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5 PR Tips to Help Your Company Thrive in 2024

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Strategic public relations plays a vital role in fostering positive relationships with key stakeholders, whether it is investors, customers, strategic partners, or employees. Getting the right message to the right audience is paramount to any successful outreach campaign.

Limited attention spans coupled with crowded marketplaces and platforms have made it difficult to effectively deliver value propositions. To help companies cut through the clutter and resonate with audiences, consider these five tips for developing and implementing successful communications strategies.

  • Streamline key messaging. Organizations are always competing for the same share of voice, whether it is aimed at customers or investors. Platforms are just too “noisy,” and messaging is not getting through, resulting in lost opportunities. Target audiences must be clearly defined along with extremely focused corresponding talking points to impact relevant stakeholders.
  • Engage influencer marketing. Once thought only for consumer products, influencers are developing sought-after b2b followings on a range of diverse topics, from AI to telecommunications. With the increasingly difficulty of earned media coverage, successful PR professionals are collaborating with these thought leaders for building corporate and brand awareness and engagement.
  • Don’t forget about corporate social responsibility. This is still relevant, especially since companies embracing ESG and CSR initiatives will be competitive leaders and drive long-term value creation. Deploying ESG and corporate social responsibility programs enhance corporate and brand reputation, as well as help drive tangible business opportunities.
  • Utilize data analytics and SEO. The ongoing shift toward digital platforms and SEO integration should be mainstays to any corporate communications program. From improved visibility to lead generation, optimized content – organic and paid – attracts traffic to  websites and helps organizations achieve greater ROI.
  • Leverage non-traditional channels. Organizations should think outside the box to identify PR opportunities. Product placement tie-ins and even realty television may be applicable for certain brands and companies. Retail investing also has surged in popularity. A range of high-traffic platforms that cater to individual investors have emerged and are actively on the lookout for new investment ideas.

Investing in strategic public relations builds credibility, trust and brand reputation through effective storytelling. Shaping smarter and more targeted narratives cultivates strong relationships with key stakeholders that achieve real results, from building awareness to enhancing shareholder value.

George Medici, gmedici@pondel.com

Cutting Through the Clutter in 2022: 5 Tips for Better Listening

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Another year into the pandemic demonstrated yet again that more people are online.

According to Statista, 3.6 billion people worldwide were using social media last year, a number projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025. In the U.S., 82 percent of the populace have a social profile, up from 2 percent last year.

It’s also very crowded on social. About 500 million tweets are posted each day on Twitter. That’s about 200 billion tweets a year. And every day, 400+ hours of content are added to YouTube, which already has well over a billion videos.

The numbers are staggering. A recent blog post from SocialPilot titled “367 Social Media Statistics You Must Know in 2022” puts important social media usage trends into perspective.

Are brands and companies really listening to what people think and want?

All this may seem overwhelming for any brand or organization looking to develop an online social presence. A common mistake we find is that these companies usually do not do the necessary preliminary research: listening.

There’s a difference between social monitoring and social listening, although they work hand-in-hand. Data is pulled and analyzed to better understand a target audience so that effective messaging is used to help a company or brand stand out from what has become what seems like an infinite-amount of social posting.

But how does an organization get started? It’s not that complicated, really. There are lots of options. Here are a few suggestions:

Surveys. Any organization can use polling to glean key trends relevant to a company or brand. Surveys vary in cost depending on size, scope and the audience of respondents, whether they are consumers or CEOs. Asking insightful questions will produce even better results.

Media audits. Knowing a specific reporter won’t necessarily get a story published, but having good relationships with journalists may be used to get unbiased insight into a company, brand or trend. Obviously, this takes time but something to consider when developing press contacts. 

Investor perceptions audits. If a company is publicly traded, perception studies are a great way to learn what Wall Street really thinks about an equity. Interviews with shareholders and financial analysts, along with a review of press coverage and social media can yield valuable insights that create stronger narratives that can help address concerns and enhance valuations.

Google. There are other search engines, but all roads still lead to Google. Heck, it’s the Internet. There is an infinite amount of data that can be searched, categorized and indexed on practically any topic or subject matter. That said, it’s the Web, so proceed with caution.

Social media. To follow or be followed, that is the question. Perhaps in the context of this blog it may be the former. Social platforms are where brands engage with key audiences. A lot can be learned by just “sitting back” and listening to learn more about what people are saying about current issues. There are lots of social media tracking and monitoring software programs on the market. Be advised, however, that while many people are on social media, take into consideration silent majorities that may alter broad consensus.

