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.
In public relations, we do a significant amount of writing. A large percentage of every work day is spent crafting emails, press releases, articles and plans. These documents must be clear, persuasive, demonstrate valid reasoning, and be grammatically correct.
For me, writing is like working on a puzzle. Each word, like a puzzle piece, needs to be placed in the right spot – for clarity, conveyance, and to support an argument. Sentences and paragraphs are arranged and rearranged until the picture is clear and complete.
Also, like a puzzle, its best to assemble the edge pieces first. By this, I mean first come up with the outline or thesis for your piece and, only after you feel good about it, should you move on to bring the subject to life with examples, concreted details and commentary.
Finally, once the first draft is complete, step back to admire and review it to see if you can improve the vocabulary, structure, style and tone.
Many times, writing can be challenging. For instance, when ghostwriting an article for a CEO, you have to come up with compelling content and present it in a manner that is authentic to his or her style and tone. This means you need to know how the executive likes to construct an argument. It is also valuable to understand the person’s lexicon and personality.
Capturing your client’s unique voice and style will go a long way toward producing content that he or she feels confident about making public. So how does one do that?
Here are some of my thoughts based on more than 25 years of experience working in public relations and strategic communications:
1) Experiment with style and consider A/B testing. Recently, we produced two versions of an article and sent both to our client. Option A contained short, concise paragraphs, whereas option B followed the Jane Schaffer method of writing and had longer, more formally constructed paragraphs. We asked our client which style he preferred. Now moving forward, we have a stylistic model we can follow.
2) Pay attention to your client’s vocabulary. What words does your client use to describe his or her business? What experience or connotations do those words create for you? How do others perceive the language?
3) Collaborate with your client to come up with the right image, examples or idioms. Before sending over the first draft, consider picking up the phone to discuss how to best illustrate your key points. Statistics, examples and metaphors are essential to supporting an argument or bringing a piece to life, and it can be helpful to know which ones resonate with your client.
4) Scrutinize the structure of your work. Do you have the information in a logical, compelling order? If you re-arranged the structure, would the article or email be stronger or weaker? If you are writing an article, will your client like the placement of the nut graf? And remember: It pays to read your piece out loud. If you stumble, it’s likely your reader will as well.
5) Consider the tempo of the words and argument. Does the article move along at the right pace? Sentence and paragraph can play a role in the cadence of a piece. Be careful not to over-explain, which can slow the reader down. Finally, you want to anticipate and address the questions readers may have.
In closing, as you review your work, ask yourself one final, but important question: Can you articulate a rationale for each area of writing – content, grammar, vocabulary, organization, style and tone? After all, as the narrator, you have made deliberate choices in the construction and composition of your piece. Your choices should be reasoned ones versus decisions made without forethought.
For more tips on writing, please check out the following article:
Twitter Analytics is a feature on Twitter that provides businesses with the ability to measure post results, boost target-marketing campaigns, and evaluate the impact each posts has on its audiences. Anyone with a Twitter account can access and utilize Analytics, however, this feature is especially helpful for businesses and influencers with the goal of increasing engagement, tracking the influence of posts, and building relationships with target audiences. Twitter Analytics provides users with a summary of the number of tweets posted, number of profile visits, impressions tweets have received, follower count, and the number of mentions, replies and retweets.
Twitter Analytics offers three dashboards to optimize results: tweet activity, followers and twitter cards. In order to maximize the benefits and effectively track metrics, it is important for Analytics users to familiarize themselves with ins and outs of the dashboards and the vocabulary used:
- Tweet activity: This is the main portal to measure engagement with your followers. Analyzing the type of tweets that were successful and content that was unsuccessful will help to improve future posts and goal setting for campaigns. Measuring these results will help businesses and influencers edit strategies to align with what brought the best results, aka the types of posts their following prefers. A helpful feature with tracking engagement is the ability to break down each post: How many link clinks resulted? Who clicked on the link? Who didn’t? Was this post retweeted? Why or why not?
- Followers: This dashboard provides the ultimate view into your audience. Tweet activity and the success of posts relies heavily on content, however, “great” content to one demographic or target audience may not be considered “great” content to another viewer. Understanding who your audience is will help target campaigns and understand where to invest resources. The followers and audience portal will give insight into the interests, location and demographics of your following.
