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There is a wonderful quote in the book "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" by Robin Sharma, which goes as follows; "when all is said and done, no matter what you have achieved, no matter how many summer homes you own, no matter how many cars sit in your driveway, the quality of your life will come down to the quality of your contribution". I invite everyone and anyone to join me on this most exhilarating, exciting and incredible journey of genuine love, compassion and contribution. James Fernie
: Director, Uthando South Africa

With just a few days before we mark Youth Day in South Africa, these words struck a chord. I was born in the same year that saw a day take place which changed the course of our country's history - the 16th June 1976 is a day that honours the deaths of hundreds of Soweto schoolchildren who participated in a protest against the then current school education system.

To commemorate the lives of these young individuals, Uthando, a unique non-profit and Fair Trade in Tourism accredited company, will be hosting a benefit concert at the Barnyard Theatre in Willowbridge this coming Saturday. As well as project exhibitions, performing groups include Dance for All, Happy Feet Gumboot Dancers, the Noah Choir and Thokozani Brothers, all brought together by master of ceremonies Siv Ngesi.

To book call 021 914 8898 or visit www.barnyardtheatre.co.za

On the 10th April:

1633 Bananas first went on sale in London when the herbalist, Thomas Johnson, put a bunch of bananas in his shop window in Snow Hill, London. However, it was not until the late 19th century that bananas were regularly imported into the UK. A banana skin was excavated on the south bank of the River Thames dating back to around 1500 suggesting at least one specimen found its way into the country in Tudor times.

1820 The first of the British settlers arrived in Algoa Bay on the Chapman.

1929 Birth of William Booth in Nottingham. He was the founder of the Salvation Army.

1847 The birth of Joseph Pulitzer in Hungary, He established the annual Pulitzer Prizes.

1849 A US mechanic, Walter Hunt, patented the Safety Pin in the USA. An English inventor, Charles Rowley, also patented a safety pin on 12th October of the same year, unaware of Hunt's invention.

1858 Big Ben, the bell within the world's most famous clock, was cast in White Chapel in the East End of London. The bell weighs 13,5 tons (12 metric tones). It was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the then Commissioner of Works, who was a large, tall man, known as "Big Ben".

1912 The Titanic set sail on its maiden and final voyage from Southampton

1993 Chris Hani was murdered.

Here's some instant wisdom on the quality of your life - from Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin's book:

Structure your days so you can get the most done with the least effort.

Sometimes a nap is the most productive thing you can do.

You score no points for martyrdom. If you don't enjoy the majority of your days,
change something now.

Working hard is a lot more tolerable if you get to choose when you do the work.

When you're the boss, you're the only one who will notice if you work too hard.
Work the way you want to work.

Everyone deserves to have a nice day.

 ~ ~ ~

 Jaco, a freelance videographer and photographer, is one of 60 volunteers who will be assisting in the cleft palate repair operations of a chosen group of Rwandese children. The mission is the initiative of the Smile Foundation, a South African NGO that assists children with any type of facial abnormality, to receive free corrective Plastic and Reconstructive surgery within South Africa.

As the video cameraman for the project, Jaco will be producing a short documentary on the mission, which lasts ten days. It is often a highly emotional experience for the children and their parents, as only 10 can be accommodated for the surgical procedure, yet many more apply and show up at the screening, hoping to be chosen.

We wish Jaco and the team of volunteers all the best as they undertake an extremely worthy initiative.

Great presentation from Green Light about Pinterest platform:

Pinterest Best Practice

Social media has helped transform the press release and given it new life, a vastly larger audience and a huge role in generating traffic to your organization's Web site. As such, search engine optimization (SEO) is important to the success of today's press release. Optimized press releases attract consumers and influencers, as well as journalists—and pulls them into your story.

To get the biggest bang out of SEO, you may need to change the way you write your release. Some basic, traditional best practices still apply, but here are five tips to keep in mind to optimize your releases: 

1. Choose the Right Keywords

Search engines think like your audience. Before you begin to write, know the keywords or phrases that will drive them to the news release and motivate them to click through to pages on your Web site. Do basic keyword research on sites like Google AdWords, Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery.

2. Use Your Heads
Use one to two keywords in the headline and subhead. Search engine spiders read left to right, so take that into account as you compose your headlines and your first paragraph. Use no more than 200 characters in the summary or subhead.

3. Optimize From the Top Down
Spiders also read from the top down. Using keywords in the first two paragraphs makes a much bigger impact than using them lower down. As you write, think in sound bites, like 140-character tweets.

