Thought leadership content is more trusted by decision makers than marketing materials or product sheets, according to new data from research conducted by Edelman and LinkedIn. A huge 75% of decision-makers, including members of the C-suite, say that thought leadership has prompted them to research products or services they had not previously considered, according to the data presented in “Reaching Beyond the Ready: Thought Leadership’s Impact on Engaging Out-of-Market B2B Buyers.”

But perhaps most surprising is that thought leadership is critical not only to attracting and retaining new customers, but also to helping competitors steal one another’s existing business.

The survey found that 70% of C-suite executives said that thought leadership had led them to reconsider their current vendor relationship. About half (54%) said thought leadership made them realize other vendors might better understand their challenges and needs.

“Particularly for companies that are involved in pretty high-value — high-monetary-value relationships in complex industries, customers really need to be reassured that they are getting state-of-the art in terms of thinking, in terms of capabilities,” Joe Kingsbury, global chair of Edelman Business Marketing, told PR Daily in an interview. “The companies that generally fit that scenario really need to be reminding their customers consistently that we are the kind of company that can keep you ahead of the curve and help you anticipate challenges and can help you solve some of your most complex problems.”

In addition to helping steal customers from other organizations or keep those you have close, Kingsbury said Edelman’s customers find that thought leadership can help them cross-sell or upsell existing customers, particularly for lesser-known offerings.

What makes great thought leadership?

We’ve all seen tepid, lukewarm takes masquerading as thought leadership. Those aren’t going to move the needle.

What does, according to the survey, is data, showing understanding of challenges and concrete case studies.

“There really needs to be some kind of rigor and analysis,” Kingsbury explained. “That doesn’t mean that there’s not room for opinion — absolutely, there is room for provocative opinion — ut also that it’s on a foundation of some interesting data.”

Who delivers the thought leadership matters too, but not in the way you might think. Sixty-two percent of respondents said high-quality thought leadership is produced by a prominent or high-quality expert. But that doesn’t necessarily mean your CEO, Kingsbury cautioned.

“That’s one that I think has been really interesting for our clients, because a lot of times companies will default to, ‘hey, this should be the CEO.’ But really, what they should be thinking is ‘well, for this particular topic, who would actually be viewed as the most credible expert?’”

That may be the CEO or it could be someone else. It’s the credibility that matters more than the title.

The eternal problem of measurement

The people and organizations who create thought leadership do so to increase positive sentiment among potential clients (55%), get leads to reach out for more information (48%) and get potential clients to consider their services (40%).

But as in so many areas of PR, measurement remains a constant struggle in thought leadership. A full 20% of survey respondents said they had no systems in place for measuring the efficacy of thought leadership, and 42% measure that effectiveness purely through looking at website and social media traffic.

Fewer than one in three respondents (29%) say they can trace sales back to specific thought leadership pieces.

Kingsbury attributes this lack of measurement to the complexities and multitude of factors that go into closing a big B2B deal. But not understanding the efficacy of thought leadership can cause a destructive feedback loop in the long run.

“The bottom line is, when companies and B2B marketers don’t have the ability to link their thought leadership and their content publishing back to some kind of business impact, it creates this sort of negative cycle, because they don’t have an ROI story,” Kingsbury explained. “And then as a result, they have a difficult time getting the resources that they need; they have a difficult time getting internal engagement with senior subject matter experts and others. And that typically is going to lead to low-quality content. The low-quality content doesn’t do a good job actually having an effect on your potential customers. And then the cycle just repeats itself.”

Indeed, this is borne out in the data: While 86% of decision-makers say they’re “somewhat” or “very” likely to invite creators of consistent, quality thought leadership to participate in RFPs, only 38% of the people who create that content expect the same result.

“B2B marketing leaders really need to figure out for their own company,” Kingsbury said. “How does thought leadership content contribute to getting customers into the pipeline, and then progressing them through so that they can actually explain the value of doing it?”

Read the full report here.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post By the Numbers: This is the impact thought leadership has on prospects — and current customers appeared first on PR Daily.

As traditional media continues to decline, content marketing grows in importance for reaching new audiences. The winners of Ragan & PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards shine in many of these areas, including working with experts, creating innovative video series and reimagining the corporate blog. 

Read on to find practical, tactical ideas you can implement today from these winners of our 2023 Content Marketing Awards. And to find your name in our next article, enter this year’s awards by Feb. 16.

Strategy of the Year: BPM-PR Firm for Bellabeat 

The challenge: A negative TechCrunch review threatened to scare both consumers and investors away ahead of the launch of the Bellabeat Ivy, a wearable device that monitors and tracks a woman’s daily routine and bio-responses and correlates the data with her menstrual cycle, pregnancy and other data points. 

The solution: While Bellabeat made changes to its mobile app, BPM-PR got to work pivoting launch excitement away from the tech space and into the fashion, lifestyle and wellness media market.  

The effort included tactics like actress and model Olivia Culpo’s endorsement, press surrounding Bellabeat’s International Women’s Day campaign and responsive media initiatives to issues like the overturn of Roe v. Wade and privacy data concerns. BPM-PR also recruited OBGYN, endometriosis, fitness and meditation experts to incorporate into the PR strategy, and enlisted experts for the Bellabeat Podcast, to provide quotes on nutrition, menstrual cycle stages, postpartum depression, sexual health, mental health and wellness. 

BPM-PR Firm’s campaign secured top coverage in national and international media, Time, Fox News, “Good Morning America,” Digital Trends and more. One of the highlights of the campaign came when Bellabeat finally began receiving large technology media placements with positive reviews in outlets like The Verge. The campaign ultimately generated more than 195 media placements, not including television. 

The idea to steal: If one media avenue isn’t working out, pivot! By finding other avenues for positive media coverage first, they were able to build buzz with new audiences — and lay the foundation for re-establishing trust with their core market.  

Read more. 

Winner for Branded Content Series (Print or Digital) — B2B: Salesforce and Fortune Brand Studio 

The challenge: Salesforce and Fortune Media wanted to demonstrate their commitment to both sustainability and entrepreneurship, which serve as core values for the companies and their audiences. 

The solution: “The Ecopreneurs” is an 11-episode video series that takes a long-form, character-based storytelling approach to showing how businesses are adapting to and solving some of the greatest challenges of the climate crisis. 

Episodes take viewers to the frontlines of the crisis with underwater cameras showcasing newly regenerated seascapes, drones flying over 15,000-foot Andean peaks and a global movement to restore one trillion trees to the world, capturing some of the rarest and most remote ecosystems on Earth. 

Salesforce promoted the monthly episodes across social channels, with an emphasis on LinkedIn. Fortune Brand Studio created a branded content hub for each episode featuring clips from the show, Q&As, animated explainers and long-form articles. All content on the hub was distributed through dark posts on Fortune’s social channels as well as through native promotion on Fortune.com. 

The campaign met or beat all key performance indicators and objectives. “SeaTrees,” released on YouTube, garnered more than 3.3 million views. 

Steal this idea: Storytelling is king. Rather than telling everyone about their commitment to the environment and entrepreneurs, these organizations showed it through compelling videos that were worth watching.  

Read more. 

Winner for Corporate Blog: MD Anderson Cancer Center 

The challenge: The Cancerwise blog had heavily covered the impacts of COVID-19 on its vulnerable patient demographic for two years during the height of the pandemic. But by 2022, interest in the pandemic began to fade — and so did traffic to the blog. 

The solution: The team behind their blog shifted their focus to SEO opportunities while still focusing on their core mission of publishing patient stories, new research, cancer topics and issues from the MD Anderson online communities. 

Each month, the SEO lead recommended data-driven topics, ranging from “When to worry about blood in your stool” to adding explanations on various types of cancer. This was a shift from past strategies, where the SEO lead made their recommendations after stories were assigned. Now, they were proactive partners, assigning stories to the two-person writing team who then executed them.  

By winter 2023, the team began seeing results, as search-based stories published in the summer and fall drove growing monthly traffic, including a 44% increase in visits year over year. Cancerwise also topped 1 million visits in May 2023 and nearly did the same in April, something that’s happened only once in the prior three years during a COVID-19 spike. 

Steal this idea: SEO shouldn’t be tacked on the end — it should be a core part of your content marketing strategy when it comes to getting in front of core audiences. Seek to answer their questions proactively, and you’ll see results. 

Read more. 

Enter this year’s Content Marketing Awards today.  

The post Steal these ideas from winners of Ragan & PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards appeared first on PR Daily.

PR Daily is excited to announce that its 2024 Content Marketing Awards program is accepting entries. This annual awards program recognizes excellence in content marketing across a range of categories and industries.

The 2024 Content Marketing Awards program is open to organizations of all sizes, including agencies, corporations, nonprofits, and government organizations. Entries will be judged by a panel of industry experts based on creativity, originality and effectiveness in achieving the goals of the content marketing campaign.

“We invite content creators, innovators and strategists to showcase their exceptional work in the field of content marketing” said Brendan Gannon, senior marketing manager for Ragan’s and PR Daily’s Award program. “This prestigious awards program celebrates excellence, creativity and strategic brilliance in captivating audiences. We look forward to recognizing and honoring the outstanding achievements that continue to shape the future of content marketing.”

PR Daily will recognize all finalists — and announce category winners — at a special live event in June at the Yale Club in New York City. Winners will be announced on PR Daily’s website and social media channels.

Entries for the 2024 Content Marketing Awards program are now open and will close on February 16, 2024. Learn more and submit your entries here.

The program features dozens of categories, including:

• B2B Campaign
• Brand Awareness
• Branded Podcast
• Campaign of the Year
• Event
• Integrated Content Marketing Campaign
• Newsletter
• Publication
• Thought Leadership Campaign
• Use of Video

See a full list of categories here.

Previous winners in the awards program include Aflac, Allison+Partners, Conde Nast, JLL, Ketchum, KFC, Mars Petcare, Microsoft Story Labs, National Public Media, the National Fire Protection Association, Norwegian Cruise Line, UVA Health, The Weather Channel and more.

There is a late deadline on February 23, 2024, but additional fees apply to all entries received after Feb. 16.

Submissions from around the world are welcome, as long as they are submitted in English. Enter your work or submit entries on behalf of a client.

The post Entries now open for PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards appeared first on PR Daily.

Standing out and achieving success in the fiercely competitive world of content marketing is a challenge. If you’re a content marketing trailblazer looking to gain the recognition you deserve, look no further than PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards.

[RELATED: Unlock the power of words and master advanced writing techniques]

Entering this prestigious awards program offers a multitude of benefits that can elevate not just your campaign, but your career. Set yourself apart from the competition, celebrate your content achievements and take the plunge.

