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.
Last month I had the pleasure of attending the annual meeting of the National Association of Waterfront Employers (NAWE), a trade association whose member companies include privately owned stevedores, marine terminal operators and other waterfront-related employees.
Members gathered at this event in Washington, D.C., to discuss trends and issues affecting the maritime and terminal operating industries. They also had the opportunity to attend educational seminars and participate in networking events with decision-makers and legislators in the federal maritime community.
Below I have listed five reasons to hold an annual event for members:
- Foster Networking. Annual events allow members to connect and build relationships with one another and share their thoughts and opinions about the issues confronting their industry. They also can solicit input on the products and services of their business.
- Provide Education. Annual meetings allow organizations to offer educational sessions and workshops and share important information. For instance, throughout the NAWE event, experts provided insights into legislative initiatives, cybersecurity, investment outlooks, emissions reduction tactics, economic and trade trends, and even crisis communications best practices.
- Create Opportunities for Listening. Hosting an annual meeting allows your leaders to hear from members about their specific needs, which can help them determine how to enhance the programs they’re offering.
- Recognize Outstanding Work. Many trade associations use their annual events to recognize and honor the achievements of their members. Industry awards provide recognition for the hard work and achievements of individuals and organizations, which can be a source of pride and motivation for award recipients. Awards can also raise the profile of both the recipient and the organization offering it.
- Reinforce Perceptions. Annual meetings are a terrific way to reinforce perceptions that your organization is a valuable thought leader, influencing the thinking and practices of the industry. It’s also an opportunity to develop a list of ideas to explore in greater detail in the coming months. This is important because to maintain thought leadership, you’ll want to continually share ideas through articles or blog posts, speaking or publishing research.
Overall, an organization’s annual meeting provides connection and collaboration, allowing people to take a break from today’s digital work environment. Members gain access to new educational opportunities and can network with individuals they may not have connected with otherwise.
As 2023 begins, I thought it would be interesting to look back at some of the 2022 coverage for BitTitan, a top-tier provider of migration and managed services automation solutions, trusted by IT professionals worldwide to effectively deploy and manage cloud technologies.
Its flagship product, MigrationWiz, is the go-to SaaS solution for migrating mailboxes, documents, public folders, and Microsoft Teams across a diverse range of platforms. With a track record of success and a commitment to innovation, BitTitan is a reliable partner for businesses seeking to optimize their use of cloud services.
In addition to a strong commitment to innovation and thought leadership, journalists are often interested in BitTitan executives’ perspectives on the news and developments impacting the IT industry. Last year, they wrote 33 articles which were published on a variety of news sites.
Some of the topics they explored included:
- 2022 Predictions. The trends and themes expected to emerge in 2022, including cloud service providers’ consolidation and organizations moving to a single vendor model.
- Teams Migration. The best practices for Microsoft Teams migrations to limit sprawl and content chaos, including auditing environments, setting user expectations and planning a test migration.
- Optimizing IT & Managing Sprawl. The ways to optimize IT environments so professionals can manage sprawl and ensure long-term success, including developing a data governance plan, tracking the costs of data sprawl and eliminating unnecessary data and licenses.
- Document Migrations. The best practices for document migrations amid accelerating data creation, including educating the end user and performing an evaluation of associated costs.
- Customer Success. The essential role customer success teams play in enterprise migrations, including being a dedicated resource to help troubleshoot and resolve unforeseen problems before, during and after a migration.
- Economic Headwinds. The ways in which leaders should consider how to optimize IT investments and expenditures amid economic uncertainty to ensure business success.
- Modern Authentication. How Microsoft’s move from Basic Authentication to Modern Authentication impacts email migrations for IT professionals.
