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.
I have to say I am a big fan of Charlene Li, co-author of “Groundswell” and founder of the Altimeter Group. Recently, she was named by Fortune Magazine as one of the smartest analysts in technology. However, it was an interview in The Strategist, which prompted me to order her latest book, “Open Leadership.”
The premise of the book is about how leaders must let go of control to succeed. In theory, the concept of open leadership sounds good, but the thought of letting go of control can be frightening. In the article, Li points out that in the business world, many of us are taught that if we give up control work product will suffer, people will slack and business will suffer.
However, Li goes on to argue, “There’s a new reality: You’re actually not in control.” For me this is a very freeing perspective. It releases me from the responsibility of control and gives me more permission to be open, which frankly over the course of my career has not always been encouraged.
Clearly, leaders and managers still have to get things done; but Li asserts that this can happen by being “in command” and effectively working with people “who already have responsibility and power.”
It is a refreshing perspective and I look forward to learning more about how openness can impact the success of a business. In her book, Li also outlines the 10 ways people can be more open and how to measure success. I am certain there will be significant insight not only for me as a leader with Communiqué PR but also as I provide counsel to our clients.
For more information on the book, I would encourage you to read the full Strategist article. Li shares examples of open leadership, factors for success, and insight into whether open leadership is right for every organization.
Finally, if you have already read the book, I hope you’ll consider commenting below to share your thoughts on it.
Broadcast interviews can be an exciting and valuable opportunity for any business. These interviews provide a vehicle for an organization to establish themselves as thought leaders in an industry or on particular topic, provide a platform to deliver key messages to a broad audience, and put a face to an organization.
Broadcast interviews are very different from print interviews in that voice, engagement and looks can play as big of a role as content in how the public perceives the spokesperson and your company. We recently prepared two clients for on-camera interviews with national outlets Fox Business News and ABC World News. Earth Class Mail ‘s CEO Sarah Carr was sought after for perspective on the recent postage increase from USPS for ABC World News. Digonex’s CEO Jan Eglen spoke with Fox Business News about dynamic pricing’s role in the future of tickets.
Like any other interview it’s important to prepare accordingly, however given the nature of on-camera interviews, we want to share our approach for how we prepare clients for these opportunities.
The Content
- Try to secure the interview questions prior to the interview. It’s important to have a clear understanding of what the segment is about and the questions that will be asked so the spokesperson is armed with the appropriate information.
- If possible, take the time to watch some past interviews with the host/interviewer. This will provide insight into their interview style and can help play a role in how you develop your key messages and answers.
- Have a clear understanding of the top three messages you want to convey during the interview. Again, having the questions ahead of time will be helpful so that you can weave these key messages into the answers.
- Be prepared for unexpected or controversial questions. While you might not get these during an interview, it’s always good to be prepared to answer these. If you find the conversation going down a path that might be outside your areas of expertise, controversial or is a topic you don’t want to address, bridge back to those topics you are equipped to speak to and reinforce your organization’s messages.
- Conduct a mock interview. We can’t stress enough how important it is to practice. If you have time before the interview, it is beneficial to conduct a mock interview with your spokesperson. At the very least, encourage your spokesperson to practice answering the questions in front of a mirror or out loud as they’re driving to the interview.
Appearance and Engagement
- Be sure to wear neat and comfortable clothes. Bright and solid colors look best on camera, so avoid distracting patterns, stripes as well as white shirts as they don’t balance well on camera.
- Make sure that any facial hair is clean shaven or trimmed to avoid any shadows.
- Determine where the camera will be positioned and how the interview will be conducted. Will the reporter be on camera or off camera? Will there be one camera or multiple cameras? Is this a live satellite interview? This information will help determine where you should direct your attention during the interview.
- Engage with the host or interviewer. Thank them for having you on the show and/or use their name when answering questions. You want the interview to feel like a conversation between two people, not a static conversation.
- Limit the use of “talking with your hands.” Many people use body language and their hands to make points throughout a presentation or conversation. However, these can be distracting during an on-camera interview. Try to limit these to keep the focus on what is being said during the interview.
- Be sure to always smile, it evokes a warm and welcoming feel.
The more you can prepare your spokesperson for an on-camera interview the more likely the interview will be a success. For more information on how to prepare for broadcast interviews send us an e-mail at [email protected].
Launching a new product in a new market is no easy feat. Oftentimes, it requires a great deal of strategic thinking and implementation of creative tactics from all levels of the company – from product development to marketing – in order to differentiate your product or service from competitive solutions on the market.
