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.
HubSpot recently shared perspective on how often to publish posts to a company blog. This is something we often discuss with our clients, so I was interested to see what HubSpot revealed.
As a business, we maintain our own blog, which is a significant investment of resources. Since the start of 2019, we’ve published two posts per week on the Communiqué PR blog. Previously we had maintained a cadence of posting three blogs a week and still tend to post largely new content (versus reposting past posts). When we decided to decrease our posting frequency, we wondered how it would impact our brand awareness and site traffic.
The HubSpot post, “How Often Should You (or Your Company) Blog? [New Data]” suggests the ideal frequency of publication depends on several factors including size of company, resources for developing content, the intended objectives for the blog, etc. HubSpot offers these tips based on the following objectives:
To Drive Organic Traffic
- Publish as much optimized content as possible
- Small blogs post three to four new posts a week
- Large blogs post four to five posts a week (new and updated content)
To Increase Brand Awareness
- Diversify content and provide useful information
- Small blogs post new content one to two times a week
- Large blogs post content (new and updated) three to four times a week
Since downshifting our weekly blog publication schedule from three to two posts at the start of 2019 we have seen an increase in our site traffic by almost 30 percent over 2018. Of course, there are myriad variables that influence our site traffic and the page views of our blog posts. However, it is great to see our traffic has not dipped with the decrease in weekly posts and continues to support our business and communication objectives.
A company blog requires an ongoing commitment to publish content that is of interest and value to your target audience(s). It is important to make sure all marketing and communication activities are aligned with your organization’s business objectives. We regularly monitor to see what content on our blog generates the most traction – views, time on page and reposts/shares via social media, etc. This allows us to refine what content we share moving forward to ensure we are providing value to our readers.
To gain additional guidance on blogging, below are some past posts that might be of interest:
Refresh Your Blog: Three Unique Approaches Your Brand Should Consider
For the Love of Blog: Don’t Forget to Include Blogging in Your 2018 Plan
Starting a new job can be intimidating for anyone. For me, it was challenging as I undertook the position of intern at Communiqué PR because I had never worked in the public relations industry before. I took a leap of faith after taking one communications class on public relations and decided to apply to Communiqué PR as an intern this past fall. In my short time at Communiqué PR, I have been lucky to work with some of the most dedicated and hardworking coworkers I’ve encountered. Their energy is contagious, and I’m constantly inspired to work harder.
Reflecting on these past few months, I have seen my coworkers embrace five characteristics that I believe have played a role in their success—being flexible, intentional, detail-oriented, proactive and positive. Public relations is an ever-changing industry that is difficult to navigate, but I’ve seen my coworkers at Communiqué PR embody these qualities and they’ve served as a constant guide through my transition.
Being Flexible
The first quality my coworkers exemplify at work is flexibility. Being a team member means that you can adjust to short-term changes quickly and effectively. The culture at an agency, like Communiqué PR, allows you to embrace flexibility with your team in order to adapt to your client’s needs in a timely manner. Clients can change their plans and situations arise where a deadline is switched to an earlier time or a completely new project must be finished in a time crunch. For example, on a day with several deadlines, I was tasked with completing a press list with a quick turnaround. Originally, I planned to write a blog post, but because of the urgency of the project, I pushed the blog post aside and focused on the press list. Being able to rearrange projects based on their importance is a skill that is invaluable.
Intentional
“Be thoughtful and intentional with your questions.” This was one of the best and most memorable words of advice I received during onboarding that relates to the second characteristic, being intentional. In the workforce, everyone is busy, which means being respectful of the team’s time is part of the job. Being intentional with your questions will reduce the amount of time required of your coworkers and allow them to spend more energy addressing your questions. This can apply to any job and is important because everyone has their own to-do list. Being intentional makes conversations more efficient and demonstrates respect for everyone’s time. Planning out your day right when you get to the office helps you gauge if you have room for helping other projects and being purposeful with each conversation surrounding work.
Detail-Oriented
Another thoughtful tip I got during onboarding was to always carry around a notebook and pen. Being detail-oriented in the workforce enables effective management of the assortment of tasks thrown at you in any given day. Having up to three meetings a day and a multitude of short conversations can leave you making forgetful mistakes that can be easily avoided by carrying around a notebook and taking thorough notes. Along with being vigilant about your conversations, it is important to be attentive to detail. Always double check your work before sending it to a client or coworker. Being meticulous shows the recipient of your work that you are taking the project seriously and respecting their time.
Proactive
In an industry like public relations, there is no rhythm to your workday. Some days can fly by like a blink of an eye while other days go at a snail’s pace. A true distinguishing characteristic is how you respond to the slow days, which should consist of being proactive. When my coworkers know they are going to have a slow day they mention it in our daily morning meetings, allowing for the team to lean on them if they have a busy day ahead. This lessens wasted time and increases the efficiency of the team. Getting ahead in simple tasks, such as brainstorming a blog post two weeks early or organizing your email, is another helpful way to stay on track before the momentum picks up.
