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.

Presenting 101: Five Tips to Help You Nail Your First Business Presentation

As a PR professional you’ll likely give countless presentations throughout your career. From new business presentations to annual PR plans, there will be plenty of opportunities for you to speak in front of a group. Presenting becomes easier and easier every time you do it, but the first time can be a little nerve-wracking. Following are five tips to help you keep calm and give a killer presentation.

Practice, Practice, Practice. The more prepared you are, the more confident you’ll feel during your presentation. A few days beforehand, develop talking points for each of your slides. If you know that you tend to get nervous when speaking in front of a group, write out a full script and practice it out loud to make sure it flows nicely. Once you know what you’re going to say, distill it down to bulleted talking points. Then rehearse your slides with a colleague or your fellow presenters and ask for their feedback.
Be Confident. When giving your first business presentation, you may be the youngest person in the room. Don’t let that be intimidating. You were invited to the meeting for a reason – everyone wants to hear your ideas and your team members value your input. Don’t be afraid to speak up, join the conversation, and assert your opinion.
Be Genuinely Excited. It’s much easier to talk about something you care about (we all know a heated discussion about Game of Thrones can last hours) and your passion for the topic will come across in conversation. Even if you don’t love the topic you’re presenting as much as you love Game of Thrones, find something about it that genuinely excites you. Your audience will notice that you truly care.
Engage Your Audience. Presentations should be interactive, and if you’re speaking to a small group your presentation should turn into a conversation between you and your audience. In order to effectively engage your audience, be sure to ask for feedback and check in with them after every slide to make sure everyone is on the same page. For example, if you summarize your understanding of a company’s business objectives to members of their executive team, be sure to ask if you’re on target and if they have anything to add. If you’re presenting a list of proactive pitch ideas to a potential client, ask if any of the ideas resonate with them.
Keep Calm and Carry On. If you make a mistake during a presentation, you’re probably the only one who will notice. If it is a noticeable mistake, lightly brush it off and keep going. Everyone makes mistakes, and your audience is not going to judge your entire presentation based on one slip up. If you breeze past it in a calm, collected manner, chances are no one will even remember it happened.

The bottom line: Remember that everyone gets a little nervous before a big presentation. Do you have any tips of your own to share that helped your nail your first business presentation?

What Google’s New Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Means for PR

Recently, Google began rolling out its mobile-friendly ranking algorithm across its global data centers and by the time you read this post, the roll out should be complete. The new ranking algorithm is designed to favor mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results and demote sites in search results that are not mobile-friendly.

According to Google, either your website is mobile-friendly or it’s not – there’s no in between. This change is so significant that marketing research firm Portent found that 40 percent of the leading websites failed Google’s mobile-friendly test and could be down-ranked in search.

In a similar, but relatively under-the-radar move, Bing, which also provides search results for Yahoo!, has added a “mobile friendly” label to pages listed in their mobile search results that are mobile-friendly. As of this writing, the search engine’s plans for announcing a mobile-friendly algorithm have not been announced.

So what do Google’s mobile updates mean for PR? In our increasingly mobile-dependent world, just about everyone is using a smartphone to gather information and conduct business – that includes journalists and other influencers. If your website and press resource center are not mobile-friendly it’s possible that reporters, bloggers or industry analysts may have a harder time finding information on your company, such as contact information, press releases, fact sheets, etc.

However, are the implications of Google’s mobile-friendly algorithm and the predicted “Mobilegeddon” living up to the hype? Early analysis by SEO expert Dr. Dave Chaffey found that so far, the changes have not yet shown a big impact on rankings. In a statement, Google further clarified that while the mobile-friendly change is important, a variety of other signals, such as high-quality content, are still used to rank search results.

The bottom line: ensuring that your website and press resource center continue to have fresh, high-quality content should remain a top priority.

If you’re unsure whether your website meets Google’s mobile friendliness criteria, check out the company’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool where you can enter your website URL and receive a report confirming if the page has a mobile-friendly design.

Google’s Developer site has some great tips for making your website more mobile friendly and for implementing best mobile SEO practices.

So what do Google’s mobile updates mean for PR? In our increasingly mobile-dependent world, just about everyone is using a smartphone to gather information and conduct business – that includes journalists and other influencers. If your website and press resource center are not mobile-friendly it’s possible that reporters, bloggers or industry analysts may have a harder time finding information on your company, such as contact information, press releases, fact sheets, etc.

