Consumers migrating to online editions from conventional media
By Bob Wheatley
In the recent W&T Media Trends consumer survey, consumers voted their preference for receiving news and information about products and services from online sources vs. conventional broadcast and print media.
Marketing PR strategies grounded in traditional print and broadcast media may fail to reach their intended goals to inform and engage consumers who increasingly prefer to get information from digital sources.
Online More Important Than Ever
• 61% of survey respondents said they prefer to receive news and information on new products online rather than through conventional platforms.
• Importantly, 61% also said over 80% of their daily consumption of product news and information resides in the digital world.
• The survey also revealed 73% of respondents believe editorial media (ie. newspaper and magazine web editions) is the most trusted source of new product information over blogs (16%) and brand-produced content (11%).
Media Adapts to New Consumer Behaviors
Importantly traditional media understand the migration to online is moving ahead unabated — and to retain audiences, more investment is being made in their digital presence and editions. As testimony to this development, TIME Inc. recently announced plans to publish online tablet versions of 21 of their top titles before the year is out. And 53% of survey respondents indicated they either already own a tablet computer or have plans to purchase one.
Implications for New Product Success
Digital convenience, comfort with screens, technology improvements and daily interaction with devices is changing the pattern for how consumers prefer their daily diet of news and information.
New product launch strategies weighted too heavily on media outreach to print versions of magazines and newspapers, or conventional broadcast, may miss the mark to interact with consumers where they are increasingly spending their time and attention.
Earned media outreach plans and programs should be optimized to push greater time and investment towards digital media platforms and editions.
Blogs and other “citizen journalist” outlets remain a vital part of the marketing mix, but should be viewed in context of their audience reach and should operate as an extension of media activity, not a replacement for online editions of mainstream editorial media. The cachet of the professional journalist/reporter still retains relevance and value.
A clear vision helps drive your career decisions and events
By Robert Wheatley
Here’s the next installment falling from an insightful and engaging conversation with Ron Culp and what can be gleaned from his experiences and path which represent guidance for anyone with some ambition to excel in the PR world.
As we segue to talk about his career moves and key moments along the continuum that opened doors and built opportunities, the “get involved” theme is pervasive. And it is a reference point for the entire conversation, so we will revisit it here.
Ron’s first piece of advice: be willing to make a geographic move. To be sure there’s some natural pull to stay close to home and family. But openness to a move also opens possibilities and doors. In Ron’s case his college experiences had brought to the front an intense interest in the political game. And his willingness to make a move from home territory in Indianapolis to Albany, New York for a post with the New York legislative assembly — It created the launch pad for the political experience he wanted and inevitably would need.
“I would not have been on Eli Lily’s radar screen if I hadn’t done it. So back to Indianapolis for a time. Next up was a big jump in title and responsibilities again by being open to a move to Connecticut with Pitney Bowes as PR chief and a chance to rub shoulders with New York-based media,” he said.
There’s an underlying condition here that should be flagged: a willingness to step outside your comfort zone and take some risks. No great thing can ever be accomplished without doing so.
The Pitney Bowes stint turned out to be mission critical for the next move – to Sara Lee. Critical because the search criteria Sara Lee was working off called for finding someone from the East Coast with New York media experience. “I was the perfect fit for them – a mid-westerner with New York credentials.”
Choices, choices, choices – time and how you spend it…
Lots of people – probably most people – go into careers with no network. In Ron’s case his “get involved” philosophy started early and became foundational for a life well spent. It is paying dividends 20, 30 years later. What’s the action step? Say yes. Raise your hand. Get involved. Seek out opportunities for extra-curricular activity.
“I’m on the Lincoln Park Zoo Board sitting together with the captains of industry here. These relationships matter now and will again in the future,” he reports. It is this eye always on the future ball that helps bring shape to decisions and steps and moves. What’s going on underneath all this is a larger goal – we’ll get to the reveal of what that is shortly.
From Sara Lee to Sears and then a complete departure from this client-side focus to agency life at Sard Verbinnen. Why you ask? “Because you need the experience of a consultant in order to become one,” Ron says. You see Ron wants to walk ultimately in the footsteps of another person he has known, respected and held in high regard: Jack Raymond – a business consultant who during the course of his storied career helped organizations understand the barriers to their success and how to make better decisions.
The move to the agency world provided that inside dig into the life of a consultant. We are advisors, strategists, soothsayers, analysts, creatives, idea people — also builders of programs and campaigns aimed at improving and growing the business and reputations of those we represent. Ron wants to be Jack. And now he has the pedigree to do it with substance and horsepower.
