Thomas' posterous

So apparently this is what "black tie" means...

So I receive an invite to the Retail Week Awards. 

Black tie, the colleagues say. 

"No problem", I think. "I have my black suit, white shirt, black tie combo, that should do the trick."

Turns out that black tie means bowtie, silly shirt, cumberbund optional.

So off I go to Moss Bros and rent the full get-up.

I'm assured I look dashing and very 007, but really, could this whole get-up be any more anachronistic?

View from the 8th floor of Sainsbury's HQ. Happy Friday!

Taken at Sainsbury's Head Office

A day in the life of a social media manager

High shutter speed -> super slow-mo effect

Fantastic bit of footage shot with a Canon 5D Mark II. There is no slow-mo applied to the take and the clip features the original sound.

stunning bass-string shot from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

My Edinburgh Marathon 2011 sub 4:00 training plan

Week 1 of Marathon training is underway.

I've used the Runners World 16 week, 4h Marathon training plan to put the plan below together. I was able to download the entire plan to my Garmin Forerunner 405cx using the target training paces as a guide. So all I need to do to stick to the plan is check what's on the agenda for the day, pick the training setting on the watch and off I go. The watch will then track my distance, tell me when to switch from slower warm up sessions to speed sessions, and make sure I run in at the proper pace. The beeping noises take a bit to get used to, but after a while you don't even need to look at the watch anymore. 

I'm aiming for a sub 4 hour finish even though this is my first marathon. While the main goal will simply be to finish the 42.16 kilometre race, I'd also like to finish in under 4 hours. From previous half marathons and 10k races I think that is a reasonable goal to aim for.

Here's hoping I can keep this up for 16 weeks! 

Legend

M = miles
m = metres
easy = 6:26/km - 6:39/km
slow = 6:16/km - 6:28/km
steady = 5:35/km - 5:47/km
brisk = 5:21/km - 5:34/km
fast = 4:54/km - 5:06/km
wu/cd = warm up/cool down, 6:26/km - 6:39/km for 1M each 

Week 1

Monday, 31 Jan	rest
Tuesday, 1 Feb	slow 3M
Wednesday, 2 Feb	slow 4M
Thursday, 3 Feb	steady 2M
Friday, 4 Feb	rest
Saturday, 5 Feb	easy 3M
Sunday, 6 Feb	slow 7M

Week 2

Monday, 7 Feb	rest
Tuesday, 8 Feb	2 x 1.5M fast
Wednesday, 9 Feb	slow 5M
Thursday, 10 Feb	brisk 2M, wu/cd
Friday, 11 Feb	rest
Saturday, 12 Feb	easy 4M
Sunday, 13 Feb	slow 8M

Week 3

Monday, 14 Feb	rest
Tuesday, 15 Feb	3 x 1M fast
Wednesday, 16 Feb	slow 6M
Thursday, 17 Feb	steady 3M, wu/cd
Friday, 18 Feb	rest
Saturday, 19 Feb	easy 4M
Sunday, 20 Feb	slow 9M

Week 4

Monday, 21 Feb	rest
Tuesday, 22 Feb	4 x 800m fast
Wednesday, 23 Feb	slow 7M
Thursday, 24 Feb	brisk 2M, wu/cd
Friday, 25 Feb	rest
Saturday, 26 Feb	easy 4M
Sunday, 27 Feb	race 10k

Week 5

Monday, 28 Feb	rest
Tuesday, 1 Mar	fartlek 4M, wu/cd
Wednesday, 2 Mar	slow 4M
Thursday, 3 Mar	slow 5M
Friday, 4 Mar	rest
Saturday, 5 Mar	easy 4M or rest
Sunday, 6 Mar	slow 11M

Week 6

Monday, 7 Mar	rest
Tuesday, 8 Mar	8 x 400m fast
Wednesday, 9 Mar	slow 6M
Thursday, 10 Mar	brisk 4M, wu/cd
Friday, 11 Mar	rest
Saturday, 12 Mar	easy 4M
Sunday, 13 Mar	slow 13M

