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.
Quentin Hardy of The New York Times recently wrote a story that positions Seattle as the next tech capital, highlighting a trend that is changing the way people think about the Emerald City. For a city mostly known as the birthplace of Starbucks, the Seahawks and rain, a recent influx of Silicon Valley venture capital investments and big wigs like Facebook, Google, eBay and Twitter have finally placed Seattle as the emerging epicenter of cloud-computing, datacenters and innovation.
The topic of Seattle as a major technology center fueled a recent panel discussion at a luncheon hosted by Rotary Club of Seattle, moderated by Todd Bishop, co-founder of Geekwire. Panelists included Michael Schutzler, CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA); Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz; Julie Sandler, principal at Madrona Venture Group; and technology veteran Jeremy Jaech, co-founder of SNUPI Technologies.
Geekwire’s Todd Bishop began the tech-focused session by asking panelists to weigh in about what makes Seattle so different from Silicon Valley and how the tech scene has changed over the last several years.
“Seattle is rapidly embracing new technologies beyond innovations taking place at Microsoft and Amazon as the industry matures with more thoughtful ‘bets’ and increased competition,” said SNUPI Technologies’ Jeremy Jaech.
“Competition has also increased, as it is easier than ever to reach people from all over the world with accessible cloud computing applications,” added Moz’s Sarah Bird.
“Keep in mind that compared to Silicon Valley, Seattle is 10-20 years behind the power curve where the entire local industry was just Microsoft 20 years ago,” added Michael Schutzler from the WTIA. “Now we are home to a viable and growing VC marketplace. It’s not that we haven’t been swinging for the fences, we just haven’t had as many times at bat as a city.”
Bird added that she believes it’s now much easier for companies to get started in Seattle with the rise of local accelerator programs and tech conferences like TechStars and Geekwire. However, finding top talent continues to be a challenge, given increased competition in the region. The growing number of cloud-based and mobile app startups has made the fight for engineers even more difficult in recent months.
Julie Sandler offered another perspective from her work at the Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona. “Having worked in Silicon Valley, when other people talk about Seattle, they often say the tech community just seems so nice. This bugs me because Seattle is very aggressive and yet collaborative,” she said. “It’s not uncommon to see two founders of different companies meeting regularly. It’s not uncommon to see an established CEO meet with a start-up founder. This tension between collaboration and aggression makes Seattle so successful and is putting our city on the map.”
Bishop then asked the panelists to name the most promising Seattle-based startups that no one has heard of yet. The responses included online course developer Skilljar; emerging biotech company Acucela that treats macular degeneration; Glympse, a mobile app that lets you share your location with others for a specific timeframe; and Canary, the maker of personal air quality sensors.
Over the last five years, the proliferation of venture capital firms in the Seattle region including Madrona, Vulcan, Cascadia Capital, Ignition Partners, Voyager Capital and Benaroya Capital has helped stimulate tech-sector growth while providing more job opportunities. As The New York Times reports, Madrona alone has participated in 15 cloud deals since March 2012, raising $68 million of $304 million total venture capital for cloud companies in the Seattle area, while the rest came from 20 other investors, mostly in the valley. Those companies are still private and are valued at around $2.3 billion.
For decades, Microsoft and Amazon were the lone tech giants in the region, but now the Pacific Northwest is home to myriad newcomers like EMC, Tableau, Apptio and Smartsheet.
As John Cook of Geekwire reported, the City of Seattle and real estate company Kidder Matthews have recently unveiled plans to begin marketing a 4.41-acre parcel just southeast of downtown Seattle to potentially lure Bay Area companies to set up shop.
But the question remains – is Seattle ready to take on the Valley?
You bet.
As Twitter’s popularity and user base have rapidly grown in the last eight years, companies have used this as an opportunity to engage customers on the social networking and micro-blogging site. Twitter has become a medium for entertainment, news, product releases and reviews, as well as brand building. However, the instantaneous, small word-count tweet can sometimes go out a little too fast and easily. Whether it’s a tweet gone wrong or a bigger company issue at hand, follow these tips from PR Daily to master your apology on Twitter.
1. Be sincere and concise.
A simple and direct message is the most effective in this situation. Luckily, Twitter’s 140- character maximum helps the message to be concise and to the point. The apology needs to have an authentic voice, but also a voice that matches that of the brand elsewhere. An apology that is inconsistent with the company’s overall tone is not likely to be accepted by customers, so avoid this by simply matching the voice of the message with the brand’s voice.
2. Don’t make excuses.
Not only do you not want to take up any of your valuable space in your short tweet limit, but you also do not want to point fingers. Take responsibility – your followers will appreciate the honesty.
3. If you say there will be a follow up, actually follow up.
A simple apology is not quite enough anymore. If appropriate, assure followers that a more detailed follow up on the issue will be forthcoming, and then deliver. This is especially true for customer service or product issue apologies, for these issues directly affect your customer base. Customers will want the appropriate information to tackle the issue at hand.
