Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Tag: PR

  • Data and the art of Public Relations

    Data and the art of Public Relations

    The Public Relations industry has been mismeasured and undervalued, believes Rebekah Iliff, the Chief Strategy Officer of PR analytics company AirPR.

    San Francisco based AirPR is an analytics company founded in 2011 on technology tracking the performance of PR campaigns. Despite being relatively young, the business counts among its customers Fortune 1000 companies such as Rackspace, Experian and the New York Stock Exchange.

    Analysing stories

    The idea behind AirPR is by analysing the responses to stories, be they articles in mainstream media sites, social media posts or the client’s own content, PR people are able to get a much better insight into what is working in the marketplace.

    “You can no longer just throw out a PR campaign and say ‘oh, we got 200 million impressions.’ No CEO is going to buy that,” says Iliff. “You’re going to have to have deep data that you can dive into and then report the things that are going to work.”

    Part of the reason PR is failing, Iliff believes, is because practitioners are only making decisions on ten to twenty per cent of the data they have. To make the most of the information they have available involves a rethink on how companies get their message out to the community.

    Shifting PR thinking

    “We’re trying to shift people from thinking about PR in a linear fashion to get into thinking about it in a networked fashion. A really good PR strategy or narrative looks like a spider web, there’s all these things connected to each other.”

    Making those connections is creating a new set of demands on the PR industry as new tools and communications methods evolve.

    “The PR professionals of the future who are be best placed to be successful will be the ones who take an interest in the analytics, who understand how to talk about so they can improve the storytelling.”

    Stopping the pitching

    In Iliff’s view part of the PR industry’s problems lie with how new entrants are taught is how to pitch to journalists, rather than to evaluate what works for their clients. “The second someone comes into an agency on a green level they should be bought into the analytics conversation and be taught how to measure it.”

    “Instead they are taught ‘your job is to create storylines and pitch to journalists’, which by the way ninety percent of what you pitch no-one’s going to return because it’s irrelevant.” She says.

    “Journalists give you credibility and they’re a third party endorsement but they can’t tell the story the way you want to tell it. There’s a disconnect between the role of journalist is, the role of the journalist is not to sell to your customers, the role of the journalist is to tell the story from an objective viewpoint that puts you in the context of where you fit in the industry. I don’t think people get that.”

    “You should be writing the story, following it through and understanding the metrics around it so you can go back and create a better story. It’s like that connective tissue between parts of PR instead of siloing.”

    Breaking the data silos

    The siloing of the analytics functions of PR and marketing remains a problem for the industry as well, Iliff stays and her advice to communications professionals entering the fields is to understand the data aspects.

    “Get a Google Analytics certification, it’s very simple to do,” she states. “Take a couple of Coursera courses on basic statistics and how to analyse data – what’s the difference between prescriptive, descriptive and predictive data – very simple things that if you know how to talk about so you can have a discussion with the engineers.”

    As the media industry evolves as it becomes even harder to pitch to fewer journalists working for a shrinking number of traditional outlets, Iliff thinks the future for the PR industry is with making its own content.

    Focusing on owned media

    “I think in the next five years a lot of things will change because of a couple of things, one is that we have access to data so owned media programs will become stronger for the people who are focusing on it and it will become a huge component in driving leads and sales. So people will stop spending so much time pitching.”

    “Things like owned media will be used in a more comprehensive and compelling manner to offset a lot of the things that aren’t working on the earned marketing side.”

    “My hope is that brands just hire an internal storyteller like Dell has done and Adobe has done and HP to tell you the story and connect with their customers. That’s the closest point between A and B.”

    Taking PR seriously

    Ultimately Iliff believes PRs will be taken more seriously in business is if they show they can use the data they have to show companies how to more effectively communicate.

    “The only way you’re going to get a seat at the table, the only way you’re going to be taken seriously, is if you have data and you have the most relevant data.”

    With data analytics reshaping most industries, it’s hard to see how the PR sector can resist those fundamental changes. How public relations practitioners apply that knowledge to their work is going to be key to their relevance in the business of the future.

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  • Building the world’s biggest small software company

    Building the world’s biggest small software company

    “The next day I quit my job. I remember walking home that night and thinking I felt incredibly privileged to be living right at this point and I was going to see how the internet would unfold.”

    Jørn Lyseggen, the founder and CEO of media monitoring service Meltwater, was describing his first encounter with Netscape 2.0 in 1995 while working on artificial intelligence at the Norwegian Computer Centre.

