It’s no secret that corporate initiatives lacking management support are destined to flame out. That’s why visibility in the C-suite for public relations activities is so critical. CEO awareness is especially important, since they set the company’s strategic direction and typically work with the CFO to approve the allocation of resources.
Many CEOs view proactive public relations campaigns as “nice to have”, rather than essential to ensure the success of the business. It’s understandable as the ROI can be fuzzy. However, it’s important for CEOs to recognize that the increased awareness and credibility generated from public relations creates an environment in which a company can more successfully execute its plan. Ultimately, people do business with, work for, invest in and partner with companies they know and trust. PR is about building familiarity and trust.
For corporate communications professionals and their agency partners, an ongoing dialogue with the CEO is a must. It ensures the program supports the direction of the business by continually assessing and sharing results and return delivered to the company.
Recently, PR Week magazine, in partnership with Burson Marsteller, polled 144 CEOs on their views about public relations. The results were interesting:
--More than 85 percent believe it is important for the CEO to be perceived as an influencer in their respective industry, as well as with internal audiences.
--Public relations was most often cited by CEOs for its positive impact on: brand awareness, monitoring and enhancing corporate reputation, and increasing sales. Surprisingly, categories rarely identified as benefiting from a PR program were enhancing corporate valuation and attracting talent.
--The PR activities CEOs most often engage in include: speaking at conferences, meeting with industry and financial analysts, conducting media interviews, and authoring op-eds or bylined articles.
--Only 37 percent said writing a blog was a worthwhile PR activity.
--Fortune magazine is the most influential media as its 100 Best Companies to Work For and Most Admired Companies ranked tops on the CEO wish list.
December 2, 2007, 7:09 pm
CEOs Talk PR
Posted by jeffM
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November 1, 2007, 12:24 am
Local Media Sway
Real estate is defined by location. Consider the housing market. While national research and trends may be of interest to you, local property values in your neighborhood likely have the most immediate value.
Like real estate, much news is driven locally. National business, financial and trade journalists maintain their influence (especially in technology and B2B). However, you might be surprised by the sway of your local community newspaper.
At Strategic Communications Group (Strategic), we consistently tap local media to support our clients’ business goals. Here are some best practices we’ve developed during the past decade you may find useful:
1. Target geographies with a high density of customers. When mobile marketing start-up Acuity Mobile began to rev up sales, we took our media outreach to the Big Apple. That’s because New York City is the center of advertising with thousands of ad and interactive agency executives herding each morning into subway cars.
We Know Where You Are, Now Shop
amNY.com
http://www.acuitymobile.com/docs/AMNYAcuity10172007.pdf
2. Enhance the effectiveness of your employee recruitment and retention efforts. Connect with this audience by promoting your culture and growth strategy in the media they and their families turn to for news of the neighborhood. For WAM!NET Government Services, we delivered media results that helped the company bring on board more than 100 Cisco-certified engineers to work at military bases across the country.
Military Subcontractor Adds to Technical Staff
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
http://starbulletin.com/2003/04/24/business/index3.html
3. Speak to your corporate success with local context. Government integrator Stanley (NYSE: SXE) has delivered high quality, professional services in support of the State Department’s Passport program. To continue to demonstrate its qualifications, the company worked with Strategic to tell its story through a grassroots approach.
Officials: New Passport Center Will Ease Backlog
Northwest Arkansas Local News
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/06/14/news/061507arpasspor
t.txt
Like real estate, much news is driven locally. National business, financial and trade journalists maintain their influence (especially in technology and B2B). However, you might be surprised by the sway of your local community newspaper.
At Strategic Communications Group (Strategic), we consistently tap local media to support our clients’ business goals. Here are some best practices we’ve developed during the past decade you may find useful:
1. Target geographies with a high density of customers. When mobile marketing start-up Acuity Mobile began to rev up sales, we took our media outreach to the Big Apple. That’s because New York City is the center of advertising with thousands of ad and interactive agency executives herding each morning into subway cars.
We Know Where You Are, Now Shop
amNY.com
http://www.acuitymobile.com/docs/AMNYAcuity10172007.pdf
2. Enhance the effectiveness of your employee recruitment and retention efforts. Connect with this audience by promoting your culture and growth strategy in the media they and their families turn to for news of the neighborhood. For WAM!NET Government Services, we delivered media results that helped the company bring on board more than 100 Cisco-certified engineers to work at military bases across the country.
