The Byline: PR and Marketing Insights from Eiler Communications

Beavers work assiduously to build their dams.

They’re never quite satisfied with the type of wood they gnaw, its length, its fit with other pieces of the their dam.

It’s like that with PR.

Most companies are never quite satisfied with their results from PR.

They expect new sales, new knowledge, greater awareness.

They try to do it alone or by telling their PR people or outside counsel how to do the work.

We listen, then design and build sturdy dams. Meant to serve a long time. Meant to be refined to adjust to the river’s flow, more beavers coming into the river, fewer fish to eat.

Our dams are smashing PR programs that help clients move into new markets, introduce new products, reach key people and organizations to create interest and help them decide to go our clients’ way.

We’ve built a lot of dams in 20 years for b-to-b, direct to consumer, financial services, high tech, investor and marketing PR.

We train. We advise. We do. Dams are our only product. How about a dam for you?

We’ll send you an essay on “Reasons Why PR Surpassed Advertising in Business Marketing.”

E-mail me: larry@eilerpr.com

Posted by Larry

Does your PR/marketing person drone on about the upkeep of your company’s Web site newsroom opportunity? That’s likely because they know the majority of journalists research their articles and search for press releases nowadays. According to DMNews, “Corporate Web sites are a key source of information when reporting breaking news when no other primary source is available.” On a news deadline, the company with the most accessible information gets the coverage.

Web site newsrooms are commonplace by now, but you can separate yours from the masses by making it better. Here are five ways to do it:

1. Make sure the newsroom link is obvious from the homepage. If the link to your newsroom is subtle, or worse yet, inaccessible from your homepage, change it. If you were a reporter, how much trouble would you go to for your press release?

The likelihood of media visiting your site is high, especially if preparing for an interview with one of your executives. Approach your newsroom with that in mind. Does your content meet the needs of someone doing quick research about your company? Avoid the temptation to “track” media by requiring a username and password set-up to access your newsroom. It’s annoying, and if information is confidential or sensitive it doesn’t belong in the newsroom.

2. A newsroom is more than your online press release archive. Newsletters, executive speech transcripts, event photos and abstracts from recent media coverage are all appropriate additions. Think creatively about how to keep content fresh.

Post an online media kit to your newsroom for easy downloading. Include the same materials you would in a media folder: executive bios and photos, your latest company news release, a backgrounder or fact sheet about your business and a high-res logo.

3. Remember to date all posted press releases and newsroom items—readers need context. This will also force you to keep content up-to-date. Neglecting to post news as it is released wastes everyone’s time and defeats the purpose of the newsroom. Content should also be easy to navigate. Consider making your content searchable by multiple fields, like date, topic or headline, and available in multiple formats like Word and PDF.

4. Set up an RSS feed so media (and others) can subscribe to your site’s updates. An RSS (Really Simple Syndication), like Feedburner, is free and downloadable as an icon to your Web site. RSS feeds “read” the sites their users subscribe to and send an update when new content is posted. In other words, journalists can subscribe to your RSS and receive a prompt on their homepage when you post a new press release.

Many journalists actually prefer RSS subscriptions to receiving press releases via e-mail, because it allows them to “opt-in” to your news and provides real-time updates. In 2005, Robert Scoble (Microsoft tech evangelist) notoriously blogged that any marketing person who did not add an RSS feed to their Web site should be fired. Harsh. But it’s a valuable tool we should all be using.

5. Identify one media contact in your newsroom and provide his/her contact information on the Web page, not just within press releases. Generic “info@” e-mail addresses or request-for-information survey pages are disconcerting for journalists who may be on deadline and want to contact the right person in a timely fashion.

The moral of the story is to evaluate your newsroom from a journalist’s perspective: someone unfamiliar with your company’s history, leadership and chain of command. Does your site paint a clear picture of your corporate identity? If not, it may be a good idea to do some housekeeping; statistically it is the most popular place people go to learn about your company.

Posted by Rebecca

Awards are great PR tactics because they build credibility and visibility. Pursuing award opportunities can enhance industry leadership and build your company’s market recognition. Furthermore, awards serve a third-party endorsement of the quality products or services you offer (i.e. America’s Most Respected Companies, Best Places to Live America’s Favorite Cookie, etc.). That credibility accomplishes more than any advertising campaign.

