It’s back-to-school season and the team at Kimball Hughes Public Relations knows this means changing things up at home for many. For business and non-profit leaders, September ushers in planning season for the year ahead while winding up 2024 priorities. Our team at Kimball Hughes PR is here to help you check off your list of communications initiatives for 2024 and prepare new strategies and initiatives for 2025. We’re just a phone call or email away. Just don’t ask us to pick the kids up from school.
Donald Trump has done more for black people than Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. combined.
Joe Biden finally beat Medicare, so we don’t have to worry about senior citizens anymore.
If grocery stores want me to bring my own bags, they should pay me.
Pat’s is the only place to get a real cheese steak in Philadelphia.
Let’s consider the visceral reactions many would have to the above statements if posted to LinkedIn by their professional connections. The key word here is visceral.
In my view, LinkedIn is not the place for sensitive social commentary. LinkedIn was created to help people present themselves for career opportunities and for professional networking. It has evolved, becoming a venue for creative expression, sharing of expertise and insights, for calling society to action on issues of industry and enterprise, and for holding a mirror up to our workplace lives – all through the lens of the professional. It is not Facebook, where personal perspective, political ideology and countless memes are central. It is not X (formerly Twitter), where reactionaries, visionaries, citizen journalists, political and social elites and the opinionated co-mingle. Nor is it Instagram, where humor and snark co-exist with vacation photos and musical dance routines or humorous pet antics.
LinkedIn, for good or ill, remains a platform for professional discourse with a splash of the personal that should not veer into jarring zealotry. Authenticity is important, but not at the expense of alienating important audiences that might disagree with your personal, beliefs. Courtesy, respect and being a compassionate human must be central to interactions in any professional environment — virtual or in person.
You would not walk into a job interview and begin the conversation with your unsolicited views on abortion. A company-wide Zoom meeting where the boss, or anyone else, shares why her preferred political candidate is the only rational choice could constitute a hostile work environment. No sane person would begin a new business presentation by explaining why their religion is superior to others. And certainly no one enjoys that one uncle who comes to Thanksgiving dinner eager to share his criticisms of your parenting, lifestyle, romantic partner, personal finances or who also publicly shames Aunt Mable’s latest obsession with sequin holiday sweaters.
Many of us were taught that some topics are not appropriate in the workplace or even certain family functions. Most importantly, in professional circles would you want your hard-earned qualifications and accomplishments overshadowed entirely because of the personal beliefs or opinions you share that have little or no bearing on your performance in the workplace?
We counsel clients to always strive for an authentic voice on social media that best reflects the organization or individual’s values and professional strengths. No one should feel the need to contort themselves into something they are not, either in the office or on LinkedIn. However, we live in a polarized world. Adding to the cacophony of militant opinions or strident arguments in a professional setting serves almost no one. This isn’t to say social media can’t be a tool for advocacy; rather, it’s simply that LinkedIn is often not the appropriate platform.
Consider your strongly held views or opinions posted to LinkedIn may negatively impact your employer’s ability to:
Recruit talent
Retain emerging professionals
Win new business
Fundraise
Attract new vendor partners
Hold on to existing customer relationships
Maintain the respect and support of the communities and audiences important to them
Moreover, sharing your personal beliefs on sensitive social topics on LinkedIn might also serve to harm your career. What if employers and others believe those views, however well intentioned, might bleed into the workplace and create potential management challenges with you, your direct reports or with clients?
When you reach for that “Start a post” option on LinkedIn, remember to be thoughtful, kind and intentional. What and how you post on LinkedIn is a reflection of your character, comportment and professional judgement. If you assume future employers, employees, customers and others aren’t going to look at LinkedIn — and maybe do a lot more scrolling than you think before entrusting you with their reputation, careers, money or more — you would be mistaken. A LinkedIn post, especially one written in haste, can do considerable harm. Equally so, a thoughtful and professional piece of content shared on LinkedIn can benefit you, and your employer, greatly. Proceed with caution, respect and offer the grace and kindness you would seek for yourself when engaging on this most powerful of professional platforms. And remember, always, that nothing on the internet ever truly goes away.
If you are a business or nonprofit leader, get in touch with Kimball Hughes Public Relations to ensure you have a social media policy and protocols to protect the reputation of your organization and those to whom you entrust. And if you are facing a reputational crisis, prompted by social media or other factors, we also provide Crisis Communications services to help you as well. Contact us at info@kimballpr.com or call (610) 559-7585.