On July 1, Attachmate announced the availability of Luminet, a new enterprise fraud management (EFM) solution that takes the guesswork out of application monitoring to help organizations protect sensitive data, reduce internal fraud and enable regulatory compliance. While Attachmate has a solid portfolio of successful security products, including solutions in the managed file transfer and secure file transfer space, this is the company’s first product geared specifically to address internal fraud. In order to help existing and potential customers, as well as media and analysts understand how this new direction plays into Attachmate’s overall corporate strategy, the company incorporated an educational approach into the product launch plan.
Specifically, Attachmate developed key messages and press materials, which highlight the pain points and challenges associated with internal fraud. These key messages illustrate the need for EFM solutions and provide insight on why Attachmate is entering this space. Additionally, this framework helped Attachmate present a unified message and outline why EFM technology is relevant. This is especially important as EFM is not only a new market for the company, but also an emerging market as a whole.
Next, Attachmate pre-briefed prominent industry analysts to secure third-party support for the emerging category and provide commentary to media to validate the growing trend of internal fraud and how EFM solutions can help minimize this challenge within organizations. The company also secured references from key analysts such as Avivah Litan with Gartner, one of the foremost analysts covering this space.
Thus far, Luminet has been featured in the following (this list includes anticipated coverage):
- Healthcare IT News
- Wall Street & Technology
- SC Magazine UK
- Security Asia
- IT Jungle
- Database Trends & Applications
- PC Magazine
- Search Financial Security
- z/Journal
- Bank Systems & Technology
As your company or client prepares to announce a new product (possibly in a new market), it’s important to consider the following:
- What types of challenges or issues does this product or service address?
- Who are the competitors? What makes your product or service different from competitive solutions?
- What are the typical user scenarios? How will customers and potential customers utilize your product or service?
- Why is your company entering this market? What are the key business drivers that are creating this market opportunity?
If you’re interested in learning more about Attachmate Luminet or how PR can help effectively launch a new product, send us an e-mail at [email protected].
Imparare l’italiano è divertente e può essere molto utile in età precoce. Or for our English speaking readers, learning Italian is fun and can be very beneficial at an early age. We were recently approached by Seattle-based Gemelli Press to help drive awareness and secure reviews of a new children’s book by Washington-based author Giuliana Sica titled, “Impariamo L’Italiano con L’Aiuto della Mano!” (“Let’s Learn Italian with the Help of Our Hand”).
“Impariamo L’Italiano con L’Aiuto della Mano!” aims to make learning Italian both simple and fun for children and parents. The book includes carefully selected vocabulary rhymes and illustrations to stimulate interest and promote effortless language absorption. Through the guidance of the book’s friendly character, Papa Ditino, readers experience Italian and English translation references with colorful, easy vocabulary association learning games.
In order to drive awareness and secure reviews of the book, we developed a strategy which included developing a press release announcing the book and pitching a feature story idea surrounding easy ways for parents to teach their child a foreign language. We partnered with Gemelli Press and conducted outreach to local media, travel and parenting publications, as well as the powerful mommy blogger audience to spark interest in the story and encourage reviews of the book. To learn what others are saying about the book, check out some of the customer reviews from Amazon.com here.
Mommy bloggers, whom we’ve blogged about before, can be extremely influential as a large group of readers look to these blogs for day-to-day advice on raising children. To date, we have secured commitments to review and/or giveaways of the book from several influential mommy bloggers including Mama Divas, Moomette’s Magnificento, One Big Pyle of Love , Pajama Mommy and ZRecs.
If you would like additional information about “Impariamo L’Italiano con L’Aiuto della Mano!” or to purchase a copy of the book, please visit Amazon.com or GemelliPress.com.
With small- and medium-sized business playing such a critical role in the health of our nation’s economy, it is no surprise that there are thousands of blogs aimed at helping people grow or manage their companies. However, with so many blogs written for the entrepreneur or business owner, we felt it important to highlight the ones we believe offer fresh insight or the most value.
In addition, because many of our clients want to reach these influential bloggers, we have also provided counsel and perspectives from industry bloggers surrounding best practices for approaching these writers with story ideas or suggestions.
Below is our list of the 10 best small business blogs:
- Get Your Biz Savvy by Alex Monroe. This is an all-in-one source for entrepreneurs, which offers a different and exciting twist on information such as how to overcome limitations within your business and various interviews with entrepreneurs.
- Seth Godin Typepad by Seth Godin. As a well-known entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and marketing expert, Godin’s blog is ranked in the AdAge Power 150 as the No. 1 marketing blog and offers tons of creative insight on a variety of topics.
- Michael T Hanley. This blog is written by a certified public accountant (CPA) and is phenomenal at helping small businesses focus on things that will improve their company. The information is concrete and helpful.
- Chris Brogan. Brogan offers insight on marketing and social media. He frames advice and commentary within a broader business and professional scope, so that marketers can better understand how strategies developed on behalf of clients and organizations can fit into the totality of a business’ goals and plans.
