Social Media is a term you didn’t hear very often several years ago, today, however, it’s all people are talking about.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, Myspace, YouTube, Ustream and so many other social media sites are ripping at the seams with activity.

Whether you are a nonprofit or for profit, social media is important.

At Thursday’s Young Nonprofit Professional Network panel discussion, two of Houston’s most knowledgeable communications professionals on social media—Fifth Ring Houston PR Leader, Ed Davis and Principle of The Black Sheep Agency, Aimee Woodall--were set to take questions from 30+ nonprofit communicators in an sterile, classroom setting. However, due to a monster thunderstorm, most of the attendees failed to show.

With all manner of poise and grace, Ian Ord, Director of Business Development for Fifth Ring, quickly saw the lower turn out as an opportunity to take the event across the street to a local eatery, feed those who came and engage in a more intimate discussion on social media.

With the panel and its dozen attendees relocated, Ed and Aimee began the conversation by jumping into the top question on everyone’s mind: “How can I get my followers to be more engaged with my organization using social media?”

“You need to reach out to your followers, or those you want to follow you. The more you do, the more people will talk back,” advised Woodall “ Engagement does not happen over night. It is easier for people to make comments if you have met them face-to-face. “

Davis followed up with the suggestion of building “offline” relationships. Take the opportunity to meet people at social events, volunteering opportunities or any business function. Make the “offline” connection with them and then direct them to your social media channel, which will then help enhance your “online” connection.

Another suggestion Woodall recommended was to follow them on their social media sites and make comments to their posts, this will also help build your creditability with those you want to engage.

Here are a few other tips the panel shared on social media:

•  Carefully select your social media outlet depending on your message. See examples below:

o   Twitter is best used for “blind” outreach. This is a faster paced outlet

o   Facebook is great your reaching out to your loyal followers.

o   LinkedIn is for professional’s only

•  Pay attention to what your followers are interested in, explore all different subjects to see who is commenting on what and tailor your message to their interests.

•  Ask yourself, “who are you trying to target?” Once you know your target audience, listen and understand what they are saying before you engage.

 

 

 

 

 

The Fifth Ring Houston office has become involved in a special cause for our community, the Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse (AVDA) Purple Light Nights™ campaign. We’ve been asking companies to support this cause by shining purple lights on their company's building during October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

AVDA works to break the cycle of family violence in Houston. Purple Light Nights™ started in Covington, Wash., in 2007 and has grown nationally. The color purple is recognized as the international color symbolic of domestic violence. Houston’s Purple Light Nights™ is our community’s first participation in the nationally recognized campaign. The goal is to remember domestic violence homicide victims in Texas (more than 100 deaths related to domestic violence 2009) and give hope to those who are still living with abuse.

Mayor Annise Parker has approved City Hall to be lit in purple from Oct. 1- 8, 2011. AVDA is also working to secure support from Houston Sports Authority, and team owners to light sports stadiums: Toyota Center, Reliant Stadium and Minute Maid Park. They are working to arrange an awareness game with the Houston Dynamo where they will pass out purple bracelets.

We invite all Houston companies and organizations to become a Purple Light Nights™ Community Partner by participating in the following activities:

1. Agree to floodlight your company's building with purple lights during October (ideally the 1-8 but it can be another week or for a longer period of time)
2. Advertise Purple Light Nights™ on your website and in your newsletter
3. Make available to staff and the public materials about domestic violence to be supplied by AVDA
   

 

In return, AVDA will advertise your company as a Community Partner on all campaign materials and on their website, list your company as a Community Partner on all press materials and provide you with all Purple Light Nights™ materials to be available to your staff and the public.

For more information about AVDA and the Purple Light Nights™ campaign, go to www.avdaonline.org

Thank you,

Heather

For the past three Tuesdays, the Aberdeen FR team has been Brain Juiced - “You what?” - I hear you cry, that’s right, we’ve been Brain Juiced and it was fun.

When we first got the invite, there were a few comments along the lines of “I don’t know that my brain has any juice to give!” - that didn’t last long and we soon learnt that we had gallons to offer. Gordon Brown, (no, not that one but a Glaswegian with barrels of interesting stories and the creator of Brain Juice), travelled up to the Granite City to provide us with some inspirational creativity training and a great insight in to the mechanisms of typical ‘brain storming’ sessions.

