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.
Exhibiting at a conference can be a great opportunity for companies to get in front of potential customers, media and fans. I recently had my first experience at an industry conference with one of our clients at Macworld. Our client was an exhibitor and we took the opportunity to set up media interviews to touch base and share the product road map for the year.
I was surprised that not every vendor fully took advantage of the opportunities that the conference provided. We thought it might be helpful to provide a few suggestions to make the most of your conference experience.
Consider the following:
- Meet with media. Most conferences will provide exhibitors with a list of registered media attending the conference. This is a great opportunity to connect your business with members of the media. It’s important to make sure that the reporter is a fit for your business to make the best use of both your time and theirs. Even if you do not have news to share, it can present an opportunity to get to know a reporter and position yourself as a resource for future stories.
- Connect with customers. Make the most of your booth and be available to demo upcoming products, provide training and troubleshooting advice to existing customers and answer questions. For many companies without retail stores, a conference is one of the few places that they are able to interact with customers face-to-face. It helps establish a personal connection and puts a face on your business.
- Give swag. People attending conferences expect to receive some sort of “swag” when visiting the booths. This can range from coupons, candy, and stickers to cool gadget accessories such as the latest cover or headphones. This will help to not only get your logo out there, which should be strategically displayed on the swag, but it will also build buzz and further spread awareness.
- Use time to dine with like-minded people. Conferences offer a unique venue where hundreds or thousands of people with similar interests, goals and objectives come together in the same place. This is a great opportunity to connect with like-minded people for dinner, drinks, lunch or coffee. How often do you get uninterrupted time with industry peers from around the world? Reach out to contacts beforehand and propose meeting up during the conference. You can also encourage each person to bring someone else to broaden the networking opportunities.
- Transcribe action items. During meetings with media, your time at the booth, or listening to keynote speakers, you’ll likely make mental notes to follow up with someone or suddenly have an idea for improving your business. It is important to keep track of these notes by either jotting them down or downloading them into a task management tool. You’ll want something to refer back to and ensure you are not losing the valuable information you’ve garnered from the conference.
Conferences require a great deal of money and valuable time out of the office, but if you take full advantage, they can yield great business results.
In the world of social media, blogs have become an important medium to share your company stories beyond a traditional press release, allowing you to promote your company’s services as well as your perspective on relevant industry topics. In addition, blogs allow you to gain valuable feedback from your customers as they write comments on your posts and also help to build engagement as you take the time to respond.
If your company does not yet have a blog, you are missing out on a great opportunity to establish your thought leadership, increase awareness and visibility, and drive online engagement and website traffic. In addition, blogs often serve as the foundation of meaningful content to share on other social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
At Communiqué PR, we often help our clients develop their blogs whether it is brainstorming ideas or helping to draft and edit posts. For some clients who take on their own blogs, we are often asked how to write a compelling post.
I recently came across a timely article written by Neil Patel on Ragan’s PR Daily about this very topic, and many of the tips he suggested are ones we often recommend. In his post, “The no-fail guide to writing popular blog posts,” Patel shares some of the lessons he has learned over the years. Here are just a few to consider:
- Use Simple Words. When writing your posts, use simple words to tell your story. Patel suggests “writing posts with a fifth grade vocabulary” as it will make it easier for the reader to understand the content, no matter the topic.
- Use the Word “You.” Blogs are a great way to build a connection with your customers, many of whom are seeking some sort of personal connection with your brand. While many eyes will be reading your blog, Patel makes a great suggestion of making them more personal by “thinking of somebody you know and pretend you’re writing the blog post for just him or her.”
- Write How-To Posts. People turn to blogs because they want to learn something, so it is important to provide useful information. If you have a solution to help solve a problem, write out all of the steps involved. For each step, be sure to provide prescriptive guidance, explain what to look for and any confusing points that may arise.
- Write Detailed Posts. We often suggest to our clients the length of a blog post should be approximately 500 words, but only if they are sharing meaningful content. Patel shared his experience of “writing a long, detailed post with lots of good, specific information” and found many of his readers appreciated it by commenting and sharing the post. He also shared a good tip to add “images, statistics and graphs as they will get more links than the same post without the visual appeal.”
