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.
Last week, Jennifer and I had an opportunity to conduct a workshop on crisis communication at the Washington State Community Action Partnership Statewide Development and Marketing Conference. The goal of the training was to provide attendees with an understanding of the various types of crises and how to best prepare. We also spent time discussing social media and how it is changing the way organizations respond to crises today.
Developing a crisis communication plan is oftentimes dismissed by leaders: Preparing for a possible crisis seems a low priority when faced with limited resources and more immediate challenges. However, preparation is really the name of the game when it comes to effective crisis management.
By being prepared, an organization will be able to alert the right people, gather all the facts, create the materials, and ensure a spokesperson is trained and available to respond in a timely and appropriate manner.
It also is important to remember that the tone of the editorial coverage surrounding a crisis will often be set when the first news reports are published.
During a crisis, organizations and their spokespersons need to be concerned, show concern, speak concern and always tell the truth. It is critical the organization does not speculate on the cause, cost, or parties responsible; instead it should provide information about what is known. Ultimately, the company and its representative need to act with totally honesty and sensitivity during and after the crisis.
The day after delivering the training, I heard the following analysis on NPR surrounding BP’s crisis response to its devastating oil spill in the gulf. In her segment, Crisis Communication Requires ‘Common Sense,’ Host Lynn Neary spoke with Patrick Kinney of Gaffney Bennet Public Relations to secure his perspective on BP’s early response to the oil spill.
Kinney stated, “I think they’ve really improved their communications efforts, but they refer to the first 48 hours after a crisis incident as, you know, the golden hour. And what you do then sort of sets the stage for, you know, how it’s going to play out from that. I don’t know if they can recover from how bad they did in that first 48 hours. But I do think that they are doing better now by giving frequent updates, giving the facts as they know them.”
Clearly, social media and user generated content has had a significant impact on crisis communication. It is important for communicators to be aware of these mediums and incorporate them into crisis communication plans.
Bellingham Fire Chief, Bill Boyd (@chiefb2) recently shared his perspective from the front lines of crisis communication on the impact of both social media and user generated content. In his post, “A Social Media Incident Commander’s Perspective” he offers some valuable tips including,
- Social media is not a “kid thing”. It is THE THING. Minimize the medium and you may be minimized.
- It is hard to give context in 140 characters. Choose your words and phrases carefully. Get it right the first time.
- If you don’t have a social media presence before the “big one,” your likelihood of social media success in emergency social media communications is just about zero.
- Be prepared for your message to go viral in a heartbeat. This means you need to be ready to keep the messages flowing and point readers somewhere to get detailed information.
- It is not OK to post nothing for a long time (a long time in the social media world is minutes – not hours)
- If you don’t get it right, correct it as soon as you can! Don’t linger, or the error will.
- Notice and correct rumors ASAP, especially if they are trending.
- You can convey compassion and sound human in less than 140 characters. “We are concerned” packs a punch.
There are numerous examples of organizations that have failed to successfully communicate during a crisis and experienced damage to their brand and oftentimes seen executives fired as a result. If your organization does not have a crisis communication plan we recommend taking the time to create a framework for how your organization will respond.
We are fortunate in the Northwest to be at the forefront of the mobile industry. Not only is the greater-Seattle area home to industry giants such as T-Mobile, Clearwire, AT&T Wireless and Microsoft, there are also numerous smaller companies that are fueling the growth and driving innovation in the mobile market.
The upcoming Mobile Breakfast Series: Startup Nation being held on June 10 provides a wonderful opportunity to hear from several industry greats. The quarterly breakfast series draws thought leaders and visionaries together to share ideas, perspective and insight on the mobile marketplace. For the June event, the organizers have drawn leaders from Root Wireless, Swype, Mobidia, Point Inside and Clearwire as well as several others to participate on two panels.