The awards program recognizes the finest work in various categories such as article series, branded content site, B2B campaign, DE&I communications, influencer marketing, corporate blog, feature article, newsletter and many more — ensuring that every aspect of your content brilliance finds its rightful place.

Whether you’ve created awe-inspiring content marketing assets, orchestrated impressive content marketing campaigns, harnessed the power of content for a specific purpose, or unleashed the potential of exceptional individuals and teams in your content journey, there’s a category that perfectly fits your accomplishments. Past winners include MARS Petcare, UC Davis Health, 3M, Target, Hilton, Lincoln Financial Group, Cigna and others.

“Your content has the power to transform, to connect, and to inspire action,” said Brendan Gannon, senior marketing manager of Ragan and PR Daily’s awards programs. “This platform celebrates your exceptional work and offers you the recognition you deserve.”

You’ll earn industry recognition, validating your efforts and positioning you as a leading figure in the competitive content marketing landscape. In addition to enhancing your reputation as a trusted authority, you’ll be giving back to the community by providing a source of inspiration for fellow marketers.

Don’t miss out on this golden opportunity to showcase your content marketing excellence. Enter PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards today and let the industry recognize your achievements. The deadline to submit your entries is approaching fast. Deadline to enter is June 30!

The post Elevate your content marketing game by gaining industry recognition appeared first on PR Daily.

So you’ve finally managed to generate content for your website that tells the story of your organization. Maybe it’s a series of blogs featuring leadership that outlines the organizational mission with a personalized touch. Perhaps it’s a video series that visualizes how your company is making a tangible difference in your space. But the time always comes when you need to transition your storytelling push from your home turf to the world at large, and that’s done through pitching, then securing earned media placements.

Know your brand.

Whether you’re building a great owned media strategy from scratch or gearing up to branch that narrative out into the world beyond the walls of your organization, the starting place remains the same – it’s all about having a deep knowledge of your brand. This goes hand-in-hand with building on the trust you’ve built with your customer base and those who interact with the material you’ve put out into the world so far. Nancy Lippincott, director of content at Best Lawyers, shared an anecdote about how her organization worked to get its name out into the world with reputable journalists.

“When Best Lawyers set our eyes on global expansion, we knew that high-quality earned media in international markets was critical to our success and growth. For us, our brand trust and reputation was the foot in the door that allowed us to develop relationships with some of the most important business media outlets worldwide, such as Les Echos in France and the Australian Financial Review.”

Tapping into that trust also requires leaning into your reputation as an organization. Suppose you’re a company selling fruit juice. If you want top-tier earned media placements in notable publications, your owned media should lean into how you’re hawking the best juice around with evidence to back it up. Remember, the best journalists are going to check in on these sorts of things when they’re doing their due diligence. What you’re putting out into the world on your side of the equation is critical because it’s often going to be reflected externally to an extent. That’s why being secure in your branding is so important.

Do your research.

While your product or service might always be the most exciting or general interest thing out there, there’s a really good chance you’re not the only one in the space that offers it.. If you’re aiming for that push into earned media, you need to do your due diligence not just around what’s being said about your industry in the media, but also about your competitors. This can help give a sense of the tone of the coverage and reporters that are out there. Rachel Rosenblatt, senior managing director at FTI Consulting, shares the belief that a great earned media push starts with proper research and knowledge.

“I’d suggest that people really take a step back and do their research around the topic you want to talk about. What I’ve found with clients is that in their own echo chamber, things might be different than they are in the outside world. What’s popular in that echo might not get traction with journalists. If you take an unemotional view, you can often be surprised about what’s being covered, what topics are gaining traction, and you can determine where your story can fill a gap.”

Pitch assets with discretion.

Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to go back to your owned library and archives to determine which content and assets are right for each pitch. If your research tells you that one target tends to embed videos of company announcements in its stories, your pitch can include a short link to similar assets. Moreover, if you have a type of owned story that’s heavier on proprietary data and research, you should include that high up in your pitch alongside your newspeg.

But with vast array of owned resources, it’s also very easy to overdo it. Keep from overstuffing your pitches and resist the temptation to give away all of your assets from the outset. You can always send a reporter more should they agree to cover, and the best journalists won’t wan’t to have so much that they can’t tell the story themselves.

Relationships are key—inside and out.

You could have the most dynamic story around, but if you don’t know how to get in touch with the media about it, making the jump to an earned media push is going to be tough, if not nearly impossible. That’s why getting to really know the journalists that cover the beat you’re aiming to break through to is so key.

Communicators should take a look at their owned media and determine how it might match up to the scope of coverage a journalist or publication covers. Pitching out into the dark is alright to an extent, but you’re much better served to really get to know what a person or pub works on in order to nail down that pitch to get attention for your messaging.

“It’s essential to invest in developing relationships with the journalists and editors with whom you want to work. Relationships build trust, and media professionals need to know that their sources are trustworthy and reliable. One cultivated connection at a media outlet is infinitely more valuable than even a thousand names of strangers on a press release mailing list,” Lippincott said.

Don’t discount your internal relationships, either—understanding who your internal champions are, beyond leaders and executives, can lead you to cultivate relationships with employees who might be SMEs in wait. This, in turn, can yield nontraditional sources that you can pass off to reporters and frame as exclusive access.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports, a good pint and ’90s trivia night.

The post How to turn owned content into earned media wins appeared first on PR Daily.

Over 25 years after Bill Gates wrote his seminal essay titled “Content is King,” content marketing still reigns supreme as the most impactful and cost-effective method of generating B2B leads. With the current economic downturn and the state of the global financial markets, the ability to create and sustain business revenues is more critical than ever. 

The B2B market is increasingly competitive, and brands constantly seek ways to generate solid leads on a tight budget. Even if the company already has a lead generation plan, there’s always room for improvement, especially in content creation. 

A recent survey found that 46% of brands want to invest more in content creation, so here are five tips for creating an excellent B2B content strategy that drives leads.

#1 Maintain a portfolio of use cases and case studies

Researchers have found that 42% of B2B marketers plan to increase investment into case studies because they are powerful tools for inspiring or educating your audience with real examples of other brands’ success with you. 

Use cases provide clients with a “report card” that shows what other clients’ experiences with your brand have been. It’s essential to showcase your work so that clients can see the full scope of your expertise.

Case studies demonstrate the types of tools your company can work with and the results you can achieve with these tools and methodologies. Additionally, they give potential clients an outsider’s view of your reputation, which is essential for trust-building. The number of successful cases you have is a clear marker of the brand’s experience.

#2 Prove the usefulness of R&D

Research and development go hand-in-hand with the growth and prosperity of companies of any size. This might seem unrelated to content development, but it is actually a valuable B2B marketing tool. 

Investing in quality R&D is also an investment in developing your reputation and credibility. Your company can not only leverage this as an opportunity to introduce its expert team of researchers but show your authority and expertise within the industry as well. Highlight the research and development activities of your company to boost credibility with your audience.

#3 Leverage pilot projects

Launching a new project for clients can be both challenging and exciting. Pilot projects are beneficial for reducing the risk of introducing a new solution, easing a client’s mind by offering a “test drive” before full implementation. 

While there are plenty of instances of pilot projects successfully leading to large-scale implementations, it’s important to remember that only some successful pilots convert. For example, if a company has never used email as a communication channel, you may suggest a pilot launch to the mailing list to measure effectiveness. 

Even if it goes well, the company may not want to move forward with a large-scale implementation. You will have demonstrated its potential and usefulness to the brand, so it’s still a positive interaction.

#4 Take the guesswork out of the equation

The less a client has to guess about how your solution fits their needs, the better. Your B2B content should highlight how your product or service solves a company’s problem or fulfills an industry need. 

Entrepreneurs often forget about the principles of business organization and the correct presentation of value because they’re caught up in the product’s features. Turn your focus outward and view your product as a client, then focus your B2B content on the things that clients like most. 

#5 Prove your industry expertise

A key part of running a business is showing that the founder and the team understand the market. Competent professionals understand these key points: 

• Problems of the market: Your company should be focused on providing a solution that solves a specific problem. One of the most common startup problems affecting 35% of founders — lack of market fit — would be eliminated with proper research. 
• Needs of the audience: Different audiences want to see different facets of your brand. It’s important to understand how to showcase your company in the best light to every audience segment.
• Efficiently getting the message across: Not all communication channels are created equally. True industry experts know which platforms and formats to focus their efforts on to disseminate the company’s messages with maximum efficiency.
• Market history, trends and global vision: Your company needs to understand deeply where the industry has been, where it is, and where it’s going.
• How current events relate to you: The events of the global economy impact various industries differently, so it’s critical to stay abreast of the news and understand how it affects industry predictions.

If you can talk about these points in your content, it quickly proves to clients that the product is relevant and the team keeps up with industry developments. It’s vital to demonstrate the team’s qualifications here, too. 

This helps potential clients trust everyone, so even if they interact with specific team members during various stages of implementation, they feel confident that competent professionals are handling their case.

Craft B2B content that cuts through the chatter 

Massive amounts of content are generated daily; without memorable, high-quality material, your strategy will not work. 

Quality content is a business asset that benefits everyone, so it’s worth the investment. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to fast lead generation. If it were that easy, everyone would be the next Bill Gates.

Dina Mostovaya is a global communications consultant with 15+ years of experience and the founder of Madrid-based consulting firm Mindset Consulting. Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post 5 tips to developing B2B content that drives leads appeared first on PR Daily.

When it comes to keyword research, we almost always rely on tools that show us the habits of our potential audience. By using the Site Search feature in Google Analytics, we can find keyword data about our actual visitors.

Delving into what people are searching for once they’ve already landed on your site can help you make improvements to the content and structure of your site.

What is the Site Search feature in Google Analytics and how can I use it?

Amongst the vast amount of data available in Google Analytics are the terms that people enter into your site’s search bar, and this is stored within the “Site Search” section, under “Behaviour” in the left hand menu.

Click on “Search Terms” and set your dates to look at your preferred time period. Depending on the level of traffic your site experiences, it’s a good idea to select a fairly large timeframe, to give you enough data to make your findings meaningful.

If you’ve not got any data, you might not have Site Search set up. This only takes a few moments to enable, and Google has a short guide on how to do that here.

What can GA Site Search be used for?

The search terms you’ll find here not only help you learn more about your site’s visitors, but can assist with fine tuning your site structure, as well as provide content inspiration.

Changes to your navigation

If some of your top searches are for pages that already exist, this could be a sign that your visitors are struggling to find them. It may be worth considering your navigation, adding these pages into your main menus if they aren’t already there, or signposting them more clearly on other relevant pages.

The caveat to this is that even if your pages are easy to find, people will sometimes search for what is right in front of them anyway, so take the results with a pinch of salt.

