Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
One of the critical factors of being successful in public relations is maintaining a strong media-relations practice, which is why Cision’s State of the Media Report is such a useful resource. This year the annual report surveyed more than 1,550 North American journalists and influencers to get their feedback on topics such as what issues are impacting them most, ways PR professionals can improve and tips on pitching.
Here are four highlights for PR practitioners to keep in mind:
1. Reporters Really, Really Want You to Trust Them.
Accustomed to the public’s trust and general acceptance that news stories are reported in a factual and unbiased manner, journalists now face skepticism and suspicion. Survey results show reporters are keenly aware of this shift.
- 91 percent of survey respondents believe the media is somewhat or much less trusted than they were three years ago
- 92 percent said that being right is more important than being first, up 4 percent from 2016
- 60 percent of reporters believe the public values facts over opinions or feelings
As a result, media is relying heavily on PR professionals to present them with accurate, reliable resources such as press releases and expert sources for interviews.
2. Pitching by Phone? Dial “D” for Don’t Bother.
According to the survey, the first step in building a positive relationship with media is to cut the telephone cord:
- 90 percent cited email as the best way to directly pitch a story idea
- Calling journalists via phone or pitching through social media ranked below 3 percent
- Journalists and influencers particularly dislike being contacted via telephone, with an 8 percent increase in respondents who said telephone pitches are never welcome
3. Here’s How to Get on Media’s Good Side.
The best way to win over 83 percent of reporters is researching their media outlets before pitching.
- 51 percent agree they’re more likely to pursue a story when communications professionals demonstrate they’re familiar with the reporter’s past work, interests and beats
- 73 percent appreciate when pitches are tailored to suit their beat/coverage
- 49 percent want information and expert sources provided
Additional advice from journalists for PR reps includes:
- PR professionals should write angles that are less commercial and more usable for general audiences.
- Agencies and brands should produce in-house B-Roll and sound clips relating to timely issues, especially visuals or videos of a work site or a specific product’s use.
- If you are willing to write and distribute a press release, be prepared to reply to a few questions from journalists.
- Write in AP Style, or at least spell things properly.
- Stop spamming journalists and stop calling to follow up after spamming them.
4. The Most Valuable Assets for Journalists.
Cision asked journalists to rank which PR resources they found most valuable. For the second year in a row, press releases and story leads ranked first, followed by expert interviews and images. Video rose one spot from fourth to third most valuable, while products to review dropped in importance. Among bloggers, products ranked as the second most valuable resource, while assistance in story writing ranked last across the board.
The Top Six PR Assets Journalists Value Most:
- Press Releases/Story Leads
- Expert Interviews/Story Sources
- Sourcing Images and Video
- Propriety Data
- Products to Review
- Assistance in Story Writing
As the media landscape continues to shift, shrink and surprise, building meaningful relationships with reporters will become increasingly necessary to impact audiences, influence public perception and drive brand awareness. To reach reporters, PR professionals must understand their interests and needs and ensure story angles are pertinent and newsworthy before pitching.
As a student of the University of Washington’s business school and as an intern here at Communiqué PR, I have spent a lot of time over my college career learning about brand image and messaging and the importance of consistency. As I’ve come to understand it, brand image is a crucial part of any team’s marketing or PR strategy, no matter what business or product is being sold.
Over the last few weeks in particular, there have been a number of impressively bad branding strategies (yes, I am talking about Pepsi) so it feels like the right time for a crash course on how to avoid a branding disaster.
Let’s start by looking at what happened to Pepsi. If I have spent a lot of class time talking about brand image (and I have), I have spent an equal amount of time discussing Pepsi and Coke and their infamous “cola wars.” The reason that Pepsi and Coke are often cited as prime examples about the importance of brand image is because of how unique the soda industry is. Since Pepsi and Coke are the two biggest global brands today, and their prices and company structures are so similar, the war between the two rivals has been waged almost exclusively through advertising and marketing based on their brand image.
