By Linda Forrest
In today’s instalment of my series about the various components of an integrated PR program, I will talk a little bit about awards.
Publications and conferences have award programs that invite companies that are active in their sectors to nominate themselves for awards. Other awards programs select the nominees and winners based on set criteria, or are selected by esteemed judges and the companies vying for the award have no input or sway in whether they are considered for the award.
How award programs work and the benefits derived from winning such an award can vary widely.
Some awards submissions cost a considerable amount of money in order to even submit a nomination for consideration. In my opinion, any award that you’re paying for is not likely to hold much sway with your prospects as the value is diminished when it’s easily determined that the distinction was bought and paid for.
Nominations themselves can consist of simply a form filled out by a company representative or be as in-depth as requiring support letters and recommendations as well as extensive company documentation. For those private companies preparing complicated nominations, be cognizant of whether the submission process requires you to divulge your financial statements and if so, consider whether the value that would be derived from winning is worth providing your competitors with your company’s revenue and sales data.
Just as preparing a roadmap for editorial calendars and speaking opportunities is helpful for determining your planning horizon, so to is including a nomination schedule for awards. Keep an eye on when submissions are due and what components you’ll need to gather and manage your time accordingly.
Awards for which the winners are selected by expert judges, without the influence of the company itself, are of the most value as they’re entirely impartial and the product or company can legitimately consider their win as signifying that they are genuine leaders in the area for which they’re being recognized. The submission process is easiest too, as no action is required until if and when you’ve already won and the awards organizers are looking to build out profile for collateral or coverage in the associated publication.
Once you’ve won an award, it’s a good idea to publicize it in the form of a news release and a link on your web site. This not only increases your search engine results but also can provide useful ammunition to any prospects that are deliberating on whether to buy your solution. Sometimes the fact that your company or product is award winning can seal the deal as it offers third party validation and will help them sell it up the decision-making chain internally.
By Jill Pyle
Late last year, Linda wrote a primer on editorial calendars. If you are unfamiliar with editorial calendars, you should take a few minutes to read her post.
Although they are put together predominantly by advertising departments looking to focus advertising spends from particular market segments in specific issues, editorial calendars can also provide PR practitioners with a good indication of the types of content the publications are interested in featuring. Depending on the kind of editorial coverage you are seeking, your research may uncover many seemingly relevant editorial calendar opportunities, or just a few. In great part, this will depend on the size of your media landscape, which essentially refers to the number and kinds of media that write about your business, customers, products or services.
To build a comprehensive list of editorial calendar opportunities, you should review the calendars made available by your Tier 1 media targets, those who you believe are likely to have an interest in your story and are the most influential in your space. Once you have done this, you can use an aggregator service like MyEdCals to fill in any blanks. Whatever you do, don’t rely on an aggregator service to do all the work for you. Many are not comprehensive enough and may contain errors.
Once you begin researching editorial calendar opportunities, you will notice many publications provide a very brief description of the stories they are planning to publish. The vague descriptions they offer leave many companies with a long list of editorial calendar opportunities to evaluate. Having a complete picture of the medias’ interest in a specific topic or set of topics can be beneficial, especially when working with customers in different verticals. However, few businesses have the resources necessary to pursue every editorial calendar opportunity that presents itself. Evaluation and prioritization is necessary.
When trying to decide which editorial calendar opportunities are worth investigating, it’s important to keep in mind your business objectives and any success metrics you have agreed upon with your public relations agency or internal team. Some opportunities may appear to be exactly what you are looking for but are in publications that are not typically read by your target audience. In other cases, the description of the opportunity may be very general, listing only “medical technology” or “business intelligence solutions” as the topic, but be in a publication that is widely read by your target audience. When trying to build mindshare in a specific location, geographical distribution may also be an important factor to consider.
The bottom line is that you should only dedicate resources to investigating editorial calendar opportunities that have the potential to move you closer towards meeting business objectives. As long as you have a clear sense of which media are the most influential in your space, selecting the right opportunities to investigate should not be difficult. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by a long list of publications planning to write about the topics that are important to your business. Focus on pursuing the kind of media coverage that will have the largest impact on your objectives and start the investigation process by going after the most high-value opportunities.
By inmedia
Late yesterday, Gawker purported to spill the beans on the secret to all good PR: a sandwich. The post’s author espoused the virtues of buying reporters lunch and building a face-to-face relationship, and that truly that face time is the secret to all good PR. While I won’t object to the value that’s derived from face-to-face meetings and relationships built, it’s a lot easier said than done when your key media targets are not just around the corner and able to meet up for lunch but instead are part of the global media marketplace, reporting from places as far afield as Hong Kong, Australia, the Netherlands, or throughout the U.S. as do some of our key targets for our clients. If we are truly talking to the correct targets and bringing them the components of our client’s story that they need and want, it’s that intersection of interest that results in positive coverage, not whether we’ve broken bread with the reporter.
