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.
I have been thinking about the responsibilities of a panel chair as I prepare to moderate a panel on damage control later this month. Colleen and I have been doing a significant amount of speaking as we promote our book, “Strategic Public Relations.” In addition, many of our clients are asked to chair panels as they achieve thought-leadership positions within their industries. Given this, I thought I would take a minute to share my thoughts on the attributes of a good facilitator or panel chair.
- Be Prepared. Think deeply about how the panelists can add value to the audience. What are the questions attendees want answered? Once you have identified the key questions to be addressed be sure to share them with the panelists in advance. Part of your role as a moderator is to make sure the members of the panel are well prepared. To do this, I recommend sending the panelists written materials and holding a brief call with them prior to the panel.
- Make Introductions. Another key role as the facilitator of a panel is to introduce each of the panelists as well as the topic. You want to keep the introductions brief, but it is important the audience understands who is presenting and why they were selected to participate in the discussion.
- Establish the Ground Rules. Consider taking a few minutes before you delve into your discussion to review ground rules for the discussion. You can do this by simply stating, I know each of you have a lot of information to share today, but in the essences of making sure we cover XYZ, Id like you to limit your response to a couple of minutes.
- Frame the Discussion. Make sure you tell your audience what is in it for them. I like to grab the audience’s attention by helping them understand the three things they’re going to get from us as a group. For instance, for my damage control panel at Enterprise Social 2.0 the audience can expect to learn the following three things: 1) what they can do to prepare for a crisis; 2) best practices for leveraging social media during a crisis; 3) how to turn a negative into a positive.
- Keep Things Moving. It’s important to maintain the pace of the discussion. If the conversation is moving into a rat hole, you need to re-direct it. This can be done simply by stating, “I want to remain true to our goal of covering X and we have limited time today, so Joe, I’d like to have you share your perspective on XYZ.”
- Engage the Audience. Consider ways to involve the audience in the discussion. It might be helpful to ask for a show of hands around a subject before inviting the panelists to delve deeper with their comments and feedback. In Amsterdam, I may ask the audience for a show of hands on how many of them feel as if their company is prepared to respond to a crisis using social media.
- Conclude the Discussion. Finally, as the moderator you will be responsible for wrapping up the discussion. I like to summarize some of the key points, thank the panelists and call for questions from the audience.
If you have been a panel moderator and have other thoughts or best practices, please share them with us.
We thought you’d be interested to know that Harry Sandler, director of strategic ticketing for Digonex Technologies, will be speaking at Ticket Summit, a leading industry conference for the secondary ticket market being held in New York on January 13 to 15. Digonex is rapidly becoming known as a leader in the dynamic pricing market and has published numerous contributed articles on this topic including: “Maximizing Virtual Goods through Dynamic Pricing,” which was published in the Dec. 3 issue of Virtual Goods Insider; as well as “Guest Commentary: Dynamic Pricing: A Fair-to-All Solution to Event Ticketing Prices,” which was published recently in TicketNews.com. Harry will participate in a panel discussion titled, “How to Price Your Tickets” on Fri., Jan. 15 at 10 a.m. and will provide insight on how companies can determine if they are pricing their ticket inventory too high or too low and will offer tips on how to adjust and optimize ticket prices for maximum profit. Harry has more than 40 years experience in the industry and has worked extensively with venues, promoters, managers and artists. For the past five years, Sandler has worked on ticketing strategies for the music industry, developing new and innovative pricing platforms. Ticket Summit brings together hundreds of experts within the ticket industry and provides an opportunity for leaders to discuss important issues surrounding ticketing, other panel sessions will include:
- “Building Your Brand”
- “The Economics of Ticketing”
- “Legal Issues and Ticketing Trends”
- “The Broadway Box Office”
- “Then and Now: The Primary Market”
To learn more about the Harry Sandler’s panel or trends in ticketing, please feel free to contact Communiqué PR at info@communiquepr.com.
In previous blog posts we’ve written about thought leadership – sharing examples of how we have helped our clients establish themselves as a thought leader in a particular category.
With the New Year and many companies setting goals around establishing thought leadership, we thought it would be helpful to revisit the topic beginning with our definition. Thought leadership is when a company (or person) is recognized for its innovative solutions, and its deep understanding of its business, the needs of its customers and the broader marketplace.
Clearly public relations and social media can be driving forces in helping companies gain recognition as thought leaders. So what are some of the communication strategies and tactics that can be employed to establish and maintain thought leadership?