Last week in a New York Times op-ed U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy suggested adding warning labels to social media platforms that would serve as a reminder to parents and teen users to monitor social media use. The Surgeon General’s suggestion is rooted in concerns about the mental health and perceived excessive use of social media by young people. Murthy’s suggestion took the nation by storm because, currently, the only two products in the U.S. with such warnings are alcohol and tobacco products. The immediate result leaves brand leaders to wonder what this could mean for their marketing and communications strategies.
“The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor,” Murthy wrote in the op-ed. “Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours.”
A year or so ago, Murthy issued an advisory on the topic that included specific recommendations for “policymakers, platforms and the public to make social media safer for kids.” Today, there is pending proposed legislation in 30 states and Puerto Rico with many of them already passed. While it’s difficult to tell just what impact such legislation or regulatory changes could have on social media behavior, brand leaders might want to reevaluate the stake young people hold in their social media strategies and how they target them.
Social media marketing & young people
In recent years, social media has taken over as a marketing powerhouse for brands, particularly for those looking to reach younger audiences.
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a 2022 study of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube found that almost $11 billion in advertising revenue was generated by users under 18. The study goes on to note that “Approximately 30–40% of the advertising revenue generated from three social media platforms (Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube) is attributable to young people.”
Concerns around the mental health impact of social media are becoming increasingly top of mind for parents of children and adolescents as well as lawmakers. Murthy notes in his 2023 advisory there is still much to be studied about the broad and nuanced impacts of social media on children and adolescents. For example, “studies point to a higher relative concern of harm in adolescent girls and those already experiencing poor mental health, as well as for particular health outcomes like cyberbullying-related depression, body image and disordered eating behaviors, and poor sleep quality linked to social media use.”
And while the issue continues to be studied, limiting social media use is reported to help with negative mental health symptoms. “Limits on the use of social media have resulted in mental health benefits for young adults and adults … limiting social media use to 30 minutes daily over three weeks led to significant improvements in depression severity.”
Lawmakers are working to make parents more aware of the impact of social media while urging them to restrict their children’s exposure to social media by introducing bills that would create task forces around the issue, set-up kid-friendly design codes, require age verification to log into social media accounts, establish digital literacy courses in schools and more. New York, for example, signed two bills into law last week to limit data collection on minors and to stop addictive feeds, or those designed to recommend content meant to keep a user scrolling.
Making adjustments
With all this discussion, possible change is afoot. Social media already requires brands to pivot constantly to platform updates, changes in behavior and internet trends. Potential legislative or regulatory changes could require even more adjustments.
In this evolving environment, brands might consider the following tips to stay ahead:
Stay updated: With so many looming laws around social media, brand leaders should take time to understand the pending legislation and the potential changes coming their way. Understanding how to stay in compliance and target social media content to younger demographics safely and responsibly will help teams develop a strong strategy that takes into account the principles behind new regulation or legislation.
Be creative: Social media offers brands a quick, direct line of communication with young people. As their behaviors on social media shift, communication may no longer be as streamlined, and some young people may opt out of social media altogether. Brand leaders may have to get creative to fill the gap.
Broaden your strategy: Consider the breakdown of your marcomm budget. In this new regulatory environment, could it make sense to shift dollars from social media marketing to public relations or digital advertising?
Take testing seriously: What works today on social media might not work tomorrow and this is especially true as efforts are made to restrict young people’s access to it. Brand leaders should be constantly testing elements of their social strategies to ensure they are effective in reaching the correct demographics and sparking engagement while remaining compliant with legislation.
Choose the right partners: Consider working with a PR agency that understands the landscape and how best to reach your target audience. An integrated PR campaign could supplement dialed-back social media efforts. Not to mention, a good PR agency will have a reliable crisis communications team ready to protect your brand should your company run afoul of any new social media requirements.
New limitations on social media marketing appear to be a growing reality. Brand leaders do not have to look at related legislative measures as a loss in their social media strategies, but an opportunity to find new, meaningful ways to reach young people. Consider taking a moment to research what social media legislative measures are being taken in the state(s) where your business operates and where your social media strategy or overarching public relations strategy might need adjusting.
How do you measure the return on investment (ROI) on your public relations (PR) services? It’s a question asked of every public relations professional by clients and prospects frequently.
