Contact us

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.

The Delicate Balance of Media Follow up

Securing media coverage is always a challenge. We’ve provided numerous tips on how to pitch a newsworthy story, but once you garner initial interest, what do you do? How do you move a story from just interest to print?

First, congratulations. You’ve won the first battle. You’ve successfully broken through the thousands of emails that most journalists and editors are sifting through on a daily basis.

The next step is tricky, as you don’t want to damage any relationships, but at the same time, you want to make sure that the story sees the light of day. Following up with a reporter or publication that has already expressed interest is important, but you don’t want to be a nuisance.

In my experience, I like to act as the mediator between the publication and my client. I start to build a relationship with the journalist or editor and try to gather as much information as possible. What is the proposed timing? What is the focus of the story? What elements do they need? My goal is to ensure the reporter has what they need to develop a well-rounded story and I check-in to ensure it stays top of mind. However, be patient. You have to understand the challenges that journalists face — they are often moved onto different stories because of breaking news, so timelines often shift.

Recently, I had the opportunity to partner with two different clients on two different stories, but used the same follow-up method. We teamed up with The Omni Group to pitch a proactive story offering journalists with a behind-the-scenes look at how the Omni Group builds apps. We secured interest from reporter Mike Vardy and helped coordinate interviews and images. I already have a relationship with Mike, but made sure that I followed up regularly to get an update on where he was in his process and what additional information that I could provide. The result was an excellent feature story that illustrated how the Omni Group approaches building apps and what it takes to succeed.

I also had the opportunity to work with our client Sprig Health to pitch media in Bellevue about its availability and the immediate access to healthcare it provides. We received initial interest from the editor at the Bellevue Reporter several weeks ago, but it took time for the story to come to fruition. Once the editor expressed interest, I called initially to make contact and to try and establish a schedule for subsequent check-in calls. After each subsequent call, I would check in to see where he was in his process and confirm a time that I could call back thereafter. This ensured that he and I were on the same page and I wouldn’t be bothering him if I called again. Once the editor assigned a reporter, I made sure to follow up with her every few days to ensure she didn’t have any lingering questions. The result was a well-written story that helped us accomplish our goals and that provided valuable information to the people of Bellevue about the new service.

Every reporter has his or her own style and may be more responsive to email versus phone calls. The key is to understand what they are up against and make it as easy as possible for them to do the job. With this consideration in mind, you’ll likely make valuable friends for life.

Read More

Pitching Tips From Media Pros: BusinessWire Media Roundtable

If you are in the public relations industry, you know the power of strong media relationships—and the problems that can arise if you aren’t able to effectively pitch your story.

Editorial coverage is incredibly valuable, not only because it creates awareness for a company, product or service, but because it also can help validate what people and companies are doing. The art of pitching a story in a way that will entice journalists to write third-party articles about a company is constantly evolving.

Due to the importance of securing editorial coverage, I was delighted to attend the BusinessWire Media Roundtable meet and greet on Nov. 7, 2012. Present at the event were:

I sat with Greg, John, Cynthia, and Holly, and received their insight on journalism in Seattle, how to foster effective (and healthy) relationships with media, and learned about their respective interests. Some general tips I gathered were:

Understand Reporter’s Beats

Unanimously, every journalist noted that a pet peeve is receiving pitches that are completely off target. People in our field often use databases (such as CISION) to compile media lists. However, information in these can be out of date. It is important to have an understanding of who a reporter is and what they cover before pitching them on a story. In this day and age, finding this information is pretty easy; simply look on the publication’s website, and you will find archived articles which you can sort by author.

It is also important to stay on top of what reporters are currently covering. For example, Greg Lamm used to cover technology at the Puget Sound Business Journal, and now is focused on business and finance. Therefore, technology pitches sent to Greg are no longer relevant and clog up his inbox.

Once you see what a reporter is writing about, think through: Will they care about my story? Is my client (or company) relevant to their coverage? And of course, most importantly, why is it relevant?