New potential pages

The flip side to this is that if there isn’t an obvious section of your site that caters to these popular search terms, this is a good opportunity to consider creating either a new page or subheadings within an existing relevant page.

Even if elsewhere you touch upon the topics these keywords focus on, sometimes making it crystal clear and impossible to miss, with its own page ensures you won’t miss visitors who may not immediately realise you’re relevant to what they’re looking for.

New content ideas

The most commonly searched phrases in your Search Term data may well warrant their own pages, but as you look further down the list at some of the more niche phrases, you might also find some topics that make interesting blog topics instead, or which you could factor into other marketing channels or PR campaigns.

Understanding your customers’ language

As with any keyword research tool, Site Search data confronts you with the actual language your customers are using — not just what you think they are.

Whatever sector you work in, industry and internal terminology has a tendency to creep in and it’s easy to forget that customers are often unfamiliar with this, which can be alienating. Therefore, reminding yourself what your customers are looking for and crucially, how they label this, helps you make sure your copy reflects this.

You’ve worked hard to drive traffic to your site, and by reviewing your Site Search data you can ensure that you’re retaining these visitors and delivering the content they’re expecting to find.

Kerry Sheahan is senior account manager at Browser Media, a PR-driven SEO and digital marketing agency.

The post Using Google Analytics’ Site Search feature to improve your content appeared first on PR Daily.

Working in communications, I’ve come across organizations with C-suiters engaging in thought leadership in a purposeful way and grounded in specific goals. But there are many others with leaders who seize any opportunity to participate in the media. Many simply believe that breadth of content is far more important than depth and increasing the number of eyes that come across their organization is the greatest value in media engagement, rather than deploying selective storytelling through planned strategy. Those beliefs, especially when trickled down, imbue a sense of dread in employees who feel they need to have something ground-breaking or otherwise unique to say. But the fact is not everyone actually has something ground-breaking or unique to say…and that is okay.

With the mass publication of mediocre and occasionally truly garbage pieces, we have majorly dumbed down what thought leadership is supposed to be. At the root of the term is expertise; it means bringing something new to the table, something that even other leaders in the industry may not have considered. And despite how quickly news moves, there is a finite amount of new perspective available to be offered. True thought leadership, the kind of writing that makes the reader pause and realize the writer is a savvy thinker representing a brand that values and attracts top talent, should be rare. We do not serve readers looking for wisdom when we propagate and position entry-level content as expertise from a thought leader.

Yet we continue to see this proliferation of content for the sake of having content in the name of “thought leadership” — and not just from organizational leaders. Content creation has become an expectation for many, even when their roles don’t demand it and the organization won’t benefit from it. Not all positions require constant innovation and even for those that call for innovation to lead to excellence, the doers’ stability allows the rockstar thinkers the space and time to do so. For those employees, their time would be better spent serving in their actual roles, both for their own sake and that of their company.

Forcing employees into unnecessary overproduction of content is more likely to open them up to vulnerability than spark the kind of creative or thought-provoking genius of a media piece that can truly elevate an organization’s brand. Pressure such as that often leads to the kind of vanilla pieces that are impossible to place, thus wasting the writer’s time in the first place. Alternatively, on the off chance that a simplistic piece is published — whether by an outlet that too is more about volume than quality or even a company’s internal blog — it can reflect negatively on the employer, indicating that its employees are not out-of-the-box thinkers. And communications professionals are fully aware that negative press often draws far more attention than multiple positive hits.

There will always be room in most industries for those explainers that help entry-level members understand concepts they perhaps did not get exposure to in schooling or training. There will always be room for tactical how-to pieces that can help process-oriented people break down something complex. But these are not avenues for thought leadership. And the inception of these pieces should come from authors who express interest in writing them. They should not be foisted on reluctant-to-participate employees in the name of obligatory “thought leadership.”

Participating in the media has abundant benefits for organizations. Proactive outreach in the form of news opportunities and placed opinion pieces can and should be a part of a strategy that’s thoroughly considered and matched to mission and goals for growth. True thought leadership — invoking the voices of the right people who can positively reflect the brand and put forth opinions and angles that are innovative for the industry — is a powerful communications tool. But let’s not pretend anyone can do it.

Kylie Kinnaman is an engagement strategist at TVP Communications, a national communications and leadership agency solely focused on higher education.

The post Not everyone is a thought leader — and that’s OK appeared first on PR Daily.

Rebekah Crispin, senior vice president of integrated strategy at TEAM LEWIS, a global comms and PR agency, discusses the importance of micro and macro trends, how to foster strong partnerships and client relationships, and why integration is the foundation to success.

Check out the discussion below:

Megan Maguire, senior vice president of U.S. PR at TEAM LEWIS, also had a discussion with Ragan and PR Daily about how brands should authentically connect with audiences, how to counsel brands as to when to show up and deliver points of view on sensitive topics, and examples of companies that have and continue to “show up” well.

Check it out below:

Isis Simpson-Mersha is a conference producer/ reporter for Ragan. Follow her on LinkedIn

The post The art of in-the-moment marketing and strategy with TEAM LEWIS appeared first on PR Daily.

With social media, it’s fairly easy for brands to connect with their audience and communicate directly with them. This can be an effective way to create a relationship with potential customers. However, it is important for brands to be strategic with their social media use to maximize their impact and return on investment.

Creating content that is engaging, informative and interesting can be a challenge. When brands are creating content, it is important to consider what type of content will engage and resonate with their audience. Two of the best ways are through storytelling and developing an understanding of their pain points and how you can best address them. This will help develop content that customers are interested in. And while that all seems doable enough, there are a few secrets to success.

[FREE WEBINAR: How to develop a comms plan … that actually works!]

At Ragan’s Strategic Communications Conference in Redmond, Washington, Gina Michnowicz, CEO & chief creative officer at The Craftsman Agency, shared some of those secrets.

Michnowicz broke down how to tell a story through all different mediums and stressed the importance of the images used to convey emotion and ultimately connect people to your brand.

Storytelling evokes emotion

“It doesn’t have to make you cry,” Michnowicz said. “Sometimes it’ll make you laugh, sometimes it’ll make you feel heard and all those things are important and those are important emotions.”

From TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, BeReal, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, there’s space for stories, but how you deliver the content is what’s important, the chief creative officer said.

“Each platform has a different reason for being and tailoring your content to apply to that is so critical,” Michnowicz explained.

For instance, TikTok is where all the relevant things are happening right now and for the most part has the best organic reach, she said.

“There isn’t another platform that gets you that — how to become successful on TikTok is having content that tells a story,” Michnowicz continued.

Publishing is queen

“Content is king, but the queen is publishing and she wears the pants,” Michnowicz said. “It’s all about publishing and how you do it and taking that long-form YouTube video and splicing it for TikTok and Reels, so you don’t have to create for every platform and take what you have.”

Brands that commit to publishing content that involves telling a story in a fun way, often do well.

An example Michnowicz used was Miller Genuine Draft’s seltzer announcement. After teasing that they’d be “launching” a seltzer, instead of announcing a new product, they released a video showing cases of hard seltzer being strapped to a rocket and getting ready to send the trendy low-cal beverage hurtling into space.

This was a bit of a detour for the beer company, but the risk paid off.

Michnowicz said the marketing efforts resulted in lots of press coverage, social currency and increased the company’s beer sales substantially.

“If you have a customer base and there is something that they’re asking for and isn’t part of your fit or want to tell a story in a different way, sometimes there can be a way,” Michnowicz said.

Guiding principles

The chief creative officer shared some guiding principles on how to be successful on social media and beyond.

Stay true to your voice: Even when you’re storytelling, you’re telling these unexpected moments, you still have to stay true to your voice, you can’t depart too much.

Tell diverse stories: Bring in diverse segments and be inclusive.

Take risks: Step outside the usual box or comfort zone and go for something out of the norm.

Apply relevant current trends: TikTok is a great place to start looking for trends, as well as Twitter.

Give more than one way for people to consume: Having different ways for people to consume content across platforms is important.

Consistent but not boring: Showing up as the same brand every day is important for your audience.

Isis Simpson-Mersha is a conference producer/ reporter for Ragan. Follow her on LinkedIn.

The post Secrets to success on social media and beyond appeared first on PR Daily.

Recently, Google announced the rollout of the “Helpful Content Update,” which targets content that prioritizes ranking first over user value. More specifically, Google confirmed that the update will ensure that what they deem as “unoriginal and low-quality content” doesn’t rank highly in organic search results. It’s been no secret that Google has been sunsetting keyword stuffing and manipulative tactics in favor of authentic and value-driven content for quite some time, and this latest update is the most recent in a decade-long battle to improve user search engine experience.

As a note, Google predicates its business model on people using its engine to find the content they seek. To continue to earn users’ trust, they must deliver content they know those same searchers will actually find valuable – thus leading to this continued evolution in favor of user-friendly content written by and for humans.

So what does Google’s update mean for B2B PR practitioners and how can it fit into content strategies?

Critical components of the update

There are a few essential pieces that you should understand about Google’s most recent update:

• This is a sitewide algorithm, so it doesn’t just impact the low-quality individual URLs, but the entire domain of those that do not comply with the guidelines. For example, if an organization published four or five poorly written, non-valuable articles on their blog, all content across the domain would suffer from a ranking perspective.
• “Tech-related content” was one of the verticals they specifically mentioned being heavily impacted – likely due to the educational nature of the content.

Avoid creating search-first content

Like most Google updates, the Helpful Content Update will likely have a significant impact on a website’s overall SEO performance and traffic levels. As such, content producers and marketers will have to adapt quickly. Here are a few quick tips to take back to your team today and apply to your content strategy.

• Stop writing for search engines and start writing for your end users: All content creators and strategists must view their work this way in order to be most effective. While it can be tempting to over-optimize your content to meet traffic needs and broader marketing goals, doing so will simply waste resources and diminish the credibility of your content.
• When it comes to keywords, relevance and intent far outweigh other metrics like volume and difficulty: Use search data to guide the topical focus before writing, and only sprinkle in phrases from your chosen keyword cluster where natural and appropriate.
• Apply the Marie Kondo principles to your content: With this update, most marketers will likely ask how Google will know if their content is helpful or not.a Some obvious methods they will use are time on page, bounce rate and general levels of engagement, however there are the more structural measures that crawlers may take, depending on your philosophy.

Google crawls and interprets content that is long, disorganized and void of subheading structure as chaotic and unhelpful to potential readers. Using clear and concise headers to guide users throughout your content and allow them to skim for only the most relevant portions can help combat this. It’s also helpful to use executive summaries and bullet points to highlight the strongest points you’re attempting to make.