If we can distill Ron’s recipe into its core elements, a few key ingredients bubble up to the surface:
o You need to approach your choices and time decisions with a healthy dose of ambition
o You need to construct a thoughtful and considered path that is always forward looking
o There is an absence of fear here — A willingness to go outside the comfort zone
o Thus an ability to make the moves that will accommodate the purposeful path
o And supremely important, involvement in outside activities that leads to relationship creation
Keep the involvement going. Keep adding. Keep fueling. And keep your eye squarely on the target. As Ron can now say definitively: “Yes, I am now Jack.”
Ron Culp is a friend and former client of some 21 odd years. His personal story is remarkable. It is a teaching moment for anyone considering a career in the PR world. His blog, Culpwrit.com, is one of the most popular around among those looking to get their careers off the ground.
And here we are at the front end of another school term, perhaps the beginning of that all-important senior year for those ramping up to liftoff in the real world. So let’s explore some of the best advice you’ll ever hear on how to optimize that final season and get ready for the rest of your life.
Ron graciously consented to let me peel back the veneer and get closer in on the grist that helped propel his life through remarkable experiences as head of corporate communications at two the most iconic companies in the world – Sara Lee and Sears. From there he moved to the agency business running the Chicago office of financial and merger/acquisition specialist Sard Verbinnen and then moved on to Ketchum Public Relations as regional chief and head of its North American corporate practice. We will also bring you up to date on the dawn of the latest chapter in Part II.
So you may want to take notes. Here we go:
Ron landed on the fundamental point about college life, your life; any point in life – all you have is time and your choices about how to spend it. “The central marker of my college experience was involvement in extra-curricular activities. You can basically split your life between doing your studies and managing your social life. Or you can follow a slightly different path,” he said. In Ron’s case, with dramatic results connected to his choices. His point is simple but profound — you can choose to be passive or really active. It’s a clear choice. A conscious decision.
In our business contacts and relationships matter, and Ron started developing his connections while in school. “I’m still hearing from people in my network that began in the college years. Just today I received a text from a guy I went to school with who 40 years later wanted to convey an opportunity I might be interested in.”
What was the Ron model?
o President of his dorm
o Editor of the campus newspaper
o Statewide chair of the College Republicans group
o Student member of the School Board of Trustees
o And through this connection involved in other University committees
Chief takeaway – this decision set in place a life-long devotion to raising your hand, saying yes and getting involved. The benefits are tangible and compelling – career altering in fact. Ron claims the social life can be woven through all of these activities and thus it’s not just a singular slavish focus on nose to grind stone.
But make no mistake this habit of his was a deal maker for a future filled with great opportunity. “As you can imagine through my school paper experience, I’m interviewing the Mayor. I’m meeting the Gubernatorial candidates during an election. I enjoyed being in that space because I was interested in politics and thought it might lead me in that direction. It did.”
What’s going on here? Can you see the theme? Ron secures meaning, enjoyment, interest that fuels his passions FROM his involvement in all these activities beyond the classroom. To be sure it was purposeful. He’s a purposeful guy. The advice: get involved – no, really involved. All you have is time. How you invest it will make the difference later in where you get to go, what you get to do.
Tomorrow’s post will bring a focus on Ron’s career choices and key moments along the path that helped shape his trajectory. Stand by for more.
A few weeks ago, someone sent me this satirical take on Mel Gibson’s movie, The Man Without a Face, cleverly titled “The Man Without a Facebook”.
I have a confession. I’m…“untaggable”.
You got it – I’m not on Facebook.
I know what you’re thinking. In today’s PR world, it’s our job to be connected. And, I consider myself to be pretty savvy when it comes to the digital realm and emerging trends.
I doled out more that $400 to be a part of “history” by purchasing the first generation iPhone, joined Twitter back in 2008, way before Twitter was cool, was one of the first 300,000 people to join Foursquare and was one of the lucky ones to get a Google+ invite.
Let’s get back to the age-old question, why am I not on Facebook? It’s pretty simple. When I was in college and Facebook was invite only, I didn’t understand why my peers would put all their personal information online for everyone to see. Personally, I’m not an over-sharer – and, honestly, I don’t want to see photos of people getting crazy on the weekends, on vacation or otherwise. And, honestly, do you really care about seeing photos of my family reunion? Didn’t think so.
