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.
In the month of June, our client Spaceflight, the company reinventing the model for launching small satellites into space, shared two exciting announcements detailing future launches with both Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab.
The first announcement we released focused on three upcoming missions with Rocket Lab, scheduled to take place in 2018 and 2019. All three missions will lift off from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and propel the customer spacecraft into Lower Earth Orbit. Spaceflight has procured capacity aboard each of these missions and will work with clients to integrate payloads into the space. Aboard those missions will be some impressive customers, including Canon Electronics and BlackSky, Spaceflight Industries’ geospatial intelligence platform.
Later in June, the company shared that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a mission to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in 2019 with Virgin Orbit aboard a LauncherOne. Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl, a dedicated 747-400 carrier aircraft, will carry LauncherOne to an altitude of approximately 35,000 feet before release for its rocket-powered flight to orbit.
Both announcements are important milestones for Spaceflight and indicate the demand for rideshare launches, a reliable and affordable way for smallsats to access space.
Later this year, Spaceflight is scheduled to launch its first ever dedicated rideshare mission, SSO-A. The mission will take place on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Spaceflight purchased in full.
With all the exciting news, we want to share some of the results. Keep an eye out for more coverage about Spaceflight and the company’s exciting year ahead!
- Spaceflight strikes deal with Rocket Lab for three satellite launch extravaganzas—GeekWire, 6/11/18
- BlackSky, Canon Electronics Sign on for Spaceflight’s Upcoming Rocket Lab Launches—Via Satellite, 6/11/18
- Spaceflight books three Electron rockets—SpaceNews, 6/11/18
- Spaceflight launch services company adds Virgin Orbit and Cosmic Girl to its lineup—GeekWire, 6/25/18
- Spaceflight Boosts Smallsat Launch Range with LauncherOne—Via Satellite, 6/25/18
- While some NW space companies show progress, asteroid miner Planetary Resources is in rocky shape—The Seattle Times, 6/26/18
- Spaceflight plans to send satellites into space on a Boeing 747-launched Virgin Orbit rocket—Puget Sound Business Journal, 6/26/18
- SPACEFLIGHT ENTERS INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH VIRGIN ORBIT FOR RIDESHARE MISSION—Spaceflight News, 6/27/18
- LauncherOne Captive-Carry Test Flight Set For Early July—Aviation Week, 6/28/18
Trade shows have evolved significantly since I started my PR career back in the late ‘90s. In a similar vein, journalism and publishing have also transformed themselves over the years and continue to do so today.
“Back in the old days,” as the PR elders like to say, it seemed like trade shows were packed wall-to-wall with reporters. Publications would send every reporter they could to cover the show-related news and meet with the companies that were exhibiting or speaking there.
Today, however, trade shows – and the media relations activities supporting them – are an entirely different ball game for all of the players involved.
For one, with the emergence of blogs, social media and smartphones, it’s easier and faster than ever for PR professionals and our clients to interact with reporters and build personal relationships. The dependence on in-person meetings is much reduced in comparison to the pre-internet days since it’s far more common and easier to reach out with a simple “like,” a DM, or a text message.
Secondly, publications generally send fewer reporters to cover these events in-person; as such, the journalists that are onsite reporting during a show are tasked with covering the entire event, making their time there for in-person briefings incredibly limited. It’s challenging to meet with companies during a show because journalists are often too busy reporting on keynote speeches and breaking news. This has shaped how and when companies issue news announcements or hold press conferences at trade shows – if fewer reporters are there to attend your live press conference, does it make sense to do it during the event? Sometimes yes, sometimes not.
We recently had the opportunity to support Dell EMC’s presence at the 2018 NAB Show, the annual event for the National Association of Broadcasters, which brings together industry professionals in the media, entertainment and technology industries. NAB is a massive show: More than 102,000 people attended this year’s event from more than 160 countries.
Given the shift in the way that major industry gatherings like NAB are covered by media, we wanted to offer some best practices we learned based on our work with Dell EMC for this show.
Start media outreach early. Depending on how large a show is (100K versus 1,000 attendees) it makes sense to start planning PR pitching efforts at least four to six weeks before the show begins. For Dell EMC, we developed and sent out a “save the date”-style pitch a month or so before NAB that was light on details but allowed us to get meetings booked early with several key contacts. Schedules fill up fast at these events! You can always follow up with more details about show-specific announcements and activities later, after your target media contacts have confirmed their availability to meet.
