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.
Raise your hand if you have read and responded to all of the emails in your inbox this week. While I’m sure there will be some overachievers out there, I’m betting the majority of you have at least one or two emails you’re putting off replying to or you simply deleted.
In PR, we’ve all heard how reporters are inundated with emails and it’s true. Journalists are people just like us, with urgent work deadlines and limited attention spans to devote to tedious or impersonal messages.
At Communiqué, we’ve secured top-tier coverage for our clients by customizing our pitches and picking up the phone to make those follow-up calls. However, we also firmly believe in the power of another media relations strategy – the deskside meeting.
When our clients mention upcoming travel plans, we immediately begin reaching out to our contacts from target outlets based in the area. Currently, I’m scheduling deskside meetings for our tech and service firm clients with editors and reporters from Bloomberg, Fortune, Mashable, PSFK and The Seattle Times to name a few.
These one-on-one deskside meetings are highly beneficial for an initial introduction between a CEO and editor, product launch announcements, or a major company update.
Here are four reasons why you should start scheduling your own deskside meetings today:
1) If the media won’t come to the client, the client must go to the media – Remember when I mentioned journalists are busy? A shrinking news staff coupled with a growing demand on reporters to blog, create videos, and take photos on top of their editorial assignments means reporters are under pressure to deliver more content with less time. Offering to meet at a time and location convenient for reporters is appealing to them and shows you value their time.
2) Facetime still matters – PR is all about building meaningful relationships and face-to-face conversations can establish rapport and trust much quicker than a phone interview or email exchange. Instead of relying solely on content to drive an interview, nonverbal cues such as tone and body language can also help engage reporters during in-person meetings.
3) A little bit of attention can go a long way – Scheduling deskside meetings has the added benefit of guaranteeing a priceless commodity – a journalist’s undivided attention. Whether the deskside lasts one hour or only 10 minutes, this is a rare window to deliver key messages and find out what topics they’re researching. Before an interview, we help our clients prepare three to five solid talking points and schedule practice sessions to make sure the messaging is concise and consistent.
4) Setting the stage for thought leadership – Even if a deskside meeting doesn’t necessarily result in an immediate article, it lays the foundation for future opportunities. During in-person meetings, executives can demonstrate their expertise on a range of industry trends, earning them a coveted spot on a reporter’s shortlist of resources to call for a quote. While a profile piece may be the ultimate goal for speaking to the press, serving as their go-to industry expert in the meantime may result in several mentions.
It may seem counterintuitive to request a face-to-face meeting with time-strapped journalists, but most reporters are usually willing to spare 15 minutes depending on the news value and existing relationship with the PR firm. Despite the ease of sending a press release over email or conducting a Q&A over the phone, the personal connection forged through desksides increases the likelihood of coverage and is critical for building long-term relationships.
Now who’s ready to nail those sound bites?
For journalists, the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook is the industry “bible.” They live and die by its grammar and style rules, and most have taken numerous journalism school classes to perfect the art of AP style writing. As such, AP style errors in press releases are glaringly obvious to reporters and could turn them off from considering a press release. But mastering the 500-page book, which is updated every year, can be a daunting task.
Below is a list of the top AP style tips that every PR professional should know and some of the most commonly made mistakes to avoid. Although you should always have an AP Stylebook at your desk, consider this your cheat sheet for quick reference.
Addresses
Only use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd. and St. with a numbered address. Always use figures for a numbered address. Example: His address is 1600 Pike St. He lives on Pike Street.
For street names that are numbers, spell out and capitalize First through Ninth. Use figures with two letters for 10 and above. Example: He lives on Third Avenue. She lives near 10th and 22nd streets.
Spell out Interstate on first reference, then abbreviate. Example: She drove down Interstate 5 to get to work. She also took I-5 when she drove home.
Dimensions
When writing about height, weight or other dimensions, use figures and spell out words such as feet, miles, etc. Examples: She is 5-foot-6. He wrote with a 3-inch pencil.
