{"id":91236,"date":"2016-08-12T10:33:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T10:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=91236"},"modified":"2016-11-08T10:36:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T10:36:39","slug":"blogger-spotlight-leanne-ross-a-cup-of-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/blogger-spotlight-leanne-ross-a-cup-of-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogger Spotlight: Leanne Ross, A Cup of Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leanne Ross is an award-winning consultant with a decade\u2019s experience of working in-house and in-agency, across public, private and voluntary sectors. She is also the author behind A Cup of Lee<\/a>, a blog that covers current trends in digital PR. In this spotlight\u00a0Leanne chats to us about why she thinks the age of \u201cthe blogger\u201dwill phase out,\u00a0Snapchat influencers, why digital\u00a0will drive trends in PR, why Brexit has further fuelled the need to fix the diversity issues\u00a0within\u00a0the industry and why she thinks product-based blogging will connive to rise for businesses.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Leanne<\/a><\/p>\n

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what made you start writing your blog?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>I\u2019ve been working in Comms and PR since I graduated with a MarComms degree in 2006. I\u2019ve worked in-house, in-agency and most recently as a freelance consultant. I started A Cup Of Lee back in 2003 to both practice WordPress, which was increasingly being used as the CMS programme for many\u00a0corporate\u00a0websites, but also to create an online portfolio of\u00a0writing and thoughts on my own industry.\u00a0I\u2019m also the\u00a0mum of one small\u00a0autistic\u00a0boy (aged seven) and last year I married a New Zealand rugby player who found himself in my part of the UK – Northern Ireland. We are starting another blog<\/a> now – my first family one – to chart our move to NZ called<\/p>\n

Why should people read your blog? What makes it different?<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>I think there\u2019s a great\u00a0dearth of good blogs in our industry, which is surprising\u00a0given the fact that we\u2019re often tasked\u00a0professionally with engaging bloggers and gaining coverage in blogs, at least when you compare PR to Digital\u00a0Marketing or eCommerce for example. I think it’s always good to read more widely, and I\u2019m pleased to see more students creating industry blogs to curb the old trend. I\u2019d say my blog is\u00a0different because I walk the line between industry blog and\u00a0lifestyle blog – I cover events, products and guest interviews as well as giving my opinion and how-to advice on the industry which is more\u00a0commonly what is covered. It has given me a real insight into what is expected of\u00a0bloggers and the value of their technical and creative contribution to new media.<\/p>\n

How do you measure the success of your blog?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>As with all bloggers I have to measure the metrics from the Domain\u00a0Authority (which is still low because for a long time the blog wasn\u2019t self-hosted) to the social media following and email subscribers which are strong and directs regular readers with each post. But given my initial aims – career advancement portfolio – I also have to measure the\u00a0opportunities\u00a0that have come my way because of the blog like being head hunted or paid to be a trainer or guest speaker.<\/p>\n

What has been your blogging highlight?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>I don\u2019t really have a blogging highlight as such, but each time a young person comes up to me at an event and asks for advice, or sends me a LinkedIn message or email to tell me that they follow the\u00a0blog and would appreciate my help – I always take the time to write lengthy replies, because I think what an honour it is to influence a\u00a0person like that, and how wonderful to be able to help them go on to do great things – which I know they can do because they\u2019re already seeking quality content and mentors and advice. Each of those is a highlight for me.<\/p>\n

What do you think will be big in the\u00a0blogsphere\u00a0in the coming months?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I think new media forms will grow and the age of\u00a0\u201cthe blogger\u201dwill phase out, in the sense that not all bloggers need to actually write anymore. Some are Snapchat influencers, some are YouTube producers, and those who do write are finding their niche audiences in new places like LinkedIn articles or on Medium.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m also\u00a0hoping that the trend for\u00a0\u201clisticles\u201d and other click-bait is slowly making way for the new long-form quality content we\u2019re seeing more of. People want to learn and grow from the precious time they invest in consuming online media, and I\u00a0hope that\u00a0continues.<\/p>\n

List best practices PRs need to follow for better blogger outreach?<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>I believe honesty is the best\u00a0practice. Modern bloggers can see through all this social media following and engagement for\u00a0\u201crelationship building\u201dstuff. Simple, honest communication to explain transparently why you\u2019re contacting them, what you want for your client and more importantly what you will give them in return – that is now the key to\u00a0ensure\u00a0you gain their trust and don\u2019t waste their time. Bloggers are now well-versed in PR practices, you\u2019re fooling no-one. They don\u2019t all want paid, but you should approach it from a balanced benefit point of view. They should gain as much as your client does, in some way, shape or form.<\/p>\n

