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.
Every two weeks our team sits down over lunch to discuss client campaigns that are underway or upcoming and to reflect on recent successes and challenges. Aside from being a great team bonding experience, these lunches offer an opportunity to exchange ideas and to learn about new trends and effective media outreach practices from our trusted colleagues.
During our most recent lunch, two of my colleagues were detailing a laundry list of successes on behalf of their clients, and as someone who has been struggling to secure coverage for a small, startup client, I was eager to learn their secret. Why were these other clients generating so much media coverage when on the surface, their stories weren’t particularly “sexy”?
The answer is also not that sexy: They have data and data opens doors – or it at least gets writers to respond to your emails.
As PR practitioners, we’re more likely to lean toward the power of words to communicate the defining qualities of our clients, but advances in technology have brought us a whole new language and it’s based on numbers. Access to client or industry analytics, statistics and numbers helps us better understand consumer usage and how it impacts our clients’ (or their competitors’) success. More importantly, this data helps us to frame a story or trend that will be relevant to writers who are hungry for meaningful content and reliable sources.
If your client doesn’t already have data to share, encourage them to invest in the research. Consumer behavior is generating massive amounts of data across digital channels and according to McKinsey & Company (see graphic below), companies using big data in their marketing efforts are generating an average of 6 percent higher profits than their competitors. They’re probably also generating more media coverage.
Data can also help us to justify a larger campaign budget or increased resources, so it behooves us to opt out of the age-old theory that PR practitioners can’t do math (we actually can; we have calculators) and to opt in to the numbers game by participating in the conversation with our clients and with media.
For more information about the big impact that data can have on business, check out the following infographic:
Early in November, I was lucky enough to acquire a few passes to attend Dreamforce, Salesforce.com’s annual conference. The four-day conference, which takes place in San Francisco, drew more than 100,000 attendees from the technology industry and is considered the third biggest tech industry event, following TED and CES. Big-name speakers from this year’s event included Deepak Chopra (Founder of the Chopra Foundation) and Laurent Lamothe (Prime Minister of Haiti).
I was fortunate to attend the keynotes of two leaders in the technology industry whom we often read about, but that I’ve never heard speak in person: Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, and Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. We’ve read and discussed Sheryl’s book, “Lean In,” at Communiqué PR, and continue to see a constant stream of news about Marissa Mayer’s direction for Yahoo. As such, I was excited to hear what they would offer up in their keynotes.
Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer, president and CEO of Yahoo (formerly a long-time executive and key spokesperson for Google), has received quite a bit of media attention over the past few years, especially with her ascendancy as CEO of Yahoo. She was listed as No. eight in Fortune’s 2013 list of most powerful businesswomen, No. 32 on Forbes’ list of the 100 most powerful women in the world, and was the first woman listed as number one on Fortune’s annual list of the top 40 business stars under 40.
Employee number 20 at Google, Marissa is a powerful and impressive figure in the technology world. Under her supervision, the stock price of Yahoo has doubled and the trajectory of Yahoo continues to be an interesting one, especially with the semi-recent acquisition of Tumblr.
In her keynote, Marissa focused on the importance of design and mobile in technology, and gave some insight into how Yahoo operates internally as well as the future of the brand. Marissa’s full keynote at Salesforce is here; my own takeaways follow:
- Design needs to be user- and mobile-centric. Marissa’s keynote focused especially on design, something that used to be an afterthought, but is now a core component for how companies think about products. We’ve heard again and again that mobile is the future and this point was emphasized by Marissa—Yahoo is completely on board with mobile.
Marissa stated specifically that when defining the Yahoo brand, it became clear that Yahoo aims to entertain, inform and inspire—three things that translate into its mobile products. In addition to designing for mobile, Marissa emphasized the idea that, for a product to gain traction, the design needs to be user-centric, meaning that it is “useful” to the user, not just “usable.”
We work with quite a few companies that focus on the mobile space—to name a few: Medio, a predictive analytics provider centered on mobile; Mobidia, a mobile data usage provider; and Smartsheet, a collaboration tool that emphasizes the functionality of its mobile app. Given the developments we’ve seen in our own clients’ businesses over the past year toward mobile, it was interesting to hear Marissa’s perspective on designing for mobile for a large business like Yahoo.
- Expert level attainable within 1–2 weeks. According to Marissa, you’ll know you have a well-designed product if people feel comfortable using it within 1–2 weeks. As an example, she discussed Xerox. While Xerox has plenty of features, we all know what the big green button does. Design should prioritize the “big green button” piece of a product. This anecdote reminded me of Smartsheet, which we’ve discussed on the blog before—the intuitive design is what makes it such a great tool for us at Communiqué PR.