Consider the following ideas:
- Write – Contributed articles, case studies, guest blog posts and white papers from a wide group of executives can all play an important role in establishing a company as a thought leader.
- Comment – Share your perspective with journalists and analysts. Proactively offer commentary on industry trends via buddy e-mails.
- Speak – Get in front of key audiences with speaking engagements at reputable trade shows or conferences.
- Build Third-Party Advocacy – Identify and build relationships with third-party influencers (analysts, academics, customers, etc). Having a group of people who can speak on your behalf can be very powerful.
- Leverage Social Media – With the rise of Facebook and Twitter, social networks can be an excellent vehicle for raising awareness of a company’s solutions and understanding of the marketplace. And don’t think social networks are just for business to consumer products. According to a recent survey from Forrester, 91 percent of all technology decision makers consume social content.
- Win Awards – Awards can be very effective in establishing thought leadership with myriad audiences – consumers, industry folk, venture capitalists and even members of the media.
Without a doubt each company will have different strategies and tactics for achieving thought leadership; however, it’s important to remember that when used strategically, public relations and social media can be effective programs in establishing recognition for a company or person.
Thought leadership will continue to be a key objective for many organizations in 2010 as they continue to look for ways to build credibility and brand awareness with customers in the face of the current economic and media climates.
Interested in learning more about how PR can help establish your company as a thought leader? Drop us a line at info@communiquepr.com.
We are excited to announce Communiqué PR has placed three contributed articles in pharmaceutical industry publications on behalf of OnRequest Images. These bylined articles illustrate the importance of branding in the pharmaceutical industry and provide insight on how companies can leverage imagery and photographs to convey a unified brand image, increase awareness of their products and services, and boost consumer confidence in the company.
The three articles include:
- Pharma Marketing News – December 16, 2009
- Pharma Magazine – March/April 2010
- Pharmaceutical Representative – February/March 2010
In the past, Communiqué has also worked with Pharmaceutical Executive, a leading pharmaceutical publication that provides fresh insights on strategy, marketing, and competition to new ideas about R&D, finance, IT and emerging markets. We established a relationship with the publication and as a result, placed a contributed article on a clientís behalf. We are thrilled to re-engage with this industry and continue to strengthen our relationship with this market segment.
To learn more about OnRequest Images, visit http://onrequestimages.com/.
With the economic downturn, layoffs, H1N1, massive changes in the media, and the growth of social networking impacting our world, 2009 proved to be a challenging year for many of us. At Communiqué PR, we looked at the uncertainty and adverse business climate as an opportunity to be even more focused in our efforts for our clients.
Many of our clients had limited marketing dollars and needed us to demonstrate clear return on investment (ROI). Fortunately, the Communiqué team loves a challenge and is adept at securing results that help clients move product, sell services and grow brands, even in the midst of a fierce recession.
As we look back on 2009, some of the high points included the following:
- We added the following nine clients to the Communiqué roster: Aveso Displays, Dashwire, Digonex Technologies, Isilon Systems, Mobile On, OnRequest Images, SAM Medical Products, Tecplot Inc. and Veratect Corporation.
- Veratect Corporation came to us in April to help get the word out about its role in detecting the first outbreak of H1N1. The interest in Veratectís story was staggering. We worked with journalists from all over the world placing more than 150 articles with ABC National Radio, the Associated Press, BBC, Financial Times, MSNBC, USA Today, Washington Post, Wired and many more.
- Aveso Displays, headquartered in Fridley, Minn., makes flexible display solutions which are being integrated into an array of products – including bank cards. To support the companyís business objectives, we secured more than 10 briefings with industry analysts who follow the security and/or banking industry. We also placed contributed articles in Electronic Design, Bank Systems & Technology, ECN and Wireless Design.
- Coverage highlights for Tecplot Inc., a developer of CFD software, included articles in USA Today, The Gazette, CFD Review, Puget Sound Business Journal, Desktop Engineering, Aviation Week and Red Orbit.
- In the summer of 2009, we took on a project for SAM Medical Products, a company in Portland, Ore. Specifically, we assisted the company with the introduction of its dual-purpose CELOX Trauma Gauze and secured coverage in Popular Science, EMS Responder, Journal of Emergency Service, Portland Business Journal as well as several other publications.
- For OnRequest Images, a provider of custom photography, we focused on the placement of contributed articles. CEO Carla Stratfold contributed articles to the following publications: Atlanta Journal Constitution; Media Postís Marketing Daily, AMA Marketing New Blog, and The Advertiser. In 2010, we anticipate three additional articles will appear in Pharmaceutical Representative, Pharma Magazine and Pharma Marketing News.