It’s also a question we wish we could answer with detailed rows of figures, colorful line graphs and a direct line to sales, but even in 2024, it’s not that easy.
Though we can — and do — give clients comprehensive measurement reports listing the circulation, readership, viewership or listenership of media outlets where they’ve been featured, as well as share-of-voice (SOV) reports, Google Analytics, and more, the industry is yet to develop that perfect algorithm or tool that demonstrates a direct line from PR to sales.
By no means does this mean our work is not generating sales and/or leads. In fact, experienced PR pros have clients say, time and time again, “We had a call come in from a prospect who said they were inquiring about our services after reading our contributed article in XYZ publication.”
For those in our profession, a statement like this is the ultimate compliment. We know, and the client knows, we not only positioned them in front of their target audience through a thoughtfully designed PR strategy, we helped bring, through our work, a prospect to their door.
So, how do you know your PR strategy is working?
A good PR partner will start with obtainable goals and consider a variety of factors to measure their progress. Key measures should include:
Comprehensive Metrics: These are critical in measuring PR success, but once again, you likely will not find an accurate direct link to sales. But there are plenty of metrics your PR team can examine to measure the success of a campaign.
For example, they should carefully review and measure unique monthly visitors to the host site, share of voice, tone, sentiment, reach, key word ranking, social media traffic and more. That information should be shared with you on a monthly basis with a media mentions report of articles, podcasts or other media where your company was featured during that month.
At the same time, to boost those metrics, your PR team should be working to secure backlinks in your media coverage where possible. Though some publications will not allow this, when permitted, a backlink can be quite valuable. Backlinks denote authority and raise the search engine optimization (SEO) of your website, as well as the authority of your content. If the publication’s own domain authority or SEO is considerable, that lends greater credibility from Google’s perspective. With backlinks and your website’s Google Analytics, your PR team can benchmark and track progress as to how the PR work is impacting web traffic to your site.
While ad value equivalency and media impressions were once the holy grail of PR measurement, these two metrics have since largely fallen out of favor. They are a “holdover over from print” and no longer accurate, according to PRWeek. Though impressions can tell you how many viewed and an article from a circulation perspective it fails to tell you how many times a physical article was passed around, how an article has been featured and circulated on social media, how long a viewer stays on an article and more.
Share of Voice: Share of voice, which should be included in the comprehensive metrics above, deserves a shout out of its own here as a key measure as it can offer a company critical insight into their own media footprint as it compares to their competitors.
The term share of voice denotes a measurement that encompasses a company’s print, radio, broadcast and podcast presence, as well as its online mentions and website traffic, among other factors. Share of voice is measured with a calculation of a company’s mentions divided by total market measures.
At Kimball Hughes PR, we’ve seen tremendous success for our clients in terms of growing share of voice via a strategic PR campaign. In fact, after one year of a PR engagement with our team, one of our clients saw their share of voice increase from just under 10% to more than 75% compared to their competitors. In addition to posting thoughtful press releases in tandem with the client, we accomplished this by leveraging insight from the client’s leadership team, by telling stories about relatable personal interests, tapping into industry trends and more to get in front of their key audiences in print, online, via broadcast and streaming platforms, via podcasts, blogs and more. Further, once these pieces of content were published, we provided recommendations and suggested messaging to amplify the article’s reach through social media.
New Business Origination and Leads: While these tools are helpful, as mentioned at the top, one of the best ways to measure PR success, is through a client’s new business wins after the prospect has read their insight in earned media coordinated by your PR team. There, you see PR’s direct link to sales.
No doubt, new tools will be introduced in the months and years to come to better measure PR success. In the meantime, be patient and open to considering multiple metrics in evaluating the success of your PR campaign.
Well, once again to the dismay of my three teenage sons, I won the family March Madness NCAA basketball bracket. We’ll just say I do not follow college basketball like they do, but please know that I didn’t pick solely on uniform colors or schools I’ve visited.
One topic I do have a better handle on than my boys is business jargon. This year, Kimball Hughes Public Relations thought it might be fun to explore some of the more over-used business jargon and build a bracket of sorts in the spirit of March Madness. The former journalists and word wizards on our team sure had fun with it. Afterall, as professional communicators, these are words we’d like to see used minimally, if not completely boxed out from content.
Confusing the Point
According to the Harvard Business Review, jargon exists in workplaces because it can reinforce a shared identity, assist in fast and accurate communications among particular groups, as well as to quench an individual’s desire for professional status.
