PR Wars is a public relations podcast that promotes best practices in corporate communications, media relations, crisis communications, executive communications, and social media.
Today on PR Wars, we'll talk with one of the media intelligence giants, Meltwater. Cody Konschak is the Managing Director of Client Success at Meltwater. Learn how to make your PR measurement reports better. Listen to PR Wars on: “We want the truth.” “We want the truth.” “We want the truth.” “I have news for everybody. Get over it.” AnnouncerIt’s time. Welcome to PR Wars. Coming at you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Now, here is your host, Chris Shigas! Chris ShigasHey, I'm Chris Shigas and you're listening to PR Wars. The inventor of modern business management, Peter Drucker said, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." Well, I'll take that one step further. "If you don't measure it, did it really happen at all?" The good news is there are more tools than ever to help you measure public relations. Names like Cision, Muckrack, Unicepta, Burrelles, Critical Mention… Today on PR Wars, We'll talk with one of the media intelligence giants. Meltwater has more than 30,000 companies on board. And tracking has come a long way from when we used to use scissors to cut out articles out of the newspaper and measure column inches. Well, Cody Konschak is the Managing Director of Client Success at Meltwater. We'll talk with Cody today about how to make your measurement reports better. But first, I'd like to introduce the cohost of PR Wars and fellow communications town crier, Brad Grantham. Brad GranthamI don't even know how to respond to that. Town crier? What am I Paul Revere? Regardless, you know, I think you hit it on the head, measurement is something we're all looking for. It's like the holy grail, although I don't know if you'll get tons of riches and have eternal life after that. But let's, let's jump into it. Chris ShigasThank you, Brad. Hey, Cody, thanks for joining PR wars today. Cody KonschakThanks, Chris. Happy to be on. Chris ShigasOne of the most difficult things to do is to accurately measure the value public relations brings to a company or an organization. Each campaign… I know for your clients is different and different clients have different objectives… but what are some of your favorite measurements? And what does a good measurement report look like? Cody KonschakYeah, I think that's a great question, Chris. To start off with. As you know, I work for Meltwater. So we deal with quite a few different types of clients in varying verticals, that all have different needs, and are trying to figure out how to navigate what you just talked about. And really, at the end of the day, that's our goal, at meltwater is helping, both marketing, marketing and communications professionals put value on the efforts that they're doing on a day to day basis, right? their teams are sending out press releases, they're scheduling social campaigns, there's quite a bit that they're doing putting on press events and events in general. And how do you really put an end value on that, and communicate that back internally to be able to say, hey, look, these are all of the great things that marketing communications has been doing to justify, you know, what we're spending or what we are doing on a day to day basis. So I think looking at from a metric standpoint, the types of metrics that are my favorites, when it comes to talking with clients, I think, number one, the I think this isn't going anywhere is traditional media exposure. And what I mean by that is really the the number of placements that an organization is getting based on their outbound efforts. So there are a couple of different ways to look out of it, you of course, you can look at overall mentions, so take a company looking at any any mention of their name, period. But I think there's a lot more value in taking a look at, okay, these are the press releases that I sent out. These are the social media campaigns, these are the social posts that we've scheduled. And then here is all of the content that we actually generated because of those efforts. and applying that back to a report having that highlighted in a report and then being able to see kind of some of your top tier coverage that you're getting out of that. Chris ShigasAnd lots of times an executive will look at a report and they'll say they need context. Is this good? Is this bad? I don't know? I mean, one way to provide context is to do year-over-year or quarter-over-quarter… or benchmarking against competitors. Have you seen a lot of success in providing that context? Cody KonschakYes, so I would say that's the majority of what our clients do is when it comes to being able to see, okay, is this working? What we do is then do those year over year analysis, we take a look at, okay, what was our coverage as a company during this period in time compared to the previous period in time. And then also taking a look at competitors if that if that's something that they care about competitor information, and also referencing that back to a previous period in time. The reason why that's so important is because that's how you're going to measure whether we've increased and, you know, positive coverage, whether we've increased a negative coverage as well, which brings in a whole nother metric here that I really like, which is sentiment analysis. So this is how this is how companies can then take that information and apply it back to maybe some of their own internal data like revenue, you know, if you're take a b2c company, they can easily apply it back to sales, right? When are busy periods? When are we selling a lot? When are we not selling a lot and overlaying that type of data to be able to say, Okay, this is this is correlating here, we actually have a correlation between what our marketing communication is team teams are doing throughout all of their different outbound efforts, and actual money that we're bringing in, there has to be No, there has to be a reason for that there has to be a connection. Brad GranthamOne of the words that can make some people cringe, and siphon agency is the word impressions. Some people are uneasy with those huge numbers. So I recently placed a hidden Forbes, the circulation for Forbes is 98 million, or whatever it is today. However, Forbes puts a web counter on it stories and this one had 1500 views. So that's a big discrepancy, right? So how do you use impressions in your reporting, without being disingenuous or potentially misleading? Cody KonschakAnother really, really great question. I think you're right, I think a lot of companies are whereas, whereas in the past, they focused on the word impression or the metric reach, and their understanding of it is the reach on this is 98 million. That means 98 million people have seen this article we really try to educate our clients on really isn't an exact science that I would say a lot of marketing communications is not an exact science. reach an RN is based on monthly unique visitors to a publication's website. Right. So what that means is you have the potential of 98 million people seeing that article. Now. Any any any person is going to look at that and say, okay, most likely, 98 million people have not seen that. That being said, I do want to say that we've recognized that successful media placement is different. It's like a different definition for each client. So is it high circulation? Or is it total views in? Or is it something like completely different? Many, like I said, many of the metrics are estimations. Since Media Access is unique for every organization. That's really what we try to delve into hot water with our clients. So like PR is not about dominating like the real estate, it's more about getting your message across effectively. So what we try to do is help our clients quantify the earth, the impact of that earned media using metrics that are more tailored for that particular business. This is why we really tried to get to the heart of more customized metrics, right, a custom combination of impressions, maybe views. This is where we get into things like brand title mentions, or CEO mentions, competitor references and create more of a custom view so that you're not just relying on the estimations. You can also dive into what's what's customized specifically for you and create more value out of that. We mentioned earlier that people have different objectives with measurement. Chris ShigasA big part of that is who's reading the report… and why are you creating the report to begin with, right? An agency might create a report because they want to show their clients that they're providing ROI for the dollar spent myself as a corporate comms person, if I'm creating a report for a comms team, I really want to track how well did this campaign work? How did that campaign work, but I also have to kind of report up to CEO level executive level with these reports that they need to be simplified. They need to provide an executive with an easy to understand glance, executive summary of what's going on with comms. Do you have any suggestions for how to take that data and simplify it? Kind of like, if I had a one page dashboard? What kinds of things should a PR executive show to their CEO about what the comms teams doing with the measurement report? Cody KonschakYeah, we've seen a huge transition or refocus on consolidating all of that data. I think, in the past, a lot of clients have had these 10, 15, 20 page media reports diving into every single metric that you possibly can, and injure just inundated with information. And any I mean, what we always tell our PR and comms folks that we speak with is that you're well versed in this information. But any executive, any C level executive is going to be looking at the report going, What does any of this mean? Why am I reading this? How is this relevant to me? How is this relevant to our revenue? How is this relevant to growing our business or moving it forward? So what we have been doing recently, and where we've seen the trend move into Are you mentioned it like a one page, like a one, a one page dashboard, we've actually been doing, we actually have a professional services team at meltwater who have been really focused on identifying types of clients who care about seeing this high level information and breaking it down into two page reports. And these two pages, like, like you just mentioned, are kept extremely high level high level metrics. So you'll you'll most likely see a media exposure chart. So I mentioned this, before, that media exposure is not going anywhere, this is still one of the most important metrics you're gonna have is what you can see is you can see spikes in coverage. But then you're also able to highlight what is accounting for that spiking coverage, right? That's what your executive wants to see what is the actual content that is moving the needle? And then what does that mean for the business? Right, so then, that's where the custom scoring comes in understanding more about the customized metrics for your company. That's where we dive into the actual efforts that the team has been going through. Have you been? You mentioned, the Forbes placement? Have you been trying to get that placement in Forbes? And did you get it? Let's highlight that. Chris ShigasFor a lot of executives, they love seeing the competitor analysis, right? They want to know how they're doing compared to the other, the other guys, Brad GranthamThey want to kick a little, you know what. They want to make sure they're still on top. But yeah, but to that, but to that point, a lot of CEOs and executives don't understand necessarily how PR works. And even to some extent how marketing works, and what their teams are actually doing day to day and what have you. So you bring in social media, and you try to bring a report to them. And they're like, Okay, this is, this is a foreign language to me, they only many CEOs only understand follower growth. Yet so many social media managers prefer engagement. So is there a correct way to get an accurate picture of your social performance in a way that your CEO would understand? Cody KonschakYes. So social is is still one of those things that it's looked at, as this big unknown, right? A lot of our clients are still trying to figure out and how to navigate the metrics that they're getting from social media, and really what's going to move the needle there, right, we've spent so much trying to figure out PR now we're trying to figure out social media, but I think it's a little bit of everything. Honestly, I think it's keeping it high level and being able to see it relate the engagement metrics back to your follower metrics, How have your How have your follower counts increased over time, as you guys have been scheduling posts out of you, as you've been working with social media influencers and and scheduling social campaigns and using hashtags to get people's attention. Ideally, as you're doing those types of things, you should see that follower account grow. But if you're seeing that follower account grow, but then you're also not seeing, like the likes and the replies on your post. Is it resonating back with your audience, too? Or is it a lot of wasted effort? Chris ShigasMaking a measurement report, your report is only as good as the data that goes into it. So Cody, can you talk about some easy steps that someone can take if they're not an expert at these Boolean search terms to get the data? Cody KonschakYes, of course, this is really big for both myself and my company. Because what we do is we utilize Boolean search logic, at the heart of what we do is the most basic functionality that we have. And we've what we've always had is searching utilizing Boolean functionality. For a lot of people out there, they haven't utilized Boolean or they haven't learned it, or it's been a number of years since they've done it. So they're not they're not experts in it. So I think there are a couple of ways to to approach Boolean logic, I think first and foremost, you need to put together three different lists, I would say two of them, you can put together pretty much right away the third list, you'll you'll figure out as you're building your searches out and looking at the content. The first list are like your hats, like the words, the keywords, the topics, the competitors, anything that you're wanting to know about. Those are the words that have to show up in the articles. Chris ShigasRight. Many people stop there. Cody KonschakExactly. They stopped there and And they build out these searches. And then, you know, we've worked with companies that have very, very generic names. And they're getting, you know, missed missed hit or not missing hits, but they are, they're getting irrelevant content left and right in their, in their content as well. And then instead of going through that content and taking the extra time to just sort out that that information there, then building the other reports that aren't exactly accurate, right, which would don't want. So then comes the next step of identifying. Let's say you, let's go with the idea of one of these more broad, broadly named clients, generic names to clients, they're going to need to come up with like key indicator words of maybe services that they offer technology that they sell into the industry that they are in, and tie that back in a second list to those original words, because that's where you're going to find the more relevant content when you're looking at the compan…
PR Wars Podcast: The golden placement
Sep 14, 2020
Show notes