- Twitter Cards: These “cards” are essentially enhanced tweets that allow you to include images, video, audio and downloadable links to each 140-character tweet. After analyzing the data from your tweet activity and followers, you will know if twitter cards are right for you based on your followings’ engagement with visuals and audio content. Twitter cards increase engagement from tweets, drive application downloads, and provide another way to measure results through link clicks, image downloads, app install attempts and retweets. To view the different types of cards available and to understand which is best for your industry and audience, visit Twitter’s developer site.
Another helpful aspect of Twitter is the Quick Promote tool. The ability to transfer successful content into an advertisement, without leaving the app, has become an attractive and necessary offering by social media accounts within the last few years. Instagram Business profiles launched a similar feature, enabling business accounts to transform successful posts into ads by the click of a button. The ease and ability to do this helps expand the reach of a post that has already been tested and proved as successful by the original followers who likely make up the target demographic. This feature saves resources, preventing advertising and marketing teams from having to recreate ads and duplicate design efforts.
Altogether, implementing Twitter Analytics helps marketing teams develop and maintain a strategic approach to performing social efforts and setting and achieving goals. Taking the time to understand your audience, study, and invest in the types of content that resonates best with them will provide businesses with a loyal following, not to mention that followers will turn to the business account for news, entertainment, advice and resources (depending on the industry). Twitter Analytics provides users with transparency throughout each step of the campaign; tracking these metrics and comparing results overtime will help perfect strategy for developing future social media campaigns.
Businesses who’ve built relationships with their followers and understand the types of posts they prefer to interact with will have a better grasp of toward where they should dedicate dollars and if Twitter is even the right platform for relationship building with their target audiences.
Last month, our client Versium announced the successful integration of its automated predictive analytics solution, Versium Predict, into Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 for Sales.
The product was unveiled at the 2016 CRM User’s Group (CRMUG) Summit, where Jujhar Singh, corporate vice president of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, provided a demonstration of Versium Predict during the opening keynote and general session.
This is an important integration for several reasons. First, it will allow users of Dynamics 365 for Sales to quickly build predictive models that score and prioritize leads, enabling sales and marketing to know which consumers and businesses are most likely to purchase their products or services. Secondly, it allows users to generate new, highly targeted prospect lists from the predictive model to drive marketing and sales campaigns, including email, phone, direct mail and display audiences, with increased customer conversion.
The integration is also significant because it brings the power of machine learning and predictive analytics to Microsoft Dynamics 365. Using the customer data already available in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, Versium Predict enriches each contact with thousands of new attributes from Versium’s LifeData® warehouse, and then uses machine learning to build the models without requiring any previous data-science expertise or experience.
Versium’s LifeData® contains more than 1 trillion consumer and business data attributes, including both online and offline behavioral data including social-graphic details, real-time event-based data, purchase interests, financial information, activities and skills, demographics and more. As more sales are achieved and tracked within the CRM application, Versium’s machine learning technology allows the predictive models to become more intelligent and be used to identify new prospects.
In an article from InformationWeek about the recent Gartner Magic Quadrant Report on CRM Lead Management, the analyst firm had identified several trends in the CRM lead management solutions market (which includes Microsoft, among other vendors) this year. They included “a stronger focus on ease of use, redesigned user interfaces, and integration with other applications.”
Versium’s integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales dovetails nicely with many of these industry trends. Versium Predict’s easy and intuitive interface makes it easy for marketing and sales professionals without any previous data science experience to begin building predictive models within hours and visualize a marketing campaign’s projected performance.
To learn more about Versium and its work with Microsoft, check out the company’s Versium Predict integrated into Microsoft Dynamics 365 video.
Here is some of the coverage that Communiqué helped generate around the announcement:
- CMSWire,”Versium-Microsoft Partnership Brings Automated Predictive Targeting to Dynamics 365,” Oct. 12, 2016
- MSPowerUser, “Versium announces integration of Versium Predict into Microsoft Dynamics 365,” Oct. 12, 2016
- The Redmond Reporter, “Versium and Microsoft integrate automated predictive targeting into Microsoft Dynamics 365,” Oct. 12, 2016
- MediaPost/Email Marketing Daily, “Microsoft Partners With Versium, Takes On Salesforce,” Oct. 13, 2016
- 425 Business, “”Versium to Collaborate with Microsoft,” Oct. 12, 2016
- Marketing Land, “Microsoft Dynamics 365 adds predictive lead scoring from Versium to its B2B CRM,” Oct. 14, 2016
- Outsell “Headlines” daily email, “Versium Announces Integration of Versium Predict into Microsoft Dynamics,” Oct. 13, 2016
- MSDynamicsWorld, “Microsoft readies Dynamics 365 customer engagement apps with added analytics, new partnerships,” Oct. 14, 2016
- SteveMordue.com, “Dynamics 365 – A Path through Shiny Objects,” Oct. 15, 2016
- Website magazine, “AI and the CRM Wars,” Oct. 17, 2016
- InsideBigData, “Above the Trend Line” – Your Industry Rumor Central for 10/24/2016,” Oct. 24, 2016
- SYS-CON Media, “Dynamics 365 – Is it Smarter than a 5th Grader?,” Oct. 28, 2016
From Adweek to GeekWire, this month’s recap includes client news from A Place for Mom, Interroll, Rational Interaction, and the St. Thomas School.
