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.
These are polarizing times. Many companies not only have to navigate layoffs, economic headwinds and fiercely divided politics, but they must also create meaningful and savvy communications that resonate with key stakeholders and employees.
Reaching different audiences that might be at odds is a challenge, but there are ways to craft forward-thinking communications that strike the right tone and balance.
Now is a perfect time to prepare your messaging for these challenges. You want to ensure your communications add value and represent your audiences and mission while being clear, open and honest. Here are a few ways companies can approach and reframe their messaging during exigent times.
Economic Headwinds
In facing economic headwinds, timing is critical. If companies are bracing for a downturn, they need to determine when it’s best to communicate these changes to employees and important stakeholders. Is it as soon as the news arises? Right before the changes are implemented? Or somewhere in between? For many companies, the timing will be dependent on the severity, how many people it will impact and when the changes will go into effect.
Message clarity is key. Companies should develop clear communications that identify what impacts they are preparing for, how these changes will affect the company, and what they mean for the future. For example, if a business is cutting expenses in its IT department, having a concise and transparent message on what is transpiring in the department and how IT teams can prepare will ensure a smooth transition during the taxing time.
Even if some events don’t happen, having messaging in place that addresses those potential changes can help companies communicate clearly with employees. Prepared messaging can help with adjustments during these times and make employees feel that the company genuinely supports and cares for them.
Layoffs
If your company is downsizing, it’s critical to create a central, unified message. Often, companies fail to agree on messaging or don’t strike the right tone when addressing different audiences. To avoid this, companies should first communicate a clear, honest and open explanation for the layoffs. Be respectful and compassionate toward the affected audience. Strike this tone by sharing forward-thinking messaging that summarizes what people need to know, why the action is happening, and what’s being done for impacted employees. Messaging is all about trust. If your intent is unclear or incomplete, audiences may think you lack compassion or are hiding significant information.
Finally, make sure the message comes from the right people. Often, a trusted individual, such as a C-suite executive, direct manager or HR representative, can better help deliver the news and provide a sense of comfort and familiarity for impacted employees.
Politics
Communicating in a politically polarized environment means thinking strategically about how different people will view your message – not just target audiences. Companies must examine their messaging through a political lens, considering a range of perspectives.
For example, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, many companies spoke out against it. Amazon, Starbucks and JPMorgan Chase are just a few of the organizations that publicly stated they will pay for travel fees incurred by workers seeking an abortion if the procedure is unavailable near where they live.
Dipping into politics can be risky, but it’s critical that companies stay true to their mission and values. You can prepare to address negative comments and controversy by considering your messaging from all perspectives. Doing this allows you to identify possible reactions and create strategic plans to address potential conflicts.
It is assuredly worth the effort, in finding a deft balance to tone and balance, to craft strong and effective communications in polarizing times.
There are different ways to measure the success of a media campaign. For some companies, the number of articles is the most important; for others, it’s about one hit in a target publication. Ultimately, measuring coverage should connect to your company’s objectives.
In a recent PR Daily article, Senior Editor Allison Carter wrote about a media coverage scorecard presented at PR Daily’s Media & Measurement Conference. The scorecard creates a framework for measuring coverage based on “desirable criteria” and “undesirable criteria.” The scorecard is split in two columns to identify if the coverage is positive or negative toward a company’s overall goals.
The desirable column includes checkboxes to score if the article has a positive headline, includes a desirable visual, contains a positive message and mentions an event or program, among other elements. In the undesirable column, the rows include the opposite measures, (e.g., contains one or more negative messages, a negative headline or has an undesirable visual, etc.).
At a high level, the objective of the scorecard is to measure beyond whether or not you secure the coverage and determine if the article is “good.”
While these factors help classify if coverage is positive, it’s important to take a step back and look at the messages in the article. A message can be positive, but there might be other takeaways you want for the reader. For example, if your company is eager to attract and retain talent, an article in a business publication that raves about your solutions might help attract potential customers, but not attract applicants.
Therefore, when crafting campaigns and coaching spokespeople, it’s essential to make sure you have alignment on the messages your audiences need to hear and understand. This will help ensure that the resulting coverage will include some of those messages.
Every interview, pitch and press release quote does not need to include all key messages. However, aiming to have at least two or three of those messages in a campaign can help increase the likelihood that at least one will come through in the final article.
