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.
Even in an age so focused on the rapidly expanding boundaries of social media, the press release remains a staple of the public relations business. Press releases were once simple Word documents distributed by email or, if anyone even remembers, fax distribution groups and bulk snail-mail offerings. In such an environment, there weren’t a lot of choices and PR firms didn’t have to think much about those choices. Currently, there are many ways to customize press releases and even more ways to get them out to the world.
Even a simple Google search makes you feel like you’re sipping from a fire hose with the sheer number of press release distribution services available. They offer a staggering array of options and great variance in pricing. This begs the questions: How does a business choose the right one? While these services can offer a dizzying plethora of menu items, here are five salient factors to consider:
- Geographic distribution: Many companies have tiered pricing based upon state, regional, national, and even international distribution. The logical step is simply is to choose the one that most closely matches your intended market. However, that may be shortsighted. In business, just like in chess, you need to think several moves ahead. If your marketing strategy is to expand beyond the regional level relatively soon, it might make sense, if your budget allows, to pay the incremental additional cost and have it distributed nationally for greater exposure.
- Sector distribution: Some services distribute by sector or industry. The technology and financial sectors are common offerings, for example. This can be very useful for a company whose target market is limited to a sector or two and is not concerned with geographic distribution. However, this can limit your message to an echo chamber that has already heard it, reducing its effectiveness.
- Editing services: Many offer editing services. Does your business need them? In the case of a tight or impossible deadline, or small, under-staffed startup company, the editing services could be advantageous. But if your company can adequately handle the requirement, don’t pay for something you don’t need.
- Feedback, research and analytic services: Some of the higher-end services offer traditional and social media monitoring and feedback. This could be an invaluable tool for businesses that can afford it and don’t have the resident capability. Feedback on what messaging is working and what is not can prove invaluable.
- Multi-media and other services: Know what your needs are before you shop for a service. Many of the lower-end price packages are limited to the traditional Word document press releases. If your business wants or needs videos, images, or specialized links, don’t waste time with services that can’t provide them. And shop around – prices will vary.
While this is not intended as a comprehensive list of what is available, it should serve as a solid starting point as you begin your hunt for a distribution service. Most importantly, carefully consider what your company needs to support your marketing strategy before choosing one of these services.
In today’s workplace, we’re inundated with emails all day long. While the use of email has obvious benefits, confronting your inbox(es) can be a daunting task. A slew of email can also make it easy to lose important items in the day-to-day shuffle.
For me, transitioning from student life to professional life meant a transition from sending a handful of emails a day to sending and receiving hundreds. This presented an unexpected organizational challenge. However, in my past year at Communiqué, I’ve learned to make use of the below tricks to manage my own personal and professional email effectively:
- File or delete first. When I arrive in the office every morning, and when I return to my desk after a prolonged period away, I immediately go through the email I’ve received and delete unnecessary items. I also file items that I’m CC’ed on that don’t require a response from me. This allows me to quickly narrow down what in my inbox actually requires my attention, without losing track of important information.
- Decide what to do with every message. I learned this effective habit from a co-worker: If I’m not going to delete a message, file it, or reply to it, I make myself add it to my to-do list. This forces me to deal with action items immediately or add them into my current work queue, rather than leaving emails stagnant in my inbox or filing something without dealing with it.
- Actively unsubscribe. This applies more to my personal account than my business email, but every time I receive an email from a listserv I’m not interested in, I go through the process of unsubscribing. Although time spent deleting these emails is minimal, it can add up. I now receive almost nothing that I’m not interested in, which makes checking email fun and interesting, rather than intimidating and annoying.
- Take some activities out of the inbox. Online collaboration tools (Smartsheet is what we use at Communiqué) can significantly reduce the amount of redundant email you process. Rather than sending an Excel document containing project lists back and forth, or updating a manager on the status of something via email, Smartsheet allows you to update project work in the cloud, helping to minimize the amount of email flowing through your inbox.
Managing email overload is certainly something that takes time, fine-tuning and customization for your own needs and work style. However, applying the above proactively to my own daily routine has allowed me to focus less on wading through email and more on getting work done.
For more tips on managing email, see:
- About.com: Email Management Tips for Improved Productivity
- Microsoft at Work: Empty your Inbox: 4 ways to take control of your email
- PCMag: Get Organized: 11 Tips for Managing Email
How to you manage your email?
Heather Campbell
In case you haven’t heard (sorry to any fast-food lovers for bearing the bad news), Taco Bell recently came under heat for a particularly unappetizing photo posted by one of its employees. The photo featured the employee licking a tall stack of empty taco shells on the job and went viral, creating a backlash of re-posts, disgusted Tweets and vows to never eat at the food chain again.
