Sara Robinson - Communications consultant - columnist

Unlock the Entrepreneurial Power of ADHD: Strategies and insights for maximising your unique strengths

Sara Robinson — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:21:37 +0000

Did you know that while 5% of adults have ADHD, 29% of entrepreneurs do? Bill Gates and Richard Branson are just two successful businesspeople who have been open about their diagnoses.

Undoubtedly, entrepreneurs with ADHD possess a unique blend of creativity, resilience, and adaptability that can serve as powerful drivers of success.

But it’s essential to be aware of pitfalls like distractibility and burnout.

Whether you have an official diagnosis or self-identify as having ADHD, the right support and self-care strategies can turn what some might see as a limitation into your greatest entrepreneurial asset.

What is neurodiversity, and why are we talking about it?

Neurodiversity describes the natural variation in the human brain and how people think, learn and process information differently.

Around one in seven people are neurodivergent, the umbrella term which includes autism spectrum conditions, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia.

This conversation matters because, in embracing neurodiversity, we don’t just acknowledge differences; we can optimise for them.

Why does neurodiversity matter in entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship thrives on different ways of seeing and solving problems, precisely where many neurodiverse people excel.

For me, entrepreneurship was more than an option; it was a necessity.

Traditional work environments stifled my creativity and didn’t cater to my unique ways of thinking.

The entrepreneurial path provided the freedom to explore, create, and execute my visions, however unconventional they might have been.

What’s the link between ADHD and entrepreneurship?

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the structure and function of the brain and nervous system. It is presumed to be present from birth.

Living with ADHD presents a unique blend of challenges and advantages, shaped by its severe impact on focus and impulsivity.

How do I describe my ADHD? It’s like having a brain with the horsepower of a Ferrari but the braking speed of a cheap bicycle. Or having a powerful internal motor that never shuts off. It’s constantly having 100 internet tabs open in my brain. It’s exhausting. But it also brings many gifts – or, as I prefer to call them, superpowers.

ADHD has given me natural creativity and problem-solving abilities. I get things done quickly. I see patterns and opportunities others don’t. I have a finely-tuned bullsh*t radar. I take risks, and sometimes they pay off. All of these things make me brilliant at my work.

Tell me more about ADHD superpowers in business.

Let’s consider some of the unique traits neurodiverse entrepreneurs often bring to the table:

Hyperfocus: Neurodiverse people often focus intently on tasks that capture their interest. This can be incredibly advantageous in the early stages of a start-up, where passion and focus are crucial.

Empathy: ADHDers are often more sensitive to other people’s needs and experiences. This hyper-empathy allows for a more nuanced understanding of client relationships and team dynamics.

Quick Adaptability: The ability to pivot swiftly in a new direction is often a lifesaver in the ever-changing landscape of entrepreneurship.

What about the challenges?

Risk Management: While risk-taking is essential for entrepreneurship, it can become a double-edged sword if not managed carefully. This is particularly relevant for those of us with ADHD, where impulsive decisions could lead to unnecessary risks.

Mental Health: Struggles with anxiety, depression, or even burnout are frequent companions for neurodiverse people, which need active management and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Self-Support Strategies for ADHD Entrepreneurs

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for navigating entrepreneurship with ADHD, some strategies and preventive measures can make the journey smoother.

Prioritisation Skills: One of the challenges with ADHD is prioritising tasks. Using tools like to-do lists or project management software can help, but try to keep them simple. Identify your ‘big rocks’ – the tasks that must get done – and focus on them first.

Setting Boundaries: With an active mind always buzzing with ideas, knowing when to say no can be difficult. Setting clear boundaries can prevent you from overcommitting and help maintain a healthier work-life balance.

Mindfulness Techniques: Impulsivity and emotional peaks and troughs can be typical for those with ADHD. Practising mindfulness can help improve focus and self-regulation. There are several apps and short courses that can guide you in developing this skill.

Accountability: Share your goals and deadlines with someone you trust or, even better, someone who understands the intricacies of ADHD. Knowing that someone else is aware of your commitments can motivate you.

Body Doubling: This productivity hack involves having someone nearby while working on tedious tasks. Because our brains are interest-based, we can easily forget or put off the less exciting but equally important jobs in business. I use Flown, a virtual co-working space, to help keep me accountable for the bigger tasks I dread. It’s incredible how much more I get done when I feel like others are watching, even when they’re strangers!

Financial Planning: Given that ADHD can be associated with impulsivity, financial planning and budgeting can be more crucial than ever. You might consider consulting with a financial advisor who can offer tailored guidance.

Seek Professional Support: If you find that ADHD-related challenges are severely affecting your business, it may be beneficial to seek the support of professionals, like ADHD coaches or mental health advisors, who can provide personalised coping strategies.

What To Watch Out For

Burnout: The thrill of a new project can be intoxicating, but it’s easy to overextend yourself and end up burnt out. Keep an eye on your workload and take time to recharge.

Over-Promising: The enthusiasm and creativity that come with ADHD can sometimes lead to making commitments that are hard to fulfil. Be mindful of what’s realistically achievable.

Analysis Paralysis: The flip side of impulsivity is getting stuck in endless cycles of overthinking. If you procrastinate because you’re caught up in details, take a step back and refocus on the bigger picture.

Dragons’ Den gets a ‘brand’ new look & my tips for hiring a PR agency

Sara Robinson — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 17:56:57 +0000

If there was one theme to emerge from the first episode it was ‘Know Your Brand’. Kelly Hoppen, was as you’d expect, all about the brand. Her main feedback to a luxury picnic hamper company was to “hire a PR company and get yourself into Tatler”.

While the other dragons pontificate on overheads and equity shares, it’s fair to expect that as the series progesses, Kelly will be the one advising companies on their branding and the value of a well-executed PR campaign.

For a new start-up, getting the branding right is crucial. As a company grows, it becomes incrementally more difficult and more expensive to change a brand.

When it comes to PR, this can be daunting territory and picking an agency is a difficult decision.

A successful PR campaign can help you expand your business in ways you could not achieve alone. But there’s never a guarantee that a PR campaign will produce the desired results.

So how do you pick an agency likely to produce the best results for your business?