Keep the conversation industry-level. After the initial save-the-date pitch, we shifted our efforts to focus on Dell EMC’s predictions for both the show, and the broadcast and media industries at large. This allowed us to discuss broader trends and challenges (for example, the industry’s increasing “elastic demand” for resources), and how Dell EMC and its solutions portfolio addressed those. Rather than sending out a salesy, buzzword-filled pitch that centered on Dell EMC’s products only, we elevated the conversation to address higher-level industry-wide issues. As a result, we were able to secure a byline with a key broadcast publication, and a briefing with a key industry association’s publication.
Create and leverage content assets. In addition to media relations, we developed a blog post for Dell EMC around what demos and products attendees could expect to see at the show (“One Technology Provider for All Your Media Pro Needs,” April 9, 2018). Content like blog posts can not only be helpful for PR teams to secure media interest but can be leveraged by sales and business development executives within the organization to send to clients and prospects to secure meetings at the event.
In total, we secured seven press and analyst meetings for Dell EMC’s media and entertainment team, comprised of both phone interviews and onsite meetings at the show. The resulting coverage included the following:
- postPerspective TV, April 13, 2018 – “NAB 2018: Dell EMC’s Tom Burns”
- NAB Show Live/Broadcast Beat, April 17, 2018 – “NAB Show Live, Wednesday”
- postPerspective, April 26, 2018 – “High Performance Flash Storage at NAB 2018”
- Digital Production Buzz, April 26, 2018 – “Thomas Burns: Scalable, Flexible Storage for Media Collaboration”
Regardless of your department, level or industry, it’s likely that you’ll be faced with the task of giving a presentation or speaking in front of large or small groups at any given point of your career. From pitching your ideas in a meeting, presenting in a new business meeting, or speaking at an industry trade show, elements of public speaking creep into our daily lives, and for some, can trigger feelings of fear or high anxiety.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) published an article titled, “Assessment: What’s Feeding Your Fear of Public Speaking?” As the title alludes, the piece shares an assessment for readers to take measure of where they fall on the public speaking “fear spectrum,” compared to other readers who took the quiz. With “Completely at Ease When Presenting” at one end and “Fear Public Speaking Worse than Death,” at the other, I landed somewhere in the middle with a score of 67 (slightly more comfortable public speaking than the average assessment participant, who received a score of 62.6).
Public speaking and the associated fear comes in all shapes and sizes. I recently attended a pun-off battle where the participants were challenged to tell stories weaving in puns related to specific themes. Watching these contestants triggered a little fear in me, and some of my friends who attended felt awkward themselves because they knew they would have a hard time doing what these individuals were doing and, even more so, coping with the unknown response (or worse, silence) from the audience. The first round found the contestants telling prepared stories on a theme of their choice, but the rounds following and after judge eliminations, were on unknown themes that each contestant drew out of a hat. With no time to prepare, they had to quickly scramble and tell a “punny” story.
This contest, although in a casual brewery environment, is public speaking nonetheless, and I was extremely impressed with a majority of the contestants’ abilities to clearly tell stories in front of such a large audience, especially without preparing materials. I am not sure how they would assess or rank their own fears of public speaking, but I imagine they would receive more than a 62.6 on HBR’s “fear spectrum.”
The HBR assessment provides 24 “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” questions taken from scientifically validated tools used in psych research. Each question aims to measure how individuals manage their emotional responses in six key areas: confidence in expertise, extraversion vs. introversion, ability to empathize, self-esteem, optimism vs. pessimism and response to perceived threats. It is no doubt that the pun-off contestants had confidence in their expertise, puns at the top of that list.
After completing the assessment, the algorithm provides advice around how to manage fears, increase comfortability and manage stage presence. Below is a list of the six areas and the exact advice I received after I finished the quiz. I encourage you to take the assessment and incorporate the findings you receive to help improve your relationship with public speaking. You can find the quiz here and the advice for a score of 67 below.
- Confidence in Expertise: “Your answers indicate self-assurance: You believe that you have something valuable to share with your audience and that your thoughts and ideas are worth hearing. Stay confident, but avoid crossing the line into arrogance. Remind yourself that when you’re presenting, you’re not doing it for yourself — you’re doing it to bring something of value to those in your audience. Keep your focus on them.”
- Extraversion vs. Introversion: “You lean toward extraversion. Because you enjoy people — even those you don’t know well — you may enjoy speaking to groups, viewing it as a chance to connect with others. In the audience, your fellow extraverts will respond in the moment to ideas and concepts. They’ll give you clear visual signals that they like (or don’t like) what’s being said. But don’t assume everyone will react that way. You’ll probably also be speaking to a fair number of introverts, who prefer to carefully consider ideas before responding to them. Know that you may not get much immediate feedback from them — it will come at a later time.”