- Operational transparency and efficiency are top priorities at Yahoo. The keynote gave insight into how business has changed at Yahoo since Marissa took charge. In order to maximize efficiency, Marissa has involved all employees in operational tasks like reporting issues that are making their jobs more difficult, and providing input on the decks that are presented to the Board of Directors.
One particularly interesting method Marissa has employed is “PB&J,” (process, bureaucracy and jams), a system through which employees are able to report roadblocks they experience during tasks. Once something is reported 100 times, management addresses the issue.
- On a personal note: prioritizing and “balance.” While the keynote focused primarily on Yahoo’s direction and current work, Marissa did offer an anecdote that was interesting and inspiring, especially for people that may feel overwhelmed by the idea of maintaining a work-life balance. Marissa noted that she’s constantly asked how she maintains balance in her own life, and for her, it’s all about setting priorities—literally, by listing them out everyday.
However, Marissa made an interesting point—rather than being upset that you never get to the items at the bottom of your list, think of this as a good thing. You wouldn’t want to be wasting time on things that you consider relatively unimportant. As someone who makes a to-do list at the beginning of everyday, I found this to be a refreshing perspective.
Sheryl Sandberg
Unlike Marissa Mayer’s keynote, the “Lean In” author spoke mostly about her book and message of female empowerment in the workplace. The only insight onlookers received into Facebook was through occasional anecdotes. This was to be expected, as the keynote was titled “Lean In With Sheryl Sandberg.”
I was particularly excited to see this interview, as I’ve read Sheryl’s book twice now (once when it was released, courtesy of my father, and again this year in book club). I’ve discussed the subject matter and perspective at length with family, co-workers and peers, and was excited to see Sheryl discuss her ideas in an open, conversational forum.
Sheryl’s full “Lean In” keynote can be viewed here. I had the following takeaways:
- Open the dialogue. Sheryl’s message of “leaning in” is not just to inspire people to take action, but to get people talking about issues of gender bias and insecurities. Solving these problems requires active discussion and Sheryl is encouraging the development of “Lean In Circles” everywhere—and the equal participation of men and women in these.
- Leaning in—it’s about men, too. Sheryl mentioned explicitly that men should take an active interest in workplace equality, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it can benefit their careers. Being viewed as able to work well with women can only help men in their careers.
- Let’s try it. One of the quotes that really stuck with me following the keynote was Sheryl’s response to a question she constantly gets asked: Do you really think the world/business/fill in the blank would be better with more women in power? Sheryl’s answer: Let’s try it and see what happens.
- Addressing insecurity. Another inspirational point Sheryl made was addressing insecurities by identifying fears. Sheryl has a Tumblr dedicated to the idea of “what would you do if you weren’t afraid?” She shared an anecdote of a teenage girl she met who is keeping a list of everything she’s avoided because she was afraid—with the goal of crossing each of those things off.
It was inspiring to hear both of these technology leaders speak, and I hope I’ll attend Dreamforce again in the future.
We recently encountered an interesting scenario with one of our clients, who came across a relevant industry discussion on Reddit and wondered why their brand name was not mentioned. At first the answer seems apparent, since Reddit relies on user-generated content that, for the most part, cannot be controlled. But that got us thinking—is Reddit, the online community powered by users, a viable place for PR pros to promote brand awareness for clients?
If you haven’t dealt much with Reddit, it’s huge in terms of Internet platforms. The site describes itself as “a source for what’s new and popular on the web.” Users are responsible for providing all of the content and identifying what’s interesting or not. They share tidbits from all over the Internet on the social platform—images, stories and more. Users then comment or vote to promote content they find most appealing, which then has a chance of landing on the site’s front page for maximum viewership.
Reddit is wildly popular with users but, to many PR pros, largely unchartered territory for performing brand outreach. We came across an interesting article in the November 2013 issue of PR Week, which pitted two thought leaders against each other on the question: “Should brands embrace Reddit as they diversify their digital outreach?” The article highlights the two opposing views regarding whether Reddit is an actionable tool for PR and marketing purposes.
In the first view, the answer is an obvious yes. Reddit has definite value. With an audience of 85,901,746 unique visitors per month from more than 186 countries, the question is, why wouldn’t you want to tap into that market? The numbers showcase how, if executed well, Reddit can be an extremely successful platform for generating brand publicity.
A successful post holds huge potential for generating online interest. The site includes hundreds of topics and subtopics relevant to a wide variety of interests. Commenting with unique insight on posts can gain you votes, upping the chances that your content will be read, shared and even end up on the main page—where it will spread everywhere.