Businesses we speak to often ask us about this. We always advise making a decision based on a number of factors; your budget, your expectations, their track record in delivering results, and your chemistry. The final one is crucial. If the relationship doesn’t feel right from the outset, it’s unlikely to improve over time. But don’t take umbrage over honesty from an agency – it’s a rare quality and one that can be particularly valuable to start-ups looking to build a brand (think Don Draper and his outspoken critiques…).

Here are my top 5 suggested questions to help you assess PR agencies:

How are you going to measure your success?
Before appointing a PR firm, you need to know how it will measure success. Media coverage and Facebook Likes are common metrics for success. But you will be better off with an agency that looks further, to metrics that will contribute to your growth – such as tracking how much traffic to your website has grown or how your target client email list has grown as a direct result of a clever PR campaign. Oh, and if any agency quotes that ancient ‘advertising value equivalent’ metric at you – something the Chartered Institute of Public Relations no longer recognises as a measure – then it’s time to run for the hills.

Which media reach my target audience best?
Whether it’s traditional media coverage or a guest blogger strategy, your PR firm should have done its research to understand precisely which newspapers or websites reach your target demographic most effectively. You should look for an agency with experience of working across traditional and new media platforms – and ask for evidence!

Who will be working directly on my account?
When PR firms pitch for your business, they generally send in their top people. But you’ll probably be working most closely with more junior team members. It’s important to find out who you will be working with on a daily basis before deciding whether to hire the agency. Beware of any agency that doesn’t introduce you to your proposed main account handler in the early stages of discussions. There should be nothing to hide.

What is your social media expertise?
Whoever you hire should be completely au fait with social. Having personal Twitter profiles they use occasionally won’t cut it. What has the agency done for clients on Twitter and Facebook – and with what results? Has it developed social media competitions and other promotions? How did they work for the client in question? If you get the sense there is a traditional approach focussed on print media, then remember this quote from Socialnomics author Erik Qualman: “The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years.”

What will you need from me to make the relationship work?
Some people hire a PR company expecting their workload to be lightened. While having additional expert resources will help you, to get the best from your agency you need to be involved in your own PR. Be prepared to speak to the media at short notice and to be interviewed for ghostwritten blog posts. Ask what level of commitment they will need, and be prepared to give it!

PR Awareness Week? Think we need more Dr Who & less Malcolm Tucker

Sara Robinson — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 12:34:14 +0000

The irony wasn’t lost on me and my team, and we enjoyed this BBC Magazine piece by practitioner Benjamin Webb examining the history of the PR industry and analysing its challenges in a fast-changing media environment.

In it, he claims that public cynicism and the rise of the Machiavellian political ‘Spin Doctor’ – such as The Thick Of It’s Malcolm Tucker, played by the new Dr Who Peter Capaldi – have seriously damaged trust in PR.

Webb also claims that the image problem will solve itself because the traditional PR model won’t survive for much longer:

“The deluge of badly-written press releases, silly events and photo stunts, “news stories” without news value, and meaningless “campaigns” have come to irk journalists and bore an increasingly cynical general public.”

We couldn’t agree more. When we get calls asking us how much we charge for a press release, we do a little sob inside.

Yes, there is still a place for a well-timed, genuinely newsworthy press release. But in a world where online PR, social media, blog-seeding and search engine optimisation all present brilliant opportunities to connect organisations with audiences instantly, the media release is just one small part of an ever-growing toolkit.

With traditional newspaper sales plummeting, many news organisations, like have had to adapt to the new digital ecosystem. At Cake HQ, we now read the Times and Western Mail on the morning commutes on our iPads and smartphones. We get our breaking news from Twitter, as do many millions of others.

If we want to find anything from a restaurant recommendation in a new city to a printer, we turn to Twitter then Google for recommendations.

For companies that want to be part of this revolution, and want to connect and engage with potential customers or other audiences, the old school PR approach just isn’t enough.

At Cake, we genuinely love helping our clients create memorable, interesting content that gets them noticed, or holding their hands as they take their first steps on a journey into the social networking world. Whether it’s doubling web hits with an engaging blogging strategy or getting clients in front of decision makers to secure funding, we take pride in public relations work that is based on quality and results.

Shameless plug aside, one thing is clear; the dark art of the old ‘Advertising Value Equivalent’ – a horrible measurement that aimed to prove the ‘value’ of editorial coverage based on advertising rates, is long dead (it couldn’t come soon enough for us).

In an online world, where click throughs, search engine rankings, video views and positive mentions are all measurable, we always advise people to ask tough questions of any agency they are considering engaging.

The first question should be “Press releases come as standard – what extra expertise can you bring?”.

If they’re struggling for a response, then you’re likely to be throwing money at old rope.

As for us, we’re looking forward to a brave new world where PR commands as much respect as some of its sister disciplines. A world where we don’t have to shoulder the collective responsibility of the one-trick ponies that, to paraphrase the double-denim-donning Bon Jovi, give PR a bad name.

Heard it on the grape-vine: How brands can use the video sharing platform taking over the internet

Sara Robinson — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:54:37 +0000

Twitter has launched a new video sharing app called Vine. At Cake Communications we like experimenting with new social media tools as soon as we can, so we can help guide our clients through the array of new platforms springing up all of the time. So here’s our cursory effort at our own Vine (disclaimer: made in two minutes!).

But what is it, and how can brands make an impact on Vine?

Here’s my at-a-glance guide to the media sharing phenomenon taking the internet by storm.

What is Vine?
Launched on the 24th of January by Twitter, Vine is a new way to share video. The iPhone app can be used to create short video clips of six seconds or less and these video clips then play in a continuous loop. Some contain sound some don’t.

Will it take off?
As with all new social media start-ups, it’s difficult to predict. Having Twitter as a parent company won’t do its prospects any harm. It’s already being dubbed the ‘Instagram of video’, and hundreds of thousands of videos have already been uploaded. Its popularity reached a new high during New York Fashion Week recently as fashion writers logged in to Vine to capture and share six-second scenes from the shows.

Many designers are expected to use Vine to give people a sneaky peek backstage during the forthcoming London Fashion Week.