Positive
Lastly is the importance of being positive. Being an amateur intern was a daunting experience for me but being surrounded by team members who lift me up and offer advice has provided a beneficial and rewarding experience. Having a positive mindset during my three months at Communiqué PR has allowed for me to fully absorb the helpful comments and observations made by my coworkers. Public relations can be hard for individuals who expect constant praise. To succeed, you must handle feedback and reflect on it as an opportunity to grow. My coworkers put 110 percent into each press release and pitch, seeking feedback from a variety of team members to ensure they are delivering a high-quality product. This mindset creates a drive to constantly produce quality work, even if it requires tough feedback.
Throughout my short time at Communiqué PR, I have learned to look to my coworkers as role models in the public relations industry. There is an abundance of knowledge that can transpire, from observing your coworkers, learning from their habits, and always being open to receiving advice. Whether you are starting an internship next month or have been working at the same agency for years, appreciating coworkers can change your perspective and allow you to grow into a stronger public relations professional.
Public speaking can be uncomfortable, especially in front of a large group.
Spokespeople want to do a good job. But the stakes can seem high – winning new business, securing funding, keynoting an industry event – and the time to prepare oftentimes gets squeezed into less time than is optimal. Preparation tends to focus on the content and not practicing the delivery, in particular delivery of the opening and transition into the core presentation.
Therefore, it is not uncommon for a spokesperson to seem uncomfortable, nervous or awkward at the beginning of their presentation as they look to get into a rhythm. Yet audience members will form impressions about the individual’s competence, trustworthiness, expertise and knowledge in as little as half a minute. Once established those first impressions are hard to sway.
So how does a spokesperson calm their nerves, demonstrate confidence and build a rapport with the audience in those first few minutes? Not surprisingly, practice is critical. However, a recent Harvard Business Review article offers direction on what and how to practice in order to look and sound more confident. Below we’ve highlighted a few of the tips shared in that article:
Eye contact: Practice your presentation with the goal of decreasing the time you look at your slides versus making eye contact with listeners. To do this, you can record yourself practicing your presentation in front of a small group of colleagues, or you can ask a colleague in the audience to track when and how often you refer to/read your slides or notes.
Posture: Practice delivering your presentation with an open posture – arms uncrossed, hands out of pockets – and with any potential barriers eliminated (e.g., lectern, laptop).
Gestures: Practice using gestures during your presentation. The key is any gestures used need to come across as natural. Gestures can include “if you’re listing a number of items, use your fingers to count them off,” or as an “analysis of popular TED speakers, like Brené Brown and Tony Robbins, found that they tend to bring their hands to their heart when sharing personal stories.”
Also noted in the HBR article are recommendations including eliminating filler words (e.g., um, ah, like, you know), taking time to pause, and varying your pace. I would add varying tone and inflection naturally is also extremely important when presenting. It is disappointing to listen to a presenter in a monotone voice share valuable insights and perspective as the content gets lost in the delivery style.
Unfortunately, there is no shortcut for practice. The good news is you can gamify the practice. Work with a colleague, have them give you points for use of gestures, eye contact with the audience and keeping an open posture. Have them detract points for use of filler words and reading of your notes or slides. Establish a baseline “score” with your first practice, then work to get a higher score with each practice. This ensures your colleague is evaluating your presentation with shared expectations and with consistency from one practice to the next.
How do you take the pain out of practicing for a presentation in order to be more confident and establish a positive, strong first impression?
I had a job interview once where the interviewer told me, “I don’t think this is what you’re looking for. You can’t be creative here.”
I was perplexed by his response to my enthusiasm for thinking outside the box and challenging the norm. I wanted to explain that he misunderstood what I meant when I said I thrived in a creative work environment but ultimately bit my tongue and didn’t pursue the opportunity further.
This experience crosses my mind regularly.
How do we define creativity? Is it artistic ability? Is it storytelling? What does creativity look like in the workplace?
Google defines creativity as, “The use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.”
Creativity at work isn’t confined to making a colorful slideshow presentation, pulling off a multi-million-dollar ad campaign or designing a new product. Creativity encompasses thinking and problem solving. Sometimes it’s more about an attitude than it is a specific action.
According to Edward de Bono, “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.”
How do we break out of established patterns? I’ve found that asking questions is a great place to start. Instead of pestering coworkers or managers with incessant questions, asking smart questions about process or expectations can help gauge how much wiggle room we’re afforded when it comes to completing a project or solving a problem.
I’ve also found collaboration to be a creativity catalyst. Teams in and of themselves provide an easy way for us to interact with new ideas. Given that our individual experiences are unique, our perspectives on how to solve a problem will differ from others’ solutions. This difference creates a playground for our minds to play on as we collaborate with one another on projects. Working as a team to brainstorm ideas from something as simple as a client-facing email to an expansive marketing proposal can produce results we perhaps wouldn’t have drummed up on our own.
Steve Jobs, during his time as CEO of Pixar, purposely designed its headquarters with the bathrooms in a central atrium so that employees of every discipline would be compelled to see one another and interact throughout the day as they walked from office to common area and back again. By simply being together we are cultivating creativity.
