SnappConner PR » Blog Posts

Snapp Conner Clients Recognized as Finalists for the Digital iQ Awards

Don Osmond — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:39:07 +0000

Congratulations! Seven of our clients are being recognized as finalists in Utah Business magazine’s annual iQ Awards, which honors companies for innovative products, processes and procedures. The following is a list of those being honored:

• Amber Alert GPS – Providing peace and assurance for parents who are concerned for know where their children are at all times.

• Celio – Specializing in the development of innovative new solutions for the smartphone community, beginning with the REDFLY Mobile Companion.

• Cemaphore Systems – Delivering unprecedented e-mail continuity, disaster recovery and content management for enterprises that demand greater uptime for their email systems. Cemaphore’s flagship product, MailShadow, ensures the availability, integrity and reliability of e-mail.

• ProPay – Leading the market in providing simple, safe and affordable credit card processing and electronic payment services for businesses ranging from the small, home-based entrepreneur to multi-billion-dollar enterprises.

• Spearstone (DiskAgent) – A custom applications developer in Salt Lake City with customers including Wells Fargo, iTV, Pearson Learning, and Mountain America Credit Union. Spearstone’s DiskAgent SaaS makes feature-rich data protection solutions available and affordable for SMBs, home offices and individuals.

• Wi5 Connect – Helping companies generate and cultivate leads into qualified prospects, broaden customer use of their products, educate employees and connect with the market and clients in a Web 2.0 world.

• Interbank FX – A leading provider of online forex trading services, offering individual traders, fund managers and institutional customers’ proprietary technology and tools to trade spot foreign currency online.

These companies, along with others, will be honored during a luncheon on Wednesday, January 28. The winners of various categories will be announced during the event. We want to wish the best of luck to each of our clients and those chosen as finalists. What a great way to start off the New Year!

Today’s the Day — Snapp Conner PR Begins Building Move

Cheryl Snapp Conner — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:52:08 +0000

For all of our friends, associates and fans, here’s today’s update on our agency move. Today was our official moving day. We’re mostly there, although our network server will move tomorrow with the help of DirectPointe. For an entire day the Snapp Conner PR team spent our time hauling desks, moving chairs, and assembling countless new shelves, tables and boxes from IKEA. What would you do without IKEA? (or without the great willingness of our team to all roll up their sleeves and pitch in.) Tomorrow comes the couches and new chairs, glass and mirrors for our workout room. (Yes, by popular demand our new building includes a workout room.)

By Friday we should be fairly well up and running. We invite anyone who’s interested to stop by take a quick tour. But in case you can’t make it, here are some updated photos from our journey today. Stay tuned!

Corporate Blogs, Part II

Matt Stubbs — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:00:29 +0000

I recently posted about the general mistrust among consumers when it comes to corporate blogs. Ironically the post was on our own company blog, which I’m hoping our readers would consider part of the small group of “trusted” blogs, but if not let us know.

Anyway, I’m hoping to pick up where I left off.

So, you’ve decided on a strategy, you’ve outlined your objectives, you’ve created your blog, you’ve been publishing content and now you’re wondering: “Am I doing it right, do people trust my blog?”

In a recent post titled “Health Check: How Trusted Is Your Corporate Blog?,” Jeremiah Owyang gives a litmus test to help gauge whether your corporate blog is going to be trusted by your readers.

I’ll just quickly summarize a few of his points here, but I encourage you to read his full post.

Writing – Write like a real person, don’t load it with jargon and corporate-speak

Topics – If your blog is just another place for you to post news releases it’s not really a blog

Humility (Important) – You admit your faults and discuss openly with customers ways to improve

Linking Behavior – You link to valuable “outside” content sometimes even to competitors and critics

Customer Inclusion – Provide opportunities for guest blogs and contributed content

Dialog (an area where we could improve) – Comments available and published quickly

Comment Moderation – Some people may disagree with you, that’s okay

Frequency – You publish content regularly, not just when you’ve got a new product/service coming out

While this list should by no means be considered a complete or even official checklist, it’s one of the best I’ve seen, and it’s a great way to see how your blog measures up. If it’s still unclear as what the purpose of a corporate blog should be, or “best practices” when creating and using a corporate blog, here are several great links to help clear the confusion: A Blog Should feel Like a Gift; No News Here; On the Other Hand, Maybe Your Company Should Not Blog.