Pay Attention to the Publication’s Focus

Think through who the publication caters to, and what they write about, before sending out a pitch. Puget Sound Business Journal, for example, only writes about Seattle-based companies. If you’re a Bay Area start-up, they’re not going to cover you.

Additionally, think about the publications audience. To whom are they catering? Would this audience be interested in your company or client? Remember, a publication’s main goal is to gain readership. Your story needs to appeal to their audience, or it won’t be beneficial for a publication to write about it.

One useful tip Greg Lamm offered was to ask clients what publications they would like to see themselves in. Your client may have a more in-depth understanding of what type of audience they would like to target.

Do Your Homework

Plenty of information about publications and journalists is available online. As I mentioned before, it is relatively simple to discern a publication’s and journalist’s focus from their online article archives. More often than not, publications will also clearly state their target audience in their mission statements or “about” sections on their websites. Holly Smith-Peterson from the Business Examiner Media Group also noted that Business Examiner publishes its editorial calendar online, where you are able to then understand what each issue will be covering year-round.

Additionally, as John Cook from GeekWire pointed out during our media roundtable, you can usually see the “most popular” stories online at each publication’s website. This allows you to think critically about what is driving readership for each publication. If a story caters to a publication’s readership, it will likely drive traffic for the publication. At the very least, this knowledge will give you something to mention in your pitch (i.e., “I noticed your story on apps for the workplace has been wildly popular this month, and one of my clients has developed a new fitness app that integrates…”).

 

This meet and greet was fun and educational. It’s always great to connect with local colleagues and hear what they’re up to. I highly recommend attending a BusinessWire event if you get the opportunity.

When pitching journalists, reflect on the above tips—they’re straight from the source. Additionally, remind yourself that the ultimate goal is to create a mutually beneficial situation for your client/company and the journalist/publication. A journalist should want to write about your client/company because its story is newsworthy and will drive readership. As a PR representative, your job is to facilitate an understanding of why this is.

What do you think makes for an effective pitch?

Read More

Charitable Giving: Choosing a Cause for your Business

 

I recently attended Hopelink’s 17th annual Reaching Out Benefit Luncheon, featuring Jeanette Walls, bestselling author of The Glass Castle. The event was excellently done, and saw a turnout from a variety of local and national businesses, including Comcast, NBCUniversal, Boeing, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Nordstrom and Lane Powell. The variety of corporate sponsorship led me to think: What are the best practices around deciding to which charities your company and brand want to dedicate time and funding? Furthermore, how can a company get involved in their community, outside of donations?

After researching what others had to say on the topic, I came up with the following items to think through when choosing a cause for your business to support.

  1.       Consider your Corporate Values

If you have established values (see Communique’s values here), this is the perfect instance to reference them. Keep your values in mind when thinking about the cause you want to support, and be cognizant of the fact that this is a business opportunity, not a personal one. When determining what your potential charity’s values are, it’s important to…

  1.     Research the Organization (and Its Values), not Just the Cause

One of the difficulties of choosing a charitable organization to partner with is that, even when you narrow down your criteria (i.e., aSeattle-based environmental organization), it is difficult to immediately differentiate between one organization and another.  Put in time understanding how the organization addresses its cause—what work do they do, exactly? Does this align with your values? An excellent way to do this is to…

  1.    Contribute Time, not Just Money

Volunteering as a group can be an excellent team – building exercise and can also give you an understanding of how the organization achieves its goals. One way companies can go about encouraging employee volunteerism is through tools like Volunteer Match and HandsOn Network, which can help you establish an employee volunteer program within your organization.  Another way to get involve outside of direct donations is to…

  1.     Co-Sponsor an Event

I mentioned the Hopelink luncheon as an example of an event your company could co-sponsor. There are many alternatives in this space. For example, on Jan.  1, 2010, HandsOn Network and Disney launched “Give A Day, Get A Day“ which rewarded participants for a day’s worth of public service with a free day’s admission to a Disney theme park. This event allowed Disney to play a role in the overall cause of increased community volunteerism, and had over 1 million participants within 12 weeks. While this event was national, the sentiment can be scaled down to a local level if that aligns better with your business’ values and capabilities. This brings me to my last point, which is…