    Today, Meltwater has 1,100 employees in 41 cities across 21 counties and Jørn spoke to Decoding the New Economy in the company’s San Francisco head office last week.

    Having quit his job as a researcher, Jørn became what he describes as ‘an Internet evangelist’ in the early days of the Norwegian web and founded a series of online businesses including Norway’s first web mall.

    The fourth business Jørn set up was Meltwater which they originally operated out of a shed in a disused shipyard, Shack 15. “We got free office space from one of my former clients,” he recalls. The old customer also gave them 25 old computers which they patched together to become the company’s first server farm.

    Building the world’s smallest software company

    “Our aspiration originally was to create the world’s smallest software company,” recalls Jørn. “We wanted to be four engineers creating the most sophisticated technology in our industry then we would sign up resellers then sit back and watch our revenue go through the roof.”

    At the time media monitoring was largely made up of clipping services that would hire armies of contractor to physically cut and paste newspaper articles.

    “What we wanted to do was build software that could keep track of everything that was published online,” Jørn explains. “When news started to come onto the internet then you could start to analysie it automatically. We thought there would be a better way to do this with algorithms and software.”

    The best laid plans

    It turned out however the plans to have a small software company didn’t work out. “We poured our heart into our technology for the first year and then we got really excited when we signed up two really respected resellers in the Norwegian market.

    “They presented to 1500 companies, which is a really big number in Norway, and the results were devastating with 1499 ‘no’s and one maybe.”

    For Meltwater’s founders it was a time for re-evaluating the idea. “That was a pivotal point in the company as we had to ask ‘is this a business?’. What we realised was that we were too focused on the technology and what clients are really worried about at the end of the day are the pain points.”

    “Once we did that switch we started to get business and then we grew very quickly so instead of being the smallest software company in the world we set out to become the biggest in our industry.”

    Going global

    From there the spread across Northern Europe and the UK, “every time you start up in a new country it’s like starting a new company.” Jørn ruminates. Strangely it was Germany that proved to be the most difficult to break into. “It’s counterintuitive, you’d think the shared culture would make it easy for a Norwegian company. It wasn’t.”

    The big move though was the United States, on the basis that any company with global aspirations has to be in the world’s biggest market. “Norway is a small country, we used to joke there are bus stops in New York with a bigger population than Norway.”

    Jørn was surprised to find the US was an easy market to break into than the United Kingdom or Germany, “I love their open mindedness and the welcoming factor of the US culture,” he smiles.

    “They are very open minded in the US, it’s a strength in their culture. In the US if you present something interesting to them they’ll accept it. The flip side is if they are open minded to you then they’ll be open minded to your competitors.”

    Hiring as a key factor

    Choosing the right people is the key to business success Jørn believes, with local hires being essential when expanding into foreign markets, “You need some local credibility.”

    More importantly though is the importance of getting the right people early in the life of a startup business, “It’s all about culture.” He states, “make the first five to ten people the base for your platform.”

    Having the right people also made it easier for his management team to delegate as executives focused on the international expansion. “We’ve got really smart young people working here, they don’t miss me when I’m not around,” he smiles.

    Romanticising startups

    “Back in the day it was considered you started a company because you couldn’t get a job,” Jørn laughs. “I’m the first to encourage entrepreneurship but it worries me when it becomes trendy.”

    “It’s important that entrepreneurship doesn’t become too romanticised. Because it’s really hard work and most startups fail and most people have to work for years while barely getting by financially and it’s high stress”

    “I never saw myself as a business person,” Jørn remembers. “I had a healthy scepticism to the commercial world, that’s why I became a research scientist because I thought it was a better use of my time.”

    Becoming an entrepreneur

    However the revelation of Netscape 2.0 changed all that, “it really blew my mind,” he grins as he recalls how he decided “the best way to be part of this was to be in my own business.”

    Building your own business though is not an easy process and there’s tough decisions to be made. Jørn though believes that the hardest times running your own business are not when cash is tight but when the tough decisions have to be made, “sometimes you have to make calles that are challenging.”

    For Jørn, he only sees more exciting times ahead as the internet evolves, “social is still in its early stage. A lot of companies struggle and worry that they haven’t figured it out, but the truth is most people haven’t figured it out.”

    Paul travelled to San Francisco as a guest of Oracle

     

     

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  • They won’t respect you in the morning

    They won’t respect you in the morning

    So after five years about posting about food, travel, tech, fashion or reverse cycle widgets you’ve being listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the most influential voices in the field.