The Associated Press is the gold standard for journalism. For many of us in public relations, a great hit in the AP can not only mean success for your company, it could mean success for your career. On today's PR Wars podcast, we talk with Skip Foreman, Mid-Atlantic Breaking News Staffer at the Associated Press. Learn how to construct your press release to be more newsworthy. Listen to PR Wars on: “We want the truth.” “We want the truth.” “We want the truth.” “I have news for everybody. Get over it.” AnnouncerIt’s time. Welcome to PR Wars. Coming at you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Now, here is your host, Chris Shigas! Chris ShigasWelcome to the show. I'm Chris Shigas. And you're listening to PR Wars. The Associated Press is the gold standard for journalism. For many of us in public relations, a great hit in the AP can not only mean success for your company, it could mean success for your career. The Associated Press is in more than 15,000 news outlets worldwide. Now hear me out on the impact of this. More than half of the world's population sees AP journalism every day. In the United States, the AP has counted the vote in national, state, and local elections since 1848. The AP Stylebook is the standard for how public relations professionals write. And not only has the AP won 54 Pulitzer prizes, but Associated Press photographers have captured many of the most iconic images in American history. Our guest on the show today is Skip Foreman and he's been with the Associated Press for more than four decades. He covers breaking news for the Mid Atlantic region. When he began his career pack in 1979… just think about it… the cost of a new Toyota Corolla just over $3,600. He was a journalist through the terms of seven US presidents. And his wisdom is a benefit to PR pros, because he has had a front row seat in the evolution of news, along with the many changes to the world. But before we get to Skip, I'd like to introduce the PR Wars co host and fellow communications paragon, Brad Grantham. Brad GranthamThanks, Chris. I've known Skip for close to 20 years. I consider him to be one of the fairest and best journalists I know. So very much looking forward to this episode, so why don't we just Skip to it. Chris ShigasThanks, Brad. Hey, Skip Foreman thanks for joining us. I appreciate you being here on PR Wars. Skip ForemanThank you. Chris ShigasLet's start you are a long timer with the Associated Press back from when you started in 1979. How has news gathering and the wire service changed over time until today, Skip ForemanI can bring you some some vivid examples. When I started the AP, we, our bureau did not have a television. We did not know between the six and 11 O'Clock News and even if there was a six and 11. We had no idea. When I started in 1979. The local the News and Observer of Raleigh the local paper had separate editions. We've always waited for the 10:30 edition so we could get the most news out before midnight. So we could bolster our report the day when I started in 1979. transmitting a picture was an eight minute process by landline by phone line, and you didn't know how the picture looked until it came out of the receiving device, our printer as it were. And if there's any sort of noise in the line or any disruption, you'd have to start the whole process over again. So it was really convoluted. Plus you had to find the space between other people trying to transmit to get your picture out. Now you're looking at today, the Raleigh bureau have five TVs. You can see the news and observer online and grab news read news any time of the day or night and I can send a picture from my phone. And it gets to the destination almost immediately. If the immediacy is what's different now we aren't locked into a point where we're having to wait for somebody to report from a scene. You know, put a dime in a phone and call, we don't have to wait for somebody to come back from an assignment. That sort of thing. Everything is now you can write it from where you sit. And that makes a huge, huge transition over time and I've watched it in varying stages from type writing and sending something by a fax machine, or what we used to be called a tele copier so and back. Then, you had these 40 pound portable computers that use couplers. So if you're filing from a basketball game and there was any crowd noise Your file was basically ruined. We finally got computers that didn't go through external noise that made filing a little simpler. And now we're at the point where you can file a story on almost any device that you possess or have been assigned to. It's the change is just remarkable. And it's just been interesting to me to watch it over 40 years time. Brad GranthamSkip, you know, the average American looks at his phone, his or her phone over 92 times a day, according to report from late last year. And the news? Well, obviously, it's a lot more than that. We're probably looking at our phones 100 500 times a day, but we are deluged from the moment we get up in the morning, to the moment we lay our head down to sleep in the evening. How has social media made your job better, and also worse? What's been the most challenging for you? Skip ForemanI would I would lean to the side of better whereas you would have to contact say a law enforcement group or or some sort of entity to get information on a certain breaking news story or spot news story. Now we get tweets. We get Facebook posts, we get live streams. We get things that make the job easier because the information we're seeking is right there. police stations police departments now use Twitter to put out running information on breaking events. One case in point was the shootings at UNC Charlotte when the county emergency agency kept updating to the point where it told us there were casualties on campus. years ago. That wouldn't have been an option. We would have had to wait for somebody to step before us and tell us as much before UNCC police in Charlotte Mecklenburg police held their news conference that night. We already knew Those two young kids we're dead. That helps our members have an idea of what's coming, or what else is coming as it were. And what we already know, if there's a downside, and we probably avoid this is that too many people trying to feed in information that they don't have verified, we very rarely ever run into that, at least from my perspective, because they're not the people I rely on. I can go to a sheriff's department, Facebook page, and they will have a release on a major arrest a major crime, I can go to Twitter. And for example, I cover Maryland, the Maryland law enforcement agencies, some of the bigger ones actually live stream their news conferences. So that makes a huge difference in learning what you need to learn without being in place to hear it and not having to wait for the local TV station or the local newspaper to run something out. You're hearing it as they hear it and you're able to run As they write it, so it makes, it makes a huge difference. They really know from my work, no downsides to social media, except for people who are on the periphery maybe saying things that they haven't verified, an info only heard from rumor and hearsay and second and third hands, so we just stay away from them. Chris ShigasSo let's talk a little bit about public relations. The Associated Press is the Golden child of hits for a public relations professional, right. If we have our client or our company has a soundbite in the Associated Press, it has the potential to be in every media outlet in the United States, as well as the world. Now there's this love hate relationship between PR and journalists. On the PR side, it feels that if I have a good news story, I can't get a reporter on the phone. And if I have a bad news story, I can't get one off the phone. Now I'm sure from the journalists side, it looks like it's not that you don't like public relations pitches, you let our story ideas you'd like good story ideas that you can use. The problem comes when you're getting too many bad story ideas, right? As you see good story ideas and bad story ideas. What are you really looking for? Skip ForemanI got a pitch. When I was in Charlotte, which was a very, very good pitch. It's one of the best pitches I've ever seen. It was about this person who started a car service for cancer, cancer patients who needed treatment. It was an awesome pitch. I mean, it wasn't oversold. It simply described what he did. And it offered and offered an example of the people he helped. And it was perfect. It just told me what I needed to know. And it's sort of like goaded me to do the story, Chris Shigasand how long was it? Skip Foremana printed page, maybe two, but it wasn't. It wasn't drawn out. It was the presentation, and then the example. And it was just perfect. It was great because it told me what I needed to know. And it basically sold itself. It didn't take a lot of fluff. It didn't take a great deal of introduction. It didn't need it, because the story was so compelling. You just felt like, oh, man, this guy's pretty cool. And he's got clients and it's working. Boom, we've got the story. I mean, Chris ShigasAs you saw the email, you could glance at it and really kind of tell Okay, I get what's going on here. Right? Skip ForemanCompletely. And, and it just, it was great stuff. And, ultimately, I guess, in their transmission of that email. I saw the story on CBS. CBS Evening News ran it, so it was like, Okay, good. They that whoever did that had a great pitch, and it paid off. So it was just it was a wonderful thing for them. And, and it to me, it was just a textbook case of how you present a story that you want to be told. They didn't get in the way they didn't call every day or two, or anything like that. They made sure I had it in Galloway. And that was fine that That to me was just an ideal pitch. I thoroughly enjoyed that. I liked it. And I remember it every time I think of the other things I get going. Chris ShigasBrad, do you want to talk about the other things Brad GranthamI find the best pitches, at least from from our end is to basically sell it in a paragraph now because of our attention spans, right? Because you're getting hit all the times with emails, we're getting it if I can grab you in five to 10 seconds off the top right I'm not gonna have any chance You know you were getting any further. So how many emails scamp Do you get on average a day? And can you tell us, you know, some recent recent examples of some pitches that you got? That could have been made a lot better? Skip ForemanSometimes it's pitch itself for some time. It almost never gets you in the door. And I say that from from the perspective of, I'm not sure sometimes there are people who realize what it is we do we be in the AP. Got one right here, for example, elevate your career when the economy push, pause and Marsha gay working folks, some time for introspection. Many wondered, am I really where I want to be? Well, that's fine in one perspective, but at the same time, you have people who are out of work altogether. It's not like they want to go look for something new. They just want to go look, because they don't have anything old or new. I get that but there's a part of me that says we might offend people who are struggling to keep it They're worried they might get laid off, they may not get back. How do you push this idea in a way that's palatable to everybody? I mean, if there's a person who doesn't have a job, and they start thinking, maybe I need to do something else, that's a thought, but the person who is working at home and thinking, Hmm, I could do home decor, because they're been looking around their house for like weeks on end, I may see five to six of these a day, which in a grand scheme isn't that many. But you have to look at what we're looking at overall, in this timeframe. I'm getting multiple political emails, I'm getting multiple regular news emails, and then just the administrative stuff that comes in. So there are a lot of emails in the span of a day. And even if you get to look at a pitch, I can't guarantee you that I'm going to get back to you or I can't guarantee that That is a pitch I can pursue. The people who make the pitch usually follow up with a phone call saying we sent you something. Did you get it? Well, I have to stop at that point. Because I'm not prone to lie to them and say, Yeah, I got it. Thank you. But they just gave you a task, Chris Shigasright? Yeah, Skip Foremanyeah, they just gave me an additional mission to perform on their behalf. And I'm going, might as well look. So you go back through the thing, and you finally find it. And you have to say, and if the conversation goes, accordingly, you say, I appreciate it. We'll take a look at it. Thank you. And I will take a look at it. But it's not promising that I'm going to be able to follow through with it and it's not so much the pitch. It's the time involved. We in every news outlet right now. Their plates are breaking, because they're full. There's a lot of stuff going on right now. I mean, between 100 Based on police brutality and injustice, the election year, virus Yeah, yeah. to, to to wedge in, in my where I want to be in my career. That's a tough sell. That's a very tough sell. And if you if you can do it, God bless you. Chris ShigasDo you think it would be a better pitch if they tied it into a current news angle, whether it was, you know, laid off from because of Coronavirus and make a career change or do you think the tie ins work better? Skip ForemanBut yeah, and here's the thing. I mean, we can always talk to an expert. We all talk to experts, we all pitch experts in a certain PR release. But what about the person who's directly impacted and if that was a point that came up with the first gig example I brought you not only did I have the guy doing the transporting of cancer patients, they had a cancer patient who talked about what it was like to have the service that goes a long way in getting your story down the road. Because while we don't want to copy the release verbatim, at least we have a name we can go by, in fact, two names and we can find other people we find out where that person is, and we we track them down. One, you have a story two, you have a photo three, you have video. And at that point, there it is brilliant with the pitch like the one I just brought you, I have a person who's an expert, but I get a headshot, I get a thumbnail. And that's, that's different. I mean, it's one thing to read. It's one of those things that that might show up in the section C or D of the newspaper on Sunday, but it takes a lot to get that story to pull the reader's attention. Brad GranthamI think Given like the way that you broke that down, you know, you've got to have that human element to it, right? So it's impacting somebody whether, you know, you've got to have that full picture. And again, if anybody were to watch their local newscast, or read the AP or newspaper, you're going to have those elements in there. It has to be because you've got to drive it home to your audience. Would it be safe to say that if you have pitched the AP or a local news outlet or any type of media outlet, if you don't hear back from that reporter within 24 to 36 hours, that it's probably not going to happen? But that'd be fair to say if you didn…
PR Wars Podcast: Tip of the spear
Sep 06, 2020
Show notes
