Business Storytelling

Targeting Different Audiences? Revise Your Content Accordingly

Recently Forbes.com contributor Chris Perry posed an interesting question in his blog: Do organizations need a chief content officer? Personally I don’t think so, but to his point, I believe companies should be more strategic in considering, managing and developing content. As companies consider those issues, a solid understanding of how to use content for different audiences and outcomes is critical. 

As Perry responded to one commenter, “What you publish to drive sales may be a lot different than what’s needed to inform the press. Or investors. Employees too.”

Perry is spot on here, and he’s identified a basic editorial principal: Who am I writing for? Who’s going to read this [fill in the blank here—article, blog post, tweet, etc.]?  What message am I trying to convey?

The audience for trade publication eWeek.com, for example, which serves IT professionals, is obviously very different from the readership of Popular Photography magazine, which caters to consumers  interested in, you guessed it, photography. If your company produces a portable photo printer that connects to a smartphone, for example, there may be a story for both pubs—but the tone and content must change accordingly. 

In the traditional way, a press release distributed to the business or trade publications (print or online) will broadcast the arrival of your new printer, which is critical for keeping the industry aware of what you’re up to. Sending that press release to the new products editor at Popular Photography is also a good idea, especially if that magazine is planning a roundup of smartphone accessories. But it’s doubtful that potential customers will make a buying decision based on that information alone.

Write a case study about how someone’s using your product for business gain, however, and you’re one step closer to that potential sale. Let’s say you identify a really cool application for your portable printer, such as an interior designer who captures fabric, paint, trim and lighting ideas on the fly at the latest design conference, then produces mood boards instantly for his clients. By identifying the user’s challenge or business opportunity—and detailing how your product solved those issues—it’s possible that another potential customer will be intrigued.

Now imagine the next step: Find a blog where real, live smartphone users are talking about specific issues surrounding accessories (even portable printers), such as how to use them outdoors or protect them from the elements, and you’re even closer to the audience you’re trying to reach. If you can prove that you’re listening and responding to actual customer feedback, versus broadcasting your product strategy, your voice (aka content) might make a real impact. Here’s where a press release or case study won’t fit—and can even work against you—but a seemingly casual discussion (written in a friendly, conversational tone) about product innovations and the issue they solve could be the perfect fit for this channel.  

There’s little doubt that interest in content will continue to grow, and that folks will continue to debate who should take responsibility for it. Keep this in mind, however: Not only is all content not created equally, most content is not interchangeable. Identifying the right format and tone for the right audience—and the intended outcome—is one cornerstone to really harnessing the power of content. 

Barbara R. Call is director of content for Greenough. She can be reached at bcall@greenoughcom.com

Arbella Joins Forces With Tim Thomas

The Bruins’ Tim Thomas might just be the best goalie in the NHL (disclaimer: we may or may not have a slight New England sports bias here at Greenough). Goalie debate aside, he’s certainly one of the league’s biggest stars, which makes it pretty amazing that until recently, Thomas did not have a single endorsement deal.

That all changed this week when Greenough client Arbella Insurance announced that Thomas would become the first athlete to represent the company, starring in a series of TV, radio and social media ads. Arbella couldn’t have chosen a better spokesman for the campaign: In addition to being a genuinely likeable guy, Thomas knows hard work and team play - two core values Arbella and hockey have in common - better than anyone. Years of dedication went into his success in last year's Stanley Cup Finals.

The ads won’t come out until January, but the partnership is already paying dividends, as it was featured in yesterday’s Boston Herald. The Herald article was a great piece of coverage for Arbella, not least because the photo officially proves CEO John Donohue can make Tim Thomas crack up laughing.

For more on Arbella and Tim Thomas teaming up, check out this video from the Bruins website: 

 

The Great Emoticon Debate

I was scrolling through Mashable when an article caught my eye: “A Brief History of the Emoticon.” Although I’m a daily emoticon user, I’ve never really stopped to think about its origin, where it came from and why.

Well, according to Mashable, the emoticon has been around for nearly 30 years, originally invented by a Carnegie Mellon computer scientist, to – you guessed it, convey emotion!

I don’t think twice about using emoticons when texting my friends or sending personal emails, but what about when it comes to emails sent in the workplace? Is it ever okay to use smiley faces in emails sent to coworkers, clients or members of the media? Where is the line drawn? I think the general consensus is: don’t use them in the work place. For obvious reasons such making you seem young, naive or unprofessional, the general advice is to correspond emoticon-free. However, just like anything, there are always exceptions to the rule, and I think nowadays this rule is becoming more lenient as many will argue there’s a time and place for that wink face ;).

