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.
Recently I came across an article on Mashable’s website entitled, “10 Tips for Corporate Blogging.” The article opens with the following statement, “In a world where small businesses with corporate blogs receive 55 percent more traffic than small businesses that don’t blog, companies should be taking note on how to improve their blogs, attract more readers and get more results.” While I agree with this statement, it still surprises me that more organizations choose not to blog.
Owned media, such as a blog or website, is a channel that an organization fully controls and can be a tremendous resource to adding value to target audiences. Consider for example Seattle Children’s Hospital’s blog “Seattle Mama Doc” written by Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, a mom and pediatrician committed to sharing her insights about parenting and how to keep kids healthy. The blog is a fabulous place for parents looking for information about current medical news, stories about parenting and much more – and the editorial direction, content and publication dates are determined by Dr. Swanson and Seattle Children’s.
Another benefit of publishing a corporate blog is that the information you’re sharing on your website may also be leveraged on social media sites as well as for earned media or editorial coverage in newspapers, magazines or for broadcast news. Again, consider Seattle Mama Doc. Much of the information that Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson shares is timely and relevant to journalists. From her blog, they can gain a sense of her perspective on a topic, and they can quote her blog or interview her for articles they’re writing. The hospital can also publicize key posts on its Facebook page and via Twitter.
Clearly developing compelling content for a blog is not an easy endeavor, but I firmly believe it is an important and relatively cost-effective marketing tool for most companies. I know from our experience with the Communiqué PR blog, we have seen a significant increase in traffic to our website. In addition to Seattle Children’s Hospital, many other Communiqué PR clients have successful blogs and also have seen an increase in visitors to their sites.
In the coming years, I believe more companies and nonprofit organizations will invest in developing robust, compelling and value-add blogs that will augment ongoing public relations activities. For more on our perspective on creating a corporate blog click here.
Mashable recently interviewed a group of PR professionals to discuss the future of public relations and how they see social media changing the industry. Specifically, they tackled how social media will impact “the future of the press release, the evolution of social platforms, current limitations and solutions for those impediments, connecting with other PR pros, cost savings and building relationships.”
As PR professionals, we’ve been grappling with an ever changing landscape for some time now – publications shifting online, shrinking media staffs, the recession, etc. However social media has had, in my opinion, the biggest impact on PR. The way we disseminate information and reach target audiences has shifted dramatically with the rise of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Below are some key points and perspective from the article I thought were most interesting.
Press Releases – It’s pretty clear that the role of the traditional press release is changing. While it still has its place within a communications strategy, it’s becoming increasingly important to incorporate social elements (e.g. embedded multimedia, hyperlinks, etc.) into these releases so readers can easily share the news with other networks.
The way we distribute releases has also changed. Vice President of BLASTmedia, Lindsay Groeppersays, “When I first began my career in PR more than decade ago, we would e-mail or fax (gasp!) the full press release text to the press. What we see now is new methods of distributing the info, driven by social media. Rather than e-mailing a press release, PR people are sending journalists to custom landing pages created just for that specific announcement, contacting them via Twitter with a BUDurl link to the release, or even directing them to a YouTube video with a message from the CEO making the announcement.”
Social Media Platforms – Established social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are valued today by organizations and brands looking to directly engage with key audiences. While some of the experts interviewed in the article believe that niche, industry-specific networks will be of greater value in the future, most agree that the role of PR professionals remains the same no matter which social media platforms rise to the top.
“The most important platforms for PR pros in the future will be the ones most targeted for their clients,” said Cara Stewart, founder and principal at Remarx Media. “…PR pros have to really understand clients’ technologies, business models, services and more. Really, it’s more about PR pros becoming better PR pros and understanding their clients’ businesses, as well as what their clients do … Social media is not a one-size-fits-all solution.”
Measuring Results – We’ve recently discussed the importance of monitoring and measuring the impact of social media campaigns and initiatives. There are a variety of tools available to help facilitate this and I believe these tools will only mature over time as adoption grows.
Amanda Miller Littlejohn founder of Mopwater Social Public Relations says, “Right now, the most important tools are the broadcasting tools … But in five years, the most important tools will be the monitoring and measurement tools — the tools that can tell you what happened to your message once it got out there. [T]he tools that can demonstrate (and quickly demonstrate) return on engagement will be winners.”
Relationships Still Matter – Social media is just one tool in the PR toolbox. The name of the game is still about building and fostering relationships.
Chuck Tanowitz, founder and principal at PR and social media firm Fresh Ground says, “In truth we’re talking about the same positive PR practices that good PR people have been doing for decades.” He continued, “They read and understand their target audience, then help craft stories that speak to and with that audience.”