Collectively, the two companies spend around $5 billion on advertising each year – for them, brand image really is everything. This is why Pepsi’s recent commercial featuring Kendall Jenner was such a PR and branding catastrophe: in an industry where the only competitive differentiator is how consumers view your company, the kind of blow dealt by the Pepsi/Kendall Jenner ad could be devastating. There has been a trend of companies moving toward progressive branding to appeal to younger consumers, and since the Pepsi image has always strived to appeal to a young and fun audience, it makes sense that executives attempted to create an ad that addressed social and political issues.
However, Pepsi failed to understand the implications of its actions, and it backfired. While Pepsi was attempting to support the protest movement sweeping the nation, instead of empowering the activists and protesters that are fighting for social justice, they made light of it by putting a soft drink as a cure-all solution to very complex socio-policies issues going on worldwide . The ad trivialized a very serious issue to the point that the ad’s ‘protest’ looked more like fun dance party. Due to its size and decades of good branding, Pepsi will likely be emerge unscathed in the big picture, but a smaller company may find it very difficult to make a comeback from this sort of impact to a brand.
Luckily, companies can learn from Pepsi’s mistake. If you are going to take a stand and join the many companies that are moving toward more progressive and socially conscious branding, do your research, pick an issue and be thoughtful about how it aligns with your brand and the messages you want convey.
The thing about brands, especially global ones like Pepsi, is that they genuinely have the potential to do a lot of good. In fact, 84 percent of people in a recent study believed that brands have the power to make the world a better place, and they do. However, ads like the one Pepsi put out show little to no sensitivity to the struggles of the issue they are trying to highlight.
Marketers and PR pros alike need to put themselves in the shoes of the people closest to an issue and consider how their campaign or ad will bring awareness to a problem. Hiring a celebrity spokesperson is not always going to be the best way to do that. A better approach might to connect with real people on the front lines and use their insight and perspective to create a meaningful message that reflects the values and vision of the community it is serving.
Companies also need to start considering the power that consumers have, especially in the age of social media. Everyone has a voice, so it is particularly important to be sensitive to a variety of different audiences. At this time in history, there are certain topics that should not be exploited for consumerization and this takes a degree of common sense to realize. However, if you are truly set on taking a stand, consider showing the campaign to a variety of test audiences to gauge reactions.
There is one thing that Pepsi did correctly, and that is taking ownership of its mistake. While the commercial itself might be considered by many to be a disaster, the company was quick to apologize and realize they had made a serious faux pas. While there was some damage done, it was certainly not irreversible, but this may not always be true. If you want to go the route of Pepsi and put out a campaign around a social issue, make sure you consider each and every angle.
Many of our clients use agile software development practices as they design and bring new products to market, but recently we’ve heard more and more about marketing teams that are also embracing agile principles. It got us thinking about how we work together and inspired us to look to other marketing teams for inspiration around best practices. Before we jump into our findings, let’s review the definition and principles of agile.
Wikipedia defines agile software development as “a set of principles for software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing cross-functional teams.” Whew. That’s a mouthful.
Let’s break this definition down. “Software development under which requirements and solutions evolve …” is pretty straightforward. This simply means the vision for the software and written code is going to progress or advance, and this is going to happen through the joint efforts of people.
Then there is the part about people being part of self-organizing, cross-functional teams. Self-organizing means the team decides how to achieve the goals or solve problems. They still have to meet deadlines and complete work within a budget, but how they accomplish the goals is up to them.
A cross-functional team means that you’re likely to have representatives from a variety of groups within the organization participating on your team. For instance, you might have someone from marketing, finance, engineering, human resources, operations, etc. The idea is that representatives from different departments will bring valuable perspective to the team as it strives to meet its common goals.
On Wikipedia there is a section devoted to the Agile Manifesto, which is based on 12 principles. I’ve reviewed and modified it for PR and marketing professionals. Here’s my version:
- Maintain customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable results. For PR professionals, these might mean developing content, securing placement of articles, or acquiring new followers on social media platforms. Customers may be internal or external. For someone working in an agency, their customer is external. If you’re working in-house, you’re likely to have internal stakeholders. For instance, sales managers, business development or C-level executives may be your internal customers.
- Welcome changing requirements, even late in the project. As new information becomes available, accept it and make it actionable. A talented PR or marketing professional will know that market dynamics and competitive actions can change quickly, and they’ll be able to respond accordingly and shift gears comfortably.
