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, Facebook quietly announced in a blog post that it has updated its policies around “click-bait” links. According to the post, click-baiting refers to links “with a headline that encourages people to click to see more, without telling them much information about what they will see.” We’ve all seen these—you’re scrolling down your news feed and come across a link with a giant photo and ambiguous caption: “You’ll never GUESS what this celeb did… Click through to see!” These types of in-your-face links often receive a lot of clicks but are not always the most valuable, suppressing content that viewers actually want to read and share.
Facebook has therefore decided (reasonably so) to improve the quality of stories appearing on the news feed and reduce the number of spammy, irrelevant posts. The network has set new criteria for deciding which posts will be featured on the feed, now judging stories based on how valuable they are to readers. This comes down to two main factors, including 1) how much time readers spend away from Facebook viewing a particular post (i.e., longer time spent reading = more enjoyable post); and 2) how often users share and discuss a particular story with friends compared to how many clicks it receives (i.e., high number of clicks but few “likes” or comments = not valuable).
In addition, the network announced it will show more links that are posted in the “link format,” which happens when you paste in a link as you’re drafting a post, rather than just including the URL in the caption that appears above the photo. The link format shows additional details that help readers decide if they want to view a post—such as the story headline and first sentence in addition to the caption.
Here’s an example in link format from our own Communiqué PR page, which includes a photo, the actual headline and first few lines of text:
For PR pros and companies publishing stories and news to their feeds, these updates have the potential to affect content click-through and distribution rates. With the demise of click-baiting, here are a few ways to ensure your posts will still be featured on Facebook:
- Post valuable, share-worthy content. This should be a no-brainer anyway for PR pros, and is also the easiest way to ensure your stories will be picked up on the news feed. By nature, stories that are compelling and valuable will pass the new criteria and have the best chance of being featured. Now is the time to refine your content-creation strategy and put extra-careful thought into what you post.
- Be straightforward. Honesty is always the best policy and that especially applies here. Don’t deceive viewers with misleading, teaser captions to links. Instead, be honest about the content and include the actual headline or context, then leave it up to the reader to decide whether it’s worth viewing. Think your post won’t receive enough clicks on its own without a click-bait headline? Re-read no. 1 above and re-think your methods.
- Use the link format. This is easy enough—when sharing posts, simply paste in the link while drafting the post, rather than including the URL as part of the photo caption. This is a smart move even if Facebook didn’t force you to do it—the company has found that these types of posts receive twice as many clicks compared to links embedded in photo captions.
At day’s end, not much has changed—readers still want valuable content and it’s your job to give it to them. The new Facebook rules just add that bit of extra pressure to deliver awesome, engaging posts—which you’re doing anyway, right?
As PR professionals, we are constantly trying to get into journalists’ heads to determine what they’re looking for from us. What kinds of multimedia elements are most helpful? How in-depth should our pitches be? Should we engage reporters on Twitter? Luckily Business Wire might have some of the answers. It recently conducted a media survey in which it asked a wide range of journalists 30 questions to determine the latest trends in media relations and provide a better understanding of journalists’ preferences around working with PR professionals.
The survey starts off with some unsurprising information around the shift toward digital media – results show that the majority of journalists now work for an online publication, which aligns with the trend toward moving everything online.
It then dives into some interesting insights into reporters’ preferences around press releases. Press releases are still widely used by journalists, with almost 90 percent of the responding journalists using a press release within the past week. Since journalists still commonly use the tried-and-true PR tool, it’s important for PR pros to continue polishing their press-release writing skills. But what kind of information do journalists look for in a press release?
According to the survey, the most sought after type of story information in a press release is breaking news, followed by supporting facts, interesting story angles, quotable sources, company background and trending industry topics. Interestingly, the least important type of information for responding journalists was supporting multimedia. This contradicts a number of other sources that tout the importance of including multimedia in press releases, including a study from PR Newswire stating that multimedia content drives nearly 10 times more visibility than text.
The survey resulted in a number of other compelling findings around media trends. To learn more, download the full report or take a look at the following infographic from Business Wire summarizing the results of the survey.
Quentin Hardy of The New York Times recently wrote a story that positions Seattle as the next tech capital, highlighting a trend that is changing the way people think about the Emerald City. For a city mostly known as the birthplace of Starbucks, the Seahawks and rain, a recent influx of Silicon Valley venture capital investments and big wigs like Facebook, Google, eBay and Twitter have finally placed Seattle as the emerging epicenter of cloud-computing, datacenters and innovation.
The topic of Seattle as a major technology center fueled a recent panel discussion at a luncheon hosted by Rotary Club of Seattle, moderated by Todd Bishop, co-founder of Geekwire. Panelists included Michael Schutzler, CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA); Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz; Julie Sandler, principal at Madrona Venture Group; and technology veteran Jeremy Jaech, co-founder of SNUPI Technologies.
Geekwire’s Todd Bishop began the tech-focused session by asking panelists to weigh in about what makes Seattle so different from Silicon Valley and how the tech scene has changed over the last several years.