Message Pull-through
Message pull-through is a measurement that can help determine the effectiveness and quality of coverage. After an article publishes, you can measure pull-through by looking at if and how your key themes came across. When calculating message pull-through, you should create a chart that lists your top three to five key messages. Then, when reviewing the coverage, check the boxes to highlight which messages were included in each article. You’ll be able to see which themes are coming through and if you need to change any processes to diversify messages. Something as simple as the chart below:
|
Message/Theme |
Y |
N |
|
Improved efficiency |
X |
|
|
Robust team |
X |
|
|
Scalability |
|
X |
|
Higher employee satisfaction |
X |
|
You can then tally up the findings in a way that best aligns with other metrics tracking (e.g., X number of articles mention scalability, or X percent of articles include messages about scalability and efficiency, etc.).
Outlet Readership and Reach
Another critical element to consider when measuring the quality of coverage is the outlet and its readership. This goes hand-in-hand with message pull-through. You might have the right messages, but the article is less effective if those messages reach the wrong audiences.
In many industries, some audiences prioritize different messages, so evaluating the outlet and its relevance to your specific audience will also impact the success of message pull-through and the overall “quality” of the article. Additionally, if the theme and audience are correct, the publication’s reach can also improve the quality of the coverage. For example, if a company wants to raise awareness of its brand and can reach many more individuals with one publication and article, it can meet its goals and save budget.
Scorecards aren’t a one-size-fits-all measurement. It’s best to work with your marketing and PR teams to create a custom tracker that aligns with your goals and that you can update as those goals evolve.
Have you set new communication objectives for 2023? Will those goals change the way you track results? Reach out to our team to help you create a tailored scorecard for measuring coverage.
Since starting my public relations career this year, I’ve been working to expand my PR knowledge and recently started listening to the PR podcast The Spin Sucks with Gini Dietrich.
One episode that caught my attention focused on making your writing meaningful and engaging. In it, Dietrich talked about writing stories that mean something. I found it so helpful that I thought I’d recap a few of the insights that I thought were most helpful. They are:
- Avoid the superficial – While the subject of a piece must hold value for the reader, it’s as essential that the subject means something to the writer. Meaning something is important because it enhances the writing, which in turn impacts the engagement of readers. At the same time, Dietrich talks about a college advisor who insisted that writers relate their topic to something in their past. While Dietrich agreed that writing about what you know can make for a compelling piece, it’s also possible to do so without digging up your past.
- Follow your curiosity – Sometimes, passion isn’t enough. If you’re struggling with writer’s block, it’s often helpful to explore a new curiosity. Dietrich uses the example of Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of “Eat, Pray, Love.” When Gilbert was blocked, she took a break to learn about gardening, something she had always been interested in. Inspired by her new interest, Gilbert found key insight for her writing.
- Eliminate distractions – This may be obvious, but if you think about all the distractions we face during a typical day, you might find we often overlook common culprits. Other work tasks, chat or text messages, and emails can steal our focus. To eliminate these, I recommend scheduling deep work time on your calendar to let coworkers know when you’ll be focusing on writing projects. You also might want to consider using the Pomodoro method, where you work in strict blocks of focused time, for instance, 25- or 60-minute segments.
- Take a break – As someone who writes with the flow of a dripping water tap rather than a river, I need to follow this advice more often than I’d like. I often find after a short break my mind has had a chance to reset and writing becomes easier. For Dietrich, taking a break involves actually stepping away from the computer. For others, it might mean taking a walk, reading for 15 minutes, or spending time on a work task that they find easier.
To write a compelling story, Dietrich recommends focusing on these methods to deliver the story’s message:
- Write toward a fictional future – This can help quantify your company’s larger goals. Say your client wants to become more profitable. Does that future mean the organization is outpacing or buying out competitors? Focusing on a specific future can help clarify and communicate your goals to the reader.
- Focus on values rather than outcomes – When writing about an organization’s goals, it’s vital to focus on their underlying values. While a revenue goal is excellent, highlighting solutions your company wants to achieve holds more power. According to Dietrich, adding words like help, inspire, shape, and change to the narrative supports ideas of growth.
- Develop your client’s narrative – For Dietrich, there’s an important distinction between a mission statement and actions. If supporting the local area is part of an organization’s mission, creating a program that gives back to the community will significantly impact its outreach more than just the mission statement itself.