Recently, I’ve had several conversations with people who tell me they wish they were no longer on Facebook. They’ve said it’s gone from being a place where they could be themselves and keep in touch with their friends, to being connected with family members, which, for them takes away from the idea of the social network. Maybe this is why Facebook saw so many people jump ship in May.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Facebook has some really great qualities; it’s just not for me. It’s disconcerting that more and more people rely on communicating via Facebook versus interacting with people in real life. What’s wrong with spending quality time with a friend or family member?
What about you? How has Facebook or other social media platforms changed your relationships and how you communicated with others?
Where does superior work come from in the PR and marketing communications field? Ok, so you say the work comes out of the heads of talented people. To be sure. But what separates the players from the posers? How do some people take their careers and business solutions to higher levels while others just mark their time “executing the project”?
We all think of super successful professional athletes and musicians or actors as people with incredible talent. Born that way maybe? Physically designed for success in their chosen field in some way? Lucky even? Maybe not. Read on.
The Brains Business…
In the PR and marketing game, we live in an intellectual property world informed by big ideas and remarkable insights. Certainly at the academic level there’s specific training in communications, public relations and marketing that helps fill the brain with understanding how these tools and disciplines work. But as said earlier some will succeed on higher levels down the line.
How can PR people achieve at the top levels? What separates the best from less than that? Is it luck? Ingrained talent? IQ scores? Contacts and relationships? No truer words were ever spoken on this earth than “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.” And therein lies the start of understanding the path to better performances. And nowhere is this better illustrated than by example from one of the most successful rock bands of all time, The Beatles.
Fab Four Fame an Act of God, Force of Nature or Sheer Luck?
In his fabulous book, Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell dissects success and achievement, blowing away the myths of fate and born-with-it talent that seems to pave the way for superstardom in one’s chosen field. The Beatles it turns out were a living example of what Gladwell calls the 10,000-hour rule. The band, formed in 1957 in Liverpool, was unremarkable in its early days. Until, a club owner in Hamburg, Germany signed them up to play over a period of years in a setting that is absolutely remarkable for one thing: the Clubs were open 24 hours. The band played seven days a week, often for 5 to 6 hours a day or more.
Over a two-year period, The Beatles played 1,200 times. Most bands don’t even secure that much on-stage performance experience in the course of a career. They played non-stop thus having to learn extraordinary amounts of material. They played, and played, and played. Outcome: the enormous amount of work put in forged a band with incredible skill sets. Gladwell’s conclusion: what separates the major winners from also-rans is at least 10,000 hours of focus and dedication to learning, growing and doing in ones field. Mastery is achieved when the effort put in is exceptional and extraordinary. Anything less and mastery is virtually impossible to secure.
How does this play out in PR?
Study, study, study and then study some more. Know everything about your client’s business and category. Read every publication you can get your hands on related to our field and practice generally. Feed your head through a continued effort to draw from the best minds in the marketing and communications field.
How do you leap ahead of “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know”? By making the communications and brand-building world an avocation as much as it is an occupation. Study, absorb, listen, read and focus your efforts on learning. Write and publish in our field – writing by the way is an essential practice (we’re story tellers) and one that you get better at only by doing. The more you know about a business and the competitors and the consumer who buys, the more creative and strategic the solutions get.
Out-sized ideas are not accidents, they are the outcome knowing, studying, digging deep to get your arms around the grist of what drives a business and what stands in the way of its growth.
As you work to expand what you know and understand about communication, human behavior and brand creation, the more clients will believe you have something special to offer. Programs get better, more creative. Your ability to help solve more problems grows exponentially.
How can you get to your 10,000 hours more quickly? Sorry there’s no way around it. Hard work followed by more of the same.
Your brand as expert in third-party content key to completing media picture
By Robert Wheatley
Ok, you’re doing business in a high involvement category like pet care, or you’re competing in a business where you’ve found a relevant issue or passion your consumers truly care about — like childcare products and addressing the parenting advice needs of new moms and dads.
You want to take advantage of the vast capabilities social networks provide along with other digital channels to publish, to inform, to give your brand a voice as a trusted source of education and information on topics that matter to your best customers.
Curating — another step along the path…
To be sure optimizing earned, owned, shared and paid channels is critical to taking a holistic approach to communication – one that recognizes the consumer is truly in control of the relationship and we need to be present where and when they choose to engage.
That said there’s another and equally compelling arena for engagement that truly helps complete the picture on the road to becoming more valuable and enticing as a trusted, useful source.