4. Provide contact information.
If there is room in the tweet word count, include an email address so that followers may reach out. In today’s world, it is all about customer service, so giving customers contact information is essential.
Great customer service includes a sincere apology when one is needed. Whether the apology is remedying a larger company issue or a smaller tweet mistake, Twitter can be an easy and effective way to reach customers. If the right steps are taken and the apology is sincere and takes responsibility for the mistake, customers will be appreciative of the honesty.
For more on perfecting an apology, see our blogs on How to Apologize Effectively and Three Studies in Public Apologies & Crisis Communications.
In the United States, according to the CDC, autism spectrum disorder affects one in 68 children. In the Pacific Northwest, we are fortunate to have an excellent organization – Seattle Children’s Autism Center – committed to providing assessment, diagnosis, treatment and support for those with or caring for children with autism spectrum disorders.
In early 2011, Communiqué PR had the opportunity to work with Jennifer Seymour and the staff at the Autism Center to create the Autism Blog. The goal of the blog was to create a resource for parents (or caregivers) of children with autism to provide weekly information about common issues and concerns.
The Autism Center needed the blog because there was tremendous demand for information as well as for appointments to see physicians and therapists, often creating a significant wait time for patients and families. Seattle Children’s was working to address this demand by adding staff, but also wanted to create an online repository of information that could be quickly and easily updated with new information.
The Assignment
In partnership with Jennifer Seymour, we began by first overcoming objections from physicians and others about creation of a blog. There was significant fear about how to manage and stay in compliance with HIPAA. We also knew we needed to provide the staff with everything they needed to be successful, including guidelines and best practices for writing; a name for the blog; a comment policy and tips on how to manage blog comments; initial content and an ongoing editorial calendar; a plan to publicize the launch of the blog; and tips on how to measure success. Finally, it was important to be true to the Autism Center’s vision and mission.
Making it Happen
With this in mind, we began work to:
- Conduct in-depth research of other mental health blogs and summarize the findings for key stakeholders
- Hold meetings with key stakeholders within the Autism Center to overcome objections and establish shared expectations
- Develop a comprehensive blogging toolkit addressing the naming of the blog, success measurement, roles and responsibilities, content creation, managing comments, disclaimer language, suggested technical features and more
- Interview autism experts and ghost-write initial content for the blog
- Publicize the launch of the blog via development and distribution of a press release
- Help the team transition to maintaining the blog on their own
Results
The blog has been a tremendous success, helping to:
- Ensure that families in the PNW as well as around the country have access to information about autism,
- Play a role in securing donations and awareness for the need to provide financial support to the Autism Center,
- Keep media and other stakeholders up to date on the last research around autism, and
- Significantly reduce calls to the Autism Center. In addition, staff can print out and distribute key articles to families or point them to specific information.
Today, this remains one of the most well-read blogs on Seattle Children’s Hospital website.
In a writing-heavy job such as PR, it’s easy to encounter some serious writer’s block that stops you straight in your tracks. You know the feeling: you’ve got a byline due in three hours, and your cursor blinks incessantly on a blank page. Never fear—there are proven, tangible ways to help you and your colleagues combat writer’s block and live to tell about it. Here are five tricks for fighting stagnation and fostering creativity in your work.
1. Remember Goldilocks? Choose a not-too-quiet, not-too-loud environment.
According to a recent study, there’s a reason why creative folks often huddle over their laptops in coffee shops. Though the caffeine doesn’t hurt, what actually seems to spark creativity is the noise level. A bustling coffee shop has about 70 decibels of noise, compared to a quiet office space, which tends to have only around 50. If you’re aiming to get your colleagues’ creative juices flowing, so to speak, one of the best things you can do is leave the office and go to a moderately loud environment. But don’t book those concert tickets for you and your colleagues just yet. Environments that are too loud tend to stifle creativity rather than foster it.
2. Impose new restrictions on yourself and your team.
Dr. Seuss famously wrote Green Eggs and Ham after being dared to write an entire book in fewer than 50 words. If you are struggling to write a press release, try limiting yourself to fewer words than you’d planned because a new challenge forces your brain to think differently. The very process of attempting to write a press release in 50 words rather than 500 helps you distill your thoughts to identify only the most newsworthy and exciting content.
3. Put on your walking shoes.
In a former life, I was a teacher, and this was one of the best tools I had at my disposal. When students encountered crippling writer’s block, we’d go for a quick jaunt around the campus. There’s mounting evidence to suggest that movement helps facilitate thinking, not to mention that putting yourself in a different environment for a short period of time helps you return to your work with laser focus. The effects of walking on cognition are so profound that some companies offer stand-up desks with treadmills, but you needn’t go that far. A walk around the block will probably suffice in helping you generate creative ideas.
4. Ask someone to pick your brain.
Sometimes, all we need is another party to ask us questions about our ideas to improve or refine them. Pose your initial thought to a coworker or friend, and ask him/her to probe you about it. Say you’re working on a pitch, and you’re stumped. A coworker might prompt you to think beyond your initial ideas with question stems such as, What would happen if…, What is newsworthy about…, What themes emerge when…? Though we could ask ourselves these questions, sometimes we’re too stuck—or too stubborn—to do so. Engaging with another person around the topic can help spawn some serious creativity.