There are many other tactics for obtaining important feedback. The key is to be creative, and most undertakings can be done under the proverbial radar with minimal cost. Adopting listening campaigns before the launch of any major marketing or communications campaign is a great first step to align proper messaging with goals and objectives.

And it’s not just for larger campaigns and initiatives, but for day-to-day communications as well.. Know thy customer, otherwise communicating may be an exercise in futility, especially in the super noisy world of social media. Better connect with consumers, investors, businesses, customers and partners by knowing what they want and what’s important to them, so that more on-point messaging can be crafted and implemented.

Studies suggest how effective talking points can increase positive responses. Better messaging means better results. A little listing can go a long away in 2022 and certainly beyond.

George Medici, gmedici@pondel.com

Is LinkedIn the New Facebook?

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LinkedIn these days seems to be less about posting “business” content and more around publishing selfies, memes and math puzzles.

Ironically, these Facebook-like posts generally get more traction. But all engagement is not always good engagement, just like all publicity is not always good publicity.

Interestingly enough, the Pew Research Center found that more workers ages 18-49 have discovered information on social media that lowered their professional opinion of a colleague, compared to those who garnered an improved estimation of a co-worker from online platforms. So, be careful what you post.

LinkedIn prides itself on “connecting the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.” What’s happened, however, is the line between “work” and “consumer” content has been blurred, causing LinkedIn professionals to lambast what they see as irrelevant posts, stating: “This is not Facebook!”

A recent post on LinkedIn.

A graphic that accompanied a post on LinkedIn.

The reality is that LinkedIn is competing with Facebook. Late last year, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network announced it was testing a feature that would let page administrators create job postings and receive applications from candidates. This undoubtedly will put pressure on LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions business, which comprised 65 percent of the company’s 3Q 2016 revenues.

With 467 million members in over 200 countries and territories, LinkedIn, now owned by Microsoft, is growing at a rate of more than two new members per second. This quails in comparison to Facebook’s 1.79 billion monthly active users, but the company’s growth shows more professionals see value in the platform.

So what does the future look like for LinkedIn? Consider the following:

  • LinkedIn will become an even more valuable business networking tool among business professionals, surpassing Pew’s estimate of the 14 percent of professionals who use the online platform for work-related purposes.
  • “Irrelevant” posts will continue, at least in the short term, but will have an adverse effect on those who publish non-related content.
  • Thoughtful, engaging and pertinent posts that resonate with key audiences will generate positive engagement.
  • Business organizations and individuals will learn how to leverage this network beyond recruitment and job searches.

Much can be said by the old adage “all work and no play …,” so it’s refreshing to see some brevity in our daily work lives. But these matters may be best suited for Facebook and not LinkedIn.

— George Medici, gmedici@pondel.com

 

And the Award Goes To…

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5 seconds of summerAustralian boy band Five Seconds of Summer recently won an award for “Best Fan Army” at the iHeart Music Awards. The award was not associated with any one of their songs, albums, concerts or music videos.  Instead, it was an award based on the group’s online social media engagement.

As I watched the band accept the award and thank their fans (with their Twitter moniker “@5sosFam” flashing across the screen), all I could think of was that somewhere out there was a PR pro doing a happy dance because they just helped the band win a music award.

A recent study conducted by Networked Insights found that a single tweet expressing the desire to see a film translated to the equivalent of $1,100 to $4,420 in additional box office revenue, depending upon how many weeks before the movie’s release the tweet is made.

Strategic PR employs a variety of tools to extend and expand awareness of a brand, product or person – from news releases to social media to media relations, but when was the last time you heard of a Golden Globe being awarded to an actor or director for the best original tweets or a J.D. Power award for best branded Facebook page for a car?

Social media and PR are not mutually exclusive. Engaging social media is a form of PR, and the more effective the social media engagement, the more personal and direct connection between the audience/consumer and the product idea or concept. While most older PR tools are unidirectional in promoting an idea or association with a brand, product or person, social media invites the intended audience to become an active participant in the dialogue, resulting in a multi-directional effort that can be self-perpetuating (for better or for worse). At its core, social media turns each of us into a PR powerhouse – through what we talk and post about on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media outlets.

As the Networked Insights study demonstrates, this can translate to real, measurable dollar value, and the possibility that sometime in the future, the Oscars could include an award for “Best Movie Fan Following.”