The bottom line: ensuring that your website and press resource center continue to have fresh, high-quality content should remain a top priority.

Google’s Developer site has some great tips for making your website more mobile friendly and for implementing best mobile SEO practices.

For more of our insights into Google’s algorithm updates, check out this post: Google’s Panda 4.0 and the Implications for PR Pros.

A Lesson in Trusting Your Gut…and Your Audience

2015 has thus far been a pretty tough year for broadcasting companies. First, NBC took a major hit to its credibility when Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was found to be less than completely honest in his storytelling. Now, PBS, the independent and publicly funded network that many Americans look to for educational and unbiased programming, is at the center of its own media firestorm. If this recent story has somehow not been on your radar, here’s a quick recap:

Earlier this month, Britain’s Daily Mail published a story, using leaked Sony Corp. emails posted by WikiLeaks that reveals that Ben Affleck sought to have his slave-owner ancestry censored from the PBS series “Finding Your Roots.” The host of the popular show, esteemed Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., sought the advice of his friend, Sony CEO Michael Lynton, via a now public email exchange and in the end, the segment around Affleck’s slaver ancestor was edited out of the episode’s final cut.

News of this celebrity-requested censorship case has created a barrage of media backlash, with harsh criticism directed at Affleck, Gates and PBS. While Affleck was responsible for asking that the story not air, the bulk of the criticism has been directed at Gates for acquiescing to Affleck’s request, even though his emails with Lynton make it clear that he was fully aware doing so “would be a violation of PBS rules.”

In fact, even PBS Ombudsman, Michael Getler, has been critical of both Gates and PBS, posting a column on the issue in which he refers to how the emails between Gates and Lynton “make clear that Gates understood the serious journalistic and credibility issues at stake.” He goes on to say that PBS was “asleep at the switch when this broke,” and that the institution “deserves all the articles and TV reports,” for responding with “a statement that said essentially nothing and very quickly looked pathetic, as if they were hiding something.”

Last week, Affleck posted a response to the outrage on his Facebook page. He doesn’t apologize for his actions, reminds the readers that the show was not a news program, and explains that his request to shelve that part of his family story was because it would be embarrassing. I imagine it would have been a lot less embarrassing if he had simply let the Gates and the show’s producers deliver the episode without his creative collaboration.

This story offers so many interesting lessons for PR professionals helping to build and protect the brands we represent. For now, I’d like to highlight just two key takeaways:

Trust Your Gut

Gates’ emails highlight that the academic was clearly conflicted by the situation. He knew that if he accommodated Affleck’s request to censor the show and it became public, it would compromise the program’s integrity. His gut was telling him what he should do and if he had listened, he wouldn’t be facing criticism and further investigation. Instead, he opted to appease the Academy Award winner and thus has jeopardized his personal brand, as well as that of PBS.

Know Your Audience

Had Affleck taken time to consider his audience, he would have known that he could trust them with the truth of his family’s heritage. Our nation carries the shame of more than two hundred years of abuse and oppression caused by a system of slavery. This is not a burden Affleck carries alone and rather than hiding the truth, he could have used his story as an opportunity to begin an honest and productive dialogue from the outset.

History has shown us that the American public loves giving second chances, especially to celebrities. Given this, the backlash against Affleck will lesson over time. I wonder, however, if forgiveness will come swiftly to Gates, whose reputation is built less on his celebrity status as host of a PBS show than on his academic contributions focusing on African American studies. What do you think?

Tools for a More Efficient and Organized Workflow

Like many people working in the PR industry, I am always looking for ways to achieve a more efficient and organized workflow. Currently I use Smartsheet, Wunderlist and Talkwalker, among other tools. These have proven to be great resources, all of which I utilize on a daily basis—Smartsheet as a project management tool to collaborate with colleagues, Wunderlist to send myself reminders and keep my to-do list organized, and Talkwalker alerts to stay up-to-date on clients, competitors and industry trends.