How can brands use Vine?
As with all new tools that generate a buzz, brands will be rushing to experiment with Vine to get their message across. The question facing brands is how to make the most of a very short six second clip to communicate with their audience. When creating content for Vine, it is best to treat it as a preview opportunity, a way of very briefly showcasing something the audience will want to know more about. Here are our top tips.

Keep it interesting
Six seconds may not seem like a long time but to an average internet user it can be spent doing other more interesting things, so make sure your video really captures your audience from the word go. They will be more likely to want to find out more.

Be Creative
People don’t want to look at six seconds of somebody holding up a sign, so think creatively. The app inspires creativity with its clever stop start interface, as is evidenced here in a GE-produced clip.

Give them something extra
Use Vine to give your consumers a behind-the-scenes look at your production process, your office or your team. Involve them in your brand through Vine and show them your personality.

Use calls to actionVine can be used to mobilise your brand’s followers, ask them to submit their own vine videos, to join a campaign or to visit your website. Six seconds is long enough to ask people to join in! We particularly liked this competition-based campaign by London hotel Cavendish.

Make it fun
Use your six seconds to do something fun; Malibu rum launched the brand on Vine with a great first video of what happens when good things come together.

With this advice in mind, why not have a go at your first Vine? It only lasts six seconds but the results can leave a much longer impression.

Politicians, social media & a gaffe of Olympic proportions

Sara Robinson — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 10:21:48 +0000

Were you one of the millions ‘dual screening’ the Olympic opening ceremony last night? That is, combining your enjoyment of Danny Boyle’s spectacular televisual treat with trawling social media sites to see others’ real-time reactions?

I have already blogged on how this is becoming an increasingly popular phenomenon for big national television events, and last night saw Twitter on fire with a flurry of activity around the #openingceremony hashtag.

Around 10:30pm, proceedings took a turn for the controversial when it was reported that Conservative MP for Cannock and Chase Aidan Burley had posted tweets accusing the opening ceremony of being “leftie”.

To put this in context, just seven months ago he was removed from his post as parliamentary private secretary to Transport Secretary Justine Greening for attending a party where guests dressed up as Nazis and drank toasts to senior figures in the Nazi regime.

While the majority of social media users were heaping praise on Danny Boyle’s £27 million extravaganza (albeit with the odd dig at Trevor Nelson’s, erm, somewhat unique commentary style), Aidan Burley described it on Twitter as

“the most leftie opening ceremony I have ever seen – more than Beijing, the capital of a communist state!”

He added: “Welfare tribute next?”

An hour later, when the athletes from the competing countries started their parade, he wrote:

“Thank God the athletes have arrived! Now we can move on from leftie multi-cultural crap. Bring back red arrows, Shakespeare and the Stones!”

Downing Street has understandably distanced itself from his comments, which were immediately derided by others on Twitter.

Some sample responses from the Twitterverse:

“And that, my friends, is the sound of @AidanBurleyMP goose stepping into political oblivion” – @owenjones84

“So, @AidanBurleyMP: non-entity to national disgrace in under 140 characters. First world record of the games?” – @cherylmorgan

“Thanks to @AidanBurleyMP for allowing us a peek at the Conservative party’s true colours last night. We can seeeeee youuuuuu.” – @JohnAmaechi

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister took to Twitter to declare :

“The opening ceremony has been a great showcase for this country. It’s more proof Britain can deliver.”

As you’d expect that particular tweet had nowhere near the amount of retweets or level of response as Burley’s comments. It’s fair to say Burley’s criticism of the ceremony will have caused some groans and heads-in-hands at No 10 as it was completely at odds with the official party line.

This morning he has been accused of attempting a gold medal in backtracking after tweeting:

“Seems my tweet has been misunderstood. I was talking about the way it was handled in the show, not multiculturalism itself.”

So that’s ok then…

This is just the latest controversy over opinions expressed by politicians on social media. While there are clear opportunities for politicians who use social media well to connect with a wider audience and achieve engagement with voters, there are also downsides.

Nobody knows that better here in Wales than Plaid Cymru Assembly Member Bethan Jenkins.

She recently vowed to take a break from Twitter after describing Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness as “naive” for agreeing to meet the Queen, which saw her caught in a media storm. With almost 4,000 Twitter followers and over 1,800 Facebook friends, Bethan – who at 30 years old is a typical ‘digital native’ – has completely embraced social media. She is an active user who has been cited as an example of how politicians should be using these platforms to communicate with constituents and the wider world.

We asked Bethan why she sees value in using social media. She said:

“I get many messages on Facebook, or even on the chat application from younger people who just would not email me or write to me in a formal way about their issues, so I worry if I wasn’t using social media how many young people would connect with me and other politicians.

“I also find social media valuable for my role; in asking people’s opinions on an issue prior to doing a media interview, for example, or asking for important questions to ask of, say, chief executives of health boards prior to a meeting.

“It’s simply not true to say that young people are not interested in politics. I think a lot of the time communication with young people can be done in the wrong way, or in an un imaginative way, which can turn them off.”

She warns of the dangers of paying lip service to social media, or using it in a way that isn’t completely genuine and transparent;

“Having said this, I think if you are going to use social media as a politician at all, it has to be in a genuine and open way. You have to talk to people, be ready for a debate, and engage fully. People can see through those politicians who only use it to update the site for their press releases that were sent out on general release anyway, or those who have staff to run their sites. Again, this could backfire, and would mean that it would be a waste of time for the politician and the constituents!”

But, as Aidan Burns is experiencing this morning (we wonder if he’s regretting Tim Berners-Lee, who featured in last night’s ceremony, ever inventing the world wide web…) she warned of the downside of using social media as a politician:

“There is a growing trend for other media outlets to simply pluck what you have said from a social network discussion, and print a comment that is totally out of context. This can be quite frustrating, when you are aware that a wider, often constructive discussion was had on a topic, and someone from a media outlet has subsequently knowingly undermined that.

“It is now a place where opposition parties trawl the internet, trying to find some way of catching you out, and finding a story out of nothing, from a comment that has quite often been taken out of context, or in other instances, misinterpreted entirely.