• A couple of fluff pieces may have a much more significant impact on your overall B2B content marketing strategy: As mentioned, this is a sitewide update, meaning that Google will penalize an entire site if it deems a strong percentage of its content isn’t helpful to users. The easiest way to prevent this is to stop writing summarized versions of content that has already been published a number of times. While we have seen this a number of times over the past few years, it’s been a traffic-driving tactic rather than a value-focused one – forcing users to continue their search for helpful information on the topic.

Google’s Helpful Content Update can be a non-factor to your content strategy so long as you focus efforts on the end user over the search results. For additional insight, Google also published some helpful tips on how to create people-first content. Given that this is coming directly from the source, I’d highly encourage you to check it out too.

Matt Raven is VP of digital at Look Left Marketing.

The post What Google’s ‘Helpful Content Update’ means for your B2B content strategy appeared first on PR Daily.

Getting the media to call you as an expert is great. So is posting thought leadership on your LinkedIn or website. But there’s a certain cachet to getting a full article written in your own words published by an outside publication.

From boosting your profile with new audiences to helping your website’s SEO, there are a ton of benefits to this tactic. But there are some pitfalls many people and organizations fall into when trying to get these authored articles placed.

Here are a few ways to help your story stand out in an editor’s inbox for the right reasons.

Ask for guidelines

If a site doesn’t have readily available submission guidelines, don’t be afraid to email and ask before you start writing. Some sites may have word minimums and maximums; some will want you to write in a certain style. Firing off a quick email before you start writing can save a lot of wasted time down the road.

Say something original

When you’re brainstorming an idea for a post, don’t always go with your first idea.

Why?

It’s almost certainly everyone else’s first idea too.

That means not only are you facing stiffer odds on a competitive Google search, you’re also more likely to make the editor you’re pitching yawn. Chances are good they’ve read five variations of the same obvious story in the last week.

Instead, dig deeper. Can you offer contrary advice on your first idea? Can you get granular and deep on an area in which you have specialized experience? Is there an emerging area where you can break new ground? How about a case study?

You want to stand out from all the dozens of other submissions the site is getting. Be creative and avoid the impulse for an easy story.

Consider your audience

Every website has a different target audience. Some are broad and general — that might be a time for beginner-level material. But if you’re aiming for a site that appeals to professionals who work in a given industry, don’t waste everyone’s time by defining industry-basic terms or writing about something that everyone in that industry should already know.

Check the outlet’s About Us page. See how they define their audience. Look at their recent content — is it written for freshmen or graduate students? Try to match the tone and difficulty level of what you’re seeing.

There’s plenty of room for content aimed at both neophytes and experts. Just make sure you’re offering the right level to the right people.

Edit carefully

The people you’re pitching, like everyone else in the universe, are overworked and overstressed. If they look at your submitted story and realize they’re going to have to spend time fixing comma errors, run-on sentences and other copy issues, they’re likely to just move on to the next story just to save time and energy.

Make sure you’re really taking the time to scrub your copy and make sure it is clean. If you can, look at other stories on the site and see if you can determine what style they use. Are they using the Oxford comma or no? These small details can make a difference if your content is borderline.

If you’re writing in a language that isn’t your native tongue, first of all, know that you’re awesome. That’s quite the feat. But if possible, get a native speaker to take a look at the story before you submit it.

Finally, one last pro-tip: Only one space goes after a period. It’s a hard habit to break to cut the double space, but make the effort, or use find and replace to get rid of them after the fact.

Ask for feedback

If an editor passes on your story, it’s perfectly fine to ask for feedback to improve the piece. You may not get it; see the above point about editors being stressed and overworked. But a few words of advice can help you revise the piece and potentially take it from the reject to the front page. Accept the feedback you get with humility, not defensiveness, and try again.

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post 5 tips for getting your byline accepted at a publication appeared first on PR Daily.

The problem with so much of content today? Frankly, it’s cliché.

Nothing is less differentiating or exciting than stale content repackaging well-trodden ideas. Audiences know it, too. If they can find the same information across any of the million other search results, what reason is there to stay and engage? Why bother with the same-old, same-old?

Meaningful content makes an impact on the reader and leaves them wanting more. It gives them something that they couldn’t get anywhere else, whether that’s a nugget of information, a tool, checklist or video.

It’s time for marketers to level up content development –- and here are six principles to make it happen:

Be a visionary -– or, at least, have a vision

Anyone can write a piece of content and throw it online. A simple search will pull up page after page of formulas for crafting the perfect blog or whitepaper. That’s one of the reasons why the web is cluttered with so much dull content.

Instead, consider the why behind content. Know who the audience is, their expectations and what perception marketing wants to convey. Ask what actions the content should encourage, and then combine this information into a sentence or two.

Voila! A content vision. Now, rather than producing the same stale content as competitors, marketers can say:

“We are creating retention-centric content to provide our customers with knowledge and resources to maximize their investment with us and keep them engaged.”

Don’t be afraid to be ruffle some feathers

It’s easy to get caught up in jargon and specifications. But customers are never purely rational –- they have feelings and emotions fueling them. Rather than playing it safe, adopt a unique point-of-view that stands out, or perhaps is even a little provocative.

For example, rethink overused themes. Listicles are popular because readers like brevity. But too many listicles are straightforward and unimaginative. Instead, try taking a narrative-driven approach –- rather than “5 reasons cybersecurity is essential,” try “5 times companies wished they had better cybersecurity.”

Humans also don’t talk like machines or computers. Limit jargon to the bare minimum and work to engage audiences in a conversation. Build rapport and serve as a trusted source (or…maybe even a friend).

Embrace your new salesperson

Forget the handshake. Content is the new first impression. Seventy percent of B2B buyers engage with content before they reach out to a salesperson. The upside is companies have more space to tell their story. The downside, however, is audiences’ ever-strained attention spans.

Remember: most buyers are looking to solve a problem, not engage with content or vendors. Amid a hundred other solutions on the market, marketers have to demonstrate and differentiate their company’s value above and beyond any other. Keep in mind the famous quote, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.”

Then, once content has done its job and the buyer is ready to seal the deal, do not make them struggle to find someone to speak with. Content, especially down-funnel, should provide a clear next step to engage, start a conversation and make a purchase.

Follow the Rule of 7

A great piece of content should never stand alone. Reuse, repurpose and recycle it to reach an even broader audience – whatever their preferred channel or format. One rule of thumb, if content cannot be converted into at least seven assets, it’s time to think bigger.

For example:

• Cornerstone: The core piece of content that serves as the foundation for multiple assets across multiple mediums. For instance, use survey research to draft a meaty, content-filled whitepaper.
• Infographic: Take the survey results and whitepaper to create an infographic summarizing the findings.
• Social media:  Break apart the infographic into individual stats and soundbites for animations and interactive content on social channels.
• Blogs:  Use each survey finding as the premise for separate blog posts.
• eBook: Then combine all the blog posts into a punchy eBook.
• Webinars: Harness subject matter experts from your business to host sessions discussing the survey findings.
• Videos: Now, edit the recorded webinars into a fast-paced video or two. There you have it! Seven pieces of content to suit any and all audiences or channels.

Keep the content rollin’

From “Stranger Things” to “Bridgerton,” bingeable content keeps audiences glued to their screens and looking forward to the next season. The same holds true for content marketing.

Consider Netflix or Hulu. Every time a show ends, what’s the very next step? The streamer either transitions to the next episode or provides a recommendation. Do the same with content! Relate them by industry, problem or solution and make it a compelling transition for audiences.

Likewise, pay attention to how audiences engage – and with what. Which videos do they watch all the way through? What content do they click on next? What gets downloaded? There’s a reason streamers keep those numbers close to the vest – they offer a tremendous amount of insight into audience behaviors and trends.

1% to make a difference

The internet is awash in content. But 99% doesn’t speak to buyers’ problems, uses terminology they don’t understand or repeats advice they’ve heard before.

Remember the phrase, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing at all?” Use a similar phrase as the guiding star for content development, “If you don’t have anything unique or interesting to add, best say nothing at all.”

Be a part of the 1% that makes a difference. Those million other search results are no problem when you deliver something no one else can. Using these principles, marketers can differentiate their content and give their audience what they cannot get anywhere else.

Karsten Burgstahler and Traci Scherr are senior content creators for Arketi Group, an integrated digital marketing and public relations firm that helps B2B technology organizations generate revenue and accelerate growth.

The post 6 keys to creating non-cliché content marketing appeared first on PR Daily.

As the great Neil Young once asked, “Who will tell your story?” The answer to that question is different for every brand.

Ensuring your brand’s leadership and subject matter experts are prepared to tell the story of your company at both in-person and virtual events is key.

During an April 2022 session of Ragan’s Brand Storytelling Conference, industry experts Cheril Clarke, founder of Phenomenal Writing, and Ashley Brown, clinical communications senior strategist with Atrium Health, shared their best practices for communicators looking to coach their C-suites to brand storytelling success.

Here are three tips:

1. Choose the right leader to tell your brand story.

The best person to tell the story is whoever can bring the most authenticity to the job, says Clarke. That could mean being someone who is the most knowledgeable or enthusiastic, among other traits.

Oftentimes, that person is the CEO — but sometimes it isn’t.

“I think a little bit to consider it the medium,” Clarke says. “If it’s video, then it could be several people telling [the story], especially if it’s the origin story of your firm or company.”

It’s all about finding the person who can educate and motivate audiences to act, she says.

2. Help leaders appear confident and comfortable on camera.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many events and speaking opportunities moved to virtual forums. Yet, Brown explains that many public speaking best practices have remained the same.

Brown shares her tips for prepping leaders and subject matter experts for on-camera interviews and speaking engagements:

• Avoid loud clothing prints or flashy jewelry.
• Make sure your camera background is nice — good lighting, no virtual backgrounds.
• Work on using your hands less.
• Educate leaders about the technical nuances of video.

Clarke suggests advising your leaders to stand in front of the camera when presenting or speaking at an event.

“It just gives an extra air of authoritativeness,” she says.

3. Find great sound bites to repurpose across comms channels.

If your speaker is reading from prepared remarks, it’s easy to pre-write social media nuggets to publish during the event, Clarke says.

Once you push those pre-written sound bites, you have an opportunity to link out to a summary or even the full video of the event.

“Also, keep in mind where your audience is — perhaps they’re on LinkedIn, perhaps they’re on Twitter,” Clarke says. “Depending on the company, you may have more people on Instagram, if you have a more visual audience.”

PR pros, what are your best practices for brand storytelling? Let us know on Twitter @PRDaily.

The post 3 best practices for helping leaders be better storytellers appeared first on PR Daily.