Week 7

Monday, 14 Mar	rest
Tuesday, 15 Mar	hills x 9
Wednesday, 16 Mar	slow 7M
Thursday, 17 Mar	steady 6M
Friday, 18 Mar	rest
Saturday, 19 Mar	easy 4M
Sunday, 20 Mar	slow 15M

Week 8

Monday, 21 Mar	rest
Tuesday, 22 Mar	3 x 1M fast
Wednesday, 23 Mar	slow 8M
Thursday, 24 Mar	brisk 2M wu/cd
Friday, 25 Mar	rest
Saturday, 26 Mar	easy 3M
Sunday, 27 Mar	race half marathon, 5:21/km - 5:34/km

Week 9

Monday, 28 Mar	rest
Tuesday, 29 Mar	12 x 200m fast
Wednesday, 30 Mar	slow 7M
Thursday, 31 Mar	steady 8M
Friday, 1 Apr	rest
Saturday, 2 Apr	easy 4M
Sunday, 3 Apr	slow 17M

Week 10

Monday, 4 Apr	rest
Tuesday, 5 Apr	3 x 1.5M fast, wu/cd
Wednesday, 6 Apr	slow 8M
Thursday, 7 Apr	brisk 3M, wu/cd
Friday, 8 Apr	rest
Saturday, 9 Apr	easy 3M
Sunday, 10 Apr	race half marathon, 5:21/km - 5:34/km

Week 11

Monday, 11 Apr	rest
Tuesday, 12 Apr	fartlek 6M, wu/cd
Wednesday, 13 Apr	slow 6M
Thursday, 14 Apr	steady 10M
Friday, 15 Apr	rest
Saturday, 16 Apr	easy 4M
Sunday, 17 Apr	slow 19M

Week 12

Monday, 18 Apr	rest
Tuesday, 19 Apr	3 x 1.5M fast, wu/cd
Wednesday, 20 Apr	slow 8M
Thursday, 21 Apr	brisk 3M, wu/cd
Friday, 22 Apr	rest
Saturday, 23 Apr	easy 4M
Sunday, 24 Apr	slow 19M

Week 13

Monday, 25 Apr	rest
Tuesday, 26 Apr	5 x 1M fast, wu/cd
Wednesday, 27 Apr	slow 7M
Thursday, 28 Apr	brisk 4M, wu/cd
Friday, 29 Apr	rest
Saturday, 30 Apr	easy 4M
Sunday, 1 May	slow 22M

Week 14

Monday, 2 May	rest
Tuesday, 3 May	6 x 800m fast, wu/cd
Wednesday, 4 May	slow 6M
Thursday, 5 May	steady 9M
Friday, 6 May	rest
Saturday,7 May	easy 4M
Sunday, 8 May	slow 18M

Week 15

Monday, 9 May	rest
Tuesday, 10 May	hills x 12
Wednesday, 11 May	slow 5M
Thursday, 12 May	brisk 3M, wu/cd
Friday, 13 May	rest
Saturday, 14 May	easy 4M
Sunday, 15 May	steady 12M

Week 16

Monday, 16 May	rest
Tuesday, 17 May	6 x 400m at 10k
Wednesday, 18 May	slow 4M
Thursday, 19 May	rest
Friday, 20 May	rest
Saturday, 21 May	easy 2M
Sunday, 22 May	MARATHON! 5:35/km - 5:47/km

Social media rules of engagement

PR in 140 characters

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Social Media Results Conference in London about how to incorporate Twitter into your digital communication plan. Below you'll see the presentation (and as you can see, its built with Prezi, which is just much more fun that Powerpoint and also went down well with the audience on the day), but I also wanted to share a bit more of my thinking with you regarding PR in the social media space, specifically on Twitter.

