By Max McConnell

December 31st, 2013

Fourteen reasons why WordPress will be in demand in 2014

Fourteen reasons why WordPress will be in demand in 2014

Setting your New Year resolutions? Planning to add a new skill to your technical and business skillset in 2014? We highly recommend refining your WordPress skills. Here are 14 reasons why WordPress will continue to be an in-demand skill as we head into 2014:

1. WordPress powers nearly 74 million websites worldwide
2. It makes it really easy to control your own site content
3. You can choose your own theme from thousands of different designs
4. You can then customize your theme
5. It’s easy to teach yourself and your team to create and edit pages and posts
6. You can update your homepage every day, without any hassle
7. It’s forgiving (in many ways), for example you can undo mistakes by reverting to an older version of a page or post
8. You can set up access for your team with different roles and responsibilities for each user depending on their role
9. You can easily insert and manipulate images and video to make your website visually interesting
10. There are thousands of plugins to add to your site like infinite scrolling, slide shows and contact forms
11. You can share social media content effortlessly
12. You can interact with your audience by allowing people to leave comments
13. You can hone your HTML skills while you fine tune your content
14. Version 3.8 has just been released with updated and easier to use administration area (woo!)

Convinced? Get started by signing up for Prompt’s free WordPress on Wednesday weekly email tips –  valuable tips and tricks delivered right to your inbox.

By Max McConnell

December 19th, 2013

WordPress screencast: Using the Text Editor for paragraph breaks

WordPress screencast: Using the Text Editor for paragraph breaks

How to use the Text Editor in WordPress

In this screencast Prompt WordPress trainer and PHP programmer Max McConnell walks through how to use the Text Editor for paragraph breaks.

Still have questions? Please get in touch with a Prompt WordPress wizard anytime at wordpress@prompt-pr.com. Want to learn more? Register for our 60 day online training course. We also offer personalized sessions, you can learn more about these here.

By Hazel Butters

December 18th, 2013

Tech PR perspective: Can BlackBerry stop the rot?

Tech PR perspective: Can BlackBerry stop the rot?

Photo courtesy of: ISO50

The other day someone commented on an old piece of technology that I lovingly still hang onto. No, it wasn’t the old DEC PDP that lives in my kitchen, it was the BlackBerry that I can’t seem to let go.

You see, I always rooted for BlackBerry, and a small part of me still does – especially since ex-Sybase chief John Chen stepped in to take the reins (I worked for Sybase, back in the day) – but I must admit it’s getting harder to love every day. BlackBerry has fallen such a long way from the early smartphone, messaging and corporate-loved mobile email darling that it became in the late 1990s and the 2000s. Ultimately it was the enterprise stance that made the BlackBerry’s reputation which proved its undoing – and it’s been slowly unraveling since Apple’s iPhone debuted in June 2007.

The BlackBerry 10 launched in January 2013, but did little to salvage the company’s position. It has looked for a buyer, and even started to court a few suitors, before a surprise 360-degree turn following a $1billion investment from Fairfax Financial Holdings. Today BlackBerry may be considered to be drawing its last breath, but Chen is at least attempting to make sweeping changes in an effort to resuscitate it.  In September he announced a workforce reduction of 4,500 coupled with a change of company direction, and this week two more executives departed. This means that to date the company has lost CEO Thorsten Heins – who Chen replaced – as well as its CFO, COO, CMO EVP of global sales, and VP of strategic alliances.

The truth is that technology is an unforgiving business, and the mobile market is the cruelest sector of all. I just hope BlackBerry gets to surprise us and its unrelenting market just once more time – and doesn’t just become a 2014 benefactor to the expanding tech-museum that is my kitchen…

Do you still have a BlackBerry? Tweet me from it at @HazelButters.

By Max McConnell

December 12th, 2013

WordPress screencast: Testing post types

WordPress screencast: Testing post types

How your WordPress theme can affect post types

In this screencast Prompt WordPress trainer and PHP programmer Max McConnell shows you how to evaluate your WordPress theme by testing posts types. You will also learn how to back up WordPress and switch themes.

By Hazel Butters

December 9th, 2013

Media relations: Getting going when you’re an early stage company

Media relations: Getting going when you’re an early stage company

Last week we had some brilliant ‘Ten Ways’ calls and meetings with software companies and app developers. If you’re not familiar with our Ten Ways calls, it’s an offer of free consultancy time to talk about PR, media and analyst ideas relevant to your business based on our favorite webinar (you’ve guessed it) ‘Ten ways to promote your technology product, service or app’. Want to sign up? Simply click here and book an appointment.

One common media relation question I hear from start-ups and early stage companies is where to start. Picture it: you have a brilliant idea, an early stage venture and a swathe of passion and motivation to realize it, but you need to communicate it to relevant media. You look at the press out there: online, print, and broadcast press and you feel, well, overwhelmed. It’s understandable: the breadth of media, the pace it works at, the number of outlets and the volume of news can be dizzying. Though personally I think the speed, volume and pace make this the most fascinating market to work in.

Anyhow, if you are feeling media relation starter overwhelm, here’s some of my thoughts on how to gain perspective and begin:

• Align your media relations strategy very closely with your business strategy. If your strategy is to secure B2B partnerships, then speak to relevant press. If you want to sell a new product to female consumers, then target the outlets they are reading and influenced by. If you are looking for local funding, start sharing your ideas with the local business press.

• Don’t create a massive press list and just start spamming random press, or send them anything that’s blatantly promotional. These are professionals that are looking to educate, inform and entertain their audiences — give them interesting and relevant stories that will help them do just that.

• Call people. If you’re too scared to or simply don’t have the time, then buy some media calling time from a company such as Prompt which works with start-ups and works on a flexible basis to do things such as media-calling-by-the-hour.

• Be genuine. Share the reasons why you started your company, or the mission behind your organization. This is typically personal, genuine and relevant — it also helps all the people you want to communicate with to feel more engaged and to understand you better.

• Think like a reporter. Read, watch and listen to the press you want to engage with. Then think from their perspective (imagine being a reporter working in that newsroom) about which stories would be relevant to their readers, viewers or listeners.

• Have fun! We work in a fabulous, fast-paced and engaging industry — enjoy the thrill of being part of it.

Have some questions on specific media, PR, content creation, customer programs or analyst topics? Please take a few minutes and book a free call to hear our ‘Ten ways to promote your technology product, service or app’.

By Max McConnell

December 5th, 2013

WordPress screencast: Testing a theme

WordPress screencast: Testing a theme

How to test a theme in WordPress

In this screencast Prompt WordPress trainer and PHP programmer Max McConnell shows you how to choose, implement and change/customize your WordPress theme.

Still have questions? Please get in touch with a Prompt WordPress wizard anytime at wordpress@prompt-pr.com. Want to learn more? Register for our 60 day online training course. We also offer personalized sessions, you can learn more about these here.