— E.E. Wang, ewang@pondel.com

Soft Intelligence and Social Media

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Cyber security and cyber threats abound, information security policies are now owned at the highest levels of a company from the C-suite to the board, according to EY’s 2013 Global Information Security Survey “Under Cyber Attack.” While companies seek to protect intellectual property and disruption caused by hackers, one area, as it relates to intelligence gathering by investors, deserves further attention: the oversharing of personal information on social networks.Linked-In

Today, social media use by institutional investors stands at approximately 52%, according to a NIRI survey earlier this summer. What I am noticing more and more in my daily conversations with investors is that social media seems to be emerging as a tool to get an edge on impending news, particularly as it relates to the broadcasting of new LinkedIn connections.

While tracking Facebook “likes” on emerging brands as a proxy for potential revenue growth or monitoring hiring trends or personnel departures from company LinkedIn pages to gauge near term expenses might seem an obvious use of social media to impact investment decisions, what might not seem so important is the innocuous LinkedIn request.

Following a roadshow or investor conference, management might receive a request to “connect” from an institutional investor. If the request is accepted, consider what that might mean going forward if new connections are then broadcast to that investor; it may very well tip your hand on impending news.

A quick fix would be to turn off LinkedIn activity broadcasts by visiting the privacy settings of your account. Longer term, it’s wise to consider a companywide policy.

Matt Sheldon, msheldon@pondel.com

Lights, Camera, Earnings!

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Traditionally, earnings calls have been a cut and (very) dry quarterly procedure. But with the emergence of social media and the SEC’s move to embrace them, following is a summer round up of how companies are finding new and creative ways to put a little pizazz into their calls.Yahoo Earnings Call

During Yahoo!’s most recent call, CEO Marissa Mayer and CFO Ken Goldman appeared on a high-quality streaming video webcast, answering questions from analysts who called in. The company also live-tweeted key messages from their corporate Twitter account.

Zillow made a splash with their call in early August as the first company to answer questions submitted live through Twitter and Facebook. Spencer Rascoff, Zillow’s CEO, answered questions from individual investors, as well as sell-side analysts.  Zillow also leveraged both Twitter and Facebook to tell their story visually, posting infographics with metrics that illustrated recent growth.

Like Yahoo!, Netflix participated in live streaming video, but they tweaked their approach to the Q&A session by moderating a panel discussion that included a member of the financial press and a covering sell-side analyst.   Questions were screened in advance for CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells.  The questions were also unattributed.

The jury is still out whether more companies will embrace video earnings calls in the near future.  But shareholders seem to like it. Approximately 70% said that compared with audio-only earnings webcasts, video webcasts of a company’s CEO inspire more trust, according to a Shareholder Confidence 365 Study that received responses from nearly 11,000 professional and individual investors.

The challenge is training management to feel comfortable in front of a camera.  After all, answering questions with a furrowed brow could have unintended consequences when it comes to instilling confidence in your shareholder base.  Same goes for too much powder!

Joanne Sibug, jsibug@pondel.com

Cashtag Blues

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Last summer, with relatively little fanfare, Twitter added clickable stock symbols to its tweets.
This is how it works: Add a “$” in front of a ticker symbol in Twitter’s search box and you’ll be able to engage in conversations about a particular company, similar to what would happen with a hashtag “#” followed by the name of your favorite pop star.

twitter
In social media circles, introducing the “cashtag” is yet another way to stimulate chatter among people
who are interested in a particular topic, such as public companies. But like all seemingly helpful social media tools, the cashtag may, in fact, send your stock tumbling down in 140 characters or less.  We recently observed such a scenario.

Shortly after market open on an otherwise average trading day, an anonymous tweet began surfacing about an FBI raid on a certain public company.  Soon the company’s trading volume began rising and its shares began
dropping, so much so that, as IR representatives for the company, Bloomberg called us to find out if the rumors on Twitter were true.  We confirmed that the rumors were false, and soon the stock corrected itself.

We later learned that the SEC opened an investigation on the tweeter for a possible “10b-5” infraction, which is when someone makes fraudulent claims in connection with the purchase or the
sale of a security.

Rumors surrounding public companies have been swirling about the Internet long before the cashtag, but this example serves as an important reminder that new information channels, carrying potentially market moving information, are reaching influential audiences at light speed.  And that means the onus will increasingly fall on investor relations professionals to ensure chirping birds are not making fraudulent claims.

 

— Evan Pondel, epondel@pondel.com

Social Media’s Global Growth

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The stats on social media’s global growth are staggering.  A graphic recently posted in Mashable.com illustrates how the world consumes social media.  And boy does it!

Facebook Logo

 
We all know that Facebook now has one billion users in 127 countries and is the top social media destination.  It’s also interesting to learn how countries and regions outside the U.S. are adopting social media like Asia, which has grown to more than one billion Internet users in a little more than ten years.
 
