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.
Earlier this month, we visited Lewis Elementary in Portland to facilitate broadcast interviews with KATU, KPTV and KOIN. What was the exciting news that drew three stations to Lewis?
The draw was the announcement of a new digital learning pilot program introducing iPads into the classroom. Reporters came to talk with students and teachers involved in the program as well as executives from Bookbyte, a Communiqué PR client.
While not all news will resonate with broadcast media, this story had the essential elements. First the local story ties into a national trend of integrating technology into classrooms. Additionally, we were able to offer compelling visual elements and interviews. Ultimately though, timing played a big role.
Originally the interviews were slated for late February. However the threat of snow in Portland and potential school closures resulted in rescheduling the interviews for the next week. Coincidentally, the interviews took place the same morning Steve Jobs announced the iPad 2, which provided news producers with a timely connection to the story of iPads being integrated into classrooms.
Here are a few quick tips to consider:
- When working with broadcast news outlets, in particular, it can be helpful to have some flexibility so you can adjust to breaking news or competing coverage.
- Help the reporters understand any relevant connections to developing news. In this case the iPad 2 announcement.
- Be clear and upfront with reporters if other outlets are covering the news. It was not a surprise for the reporters when they ran into each other at Lewis Elementary.
- Offer various angles and contacts when multiple outlets choose to cover the story. We were able to offer each outlet different classes, teachers and students so each outlet was able to develop its own take on the story.
By providing producers and assignment editors with the right elements, and adjusting to competing news, we were able to secure coverage with several local news broadcasts.
- KATU, Portland students tap into education with iPads, March 2, 2011
- KOIN, iPads in the Classroom, March 2, 2011
- KPTV-Fox 12, Portland Students Learning with iPads, March 6, 2011
As you can see the kids really helped sell the story! We want to thank the students at Lewis Elementary as well as the teachers and administrators who welcomed us and the media into their classrooms and ensured they had the needed media releases on file.
For more information on pitching broadcast check out the following posts:
A few weeks ago, the American Red Cross – and its Twitter account, @RedCross – became the target of a number media blog posts and articles. The reason wasn’t another natural disaster response or a direct push for donations (although it did turn into a push for donations later). The attention was due to this rogue tweet that appeared late one evening:
Most people immediately assumed this tweet was not the official viewpoint of the Red Cross, but rather that they were witnessing a simple public error made by one of its employees. Instead of being chastised for allowing such a tweet to happen, the Red Cross was ultimately praised in the articles and posts for the way it rapidly addressed the mistake, using both honesty and humor to diffuse the situation. As James Plafke of GeekoSystem noted, “The Red Cross handled the situation pretty entertainingly–something that doesn’t happen much these days–and released a charming follow-up tweet.”
Those of you who utilize social media on behalf of your company probably already know this: Since social media is run by humans, it is susceptible to human error. It’s just a fact of life, and you can’t always prevent it from happening. The key takeaway from this revelation is simple – be prepared. Many companies have a crisis communication plan for all types of unlikely scenarios that they may have to face, so why not employ one for your social mediums as well?
What the Red Cross did was take the most appropriate action it could: It took ownership of the mistake, embraced it, addressed it quickly and moved on. It’s easy to forget that people follow companies on Twitter and Facebook because they enjoy the feeling of having a personal connection with them. Consumers are looking for genuine human interaction, and they know that mistakes do occur.
Mistakes, however, don’t have to catch you off-guard. Set up a plan and make sure all stakeholders in the social media process are aware of how to handle a situation, should one occur. In the plan, you should outline who will be responsible for deleting or addressing the mistake, set a goal for how fast you will realistically respond, and determine who will speak with media or journalists, if necessary. Once you have thought through this list and agreed on a plan of action, your company and team will be able to handle any situation calmly and methodically.
If you need tips for creating a crisis communication plan, check out our blog post here. We wish you happy planning, and remember it’s always better to be prepared.
We are all aware that the world of media is constantly changing and that it can sometimes be challenging to keep up with the latest innovative tools and resources available to us as PR professionals. We continue to work at lightning speed to not only meet our clients’ objectives but also the accelerated deadlines with which our media contacts are faced. To help us get our work done faster, more efficiently and achieve the best possible results for our clients, we often rely upon the tried and true industry tools such as Cision, BusinessWire and HARO.
However, a number of other new tools and resources exist that enable us to uncover editorial opportunities, build relationships with reporters and develop social media releases. We have shared a few of these tools in a previous post, but there is one in particular that I have been hearing a lot of buzz about from other industry professionals and that I wanted to try.
PitchEngine is a publishing platform that enables users to create social and search optimized content that is consumer-facing. Its website states that it’s “Co-op SEO” would provide “exceptional indexing in major search engines” and since they offer a free 30-day account, I recently leveraged the platform to compliment my outreach efforts to introduce Bookbyte’s latest eBook, Words of the Presidents: Speeches and Letters from 1776 to 2011 to journalists and bloggers.
PitchEngine makes it easy to incorporate PR assets like video, audio and images directly into your press release and share it with your media contacts via e-mail or post it directly to Twitter and Facebook. For Bookbyte’s announcement, the platform allowed for me to create a social media newsroom complete with the company’s logo and visuals from the eBook in addition to adding keyword tags to enhance search engine optimization.
