I have had a busy few months already in 2016, the year has started well for the Prohibition team and I have been up and down the country in meetings with exciting brands advising on social media strategy. I personally felt like I should have written a bit more on here recently, but frankly I haven’t had the time, as running a 10-strong PR agency and being a lecturer at University is quite time consuming especially if I want an actual life.

However, a couple of days ago I was contacted by Vuelio and told this blog has been listed as the 7th best PR blog in the UK. First of all, thanks very much to all of you that read my articles – I am a little over whelmed. I try to focus on things I find interesting, and aim for that rather than quantity these days, as I feel too many blogs say the same things with no real insight. I have removed a lot from my Feedly recently due to this fact because nobody seems to be saying anything new anymore. It just seems to be the same old shit – that said I do love this industry but it does love to blow its own trumpet a bit too much (he says looking at the title and subject of this post). I use this site to do my job and discuss things I think should be discussed.

The interesting angle that is floating about in 2016 is social video, streaming and of course virtual reality. I love all three of these areas and am fascinated how VR can be used to train people and place them into stressful situations they have never been before the opportunities are endless. The fact that the headsets are now consumer prices means we have more chance of buying them. Add that to all marketers scratching around trying how the hell to figure out how to make Snapchat work for their demographic and find a clever way to measure its effectiveness and I think this year could be quite interesting after all.

I am currently heading down to London to be interviewed by the CIPR for the CIPR Excellence Awards, we have been shortlisted for Best Integrated  Campaign. We have also been shortlisted for a Prolific North Award. I am really thrilled that the team’s efforts are starting to be recognised for being good work but sadly I cannot take any of the plaudits. I just hire the team, they are the smart ones that do me proud. We all work hard but working smart is much more important these days. To be honest I don’t really go much for awards but I have entered a few this year because once the work is done it is done.

So thanks again for reading and staying in touch and no doubt I will see you all at some point soon.

About Chris Norton

Chris Norton is the founder of Prohibition and an award winning communications consultant with more than twenty years’ experience. He was a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and has had a varied PR career having worked both in-house and in a number of large consultancies. He is an Integrated PR and social media blogger and writes on a wide variety of blogs across a huge amount of topics from digital marketing, social media marketing right through to technology and crisis management.