Prospects and clients want to understand what your company does. They do not want to be frustrated by jargon and buzz words strung together. Afterall, doesn’t your company do more than create integrated solutions that optimize efficiencies, drive alignment and build synergies with an omnichannel approach, all while connecting with ecosystems that align with core competencies?
Placing phrases on an About Us page, on a press release or in another piece of content peppered with heavy jargon could lead the client or prospect to leave the page out of frustration, misunderstand your products and services or decide to completely disengage with your company.
Geoff Keast, VP of Sales and INSTANDA, raised an interesting point in a recent interview on insurance jargon with PropertyCasualty360. He noted that when agents or insurers use jargon, the average insurance policyholder does not understand, they run the danger of leaving clients and prospects feeling as though they are being deliberately tricked. In other words, the overuse of jargon can lead to distrust.
Further, Keast noted that in the world of insurance, certain jargon could be doing the industry a disservice. For example, he pointed out that the often-used insurance term “premium” could leave one to interpret that they’ll be paying a higher-than-normal price for the product or services, when a premium in insurance is simply an insurance payment.
Writing Slam Dunk Messaging
At Kimball Hughes PR, our final four business jargon terms included core competency, integrated solutions, North Star and synergy, with my vote to position integrated solutions atop that list. The term integrated solutions can certainly sound impressive, but if the content doesn’t explain the type of solutions a company provides and how they can benefit me or my business, what value do those business buzz words really hold?
Other words that made our list are terms we all easily recognize including: alignment, bandwidth, ecosystem, efficiencies, engagement, KPI, leverage, omni channel, psychographics, optimize, scale and viral.
Don’t get me wrong, these terms are essential for business communications. We simply used this amusing exercise to have a little fun and point out this fact: allowing your messaging to get lost in jargon can lead to an airball for your team, missing your key target audience.
Business jargon can and should be used in business communications, but it should not be your only play. For a winning communications strategy, consider:
Reviewing your copy for jargon and ensuring that what you are trying to say can be clearly understood by any member of your target audience.
Rereading any jargon to ensure it will not mislead readers or be misinterpreted.
Sharing the copy with an outsider and asking them to explain what is written.
Flagging identified overuse of jargon and exploring alternative ways to convey the same thought. (Finding fresh ways to explain what you do or to share key messages can help set you apart from the competition.)
Defining jargon terms that could confuse readers upon first reference on the word.
Finally, to ensure your communication fits your audience and conveys your key messages clearly and accurately, consider talking to a communications specialist or engaging a PR agency – preferably one staffed by former journalists or a proven team of writers. Good communicators will find the right words to tell your story in a way that resonates with your audience and delivers results.
Giving your public relations team a seat at the table early in a situation can mean the difference between successfully navigating a potential reputational crisis and falling victim to embarrassing, costly and ruinous public backlash against your brand via social media and the press. One just needs to look at the now nearly infamous Kyte Baby incident, where CEO Ying Liu delivered a cringe-worthy and awkward TikTok apology in January, to see how harmful it truly can be to fail to consider strategic counsel from a seasoned PR advisor. This was in response to the company’s termination of an employee’s request to work remotely while her adopted newborn was in a neonatal intensive care unit.
While the underlying issue at Kyte Baby seemed connected to parental leave policies, the decision was viewed by consumers as antithetical to the company’s mission and values. Under the title of Kyte Cares, the company’s website reads in part: “At Kyte Baby, we have dedicated our company to helping babies and families find comfort for more than a decade … we understand the importance of family and recognize parents’ vital role in nurturing and supporting their families.”
The controversary swirled as enthusiastic fans of Kyte Baby’s products learned of the employee’s termination and complained to the company and online. Ironically, it was Liu’s awkward and stilted apology that brought the company out of the shadows of social media and made headlines around the world.
A Failure of Consideration
It would be a mistake to discount Liu or her decision as ill-considered. She is a working mother and entrepreneur who also happens to hold a doctorate in economics. Also, the tone of her original video apology, where she asked the employee in question to forgive “how her parental leave policy was communicated and handled,” would imply she was advised on how to respond.
What happened was a failure of consideration. A failure to consider what the decision to terminate would say about the company, and a failure to consider how Liu’s response to public backlash would be presented and received by that public.