Imagine being one of the first corporate communicators to prepare messaging for a historic pandemic. I mean... ground zero… the tip of the spear… having a manufacturing facility in Wuhan, China and creating a new playbook for its factories around the world. Today on the PR Wars podcast, Khaner Walker recounts the first days of the pandemic as Global Director of Internal and Executive Communications for computer giant Lenovo. Listen to PR Wars on: "We want the truth." "We want the truth." "We want the truth." "I have news for everybody. Get over it." AnnouncerIt's time. Welcome to PR Wars. Coming at you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Now, here is your host, Chris Shigas. Chris ShigasWelcome to PR wars. I'm Chris Shigas. Imagine being one of the first corporate communicators to prepare messaging for a historic pandemic. I mean, Ground Zero… tip of the spear, having a manufacturing facility in Wu Han China, and then preparing your factories around the world. Months before the United States was dealing with covid 19 global companies, especially ones headquartered in China were opening their eyes to a new reality. Khaner Walker was the Global Director of Internal and Executive Communications for computer giant Lenovo. He's currently the Senior Director of Communications at Syneos Health. But before we welcome Khaner to the show, I want to introduce my co host and fellow communications soothsayer, Brad Grantham. Brad GranthamYou always get me with these intros. Chris, how am I supposed to respond to that? The only thing I can foresee today is that this is going to be one of our best shows we've had so far, and I'm looking forward to it. Chris ShigasThanks so much, Brad. Hey, Khaner. Thanks for joining Brad and me. Working for a Chinese company like Lenovo in the United States. You're a communications executive. And how did you realize that okay, this virus, it's going to be big, and it's going to impact our business. Khaner WalkerSure. So I was working at Lenovo for the past 10 years have recently left in early. Well, I recently began a new position in early July with another company. But looking back, it really was when we saw our global manufacturing facilities starting to close down, that just became kind of an eye opening moment. And there was a point in February where it looked like the virus was going to abate it looked like China had it literally under control, and it was going to stay within the country. And then we're just kind of fingers crossed, and then slowly a bunch of tier one events just started, we're canceling Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was canceled. A couple other events that were canceled that we're looking at later on in the spring. And then in March, as you know, as the rest of the world knows we all went home, right so as the virus really escalated throughout Europe and throughout the United States and in the rest of the Americas It just became something where it almost felt that was a little bit of Groundhog Day because we had already worked a cycle of communications around it, as it exploded as it literally rampage throughout China. And then we kind of had to take that same playbook and transfer it throughout the rest of the world on a geo by geo or region by region basis. Looking back now, was there a specific date in your mind that you said, Oh, my God, this is gonna be a lot bigger than I think people think it is at the moment. If so, what was that timeframe? I you know, Brad, I can tell you the exact date. It was the Chinese New Year and it was a one day I believe is January 27. So everyone was more or less going home the weekend, you know, kind of Thursday, Friday or Friday, prior to the Chinese New Year actually starting. And then what as soon as that happened, everything in ohana went on lockdown. Again, that was the epicenter and the Chinese government very much said okay everyone inside Wu Han stay indoors for the next two weeks or longer. And that was just what I knew things were getting serious for us. Brad GranthamSo as that's happening, what is happening in the background and your comms role at that time with your teams? What's I mean, obviously, you can't go too far into the details. I get that but kind of walk us through when it's happening at that moment. Khaner WalkerSure. This became a long string of what I call, "I don't know," answers. And because we're getting a lot of, you know, we're all in this business. We're getting a ton a ton of questions from media where we just don't know the answers. And I think they were looking at us with a little bit of a raised eye because we are one of the companies that had a larger presence who has 10,000 employees that have a manufacturing site. We assemble most of you know a lot of Motorola phones there along with other computers and tablets, right. And our response was, we don't know when we're going to be back online and operational. This is what we think is going to be a global pandemic. Uh, you know, fingers crossed, hopefully it's not, but it's definitely a pandemic within China. And I think that really kind of, you know, we saw an impact to the stock price we saw an impact, you know, elsewhere throughout just the the media that was swirling around just technology company as a whole. You saw the story really starting to percolate first as a global supply chain story. If you guys remember that, we are kind of calling it a supply shock ply story. And then it switched to something much else, right, that story almost flip flopped, it became a demand shock story, right? And as everyone you know, started kind of just hunkering down in place. Chris ShigasNow, as you travel west, it was almost like Europe was several weeks behind China, the US was several weeks behind Europe. And here in the United States, we kind of had the luxury from a communication standpoint of seeing what other companies were doing and replicating some of those comms ideas and plans, but you are at the tip of the spear. You didn't have a playbook for this. So how do you evaluate you have all these stakeholders? You have the media, you have employees, you have customers, how are you prioritizing these audiences, when you didn't really know the full extent that this would take? Khaner WalkerYou know, it's and I know we'll touch on this probably at a later date. But it was a situation honestly, where all of a sudden internal communications did flip with external. And because literally, the priority of the company was on it sounds trite, because we've heard it said 1000 times, if not more, but the priority did become our employees, it became about the safety and health and well being of employees. You know, Lenovo is a company of 60,000 plus people, most of whom are traveling around the world all the time last year alone. I mean, I can't even tell you the number of trips I made to China. I mean, it was it was a lot, right. And so it really was an instance where internal comms started taking the lead. It was just became a matrix, kind of cross collaborative group that was working with HR cybersecurity had a big part to play because we knew a lot of employees were going to start working remotely. It was bt as a whole as well, travel facilities, you know, all of a sudden real estate and comms became just tighter than normal, which was pretty interesting because it was all through the lens of health and safety. It was, you can't come into the office, we don't want you here, you know, that sort of thing. And really external became a little bit of the tail where external comms sort of drafting on the materials that we were developing internally among the company to employees. And that became some of the playbook message points and, you know, talking points that were starting to be used in our external stories. Brad GranthamIn a moment like that, how close are you working with the executive leadership team, to make sure you know, and in some scenarios, the lt might be a little separated or a little far away. In this instance, I would have to imagine you're working step in step with LT every step of the way from internal standpoint external standpoint. Yes. Can you walk us through that. Khaner WalkerAs the virus broke out during Chinese New Year, that's the point in time where for those of you probably a lot of listeners aren't as familiar with the Chinese New Year as I am. So I take it for granted a little bit. So I'll backtrack during the Chinese New Year, a lot of employees leave the big cities in China and they go out to the countryside to visit their family connectivity in what's called tier one cities is pretty good, if not great, as soon as you get outside of those tier one cities, internet connection, 4g service, all the things we take for granted. Working with colleagues overseas immediately starts going downhill so a lot of our comms went straight to text messages. You know, texting my CEO texting my cmo, you know, those were kind of some fond memories of my Chinese is non existent their English is you know, on text is is tough to begin with. SoIt was one of those instances where we just became even more close than normal. Right? And really it was, I keep on thinking, I don't knows. But it was just all of us collectively working through so many I don't knows, right, our chief legal officer, our chief HR officer, everyone had just a lot of those questions that we had to figure out. Brad GranthamWhat is there one channel that you're used? whether that was video, whether that was social, whether that was a newsletter format? Was there? Was there one piece of content or a channel that you're used during this that resonated more so than others? And if so, what was it? Khaner WalkerI think it was the internet. I know I had the data to back that up in terms of the traffic despite right, but it was our approach was, let's put all the comms there on the internet. So now it's just a repository. You know what the latest update is to employees in Beijing? You know, the latest update is to employees in Wu Han, you know, at least employee you know.dot.to Italy and all the office sites around the world. And I think employees really liked that. Because you could tell there's only 500 or so employees in a given office, but it has, you know, 10,000 opens, that means, you know, everyone else just wants to see kind of what's happening, right. And then you add in the office guidelines, the travel guidelines and safety guidelines, right. And all of a sudden, that just becomes the hub right for everything. And so really, it just came back to good old fashioned editing HTML, you know, at 1am in the morning, as the latest travel policy document was made ready. Chris ShigasIn any crisis, there's this fog of war. You rarely get to really know the whole picture as you're engaging in the communication during a hot crisis. As you look back now with perspective, is there anything maybe that you would have added to your communication plans or something where you think maybe could have used more focus? Khaner WalkerI would say connecting earlier With our IT teams probably would have helped a lot, right? It was a fortunate situation where most of the company was transitioning to Microsoft Teams to kind of some other key pieces of software adding VPN gateways, right. But I think really having a firm understanding of just what we what extra steps and precautions we should take, right, with employees now working remotely phishing, DDoS denial of service attacks, and all those sorts of things are all things that, you know, companies like Lenovo are subject to every single day, those risks they extrapolate it measurably as soon as you're outside of a firewall that you enjoy at an office, right kind of behind those closed company networks. Chris ShigasOne of the challenges in crisis like this as you have factory workers going back to work, you have the cloud of this crisis overhead and really comes has to play a role in showing not only your employees, but also In the communities that you have facilities in that you're a company that cares you care about their well being you care about their safety and their health. Tell me a little bit about about the role and overcomes played in communicating that concern. Khaner WalkerMy approach as a leader, especially someone who oversaw the internal communications was always to humanize not the brand but humanize the company right? Even if it came from a generic Lenovo comms mailbox if Lenovo comms was a person what kind of person will we want that you know, this inbox to kind of meet right and, and really switching the tone to, again to people first the some of it was just in very blunt messaging in the sense of you cannot travel do not travel right now. We're putting a halt to all travel to keep you safe to keep your family safe and you know, dot, dot, dot and all that. So I think it was being very direct especially early on as it We're so much misinformation Do you wear a mask and mask on effective COVID is no more dangerous than the flu, all that stuff is happening around us February and we're still trying to make sense of it. And so a lot of employees are just kind of thinking this might be business as usual, and I'll go about my day. And then some other employees are just literally scared for their lives. We just kind of took the approach of Let's be direct, let's say what we know and what we don't know and what we're gonna do with it, what we know and what we don't know. Right. Brad GranthamOn top of COVID, you had a another crisis that has been kind of circling for the past couple of years in the political realm. And that is involving tariffs from certain political leaders who will go unnamed, but, you know, so you've got COVID. You've got that in the background and has been in the background at the same time. How did you as a comms team, work to kind of be transparent during the back and forth between the US and China? You know, all these talks are going on, nobody really knows what's going on. It's hard to be effective, effectively communicate something like that. What was your position? How did you guys position that internally and externally, as talks were going back and forth? Khaner WalkerSure, I'd say some of the best work that team and I ever did will never see the light of day, right? Because our work was to keep us out of the story. And I think you guys, and your audience can relate to just how hard of a job that is, when the tendency is to Oh, well, the other biggest, largest Chinese company that we know of, and they're a technology company is Lenovo. Right? I'll go back to something that we all talk about, which is the brand's last reputation piggy bank. For years, we had made a concerted effort to put as many coins in that piggy bank as possible under the under this global approach, right. And when you even open up the parkcrest it kind of Chinese company my eyebrows did a little IRQ because we call ourselves you know when other calls themselves a global company because they truly are. It's it's you know, it's not 5050 but it's it's equal parts legend PC in China and equal parts IBM PC kind of rest of world right? And from that past 15 years of marriage, right, they truly have become a very global, very decentralized company. You just see the difference, right? I've been to Huawei offices and other countries in Brazil, in Spain, where you walk in and it's all Chinese, whereas our offices in Brazil are 100% Brazilian, you know, office in Spain are 100% Spanish, that inherent major it's kind of a murky response to…
PR Wars Podcast: Purpose driven communication
Aug 30, 2020
Show notes
How do you move the needle when you have a limited budget? On today's PR Wars podcast, we're going to dive into the world of advocacy and nonprofit PR and see how purpose driven communication is doing more, with less. Our guest is Laura Gross, President of Scott Circle Communications on a mission to make the world a better place. Listen to PR Wars on: "We want the truth!" "We want the truth!" "We want the truth!" "I have news for everybody. Get over it." AnnouncerIt's time. Welcome, to PR Wars. Coming at you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Now, here's your host, Chris Shigas. Chris ShigasHello, everyone. I'm Chris Shigas. Thanks for joining us on PR wars. How do you move the needle when you have a limited budget? Today, we're going to dive into the world of advocacy and nonprofit PR and see how purpose driven communication is doing more, with less. And joining me as always is co host and fellow communications magnate… Brad Grantham. Brad GranthamHey, Chris, good to talk to you as always looking forward to this episode. And I think we're all doing more with less at this point. Chris ShigasThanks, Brad. And our special guest today joins us from Washington DC. Laura gross leads Scott Circle Communications with a mission to make the world a better place. Thanks for joining us, Laura. Tell us a little bit about advocacy work, nonprofit work, and what drew you to that form of public relations? Laura GrossRight. I'll start with what drew me to nonprofit and advocacy work. It sounds cliche, but growing up in my family, we were a family that always watch television always followed politics. I remember my parents reading books about politics and the Kennedy family and it was just something always discussed at the table, whether it was reading the newspaper or watching the news during dinner, which is probably not the right thing to do, but what my family did. So I think I was just drawn to making a difference and change. And when I graduated from college, I jumped right into politics. And what really motivated me was that there was an end goal of really helping people and making a difference. And, and really purpose driven work is what drives me when I've tried to do other work, like tech startups are things like that. I'm just not as motivated. I'm really motivated by the purpose driven work. Chris ShigasWhen you're in this line of work, a lot of the clients you deal with may not have giant corporate budgets. So as you're evaluating how much you can push the needle on very low resources, how do you approach that? Laura GrossWhat my firm does is when we are talking to a potential client, and we ask a lot of questions up front to really hone in on the scope of work when somebody says they want to raise their profile. Well, what does that mean and what do they have time for? Is this really going to be writing materials? Is it going to be social media? Is it going to be media relations? Is it writing more content? intent is it rapid response, we really try to hone in on what's going to be not only most effective for them, but how we can work with them as well, and how we can