“These are dangers people should be aware of, though when I have had this inflicted upon me, I find that the people on social media that I talk to on a regular basis see my point of view clearly, and are supportive of my right to have an opinion, to try and be as honest as I can, and as genuine as I can. I am someone who is merely trying to represent the people who elected me to work on their behalf.”

What do you think? Is social media making politics more transparent and accessible? Or should politicians be more careful about expressing radical opinions online? Do you communicate with your local councillor, council, AM or MP via social media? Have you had an issue solved as a result? Let us know, we would love to hear from you.

Cardiff City fans see red: How not to handle a rebrand

Sara Robinson — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:34:15 +0000

Today is a day that will live in the memory of every Cardiff City fan. Following the massive outcry by fans over the proposed plans to rebrand the club, the Malaysian owners are going through with their plans to change the home kit to red and alter the club crest.

But what will be the long-term impact on the club of this shock news today?

When the story broke in early May, I blogged about the fundamental PR mistakes the club had made in the breaking and handling of the news. This added fuel to an already incendiary situation with the club’s notoriously passionate fan base.

The key motivator in all this is money and what the Malaysian owner’s millions can do for a club eternally searching for promotion to the Premier League. The aim of the owners has been to expand the club’s appeal into the international market, namely South-East Asia.

The new investment package will aim to bring to an end the long standing Langston debt issue and create new revenue streams, bringing in new players and an improved training facility.

One of the key issues of this whole affair is that the club needs the investment if it wishes to achieve its goal of playing Premiership football.

Terry Phillips at Wales Online sums up the dilemma facing the club and its fans well:

“If the deal is to play in red and have the financial backing and facilities to help build a squad capable of finally ending half a century and more of hurt then I’m for it. I will put tradition to one side.”

But here is the rub. What the owners want to do is what every Cardiff fan wants to see, but they have handled the whole issue poorly from a communications perspective. The lack of dialogue between the club and fans over the rebranding was staggering and in football, a game that involves an incredible amount of emotion that is hard to quantify on a balance sheet, the fans should be at the heart of everything.

Paul Ragan, who has been at the helm of the city’s other famous sporting icons the Cardiff Devils Ice Hockey team for two years, knows this only too well:

“While I recognise what the board are trying to achieve on a commercial level, buy-in from fans is absolutely critical. While you will never please everybody and achieve total agreement, the way you communicate why you are doing what you are doing and the long-term vision is crucial. Consultation is king.”

A notable Cardiff City supporter Nigel Harris summed up the feeling of many disillusioned fans this morning;

“I apologise in advance for the embarrassment & complete laughing stock my club will become later today. No excuse for it, no defence of them. The club I loved and knew will always be part of me but it will never feel the same or as important to me anymore.”

His anger is understandable given that the owners had agreed to call off their plans following the negative backlash and campaigns against it. However, a mere month later – and without prior warning – the changes have been made regardless.

Had the owners sat down with the heads of the supporters’ trusts and discussed the proposals with them, then maybe this transition could have been much smoother. Fans are one of the key stakeholders of any club and without their backing the owners face serious problems. It is all well and good having a strong fan base in Asia, but an empty stadium for home games sends out a clear message.

Negative publicity and enraged fans are not what the owners need if they want to build a brighter future for the club. This whole affair has shown that the owners want to achieve Premiership status regardless of the casualties along the way. Only time will tell the long-term impact this has on the club. Talk of decreased fan base and cancelled season tickets may be premature hype, but the negative PR hasn’t done the owners any favours either.

The colour of money: What the Cardiff City rebranding proposals teach us about marketing

Sara Robinson — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:30:55 +0000

Cardiff City‘s Malaysian investors are seriously thinking of ending 104 years of tradition and changing the team’s colours as part of a highly controversial rebranding exercise that would see the Welsh club play in red from the start of next season.

It’s an idea that is already going down badly with Cardiff City supporters, and one which hasn’t taken the club’s rich heritage into account. If the rebrand goes ahead, the club’s ‘bluebirds’ nickname will become redundant, and it’s been mooted that it would have to change to the ‘red dragons’ to match the new strip and even possibly a repainted stadium.

Football fan or not, there’s a lesson for business here.

As ever, money is the motivator in the Cardiff City rebrand decision. The club’s Malaysian owner, Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun, is said to favour red as it is viewed as a more dynamic and attractive colour in Asia when it comes to marketing. In China, red is associated with good luck, happiness and warding off evil spirits.

The business case is that fresh investment would be more likely to come in as a result of the rebrand, giving Cardiff another chance at reaching the Premier League after losing the play-offs over the last three seasons.

But is losing the club’s colours and identity a worthwhile trade off for fans? It seems not. Twitter and the forums are buzzing with dissent.

One fan, known as Nigel Blues, said:

” I won’t ever turn my back on Cardiff City but will NEVER adopt or wear red as our colours. Unacceptable and crass decision by the club and owners to change the club colours just to appease the whims of one man for flaky reasons at best, lunacy at worst. Cardiff City belongs to fans, communities and history. Colours are our identity. Owners come and go and always will. Never forget that.”

Some marketing experts have hailed the proposed rebranding as progressive. Dr Jonathan Deacon, an expert in entrepreneurship at the University of Wales, told Wales Online that he supports the proposals:

“Red is a very emotive colour and one of passion. I think what comes into play here is from an international marketing perspective, Cardiff City’s owners really understand where their big marketing opportunity is.”

Consumer expert Henry Enos, from the University of Glamorgan said fans should be involved in the decision:

“You have to remember customer and loyalty and the decisions should be taken in conjunction with the fans rather than just steam rolling them out.”

And here’s the important point.

This is one of those proposals so controversial and seemingly far-fetched that the reaction from local media when the story broke was one of incredulity. Was this a belated April Fool?

When it became clear these were serious proposals, fans moved quickly. A ‘Keep Cardiff Blue’ petition was started and campaign graphics produced. Football fans from other clubs across the UK pitched in with their support. Cardiff City fans are a passionate lot, with an active supporters trust.

Thanks to the real time nature of social media, support for the Keep Cardiff Blue movement spread like wildfire across a multitude of platforms within hours.