  1.    Think Scale: Local, Global, or Both?

When determining with which charitable organization you would like your company to be involved, a big component you need to think through is scale. Are you representing a small Seattle business? There are plenty of opportunities to get involved locally. Are you representing an international consulting firm? You might consider aligning your international business goals with charitable giving to microfinance institutions that promote entrepreneurial ventures in the developing world, or dedicate your time to an organization promoting education abroad. Thinking through what scale is right for your business is an important element to deciding in what charity your business wants to be involved.

Of course, it is not necessary to have just one organization that your business is committed to—nor is it necessary to have any. If you are looking for a way to promote your values at a local or global level, thoughtful charitable giving is an excellent strategy. Additionally, it can provide great opportunities for team building, morale improvement, and positive publicity. Most importantly, of course, is that it gives your business an opportunity to give back.

For more on selecting a cause, check out:

 

Heather Campbell

Read More

Lessons From a White House Press Secretary

I recently attended the PRSA Puget Sound annual meeting where I had an opportunity to hear Scott McClellan, former White House press secretary under President George Bush, provide a spokesperson’s perspective from inside the West Wing.

After hearing and considering Scott’s comments, it reminded me that some of the lessons he learned are important to recall and apply across the board in public relations. Here are three I want to highlight:

  1. It’s OK to disagree. Scott openly proclaimed his disagreement with former President Bush’s decision to begin the Iraq War. At the same time, however, Scott acknowledged his belief that Bush was sincere in his approach to the war and that Bush believed it was the right decision at the time. While Scott’s personal beliefs differed from those of his boss, he remained committed to the job and performed at 100 percent. As public relations professionals, it is our job to develop a point of view and provide our recommendation on a number of situations, issues, plans, etc. But when our perspective doesn’t necessarily coincide with our client or boss, we still have an obligation to do the job we were hired to do – and do it well.
  2. Push for information you need to make a decision. Two and a half months after taking the White House press secretary job, Scott faced having to exonerate Scooter Libby in the identity leak of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame Wilson. Particularly in crisis situations, PR pros won’t always have as much information as we’d like before making a decision. When possible, though, we should seek to gather all the information possible to form an educated opinion and decide next steps.
  3. Remain nimble as the industry evolves. The rise of blogs and social media impacted Scott during his tenure as press secretary. Rather than ignore it, or see how this new media approach played out, Scott embraced it: He was the first press secretary to allow a blogger into the media room. He also offered Web chats and provided video tours of the briefing rooms. We won’t always be successful in every risk we take, but it’s important to try different approaches and shift our strategies and tactics based on new technology.

So, what do you think? Is McClellan’s advice applicable to your role? What are your experiences as a spokesperson?

 

Read More

“10 Lessons Learned From the Campaign” Webinar From PRDaily & Brad Phillips

I recently participated in Ragan PRDaily’s Webinar, “10 Lessons Learned from the Campaign,“ hosted by Brad Phillips. Phillips is the president of Phillips Media Relations and writes “the world’s most-visited media training blog”, Mr. Media Training. In the webinar, Phillips offered a list of 10 media lessons learned during the 2012 presidential campaign. Here are four favorites:

1.)    Use straightforward language.

Since CNN went on air in 1980, voters have subsequently spent more time listening to candidates speak. It appears that consequently, the candidate with greater intellectual appeal tends to not win the election.

Communicating in everyday language is essential, Phillips notes. The example from the campaign that Phillips used to this end is Bill Clinton’s acclaimed speech at the Democratic National Convention. Obama referred to Clinton as “our nation’s explainer-in-chief,” because he was able to convey complicated policy issues in an easy-to-understand format.

With a sound bite averaging 10-30 words, clarity and simplicity are key.

2.)    Nothing said in public is ever private.

