Getting your head around what to do with your PR can be daunting if you aren’t in the industry. Which is why we would always advise coming to someone in the know, like Rise PR for instance!

We would say that of course, but if you are really set on doing it yourself then help is at hand. Rise PR Director Karen Allen has recorded a podcast with RunMarketing, the free, online do-it-yourself marketing, public relations and digital media tips site for small businesses and start-ups.

PR is arguably the most cost-effective marketing tool - certainly the only one in which a minimal outlay could see you plastered across the national media. That won’t always be the case of course, but Karen talks about ways in which small businesses can promote their products and services at a local, trade and yes, sometimes even a national level.

Listen to Karen’s words of wisdom here.

When me and my wife decided that after 18 years or so (eight of those together), we’d had our fill of London, heading for the seaside seemed the right thing to do. I’d grown up in Hampshire and knew Southsea a little bit, so we decided to up sticks and move ourselves and our new PR agency, Rise PR to the south coast.

Its been a month or so now and so far so good. The sun has been out, our daughter has settled and there are some great business opportunities emerging. In short, life is sweet.

And life got much sweeter last week when we discovered Coco Chocolatiers, an independent luxury chocolate shop on Marmion Road in Southsea and the first subject of my occasional ‘things to do in Southsea’ series of blog posts.

Coco is a shop that is made for smelling and the chocolatey goodness that hits you as you walk through the door is almost other-worldly. I’m not a big chocoholic but I could have stood there sniffing for hours, although had to restrict myself to a few minutes in the name of not looking too weird. We bought a small bar of toffee chocolate, tried a little bit on the walk home and within minutes we had done the lot. Velvety texture, strong but not overbearing flavour and creamy aftertaste made for literally the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

We went back of course and got a selection of individual chocs which were equally as gorgeous. Good value too, 50p a pop for one chocolate, much better than other luxury chocolatiers I’ve seen in the past.

So if you find yourself in Southsea with a hankering for chocolate, the only place to go is Coco Chocolatier, you won’t regret it.