Hyphens
Hyphenate the words that go together when using adjectives to modify words. For example: energy-efficient products, much-anticipated announcements, long-term relationships.
Words that end in “–ly” are adverbs and should never be hyphenated.
“More Than” Vs. “Over”
Use “more than” when referring to numbers and “over” when referring to spatial elements. For example: We acquired more than 100,000 customers. The cow jumped over the moon.
Numbers
Write out numbers one through nine, and use figures for 10 and above. Spell out a number if it starts a sentence unless it’s a year.
For percentages, use numbers and do not use the % symbol. Example: 39 percent.
Punctuation
AP doesn’t like the Oxford comma. Do not use a comma before the last item in a simple series.
Punctuation always goes inside quotation marks. Example: “No exceptions,” I said.
State Abbreviations
AP doesn’t follow standard ZIP code abbreviations. Instead, each state has its own unique abbreviation. For example: Mass. for Massachusetts, N.Y. for New York, Calif. for California, Fla. for Florida, and W. Va for West Virginia. Note that eight states aren’t abbreviated: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. In addition, omit state abbreviations for well-known U.S. cities (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York, etc.)
Times
Use a colon to separate hours from minutes, but do not use :00. Example: 1 p.m., 3:30 a.m. When referencing a.m. and p.m. always place the periods in this manner.
Titles
Formal titles that precede an individual’s name are capitalized. Titles that fall after are lowercase. For example: We clapped when XYZ Co-Founder Joe Bloe cut the ribbon. Patty Smith, director of marketing at XYZ, attended the ceremony as well.
Always give someone’s full name when first introducing them. After the introduction, refer to them by their last name.
This list covers the basics of AP Style, but it’s certainly not comprehensive. If you’re ever unsure about a rule, be sure to break out your book and look it up. You can also download AP StyleGuard, a solution that integrates with Microsoft Word and automatically checks your documents for AP style. It may seem trivial, but grammar matters – especially to journalists.
Polaris Office, a client of Communiqué PR, is introducing a new office productivity suite in the U.S. market in a daring attempt to disrupt the current status quo and offer an alternative to industry Goliaths Microsoft and Google.
Polaris Office is a Korean-based software company offering an intuitive, cloud-based office productivity suite that breaks down the barriers of the traditional office ecosystem. Originally launched as a mobile app in 2014, Polaris Office has since been adopted by more than 37 million users globally by appealing to a younger, more mobile user demographic that demands flexibility in terms of their work environment.
Inspired both by user response to its mobile product and to the need for cross-functional, collaborative productivity software solutions to serve an increasingly distributed workforce, Polaris Office has expanded its offering to the desktop. Its cloud-based productivity suite was developed to break down the barriers of traditional office ecosystems by offering powerful office functionality and easy cloud accessibility to enable a seamless experience across multiple platforms and devices. Its offering is also cost-effective, with usage plans ranging from free to $5.99 per month.
Introducing a Barrier-Free Office Productivity Suite to the U.S. Market
For any company, entering the U.S. market is no small feat. The bar is even higher when you’re introducing a new product with intentions to compete against globally recognized brands like Microsoft Office and Google for Work that currently own the office software category.
An undeterred and inspired challenger, Polaris Office wanted to introduce its fully integrated productivity suite to the U.S. market in Q1 2016. The company approached Communiqué PR in February and together, we developed a PR strategy to announce the new product and demonstrate how it transcends the constraints of traditional office software.
Challenging brands as strong as Google and Microsoft is an ambitious endeavor and we believed there would be interest from business and technology press. Our approach involved first developing a press release to express the significance of Polaris Office’s entry into the market and demonstrate how the barrier-free product transcends the constraints of others in the space. Next, we curated a press list focused on journalists covering business news, technology, the future of work, and of course, Polaris Office’s competitors. We then offered the news under embargo to targeted media to encourage interest in the news, coordinate advance interviews and drive coverage to coincide with the official product launch date. And finally, we shared the news over the wire and to our tailored list of press.