If there was a PR professional advising her to act as she did, that person should be fired. If there was no PR professional advising Liu alongside of the company’s attorneys, then the fault lies squarely with Liu and the company’s fundamental inability to live its mission in a way its loyal customers might expect.
My guess, and it is only a guess, is this matter was seen as a legal issue and addressed accordingly. What it lacked was someone in the room, steeped in the brand’s mission and reputation, who would have played devil’s advocate both on the decision to dismiss the employee as well as gaming out any potential blowback from the apology. Had a skilled PR professional been in the room from the start, Liu would have been advised on the optics of dismissing a new mom with a sick child from a company founded to help moms navigating health issues (skin conditions related to fabrics) among their young children. Further, had a skilled PR pro spoken to Liu when her original apology was scripted and planned for wide distribution on TikTok, Liu would have been strongly advised to take a different approach.
Instead, Liu made a decision that matched the company’s (then) policy on parental leave. Liu made a legally appropriate CEO decision to follow company policy but failed to be the empathetic mom who founded the company 10 years earlier to help other moms.
Why PR Needs a Seat at the Executive Table
Liu is only the latest example of organizational leaders – C-suite and others – who failed to look beyond policy or legalese. In the same month Kyte Baby made headlines, a former account executive for Cloudflare, an IT company, recorded and posted to social media a video of her termination over Zoom by two human resource professionals she had never met and who didn’t know her. That company’s CEO also went on a social media apology tour, calling the video “painful” to watch and noting the way the matter was handled was inappropriate.
Organizations large and small make mistakes. Having trusted counsel – both legal and others – consider and review decisions that can impact the brand is vital. Moreover, the rules governing the workplace have changed and continue to evolve. Not only are people making space for their work in their homes and having to integrate that work into their lives beyond 9-to-5, but we are also in an era where the aggrieved can turn to social media and expose former employers who act in bad faith – real or perceived – to a firestorm of negative publicity. And, frankly, a lot of organizational leaders are getting it wrong.
Having a communications professional as part of the decision matrix can help. Whether in-house or an outside consultant or agency, these are trained professionals whose jobs are to consider every decision, message, social media post and internal memo through the lens of the organization’s reputation. It’s an invaluable service when you consider the alternative: Kyte Baby is navigating an ongoing boycott while trying to share positive news about their new parental leave policies. Cloudflare blew up on social media for the wrong reasons and may struggle with recruitment of vital talent as a result.
Lawyers are excellent advisors. They protect their clients in the court of law. Public relations professionals focus on reputational threats and protect clients in the court of public opinion, which is where consumers tend to decide where and how to spend their money. Both must be in the room where decisions are made.
As a journalism major in college, I studied the inverted pyramid. It states that the most important details permeate the widest part of the pyramid, supporting details follow in the middle and supplemental information completes the tip of the upside-down pyramid. As a public relations professional, I know a well-written press release should follow a similar format — but I also know no press release, no matter how well written, should stand on its own.
So, what’s the scoop on press releases for 2024? Those that follow the inverted pyramid format as part of a strategic public relations campaign are still very much “in,” but, if released in a vacuum or poorly written, the press release is most definitely “out.”
This should not come as a surprise in 2024. The demise of the press release has been predicted, incorrectly, for years. Once a powerful, singular tool in the world of PR, the press release has become simply one of countless tools available to the profession. Deployed strategically and creatively, a well-written press release can still help to raise brand awareness.
The Press Release Myth
For many, the idea of public relations often begins and ends with a press release. It’s not that simple anymore. Most reporters receive hundreds of press releases daily and could easily overlook yours even if you pay big bucks to have the best-known PR agency around draft and distribute it.
The truth is you need a continuous effort with the media to build credibility and a reputation as a valued resource among reporters and your audience at large. Journalists are in the business of reporting on news and taking deep dives into important trends; not promoting your company. To select you or your organization as a credible source, first journalists need to know your name. Secondly, they need to know you aren’t merely going to try to promote your product or service. The way journalists come to know these things is through continuous, relevant and topical outreach on subjects they cover and care about. This is the primary reason most PR professionals advise clients not to treat PR like a spigot, turning it off and on at will.
To accomplish all of this, you may use a press release here and there. But it should never be your default tactic, and it should only be used if you have genuine news or insight to announce. Instead, consider the press release as one useful tool in a communication strategy.
Maximizing the Press Release
So, how can a business owner get the most from a press release?
