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From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.

Top Tips to Future-Proof Your Business

Transformations to the digital world and workplace are happening all the time and impact how we interact with our organizations daily. This shift has emphasized the need for collaborative tools, new communication techniques, increased security and maintenance of competency as team members span across various locations and business practices shift.

Keeping up with the times is difficult enough on a personal level, but what can we do to ensure success for our businesses now and in the future? Here are four top tips to future-proof your business:

 

  1. Keep Up with the News

This will come naturally to most but keeping up with current trends is key to maintaining an understanding of where our world is going, and it’s important to update yourself daily. Investing in subscriptions to news outlets may prove beneficial, and the Apple News app is an easy way to keep up. Readers can receive live updates and notifications for breaking news, and can also subscribe to preferred outlets through the app.

It is not the sole responsibility of leadership to keep up with current trends and shifts within the industry, but executives can set a great example by maintaining competency for themselves, sharing their knowledge with the broader team, and encouraging coworkers to do the same.

 

  1. Utilize Effective Team Collaboration Tools

Cloud usage is becoming more ubiquitous, and the importance of an effective virtual workplace directly impacts the quality of service businesses can provide. With enterprises on both a national and international levels moving toward remote work, cloud capabilities, the need to keep data safe, organization and convenience remain key.

Luckily, businesses no longer need to use multiple applications to satisfy all of the communication and organizational needs that cooperation demands. It will be most beneficial for businesses to adopt these suite-style services, as it is more cohesive, accessible and cost-effective to have a sole provider rather than multiple. The ability to utilize multiple capabilities under one umbrella, such as office suite applications, collaboration, meeting infrastructure, IaaS and more is a major draw to simplify a business’s needs.

 

  1. Understand Data Security Evolution

Maintaining and understanding data sovereignty is an ongoing process that requires thought and care. Given the numerous, and sometimes inconsistent, array of data regulations, the responsibility for staying up-to-speed on data sovereignty often falls on the shoulders of IT teams. The stakes for compliance are high. Running afoul with any of the many regulations or laws can cost companies and individuals money and resources.

With the introduction of cloud applications, IT teams will need to evolve their thinking on security, their policies of managing it, and consider data sovereignty, as well. Questions that IT teams must address to mitigate cloud-security risks include:

  • Have data sovereignty regulations been considered, and has your team ensured that these rules can be met?
  • Is one cloud tenant or are multiple tenants needed for your data protection?
  • Is a regional cloud ecosystem reliable for you?
  • When your core business systems rely on cloud service providers, what is your business continuity plan (BCP)?

If businesses don’t remain current, they risk falling behind in the blink of an eye, or even facing legal repercussions. Abiding by updated regional data sovereignty laws can future-proof your business today and tomorrow.

 

  1. Understand ESG

Among businesses and corporations, a new emergence of consideration surrounding environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) plays a vital role in whether investors and consumers are inclined to buy into a company or utilize their services. This is especially pertinent as millennials settle into the workplace and Gen Z enters it.

This newness may shift the idea of which companies are valued more than others. While a company’s reputation is not limited to its ESG score, prospective clients, customers and investors may be influenced by how a company treats its employees, handles social issues, and the company’s geopolitical view.

Investments and business activity will follow those companies that score well and demonstrate their dedication to sustainability, carbon-neutral initiatives, broader social issues and team member satisfaction. Companies must think long-term in order to remain successful. There are sustainable funds that exist so that investors can contribute to companies that meet ESG criteria and adhere to sustainability goals. Enterprises that fail to factor ESG into their long-term planning risk falling behind.

The tech world changes every day. If you don’t remain current, you and your business can fall behind in the blink of an eye. The largest key to future-proofing your business is to simply keep up and adapt as necessary. Get comfortable with change and know that it will continue to come consistently. Companies that future-proof well will possess team members that are passionate about maintain industry competency, are competitive in their progressions, have safety and security at their core and remain proactive.

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AP Style Evolves with the Pandemic

As we begin the third calendar year of the coronavirus pandemic, the fast-spreading omicron variant has thrown us yet another curveball, causing staffing shortages and closures and disrupting essential services for travelers, medical patients and students alike. Over the past 24 months, terms like COVID-19, social distancing and quarantine have become part of our daily vernacular.