“Seattle is rapidly embracing new technologies beyond innovations taking place at Microsoft and Amazon as the industry matures with more thoughtful ‘bets’ and increased competition,” said SNUPI Technologies’ Jeremy Jaech.
“Competition has also increased, as it is easier than ever to reach people from all over the world with accessible cloud computing applications,” added Moz’s Sarah Bird.
“Keep in mind that compared to Silicon Valley, Seattle is 10-20 years behind the power curve where the entire local industry was just Microsoft 20 years ago,” added Michael Schutzler from the WTIA. “Now we are home to a viable and growing VC marketplace. It’s not that we haven’t been swinging for the fences, we just haven’t had as many times at bat as a city.”
Bird added that she believes it’s now much easier for companies to get started in Seattle with the rise of local accelerator programs and tech conferences like TechStars and Geekwire. However, finding top talent continues to be a challenge, given increased competition in the region. The growing number of cloud-based and mobile app startups has made the fight for engineers even more difficult in recent months.
Julie Sandler offered another perspective from her work at the Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona. “Having worked in Silicon Valley, when other people talk about Seattle, they often say the tech community just seems so nice. This bugs me because Seattle is very aggressive and yet collaborative,” she said. “It’s not uncommon to see two founders of different companies meeting regularly. It’s not uncommon to see an established CEO meet with a start-up founder. This tension between collaboration and aggression makes Seattle so successful and is putting our city on the map.”
Bishop then asked the panelists to name the most promising Seattle-based startups that no one has heard of yet. The responses included online course developer Skilljar; emerging biotech company Acucela that treats macular degeneration; Glympse, a mobile app that lets you share your location with others for a specific timeframe; and Canary, the maker of personal air quality sensors.
Over the last five years, the proliferation of venture capital firms in the Seattle region including Madrona, Vulcan, Cascadia Capital, Ignition Partners, Voyager Capital and Benaroya Capital has helped stimulate tech-sector growth while providing more job opportunities. As The New York Times reports, Madrona alone has participated in 15 cloud deals since March 2012, raising $68 million of $304 million total venture capital for cloud companies in the Seattle area, while the rest came from 20 other investors, mostly in the valley. Those companies are still private and are valued at around $2.3 billion.
For decades, Microsoft and Amazon were the lone tech giants in the region, but now the Pacific Northwest is home to myriad newcomers like EMC, Tableau, Apptio and Smartsheet.
As John Cook of Geekwire reported, the City of Seattle and real estate company Kidder Matthews have recently unveiled plans to begin marketing a 4.41-acre parcel just southeast of downtown Seattle to potentially lure Bay Area companies to set up shop.
But the question remains – is Seattle ready to take on the Valley?
You bet.
As Twitter’s popularity and user base have rapidly grown in the last eight years, companies have used this as an opportunity to engage customers on the social networking and micro-blogging site. Twitter has become a medium for entertainment, news, product releases and reviews, as well as brand building. However, the instantaneous, small word-count tweet can sometimes go out a little too fast and easily. Whether it’s a tweet gone wrong or a bigger company issue at hand, follow these tips from PR Daily to master your apology on Twitter.
1. Be sincere and concise.
A simple and direct message is the most effective in this situation. Luckily, Twitter’s 140- character maximum helps the message to be concise and to the point. The apology needs to have an authentic voice, but also a voice that matches that of the brand elsewhere. An apology that is inconsistent with the company’s overall tone is not likely to be accepted by customers, so avoid this by simply matching the voice of the message with the brand’s voice.
2. Don’t make excuses.
Not only do you not want to take up any of your valuable space in your short tweet limit, but you also do not want to point fingers. Take responsibility – your followers will appreciate the honesty.
3. If you say there will be a follow up, actually follow up.
A simple apology is not quite enough anymore. If appropriate, assure followers that a more detailed follow up on the issue will be forthcoming, and then deliver. This is especially true for customer service or product issue apologies, for these issues directly affect your customer base. Customers will want the appropriate information to tackle the issue at hand.
4. Provide contact information.
If there is room in the tweet word count, include an email address so that followers may reach out. In today’s world, it is all about customer service, so giving customers contact information is essential.
Great customer service includes a sincere apology when one is needed. Whether the apology is remedying a larger company issue or a smaller tweet mistake, Twitter can be an easy and effective way to reach customers. If the right steps are taken and the apology is sincere and takes responsibility for the mistake, customers will be appreciative of the honesty.
For more on perfecting an apology, see our blogs on How to Apologize Effectively and Three Studies in Public Apologies & Crisis Communications.
In the United States, according to the CDC, autism spectrum disorder affects one in 68 children. In the Pacific Northwest, we are fortunate to have an excellent organization – Seattle Children’s Autism Center – committed to providing assessment, diagnosis, treatment and support for those with or caring for children with autism spectrum disorders.