I found Gini Dietrich’s insights in The Spin Sucks podcast thought-provoking and truly helpful for my own writing. It’s an excellent addition to any PR professional’s podcast library. You can find the episode here: The Spin Sucks with Gini Dietrich.
Since Elon Musk took over at Twitter, an increasing number of advertisers have suspended activity on Twitter, while staffing cuts, changed policies and fake accounts have created chaos.
According to DigiDay, “GroupM, the world’s largest media buying agency, is telling clients that Twitter is now a ‘high risk’ media buy following a barrage of controversies, U-turns and confusion that capped off Elon Musk’s second week as the owner of the social network.”
There are also concerns about stability at Twitter amid massive layoffs, including top executives and reports that indicate a significant decline in the company’s most active users.
With changes to its verification process and policies that may increase hate speech, Twitter seems to be offering more reputational risk instead of opportunity. Consider the impact when a fake Eli Lilly account – with a blue check mark indicating it was authentic – posted that insulin is now free. Eli Lilly stock fell 4. 37%.
All these factors are causing companies to re-evaluate their use of Twitter. And not just advertising.
A recent Inc. article asserts that companies focused on protecting their brand, retaining talent, and shoring up their customers should consider putting Twitter on hold.
Olin Business School marketing expert, Michael Wall shared that all organizations should “closely monitor the situation to minimize risk to their brands.”
He continued by saying that while it may be difficult for corporations to walk away from Twitter if it is an important communication channel for the organization, “if changes occur that lead an organization to move away from the platform, my position is that they can still achieve their objectives in other channels.”
Marketing strategies and activities must support a company’s business and communication objectives, such as driving revenue, attracting and retaining talent, securing investment, and building thought leadership and brand reputation.
To meet these objectives, companies need to assess what strategies, platforms and approaches will reach their target audiences effectively and efficiently and align with their corporate values.
Businesses that provide customer service via Twitter or determine the channel is critical in reaching their user base, or customers may decide to continue to utilize the platform. And as Wall suggests, those organizations should consider, “How can we become a positive influence in the channel and a leader in its appropriate use?”
As Twitter continues to change in the coming weeks and months, we expect many marketers and communicators will continue to revisit their use of Twitter to determine if the platform still makes sense for their brand.
For those considering moving away from Twitter, Brian X. Chen, with The New York Times offers futher guidance, “How to Prepare for Life After Twitter.”
In October, I had the opportunity to travel to Boston for a professional development course. The course was called “Managing Yourself and Leading Others” and was offered by the Harvard Division of Continuing Education.
The program is “designed to help managers become more effective leaders,” delving into “the fundamentals of managing yourself, leading teams, and motivating others to accomplish your company’s goals.” Participants were exposed to insights to help them “gain a broader and deeper understanding of organizational culture and dynamics, management best practices, the role of the manager, and the nature of influence.”
Below, I’ve compiled a list of key lessons I learned during the course.
- Lao Tsu said, “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” When we can effectively understand and manage ourselves, we become better leaders and make better decisions.
- There are four foundational components to emotional intelligence: (1) self-awareness, (2) self-management, (3) social awareness and (4) social skill.
- The Institute for Health and Human Potential argues that the single most important variable in employee productivity and loyalty is not pay, perks, benefits, or workplace environment. Rather, it is the quality of the relationship between employees and their direct supervisors.
- There are six common leadership styles. The best leaders shift seamlessly between Authoritative, Affiliative, Democratic and Coaching.
- Coercive: “Do what I tell you.”
- Authoritative: “Come with me.”
- Affiliative: “People come first.”
- Democratic: “What do you think?”
- Pacesetting: “Do as I do, now.”
- Coaching: “Try this” or “what did you learn?”
- We judge ourselves by our intentions. Others judge us by our impact. There are several factors that can impact our intended actions. A prime factor is our emotions. It’s safe to say that the average person begins their day with good intentions; they want to be productive at work, meet deadlines, make dinner at home, exercise, spend time with loved ones, etc. But situations may arise during the day that present roadblocks to achieving those intended actions such as traffic on the way to work, an unexpected meeting, mental or physical health issues, etc. It’s vital to differentiate between intention and impact, especially when an impact is negative.