Listen, measure & engage

Communicating on Twitter is based on listening and engaging. This holds true if you communicate via the phone, email, Facebook, SMS, or Twitter. You listen and you respond. Now, I use the word "engage" because it has two meanings: it means that you respond to a question, to a trend or issue that you have identified by listening. It also means that what you say on a proactive level needs to be engaging - you want it to inspire the other person to act. On Twitter, than can be a retweet, a fave or a reply. If you're Twitter stream is full of @ responses and mentions then you know you are listening to and engaging with your audience in a way that they find interesting.

Measurement is the third important element of communicating via Twitter: Tools such as Twitalyzer, Tweetreach, Klout and Bit.ly will produce a number of different reports and key performance indicators that will help you track your own Twitter performance, how far you message has travelled, how much influence you really have - right down to how many people have actually clicked on the link you've just shared (the trick is to add a + to the end of bit.ly links and you'll see what I mean).

So why should PRs be on Twitter?

Because your target audience - journalists and bloggers - are already there and using it to connect to other hacks. They ask questions about products and companies, announce they are writing an article about an issue that you might have some information on and some even prefer to be contacted exclusively through Twitter. 

Another important audience is also on Twitter: customers. They will be talking about your brand, commenting on things you have done, sharing news about your company and often times provide the first source of information in times of crisis.

And finally, the value of Twitter as a constant stream of "what's happening in the world right now" - is a huge asset if you use Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and/or Twitter lists to keep an eye on tweeps relevant to your industry.

Twitter is a PRs best friend in times of crisis

By monitoring customer sentiment and trends on Twitter as well as a few key words combined with your brand name(s) will provide you with an effective early warning system. Once Twitter alerts you to a possible situation, you'll be ahead of the game because you'll know what to look for and where to look for it. Depending on the nature of the issue you can then chose to update followers through Twitter about the situation or decide to respond on a reactive basis only. Either way, you'll have a better chance to control the flow of news.

A simple and free way to set up Twitter monitoring for keywords is to set up a Google Alert for status updates on Twitter mentioning certain keywords. You can then set up a rule in your email program of choice to highlight the alert when it comes through so that you don't overlook it. Simple, free and instantaneous - providing you are there to check your email!

Defining PR in 140 characters in 140 characters

PR on Twitter: live and instantaneous tool to listen for brand mentions, measure customer sentiment and trends; and engage target audiences

So my question to other flacks out there: how do you use Twitter in your everyday PR work?

3 weeks in and loving it, training for a half marathon and back to photography

The new job with Sainsbury's is now three weeks old (and I am still loving it!), which also explains the relative quiet here in my personal blog. There are a ton of things that the amazing team in the press office deals with on a day in, day out basis. On top of that, we've had the President of South Africa visit our eco store in Greenwich, London; our CEO Justin King ran 32 miles around the UK for Sport Relief, and we've opened more than a dozen new stores around the UK. 

At the same time we've kicked off our digital media strategy, which will centre around a connected group of sites, all held together by our corporate site. These including a corporate blog, Twitter, Youtube and Flickr accounts through which we are actively engaging bloggers and online journalists. Of course we will push out all our news through these channels (in so far as it makes sense), but we are of course also opening ourselves up to feedback, comments and criticism. We still have a lot of work ahead of us but I truly believe that we are on the right track and am massively excited to see where this takes us. 

As you might expect, focusing on the online world in a professional capacity for Sainsbury's has taken up most of my time, so much so that by the time I get off work, I am quite happy to remain in the offline world before heading off to bed. :)

Still, I have managed to (more or less) stay on track in my training for my very first half-marathon in Berlin at the end of the month and not even the British Airways strike will be able to keep me from competing. Today, I ran the Sport Relief 6 Mile run at Embankment and was very happy with my 49 minute time and am looking to tame the 21 km through the German capital in less than 2 hours.