Given the power of awards, it’s also important to understand where to look for them and how to pursue them for your organization. The diverse array of awards available might be daunting at first, but that’s a good thing. Different awards allow you to highlight different aspects of your business. Here’s a quick overview of some of the major award types and how they help you:

Industry awards recognize your company’s excellence within its primary area of expertise. You can apply for these awards for reasons including recent innovation, new product or company growth. Depending on the size of your business, you might be the best darn software development firm in the country, you might fall into the top 50 or 100, or you might fit a more specialized industry award, like “best developer of public transit tracking software” or “best manufacturer of polyester shoelaces” rather than best footwear manufacturer overall. Look to your trade publications and national industry organizations to find these opportunities.

Local media awards allow your company to showcase a strong suit other than its industry expertise. You might be the industry’s best developer of public transit tracking software, but you might also be one of your region’s “coolest places to work,” “best and brightest,” “fastest growing private companies,” etc. Check local business publications for announcements of these awards.

Professional organization membership awards acknowledge your contribution to the community of colleagues in related professions. Detroit’s Automation Alley, for example, has an annual awards gala to recognize the best member individuals and companies. Your member newsletters or the organizations’ websites are a great place to find out more about the awards they offer.

Awards for individuals within your company highlight employee excellence. Often, top-level executives are submitted for these awards based on significant victories, contributions or characteristics. Crain’s 40 under 40, for example, showcases one member of your team, but brings a measure of clout to the business as a whole. Not only that, these awards are often a morale booster; they show you recognize your employees’ contributions. Available on local, national and industry-wide levels, these opportunities can be found through professional organizations and it many trade and business news publications.

Awards for specific activities, generally given by professional organizations, recognize very specific areas of excellence. PRSA’s Silver Anvil Award for Crisis Communications, for example, awards member agencies based on documented strategic development and execution of one specific project. Consider pursuing awards for your web site, a successful ad campaign, company newsletter, new product design, etc.

Awards from clients, like “supplier of the year” and “certified partner,” allow you to demonstrate trends of excellent service—a plus when seeking new business—and help build your company’s recognition through association with other, often high-profile, clients. Explore these opportunities among clients with whom you have a positive, long-term relationship.

If none of these works for you, you can create your own award. This technique brings recognition to companies or individuals you think are doing something good, and it brings you recognition through association. Not only that, you’re also showing your company appreciates the contributions of others; something leaders at all levels do regularly. Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award is a great example of successful award creation. NuStep, Inc., an Ann Arbor-based maker of recumbent cross-training machines, gives its Pinnacle Award to exemplary health and wellness centers each year.

With all these options, the question becomes “where do I begin?” As with all successful PR tactics, some strategic planning with bring you closer to success. Establishing an award pursuit strategy involves three key actions:

1. Set goals! The pursuit of awards should support a defined purpose and work hand-in-hand with your business goals. Decide what you’d like your business to be known for and among whom and only pursue awards that will allow you to meet those goals. If you’re a baker, you might decide you want your bakery to be known locally for its great food and ambiance, and within the industry for its inventive recipes. You would apply for “top restaurant” or “best of” awards in local publications and “croissant recipe of the year” in trade publications. You wouldn’t apply for an unrelated award, like “best campfire sing-along leader,” even if you’re the undisputed champion, because it doesn’t further your business goals. Choosing award opportunities that suit your business makes you more likely to win.
2. Create an award database! Once you’ve defined your goals and audiences, it’s time to do some research. Find out about relevant award opportunities—application processes, deadlines, contact information, etc.—and keep all of that information in one central document. Try building an annual database so you’re aware of future opportunities and you can easily search within your master document for upcoming deadlines and other information. This saves you time in the long run; any additional research will supplement your master document, but you wont have to re-create it until next year. Your opportunity database should be comprehensive enough to allow for more than one award application in a defined period.
3. Apply consistently! You might decide you want to pursue one award per quarter, per year, etc. Whichever time frame you choose, make sure you are consistently applying for, and winning, relevant awards. If you decide to adopt award pursuit as a PR strategy, you should commit to it; make awards as much a priority as any of your other tactics and don’t wait for the opportunity to come to you. This will ensure your business is consistently recognized as excellent, not just a flash in the pan.

