Job’s a good’un

I’m a month into my new job as Chairman and Brand Ambassador, and really loving it! I’m also very much enjoying seeing Paul establishing himself as CEO. He’s already adding loads of value.

Last week I was in London with Ryan from our new PR agency Red Consultancy, introducing myself to three journalists:

• Andrew Orlowski, Executive Editor, The Register
• Thomas Seal, Media and Telecoms Reporter, Bloomberg
• Alex Scroxton, Networking Editor, Computer Weekly

All the meetings went well.

 

News hijacking

A couple of days after meeting the journalists we got our first “news hijack” in Computer Weekly + a couple of other publications. “News hijacking” is a technique to get Zen’s name mentioned by commenting on other news stories. In this case we commented on CityFibre’s announcement that they will invest £2.5bn rolling out full fibre to 5m homes:

• CityFibre backers pump £2.5bn into full-fibre broadband – Computer Weekly
• Cityfibre Get £2.5bn to Build FTTH Broadband to 5 Million UK Homes – ISP Review
• Cityfibre invests £2.5bn in true fibre UK project – City AM
• Chairman and Founder of Zen Internet says CityFibre investment 'should be good for UK households' – Rochdale online

Earlier this week I commented on the Which? press release and got some great coverage in The Register. ISP Review and Rochdale Online also picked it up.

 

If you have inner peace, it's probably 'cos your broadband works: Zen Internet least whinged-about Brit ISP – survey – The Register

Which? Identifies the Most Moaned About UK Broadband ISPs – ISP Review

Zen Internet customers have fewest complaints about service, says Which? – Rochdale Online Paul also got some great “news hijack” coverage by commenting on the government’s budget statement:

Rural areas given £200m full-fibre broadband pledge, FT

Autumn UK Budget 2018 Confirms £200m+ for Rural Full Fibre, ISP Review

Budget 2018: Tech Industry Reactions – Silicon UK

Budget offers £200m boost to rural full fibre broadband – uSwitch

Budget 2018: No great leap forward for broadband, but no need to panic – Computer Weekly

We’ll be doing lots more news hijacking in the weeks and months ahead.

 

Coming up next

I’ve just done an interview with Simon Keegan, editor of North West Business Insider. It will be published in the December edition and there’s even the possibility we’ll get the cover photo.

I’m speaking at the quarterly LINX meeting in London on Tuesday 20th November to give a “personal account of the rise of the Internet over the past 23 years, linked into some key moments in Zen’s history”.

Last, but certainly not least, our PR agency has managed to get me an appearance on BBC Business Live on Thursday 13th December. Should be fun!

Raising Zen’s profile

All this PR activity will raise Zen’s profile and make us a better known name. This in turn will help fuel our business growth by driving more customers to us.

Richard