The popular TV series “The Chosen” faced criticism for a recent marketing campaign involving billboards placed throughout the country, not praising, but mocking the show. By using a bit of reverse psychology, the anti-ad was an attempt to garner attention and interest by encouraging people not to watch the show.

Signs were designed to look like they had been defaced with graffiti saying, The Chosen is boring with chosensux.com painted across the top. The URL leads to a YouTube page called StopWatchingTheChosen, with a video of a comic rendition of the devil teaching a class of minions how to prevent people from watching the series.

The campaign was not announced, and show creators never mentioned they were the ones behind the ads, which led some fans to believe the attacks were real. Once they discovered it was satire — which is evident once you land on the video — some thought it was hilarious, clever and engaging. But others were disappointed and felt misled by a TV series (a brand) they had trusted.

This prompted a lengthy apology by series creator and writer, Dallas Jenkins, who addressed fans on Facebook Live saying, “We should have brought you in on the campaign…We failed to include you, our most important partner…I screwed up…I’m sorry.”

Out of nearly 600 comments on YouTube so far, reactions to the campaign and to Jenkins’ message are mostly positive. People praised the creativity of the billboards and video while commending the attempt to reach a broader and younger audience. One person wrote:

Thanks Dallas for getting our Gen Z/Millennial humor.

Another commented:

As a huge CHOSEN fan I thought this was funny and is purely satire like that in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. No need to apologize Dallas!

While Jenkins expressed regret for not notifying fans about the campaign in advance, he defended the marketing plan as way introduce the show to more people with the ultimate goal of reaching 1 billion views.

Takeaway No. 1: Marketing and PR, while often viewed as separate functions, are highly dependent upon one another.

The most clever and captivating ad campaigns can stumble out of the gate if the PR component isn’t there to help pave way forward.  Even with market testing and sampling, there’s still the possibility that your audience — fragmented into multiple audiences — will have different interpretations of the message and respond in a way that wasn’t anticipated.

Although PR and marketing functions are becoming more integrated, there’s still a tendency for each side to stay in their lane and act independently. It works fine, except when it doesn’t. The best practice, when it comes to a broad messaging campaign, is to ensure coordination and cooperation from all sides.

Creative content development is vital for brands vying for attention in today’s competitive and saturated marketplace. But the creation and implementation of any campaign should be guided by the existing attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of the audience.

If marketing is flying the plane, PR is air traffic control ensuring all is clear for takeoff. They need each other.

Takeaway No. 2: The value of having an established communication presence with ongoing dialogue between your brand and the public.

Before the series debut in 2017, Jenkins released videos explaining the purpose of the project, its goals and how people could get involved. Using multiple social media platforms, he provided updates on filming and fundraising, giving fans and behind-the-scenes look at what is happening with production and distribution.

The quality of the series — earning a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes — coupled with the rapport Jenkins has with the audience, is the reason “The Chosen” has become the highest crowdfunding project in media according to IMDb. It’s also the reason that when this PR issue popped up, there was an existing line of communication that made Jenkins’ apology possible.

The effectiveness of an apology is not solely based on how well language is crafted. It also hinges on the preexisting relationship between a brand and its audiences.

All too often, companies neglect their communication efforts until a PR crisis hits. But you can’t forge a positive relationship between the public and your brand overnight, especially in the wake of a crisis. It takes time. Connecting with an audience when things are smooth puts you in a better position to respond when conflict arises.

As an admirer of “The Chosen,” I’ve eagerly recommended it to friends and family as a binge-worthy experience. As a PR pro, I applaud the show’s unconventional communication strategy that aligns with the show’s brand identity: outside the box, yet authentic and not gimmicky.

Even though the initial mishandling of the anti-ads caused a hiccup, the creators confessed their mistake, and owned it (they could have literally blamed it on the devil). They took corrective action and are using this moment as an opportunity to expand the reach of the series with the help of an enthusiastic fanbase that, for the most part, is willing to offer grace and forgiveness.

Joe McLeod is the managing partner at McLeod Communications, a public relations from based in Lakeland, FL. He’s also co-host of the ‘On Message’ podcast.

The post When marketing needs PR: ‘The Chosen’ creator apologizes for anti-ad rollout appeared first on PR Daily.

Do you hate the sound of those pesky email or text notifications? Or maybe it’s the noise of a text or social media ping that fills you with dread or anxiety.

These constant interruptions don’t just make us feel bad — they’ve actually been shown to negatively affect our cognitive ability and concentration.

Such research has prompted well-being advocates to call for “notification detoxes,” sustained lengths of time where participants undertake the challenge of going interruption-free.

The Guardian interviewed Dr. Aishah Iqbal about her experience with a notification cleanse, and it does sound quite nice:

As Iqbal noticed the effect pop-ups were having on her peace of mind and productivity, she took action. “I turned everything off, and I felt better for it. That was something I could control: the distraction coming from my phone.”

Television ads, pop-up messages on websites and personal device push notifications are all tools communicators might use to reach their audiences. But if people start turning off their notifications or opting out in droves, what happens to your strategy?

Ads, in particular, are suffering, as consumers begin to notice and take action to rectify their notification fatigue. Paul Dyer, CEO of marketing agency Lippe Taylor, calls it a “death spiral.”

In a 2021 interview with PR Daily, Dyer said interruption-averse culture provides a unique opportunity for PR and marketing pros to truly earn their audiences’ attention.

“Advertising is a business that prides itself on being persuasive, and its greatest persuasion was convincing everybody about how effective it was,” he said. “And I think that what’s happened over the last couple of decades is that many people have come to just equate marketing with advertising as if they’re the same thing. They’re not the same thing.”

In essence, instead of bemoaning the loss of attention that pop-ups, commercials and push notifications are receiving, PR pros should look to create messaging that is less intrusive by nature.

Alternatives to mobile pings

One exciting development: Google aims to address this problem with its new “ambient computing” experiment, Little Signals.

From the Little Signals webpage:

Just as everyday objects might find simple ways to inform us — like the moving hands of a clock or the whistle of a kettle — Little Signals consider how to stay up-to-date with digital information while maintaining moments of calm.

The promotional video for the experiment is nearly two minutes of neutrally dressed people moving softly through spaces filled with plants, rain sounds and linen curtains:

What Google is proposing isn’t removing interruptions from people’s lives — it’s changing how companies can do the actual interrupting. Puffs of air or soft knocking sounds are a far cry from your mom’s questionable custom ringtone blaring over your next family gathering, but they still allow Google to get your attention.

The challenge that lies ahead for communicators is creating messaging that is respectful of your audience’s limited time and while still competing for a top spot in the attention economy.

Imagine a text notification that sounds like Morgan Freeman whispering in your ear — it’s soothing, but you definitely can’t ignore it. Or perhaps Enya’s next career will be as a sound stylist for companies looking to integrate soothing music into their marketing push.

In a dystopian, worst-case-scenario, new technology like Little Signals is ripe for abuse. Ever seen the Disney Channel Original Movie “Smart House”? People who are looking for a true notification detox likely won’t be thrilled at the prospect of their entire home being turned into a marketing channel.

Google’s product speaks to the evergreen need to earn audiences’ attention, rather than taking it by force. People have cottoned on to advertising and marketing tactics, and they don’t like them.

The post What the death of notifications could mean for PR pros appeared first on PR Daily.

Hello, communicators:

Airbnb’s latest effort to give back is focused on educators. The effort comes after Airbnb discovered high numbers of educators becoming hosts to supplement their incomes.

(Image via)

According to the news release, 1 in 5 Airbnb hosts are either educators or healthcare workers, and educators earned more than $180 million from hosting on Airbnb in 2020 alone. By partnering with the National Educator’s Association (NEA), Airbnb hopes to help teachers learn how to create successful Airbnb listings and will offer a stipend for educators to “invest in their hosting journey.” NEA members will also be eligible for exclusive Airbnb discounts when traveling themselves.

The campaign is an example of how customer and user data can help identify important stories and opportunities to create value for your community.

Here are today’s other top stories:

Renewable energy companies face misinformation threat

NPR reports that local governments often stand in the way of wind and solar energy projects, and that misinformation about renewable energy thrives in town halls and city council meetings across the country.

From NPR:

Dahvi Wilson, vice president of public affairs for Apex Clean Energy, says her company is finding that across the country, local engagement is becoming increasingly difficult given community suspicions of renewable energy.

“I think for a long time, and maybe still in some places, developers thought, ‘Well, we just need to give better information. We just need to give more information.’ And it’s like, ‘it’s so not about that at all!'” Wilson says. “It’s about who you trust and if anybody’s going to believe you if you’re a company.”

What you should know: For PR pros, the battle against misinformation is arduous and never-ending. Untrue and misleading statements can not only derail your messaging strategy, they are increasingly likely to negatively affect your company’s business operations.

It’s a reminder to comms professionals that creating your own brand narrative means getting ahead of misinformation on social media — an admittedly daunting task, given some platforms’ hesitancy to crack down on purveyors of misinformation. Lean into using your media monitoring service to identify and address misinformation head on.

MEASURED THOUGHTS

Recent data from The Harris Poll reveals how American adults are likely to use augmented or virtual reality to interact with brands.

(Image via)

Gaming and entertainment were the most popular potential uses for AR and VR, with 56% and 54% of poll respondents saying they’d be interested in those respective uses.

Additional data from the report shows that 3 in 4 U.S. adults “would be interested if one of their favorite brands created an AR/VR experience,” while 3 in 5 respondents said they’d be excited to see sports teams or sports brands in the metaverse.

PR pros, if your organization hasn’t developed a metaverse strategy yet, now is the time to start. Here are three tips for brands looking to navigate the metaverse.

Read more from The Harris Poll report here.

TAKE OUR SURVEY

We want to hear from our community about how their thinking has changed on media relations and its value inside their organization. If you work in communications, please take our short survey to help us chart the value of media relations for 2022.

The survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete and participants will be entered in a drawing for a $100 credit toward a Ragan event. All individual responses will be kept confidential.

Results from the survey will be shared at PR Daily’s Media Relations and Measurement Conference in New York City on May 11.

Disney quickly condemns ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill after it becomes law

After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the state’s controversial bill banning discussion of sexual orientation in grade-school classrooms into law Monday, entertainment giant Disney released a statement on the legislation:

Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that. We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country.

Disney’s immediate response to the signing of the bill comes in the wake of a month of backlash and negative press about the company’s previous reluctance to take a stance on the legislation as it made its way through the state legislature.

Recent data shows that Disney’s response (or lack thereof) to the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation may matter more to its employees than to Disney fans at large. And while the company’s tweeted statement on Monday received a lot of attention, plenty of it was not positive:

Instead of grandstanding, why don't you READ the actual language of the bill? Just a thought.

— Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP) March 28, 2022

Hold the sponsors of the bill & governor DeSantis accountable by 1. permanently not donating any more to them, and 2. by donating to candidates committed to repealing this law. The law wasn't passed by accident, nor will it magically be repealed. It will take new legislators.

— Jim (@jimatdisney) March 28, 2022

Did *ANYONE* at WDC actually read this bill?? As a long-time Disney stockholder, I'm bothered by this statement.

— Kevin Bartley (@buddysdaddy123) March 29, 2022

Why it matters: In some cases, protecting and supporting your employees may mean angering others, including customers of your products. Disney’s statement is a clear attempt to make good on CEO Bob Chapek’s promise to take “meaningful action to combat legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community.”

Wading into political and social issues can be tricky, but overall, it’s what consumers say they want to see from corporations. In these situations, make sure your messaging on these topics is airtight and prepare your stakeholders for some backlash.

The post Misinformation threatens climate progress, Disney releases immediate statement on ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill and how Americans want to use AR/VR appeared first on PR Daily.

Hello, communicators:

Kentucky native and Grammy-nominated rapper Jack Harlow is partnering with KFC to share his favorite “Kentucky fried” foods with fans.

Harlow recently met with Chris Scott, KFC’s head chef, in Louisville, to get the full KFC experience — complete with a photo op and fried chicken taste-testing.

(Image via)

Harlow fans can order his favorite KFC menu items through the KFC app — a nod to how companies are tying big marketing campaigns to business outcomes, like app downloads.

From the news release:

“It goes without saying that our classics will never go out of style, but as Jack’s favorites, a few of them are getting celebrity status,” said KFC U.S. CMO Nick Chavez. “We are excited to make Jack’s favorites available now on the KFC app, and can’t wait to share what’s next with Jack Harlow and KFC. Stay tuned. You won’t want to miss it.”

KFC’s celebrity partnership is the latest in a slew of restaurant-influencer deals, among them Justin Bieber’s Tim Horton’s meal and Mariah Carey’s Christmastime McDonald’s deal.

Here are today’s other top stories:

Airlines’ request to drop mask mandate gets mixed consumer response

Several major airline companies called on President Joe Biden to lift the mask mandate and other COVID-19 precautions for air travelers this week.

Last month, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) extended the federal mask mandate for public transportation through April 18.

NBC News reports that trade group Airlines for America penned a letter to Biden, asking him to lift the mask mandate and travel testing requirements due to the “high level of immunity in the U.S., availability of high-quality masks for those who wish to use them, hospital-grade cabin air, widespread vaccine availability and newly available therapeutics.”

From NBC News:

“We are requesting this action not only for the benefit of the traveling public, but also for the thousands of airline employees charged with enforcing a patchwork of now-outdated regulations implemented in response to COVID-19,” read Wednesday’s letter, which was signed by the heads of 10 airlines, including American, Delta and United.

Twitter users reacted to the prospect of maskless travel, with some expressing dismay:

Dropping masks on planes and buses is going to be a grave mistake. The airlines is how the virus got to our shores in the first place. What's the international flights that bring deadly viruses into our country. Stop the madness the virus is still in the air. Cover up people

— HAPPY LUCKY (@HappyLu84721844) March 24, 2022

Leaders shouldn’t give in to the noise out of political pressure. Pray they see what’s coming & that we’re prepared. Letting up on masks for planes & transportation is asking for trouble. Why don’t people realize masks are a major reason why airlines have been able to keep going? https://t.co/IQq2EkS0f5

— Renee UK (@ReneeUKCats) March 24, 2022

Others seemed excited at the chance to board a plane without a mask:

For the love of God please end the masks on planes and airports. If people still need to scream at others aim it towards the people who take their shoes and socks off on the plane https://t.co/kq3tfyoh57

— Drew Kochmann (@drewskie88) March 24, 2022

Dump useless masks on planes ASAP https://t.co/ZPs2GEcfsI

— Tristan Flynn (@TristanCPDT) March 23, 2022

What you should know: The mixed response on social media shows that unwinding COVID-19 business conditions is still a complicated proposition. With a wide range of consumer comfort, creating environments that suit the needs of everyone will require careful listening and testing.
This is an example of where social listening data can be useful to C-suite members in making business operations decisions. While airlines are campaigning to drop the COVID-19 travel protocols, companies should still be mindful of the portion of people who still may not feel safe going maskless. Designing a messaging strategy to speak to these passengers in particular will be key in retaining positive brand sentiment moving forward.

MEASURED THOUGHTS

A new report from Signal AI shows S&P 500 companies Microsoft, Amazon and Apple received the most positive media coverage related to the gender pay gap over the last year.

(Image via)

Microsoft was mentioned in 770 positive articles about the issue, followed by Amazon.com (532) and Apple Inc. (490).

The next closest company to receive a number of favorable mentions related to the gender pay gap was Alphabet Inc. (42), Google’s parent company.

It’s a reminder to PR pros that how your organization is treating its employees is a external reputation issue that PR pros must monitor. Brand sentiment is easily swayed by evidence that organizations treat (and compensate) their workers fairly.

View more from the Signal AI report here.

TAKE OUR SURVEY

We want to hear from our community about how their thinking has changed on media relations and its value inside their organization. If you work in communications, please take our short survey to help us chart the value of media relations for 2022.

The survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete and participants will be entered in a drawing for a $100 credit toward a Ragan event. All individual responses will be kept confidential.

Results from the survey will be shared at PR Daily’s Media Relations and Measurement Conference in New York City on May 11.

Spotify will move its social audio feature into the main app

According to a report from Bloomberg, Spotify will move its live audio feature into the main Spotify app to make it more visible, marking a noteworthy move in the music streaming company’s efforts to dive into social audio.

Spotify’s Greenroom launched in summer 2021 with built-in recording and chat features. The company will rebrand Greenroom as Spotify Live.

From The Verge:

Spotify launched Greenroom on iOS and Android last year as a competitor to Clubhouse. It was built on Locker Room, an app created by Betty Labs, a software developer that Spotify acquired last March. When it launched Greenroom, Spotify was one of several tech platforms building live audio products, hoping to catch some of the buzz (and users) that Clubhouse, originally invite-only, garnered in its first year.

Why it matters: While much of the hype around the original social audio app, Clubhouse, has died down, PR pros would be remiss to ignore Spotify’s offering. Social audio is ripe for creativity and growth, and Spotify’s renewed commitment to Greenroom/Spotify Live is a sign that things could get interesting very quickly.

New to social audio? Try hosting on Twitter Spaces, where organizations from newsrooms to brand accounts have found success in reaching live audiences. And here are four rules to follow when getting into social audio platforms.

The post Airline CEOs push to drop masks, which companies earned kudos on fixing gender pay gap and Spotify brings social audio to its core app appeared first on PR Daily.

Women face countless barriers to professional success—an enduring pay gap, sexual harassment and gender discrimination (yes, it exists even in female-dominated workplaces).

It might seem like the nontraditional work of being an influencer or social media personality would insulate women from gendered challenges that often come with working in an office or in the trade profession, but women in these roles are no exception.

In 2019, decorated American track and field Olympian Allyson Felix revealed that her longtime sponsor, Nike, wanted to pay her 70% less after she gave birth to her first child in 2018.

“I asked Nike to contractually guarantee that I wouldn’t be punished if I didn’t perform at my best in the months surrounding childbirth,” she wrote in an opinion piece for the New York Times. “I wanted to set a new standard. If I, one of Nike’s most widely marketed athletes, couldn’t secure these protections, who could?”

Following public outcry, Nike backed down and announced a new maternity policy for all its sponsored athletes, guaranteeing pay and bonuses for 18 months around pregnancy.

But smaller influencers, women who don’t have the eyes of the world on their content, also face similar challenges.

Talent agency G&B Digital Management calls it the “pregnancy lull”—the time between the announcement of their pregnancy and the birth of their child.

Stephanie Hjelmeseth is a lifestyle blogger with more than 100,000 followers on Instagram. She says opportunities for partnerships with fashion and beauty brands dwindled after she shared her pregnancy news, a fact she says prompted her decision to post less frequently about her family.

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A post shared by Stephanie Liu Hjelmeseth (@stephhjelmeseth)

“I saw an increase in motherhood-related publications and brands wanting to share my story through interviews and features,” Hjelmeseth says. “However, there was a noticeable decrease in fashion-related partnerships to nearly zero.”

It posed a big problem for the influencer, who had built her brand around fashion-related content. “Up until my pregnancy, I was a fashion-focused content creator,” she explains. “Beauty and travel were my secondary categories that I was building content around. So, during my pregnancy, I shifted my content towards beauty, and I was able to offset some of the losses and stagnancy from my typical fashion partners.”

Amanda Acevedo, a senior talent manager with G&B, says pregnancy-shy brands could be missing out on a real opportunity to connect with women—both those who are pregnant and those who don’t ever plan to be.

“That middle section where the lull happens (second trimester through early third) is where there is so much to talk about and prepare for, and so many connecting moments for moms and women alike,” she said.

Engaging with care

For brands that do engage with pregnant influencers, it’s worth being more intentional with the products and services they seek to promote.

Dr. Robyn Horsager-Boehrer, an obstetrician and gynecologist with UT Southwestern Medical Center, wrote in a blog post that pregnant women should be cautious of the things they’re influenced to consume and use via social media.

“…women should be aware that when influencers promote products, the influencers don’t necessarily use them personally,” she wrote. “To them, the product might be simply a ware to be sold — not a lifestyle, wellness, or health necessity as their posts proclaim.”

It’s an important reminder that brands have a responsibility to their marketing partners and their consumers alike to ensure a safe and ethical professional partnership with influencers.

Keep an open dialogue with the influencers your company works with. Their choice to become pregnant should not affect your professional relationship, and it’s important to provide protections for these partnerships should you deem your product or service to be inappropriate for use while pregnant.

Obviously, pregnant women aren’t the ideal brand partners for a beer company or e-cigarette brand. But there may be other ways to continue your relationship with influencers who choose to become pregnant, rather than completely withdrawing support.

The post How brand managers should consider the ‘pregnancy lull’ when working with influencers appeared first on PR Daily.

Applebee’s took it on the chin when its lighthearted ad was aired against CNN coverage of air raid sirens in Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.

The Applebee’s spot didn’t fit the mood of the grim beginning to the first war in Europe in generations, and the brand was immediately the target of online critics and late-night TV comics.

Applebee’s was quick to shift the blame to the broadcaster for its ill-timed appearance on viewers’ screens and said it would pause ad spending.

Business Insider reported:

“We are deeply concerned about the situation in Ukraine,” an Applebee’s spokesperson said in an email to Insider. “It should never have aired, and we are disappointed in the actions of the network.”  Applebee’s paused advertising after learning about the ad placement.

