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.
We all have something we think we’re good at – our work, parenting, a hobby, driving – but how do we really know if we’re achieving our best? Professionally, there are the external rewards, of course – a client landed, promotion, a deal closed, a bonus earned – but do these things truly reflect our aptitude at a given task or set of tasks?
A few months ago I read a great article that talked about benefits that coaching can bring to professionals, even experienced ones (and we’re not talking about “life coaches” here). The author, Dr. Atul Gawande, is a staff writer for the New Yorker and a Harvard-trained surgeon (he’s also written several insightful books, including the incredible “The Checklist Manifesto”). The article describes Dr. Gawande’s own experiences with enlisting a “coach” – in his case, a retired surgeon and past instructor – to observe him during surgery.
What struck me about this article was that the coaches didn’t focus on results. Instead, they focused on the little things individuals – a surgeon or math teacher, for example – can do to enhance their performance. Even the most introspective and attentive among us, Dr. Gawande argues, could benefit from an experienced practitioner nudging us toward better work. It’s individuals doing the little things well, he points out, that collectively lead to positive results.
He describes, for example, how the famous UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, would show his team how to put on their socks. Failure to properly put on your socks, Coach Wooden argued, would lead to blisters. Blisters would lead to poor individual performance. And poor individual performance would lead to poor team performance. In one of Dr. Gawande’s coaching sessions, his coach found that the patient had been draped in a way that limited his assistants’ ability to help him. The result, though not catastrophic, had been to limit the effectiveness of the entire team.
Success is directly tied to the little, seemingly meaningless tasks that encompass our work. With experience, we learn to tie these tasks together in ways that work for us and that, hopefully, produce the desired result for the whole. Dr. Gawande’s article reminded me that all of us, even surgeons, can benefit from a course correction now and then, and that there really are no little things when it comes to your particular vocation.
Or driving.
Proactively sharing news and speaking with reporters is what most people think of when they think about public relations, but monitoring mentions of your brand in coverage and social media channels is a key part of being a PR professional.
Tracking results in coverage and social media can help you evaluate the success of a campaign, raise awareness of potential crises or rumors being spread about your brand, and can help you keep an overall pulse on how your company is being portrayed in the media. We want to share a few tools that can help you accurately track mentions of your brand in news coverage, social media channels and more.
For Big Budgets ($1,000+ per month)
If you’ve allocated a thousand or more dollars of your PR/marketing budget each month to coverage tracking, a professional coverage monitoring service, like Meltwater, could be up your alley. It offers an extensive and international search service, detailed reporting, and has a consultant or two on duty to assist you and customize your reports. High-end services like this tend to run a few thousand dollars per month, especially if you want to add social media tracking to your package.
While Meltwater offers a comprehensive solution, the price point makes tools like this out of reach for most of our clients.
For Moderate Spenders ($10 – $999 per month)
If your budgets aren’t sky-high, tools like BrandsEye or trackur might be more your speed. They offer thorough, accurate tracking for monthly fees that total less than a thousand dollars (including a few plans that are less than $100 per month). Solutions such as these usually have some limitations, such as the number of search terms you can enter or the level of customer support you’ll receive from the company.
While you may not get the VIP treatment as you would with the more expensive solutions, these mid-range tools do the job for most of the customers we work with, offering straightforward reporting and easy-to-use interface that makes coverage monitoring intuitive and more fun.
For Penny Pinchers (free options)
Let’s face it; most of us don’t want to spend anything on brand monitoring. We’d rather use those dollars for proactive campaigns or the development of a strategic story pitch. But don’t worry,there are still tools that get the job done for those looking for a free ride when it comes to coverage monitoring.
Google Alerts remains one of the most popular free tools to track mentions and keywords in coverage. You can opt to receive notifications in real-time or once per day, making it easy to review coverage when you want. Also, you can use Google Alerts whether you have an account with Google or not.
There are some free social media monitoring tools out there too, such as SocialMention that not only show you what people are saying about your brand, but also provide some basic analytics and reporting.
What are the downsides to these free tools? They aren’t always as thorough or accurate as paid services. They also don’t always have the robust measurement tools or reporting your organization might be looking for, like sentiment reports or being able to monitor for a specific timeframe. But if basic coverage tracking or social mentions is all you need, these options are great.
Has your organization tried any other tools that you like or don’t like? Do you think the investment in brand monitoring tools is worth the investment? Let us know in the comments.
Sweaty palms, shaking hands, squeaky voice — if this is what happens to you during a presentation, you are not alone. Many people get nervous when presenting in front of large groups of people.
One way to feel at ease during a presentation is to control your content and make sure your presentation will dazzle, instead of put your audience to sleep. Having a strong PowerPoint presentation to help tell your story will do wonders to help calm your nerves.
While preparing for a recent client meeting in which we were presenting PR results, a colleague sent me an article from Ragan.com called “5 simple ideas to make your next presentation sizzle,” by Jon Thomas. The article provides some good guidance. I’ve incorporated these and my own experience in developing presentations to come up with five tips.