By Francis Moran
itWorld Canada leads its morning news bulletin this morning with a story about a new initiative at technology-focused University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada — a so-called “dormcubator” that will see one of the school’s residences retooled to accommodate 70 students who, it is hoped, will collaborate on new ventures in web, mobile and digital media applications.
Many of the business people quoted in the story applaud the innovative move but caution that it will fail if the proper real-world mentorship is not offered along with the physical infrastructure. It’s a key observation that too many Canadian technology ventures, while brilliant in the development department, are inadequate in the management department.
I am encouraged that the new residence, which will be completed over the summer and begin its programming with the beginning of the new school year in September, has already accepted applicants from the arts, business and other non-technical disciplines. It takes more than just a brilliant idea to create a successful new company.
We’ll keep an eye on this initiative and let our readers know how it’s working.
By Danny Sullivan
In the world of the PR agency, you can never really achieve enough. The nature of the client-agency relationship dictates that clients will always demand more of their PR firm, even if it outperforms all expectations. And why not? It certainly keeps the agency on its toes and companies need to ensure that they continue to generate high value from their PR program. Still, for the PR practitioners working diligently day in and day out, it can sometimes feel like a lot of effort for little thanks. So how do PR folk stay positive in the face of seemingly insurmountable expectation?
For a start, good communication with clients is an important step. Even if the expectation remains tough, ongoing feedback, both positive and otherwise, ensures that the relationship is about more than just the results and helps the PR function to become a more integrated part of the client’s marketing mix. This is beneficial to both sides.
But in addition, PR agencies need to become internally aware of the value of what they are delivering for their clients, and it may require elements other than feedback to bring this perspective to bear.
Probably the most effective way to do this is through the setting of objectives. By establishing in advance with a client what kinds of results would constitute success, it is a simple process to then determine if what is being delivered meets those criteria. Even with set objectives, the client’s appetite for greater and improved results is likely to be undiminished, but the achievement of such objectives offers the PR worker an element of satisfaction that is as vital in this profession as it is in any other.
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Fiction: PR can’t be measured – Take 3
February 22, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran As part of my continuing series of Francis’s favourite PR fictions, subtitled “Everything I know that’s wrong about PR I learned from technology company executives,” I have written a couple of posts on PR measurement addressing the common myth that straight lines can’t be drawn between a company’s PR efforts and any […]
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Components of an integrated PR program: Speaking opportunities
February 22, 2008 by Linda Forrest
By Linda Forrest This blog post is part of a series on integrated PR programs. Last week, I wrote about bylined articles. Today, I would like to address speaking opportunities. Why should company representatives do speaking engagements? There are a number of good reasons for your company’s representatives to speak publicly – chief of which […]
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David Akin’s four biggest complaints about PR
February 21, 2008 by Jill Pyle
By Jill Pyle This morning, I attended CNW Group’s Breakfast and media event, The Changing Landscape of Canadian Media and the Increasing Role of the Web in News Reporting. During the one- hour session, David Akin, Parliamentary correspondent for CTV National News Ottawa, shared four complaints about the way he sees public relations being practiced […]
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Entrepreneurs should never retire, entrepreneur says
February 21, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran Self-described recidivist entrepreneur Misha Nossik says too many Ottawa technology entrepreneurs who succeed hit the beach and retire instead of hanging around to help nurture the next generation. Speaking at The Ottawa Network’s Start-up Drop-in yesterday evening, Nossik said the rest of the tech community should shun these guys.
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It’s not always about the proof points
February 19, 2008 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan If you are working in PR in today’s high-buzz technology media market, then you will be very aware of the requirement for proof points in order to secure quality media coverage. Gone are the days when an unproven company could announce a new product months or even years before it was available […]
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More bad news for the newsroom
February 15, 2008 by inmedia
By inmedia Further to Francis’s post about the demise of the Halifax Daily News, a post on Gawker yesterday shows that it’s not just smaller, local newspapers that are struggling. The New York Times announced that it will be cutting 100 newsroom positions this year. Which begs the question, where will the wealth of writing […]
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RIP, Halifax Daily News
February 14, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran The news earlier this week that Transcontinental Media was discontinuing publication of the Halifax Daily News was probably as inevitable as it was unfortunate for the 92 people who worked there. They joined scores of other newsroom and media workers who have been pink-slipped over the past little while in what is […]
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Components of an integrated PR program: Bylined articles
February 13, 2008 by Linda Forrest
By Linda Forrest Over the next few weeks, I would like to address individually some of the components of what we at inmedia consider to be an integrated public relations program. One of the sales challenges that we can face as an agency is shattering prospects’ perception that public relations consists solely of sending out […]
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