Today I think the use of emoticons largely depends on personal preference; some people use them and some don’t. It also should depend on the type of relationship you have with whomever you’re corresponding. The overall vibe of you company will likely play a role in emoticon use as well. If your company tends to be smaller, tight knit, younger or laid back, the use of emoticons to convey happiness, or give gratitude or encouragement internally is not uncommon. And, this may be true for larger companies too that have a laid-back vibe. Some companies on the other hand, due to the nature of the work, will never use emoticons. However, even if your company doesn’t endorse emoticon use, it still may be completely acceptable to use them with certain coworkers with whom you are close

This takes care of emoticon use internally, but what about externally? It gets very tricky when it comes to corresponding with people outside of your office, particularly clients or members of the media. When is it okay to use a smiley face in an email to a client? What if a client is particularly happy with a result and sends an email with an emoticon? Does that give you free reign to use them? Maybe. But maybe not.

Is it acceptable to shoot a journalist an email thanking them for covering your client, complete with a smiley face? Generally speaking, it is a good idea to allow the client or journalist to set the tone and go from there. If a particular client is constantly using emoticons in emails, then sure, it’s probably okay for you to use them every once in a while. However, it’s a fine line and certainly depends on the situation.

In this business that we are in, we work with clients and media members located all over the country and often times all over the world. Because of this, many of our correspondences are not done face-to-face, but rather via email or phone. This makes it hard to gauge how a person is really feeling. Sure, you can interpret the tone of a person’s voice or email, but you don’t really know how they’re feeling without seeing their facial expression.

When it comes to email, if a client or journalist uses a smiley face, their mood is much more easily interpreted, giving way to much less guess work. So… what am I saying, we should all start using emoticons more often? Not at all. I agree that generally emoticons should be used very sparingly. However, at the same time, I believe they can be appropriately used and may even give way to a much more pleasant work day.

However, putting the emoticon discussion aside, it really comes down to this: we must make sure we are constantly doing what we do best: communicating. When dealing with clients with whom we can’t talk face to face, we have to be straightforward and ask them things like: Are you happy with the work we’ve done? How do you feel about the type of coverage we secured? What’s the general feeling over at XYZ company? Asking these questions may feel a bit awkward at first, but doing so will allow you to make any necessary adjustments sooner rather than later and will ultimately strengthen your client relationships and increase their level of :)

Contributed by Jessica Boardman. Follow her @J_Boardman

Deep Below the Ocean, Hydroid Makes Waves on Fox 25

The REMUS Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), manufactured by Hydroid, Inc., works deep below the surface of the ocean to show what lies beneath. Boston television station Fox 25 spent the day with the Hydroid team on Cape Cod to learn how the REMUS works. Fox 25 also learned how the vehicles helped recover wreckage from Air France Flight 447, which broke up over the Atlantic Ocean. With great reporting from Mark Ockerbloom and professional editing, Fox 25 made this story sing.

Contributed by Amy McHugh & Aaron Kellogg. Follow Amy @amyemchugh and Aaron @KelloggAaron.

Virtual Computer CEO Speaks on NECN Business

One line in our pitch caught the attention of NECN Business show producer, Mike Kelly. He thought it was interesting that Virtual Compuer, a small start up in Westford, Mass, was backed by industry giants Intel and Lenovo. As a result, CEO Dan McCall was invited to come on the show and share his secret to success. You can view the segment at NECN.com.

"Where I was, 10 years ago on 9-11"

The 10th anniversary of 9-11 gave us a moment to pause and remember where we were a decade ago. These are some of our stories.

Jennifer Hrycyszyn: "Pregnant with my first child, I grew accustomed to spending leisurely mornings watching Katie Couric on the Today Show before heading to my office in Silicon Valley.  On the morning of September 11th that all changed while I watched in horror as the second tower come down."   

Katie Gardner: “On September 11, 2011, I was a freshman at Needham High School, and for me the day started like any other day - begrudgingly getting out of bed and going to school. Of course, the events that would transpire that day made it not like any other day, but one that will be memorialized forever.

“For me, as a 15 year old student, it will live in infamy seeing the second plane hit the towers while I sat in Mr. Cooke's English class.”

Aaron Kellogg: “There is a blue house on Maple Avenue in Sudbury, MA (my hometown). The woman who lives there had black hair, she was young – maybe early 30’s – with a young child. My friend Greg mowed her lawn.

“The evening of Sept. 11, 2001, the Maple Ave. neighborhood was pitch black, but lights lit up her house and cars packed her driveway. Her husband left on a flight that morning, but didn’t come home.”