The first panel, “Mobile Opportunities and Challenges Through the Eyes of Startup CEOs,” will be moderated by Olga Kharif, senior writer, Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
The second panel titled “Startups Engage the Experts,” should offer a fascinating and lively discussion among a number of early startup leaders and seasoned veterans such as Bill Bryant, managing director of EnvisionVentures; Jeff Giard, director with Clearwire; and Peter Wilson formerly with Google and Microsoft.
If you work in the mobile space, it appears this is one of the key events of the year to attend. It offers an opportunity to hear from and network with key leaders in the mobile industry and really underscores Seattle’s position as a mobile mecca in the industry.
To register for the event, visit http://www.mobilebreakfastseries.com/register.htm
We hope to see you there.
We are excited to announce we are adding to the Communiqué PR team. Currently, we are seeking candidates with six to eight years of agency-side public relations or strategic communications experience to join our team as a Senior Account Executive.
THE POSITION
As part of our team, the Senior Account Executive helps define communication plans and drives day-to-day client management and the PR program.
The Senior Account Executive is responsible for execution of the PR plan and other public relations activities, such as writing press materials, researching speaking opportunities, following up on editorial calendar opportunities, planning and possibly leading press tours, scheduling and hosting editorial meetings and analyst briefings.
The right candidate will have the opportunity to participate in all aspects of PR program execution, including planning client meetings, media and analyst relations, pitch development, editing and proofreading of client-related documents, trade show support, news release distribution, industry research and business development.
The position requires the ability to develop strong working relationships with clients, press, conference organizers and analysts while working to create opportunities on behalf of the client to secure coverage.
THE CANDIDATE
Ability to effectively multi-task and prioritize projects are key attributes for this role. This candidate must be able to handle day-to-day execution of one or more public relations plans, collaborate effectively with the Communiqué PR team and communicate in a clear manner. Candidates need to posses a strong attention to detail and be very organized.
The ability to communicate effectively is imperative to this position. Proactive, open communication and integration skills are essential. In our team environment, we rely on close communication and a proactive willingness to help out where needed.
This candidate must be a team player, have great listening skills, take initiative, and have confidence, and display curiosity and interest in our clients’ products and services.
The knack to maintain a sense of humor while remaining professional under intense deadlines is critical.
EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
Six to eight years experience in PR, preferably in an agency setting and/or within the high tech industry and:
- Four to eight years managing client relationships
- A demonstrated understanding of media standards and an awareness of the target audience’s perspective
- Established editor and industry analyst relationships
- Know-how of pitching and proactively placing stories with national, local and industry publications/outlets
- Ability to work under client and influential deadlines in a fast-paced environment
- Experience managing multiple projects/events simultaneously
- Proven ability to work successfully with multiple deadline(s)
- Expertise skill in writing and developing press materials such as briefings, press packets and literature
- Proven development and execution of successful PR plans
- Experience coordinating and conducting press meetings and leading press tours and analyst briefings
- Experience managing account teams and contractors
- Interest in current, emerging and consumer technology
- Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal skills
- Proficiency using computer and general business applications (i.e. Microsoft Office), as well as social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter
If you think you have the desire and what it takes to be a part of our PR team, please submit a cover letter and your resume to: [email protected]
We were delighted to have the opportunity to assist Facebook with the announcement of its plans to open an office in Seattle. For those of you who missed the news on May 5, Facebook, in conjunction with the Seattle Mayor’s office, announced it would be opening an engineering office this July. Until now, all of Facebook’s U.S. engineering activities have been centralized in its Palo Alto office where the company is headquartered. (Below is a summary of news coverage.)
To further build relationships with local leaders and the community, Facebook also asked us to plan a networking event. We worked closely with the team at the Office of Economic Development to coordinate this reception, which took place on May 18 at Seattle City Hall.
Speakers at the event included: Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, Ed Lazowska, chair in computer science & engineering, University of Washington, Greg Badros, director of engineering for Facebook, and Ari Steinberg, manager of engineering and head of the newly-established Seattle Facebook office.