- With the number of adults 65 and older expected to reach 88.5 million by 2050, the healthcare and senior housing industries are adjusting their practices to address the needs of this rapidly growing population. In his article for The Senior List, A Place for Mom’s Gerard Gravallese outlines premium senior-living options and expanded healthcare services baby boomers can expect as they plan for the next chapter of their lives.
- Global material handling products supplier Interroll will unveil its Magnetic Speed Controller (MSC) 50 to the U.S. market at next week’s PACK EXPO on Nov. 6-9 in Chicago. Designed to help control the speed of boxes and plastic trays traveling on gravity roller conveyors, the MSC 50 can be used in warehousing, e-commerce, postal service, food and pharmaceutical operations. Packaging World’s coverage of the MSC 50 provides additional product specifics and benefits for users.
- Social media has given us so much. Thanks to the likes of Facebook and Instagram, we now have an outlet to share adorable animal videos and a platform to overshare political philosophies. We can even connect with companies to resolve service issues through our Twitter accounts, proving the tweet has replaced the pen in being mightier than the sword. Using data from Rational Interaction’s Social Customer Care report, Adweek highlighted how major brands like Nike are getting it right while Apple, AT&T and Sephora are lagging behind.
- Spaceflight recently announced Google’s Terra Bella as the lead of its inaugural dedicated rideshare mission scheduled for late 2017. According to GeekWire, Terra Bella will launch its SkySat satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. HawkEye 360, Iceye and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology also have confirmed payloads on the mission, which is currently at 90 percent capacity.
- Although most educators agree that science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs can play a significant role in a child’s learning development, there are still roadblocks to widespread adoption. Kimberly Mecham, the director of information and communication technology at the St. Thomas School, explores these challenges and discusses why it’s become increasingly more important for schools to integrate STEM education into their curriculum in her edtech digest byline, “Worth the Investment.”
The Galaxy Note 7 was Samsung’s most sophisticated phone ever, and many industry experts predicted that it would challenge Apple’s dominance over the market. That idea went down in flames (pardon the pun) when Note 7 phones started spontaneously combusting in early September. The risk of explosion was so great that the Federal Aviation Administration deemed the devices a fire hazard and banned them from all U.S. flights.
Since then Samsung has been digging itself out of a PR crisis that has the potential to permanently damage its brand. Samsung certainly isn’t out of the woods yet and its team is still dealing with the aftermath of the debacle, but it’s safe to say that the initial crisis is over. So, how successfully did Samsung’s PR team handle the situation?
When it was first reported that the Note 7s were exploding, Samsung responded quickly on all fronts – it immediately made public statements about the news and issued a global recall of the phones within weeks. Communicating swiftly and often with key audiences is the cornerstone of any crisis response, and Samsung nailed this. By immediately taking action the company showed its key audiences that it was taking the situation seriously. However, it’s critical that the information a company shares about the situation is accurate. This is where Samsung went wrong.
The company acted too quickly and many of its initial statements had to be retracted. Samsung initially said that Hong Kong customers’ phones were not at risk of exploding, only to take it back the next day when it was discovered that phones sold in Hong Kong were, in fact, affected. Then the company based its explanation for the cause of the explosions on incomplete evidence. Samsung confidently stated that the phone’s battery was the cause of the explosions and rushed to produce 2.5 million replacement phones. This resulted in a second and arguably worse crisis – the replacement phones started exploding, too.
Samsung finally conceded that it didn’t know the cause of the explosions and was forced to discontinue the Note 7 altogether. By providing inaccurate information and acting too quickly, Samsung lost the trust of its customers and investors, and stands to lose millions of dollars in revenue. Its stock took a nosedive in mid-September, plunging 7 percent in one day.