- Identify incremental milestones to deliver against over weeks versus months. Make sure team members are aligned on the tactical milestones that need to be achieved. Identify clear measures when possible. Taking this step is a good way to ensure you’re marshalling the right resources and avoiding fire drills.
- Ensure close, daily cooperation between business people and marketers or PR. Consider short daily meetings to review the progress toward your desired outcome and discuss challenges. These meetings can be vital in helping the team adjust to problems or roadblocks.
- Build projects around motivated individuals who can be trusted. You need to depend and rely on your teammates if you’re going to work in an Agile manner. Empower each person to make a meaningful contribution.
- Communicate face-to-face. In-person conversations are the best form of communication. When you connect face-to-face you have the benefit of observing body language, and assuming you’re in the same building, it is often much faster than writing an email.
- Results are the principal measure of progress. The team should be delivering incremental results and communicating regularly with stakeholders about their progress. Customers should not be wondering how things are going or where activity stands.
- Work at a sustainable, constant pace. You don’t want your team to burn out, so work at a reasonable pace. Remember to take breaks and celebrate milestones.
- Pay attention to technical excellence and good design. In public relations, this might mean following AP style rules or looking for ways to infuse creativity or originality as you’re working on a project.
- Focus on the art of maximizing the amount of work not done. Look for the most efficient way to deliver results. Consider the probability of success. If an idea is going to take significant time with a low chance of success, look for an alternate approach. The team should zero in on strategies that have a high likelihood for success with a high return on investment.
- Encourage teams to be self-organizing. The team can determine how to approach and adapt to meet the goal or new challenges in the environment.
- Reflect regularly on how to become more effective, and adjust accordingly. Conduct postmortems with your team to discuss successes and failures.
Marketing Leaders’ Perspectives on Agile
I had the opportunity to hear from several leaders about how they’re implementing agile practices. Below is some of their advice.
Katie Lioy, director, marketing technology for SHIFT Communications, encourages people not to try “to implement every single agile method at once.” She suggests letting the team to get used to the ideas of agile first before moving into implementation.
Christina Gunn, Chief Marketing Officer with Brandmetta, says that her team “meets multiple times weekly in short planning or sprint meetings. It’s where we communicate priorities, issues and accomplishments. Everyone functions at the same level and we don’t have hierarchy when it comes to problem solving.”
Gunn’s team also leverages a number of software solutions to improve collaboration. “Slack, Basecamp, Harvest, Join Me, Skype, and GoToMeeting enable us to easily reach our team when needed,” she says. “We rarely use email, other than to formally document key agreements or decisions. Otherwise, project- and client-related communication and documents are placed in workspaces in Basecamp and Slack.
I know I’m looking forward to applying these principles to our work here at Communique PR!
Recently several notable brands – United Airlines, Pepsi, Wells Fargo and Uber, among them – have experienced significant backlash from consumers after major crises, followed by a wave of negative press coverage.
As a PR professional, how these disparate situations have been handled thus far has, to say the least, been interesting to watch. With many of these companies, addressing the immediate communication crisis is critical; however, PR and crisis communication alone will not solve the underlying business issues that have led to the public brand strife. Strategic public relations can indeed be powerful – but it cannot solve fundamental business issues such as a lack of leadership or poor corporate-wide communication, a toxic culture, a failing business model, a flawed product or unethical behavior.
Brands that provide strong leadership based on shared values are much better able to empower employees across all levels in the organization to make decisions that reinforce and support the business objectives. When employees understand the vision for the company and its business objectives, they are better equipped to make decisions in the moment that reflect that vision and reinforce the values of their organization.
Consider, for example, how a Zappos customer service representative reinforced their company’s values by sending flowers and a sympathy card to my family when we returned shoes after my mother’s death that she had purchased but not worn. This employee made an in-the-moment decision that did not rely solely on policy and that reflected the company’s values.
Kara Swisher, in her article “Dear Tech Bros: It’s not a PR problem at Uber (or Yahoo or any of it),” counters the widely-shared opinion that “it’s a PR problem,” and “PR can fix it.” She writes, “Thus, those who keep insisting to me that PR is the problem for Uber have to catch a clue: The company is having troubles because it neglected to put key human resources and management systems in place that would counter its rich-frat-boy-meets-Vegas tendencies. It needs to do that now and quickly; it needs to complete a thorough and independent investigation that names names and exacts some form of justice.”