If you’re interested in learning more about BitTitan’s perspective on these topics, below is the complete list of editorial coverage in 2022:
2022 Predictions
- VMblog, VMblog 2022 Industry Experts Video Predictions Series – Episode 1
- The ChannelPro Network, The Evolving Cloud: 4 Predictions for 2022
- VAR Insights, Adaptability Is Key: 4 Predictions On Cloud Migration And Innovation In 2022
- MSP Insights, Adaptability Is Key: 4 Predictions On Cloud Migration And Innovation In 2022
- Enterprise Times, 5 Cloud Industry Trends to Expect in 2022
Teams Migration
- Techopedia, Best Practices for Microsoft Teams Migration
- BetaNews, Maintaining migration success: Pre-migration tips for moving Teams data
- VAR Insights, Pre-Migration Planning: How IT Managers Can Ensure Successful Teams Migrations
- MSP Insights, Pre-Migration Planning: How IT Managers Can Ensure Successful Teams Migrations
- Enterprise Times, MSFT Teams Migration Prep: 5 Tips Every IT Manager Must Know
Optimizing IT & Managing Sprawl
- BetaNews, 5 ways to optimize your IT environment for the long haul
- Channel Futures, What’s Next? 4 Optimization Tips for Companies that Rushed to the Cloud
- CloudTweaks, 4 Tips for Developing a Long-Term Plan for Managing Data Sprawl
- Enterprise Times, Future-Proofing the IT Environment
- The ChannelPro Network, IT Strategizing for the Long Term: 4 Tips Every Company Should Adopt
- MSP Insights, Is Your IT Environment Optimized For The Long-Term? 4 Tips To Ensure Success
- Ping! Zine, Optimizing IT: 5 Tips for Managing Data Sprawl
Document Migrations
- Digitizing Polaris, Here, There and Everywhere: Tips for effectively managing document migration
- CloudTweaks, Today’s Document Migrations Require More Diligence
- The ChannelPro Network, 3 Tips for Understanding and Optimizing Document Migration
- Enterprise Times, The Most Critical Considerations Around Document Migrations
- MSP Insights, Best Practices For Document Migrations Amid Accelerating Data Creation
Customer Success
- CloudTweaks, The Necessity of Customer Success to Effective Data Migrations
- Enterprise Times, Master Your Next Move with Support from Customer Success
- Ping! Zine, The Essential Role Of Customer Success In Enterprise Migrations
Economic Headwinds
- Beta News, How MSPs and IT leaders can optimize cloud costs amid economic headwinds
- Ping! Zine, How To Manage Cloud Costs Amid Economic Headwinds
- CloudTweaks, Amid Economic Uncertainty Lies Opportunity To Maximize Cloud Spending
- The ChannelPro Network, Optimizing Cloud Expenditures Amid Economic Uncertainty
- Digital CxO, Managing Cloud Spend Amid Economic Upheaval
Modern Authentication
‘Tis the season for trends! As put eloquently by PR Daily Senior Editor Allison Carter, “Making predictions for the last three years has been pretty pointless. But let’s try anyway.”
It’s difficult to predict how events will play out. Even when we outline “anticipated results,” there is always a mix of unpredictability and lack of total control over how audiences will receive news. However, when planning strategy, it’s helpful to look at market trends and themes that might inform campaigns, allocate resources, and ultimately improve how you communicate with your customers, partners and stakeholders.
In Allison’s recent article, “PR Daily’s top 6 trends for 2023,” she recaps several trends PR Daily predicts for the year to come. Below I’ve outlined a few of those trends and a couple of other communications themes that will likely impact how PR professionals engage in the coming years.
- Further integration of external and internal communications. As Allison notes in her article, we’ve seen a continued merge of internal and external communications. Across Communiqué PR’s clients, we’ve seen a similar motion. It’s always been important to have consistent messages and ensure that what you share across audiences is clear. While the information a leader communicates to employees will not be the same details they share with a reporter, you never want teams to be surprised.
Think in terms of good storytelling being an important element to bring the reader and audience along with your narrative. This is true across internal and external comms. Actions should match commitments and inform the broader communication objective and the story the company wants to tell. Connecting PR and internal communication teams can improve the effectiveness of storytelling across all audiences. In 2023, we’ll likely see more of a united communications front.
- Increased investments in strong copywriting. Writing has been a critical communication skill in high demand for years. Whether through long or short-form content development, writing is heavily present in nearly all PR strategies across our client portfolio. Strong writing skills help businesses improve how they tell their stories, which can differentiate how customers see and want to engage with the brand. Through strong writing, we’ve grown our role across clients taking on additional support, including blog development, newsletters and other business writing campaigns.
As Allison highlighted, communication professionals appreciate the importance of writing as a skill. In Ragan’s Communications Benchmark survey, 40% of the respondents are interested in having writing training in 2023. If improving writing is not on the radar, it should be. It’s not always an easy skill, and different groups value different messages. Partnering with strong writers and embedding them in strategic communications strategies will improve storytelling in 2023 and create opportunities to better engage with customers and achieve growth.