Posted by Nicole

The following inquiry was sent to The Byline by one of our regular readers at SOS Community Services here in Ann Arbor. She has allowed us to copy her remarks and use examples relevant to SOS to answer her questions. We’re always pleased to provide PR insights by directly addressing our readers’ questions and comments. Inquiries are always welcome!

Q: What are the best places to look for national press? I know this is sort of a large question, so let me use an example.

But let’s say I want to go bigger. Let’s say I have a story that I think will appeal to a larger audience (like the fact that we are trying to start a social enterprise with homeless families). Where does one begin to look when trying to get more exposure? How does one reach out to large publications? Any thoughts you have would be much appreciated!

A: Obviously, national or multi-national organizations have an easier time obtaining national media coverage than smaller, local organizations. But smaller organizations can and do obtain national coverage. The trick is to tell your story in a way that shows national media you’re worth writing about.

First, it’s important to realize what journalists are looking for. The criteria for newsworthiness are timeliness, proximity, impact or relevance, prominence (is someone well-known or famous involved?), conflict and novelty. The more criteria met by your story, the better your chances of being written about. That being said, there are a few tricks of the PR trade that can help you fit within the editorial scope of your target national publications:

1. Increase your chances by choosing your outlets wisely
Many organizations want to be on the front page of the Wall Street Journal because it’s a widely-read publication. But, it’s not the best fit for every organization. Often it’s the type of audience, not the size that counts. You’re better off reaching an audience that knows and cares about the specifics of your industry. You can build a reputation of thought leadership and expertise among your peers. The added bonuses—the more you reach out to these trade publications, the better relationship you’ll have with trade media, the folks who set industry perceptions, and national reporters, who are reading these trade publications to stay abreast of trends.

SOS’s target media might include publications like Child and Youth Services, a biannual, national trade journal that focuses on the development and treatment of children and adolescents, specifically covering topics like homelessness, foster care, etc.

Every organization knows its top industry publications. As you read up on your industry, keep track of the reporters; monitor what they’re writing about to increase your chances of choosing the best media outreach contact for your story.

SOS might also consider getting attention for its programs in other parts of the country. Nearly all major U.S. cities have publications that address local homelessness efforts, Real Change in Seattle, Spare Change News in Boston, StreetWise in Chicago, etc. SOS could share it’s own efforts to gain visibility and a leadership position among other similar groups.

2. Connect your story to a national trend
National media outlets, especially trade- or industry-specific publications, tend to focus more on trends and current events than specific examples. They want to demonstrate broader impact, making their stories relevant to most, if not all readers. Connecting your organization’s efforts with larger trends is one way to get noticed. SOS might position its news in relation to national homelessness statistics, an increase (or decrease) in community relief programs around the country, etc.

National media outlets use seasonal trends, major industry events (trade shows, etc.) and other timeliness factors to raise awareness. Homelessness makes news more in the winter months, when its effects become more pronounced. National homeless awareness week takes place every November, so national consumer media will likely touch on the issue by raising awareness of plights and highlighting the groups and programs that provide assistance.

3. Fit into the editorial calendar
Most national media outlets have editorial calendars that outline intended story topics for the year. These calendars can typically be found on the publications’ Web sites, most often associated with the “advertise with us” content pages. Once you’ve chosen target publications, check their editorial calendars for subjects that could fit your organization and offer yourself as an expert resource by writing a brief, clearly defined pitch to the contact and letting him/her know you’re available for interviews.

SOS might offer to speak about its programs with the editors of Affordable Housing Finance magazine, who will be writing a piece about “homeless families, the cost to society and how to correct a national disgrace,” called The American Nightmare in January.

Educational Leadership magazine will cover the effects of poverty on learning in its April, 2008 issue; a great place for SOS to showcase its Early Risers program that provides reading, writing and math help as well as conflict resolution, social and problem-solving skill development to homeless children.

