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.
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.
Our increasingly distracting digital society has created relentless competition for attention, and as a result, the emotional appeal of a pitch can often be the determining factor of who gets coverage and who doesn’t.
“With the current state of the media industry (less people doing more jobs), the competition for media attention is tight,” says Markstein’s Nicole Wyatt. “The emotional appeal of a media pitch has always been important, but now more than ever it is crucial.”
It’s imperative that as PR professionals we continue to hone our ability to tell a captivating story that is driven by emotional intelligence. If we as professionals can’t take a cue from what is now commonplace for educators across the country who are teaching the importance of emotional intelligence to young children, we’re in trouble.
Since the concept of emotional intelligence was introduced decades ago it has been proclaimed by many as the secret, intangible key to success. There are various, complex definitions for what makes up the concept of emotional intelligence, but Inc. managed to sum it up in a single, simple sentence: “Emotional intelligence is the ability to make emotions work for you, instead of against you.”
Emotional intelligence covers five main areas: self-awareness, emotional control, self-motivation, empathy and relationship skills. It is, of course, important for good communication with others – and is therefore a gateway to better learning, friendships, academic success and employment. Skills such as these, developed in our formative years at school, often provide the foundation for habits we’ll need later in life.
Which is why Dave Yonkman’s “Why PR pros should focus on audience emotions” article on PR Daily made me stop, read and reflect on his three distinct points of recommendation.
How emotion grabs consumers
Emotional appeal is pivotal, but you still need a story. Your product or service needs something new, interesting or tangible to make it newsworthy. The tricky part is connecting emotion to an inherently unemotional object or topic.
For example, Communiqué PR works with several technology companies where it can be challenging to pull out the emotional appeal of data storage as a standalone topic. But when coupled with the importance of backing up your family photos, it gets real – and emotional.
Becky Honeyman, with SourceCode Communications, says, “If you can make someone ‘feel’ something, you will increase the response rate or engagement level tenfold. It’s fundamental for brands today to build relationships with their audiences. They can only do that by communicating consistently and authentically on subjects that are genuinely meaningful to them.”
How emotion piques media interest
The emotional appeal can help start the conversation, but it can only get you so far. The combination of a data-driven and personal approach to outreach is what will help you break through the noise.
At Communiqué, we have seen the most success when including data to validate any claim we make in a pitch or byline. We always look for credible and objective sources that support a unique point of view to demonstrate how that the issue impacts a broader audience.
Additionally, we recognize relationship building is not something that happens overnight and takes considerable time to cultivate and maintain. Part of that is demonstrating your value and providing journalists with ideas that correlate with their interests and coverage priorities.
This can take shape in a variety of ways and is obviously dependent upon personal preferences, but it can be as simple as reaching out to compliment them on a recent story – without a pitch in hand, referencing recent coverage in a pitch, or retweeting them on Twitter, for example. You don’t necessarily need a grand gesture, but it will lay the groundwork for future interactions.
“What’s in it for me?”
Emotional intelligence is the underlying theme here, spanning the importance of appealing to your target audience while also capturing media interest. The ability to understand and articulate the news value and how it resonates with specific media targets will make or break your campaign.
The old saying of walk a mile in someone else’s shoes still holds strong.
A seasoned PR professional, whom I look to as a mentor, has helped me embody this spirit in that when developing a pitch, she recommends starting by envisioning the aspirational headline you’re trying to achieve and working back from that to determine why the reporter should care, why their readers should care, what value this brings to our client, or other insights that can drive the pitch or byline.
While the internal optimist in me likes to believe that all people have an altruistic purpose, the reality is people react and respond quickly when it directly impacts them and satisfies their specific needs at that very moment. Whether right or wrong, the awareness can make all the difference.
With so much going on in the news right now, from Pride Month to the World Cup, there are many opportunities for PR professionals to jump on the bandwagon and promote their brand, aka the newsjack. I’m not going to go into depth explaining the term since it has been around since 2012 when David Meerman Scott wrote a book on the topic, but as a refresher or quick insight to those who do not know: Newsjacking can be simply defined as “injecting your ideas into breaking news.”
While most PR pros know about the idea and attempt it frequently, many of their efforts fail or receive little or negative feedback. Here you will find tips on how to appropriately and effectively take advantage of popular news, as well as ways to avoid poor and tasteless newsjacking.
Do:
Be timely: When trying to jump on a story, you should be sure to do so before everyone else does. This way when people are trying to research and learn more about a story, your content will be first to reach them. No one is trying to get more information on a story that has already passed. News moves quickly, and if you post too late, your key publics will have moved on to something else by then. An example of good timing is this tweet by Aldi, a European supermarket that jumped on the impending World Cup match up between Denmark and Australian.
Will you be saying skål to the Danes or cheers mate to the Aussies in today's game? pic.twitter.com/fh3NKl41Fi
— Aldi Stores UK (@AldiUK) June 21, 2018
Plan if possible: While jumping on a breaking news story can be effective, you are pressured to come up with an effective message in a short amount of time. If you look ahead at what big news stories will be coming up, such as the Olympics or the birth of a royal baby, you have time to create and edit the perfect message to capture the attention of your audience. An example is this Coca-Cola tweet, which looked ahead to the birth of the royal baby and created a graphic that was witty and creative to go along with the occasion.
Time for a Royal Celebration! #Royalbaby pic.twitter.com/lITsX3lHfQ
— Coca-Cola (@CocaCola) July 22, 2013
Jump on positive messages: While much of the news we see today is negative, that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful in newsjacking an uplifting story. You want your brand to be seen in a positive light, so it is a good idea to attach it to news that is also positive. It might be tempting to jump on negative stories since they can be more popular, but this can easily be done poorly and can leave your brand open to scrutiny. See below for examples of what can happen if you newsjack a negative story in poor taste.
Don’t:
Promote at any cost: Make sure you are only newsjacking stories or events that your key publics will care about. If you are doing PR for PR’s sake, you’re wasting your time and your publics’ time. Your message will come off as pushy and will leave a bad taste in your audience’s mouth, rather than elevating your brand. An example of this was @UrbanOutfitters tweet during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The tweet gained so much bad press that it had to be deleted, but it read “this storm blows but free shipping doesn’t!”. Not only did they belittle a storm that killed over 100 people, but they tried to turn it around into a promotion for free shipping. This story was irrelevant to their brand and they should not have tried to newsjack it.
Copy: This may seem self-explanatory, but do not copy other brands attempts at newsjacking. You may see a great tweet and think you can spin it to fit your brand and no one will notice, and you might get away with it, but there is a greater chance someone will spot the similarity and you will be scrutinized. If someone is looking at content under a hashtag and finds your post, they will probably find the post you copied. Remember that every post or tweet has a timestamp and you will be viewed as lazy or uncreative in the eyes of your publics.
Definitely Don’t:
Offend anyone: The worst thing you can do is newsjack a sensitive news story to boost your brand’s image. No tweet is worth the risk of offending people and creating a scandal for your brand where you will have to go into crisis mode. If you take anything away from my tips, make sure you get your posts proofread by multiple people. Hopefully, if a couple people look over your content before you post it, you will catch offensive messages before they go live, and you will avoid having to post an apology later. Another example that has since been deleted, is @kennethcole that tweeted “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor they heard our new spring collection is now available online”, during the deadly political mayhem that was unraveling in Egypt in 2011. This tweet lead to an apology the company had to issue in the face of the scandal that ensued.