The Note 7 crisis has not doomed Samsung altogether – the other areas of the company’s business are doing well and its stock has bounced back – but there are some major lessons to be learned. From a PR perspective, the biggest takeaway is to share information early and often, but make sure the information you’re sharing is accurate. Samsung could have salvaged a lot of trust, and dollars, if the company had stated that they did not know the cause of the explosions but would keep the public updated as it worked to uncover the root of the problem.
Samsung’s response to the Note 7 crisis started off strong, but unfortunately a couple significant missteps led to an even bigger crisis for the company.
Moving a senior loved one to an assisted living facility is an important decision that most families will encounter one day. According to the CDC, there are more than 34 million unpaid caregivers providing care to someone in the United States today, and that number is anticipated to grow as the baby boomer generation continues to age. Sometimes, these arrangements are sustainable and families are happy to be caretakers for extended periods, but often seniors require professional care that families are unable to provide.
One major obstacle many families face when discussing senior care with an aging loved one is an inherent opposition to moving to a care facility. Many people think of assisted or senior living communities and conjure up images of sterile, hospital-esque homes where all independence and freedoms are taken away. This stigma about senior care has been around for a while and is an ever-present problem families face when finding a care solution.
As the third part of a data-focused series designed to help families plan for the future, A Place for Mom – the nation’s largest senior-living referral service – examined the reality of senior care vs. the perception of senior care to get to the truth behind the stigma. Does a senior’s quality of life go down after a move to assisted living? How do perceptions of assisted living change after someone moves in? And what is the impact on the family caregiver after a senior moves into assisted living?
Staying Home vs. Moving
Most seniors say they’d rather age at home, but the truth is that quality of life generally improves after moving. In coordination with Sage Projections – a Seattle-based research and consulting company – A Place for Mom created the “Family Quality of Life Survey,” which was designed to measure the effect of moving to an assisted-living community on quality of life for both the senior and a family member who helped them search for senior housing and care. A Place for Mom surveyed both seniors currently searching for senior housing and care as well as family members who successfully helped a loved one find assisted living. The survey also asked about the perceptions seniors and family members had about senior living before they began their search.
The results are both revealing and surprising, showing a widely favorable experience despite the generally negative stigma around elder care. Contrary to initial expectations, both seniors and family caregivers experience a positive change in overall quality of life after a senior moves to assisted living. In fact, seniors who moved are 70 percent more likely than those considering a move to assisted living to report a good overall quality of life, and 65 percent less likely to have a bad overall quality of life. Once a senior has moved, they are five times more likely to see overall quality of life improve instead of worsen, and 73 percent of families report that a senior’s quality of life got better or much better.
Additionally, 73 percent of respondents reported an improvement in the senior’s nutrition, 64 percent saw the senior’s social well-being improve, 47 percent saw emotional well-being improve, and 44 percent saw physical health improve. Over all, a worsening quality of life for the senior was the least likely outcome.
When a senior moves to an assisted living facility, there is also a positive impact on the caregiver’s quality of life and even their finances. Of family caregivers who had a parent or loved one move, 60 percent say their own quality of life improved. And, perhaps most importantly, half of families who helped a parent or loved one move say their relationship with the senior improved.
It’s also important to note that the financial well-being of caregivers is largely unaffected after a senior moves, with more than 70 percent of families feeling no change in their financial situation, despite many having concerns about paying for the cost of assisted living. The transition also opens the door for greater earning potential for caregivers. Out of families who helped a love one make a move, 39 percent report less impact of caregiving on their careers.
Media Interest in the Survey
Understanding the differences in the reality vs. perception of assisted living proved to be a hit with the media. The press release alone was featured on 150 different media outlets, reaching a potential audience of more than 85 million, including being featured on websites such as: Yahoo! Finance, Health Executive Today, Med Tech News and The Street. Highlights from the original media coverage include:
- Long-Term Living Survey: Assisted living improves quality of life
- HomeCare Magazine: Quality of Life Improves After Move to Assisted Living, New Survey Reveals
- Senior Housing News: Most Seniors View Assisted Living Negatively—Until Moving In
- McKnight’s Senior Living: Seniors, families benefit from move to assisted living, survey finds
- NBC KCWY 13: Senior Care
Communiqué PR congratulates APFM for their continuing efforts to provide resources and information so that families can plan for senior care.