The Vivid Blog has a new home

It's official, the move is complete. You can now follow us at

www.thevividconsultancy.posterous.com

(Read Holly's post 29/09 to find out why)

We'd love to know what you think of the new look, so please feel free to leave us a comment.

Vivid Friday Favourites

Hilary:

• I love the fact that it’s Autumn which is my favourite season – the colours, the leaves on the ground, the low sun. Fantastic walking weather!
• I’m also really pleased that Sandbag, Dirtbag and Royal the dogs and Hesco the cat have arrived safely in the UK from Iraq - http://bit.ly/VNoqM. Even better, it looks like they've been given homes in Gloucestershire! However, it would be nice to see animal welfare being taken more seriously around the globe.
• I’ve enjoyed listening to John Hellings waking the Cotswold Way on BBC Radio Gloucestershire. Glorious!

Caroline: http://glumcouncillors.tumblr.com/ This hilarious site is dedicated to photographs of councillors looking gloomy... we had a look through our archives to see if we could find any of our own to contribute, but I'm happy to report that Tewkesbury's councillors are a cheerful bunch!

Holly: I'm not deaf! That's definitely made my week. I've always been a bit concerned that excessive exposure to loud music has caused some lasting damage, but whilst researching online hubs for the deaf/hearing impaired for the HPC I came across this deafchecker from the RNID. Awesome. http://bit.ly/q9c44. Also the fact that we're leapt from google obscurity to front page loveliness purely because of our blog and twitter account (@wearevivid doncha know). Def good for my ego :-)

Happy Friday all... this'll be the last week Friday favourites is here.... next week we make the move!

TVT xx

Bye bye blogger...

Can’t believe it’s been a month since I started work! Crazy how the time goes non? One of my tasks since becoming part of the team at Vivid has been to develop and maintain our blog. Definitely loads of fun. Recently though, I’ve been debating jumping the Blogger ship and finding a different platform from which to launch our tidbits of loveliness.

Why? Partly it’s to do with aesthetic preference. I’ve been using WordPress for my own site, www.dirtyenid.co.uk, for a while now and for me it’s far and away the better looking dashboard. To suddenly be faced with Blogger is a bit of a visual kick in the stomach by comparison. A little bit eye-vomitty, with too many colours, and way too much bold font. By comparison, WordPress keeps it nice and simple. Grayscale palette with the occasional splash of colour. A bit like Schindler’s list.

The other reason is formatting. Is it just me, or does the Blogger software have some kind of blind spot when it comes to calculating how many lines you’ve left between each paragraph? It’s a minor annoyance having to keep re-editing everything you write so that the spaces between the lines look right, but after a while it gets pretty tiresome. Tiresome enough to move when something better comes along, and a real indicator of how the small details can make a huge difference.

So it’s time to starting packing up and moving on. But it’s not WordPress I’m defecting to, despite its legions of fans and the fact that even Google’s Matt Cutts rates it the highest in terms of SEO. Oh no. There’s a new blog kid on the block. Enter Posterous. Launched in July 2008 by super-smart computer duo Gary Tan and Sachin Agarwal, Posterous is beautiful in its simplicity. It’s based around email – email for setup, email to post, email to share music, videos and other media.

It’s this simplicity that I find so appealing. It terms of implementing a blog that every member of the Vivid team can use it’s pretty unbeatable. Whilst getting to grips with creating and posting blogs takes time if you have no experience, everyone is already familiar with email. Whilst I’m totally in favour of pushing people out of their comfort zones when it comes to social media, sometimes it just makes sense to go for the simple option.

To conclude… adios Blogger. Posterous here we come – I’ll let you know once the move’s all sorted. In the meantime, I’d love to know if anyone else has been using Posterous for a while, and how it’s shaping up long term (and if anyone else agrees about the ugliness of Blogger…)

Hx

P.S... if you're still confused and wondering how to pick a platform for your own blog, check out this super informative post from the problogger team.

Vivid Friday Favourite

A mini Friday favourite this week as there's only two of us in the office today...