Vice chair of the supporters trust Tracey Marsh said:

“There is a principle at stake and I feel that as fans if we agree to the conditions that we will be selling out. One of our favourite fans songs talks about ‘not taking my Cardiff away’. It seems that is exactly what is proposed as one City fan has said. I also worry what agreeing to this will mean in the future.”

What’s clear is that the Malyasian owners, who may have a very strong business case for their proposals, have committed the cardinal sin of any major rebrand.

Every brand needs to take its existing stakeholders along with it at times of major change. To avoid dissent from the ranks of the club’s incredibly strong fan base in south Wales, Cardiff City’s owners should have communicated with fans from the outset, and explained the importance of what they were trying to achieve before making any announcement.

Without the support of key fan representatives, they stand accused of railroading through proposals that make little sense from an emotional perspective, with the media and fans alike focussing on the loss of a century of tradition. An appearance on the front page of The Sun and overwhelmingly negative coverage locally is nothing short of a public relations disaster.

They may be focussing on ensuring the club is not in the red as it aims for Premier League status, but fans will be singing the blues very loudly about these proposals for some time to come.

Ok, so football clubs are a very particular type of business – with a big emotional investment attached to them – but the lesson here is universal.

A rebrand should only be undertaken after careful consideration of the pros and cons of doing so, and the business case needs to be watertight. Ignoring the voice of your most important stakeholders in the process – be they customers, shareholders or employees – is to be avoided at all costs.

Why food business owners can’t afford to ignore social media

Sara Robinson — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:55:45 +0000

In the ever-changing world of social media, there always seems to be a hot new platform, a new trend and new clever ways for brands to connect with their audience online.

One aspect of social media that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon is the trend for taking (and sharing) photos of what you eat. In a nutshell (see what we did there), if you run a food business – a market stall, restaurant, sandwich shop or catering firm – you can no longer afford to ignore social media if you’re serious about winning and retaining customers.

Whether it’s browsing your favourite food blog, seeking out new recipes, or snapping and sharing the food you’re eating on Twitter or Instagram, multitasking at the table seems here to stay. And this has obvious repercussions for how food businesses should approach their marketing and promotion.

This infographic by Flowtown, designed by Column Five, demonstrates how foodies are taking over social networks, or put another way, how food porn is becoming the hot (groan) new trend on the social web.

One stat that caught our attention is that a huge 49 percent of young people ages 18 to 32 saying they text and tweet while they eat. And the so-called millennials aren’t alone. On a recent visit to Barcelona, I bombarded my Instagram feed with food-related snaps (like the one above).

The rich jewelled reds, greens and yellows of a stall dedicated solely to chillies at the city’s famous La Boqueria food market was too much to resist, and looked even better through one of those nifty filters.

So what does this mean for those in the food and hospitality trade?

We advise food businesses and restaurants on their public relations and online marketing activity, and we know that social media delivers measurable results for small establishments that just can’t afford the old-school big advertising and PR spends.

As this infographic proves, even if a dish is too good to share in real life, increasing amounts of us are turning to social networks to share our meals and foodie inspiration. So it makes sense to dive in and take full advantage of social networks, using the appropriate platforms to inspire and excite potential customers about your culinary creations.

Anyway, enough food talk, I’m off to make a (rustic) sandwich.

Now, where did I put my iPhone again?

Why businesses should use their power to change lives

Sara Robinson — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:55:30 +0000

There’s a line from a Steve Jobs speech that I love.

Delivered when he returned to Apple in 1997, in an attempt to rally a team that were fearing for the future of a company that had been haemorrhaging 1 billion dollars a month for the previous three months, he said this:

“We believe people with passion have the power to change the world for the better”

If I wasn’t so OCD about Blu-Tac marks I would have this quote on my bedroom wall.

I run an ambitious small business, where we believe passionately in what we do and we also want to make a difference. Which is why we were so excited to come across the B1G1 movement (it stands for Buy 1, Give 1. It’s consumers doing the buying and business doing the giving).

But we’ll come to that shortly. That’s all very nice, you may be thinking, but why should I care?

Because if you run, or are involved in a business, a recent American study highlighted some universal principles that you need to know about and – more importantly – take action on.

Cone Inc Studies’ ‘Cause Evolution Study’ is well worth the 15 minutes it takes to read it. If you don’t have that time, here are what we think are some of the important points

• 88% of Americans say it is acceptable for companies to involve a cause or issue in their marketing. This record number represents a 33% increase since Cone began measuring in 1993 (66%).

• 85% of consumers have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about.

• 90% of consumers want companies to tell them the ways they are supporting causes. Put another way: More than 278 million people in the U.S. want to know what a company is doing to benefit a cause.

• 83% of Americans wish more of the products, services and retailers they use would support causes.

• 90% of consumers want companies to tell them the ways they are supporting causes.

• 41 percent of Americans say they have bought a product because it was associated with a cause or issue in the last year – doubling since they first began measuring in 1993 (20%).

The Cone Study ends like this:

“With all due respect, one-off cause promotions are a dime a dozen these days. They reach relevant consumers, but to really stand out as a notable cause leader in the next few years, companies will have to think big. Pepsi drops the Super Bowl to donate millions. McDonald’s ties the sale of every Happy Meal to Ronald McDonald House Charities…indefinitely.”

In other words, it’s not just a short-term promotion that will help your business grow. It’s changing what your product, company or brand stands for every day.

Which is what makes B1G1, a revolution in charitable giving founded in Asia by business guru and philanthropist Paul Dunn, so interesting for businesses of all sizes.

Yes, times are tough, but just imagine if you could make a difference to the lives of the many that have so little by comparison, just by doing what it is you normally do. While helping your customers and potential customers feel good about you in the process. Where every penny you donate directly reaches good causes (ever worried about how much of every £1 you raise for charity actually benefits users? We have to admit we have voiced this concern when assessing requests in the past). Doesn’t it sound appealing?

If you have ever done ad-hoc fundraising with no real purpose, or are looking to ‘add purpose’ to your business then this may well be the path you could take to make a measurable and regular difference to lives.

If you have a spare 60 seconds, please take the time to watch the video below which explains the concept far better than we can:

Just imagine if you were a café owner and every time you sold a cup of coffee, you gave a child in Africa access to life-saving clean water.