As an industry media expert what big trends do you think we will see this year in PR and what impact do you see it having on the industry?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I believe all things digital will drive trends in PR. This doesn\u2019t just apply to the media we engage with or how we communicate. Even traditional PR\u00a0functions\u00a0such as crisis communications need to\u00a0evolve\u00a0to understand the technology around\u00a0things like\u00a0data breaches and privacy hacks, which are becoming more common for businesses big and small.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other\u00a0technical movements such as Ad-Blocking pose real\u00a0opportunities to PR whereas the SEO\u00a0experts are posing a threat; seeing the business benefits and implementing real bottom-line results across social media, search and online consumer behaviour, where many PR providers are still lagging behind or sticking to their silos.<\/p>\n

You are the author of the bestselling PR book \u2018\u2018Talk is Cheap\u2019\u2019 can you explain why you decided to write this book and what key messages you want people to take away from the book?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I got a lot of industry flack for\u00a0writing a book that appears on the surface to belittle an industry of\u00a0people\u00a0who believe themselves to be\u00a0\u201cprofessionals.\u201d\u00a0The fact is, I\u2019m an Accredited\u00a0Practitioner, but in reality that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0stop any\u00a0wannabe\u00a0picking up a\u00a0laptop\u00a0and touting their wares as a PR Consultant. Years of that has resulted in a deep distrust of PR as a discipline in the world of small business, as well as a more general misunderstanding about what it is and more\u00a0importantly; what its worth. I knew from conversations with clients that if you show them exactly what you\u2019re doing, how and why, rather than do it themselves they will most\u00a0likely try it, appreciate it and then value the budget used to outsource it, while knowing the difference between a\u00a0professional and an amateur when they do outsource it. That is why I wrote the book.<\/p>\n

What do you think about the marketing behind the leave campaign and why it won over remain?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>As a\u00a0history buff married to a\u00a0cultural\u00a0affairs follower, I don\u2019t personally believe one campaign was significantly better than the other. PR is good, but its not that good. It\u2019s arrogant in my opinion to put the result down to\u00a0campaigns.\u00a0We knew from the Scotland Referendum that it takes a lot of courage for people to take a risk into the unknown. From what I can see, as a Northern Irish citizen, the leave campaign won because years of\u00a0disenchantment\u00a0with politics and the upper ruling classes, coupled with a deep change in cultures across Europe and a rising tide of racism fuelled by fear of growing terrorism, all mixed together to make people angry and\u00a0fearful\u00a0enough to make the leap without a\u00a0safety\u00a0net.<\/p>\n

How do you think Brexit will influence PR?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>I think, as I\u2019ve said above, it has made the industry think long and hard about its ability to manipulate the masses; to effect change and behaviours. The kind of control it always claimed to have,\u00a0particularly in areas\u00a0of\u00a0public affairs or political communications and societal campaigning.<\/p>\n

PR has always understood the need for\u00a0engagement\u00a0and two-way conversation but I think Brexit has further fuelled the need to fix the diversity issues\u00a0within\u00a0the industry at a faster pace – before PR and its clients start to suffer from the same disenchanted disengagement that the Brexit campaigners fell foul of.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months?\u00a0<\/strong>I think B2B industry blogging has grown exponentially, and it has now become more difficult to gain an audience and stand apart. More businesses are using it as part of their generic communications and digital marketing and so we have basically flooded the internet with content. Even though much of it is quality, it will take something else to leverage more than basic benefits from it in future. So I think product-based blogging will connive to rise for businesses, with more people creating their own products to sell through blogs from webinars and eBooks to full online service delivery. Likewise, with B2C bloggers – the traditional bloggers – the trend for them is growing towards more professional business models, where they are now full media brands and leveraging the profitability of that with guest speaking opportunities, training roles and similar digital passive income products to those seen in B2B blogging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PR blogger Leanne Ross chats to us about why she thinks product-based blogging will connive to rise for businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":95050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7272,4038,6980,1449],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91236"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95049,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91236\/revisions\/95049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}