Wolfstar Social Media News Room

Wolfstar announces new senior appointment

Wolfstar, the public relations social media specialist, has appointed a new senior employee to its team as it continues its rapid expansion. Chris Norton, 30, joins the business as an account director, moving from award winning agency Trimedia Harrison Cowley.

Wolfstar, which only launched in May, to help clients navigate the new world of public relations, social media and word of mouth recently moved to a larger new premises on Wellington Road, Leeds.

The specialist consultancy offers clients multiple ways of communicating by combining traditional strategic public relations counsel and tactics such as mainstream media relations, CSR and stakeholder relations with other less conventional engagement techniques. It also provides its clients with strategic counsel to help them navigate the new media landscape including blogs, user generated content, social media, social networks and word of mouth marketing and communications.

Chris worked for Trimedia, based in Moortown, for the last four and a half years working on a variety of clients including: BT, the National Lottery, the Home Office, Lloyds TSB autolease, Institute of Directors, Leeds Chamber of Commerce, Learndirect, Learning & Skills Council and local authorities including Leeds and Bradford councils.

Chris brings with him more than eight years’ public relations experience spanning consumer, business to business, property, technology and FMCG sectors, together with crisis management, project management, event management, direct mail and marketing communications.

Stuart Bruce, director and joint founder of Wolfstar, said: “The appointment of Chris will certainly have an immediate and positive impact on our business here in Leeds. With Wolfstar continuing to grow rapidly – we believe we are well placed to become one of the UK’s fastest growing public relations social media agencies.”

Chris commented: “I’m delighted to be joining Wolfstar. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Trimedia but I am now looking forward to a new and exciting challenge. In my eight years in PR, I have worked in traditional public relations and I really wanted the opportunity to start working in new media to begin properly targeting the social and digital media effectively. Wolfstar isn’t a traditional PR agency in the normal sense, we are focused much more on total communication and that’s why the guys here really stood out to me. I can’t wait to start putting my new skills into practice.”

Wolfstar’s three founding directors are Tim Sinclair, founder of Leeds-based Sinclair Mason which he grew into one of the north’s largest public relations consultancies before selling it to the Huntsworth Group in 2005; Stuart Bruce, who features in PR Week’s Power Book and is one of the UK’s most high profile PR bloggers; and Susie Lawrence, former head of public relations at integrated marketing communications agency JDA.

Wolfstar is a founder member of WOM-UK, the new association representing the word of mouth marketing and communications sector in the UK. WOM-UK officially launched on October 16 and Wolfstar director Stuart Bruce is an elected member of the elected WOM-UK council. Wolfstar director Tim Sinclair was the driving force behind launching WOM-UK and its new chief executive.

As well as the three directors, the Wolfstar team also includes account manager Sebastian Mysko and account executive Beth Kay.

Prior to joining Trimedia, Chris worked for Harvard PR and more recently Harvard Health, both in West London. Clients worked on a number of high profile brands including: GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Beiersdorf, Meat & Livestock Commission, Pentax and One.Tel.

Chris has a BA (Hons) degree in Public Relations from Leeds Metropolitan University and graduated in June 2000. In his spare time, Chris likes to spend time with his wife and new born child.

ENDS

For further media information please contact Wolfstar +44 (0)113 394 7960

Sebastian Mysko +44 (0)7855 323728 sebm@wolfstarconsultancy.com

Everybody has a price - Weblo launches ‘how much?’ and ‘how to’ devices to enable users who generate web content to cash in

So it’s not fair that internet companies are making money from the content provided by their users? Egalitarian social networking site Weblo has two new features to prove that it’s on the side of the consumer-generators. Now, anyone who takes part in social networks such as MySpace and Facebook, who writes a blog, posts videos or even just sends emails, can calculate what they are worth online and can use this knowledge to sell themselves to advertisers.

This year alone user-generated content will generate advertising revenues of nearly £2.5 billion and this is predicted to top £2.1 billion by 2011[1]. Weblo, which is designed on the principle that those who take part should also profit, now champions the cause of the individuals in ensuring that income is distributed fairly.

Calculate Your InterNET Worth uses a formula to put a monetary value on digital assets. Weblo’s Ad Network then matches potential advertisers, who specific demographic, geographic and content requirements, with suitable individuals, who have advertising space allocated on, for example their personal profile pages. Costs for advertisers can be as low as £2.50.

Rocky Mirza, founder and CEO of Weblo said: “There has been much debate about whether it’s right that the owners of what are typically web 2.0 companies, should profit from what is essentially other people’s work. Of course, these sites and services provide a vehicle for people to come together and interact but most of the useful content, i.e. the hard work, is done by the individuals contributing. We think it’s only right that some advertising revenue goes back to those who make it worthwhile for the advertiser to be there in the first place.”

The two new features of Weblo build on the popularity of the site’s burgeoning trade in virtual real estate. Over 62,000 members are already profiting from their ownership and sales of countries, states and cities.

Weblo fanatic ‘Doctor Jonson’ from Montreal said: “I’ve been the ‘mayor’ of London since December 2006 and it’s already earned me £29. I’m building up interest in it and hope to be able to sell for a big profit soon. It’s exciting that I can now put a value on this kind of activity, as well as the other social networking I do in places like Facebook as it means I can start to make some revenue from that too. It makes me happier to contribute when some of the advertising comes back to me rather than just lining the pockets of the shareholders of the sites themselves. And of course I feel a lot less guilt about spending hours on-line if I know I’m earning while I do it!”

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Notes to editors:

For further information please go to www.weblo.com.

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[1] eMarketer.com