Shirley Williams Communications

14/10/2026

My advice to businesses heading into the final quarter is simple: take stock of what you have to say, and be selective about how and when you say it.

Here are a few things I'd encourage businesses to consider:

👉 Newsworthiness: Does your announcement offer something genuinely interesting or valuable to the media's audience?

👉 Timing: Could your story receive better attention in January, when journalists and businesses are looking ahead to the new year?

👉 Relevance: Are you communicating because you have something meaningful to share, or simply because it's on the marketing calendar?

👉 Preparation: Have you identified the stories, milestones and developments that could create media opportunities in early 2027?

The final quarter is also an opportunity to reflect on what's worked, identify gaps in your communications and put a stronger plan in place for the year ahead.

A little forward planning now can save a great deal of time, pressure and missed opportunities when January arrives.

If you'd like some guidance on planning your communications for 2027, I'd be happy to help.

🟡 Contact me at [email protected]

13/10/2026

Here's a little reality check from someone who has been in the business for a little while!

Your company might have something exciting to announce, but that doesn't necessarily mean the media will find it newsworthy.

A new appointment, a business milestone, a product launch or an award might be significant to your organisation. However, journalists have a different set of priorities. They're looking for stories that inform, interest or offer something valuable to their readers.

In fact, according to Cision's 2026 State of the Media Report, 72% of journalists surveyed internationally said fewer than a quarter of the PR pitches they receive are relevant.

☝ That's quite a wake-up call!

One of the most important skills in public relations is recognising the difference between a company announcement and a compelling news story. Sometimes, the opportunity lies in finding a fresh angle, connecting your announcement to a wider industry conversation or identifying a publication whose audience would genuinely benefit from the information.

Sometimes, the best professional advice is to acknowledge that a story simply isn't suited to editorial coverage.

Good PR requires editorial judgement, an understanding of the media and the experience to know what makes a story worth telling. If your business has something to communicate, I'd be happy to help you find the right approach.

Contact me at [email protected].

30/09/2026

Reaching 10, 20 or even 50 years in business is something worth celebrating! 👏

And from a PR perspective, it can also be the starting point for a much bigger conversation.

Think about everything a business witnesses over two decades. An industry evolves. Customer behaviour changes. Technology transforms how we work. Challenges come and go. Lessons are learned. And the people leading that business accumulate a considerable amount of knowledge along the way.

👉 That is where I like to look for the story.

What has changed since you opened your doors? What do you understand about your industry today that you couldn't have known then? What does your company data tell us? What surprised you? And, perhaps most importantly, what do the next 20 years look like?

A milestone gives us the reason to reflect.

Good PR helps uncover the interesting story within that reflection and turns it into something other people will want to read.

👋 If your business has an important milestone approaching, let's find the story worth telling.

📧 Reach out to me at: [email protected]

29/09/2026

We all have friends, and then we have FRIENDS.

The ones who ask, “How are you?” and somehow end up getting the full, completely unedited answer.

It got me thinking about how much the quality of our conversations depends on the relationships we’ve built, and how true that is in business too.

Clients, colleagues, journalists, advisers. The real value often comes when there is enough trust to move beyond the polite answer and have an honest conversation.

I’ve unpacked this a little further in my latest article.

Have a read. I’d love to know what you think.

https://www.shirleywilliams.co.za/how-are-you-fine-thanks/

What our closest relationships can teach us about better business communication

28/09/2026

📢I hate to be the person who says this, but the year is basically over.

Yes, it’s September, but anyone who has worked through enough South African Decembers knows what happens next.

October arrives with a full diary. November becomes a race to finish everything. Then somebody says, “Can we pick this up in January?” and suddenly you’re putting on your out-of-office.

So this is my annual September reminder to start thinking about the things that always seem far away until they aren’t.

Year-end events. Client gifting. Festive campaigns. Annual reports. January launches. 2027 planning. Holiday communications. Printing. Photography. Media activity. And anything that requires another human being to actually be available before the country starts winding down.

You don’t need to have everything finished now, but you should probably know what’s coming, because there are really only two types of people in November: those who planned in September and those asking whether anyone knows a printer who can turn something around by tomorrow.