4. Don't Over-Link
As with keywords, don't overdo anchor text, as it causes confusion and dilutes the impact of the links themselves. Offer two to three links for a 400-word press release.

5. Use Multimedia
Research shows that press releases with pictures, video and other multimedia get at least 80% more search traffic than text-only releases. They're usually more appealing and interesting, too. You'd be surprised how easy it is to create your own video or add visuals that support your product, message or campaign.

The original article appears here

Working in the 'soft sell' area of the marketing mix, this more personalised approach makes a lot of sense.

His concluding comments also struck a cord: "In an age where everyone is clamouring for consumers' attention, as a marketer, it's possibly a good idea to start paying more attention yourself. Community radio is proving a stubborn - and growing - exception to the impersonal and detached world that surrounds us. It's rekindling many of the happy associations we all grew up with: memories of playing soccer with friends in the street, riding bicycles around the block, walking the dog and visiting neighbours. This makes listeners far less likely to "tune out" or avoid your advertising breaks. That probably makes it the ideal place to start your advertising campaign for 2012."

Definitely food for thought. Read the full article on MarketingWeb.

About 3 weeks left before my Certificate in Wine exam and am rather overwhelmed by all the theory I still need to tackle.

 Being a mom and running a business leaves time for little - I might have to resort to the cramming from my student days, but let's see how much I can absorb between now and then!

The blind tasting sessions have been educational and surprisingly hard work, but my confidence is slowly increasing, thanks to several winery visits over the past 10 days. Armed with a wine evaluation sheet and my aroma wheel, I tasted a selection of (mostly) single varietal white and red wines at these estates:

Saxenburg: small, intimate tasting room with rather exceptional red wines. After tasting five wines, of which the Pinotage surprised me most (in a good way - I thought it was a Cab), I found myself walking out with a bottle of their Shiraz 2006, bought for R145.
Favourite wine tasted: 2006 Shiraz - R145

Asara: quite different to Saxenburg, this tasting room is much bigger, set against beautiful views of the damn and vineyards. I paid R30 to taste five wines from a fairly wide list of 19 options. As I will be examined on single varietals only, I had to regretfully skip the flagship Bell Tower Estate blend but still enjoyed sampling their Cab, Shiraz and Merlot, plus the unwooded Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
Favourite wine tasted: 2011 unwooded Chardonnay - R55

Raats: back to small and intimate, I was invited to this tasting as part of a group who meet regularly to sample wine and 'kuier'. Led by Gavin, the assistant winemaker, I was fortunate enough to taste fantastic examples of Cabernet Franc (first time for me) and Chenin Blanc, the two varieties in which this small, family-owned and run winery specialize. The Raats de Compostella 2008 blend was incredible, with black berry fruit and dark chocolate rolling over my palate like velvet, but sadly, at R577 per bottle, it was a little outside my budget.
Favourite wine tasted: 2008 MR de Compostella - R577

Bergkelder: I tasted a selection of four red and four whites from the Fleur du Cap and Plaisir de Merle brands, kindly arranged by Michael van Deventer from the Vinoteque Wine Bank. I can proudly say I pretty much aced the whites, but failed dismally when it came to the reds. I felt compelled to race into the Bergkelder's wine shop - lovely selection on offer at reasonable prices - and buy several red wines, for 'practise purposes'!
Favourite wine tasted: 2009 Fleur du Cap Unfiltered Semillon - R97

As my skill in writing tasting notes is still a serious work in progress, I have not included any here. Hopefully with the next round of visits my prowess in expressing what I see, smell and taste will have improved.

Until then I have decided to host a blind wine tasting party. A fun, companionable way to taste, guess and enjoy wine.

Why do it? Well I may be a communication professional in the wine industry, but that doesn't mean I know everything there is to know about wine. Which I've recently discovered is a complex, fascinating subject.

So to prepare as much as possible, and to try and enjoy myself along the way, I'm going to be a tourist in my own backyard and visit as many wineries as possible between now and the 21st November (and meet with some experts in the industry). There are so many on my doorstep that I never have the chance to visit (because I'm working in the wine industry but not living it:), I couldn't think of a better way to practise and improve my tasting skills. So first a bit of work, and then off to winery one - still to be confirmed.  

For interest: I will be using this simple yet useful Aroma Wheel to help me with my taste descriptions for red and white wines.