Caroline: My favourite thing this week was attending the Rick Stein event for the Princes Trust. Apparently he used to be a nightclub owner, until he was told he was unfit to hold a license and had it taken away from him! It was also great to hear from Lorna Knapman, who received help from the Trust and now runs the amazing Love Food Festival.

Holly: Linky favourites :-)
http://www.blockposters.com/ even though it would destroy your printer ink...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/w00kie/sets/180637/show/ Clever desktop backgrounds.
And continuing on the toilet paper/art theme from a fortnight ago... http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Paper-cuts-Rolls/241623

xxTVTxx

Automatic followers on Twitter - Just Say No

If you've taken the plunge and started using Twitter then it won't be long until you see a tweet that goes something like this...
"OMG, I JUST WENT ON TO (INSERT WEB ADDRESS HERE) AND NOW I HAVE A GAZILLION FOLLOWERS! IT'S AMAZING! TRY IT AND YOU TOO CAN BE A TWITTER STAR."

There are multiple sites of this ilk spamming their way around Twitter. All promise to find you a plethora of followers for minimal effort, applying the same principles as those chain letters that promised you 300 chocolate bars through the post if you sent out just one. (Remember those? If anyone ever actually got any chocolate I would love to hear from you!)

There are two major reasons for ignoring these sites:

1. They don't work

Example: Today the Vivid Twitter account (@WeAreVivid by the way) was followed by 'Warwuti'. I'm pretty prepared to accept that Warwuti may not even be real, a spammy bot of some kind designed to promote twitritus (detritus? Tenuous at best, but maybe?). But this account proclaimed the wonders of several follower sites, so I followed Warwuti back, watched and waited.

'Warwuti'

At the time of following (11.30am), Warwuti had 92 followers, and 365 that they were following.

At 13.21: Followers at 110, following at 365

At 14.42: 115 and 647

And at 16.07, 118 and 644. Nowhere near the hundreds of new followers promised by any of these sites. Lots of following going on, but noone willing to pay attention to Warwuti's (admittedly deeply unexciting) tweets. Which brings me neatly to point number 2...

Twitter is not just about how many followers you have. It's about making connections with people that will be generally interested in what you have to say, and that you can learn from in return. It's far better to take it slow and make sure you build up proper relationships with those you do follow than to play the numbers. Twitter isn't the playground, and to focus purely on popularity at the expense of finding valuable, interesting people to connect with will mean you do the site, and yourself, a disservice.

Our new new newsletter - social media explained #1

To view this newsletter in full-page glory please click the square icon at the top on the right hand side. We really hope you like it!
Vivid Social Media Bulletin #1

Social Media Revolution

If you're still unconvinced about the power of social media, check out this slideshow from the folks at socialnomics.

Vivid Friday Favourites

Hilary: The concept of the Stroud pound, designed to encourage people to shops locally, and its nickname – the teasle! Also listening to Sapperton man Arthur Findlater who is in a wheel chair talking about his unique relationship with his assistance dog, Daxi. Daxi and Arthur work with Canine Partners, a fabulous charity which builds on man’s relationship with man’s best friend. Inspirational! If you'd like to hear more about Arthur and Daxi listen again to the John Rockley show from the 17th of September. And finally, hearing that my nephew Pete, a broadcast journalist, has been asked to contribute to a new football site, http://www.westhaminsider.com/. Cool, even though I’m not a West Ham supporter!

Caroline: Going to the 'Thank you for the Music' tribute to Abba in Hyde Park. It was great, particularly Jodie Prenger (Nancy in Oliver! and winner of 'I'd do anything'). However no one sings Abba songs quite like Abba! It was particularly satisfying to see that Bjorn looks even better now than he did back in the day! The concert is still up on bbc iplayer if you want to have a listen.

Holly: More internet faves from me this week (shock). First up is http://www.spezify.com/. This is a visual search engine that pulls together content from across the web and displays it in an engaging visual format that would be great for designers seeking inspiration. Try searching for emotions or colours. Another favourite this week is http://www.xtranormal.com/. This is a text to movie website that lets you script and move 3d characters around a virtual world. Next week I'm going to be using it to make a tutorial or something so watch this space....