implement what we can do with their small resources. And some organizations are bigger than others, like any nonprofit, or even Corporation, so we really hone in on what they need. And then we hone in on how we can be effective right now a lot of people still want media and press coverage. And it's really hard. So we've been going to our clients like, Look, we will pitch our hearts out for you, we will work so hard for you. But let's be realistic, and maybe it's creating content or a digital campaign for you instead, Brad GranthamJust like any client, when when you have a new one come on board. You've got lots of different stakeholders, with advocacy work. It's a lot more complicated, because you may have one common goal. But all the different stakeholders want all these different subset outcomes to that goal. How do you navigate that? Laura GrossHow we handle Something like that is we all have to keep in mind the end goal and what really is going to take us there and what's going to move the needle. So if we're trying to target a vote in Congress, for example, are we targeting a certain member? What's going to appeal to that member? What language is going to appeal to that member? What outlets does that member read? What social media are they following? How can we really target and work with them, and we just need to prove that that's going to be the right approach. You can't be everything to everybody, because it's not going to work. So we have to make a lot of these different. You know, we've worked in coalition groups before where you're really bringing together so many different people, and we just have to make a recommendation on this is what we're going to do. This is our approach. This is why we think it's going to work. This is the timeline we're giving to implement it and to see success with it. Chris ShigasAnd when you're evaluating those target audiences, particularly in advocacy, lots of times you're not necessarily arguing people into an opinion From the other side, lots of it is sometimes identifying maybe some of those people in the middle that you can move. And so how do you approach evaluating a target audience and figuring out which audience you can actually move. Laura GrossA lot of times as communicators, we need to rely on the government relations people, a part of these organizations, the political people at these organizations, they're going to know the ins and outs of what policy is going to appeal to either it's a member of Congress or it's a state legislature. That's what we need to depend on. And once we hear from that, about what language is going to impress them, what they've supported in the past and not supported in the past, what's moved the needle for them before, who they like to vote with, then we can create a strategy but since we're not lobbyists, we need to work with these lobbyists or government relations people or policy experts to really know what language is going to make a difference. We've worked with everything from you know, getting a small panel at the FDA to Proof of drug to having legislation approved on the hill. So it really depends. I actually remember one phone call I was on I don't even remember the client. We were talking about a Supreme Court case, we were working on a Supreme Court case and the communications for that. And it came down to what does this one justice read, and I was sitting up in closing, you've got to be kidding me. we're arguing over the National Review, or the weekly standard, whatever it was, I don't even remember. But it really came down to what's going to appeal to this one justice, because we knew it was the sweet vote. Brad GranthamYou've done a lot of nonprofit work over the years, the channels and the mediums have changed over those years. Obviously, this year is an exception to everything that we've ever seen before, not just in daily life, but in those channels. So if a nonprofit were to come to you now, and say, you know, here's our cause, we know you believe in it, your passion driven about this, what would you sit down and tell them at this moment, like I think we can we might be Be able to move the needle a little bit. Yeah, let's look at these newer channels that are coming on board. I think you mentioned content earlier. You know, walk me through what your thought process would be if you're onboarding a nonprofit at this time. You know, Laura Grosseven before the onboarding process with these clients, were very honest with people. If someone comes to us and says they want press coverage right now, we are very honest with them, unless it has something to do with COVID are very, very much into the presidential campaign, like of the moment being talked about right now, which all they're talking about right now is COVID. And some other stuff, we say it's gonna be very challenging. And once again, it goes back to what I said before, we will pitch our hearts out for you. But let's talk about alternatives we can do for you. Let's talk about a digital campaign online. Let's talk about creating more content online. Let's talk about getting your coalition together and really amping up the noise and making it louder right now. Do you need to do a rally right now to create a good visual outside a member of Congress's office? What does that look like right now? Do you need any video that goes with this to tell the story online? Also, what are the graphics look like? Everything needs to be visual and online right now. I always think media is great. It's just so challenging right now we've got to come up with alternatives. Brad GranthamIn your experience, what's your best success story? And what's the failure that you learned from Laura Grossand we were working with an organization called the National League of Cities, and they are an association of all city leaders, not mayors but other people involved in city leadership, elected most some elected officials, some administrative officials, we got word or one of their policy people from the National League of Cities, I found out that there was going to be a lot of funding cut from Veterans Affairs that went to help cities help veterans with different services. And so we got word that that was going to be cut. We decided, well, what's our approach? Do we go big with this? Do we just send out an alert to our members do we just call the VA and stay quiet about this, but we decided to To do was offer an exclusive to the washington post about this, The Washington Post wrote about it. And within, I believe 48 hours the decision was reversed and it never went through in this safe 10s of if not hundreds of millions of dollars to help these cities help service their veterans, it got all type of action online. And it really that truly made a difference in everyday lives because we were very strategic about how to approach this story. And then what's something I mistake? Chris ShigasYeah, maybe a mistake that you learn from, of course, Laura Grossback in my political days, I was working for someone. We offered some exclusive news to The Washington Post. The Washington Post went with the story their competition, The New York Times was mad that they're that the post got the exclusive and I understand that but what they were more upset about and this is a reporter I had a relationship with for a while and knew this politician well, was that I didn't give him any type of heads up. He hung up on me. We never had a A relationship really moving forward. He didn't want to work with us again. I think part of it was his ego was bruised, I think and he was mad. He didn't get the exclusive. This is how it works. And he took it out on me, but he thought he was just maybe I could have handled it a different way. I've Chris Shigashad a reporter write me off as well. I had one with with I didn't completely understand why. But at the same time, the competition amongst rival news organizations, sometimes there are reporters who take this very personally. Laura GrossNow what was I supposed to do was really tell them in advance that I gave the post something I don't know if it's really a lesson but maybe just to develop those relationships in a different way Chris Shigasin your relationship building with reporters when you are offering exclusives, which is a great tactic for a PR firm and a client to get a tier one publication. But at the same time, you have to be aware of the collateral damage that will happen With your other beat writers, Laura Grossright? So what I learned from that was, is, look, we made a tactical decision to offer this to one outlet, knowing it might damage the relationship with another outlet. And we just had to be prepared for that and be willing to take that on where I don't think I was willing to take it on. And I thought we ruined our relationship with that outlet forever, when in fact, we did it we were able to find other reporters and and work with that outlet again, Brad Granthamfor those employees that you're hiring, that are coming to Scott's circle. You know, obviously, you branch out into a lot of different areas. And you work with businesses after the advocacy groups, nonprofits, what do you tell that employee coming out of college? You know, what's different about the work that you do compared to traditional PR firms? And what do you expect of them? Laura GrossSure. So it's got circle communications, since we work with such purpose driven clients. I believe that makes us different from a lot of other PR firms. We're not selling consumer goods. We're not b2b, we're really advocating for issues that matter whether that's a corporation that's doing some community work, or really putting purpose driven messages into their everyday corporate life, which so many corporations are doing now. And I don't think a lot of firms are specializing in this. And what we also do that's that I think is different is we're small and we're nimble, because we can be flexible working with clients, we're happy to take on a lot of different things and be flexible as well. I like to say this, and we do do this, we return phone calls. It sounds silly, but when I first started in the business and return phone calls and emails, when I first started, I had another consultant, tell me if you did that, you'd be 10 steps ahead of every other consultant in town, and I really take that to heart. We're also really honest communicators. We were just talking about media relations. If someone wants to hire us to do Media Relations right now for an issue that's not going to get traction. We'll tell them and we won't take it on and we'll say we're happy to recommend other people and if they tell you they could do it, more power to you But I wouldn't feel confident in taking that on. And I've been told that our honesty really stands out from other PR firms for better or worse for our business. But at least we have some integrity behind what we say. Chris ShigasI have an existential question for you. So in advocacy work, you have to personally believe the causes that you're representing. So if you're representing a conservative client, do you have to be a conservative or likewise, a progressive client? Do you have to be a liberal? Laura GrossI think it depends on the individual on what you support and what's going to motivate you. I know what motivates me and I wouldn't take on certain issues because I wouldn't want to work on them. And I know my team well enough, we never asked anybody's political leaving or political party, of course, but I know them well enough at this point that I wouldn't take someone on that stands against for what I personally stand for is the owner of the firm. We did have someone come to us, and there were some human rights violations we knew about from that company and that goes against what we stand for in person and actually one of our clients that we're fighting for Human Rights for so we wouldn't take it on. It was a lot of money out the door, but we wouldn't take it on. It's not right. Chris ShigasI was reading about your agency. And there's an interesting program you have called the purpose program. And you're helping some nonprofits in Washington, DC who might not have a lot of resources and you're helping them bolster their in house commu…
PR Wars Podcast: What clients want
Aug 23, 2020
Show notes
Today on PR Wars, we're going to help you have a better relationship with your client. Our special guest, Allison Showalter is a Senior Manager of Corporate Communications at Red Hat and has experience on both the agency side and the corporate side. Let's help your clients win! Listen to PR Wars on: AnnouncerIt's time. Welcome to PR Wars. Coming at you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Now, here's your host, Chris Shigas! Chris ShigasThanks for listening to PR wars. I'm Chris Shigas. Hey, you, agency folks. Have you talked to your clients lately? Is everything good? Are you sure? Well, today on PR Wars, we're going to help you have a better relationship with your client. And joining me is public relations pro and fellow communications Pooh-bah, Brad Grantham. Brad GranthamChris. I'm doing Well, crazy news week, as always, but I'm excited about this episode. Even brought a special hat to put on for it. So let's get into it. Chris ShigasThanks, Brad. And our special guest today has been on both the agency side and the corporate side. She's a senior manager of Corporate Communications at Red Hat. She's also a friend of the program. Allison Showwalter. Thanks for joining us, Allison, transitioning from agency life to corporate comms, obviously, was this a goal of yours and what were some of the reasons why you wanted to move out of agency work and go into corporate comms? Allison ShowalterYeah, so it had always been a goal of mine to get out of the agency landscape and move in-house. I have worked at four different agencies in my life, starting in Manhattan and then moving down to Raleigh, in my goal has always been eventually to find that great corporate comms position in house. took me a little while finally found it. The transition was not like drinking from a firehose, in terms of like the workload, it was almost kind of the information load was a little bit much in terms of, you have to deep dive so much more when you're in house than you've ever had to do at an agency at an agency, you're able to operate, maybe at that 10,000 foot level. You don't have to know the minutiae, and all of the players and all the processes and all of the things that you have to do in house. So from that perspective, it's a bit of a firehose coming at you. But the URI part is that your day was more focused. You didn't have to change directions, 14 different times. When I walked in, I knew exactly what I'm doing. I know what I'm going to be focused on. I know my priorities. I know what things I have coming on, and there's less of those fire drills that I think you get an agency world because you have five to 15 clients depending on your workload. So you experience a little bit more of that crisis and Almost like a ping pong in agency world going back and forth between things. Brad GranthamAllison, talk to us a little bit about your focus. Now obviously, it's much different than it was when you were an agency world. How much do you like it? And, you know, what does your day look like? Allison ShowalterBut definitely, I think I love it. I think it's fantastic. The focus is amazing for me. And it doesn't mean that the days less varied. In my current role, I cover so many different parts of our business, but I know what the priority is, and I'm able to set that priority. I think that's the biggest thing I think between agencies and in house is your leading a little bit more of your career, your workload, your priorities on any given day. When you're on the agency side. Every client is the most important client. So if they all have something they want you to do on a Tuesday, you've got to do that. But in house, I can say to somebody, you know what, we've got a big event this week. We need To table this press release media outreach blog event, whatever it is, off until next week. Chris Shigasif we start looking at some of the good things about agency work… I came out of a newsroom, Brad came out of a newsroom. And the agency life had the same similar pace. You know, in a newsroom, you're working a lot of different stories at the same time, a very fast paced environment. And agency life is the same way you have a lot of different stories that you're working on very fast paced, it's hard to get bored for you that transition from agency life into corporate comms. Were you