As we have shared before on our blog, SEO rankings are critical to help drive more traffic and business as customers often become familiar with a company through a search on the Internet. According to data from analyst firm iProspect, “62 percent of search engine users click on results within the first page of search results and 36 percent believe that companies whose websites appear at the top of the search results are leaders in their field.”
Within the first week, the announcement received more than 100 views and it only continues to climb. Unfortunately, PitchEngine’s free account doesn’t provide an analysis of who has viewed the release unlike BusinessWire and other wire release services, which are paid services that we often use. However, I was impressed that when searching with keywords “Bookbyte,” “eBook” and “Presidents,” the social media newsroom on PitchEngine was found on the first page of Google and on the second page of Yahoo! and Bing search.
In addition to using PitchEngine, I had also targeted a specific group of media outlets and bloggers to share the news of Bookbyte’s latest eBook including Dianna Dilworth, editor of Mediabistro.com’s eBookNewser, who featured the news twice. This particular media placement appears as the first result across all three search engines proving that nothing will usurp the power of knowing the right media targets and contacts for your client’s announcement.
To be successful, it is important that we continue to learn, adapt and utilize the latest tools that are made available to us. While each may vary in their purpose and functionality, every PR professional should consider utilizing a few to test how they can efficiently and effectively add value to your PR campaigns and initiatives.
When our clients announce new products or services, they also consider whether to make the announcement on a global scale or keep it to the U.S. This was especially true for one of our clients who wanted to make an announcement at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. In order to ensure they were reaching as broad an audience as possible, they enlisted the support of a European agency to complement our efforts on the U.S. side.
While we do provide services to our clients that span all geographical industry lines, this client felt it would be beneficial to have representation from an agency in the same time zone as the show. Having multiple agencies work on the same project takes thoughtful planning and management to ensure the roles are clear and there is no overlap in activity.
If your company is considering employing a similar, dual-agency communication strategy, here are a few tips for you to help assure the entire campaign runs smoothly:
- Introduce the team leads – During this introduction, it might be helpful to recap the goals of the project so that each team is clear on the objectives. By ensuring everyone is familiar with each other, your communication teams can work out the minutia together, without using you as a middleman.
- Clearly define roles – It’s critical that each team knows what their role is within the project. For example, for the Mobile World Congress announcement, we were the lead agency responsible for materials creation, while the European agency tackled localized outreach within Europe. Clearly defining roles helps make certain that no one does duplicative work.
- Share materials and outreach lists – Reporters hate getting pitched twice. To avoid this, it’s important to make sure both agencies have shared their contact lists and reviewed them to avoid any duplication. Any messaging or branding materials should also be shared and utilized because it’s important that everyone communicate the same messages throughout all materials and outreach.
While these steps seem simple and straightforward, it’s important to employ them to alleviate any confusion or duplication of work. Coordinated outreach and the distribution of announcements takes a lot of time and effort behind the scenes, but all a consumer or journalist sees is the end product. Employing an open, cohesive communication strategy is key to achieving a smart, successful and seamless product launch. Additionally, with smooth collaboration between agencies, communication professionals can ensure they are getting the most value for their money.
One of the things I love about my job doing PR is working with companies with whom I feel a personal connection, and with the recent cold spell in Seattle, I could not be more pleased to have had the opportunity to work with management team of Triple T Trading and its Northside brand. The company makes affordable, high-quality footwear – including winter boots – for families. Northside’s reasonably-priced shoes are sold by many retailers, such as Fred Meyer and Amazon.com.
Last September, we met with Triple T Trading President Jack Wolfin, and brothers Bob and Jeff Thayer. Bob is vice president of design, development and sourcing, and Jeff is vice president of sales, operations and systems. We were impressed with their vision for the Northside brand as well as their commitment to customers and retailers alike. After learning more about their specific business and communication objectives, including the revamping of their brand, we developed our communication plan and began work to help them unveil the new brand at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Meeting (ORWM) in Salt Lake City.
Journalists were eager to share news about the company’s rebranding activities, preview the fall 2011 collection of shoes and boots, and understand the teams’ perspective about manufacturing costs. As a result of our outreach, Northside was featured in local and trade publications including:
- Outdoor USA, “Triple T Trading Invests in its Northside Brand: The Affordable Footwear Company Offers Families ‘More for the Adventure.’”
- Footwear Plus, “Snow Bunnies: Designers Tie in Warm and Fuzzy Feminine Details to Utilitarian Boots.”
- Seattle Times, “Raising Prices Coming Back in Fashion” by Amy Martinez
In addition to helping them secure this editorial coverage, we also helped them get started on Facebook. If you have a minute, we’d encourage you to check out the company’s fan page. They have a small, but growing group of loyal supporters.
We anticipate the company will continue to see strong demand for its footwear as consumers remain price conscious and continue to look for opportunities to economize on clothes, gasoline, food and many other goods or services. Northside provides average families with significant value by making quality, comfortable footwear, which is fashionable to boot. It was an honor to have had the opportunity to support the company in its recent PR activities.