Press releases can offer value when announcing a business launch, new product, merger or acquisition, personnel change, etc. It should be relevant to the audiences you hope to reach and tell the reader the facts of what is happening with your business and leave the promotional language for the marketing and advertising folks. If the goal is establishing credibility among your audience, any hint of self-promotion will steer journalists — and increasingly more savvy news consumers — in the other direction.
Ultimately, business owners should not expect a press release alone to garner media attention. You need a broader campaign where reporters and other key audiences are receiving a steady stream of content on your brand whether through pitches to the media related to industry trends or current events, through content on company blogs, the company website or social media posts. Only with consistency will you build credibility and confidence in your leaders and your brand. Consider consulting with a PR agency to understand what approach might be best for your brand.
Best Practices
When a press release is determined to be a useful component of a broader communications strategy, it must be well-written to demonstrate that credibility. By taking care in your messaging and presentation, you are conveying that you take care in your product or service.
Consider these tips in drafting a good press release:
Think like a journalist — keep the inverted pyramid in mind, stick to the facts, and avoid promotion.
Announce your “news” up top.
Try to find a news hook or element of timeliness.
Keep the copy clean and tight.
Craft a compelling headline that sums up your news.
Consider partnering with a PR agency with former journalists on staff.
Issuing a press release as part of a comprehensive PR strategy can have several benefits including:
Boosting company search engine optimization, particularly if the release is picked up by multiple media outlets.
Serving as good introductory or reference material for reporters.
Providing useful fodder for marketing and other owned content sources.
Helping to build credibility and name recognition with a steady drumbeat of newsworthy and relevant releases, combined with other PR initiatives.
While the media landscape continues to change, the press release remains “in” and will continue to be a useful tool — for now. However, business owners should understand a press release, on its own, does not guarantee media coverage. When written well and thoughtfully distributed, it can be an effective component of a comprehensive PR strategy that can build brand trust and elevate your company in the eyes of reporters and customers.
Many of us appreciate starting the new calendar year with a clean slate and some helpful insights to make us more successful. Knowing what has changed and how to better navigate the world in our personal and professional lives certainly helps. And as is the trend at the start of each year in fashion, business and elsewhere, I wanted to share my perspective on what is in, and what is out, in terms of approaches to communication strategies in 2024:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
IN:Greater scrutiny of artificial intelligence (AI) and Generative AI.
If 2022 showed us what was possible with the birth of ChatGPT, 2023 showed us what was practical as litigation surrounding AI flourished, as noted in a Dec. 14, 2023 blog post by the law firm of Perkins Coie. Going forward, AI in strategic communications will be a resource, not a revolution, leading those who fail to recognize this shift into a world of trouble.
OUT:The idea of replacing communications professionals with AI — at least for now. Experimentation has shown us AI has yet to mature to the point where anything but mundane copy automation is possible. Even there, the risks of error, inaccuracy and legal jeopardy abound with AI in a lead content role.
Social Media
IN:LinkedIn as a force multiplier for your communications strategy.
For both for- and nonprofit organizations, LinkedIn has demonstrated that tailored, personal and insightful content is exactly what professionals are seeking. We are all looking to grow professionally, and LinkedIn has become the gold standard in social media for real-world advice, tips and lessons learned. The platform has also rolled out many tools with low entry barriers for organizations to use to support their communications goals.
OUT:X, formerly known as Twitter, for anything of practical use by businesses or nonprofits.
The platform has been on a downward slide in terms of relevance for years. With a fast-shrinking number of quality controls, advertisers and actual users, it will continue a steady slide into irrelevance barring a major turnaround which seems unlikely at the dawn of 2024.
Media Relations
IN:Continued consolidation and evolution in the media space.
The very definition of media outlet remains in flux as news publishers explore new platforms and models, while journalists themselves go entrepreneurial with newsletters, podcasts and streaming services.
OUT:Asking the question, “Who do you know at [media outlet name]?”
While media relations was once a field that relied on relationships to get a foot in the door, today’s journalists are driven by what stories grab eyeballs, regardless of who is pitching it. It is no longer (and, frankly, it has not been for a long while) who you know, but rather the quality of the story to be told and the PR professionals who best understand how to share that story with key journalists and/or outlets.
Messaging
IN:The continued march of pithy messaging to best engage and inform B2B and B2C consumers.
