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From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
By now, everyone is aware of the News Corporation hacking scandal unfolding in England. Amidst the coverage, I came across an article from Forbes’ writer Robert Wynne who posted an interesting take on the scandal from a “what not to do” PR scenario. The article titled, “News Corp Hacks Public Relations Efforts,” outlined several PR blunders made by News Corp. that I thought were particularly useful for companies, of any size or industry, that find themselves in a crisis communication mode.
Wynne begins by noting that News Corp. did the right thing by coming out immediately and apologizing for the mistakes made by its newspaper, News of the World. However, Wynne notes that the company’s PR efforts slid downhill from that point forward, as they broke what he (and I) considers to be the top three things of what not to do in PR. The effect this had on the entire situation was negative amplification, which gave people more to latch on to and complain about.
Here are the things that Wynne notes that News Corp. PR botched:
- “Blame the Media.” It’s well-known that PR and media have a love/hate relationship. It’s the media’s job to cover stories, good or bad, and to cover them from an unbiased position. Therefore, when PR points a finger at the media effectively accusing them of making the situation worse by writing about it, you’re just asking for negative attention. If your company makes a mistake, own that mistake and work to help the media write as balanced and accurate story as possible.
- “Downplay the Crimes.” Wynne notes that the Wall Street Journal (a News Corp.-owned newspaper) wrote an article that claimed the phone hacking tactics were “business-as-usual.” Since News Corp. already apologized for the mistakes and several arrests have already been made, downplaying the idea that this is normal and the outrage is overblown, only serves to aggravate those who are hurt.
- “Defend the Tainted.” Wynne condemns News Corp.’s behavior of using the reporters at FOX and Wall Street Journal to downplay the illegal actions of News of the World’s employees. Since these reporters likely had nothing to do with the scandal nor the people involved, News Corp. is risking tainting the reporters by association. Typically in PR, you don’t want to instigate the “snowball effect” and get otherwise innocent parties involved in the situation.
Wynne goes on to note that sometimes the best defense isn’t a good offense, as the old adage goes. In this case, and as is often the case in crisis communication, the best defense is often a good defense. If News Corp. had come out, apologized for the major lapse in judgment, and quietly participated and accepted the consequences, the media and the rest of the world would quickly lose interest and move on. However, by continuously finger-pointing and firing up the media, News Corp. has guaranteed themselves several more weeks, possibly even months, of scandal coverage.
Here at Communiqué PR, we always recommend that our clients have a crisis communication plan firmly in place, even if being a part of a crisis is hard to imagine. It’s always better to be over-prepared in these situations than to be caught off-guard, which normally leads to hasty decision-making.
If you need more information about what constitutes a good crisis communication plan, visit our recent blog posts “Crisis Communication Planning and the Impact of Social Media” and “Crisis Communication Lessons from Floyd Landis.”
Have you found yourself in a crisis situation? Any additional tips you’d like to add? Please leave your suggestions in our comments below.
With the recent launch of Google+, everyone is speculating how this new social media “project” will fit within the overall landscape dominated by well-established players such as Facebook and Twitter. Are we really ready to adopt yet another new platform? And what is this new platform exactly? One answer currently prevails: Only time will tell.
As a PR professional, it has been exciting to watch the buzz continue to manifest since the platform debuted in late June. While this could be easily attributed to the strength of Google’s brand among consumers and media, it is clear the company had a thorough strategic PR, social media and reactive communication plan in place.
Let us take a moment to examine how each strategy played a role to support the company’s launch of Google+.
- Diverting Rumors. Buzz of what is known today as Google+ emerged long before its official launch. Since December 2010, stories appeared across a variety of media outlets such as TechCrunch, Search Engine Land and Read/Write Web about a mysterious “social media project” at Google speculated to be named, “Emerald Sea.” While TechCrunch was able to confirm the project name from a handful of sources, Google managed all leaks diligently and swiftly. Within hours of media breaking that Google would launch Google+ at SXSW in March 2011, the company issued a statement that this was not the plan causing media to retract their stories. Was this part of the reactive communication plan to keep everyone guessing? Regardless, it is clear they had a plan to contain any leaks about this new platform, and kept it well-under wraps while it was in development.