Another great idea, share Jeremiah’s thoughts on your own blog and give your customers an opportunity to give you a grade. After all, who better to let you know what you’re doing wrong.

Corporate Blogging Part One: Mistrust Among Consumers

Matt Stubbs — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:20:04 +0000

So there’s been a lot of talk in the micro-blogging space lately about the value and necessity of corporate blogging; whether it provides value, whether it’s worth the time and money spent to maintain it, etcetera. In fact, a recent study from Josh Bernoff and Forrester puts company blogging at the bottom of the list of most “trusted” information sources.

It really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anybody that corporate blogging falls at the bottom of that list. I mean, if you were to ask a random person on the street, there’s a good chance most would tell you they don’t trust companies in general, so why would a company blog be any different than a press release or an advertisement.

Which brings up the question: “If most people don’t trust corporate blogs, why should my company have one?”

The answer: Because, if done correctly, it enhances your company’s reputation and value. Just look at the brief observations about the study on Forrester’s Groundswell blog.

“This means that if you blog, your goal should be to create a blog about which people say ‘I like that – I don’t think of it as a company blog.’ For the most part, that’s a hurdle you need to jump to gain their trust. I don’t mean to hide who is writing the blog. I mean it has to be more about your customers than it is about you.” – Josh Bernoff, Vice President, Principal Analyst

The point is that you shouldn’t give up on corporate blogging, but you should definitely be more thoughtful in creating and posting to that blog. As one commenter pointed out “…if you were to probe more deeply I’ll bet that you would find that those companies that take risk, who engage customers and employees with the good and the bad, have blogs relatively high in trust.”

Just some food for thought as you prepare that next post.

P.S. As an update… here are a few pictures to show the progression of our new office. We are counting down the days.

The front entry of our new office.

Looking down the hallway to the rest of the office.

Will we make it? Snapp Conner Building Report Two

Don Osmond — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:57:04 +0000

It’s hard to believe the progress between last week and this on our new building adventure. Framing is complete and this week has been filled with insulation and sheetrock.

Small details matter – city inspectors need to physically inspect the facility before they turn on the power, so the contractors have been working with long cords and borrowed power supplies.
The rooms are taking shape and we’re getting a better vision of the physical facility. And I have to say we’re more excited than ever before!

It’s hard to believe that within 21 days this is the place our agency will be calling our new home. Luckily, we’ll be able to accomplish the bulk of the move over Christmas. Stay tuned!

We’re Moving!

Don Osmond — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:49:07 +0000

Following a banner year for Snapp Conner PR, we are moving to new headquarters to make room for continued growth and success. 2008 was good to us, and we have grown quite a bit from our humble beginnings. We officially opened our agency in April 2007 as three seasoned PR professionals and two junior associates working from a rented room at the DaVinci Suites in Draper, Utah. Now 12 strong, with goals to become more than 20 within the next 1-2 years, we have outgrown our tentative rental and purchased 2,800 sq-ft space in the South Jordan Professional Plaza just west of the 106th South exit on I15.

The new office is currently in its build-out phase. We’ve included a couple of pictures below for all to enjoy. We have plans to be in the new space by January 1, 2009 – a perfect way to start the new year. This is truly a milestone for the Snapp Conner PR team; we attribute this success to the hard-working team members, to our great clients, and to all of the friends, families and associates who have backed us in our aspirations of becoming Utah’s top PR firm.

As the build-out continues, we’ll provide ongoing updates in the weeks leading to our official move in date.

PR Pros: Flack Attack or a Story Only a Reporter Could Love?

Webmaster — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:00:35 +0000

Cruising the Internet one night I ended up on Stephen Wildstrom’s Web page. He’s been the Technology & You columnist for years at BusinessWeek. On his “For PR Folks” page, Steve provides all the pointers he wants PR people to abide by when pitching and contacting him.

