of the Fire Detection & Alarm lingo and technical jargon.

Looking onwards and upwards I look forward to continuing my day to day responsibilities and taking on a project that aims to get Graham Ellicott speaking opportunities for events in 2013. With the Olympics on the horizon and better weather forecast for next week I hope the brilliant sporting summer we were promised comes to fruition coinciding with another enjoyable and eventful four weeks at the FIA.

Mobile Me

By Becky Reid, FIA Marketing Manager

In between decorating and getting central heating fitted at home (not a moment too soon either!) I have been looking at where we might take the FIA marketing-wise in 2012. And I have to say the future is mobile.

Now this won’t come as a surprise to any of you – as blog readers you are already au fait with all things digital! – but it does present me with an interesting challenge; one of educating those not so ‘hip’ and ‘with it’ that this is an area for expansion (meaning expenditure).

I am currently preparing a short presentation to the FIA Portables Servicing Committee, which will take them through the joys of mobile marketing and the opportunities it offers us.

Did you know that there are over 70 million people in the UK with mobile phones? That’s 1.6 phones per man, woman and child. Smart phone usage doubled in 2010 compared to 2009 and experts reckon that mobile internet usage will outstrip fixed internet usage (when you actually sit at a computer to surf the web).

Blimey.

Makes sense though. A typical day for me and my iPhone will feature news updates via BBC News and Sky News apps; keeping in touch with industry colleagues, friends and family via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn; checking out the sports results on Sky Sports; seeing my latest Nectar offers with my Nectar app and checking out the weather forecast thanks to the Met Office’s app.

I’d just like to point out that I do work as well; it’s not all fun!

The one thing I have shied away from to date is doing my banking with my bank’s own app; I really want to as it’s just one step further on from online banking, which I do already, but I’ve already been a victim of online fraud and identity theft and need to be convinced how secure app banking is. I should explain… I have a history for losing phones or leaving them places and I don’t want to give someone such easy access to my meager funds!

The rise of the smart phone has also made it acceptable to sit on your own in a bar, pub, café or restaurant; you can be doing emails, reading an ibook or doing Sudoku rather than looking like the geek that’s been stood up on a date.

Sadly, smart phones have also meant the demise of the pub quiz, with everyone sat there on their phones BBMing their mates for the answer rather than relying on the traditional method. Not that I would know; I don’t do pub quizzes. But I do do pubs!

Even my mother has recently converted to a smart phone. Now I get text messages from her asking for help with downloading the latest version of iTunes and transfer her purchases from her phone to her computer (that’ll be the iCloud mother).

I believe one of the scariest things about constantly changing technology is the terminology. I find it makes people uncomfortable when you talk about tweeting, ‘in the cloud’, QR tags and the like. The one thing I always say is don’t be scared, just ask. It how everyone else found out, including me, and that’s what social and digital media is all about, sharing knowledge and having open conversations.

So, go on, embrace mobile advances and get tweeting, posting, uploading, downloading and sharing!

I must go…Once I’ve finished the presentation I need to check out my recipe finder app, work out what’s for dinner, ring my mother and talk her through installing iTunes (yes I do still use my phone in the traditional way too!) and then settle down to play a game or two of iSudoku.

PS – stats given her kindly provided to me by our web agency Pixl8

Plastering, Tweeting and Blogging…

…A Day in the Life of a Marketer.

By Becky Reid, FIA Marketing Manager

Last week I had a rare occurrence…a week off work on leave. I’d love to say it was restful but, in all honesty, it involved lots of hard physical work decorating, stripping wallpaper, feeding workmen and the like!

It did make a refreshing break, though, from constantly being on the laptop/mobile checking emails, scanning the web for industry news etc. But ‘why are you telling us this and making us jealous?’ I hear you cry! Well, the mental space and physical labours did give me a chance to mull over various things marketing (as that is a subject I am passionate about!).

‘Marketing’ has changed a lot since I first started down my chosen career path. Long gone are the days of checking sticky chromalins for dust marks and couriering packages across town to meet deadlines. These days it’s all about FTP sites, PDFs and ‘field marketing opportunities’ (events to you and me).

No wonder a lot of people are finding it hard to keep up with the ever-increasing developments in the marketing world. Blogging, tweeting, poking… I know when Monica and I get going on one of our social media hobby horses half the people in the room look thoroughly confused and put it down to ‘yoof speak’ (not in my case!).

But I wasn’t always like this. I didn’t always know about these things; I heard about them, became curious, learnt more and gave it a go. I still don’t profess to be an expert at social media, but I’d like to think I’ve got a basic handle on it. Just ask my other half who is always moaning that I’m ‘facebooking’ or reading Twitter while in the pub!

I was first introduced to Facebook back in 2007 when, sat working in a race track media centre somewhere in the world, a work colleague suggested I might enjoy keeping in touch with friends and family by joining up to this new fangled Facebook (FB) site. I signed up and, lo and behold, found a whole bunch of mates back home, who would then proceed to invite me down the pub on a Saturday night while I was working in another continent!

I joined LinkedIn the following year when I was sent an email from another work colleague (different industry) and now I seem to have over 350 connections!

People ask me what to do, what’s it all about? I’ll be honest…the best way to find out is to just register on the sites and give it a go! Find people you know and before long you’ll be conversing and tweeting as if you’ve been doing it for years. Social media is all about being a bit nosy, and we all have a curious streak.

But you need to use common sense about what you post and on what platform. For example: I use FB for friends and family. I don’t want to talk work on it; I keep that for LinkedIn. Likewise I won’t put anything personal on LinkedIn as that is for my professional life. Twitter can be used for either/both professional and personal but be mindful of what you post and who might see it!

I recently welcomed my stepmother into my FB circle (she said it was strange seeing me in a suit); I also use it to keep an eye on my teenage godson (yes, Craig, I am watching you).

So, while I might not have been chained to my laptop working last week, I have to confess to uploading pics to FB via my mobile of the various bits of DIY for my family to see, as well as reading about the latest news and gossip from the Motorcycle Show at the NEC on twitter.

I think this shows how our usage of technology is changing and how we, as businesses, have to change with it. That doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable in the process though. Unlike DIY.

Change Your Clocks, Test Your Smoke Alarm

You’re more than four times as likely to die in a fire if your smoke alarm is not working. Unfortunately just half of all householders who own a smoke alarm say that they test regularly.

This video shows a mantelpiece clock melting in the heat of a house fire, which brings home the harsh reality of the consequences of a fire in the home. We thought that this was a clever (and timely) Fire Kills campaign which is worth sharing.

 

Let’s encourage people to test their smoke alarm when they changed their clocks at the end of British summertime next weekend (29/30 October). Help it go viral and like the facebook page:  www.facebook.com/firekills

By Monica