- Hook Your Readers. As with any media story, the best way to grab the attention of your readers starts with your headline. Patel says a great blog headline combines at least three of the following features: that it is unique, useful, and ultra-specific and urgent. Then hook your readers with a great first sentence “people can’t resist.”
- Create a Conversation. It is important to remember that blogs are a platform to begin a meaningful conversation with your readers. One tip is to always end your posts asking questions which encourage your readers to post their thoughts in the comments.
- Prove Your Points. As Patel reminds us, it is always important to prove any claim you make. Making a claim in a blog is no different than making one in your marketing collateral, website or when speaking with media. If you are not able to substantiate it, you will lose credibility.
Creating valuable content is imperative for social media and, with blogs, content is king. And a key component is to develop content that connects and engages with your readers. In addition to these tips, we have shared ideas on our blog about how you can get started in blogging and why blogs are a key pillar of B2B social media strategies.
But we want to hear from you! What tips do you have for writing a compelling blog post? What have you found works best to drive engagement and “sharing” of your posts?
“You don’t sell yourself. You are yourself.” With that statement, Mark Canlis, of the renowned Canlis restaurant, summed up his establishment’s marketing strategy. The Canlis brothers, Mark and Brian, spoke at February’s Puget Sound chapter of the American Marketing Association (PSAMA) lunch, covering their experiences in marketing, public relations, and brand management strategy.
The restaurant has a lengthy history in Seattle. The family-operated business was started by the brothers’ great-grandfather, who swam from Greece to Turkey during an economic downturn, walked to Cairo, and then started his career in hospitality at a hotel. His son, Peter Canlis, eventually journeyed to Hawaii, where he is credited with popularizing the famed Officer’s Club.
With the coinciding passage of a new Washington state law allowing liquor in restaurants, and a direct Hawaii-to-Seattle flight, Peter left for the “Emerald City” and started Canlis. The restaurant, taking advantage of the new legislation, became the first to serve liquor in the entire city. Peter is described as a visionary, who was committed to being the industry best.
Peter’s son, Chris, and his wife Alice, ran the restaurant for 30 years, and focused on fine tuning the hospitality side of the business. Now Chris and Alice’s sons – Mark and Brian – find themselves running a 61-year-old brand as young men. The two are attempting to combine the legacies of both their grandfather and father, attempting to be the industry best while still placing a high value on hospitality.
Canlis does not have a marketing team, a public relations firm, or a social media strategist. Mark and Brian are in charge of all publicity, and they have a limited marketing expense budget. The two do not look to traditional marketing strategies, but instead are focused on the following:
- Changing Perceptions. The duo believes that perception is reality. At the lunch, they requested that each table come up with an adjective to describe Canlis. Some of the descriptions offered were: excellent, elite, and hoity-toity. The brothers emphasized the importance of perception and explained that their job is to alter perceptions of the Canlis brand to fit their vision. They’re doing do this by changing the dining experience and communication around it.
- Establishing Canlis Values. The Canlis brothers came up with three values that represent their ideal business image: trustworthiness, generosity, and other-centricity. Other-centricity is the antithesis of self-centeredness. The values serve as a framework for decision making and brand building.
- Knowing What They Sell. People are not drawn to Canlis just for the food, but visit the restaurant in part for the experience. Canlis works to ensure that people’s experience is special and memorable. They want to create an irreplaceable evening for their guests.
- Hiring the Right People. Mark and Brian are extremely committed to their hiring process. From the valets to waitresses, the service staff at Canlis give the restaurant’s first impression to a consumer, and play an important role in their dining experience. The Canlis interview process is designed to get past surface level information by asking questions about how the interviewee’s goals align with Canlis’ values.
- Committing to Social Media. Despite claiming not to believe in marketing, the brothers are committed to social media. They compared social media to a grade school crush: if you want the cute girl in class to notice you, you need to study her and have something to offer her. This is what social media allows you to do with your consumer base. The brothers recently experimented with a Facebook campaign to gain votes for their head chef. The campaign was creative, and offered a secret prize to customers paying close enough attention, which leads to the brothers’ next point…
- Offering Rewards During Social Media Campaigns. Marketing is relational, and relationships are built on trust. One of the brand values established by Canlis is trustworthiness, and they integrate this into their social media campaigns by ensuring that their campaigns are always rewarding to their consumers. This type of streamlined thinking around brand values is exactly what Mark and Brian’s main point was:
- Aligning every aspect of your business with your values. Every campaign the restaurant engages in is based on their three established values: trustworthiness, generosity, and other-centricity. For example, the restaurant hosted a scavenger hunt that recently garnered media attention. The final challenge of the scavenger hunt required the community to unite and search for clues that would lead to an unknown “special prize.” All that was known about the prize was that, once found, it would need to be given away. The idea of giving away the prize aligned with Canlis’ values of being generous and focused on others, while the community-driven activity contributed to Canlis’ trustworthiness. The project did not just help achieve publicity for the restaurant, but continued to build their brand.