With millennials and Gen Z now in the majority of consumers and increasingly moving into management and entrepreneurial roles, organizations will need to appeal to these audiences by conveying brand personalities that showcase authenticity. Taking an infotainment approach — the combination of information and entertainment, even humor — has proved popular and impactful with these cohorts. However, great care must be taken to avoid unforced errors like the failed 2023 Snoop Dogg/Solo Stove marketing campaign.
OUT:Messaging that even hints at self-promotion.
From the journalists themselves to the feedback of their readers, the jury has come in and stakeholders are tired of being forced to endure a brand’s value proposition or product/service pitches disguised as news. Brands will need to find something relevant to say about the issues, trends and news impacting their audiences that does not center on what they can do or sell. This approach will be critical if they want to continue to maintain relevance with those audiences and the journalists who help them reach those audiences.
Content
IN: Succinct video messaging.
Consumers, as well as the media, are time starved. While video has helped drive increased engagement, the trend continues to move toward ever more brief videos whether it is explaining a concept, pitching a reporter or persuading audiences. Brands should be creating their own video library of short-form content on key topics and issues of greatest importance to their target audiences.
OUT:Long form owned content.
The 60-second video is dead; long live the 30-second video. Smart brands will continue to move away from long-form content on their owned channels (i.e., websites, social media, newsletters, etc.) and take advantage of low- and no-cost video and editing tools, as well as developing strategies to create and provide aggressively brief content that speaks to important trends and topics.
The pace of technology and information continues to gain speed. Smart brand and organizational leaders will recognize the importance of adapting to the preferences and needs of their target audiences while creating plans that leverage new ways of engaging audiences to ensure they maintain awareness and relevance among those who matter most to them.
Throughout my 20 years in public relations, I – and my colleagues – have found ourselves frequently playing clean-up after another public relations agency has failed to deliver what was promised to a client.
When I talk with organizations that have worked with PR agencies in the past, typically six out of 10 tell me the relationship ended badly. The reasons tend to fall into a few familiar categories:
Poor communication between the agency and the client
Frequent agency staff turnover
Meeting senior agency leaders at the pitch meeting, but only interacting with less-experienced agency personnel after the contracts are signed
Lack of alignment either on strategy, content, writing quality, values and personalities
Like any professional or personal relationship, there is likely a bit of blame to be had on both sides when an investment by both parties in achieving a successful public relations partnership fails.
However, in my experience, often these agency hiring misfires could have been avoided if the right questions had been asked in the agency screening process. Understanding who you are hiring and establishing shared expectations from the start can help ensure the relationship starts off as strongly as possible. To do so, there are five key questions I recommend asking your potential public relations agency during the screening process, including:
What distinguishes your agency from your competition?
Will you include former clients in your list of references that we can contact?
Who will serve as the account manager, and can we meet him or her before signing the agreement?
If the plan you create for us isn’t working out, what is your pivot strategy to ensure success?
Please describe your ideal working relationship with clients so we can level-set expectations both from our perspective and among the agency team.
Additional questions you should consider asking any public relations agency you might be looking to hire should include:
What kind of response time can I expect from your team to my emails, texts or phone calls?
If the account manager isn’t a member of senior leadership, what role will leadership play in the development and execution of our public relations plan?
What is your process for learning about our organization, and how long should we expect that process to take?
How will you help us prepare for any media interviews you might secure on our behalf?
Can we see samples of your writing relevant to our industry or organization type?
What kind of time commitment should we expect to make to ensure our work with the agency is a success?
Please describe the frequency and type of ongoing communication you expect to have with our organization throughout the engagement.
Asking the right questions will help you get a better sense of the agency you are potentially hiring as well as how they intend to engage with you.
Too many business and nonprofit leaders ask questions of public relations agencies that either cannot be answered in the initial pitch meeting or demonstrate a lack of understanding of how public relations works. In our next blog, we’ll cover questions you shouldn’t ask in these initial meetings if you want to be taken seriously while also making the most of the time you do have to evaluate if the agency at the table or on a video call is a good fit.
Remember, public relations is more than an investment of money. It’s one of time, effort and trust. Knowing what to ask will help ensure those you ultimately hire are worthy of that investment.
Have you ever wondered what really gets a brand on the front page of Google? For brands today, search engines are paramount to any successful marketing or public relations effort. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) employs a series of tactics to increase a brand’s visibility and ranking on search engines such as Google, Microsoft Bing, Facebook and Amazon, and it is one of the fundamental considerations of any marketing or public relations strategy.