This story in the Chicago Tribune charts the sea change in the pet care category as super-premium diets gain traction and consumers increasingly see their pets as family. So behaviorally they’re working over-time to understand the finer points of pet nutrition. There’s just so much to learn for so many sources. Who can make sense of it?
Savvy pet care brands can help. You can help too in your category. How? Curate the third party info out there.
The Internet presents itself as a gigantic and perhaps infinite library and broadcaster of material, information, media and advice. Brands can play an invaluable role to help separate wheat from chaff in the overwhelming landslide of this content — and in doing so bring the best of third party media forward in an organized, easy-to-consume way.
The goal: be an expert and respected tour guide in subject areas that matter to the relevant lifestyle passions and interests of your core consumers. Simply said don’t just publish exciting original content but also edit the abundance that’s already out there from other credible sources.
Add context to the content…
There’s more to it than simply aggregating a portfolio of blogs, articles and broadcasts. Add context and commentary that helps layer on a sense of meaning, direction, guidance and interpretation. This is what a trusted source does: separate the useful from the not so and then add color and value to the most relevant material out there.
After all, your brand is an “expert” in its category, right? Who better to help sift through and identify the best and then provide it to your fans and followers. Just another way to add greater value — to matter — in the relationship you’re working tirelessly to build with consumers and stakeholders.
In the most recent issue of ADWEEK we find an article about the iconic and revered media fashion bible Vogue magazine, and its new Influencer Network of 1,000 women bloggers who have some form of sway with fashionistas in the fashion world.
So a highly respected media property recognizes the power of self-appointed fashion experts and works to align itself with this incremental and important cog in the marketing wheel. The Influencer network of course is accessible to the magazine’s advertisers. And according to ADWEEK the panel members are not paid. Very important and thus credibility maintained. They are asked to provide “feedback” on everything from new product concepts to fashion collections and new campaign materials. And encouraged to talk about products in their networks.
Some time ago we developed a rough approximation of this phenomena and called it the Circle of Influence. Influence matters greatly – to traction of messaging, to credibility, to awareness, to driving word of mouth, to trial and ultimately to sales growth.
Here’s the nuance that matters: Collaboration with bloggers and experts…
Forging a deeper relationship that goes beyond treating the blogger media channel as simply that, another channel of media. Take Neiman Marcus for example. In their NM Daily maga-blog, they recently ran a post featuring photos and links to fashion bloggers they know and respect who wore the season’s new hot color pink – a trend condition thus verified through the involvement of bloggers on the topic.
So what does this mean to you? In a nutshell, it means working to create a closer-in connection and collegial relationship with the most respected bloggers and experts in your category. Not just reaching out to inform them of new products and other initiatives. We’re talking about investment and infrastructure.
Bloggers are media so access to news and information before it hits the mainstream is meaningful. Giving them the opportunity to try, sample and experience new products, new marketing platforms before they go live are important. Seeking out their opinions and views on new programs and campaigns helps make them insiders. Inviting them to your offices for visits, tours and meetings helps build the rapport.
How do you define who matters? Here are some tips to identify the best of the best:
1. Cross platform engagement: the most savvy bloggers and experts (who usually are also bloggers) spread their work across multiple platforms including email, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
2. Passion and strength of voice: you can tell by reading their work, the frequency of the posts, the due diligence done to unearth new information, whether you’re dealing with a poser or a passionate expert.
3. Audience: numbers are useful as verification tools but should not be treated as the determining metric. Quality of the editorial product needs to be weighed with this. Look for linking with other leading experts and those who actively engage with commentary in other blogs.
4. Quote-able source: bloggers who rate higher in the influence arena are also quote-able sources in mainstream channels and online editions of conventional media properties. It’s a measure of their value and power when traditional channels look to them for comment.
5. Compatibility: you know your brand’s voice, it’s point of view in the marketplace. Does the blogger share your sensibilities? More likely the relationship will prosper if you find yourselves frequently on the same side of the opinion fence. Doesn’t mean you need to agree 100% of the time, just more often than not.
Relationships matter and our advice is this: treat these important constituents like your very best customers. Identify the top players and develop infrastructure to facilitate a close-in relationship. Consider embedding that relationship in our social media platforms, too.
Last Sunday was Father’s Day. And for the third year in a row, the family took me to Tabor Hill Winery’s great restaurant near our weekend home in southwest Michigan for a wonderful afternoon. It’s becoming a welcome ritual. A repeat performance – or in my case three-peat – as part of this annual Daddy Day celebration.
Can your brand and business benefit from working in and around, adopting or creating rituals? I think so.