At a conference room in the Bauhaus, we had a picturesque view of the rooftops of Aberdeen spanning across to Union Plaza and a new environment to continue our learning in. Surrounded by some of the most creative minds in the North East, I wondered just how much they had to learn about being creative and how Gordon would manage to provide everyone with a fresh perspective on the creative process. 

As a wise Fifth Ringer once told me, a few times, ‘every day’s a school day’ and it’s true – if you’re not learning or believe you’ve reached your intellectual peak then you’re not going to maximise your potential. 

The biggest lesson we learnt - sometimes you get stuck in a rut. It sounds simple and perhaps a little obvious but it’s hard to recognise and because of that, it maybe happens more than you think. Ever thought of an idea or a solution to a problem, tried to think of something else and kept coming back to the same conclusion? You maybe don’t know it my friend, but that’s where you were stuck in the river.

The river is that part of a brain storming session where you think you’ve come up with the best solution to the problem and you don’t want to, or you simply can’t, get past it to a better thought. Gordon taught us that it’s easy to get stuck in the river and not so easy to notice when it happens. Take this as a challenge – over the next week count how many times you get stuck on one idea when you’re trying to solve a problem.

Having successfully gotten through the three stages of the Brain Juice training, with a heap of laughter and team work along the way, the Fifth Ring team is now readier than ever and waiting to throw a lifeline to anyone stuck in the creative river. Big thanks to Gordon Brown and his Brain Juice training.

 

 

 

Offshore Europe 2011 was a great success for all our clients. All the stands we worked on received fantastic feedback and attention.

The bar was set very high at OE 2011 so we pulled out all the stops. On Brinker’s stand for instance, we included everything from attention grabbing 3D product models to custom iPad applications.

Proserv showed off their newly developed brand at the exhibition.  The stand showcased some striking graphics and powerful new messaging developed by Fifth Ring.

Fifth Ring also helped with Ace Winches' continually busy stand, the popular ‘come and have a go’ Maggie’s Foundation Charity stand, and Oil Careers’ strong exhibition graphics. As well as helping construct the displays, our PR team and account managers provided constant support to ensure a successful exhibition for all our clients. 

 

The sixth instalment of the Mighty Meetup, which was sponsored by Fifth Ring on this occasion, took place in a very windy Aberdeen last night.  Fuelled by the thoughts of pizza, chips, beer and good banter many a member of the digital community attended with approximately 40-50 people arriving at 210 Bistro.

The debate topic for the night was that of ‘Speculative Work’.  After a good old chat and some tasty food everyone took their seats in preparation for the discussion ahead of them.  The setup of the night was different from that of previous meetings with a panel of four speakers sitting at the head of the room.  The host of the night Scott Graham, Director of Operations from Deer Digital, introduced the speakers with each individual giving a brief introduction into their stance on spec work.

The debate kicked off with Alex Barton, Founder of Student Designers, explaining his approach to design and spec work whilst helping students to gain experience.  James Deer, Creative Director of Deer Digital, challenged the idea of student’s working on pitches and important client logos and the commercial fee attributed to this.  Dave Crossen, RGU - School of Computer Lecturer, agreed with the opinion of Alex in that students need to be given the chance to build up their portfolio and that the talent of students cannot be ignored.  Our very own Steven Milne, Digital Solutions Architect, shared his opinion that as a small set-up company it was acceptable to use students working on your identity and logo and you know this will be low or little cost to you, however to stand out and be noticed you needed to pay the expected fee for the experienced company.

The debate was so heated and healthy that it actually went over on time! Note to group - stopwatch is needed next time! This went unnoticed by many as it seemed everyone was engaged in the discussion with many contributors throughout the night. 

The 'Spec Work Meetup' was a great opportunity for many to network, learn, relax and have a laugh.  We hope that the same faces will be attending the next session and that we can all encourage and invite some new Mighty Meetup fans! 

I had been at Fifth Ring for 2 months when I was told about the Fifth Ring cocktail party that is held during Offshore Europe. “A party for clients during an energy conference?”, I thought, “what could possibly be fun about that?” How wrong I was!

As I began to get involved with organising the party, I realised this would be no ordinary work event. My excitement grew as I watched the studio design fantastic 3D invites. As people began to confirm I received many compliments and chuckles down the phone about the bright pink swizzle sticks they had just received.

By the time the party came around I knew it was going to be a night to remember. Not only had most people accepted, which over Offshore Europe is an achievement in itself, but people where asking to bring colleagues and friends.