Amy McHugh: “I was working as a reporter at ABC6 in Providence on 9/11/01. I was woken up that morning by my pager going off, with a message to turn on the TV, then call the assignment desk asap.

“Once I realized what had happened, I called in and was told a photographer was on his way to pick me up and then head for Logan Airport. We camped out there all day, well into the night, waiting for Massport to brief the media about what they'd discovered regarding the terrorists' entry through Logan security and onto the plane. I remember walking around in a fog, doing liveshots with little to no information, and feeling completely helpless.”

Jessica Boardman: “I was a freshman in high school finishing up a Project Adventure (PA) class where we did rope courses and other team building activities. After PA, I made my way to my favorite class with my favorite teacher -- English. I usually walked into that class to see my teacher with a huge smile on her face or cracking a joke, however, that day was different. I had never seen such a solemn expression on her face. It was then that I noticed that the TV was on in the classroom. I looked up to see the twin towers, smoking. The second plane had just hit. I had no idea what was going on and listened to the chatter, mostly around the word "terrorism." The rest of the day was a blur, but I do remember being very happy to see my family and feeling guilty for celebrating my birthday the very next day.”

Anne Norris: “My 15-person earth science class at my tiny high school in central Maine was interrupted by a brusque announcement from our principal stating that ‘the United States has been bombed!’ Within a matter of minutes, classes were dismissed and everyone scattered like cockroaches when the lights come on. We crowded into buses and cars at the suggestion of the principal, for ‘protection.’ I approached him in the hallway and asked if it’d be alright to walk two streets over to my friend’s house until my mom could come pick me up and if only words could adequately describe the expression of fear, doubt and confusion on his face! He inhaled sharply and said that if I had nowhere else to go, that’d be fine, but that I should be extremely careful.

“At this point, I still had yet to hear any sort of official account of what had occurred. I had not seen/heard news via TV, computer or phone. After the intrepid dash to my friend’s house, we hunkered down on the couch to see Matt Lauer’s somber expression as he recounted the grim series of events that had taken place. Ohhh, so this happened in NYC? Why are small town Mainers panicking? I couldn’t fathom the repercussions of what seemed like an isolated incident in a city hundreds of miles away, but ten years later, it’s clear that the events of September 11, 2001 have affected the day-to-day existence of Americans everywhere.”

What's (Arguably) The Hardest Job In PR This Week

What’s the hardest job in PR this week? My opinion: try working for a power company here in New England after Hurricane Irene.

Consider Foxborough, Massachusetts, where PR reps for National Grid had to explain why they restored electricity to New England Patriots' Gillette Stadium. Meanwhile most of the surrounding homes in Foxborough started day number four in the dark on Wednesday morning.

Tuesday night National Grid Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, Marcy Reed tackled the bru-ha-ha on WBZ Newsradio Talk Show Nightside with Dan Rea. The National Grid explanation? That Gillette Stadium is powered by higher voltage lines, which get fixed first in the wake of natural disaster. Lower voltage lines, which power homes, come second - since fixing the big lines restores power to large numbers of people.

The radio interview went great. Reed got her message across. But moments later, it became clear that controlling the message is no easy game, as a WBZ reporter succeeded at confusing listeners again - entirely unintentionally - explaining that Gillette Stadium had electricity because it drew from an electric transformer station in the neighboring town of Wrentham.  Yet the reporter made no clear reference to Reed's messaging. Listeners were left wondering: does Gillette have power because of its geographic location to Wrentham, where there's electricity? Or, was it repairs to high voltage lines? The reports seemed conflicting.

Power companies have my sympathies this week. Why? There is no easy way to tell the public: "I'm sorry we can't restore electricity to everyone immediately." And it doesn't matter how PR departments develop the messaging, which can easily get lost in the media storm.

But, of course, my deepest sympathies go to those without power, especially those in Foxborough. What a frustrating situation they're in.

Contributed by Aaron Kellogg. Follow him @KelloggAaron

Why Social Media is just one piece of the puzzle

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr. What do all these websites have in common? For one, they’re all indispensable marketing tools – absolute must-haves for the business in which we work. For another, none of them existed before 2003.

I would never argue against using the newest and best technologies to tell brand stories. PR is all about finding ways to reach new audiences, so clearly taking away even one social media platform would put any campaign at a disadvantage. But social media needs to be paried with other channels, especially when it comes to our sources of inspiration as marketing professionals.