- Digonex Technologies, an Indianapolis-based pricing software developer, came to us in March looking to drive awareness around their technology and establish themselves as a thought leader in dynamic pricing. Our efforts primarily focused on targeted, proactive outreach with a series of buddy e-mails and bylined articles. As a result of our efforts we secured coverage with Publisherís Weekly, Red Herring, Reuters, NPR, TicketNews.com and Billboard.
- Seattle-based Attachmate had several successful product launches this year including a new family of products called FileXpress, which is targeted at the managed file transfer market. We secured coverage in technology publications such as Network World, IT Jungle and IBM Systems Magazine. In addition, we continue to help the company maintain strong relationships with key industry analysts from Gartner, IDC and Forrester.
- We helped launch the open beta of BuildAnApp, a do-it-yourself mobile application development solution for one of our newest clients, Mobile On. We were able to create some early buzz for the company with key placements in MocoNews.com, PC World and Wall Street Journal. Weíre excited to officially launch the company in 2010 and continue to provide counsel on social media activities.
Internal Milestones for the year included the following:
- In April we celebrated the publication of our book ’Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR. The book continues to get positive reviews on Amazon and has recently been selected as required reading for a course on public relations. It was also reviewed in 2009 by PR Week: Costco Connection; University of Puget Soundís alumni magazine, Arches; and in the Oregon Quarterly.
- We participated in numerous speaking engagements throughout the year. A few of them included:
- Communicators Conference – The Changing Media Landscape and the Impact on Todayís Communications Professionals, May 6, 2009
- PR Works Show (Small Planet Radio), May 7, 2009
- Perkins Coie Madrona Twitter Conference 2009, May 13, 2009
- Business Wire Luncheon – The Changing Media Landscape, Jun. 4, 2009
- American Marketing Association, – Twitterphoria: Adding Twitter Power to Your Marketing Mix, Sept. 9, 2009
- Law Seminar International Social Media Law – Social Media Marketing: Anticipating Legal and Public Relations Issues to Maximize Benefit and Minimize Risk, Sept. 11, 2009
- Tacoma – Pierce County Chamber of Commerce – The Power of PR, Sept. 22, 2009
- Northwest Environmental Business Council, Social Media & Your Business, Oct. 7, 2009
- Tacoma – Pierce County Chamber EXPO Workshop, Oct. 20, 2009
- We wrote more than 111 blog posts and began using Twitter to drive traffic to our Web site as well as to clientsí online content and journalistsí articles.
- We joined the Council of PR Firms, an organization formed in 1998 with the goal of creating the first national association and a mission of advancing the business of public relations. More than 100 of Americaís leading PR firms are members.
- Lastly, we initiated the redesign of the Communiqué PR Web site. In October we began work with Susan Giordano and the team at GKD, a Seattle-based firm specializing in corporate branding, custom Web site design and product packaging.
As we look toward 2010, we want to thank those of you with whom we had the opportunity to work. We feel blessed to have a wonderful group of clients with compelling stories to tell, strong relationships with journalists around the country and world, and many other supporters.
The media landscape has changed dramatically over the past couple of years. During a time when many print publications and newspapers are experiencing tremendous challenges, Google announced it will offer publishers a new approach to presenting news online – through one single URL. The project, which is called Living Stories, was developed in partnership with The New York Times and The Washington Post as ’an experiment in presenting news, one designed specifically for the online environment.
This new tool will provide complete coverage of an on-going story in one URL. It will allow users to quickly navigate between news articles, opinion pieces and features without long waits for pages to load. According to The New York Times, Google has recently taken steps to ’project an image of itself as a friend to the industry. If Google deems this project to be a success, publishers interested in the project will be able to leverage it on their respective Web sites. They could also sell advertisements on those pages.
This new service could be a great tool for journalists looking for background information about certain companies, products or services. It will also be beneficial to companies looking to quickly get an update on breaking news and news surrounding their organizations. According to Josh Cohen, business product manager for Google News, having all the materials appear on a single page will help the page rank higher in Internet searches. Additionally, readers will be able to read an entire article without navigating away from the subject page, saving them time and hassle of managing multiple tabs and Web pages.
As public relations professionals continue to partner with journalists on stories, it will be interesting to see if tools such as the Living Stories project will be able to revive the publishing industry and keep online publications afloat.