On the night, as Orchid began filling up the vibe grew electric. As the ‘Energy’ cocktails flowed so did talk of Offshore Europe and what it brings to Aberdeen. Discussion then turned to Fifth Rings success in Houston, as the Aberdonian guests noticed the high number of Texans milling around. All the delicious Scottish canapés were finished in record time, however the cocktails flowed late into the evening.

As everyone left clad in glow sticks and clutching their swizzle sticks, I reflected on the night. The reason it was so much fun is because of the all people who came. Fifth Ring clients and friends are really interesting people from an industry that is exciting, international and progressive.

I hope that everyone who came had as good a time as myself and my Fifth Ring colleagues. We hope to see you all again very soon.

 

Thanks to the generous hospitality of Chris Clark at Specialist Cars Skoda, Aberdeen we got close to the action at the first stage of the 2011 Tour of Britain.

 Due to Chris’s exceptional planning, navigation and driving skills we saw the start in Peebles, a hill climb “prime” and an intermediate sprint before arriving in Dumfries to see the finish of the stage.

Regular visitors to our blog will know that we like cycling – it’s international, fast, competitive, tech savvy and a little dangerous at times - not unlike Fifth Ring!

Getting up close to some of the world’s best cyclists was exciting and despite the atrocious weather conditions it was a tremendous event. All credit to the riders, organisers and the sponsors – especially Skoda – for putting on an incredible show in very testing circumstances.

And if you’re wondering just how close we got, the picture shows team Garmin Cervelo’s Thor Hushovd, the reigning world champion, rolling off the start line.

Congratulations to the HTC team and Mark Cavendish on the stage win. Seeing the Manx Missile travelling at over 40mph after 100 miles of racing is humbling to all us amateur cyclists.

Help us bring RWD to B2B

We are looking for a web developer with a focus on front-end to join our Digital Media team in Aberdeen. The candidate will have a focus on detail, ask the right questions and estimate and deliver to deadlines.

You will be confident in your abilities to produce release ready, responsive mark-up from PSD. You should also be skilled in the creation and modification of JavaScript driven interactive elements. 

Working in a multi-disciplinary, geographically diverse agency environment, you will have the opportunity to work on B2B digital solutions across many digital platforms with a primary focus on content managed website development.

Key Responsibilities:

Adherence to best-practice and standards is essential and demonstrable examples of your work will be required. Meeting deadlines while maintaining the quality of code is essential. This role requires a minimum of one years’ experience in a similar role.

Knowledge of the following is essential:

• HTML5
• CSS3
• JavaScript
• JavaScript libraries and frameworks I.e jQuery
• CSS grid systems
• Cross browser testing and optimisation
• Webfonts usage and optimisation
• Responsive web design techniques
• Source control / git

Personal attributes:

• Must be a highly motivated self-starter who can work in a team environment
• Ability to effectively communicate with other team members and other departments

Education and/or Experience:

• Qualification in Computer Science or other related fields preferred

In the first instance please contact:

Cal Jackson, Group HR Manager
01625 578524
cal@fifthring.com

 

The weekend of 9^th to 11^th September was here at last – it was time for the IAStival down in Englandshire. A Fifth Ring posse of party-goers from the Aberdeen office packed their (many) bags and squeezed themselves onto the first of what was to be seven eventful but fun-filled train journeys at Aberdeen’s station. Mr Potter and his sidekick Asa got on at Stonehaven (I think it was platform 9¾) and all eight of us were now on board and very much in the mood to party.

Having survived the journey down, we played the ‘how much can you fit into two cars?’ game at Macclesfield station and somehow made it to the festival site itself – and what a site it was too. One huge field, several marquees including our favourite food and drink specific ones, a big stage for the bands with all it’s electronics and lighting, tent town, portaloo corner, sand covered cow ‘presents’, a load of IAS’ers (some who had obviously been there a while – if you know what I mean) and a generally great vibe. In short, everything you’d expect at any of the top festivals.

Once we’d all been labelled with our colour-coded wristbands we set off to tent town and pitched our tents. William cheated however by bringing with him a pop-up one – I think it took him longer to unpack his travel chair, but the rest of us were to have the last laugh as he tried, and failed, to fold it back down to it’s original size and shape when the weekend was over.