- Ability to Empathize: “Your ability to identify how others are feeling and thinking makes the prospect of addressing a group less daunting than it would be otherwise. You have a natural tendency to pick up on body language, which can help you interpret how your audience is reacting to what you’re saying. Leverage this empathy by adjusting your content or style of delivery as you present, responding to the cues your audience is giving you. For instance, if people seem disengaged, increase your dynamism to draw them back in.”
- Self-Esteem: “Your self-esteem seems strong, and that can help you take the stage with confidence and ease. Be aware, though, that high self-esteem can lead to a false sense of security and a tendency to underprepare. Frequently, highly confident people feel comfortable winging it when they present. Sometimes this works in their favor, but often it does not. Don’t let your confidence deceive you into thinking you don’t need to work hard on your content and your delivery.”
- Optimism vs. Pessimism: “Your willingness to believe that good things do happen may help you maintain an open, positive attitude toward presenting, increasing the likelihood that you will speak with courage and assurance. Still, things can go wrong when you present, possibly undercutting that positivity. Before your next presentation, spend a few moments thinking about what could go wrong, and then picture yourself overcoming those obstacles with skill and grace.”
- Response to Perceived Threats: “Because of your natural ‘fight’ (rather than ‘flight’) response, you’re likely to step onto the stage with a commitment to succeeding, even if public speaking isn’t your favorite thing to do. Build on this tendency by taking as many speaking engagements as you can. See each experience as an opportunity to continually improve, challenging yourself to become even more comfortable, dynamic, and empathetic.”
In June, I had an opportunity to participate on a panel – Fake News vs. Media – moderated by Luis Fonseca, managing partner for Emirec Consulting, a marketing and communications consultancy in Portugal and a PRN member agency.
My fellow panelists included Vitor Norinha, reporter with Vida Economica; Uriel Oliveira, vice president at Cision Portugal; and João Pina, CTO for MeshApp. While we all have different roles in the industry, it was clear from the discussion that each of us is impacted professionally by fake news.
The panel agreed that while fake news has been politicized recently, it has always existed. With the rise of the internet and social media in particular, the way news is spread has changed. Access to content is immediate via mobile devices, and it is much easier to share content. To that point, according to Pew Research Center’s “Digital News Fact Sheet,” 93 percent of Americans receive news online and “more than eight-in-ten U.S. adults (85 percent) now get news on a mobile device, up from 72 percent in 2016.” According to prior Pew Research data, 47 percent of those receiving alerts clicked through to read the story.
Furthermore, findings from a study by Columbia University and the French National Institute revealed that “people are more willing to share an article than read it.” Arnaud Legout, the study’s co-author explained, “This is typical of modern information consumption. People form an opinion based on a summary, or summary of summaries, without making the effort to go deeper.” Unfortunately, this can perpetuate the dissemination of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news.
As articulated in the report, How to combat fake news and disinformation by The Brookings Institute, “Everyone has a responsibility to combat the scourge of fake news. This ranges from supporting investigative journalism, reducing financial incentives for fake news, and improving digital literacy among the general public.”
The report details the responsibilities of governments, the news industry, technology companies, educational institutions, and the public to “promote timely, accurate, and civil discourse in the face of false news and disinformation.”
Similarly, the panelists and I seemed to agree there is no one solution. We all have a responsibility to combat fake news.
PR professionals are instrumental in protecting their clients’ reputations and credibility by scrutinizing information they intend to disseminate, ensuring proof points to validate and support any claims and content so it is accurately communicated and understood. For more on this topic, read: Why PR Pros Should be Worried about Fake News – And How We Can Fight It.
Effective Marketing in a Time of Growing Social Media Distrust
It’s no secret that today’s public is increasingly dependent on social media for more than just staying afloat of your second cousin’s new baby, or what a high school acquaintance made for dinner last night. Sectors including politics, world news, and brand communication are increasingly reliant on social media platforms and their wide-reaching audiences for marketing and connection, yet this constant accessibility to information is not without its downfalls in the realm of information security – just take a look at Facebook’s recent Cambridge Analytica user/personal data leak fiasco.