- A Clear Launch Plan: When reading the initial coverage of Google+, it is clear the company pre-briefed key journalists and provided demos of the platform’s functionality to highly influential media. As TechCrunch’s MG Siegler reported, he had the opportunity to sit down with Google’s Vic Gundorta and Bradley Horowitz the week before the official launch. The result of this activity led to several in-depth articles like Siegler’s story on Google+ that captured the key messages accurately while creating a positive review of the platform, its existing features and functionality.
- Use of Social Media: Google rolled out its new platform with invites that quickly became highly coveted. Whether it was on Facebook or Twitter, I saw countless friends talking about how fun and easy it was to organize their “circles” while others were begging for anyone to share a Google+ invite.
Seeing this chatter intrigued me to learn more. Naturally, I Googled “Google+ Circles,” which brought up a YouTube video created by Google demonstrating how it works. After reading the positive media coverage and seeing my friends talk about it, I wanted in — and so did everyone else.
However, when conversations quickly moved to complaints about the lack of access, Google kicked in again with a proactive statement using social media. Google’s Vic Gundotra wrote in a Google post they had “shut down the invite mechanism for the night. Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you for all your interest!”
When you look at the unveiling of Google+ over the past year, it is evident they had a clear PR plan in place that examined all possible scenarios with a strategy on how to respond. While many today are questioning the adoption rate among users and how it will compete against Facebook, in the end Google has received an overall positive response from media and users.
From my personal experience, Google+ has been pretty easy to set up and become familiar with, considering it seamlessly integrates with my activity on other Google platforms like Gmail, Picasa and my Android phone. Plus, Mashable shared some great tips & tricks on how to get started on Google+, which we will highlight in another blog post here soon.
What are your thoughts on Google’s PR efforts to support the launch of Google+? Do you think it has the potential to be a game-changer in today’s social media landscape? We would love to hear your thoughts on it.
It is hard to predict which videos will become an internet hit. Many marketers try to develop videos they think will go viral – and focus a lot of time on the quality of the video. However, oftentimes the videos that go viral are not those with the slickest production quality, but the ones with the most compelling content. Possibly in reaction, some companies are creating video with less than perfect video quality – to appear less marketing driven and more as guerrilla content.
GeekWire recently highlighted a video from Microsoft, “Microsoft’s Windows 8 demo video is a low-budget hit,” where product value was not a priority. The video provides an early look at Windows 8. While the quality is not the polished advertising videos we have come to expect from Microsoft, it is clearly not a guerrilla behind-the-scenes video either. Feeding pent up interest in learning about Windows 8, the video comes across as more authentic (less marketing driven) due to the lower production quality. The video has been viewed more than four million times on YouTube alone.
As PR professionals we want to provide media with a variety of elements to complement a story idea. Video can be extremely helpful in helping to tell the story. That said, the quality of the video can be a factor – especially if we are working with broadcast media. Therefore it is important to consider your objectives, your target audience and the target media for the specific story as you outline development of video content. While a tech blogger may be willing to include a video with lower quality audio, a television producer will evaluate the quality through a different lens.
A study last year from Rice University’s Department of Psychology illustrates that if viewers like what they are watching, they are “less likely to notice the difference in video quality of the TV show, Internet video or mobile movie clip.” ReelSEO’s Jeremy Scott provides additional guidance based on the research results, “It doesn’t mean you can abandon your pursuit of good quality in your videos. Not for a second. If the audio is poor enough that the audience can’t understand your actors, then the content doesn’t matter in the least. You’ve got to pay attention to both the creative and technical side of video production if you want to succeed. But the only one of the two you simply cannot live without is good content.”
Guerrilla video content can be a great way to share information and appeal to an audience hungry for authentic content, but ultimately the content needs to be compelling for your target audience and the production quality needs to align with your intended distribution platform (i.e. viral sharing, broadcast media, bloggers etc.). Always be clear on your objective – is it to drive sales, change brand perceptions, or build connection with consumers.