However, when brand advertisers stop spending against news programming all together, the loss of revenue is a big problem for the overall media economy.

Will Phipps, senior vice president of media with Allen & Gerritsen and co-founder of Protect Our Press, argues that brands should keep their investment in news—even if there is a little unpredictability in how those ads might show up in broadcasts.

Will Phipps

“News has often been a place where brands and agencies—particularly agencies that have lazy, bad habits—may just block news entirely,” says Phipps. When a client questions ad buying or investment around news programming because the news cycle is hard to predict and your ad might appear next to coverage of a European war, agencies might be tempted to overcorrect.

“They literally uncheck a box,” explains Phipps of the choice on what channels and programming to spend dollars against. “And by unchecking the box, they’re cutting off the funding to news organizations, which, by and large, rely quite a large amount for their revenue on advertising.”

How to ensure brand safety

The question of brand safety on advertising has become a big topic for brand managers alongside the rise of programmatic advertising and the automation of ad messages. Groups like Sleeping Giants have risen to fame by pointing out how brand advertisers are helping fund media outlets that spread misinformation or propaganda.

But brand safety has more nuance than making sure your ads aren’t showing up on Breitbart.

“Some clients might be more sensitive to this kind of adjacency and our job as an agency is to partner with our clients,” says Phipps. But that doesn’t mean a client should avoid placing ad dollars when the audience for news is on the rise, in part driven by intense interest in world events like the war in Ukraine.

Phipps places blame for the Applebee’s gaffe on CNN and encourages advertisers to think about direct engagement with broadcasters about how their messages appear on content. For example, Phipps says a brand could require the broadcaster not to stick its ad next to live video or coverage of the war but agree to underwrite segments where commentators and pundits discuss the events and their impact.

It’s a conversation that Phipps has had with clients at Allen & Gerritsen.

“One of our biggest clients said, ‘Hey, we think we should pull out of news,” he shares. “We talked to them and we laid out the pros and cons. We put in place some brand safety measures such as ensuring that any adjacency would not be next to live reporting of conflict…and they said, ‘OK that feels good to us.’”

The trick isn’t to wall off your brand from the events happening out in the wider world, but rather have some nuance and flexibility in how you appear in connection to the biggest news stories.

“We don’t have an issue with Russia and Ukraine stories,” says Phipps of his agency’s approach during the current news cycle. “We just don’t want live news reporting. We don’t want footage that could be concerning. We are happy to be there as it’s debated and discussed and the implications of that conflict, because it’s a thing of national importance.”

When news is a safe bet

Phipps argues that direct connection with a news outlet offers more safety than any other kind of ad buy—particularly programmatic campaigns where you can’t control where your target audience travels.

“The biggest problem of the brand safety field is that too often, people just rely on the technology,” says Phipps. “They don’t think about the humanity of how you tackle this problem.” It’s a painstaking process to make sure you identify places and content types where you don’t want your brand to appear.

“We go through keyword by keyword, tag by tag to figure out which of the places that we do want to be for each client, and which are the places we don’t,” says Phipps. But it’s a process that clients believe in and none of Allen & Gerritsen’s clients so far have unchecked the news box in their ad spend so far.

By going directly to the gatekeepers of content—publishers—brands have a bigger opportunity to control the way their message is connected to a news-hungry audience.

“We do lots of direct deals with the partners like the Boston Globe, and feel really good about brand safety,” says Phipps. “I’d actually argue news is sometimes the most brand-safe place to be if you go direct and if you work with them.”

And direct investment offers other special opportunities for paid engagement, from sponsoring a conference to sponsored thought leadership posts. And the publisher gets more of a benefit of the ad spend—which helps them fund their essential work covering the news stories that shape lives around the world.

This article is part of our PR Daily Leadership Network. Be sure to join this exclusive group for peer networking and unique training opportunities for PR and communications pros. 

The post Despite Applebee’s Ukraine snafu, don’t pull ad spend from news appeared first on PR Daily.

Today’s audiences are overwhelmed by the content they consume.

They’re constantly sifting through channels and platforms for accurate and helpful tidbits that will help them lead healthier and more rewarding lives. And on social media, it’s never been more difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

That’s why the role of content creators has become so crucial as organizations try to engage audiences with information that can compete with the noisy content marketplace. To create content that stands out, Amanda Todorovich recommends following the five Cs.

Todorovich, executive editor of content marketing for Cleveland Clinic, offered a look at these guidelines for social media greatness in a recent video for Ragan Training, “5 Cs of Social Media Copywriting: How to Craft Copy that Screams ‘Click Me!’”

That doesn’t mean content creators should embrace clickbait, she says. “We want to deliver on what we promise in our copy.” In fact, you should consider your organization’s overall values every step of the way.

Core content values

By following the Cs, Todorovich says Cleveland Clinic hopes to live up to three values with its content.

• Credible & authoritative. In a world of misinformation and distrust, being accurate and trustworthy is paramount. “We need to make sure everything we are doing is evidenced based and reviewed by our experts,” explains Todorovich.
• Approachable. What use is your content if no one can engage with it? “We want people to see our content and feel like they can easily understand it,” Todorovich says.
• Empathetic. What is the effect that your content has on audiences? “We want to think about the emotions audiences have with our content,” says Todorovich. For Cleveland Clinic, it is crucial to pull on those heart strings responsibly.

The Cs are all about succinctly and entertainingly offering value to audiences without risking the reputation of your brand.

For Cleveland Clinic, a hub and spoke model allows the content team to establish subject matter authority and repurpose a library of content across different channels. Branching out from its blog “Health Essentials,” the team experiments and develops different offerings for channels including TikTok and Snapchat.

To start, it’s essential to have a documented strategy, Todorovich advises. “it’s really easy to get stuck in a ‘build a schedule’ mindset,” she says, where content is just filling holes in a calendar. Instead, every effort should be made to connect all content back to a strategic purpose.

For Cleveland Clinic, that purpose is encapsulated in one sentence: “Engage Users in daily conversation using health, wellness and clinical content that is unique to Cleveland Clinic.”

Todorovich emphasizes that this content should not have a sales or self-promotional undercurrent. “It isn’t talking about how wonderful we are,” she says. Instead, she invokes journalistic principles, serving the needs of the audience above all other considerations.

Embracing the 5 Cs

So, what makes some social media content stand out from the rest? Here are the elements Todorovich says you must have to be successful:

1. Clear. “It should be very obvious what you are talking about,” Todorovich says. Again, she warns to stay away from clickbait and deliver on your stated promise for each story or content piece.

2. Colorful. You should have something new and different to say, Todorovich says. “This is especially true when you are talking about topics that every organization is talking about.” She gives the example of the COVID-19 pandemic as a clear moment when organizations had to ask how they could provide unique value to audiences.

3. Comedic. While tough to get right, Todorovich argues that a humorous tone is essential for social media content. Humor makes your voice more authentic and relatable—but it can go wrong.

“You have to be careful, “she says. “It can’t be random; there has to be consistency.”

Brand managers must ask questions: What does comedic mean to you? What are those style choices? Todorovich says comedic content requires a whip-smart editor (not an intern) and a carefully considered brand style guide.

4. Concise. Brevity is a core principle of social media writing because of the limits of the platforms themselves. “Every channel has its own rules about character counts and lengths of things,” says Todorovich.

And the exercise of making every word count in your message can help home in on the essential value of your content.

5. Colloquial. “Use the language that your audiences use,” recommends Todorovich.

You can watch the full presentation from Todorovich on Ragan Training, a video library and training resource for comms pros.

The post These are the Cleveland Clinic’s 5 Cs for sparkling social content appeared first on PR Daily.

Good morning, communicators:

CVS hopes to corner the digital market as it trademarks its brand to open a digital pharmacy in the metaverse. The drugstore chain joins retailers like Nike and Walmart to offer a virtual shopping experience.

Its trademark filing also suggests the company hopes to offer telehealth and virtual visits in the metaverse store.

CNBC reports:

“We’re… regularly looking at new and innovative ways to engage consumers through a digital-first, technology-forward approach,” said a CVS spokesman in a statement to CNBC, adding “we will continue to explore these and other options to improve the consumer experience and launch new consumer-centric services.”

It’s an example of how many companies are testing capabilities and opportunities in new digital platforms, despite plenty of uncertainty about how popular the metaverse will actually be. To tie into its offering, CVS has also released research on how many Americans are underserved by their current health care options.

If you are getting into the metaverse, think about how you can make a compelling case that your offering improves the lives of consumers. By increasing accessibility for routine wellness appointments, CVS might have a better reason to enter the metaverse than most.

Here are today’s top stories:

Uniqlo defends keeping Russian stores open

The clothing chain has 50 stores in Russia, which it says will remain open despite its parent company’s stance against the Ukraine invasion. Competitors like H&M and Zara have temporarily closed their stores in Russia—though those decisions might have been forced due to supply chain issues.

Business Insider reports:

The CEO of Uniqlo parent company Fast Retailing, who is against the war in Ukraine, confirmed the brand’s decision to stay open in Russia in a statement to Asian business news site Nikkei, Bloomberg reported. Earlier this week, Fast Retailing donated $10 million to UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.

“Clothing is a necessity of life,” CEO Tadashi Yanai said, according to Bloomberg. “The people of Russia have the same right to live as we do.” A spokesperson for Fast Retailing was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Insider.

What you should know: While plenty of noise is being made by corporations about closing their operations in Russia in response to the tragedy in Ukraine, the actions are often business decisions forced by the raft of sanctions imposed by NATO countries and their allies around the world.

Uniqlo hopes to be able to separate its efforts to serve the Russian people—many of whom are bravely protesting the war—from its leaders which have sent troops into a sovereign nation unprovoked. By donating to refugee organizations, the brand hopes to demonstrate its values and offset criticism of its ongoing Russian connection.

MEASURED THOUGHTS

The Institute for Public Relations has released a new report on the top 17 research discoveries for PR pros in 2021. The list includes analyses of a range of topics from behavioral science to diversity and inclusion.

One common thread is the importance of employees and their value to your organization. Employees became the No. 1 stakeholder for businesses in 2021 and the data represents just how important employee relations is for your efforts in the year ahead.

(Image via)

You can see all 17 of the insights identified by IPR as the top pieces of research for last year by downloading the full report.

Stoli vodka rebrands to distance itself from Russia

The Stolichnaya vodka brand is hoping that a name change will be enough to keep its products on shelves in Europe and the U.S. Shortening the name to just “Stoli” is an effort to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people and educate consumers about the company’s own strained relations with Russia. Founder Yuri Shefler was born in Russia but was exiled in 2000 for anti-Putin views.