In early 2011, Communiqué PR had the opportunity to work with Jennifer Seymour and the staff at the Autism Center to create the Autism Blog. The goal of the blog was to create a resource for parents (or caregivers) of children with autism to provide weekly information about common issues and concerns.
The Autism Center needed the blog because there was tremendous demand for information as well as for appointments to see physicians and therapists, often creating a significant wait time for patients and families. Seattle Children’s was working to address this demand by adding staff, but also wanted to create an online repository of information that could be quickly and easily updated with new information.
The Assignment
In partnership with Jennifer Seymour, we began by first overcoming objections from physicians and others about creation of a blog. There was significant fear about how to manage and stay in compliance with HIPAA. We also knew we needed to provide the staff with everything they needed to be successful, including guidelines and best practices for writing; a name for the blog; a comment policy and tips on how to manage blog comments; initial content and an ongoing editorial calendar; a plan to publicize the launch of the blog; and tips on how to measure success. Finally, it was important to be true to the Autism Center’s vision and mission.
Making it Happen
With this in mind, we began work to:
- Conduct in-depth research of other mental health blogs and summarize the findings for key stakeholders
- Hold meetings with key stakeholders within the Autism Center to overcome objections and establish shared expectations
- Develop a comprehensive blogging toolkit addressing the naming of the blog, success measurement, roles and responsibilities, content creation, managing comments, disclaimer language, suggested technical features and more
- Interview autism experts and ghost-write initial content for the blog
- Publicize the launch of the blog via development and distribution of a press release
- Help the team transition to maintaining the blog on their own
Results
The blog has been a tremendous success, helping to:
- Ensure that families in the PNW as well as around the country have access to information about autism,
- Play a role in securing donations and awareness for the need to provide financial support to the Autism Center,
- Keep media and other stakeholders up to date on the last research around autism, and
- Significantly reduce calls to the Autism Center. In addition, staff can print out and distribute key articles to families or point them to specific information.
Today, this remains one of the most well-read blogs on Seattle Children’s Hospital website.
In a writing-heavy job such as PR, it’s easy to encounter some serious writer’s block that stops you straight in your tracks. You know the feeling: you’ve got a byline due in three hours, and your cursor blinks incessantly on a blank page. Never fear—there are proven, tangible ways to help you and your colleagues combat writer’s block and live to tell about it. Here are five tricks for fighting stagnation and fostering creativity in your work.
1. Remember Goldilocks? Choose a not-too-quiet, not-too-loud environment.
According to a recent study, there’s a reason why creative folks often huddle over their laptops in coffee shops. Though the caffeine doesn’t hurt, what actually seems to spark creativity is the noise level. A bustling coffee shop has about 70 decibels of noise, compared to a quiet office space, which tends to have only around 50. If you’re aiming to get your colleagues’ creative juices flowing, so to speak, one of the best things you can do is leave the office and go to a moderately loud environment. But don’t book those concert tickets for you and your colleagues just yet. Environments that are too loud tend to stifle creativity rather than foster it.
2. Impose new restrictions on yourself and your team.
Dr. Seuss famously wrote Green Eggs and Ham after being dared to write an entire book in fewer than 50 words. If you are struggling to write a press release, try limiting yourself to fewer words than you’d planned because a new challenge forces your brain to think differently. The very process of attempting to write a press release in 50 words rather than 500 helps you distill your thoughts to identify only the most newsworthy and exciting content.
3. Put on your walking shoes.
In a former life, I was a teacher, and this was one of the best tools I had at my disposal. When students encountered crippling writer’s block, we’d go for a quick jaunt around the campus. There’s mounting evidence to suggest that movement helps facilitate thinking, not to mention that putting yourself in a different environment for a short period of time helps you return to your work with laser focus. The effects of walking on cognition are so profound that some companies offer stand-up desks with treadmills, but you needn’t go that far. A walk around the block will probably suffice in helping you generate creative ideas.
4. Ask someone to pick your brain.
Sometimes, all we need is another party to ask us questions about our ideas to improve or refine them. Pose your initial thought to a coworker or friend, and ask him/her to probe you about it. Say you’re working on a pitch, and you’re stumped. A coworker might prompt you to think beyond your initial ideas with question stems such as, What would happen if…, What is newsworthy about…, What themes emerge when…? Though we could ask ourselves these questions, sometimes we’re too stuck—or too stubborn—to do so. Engaging with another person around the topic can help spawn some serious creativity.
5. Don’t wait for inspiration – just write.
Perfectionism is the bane of production. Being discerning about what you write occasionally means that you write nothing at all. With students whose own perfectionism prevented them from producing, I asked them to write for a full 10 minutes non-stop. With a timer running. Not surprisingly, students initially loathed this exercise because it feels stressful. But once you move beyond feeling self-conscious about how much you can produce, this exercise can be liberating. Freed from a critical inner dialogue, you are forced to write. After you write non-stop for 10 minutes, re-read what you wrote and highlight the best two-three ideas, sentences, or phrases. Now you have several creative ideas on which to elaborate. Writers’ block: 0. You: #Winning.