A ritual is really a deep dive into repetitive behavior. What is it about rituals that are so satisfying? Perhaps most important of all are the good feelings, emotions and memories surrounding these experiences. In an uncertain age when all about us is in a state of constant upheaval, rituals can bring comfort, familiarity and satisfied expectations to life experiences. They are known, understood, predictable and perceived as events that consistently deliver a reliable outcome.
Rituals can be a force of habit. They can spring from activities we hold dear or enjoy in some way and thus are welcome additions to life’s routine.
Rituals come in various forms and flavors…
There’s the morning visit to Starbucks for a better coffee experience prior to tackling the day
Dieting and January
The annual beach vacation my close friends take every year on Nantucket
Spring cleaning season
Fourth of July family gatherings
Summer yard and gardening care
Thanksgiving at Grandma’s or holiday events generally
Fall fashion introductions and wardrobe makeovers
Super Bowl parties
Events, seasonal occasions, family, experiences, hobbies and personal passions – all reflect a sense of added value we place on ritual behavior – which many people hold in high esteem.
Barilla mines family time around the dinner table…
Barilla Pasta reveals a shining example of this principle at work in a brand’s effort to build added relevance, meaning and value to their core users. What’s the ritual? Family dinner together.
There’s real substance to go along with the concept. Food and conversation are like Oreos and cream filling – they belong together. Taking time to slow down and interact over a meal is a useful goal with a value proposition attached to it.
For a brand to creatively adopt this ritual-in-the-making shows insight and strategic thinking at its finest in a project that puts their product at the center of a mission to help family members get closer to one another.
The engaging voice this gives the brand on relevant topics is compelling. Sustainable. Campaign-able. Emotional. Relevant. Interesting. Intrinsically important.
At home I am the family chef. I enjoy cooking. I have a passion for it. And my four-year old daughter Peach is getting interested in helping Daddy do his thing at the counter top. I can think of nothing more satisfying than getting her involved with me, with food. Maybe a ritual in the making? Who knows.
So what’s going on here? Brands that work to help enable these lifestyle events and interests create a path for constructing a closer relationship with their users. Of “mattering” if you will.
Sure you can go along and operate without making the effort and keeping the relationship down at the transactional level. But think of the possibilities over time when you interact with consumers at a deeper place where emotional ties and fabric are formed? More exciting, more effective I think.
I love my two Newfoundland’s Goliath and Olympus. I care about them. I enjoy being with them, drool and all. But you know who loves them even more than me? Dr. Marty Becker, perhaps the most famous of all Veterinarians in America and certainly one of the most visible, knowledgeable pet care experts on the planet. He’s a regular contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America and the Dr. Oz Show.
Does he know my two black behemoths? No. But this man genuinely cares about animals and their health and welfare like a passionate preacher cares for his flock.
Dr. Becker’s book-tour-on-a-rock ‘n roll bus steered into Chicago recently for an appearance at the Bloomingdale PETCO store. The book signing sandwiched between various media interviews and a nice helping on the side of warm greetings and hugs with his many fans and acquaintances. He’s on a national tour to promote a his new book “Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual” – perhaps the best book of its kind – to provide innovative, creative and practical guidance for pet parents in caring for their four-legged family members.
I ran out to Bloomingdale on a mission to chat with Marty about FOUND (I’m on the Board), the unique Chicago-based animal rescue organization that focuses on the most extreme cases of abuse and health problems – those animals who will be put down if not treated with the transformational care and therapies at FOUND. I arrived early but no matter, from the moment I set foot in the parking lot and walked up to Marty to say hello, admirers from near and far were at hand.
It’s great to be loved and clearly he is. His warmth and accessibility made for instant rapport and inclusion for all who approached. More importantly his affinity for the four-legged fans was obvious and apparent. And thus why his book will do well. It’s the authenticity and passion that drives this man and thus his ability to exude from every pore the innate sense of trust people gravitate to.
He’s also pretty good at creating handles for pet care ideas and short cuts such that the rest of us will remembers his suggestions on improved wellness, nutrition and training. (Watch the ABC7 interview link above).
I digress. This blog is about marketing and communications best practices and you can see it here in the seamless integration of experience (bus tour) combined with media appearances (earned media this credible awareness) and wrapped within an outstanding social media presence where conversation meets content brilliantly. Marty knows that helping people is how you build relationships and achieve success in the longer run.