During Ed Lazowska’s remarks I learned that University of Washington’s top-ranked computer science program is a top-five supplier of new college graduates to Microsoft, Amazon.com and Google. The university is now looking forward to becoming a top-five supplier to Facebook, too, now that the social networking company will have a presence in the Puget Sound region.
Ed also focused on the significance of Facebook’s decision to open an office in Seattle by focusing on the role that information technology plays in driving the economy of our city, country, state and nation. Here is a summary of the stats and information he shared:
- Nationwide, between 1999 and 2008, overall job growth was 6 percent, while Information Technology job growth was 26 percent more than four times as great.
- Looking to the future, between 2008 and 2018, information technology jobs are projected to grow by 22 percent, the fastest of all professional occupations.
- In fact, among all science and engineering occupations—the physical sciences, the life sciences, the social sciences and engineering—information technology is projected to account for 60 percent of the job growth between 2008 and 2018.
- Technology jobs create other jobs. In King County, there are 233,000 tech jobs. On average, each tech job supports three jobs in other sectors of the economy. The multiplier for information technology jobs is even higher—nearly 5:1.
- Part of the reason for tech’s high multiplier effect is that jobs in the tech industry pay, on average, nearly double the state average in wages and benefits.
As owners of a business that generates much of its revenue from many clients in the information technology space, Ed’s remarks resonated with Colleen Moffitt and me. Clearly, we would have a very different business without the plethora of high-tech companies in our region. And before founding Communiqué PR, Colleen and I had the opportunity to work for world-class tech companies such as McCaw Cellular Communications (now AT&T Wireless), Microsoft and Real Networks. The experience and skills we gained working for these industry leaders has been invaluable.
Given this, we are grateful the University of Washington is playing such an instrumental role in helping to create these jobs and ensuring that Washington’s young people are the ones who fill them. Additionally, we’re looking forward to seeing the Seattle Facebook office grow and become and established presence within our community.
- All Voices, “Facebook Opening Engineering Office in Seattle”
- Associated Press, “Facebook Opening Engineering Office in Seattle”
- Chris Pirillo, “The Seattle Social Community is Growing”
- CNET, “Facebook to Open Engineering Office in Seattle”
- Erictric, “Facebook Opening Office in Seattle”
- IT Business Edge, “Seattle Office Clicks for Facebook”
- King5.com, “Facebook to Open Seattle Engineering Office”
- KOMONews.com, “Facebook Puts Out the ‘Help Wanted’ Sign in Seattle”
- Mayor Mike McGinn Blog, “Facebook to Open Engineering Office in Seattle”
- MediaPost Online, “Facebook Follows Arrington to Seattle”
- MediaPost, “Facebook Follows Arrington to Seattle”
- Northwest Cable News, “Facebook to Open Seattle Engineering Office”
- Northwest Innovation, “Facebook to Open Engineering Office in Seattle”
- Q13 FOX Online, “Want to Work for Facebook? Company Expanding to Seattle”
- San Francisco Chronicle, “Facebook Opening Seattle Office, Hiring Software Engineers”
- San Jose Business Journal, “Facebook Opening Seattle Office”
- Seattle Times, “Facebook Move to Seattle: The Backstory”
- Seattle Times, “Facebook Plans to Open Seattle Engineering Office”
- Seattle Tops, “Facebook to Open Engineering Office in Seattle”
- Seattle Weekly Blogs, “Facebook is Coming to Seattle, Classmates.com Hears Footsteps”
- SeattlePI.com, “Facebook Friends Seattle, Will Open Office Here”
- SeattlePI.com, “Why We’re Rolling out the Red Carpet for Facebook”
- Silicontap, “Facebook Plans Seattle Office”
- Social VentureBeat, “Facebook to Open Seattle Engineering Office; Hadi Partovi Joins as an Advisor”
- SU-Spectator Blog, “Attention 2010 Grads: Facebook’s New Seattle Office is Hiring”
- TechCrunch, “There Goes the Neighborhood: Facebook to Open Seattle Office,” May 5, 2010
- TechFlash, “Facebook Exec to Seattle: Bring Us Your Very Best Engineers”
- TechFlash, “Facebook to Open Seattle Office”
- TechFlash, “Video: Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn Welcomes Facebook”
- TechWhack, “Facebook Setting Up an Office in Seattle”
- The News Tribune, “30 Facebook Jobs Coming to Seattle”
- The Prosperity Blog, “Economic Development: A Love Story”
- WebProNews, “Facebook Announces Seattle Expansion”
- Xconomy Seattle, “Facebook Coming to Seattle in July: Engineering Center to Hire 30 People”
- Xconomy Seattle, “What Facebook VP Mike Schroepfer is Looking for in Seattle Engineers: Entrepreneurial Passion”
Case studies are a powerful resource that can be leveraged to gain editorial coverage – especially in vertical industry publications.