Or that 800 million users visit YouTube each month with more than 70 percent of the site’s traffic coming from outside the U.S.  In fact, 700 of these videos are shared via Twitter every minute.  Moreover, LinkedIn increased its membership nearly by half in the last two years with Turkey, Brazil and Indonesia seeing the largest user growth.
 
All this data can seem very overwhelming.  Even though the growth of social media seems to be a no brainer when it comes to global marketing, many executives still fail to grasp the opportunity.  Let’s be clear: social media is not slowing down anytime soon.
 
Not all social media platforms may be relevant for every business organization.  There is no one size fits all solution for tackling this new media landscape.  However, given the global economy and the opportunities social media presents, these new platforms can help organizations engage with consumers, customers, and even investors, all over the world.  It’s like six degrees of separation on steroids. The proof is in the data.
 
So, the world is consuming social media.  Are you?

 

— George Medici, gmedici@pondel.com
 
 

Video: The Next New Thing in Earnings

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We can’t stress enough the importance of video and its pervasive use in today’s media landscape.
 
Aside from the sharing benefits and vast potential online media pickup, video creates stronger bonds with key audiences.  It’s why we love movies so much.  There’s no other medium that produces the same visceral effect.
 
Publicly traded companies are starting to realize this trend.  Early adopters are using this medium to complement quarterly earnings, embedding video links in press releases as we did for our client (see above), Kirkland-based Market Leader, Inc. (Nasdaq: LEDR).  Done right, videos that accompany press releases of all kinds should be news driven versus corporate slick, delivering more authenticity that is designed for viral uptick.  Other companies that have used video for earnings include Dell, Citi, BASF, and InterContinental Hotels.
 
Leveraging video to communicate financial results can be quite daunting however, especially since these platforms are relatively new to investor audiences.   While the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations offers guidance on the use of social media for investment advisers, the bottom line boils down to best company judgment, and of course, input from counsel.
 
Professional investors are watching too.  According to a study, 58 percent of institutional investors and sell-side analysts in the U.S. and Europe believe new media will become more important in helping them make investment decisions.
 
There’s no doubt that using social media to communicate to investors remains a fairly prickly topic among CEOs and the investment community.  The reality is that more Fortune 500 companies are blogging, tweeting and utilizing new media platforms to communicate to key audiences in ways never before.  Moreover, engaging in video builds social capital, a valuable network that ultimately enhances reputation, and we believe shareholder value, too.

 

— George Medici, gmedici@pondel.com
 
 

It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your IR program is?

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Investor Relations

Investor Relations (source)

I’m not really asking where your IR program is in the geographic sense of the word.  I’m asking where your IR program is in terms of effectiveness.  Every once in a while, it’s good to take a step back and evaluate whether your strategies and tactics are still productive.

A recent webcast, based on a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters, demonstrated that in today’s world of “risk aversion, macro dominance, reduced focus on active equity and equity fund outflows,” getting your story heard can be very challenging.  An article in CFO Magazine echoed the sentiment that “the rockiness of the equity markets and the prevalence of high-frequency trading and exchange-traded funds make cultivating the investor base tougher than ever.”

Are you doing the right things to be appropriately noticed by the investment community?  Respondents from the Thomson Reuters survey noted that knowledge of the business and ability to answer questions, responsiveness and timelines, and financial guidance are among the most important facets of a good investor relations program.  Interestingly, however, a separate survey conducted by the National Investor Relations Institute showed that the number of companies providing financial guidance has steadily declined over the last several years, with 76 percent of companies providing financial guidance in 2012, compared with 81 percent in 2010 and 85 percent in 2009.

While there will never be full agreement between the investment community and listed companies on providing guidance, and while every investor relations program is unique, there are a few things that all IROs should consider:

  • Build trust with the investment community through consistency, transparency and willingness to engage.
  • Take an individualized, targeted and precise approach to identifying appropriate investors.  Spend time with these prospective investors through one-on-one meetings, at conferences or by hosting site visits and investor days.  Stress quality over quantity.
  • Ensure your messages help the investment community understand your growth path and its trajectory.
  • Use business and financial press as an additional communications vehicle.  Include video in press releases and on your IR website to generate better engagement by making your story come to life.
  • Be aware of what’s being said about your company via social media, and strategically use social media to deliver your messages.
  • While any worthwhile activity generally requires time and patience, the long-term result should be enhanced shareholder value.

— Laurie Berman, lberman@pondel.com