The company’s alcoholic beverage is now produced in Latvia.

The New York Daily News reports:

“Today, we have made the decision to rebrand entirely as the name no longer represents our organization,” Shefler said in a press release. “More than anything, I wish for ‘Stoli’ to represent peace in Europe and solidarity with Ukraine.”

Why it matters: The name change is a bit of PR stunt—but it’s crucial for Stoli to find a way to explain its frayed Russia connection to consumers who are weighing their purchasing options. Stores have been removing Russian brands from shelves—and Stoli risks guilt by association, even if its founder has no love for Putin and his regime.

INVESTOR RELATIONS

More and more companies are facing pressure from their investors to make changes to product portfolios. Unilever is just the latest as an investor group has demanded more transparency around nutrition in its products, including Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The company already published nutrition standards in 2020, including targets around plant-based food products and lowering salt and fat content in Unilever’s food portfolio. Investors, however, want more.

Unilever, which is the world’s largest producer of ice cream, will set out new nutrition goals by October, according to the company.

Financial Times reports:

Catherine Howarth, chief executive of ShareAction, a shareholder group that pushed Unilever to make the changes, said: “The transparency promised sets a new standard for the industry. We hope and expect that others will follow.”

In the U.S., investors are pushing e-commerce giant Amazon to adopt new practices and transparency around its corporate taxes. The company has rebuffed similar requests from shareholders in the past—but the investors claim the aggressive tax practices of the retailer create risk.

Reuters reports:

[The investors] want to bring a shareholders’ resolution demanding the new standard at the company’s annual meeting this year, it said, citing a letter to be sent this week to the U.S. regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Aggressive tax practices can expose a company and its investors to increased scrutiny from tax authorities, adjustment risks, and increase their vulnerability to changes in tax rules,” the investors said.

For communicators, these stories are a reminder of the growing importance of environmental, social and governance issues. Investors are looking for companies that demonstrate ongoing stakeholder engagement—and that’s where communicators can both facilitate the conversation and make sure a company’s efforts are visible to right audiences.

Tech companies address anxiety amid return to office push

Big tech companies like Google, Apple, Twitter and more are making the push to bring employees back to their offices. For Apple, employees will have to work in the office one day a week starting April 11 and ramp up to three days per week by April 23. Google will require at least three days in the office, effective April 4.

Twitter will be more flexible, allowing workers to set their own schedule and priorities when its offices reopen Mach 15.

Deadline reports:

“For many of you, I know that returning to the office represents a long-awaited milestone and a positive sign that we can engage more fully with the colleagues who play such an important role in our lives,” [Apple CEO Tim Cook] said in a memo. “For others, it may also be an unsettling change.”

… “Wherever you feel most productive and creative is where you will work, and that includes working from home full-time forever,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said in a letter to employees. “Office every day? That works too. Some days in office, some days from home? Of course.”

What you should know: Workers want to hear about the strategy for a return to the office directly from the CEO, and those internal messages are likely to find their way into the hands of external audiences. Even as the pandemic abates, demonstrating empathy for employees and their needs will be paramount for communicators.

Acknowledging the wide range of experiences and priorities for workers coming out of the pandemic is starting point. And if you do have hard and fast rules about when workers must be in an office, make sure to have a solid reason behind your decision.

The post Uniqlo won’t leave Russia, top research for PR pros and tech companies address anxiety over return to the office appeared first on PR Daily.

Susan Spencer, senior vice president, content and strategy at subject matter, comes to PR work after a long history in journalism and magazine publishing.

As the editor for Woman’s Day magazine, Spencer realized that she wanted something more out of her work. She left the magazine at the beginning of the pandemic and started offering consulting services in women’s advocacy.

It was work that she saw as an extension of what she had been doing at the magazine. “We did a lot of stories about women around the country who were facing different challenges,” she says. “We covered food insecurity. We covered immigration. We were the first woman’s magazine to talk about parenting a transgender child. There are a lot of different ways that we kind of acted — in loose terms — as advocates.”

And it’s this passion that has brought Spencer into her latest role with Subject Matter, which calls itself a creative advocacy agency.

“I really hope to continue to focus on women’s issues,” she says of her new work. “And I think that the time right now is really ripe to figure out how to talk to women in a different way, because women have been through hell and back in the last couple of years.”

Women in the workplace

Whether it was because of unequal family care responsibilities or other barriers, the numbers show that the pandemic has been a disaster for working women.

Millions of women have been driven out of the workforce to care for children or aging relatives, leading some to predict that it will take until 2024 for female workforce participation to fully recover. Even before the pandemic, issues like the gender pay gap and the “broken rung” meant that women weren’t able to participate equally in the workplace.

But that doesn’t mean your messaging should focus only on the negative. While acknowledging struggles, communicators should also look for ways to celebrate women’s strength.

Women are an essential audience for many communications programs in 2022 — whether addressed to consumers and families or businesses and workplace goals. But it’s a challenging audience to reach, according to Spencer.

“Women are pulled in so many different directions,” she says.

How to break through

Spencer offers several tips for reaching women in the year ahead — with the caveat that women are not a monolith but a group of individuals with widely differing needs and aspirations.

1. Messaging needs to be authentic — more than ever.

“Women have a really high B.S. meter right now,” says Spencer, and argues that while women have never suffered fools gladly, they are increasingly interrogating promises from brands and their messengers.

What does authenticity look like? Spencer’s advice is to start with empathy and communicate in a way that serves their needs rather than demanding more of them.

2. Focus on shared values.

While women have a wide range of interests, preferences and personal stories, Spencer argues that there are plenty of values that women of all backgrounds are likely to share deep down. For instance, Spencer sees the importance of family as a shared value for many women across all demographic categories.

“We come from very different lived experiences and we’re all different,” she agrees, but focusing on values like family and faith can connect with a broad swath of the overall female audience.

3. Embrace a duty of care.

There have been so many changes for women during the pandemic — changes that Spencer argues society is still in the middle of processing — that communicators must put extra emphasis on service and listening.

Spencer believes that because of the enormous changes occurring in society, communicators should think about how this is an opportunity for change, “to change things for the better for women.”

“I think that women have proven something in the last years and that’s resilience,” she says. To that end, she also recommends that communicators focus on the positive in their messages toward women.

“Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, so much of what I was reading was about how terrible things were for women and how they were struggling,” she says, and while it was accurate information, it felt incomplete.

“I was seeing just this incredible resilience and this strength,” she says. “Yes, it was hard, but I do think that women have a unique capacity to pick themselves up and to try different things and different ways of working.”

Communicators looking to connect with women in 2022 must thread a delicate needle: authentically acknowledge the challenges they face without giving into despair and handwringing. That will require careful listening.

“We have to meet everyone on every platform possible,” Spencer says. “I think we need to think creatively about how to do that.”

The post How to evade women’s ‘B.S. meter’ to deliver authentic messages appeared first on PR Daily.

As winter ebbs and the northern hemisphere begins to look hopefully toward spring, many brands will seek to refresh their aesthetic presence.

When revamping your organization’s design strategy, don’t leave your social media management team behind; eye-catching social media design can mean the difference between grabbing your audience’s attention and becoming yet another skipped post.

Social media marketing company Later compiled a rundown of the social media graphic design trends every visual communicator should be watching—and implementing—this year. A hint about the overarching themes: Things are looking big, bold and colorful.

Here are Later’s top 10 social media graphic design trends for 2022:

1. Fluorescent Color Palettes
2. 60s and 70s Iconography
3. Contrasting Fonts
4. Maximalism
5. Cloud Motifs
6. Risograph Effects
7. Bubble Fonts
8. Modern Gradients
9. 3D Shapes
10. Grit and Grain

For the full report, visit the Later site here.

The post Report: Top 10 social media design trends for the year ahead appeared first on PR Daily.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is just one of the tools in a PR pro’s toolbox. Yet, in an increasingly digital marketplace, it is becoming more and more important.

Digital PR pros know all about creating backlinks and driving traffic to brand websites—but with the big companies like Google and Amazon (yes, it is a search engine) constantly changing the rules, everyone must brush up on their SEO knowledge.

Alan Bush is a SEO expert and a coach affiliated with the PR Daily Leadership Network where he advises members on their SEO plans and strategy. In a recent member call for the network, he shared four tips for comms pros to make sure they reach the right online audiences:

1. Discover new keywords with some crowdsourcing.

You already know what words come to mind when you think of your brand or product—but what other terms might you be overlooking?

A group brainstorming session to help create your list of relevant keywords can expand your horizons, Bush advises. He recommends creating a working group made up of both internal experts and outsiders who have a different view of your organization or department.

Keywords should be broken down by category into how they drive important business outcomes. Bush’s handy acronym for this is ARC:

• Awareness. How is your content helping new audiences find you and your services?
• Research. How is your content helping audiences who have heard of you choose you over the competition?
• Conversion. How is your content helping convert purchase intent into that final action—and revenue for your organization?

2. Identify audience personas associated with different phases of purchase intent.

Bush shared some questions you can ask to better identify the different consumers of your content:

• What is their role? Are they a manager, brand executive or member of the general public?
• What problems do they face? How does your offering solve this problem for them?
• What are their goals? What is your consumer hoping to achieve? (Hint: it’s not the same as what you are hoping to achieve.)
• What are the conversion points where their intent and your intent align?

 Bush says you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time when creating content for these different personas. Instead, he advocates for a “hub and spoke” model where different targeted pieces of content connect back to a shared core content piece.

“Multimedia is going to be a big deal,” he says. “Get into video.” Even though video production can be an expensive and labor-intensive prospect, video assets can be repurposed and repackaged into a broad range of content, from articles and whitepapers to podcast episodes and social media posts.

3. Map out your content plan to ride the W.A.V.E.

Bush breaks down content assets into four buckets that create the acronym W.A.V.E.:

• Content that drives website traffic, including blog posts, websites and more.
• Audio programs from podcasts to social audio hubs.
• Content that offers a visual splash, form images to video.
• Content that hopes to teach users about the world around them as well as your products.

Bush says a good content plan assigns various content assets—from recorded webinars to blog posts or podcast episodes—to one of the W.A.V.E. categories. Make sure your portfolio covers all elements of the W.A.V.E.

4. Navigate your website using a variety of devices to test user experience.

With the rise of mobile devices as the primary means of digital content consumption, users engage with your content in an variety of platforms and formats. If your content isn’t optimized for a certain use case, you could be invisible to some audiences.

Bush recommends you consider key metrics like page speed and other indicators that Google uses to evaluate websites.

After Google rolled out the BERT update, its algorithm now seeks to prioritize the best user experience. Bush’s advice: Write for users—not search engines—and use language that your customers and clients would use.

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