As the virus evolves, so does the terminology we use to tell the story, and the AP Stylebook recently updated their topical guide on the coronavirus to reflect these developments.  

While the terms quarantine and isolation have been used interchangeably during the pandemic, the team at AP points out that they have distinct meanings. This guidance is especially timely with last week’s updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cutting the recommended isolation period for people who tested positive for COVID-19 from 10 days to five. Isolation refers to preventing disease by separating sick people from healthy people. On the other hand, quarantine refers to separating and restricting the movement of those exposed to COVID-19 or another contagious disease to see if they become sick.

The updated guide includes new COVID-19 terms, including booster, breakthrough infection and hybrid immunity. Other updates to the AP guide include:

  • Vaccine or vaccination? According to AP Style, a vaccination refers to the act of giving a vaccine and can be used interchangeably with the term immunization. Writers should refer to the COVID-19 vaccine (or vaccination) or coronavirus vaccine (or vaccination) rather than an anti-COVID-19 vaccine or anti-coronavirus vaccine. It is not necessary to indicate the type of vaccine unless it is relevant to the story or using the manufacturer’s name is essential to distinguish between vaccines. Finally, the team at AP advises avoiding the shorthand vax or vaxxed.
  • What’s in a name? According to AP Style, virus variants, which writers can also refer to as versions, should be identified by the letter of the Greek alphabet assigned by the World Health Organization, such as omicron, and not include numbers, such as B.1.7. Avoid identifying variants with country labels like the South Africa variant.
  • Mask up! The coronavirus guide defines the terms mask, respirator and ventilator and notes that it is acceptable for writers to use the word mask as a verb and combine it with the word up. For example, the CDC recommends that those with subsiding COVID-19 symptoms mask up around others after five days in isolation.
  • Passports, please? Defined as documents, digital or paper, showing a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status, the term “vaccine passport” is acceptable in quotation marks, according to AP Style. Proof of vaccination, however, is better.
  • Epidemic, pandemic or endemic? An epidemic, which refers to a disease spreading rapidly within a specific region or population, becomes a pandemic once it affects many people and scientists find the virus in multiple countries or continents. The editors at AP advise that endemic is an adjective that describes a disease’s constant presence, such as malaria in some tropical areas.

While still considered a pandemic, medical experts expect COVID-19 will eventually become endemic. It is critical that we continually reference expert sources and the most current information available to ensure accuracy when writing about the virus; the AP Stylebook will continue to be a reliable source for writing about this fast-evolving subject.

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Publication Spotlight: TechRepublic

Our series, “Publication Spotlight,” covers various publications of interest to our clients. For these spotlights, we conduct research and develop a brief Q&A sharing details about the outlet and some of its core offerings. The post below is an overview of TechRepublic and a summary of my research as of Jan. 4, 2022.

Q: How long has the publication been around?

Founded in 1997 and based in Nashville, Tenn., TechRepublic serves as a professional resource and community for members of the IT sector. TechRepublic Includes a family of virtual communities called republics, which organize editorial coverage by job function. These republics provide expert niche content, as well as peer-to-peer advice. In addition to its national edition, TechRepublic offers international editions in the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.

Q: Who owns the publication?

TechRepublic was founded by Tom Cottingham and Kim Spalding and debuted as a website in May 1999. The site was purchased by CNET in 2001. In August of 2021, a Nashville-based technology marketing company, TechnologyAdvice, announced the acquisition of TechRepublic. TechnologyAdvice delivers marketing and data for technology companies to help them reach their target customers.

Q: Who reads TechRepublic?

Members of the IT sector, including CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, CMOs, IT directors, IT managers, IT professionals and anyone whose job requires making decisions about technology. TechRepublic’s website receives 3.9M unique visitors per month.

Q: What is the process for contributing content to TechRepublic?

TechRepublic does not publish contributed content.

Q: Does TechRepublic offer a newsletter? What does it entail and how do I sign up for it?

TechRepublic publishes several newsletters, covering a broad range of topics including cloud, data analytics, AI, 5G, cybersecurity, Microsoft and Apple.