- More short-form videos. Another trend shared by PR Daily was increased focus and investment in short-form videos. Like writing, this is a need we’ve seen across our clients. It’s not necessarily feasible to create a fully functioning media studio in the new year, but it will be wise to learn more about the types of videos that best resonate with customers and different video platforms that automate video development, as well as what vendors can create strong video content. We’ll see more instances of short and engaging videos that attract customers and share new and existing content in more visual ways.
- Heightened focus and use of AI. By now, you’ve likely heard of OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool. The Forbes’ article, “Here’s What To Know About OpenAI’s ChatGPT—What It’s Disrupting And How To Use It,” provides a thorough overview of the platform. The discussion of AI and automation replacing jobs is not new. This tool, however, is impressive and has caused many recent conversations about the potential of AI. People have shared different use cases on Twitter.
In 2023, we’ll see more marketing teams use AI to improve their strategies. It will be exciting to see how the conversations, use cases and results of AI in action evolve.
- Sharper emphasis on customer engagement. Companies are competing for consumers’ attention, engagement and long-term loyalty. When brainstorming PR strategies across content development and thought leadership, it will be essential to recommend approaches and themes that will drive engagement.
These strategies could include a customer newsletter, interactive surveys, more engaging design projects, or direct email campaigns that help companies understand and connect more closely with the customer’s voice in mind. Next year, I anticipate seeing customer engagement shape PR activity more than in past years.
It’s fun to think about the themes we’ll reflect on in December 2023. While the five areas above are not necessarily new or surprising, next year will present new learning opportunities and the chance for PR to help companies grow.
Securing approvals on content can often be a time-consuming and frustrating process, especially when there are multiple stakeholders who need to sign off on it.
Depending on the size of the company, a PR person may need to secure approval from the company’s CEO, CFO, or other senior executives, such as the vice president of product. In some cases, the legal department may also need to review and approve the release to ensure that it is compliant with any relevant laws and regulations.
Fortunately, with the right approach and tools, you can streamline and make the approval process more efficient.
Here are some best practices for securing approvals on content:
- Define a clear approval process: Before starting any project, it’s important to have a clear and well-defined approval process in place. This should include the roles and responsibilities of each person involved in the process, as well as the steps that need to be taken to move the content from draft to final approval.
- Use a project management tool: A project management tool can be a valuable asset in the approval process. It allows you to keep track of the status of each piece of content, as well as the comments and feedback from reviewers. This makes it easier to see where the content is in the process and what needs to be done next.
If you’re not using project management software, you’ll want to develop another system – whether it’s a shared document in Google or Microsoft or a whiteboard – where you can physically keep track of deadlines and facilitate collaboration between parties.
- Communicate regularly: Regular communication is key to ensuring that the approval process runs smoothly. This means keeping reviewers informed about the status of the content and reminding them of deadlines. You may also want to provide them with clear instructions about how to provide feedback and what is expected of them.
- Set realistic deadlines: Deadlines are an important part of the approval process, but it’s important to make sure they are realistic. If deadlines are set too tightly, it can lead to rushed and potentially subpar work. On the other hand, if they are set too far in the future, it can lead to delays and missed opportunities.
- Be open to feedback: The approval process is an opportunity to improve the content and make it the best it can be. This means being open to feedback from reviewers and considering their suggestions. It’s important to strike a balance between making changes based on feedback and maintaining the integrity of the content.
One important note about securing approvals on quotes from third parties for content including press releases.
The best practice for securing quote approvals for a press release is to first make sure that the quote accurately reflects what the person said, and that it is presented in the proper context. Once the quote has been finalized, you should reach out to the person who gave the quote and ask them to review and approve it before it is included in the press release.
This is essential to ensure that the person is comfortable with how it’s being used. It is also important to make sure that you get the person’s approval in writing, either via email or a signed approval form, so that you have a record of their consent.
Overall, the key to a successful approval process is to have a clear plan, the right tools, and good communication. By following these best practices, you can ensure that your content is approved quickly and efficiently.
Has there ever been a time when you needed to collaborate with coworkers, clients, or vendors, and it became a momentous task to schedule a time that works on everyone’s calendar? With the holidays in full swing, it can become stressful to get jobs done when it requires meetings with others who may be on vacation, not to mention all the other roadblocks that can come up when scheduling time. Thankfully there are tools available that can be used to make the headache of calendar management a thing of the past.