    Now every morning in your inbox is another pitch from an agency offering you freebies and access in return for posting about their clients products, some are great while others are strange.

    Welcome to the world of Influencer Programs, a strange hybrid bought about by rise of social media and the collapse of printed news. As overwhelmed salaried journalists at established media outlets have less time to deal with hundreds of PR people desperately trying to get their attention, those with decent social media followings start to look attractive.

    The influencer theory

    A key part of the PRs strategy in engaging with social media outlets are the influencer programs, where the agencies trawl Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and the other services to find those with large followings and then try to induce them into promoting their clients’ products.

    These influencer programs are not anything new, while today we associate them with Kim Kardashian and Will.I.Am, in the 18th  Century Josiah Wedgwood publicised his sales to the royal courts of Europe to generate sales for his earthenware and a hundred years later Mark Twain endorsed cigars in journals across America.

    So congratulations on being the modern Mark Twain, now you have to decide if you want to play with Fat Fee Media and be part of their influencer programs.

    The land of the free

    Most of the time the initial approach from the nice folks at Fat Fee will try to get you to work for free in exchange for a shiny laptop, a free feed or even an overseas trip to The World Reverse Cycle Widgets conference.

    That might work for you, if you have a full time job and the food blog or fashion Instagram feed is a hobby then this exactly what the influencer programs were originally designed around although there might be some quirks there

    Should the blog be a business, or you take the distinctly unfashionable attitude that your time as a creative content creator is actually worth something that Fat Fee Media should pay for, then things get messy.

    People die of exposure

    The first response for payment from the nice folk at Fat Fee Media is that working with their client will be wonderful exposure for you.

    In some respects this is probably true, however the reason Fat Fee Media has come to you is because their clients need exposure more than you do. Just the fact you’ve been listed as an ‘influencer’ shows you have credibility on the interwebs.

    One of the traps many of us with consulting businesses on the side is the belief that doing a favour for BigCorp will open future paid opportunities. Sadly, the truth is somewhat different.

    Pay the writer

    “It’s the amateurs who make it tough for the professionals” says Harlen Ellison in his wonderful Pay The Writer rant. “By what logic do you call me and ask me to work for nothing.”

    Ellison’s point is well made and those working for free are marked down as amateurs by the large agencies. Be under no illusion, when the paid consulting, speaking or writing gigs become available, the folks giving away stuff for free on the influencer programs won’t be getting them.

    The world of control freaks

    Another aspect of the influencer program world is the sheer control freakery. The gold standard for this was Samsung’s infamous Mob!lers Program where the South Korean company threatened to strand a group of Indian bloggers in Berlin if they didn’t act as unpaid company spruikers.

    While Samsung’s behaviour was extreme, it’s by no means unusual. It’s common in these programs’ agreements to have ‘exclusivity’ or ‘no disparagement’ clauses.

    The exclusivity clauses are particularly pernicious because they limit the scope of your writing and could even lock you out of future paid work in the industry you cover.

    Controlling the copy

    Another weird, but common, part of the PR control freakery in influencer programs is the determination to vet everything so only Nice Things are said about their clients.

    This never ends well as the agency and its client spend the next six weeks rewriting your work. Inevitably the results look like something published in the Ministry of Public Works house newsletter.

    Even if your blog or Instagram feed is just a hobby resist any request from agencies to pre-vet your copy. If they insist, send them your advertising rate card and tell them to hire a copywriter.

    You can’t say bad things

    The ‘non-disparagement’ clauses are equally pernicious. One of the curiosities of the social media world is that corporates are horribly risk averse.

    As a consequence they don’t want the possibility of bloggers or the Twitterati saying nasty things about them and the non-disparagement clause becomes part of almost any agreement.

    These clauses are usually far ranging, not only do they stipulate a blogger can’t say something less than glowing in a post but they also restrict any social media commentary on that business.

    A recent agreement I was presented on behalf of one of the world’s biggest banks required me to say I wouldn’t say anything nasty about them. This is a curious way of shutting people up but one can’t blame them if it can be done cheaply for the cost of a meal or conference invite.

    Happy shiny people

    Ultimately the social media and digital media worlds are about happy and shiny. Given they are largely controlled by large corporations, this isn’t surprising and much of the attitude that you shouldn’t say bad things online comes down to how food, fashion and travel bloggers have regurgitated nice things rather than been genuine critics.