Consider the following five simple ideas to impress your audience:
- Tell a story. There is nothing that keeps an audience engaged like hearing a good story. Identify the story that is at the heart of your presentation or pepper anecdotes throughout. This will help keep your audience interested. For example, if you are giving a presentation about safety in the work place, tell a story. Provide examples of someone who was injured when they did not abide by the safety standards.
- Focus on one idea. Pick one idea or theme that you want your audience to remember. Once you select the idea you want your audience to take away from your presentation, make sure that your content reflects this theme. For example, if you want your audience to remember to lock the doors to the office at the end of the workday, create a slogan and provide examples that focus on locking the doors or what could happen if they don’t lock up.
- Create a new template. PowerPoint offers a variety of templates and backgrounds, but many are restrictive. Make your presentation unique by creating your own background or breaking out of the regular template. Does the logo have to be on every slide? Does each slide need two columns? Don’t be afraid to mix things up. Some companies have brand standards in place, so you might be even more restricted, but be as creative as you are able.
- Use images. Visual stimulation is essential when presenting. By using vibrant images to bring your presentation to life, you’ll not only have a better looking product, but Thomas suggests you’ll have a visual cue that “your audience’s brain can attach to your message.” Sometimes, all you need is an image in the slide to help explain your message.
- Give your ideas room. One of the most common mistakes is to put too much information on one slide. Because people innately have trouble focusing, try spreading the presentation out so there is one idea per slide. You’ll spend less time on each slide, but it will be easier to follow.
By creating a dazzling PowerPoint presentation you can feel confident in your content and, with adequate preparation, you’ll be totally ready for the presentation… For more tips on how to prepare for any public speaking event, see our previous blog post. Good luck!
Every year we see both witty and wacky April Fools’ Day joke announcements and fake news. And among those spoof announcements, there are those that go over well among consumers and others that go sideways. Before committing to an April Fools’ Day PR stunt consider how it could backfire. It’s all fun and games until you’ve irritated customers, are facing legal action, or have lost your job.
Last year, I offered some guidance in my post, Public Relations, April Fools’ Day, and Fake News, as well as some fun examples from 2010. And in 2009, we shared guidance on The Joke Press Release – Is it Appropriate for April Fools’ Day?
In summary, we offer the following three tips to consider when organizing an April Fools’ Day joke announcement:
- Timing is critical. An April Fools’ joke on any other day does not have the same effect. Erring by distributing your spoof announcement on either March 30 or April 2 can increase the likelihood your audience may be caught off guard, not realize it is a joke and most likely not react as you had intended.
Techie Buzz reported on an April Fools’ Day joke that one company launched in 2010 “a good week ahead of the actual occasion and in the process infuriated several customers.” As I stated above, timing is critical.
Offer a disclosure. Make it easy for your audience (e.g. media, customers, employees, readers, listeners etc.) to catch on that it is a joke. Last year, Papago Brewing in Arizona launched a promotion that a somewhat rare beer from Russian River Brewing was to be made available at Papago’s pub on April 1. Customers saw the announcement and came in for that specific beer only to be served a Papago beer instead.
Needless to say, customers became disgruntled and vented their frustration on Facebook, and an apology was posted the next day. For the full story and some of the Facebook posts check out Phoenix New Times, “Papago Brewing’s ‘Pliny On Tap’ April Fool’s Day Prank Backfires.”
- Be careful not to offend. In a blog last year one woman shared how her boyfriend played an April Fools’ Day joke by sending her a text that they need to talk and then telling her their relationship was over. The woman was naturally upset.
Similarly, YouTube’s 2011 April Fools’ Day joke involved celebrating its 100th birthday and offering a 1911 button that as Gawker explained, creates “an old-timey version of your video, complete with a piano-roll soundtrack. This joke is not appropriate for all videos.” Some viewers were offended to see videos of the Japanese Tsunami or other tragic events paired with light-hearted music. As stated by Gawker, “YouTube apparently neglected to anticipate the extent to which a mock silent-film treatment is not at all funny when applied to videos showing sad and horrible things.”
Of course in addition to the above, you’ll want to make sure any joke announcement or promotion your company pursues is consistent with your organization’s brand and supports its objectives.
One of my favorite joke announcements of 2011 was Think Geeks’ PLAYMOBIL(TM) Apple Store Playset. Described by ThinkGeek as “… a tiny representation of the store which sells us all the shiny Apple goodies we can’t resist. Then we noticed that the PLAYMOBIL™ iStore includes amazingly tiny iPhones, Macbooks, and iPads.”
Do you have a joke announcement, blog post or stunt planned for April Fools’ Day this year? Or have an experience you can share regarding past April Fools’ Day jokes? We’d love to hear from you. Please post a comment with your story.
