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Maria

The kind of story that persuades, inspires and influences others. The type that digs deep into your company’s ethos and reveals who you are, where you’re from, how you got started and what you stand for.

Storytelling connects us in an emotional way and brings us closer to the storyteller. It grabs peoples’ attention. Telling your story to a stakeholder – whether it be an employee, an investor or a customer – will help you to get them on your side.

Effective corporate storytelling is relevant, interesting and informative. It is authentic and encourages your audience to start conversations with each other and even with your brand directly.

So how do you find your story? Every business has dozens of stories to tell.  Here are some examples:

• Humble beginnings – Facebook started with a humble guy in a dorm room. Likewise, Steve Jobs began Apple with a big idea in a garage in suburban California.
• Customers who have overcome obstacles -Perhaps they were able to somehow leverage the internet to lobby for a product or company service change.
• Employee challenges – How did your employees thrive in face of adversity and what were their lessons learned? Perhaps they came together to buy an insolvent company and achieved great success.
• Inside the lives of leadership – What’s the inside scoop of your CEO? What goes on behind close doors?  Give people insight into who your leaders are as people.
• Community and charity partnerships – If you have any relationships with community organizations or charities, they can provide great stories as well.

What is the anatomy of a great story?   It’s the same stuff that goes into a great book.

• Introduction – A young man or woman with a dream, for example.  Start off the intro with emotional trigger words and adjectives, with something that really sets the stage for the rest of your story.
• Present the problem – If there is no conflict, it’s not going to be a good story.  People love to hear about a good problem!
• Introduce your characters – Your founders, employees, customers, partners, etc.   The more you can talk about them in a human and descriptive way, the better. You want your reader to identify with the characters in the story.
• A happy ending or solution – As you go through the problem and solution, it should resonate with your customers in way where they want to be connected to your company.

How to present your story

Storytelling has always been the best way to connect with people and the most powerful way to introduce new ideas.  Thanks to social media and the Internet, there are lots of different vehicles available for you to tell a story:

– video
– print collateral
– website / webinars / PowerPoints
– radio
– microsite or blog
– Social media: Twitter, FB , Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr

The next time you’re hunting for a good story to tell, remember the following:

• Find pictures, clever creative, and copy to get your story out using social media.
• Tell, don’t sell.  Everyone likes a good story; tell it to the right audience, at the right time.
• Even if your product or service doesn’t have an interesting angle or strong news value, there is always a human element available to a brand – founder stories, employee stories, etc.
• Have a strong call to action at the end of the story (that hopefully leads to sales).

Storytelling works.  Companies that aren’t able to tell their story are in big trouble. Get social and start telling your stories. You’ll become more agile, likeable and sociable….and probably successful. – Maria LoScerbo

This year, instead of creating a glossy, expensively printed annual report filled with dull content, the Calgary Zoo released the world’s first annual report entirely on Instagram.

The annual report copy was formatted to fit Instagram’s style sheet, and the result is a one-of-a-kind, shareable and environmentally-conscious insight into zoo life.

The on screen format allows for a much richer media experience with interactivity and eye-catching images. At the same time, the organization was able to demonstrate the Zoo’s message about conservation.

This is a great example of how an annual report can be an opportunity to express an organization’s achievements in a clear and engaging way to employees, shareholders and other stakeholders.

It also shows how forward thinking communicators can use annual reports as a PR opportunity to summarize a client’s yearly activity beyond the numbers, facts and figures and include more colourful information about corporate culture, community relations and social activities.

Another example: The folks at the Amazon Conservation Association decided to create an annual report as a comic strip masterpiece entitled: The Los Amigos Moore Project Final Report, NON-BORING VERSION

The comic was produced with an application that turns photos into illustrations. This annual report probably took a lot of time to produce but everyone involved likely enjoyed the process and it’s another inspiring example for the rest of us on how to be more creative with annual reports.

One final example: incorporating  a video message into an annual report where the information is boiled down to its essence in a more engaging way. Unlike most printed annual reports, video does not involve a lot of long text; it’s something you can spend five minutes listening to get a quick overview and sense of the key themes and highlights.  The example I have provided of this CEO introducing The Waterfront Development group’s annual report is ‘just okay’.  I applaud the organization for taking the time to record the footage (outside using the waterfront as a backdrop, which is very fitting for this group) but I think that they could have taken the 55-second clip one step further by incorporating more dynamic b-roll footage or images from their annual report.