For additional insights into the mechanics of dealing with reporters, see Rebecca’s post about understanding media.

Good luck, SOS! Opportunities abound out there. Here’s hoping you go after some of them.

Posted by Nicole

“There’s no accepted definition of PR these days but we think firms could define themselves by what they do.” Jack O’Dwyer’s Newsletter, The authoritative source for the PR field, February 15, 2006.

“As advertising struggles, PR steps into the breach.” The Economist. January 21, 2005.

The credibility, believability of PR, is high and has been rising for some years.

But what is it?

We define it now in terms of deliverables, our products. Go over this visual of our products for three minutes. We think you will no longer wonder what PR is.

Please double click on the grid for easier read.

Larry Eiler

What happens to language when people are both encouraged to write and encouraged not to write properly? How can we maintain some sense of law and order on the frontier of new media? What is the role of the professional writer - someone who knows how to clearly, concisely and accurately communicate—in a system that doesn’t seem to uphold any standards? The mass abbreviation and simplification of our language, coupled with the rise of user-generated content in even the most legitimate of media, has created a free-for-all that may cause us to wonder whether precision and clarity matter anymore. They do, but first, let’s look at our circumstances.

The “Evolution” of Language

Language is a necessarily dynamic component of culture. In 2006 alone, Miriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary added nearly 100 new words. Some of these, like “gastric bypass” and “spyware,” reflect technological innovations. Others, like “drama queen,” “sandwich generation” and “Google” (as a proper noun and a verb) illustrate cultural change. These lexical additions positively impact our ability to communicate.

At the same time, our cultural preoccupation with ease of use is causing a widespread over-simplification of language, grammar and syntax. A recent Cingular Wireless commercial, entertaining as it is, shows us what can happen when we apply the “œquick and easy” philosophy behind microwaves and Swiffer Wet Jets to our key communication mechanism. We may not have regressed to “idk” (I don’t know) or “np” (no problem) yet, but how many times do we begin inter-office e-mails with “fyi,” and how many of us really know where the comma or apostrophe goes?

The “Evolution” of Media

In the Web 2.0 world, user-generated content is king. Last month, MySpace was at the top of the 20 most popular website in the U.S. as ranked by Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence research firm. Facebook, YouTube and ebay also appeared on the list, competing only with Google searches and various e-mail clients.

Many national and local newspaper sites are taking note of this trend and offering a comment feature so readers can interact with their news. Just glance at the New York Times website, with its 20-some blogs, to find why many of us believe our opinions “fit to print.”

But good writing is not a historical artifact. Despite these linguistic and cultural shifts, many of us still care about precision of language. Some get it wrong, but wrong is not the new right. We know this intuitively because many of us are still offended at the sight of “your” instead of “you’re” or “its” instead of “it’s.” Monstertrak.com’s article “Avoid the Top 10 Resume Mistakes” puts typos and grammatical errors at the very top. Why? Because “employers will read between the lines and draw not-so-flattering conclusions about you…” We draw those conclusions because we know how important it is to make a good impression. Language is a large part of how we represent our businesses and ourselves. It’s our vehicle for communicating who we are and what we have to offer.

And how should we do that?

Read

There are a number of excellent resources that offer easy-to-understand tips and tricks of the trade. Three of my favorites are Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss, The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and On Writing Well by William Zinsser. Even if you don’t read grammar- or language-specific books, reading regularly is a great way to familiarize yourself with proper grammar and sentence structure; making you a better writer in the long run.

Write and Rewrite

The old adage is true; the essence of writing really is rewriting. Focus on content when you first sit down to write. After you’ve included all the necessary information, take a break and return with an eye toward style and accuracy. Have a colleague or other trusted person look over your work, and don’t be discouraged if you receive constructive criticism.

Consult an Expert

Despite our best efforts, many of us recognize we’re not experts. We may be successful entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, etc., but that doesn’t necessarily mean we are effective communicators. Realize there are professional writers out there and make these people part of your brain trust. Let them help you reach potential customers with a well-crafted message that adequately communicates who you are and what you do.

Posted by Nicole