surprised by the pace? Or was the pace similar or in some ways just different? Allison ShowalterI think it's different. I say the pace of an agency. I think people talk about that all the time have you got to keep up with the pace, the pace, the pace, and I think it's not so much the pace of the work. It's more to me I look at it as the demands that are on you by how Many different people. So I would say I'm equally busy, if not more busy on some days in house, but it's just different. I'm not answering to 20 different people who have no concept of what else I'm working on in my day. So you can have a little bit more transparency, which I think is helpful. helping somebody understand, like, these are all the things I have on my plate, right now, you want to add four more, Something's got to give an agency world you really don't have some of that flexibility. All clients want what they want when they want it, and they're the ones paying the bills, so you do have to kind of kowtow to what they want and make sure you get things done. You have a little bit more. Again, I think it's that transparency, you have a little bit more control a little bit more transparency into what you're working on. Also, I think in house, there's a little bit more, or at least I have in my role, I have experienced a little bit more respect and understanding from people internally. Like let's say a business unit comes to me and wants a press release and that's not necessarily The right way to go. They look at me as an expert. They take my opinion a little bit more. A lot of times, I feel like I felt like an agency, their stuff you had to do, again, because it was the client and it might not have been the thing that you would have recommended. Maybe it is sometimes it was sometimes it wasn't. But I think working in house, again is that control, you have a little bit more influence, you have a little bit more, you can influence that strategy a little bit more, at least that's been my experience is I've taken so much pride in being able to set a strategy and implement a strategy and see it to fruition and have the trust and the confidence of people around me knowing that I'm an expert in this area, and I know what I'm doing and if they just let me go do it. The result is going to be great. Chris ShigasWell, we do some of the challenges of working in an agency in the stress, and making sure that you're getting paid by each client per month, and you're servicing all those clients. I for one, don't regret my agency experience at all. It's part of who made me who I am. It really sharpens your skills as a PR professional. So tell me how you feel about people who are working in communications that come from an agency background, they look at the world a little differently, don't they? Allison ShowalterOne hundred percent. And I can say that I haven't done the full research into it. But I'm pretty sure that 100% of the people that are on the court comm team at Red Hat right now have agency background. And there's a reason for that exactly what you were saying. There is just some invaluable experience that you get working at an agency. I think one of the big things that I experienced is I got to work across so many different industries. And you learn really quickly how to pick up a topic and where how to research a topic and get embedded and learn that topic. You also learn really quickly how to find the right contacts for different topics, different clients, different industries, that there's that you just can't get that in house. It's a different type of experience. So I think there's a reason that a Lot of in house corporate communications teams are people who have been an agency world you know how to handle different requests coming from different places you know how to pick up a topic really quickly whether you have a background in software or healthcare or you know what have you can pick something up pretty quickly. I will say I will never miss timesheets and billing ever again. That is one thing I do not miss. Never ever ever want to have to bill a client ever again in my life. new business. Hmm. Funny to do that again. But there is a lot of I would not change my experience in agencies. I think it helps me get to where I am now. And I pull on that experience. Probably every day, something that I learned something that I picked up, the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it. Brad GranthamA lot of businesses have turnover, and PR agencies are no different to that. I find when dealing with agents He's that I deal with that, you know, there's a lot of education that goes on continual education as turnover occurs with agencies. That being said, if you were to, you know, right now say these are the three skills that my agencies or agencies in general, I think need at this moment in time. What would that be like? proactivity, or something along those lines. Allison ShowalterI would say, above all is good listeners. And when I say listeners, it's it's the skill of listening and actually hearing what's being said, whether that's by a reporter that's by your client. That to me is one of the biggest things that you need. As a PR professional, you need to listen, hear what people are saying to you. organization and productivity. I think I'm going to put those together into one, I think are is very important. You've got to be proactive. There's so many PR professionals out there and there's so few reporters and outlets and they're in an So if you're just going to be passive, send one email and call it a day, you're not going to be successful. And I think I would probably put flexibility and agility up there. Too often I see people working in communications where they're so boxed in by this is what I said I was going to do, or this is the way we always do things. This is what I said I was gonna pitch whatever that thing is that when something goes wrong or something, like let's take the share COVID, for example, when that happened, everybody had to adjust. You had to adjust really quickly. If you were in March, still pitching things the same way that you had been in January, you probably came across pretty tone deaf. And I would say for agencies right now, I'm sure there's probably a lot of agencies out there that are struggling to find creative new ways to do their jobs. I imagine there's agencies that are still pitching those standard ideas that they did before. COVID before social distancing was important. I mean, I've had conversations with different colleagues, you know, who've gone on and work different places now about, oh, they want my executive to come in person to something and it just a little tone deaf. So I would say that flexibility, that agility, no matter what the scenario is you're coming up against, it's very important. Listen, be proactive, and be flexible. Chris ShigasLots of corporations use agencies for different tactics. And it could be for thought leadership. It could be for, you know, booking speaking engagements, or things like crisis communications, maybe use an agency for writing a user agency for pitching media, use an agency for big ideas, right? I know personally, I don't need the big ideas. I'm good. I need that staff workload, right of the block and tackle media pitching. What are you looking for in your agencies, and what do you wish an agency person knew? About your needs, now that you've been on both sides of the fence. Allison ShowalterYeah, that's a loaded question. I kinda I kind of look at it. Like the things I wish I knew when I was an agency world. And I think one of the key differentiators from an agency perspective, because not every client is the same. Not every client's gonna approach them the same. But I do think there are some things that agencies can do, especially if they know their client has agency background, that makes everything more effective. I mean, for me, a lot of what we're looking for is extra arms and legs. And that's what a lot of corporate munications teams are looking for. They need those arms and legs to help them do the things that they simply don't have time to do on their own. Be those extra arms and legs for me, don't wait necessarily for me to come to you with all of the ideas. It's so wonderful to me when I have agencies sending me ideas, whether they're a fit or not, you know, send me sending me ideas. It's so helpful, and it's so useful that that productivity and not waiting for it. fully formed chairs a perfectly formed idea that's been approved all the way up to the top like, here are some ideas. Let's see what sticks. Here's five of them. Maybe one works. Maybe none of them work. But we tried. I think that's something that's helpful. And I think coming from the agency side, something I wish I knew when I was on the agency side is what's really valuable on the in house side is I don't need 100 reports a day. I don't need necessarily all those PR impressions and things like that. It's, to me, it's more about like, how are you moving the needle? How are you getting that, you know, end goal, maybe it's you might only get one placement. But if it's a really amazing placement, then that's better and more valuable to me than 20 maybe small, meaningless placements. Not meaningless. That's not the right thing to say but smaller placements. So I think having an understanding of the goals and you know, it's not always just about numbers. It's not always just about numbers, numbers, numbers. It's about moving the needle in about making a difference driving some objectives home. Brad GranthamSo Allison, a lot of agencies have tools at their disposal in their arsenal, so to speak, you know, some of those vary from media tracking services, monitoring services all the way to, you know, reporter contacts, like profit nets and arrow and some other things like that. Is this anything that your agencies use? And, you know, do you want that from your agencies? Allison ShowalterI would say all of my agencies that I use it, I'm awesome. I like the whole corporate communications team uses it, it's, they're great tools. I think the thing with any tool like that is using it appropriately and being transparent, that you're using it. I have absolutely no problem with a prophet or a hero. But to me, it's all about being transparent. That's where this opportunity came from. So it's all about it's managing expectations. And I think that's also something that's important for agencies to understand about working with your in house. I think the thing is, we have relationships that we're managing on our end as well and so We need to manage the expectations of our executives. So they continue to make time in their schedule to do things like media interviews. So it's important for us to know like this opportunity came from a hero or a prophet. So when I go request time on an executives calendar, they know Do I need to move a meeting for this? Is this something that's worth my time? What are the chances that is actually going to come to…
PR Wars Podcast: Cut through the clutter
Aug 16, 2020
Show notes
How do you get your messaging to cut through the clutter? On today's PR Wars, former journalist and agency pro Sean O'Leary, Vice President at Susan Davis International, talks about messaging in the emerging tech sector. Learn how to differentiate your company in a crowded marketplace. Listen to PR Wars on: AnnouncerIt's time. Welcome to PR Wars! Coming at you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Now, here's your host, Chris Shigas. Chris ShigasThanks for tuning into PR Wars. I'm Chris Shigas. Today we're going to talk about making your messaging cut through the clutter. Joining me as co host and fellow communication titan, Brad Grantham. Brad GranthamThis is a topic I've really been looking forward to. So why don't we just cut through the clutter and get down to it. Chris ShigasOur special guest today is Sean O'Leary. He's a Vice President at Susan Davis International out of Washington, DC. One focus for Sean is the tech sector. And let's be honest, there's a lot of cluttered messaging in tech today. Sean, thanks for joining us. I appreciate you being here with Brad and I on PR Wars. We're talking today a little bit about tech and tech PR. And one of the things... it's such a crowded marketplace, both consumer tech, software, hardware, b2b tech, talk a little bit about messaging. So when you approach a client in the tech space, how do you start to get them to cut through the clutter with their messaging? Sean O'LearyYep. So that's a great question. Because a lot of the times when I'm speaking with tech companies, they are and for good reason... they're focused on what they're able to do. And they're really focused on the tech aspect of whatever their technology is, and I've talked about this before, but like the word "solution," right, it seems like everyone wants to use the word solution. Especially being here, Washington DC... I feel like there's 1,000 companies with solutions in their name. So, that does not help you stand out. Chris ShigasYeah, no kidding. I mean, I'll give you this. The word "solutions," is a huge pet peeve of mine. And I was at a trade show... back when we used to have trade shows, if you remember them. And I actually walked down the whole aisle in a trade show row. And every booth explained themselves as providing solutions, Business Solutions. I made it to the end of the row and I turned around and I looked back at all the trade show booths, and realized I didn't understand what any of these companies did. Not one of them, right. It's such a generic word. And it's such an easy way out for a communicator. Sean O'LearyExactly. So that's why when you when it comes to messaging, I think there's two things that I like to focus on. The first thing is what's the problem that you're trying to solve? Don't just jump to the solution message, what that problem is, because I think that's the easiest way to come across to potential customers who hear you know what I have that problem, I'm interested in listening to them. And then the second piece is messaging the results, and what you can actually provide, because to your point, when you kind of use the word solution, it doesn't really have any meaning anymore. But if you can go to a customer or reporter and say this technology will save X amount of time, X amount of money, whatever it is, then it becomes real. So I think those two things, it's about sort of making the technology real to people. And that is how you kind of break free from, from the competitors, we're going to all say the same things. Brad GranthamSo let's talk about, you know, messaging, the problem messaging, the results, especially in the environment that we find ourselves in now, you know, we had to cut through the clutter before. Now it's even more so than ever. When you're advising a client and saying, Alright, we're going to message the problem in the results. We're going to do it in this format. Do you add any extra steps now, that you didn't do before, too after the clutter. Sean O'LearyYeah, I mean, I think that there's there's two things. One, which I think is really interesting is that in terms of figuring out what the problem is, I think a lot of times these tech companies know what the problem is, but they're not focused on what the problem is. So just as an example, usually when I start with a client, I have them kind of give a background on sort of their their solution, right. And as they start talking, I can hear what the problem is, but they're not hearing it. So I think it's part of you know, being on this side as being on the PR side, there are things that you hear they're like, wait a minute, that's a problem that would apply elsewhere that they might not be thinking about. So a lot of the times it just gets it just it's it's an old trick I used to use as a reporter, right? Just ask a lot of open ended questions, and you usually get to the answer. So a lot of times when I'm dealing especially like product, folks who are really focused on the product, just the more they talk, you kind of hear little things that they say they kind of come across that makes sense. And then from a results perspective, and again, this kind of goes back to being a reporter. I would kind of put myself in the shoes of a reporter like what's what Result Am I going to care about? Like, if I'm writing a story? What am I going to put in that first or second paragraph? And a lot of times, it really gets down to like I said, it's like time saved, money saved. Like, what are those things that make you stand out? And how can you