Author Archives: James

Increase Your Media Exposure with Video

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Photo by: jsawkins

Making your message stand out is harder than ever. Brands are focusing their marketing and PR efforts on gaining earned media coverage. The result is that journalists are flooded with releases and pitches, meaning your brand must stand out from the rest.

That is why this article by Mickie Kennedy on using YouTube for public relations intrigued me. Mickie cited three ways video can be incorporated into a brand’s PR.

1. Respond to a crisis. While you hopefully never have to respond to a crisis, odds are your business could face one at some point. What qualifies as a crisis? I’ll define it as any situation that brings your company negative press. As you can imagine, the severity of a crisis could vary widely.

Say someone accuses one of your employees of a heinous crime. You could create a video message to address the issue rather than hide and hope it goes away. The personal response could build goodwill with your customers.

2. Contact and connect with media. Reporters and bloggers are inundated with pitches via email and telephone daily. It can be difficult to get them to hear your story. But, people love to watch and share videos.

If you create a video that involves your pitch and you share it with reporters through sites like Twitter, you may increase your chances of setting your pitch apart from the pack. This means you’ll increase your odds of coverage.

3. Get your campaign rolling. Are you about to start a new product campaign? What better way to do so than to post a video on YouTube showing exactly why people should pay attention? Make sure the video is of good quality, and that you provide reasons why people should pay attention. In other words, keep it focused on benefits.

It is well known that imagery can sometimes say more than words alone. This is especially true for highly visual brands. Using a video service such as YouTube or Vimeo is an easy, fun and creative way to get your brand’s message to stand out above the rest in this competitive media environment.

When the Fireworks Go Off at Once

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San Diego Fireworks

Photo by: Ben Baller/Associated Press

If you work in PR, like me, you know you sometimes worry, “what if all the fireworks go off at once?” Meaning you face a crisis with multiple, complex layers happening at one time.

Well, many of you may remember what happened in San Diego July Fourth weekend. The fireworks went off at once, literally.

A technical glitch caused the San Diego Big Bay Boom (ironic name, isn’t it?) Fourth of July fireworks celebration to go off at once, lasting for about 15 seconds instead of the show’s scheduled 18 minutes.

A sight to see for sure. Fortunately, no one was injured in the malfunction. What was interesting to look at was how Big Bay Boom San Diego and Garden State Fireworks (the company putting on the show) responded and handled their communications.

I thought they handled the situation as best as possible. After initially announcing via the radio broadcast that the show had to be canceled due to the malfunction, they took to social media to explain what happened.

Both parties posted updates on their websites informing the public of what went wrong. Both have taken responsibility and apologized for the brief show. The blame game has not been played. Furthermore, Garden State has diffused the situation before saying, “it will gladly take the ridicule as no one was injured.”

Mistakes and technical glitches happen. When they do, being open and honest about them will make the public more forgiving.

Garden State has offered to do next year’s show for free. Hopefully, the spectators will be treated to another dazzling display, though one not as brief.

Pucks and Tweets: An Example of Speaking Your Audience’s Language

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As both a hockey fan and PR practitioner, I have been fascinated by what the Los Angeles Kings have been doing this spring. Not only have they won on the ice, but they are also creating buzz off of it through social media. How have they done this? By knowing their target audience and speaking its language.

The Kings, through their Twitter feed, wanted to go beyond an information feed of box scores and event notifications that the medium is traditionally used for by sports teams. They wanted to be more engaging and interactive with their audience. To do this, the Kings decided to develop their own voice that reflected their target audience, being snarky and sarcastic similar to that of a fan.

“At the end of the day, we aren’t saying anything groundbreaking — we’re just saying things you wouldn’t normally hear from an ‘official’ team account. And that’s really the difference; we’re using Twitter exactly as it was intended — to interact with our fanbase. Social media is a two-way conversation and Twitter, specifically, is designed for great one-liners that can be shared and re-tweeted. All we’re doing is injecting a little personality into @LAKings.”
–Dewayne Hankins, director of digital media for the Los Angeles Kings

Since the beginning of the playoffs the Kings twitter feed has grown by more than 30,000 followers to over 100,000.

The Kings approach of knowing the audience you want to reach and speaking its language is a lesson for all. Brands need to take this approach into account not just for social media, but for all messaging. It doesn’t need to be snarky and sarcastic like the Kings, but it does need to be reflective of the audience that you are trying to reach. Speaking your audience’s language means stronger connections with your audience and greater brand value.

As Hankings said about the Kings Twitter feed, “It’s an extension of the brand.”

They are now in the Stanley Cup Finals, and I can’t wait to see what the Kings tweet next.

Using Social Media to Effectively Manage a Crisis

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Translation team at CrisisCamp Haiti in D.C.
Photo by cvconnell

“In a socially-networked world where investors, customers and employees are judge, jury and news editors, companies may be able to survive foul-ups better than in the old days of “traditional” news and corporate spin.”

- Francesco Guerrera, Wall Street Journal

We are living in an age where organizations can reach out and speak directly with their audience through social media. This means that social media is a powerful communications tool for crisis management. So how can you effectively manage a crisis using social media?

  1. Incorporate social media into your crisis plan and follow it: Having a plan in place before a crisis occurs is always the best step an organization can take and social media should be incorporated into this plan. In general, when a crisis occurs, the crisis team should draft key messages (and responses) for the designated spokespersons to distribute on their social media channels. The crisis team should also ensure that everyone participating in the organization’s social media has the correct (and aligned) message.
  2. Be Authentic: In a recent article, PRSA’s chairman and CEO Gerry Corbett stressed the importance of remaining authentic during a crisis situation. This is particularly true on social media platforms where a lack of authenticity can exacerbate the situation.
  3. Be Responsive: Social media is a two-way communications tool. The crisis team should be proactive and create responses that can answer any questions the organization might receive via social media. Designated spokespersons should respond quickly with the proper message points. Quick responses help to increase the organization’s authenticity, while not responding can make it look like something is being hidden.

It is important to remember, though, that missteps on social media can be highlighted as well.  I recommend reading Matthew Yoemans’ recent article in The Guardian to see examples of social media PR crises.

Every crisis is different and requires a unique approach, but incorporating social media, being authentic and being responsive can help you effectively manage the situation.

What is PR?

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PR Cloud

What is PR? How should PR be defined?

In January, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) created a “PR Defined Initiative.” The initiative was designed to provide a forum for its members to contribute their thoughts about re-defining the term, “public relations.”

Recently, PRSA  announced the following three member-contributed definitions as the leading candidates for the new definition:

Definition No. 1:

Public relations is the management function of researching, engaging, communicating, and collaborating with stakeholders in an ethical manner to build mutually beneficial relationships and achieve results.

Definition No. 2:

Public relations is a strategic communication process that develops and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their key publics.

Definition No. 3:

Public relations is the engagement between organizations and individuals to achieve mutual understanding and realize strategic goals.

Out of the three I prefer the second definition best. This definition resonates with me because it includes the term “strategic.” I think the most effective PR campaign is the one with a strategic goal and plan behind it. Without a strategy, a campaign can become lost among all the white noise in an already crowded media environment.

Definition No. 2 also describes PR as a mutually beneficial relationship. I think it can be easy to forget that PR is a two-way street when it comes to communication.  PR isn’t just disseminating information, but it is also listening to feedback and effectively responding to questions and concerns your publics have.

I also like definition No. 1 for incorporating the words,  “ethical manner.” Personally, I think being ethical and truthful is vital to a PR professional’s reputation and to the profession as a whole.

Ultimately, I think the final definition PRSA comes up with (the announcement will come sometime in February) will be a blend of all three. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.