Recently, I was asked how I would respond if United Airlines were to call our firm for PR counsel during its unfolding crisis. My first point would be to emphasize that the apparent issues at United are not isolated to PR and communication. Therefore, the solution shouldn’t be siloed to just public relations but rather be implemented across cross-functional teams. In this example, United’s leadership needs to adapt, evaluate both the company’s and the brand’s values, and make its employees empowered to make decisions in the moment that align with those values and reinforce the aspirations of the brand.
When it comes to navigating through a crisis and then working to re-establishing customer and stakeholder trust in an organization, PR should have a seat at the table, no question; however, the table needs to include leaders across the company in order to be effective and authentic. It’s not a just PR problem.
Fake news has been a hot topic since the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election and for good reason. On Facebook, fake election-related news stories generated more user engagement than top stories from credible news publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, NBC News, and others, according to a BuzzFeed News analysis.
Following the election, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg released a statement, reiterating Facebook’s goal to give “every person a voice” while also explaining, “we don’t want any hoaxes on Facebook. Our goal is to show people the content they will find most meaningful, and people want accurate news.” As Zuckerberg’s statement promised, Facebook did continue to evolve its News Feed platform and recently launched a two-pronged approach to combat fake news on its social network.
In a blog post announcing the tool, Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s Vice President of News Feed, wrote that Facebook has been focusing on three key areas with these changes:
- “Disrupting economic incentives because most false news is financially motivated;
- building new products to curb the spread of false news; and
- helping people make more informed decisions when they encounter false news.”
The first element of Facebook’s effort is centered on education, which is critical. As mentioned in a recent post on Communiqué PR’s blog, a Stanford University study found that 82 percent of middle schoolers were unable to distinguish “sponsored content” from a legitimate source.
“To help people spot false news,” Facebook introduced an educational tool at the top of users’ News Feeds. It lists the following items to consider when reviewing a news story:
1. Be skeptical of headlines. False news stories often have catchy headlines in all caps with exclamation points. If shocking claims in the headline sound unbelievable, they probably are.
2. Look closely at the URL. A phony or look-alike URL may be a warning sign of false news. Many false news sites mimic authentic news sources by making small changes to the URL. You can go to the site and compare the URL to established sources.
3. Investigate the source. Ensure that the story is written by a source that you trust and with a reputation for accuracy. If the story comes from an unfamiliar organization, check their “About” section to learn more.
4. Watch for unusual formatting. Many false news sites have misspellings or awkward layouts. Read carefully if you see these signs.
5. Consider the photos. False news stories often contain manipulated images or videos. Sometimes the photo may be authentic, but taken out of context. You can search for the photo or image to verify where it came from.
6. Inspect the dates. False news stories may contain timelines that make no sense, or event dates that have been altered.
7. Check the evidence. Check the author’s sources to confirm that they are accurate. Lack of evidence or reliance on unnamed experts may indicate a false news story.
8. Look at other reports. If no other news source is reporting the same story, it may indicate that the story is false. If the story is reported by multiple sources you trust, it’s more likely to be true.
9. Is the story a joke? Sometimes false news stories can be hard to distinguish from humor or satire. Check whether the source is known for parody, and whether the story’s details and tone suggest it may be just for fun.
10. Some stories are intentionally false. Think critically about the stories you read, and only share news that you know to be credible.
The second part of the strategy to minimize the spread of fake news is providing a simple way for users to report fake news. In the upper right hand corner of a Facebook post, there is a drop down arrow. When users click on this arrow, the list of options now includes the ability to report the post as fake news.
As the way we consume and share news and information online evolves, we as informed citizens have a responsibility to understand how to identify fake news and prevent it from spreading. As PR professionals, we have an additional responsibility to help established news sources maintain their reputation as credible news sources.
As content marketing becomes an integral part of a company’s overall marketing mix, identifying the right platforms to leverage for publishing and distributing content has become a key priority for many marketers.
Most companies have their own corporate blogs as a channel for lead generation, driving website traffic, customer engagement, and industry and competitive perspective.