The Canlis brothers offered insight into the common challenges experienced in the public relations and marketing fields. They are responsible for an older brand, and need to find ways to negotiate keeping their brand current while maintaining and staying consistent with its historical reputation. Mark and Brian Canlis have found ways to be creative, efficient, and consistent with their marketing strategy—or lack thereof, according to them. Their advice boils down to one main point: determine your brand’s values, and streamline your thinking around them. For Canlis, this means centering the dining experience, and all communication around trustworthiness, generosity, and other-centricity.
LinkedIn recently announced the addition of a new “Follow Company” button to its social networking site. I’m a big fan of LinkedIn and, in fact, a few of us at Communiqué PR have written about it over the last several months. With 150 million members and greater than two million member companies, it’s evident that LinkedIn is increasing in value as a brand marketing tool. According to LinkedIn, companies including American Express, AT&T and Starbucks, have already committed to adding the button to their sites
The new “Follow Company” button enables brands to embed a new link on their homepages. The idea is akin to “liking” a brand on Facebook or following them on Twitter. Users will receive automatic updates on company news directly from the brands they choose in their LinkedIn feeds.
Not only does this feature allow LinkedIn to move beyond just being a great networking tool, but it also compels its member companies to be heads-up: It’s contingent on the brands that use the tool to add news items or links to their blog. After all, people sign up for a reason: They want information. It’s also important for company’s who commit to the service to remember what LinkedIn is all about.
First and foremost, LinkedIn is primarily a professional networking site. Sharing company news and information, until now at least, has been secondary. Brands need to consider who is using LinkedIn and for what purpose when they’re deciding what to post. The news feeds that their followers will be interested in are those that help them connect with their peers and enhance their professional network. News feeds, job postings, and industry trends are reasons why users will want to follow a brand on LinkedIn.
From a brand perspective, including the “Follow Company” button can help to generate brand awareness for a company and increase the number of brand loyalists. It’s the best kind of cheap – free! – and is an easy way to grow your presence on LinkedIn to engage your target audience and potential employees.
Ready to get started? Just head over to LinkedIn’s developer website to get the button and add it to your website.
There seemed to be a recurring theme during the recent Academy Awards: get people back in movie theater seats.
The annual awards show highlighted the magic of the movie-going experience and attempted to reinvigorate excitement in the audience around movie-theater attendance. This was no coincidence for the Academy, as it seemed to be a direct response to movie theater ticket sales from 2011 and overall industry trends from the past two decades. In 2011, the industry experienced a 16-year low at the box office. Ticket sales were the lowest they had been since 1996 and theater attendance had fallen 10 percent since 1999 (more when this percentage is measured with the growth of the population). To top it off, streaming and DVD rental services, such as Netflix and Redbox, as well as online piracy have driven people out of theaters and away from high ticket prices.
To revamp the experience of movie-going and address the continuing problems the industry faces, Sunday’s broadcast employed a number of strategic techniques during its almost four-hour airing:
- It created a compelling story: In their book Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR, Communiqué PR’s Jennifer Gehrt and Colleen Moffitt outline the importance of crafting a compelling story. One of the most crucial aspects is arousing the audience’s emotions, not just the intellect. Arousing emotions draws the audience in and has the power to shift perceptions. In the case of last Sunday’s Academy Awards, the show was filled with monologues from famous actors and actresses recounting their movie-theater experiences as youth. The storytelling was extremely impactful because it came from prominent names in the movie industry and instantly made viewers look back on their own movie-going experiences. Furthermore, the actors and actresses discussed their favorite movies and what aspects of those movies inspired them to do their work today. This all allowed viewers to connect and relate with the actors and actresses on a more personal level and receive the message in a unique way.
