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.
Prior to the arrival of mass blogging platforms, such as WordPress, Tumblr & Blogger, product reviews were the bread and butter of a new or updated product’s world debut. PR pros would enlist key reviewers from the most influential publications to honor an embargo, and in return, receive shiny new hardware or a snazzy software package to test drive before it was available to the public. The grand idea being that these reviewers would publish favorable opinions on the day of the product launch and influence consumers to purchase said new product.
While Apple is repeatedly cited as an example, I chose to highlight the company because it presents strong examples for why a reviews program can be successful as well as how it can backfire.
Exhibit A: For every version of the iPhone we’ve seen to date, Apple gives early models of their new phones to top-tier reviewers such as Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, David Pogue of The New York Times and one or two other reviewers who are deemed influential. These early reviews typically show up on the Wednesday before the device was publicly available and drive consumers and other reporters wild with envy. What would ensue were HUGE lines of people fighting over the sometimes 20-25 devices available on launch day at each Apple store, while the rest of the country anxiously buzzed about when they would be able to get their hands on a device of their own. In this instance, product reviews drove consumer excitement and maddening sales figures. This seems like a successful reviews program to me.
Exhibit B: Recently when Apple’s newest iPhone 4 had issues with its antenna, Consumer Reports publicly recommended against purchasing the device. What resulted can only be described as a metaphorical lynch mob. Consumers demanded a response from Apple, who remained silent for several days, and complained loudly via every medium available about the woes of owning an iPhone 4. Apple was forced to publicly acknowledge the issue and provide free cases for all iPhone 4 users. In this instance, not properly addressing concerns first brought to light in a product review actually damaged the company’s reputation and cost it more money.
As with my second example, you can’t hide from product reviews. However, since anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account or a blog can instantly become a reviewer, running a successful and strategic reviewers program, as in my first example, has become significantly more difficult. Which brings me around to the question, are product reviews still relevant? How can consumers tell the difference between a biased reviewer and an unbiased one? Do consumers even care about the biases of reviewers? Would a consumer find a review from a friend or colleague makes more of an impact on their purchasing decisions than a journalist?
Here are a few of my thoughts:
- Product reviews are still relevant because they help drive buzz about a product or service, which effects sales figures. I recommend not forgoing a reviews program just because it may be difficult to manage.
- If a reviewer has problems or issues with your product, do your best to listen and promptly acknowledge and address the situation. Most people are forgiving of problems, but they aren’t forgiving of being ignored or pacified.
- Accept the good reviews and the bad. While products go through their testing paces before being released to market, it’s difficult to test for every way someone may use it in the real world. Be gracious to a reviewer that has uncovered a glitch or shortcoming, and be sure to send that feedback to the development team.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on reviews and how much time and effort PR pros should spend on this part of a PR plan.
This week there have been two high-profile media embargos broken causing a firestorm of tweets and finger pointing. The two embargoes included the launch of Gmail’s Priority Inbox feature and Autodesk’s announcement that it will bring AutoCAD to the Mac platform.
With the rise of social media and the 24/7 news cycle, it seems the terms of embargoes are more frequently broken, leaving reporters frustrated and jeopardizing relationships between PR folks and the media. Last night, in response to the broken embargoes this week, founder of GigaOM, Om Malik tweeted that perhaps, “it is time to give the embargo and obeying them the heave-ho.” And Robert Scoble, a prominent blogger shared his distaste for embargoes.
As PR professionals the embargo has offered a wonderful way to share upcoming news with reporters and pre-brief them in advance of publicly disseminating the announcement. This advance notice allows reporters to gather relevant details, coordinate interviews and develop their article for publication at the time the embargo lifts. Embargoes also allow organizations to control when the information is shared publicly and can be particularly useful when a story is complicated or will likely have wide interest from a variety of media.
I will definitely reconsider my use of embargoes in the future but am not ready to say goodbye completely. Share your thoughts, will you use or agree to an embargo moving forward? Have your criteria for offering or agreeing to an embargoed changed in light of these recent incidents? For more information on the topic, check out this post we wrote on exclusives in April 2010.