Military Subcontractor Adds to Technical Staff
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
http://starbulletin.com/2003/04/24/business/index3.html
3. Speak to your corporate success with local context. Government integrator Stanley (NYSE: SXE) has delivered high quality, professional services in support of the State Department’s Passport program. To continue to demonstrate its qualifications, the company worked with Strategic to tell its story through a grassroots approach.
Officials: New Passport Center Will Ease Backlog
Northwest Arkansas Local News
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/06/14/news/061507arpasspor
t.txt
Posted by jeffM
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October 9, 2007, 8:14 pm
The Errant Dot Com Path
EBay’s write down of its Skype acquisition got me thinking about my 11th grade history class. While I remember little from Mr. Griffin’s lectures, I do vividly recall his poster of 18th century British philosopher Edmund Burke with the quote: “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) representation of clients in the technology, software, telecom, network, security and systems integration markets now spans more than a decade. In that time, we’ve seen a myriad of trends come, go and re-emerge. With each cycle come the press, pundits, entrepreneurs and investors who proclaim their lessons learned will sharpen future thinking and decision-making.
The dot-com bust of a mere six years ago was particularly painful. Strategic hyped its fair share of companies destined for the scrap heap, including a provider of piano lessons over the Web and a company attempting to turn the computer screen saver into a delivery medium for content. (Yes…a Gartner analyst pointed out during a briefing that the screen saver pops on only when the user is away from the computer.)
It’s comical now. Yet management, employees and investors of those poorly constructed companies spent many an afternoon dreaming of IPO millions. It was argued the rules of business had changed. Revenue was an afterthought. Business benchmarks were defined by attracting eyeballs, building buzz and closing that next round of capital.
EBay’s acknowledgement that it overpaid for Skype to the tune of $1B-plus is reminiscent of those dot-com days gone by. Well-respected analyst Greg Sterling told the NY Times, “Right after the bust, people started focusing on business models and revenue. There has been a little bit of departure on that, with a focus on building the biggest audience and figuring that revenues will follow. That is the attitude that has prevailed over the last couple years, and it may not be sound.”
I do understand the desire to attract eyeballs or build a social community. It’s a lot easier than having to win a customer and run a profitable business. It’s also easy to become enthralled by the reported $10B valuation Facebook will likely secure in its next round of funding.
However, business is ultimately about increasing revenue, profitability and valuation over time. Those benchmarks are intertwined and it takes a proven product, a solid business model and a lot of hard work to achieve them. We’ve been down the errant path of eyeballs and community before. And I bet you Edmund Burke could tell you where it will eventually lead.
Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) representation of clients in the technology, software, telecom, network, security and systems integration markets now spans more than a decade. In that time, we’ve seen a myriad of trends come, go and re-emerge. With each cycle come the press, pundits, entrepreneurs and investors who proclaim their lessons learned will sharpen future thinking and decision-making.
The dot-com bust of a mere six years ago was particularly painful. Strategic hyped its fair share of companies destined for the scrap heap, including a provider of piano lessons over the Web and a company attempting to turn the computer screen saver into a delivery medium for content. (Yes…a Gartner analyst pointed out during a briefing that the screen saver pops on only when the user is away from the computer.)
It’s comical now. Yet management, employees and investors of those poorly constructed companies spent many an afternoon dreaming of IPO millions. It was argued the rules of business had changed. Revenue was an afterthought. Business benchmarks were defined by attracting eyeballs, building buzz and closing that next round of capital.
EBay’s acknowledgement that it overpaid for Skype to the tune of $1B-plus is reminiscent of those dot-com days gone by. Well-respected analyst Greg Sterling told the NY Times, “Right after the bust, people started focusing on business models and revenue. There has been a little bit of departure on that, with a focus on building the biggest audience and figuring that revenues will follow. That is the attitude that has prevailed over the last couple years, and it may not be sound.”
I do understand the desire to attract eyeballs or build a social community. It’s a lot easier than having to win a customer and run a profitable business. It’s also easy to become enthralled by the reported $10B valuation Facebook will likely secure in its next round of funding.
However, business is ultimately about increasing revenue, profitability and valuation over time. Those benchmarks are intertwined and it takes a proven product, a solid business model and a lot of hard work to achieve them. We’ve been down the errant path of eyeballs and community before. And I bet you Edmund Burke could tell you where it will eventually lead.