quantify it? Because I think a lot of times that quantification hasn't happened. Brad GranthamSo let me take a step back again, and this environment, when you're working with that client, do you say I want to do in addition to the pitch, I want to create a video that explains this easily, and cuts through the clutter in 30 seconds or less? Or what are those types of content that you may be looking to do in addition to what you used to do before? Sean O'LearyYep, so I would say in addition, yeah, video, I think is a great one. I think the important thing with video, like you said is making sure that there are short videos that you can share via social media because I think a lot of times companies want to do videos and they ended up being like these three to four minute you know, magnum opus is that don't really resonate when someone's flipping on Twitter. So it's kind of like one of those like, what's the 32 second 30 to 60 second video You know, you can put together and especially right now, because of COVID. There's so many of these virtual events and webinars. So how are you going to be able to get your message across quickly and effectively for someone who's, you know, sitting at home and listening as opposed to being in person. Chris ShigasWhat I really liked to hear that you were talking about, about focusing on the problem. And it really forces you to be thinking more about your customer, instead of just talking about yourself that that a lot of companies fall into. You don't want to be that boring guy at the party who just talks about himself all day, and nobody really cares, right? I would think for you on the agency side, and admittedly lots of people inside a corporation... they start drinking their own Kool-aid, and they start with their own vocabulary and their own language of how they talk about what they do. So that must be a challenge for you to get them to stop talking about themselves so much and put them in the mind of the customer. And I think what I heard you say which is really interesting is to break down some of those barriers. You start by asking questions, right instead of just being the know-it-all and tell them what to do. Sean O'LearyExactly. Again, it goes back to my reporter days, the more that someone talks, the more they're going to tell you, it seems pretty basic. But that's sort of the first step is to figure that out. And I would say the second thing in terms of sort of like breaking through the clutter is figuring out sort of like what people are already talking about, whether it's in the media, whether it's in sort of the, you know, the area that you're in, and kind of figuring out what those those news hooks are that you can kind of play off of, you know, for example, being in DC, for companies that are trying to sell to the government. It's like what piece of policy, what legislation is out there talking about what's related to your technology, and then that can be your problem that you talk about. Chris ShigasAnother challenge, especially when you're dealing with technical products or services, is finding the right audience, right. So sometimes you have a very technical type of audience, but you'll lose the larger consumer press media. Sometimes you have messaging that is pretty high level 30,000 feet, right? What's some of the things that go through your mind when you're deciding on the level of technical information to provide in Tech PR? Sean O'LearyYeah, I'd say I think the biggest driving factor for me is the level of technical expertise that person the spokesperson has, for example, we have one client, where when we're talking about those big umbrella issues, that's when I put the CEO out there. You know, that's when I put a director out there to talk about it. But if we are talking to a more technical trade, and we have somebody, you know, if they, whether it's AI, whether it's automation, you know, if they can get into the nitty-gritty about it, then that's who I want to put forward and I want to hit those trades. So that's sort of my driving is I kind of try to build it around the spokes people because if you have a real technical spokesperson trying to talk to a broad audience, it doesn't work, just like vice versa. A CEO talking to a very niche trade audience also might not make sense we have seen this year you know, by It's being cut all over the place, especially with events, trade shows and those types of things. What have you seen done? Well, and the absence of those events? I mean, is there something that stood out to you and said, You know what, that client really did a good job? And if so, what did they do? Yeah, so I would say something that one of my clients has done really well, has really been the video piece. And I know we talked about this, but doing more videos and not just like little animated 30 to 60 second videos, but like, like a Q&A. So this company has sort of a chief medical officer that can kind of deal with their technology that's aimed at the healthcare side of things. So clearly, he was going to be in demand right now. So instead of him and he has done virtual events and things, but every week, he does like a 30 to 60 second q&a, that they're able to put up there. They're able to share via social media. So I think that's been pretty effective for them. And then from a media side, I've just seen a lot more of these like Zoom interviews with public that may not have done those before that just kind of give like a little bit more color and let people see what's going on. So I think that's kind of been the big thing I've seen is the video piece. Brad GranthamAnd to that, you know, I think we've seen a shift, like you just pointed out, you know, whereas 5 to 10 years ago, or even a year or two ago, it may not have been acceptable to do a Zoom video on broadcast cable, what have you, it's not the norm. I mean, we're recording this podcast right now via Zoom, which again, a year ago would have been unthinkable. So it's interesting to see how that's kind of changed. Sean O'LearyYeah, I would just say the one thing I think is pretty interesting in terms of like the media prep and media training is that I've now had to give like media training to people about how to properly do an interview on zoom. You know, a lot of the basics are the same if you were on TV, but there are just some things are just a little bit different about doing an interview from your home office, that it kind of takes some time to getting used to. Chris ShigasNow from an agency perspective, and you have tech clients, I can tell you like 10 years ago, back in my agency time everybody wanted to be on the Today Show, right, or front page of The Wall Street Journal. As you see your clients coming to you now, is there a common thread of what they're looking for what they need the assistance that they're looking for in an agency? Sean O'LearyYeah, it's interesting, because I think from abroad abroad perspective, I think they're all looking for the same thing. Like, you know, they want more awareness, they want to increase their thought leadership, etc. But I do think that there's less interest in like specific outlets, because you're right. I mean, I remember when I went over to the agency world A few years ago, and it was like, I want to be on TV, I want to be on CNN, and sort of the media landscape has changed so dramatically. I always give this example that a few years ago, we had like an older CEO who got an interview request from BuzzFeed. And at first he didn't want to do it, because all he knew about BuzzFeed, you know, was like the listicles and the gifs. So we basically had to say like they have this many million followers, they have this many million visitors. This is the absolute perfect place for you to be in interview and they did the interview the story ran and obviously his tune changed. But I think it's more about like, how can I reach the audience I want to reach because not only there are more outlets, but there's sort of like more fractured outlets out there to like if you're wanting to hit like the healthcare, you know, there are a zillion healthcare trades out there, you have to figure out which one makes the most sense for you. So I think it's the top level goals are the same. I think how you get there, I think I have a little bit more freedom on the PR side to say this is the path you should be taking to get there, as opposed to kind of be beholden to a CEO who's obsessed with the today show or something. Brad GranthamSo Sean, you know, obviously, with advent of COVID-19, things have changed. And we've discussed that a little bit. But from your perspective, you know, how are you pitching during this time? What are the most effective pitches? How are you? How are you cutting through everything? Sean O'LearyYeah, I think the biggest thing is right now just about every story that every reporter is writing right now is going to be affected by COVID in some form or fashion, whether it's you're talking to employees, businesses, consumers, etc. You always have to be thinking about what What the pandemic and COVID what that impact is. So if you can draw pretty much a straight line between your technology or your messaging or what you're doing, and how it can help COVID-19 you're going to get on the radars of reporters. And I'll just mention one company is actually I work with is doing contact tracing. So you can just think about how important that is, and how many different angles that you can take from that. So just from that alone, there are so many questions we can answer. Chris ShigasGreat, thank you. Here at PR Wars, we offer communication solutions for your business. Just kidding. We got to get better than that. All right, so I'm well I appreciate your time. T…
PR Wars Podcast: Nurturing your reporter circle
Aug 09, 2020
Show notes
How do you keep the relationships you care about alive? Today on PR Wars, we're going to talk about relationships, but specifically... PR relationships with journalists.
Listen to PR Wars on:
Announcer It's time. Welcome to PR Wars. Coming at you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Now, here's your host, Chris Shigas.
Chris Shigas Hey everyone, welcome to PR wars. I'm Chris Shigas. Nice to hear from you. How's the family? You okay? I'm good. Hey, let's keep in touch. Hey, how do you keep your relationships alive? Today we're going to talk about relationships, but specifically, PR relationships with journalists. Joining me is co-host Brad Grantham as we dive into nurturing your circle of reporter contacts. All right, Brad, you holding up okay?
Brad Grantham I'm doing well. It's been a crazy news week. But what can you expect at this point?
Chris Shigas So today, we're gonna be talking about nurturing your reporter contacts. How do we build this reporter circle? Everyone's busy. Everyone's emails are overflowing. When you pick up the phone to call a reporter what what are they going through? What's the status of the newsroom today?
Brad Grantham I think it's somewhat controlled chaos. And more so than when you and I worked in newsrooms years ago. You know, the evolution with all the different social channels has put more pressure on reporters and photographers to pretty much double their output, if not triple their output than they used to with all the different social channels. So if something's happening in real time, I mean, not only are they having to do it for Facebook live, Twitter, the TV station itself proper, and then there's your web story. It's a lot of different tangled elements. Now, so I think it's a lot more complex. And on top of that, they're getting bombarded via email from viewers, managers, PR practitioners all over all this is happening in real time. So it's quite frustrating, I think for a lot of reporters.
Chris Shigas Absolutely. I think one of the big mistakes though, as people really look at... "oh, reporters are so busy, I don't want to bother them. I don't want to pick up a phone and call them because they'll get mad at me because they're busy. So I'll just send out these email blasts, and hopefully somebody will respond." I think it's not so much that reporters don't want you to call them it's that they don't want you to call them with bad ideas. They'll always take a good story idea.
Brad Grantham Right. Now they'll always take a good story idea. I think that's the frustration you know, if you're in the middle of a breaking news event, let's say for instance, a major weather event or chronic or what have you. And, you're trying to find detailed information from a local Pio that's pertinent to that story of that incident happening. And you're having to scroll through again, all those different emails and a mobile phone trying to find that information. Yeah, it gets frustrating. But if you catch them at the right time, and it's a decent idea that leads to great storytelling, perhaps they'll absolutely accept that.
Chris Shigas As a PR professional, you shouldn't have this understanding that reporters are way too busy. They have way too many stories to cover, and they'll never want to cover your story. They have to put out a lot of output like you're talking about. And they need a lot of content to what we used to call "feed the beast." Yeah, the key here is it has to be structured in a realistic way that it's useful to them.
Brad Grantham No, I completely agree. It's almost like we used to joke back in the day about having a Rolodex full of contacts. They want that Rolodex full of content. that's meaningful, and they can tap into at any point. But again, it's all comes down to the timing, right when you reach out to them, and they can put that in that. That box, so to speak, or at least put that mental note away. Yeah, this, this might be a good one. Let me put it down. Chris, one thing I think a lot of practitioners may not realize, especially those that are just getting in to the business. You know, when we talk about timing, there are a lot of different meetings that take place editorially, both at broadcast stations, newspapers, and even online outlets. It's knowing when those meetings are taking place, for instance, and broadcast. The majority of the first editorial board meetings happen between 930 and 11. And most places, they decide here's the stories we're covering as of 11 o'clock this morning, of course, that's subject to change. They have an afternoon crew that comes in around 230 or three editorial board meeting happens, this is what we're covering nightside if you were to reach out to the assignment desk, or those reporters after 11 o'clock, maybe 10 3011 somewhere in there It's a good story or has decent storytelling ability, and you've got a good shot. But the last thing you want to do is do it before that you want to find that, that little bit of time or it's a little bit of peace, or they're on the way to another story or the desk has taken a little bit of a break, or the managers are just catching up on email. That's a perfect time to do it. And the other thing that I think a lot of practitioners and they may not realize your day side staff, and newsrooms, all over is always going to be a lot larger than the night side stuff. For instance, you know, a TV station in Raleigh or Atlanta, may have 20 to 25 to 30 people day side, that's reporters and photographers nightside to maybe two reporters and two photographers. So your greatest chances of making that connection are probably going to be during the day,
Chris Shigas In the mornings, it might be less than that.
Brad Grantham Yeah, for the morning show. Actually. Yeah, yeah, it might be it might be less than that. Or it might be might be two or three, but it's knowing that window of best success that will set you up.
Chris Shigas One more window that you could also think about trying to catch if you get the right contact name, whether it's an editor at a newspaper or a producer at a TV station... are the weekend crews. Usually on Thursday and Fridays, they're preparing for the weekend, which is a great time to pitch some newspaper editors trying to put their Sunday paper to bed by Friday. Same with a weekend news producer as they're assembling their shows.
Brad Grantham You brought up the struggle nightside that one time... weekend is more of a struggle. I mean, I can remember trying to lay out the plans on a Thursday evening or Friday afternoon. We've got x crews, and I would say 50% of the time, we would only have half the weekend figured out we just see obviously what else would arise. You know, Friday night, Saturday night, what have you. So no, that's a great, great idea.