- It gave a salute to tradition: The Academy Awards did a great job of heralding yesteryear as a means to capture the audience’s attention toward the beauty of film. Nothing drew more connection to the past than numerous nominations and wins for movies such as The Artist and Midnight in Paris. It is clear that the industry attempted to invoke the incredible history of cinema as a way to stimulate movie interest in viewers. Other approaches to tradition included a performance by Esperanza Spalding of Louis Armstrong’s jazz jewel, “What a Wonderful World,” which wowed audience members as a slideshow of movie-industry members who had passed in 2011 played on the big screen. Furthermore, Cirque du Soleil performed what looked like an ode to the theater with a 1920s twist. Overall, the Oscars this year went all out to bring back the traditional values connected to the movie-going experience and implant them in the minds of present-day audiences.
- It reignited the premium of something already in place: Movie-going is not a new activity and does not need to be established in society – it just needs to be reintroduced and reinvigorated. Although new and exciting tactics are indeed highly strategic when creating a message or revamping an image of any company or organization, it is often important to reflect on what you know best and what you know is effective. In the past, the Academy Awards show has received marginal television ratings and responses. This year, the Academy took an approach to recapture a formula that has worked best for them in the past. The show featured well-known and respected comedian Billy Crystal as host for the ninth time. The salute to tradition, as stated earlier, also reflected the recapturing of a successful formula. Combined, these things heralded the classic days of the Academy Awards and connected well with the main viewing audience.
Overall, ratings for the 84th Academy Awards increased from the past few years – but it still garnered mixed reactions and reviews from around the web. What did you think about the Academy Awards message and approach? Do you think it was successful in reinvigorating the “magic of the movies?”
Our vision at Communiqué is to provide compelling, effective and results-driven public relations services that succeed on multiple levels for our clients. Guiding us in our work is a set of simple yet dynamic core values. These values provide a beacon by which we live and conduct our business, a basis for our actions, and a framework for our team:
- Deliver Superior Results – We are dedicated to producing stellar work at every turn, driven by our commitment to developing strong ideas, executing well-integrated programs, and delivering superior results for our clients.
- Embrace Client Service and Partnership – We operate with a strong set of client-service ethics that put our clients first. That means establishing clear, shared expectations, meeting deadlines with consistency, adding value in every interaction, and demonstrating every step of the way that we truly care.
- Collaborate and Work as a Team – We value highly collaborative and supportive relationships in all areas: with co-workers, vendors, and clients who appreciate having an agency at their side to help them meet company objectives. We embrace a spirit of mutually supportive teamwork to help us accomplish more than we would be able to do on our own. We also actively look for ways to leverage individual strengths.
- Nurture a Proactive, Positive Spirit – We show a decided willingness to take action and do so in an enthusiastic, passionate and energetic manner. This means through our good humor and can-do attitude, we inspire, empower and encourage one another.
- Think Strategically – We think through problems to determine the best solution and strategies. It is a distinct approach that allows us to see around the next corner to choose the best path on our journey to deliver meaningful results.
- Foster Creativity – We strive to foster creativity with the understanding that the creative idea needs to be both original and useful. To do this, we encourage brainstorming, reading, learning and curiosity, and keep an open mind when new ideas are shared.
- Take Time to Celebrate and Create Fun – We set goals and work with focus to achieve them, and when we accomplish a big milestone – or help our clients hit one – we think it’s a good idea to celebrate the achievement. We believe the best teams are ones in which people have work-life balance and genuine bonds with each other.
- Act With Integrity – We adhere to a consistent set of actions, methods, principles and expectations. Our outcomes, and ultimately our successes, are driven by honesty and transparency with each other and our clients and partners.
- Be Respectful – There is tremendous honor and self-esteem in showing respect – for our clients, our colleagues, our company, and ourselves. We treat others as we wish to be treated. It is an ideal for which we strive in all facets of our professional and personal lives.
- Embrace Growth and Change – The world of public relations has changed tremendously in the past five to ten years and we expect it to continue to change as new trends and technologies emerge. In addition to these external changes, Communiqué PR is growing. These shifts in the landscape, coupled with our firm’s growth, means we are adding new people, investing in professional development, partnering with new clients, and solving new problems. All of this presents new challenges and opportunities, requiring that we prepare for and embrace change.