For more guidance on videos, check out our previous post “How to Leverage Video Blogging.”
Announcing the eBook Release of Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR
We are excited to announce the arrival of our popular book, Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR, into eBook format for several major providers. The book, co-authored by Colleen Moffitt and Jennifer Gehrt, co-founders of Communiqué PR, is currently available thru Amazon and Barnes & Noble priced at $4.99 and will be available via iBooks in the coming days.
We strongly believe in the power of PR to positively influence business, drive sales, and build buzz. However, oftentimes people get overly focused on the tactics and lose sight of their larger strategy and desired outcomes. We wrote Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR as a resource to remind managers why strategy is important and provide them with practical guidance on how they can be more effective in their communication activities.
With the rapid expansion of the eBook market and its enthusiastic adoption by readers, an eBook version of Strategic Public Relations is a natural next-step for us. eBooks are terrific because they allow people to access the information they need instantly, they are easily searchable and portable.
In January 2011, eBook sales at Amazon for their popular Kindle surpassed both paperback and hardcover sales. Last year alone, a growing 8.5 percent of the publishing market was represented by eBooks.
We are excited about the advancement in this technology. Easy to download and extremely portable, eBooks are the ultimate in convenience, a necessity for today’s business person, especially those on the go. We hope by offering Strategic Public Relations as an eBook via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks, we make access to this resource easier for you.
About the book
Communication is increasingly important to organizations given the saturation and fragmentation of media, which make it more difficult to reach large numbers of consumers through traditional advertising. Furthermore, ads are often seen as less credible by consumers who are looking to their social networks or third-party, independent news sources for brand and product recommendations.
In Strategic Public Relations, Gehrt and Moffitt help the reader make sense of the current media landscape by providing 10 guiding principles for an effective strategic approach to integrated communications.
Taking a strategic approach does not have to be difficult or expensive. The principles in the book are straightforward and simple, and can be applied to any business.
Using real-world examples, case studies and contributions from business experts, Gehrt and Moffitt demonstrate how the reader can use the 10 principles outlined to effectively leverage PR.
In a guest review for PR Week, Jeffrey Ory, vice president of Deveney Communication wrote, “Each of the guiding principles is presented in a straightforward way. ‘Strategic Public Relations’ is a simple, but important, read for anyone in PR at any level of their career. Gehrt and Moffitt have written a book that is important for those entering the field all the way through to those who have been in the industry for a number of years.”
If you’ve read Strategic Public Relations, we’d love to hear from you. Post a review on Amazon.com, share comments here on our blog post, or post on our Facebook fan page.
In case you missed the buzz around town earlier this month, more than 15,000 members of Lions Clubs International (LCI) convened in Seattle for its 94th International Convention, one of the world’s largest annual conventions of its kind. It was the first time the annual convention was held in the Pacific Northwest, and specific to Seattle, it was one of the largest conventions the city has hosted in more than 20 years, providing a significant economic boost to the city and region.
Lions Clubs International (LCI) selected Communiqué PR to help drive awareness of this high profile event among local and regional media. While the convention presented an opportunity to highlight its impact on the economy (while mitigating the traffic woes), it was also an opportunity to educate the broader community about LCI and change perceptions of it being a “good ol’ boys club.”
Lions Clubs International is the world’s largest service club organization, with a network of 1.35 million men and women in more than 206 countries and geographical locations. Though well known for its successful initiatives in vision health, Lions service is as diverse as its members. Lions Clubs is no longer just for the older, male demographic anymore. Women continue to be the single fastest growing segment of Lions, in addition to providing youth with an opportunity for personal development through volunteering as part of its Leo Program.
Together, they collectively work toward their unified mission: to do whatever is needed to help their local and global communities. And they are making a genuine difference through unique programs that range from caring for the environment and providing aid to natural disaster victims, to feeding the hungry and aiding seniors and the disabled.
In the weeks leading up to the convention, we collaborated closely with LCI and Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau to identify the key messages and facts about the International Convention and Parade of Nations to weave throughout our media materials, and to ensure our outreach strategies were aligned to maximize media opportunities to the fullest potential. We also contacted several local LCI district governors to learn more about their initiatives in the Pacific Northwest, and uncovered some great programs such as Project New Hope.