- Strong company cultures are a function of:
- Stability of the group
- Length of time the group has existed
- Intensity of group experiences of learning
- Coping mechanisms of learning (e.g., positive reinforcement vs. avoidance)
- Strength and clarity of assumptions held by founders and leaders
- It’s possible to influence others without (formal) authority. Successful influence starts with your objectives and resources, and rests largely on understanding that not everyone cares about what you care about. Successful influencers can determine what team members value, how they want to be related to, what pressures they’re under, how they’re measured and their style. Effective influencers leverage currencies. Currencies might be new resources, assistance, rapid response, information, acceptance, recognition, contacts, gratitude, comfort, etc. Influence in an organization is typically awarded to individuals who are genuinely interested in the welfare of others. They make connections and engage in mutually beneficial currency exchanges.
- Conversational turn-taking and social sensitivity are paramount to psychological safety in teams.
- In teams, remember that efficiency is not the same as effectiveness.
- Supervising individuals is not the same as leading a team.
- Leaders can establish credibility with subordinates, peers and superiors by showcasing their character and intentions to do the right thing, as well as their competence and ability to make the right things happen. Character and competence are central to trust.
- Leaders often derail because they:
- Have difficulty building an effective team
- Have difficulty in making transitions
- Lack follow-through
- Treat people badly
- Have strategic differences with top management
- Are overdependent on a single strength or resource
- Managing others’ performance is a process, not an event.
- Frame performance reviews to help the individual go further at the company.
- When giving feedback, remember to:
- Illustrate specific examples
- Provide suggestions
- Be honest, fair and kind
- Provide feedback often
- Focus on business outcomes
- Don’t assume you’re right
- Ask questions
- Follow up
- Poor company and team climates negatively impact an organization’s bottom line.
- People are a competitive advantage.
I’m extremely appreciative of the opportunity to attend “Managing Yourself and Leading Others.” I gained exposure to unique perspectives from professionals across industries and across the globe.
What do Twitter, Meta, Redfin and Zillow share in common? They’ve all laid off or announced plans to lay off employees. (For more information on company layoffs, this CNBC article is helpful.)
Given this recent turbulence in the tech sector, we thought it would be helpful to share some reminders about internal and external communications when planning for or reducing workforces.
Below are some reminders that we hope will be helpful.
- Develop a comprehensive plan. Your reduction in force (RIF) comms plan should address messaging, timing and outline all the steps you’ll take to communicate effectively and in a manner that is both respectful and compassionate. HR, legal and corporate communications leaders should collaborate on this document and share it with other leaders and board members for their input and thoughts.
- Outline your key messages. Messaging surrounding the reduction should focus on why you’re making the change. Laurie Tennant recently wrote in Harvard Business Review, “[Rationale] should be a clear, honest, and compelling explanation of why the RIF is necessary, including discussion of other options previously taken or rejected (e.g., furloughs, pay cuts, unpaid vacations, divestitures). Companies with a history and culture of openness about the state of the business will have an easier time getting employees to understand why action steps are required.” After explaining your rationale for the RIF, you should articulate what is being done for impacted employees.
- Prepare managers and role play if necessary. When leaders share the news, it’s important to show empathy for the people who are impacted. Practice avoiding language like this is difficult for me. We all know layoffs are challenging, but it’s far harder for the individuals losing their jobs so focus on their needs, not yours.
- Communicate in person if possible. When Twitter laid off 3,700 employees earlier this month, they did it over email. This was considered by most experts to be a huge mistake. In a story that aired on Marketplace, Michael Sturman, a professor of human resources management at Rutgers University, said, “It’s like breaking up in a relationship over text.” He thinks it’s much more effective to have a two-way conversation so people can ask questions. He added, “Companies should take the time for one-on-one meetings in person or over Zoom —even if that means doing thousands of them.”
- Don’t leave the remaining employees in the dark. Consider bringing remaining employees together for a virtual town hall to answer their questions. Making sure they don’t have unresolved questions is often vital in motivating those remaining.
Even a modicum of planning and direct, clear – and empathetic – communication will go a long way toward cushioning the blow of a layoff.
Other articles and resources on this topic:
- Layoffs Are Painful. But You Can Communicate Them Compassionately
- Layoffs and Communication: What NOT to Do
- Twitter’s messy layoffs show how not to communicate firings
- A Scripted Layoff