- Carol Roth. Carol Roth is a business strategist who has worked with hundreds of companies ranging from a single entrepreneur with an idea, to Fortune 500 businesses, on all aspects of business and financial strategy. Her blog offers business advice and often brings in collaborators, including expert participants as part of the blog’s ongoing content.
- Business Insider. Silicon Valley Insider, the flagship blog of Business Insider provides insight surrounding the financial, entertainment, green tech and digital industry verticals. Using a multi-author approach consistent voice and theme, Silicon Alley Insider largely covers the business side of the digital media space.
- Small Biz Trends. Great blog for small business owners and entrepreneurs. This blog offers a variety of information about the small business market and trends affecting small businesses. Podcasts and press releases are also featured on the blog.
- Mashable. Mashable is the world’s largest tech blog focused exclusively on social media news. With more than 25 million monthly page views, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new websites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the Web and offering social media resources and guides.
- 504 Blog by Chris Hurns. Hurn’s mercantile blog is written specifically for owners of small- and mid-sized businesses. He keeps readers’ attention and gives useful information that causes readers to get involved in the discussion and keep checking back again and again. These are blogs by a CEO for other CEOs and executives.
- Best Small Biz Help by Dawn Fotopulus. This blog provides wonderful insight into knowing exactly what small business owners need to know and provides that information in concise video blogs and posts. Her latest video post explains small business bookkeeping.
Best Practices for Reaching These Bloggers
To come up with this list of best practices for working with these bloggers, we asked them for input on the most effective way to approach them with story ideas. Here’s what they said:
- Come up with fun, interesting and relevant story suggestions. Alex Monroe, editor-in-chief of www.GetYourBizSavvy.com suggests taking some time to review his content and reiterates that suggestions for stories should not be a sales pitch for a product or service. This is a total turn off for him.
- Be flexible. Carol Roth of Intercap Merchant Partners, and blog writer of www.CarolRoth.com, explains she likes it when a person “reaches out to her in a focused and flexible manner that is consistent with the message and philosophy of the blog.”
- Be clear on what you want. Roth also mentions that it is important that someone pitching a contributed guest column can clearly articulate what he or she wants. According to Roth, she wants to understand why someone wants to collaborate – this is a must, if they want to be taken seriously.
- Remember bloggers are passionate about their subject matter. They often want a personal connection to the topics they’re writing about and to actually connect with the people who send them e-mails suggesting ideas or reading their material. Consider Louis Rosas-Guyon, president of R-Squared Computing, Inc. He has been blogging for about three years and uses his blog as a public journal where he writes about the issues on his mind.
We hope this list of blogs and tips for working with the bloggers writing about business are helpful to you.
Last week I had the opportunity to attend IDC’s Tech Outlook 2010 conference in Seattle. Produced by analyst firm IDC, the conference series features top IDC analysts sharing their research and perspectives on key technologies, trends and opportunities for 2010.
Geared towards C-level executives, marketing and sales teams, business development directors and product managers, the conference focused on insights and predictions on key IT topics such as cloud computing, business intelligence (BI), analytics and mobile devices. Industry analysts including Frank Gens, Dan Vessett and Bob O’Donnell shared some interesting perspectives surrounding what will sustain and drive each of these technology segments over the next year.
One of the most encouraging messages I took away from the conference, was that regardless of whether or not an economic recovery is around the corner, innovation in IT continues to fuel growth in the technology industry. This will no doubt position organizations within this sector to experience sustainable recovery from the recession before other industry segments.
This message was reinforced by a recent survey conducted by KMPG, an audit, tax and advisory firm. The survey showed that seven in 10 technology executives believe that their industry will recover ahead of the overall U.S. economy. The survey revealed that executives believe that cloud computing and mobile will be key drivers for revenue growth in technology.
Gary Matuszak, partner, global chair and U.S. leader for KPMG’s Information, Communications and Entertainment practice said, “The fact executives see the full recovery stretched into 2012 may mean a slower rebound, but also may indicate a sustainable recovery rather than a possible W–shaped recovery which has been a concern in some markets.” Gary went on to state, “Tech executives continue to grow more confident that the worst is behind the sector and that the engine of innovation which has traditionally led the tech sector growth is still there.”
At a recent Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) conference, Shawn DuBravac, the organization’s chief economist and director of research said, “We’re at this very delicate handoff as we move into Q3 and Q4 from a stimulus economy to one that needs to be driven by the private sector.”
For me, it has always been exciting to work in the technology industry as it is one driven by innovation. Clearly, that innovation is going to be the key to the industry’s success in rebounding from the recession. I believe we are beginning to see signs of this in Seattle with new employment opportunities arising, more start-up companies launching and marketing budgets slightly increasing. It’s a small start, but a trend I think will continue to grow over the next couple of years.