At Communiqué PR, we work to ensure that case studies depict an actual problem and then provide a rich, detailed resolution. Providing such an editorial package to the media, we’ve found, can be valuable in reaching key decision makers and generating new sales leads.
Consider our work for Tecplot. In March 2010, we developed a case study about researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and how they are using Tecplot’s computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, Tecplot 360, to improve the safety and effectiveness of medical stent implants.
The advancement of stent technology is a major topic on the medical front. In the U.S., more than one million patients with heart disease receive stent implants every year. In fact, as you may recall, former President Bill Clinton was recently admitted to a New York hospital for chest pain. On February 11 of this year, he underwent an hour-long surgery and walked away with two new stents that successfully reopened a severely clogged artery. Since this is an area of medicine that affects so many Americans, we felt a case study on the topic would be a compelling read in a variety of publications, and of interest to a number of editors and journalists.
After the development and approval of the case study, we reached out to journalists with publications in the engineering, medical, and related fields to raise their awareness of the challenges surrounding stent research, and explain how CFD modeling and visualization is helping researchers today.
The story appealed to several journalists. Articles are in development with the following news outlets:
- Medical Design Briefs – July 2010
- Design World – July 2010
- Desktop Engineering – September 2010
As newsroom staffs continue to shrink, we’ve discovered that providing editors with well-researched, pre-packaged materials such as case studies, white papers or surveys can help generate significant coverage for clients.
Don’t underestimate the power of a well-written case study. The next time your company plays a role in helping people or businesses solve a tough problem, consider developing a case study. The return will be worth the investment.
The other day I was doing some research for a presentation on general market trends with regards to analyst firms.
It’s clear that the current economic climate has impacted industries across the board and analyst firms are certainly no exception. The competition to retain and win new customers, particularly in the IT sector, continues to be fierce as marketing dollars remain limited within these organizations.
As a result, larger analyst firms such as Forrester and Gartner are looking at smaller, niche analyst outfits as potential acquisition targets in an effort to establish core competencies in a particular area, or expand their research agenda to help win new customers. You may recall a few years back Forrester acquired Jupiter Research. Gartner recently bought Burton Group and in late 2009 acquired AMR Research.
According to SageCircle, an advisory resource for analyst relations, “major acquisitions typically lead to significant analyst departures after three to four months” which would explain the recent analyst turnover we’ve noted with several well-known analyst firms. Additionally, analysts are shifting their research focus or taking on multiple research areas.
The moral of the story here is the analyst landscape is shifting slightly and it’s likely going to take more time to qualify analysts to ensure your organization is fostering the right relationships. Analysts are a critical audience. They influence potential customers, provide third-party perspectives to media and help create visibility around a category in general. We often counsel our clients to establish analyst relations programs and engage analysts early to ensure they are grounded in a company’s vision. This also enables companies to secure third-party support for PR and marketing activities.
For more information on how analyst relations can benefit your organization contact us at [email protected].