Or imagine if you were an author and whenever you sold one of your books, a tree got planted.

Imagine 100% of what you pledge, no matter how small, making a difference to a charitable project of your choice.

Just imagine – every business in our world making a difference every day regardless of the size of the company.

This is the opportunity presented by B1G1, and at Cake Communications we are delighted to be joining this global movement as a business partner. Because we believe businesses have the power to change lives. Do you?

Should your brand be using Instagram?

Sara Robinson — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:49:14 +0000

Instagram, named Apple’s app of the year, has quickly become the biggest thing in photograph-based social networking. The photo sharing app, which has been exclusive to the iPhone since October 2010, has succeeded in becoming a social network and community in its own right, with 15 million users and 1 million new users a fortnight.

But what does this mean for online brand building?

The rise of Instagram is a clear reflection of where the market is heading – towards visual data-focused social media.

The successes of social networking sites like Pinterest and the growing use of infographics across all media are firm indicators that as social media technology evolves and multiplies, people are increasingly voting with their clicking fingers for image-based platforms.

It makes sense when you think about it. When you’re Facebook stalking, do you pay more attention to the text on people’s profiles or to pictures, which provide a more immediate insight into people’s lives?

When you consider that 65% of the population are classified as ‘visual learners’ – that is, people who learn most effectively with images and diagrams – it’s easy to see why image-based social media is in the ascendancy.

Instagram allows the user to take a new photo or use one from their existing phone gallery, enhance it with 11 different filters (we like Nashville and Toaster best) and then share it across various social networks and on Instagram itself.

So, what makes it so app-ealing? First of all, Instagram integrates easily with Facebook, Twitter and other photo sharing apps.

Secondly, it is incredibly straight-forward to use. New users can spend just 2 minutes setting up and will quickly realise how easy it is to start posting, browsing, sharing, liking and even commenting on pictures.

The retro photo filters are a real treat for the snap happy. To give images a more ‘arty’ look, you just click through the filters to see which suits your image best and click on the one you would like to use.

Gone are the days of taking 10 different pictures on my iPhone and constantly fiddling with the lighting to make everyone look decent. It’s incredibly simple to achieve more flattering lighting in a few swipes of your finger. What’s not to love?

Instagram goes beyond just being a handy photo-enhancing app, however. Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s developer and former Google bod, describes it as a new form of communication that is a convenient fit with the ‘always with you’ iPhone.

He summarised the key differentiator between Instagram and original photo sharing apps thus:

“You can build a filter app to get people really excited, but the way to keep them is to provide long term value. Long term value is in fact being its own network. We think of ourselves as a social network and we’re building products and tools to produce the best content in the world…We’re building a place for the world’s visual data.”

Crucially for marketing and brand communication professionals, Instagram is becoming an increasingly effective commercial communication tool.

Starbucks and Burberry are already using Instagram to build their brands. Burberry regularly shares pictures of photo shoots and new designs and Starbucks ask its fans to tag them in their daily coffee snaps. Impressively, both have surpassed the 100,000 follower mark. Both companies have really capitalised on the opportunity Instagram offers to provide users with behind-the-scenes insights into their brand.

Travel brand bmibaby is also jumping on the bandwagon and using Instagram to run campaigns encouraging users to share destination pictures. One of their initiatives is ‘#mycountry’, a campaign to crowd source visual destination guides for bmibaby’s key European destinations. Those who submit pictures with the destination hashtag have a chance to win flights.

As a result of this Instagram campaign, an impressive 10,200 entries were tagged which was an all-round success for bmibaby and the lucky winner. ‘Instagrammers’ were still using the hashtags after the official campaign had finished which is a great testament to the power of Instagram.

Instagram is soon to be launched on Android, which has the potential of doubling its users overnight. It is concentrating on acquiring users and growing the app so over the next 12 months there will be no pressure on revenue and users can continue to enjoy a very pure social experience with no interference from adverts.

It’s clear that when it comes to using visual-based tools to build your brand, this is definitely one to watch.

School’s in: Why investing in leadership skills is so crucial for new start-ups

Sara Robinson — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:29:47 +0000

It’s been five months since I registered Cake Communications at Companies House, but it feels like yesterday. Since starting out on the rollercoaster journey that is running a new start-up, I’ve been caught up in a seemingly never-ending whirlwind of meetings, pitching, proposal writing – not to mention all the dreaded ADMIN.

I’m lucky enough to have an experienced business partner who takes care of all of our financial affairs, which frees me up to concentrate on developing the business, targeting new clients, running the operational side and on our overarching vision.

When it comes to building successful enterprises, I know the difference good leaders make to an organisation. From experience of working with both inspirational and weak leaders I was determined from the outset to fall into the former camp. And so it was a no-brainer from the moment I decided to create a new business to invest in my leadership skills.

Charles Darwin said “It is not the strongest of the species that survives nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”. My business of communication – or getting client’s messages to the people that matter – was born in a period of major uncertainty. In an ever-changing communications landscape, with the fragmentation of information channels, the decline of traditional media and explosion of digital, the ability to adapt, reposition in the market and identify future demands and opportunities is clearly crucial for our survival.

During my career to date, I’ve seen business leaders get so bogged down in delivery that they don’t invest in their own skills, and the resulting negative impact this can have on people around them, and ultimately the potential for business growth. I’ve also worked for leaders that had me hanging on their every word and motivated me to succeed in a shared goal that I bought into. Knowing the leadership style I personally aspire to, I decided to study for a leadership qualification.

Everybody told me I was crazy but that’s usually the way to make me even more determined to do something (so thanks to all those people!). I knew I needed as much value from my limited study time as possible and that a theoretical-based course would be of limited use at my stage of trading, so opted for the 20 Twenty programme run by the Cardiff School of Management at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

The 20 Twenty programme is a 10-month journey delivered through workshops, action learning groups, master-classes, mentoring and coaching.

The overarching aim is to get participants to develop a three-year growth strategy for their business. This is what made the programme stand out from other leadership development programmes for me – it provides sustainable results with tangible benefits (that’s the idea anyway!).

So far, I have enjoyed every second of the programme. Taking time out from the day to day craziness to meet likeminded business owners serious about growing their businesses and adapting to change has been fascinating and thought-provoking.