But as additional blogging platforms, social media and other content distribution channels begin to gain traction, many companies are wondering if it makes sense to abandon their corporate blog altogether in favor of publishing their content exclusively on platforms such as Medium or LinkedIn.
In terms of process, LinkedIn and Medium are designed with ease-of-use in mind, and posting content to either site is fairly intuitive. Medium has several design customization features built in, and formatting can often make posts look as though they are posted from an independent or corporate blog. As noted on the Kissmetrics’ blog, “No matter how bad a piece of writing is, it’s nearly impossible to make something look ugly on Medium.”
As with any piece of marketing content, it’s important to stop and consider its objectives. For example:
1. Be realistic about the resources available to maintain your corporate blog. Blogs need content to thrive; readers won’t return if content is posted only sporadically. While you don’t need to post daily necessarily, companies that publish more than 16 blog posts per month, received nearly 3.5 times more traffic than those that published 0-4 posts per month, according to Hubspot. Further, those that published more than 16 posts per month received about 4.5 times more leads that those that published less frequently.
If your internal team (or external contributors) can’t keep up with the pace to contribute fresh and compelling content for your blog, it may be worthwhile to consider focusing your efforts on platforms such as Medium or LinkedIn. Alexandra Samuel, an author, speaker and researcher, writes in Harvard Business Review, “Publishing exclusively on LinkedIn or Medium is indeed the right choice for some people, particularly if you are a new or intermittent writer….And unlike an independent blog, there’s no need to commit to a regular posting frequently on LinkedIn.”
2. Evaluate your analytics needs. The blogging platform WordPress, for example, allows users to track statistics such as total posts, visitors and views, likes, comments, popular tags and categories, among other information. It also allows users to visualize trends such as what time of day or week your blog gets the most views.
In contrast, Medium has far less comprehensive analytics capabilities. Users can see how many views, reads or recommendations their posts receive over 30 days, but little else. This can be adequate for individuals posting content such as personal essays and commentary, but might not be robust enough for a corporate marketing team.
3. Understand how your audiences access and engage with content. In a LinkedIn post entitled “There’s a Platform for That: Medium vs. LinkedIn,” Christopher Navalta notes that “LinkedIn users are turning to mobile apps because they’re on the go. They’re likely to read content if it’s quick and easy (around 500 words.” In comparison, Medium has stated that (on average) the “optimal” blog post runs about 1,600 words and takes approximately seven minutes to read.
There aren’t specific rules or perfect formulas for determining the ideal length of a blog post or other marketing content, so do take those numbers above with a grain of salt. The key is to consider factors such as whether your readers will be accessing your content on a PC or a mobile device. Will they be reading a more thoughtful, complex essay-style piece or a quick, easy read while they’re waiting for their morning coffee?
4. Consider how much time you can dedicate to Liking, Sharing or Recommending your content. If you’re depending on a corporate blog alone, you’re going to have to continually work to drive traffic to your site since the content resides on your blog’s site.
LinkedIn and Medium have advantages in terms of distribution. With LinkedIn, your content is distributed to your network of connections and followers, who – since they know you and are familiar with your work – may be more likely to like or share your posts. LinkedIn editors can also assign your posts to a relevant Pulse channel, which can reach a far broader audience with minimal effort on your part. Likewise, Medium recommends posts on its site and readers can easily share content socially, making it easy for posts to spread virally and quickly. “Each blog is searchable, shareable, bookmarkable and acts as a gateway to your profile, which other users can follow…..the concept is simple: Medium blog posts aren’t just standalone articles, they’re social media posts, too,” writes Kaya Ismail for CMSWire.
5. Think of your blog’s existing readers before switching to another platform. Even if your corporate blog has a small audience, be cautious before abandoning your readership in favor of a new platform. Rather, consider extending your audience by cross-posting blog content to LinkedIn and Medium. Likewise, posting on those platforms will also direct readers back to your blog and website and drive them to additional content and resources. Just be mindful about duplicating content, which can impact SEO rankings and traffic numbers.
Ultimately, determining which platform to use for distributing and publishing content should not be an either-or discussion. In order to reach and engage your readers effectively, you’ve got to tailor both your content and your content distribution strategies accordingly.