Chris Shigas One example when I began as a television news producer in the 90s... the primary way we received press releases was through a fax machine. And as I transitioned over into PR agency life, I went to email... kind of as a novelty. You know, everyone's faxing. I'm gonna email the story that might get more eyeballs, because I'm doing it differently than everyone else. Now, email is pretty overloaded, isn't it?
Brad Grantham It's a little passe at this point. I think we're having to invent new ways, you know, whether that's going into DM's and Twitter, whether that's going in through Facebook messaging, here's a crazy thing. Actually sending a handwritten letter with some interesting information might make a difference because nobody does that anymore. Right? It's, it's all it's all digital. If you actually took the time to write a letter and say, Here's, you know, here's a one or two paragraph pitch. Here's the date and time we're wanting to start you might find this interesting. You might I'd be surprised what happens there.
Chris Shigas Yeah. Well, as long as the journalist doesn't think they they're being contacted by the Unabomber,
Brad Grantham Right, or somebody from prison. Yes. That's awful.
Chris Shigas So speaking of that, as we look at email pitches, the one thing I'm not going to let go of, is the telephone. If I'm engaging an agency, I can always tell when a press release was just emailed, or when follow up calls were made. I can tell you right away, just based on the pickup. I'm a firm believer that you will never build a successful circle of contacts if you're not picking up a phone and talking to people like you're a human.
Brad Grantham Yeah, no, you've got to have that human connection. I mean, your tone dictates everything. I mean, again, if I were to have a statement in front of me right now and just read it with my eyes, and then read it out loud separately, you're going to get two different texts for from whoever I read that tour who has read that statement.
Chris Shigas So I'm looking at this research by a technology company called Propel. They did a study and found that 54% of email pitches go unopened. That's over half your media list, Brad.
Brad Grantham I'm surprised it's not higher. I'm surprised it's not 65 70%. Again, we talked about the bombardment of emails that are just proliferating throughout newsrooms and media in general. I'm actually surprised it's that low.
Chris Shigas That's a good day.
Brad Grantham That's it. Yeah. That's a great man. Chris, well, let me ask you this. We talked about the different shapes that newsrooms are taking. We talked about, you know, the best timing perhaps, to hit these reporters. We talked about establishing that human connection again, and making that start of a relationship. But how do we, how we nurture reporters and your mind?
Chris Shigas It goes through stages. You have the beginning... the newlywed phase, especially for a lot of young PR professionals. They don't have this circle of contacts yet. And they're doing a lot of cold calling. They're sending email pitches to these media lists. They've never read this writer before. They've never seen it. They're blasting it out hoping someone will pick it up. Then there's the phone calls. Sometimes you catch someone at the wrong time and they're not nice to you. And it's a tough road. Some young PR people won't get past that stage. They'll engage in it, they don't like it. They'll give it up and they'll go on and do something else with their career. If you can get over that. Then you reach a stage where you start knowing the industry and you start knowing what reporters are writing what and you start knowing the different beat writers not only by name, but by face because maybe you've worked with them on a story before you are at an event with them. And it is so critical that you now use your communication skills at the event, you walk up to them, you talk to them, you treat them like a human being, you joke with them, you compliment them, you do all the things you would do if you're really caring about a relationship that you want to have with another person.
Brad Grantham Completely agree but the the art of the give and take that is something that's been lost over time. And that is, you know, once you've started to create that relationship with a journalist, looking out for them and sending them ideas, even if it doesn't benefit you. Look, I know you cover this sector, I know you cover this space. thought about this, it might be crazy, but there might be something to it just just thought, you know, I'd send it your way. Journalists Do not forget that. They just don't.
Chris Shigas And one of the things I like to do for the relationships that I have with media is to really continue to follow them. It's so easy online to follow their Twitter account, friend them on Facebook, follow their LinkedIn. Typically these writers are very proud of their work and they post the results of their work on the social platforms. And it's great to acknowledge their work even if it's not a story about your company. To say, "Hey, that was a great angle you did on Tesla, or on IBM," tweet their tweets and like their LinkedIn posts and engage with them and maintain that relationship so that when it comes time for you to have your pitch of a story that's very important to your company, that relationship is still intact. You've been keeping it going beyond social media, being able to have a conversation with them on the telephone, that's relevant, that's authentic, that's real and that's human. That goes a long way into building your circle of reporters.
Chris Shigas Well, that'll wrap up another edition of PR Wars. As always, Brad Grantham... thank you for joining us. Remember you can find a new episode of PR Wars every Sunday night at 8pm. And hey, do me a favor? Do something this week to nurture your circle of reporters. Now go get em'.
PR Wars Podcast: Writing powerful speeches
Aug 02, 2020
Show notes
Great speeches can change the world. In today's PR Wars podcast, we talk about Comms 101 techniques that will make your speech writing more memorable, effective, and impactful.
The PR Wars “Comms 101″ segment recognizes core communication principles to help you become a better communicator.
Listen to PR Wars on:
Announcer: It's time. Welcome to PR wars coming at you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Now, here is your host, Chris Shigas.
Chris Shigas: Hey everyone, welcome to PR Wars. I'm Chris Shigas. Today on Comms 101. We're talking about great speech writing.
(Clip from Braveheart)
“They may take our lives, but they will never take… our freedom!”
Chris Shigas: Great speeches. Who doesn't love a great speech? They can change the world. Today, we're going to talk about some Comms 101 techniques that will make your speech writing more impactful.
Anaphora, Epistrophe, and Anadiplosis. What is he speaking Greek? Yeah, I'm speaking Greek. These are rhetorical devices to help you in your speech writing. Do not settle for your writing to wallow in the muck of mediocrity.
First we'll examine Anaphora. Anaphora consists of repeating words at the beginning of a series of sentences or at the beginning of a series of clauses. It creates an emphasis for your communication. It makes your speech more memorable. Think of it as branding your speech.
In the movie Wall Street, Michael Douglas plays the role of Gordon Gekko. He's a wealthy tycoon and delivers his famous “greed is good” speech. In this clip, each sentence begins with the word… greed. This is an example of anaphora.
(Clip from Wall Street)
“The point is ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms. greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.”
Chris Shigas: I want to use another example. This is the most famous display of Anaphora. It was the greatest speech ever given. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech in Washington DC. He began a series of paragraphs with the words, “I have a dream,” and it burned into the consciousness of not only America, but of the world. This is the most famous example of an Anaphora.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Chris Shigas: Well, everyone remembers this particular use of Anaphora. But in his speech, it was not the only time that Dr. King use this rhetorical technique. In the same speech, he also began a series of paragraphs with the phrase, “Let Freedom Ring.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
“Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
Dr. King actually used Anaphora a third time in the speech by repeating the phrase “with this faith.” He used this phrase “with this faith,” beginning three phrases, and to hammer it home, he finished the “with this faith” Anaphora with another technique. This technique is the opposite of Anaphora. It's called Epistrophe. Epistrophe is the repetition of the same word, not at the beginning... but at the end of a successive series of clauses or sentences. Listen to how Dr. King uses the word “together” at the end of each phrase.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together.”
Chris Shigas: Now, Dr. King wasn't the first orator and he wasn't even the first American to use Epistrophe. In fact, it was used for emphasis in one of the country's most revered eulogies. President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address to help the nation heal from the horrible Civil War battle. Listen to the repetitive use of the word “people.”
Abraham Lincoln: “And that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this Earth.”
Chris Shigas: A more modern use of Epistrophe… now, regardless of your politics, President Barack Obama delivers great speeches. Can we all agree on that? In 2008, his campaign stump speech, uses the phrase “Yes we can.” This form of Epistrophe can become a chant. It helps move the crowd. It encourages participation. Listen to Obama's use of Epistrophe with “Yes, we can.”
Barack Obama: “It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed the trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights. Yes, we can. It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness. Yes, we can. It was the call of workers who organized… women who reached for the ballot… a President who chose the Moon as our new frontier… and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the promised land. Yes, we can.”
Chris Shigas: So, we learned about Anaphora and Epistrophe. The last rhetorical technique that we'll learn today is called Anadiplosis. Anadiplosis is the repetition of a word used at the end of a sentence, and then you use it again. At the beginning of the next sentence, it creates a logical sequence or series.
In this example from Star Wars. Yoda explains why fear is the path to the dark side, and he uses an Asus to make this progression by taking the last word of a phrase and repeating it as the first word of the next sentence
Yoda: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.”
Chris Shigas: A final example of Anadiplosis, I'm going to use another example from Obama. I know I used an example from him already, but he's a great speaker. So, give me a break. Listen to the progressions of Anadiplosis taken from his “One Voice” speech.
Barack Obama: “One voice can change the room. And if the voice can change the room, it can change the city. And if it can change the city, it can change the State. If it can change the State, it can change the nation. If it can change the nation, it can change the world.”
Chris Shigas: So, there you have it. Anaphora, Epistrophe, and Anadiplosis. These are three rhetorical devices to make your speech writing more memorable. To make your speech writing more effective. To make your speech writing more impactful. Now go get em’!
Bluto from Animal House: “Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? (Germans? Forget it, he’s on a roll now). Cuz when the going gets tough… … … the tough get’s going! Who’s with me? Yahhhhhhhh!”
PR Wars Podcast: The new PR landscape
Jul 26, 2020
Show notes
Are you ready to tear up your 2020 communication plan yet? PR Wars talks with corporate communication pro Brad Grantham. We will explore how the pandemic has changed both the media and public relations industries and where do we go from here.
Listen to PR Wars on:
Announcer It's time. Welcome to PR Wars. Coming at you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Now, here is your host, Chris Shigas.
Chris Shigas Hey everyone, welcome to PR Wars. I'm Chris Shigas.
Are you ready to tear up your 2020 communication plan yet? What do we do now? How do we stop being reactive in this crisis year? And how do we get proactive? Can we even salvage 2020? Today we're going to look at how the pandemic has changed both the media and public relations. And where do we go next?
Joining me today is a friend. He's a fellow corporate communications practitioner. I think he has one of the best backgrounds for our profession, because it's nearly identical to mine. He got his start in local television news, and then he moved into PR agency work and he's now running external communications for a global corporation, Brad Grantham. Hey Brad, are you holding up in this new environment, you're set up in your house, you got your home office, you're fully functional?
Brad Grantham Fan-tastic there's nothing like being on a conference call with colleagues and hearing your daughter's scream in the background at the top of their lungs because the Disney Channel malfunctioned. It's good times.
Chris Shigas
I was on a conference call this morning and somebody was knocking at the door and the dog was barking and I'm like, somebody's gonna get that please.
Brad Grantham
All you can do is laugh now, because everybody's going through the same thing. You know, even if you have the most professional appointment ahead of you. And you think you've got all the bases covered. Somebody else in that conference call is gonna have a misstep, and it's just great.
Chris Shigas
Well, everyone's trying to adapt. Everyone's trying to move forward with their campaigns and really look at their plans. But there's, there's some serious big changes in our profession. And in the media, the reporters that we pitch to, and in fact, you've been kind of looking at some of the latest trends in in the media and it's not a pretty picture.
Brad Grantham
No, it really isn't. I mean pointer came out last night. A couple of days ago, a story by Axios. And I think the thing that's concerning for both of us, as former news, guys, is the amount of layoffs that are occurring across the globe. Axios estimated that through June of this year 11,000 people in newsrooms lost their jobs. To put that in perspective, in 2009, after the recession, or during the recession, there was about 20,000 people that lost their job in 2009. So yeah, it's it's quite disturbing you and I both know people who have been impacted by it. It's not anything that anybody should take joy in, you know, they're there to help get out the word to the masses. And when you lose good quality people in those sectors, it hurts all of us.
Chris Shigas
Right. And many of the newsrooms were already small, and now they're smaller.
Brad Grantham
Yeah, basically five to seven different companies that own broadcast newsrooms or newspapers now, across the US, and with that comes a lot of power. And when you go through times like this and you're losing advertising money, you have to start cutting jobs at some point. It's just disheartening to, to watch. Again, having worked in those.
Chris Shigas
Yeah. So if you look, the flip side of that, despite the fact that our media lists are getting smaller and smaller, if you do get a placement, perhaps you can even get further reach because there's more syndication, and your story goes a little farther than maybe it would have when there's a lot of media.