In it he says, “I guess they teach you in flack school to begin every conversation by asking, ‘Is this a good time?’ or ‘Are you on deadline?’ It’s just annoying.”

He said FLACK School!

I’ve always hated the term flack, but that’s what a lot of PR people have become—flack that journalists must fly through to survive. Why is that? I suspect it’s two things:

• First, I believe there is too much emphasis on getting through a media list in a call down. Journalists literally drown in a sea of emails, voicemails, and phone calls each day from a crew of cold calling sales people posing as PR professionals.

If we were to look at the email inboxes of journalists we would literally see hundreds of pitches—most of them lame! Flack! Nearly all are dumped in the trash, including the handful of great pitches they should read.

• Second, a lot of PR people have never been a journalist. You can see it in the way they pitch, in the way they talk to the press, in the way they write. I’m convinced in most cases you cannot be a good PR pro unless you’ve been on a desk, covered a beat on deadline, and been pitched by PR people. You have to do it! You can’t pitch good stories unless you know what a good story is and how that story should be given to a journalist.

What’s the solution? Go be a journalist. Freelance as an unpaid journalist for a community newspaper. Write for the newsletter at your church or favorite non-profit organization. Get a job as a journalist. Take journalism classes in college seriously. Write everything in inverted pyramid following the AP Style guide. Get an AP style guide.

Most importantly, don’t just go through a media list. Find the top 10 most influential reporters for the story you’re pitching and craft your pitch directly to them. Consider their audience first, the reporter’s interest second (but don’t tell the reporter that). If you pitch items of interest to the audience, the reporter will be interested. Have news, have an angle, and have experts ready to speak. Prepare the story as if you are the reporter. If you do, your relationships with reporters will grow. When you get a reporter on the phone, get to the point quickly.

Back to Wildstrom. I’ve been pitching Steve for 14 years now. He will answer my emails and take my calls. The reason? I always have a story for him that is worth his time to look at. If I don’t, I don’t call. He knows that too. More times than not we end up in his office for a demonstration and interview following a simple, good pitch.

Don’t be a PR flack. Be a PR pro—a reporter. As a reporter you will influence a reporter.

A. Cory Maloy, Senior Account Director

The Art of Professionalism

Don Osmond — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:29:09 +0000

Every so often we come across some great articles that embody everything we believe in as PR professionals. Below is one such article we found in our backyard – The Utah Valley Business Blog. Cary Snowden was kind enough to let us reprint the entire article, but if you want to locate the original source click here.

So, without further adieu… The Art of Professionalism

It may have been said about catching flies, but did you know that honey is more effective than vinegar at catching business? I’m occasionally surprised at the way professional adults sometimes conduct themselves when confronted with a challenging situation. The art of professionalism is a hard one to get, even for the best of us, and can be particularly troublesome when circumstances make tactful respect a hard pill to swallow.

We are all too busy. We have planners and iPhones with jam-packed schedules, wireless gadgets attached to our heads, and too many emails to reasonably read in one day. We have collectively grown to think that anything beeping at us requires immediate attention. With so many distractions, we have more to deal with than we should, and often our nerves at their wit’s end. The results can sometimes be a snap at the wrong person; a mistreated customer or colleague, or ineffective communications that get you nowhere.

Here are a few simple tips to help you maintain a ‘nicest guy on the business block’ reputation while maintaining your professionalism and business goals…

Don’t send an email to ask the recipient to call you. Pick up the phone yourself. We all have too many phone calls to return and too many emails to check. If you need to talk to someone, seek them out.

Be specific in email subject lines. A simple two-to-five word answer is ideal: “Need to reschedule”, “new marketing project plans”, or “details on Friday’s lunch meeting”. Don’t type your entire message in the subject line, but give enough that a quick glance gives the basic details. If your readers have to scroll to see the whole thing, it’s too long and will never be read.