Hopefully I’ve provided you with some inspiration and ideas for you to consider this year as you plan your 2013 annual report! – Maria LoScerbo

In an increasingly noisy digital and media landscape, we’re using visual content more to stand out across various marketing disciplines – from social media and public relations, to content strategy and even static collateral materials such as annual reports.

When MTV posted a group of images on Facebook, for example, the result was 13x more engagement and sharing and reached 6x more fans.

According to Facebook, FB posts that include a photo album, picture or video generate about 180%, 120% and 100% more engagement, respectively. That’s a meaningful increase!

In addition, Matter Communications conducted a study and found that the best visual engagement content for social media is:  picture/image (44.5%), video (33.2%) and infographic (19%).  Below is the infographic Matter published to convey the study results.

Good visuals increase engagement

So what does all of this mean?

• Visual marketing is the current breakout trend.
• 44% are more likely to engage with brands if they post pictures. (Source: ROI Research)
• Pictures have also become a short form way of communicating lots of information quickly and succinctly.
• Brands are moving away from the written word to more visual content.

The next time you’re planning a campaign or outreach program, think about relevant and interesting visuals that you can incorporate to catapult your engagement levels. – Maria Loscerbo

You have to promote your content.  In today’s interconnected world, dozens of opportunities exist.  Are you seizing them?   LaunchGrowJoy.com has created an attractive infographic that outlines 30 ways to promote your blog posts and I’d like to share it with because I think it does a good job encapsulating a variety of tactics that you might want to think about using.

I recently promoted an infographic for a client that was posted in their corporate blog and found that, despite my best efforts to make it go viral, the number of views in the company’s blog wasn’t as high as I would have personally liked; however, the ‘sticky factor’ for those viewers that took the time to read the blog entry was about 4 minutes, which is quite impressive!  Our unique visitor count wasn’t sky-high, but it did attract quality visitors who were interested in the content.  It’s quality traffic, not quantity that matters.

Since I’ve worked for both large and small PR agencies as well as in-house (and currently own and operate my own boutique consultancy), I’m qualified to answer this question.  Here’s my biased, brief comparison of a traditional agency and Epic PR:

Traditional Agency

Higher costs (overhead)

Most work often managed by junior staffers

Bureaucracy with several layers

Greater likelihood to over-promise and over-bill

Perhaps less ROI

Often overworked with scattered attention

Often constrained to assign the same few individuals to projects

Typically requires lengthy contract periods

Some clients can feel like a small fish in a big pond

Epic PR

Less expensive (little overhead)

Work managed by senior consultants

Flat, efficient, flexible operation

Honest assessments and billing

High ROI

Fewer projects means focused and personalized attention

Flexible structure allows for freedom to handpick expert collaboration anywhere, anytime

Accommodates project-based work and shorter contracts

All clients receive rock star service

If you’re weighing the pros and cons of working with a large agency versus a small agency, here are a few suggested considerations:

It’s a good idea to ask the agency where your organization fits into their client roster.  In my view, you want to be a top priority and receive focused attention, and that simply isn’t possible if an account manager at a large agency has 6 or 7 clients that he or she juggles on a regular basis.

Your budget may dictate your choice for you.  If you have a limited budget, I suggest that you be upfront about it.  Both large and small agencies require a certain amount of budget to deliver results and they will generally be honest with you about whether they can service your organization with a particular scope of work based on the proposed number.  This saves everyone time.

Lastly, whether you’re considering a big PR agency or a small one, make sure there is a good cultural fit between your organization and the agency.   After all, you’ll be spending a fair amount of time liaising with your PR counsel and they need to learn a lot about you.  You have to be able to trust them, like them and be able to work with them. The day will come when an issue emerges or there is a stressful project timeline where you both have to burn the midnight oil to accomplish a task, and it’s always a more rewarding experience to work with individuals that you can work with easily and whose company you enjoy.   – Maria LoScerbo

A company’s PR agency is often at the top of the list, particularly when there is a good chance that the media will show-up, bystanders are already taking photos and video footage with their iPhones (likely destined for social media channels), and key stakeholders are asking you questions that you’re unable to answer just yet.

Epic PR kicked into high gear and within the hour we participated in a thorough phone briefing to assess the situation, prepared a public statement, provided on-the-spot media coaching, and arranged to have the statement posted on the company’s website.