The opposing view, however, notes that there is little tolerance for commercial content among Reddit users. The site thrives on non-promotional, non-editorialized material. In general, the site’s users are sensitive to brand promotion and will immediately reject content that’s blatantly promotional. From this standpoint, Reddit is just not the place for brand messaging.
A brand butting in with self-promoting content on Reddit can ruin conversations. Promoting a client could therefore backfire and bring negative sentiment to a brand. And the only thing worse than posting obviously promotional content is trying to pass it as non-promotional—a move that can ruin your Reddit reputation for good. As the PR Week article notes, Reddit is an “earned channel.” You cannot control your image like you can on other social media outlets, such as Facebook or Twitter, which makes using the site for PR purposes risky.
So, can PR pros effectively leverage Reddit in their outreach for clients? It’s a divided question. Reddit can’t be ignored—it’s an extremely powerful platform with a wide and varied audience. But at the same time, you can’t treat it as any other social network. You can’t just jump out there with a bunch of promotional content—you have to start small and gain respect first. Once you’ve built a reputation, you can consider contributed posts geared more toward brand awareness and generating site traffic. But even then, do so with extreme caution—and always be sure to disclose the full relationship.
Sharing messages should be done sparingly and only when the content adds genuine benefit to the site’s users. Posts need to be exciting, genuinely interesting or clever. Spamming will only get you booted. For the most part, PR pros should likely stick to using Reddit mainly to monitor conversations relevant to a client’s industry or interests. Those with big-name clients might find value in hosting “Ask Me Anything” sessions, in which users participate in Q&A sessions with brand executives. No matter how you use the site, always stick to its guidelines—its Reddiquette.
Think of using Reddit like entering someone’s home. That’s exactly what it is—home to millions of diverse users who are very protective of their community. Keep this in mind every time you log on, and be sure to wipe your feet at the door.
Contributed or bylined articles serve as a great complement to editorial placements. Unlike an article written by a reporter about a company or its products, contributed articles are written by the company and are meant to lend a vendor-neutral perspective on topics relevant to a publication’s readers. We often recommend contributed articles as a way to position our clients as thought leaders in their industry or on a specific subject matter.
As newsrooms shrink and the competition for website visitors increases, we’re seeing a demand for contributed content like never before.
So far this year, Communiqué has placed 16 contributed articles and guest posts on behalf of our clients with 15 more in the pipeline. From an article on pets at work to a piece on the impact of metamaterials on the satellite communications industry, the articles have spanned a wide-range of topics. For our team, writing contributed articles allows us to flex our creative writing muscles and, more importantly, enables us to get even more rooted in the issues impacting our clients’ industries. Here’s a sample of some of the articles that have been published so far:
- AAHOA Lodging Business: What the Hospitality Industry Can Learn From Public Safety Communications
- Business2Community: Avoid Shuffling Chairs by Creating a Culture of Collaboration: Microsoft’s Reorg and the Struggle Between Teams and Tools
- Citizen Tekk: Taking the Concert Home: How it Will Benefit Consumers and Artists Alike
- Franchising World Magazine: Expanding a Franchise: Consider the Cloud
- Retail Digital: Preparing for the Explosion in Mobile Data
- O’Dwyer’s: How Collaboration Technologies are Reshaping PR
- VentureBeat: Meet 7 startups that are innovating for the developing world
- Wired Innovation Insights: Blinders at the C-Level Can Cost You Billions
Is a contributed article right for you? Ask yourself these questions:
1) How will a contributed article support my communications objectives? Developing the article and pitching it to relevant publications takes time. Be sure the investment will support your communications goals.
2) What do I want readers to learn from my article? Identifying the main takeaways can also be helpful in targeting the right publications or websites to target for your article.
3) Do I have examples that can further illustrate the points in my article? Incorporating customer stories, metrics or other types of data can go far in supporting the premise of the article.
4) Can the article be written in a vendor-neutral way? Editors rely on contributed articles to educate and inform their readers on relevant topics and issues. Any hint of blatant product or company promotion will result in an immediate rejection.
For more tips on writing a contributed article, check out this post.
Every month at Communiqué PR, we celebrate the success of our blog and its contributors by sharing stats, including the most views and the average time spent viewing the post. Analyzing these statistics allows us to track the growth of our blog and determine which topics appeal to our audience. Building a committed and involved audience is a priority, however, this is often easier said than done. PRDaily recently posted an article providing tips on building a blog readership. This advice is not designed to gain one-time views but instead to build lasting relationships with the audience to ensure frequent and involved visits.