Recently I came across an article on Mashable’s website entitled, “10 Tips for Corporate Blogging.” The article opens with the following statement, “In a world where small businesses with corporate blogs receive 55 percent more traffic than small businesses that don’t blog, companies should be taking note on how to improve their blogs, attract more readers and get more results.” While I agree with this statement, it still surprises me that more organizations choose not to blog.
Owned media, such as a blog or website, is a channel that an organization fully controls and can be a tremendous resource to adding value to target audiences. Consider for example Seattle Children’s Hospital’s blog “Seattle Mama Doc” written by Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, a mom and pediatrician committed to sharing her insights about parenting and how to keep kids healthy. The blog is a fabulous place for parents looking for information about current medical news, stories about parenting and much more – and the editorial direction, content and publication dates are determined by Dr. Swanson and Seattle Children’s.
Another benefit of publishing a corporate blog is that the information you’re sharing on your website may also be leveraged on social media sites as well as for earned media or editorial coverage in newspapers, magazines or for broadcast news. Again, consider Seattle Mama Doc. Much of the information that Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson shares is timely and relevant to journalists. From her blog, they can gain a sense of her perspective on a topic, and they can quote her blog or interview her for articles they’re writing. The hospital can also publicize key posts on its Facebook page and via Twitter.
Clearly developing compelling content for a blog is not an easy endeavor, but I firmly believe it is an important and relatively cost-effective marketing tool for most companies. I know from our experience with the Communiqué PR blog, we have seen a significant increase in traffic to our website. In addition to Seattle Children’s Hospital, many other Communiqué PR clients have successful blogs and also have seen an increase in visitors to their sites.
In the coming years, I believe more companies and nonprofit organizations will invest in developing robust, compelling and value-add blogs that will augment ongoing public relations activities. For more on our perspective on creating a corporate blog click here.
Mashable recently interviewed a group of PR professionals to discuss the future of public relations and how they see social media changing the industry. Specifically, they tackled how social media will impact “the future of the press release, the evolution of social platforms, current limitations and solutions for those impediments, connecting with other PR pros, cost savings and building relationships.”
As PR professionals, we’ve been grappling with an ever changing landscape for some time now – publications shifting online, shrinking media staffs, the recession, etc. However social media has had, in my opinion, the biggest impact on PR. The way we disseminate information and reach target audiences has shifted dramatically with the rise of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Below are some key points and perspective from the article I thought were most interesting.
Press Releases – It’s pretty clear that the role of the traditional press release is changing. While it still has its place within a communications strategy, it’s becoming increasingly important to incorporate social elements (e.g. embedded multimedia, hyperlinks, etc.) into these releases so readers can easily share the news with other networks.
The way we distribute releases has also changed. Vice President of BLASTmedia, Lindsay Groeppersays, “When I first began my career in PR more than decade ago, we would e-mail or fax (gasp!) the full press release text to the press. What we see now is new methods of distributing the info, driven by social media. Rather than e-mailing a press release, PR people are sending journalists to custom landing pages created just for that specific announcement, contacting them via Twitter with a BUDurl link to the release, or even directing them to a YouTube video with a message from the CEO making the announcement.”
Social Media Platforms – Established social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are valued today by organizations and brands looking to directly engage with key audiences. While some of the experts interviewed in the article believe that niche, industry-specific networks will be of greater value in the future, most agree that the role of PR professionals remains the same no matter which social media platforms rise to the top.
“The most important platforms for PR pros in the future will be the ones most targeted for their clients,” said Cara Stewart, founder and principal at Remarx Media. “…PR pros have to really understand clients’ technologies, business models, services and more. Really, it’s more about PR pros becoming better PR pros and understanding their clients’ businesses, as well as what their clients do … Social media is not a one-size-fits-all solution.”
Measuring Results – We’ve recently discussed the importance of monitoring and measuring the impact of social media campaigns and initiatives. There are a variety of tools available to help facilitate this and I believe these tools will only mature over time as adoption grows.