Today, it’s a rare occasion to find companies that aren’t harnessing the power of social media. However, even though your company may not yet have a formal presence on social media platforms, it’s extremely likely that you and the majority of your colleagues and employees are active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or all of the above. With social media activity increasingly blurring professional and personal lines and creating a massive gray area around what’s public and what’s private, it’s incumbent upon business owners to have a social media policy in place, regardless of whether the company itself is active on social media platforms.
Back in April, we wrote about the importance of not only having a social media policy in place, but also training your employees on the policy to help ensure that they understand it and are using social media in a way that can help build brand awareness without inadvertently damaging the company’s reputation. Unfortunately, we’ve all too often seen what can happen to companies or high-profile individuals who experience social media blunders that go viral.
While social media policies should be clear, targeted, prescriptive, and empower your employees to be brand ambassadors, that doesn’t have to translate into materials that are long, boring and full of legalese. Gil Rudawsky of Ragan’s PR Daily, provides an interesting look at how Gap, Inc., took a refreshing approach to reinventing its social media policy for its global workforce.
Specifically, in an effort to differentiate its brand in today’s crowded marketplace, Gap is unleashing its 134,000 employees on social media to help create buzz and increase awareness. It also set forth a no-nonsense policy broken down into three categories, “Keep in mind,” “How to be the best,” and “Don’t even think about it.” While the guidelines aren’t publically posted, they were presented at a crisis communication conference and Rudawsky had the inside scoop on a few noteworthy highlights including:
Keep in Mind…
- There’s really no such thing as “delete” on the Internet, so please—think before you post.
- It’s a small world and we’re a global company. Remember that what you say can be seen by customers and employees all over the world and something you say in one country might be inaccurate or offensive in another.
- Your job comes first. Unless you are an authorized Social Media Manager, don’t let social media affect your job performance.
How to be the best …
- Be yourself. Be the first to out that you are a Gap, Inc., employee – and make it clear that you are not a company spokesperson.
If you #!%#@# up? Correct it immediately and be clear about what you’ve done to fix it. Contact the social media team if it’s a real doozy. - Add value. Make sure your posts really add to the conversation. If it promotes Gap, Inc.’s goals and values, supports our customers, improves or helps us sell products, or helps us do our jobs better, then you are adding value.
Don’t even think about it…
- Talking about financial information, sales trends, strategies, forecasts, legal issues, future promotional activities.
- Giving out personal information about customers or employees.
- Posting confidential or non-public information.
- Responding to an offensive or negative post by a customer. There’s no winner in that game.
Gap’s social media policy is a great example of how companies can create a compelling, easy-to-follow set of ground rules that engages employees in real-world language rather than 20 pages of legal jargon. Not only does it keep the company’s best interest in mind, but it also empowers its employees to be brand ambassadors with clear, easy to follow guidelines.
Do you have a social media policy? What works well for you?
Lately we have been thinking about and redefining our corporate values, and one of them surrounds collaboration. At Communiqué PR, we highly value collaborative relationships with our clients, co-workers and business partners.
Given we place a premium on collaboration, I decided to do some reading about what it means, why it is important, and how to best establish collaborative relationships. Let’s start with the definition.
According to several sources, collaboration is working together to achieve a common or shared goal. Nonetheless, the quest for harmony and working together to accomplish a shared goal is not always easy. People may share a goal, but may have very different ideas about how to achieve it.
Consider the University of Washington’s (UW) 150th anniversary. The PR and marketing teams at UW may have a shared goal of leveraging the anniversary to raise awareness of the institution and its impact on our community, but they may have had very different ideas on the strategies and tactics to employ to achieve this goal.
At Communiqué PR, we often have differences of opinion around how to achieve various objectives, and it is incumbent on us to come to consensus or resolve our differences so we can move forward in a constructive and harmonious manner.
This is a common challenge for many organizations as I discovered when reading a Harvard Business Review article titled, “Want Collaboration? Accept – and Actively Manage – Conflict” written by Jeff Weiss and Jonathan Hughes.
According to the authors, true collaboration only comes when people realize and overcome conflict. To address this conflict, they offer strategies for managing disagreements at the point of conflict as well as strategies for managing conflict upon escalation. The strategies for managing disagreements include:
– “Provide people with criteria for making trade-offs.”
– “Use the escalation of conflict as an opportunity for coaching.”
Whereas to manage conflict upon escalation the strategies include:
– “Ensure that managers resolve escalated conflicts directly with their counterparts.”
– “Make the process for escalated conflict resolution transparent.”
I found the strategies and their detailed explanations to be very interesting, and am considering ways to make them actionable in our organization. The authors also provide insight on three common myths surrounding collaboration as well how managers at IBM coach to resolve conflict.
If you are interested in ensuring you’re working in a collaborative manner, I recommend purchasing the article. While it was published more than seven years ago, I think some of the concepts are still highly applicable today.
For more on collaboration and the importance of agencies working well together, I would also encourage you to read Rod Brooks’ blog post titled, “Tip 8 – Advice for Agencies Looking for An Edge – A Clients Perspective.”