Consider the Content
This is advice that I never tire of hearing. Whether it’s regarding a paper for school or for a blog post, the content is the main priority to any type of writing. Content will not only capture people’s attention but also maintain it. Mark Schafer, a journalist at PR Daily, suggests using content that is “RITE”: Relevant, Interesting, Timely and Entertaining. By using content that meets this criteria readers will be more likely to share and comment on posts, which in turn will generate more views to the blog.
Build a Twitter Following
This is not only a fast technique when building readership, but also efficient. By spending 10 to 20 minutes a day tweeting, you will be able to build an established audience. Mentioning your blog in tweets will draw people to your site and encourage them to read your most recent posts.
Activate LinkedIn Groups
There are more than 1.5 million LinkedIn groups. This means that there are groups for every topic and area of interest possible. Find multiple groups that are relevant to you and your blog. Use your blog to answer questions or respond to different topics by posting the link to the group as a response. You will likely find people who not only are interested in that specific post but also the overall content of your blog.
Build a Blog Network
Find a group of bloggers that are willing to support each other. It can be difficult to get involvement, especially when first starting a blog. In order to generate more interaction, find bloggers who are interested in a similar topic and who are in a similar position. Comment, share and like one another’s blogs to gain more exposure. One way to find new bloggers is to look through the comment section of your favorite blog. Another way is to use a formal approach though a service like Triberr.
Make your Blog Similar to your Email Address
This simple step is often forgotten or unnoticed. Promote the URL of your blog everywhere you promote your email address. Place it on a business card, in an email signature, on PowerPoint slides, and in newsletters. People who are viewing these things are often high-potential readers and are likely to be interested in your blog.
Building a readership is not an easy task. I hope that with these tips you will be able to gain a strong following. Are there any other tricks you have found successful?
McDonald’s recently announced its decision to part ways with longtime supplier Heinz. The two companies are cutting ties after 40 years of working together and the decision may be because of Heinz’s recent hire of former Burger King CEO Bernardo Hees and the lack of full disclosure.
McDonald’s stated flatly, “As a result of recent management changes at Heinz, we have decided to transition our business to other suppliers at this time.” Added the fast-food giant congenially, “We have spoken to Heinz and plan to work together to ensure a smooth and orderly transition.”
Just another business decision on McDonald’s part? What kind of “management change” could tear a long-standing business relationship? It seems Hees may have had a conflict of interest in trying to continue working with McDonald’s. According to USA Today, while Hees is currently the head of Heinz, he is still vice chairman of Burger King’s board of directors, and according to the Daily News, Heinz is served in nearly 80 percent of Burger Kings in the United States. This put McDonald’s in an untenable situation because Heinz clearly has an allegiance to one of McDonald’s main competitors.
For McDonald’s, it’s merely a strategic business reaction to its changing business environment. The mystifying part is that Heinz has gone silent and has yet to satisfactorily weigh in and seize the PR opportunity.
The events of these two business giants are understandably receiving a great deal of media coverage, yet Heinz has refused to comment on this situation, explaining that its company “does not comment on business matters as a matter of policy.” However, Heinz did add this: “All our foodservice customers globally remain valuable to the company and are an important part of what has made the H.J. Heinz Company what it is today. We continue to operate respecting every customer while upholding the high level of confidentiality and business ethics that the H.J. Heinz Company has built with our business partners over the years.”
Interestingly enough, this is not McDonald’s and Heinz’s first dispute. According to the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette, during the early 1970s Heinz supplied nearly 90 percent of McDonald’s ketchup and pickles. However, after a tomato shortage, McDonald’s took the majority of its ketchup needs elsewhere. Heinz ketchup was recently only being sold in two United States markets, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis, with the rest of its McDonald’s business being in international markets. This split, therefore, will hurt Heinz primarily in the loss of the international business from McDonald’s.
Heinz, to its detriment, is not offering customers and stakeholders any insight, and its no-comment policy seems to be the least effective approach it could take. So what might the condiment king have done differently from a PR standpoint?
Addressing the recent events head-on may have been a better approach. Heinz should have offered an explanation to put shareholders and customers’ concerns at rest. Losing its business with McDonald’s may well have a negative effect on sales and those who have a stake in the company deserve to be updated, and may mean the general public will make its own assumptions because of the lack of response from Heinz on the matter. This is clearly a tricky situation for Heinz, but it seems the company may have overlooked some critical PR crisis strategies.
How would you have handled this PR opportunity differently?