Pickle Jar Communications

NO! Please stop it! Okay, I should expand on that a little I guess. Here’s the thing… for months now I’ve been noticing a growing trend of some university and college ‘corporate’ Twitter accounts (ugh!) retweeting positive comments that people say about them. This can be anything from someone enjoying an open day to a [...]

Yesterday I delivered two workshops to a number of delegates at the EUPRIO annual conference in Averio, Portugal. My session was one of seven on the progamme, all running twice that morning. Across the two workshops I seem to have been joined by more than half the conference delegation. This staggered me but just goes [...]

This is one of the hardest blog posts that I have composed. Writing this is part of my grieving process. But there is a serious message here of the value that social media really can bring to our lives, particularly in times of personal need or sorrow. Yesterday one of my house rabbits very suddenly [...]

It’s been far too long since my last blog post. I spend so much of my time preaching to people about blogging and the need to do it regularly, that I really must practice what I preach. However, I’ve got so many exciting projects on the go at the moment for various clients that it’s [...]

I wouldn’t ordinarily post a press release here as it isn’t the most appropriate format for a blog. However, as we are sponsoring the Birmingham Twestival, I thought I’d indulge myself a little and include the press release here: BIRMINGHAM TO JOIN 100 CITIES ACROSS THE WORLD IN FUNDRAISING ‘TWESTIVAL‘ On February 12th 2009 Birmingham [...]

I’ve been reading this blog this morning by Samuel Bradley giving tips to college students on using Twitter (though the tips could extend beyond that audience). Bradley advises: Don’t simply link to your Facebook bio if there’s anything on your profile that you wouldn’t show in front of the class. Rule of thumb: If a [...]

When I was 14 years old I took part in a fairly typical school exchange trip, staying with Carola Herman and her lovely family in a small town just outside Frankfurt, Germany. I was three years into learning to speak German at the time, but a couple of hours a week at school and no [...]

My approach to using new and social media as a PR tool is to forget about everything that traditional PR approaches might have taught us (well, perhaps not everything, but many things) and view it as something altogether very very different from media relations. Never sending a press release designed for a journalist to a [...]

I’m working late tonight. Because I’m working late, I’m missing out on a trip to the Coventry Pizza Express with my fiance and a group of our friends. Sounds like a fairly run-of-the-mill Tuesday night, doesn’t it? However, there is a story behind this trip to Pizza Express – one which – combined with tonight’s [...]

I’m always looking for new and useful tools for the blog and by following Paul Bradshaw on Twitter (www.twitter.com/paulbradshaw) I have had introductions to some great resources this morning. Firstly, he linked through to the blog post 60 ridiculously useful tools for your blog or website. If that wasn’t enough, I then also spotted Paul’s [...]