Brad Grantham
Yeah, that's a great point. You know, I think, if you're able, and your organization is able to get into a tier one publication, and the New York Times Wall Street Journal, Reuters, or Associated Press as well, if you're able to connect with one of those, the ability for syndication or the ability for aggregates to pick up that wire story or data and put it in their own sites, is quite high. You know, something that should not be discounted is the trade publications. We've got to make sure that they're taken care of as well.
Chris Shigas
During this time, the virus has put a lot of people in our profession kind of on our heels being reactive. And I think now people are emerging going, we need to salvage this year, we need to do something proactive. I don't know what that looks like, if my program was event driven. How am I going to shift to virtual really trying new strategies to see Hey, does this work? The reporters are going through the same thing?
Brad Grantham
Yeah, I think you know, what we've pivoted to and some other companies I know. It's more content related items, whether that's videos, infographics, what have you instead of doing your traditional press releases or events, because you know, obviously, the events are canceled, you don't want to put out a press release to seem insensitive, given the current environment and you have to be very clear. I think this is something that's going to go on for another six months to a year. You know, so it's not like, we can
Brad Grantham To say, Alright, let's just wait till September and see what happens now we've still going to be producing content, we still need to be digging for additional content that we can push out later down the year and heads up, here's a great thing now would be a great time to do research reports and surveys. So if you have some budget that you know, haven't had taken back, what research could we do that we could push out towards the end of the year or in Q1 of next year, have the time to do it right? And then distributed them.
Chris Shigas We have this shrinking media list and it's making me wonder, media relations used to be the 800 pound gorilla of public relations. That's where you started. That's where you developed your skills. That was a majority of your job. Now as you look at external communications, perhaps media relations is playing a smaller role than it used to and I look at look at other things. Whether it's social media content, or it's a company putting out their own content, whether it's newsletter, YouTube channel, or maybe looking at influencers outside of the media, like Twitter users or youtubers or podcasters, where do you see the role of media in external comms and kind of moving forward into the future?
Brad Grantham You know, that's a, that's a great question. If I were to tell you right now, what the media landscape is gonna look like five to 10 years from now, I would just throw some dice through the window and just see where it lands because nobody knows. I think it will be diminished quite a bit. I still think the context of the circles that you develop, they'll still be a strong necessity for that because those people if they're gone from newsrooms are going to go into content development, or other sectors like that which are becoming more and more important. So for for us in the midst of COVID. You're not doing press releases every week.
Brad Grantham You're not doing events, what can you do? You can do videos, infographics, newsletters, customer stories. There's a whole gamut of things. And if I were to do something right now, I do a research or a survey at this point, just to make sure that four months down the line, I've got the videos, I've got all that content ready to go to put it out when the time is appropriate.
Chris Shigas
Absolutely. And I think there's also opportunity clearly for the cause of journalism and the institution of journalism. This is a bad thing. But as far as communicators go, within a corporation, I think we've seen greater importance placed on our positions within the corporate culture, perhaps more seats at the CEO table. I think more and more companies are realizing how navigating this new landscape of Media and Communication you need more professional guidance than ever.
Brad Grantham It's it's an absolute landmine right now. Let's be frank, you know, seasoned executives are needed now more than ever, the CEOs table, as we progress through this pandemic, I think the needs gonna be even more so closer than ever. We know many companies will be experiencing massive layoffs as we go throughout this year and early next year. And you know, if there was ever a time to have your communicators on board, internal external content development, this is it. It's time to sharpen and get ready. But yeah, great point.
Chris Shigas
When we look at some of the permanent changes that 2020 is going to have on communication. One of the first things that comes to mind is for me, the role of the workplace office. Do you think there's there's really any reason that PR professionals corporate communicators will need to work out of a corporate office with a nine to five commute every day?
Brad Grantham I love the way that you laughed as you asked that question. Because I think you answered it for everybody. No, there's no need. I mean, we've proven so far, you know, the first four or five months of this pandemic, that we can still do our jobs and do it well. There's just no need and think about the amount of money that could be saved. If we got rid of all the office spaces just for show,
Chris Shigas I think that's an important point, I think companies are going to reevaluate the real estate and look at that and say, Wow, you know, do we need all this expensive real estate? And can we operate in another way? Obviously, if you look at the other side of this, you have maybe some some bosses or leaders who think that productivity will be reduced if people are at home, but wouldn't you evaluate someone's productivity, just like if they were at work? I mean, they're either doing their work or they're not right.
Brad Grantham Yeah, it's they're either doing the work or they're not. But I think the the bigger question we have to ask ourselves when we come out of this, again to those leaders is, do you think you will be able to retain staff? If you do not provide a flexible working environment? And the answer is no. Because now that we've gone through this, you know, if somebody were to come and say, Look, we'd like you to do X in our company. We've got flexible working hours, you can work from home, you know, two or three days a week or all the time. And that's all there is to it. And, you know, Company B is saying, No, we want you to ask from 830 to 530. It's a no brainer.
Chris Shigas You have to commute into Washington DC every day.
Brad Grantham Yeah. I mean, it's just it's so antiquated. So I think we're going to see a massive change. When we come out of this. You know what it looks like? Nobody knows. It's kinda like the Wild West. But I think it's going to be for the better.
Chris Shigas Well, great any other prognostications that you could see the how this experience of 2020 is going to impact communicators.
Brad Grantham I think I'll leave you with a couple thoughts. 2020 has been a cluster on many different fronts. Let's just be frank. But the good thing is it's taught us to reevaluate not only our skills but the skills of our colleagues, where we morphing to where are we going from here? What is the best way to deliver content and the story? And the last thing is, I think it's caused a lot of people reevaluate their crisis plans. Right. So we know as of the taping of this episode, that the unemployment benefits have not been extended at this point. August and September could be really interesting if that doesn't take place. And you know what other companies are wanting to do layoffs in q3, and q4. You know, what real estate companies and all these different things are gonna be shutting things down. with that comes a need for a crisis team, you know, how are you going to manage that internally, externally, and make sure it's done succinctly and care. I mean, I think it's a lot of things a lot of things people aren't thinking about right now or they're starting to as they realize, you know, there's impending doom down the corner. That's a lovely way to wrap up the podcast.
Chris Shigas Yeah. Well, if I have to look at at a silver lining here, the communications function is still important to corporate America. I think more and more communicators will be asked to have more specialties. Maybe the days are numbered, where a communicator says, Well, I just write content, or a communicator says, Well, I just pitched Media Relations. I think you're going to see more generalists. There's going to be an expectation that, oh, yeah, you need to know social media, and you need to be able to do speech writing, and you need to be able to reach out to tier one and you need to be able to do crisis communications.
Brad Grantham
And you need to do that all all doing a Facebook Live at the same time.
Chris Shigas
There you go. On some level, those people are hard to find. But if you're a pro and You have a wide variety of skill sets that's going to serve you well.
Brad Grantham I agree again, as we morph as an industry as the media, landscape changes, those who have those skill sets will be invaluable.
Chris Shigas Hey, Brad, thanks for spending time with us today. I really appreciate it and everyone at home remember, every crisis is an opportunity. Is this your moment? Can you make 2020 matter? I think you can. Now go get em'.
PR Wars Podcast: Power of persuasion
Jul 12, 2020
Show notes
The word "persuasion" has a negative connotation, like a used car salesman manipulating you into something you don’t want. Can persuasion be used for good and what are the best ways to incorporate persuasion techniques in public relations? PR Wars podcast examines the power of persuasion.
Listen to PR Wars on:
Announcer: It's time. Welcome to PR Wars! Coming at you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Now, here is your host, Chris Shigas
Chris Shigas: Hey everyone, thanks for joining us. I'm Chris Shigas. Welcome to PR Wars.
Are you good? I'm good. Thanks for asking. Hey, let me ask you something. Have you checked your social media feed? Is it a war zone? Do your Facebook friends? Do they have opinions? And have you seen that app called Next Door with your neighbors? You would think that'd be super friendly.
Whoa, there's a lot of talking. There's a lot of arguing. I don't know if there's a lot of listening. Is this communication?
I've been thinking a lot about one of my favorite books. It's called "How to Win Friends and Influence People" written by Dale Carnegie, way back in 1936. It's a classic. I read it every couple of years, just to remind myself the principles in that book that are still relevant today. I heard someone over talking I was actually eating breakfast in a Waffle House. I live in Atlanta, so there's a Waffle House on every corner.
I think for people who haven't read the book, The name of the book sounds kind of creepy. Not so much "how to make friends." It's more about the "and influence people" part. The word "influence" or the word "persuasion" have a negative connotation, kind of like a used car salesman manipulating you into something that you don't want... something that has a bad outcome. But you see, persuasion and influence are neutral words. They're not intrinsically good or bad.
You can use persuasion for good. If you want to end systemic racism. You need to communicate. You need to persuade people. You need to move someone from one level of understanding to a new level of understanding. If you want to combat climate change, if you want to keep people safe during a pandemic, I mean, we try to persuade our children to look both ways before they cross the street. Is that a bad thing? Of course not. That's using persuasion and influence for good. I want to convince my teenager to just say no to drugs... to not smoke cigarettes.
Now, persuasion is not arguing. Arguments don't work. Arguments entrench people in their position. And even if you manage to objectively win an argument, you really didn't win, because you are going to leave bad feelings or a bad perception in the other party once the communication is over. If arguments don't work, then how do we persuade?
The origins of thinking about this type of rhetoric goes way back before 1936 in Dale Carnegie's book, all the way back to ancient Greece and Aristotle, who had the rhetorical triangle. Aristotle said there were three ways to convince someone your point of view. Ethos, logos, and pathos. These are Greek words that Aristotle says, are the three ways that you can persuade someone to your way of thinking... to move their level of understanding from one place to the next level.
Now, let's look at these. Ethos is credibility. I am knowledgeable about this topic. So you should believe what I have to say. So if you go to a doctor and the doctor prescribes you medicine, then you trust that doctor and you take the medicine that doctor persuaded you to take this medicine. The doctor used his or her ethos to convince you that what they're saying is the right thing for you to do. You trust that doctor's judgment, because you trust that doctor's education to persuade you to do what that doctor wants.
Logos is the logical appeal. Okay, this is Mr. Spock on Star Trek. It's logical that if you keep a high credit score, you'll be able to get better interest rates and save money on a loan. The logical argument is designed to persuade you to pay your bills on time because that makes sense to you.
The third form of persuasion is pathos. Pathos is the emotional persuasion. This is playing on your emotions to do the right thing. You stay up late at night and you see the animal shelter Humane Society commercials with a puppy that needs your help. This is an emotional appeal to persuade you into an action.
If we look at these in the context of say, an issue like climate change, if you use ethos to make your position, you would be talking about how scientists are saying that climate change is real and likely caused by human behavior, and that the listeners should believe you because the scientists have ethos, they have credibility, they have education, they've looked into these things. The logos argument would explain how pollution impacts the greenhouse gases, how that affects weather patterns and we would look at more of the technical aspects of climate change, to logically make an argument about how human impact can alter the weather. The pathos argument would be the impact that these changes have on human life.
Now there's actually a fourth component that Aristotle brought up and that's called Kairos. Kairos kind of impacts all three of ethos, logos and pathos. Kairos is timing. Is it the right time for someone to be open to your message? There are times when someone is ready for a message. And there are times when people just are not ready. My wife is a teacher, and she talks about how important timing is for her students. Because sometimes her students go through the school day and they're in this fog and this haze. But, there are other times when she seizes the moment because she realizes the student is open for what she calls a "teachable moment." That means the Kairos is right. The timing is right for that student to accept what you have to say and to learn from it.
This ethos, logos and pathos. What does that mean for us as communicators? Each of these concepts affect different parts of your brain. So when you're creating a message for your company, challenge yourself, challenge yourself to use all three of these techniques to use ethos in your messaging to use logos and pathos.
Don't let your messages be all in one bucket. Don't let all your messages be emotional appeals. Don't let them all be logical like your Mr. Spock, use a mix. Have a complete toolkit of messages using credibility, using logic, using emotional appeal. Move perceptions and shape beliefs. Use that power of persuasion for good. Now, go get em'.
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