Wow it's been a busy time at Refresh PR. With back-to-back events in September, starting with the Ackermans group charity project on 2nd September to celebrate 95 years as a household brand, followed by International Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Day on the 9th September, and culminating in the 37th Nederburg Auction on 16th & 17th September, there hasn't been time for too much else. Apologies to our website for the lack of attention in recent weeks - hope to make up for it in the coming months. Here's to the last few months of 2011 as we count down to the holiday season.

Refresh PR at the Nederburg Auction

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A new television advert campaign flighting from the beginning of September across local TV channels will place international Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Day firmly in the spotlight leading up to the day, 9 September 2011.

The advert creative, conceptualised and produced by Root|threesixty (The Design Engine), highlights the beauty of life without FAS and the role a community plays in the raising of happy, healthy children that will one day make a difference to this country.

From the ancient African proverb, 'It takes a village to raise a child', the deeply rooted cultural philosophy, which emphasises the values of parental care, family relationships and concern for others, is the theme for the ad.

"As the driving force behind the prevention of FAS in South Africa, FASfacts is keen to raise awareness for the problem amongst expecting parents and encourage individuals, who might otherwise overlook the issue, to be involved and thus play an active role in the upliftment of the greater South African community or 'village'," says FASfacts CEO, Francois Grobbelaar.

With the help of the Living Way Adult Skills Training campus near Kommetjie in Cape Town, FASfacts and its respective creative teams employed mostly untrained actors and crew assistants from the Masiphumelele community.

Senior accounts director, Alda Smith from Root|threesixty comments, "We wanted the advert to convey the strong sense of community that underpins the campaign's core message and highlight the important role all adults play in FAS prevention and why FAS prevention is so important for all."

Although I never ever assume to know everything, one drawback of being so involved in your chosen profession is that you start to automatically assume that everyone else around you also knows what PR is and isn't.

I was rudely shaken from my PR bubble during a recent conversation with someone about PR, publicity, sales and marketing, and realized that many people still confuse these roles. I'm sure other PR professionals will agree that there's nothing more frustrating than being asked to account for sales results, or lack thereof, based solely on the outcomes of a PR or publicity campaign that is not linked to a specific sales or marketing strategy, because it is assumed that the PR or publicity activity will do the marketing.

Not so - it's all about integration. PR and publicity is meant to complement the marketing function, and it's importance and context is determined by the overall strategy. Even the great social media channels like Twitter and Facebook are not replacement marketing activities, but rather additional ways of communicating your message as part of an integrated whole.

I came across this simple yet effective analogy a while ago whilst preparing a talk on PR for a networking event:

• If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying 'Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday', that's advertising.
• If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that's promotion.
• If the elephant walks through the mayor's flower bed, that's publicity.
• And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations.
• If the town's citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they'll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that's sales.

 If, like me (well up until yesterday), you're not sure what a Segway is, think back to your last shopping mall trip, where you may have seen a security guard or two gliding around on rather strange-looking two-wheeled 'scooters'.

Very popular in shopping malls as a quick, energy efficient way to get around, Segway, world leaders in two-wheeled electric mobility, have taken their concept outdoors. The off-road version of the original Segway is optimized for outdoor use and is a completely novel, slightly adventurous way to enjoy a hike.

It only took me a few minutes to get the hang of one of these clean, green, eco-friendly machines, thanks to Craig Marshall from Eco-Discovery, which offers guided electric off-road adventures at selected locations in the Western Cape.

After only one minor mishap with my colleague - we still don't know how those wheels connected - we were off with Brian Pickering from Nature Discovery to see some of this beautiful area of Grabouw, which straddles the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve.

I could tell you more, but that might be spoiling it. Suffice to say I had an absolute blast and would definitely recommend it. Have a go - for just R80 you can book a demo ride with Eco-Discovery in July and August.

Next up - an adventure wine tour!

The team at Refresh PR feel very fortunate. As well as being days away from moving into our brand spanking new office, we've also just signed on two new clients:

Plush Professional Leather Care is a proudly South African brand specializing in the manufacture and distribution of a wide range of quality leather care products and accessories, while Malanot Wines is the brainchild of Swartland-born winemaker Marius Malan.

We are thrilled to be working with both brands in establishing a sustained presence within the respective target groups and supporting the marketing and sales activities. With a third potential account in the pipeline, I believe that our teamwork approach, ability to take initiative and good old plain hard work ethic, is standing our team in good stead. To adopt Seth Godin's thoughts about taking initiative and responsibility:

"The amazing thing is that unlike taking an apple or a chocolate bar, there's no loss to the rest of us. After you take it, we all benefit. There's one other thing you can take at work, easily and with approval: responsibility. In fact, they sort of have to go together. One without the other is a mess."