From sharing experiences and group problem-solving to recognising our own strengths and weaknesses as leaders and how to work with these, it’s been the best business decision I’ve made yet.

I’ve learnt so much – from coaching skills to new approaches to challenging situations – in a short time and and know there’s a world of learning to come. Winning a speed networking challenge was also a highlight, but no surprise given my line of work I suppose.

The part I love the most is meeting entrepreneurs who after 20 years or more of running their ‘babies’ have decided to take the plunge and reinvest in their own capabilities. These people are living proof that it’s never too late to go back to school and admit that you don’t know what you don’t know. Because, in the words of John F Kennedy, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other”.

The tweet smell of customer service victory: Advice for businesses

Sara Robinson — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:55:37 +0000

Social media has transformed the customer service landscape beyond recognition. Two recent experiences have brought the scale of that change home. Here I explore some of the valuable lessons for any business that takes customer service seriously. Actually that should that just read ‘for any business’.

First things first. My name is Sara and I am a serial complainer. I’m fairly sure that a significant proportion of my DNA is not Anglo-Saxon in its origin because I absolutely love to moan when I feel let down by a product or service. Conversely, I’m the first to shout about good service. In this sense, I suppose I’m a challenging customer. Go the extra mile to delight me and I’ll tell the world, but let me down and I’ll make a huge fuss. I’m certainly – and increasingly – not alone in that stance.

The rise of social media has made it easier than ever for consumers to air our grievances. Now you can slate or rate a company on your Twitter or Facebook profile within seconds, and reach thousands of people with your feedback. It’s little wonder the big boys are diverting resources from traditional call centres to dedicated social media teams, whose role is to monitor brand mentions online and intervene to resolve complaint situations.

Long gone are the days when lodging a complaint involved penning an angry letter, leaving it in your handbag until the white envelope turned a shade Dulux would probably call ‘miserable pigeon’ (err, just me then?) before popping it into a post box and waiting two weeks for a reply.

Now, one well-timed ‘Been royally let down by (INSERT COMPANY NAME) – steer well clear’ tweet can get results, and fast.

Back in the early days of the internet, when I wrote for a newspaper, I quickly worked out that bypassing the customer service department and putting in a call to the press office usually got me the result I was looking for.

The fear of being slated in the press was enough to ensure a swift resolution to whatever problem was bothering me at the time. Nowadays, social media has given all of us that power to stamp our feet that little bit harder. And savvy companies are sitting up, taking notice and taking action.

Let me give you an example. A recent visit to a local luxury spa wasn’t what I expected. After a hectic few months setting up my new business, I had booked a spa day as a treat. I was looking forward to a relaxing day, a chance to breathe and rejuvenate.

What I received was rudeness and indifference from the staff, a slap dash treatment and an overall experience that left a bitter taste in the mouth. I tweeted about the poor service, naming the spa and giving them an @ mention to make sure they saw my tweet.

I quickly received a tweet asking for me to email the details of my complaint and within 24 hours the spa manager had emailed me apologising and inviting me back for a day of complimentary treatments of my choice. I took her up on the offer and the return visit was everything the first one should have been. The result is, I’ll definitely go back again.

Another example is a recent set-to with Lloyds TSB over a broken online business banking service. Hours on the telephone got me nowhere. One tweet and the issue was fixed within a week, and I was given a sweet £100 compensation gesture to make up for my inconvenience.

I’ve gone from Lloyds TSB hater to lover in seven days.

Now here’s the lesson for business. Had the spa and bank not intervened in a timely and appropriate manner, I would still be bad-mouthing them to all and sundry.

So lesson number one is that social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for customer service. Use it to monitor, engage and compensate.

Do it properly and there is a way of turning around negative situations. Your potential brand terrorists can become brand ambassadors – you just need to give them the tools. And this is true no matter what the size of your business.

You can easily set up real time searches for your business name using the Twitter web interface or other clients such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. Make sure you check the search often, and act accordingly.

It’s understandable why social media was initially seen as a threat to customer service departments. Indeed, many unenlightened companies still view it that way. But consider this. I wouldn’t have bothered writing a letter or email about my spa nightmare. I would have continued to phone my bank for weeks on end, hoping for a resolution. In the spa example, I would have seethed for a bit, told a few people how awful it was and made a mental note never to return. With the bank, I would have written them off as incompetent and possibly switched banks. I would have been a toxic non-returning customer.

Yes, social media makes it easy to praise or complain at a few keystrokes – a victory for consumers, which might seem a royal pain for those in any line of business. But turn it on its head and it actually gives businesses a golden opportunity to engage with customers who might otherwise have harboured a long-lasting negativity about that business. And whose custom could well have been lost.

Everybody messes up from time to time. The key is how you deal with it. Social media makes it easier to listen and easier to respond. So use it!

If you’re looking for some inspiration for handling online customer comments for your business, I asked my Twitter followers for the best examples of companies that do it well and have listed them below.

Why not check these out. And ask yourself, how could you do better when it comes to listening and responding to the people that make or break your business?.

Sainburys (Twitter)

Abel and Cole (Facebook)

ASOS Here To Help (Twitter – dedicated customer service feed)

John Lewis (Twitter)

John Lewis (Facebook)

Virgin Media (Twitter)

Lloyds TSB (Twitter)

Follow my personal tweets on Twitter here. Follow Cake Communications here.

In search of the ultimate job security

Sara Robinson — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:59:49 +0000

Job security – now there’s a phrase we all used to hear a lot more often.

As a little girl it’s a phrase I heard regularly. My father, latterly a talented politician and orator, felt he had wasted his potential by eschewing formal education for a life spent predominantly down a coal mine.

Unfortunately, at the end of the 1980s he – like many thousands of others – found himself unemployed and struggling to find alternative and equally well-paid work. He wanted better for his children and become militantly insistent that I stick at my studies to ensure I could, unlike him, find secure work for life.

The concept of a job for life, of course, disappeared a long time before the current economic meltdown struck. But his much-loved ‘job security’ slogan sprung to mind again the other day, when I bumped into an old work contact.

