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.
Establishing thought leadership in vertical markets can help a company raise its profile, distinguish it from competitors, drive new customer leads, and ultimately, increase revenue. In fact, according to a press release from leading research firm Gartner, thought leadership can be a “powerful tool for improved marketing success in IT services.”
As we have written in an earlier post, there are several ways a company can establish thought leadership in a given category including:
- Using trends to create proactive stories that raise awareness of industry pain points and solutions
- Developing byline articles or guest blog posts
- Leveraging social media platforms to drive relevant discussions
- Securing speaking opportunities
- Winning the right industry awards
We’ve leveraged some of these tactics to extend Attachmate’s thought leadership in the healthcare and insurance IT verticals. Specifically, over the past several months we secured editorial coverage as well as placed case studies and guest articles to drive awareness of Attachmate’s solutions and its benefits in these markets. Here are some examples of our activity and results.
- On March 10, we placed a case study titled, “Providence Hospital Modernizes Access to Patient Information,” in ADVANCE for Health Information Executives. This piece illustrates how Attachmate’s Verastream solution enabled Providence Hospital to leverage its existing technology investments and provide its medical staff with timely access to patient data on its computer systems.
- Next, we worked to secure coverage in insurance industry publications by offering journalists insight on how insurance companies are leveraging legacy integration technology to make the most of existing IT investments and modernize systems. Attachmate provided valuable perspective on how these organizations are saving time and money on the deployment of technology solutions – which is especially important during tough economic times. The result from this activity included an article in Insurance Networking News about Century-National Insurance’s use of Attachmate Verastream Host Integrator to update its technology system.
- Finally, we helped Attachmate create a thought leadership position in the managed file transfer market (MFT). MFT is a relatively new market within the file transfer space and many traditional players in the industry have been working to expand their offerings in the market, It was important to establish Attachmate as a solid leader in this space to gain early market and mindshare. To achieve this objective, we placed a guest article in IT Business Edge surrounding MFT technology and what organizations should consider when evaluating different advanced file transfer solutions.
Establishing thought leadership in vertical markets requires commitment and dedication – it doesn’t happen over night and it is often achieved through an ongoing, integrated campaign. There are several key elements to successfully implementing a thought leadership program; these include building credibility, expressing a clear point of view and fostering key relationships. To learn more, read our past blog titled, “Thought Leadership – What is it and Why is it so Important?”
A client recently approached Communiqué PR for a recommendation on the best social media conferences. His goal is to learn more about techniques and best practices for leveraging social media to better engage customers with blogs, social networks and video. He recognized he has a lot to learn as he continues to migrate from traditional marketing activities to online social marketing, and feels that participation at the right conference or event could have a significant impact on his success.
Over the past couple of years, Colleen Moffitt and Jennifer Gehrt have spoken or participated in several social media conferences in Puget Sound, which they found extremely valuable. Jennifer even travelled to Amsterdam to chair a panel on crisis management at Enterprise Social 2.0. She was really impressed with the caliber of individuals at the event.
Given this, we decided to come with a list of top-notch conferences drawing a national audience, as well as mix of global brand name companies and early stage companies. After considering a number of conferences, here are the ones that rose to the top of our list:
- South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive: This conference has been held in March annually since 1994 in Austin, Texas attracting people globally. Twitter got its start at this conference in 2007. According to Patrick O’Keefe, owner of iFroggy Network, “The best aspect of this conference is its networking opportunities to connect with peers and learn how others are using new media.” Some of the past speakers include Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter; Ossama Alami, developer advocate at Google; and Glenn Brown, head of music partnerships at YouTube.
- Blog World & New Media Expo: This conference, held annually in Las Vegas, is largely focused on social media for both newbie’s and the experienced alike. It is a three-day event consisting of a trade show, conferences, networking opportunities and instruction for learning the latest trends in social media. The next Blog World & New Media Expo will be held October 14-16, 2010. To learn more about past presenters click here.
- F5 Expo: Held in Vancouver, Canada in early April, this conference is focused on fast-changing technology and upcoming trends. Its aim is to educate attendees about social media, mobile and online marketing while helping managers with business planning and development. Past speakers include; Malcolm Gladwell, author of “Tipping Point,” “Blink,” “Outliers” and “What the Dog Saw”; Martin Stoddart, senior product manager from Bing; Alfredo Tan, senior director of sales for Facebook; and Wesley Chan, entrepreneur and general partner of Google Ventures.