In today’s media landscape, you never know who is filming or recording your statements — and this information can be instantly broadcast. For this lesson, Phillips referred to the now infamous “47% video” of candidate Mitt Romney. This gaffe was widely broadcast, and referred to by Romney’s opponent in the official presidential debate. The lesson here? Stay on message, no matter what, when you’re in any type of public setting.

3.)    Don’t leave anything to chance.

Phillips used the example of Clint Eastwood’s speech on the Republican National Convention, which Eastwood admitted was not planned out well in advance. In moments where the media is going to be carefully analyzing each aspect of a speech or presentation, don’t leave anything to chance. Gaffes happen even in the most planned and rehearsed media actions—don’t leave additional room for error. The media and the public have a high standard for pre-planned presentations; it’s not worth the risk of not incorporating detailed event planning into your strategy.

4.)    Have a plan for brain freezes.

However, even if you carefully plan media engagements, you stick with clear language, and you are consistently on message, moments of confusion still happen—it’s human nature. Whether someone is a candidate or an executive, even intelligent, well-spoken individuals are still susceptible to “brain freezes.”

Phillips gave several examples of brain freezes along the 2012 campaign trail, including the Republican primary debate in which Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, proposed to cut three agencies from government support—but could not name all three. While the gaffe was almost laughable, instances like this can be seriously detrimental to images, brands and campaigns alike.

Unfortunately, when under pressure and while running on intense schedules, brain freezes like this can be a side effect. The solution? Think through a few general talking points that will minimize the impact of drawing a blank, and that remain on message/ brand.

The 2012 U.S. presidential campaign was unprecedented in media coverage and engagement. The high- stress, high-stakes nature of the campaign provided a few vivid examples of why media training and preparation is essential for anyone in a highly visible position.

A big thank you to Brad Phillips and Ragan’s PR Daily for the excellent webinar. Make sure to check out Phillips’ blog, Mr. Media Training, for more tips.

For more on the 2012 presidential campaign from Communique, look to:

The Great Debate: Know Your Spokesperson’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Social media and democracy: What can business learn from election campaigns?

 

 

Read More

Tips, Tricks and Lists: How Short and Sweet is Memorable

Media resources continue to remain tight and more and more outlets are relying on contributed content. This presents a great opportunity for organizations to position themselves as thought leaders in their respective industries.

But what types of stories tend to resonate with editors and readers? When I’m writing blog posts, I typically write about tips, and there is a reason: People tend to scan rather than deeply read and absorb articles. Articles that are in the form of lists or quick tips provide the key takeaways quickly and clearly. I came across an article in Ragan’s called, “3 reasons list stories work,” written by Lydia Howard, that suggests why list stories are the way to go.

Consider the following:

  • People Have Short Attention Spans. People have a limited amount of time and often receive news and information on the go. This means you only have a limited time to make your point. SocialTimes posted an infographic that suggests social media has shortened our attention span from 12 minutes to five minutes. People are more impatient and they want information quickly. Short and sweet also makes an article easier to share. For example, a tweet that reads “Learn five tips for better buying” is more enticing than a tweet that points to an essay about the evolution of the buying experience.
  • You Can Be Bold. With a list or tip story, your point can usually be one compelling sentence per tip. You can include explanations following your statement, but the bold statements help to keep it memorable.
  • Your Content Lasts Longer. Howard points out that in-depth articles typically analyze current events or trends. This means that the article can become irrelevant more quickly. With list or tip stories, you are typically providing guidance that can be useful months down the road.

We partnered with our client Attachmate to pitch a list story that highlighted the “Top File Transfer Headaches and How to Find Relief.” The article set up a problem and provided five potential headaches an organization may face when transferring files and what solutions are available. The article appeared in Data Center Journal and positioned Attachmate’s Sam Morris as a thought leader in the industry. The five headaches are bold, memorable and still relevant today.

When developing a pitch for media, consider pitching a list-format story. It helps condense the points you want to get across and can have a big impact on readers.

Read More