Social media is not about a transactional mentality to strict adherence to product feature and benefit messaging. Rather its about being genuinely helpful and providing information that’s relevant to people and their lifestyles. Pet ownership by the way, is absolutely a lifestyle. So with passion and purpose Marty populates his book launch campaign with useful information, genuine caring, up-close conversation and a strong measure of media savvy. It takes hard work and obviously Marty is up for it. Then again why wouldn’t he when it’s obviously his life’s mission.
Bravo. By the way, Marty’s bus was previously rolling on the Lady GaGa tour. Lots of strategically placed mirrors. What fun…
Ok, so what’s an editorial voice and why does it matter? If you’re exploring the role of content marketing (brand produced media content) in the mix of your communications efforts, then editorial voice is job one in helping you define the best practices to position your brand as a trusted source.
In a recent edition of AdWeek magazine some important facts emerged: 27 million pieces of online content are shared daily. 23 percent of social media messages contain links to content. There are brands in virtually every consumer category now looking for the right path to more productively activate their presence in social media channels. Fundamental to that goal is creating and offering compelling content that serves as the fuel to drive and activate social engagement.
So it’s no surprise brand owned content is rapidly gaining traction as a rising star in the marketing arsenal. Back in the day brands looked at media as something you bought. Today brands ARE media – publishers and producers of video and narrative content that operates in the same way as conventional media to reach, engage, educate and sometimes purely entertain your best customers.
But this is unlike the media proposition most CMOs are used to. It is not advertising. And shouldn’t be handled as such. It is closer in many respects to the tenets and principles of editorial media and reporting – the province of PR. News has always thrived no matter if its investigative or soft feature oriented, based on its relevance, value and credibility as a reliable source of interesting information. Even as brands acquire the tools to become publishers and producers, the same rules apply: you must first be a trusted source. And that’s as much in the saying as it is in the doing.
What’s the key to making all this work? Finding your editorial voice.
It is hard for businesses to do this internally. The skill sets and needs require a blend of editorial savvy, experience AND creativity. Consumers recognize a voice that is pure promotion from one that is meant to inform, teach, advise, explain or entertain. And its not that easy – you can’t bore your audience into engagement either.
Public relations has been viewed and defined for decades as a discipline focused on knowledge of the news media, reporting principles and access to this credible and powerful channel of communication. To be sure there’s more going on in the PR discipline than publicity. But for the most part, the outside world quickly “goes there” when looking at the value proposition for PR in the mix of communications tools for businesses and brands.
Now that same expertise and capability you reached for to get into the newspaper, magazine or TV program, is coming to the fore as best-in-class creators of content published by brands in social channels.
Editorial voice is about how messages are crafted and presented. Whether in narrative or video form yes, it MUST BE entertaining and interesting but it also can’t feel like a sales pitch.
Here are the essential keys to doing this right:
Editorial calendar
Put some infrastructure underneath this effort to think and operate like a traditional media organization. From quarter to quarter, what topics will you cover that will be of interest to your consumers? Build an editorial calendar to shape this content schedule and help you focus on tasks required to produce it.
Deploying outside expert voices
Outside experts bring added cachet to the table, respect and credibility to what’s being said. Trust is key here to success and can be helped along by routinely using outside experts as quote-able sources. The brand gets instant rub-off benefits of reliability when respected third parties are involved in the content you develop.
Reportorial approach
Don’t pitch, inform. Start a conversation. Speak with not at. Yes authority is useful and important but the editorial voice doesn’t cross the line into overt selling. It’s an unselfish form of communication that springs from businesses that truly care about their customers and thus want to become a relevant part of their lifestyles.
Emerging trends
“You heard it here first.” Well if not first then at least early in. Start the discussion on emerging trends. Become a valued source on information about subjects that impact your consumer’s lifestyle.
Frequency matters
What’s the shelf life of a newspaper? One day and then it lines the cat box. Similarly news and content should be constantly in a state of evolution and change. New episodes, articles, interviews. Keep it fresh. Short lead media like blogs can be supplemented with long-lead material like e-zines, webinars and e-books. Mid-stream content in the form of video and podcasts should be considered in context of where these mediums most benefit the story telling.
Aggregate and curate
Bring in and showcase other outside sources of content you know are relevant and offer it up to your audience of brand fans. Again your objective is to be a respected and trusted source and thus a reason to be generous in recognizing other work from other places that is meaningful.
PR lives in the editorial space and understands how to create messaging that conveys information in this way. The great news: the end product is nonetheless a controlled message. Its delivery is assured. And the platforms where it exists are measurable in every way. What is your responsibility though to make this work successfully? First find and retain your editorial voice.
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