Unless you work in an industry where your timing can be life-saving or life-threatening, don’t answer your phone during a meeting with a vendor/client/employee/boss/… or anyone. It’s a quick way to make the person you are meeting with feel less important and appreciated. Always give your full attention to the person in front of you.

Want your voice mail returned? Leave details in your message about why you called, and provide enough detail that a response can be made without your involvement. You will be surprised at how many answers you get when there is an answer to be given. Voice mail that leaves only a simple request for a call back will always be placed at the bottom of the pile; ‘This is Bob with ABC Inc., call me back’ will usually not receive a response. Good voice mail is courteous, and effective.

Don’t string anyone along. It doesn’t matter if your answer is ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘please don’t ever call me again’. Be upfront (respectfully, of course) about your intentions. Everyone else’s time is just as important as yours. Don’t waste it.

When we neglect to give others the consideration they deserve, we position ourselves in the most unflattering light imaginable. No one can imagine willingly turning away business, but we risk offending, or at the very least annoying, potential clients and other business associates when we lack professionalism.

Do everything you can to obey the golden rule and start enjoying the fierce loyalty and respect you will receive from everyone you encounter when your approach is professional and respectful.

by Allison Yeager

The Days for Blast Pitch is Long Gone

Don Osmond — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:28:11 +0000

While diving through several pitches this past week, I was reading a very interesting blog that I thought could benefit all PR professionals. For the link, click here.

Basically, bloggers like all media, should be treated the same. Read their previous posts, make sure you have some thing of relevance to share with them, and overall be friendly and professional. The days of the nameless blast emails are long gone. In today’s Web 2.0 World, connection is still key. No one likes junk mail or spam. Everyone likes an email or pitch that has their name on it and why the pitch is important to them.

As PR professionals we should have a sense of excitement in what we’re pitching, a sense of urgency, and most importantly, a sense of professionalism.

By Josh Berndt

Pleasantly Persistent : The bylaw of effective business (and of effective PR)

Cheryl Snapp Conner — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:40:41 +0000

Unbidden, the same description has come up for our agency’s style of public relations again and again. The editors we work with call us “pleasantly persistent.” That’s persistent as in tenacious, assertive, and maybe even dangerously close to over the top in our eagerness to sell a story or to strike a great PR deal. Our consultants aren’t obnoxious – never rude or threatening – but we’re the persistent people who are full of good ideas and who just aren’t going away.

It’s a valuable principle.

How many great stories went unpublished and great deals went unsold because someone was too hesitant to step up and ask? Or stopped asking after floating the first gentle request?

A great personal growth coach, Pamela Maier, once stated, “You’ll never know what someone might be willing to do if you don’t ask.” She was right.

Many of the greatest PR wins we’ve accomplished were won for that very reason: We were bold enough to ask. Politely, of course. There’s much more to a great PR pitch than just asking, but none of those skills will matter to a person who isn’t bold enough to step up to the plate.

This principle applies to our strongest clients as well. Here’s a great case in point: Mike Proper, CEO of DirectPointe, has led that company from its inception to its current level of growth and presence in 29 countries and all 50 states. In fact, DirectPointe has been named the top Managed Service Provider (MSP) in the world, ranking number one on the MSPMentor 100 list for 2008.

Mike wanted to meet MSPMentor’s Managing Editor, Joe Panettieri, in person at the recent CompTIA Breakaway event in Orlando. Did they connect? Indeed, they did. You can read all about it in Joe’s blog this week, Meet America’s Most Progressive MSP. Here’s what Joe had to say:

“He called me and text messaged me more than a dozen times during CompTIA Breakaway. He runs a fast-growing managed service provider. And he isn’t using traditional technologies to do so. Who is this guy, and why does he want to talk to MSPmentor?

“…I’m glad Mike tracked me down. And when I describe him as ‘aggressive,’ I mean that as a positive rather than a negative. Whether it’s his pursuit of a face-to-face meeting or a sale, the guy doesn’t quit.”

You can read Joe’s entire article on MSPmentor.

The moral of the story is clear. In PR and in business, the ability to be “pleasantly persistent” can clearly pay off.

Cheryl Snapp Conner, Managing Partner