In the pursuit of some additions to add to my toolbox, I recently stumbled upon a Cision webinar, Tool School: PR Success In 2015, hosted by Kellye Crane, founder of Solo PR PRO. Kellye had a long list of ideas in a range of categories, including productivity, social media and collaboration. She cautioned, though, that before taking the time to invest time, energy and sometimes money into implementing a new tool, make sure it is the right fit and will actually be beneficial to your workflow. With that in mind, below is my short list of tools I am most excited to try:

Productivity

Evernote— This powerful app allows you to collect articles, photos, or capture handwritten notes, all of which are searchable through the app. Kellye mentioned this could be particularly useful for business cards. Simply take a picture of the card and Evernote will allow you to save and search text through all images saved to the app.
Pocket— Found something you want to read, but don’t have the time to right now? Pocket allows you to save articles or videos for future reference, so you can read or watch them when it is convenient for you.
Newsle— Networking is a crucial element of any professionals’ career. Newsle assists by notifying you when a friend or colleague publishes a blog or article, allowing you to stay up-to-date and presenting an opportunity to nurture the relationship by reaching out regarding the blog or article.
Mention— Similar to Google Alerts and Talkwalker, Mention allows you to monitor the web for topics, clients or competitors. Because all of the tools don’t necessarily catch the same articles, signing up for a few or all of the web-monitoring tools will maximize results.

Visuals

FreeDigitalPhotos.net— Visuals help bring a story to life, but stock photos can be pricey. This site offers a range of free stock photos.
Swipe—Web-powered slideshows offer a flexible solution to presentations. Swipe offers the ability to create, edit, view and present on any device, allowing greater flexibility and collaboration.
Piktochart and Infogr.am— These free apps allow you to create DIY infographics. Piktochart and Infogr.am offer a range of templates, presenting an easy way to bring your data to life with a visual.

I am thrilled that I stumbled across this webinar and am looking forward to testing out these tools. What resources do you find most valuable for improving workflow and/or staying organized?

For more productivity and PR tools, see a post from last December on our blog: Helpful Apps & Resources for PR Pros.

With the Announcement of a New Minimum Wage Policy, Will the Industry Defy Gravity?

Dan Price, co-founder and CEO of Gravity Payments, recently announced that the minimum wage salary for the company would be raised to $70,000. The payment processing company made the drastic and unprecedented announcement on April 14, and it continues to garner coverage and remain a conversation topic over a week later.

We commend Dan on his revolutionary idea and the bold choice to execute it, as well as congratulate him and his PR team on an amazingly successful announcement! Dan and his team secured an exceptionally large amount of coverage in top-tier business publications, not only in the U.S. but internationally as well.

Given the unconventional nature of Gravity Payments’ new minimum wage program, a big splash would be expected and there’s no doubt it required a lot of work to identify the right media and coordinate the volume of interview requests and briefings the announcement generated. Below are three reasons why we believe this announcement was so effective:

It was innovative: Companies often want to promote the positive cultures they’ve fostered to attract talent, however, it is difficult to convince business press that culture is newsworthy. Gravity Payments found a way to break through by announcing a program that was groundbreaking and sparked a discussion about companies’ approaches to wages. Not only that, but people are now curious to see if Gravity Payments can sustain this new minimum wage policy and the long term effects it will have on the company. This interest in Gravity Payments will likely provide them with “follow-up” editorial opportunities in the future.
It was timely: The announcement broke at a time when employee engagement, employee happiness, wage discrimination, wage gap and raising costs of living were all prominent national stories and trends in the news. In fact, Price announced the program just as Seattle’s increased minimum wage was set to take effect. By announcing a program that addresses all of these topics, Gravity Payments made it easy to insert themselves into the conversation. Also, in one of the article covering the news, Dan mentions, that a friend of his was experiencing the pressures of increased cost of living was part of his inspiration, making this mission even more relatable.
It was well-executed: Gravity Payments knew that this program would be a great opportunity to not only present Gravity as a forward thinking organization that values their employees and their well-being, but also promote the name of the company and Dan. Clearly there was coordination with the media before the official announcement, given that the Today Show interviewed Dan in New York the day after it became public news and King 5 was there filming Dan making the announcement to the employees. They did exactly what they needed to do garner a wide range or broadcast and editorial coverage in a variety of outlets.

It’s great when positive and life-changing programs get the coverage they deserve. It will be interesting to see how Gravity Payment’s bold move influences other companies and industries. We’d like to congratulate Dan and his team on their success thus far and wish them the best of luck in the future!