She remarked that starting my own business in the current climate was very ‘brave’. Reading between the very thin lines, I deduced that for ‘brave’ I should read ‘stupid’. I smiled sweetly, and trotted out the line about businesses that started during recessions historically outperforming others and all that jazz.

But I’d be lying if I said that there aren’t moments – sometimes days – of self-doubt involved in starting up your own business.

Sometimes you can veer wildly from ‘Well, this is the best decision I have EVER made’ to ‘Oh lord, what was I thinking?’ and back again in a matter of seconds. Repeatedly. And that’s on a good day.

But to fear the unknown is only natural, and to paraphrase that much-loved self help book, what marks achievers out from the ‘I would but…’ types is feeling the fear and doing it anyway.

The best piece of advice I’ve received so far is from a fellow small business owner whom I respect hugely. When I confided my fears about leaving a secure and well-paid role to jump into the metaphorical unknown, he reassured me that everybody running their own business feels that way, including him after 20 years at the top of his trade.

He left me with this parting shot: self-employment and entrepreneurship is the ultimate form of job security.

“After all, when it comes down to it, there’s nobody in the world who cares more about your future and will work harder to give you financial security than yourself” he smiled.

I carry these words with me every day. They resonate when I win that big pitch I’d worried about delivering. But most of all I repeat them like a mantra on the bad days – and there are plenty of those too.

So far – three months after jumping ship from a cosy directorship at an established PR agency – I’ve learnt a lot about staying positive and focussing on my vision. The best bit – the one that excites me most – is there’s so much more yet to learn.

Something I inherited from my mother is ‘If you stop learning it’s time to move on’. And with my new baby, I’ve given myself the best opportunity to learn I could have asked for.

Just to reinforce the suspected madness insinuated by the lady I mentioned, I have started studying for a Post Graduate Certificate in Leadership. It will be a real juggling act to balance the conflicting demands of a new business with my studies (not to mention a particularly lively four year old son!) but the opportunity to learn business theory as I simultaneously put it into practice it was too good to turn down.

I hope to blog more about my learnings from the course in the future, but something from my very first session last week really inspired me and I wanted to share it.

We were talking about values in business, how to define them and shape your actions and every single communication to reflect them. That means more than just listing them on a website of course, but living and breathing them.

It struck me as I listed my values for Cake Communications that the opportunity you have as a new start up to create something special that you can truly believe in (and not just pay lip service to because it gets you a payslip every month) is a magical one. And one I’m grateful for every day.

Oh, and I’d like to share something I’ve learnt about coping with uncertainty; the trick is to surround yourself with positive people and messages. Put posters up, collate mood boards, stick post-it notes on the mirror, whatever it takes to fill you with positive thoughts and focus on your goal.

While there are plenty of people out there ready to fill you with self-doubt, there is nobody who will question you more than your own subconscious voice. Drown out the others to focus on that, and you’re well prepared for battle.

Is inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs really child’s play?

Sara Robinson — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:38:06 +0000

I often ask my four year old son what he would like to be when he grows up. It changes almost daily and I’m always guaranteed an entertaining answer. In one ten-day period recently he wanted to be a fireman, builder, space rocket driver and footballer and back again to fireman. So far so normal, I suppose. He’s still very young of course.

But I’ve been thinking a lot about why young people almost never tell you “actually, when I grow up I’d like to be my own boss”. When I was young – and despite being the bossiest (polite translation: single-minded) child in a 100 mile radius – it never seemed like an option open to me. I never even considered it.

A recent survey found that three quarters of 11 to 18-year-olds would like to start their own business in the future, and almost half say this has always been the case.It seems that TV programmes such as the Apprentice and Dragon’s Den as well as internet entrepreneurs such as Facebook’s Marc Zuckerberg are inspiring a new generation of wannabe bosses.

But ask any young person you know and I’m sure these figures won’t be borne out by their responses. Of course, it’s great news that young people are aspiring to entrepreneurship in theory, but what stops this translating into reality?

Of course there are social and cultural issues that would take a lot longer than a single blog to explore, and there are plenty of really interesting studies into this issue. One US-UK study found that our genes are crucial in determining whether we are entrepreneurial and likely to become self-employed. It found nearly half of an individual’s propensity to become self-employed is due to genetic factors. The researchers found that, contrary to previous beliefs, family environment and upbringing have little influence on whether a person becomes self-employed or not.

I’m not sure I agree totally with this. I think some good leaders are indeed ‘born’ but there are so many other factors that impact on entrepreneurial start-up rates; redundancy, chance meetings, a sudden windfall…

One thing is clear – the future of our economy depends on the development of entrepreneurial skills within our schoolchildren today. And, despite the best work of a number of fantastic organisations including Young Enterprise, I think our education system could do so much more to promote entrepreneurship to young people from an early age. From the time they can read and write, I think we need to give young people the opportunity to learn, test and develop the skills required to survive in business.

Of course, if you’re lucky and concentrate then school provides the building blocks for setting up in business, such as IT skills, communication and numeracy.

But the majority of schools do little to teach self-belief, which is clearly crucial when studies have found that young people don’t go into self-employment due to lack of confidence. Also, how often did your teachers mention that there would be an option to employ yourself one day? I didn’t hear anything of the sort, and my experience of careers advice was being channeled towards certain types of jobs (none of which I went into, incidentally).

While there’s an argument that the best leaders are born that way, to paraphrase one Lady Gaga, I strongly believe that there is a lot you can do to ‘teach’ entrepreneurship. But it needs to start young, and needs to be consistent.

Myself, I’m teaching my son the joys of self-employment bit by bit, every day. I explain that mummy can only come to every parents assembly and sports day because I am in control of my own workload and working hours, and show him how happy that makes me. He seems to be picking up on it. Now, when asked what mummy does, he reels off my company name and elevator pitch ending his spiel with “and she DOESN’T HAVE A BOSS”.

I’m dreaming of the day I ask him what he wants to be when he grows up and he replies:

“I’d like to spend my days worrying about not being able to take any holiday, how to handle ‘difficult talent’ and planning a vague exit strategy mummy”.

Or perhaps not. But I want him to at least know that it’s an option open to him. In an ever-changing competitive global economy, we owe it to our children to expand the horizons of their own ambitions and expectations. Right?