Coverage Recap
Polaris Office’s expansion to desktop and entry to the U.S. market was announced on March 8, 2016. Below is a list of articles that were published in the first two days following wire distribution:
- Mobile Marketing Watch: “First Look: Polaris Office Expands to Desktop”
- AJU Business Daily: “‘Polaris Office’ goes global with cloud-based PC version”
- Product-Reviews: “Polaris Office US release with new subscription fees”
- Cloud Wedge: “Polaris Releases Desktop Version of Popular Cloud Office Suite”
- TechCrunch: “Seoul-based Polaris Office launches its enterprise productivity suite in the U.S.”
- IT Pro Portal: “Polaris Office launches new cloud-based productivity suite”
- PCWorld: “Hands-on: Polaris Office is a free Office alternative, but read the fine print”
- FierceCIO: “Brazen or crazy? Polaris Office goes head to head with Microsoft and Google”
- Network World: “Polaris wants to take on Microsoft and Google. Good luck with that!”
- WinBuzzer News: “Microsoft Productivity Suites Targeted by Polaris Office”
Based on the response from media thus far, we anticipate even more coverage will result from outreach in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, we congratulate Polaris Office on this significant achievement and look forward to telling the company’s story as it continues to offer innovative features for its platform and build its market share in the office software space—both in the U.S. and globally.
Today, with more and more people working remotely, it is important to maintain relationships through communication with virtual teams or freelancers. The ability to quickly and easily communicate with coworkers who are both in and out of the office has become vital to office efficiency and transparency. Of late we have experienced an explosion of various software platforms and apps all fighting to help businesses collaborate while staying organized and focused.
A while back, I received a text message from my sister asking if our office uses Slack. I quickly responded with a straight, “No, what is this oddity of which you speak?” – only to get a response of her ranting about how it is such a great online collaboration app and tool to stay connected with coworkers in the office. Is that not what Skype and email (even with its limitations) are for?
Since that day, I began seeing Slack pop up in online advertisements, blog posts, and social media channels – well played, cookies. In addition, a few of our own clients began including us in their Slack groups. I decided to investigate what exactly Slack can do to help teams, and an office as a whole, be more productive when it comes to communication. Having garnered over 2 million users in only two short years, ranging from The New York Times to Walmart, and having been valued at more than $1 billion in 2014, I was excited to find out what the hoopla is about.
My first impression of Slack is a great example of why so many people are riding the Slack train. The interface is straightforward and streamlined – things that are becoming rare with technology today. Upon visiting Slack.com, one simply enters an email address, creates a username, and agrees to terms in order to get Slack up and running. Slack is free of charge but businesses can pay a fee for extra features.
I am informed via the welcome screen that Slack is “a messaging app for teams” – another way of saying welcome to communication in the digital age. A rundown of various features within the product gets me familiarized with the app. The product employs open and private channels, chat rooms based around a topic or team, as well as direct messages, private one-to-one messages, and file sharing to provide an integrated channel for communication that avoids users having to switch between multiple applications. I also notice Slack has added a shortcut to my desktop similar to any other computer application for easy access in the future.
There is also the ability to integrate other services that you might use, such as Skype. Furthermore, features that I have not yet found necessary but that many users applaud are the seamless transition between Slack on desktop computers to mobile devices (Android and iOS apps), the automatic archiving of all conversations (a tool that Slack founder sees helpful when onboarding and getting new employees up to speed), as well as the customization users can apply to notifications.
Lastly, in a March 1, 2016, press conference, the company shared plans for future growth, including the integration of video chat and an updated billing system to assist the finances of large corporations. Now in beta stages, the conference-calling feature allows for fast, direct calling between colleagues without the need for any addition plug-ins.