As a result of our efforts, LCI garnered more than 50 media placements across all major television, radio, print and online media outlets in the greater Seattle market. While many outlets initially ran alerts about the convention and parade’s impact on downtown traffic in the days leading up to the event, coverage shifted to in-depth, feature stories highlighting LCI’s mission, their volunteer efforts and impact on our community, along with highlights of the International Convention and “the largest parade ever in Seattle.” Below are a few of the highlights:
- The Seattle Times, “‘Not your grandfather’s Lions Club,’ says president in Seattle for convention” – July 2, 2011
- KIRO FM/MYNorthwest.com, “Lions Club Looking to Attract New Members with Seattle Parade” – July 5, 2011
- KOMO News, “Thousands pack downtown for one of Seattle’s largest parades”- July 5, 2011
- The Seattle Times, “Lions Take to the Streets as Convention Starts” – July 6, 2011
Here is a video highlighting the Seattle Convention:
It was a pleasure working with Lions Clubs International to support them in their PR activities surrounding the convention, and to have had the opportunity to collaborate with David Blandford and his team at Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau. We hope to have the opportunity to do so again in the future.
For many businesses today, creating a Twitter account is an imperative. According to Media Bistro.com, there are more than 300 million user accounts, so it’s not surprising that Twitter is an increasingly critical communication platform to drive sales, manage customer service and directly engage with consumers while presenting an open, authentic form of communication with your target audience.
However, establishing your brand and building an effective presence on Twitter takes more than setting up an account and posting a tweet here and there. Tweeting as a brand to build influence and create a community of followers requires strategy.
To help get brands on the right track, PRNewsire shares ten tips for tweeting as a brand.
- Find a Twitter mentor. If you follow people or businesses who you think get it right, learn from them. What do they tweet about? How often do they tweet or re-tweet? When and how do they reply to negative tweets?
- Keep it positive. As tempting as it might be, avoid being negative, sarcastic or snarky. No matter how funny you think it might be, always remember that you’re tweeting as your brand, not as you. (Even on a personal level, there is risk that you’ll offend someone and increasingly our personal and professional lives are blending.)
- Respond to negative feedback. If someone says something negative about your brand and you don’t respond, the tweet that lingers is the negative one. Given this, communicate back. However, there are two caveats: 1) Be thoughtful in your response. You don’t have to respond immediately. It’s better to take time to think your response through than fire off a tweet that you’ll later regret. 2) Beware of attempts to bait you. Weigh the pros and cons of responding as well as the credibility of the author. If you decide not to respond publicly, consider a direct message instead.
- Steer away from controversy. Controversial topics such as politics or religion are controversial for a reason – there are people who are vehemently on one side or the other. Why alienate either? Again, you’re tweeting as a brand, not as you.
- Humor is subjective. There will always be someone who thinks your joke is in poor taste or inappropriate, so while you shouldn’t censor yourself, stay away from topics or language that can be taken the wrong way.
- Get a second opinion. If there’s something you want to tweet but you aren’t sure whether it’s appropriate, ask for someone else’s opinion. And if you’re still not sure, follow the next rule.
- When in doubt, leave it out. This golden rule of writing also applies to tweets. If you have any doubts, don’t tweet it.
- Don’t get too personal. People are following the brand because they have an affinity with the company and its products and offerings. They don’t want to know about your personal life or what you’re doing later.
- Follow your followers. If you want to promote conversation with your followers, you have to follow them back. When people see someone whose following/follower ratio is pretty even, they find them to be more open, which makes them more likely interact with them.
- It’s not about @you. It’s the mother of all rules, the one from which all the other rules grow. Every tweet represents your company – whether it’s in a positive or negative way is up to you.
Need help identifying a Twitter mentor? Mashable shares 9 Lessons From Successful Brands on Twitter to help us learn from companies who seem to have mastered the Twittersphere and provides tips to help us emulate their success.
Have you found other useful tips and tricks to tweeting as a brand? Please comment and share your successes and lessons learned.