And so armed with this philosophy, we look forward to entering our new office space with the enthusiasm, energy and commitment that all our clients know us for, and perhaps a bottle or two of bubbly as well!

As the custodian of several Twitter accounts, including one in my personal and one in my business capacity, I found these do's and don'ts for communicating in the social media space relevant and useful. Titled 'Beware the Bitter Twitter', it's written by Ericka Chickowski and features in the February 2011 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine:

Social networks can be great communications tools, but take a misstep and you could end up doing your company more harm than good. Perhaps the biggest mistake business people make is posting while in the wrong frame of mind. There is a good rule of thumb everyone who 'tweets' should live by: "Don't Twitter while you are bitter." Of course, there are plenty of other mistakes that social networks make each day. Here's what to avoid:

Don't:

• Push out political rants because something in the news really ticked you off.
• Mingle personal announcements with marketing messaging.
• Focus on hard-selling your company's products or services.
• Automate cross-posting of the same content across numerous channels.
• Impulsively air grievances with customers, partners or even competitors on a public forum.
• Leave your friends and followers hanging when they comment on your links or give you a shout-out with an @ message.
• Let your accounts lie fallow.

• Engage friends and followers in political discussion relevant to your industry.
• Create separate accounts for personal friends and for business associates.
• Consider posting relevant opinions, links and photos about your industry that will truly interest friends and followers.
• Tailor your strategy to the proper channels to avoid annoying Facebook users with Twitter hashtags and Twitter followers with incomplete tweets.
• Take time to think before putting up content that could be referred to by search engines even after you've deleted it from your account.
• Make an effort to engage frequently rather than just foisting your marketing message on them.
• Try to offer new content frequently. If you don't have time to commit fully to all channels of social media, think about focusing on one where you can go all out.

Wow there's a lot happening this week in Refresh PR's world of clients.

Tomorrow we have the first panel selection session for the 37th Nederburg Auction taking place in Stellenbosch. Just over 300 fine and rare SA wines have been submitted for this year's event, and will be tasted blind over the next few days by a panel of wine experts, including winemakers, viticulturists, Cape wine masters, wine consultants and judges and sommeliers.

Over on the other side of Cape Town, at the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands, we'll also be in attendance at the Cape Town casting session for the 2011 Miss Earth South Africa, an initiative that aims to empower young South African women with the knowledge and platform to create a sustainable difference through environmental work.

Watch this blog space for more information on the selection and interview processes for both events - we'll be posting feedback on our Facebook page and provide real-time Twitter updates. Click on the icons on our home page to access the links.

To rare wines and beautiful women with an environmental conscience!

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Micro-messaging: A Possible Future

This article is a return to a topic, emerging on the internet, that has implications for how PR practitioners and marketers operate.  That issue is the rise of a new internet addressing system called Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).  Few paid attention to IPv6 until the last internet addresses under the old system (IPv4) were handed out this year.  Eventually, many of us will move to the new system and when we do, it will change the way we communicate.  The new addressing system will restore the internet to the way it used to operate. Each device -- cell phone, tablet, desktop computer, laptop, etc. -- will have its own unique address shared with no other device on earth.  This means we can start tracking devices and their internet addresses, associating them with people and beginning tailoring "personal" relations messages rather than "public" relations.  Don't panic, though.  The ability to do that is years away in the US and most countries, except for China.

Why read the article?  It provides a view of a future that young practitioners and marketers might see by time they are in mid-career.  The time to start understanding the implications is now.

I love the myriad of trees we have 'inherited' from the previous owners, but in our quest to safeguard the front of the house, as well as keep our children and the dogs safe from the road, we have had no choice but to lose a few of the beautiful big old trees.

Thankfully we didn't have to become tree murderers. Trees SA were more than happy to remove and relocate three of the trees.

I naively thought that it would be a quick process - wow what an education to see these guys at work. Three days of preparation, countless spades and shovels, more than a few inquisitive neighbors and two cranes later, the trees are safely re-planted at their new 'homes'.

It's a good feeling.

For me the highlight of the article was her comment on media relations. Gone are the days of a print press release - nowadays journalists expect content that encompasses all the multimedia digital assets. As PR's we'd be stupid to ignore this, particularly on the mobile front - 60% of mobile phone users in SA are able to browse the Internet on their device. Time then to invest in a mobile site - check out the guys at Thumbtribe - they're doing some seriously good stuff.

Read Sally's full article here.