Here are five tips to help manage your calendar and make meeting scheduling smoother:
- Use natural language to find meeting times – When scheduling a meeting in Outlook, you may not have an easily findable date. For example, you may need to create a follow-up meeting about six weeks from now. Instead of manually clicking through your calendar counting each week, Outlook will recognize terms like “in six weeks” in the meeting date. Outlook will then populate with a date six weeks from that day.
- Create meetings via email replies – This is Outlook’s most straightforward but often overlooked feature. There are times when after a few email correspondences, a meeting needs to be created. This can be done by opening the message options and selecting meeting reply. Doing this makes creating a meeting more straightforward and keeps all past emails in the meeting invite.
- Recreate meetings with fewer steps – Another simple but highly effective tool from Outlook. Say you just had a meeting, and the participants decide another meeting is needed the next day. Instead of creating a new meeting from scratch, hold the control button and drag the original meeting invite to the new time, creating a copy of that meeting. You will still need to add the attendees to the newly created meeting, but this will save time as everything else has remained the same.
- Show multiple time zones – At Communiqué, we have employees and clients working in different time zones, making scheduling time tricky. When looking at your calendar, go to the left-hand side of the screen that shows times and right-click on it to see options, then click on “Change Time Zone.” This will bring up a window where you can add up to two other time zones on the left side of your calendar. This is not only helpful for scheduling but also helps in keeping any correspondence within the other person’s working hours by having your calendar show their current time.
- Embrace calendar management programs – Many free and paid applications are available that make calendar management a breeze. Clockwise and FindTime are just two applications that can collaborate with your work calendar to give you more scheduling options. FindTime will send scheduling options to your meeting participants, and each person can mark the times that work best for them, giving you clear insight. This eliminates the need for back-and-forth messaging and gets the meeting on your calendar with better efficiency.
With these tips, creating meetings and managing your calendar won’t be a chore. Much of the information in this blog comes from the work of Kevin Stratvert. His YouTube channel has various other technology-related videos that are informative and easy to follow.
Leveraging Unique Data to Drive Awareness and Build Thought Leadership
More and more, we are finding that clients are interested in developing and publishing their own surveys or reports, highlighting original findings about their respective industry. And while the unique insights often offer insights in customers’ perspectives and interests, original data is also an excellent tool that can be leveraged to strengthen stories.
Reporters are hungry for data, especially when it highlights new trends, controversial findings or disruption. So, it can be a great way to engage the media and support thought leaders’ perspectives on the industry.
Given original surveys are a significant investment, organizations will want to maximize their impact by leveraging the findings to raise brand awareness and build thought leadership. Below are several ways to utilize your unique data.
Announce the Findings
First things first, announce the findings. Once you secure the results of the report, identify the most compelling insights, how they support current industry trends, or better yet, are set to disrupt the industry. Consider asking: how is this contrary to current predications? Does this further support a trend that is gaining a lot of traction?
When drafting the press release, be mindful of the structure and organization. Press releases highlighting data can often be dry and complicated. Identify three or four key takeaways from the report and include several data points within each section to support the desired takeaways.
Breaking the release into clear takeaways increases the likelihood that your audiences will understand the report findings.
Leverage for Proactive Opportunities
Original data is the gift that keeps on giving. Once report findings have been announced, there will still be plenty of opportunities to leverage the findings for media opportunities.
Consider diving into specific themes from the report by developing proactive pitches and contributed content on that topic. It’s a great way to highlight the data, promote the report add commentary that may not have been featured in the report. This commentary is critical to building out the broader story and adding the “human element” of storytelling.
Create Compelling Graphics
While data is highly desired by media, it’s important to present it in ways that makes it easy to understand and review. Creating infographics, charts and imagery to summarize the findings can help target audiences visualize the data.
Not only do they make it easier to interpret the data, but they also support engagement, often leading to increased views for press releases and shares on social media channels.
Publish Findings at a Regular Cadence
If the report clearly demonstrates ROI, consider making it a regular occurrence. If an organization publishes an annual report, consistently sharing valuable data, reporters will come to look for those reports each year, leveraging the findings for their reporting. This is a great way to build rapport with journalists and establish an organization as a clear industry leader.
Industry reports and original data are excellent tools to engage media, build thought leadership and raise awareness.