- Social Media Plus: This one-day event will take place in Philadelphia on May 25, 2010. At this conference, each seminar caters to a specific line-of-business manager at the executive level, human resources, information technology or sales and marketing. The mission of the event is to teach attendees how to implement social media strategies to build their brands, interact with customers and generate revenue. Scheduled speakers include Rohit Bhargavs, founding member of 360 Digital Influence group at Ogilvy; Mary Henige from General Motors; and Kathy O’Reilly, director of social media relations for Monster.com.
- PR + Social Media Summit: This one-day summit is focused on the convergence of strategic communication and social media. Held at Marquette University in Milwaukee in April, this conference provides attendees with insight on how and why to stand out in the cyber world. Speakers include Tim Blaire, vice president marketing communications for IBM; Mo Moorman, public relations director for Jockey International; Casey Kohner, social media manager for Trek Bicycle; and George Wright, vice president of marketing and sales for BlendTec.
If you have experience attending any of the conferences above or have attended others you enjoyed, we would love to hear about them.
Throughout human history, stories have been a fundamental way in which we connect with people and think about the world. As children, we grow up hearing stories and as we get older, begin sharing stories of our own. Stories are an essential part of child development, and if done correctly, hold our attention as adults, provide entertainment and hopefully teach us something about the world.
They are equally important for a company or organization. A well thought-out and compelling story can help to drive broad awareness of a company, build brands, shift perceptions, establish thought leadership, and even increase sales of a product or service.
One of the most effective ways for companies to leverage storytelling is to think about and develop a story arc. Think of a story arc as a trajectory, extended storyline, or the ongoing narrative that highlights a company’s overarching vision and its journey toward achieving it.
At Communiqué PR, we believe the purpose of a story arc is to show how an organization is moving from one state to another — in other words, how the company or organization is effecting change. To effect change a company must have a clear vision of where it is headed, and using a story arc can help dramatically.
In any convincing story (think novels, television, motion pictures or stage plays), the story arc should consist of the following elements: a protagonist, an antagonist, a cast of characters, a setting, a plot, a conflict and a resolution. To be effective it should play off human emotion and personal experience. Each company announcement, press release or interview provides the company spokesperson with an opportunity, or an “episode,” to put it in television terms, to support the broad narrative or story arc.
Nike is a strong example of a company that has developed a compelling story arc. The company’s goal is to provide innovation and inspiration to every athlete in the world. This vision of inspiring athletes is weaved into every aspect of the company’s marketing – from its press releases, branding and advertising to the its selection of the right images that leverage Nike’s key theme of innovation and inspiration.
We’ve had great success helping clients create a story arc to help them achieve their business and communication objectives. Take Digonex and Big Fish Games. Both companies were looking to drive awareness of their companies and establish thought leadership in their respective markets. We worked with each company to develop a strong story arc showcasing their respective vision and journeys – each press release, press tour or interaction with a journalist supported the companies’ larger goals.
By framing news in the context of the company’s bigger story, we were able to garner significant coverage in Red Herring, Reuters, NPR, Billboard Associated Press, Inc, MSNBC, The New York Times, NPR, Reuters, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as many other outlets. This coverage ultimately helped Digonex and Big Fish Games build their reputations as leaders in their industries and helped attract customers, key partners and additional investment.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of a story arc or how to create one, check out our book, “Strategic Public Relations.”
Today’s business leaders, marketing executives and PR practitioners are working to understand how to utilize the latest wave of social media tools in order to increase sales, drive awareness and build buzz. Jennifer Gehrt and Colleen Moffitt, founders of Communiqué PR illustrate how to effectively maximize the impact of tools and tactics through a strategic approach to integrated communications.
“Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR” offers readers practical advice on how businesses can leverage PR and make sense of today’s media landscape.
Through real-world examples, case studies and contributions from a wide variety of experts, Gehrt and Moffitt demonstrate the 10 principles outlined in their book and show readers how to use public relations to accomplish an organization’s most important business objectives.
In a guest review for PR Week, Jeffrey Ory, vice president, Deveney Communication wrote, “Each of the guiding principles is presented in a straightforward way. ‘Strategic Public Relations’ is a simple, but important, read for anyone in PR at any level of their career. Gehrt and Moffitt have written a book that is important for those entering the field all the way through to those who have been in the industry for a number of years.”
“Strategic Public Relations” is now available in paperback and can be purchased through Amazon.com.
If you’ve read “Strategic Public Relations,” we’d love to hear from you. You can post a review on Amazon.com, share comments here on our blog or post on our Facebook fan page.