In response, Taco Bell released a statement reassuring the public and denouncing the employee’s actions. Representatives also explained that the taco shells were supposedly part of a training exercise, and were in the process of being thrown away at the time of the photo rather than being served to customers. Perhaps the situation could have been much worse, but the issue still stands that the employee—who represents the company—demonstrated a serious lack in judgment that caused a blow to the company’s reputation.
Incidents like this, in which the public has an adverse reaction to an action tied to a company, warrant major response by the parent company to avoid a permanent effect on its image. An examination of Taco Bell’s handling of the PR disaster offers several lessons for PR professionals facing similar future situations in crisis management.
First, a few things Taco Bell did right:
1) Immediate Response. Right away, Taco Bell representatives released the statement admitting to the situation and chastising the employee’s actions, a prime example of showing action, not reaction. Instead of waiting it out until they had time to investigate the claims, Taco Bell spoke up and addressed the issue head-on. Honesty and remorse are crucial during a PR crisis, and Taco Bell nailed it by readily admitting the situation and denouncing the behavior as absolutely unacceptable by company standards.
2) Transparency. The incident showcases the necessity of building a trustworthy, transparent relationship with consumers about product quality and brand values. Taco Bell did a good job in not just owning up to the situation, but explaining the background and context to mitigate public concern. The most updated press release offered clearly labeled sections such as “What is the Issue?” (explaining the error) and “How Did This Happen?” (the context). It doesn’t make the behavior excusable, but openly explaining the situation with a detailed description of what occurred offers a level of transparency that consumers appreciate—and just might help them forgive you. Be truthful and open, without making excuses.
3) Addressing the issue as long as necessary. In the event of a disaster, don’t just make an initial statement and shove it under the rug. If customers dwell on the situation, then continue to address their concerns. As the Taco Bell crisis has consistently made headlines since first coming to light, Taco Bell has continued to respond with updated information. Ongoing attention applied to the issue shows genuine concern for the matter rather than just trying to cover it up, which goes a long way for the integrity of a company.
And one thing Taco Bell could have done a bit better:
Show, don’t just tell. The old adage “actions speak louder than words” applies to PR crises. Taco Bell did take some commendable actions—admitting the issue and firing the employee in question, for example. However, Taco Bell’s elusive promise that this will never happen again doesn’t effectively reassure the public. Instead, PR crises should be seen as opportunities for positive change. Show customers how the incident was an anomaly by taking direct internal actions to improve product quality and company conduct, and make these efforts visible to the public. In Taco Bell’s case, for example, hiring practices and employee training could certainly be improved; making this visible to customers would reflect positively on Taco Bell’s leadership, management and future product quality.
We all dread the day that we face a PR disaster. However, case studies such as that of Taco Bell offer valuable lessons in dealing with the crises that our own clients may face. In the midst of catastrophe, it’s better to confront the issue immediately as well as take obvious and visible actions to both fix the mistake and prevent its future occurrence.
At the end of the day, Taco Bell did a decent job in addressing its latest PR crisis, and it’s doubtful that its sales will take a lasting hit. So, remember the importance of good PR next time you dive into that Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco—which, by the way, was reportedly the type of taco shell in question. Enjoy.
As professionals continue to rely increasingly on computer technology to do their jobs – word processing tools and email are commonplace in almost every office – our reliance on memorizing rules and conventions has started to slip. Most workplace technologies are hugely helpful in creating a more efficient organization. However, some facets of word processing technology actually frustrated me when I was teaching college courses.
For example, I felt that some features of programs, like Microsoft Word’s “spell check” feature, robbed my students of any responsibility to learn spelling, grammar or proper writing style. Rather, similarly to how calculators make mathematical calculations possible without a complete understanding of how or why the calculation worked, “spell check” makes it possible to create a seemingly correct piece of writing without understanding the errors you might make along the way.
Given this background, I was intrigued but skeptical when I learned about AP StyleGuard, a program to help writers adhere to the Associated Press rules for writing.
If you have worked with journalists, you know newspapers and much of the news industry uses the Associated Press Stylebook guidelines and its collection of rules to “provide a uniform presentation of the printed word, to make a story written anywhere understandable everywhere.” If a PR firm or business wants to inject its message into the media, AP style format is essential. Whether writing a contributed article or a well thought out pitch, the ability to write in AP style is an integral part of a career in PR. To learn more about the importance of AP Style, please see Friday’s post, “AP Style: What it is and why it’s important”.
AP StyleGuard has been around about a year and a half, yet there are probably still some in the PR world unaware of its existence. It provides automatic checking of a Word document for AP style. The program integrates with Microsoft Word, and operates on Windows XP and higher and on Microsoft Office 2007 and higher (with the exception of Office 2013).The program also operates on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), 10.7 (Lion) or 10.8 (Mountain Lion) running Office for Mac 2011 and Safari 5.17 or above. No additional hardware or software is required.