The message is loud and clear: social media is here to stay and PR professionals will continue to evolve their skill set to help clients and businesses best leverage these tools as part of an overarching communications strategy.
Just a little over a year ago I graduated from Washington State University with a degree in public relations. While I learned a lot about the PR world and am grateful for the opportunity, not one of my classes focused on social media. Interestingly, after a quick scan of this year’s course catalog, I still see no mention of social media. Now that I have been working at Communiqué PR for a couple of months, it is clear how important social media is in the PR and business world these days.
Many of our clients are looking to integrate social media with ongoing PR activities, and we are not the only firm experiencing this need. As I was reading Advertising Age, I came across an article entitled “How Social Media Is Helping Public-Relations Sector Not Just Survive, but Thrive.” The article details how social media has played a role in the resurgence of PR during the current economic downturn. A few of the points that I found to be most valuable:
- Three-quarters of the 59 agency CEOs and CFOs surveyed by the Council of PR Firms reported growth in the first half of 2010 vs. 21 percent in 2009.
- Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a private equity firm that publishes annual reports on the state of the PR industry, reported that “growth in the industry is being accelerated by a significantly increased rate of client adoption of social media and word-of-mouth marketing techniques.”
- “PR, up until now, wasn’t central to a corporation’s overall branding strategy. There is now an opportunity for the PR profession and practitioners to use these digital tools and make PR a more important part of the communications arsenal,” said John Suhler, co-founder and president of Veronis Shuler Stevenson
A lot of the work that we’re doing at Communiqué surrounds helping businesses leverage social media to help reach their audiences and drive their business objectives forward. Whether it’s developing a social media strategy, providing counsel on a corporate social media policy, or educating executives on how to use social media platforms, it’s becoming critical that social media continues to play a significant role in PR and business.
As this trends continues, it is equally important to teach college students the importance of social media and how best to harness the platforms to achieve success.
In an effort to get to know its Facebook Fans better, NPR recently asked them to participate in a survey. The news outlet’s goal was to get to know its more than one million fans better – and the survey was overwhelmingly successful in helping it achieve this goal with more than 40,000 people participating.
NPR then shared the key findings, which I found to be quite interesting and relevant for the work we are doing for Communiqué PR clients. If you missed this information, it is posted online and can be found here.
A few of the points that I found to be most valuable:
- NPR learned that its Twitter and Facebook fans appear to be more mutually exclusive than it assumed. “Interestingly, fewer than 1 in 10 (8.4%) follow NPR on Twitter.” This was a surprise to NPR as it has twice as many fans on Twitter than on Facebook.
- Posting frequency was something NPR struggled with when it first started posting links to news on Facebook. I found this section of NPR’s survey results article to be most helpful as many of our clients ask for counsel about how frequently to share information. Apparently, when the folks at NPR first began using Facebook they were “posting more than 20 items per day.” This proved to be way too much for the fan base. After some trial and error, NPR found the magic number to be around 8-10 posts per day. However, Andy Carvin, senior strategist with NPR’s social media desk, and Noel Cody, internal research with NPR, believe that other publishers of information on Facebook would find that 8 to 10 items would be far too much for their followers and cite research to support this claim.
- Facebook is a “major way in which [NPR’s] fans receive news and information from NPR.” These people also expect their friends to share news with them.
There are many more observations and conclusions NPR has drawn from its survey. If you are leveraging Facebook or Twitter for your company or organization, I strongly encourage you to read this article and glean for yourself the many salient points which may be relevant to you.
A lot has changed about college since I attended the University of Puget Sound years ago. And while students today are much more digitally-focused – with e-mail, social networks, online news and more – the reality is most textbooks are not yet available as e-books. This means students will still need to search out and buy physical books in preparation for the start of a new term.
When I was in college, I either purchased the books new or used from the school bookstore or was lucky enough to buy books used from another student. At the end of the term, I was thrilled to sell my books back to the bookstore or to other students and pocket some extra cash. Today, students have a variety of ways to buy, or even rent their books online,
- Purchase new or used from online store,
- Purchase used from individuals via sites such as eBay, Craigslist, Amazon Marketplace etc.,
- Rent new or used from online service.
We recently started working with Bookbyte, a company that buys and sells textbooks online and I was surprised to learn the number of options available to students for securing school textbooks.
For the cash strapped student, renting books sounds like a great option, but it is important they read the fine print and to be disciplined about taking great care of their rented books and returning them on time. Failing to return your rented book on time, accessing marking in the text or the theft of a rented book can result in costing a student a lot more than estimated.