At Communiqué PR we do a lot of writing. We write press releases, case studies, company messaging and contributed articles. In fact, during the past several months we have written articles for clients that have been published in more than 20 industry or business magazines or daily newspapers. (Please e-mail me if you’re interested in a summary of articles and publications written by Communiqué PR.)
Nonetheless, we are consistently striving to improve our skills and style. We also understand with social media, attention spans are getting shorter so it is imperative that we grab the reader’s attention early on so they continue reading and are interested to know where our story is headed.
Given this commitment to continuous improvement, we were excited when Jeanne Miller with Tecplot Inc., shared an article about the Blundell Technique. For those of you who aren’t familiar, William E. Blundell came up with a technique for feature writing while he was with the Wall Street Journal and detailed it in a book entitled, “The Art and Craft of Feature Writing.”
Among other things, this book explains how and where to get story ideas; what readers like and don’t like; how to infuse articles with energy and color; and how to organize one’s material. We encourage anyone striving to perfect his or her non-fiction writing to pick up a copy of this book.
Jeanne, who is an amazing writer, also provided us with an overview the Blundell Technique which suggests writers organize feature articles as follows:
- The story lead or introduction. The opening of a feature article should tease the reader and spark his or her interest in the topic. The introduction may or may not be an anecdote. If it is an anecdote it needs to be easy to grasp and relevant. Typically, the story lead is no more than three paragraphs long.
- A Nut Graph or angle for your story. This is the paragraph that explains the story focus, theme or point of view. Clearly this is a critical element to writing and organizing a well-written and compelling piece.
- The main body or supporting points. This section of your article backs up the Nut graph. These are the paragraphs that demonstrate the validity of your angle, premise or argument. Oftentimes, quotes are used here to bring the material to life and illustrate key points.
- The conclusion. This should summarize the material and make an impact on the reader. There are many ways to do this, but the main goal of the conclusion should be to reinforce the central message or theme of your article.
We hope as you embark on the development of your next article that intends to inform, educate or entertain your reader, you take a few minutes to think about Blundell’s Technique. We believe it is more relevant than ever and want to thank Jeanne for reminding us about Blundell’s impact on journalists and writers around the world.
Last month, I read a blog post that really resonated with me about the difference between being liked and being valued. As the author of the post states, clearly the two are not mutually exclusive, but must be prioritized.
The author explains in his post, “When you focus on being valued first and liked second, you’re far more likely to take on the behaviors to create demand.” He goes on to state, “Being valued means risking, even for a few moments, not being liked.”
I have worked with individuals who focus too much on being liked and forget to provide value or are hesitant to disagree even if their counsel is well founded.
While it is important to be liked, and good chemistry and rapport can impact a client’s hiring decision, as a PR professional I focus on providing value for our clients, but strive to do so in a manner that enhances our relationship. Ultimately, this means I help clients accomplish their business objectives through integrated strategic communication in a manner that is fun, affirming and win-win.
Since being valued is so important, it is critical that we have a good understanding of what our clients want to achieve. This means getting a sense for the client’s long-term business and communication objectives as well as his or her willingness to take a strategic approach to PR.
Recently, we received a phone call from a person who wants to work with a boutique firm that can create an ongoing narrative for his company. He is not just looking for the one-off media placements, but is interested in taking a strategic, integrated approach to utilizing PR to help achieve his company’s business objectives. We are very excited about working with him because we know he’ll value the services we provide. We also know we can make a meaningful and positive impact on his business.
He, like many of our clients, is looking to build brand awareness, shift perceptions and establish thought leadership – and he understands this will not be achieved through one piece of coverage. He therefore appreciates the value we can add around helping him achieve success.
Consider Tegic Communications and its PR activities from 1997 through its sale to AOL in 1999. The company took a strategic approach to building awareness, securing mentions in buying guides and as part of handset reviews, stories discussing trends and growth of text messaging, in-person meetings, and did not focus solely on big one-off stories.
Through its ongoing PR activities, Tegic got the attention of AOL, who bought Tegic for $350 million. An AOL executive later shared that his team calculated they paid an extra $50 million for Tegic due to the buzz about the company. An additional $50 million in two years – that demonstrates value. (Excerpted from “Strategic Public Relations.”)
People hire us because we are likeable and easy to work with, but also because of the value we bring and the results we deliver as they work to achieve tough business and communication objectives. What is your point of view? Do you think it is more important to be valued or liked?