I will admit that I had some misgivings about this product. As I previously mentioned, I have seen automated programs affect students’ learning, especially in writing and math. I still prefer the physical AP style manual precisely because it forces me into the repetitive mode of learning or, in too many cases, re-learning the rules. For me, this process is a eustress (positive stress) that forces my growth as a writer. I think many of us are continually looking for ways to improve our craft, and the repetition required by referencing a physical copy of the AP Style guidebook is a great way to grow your writing skillset.
Despite this concern, AP StyleGuard has potential as a useful product. First, it is possible to learn from this product. The software proposes correction in the document and shows you the corresponding AP Stylebook rule, so you can learn as you go. If the writer took full advantage of this feature, it would help improve his or her use of AP Style.
Second, there are times when a writer, no matter how much they want to improve their writing skills, simply faces a tight deadline. In such cases, the additional help offered by AP StyleGuard would be advantageous. Finally, one feature that actually trumps the physical AP Style Guidebook is the AP StyleGuard’s automatic updates. This monitors current AP Style requirements, even if a writer is not aware of most recent changes.
Overall, I think this product is, at the very least, worth consideration, especially if you are consistently writing in AP Style and have trouble staying up to date on rules and conventions. Yes, it costs $60 for a year’s subscription, but even if you don’t renew it, you can keep the program sans updates. If this post piqued your interest, you can check out AP StyleGuard here.
If you’ve ever worked in journalism or public relations, odds are you’ve heard of AP Style. But if you haven’t, as is the case with many of our clients, it can be a foreign concept. In today’s post, we want to provide a definition of AP Style and discuss its importance in communications.
The “Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law” (AP Stylebook) is, according to its website, “a writing style guide for journalists. It is published and updated annually to reflect changes in writing style and new guidelines. … Updated regularly since its initial publication in 1953, it provides fundamental guidelines for spelling, language, punctuation, usage and journalistic style. It is the definitive resource for journalists.”
It serves as the ultimate resource when writing and formatting material, ensuring consistency across platforms and publications. There are many reasons why AP Style is useful and important to consider in PR, such as:
- Convenience. When writing any kind of material that may be useful to journalists – a pitch, news release, case study, etc. – PR pros tend to adhere to AP Style guidelines to increase the likelihood of the client’s content being used. By writing and formatting copy the way a publication would prefer, journalists and editors don’t need to worry about rewriting or reformatting the material. It saves them time when they’re busy and stretched too thin.
- Consistency. Regardless of the publication, or whether it’s print or online, having consistency with formatting and grammar is important. And with new technologies and language introduced daily, it’s useful to have an authoritative source providing guidance to everyone in the field on uppercase versus lowercase. Some examples of these new words include: Cloud Computing versus cloud computing, internet versus Internet, and tweet or Tweet.
- Grammar. Not only does the AP Style guide provide rules for formatting, but it also proves helpful when grammar isn’t one of your strengths. Included in the guide is a section on punctuation, as well as guidance on the difference between i.e. and e.g., lay versus lie, and either/or and neither/nor, plus many others.
The 2013 AP Stylebook is available now for purchase here. But tell us: Do you have additional thoughts on why AP Style might be useful?
At Communiqué PR, we’re big fans of Peter Shankman and the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) service he started years ago. So when Peter released his second book, Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management is Over and Collaboration is In, we were excited to pick up a copy.
CEOs are often lauded for their winner-take-all approach: They do whatever it takes to move up the corporate ladder, manage with iron fists, and answer to no one all without regard for the casualties they may leave in their wake. Often this attitude permeates throughout an organization’s culture which, while making the company financially successful, also makes for a toxic atmosphere for employees. In Nice Companies Finish First, Shankman paints an entirely different picture of leadership, one that calls for leaders to take the complete opposite approach.
According to the book, the new standard for leadership is one that builds “productive, open, innovative and positive workplaces.” In turn, a positive workplace benefits customers, employees, stockholders and the bottom line. Throughout the book, Shankman profiles well-known “nice” executives and weaves in their experiences as he explores the nine traits that set these leaders apart.
All of the nine traits are standards to which we should all aspire, but trait no. 6, “Glass-Half-Full POV,” really resonated. At various points in our careers, we’ve probably all worked with a “Debbie Downer” – they are not particularly inspiring to be around. Now, imagine if a Debbie Downer is at the helm of your team or organization. Leadership sets the tone and I would guess that most of us would find more inspiration from someone who views life and business with more optimism. To be clear, the book does not contend that leaders should adopt a Pollyanna view. Rather, leaders who are glass-half-full people exhibit the ability to remain positive, but are not blind to the realities of their business.
If you’d like to hear more about Shankman’s thoughts on the positive impact of being nice in business– and for that matter, in all areas of our lives – check out his inspiring TEDx Talk:
Nice Companies Finish First is a refreshing take on management and leadership and shows that the lessons we learned as children to share and to play nice with others aren’t just meant for the sandbox.