General

In June this year, Magenta’s MD Cathy Hayward and her 11-year-old son Jude are travelling to Urubamba, Peru to volunteer for the charity Kiya Survivors. The charity aims to provide a new beginning for children and young people in the area who have special needs or have been abused or abandoned.

They will stay with local families and work at the Rainbow House, home to seven orphans, three of whom have special needs, and the Rainbow Centre, a day centre for 60 children, together with a local family who need support.

We will be doing everything from building a chicken run, rabbit hutch and creating a vegetable patch at the Rainbow House so the children can grow their own vegetables and have fresh eggs, to maintenance projects such as making and putting up curtains, sanding and varnishing floors, painting walls and installing running water and a loo for a local family. They will also spend a lot of time playing and looking after the children, running craft workshops, baking and playing football. At the end of the week they take them on a day trip to the Sacred Valley.

Cathy and Jude are funding all the costs of the trip themselves and each making a substantial donation to the charity. But, as a group, they are hoping to raise enough money to fund the charity’s operations until the end of the year. Anything you can donate, however small, would be most appreciated. You can donate through JustGiving.

Jude is also doing lots of fundraising through his school, including cake sales, a school disco, car-washing, dog-walking, waffle making and pulling a truck filled with scrap metal along Hove seafront in April. Somehow his mum has been drafted in to help with the last task!

Sodexo, Carillion and Mitie have been revealed as the top three users of social media among facilities management service providers. That’s according to the second annual research report from FM communication specialists Magenta Associates.

Social Media in the Facilities Management Sector, published today, 15 November 2013, includes, for the first time, a ranking of the best social media communicators which are:
1. Sodexo
2. Carillion Support Services
3. Mitie Group
4. Kier Services
5. ISS Facility Services
6. Serco
7. Johnson Controls GWS
8. Interserve
9. Compass
10. Amey

The ranking was compiled combining measures including number of active followers, number of tweets/ posts during the research week and Klout scores together with a subjective assessment of the range and content of social media activity.

The 44-page report analyses new and developing trends within social media and how its use has developed in the FM industry. It looks at each of the top 50 FM service providers’ performances across the main social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr and compares them with their 2012 performance.

The research explores: what organisations in the facilities management sector have done to date in their use of social media (through an in-depth analysis over a test period during October 2013) in terms of frequency of use and timing; the audience; the content published; and the maintenance of the conversation. This information is then compared to the 2012 research to see if there are any increasing trends, or improvements in the general operating of social media channels.

The report is available to purchase via Paypal as a hard copy for £99, or as a downloadable PDF for £75.

Alternatively please email Marianne Halavage at Marianne.halavage@magentaassociates.co.uk to purchase your copy.

“Although the uptake of social media has increased since our last report, it is still evident that the FM sector either isn’t fully committed to the communications tool, or doesn’t understand it,” explained Cathy Hayward, managing director of Magenta. “Channels are often set up as it is seen as the done thing to do, however there is often little thought to the resources needed to effectively run them. Without a social media strategy and staff to run the channels, effective communication is impossible.”

The report’s publication marks the launch of Magenta’s social media division which includes social media audits, strategy and content planning, as well as full social media management services. “We’ve provided social media advice and content as part of our PR and marketing offering for some time, but given the increasing importance of social media as a B2B communications tool, we felt it was time to launch a dedicated division,” added Hayward. Magenta is also offering social media training, including a half-day introductory course, a full-day course for more advanced users and bespoke training. These courses will be based in Brighton and London and all delegates will receive a complimentary hard copy of the report. To discuss your training needs, email Cathy Hayward on Cathy.hayward@magentaassociates.co.uk