In times like this, companies that don’t have a crisis communication plan, wish they did.  Unfortunately, more often than not, many companies make crisis communication plans a low priority project and put it off longer than they should.  Since Epic PR had only been working with this client for a couple of months on a limited budget, a crisis plan was not part of our initial scope of work.  Nonetheless, armed with past crisis experience and knowledge of the company, we were able to respond in a rapid, thoughtful manner.

If your organization is faced with a sudden crisis, here’s a brief reference guide care of PRSA that should help you get through the first few initial hours, which are often characterized by surprise, frantic communication, ambiguity, high stress, limited response time and insufficient information.

Assessment

• What is known for a certainty about the crisis situation?
• What is possibly true but cannot be verified yet?
• What is the worst possible outcome of this crisis?
• Who will be hurt by this crisis?
• Who might be blamed for this crisis?
• What could be misunderstood?
• How can we help?
• What cannot be said because of confidentiality, privacy, or other reasons?

Preparation

• Act quickly.
• Inform management.
• Determine who will be the spokesperson.
• Prepare a statement that may include one or more of the following points: sympathy for the victim, how help will be given, where we stand.
• Determine best way to distribute statement (press conference, news release, online).
• Prepare for interviews.
• Set up channels of communication so that any change or new information about the crisis is conveyed to the spokesperson.
• Arrange for media to have 24-hour access to a spokesperson.
• Keep all on the team up-to-date.

Action

• Be open and responsive to requests from the news media.
• Keep your answers brief, factual, and to the point.
• Show your concern for others affected by the crisis.
• Tell your own bad news first.
• Let other organizations speak for themselves.
• Avoid speculation. Don’t assume anything. Politely decline to respond to hypothetical questions.
• Don’t place blame.
• If you don’t know the answer or are unsure about what to say, it is better not to say anything. Offer to get back to the reporter with accurate information. Be sure to follow up with the reporter as soon as you have the facts.
• Do not reveal confidential information.
• Don’t say, “No comment.” Instead, explain why the information is not available.
• Don’t be evasive or misleading.
• Respect reporters’ deadlines.

Follow-up

• Promptly correct erroneous statements made by others.
• Think of possible outcomes and prepare tentative responses.
• Be willing to adapt responses as circumstances change.
• Keep reporters up-to-date.
• Evaluate what worked well and what could have been done better.

Epic PR’s Public Statement Template

Every crisis communication plan should have templates and pre-written material for their top 5 or 10 potential crises. Here’s an example of a basic public statement template:

 A (what happened) at (location) involving (who) occurred today at (time). The incident is under investigation and more information is forthcoming.

Here’s how the above example evolved into a statement for my client:

A small explosion (what) occurred today in our (location) facility involving a (state what it involved) located at the rear of the building at approximately 11:30 a.m. (time)  There was a loud noise and the explosion produced flames and some smoke, which prompted a senior engineer working in the area to alert staff to evacuate immediately. The sprinkler system activated and most of the smoke and fire dissipated by the time emergency personnel arrived.

 There were no injuries and all employees and occupants in adjacent buildings were safely evacuated.  We are grateful no one was harmed and our priority right now is to ensure the ongoing safety and well-being of all employees and other workers in the area as well as to cooperate with emergency authorities on site. 

 Our company has a comprehensive operations risk plan that we review regularly and follow closely to implement stringent safety precautions on a daily basis.  This is the first incident we have had at our facility and we are taking it very seriously.

We will endeavour to update you when as more information becomes available.

There is a crisis communication adage: it’s not really the crisis that damages a reputation, it’s the way in which you respond to it. Advance preparation for various crisis scenarios is your best antidote to scrambling at the last minute during a crisis and it increases your chances of a more successful outcome than if you did no planning at all.

– Maria Loscerbo

The gold standard for a brilliant press release today extends beyond mainstream press coverage and includes well-thought out SEO that generates direct traffic to an organization’s website and provides self-published news directly to the customer. The reporter or editor is no longer the middleman.

Third party endorsements from news media and bloggers are still valuable but a well written, keyword rich press release can generate thousands links and help “bury” bad news, poor product reviews and customer comments that show up in Google.

Unless a company is publicly traded and the news release is accompanied by a strategic plan that includes events, press tours, meetings, webinars, speaking engagements and so forth, it won’t generate any mainstream news coverage.