You’ll find some of Gravity Payment’s coverage linked throughout the article; below are a few more:

CEO describes the moment when he decided to raise his company’s minimum wage to $70,000 a year—Business Insider, April 22
$70,000 promise brings flood of new clients and job applicants—CNN Money, April 20
Praise and Skepticism as One Executive Sets Minimum Wage to $70,000 a Year—The New York Times, April 19
The CEO who increased the minimum salary at his company to $70,000 is highlighting an important point about money and happiness—Business Insider, April 18
Dan Price Takes Bite Out of Minimum-Wage Pay Gap—The Wall Street Journal, April 16
If you’re a CEO, it pays to share your wealth. This Seattle boss did—The Guardian, April 16
Gravity Payments’ Wage Boost Is A Game-Changer For Brands—Forbes, April 16
CEO Slashes $1 Million Salary To Give Lowest-Paid Workers A Raise—The Huffington Post, April 14
This company is setting its minimum wage at $70,000—Fortune, April 14
Seattle Business Owner Raises His Workers’ Minimum Pay to $70,000—NBC News, April 14

Reflections on Attachmate

For the past seven years, we have had the pleasure of working with Attachmate, one of the world’s most established software brands. Attachmate’s business is rooted in providing technologies that help companies extend their investments in mainframes and other host data systems. While terms like “terminal emulation,” “DMSII” and “DoD PKI” were new to us when we first started with Attachmate, they quickly became part of our regular vocabulary.

With a 30+ year history in the software industry, the company counts among its customers 69% of the Fortune Global 500, including the top financial institutions, airlines and healthcare organizations. Anytime you use an ATM or make an airline reservation, chances are a mainframe and Attachmate’s products are working behind the scenes.

When we began our engagement with Attachmate our initial PR objectives were to help increase visibility and drive awareness for the company with its existing customers, develop new and existing relationships with research analysts, and establish thought leadership. As enterprise trends like BYOD have evolved and gained traction, along the way we’ve also had the opportunity to help Attachmate introduce new mobile and cloud technologies.

Recently, Micro Focus and The Attachmate Group (Attachmate’s parent company) announced the completion of their merger and their plans to combine the various product lines under one Micro Focus portfolio. As we wind down our engagement with Attachmate, we thought it would be a great time to recap the strategies we employed to help Attachmate meet its objectives and the results we’ve garnered over the past seven years:

Media Relations: Using a combination of company news, proactive trend pitches and newsjacking, Communiqué secured hundreds of articles in publications including Computerworld, eWeek, InformationWeek, Network World, IBM Systems Magazine, IT Jungle, Database Trends and Applications, and SD Times.

Contributed Content: Communiqué worked with Attachmate’s executives and product managers to develop and place more than 30 bylines in outlets including VentureBeat, Mobile Enterprise, Data Center Journal, WIRED Innovation Insights and z/Journal. The bylines covered a broad range of topics affecting enterprises and IT – from the impact of shadow IT, to technology gaps that prevent workers from achieving true mobile productivity. In addition, Communiqué drafted numerous blog posts on behalf of the product team and established syndication arrangements for Attachmate’s blogs with Business2Community and SYS-CON Media.

Analyst Relations: Industry analysts can have a huge influence on IT purchasing decisions and one of Attachmate’s key objectives was to stay top of mind with influencers at the major research firms. To accomplish this we built an analyst relations program that included regular briefings with key analysts and quarterly emails to ensure they were updated regularly in between formal briefings. We also ensured that analysts were pre-briefed ahead of major product and strategy announcements to secure them as references for our broader media relations efforts.

Social Media: Communiqué worked closely with Attachmate to develop its social media strategy and to establish its social media pages. Communiqué also served as Attachmate’s day-to-day social media manager, driving engagement with its followers across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Attachmate’s social media presence and engagement have grown steadily with an average year-over-year growth in followers of 42%.

We look forward to hearing more about the combined Attachmate/Micro Focus company and wish all the best to the team!

For additional insight into our work for Attachmate, please check out these other posts:

Attachmate Secures Window 7 Logo

Managed File Transfer: A Growing Concern for CIOs and CTOs

Attachmate Unveils Verastream Host Integrator 6.6

Launching a Product in a New Market

Establishing Thought Leadership in Vertical Markets

Attachmate Receives Prestigious Common Use Processing Systems Certification

Attachmate Extends Leadership Position with Launch of Reflection 2011 R3