5. Don’t wait for inspiration – just write.
Perfectionism is the bane of production. Being discerning about what you write occasionally means that you write nothing at all. With students whose own perfectionism prevented them from producing, I asked them to write for a full 10 minutes non-stop. With a timer running. Not surprisingly, students initially loathed this exercise because it feels stressful. But once you move beyond feeling self-conscious about how much you can produce, this exercise can be liberating. Freed from a critical inner dialogue, you are forced to write. After you write non-stop for 10 minutes, re-read what you wrote and highlight the best two-three ideas, sentences, or phrases. Now you have several creative ideas on which to elaborate. Writers’ block: 0. You: #Winning.
Spaceflight Inc. is at it again! The Seattle-based company reinventing the model for launching small satellites into space has expanded its services to include Spaceflight Networks, a business dedicated to cost-effective spacecraft communications and operations for small-satellite customers. With the addition of Spaceflight Networks, Spaceflight Inc. becomes the first and only company capable of offering both rideshare launch services for free-flying spacecraft and ground-station communications in one bundled service.
If you happen to be a small-satellite operator, retrieving satellite data in a cost-effective, timely manner can be a challenge—especially when it currently costs a company $400 to $500 each time its small satellite makes contact with a ground station. Spaceflight Inc., which has coordinated the launch of 76 small satellites on behalf of its customers, recognized this emerging market need for a cost-effective communications option for satellite operators—many of which send dozens of satellites into space at a time. In response, they developed Spaceflight Networks, a network of global ground stations sighted to minimize communications latency and optimized for small-satellite constellations.
Spaceflight Networks’ global ground stations will provide an out-of-the-box, convenient communications solution designed to make satellite communications as simple as operating a mobile phone, and with commercial pricing set well below the industry standard. The network will operate similar to a conventional cellular network, allowing satellite operators to choose from a list of supported spacecraft radios and then purchase a data plan for use of the network—either a dedicated antenna lease and monthly payment, or ad-hoc access and pay-by-the-minute plan.
Recently, my colleagues and I had the pleasure to work with Spaceflight Inc. to announce this expansion of services to its key markets. The news received interest from a number of influential local, national and space industry journalists, many of whom are becoming increasingly more familiar with this leader in the burgeoning small satellite industry.
Following is a roundup of articles generated by the news (not including reposts):
- SpaceNews
- Via Satellite
- Gigaom
- Puget Sound Business Journal
- SatNews
- Parabolic Arc
- NewSpace Watch (requires subscription)
- Seradata Space Intelligence
- SpaceMart
- Space Newsfeed
The first Spaceflight Networks ground station will be operational in Q1 2015 and located in the company’s home state—Washington—with additional globally dispersed ground stations coming online through 2017. As the company’s PR partner, I certainly look forward to celebrating this milestone and to supporting the company’s continued growth and innovation in the small-satellite industry.
Journalists’ inboxes are often full of emails pitching a variety of different stories. As a beginner in the PR industry, I am realizing with every pitch I send that getting their attention is anything but easy. So the question becomes, how do you get them to read your pitch? How do I make my email the email worth opening? The answer: a strong subject line, aka a good title. It needs to be something that is not only informative but also intriguing. A plain title will get you nowhere when you’re competing with every other PR professional. Below are four types of headlines or titles, inspired by PR Daily’s “8 successful headlines—and the psychology behind them,” that are sure to capture the attention of a journalist.
Questions: Questions pique curiosity and automatically get your brain thinking. The best types of questions will refer to something the reader can relate to, empathize with, or would like to know the answer to. This is one easy way to be provocative: Ask a question that is bold and dramatic. One thing to avoid is asking a bland question to which virtually everyone knows the answer.
Numbers: People like predictability and people like proven arguments. Numbers provide both. Numbers tell a journalist exactly what they are getting into and provide them with solid evidence around which to build a piece. Make sure when offering the journalist a bold statement that you’ve already done the work and have the data to support it.
How-to: “How-to’s” also pique curiosity and inform the reader that there is the potential to learn something new. This formation will deliver information in an organized fashion, making it simple and direct. Another way to make a “how-to” headline more interesting is to couple it with speed. For example, “The five-minute guide to reorganizing your email.” Our culture is obsessed with rapidity, so offering tips and ones that are efficient makes the pitch’s content even more exciting.
Negatives: In a study of 65,000 headlines, Outbrain compared headlines with positive superlatives, negatives superlatives and no superlatives. The results showed that headlines with superlatives did 29 percent worse than headlines with no superlatives. In comparison, headlines with negative superlatives did 30 percent better than those without superlatives. There is clearly something to be said about presenting the “worst” news.
A strong subject line could be the difference between a journalist taking interest in your story or moving it to their junk email. Dedicate thought to the title and grab the attention of your reader. Do you have other kinds of headlines you’ve found effective?