Lauren: Having the launch party for the Tewkesbury brand and seeing the logo unveiled for everyone to have a look at. Check out the pics here.

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend.

The Vivid Team x

Alderman Knight's MUGA

MUGA? That's the new multi-use games area that's just been built at the Alderman Knight school in Tewkesbury. This facility was made possible thanks to the fundraising efforts of Wooden Spoon, the charity of English and Irish rugby. We went along to see the launch and meet England and Gloucester rugby star James Simpson-Daniel (we even managed to get a snap of him with the new Tewkesbury logo!) To hear more about the project tune in to David Smith's show on BBC Gloucestershire from 2.30pm.

Talking the Tewkesbury logo out for a walk....

This week Holly and Lauren have been taking the new logo out to meet some of Tewkesbury's famous faces. If you'd like to see it for yourselves there's an exhibition on at Tewkesbury Town Hall starting tonight and running through until Saturday evening (full details here)

Vivid Friday Favourites

Happy Friday! Today we're ultra pleased to announce the launch of our new weekly blogspot, named with heartstopping alliteration, the Friday Favourites. Each week we'll be bringing together for your reading pleasure the things that have made us happy over the course of the week...

Caroline: The news that fat thighs are good for you, and that Peter & Katie are finally divorced!

Hilary: Listening to the Breakfast Show with Mark Cummings on BBC Radio Gloucestershire on the way to work this morning, particularly the segment on simple things that make you happy (including a glass of wine on the patio on a sunny friday evening!) Have a listen here.

Holly: These paper cut outs by artist Yuken Teruya. Seriously intricate and seriously beautiful. Have a look at the rest of the collection, I think the sprouting New York Times is my favourite :-)


Lauren: The fact that it was 9/9/9 this week! Have a look here to see why this date holds so much significance for some people. I also thought this advert for Goldstar beer, showing the differences between male and female thought processes was great. (Check out the rest of the series too)

And for all of us... the fact that it's been nice and warm all week, and set to get even better over the next few days. Have a lovely weekend everyone!

The Vivid Team x

Twitter

You can now follow us on Twitter! We'll be chirping up (punny) about lots of lovely things from the world of PR and communications, passing on social media news and sharing the internet gold we occassionally stumble across :-) Look us up @WeAreVivid and come say hello.

Canine Partners - Doggy Demonstration

We went to an event at Cirencester Park Polo Club last Thursday.The event was hosted by Canine Partners which is a charity that aims to assist people with disabilities to enjoy a greater independence and a better quality of life. They demonstrated the work that they do with the dogs as part of the training programme, all of us were extremely impressed, it was incredible!

Yay dropbox.

Have just introduced the rest of the office to the joys of dropbox. It's a great little filesharing tool - easy to use, nicely styled and a super quick way of sharing information between clients or colleagues when you're working remotely. If you're working on a particular project with two or more people it's really simple for everyone to chip in without having to constantly send things back and forth. I'm definitely a fan.

I love wordle. Not only is it a quick way of creating lovely type-based graphics, it's also an excellent way of displaying quantative information when you're looking at blogs or websites. The larger the word, the more often it appears in the text. Simple. Here's the one I did for the Vivid blog:

To make your own word cloud visit www.wordle.net Happy Friday! Hx

Image attributed to http://www.wordle.net

Need convincing about the power of social media?

Check out Jake Hird's posts on the e-consultancy blog here and here. He's pooled together a load of stats that demonstrate the overwhelming amount of social media usage that is now occurring.

'It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people... In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.'

And what if social media sites counted as nations? This is how the list of top-5 highest populated countries would look:

1.China
2.India
3.YouTube
4.Facebook
5.USA

Definitely some food for thought.