Wellies on, and the first stop on our ‘lets check the place out’ walk was the drinks tent (don’t act surprised) and we got mingling with the locals who were all extremely welcoming and seemed genuinely happy that we’d made the journey down south. The first of what seemed to be an endless weekend’s worth of excellent bands plucked their first guitar strings and this, interspersed with some excellent DJ’s pumping out the beats, kept things going. It was a party atmosphere that Russ Abbot would have been proud of (one for the oldies among us).

I think it’s fair to say that the eight of us got into the mood pretty quickly (the free drinks vouchers may have helped) and we partied late into both nights – the ‘silent disco’ being an obvious highlight as we went into the early hours so as not to disturb the neighbours (this essentially involved everyone wearing headphones and dancing like maniacs next to the bar).

There were also dodgems, an ice-cream van, the hula-hoop guy (love his ‘Lord of the Rings’ business card) and even a free cocktail bar (thanks to our BBN friends for that one) – what more could we want!

There are obviously many stories that I could not possibly publish on here in a ‘what happened at the IAStival stays at the IAStival’ kind of way – but they were all perfectly harmless I promise you. Dog toys, a monkey suit, Kenny the mad neighbour, the rude Scotsman (none of us), gel mouth spray, fluorescent pink bands, straw cowboy hats, ceilidh dancing to hardcore dance music, annoying couple on our train seats who got ‘removed’ (eventually), a bouncy castle, Zara Vaughan’s missing bag (with strapless bra), Percy Pigs and loads more all played their part towards an excellent weekend and I will leave it to you to use your imagination as to how.

It wouldn’t be right to not say a final, and very big thanks to all our friends at IAS and to everyone who organised it. It was a very successful and memorable event that we wont forget in a hurry – in spite of our alcohol intake.

Let’s hope they do another one – they’d better as I found a stray ‘free drink voucher’ that I need to use up and there’s no expiry date.

Andy 'Monkey Suit' Wainwright

 

 

 

So here I am, my 10^th anniversary at Fifth Ring has just passed. So what’s happened over the past decade? Well, quite a lot as it happens…

On a personal front it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride (that probably wont be the last cliché I use so will make my apologies to Reuben Webb right now). I became a father (planned), had a car accident that resulted in an operation and 3 months off work (not planned), travelled to lots of nice places, made some great new friends and got back in touch with some old ones, contracted arthritis (by contracted I don’t mean that I raised a Purchase Order, I just have to now avoid that bumpy rollercoaster I mentioned earlier), fell in love with the game of poker (well I need to supplement my income somehow – hope the company Directors are reading this) and have struggled to sell my house during the worst market slump in  decades (40 months and counting). All of this with my understanding, patient and far better half Michelle at my side.

As for work, well, in my best X-Factor contestant voice, it’s been a journey (told you the clichés would continue). The company has grown dramatically from when I started all those years ago from an Aberdeen-only agency with around 15 employees to what is now a leading international B2B agency with additional offices in Houston and Dubai and a five-fold increase in staff numbers (give or take). Not all solely down to me, granted.

Our visibility, our offering and our expertise have all increased greatly and we’re now proud, leading members of the prestigious BBN network to help take us to that next level.

It’s not all been plain sailing though. Like all companies, we’ve had our ups and downs, our good times and our bad. I’ve seen people come, people go and even people return. Like everyone else, we were not recession-proof and it took its toll, but we’re coming out the other side stronger for it on several fronts. We’ve made some big strides of late, not least of which was to increase ties with our friends at IAS, an extremely successful, award-winning B2B agency from south of the border. Just doing our bit for Anglo-Scottish relations – it’s not been the same since Mel Gibson sacked York.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve still got a lot of work to do and are already in the process of making some very positive changes to benefit both the company and our clients. You can’t stand still in this business without falling behind pretty quickly so it’s onwards and upwards for us (couldn’t resist squeezing in a couple more clichés there but hey, it’s true).

As for me, well I’ve gone from Production Co-ordinator to Production Manager and now Operations Manager over this period of time. Much of my work is now done behind-the-scenes but impacts on everyone and at all levels to varying degrees – though most people don’t realise it half of the time, which tells me I must be doing something right. Either that or they’re just keeping me on for my good looks and great sense of humour. I like to think it’s all of the above. Anyway, who else is going to organise and run the office sweepers, poker evenings and quiz nights?

As for what’s going to happen over the next 10 years - well, who knows? Life is just not that predictable. No doubt it will be full of twists and turns and highs and lows, with a few surprises along the way (though less of the ‘unplanned’ events please). Bring it on.

Now, does anyone want to buy a house…?