For good reason, Slack is the fast growing enterprise software, however, I detect a few problems with the integration of the app into office communication efforts. In my short time working with Slack, it is easy to see that the app is just one more thing to pay attention. For many, notifications from various apps are already controlling what little attention span they have, so why have another pop-up nagging you?
For most public relations teams, there is also going to be the use of email outside of Slack creating the possibility of over exposure and therefore creating inefficiencies rather than increasing productivity.
While Slack is great for pinging your coworker or acquaintance, the app seems too personal to rely on when pitching journalists or reaching out for business development or networking purposes. The aforementioned notifications are customizable and able to be controlled, so it is important, to retain your sanity, that you find what works best for you in terms of push notifications.
Lastly, Slack’s privacy policy warrants a thorough read because of certain legalities in regard to business communications. According to The Verge, executives of companies using Slack Plus are legally permitted to obtain all messages that go through the app if requested. That being said, it is possible for almost every employer to legally track all workplace communications, from phone calls to email. By no means is Slack crossing new privacy boundaries, but the feature is important to note.
Dismissing Slack as just another chat room would be misleading, but I can easily see how a tool meant for collaboration and efficiency can lead to anything but. With a new round of funding in the pipeline for Slack, I am excited to see what is to come from the app.
Many know Shonda Rhimes as the creator of hit TV shows that include Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, and How to Get Away With Murder. She is also the architect of her own production company, Shondaland that is responsible for nearly 70 incredible hours of prime-time television a season.
It is often difficult to relate with or consider a celebrity as a “real” person, much less accept their advice on success. However, Rhimes’ TED Talk from TED Dream in Vancouver this past February, truly touched me because it directly addressed something we all feel at times – burnout.
The 46-year-old Rhimes, challenged herself to a year of saying yes to everything. I was skeptical at first because it seems impossible, but stay with me. In her TED Talk, she explained that during this year, she forced herself to face monumental fears such as public speaking, live TV interviews, and even acting. In saying yes to these difficult and scary tasks, she “undid” the fear. But it wasn’t until one question – and one “yes” – that really pulled her life into clear focus.
The Hum
As a mother of three children and creator, writer and source of genius for a significant number of hit television shows, Rhimes clearly has a passion for her work. She calls the feeling she gets while working, “the hum,” and she lives for it. “I am the hum,” she said. So when the hum stopped for Rhimes and her work started to taste bitter, she felt lost, overworked, burned out, and with no sense of purpose.
It wasn’t until one day when one of her daughters asked her to play did Rhimes slowly start hearing a hum again – and not the hum, a hum – and it felt good. Although it was not the same work hum that had filled her with passion before, it was a hum she had missed, the feeling of living for a passion that was greater than her work. Where before she would have rather been at work than home, this new hum brought a fresh love and passion back into her life, with family as the priority. She began to dedicate 15 minutes every day to focus on this new hum and in doing so, she discovered she didn’t need the old hum to survive. It did not define her anymore. She became this new kind of hum—an embodiment of the joy and passion she felt outside of her work playing with her children once again.
So how can we find our hum?
Confronting stress and the feeling of impending or inevitable burnout is terrifying, regardless of age or occupation. When you get to a point in your career, relationship, or life where you must ask, “Who am I?” it can bring unfamiliar emotions and change the way you once viewed what you love. So how can we –employees, business owners, heads of the household, managers and supervisors – find our hum?
Do what Shonda Rhimes did.
Despite our levels of success or accomplishment, we are human and are likely to suffer from stress. Take 15 minutes to pay attention to yourself. Read, go on a walk, take a nap, play with your kids, draw a picture, knit. Put down your phone and dedicate 15 minutes to finding your life hum. In doing so, slowly but surely, you will create a new passion for yourself, outside of the work that once ran you. You will find that saying yes can be daunting; especially saying yes to 15 minutes of what scares you, like saying no to work. Like Rhimes, you may hear more than one hum, but deciding which hum runs your life is where the real challenge lies.