SEO, however, doesn’t need to be a heavy lift. While there are a myriad of algorithmic factors that impact a brand’s search engine ranking, a few essential ranking factors allow brands to optimize their public relations efforts. Let’s look at how brands can leverage simple shifts in their content development process to improve their rankings and climb the search engine ladder.
Links: Links are critical in SEO because they tell the computer when people are visiting content. When creating content, consider linking back to relevant owned content such as blog posts on a similar topic, resource pages or other pages on your website that relate to the topic. Additionally, ensure there is a link to the website homepage placed in the post as a link (https://www.kimballpr.com/) rather than rich anchor text. It may be tempting to load up content with links, but this can be counterproductive. Brands should try to stick to three or four links at most. Doing otherwise may run the risk of triggering a spam or bot flag, which will ultimately hurt the brand’s SEO value.
Keywords: Brands can leverage the search engine habits of their audiences to help better target their content. Generally speaking, every audience has specific search engine habits, or keywords they look for, that can help brands identify what language to use in their content. Once a brand has identified what those keywords are they should strategically use those words throughout their article/blog/website, etc. These keywords will help the search engines identify what the content is about and send it toward the right audience. Brands should research what keywords will help them reach their audience, what they care about and what they are turning to search engines for, and use those keywords in the body, headline, URL and wherever else they naturally fit within the content. Similar to the note above about links, brands should avoid using too many keywords or “keyword stuffing” to avoid being flagged as spam.
Headlines: Keywords are not the only way brands can leverage the language of their content to raise their SEO rank and better target their audiences. When creating a headline for a piece of content, whether it be a blog, article or otherwise, brands should consider using strategic language. The headline is the first part of a piece of content a potential audience member sees and is vital in grabbing the attention of readers. With that in mind, brands should consider using pithy language, paired with targeted keywords to catch the eyes of readers. For example, using listed titles such as “top 3 reasons to use social media,” or pointing out an issue the content can help solve such as, “inflation is high: social media marketing can help,” will help catch the eye of the reader and entice them to engage with content.
Break Up Content: The format of the body of the content can be used to climb the SEO ladder as well. Once the headline captures the attention of the reader, the content of the article needs to keep their attention. There are strategic ways that brands can format their content to best engage readers. As mentioned above, placing keywords throughout the piece will help. It is also important to make the content attainable. Using straightforward, easy to read and plain language will help consumers understand what they are reading. The average individual in the U.S. reads at a 7th grade level, so keeping content at that level will help keep the reader engaged. In an increasingly digital age where attention spans are shorter, breaking up the content is key. Numbered or bulleted lists are the easiest way to format content in an attainable way. If content is not listable, shorter paragraphs will help readers feel as though they can consume and understand the content, whereas longer, meandering paragraphs will feel more daunting.
Leveraging Original Content
Of course, in order to incorporate the tactics listed above and climb the SEO ladder, an organization needs somewhere to place links, keywords and important information. This is where original content comes in. Original content can be anything from a blog or infographic on an organization’s website to an interview or thought leadership article printed under the byline of an organization’s subject matter expert (SME) in a reputable publication.
These types of original content can be broken into two categories: owned and earned. Owned content is content that an organization owns. They come up with the concept, have complete control of what goes into the content and put it on their website. Blog posts, infographics and more fall under the purview of owned content and allow organizations more control over what goes into the content regarding links and keywords. Earned content or earned media is content that an organization, or public relations agency partner, secures in a reputable publication, whether it be an industry trade publication or national business publication. Interviews and thought leadership articles fall under this definition. A good public relations partner will have established relationships with many of the editors of industry trade and national business publications and can help secure opportunities for interviews or articles in these publications. While owned content gives an organization more control over the content, earned content often gets more visibility, is often perceived as less biased and can help build or expand an organization’s reputation.
Regardless of whether the organization builds its content library in-house or through an agency partner, leveraging original content is the best way to incorporate SEO tactics into a brand’s content to boost their reputation on search engines.
SEO is a necessity for modern brands to exist in the age of the internet. When approaching the wide world of search engines, it is important to remember to play the long game as success is not achieved overnight. With a plan in place, brands can build up an online presence alongside a few strategic SEO practices that can help bring them to the forefront of search engine results over time.
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