Wolfstar Social Media News Room

Leeds-based PR firm appoints Director of Greetings

Leeds-based public relations consultancy Bruce Marshall Associates has appointed Nelson Bruce as director of greetings (DOG).

Nelson's responsibilities will include meeting and greeting clients, friendly conversations with the un-expecting postman and getting his teeth into every-day life at the business.

Stuart Bruce, partner, BMA PR, said: "Nelson is an excellent appointment for us and provides an excellent morale boost for our team and clients. His face-to-face and tail-to-tail communications skills are particularly strong. His tendency to sleep and play most of the day cheers up everyone in the office."

Unfortunately, due to the demands of the job, Nelson was unable to comment at this time.

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Leeds PR man is one of an international line-up of speakers at blogging conference

Leeds-based PR consultant Stuart Bruce is one of a panel of international experts who will speak at a major national conference on the impact of weblogs and new communications technology on public relations. The Making the News: Blogs, RSS and the New PR conference is attracting delegates from all over the UK from businesses that are recognising the rapid changes in the way some forms of public relations and marketing communications are practised, especially in the United States.

Speakers at the conference include influential blogger and Microsoft Ireland PR Tom Murphy, US new communications specialist Elizabeth Albrycht of the Society for New Communications Research, and Amsterdam-based British podcast expert Neville Hobson. Stuart Bruce, managing partner of Leeds-based Bruce Marshall Associates will be providing practical advise on what UK businesses and public sector organisations should, and should not, be doing,

"As one of the first UK business people to start a professional blog I'm delighted to see that business blogs are beginning to gain wider acceptance in the UK. Being based in Leeds means that I can help Yorkshire businesses to be at the forefront of these new communications trends," explained Stuart Bruce, managing partner of Bruce Marshall Associates.

The conference is at the University of Sunderland on Friday, November 18. To book one of the few remaining places contact Nicky Wake on 01706 828855 or email nicky@dontpanicprojects.com.

Conference organiser Philip Young, senior lecturer in PR at Sunderland, said: "There has been an clear upsurge in interest in blogging in the UK as practitioners realise the challenges and opportunities it is bringing.

"We have now gone well beyond the view that blogs are just 'online diaries'. Something new is emerging that will shape the way PRs operate. There is a growing belief that weblogs are much more than a minor technological advance, but a potentially highly significant shift in the ways organisations engage with their publics."

Conference delegates will leave with practical information that provides tangible, deliverable business/organisational benefits, including:

• Awareness of potential opportunities/threats of weblogs for public and private sector PR teams
• Access to latest, comprehensive research into how newsrooms want and use PR-sourced information
• A copy of the University of Sunderland Style Guide for PR Writers, delivered on CD for unlimited users

ENDS

Softalk appoints its first PR company

Messaging and collaboration software developer Softalk has appointed Bruce Marshall Associates PR as its first retained public relations consultancy. BMA PR will initially run a PR and marketing communications campaign primarily targeting business and technology media. The consultancy will also develop a business blogging strategy for Softalk.

Maidenhead-based Softalk has briefed BMA PR to raise the profile of Softalk and its products amongst small to medium sized businesses in the UK and USA. As part of the brief BMA will run a campaign to launch Softalk Collaboration Suite which enables individual Outlook users to work together as a team without the need for an expensive Microsoft Exchange server.

“We appointed BMA PR because of their extensive experience and in-depth understanding of the SME sector and marketing software products,” explained Simon Bates, director, Softalk.

“We are delighted to be working with Softalk, not least because as satisfied users of their software we can talk from first hand experience about the business benefits of messaging and collaboration software that has been specifically developed for small to medium sized businesses,” said Stuart Bruce, partner, Bruce Marshall Associates.

About Softalk
Softalk provides a range of messaging, collaboration and customer relationship management software solutions specifically developed to benefit small to medium sized businesses. Softalk was set up in 1993 and is a privately held company headquartered in Maidenhead in the UK with a US office in New York. Customers include American Express, British Chamber of Commerce, British Transport Police, Cancer Research UK, Cap Gemini France and Xerox.  Its products include Workgroup Mail, an email server for SMEs, and OfficeTalk, a CRM solution that enables businesses manage customers by both company and individual contact; track documents, emails and phone conversations; share diaries and task lists with colleagues; schedule use of resources such as meeting rooms and office equipment; and provides an entry-level project management system.

For further information visit www.softalkltd.com .

About Bruce Marshall Associates

Bruce Marshall Associates is a business-to-business and technology public relations specialist. According to PR Week League Tables its technology fee-income means it is the north’s largest technology PR specialist. Founding partner Stuart Bruce has extensive experience of managing public relations campaigns for both large and small technology companies such as ICL Fujitsu, Sanderson Computers, ITnet, Ascom, Premier Farnell and Computer Sciences Corporation.

For more information visit www.brucemarshallassociates.com.