In a web-savvy world, these things matter:

• Does the press release generate an increase in web traffic?
• Does it help more people discover your blog and subscribe?
• Does it attract fans to your Facebook page and followers to Twitter?
• Does it generate links to your website in Google?
• Does it help improve search rank and page rank?
• Does it go into RSS feeds and get picked up by bloggers and news feeds and redistributed by wire services?
• Does it show up in Yahoo News and Google News?
• Oh…and did it help you get any press coverage?

What’s more, a single press release can be repurposed in a variety of ways. For example, the text or story can be used in a blog, sales presentation, company newsletter and posted as digital content to social media channels such Twitter and Facebook. (More on this in a future post!)

Here’s a graphic that nicely illustrates how optimized press releases impact visibility:

When I hear people use the word “strategy”, I often wonder what they really mean or if they even know what they’ve just said.  So I ask them what they mean by “strategy”  and it turns out, the people that use the word the most, seem to understand the least.  This post is for you guys.

Call it what you will….brand strategy…PR strategy….customer engagement strategy.  Folks, it isn’t that hard to develop a PR strategy. There, I said it.  The secret is out. Here’s how you do it:  sit down, look at the challenges and the goals you want to accomplish, then map your tactics to them, and get to work. Sure it’s an over-simplification but I think this is better than watching  people throw the word around or spin their wheels by over-thinking the best “strategy”.  Let’s get beyond the buzzword to the real meaning behind the word as it relates to PR.

Questions a PR strategy should answer:

Where are we now?
Where do we want to be?
To whom are we talking (audiences)?
What do we want them to do?
Why do we want them to do it?
What are we going to say to them (messages)?
Where are we going to reach them?
When are we going to reach them?
Which techniques (methods) are we going to use?
How much are we going to spend?
What if there are unforeseen problems?
How did we do?

I’m not saying that a communicator’s job is easy.  It’s not (although a great PR pro makes the work look easy).  I merely want to shed light on what strategy is rather than watch people over-complicate it or sound self-important using words they don’t understand.

I’ll admit, sometimes I cringe when I hear these phrases: “I’m a consultant that advises companies on  strategy“,  “I think we’re getting off-strategy” or “we focus on pursuing strategic alliances“. (Really? As opposed to crappy, useless, unimportant alliances?)

Strategy  isn’t a mysterious black art.  It’s part of that each day direction and management of your  PR / marketing program and it pulls all the constituent parts of your team around that one common purpose – your goal as a business. Thanks for listening.

Pinterest has nearly five million users, and is rapidly growing. Nearly 1.5 million unique users visit Pinterest daily, spending an average of 15 minutes a day on the site. While the primary users are currently women who post lifestyle-based vision boards, some brands are beginning to use Pinterest as a heavy-hitting marketing tool.

How can your company use Pinterest?   Here’s a short PR primer to get you started:

• Create a Pinterest account – don’t forget to include a photo, your company’s website address and a brief  description in the “About” section.
• Create a variety of boards.  Remember, the more creative and interesting your board names, the better.
• Connect your Pinterest account  to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.  This is a great way to attract followers.
• Post a Pin It bookmarklet on your website and social media channels.
• Pin lots of stuff.  It’s better to do it in spurts to maximize your exposure and engagement.
• Attract followers.  Pin visually interesting images, follow others, comment on other posters’ pins, “like” others’ pins, and invite your Facebook fans to follow you on Pinterest.
• Variety is important so pin for a variety of sources. Make your collages interesting.
• Occasionally pin your own blog posts and media coverage but be careful not to over-promote.
• Check out the “popular” section to see what is trending.  This might give your organization some ideas for new content, new blogs posts and more.
• Don’t forget to pin videos!  Especially if you organization already has some vids posted online. You might as well leverage what you have and create some additional back-linking to your video content.
• Pinterest has an “embed” feature. Feel free to use it in your blog posts but don’t forget to tell your visitors to click on the image so that they are taken to the board where they can find similar content.
• Add a Pin It! Button to the bottom of your blog posts so that readers can share your post quickly and easily.
• Create a board that tells the story of your company and communicates your core values.
• Upload fun and interesting photos of your company.  Stay away from stuffy, corporate, boring grip-and-grin shots please.

The above tips provide a basic foundation for you to get going.  It sounds like more work than it is! Pinterest is highly addictive and a great way to engage with new audiences. If you haven’t given it a shot, try it out for a while and let me know what you think.

Here’s my Pinterest: Maria Loscerbo Boards and Pins.

And here are seven ways to promote your business on Pinterest by Jeff Bullas