As the back-to-school rush is getting underway, there have been a number of articles about textbook rental. Many of these articles tout rental as a way for students to save money, however they only offer part of the story.
Renting a textbook may sound good because the upfront cost is less than buying the textbook, yet in many instances the student will end up paying more for the use of that book than they would have if they bought the text used and sold it back at the end of the term. Clearly, if you do not have the money to buy the textbook, then rental may be the right answer for you. However, buying used and selling the textbook at the end of the term offers the lowest overall cost.
To illustrate this point, Bookbyte recently compared the costs associated with renting and buying a specific book, the seventh edition of, “Project Management: A Managerial Approach” by Jack Meredith and Samuel Mantel. The analysis revealed buying the book used and selling it back at the end of the term would save a student 29 percent or roughly $18 over renting the same book. Multiply that savings by five, which is the average number of textbooks a student needs per term according to a 2009 report from Student Monitor, and a student could save an estimated $90 per semester.
So if you are a student (or a parent of a student), it may make sense for you to look online to buy or sell used textbooks. You may even recoup enough cash to by an iPad as digital textbooks on this platform are arriving soon.
Our blog post on the Best Small Business blogs was so popular that we decided to develop an article about favorite business books. Our survey was not scientific. It is a compilation of books we recently read and found valuable, along with recommendations from other business people and entrepreneurs. We hope if you pick up and read one of these that you’ll let us know what you think of it and how it impacts your work or life.
- Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos. According to the author, the best businesses combine “profit, passion and purpose.” The book follows the history of Tony’s life and the growth of Zappos to more than $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually. Anthony Onesto, former chief operating officer with Zeta Interactive, recommends Delivering Happiness because it has completely changed his idea on how to build a successful company.
- Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch. We have to say we’re fans of this book and it also came highly recommended by Robyn Sharp, a small-business marketing guru and business coach. She shares that the value of this book for her business was providing a “great framework for creating my marketing plans on a budget.”
- eBoot Camp by Corey Perman. Angil Tarach-Ritchey, an expert in senior care and franchise owner for Visiting Angels Ann Arbor says, “eBoot Camp was instrumental in allowing me to help seniors and their families far beyond my community.” The book opened up a whole new career path for her.
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. This book recommendation comes from Marc Pitman, a coach and the author of How to Ask Without Fear. He put off reading this book for years, but recommends it for its practical tips and reminders about avoiding arguments.
- Just Listen by Mark Goulston. We all know how important listening can be when it comes to the health of business or personal relationships. This book has practical advice for improving these skills with example of how communication can impact results and outcomes. We at Communiqué PR found it to be very helpful in our relationship building with journalists, editors and clients alike. For more about this book, you can check out this post: “New Book Gives Blueprint for Reaching the Unreachable.”
- Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, by Verne Harnish. According to Ken Halkin, president of Kenneth C. Halkin Management Consulting, this business book helped him to fine-tune the planning process and make plans simpler, quicker and more focused on critical issues. Based on Ken’s comments, I am adding this to my reading list.
- Open Leadership by Charlene Li – I wrote about this book on July 12 in a post entitled, “The Public Relations Strategies: Interview with Charlene Li”. I am about half way through the book and love it. I recommend it for those of you who are interested in social media and how it is impacting company culture, leadership or corporate responsibility.
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. I have not read this book, but based on the number of comments I received about it, I have decided to pick this one. We received five glowing recommendations for this book. For instance, Derek Johnson, CEO of Tatango Inc., the maker of a group text messaging platform, says he has read this book multiple times, learning different things at each pass. He said, “Whether you are looking to decrease the amount of work you need to do, or increase your efficiency, allowing you to do more work in a day’s time, this book is a step by step guide.” He especially recommends this book to entrepreneurs. Another recommendation for the book came from Jaime Cevallos, the owner and founder of The Swing Mechanic, a business aimed at helping Major League Baseball players work on their swing mechanics in the off season. He said without Ferriss’s The Four Hour Workweek he never could have shaped his career.
- The Discipline of Market Leaders by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema. This book was recommended by Maralyn Dolan, president of Integrated Printing & Graphics, because it helped her focus on her business core strengths. The book has given her some guidelines that allow her to feel confident in the directions she takes – and it has stayed with her for 15 years.
- The New Strategic Selling by Stephen E. Hieman, Tad Tuleja, J.W. Marriott. This is one of my favorite books. It was recommended to me by my mother who worked for AT&T as a global account manager. The book has been a tremendous resource to me in business development.