In light of events like these, consumers are increasingly skeptical of how trustworthy social media tycoons are, in turn engaging less, meaning bad news for both the platforms and the brands that rely on them. According to a CMO Council Study, 99 percent of consumers would cut ties with companies that did not earn their trust. I’ve compiled a few strategies about how to beat this growing public skepticism of social media in order to continue your online marketing success.
Tell your story, authentically
Engage your customer base in a meaningful way through photos, words, videos, etc. Relationships matter to consumers when it comes to learning about a brand and deciding whether to purchase its offerings, and that trust is built on a mutual relationship between brand and user. If the consumer is sharing their personal information on a social media platform, seeing that reciprocation from organizations puts both parties on a more level playing field and increases feelings of connection. In doing so, make sure to watch out for over-promotion and appearing too pushy. While advertising and increasing brand awareness are your goals, constant ads on a reader’s feed tends to spur the assumption that revenue is more important than relationship.
Consider employees vs. influencers
Directly related to authenticity, no one knows the intimate workings of a company like its own employees, which is why successful marketing teams are increasingly turning to their organization’s team members in an effort to increase transparency and trust in their public brand recognition. Consumers are more likely to trust promotions coming from someone they know can authentically praise a brand, rather than a celebrity paid to do the same. Sprout Social reports that 61 percent of consumers would research a product or service that a friend recommends on social media, yet only 36 percent say the same of promotions via a paid influencer, no matter how famous.
Make the first move
Engaging with your consumers is just as important as them engaging with you, and it helps if you make the first move. Just like that initial contact with a dating prospect, keep it light, entertaining, and don’t be afraid to make a relatable joke or two to break down the wall. Showing lighthearted vulnerability projects an image of self-awareness and suggests that you don’t have anything to hide from your consumers. Relatability and authenticity directly correlate with consumer trust.
In an epoch of social media skepticism, separate yourself from the notion of the untrustworthy “establishment” by projecting a transparent image to your audience. Advertising you have nothing to hide from your audience is just as important as advertising your products, and a surefire way to gain public trust and engagement.
I had a feature writing professor at Western Washington University who started every class with a lesson on avoiding hoopdidoodle in our writing. He defines hoopdidoodle as useless, extra wording that doesn’t add any meaning to our writing. It’s surprising how much of that we do, thinking we’re including necessary details when in reality these words, phrases and clichés are slowing our readers down and weakening our writing. Other names I use interchangeably for this concept are clutter, fluff, and mumbo-jumbo.
Writing concisely is a life lesson we must continually learn. Even the best of writers deal with removing certain material that simply doesn’t do anything for the reader or the piece itself. Writing concisely doesn’t just apply to novels, press releases, fact sheets, media backgrounders or briefing books. As writers, being concise in every piece of content we put out means being efficient in the short email pitches we send, the appointment confirmations we make with potential clients, and the Twitter posts we produce for current ones.
How annoying is it to have a conversation with someone who beats around the bush, over explains, or doesn’t get their point across in a straightforward way? Writing is the same. We want whoever is reading our work to connect with our message and engage instead of spending extra time just trying to figure out what we’re saying and why there are so many words.
As writers, we have to assume that readers are lazy. If we can get our message across in as few words as possible and still make an impact, why shouldn’t we? If readers have to struggle to reach the ends of our sentences, read over unnecessary adjectives, dead words and/or redundant phrases, their chances of giving up increase.
I’ve found that my writing has improved with the implementation of shorter sentences. Shorter, more succinct sentences make just as much of an impact as longer ones, if not more, because of their precision. Having a healthy mix of both shows how much attention a writer is paying to the art of syntax. Other tips I’ve learned include avoiding adverbs (i.e., “very”, “quite” “really” etc.) when possible, using active voice instead of passive voice (“the client gave me information” versus “information was given to me by the client”), avoiding redundancy (“result” versus “end result” or “summarize” versus “summarize briefly”), and avoiding the use of unnecessarily fancy jargon for the sake of making yourself look like an expert (i.e., exacerbate, auspicious, acrimonious, grandiose).
Working on removing clutter from my writing has helped me remove it from other areas in my life as well. I believe writing concisely and being clear is a lesson we can learn every day because everything is connected. If there are things in your life that add no value, slow you down or cause a roadblock, remove them. Although it’s a practice that takes time, effort, and in many cases, input from those who have your best interest at heart, it’s worth it. This philosophy applies to writing as well.
So, professor John Harris, I write this blog post in your honor. Thank you for teaching me how imperative it is to write concisely. Believe it or not, your lessons on avoiding hoopdidoodle have come in handy in more ways than one.