Amanda Miller Littlejohn founder of Mopwater Social Public Relations says, “Right now, the most important tools are the broadcasting tools … But in five years, the most important tools will be the monitoring and measurement tools — the tools that can tell you what happened to your message once it got out there. [T]he tools that can demonstrate (and quickly demonstrate) return on engagement will be winners.”
Relationships Still Matter – Social media is just one tool in the PR toolbox. The name of the game is still about building and fostering relationships.
Chuck Tanowitz, founder and principal at PR and social media firm Fresh Ground says, “In truth we’re talking about the same positive PR practices that good PR people have been doing for decades.” He continued, “They read and understand their target audience, then help craft stories that speak to and with that audience.”
The message is loud and clear: social media is here to stay and PR professionals will continue to evolve their skill set to help clients and businesses best leverage these tools as part of an overarching communications strategy.
Just a little over a year ago I graduated from Washington State University with a degree in public relations. While I learned a lot about the PR world and am grateful for the opportunity, not one of my classes focused on social media. Interestingly, after a quick scan of this year’s course catalog, I still see no mention of social media. Now that I have been working at Communiqué PR for a couple of months, it is clear how important social media is in the PR and business world these days.
Many of our clients are looking to integrate social media with ongoing PR activities, and we are not the only firm experiencing this need. As I was reading Advertising Age, I came across an article entitled “How Social Media Is Helping Public-Relations Sector Not Just Survive, but Thrive.” The article details how social media has played a role in the resurgence of PR during the current economic downturn. A few of the points that I found to be most valuable:
- Three-quarters of the 59 agency CEOs and CFOs surveyed by the Council of PR Firms reported growth in the first half of 2010 vs. 21 percent in 2009.
- Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a private equity firm that publishes annual reports on the state of the PR industry, reported that “growth in the industry is being accelerated by a significantly increased rate of client adoption of social media and word-of-mouth marketing techniques.”
- “PR, up until now, wasn’t central to a corporation’s overall branding strategy. There is now an opportunity for the PR profession and practitioners to use these digital tools and make PR a more important part of the communications arsenal,” said John Suhler, co-founder and president of Veronis Shuler Stevenson
A lot of the work that we’re doing at Communiqué surrounds helping businesses leverage social media to help reach their audiences and drive their business objectives forward. Whether it’s developing a social media strategy, providing counsel on a corporate social media policy, or educating executives on how to use social media platforms, it’s becoming critical that social media continues to play a significant role in PR and business.
As this trends continues, it is equally important to teach college students the importance of social media and how best to harness the platforms to achieve success.
In an effort to get to know its Facebook Fans better, NPR recently asked them to participate in a survey. The news outlet’s goal was to get to know its more than one million fans better – and the survey was overwhelmingly successful in helping it achieve this goal with more than 40,000 people participating.
NPR then shared the key findings, which I found to be quite interesting and relevant for the work we are doing for Communiqué PR clients. If you missed this information, it is posted online and can be found here.
A few of the points that I found to be most valuable:
- NPR learned that its Twitter and Facebook fans appear to be more mutually exclusive than it assumed. “Interestingly, fewer than 1 in 10 (8.4%) follow NPR on Twitter.” This was a surprise to NPR as it has twice as many fans on Twitter than on Facebook.
- Posting frequency was something NPR struggled with when it first started posting links to news on Facebook. I found this section of NPR’s survey results article to be most helpful as many of our clients ask for counsel about how frequently to share information. Apparently, when the folks at NPR first began using Facebook they were “posting more than 20 items per day.” This proved to be way too much for the fan base. After some trial and error, NPR found the magic number to be around 8-10 posts per day. However, Andy Carvin, senior strategist with NPR’s social media desk, and Noel Cody, internal research with NPR, believe that other publishers of information on Facebook would find that 8 to 10 items would be far too much for their followers and cite research to support this claim.
- Facebook is a “major way in which [NPR’s] fans receive news and information from NPR.” These people also expect their friends to share news with them.
There are many more observations and conclusions NPR has drawn from its survey. If you are leveraging Facebook or Twitter for your company or organization, I strongly encourage you to read this article and glean for yourself the many salient points which may be relevant to you.