Contrary to what that hiring manager told me, there is always a place for creativity at work. It’s how innovation (whether large or small) begins and businesses thrive. Creative teams are able to do more than simply produce better results. They also experience decreased stress, increased productivity, motivation, and engagement and can find more success in failure.
The principles of creativity are universal – we can inject them in any circumstance, no matter the industry.
Spaceflight, a rideshare service and mission management provider, has had an incredibly busy 2019 and though we’re nearing the end of the year, the company has no plans to slow down.
Spaceflight has had an exciting 12 months, closing 2018 with its historic SSO-A mission, launching a record-breaking 64 satellites to space. Since then, the company has executed five launches and is scheduled to launch about five more through the end of the year. While the individual launches haven’t sent as many satellites to orbit as SSO-A, the company is set to execute more launches this year than any other year. Also, though they may not all be record-breaking, Spaceflight has played an important role in several notable missions.
In February, the company led the launch of Space IL’s lunar lander and in June the company’s first mission with Rocket Lab successfully launched from New Zealand.
In anticipation of four upcoming launches between now and the end of 2019, we assisted Spaceflight in announcing the missions, their role and the customers onboard.
The first announcement published on Oct. 21 and highlighted the next three launches on ISRO’s PSLV (the launch vehicle). Given the launches don’t have an overwhelming number of satellites onboard and the proximity of the launch dates, we decided to combine the announcement of these launches into one release. Not only does it make it easy to locate information about all the launches, but it also illustrates the strength and consistency of Spaceflight’s partnership with ISRO and the reliability of the launch vehicle.
On Nov. 5 we announced Spaceflight’s third launch with Rocket Lab, scheduled for later this year. This is Spaceflight’s third launch with Rocket Lab in 2019 and it was important to demonstrate the continued partnership, as well as the unique payload onboard. Spaceflight is also working with a company that plans to create man-made shooting stars for both entertainment and research purposes.
Below are several pieces of coverage that resulted from the announcements.
Congratulations to Spaceflight on their continued success!
- Spaceflight and Rocket Lab will put a Japanese shooting-star satellite into orbit—GeekWire, 11/5/19
- The ALE Sky Canvas Shooting Star Project Satellite Gets the Spaceflight Treatment for a Rocket Lab Electron Launch—SatNews, 11/5/19
- Spaceflight to Launch 14 Spacecraft for Four Companies in Two Months from India’s PSLV—SatNews, 10/22/19
- 14 small foreign satellites to launch on next 3 PSLVs—The Hundu, 10/23/19
- Spaceflight Announces Next Three Rideshare Missions on ISRO’s PSLV—Parabolic Arc, 10/21/19
Consumers’ distrust in the media is on the rise. Cision’s latest State of the Media Report showed 63% of journalists think the public has lost trust in the media over the past year.
Among fake news, misinformation campaigns and native advertising, consumers increasingly question the validity of what they read online.
Not surprisingly, the report shows consumers view some media with more suspicion than others. Although only half of consumers trust paid ads, 92% say they trust earned media.
Often the channel gets blamed when paid media is underperforming. However, Cision’s recent report debunks that theory as it indicates the challenge isn’t with the search, digital or social platform itself, rather with the fact that buying your way to success isn’t going to work.
Most channels have both earned and paid media options. Instead of blacklisting the one that isn’t working, consider leveraging media that consumers perceive as more trustworthy. For example, earlier this year The Manifest found that 44% of Facebook users viewed the platform negatively after the Cambridge Analytica election scandal. In the eyes of many users, Facebook’s behavior has also tinged the trustworthiness of its ads.
Rather than pay for Facebook ads, consider taking advantage of organic growth. Influencers are a popular and valuable approach in part because the platform they use most frequently, Instagram, is attracting large numbers of new users and becoming the fastest growing social network last year.
Trust is the major theme in Cision’s recent report. In fact, it seems it’s the foundational through line that will determine the future of the industry.
Telling a reliable, informative and relevant story is more important than ever, and journalists are using data and analytics to better understand what stories resonate with readers and generate the traffic and revenue journalists need to thrive in today’s media environment.
Given that earned media is trusted by nearly twice as many people, it’s the obvious choice for brands operating in the age of distrust.
Other key takeaways from the report include:
Journalists continue to rely more and more on data to make decisions about the stories they focus on. Some 65% of journalists globally feel that detailed audience metrics like views and engagement have changed the kinds of content they publish, while 43% of respondents focus primarily on readership or views, 20% focus on engagement, and 15% focus on impact on revenue.
PR and communications professionals are valuable partners to journalists, especially in this turbulent media environment. However, 75% of journalists said that fewer than 25% of the pitches they receive are relevant. Journalists reported that the single most effective thing PR professionals can do to improve their relationship with the media is to better understand the end customer and provide information more relevant and customized to that audience.
Social media is both less- and more- important than ever. Because of the volatile nature of social media in 2018, journalists have increasingly complex feelings about the importance of social media. Some 38% of journalists surveyed agree that updated social media algorithms – such as changes to the Facebook News Feed – will be the most important technology to impact their work in 2019, which is an increase in the past year. That impact is not always positive, as journalists have concerns about relying on social media for publishing content.
To read the full Cision 2019 State of the Media Report, click here.