 

A few featured TechRepublic newsletters include:

  • Developer Essentials: “From the hottest programming languages to the jobs with the highest salaries, get the developer news and tips you need to know.”
  • Innovation: “Be in the know about smart cities, AI, Internet of Things, VR, AR, robotics, drones, autonomous driving, and more of the coolest tech innovations.”
  • Executive Briefing: “Discover the secrets to IT leadership success with these tips on project management, budgets, and dealing with day-to-day challenges.”

Each of TechRepublic’s newsletters are delivered at a specific cadence and interested readers can subscribe here: https://www.techrepublic.com/newsletters/

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Looking Into the Crystal Ball: 5 Predictions for Public Relations in 2022

As we look ahead to 2022, I want to share my predictions for the public relations industry.

I also encourage you to check out this blog post titled 2022 Public Relations Predictions From PR Experts. The Business Wire content team included one of my predictions, along with those of other agency owners and leaders.

My full list includes the following:

  1. Remote work will remain the norm and impact PR firms and department operations. As such, PR leaders and professionals need to look for ways to avoid burnout. Small changes can make a huge difference in the quality of one’s work-life balance. For instance, unless there is an emergency, make it a policy to avoid sending emails during the evening or on the weekend. Leaders should model taking time off and encourage team members to follow their lead. They also should identify ways to keep morale up and continue to build skills around effective online team meetings and collaboration.
  2. Crisis communications activity will remain high in 2022. This activity will be driven by more significant storms, wildfires and heatwaves, new variants of COVID, and ongoing issues with the supply chain. The beginning of the year is an excellent time for PR pros to make sure they have robust crisis communications plans and contingency staff on hand to be ready if a crisis arises.
  3. There will be more worldwide collaboration. With the increased adoption of Microsoft Teams and Zoom, collaboration with colleagues around the globe has never been easier. In the past year, Communiqué has seen an increase in global PR campaigns with teams in Australia, Singapore, France, Germany, India and Japan, which has been beneficial in driving brand awareness and thought leadership for our clients. We expect this trend to continue and are grateful for Business Wire’s global distribution of news.
  4. The lines between internal and external communication will continue to blur. Internal emails, videos, text messages, and other private correspondence can be made public. PR pros must continue to remember this and educate executives about it as well. They also need to ensure that internal and external messages are consistent and align with an organization’s mission, vision and strategies. Finally, all communication should demonstrate emotional intelligence, compassion, and an understanding of the landscape.
  5. There will be an increased focus on DEI within the PR industry. Many companies began to implement diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the past few years, but there is an opportunity for more improvement in this area. In the coming year, I believe PR teams will continue to hire more diverse talent and invest in DEI programs that improve overall company culture and the well-being of employees.

 

And, if you’re curious to look back at the 2021 predictions to see how many of them materialized, I encourage you to check out one of Business Wire’s most popular blogs, 5 PR trends for 2021, from last year.

If you have a perspective on how the industry will continue to change in the coming year, drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you on how communications teams will continue to evolve strategies and tactics, especially as it pertains to storytelling, message development, crisis communications and fake news.  

 

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2021 Year-End Results: HeadLight

Throughout the year, the infrastructure construction industry took center stage. Attention on the sector was primarily due to the negotiations for a bill that would dedicate trillions in funding to improve our nation’s infrastructure. So, when we kicked off our partnership with HeadLight, a visual-based inspection technology, at the beginning of 2021, we knew there would be exciting opportunities to raise awareness about the company and the value of its solution as well as position its executives as thought leaders.

HeadLight had a momentous year with many significant milestones, including new customer wins, impressive growth figures, an expanding leadership team, award recognitions and original data that demonstrated the effectiveness of its product. Each of these achievements presented an opportunity to raise awareness about the company, its technology and its impact on modernizing infrastructure.   

In addition to announcing company milestones, we proactively pitched reporters to highlight how HeadLight, and innovation at large, could help the industry address labor shortages, improve productivity and resiliency, and support the execution of the infrastructure bill’s ambitious agenda. Through this media outreach, we established relationships with reporters on behalf of the company and demonstrated how HeadLight’s executive team could support their reporting.  