I'll leave you with our recent and utterly unforgettable trip to Little Palm Island in Florida. Four days of total relaxation inspired me to pick up the camera again and get back to shooting and I am really quite happy with some of the results.

Trying something new today: Digital Media Manager at Sainsbury's

Today was my second day at Sainsbury's. After 2 1/2 exciting and incredibly rewarding years at AOL it was time for a new challenge and the Digital Media Manager position at Sainsbury's perfectly combines two of my passions: all things digital and public relations. I will be supporting the Corporate Affairs team led by Mark Rigby to help communicate the Sainsbury's story through digital media channels such as blogs, Twitter, Foursquare and many more.

It's still early days but here are some amazing facts about Sainsbury's to give you an idea about why I am so excited about starting this new job:

• 18,000,000 weekly customers
• 150,000+ employees 
• 30,000+ products 
• 2,000+ suppliers 
• 792 (and counting!) supermarkets and stores

You can learn more about Sainsbury's in the 2009 Corporate Responsibility Report.

So from having mail I'm now going to try something new - and if my first two days is anything to go by, I'm going to love it! 

How's foursquare? Any good?

How's Foursquare? Any good?

That was the Twitter DM I received from a good friend this morning. Well, I quickly realised that 140 characters wouldn't cut it, so here are my thoughts on the location based mobile application that is creating buzz all over the media and that I have been using for a few months.

A quick excursion into my life: As a frequent patron of the lovely C'est Ici, a lovely French cafe near Barons Court Tube Station and George's Cafe, a down-to-earth builder's cafe behind my work that does marvellous beef and chicken curry, I expect a certain level of customer service. I expect to walk into C'est Ici, have the guy look up, recognise me, remember my usual order and simply say: "Good morning sir, that'll be 2.20 please." The same goes for George's. When I rock up, I expect the staff behind the counter to recognise me and sort out my chicken curry with rice and mixed veg without me having to actually verbalise the order. The guys at George's get this right. Down to the important detail of giving me a spoon to eat my meal with. The French cafe on the other hand, rien du tout. I have to actually order the same thing, every time. "A large skinny latte to go please." Extremely annoying.

What does this have to do with Foursquare?

The app rewards you for repeat check-ins with the chance (goal?) to become the mayor of a certain location. Some cyber savvy venues in London have begun to see the potential here to reward their regular customers with discounts or other perks.

• Hummus Bros for example offers the mayor at its branches in Wardour Street and Holborn 2-for-1 main courses.
• Bea's of Bloomsbury's mayor scores a free cupcake
• Debenhams on Oxford street offers anyone who checks in on a Friday a free coffee. The mayor of Debenham's flagship is entitled to free coffee in the Debenhams Cafe - anytime.
• Other Foursquare mayorship perks in London include: free chocolate truffles, double ristretto, a complimentary bottle of champagne for their birthday 
  

The app has a number of other rewards or badges to unlock: checking in 10 times in a day will get you the "overshare badge"; check in on four nights in a row and you're awarded the "bender badge"; if you manage to hold the mayorship at 10 or more venues at the same time, you may call yourself "super mayor". These badges are nifty and do give you a weird sense of satisfaction. Of course the goal is to steal the title of mayor from other users. Still, without real-world perks like the above, the app does become boring. To become really interesting, fun and possibly even useful, Foursquare needs two things: more users and more venues giving real life incentives to their mayors.

Why do the guys at George's get it right and the staff at C'est Ici don't notice the same guy order the same thing ever time? Probably because when I get my coffee I am half asleep and incapable of social interaction before my first dose of caffeine. At lunch time on the other hand, I'm awake, I chat with the George's staff, we have a bit of fun.

Bottom line: social media and location based apps should support but on their own will never substitute good customer relationships. Is Foursquare any good? Not at the moment, but I think it has the potential to become something that helps you meet up with friends and score some freebies at restaurants, pubs, cafes and other venues.