Communiqué PR recently started working with Versium, a Redmond, Wash.-based company that provides automated data technology solutions to enterprise and agency marketers. Versium delivers predictive scores that are built from the company’s proprietary LifeData® platform, which contains over half a trillion data attributes sourced from publicly observable and commercially available means.
In a nutshell, Versium and its suite of marketing solutions tackles one of the most challenging problems in business: making big data understandable to ordinary business people.
Earlier this year we were tasked with launching Versium’s Predictive Lead Score service.
Being in a space that is widely covered and top of mind with media can be both a blessing and a curse for PR professionals. On one hand, reporters are writing lots of stories about your industry (in this case, predictive marketing, predictive analytics, and big data), but on the other hand, that means the need for differentiation and credibility are paramount in order to break through the noise.
The fact that Versium’s solutions aligned with a number of broader industry trends frequently being discussed in the marketing trade press was an instrumental factor in our ability to secure briefings and coverage. For example:
- Unprecedented growth in data, driven by growth in mobile, social, interactive websites, government third party data and more. In addition to being inundated with data from these disparate sources, many marketers are unsure how to derive actionable intelligence from it in a timely manner.
- Increasing pressure to leverage big data – driving the need for new solutions that capture, curate, manage, and process this data in real-time in order to back real-time decisions.
CPR positioned Versium, and its CEO Chris Matty, as a thought leader in the big data/predictive marketing space, able to provide commentary on industry trends and market dynamics. Doing this elevated a stand-alone product announcement as an opportunity to talk about not only Versium’s news, but the overall direction of the industry – providing value to reporters and keeping Versium top of mind with them for future stories.
Laying the groundwork with analysts
Our first step in terms of media outreach was to set up some initial briefings and demos with industry analysts. For companies launching a product or entering a new market, analysts can be instrumental in testing out messaging and getting perspective about the strength of their offering in the competitive landscape. Within the first couple of weeks we had briefings secured with many of the top firms, including:
- Beagle Research Group
- Enterprise Management Associates
- Gartner
- Forrester
- IDC Research Group
Narrowing the focus to industry trade publications
Our next priority was to focus on news briefings with journalists around the product announcement. Versium’s main targets centered on the marketing trade press, so we narrowed our press list to those outlets and kept our attention there. We also gathered editorial calendars from these priority publications to make sure that we were pitching Versium for upcoming feature stories and special issues whenever there might be a good fit.
In total, we secured 13 articles for Versium’s product launch, and a total of 10 briefings with press and analysts. The full list of coverage is provided below:
- Marketing Land: Versium Launches Self-Service Predictive Lead Scoring With Automated Modeling, 1/27/16
- VentureBeat: Versium uses big data and machine learning to predict your best leads, 1/27/16
- IT Business Canada: Versium brings top-drawer marketing analytics to the masses with new service, 1/27/16
- Marketing Dive: Versium released a predictive marketing platform to spur conversions, 1/28/16
- Adotas: Versium Launches Automated Predictive Lead Score Service, 1/28/16
- 425 Business: Versium Launches LifeData Predictive Scores for Marketers, 1/28/16
- Inside BigData: Versium Launches Machine Learning Driven Automated LifeData® Predictive Lead Score Service, 1/29/16
- MarTech Advisor: Versium to Incorporate Over a Trillion LifeData® Business and Consumer Attributes Through the Launch of its First Automated Predictive Lead Score Service, 1/29/16
- SiliconAngle, 2/1 – What you missed in Big Data: Separating the signal from the noise
- MediaPost, 2/1 – Versium Automates Predictive Marketing
- FierceBigData, 2/1 – Versium launches automated Predictive Lead Score service for marketers
- The Redmond Reporter, 2/2 – Versium launches LifeData Predictive Lead Score service
- Marketing Land, 2/26 – MarTech Landscape: What Is Predictive Analytics?
Congratulations to Versium on its launch! We look forward to keeping the momentum going for this new client and securing more great stories in the months ahead.