Hilary, Lauren & the posing pooches

Hilary brought her lovely doggies into the office last week for a photoshoot. It was a bit manic, they were up on the desks and chairs and rumaging through the bins in the hope of finding something yummy, they had no such luck!



Marmite, Abby and Chester were posing for a picture which was featured in the Gloucestershire Echo to promote 'Take your dog to work day', this takes place on Wednesday 16th September.

The New Girl

Hi :-)

I'm Holly, the latest addition to the Vivid team - A trainee account executive specialising in social media.
This is me.



I'm going to be helping out with all things social... Twitter, Facebook, MySpace & co. (There's a very long list.) I'll also be learning lots about the crazy world of PR and communications from the seasoned professionals at Vivid. Amazing. I'll be cropping up here on a regular basis, blogging about social media news and how we're utilising the technology, as well as encouraging the rest of the team to blog as much as possible.

I'll leave you with a present for when you get a spare couple of minutes. Enjoy.
Hx

Another bloomin' regional favourite

Have you seen our ad? Check it out in this month's
South West Business Magazine

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Hilary & Caroline who both have birthdays this week!

At the cutting edge of fashion!

According to the Sunday Times Style Magazine the 'Vivid Vixens' are on trend, sporting this seasons must have accessory... Animal Ears!

A Very Big Thank You

We want to thank everyone who sponsored us on our 10 mile hike around Cirencester.

We were very achy and tired the next morning (to say the least) but it was worth it as we managed to raise over £500 for a fantastic cause.Thanks again!

To find out more about the hospice, visit http://www.cotswoldcare.org.uk/

Girls Night Out

On Friday 26th June we put on our walking boots for the ultimate girls night out - The Cotswold Midnight Walk, a 10-mile hike around Cirencester Park to raise money for the Cotswold Care Hospice.

To find out more about and see some photos from the event visit http://www.fancyagirlsnightout.com/

Vivid on the telly!

In April we appeared on BBC2's The Money Programme alongside Queen of Shops Mary Portas when she visited Tewkesbury to help boost efforts to bring more shoppers into the town.

Watch the show

She chaired a meeting to find out how businesses are faring during the recession, what can be done to help and how the high street of the future might look. She listened to retailers’ and shoppers’ concerns and brainstormed ideas to help create a vision for the town centre. The meeting – called Save our Shops – was organised by Tewkesbury Chamber of Commerce & Industry. We helped the BBC with the show's filming.

“We were particularly interested in Tewkesbury not only because it is typical of many market towns but because of all the efforts that it’s making to help itself,” said Emily Hughes, the programme’s Associate Producer. The town has already launched a Local Shop campaign and the Tewkesbury Regeneration Initiative (TRI).

Find out more about Mary Portas and her mission to help the British high street.

Wellies For Wildlife

We swapped our stilettos for wellies for 'Wear your Wellies for Wildlife' to support Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust to raise awareness and funds for the charity.

Vivid In Gloucestershire's Top 500

Vivid’s founding directors have been named as two of Gloucestershire’s most influential people. Hilary Allison and Caroline Rawlinson feature in Gloucestershire Media’s exclusive list of the 500 most influential business people in the county.

http://www.southwestbusiness.co.uk/

Ian Mean, editor in chief of Gloucestershire Media, publisher of The Citizen, Gloucestershire Echo, The Forester, Stroud Life, thisisgloucestershire.co.uk and http://www.westbusiness.co.uk/ said, “These people reflect the diversity of the Gloucestershire economy. They are ambassadors for this county and we are pleased to honour them.”

Hilary, director of Vivid, said: “We are delighted to have been selected by Gloucestershire Media to feature on the list. When Caroline and I set up Vivid, we were determined to champion Gloucestershire and all that it offers. That has never mattered more than now and we want to continue to build a reputation which puts Gloucestershire on the map and of which the county can be proud.”

Caroline elected to major role in professional PR body

Vivid director Caroline Rawlinson has been elected as vice chair of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) in the West of England. She will take on the role of treasurer and support Tom Bowden-Green to push for greater recognition of the professionalism in the PR Industry.