I know which one I’d rather be.😉

If you need help wrapping up your year-end communications, or even planning ahead to set you up for a fresh start in January (Yes, we should be thinking that far), then get in touch with me; I would love to help you finish off the year strong!

17/09/2026

There is increasing pressure on business leaders to build a personal brand and become more visible.

But visibility does not require your CEO to document their morning coffee or suddenly become a full-time content creator.

Most experienced leaders are already sitting on something far more valuable: years of knowledge, strong opinions, industry insight and a front-row view of what is changing in their sector.

The challenge is often knowing what to do with it. This is where strategic PR can add real value.

Part of my work is helping business leaders identify the conversations they should be part of, draw out the insights that are worth sharing and turn that expertise into credible thought leadership, media commentary, articles and interview opportunities.

You already have the knowledge. You don’t necessarily need to create more content.

You need to know which ideas are worth developing, where they belong and how to communicate them well.

If there is expertise sitting quietly inside your business, perhaps it is time we put it to work.

🟡 [email protected]

16/09/2026

I had to phone a long-standing client recently and ask for help with something I simply couldn’t figure out.

There was no hesitation. No clock watching. We talked it through, tried a few things and eventually solved the problem.

It was a small moment, but it reminded me of something important.

We often think about relationships as something we need to actively go out and build. In reality, we are building them all the time. With clients. Suppliers. Colleagues. Journalists. The person who answers when you need advice. The person whose call you always take.

Strong relationships are rarely created in one big moment. They are the result of hundreds of small interactions where you have been generous with your time, reliable when it mattered and genuinely interested in the person on the other side.

And eventually, something rather lovely happens. The relationship stops being defined by who is the client and who is the service provider. You simply become people who know they can call each other.

After all these years in business, I still think that is one of the most valuable things you can build.

14/09/2026

Spring is in full swing! Which means South Africans are about to start using one particular phrase with increasing urgency:

“Can we get this done before the end of the year?”

September is funny like that.

For months, December has been comfortably sitting somewhere in the distance. Then spring arrives, the days get longer, diaries get busier, and suddenly there are launches to finish, events to organise, announcements to make and projects that absolutely, definitely need to happen before everyone disappears for the holidays.

After many years in business, I can confirm that this happens every year.
So, enjoy the first signs of spring. Open the windows. Have lunch outside. Appreciate the extra bit of daylight.

👏And then perhaps have a quick look at that list of things you said you’d get done in 2026. December has a habit of arriving rather quickly!

10/09/2026

I want to start this month’s newsletter with something genuinely good, because we don’t get to say that often enough.

eThekwini’s unemployment rate has fallen to 21.2%, this is the lowest of any metro in South Africa. We are ahead of Cape Town and well below the national rate of 33.6%. That’s a 5.6 percentage point drop from the same time last year, and eThekwini was the only metro in the country to record declines both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year. Transport and logistics alone added around 44,000 jobs over the past nine months, with finance and business services adding a further 25,000*.

👏 Read more from my latest newsletter in my blog below.

Business Durban’s quiet comeback (and why now’s the time to speak up) Posted by Shirley Williams September 2, 2026 On September 2, 2026 0 I want to start this month’s newsletter with something genuinely good, because we don’t get to say that often enough. eThekwini’s unemployment rate has ...

02/09/2026

This is the kind of media coverage I love to see!

I’ve recently been working with Traderbag South Africa on their PR, and it was wonderful to see them featured in The Citizen News this week as part of a much bigger conversation around fast fashion, waste and our increasingly disposable culture.

Journalist Hein Kaiser has done a fabulous job of bringing the story together, from Phillip Botha’s remarkable dress created from recycled paper bags to Traderbag co-founder Daniel Cherry’s perspective on rethinking the everyday products we so easily throw away.

For me, good PR is about finding where a business genuinely belongs in the conversations already happening around us. Traderbag has something relevant to say about sustainability and single-use culture, and it’s great to see that message receiving meaningful editorial space.

Well done to everyone involved, and thank you, Hein, for a great piece.

Read the full article on The Citizen below.

Designer Phillip Botha turned recycled paper bags into dress to challenge fast fashion waste and our growing throwaway culture.