It was a noteworthy year for HeadLight and the industry. Below is a snapshot of some of the results we secured during the year.

We look forward to another exciting year ahead!

2021 HeadLight Coverage

HeadLight Thought Leadership

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Behind the Times: Journalism Grapples with Who Works in Newsrooms, and Who Doesn’t

As much as any fixture of modern life, newsrooms have been canaries in the coal mine on matters of social change. The presence of women and minorities in the newsroom has been regarded as a bellwether of a better modern society, an indicator of its transformative possibilities, and a righteous assault on one of the last redoubts of white male hegemony.

That’s changed in recent years, and certainly in recent months. As technology has evolved, people moved away from the generational habit of reading newspapers; for many, social media fully replaced the newspaper. Hiring practices that started to level the playing field began to retrench, and institutional inertia led to a lack of sustained effort in making changes.

Now journalism, like every other industry, copes with life amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While in recent decades women and people of color assumed positions of leverage and influence in U.S. newsrooms, the diversity numbers have pulled back more. News organizations were already tasked with reducing hiring and headcount across the board because of widespread economic pressures. The global coronavirus rampage has made POC newsroom hiring, already a relative rarity, almost nonexistent.

 

Transparency issues

As a result, some news organizations have given up even  trying to keep track of minorities in their newsrooms. It’s been too much for Meredith Clark of Northwestern University, who told The Associated Press in October that she was, “deeply discouraged that the journalism industry isn’t as transparent about its workforce in the way that it expects other industries to be transparent about theirs.”

It’s all a long way from the lofty promise of 1978, when the American Society of Newspaper Editors announced its oft-cited pledge to match the number of people of color in American newsrooms with their percentage in the population by the year 2000.

People of color in TV newsrooms increased to more than 26 percent between 2000 and 2020, approaching  the 39.3% of their percentage in the overall population, according to the Radio Television Digital News Association. But even that increase was countered with news that, in the same period, people of color in TV news leadership positions declined among black and Latino journalists.

 

Survey: Newsroom diversity matters

A 2021 Reuters Institute survey found that, generations after the importance of and need for diverse newsrooms was first widely acknowledged, the journalism industry still doesn’t get it. “In the light of the Black Lives Matter movement and greater awareness of historic injustices, ethnic diversity remains the biggest priority for media companies – identified by 35% as the single most important priority in terms of improving newsroom diversity, followed by gender diversity (26%) and greater diversity from less advantaged groups (17%),” the Reuters survey reported.

Newsrooms being a step or more behind the times, in itself, is not a new issue. But the industry’s hidebound tendencies aren’t isolated to matters of gender, race and ethnicity, either. Almost two years after the advent of the pandemic, newsrooms have been slow to make hard, pivotal choices on the value of remote or hybrid work locations for their employees.

However reluctantly, the journalism industry will have to address hybrid work or WFH as the next attack on its historical comfort zone. The Reuters Institute survey found that hybrid work will likely be an everyday thing for many journalists, eventually, since only 9% of news companies plan to bring back a pre-COVID workplace strategy – and 89 percent of newsroom leaders support that.

 

Bias: Same arena, new metric

Even this far into the most devastating public-health crisis in 100 years, the journalism industry struggles to respond with anything close to a united front on working remotely. Only one-third (34%) of news organizations have a remote or hybrid working model in place, according to the Reuters report. Some 57% of news orgs said they were still deciding the best way to make hybrid work, work.

According to the report, newsroom managers are increasingly concerned about another kind of bias than the one they’re historically used to dealing with. The issue of bias in journalism has, ironically, evolved. Historically and today, the focus has been on who works in the newsroom; as WFH grows in stature, the issue’s also becoming who doesn’t work in the newsroom.

“More practically,” the report continues, “managers worry about issues like ‘proximity bias,’ where the voices of those working remotely get ignored whilst those physically in the office and so close to decision makers benefit by being there in person, as well as how to get people physically together and foster team spirit. Managers feel they are bearing the brunt of major changes to operational working with the extra burden of communicating with and motivating staff they rarely see face to face.”

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