    To be fair to the new breed of online writers, the dumbing down of travel and food writing was well underway in the mainstream media before the arrival of the internet. One could argue that mastheads devaluing their brand with puff pieces was one of the reasons alternative online media, particularly in food blogging, became so successful so fast.

    A broken model

    In truth, the whole social media engagement industry is broken, it depends on poor measurements and old school marketers applying 1960s Mad Men broadcasting methods to an industry that’s diffuse and diverse.

    Over time, new more effective models will develop but the for the moment this is the way business is done as we wait for the new David Sarnoff.

    Ultimately for influencers the question is whether you’ll keep your own respect and that of your audience. Just don’t expect the corporates and their agencies to respect you in the morning.

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  • PR lessons from Uber

    PR lessons from Uber

    The debacle of Uber’s management proposing to threaten journalists drags on and is becoming a classic case of what not to do during a public relations crisis as the company and its supporters continue to make matter worse for themselves.

    What’s notable about the hole Uber finds itself in is that it didn’t need to be there; a bit of maturity and commonsense, not to mention knowing when to shut up, would have helped avoid this self inflicted wound to the business.

    Much of the damage done by the story could have been avoided by following a few simple steps.

    Stop digging

    One of life’s key rules is when you find yourself in a hole then the first step to getting out is to stop digging. When the critics are loud, shut up and take a breather. Instead of exacerbating problems, step back, have a think and, if necessary, get some professional help.

    Have some perspective

    The most fundamental attribute for managers and owners is not to take criticism too seriously; there are always critics and letting them consume your daily lives is counterproductive and ultimately destructive as Richard Nixon would attest.

    Usually in business the critics aren’t diminishing you as a person, in most cases they are making observations about your company’s economic model or its actions in the marketplace. If you’re taking criticism too personally, it might be time for a holiday.

    Just because someone is criticising you, it doesn’t mean they are in the pay of your competitors or part of the socialist-masonic-jewish-illumaniti conspiracy to get you, they may actually your best friends and even have a point.

    Your business priorities

    How do these criticisms affect your ambitions for your business? If Sarah Lacy thinks you’re a bunch of misogynist scumballs, does it matter? Often the critics don’t matter to your business as they are a different group to your customers, investors or staff.

    Is there merit?

    A key question when confronted with criticism should be ‘is there merit to this?’ Before threatening to smear or sue those pointing out your business’ shortcoming it’s good to have a look to see if the critics do have a point about what you’re doing wrong.

    Fix the problem

    Should it turn out the critics do have a problem, then fix it. Should it turn out your business has a toxic bro’ culture then fire a few of the toxic bros and hire some people with the backbone to fix the problem.

    Be open about things

    If the criticisms are legitimate, then acknowledge them and be open about how you’re going to fix them. Some critics won’t be satisfied but that’s part of life, you won’t keep everyone happy.

    For those critics who will be happy, admitting you’ve made mistakes and are working on fixing the problems will win more fans and supporters. People love a bit of humility and it probably doesn’t hurt for managers to be a bit humble.

    On the other hand, it might be that some of your critics do genuinely hate you, are in the pay of your competitors or part of the Illuminati conspiracy. In which case, use facts and stand your ground. In the battle for public opinion, having the facts on your side always gives you the advantage.

    Personally attacking your critics though is always a mistake and, as Nixon found, smearing them turns out to be a mistake. Life is too short and time in running a growing business too scarce to be consumed by hate. Get over it and move on.

    Get professional help

    In Uber’s case it appears their managers have been frantically calling their buddies to help out — this hasn’t helped and has probably exacerbated an already heated environment. A good professional PR adviser or reputation management company will know how to at least ease the pressure if not completely defuse the situation.

    Regardless of how good the PR adviser are though, ultimately a business’ good name comes from its management and how the company behaves. This where Uber has to take more care as it becomes a global giant.

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  • Keep it short and snappy

    Keep it short and snappy

    “Charts are our version of cat videos” says Kevin Delaney, co-founder of the Quartz news website, in an interview with Richard Edelman, president and CEO of the Edelman PR Agency.

    Keep stories short and snappy or long and in-depth with Delany seeing 500 to 800 words as being a ‘dead zone’ for online stories. Interestingly, Edelman’s piece comes in at 760 words.

    In future, I’ll be keeping blog posts either very short or extremely long on this site.

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