In an amazing speech to West Point’s 2010 plebe class, Yale English Professor William Deresiewicz makes the case for occasional solitude as a crucial ingredient for leadership. Great leadership, Deresiewicz says, requires creativity, and too muc h multitasking impairs our ability to really, truly think. He stresses his definition of “thinking,” something he believes people in today’s world get wrong far too often: “Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it.”

As often as we find ourselves in the thick of things, designing and executing social media campaigns for our clients, it’s an enormous challenge not to become social media over-consumers ourselves. Even as I write this blog post I’m bombarded by blinking gchat messages and new tweets begging to be loaded. Can I come up with my best work, creatively, with these distractions on my mind? Deresiewicz says no, and I’m inclined to agree with him: “You simply cannot [think] in bursts of 20 seconds at a time, constantly interrupted by Facebook messages or Twitter tweets, or fiddling with your iPod, or watching something on YouTube.”

So what’s the solution? Creativity is the core of every service that marketing and PR agencies offer their clients. We can’t ignore social media – far from it – but we also can’t stand idly by as the temptations of Facebook and Twitter rob our ability to think. The answer will be different for everyone, but it’s crucial that we all find a few temporary reprieves from the social media world over the course of each day. Whether it’s a walk around the block, shutting off your internet connection for 45 minutes, or merely closing all browsers and hiding your iPhone as you work on a blog post, there’s an answer out there for all of us.

Social media only stands to become a bigger and more important aspect of our job, so now is the time to relearn how to think creatively. Otherwise it might be gone forever.     

Contributed by Jake Navarro. Follow him @JakeMNavarro

Image courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons, user: Horia Varlan.

The man who drove 1,400 miles for his favorite pizza. Now, that's brand loyalty.

Pizza is without a doubt my favorite food. Veggie, meat lover’s, Hawaiian or just good ole cheese – I’d take em all.

So, if anyone could understand this bizarre story – a man’s 24 hour journey for pizza, it would be me.

However, I must admit, even this is beyond me. A Mississippi man literally drove for 24 hours -- 1,400 miles to Town Spa Pizza in Stoughton, MA to buy pizza he grew up eating as a boy. The man returned home carrying 150 pizzas in his trunk which he then shared with his family and friends back in Mississippi. And what’s more is that this isn’t the first time he’s done this either. In fact, the man says he's got the process and packaging down to a science.

My first thought? Brand loyalty at its best. There are certain brands out there that have established an amazing sense of loyalty from customers; a loyalty where customers inconvenience themselves and go to great lengths for their beloved brand. If you think about it, this is pretty powerful seeing as inconvenience is something we as consumers absolutely hate.

So what’s the secret sauce (no pun intended)? How can companies get this type of brand loyalty for their products and services? It seems this is the very question companies, advertisers, marketers and PR people have been trying to answer for decades and have made little progress. I don’t think there is a single answer.  However, there is a foundation that must be laid; something that must be present for a brand to see any type of loyalty -- and that is quality. It sounds simple but it’s true. You have to consistently put out a good, quality product before you begin to build any type of loyalty.

So why did this man travel 1,400 miles just for pizza? Is the pizza that good? Better than any other joint within a 1,400 radius? Or, is the reason more deep-seated? Does the pizza taste that much better to him because he associates it with fond childhood memories? It’s hard to say, but I would guess it may be a combination of the two. But, at the same time, I would be very surprised if the pizza itself was not a high quality product.

This brings me to my next point; the power of public relations. Yes, I’ll stand by my conviction that no brand will ever gain loyalty with the absence of quality. However, how many people after reading this article will now make their way to Town Spa Pizza (including myself – did I mention I love pizza?) to see for themselves if this pizza is worth a 24 hour drive? My guess is that there will be quite a few.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this pizza place sees a flurry of new customers and an uptick in sales because of this article.  PR and advertising can do wonders building up brands and companies. However, we must not forget, when it comes down to it, even the best marketing tactics can’t make up for lack of quality.  

Contribued by Jessica Boardman. Follow her @J_Boardman

"When their glass beakers break, some of these scientists need to make new ones from scratch"

 

When a beaker breaks at a lab, somewhere in Africa, we've been told that the lab researchers need to blow new glass to replace what broke. Remarkably, scientists in developing countries overcome major obstacles to advance their research.

Some scientists are trying to find ways to fight drug-resistence to HIV. Others are looking for ways to make vegetables disease-resistant.

As part of its work with Thermo Fisher Scientific, Greenough Communications is helping publicize Thermo Fisher's work with its partner, Seeding Labs.

Seeding Labs is a Boston-based nonprofit corporation providing talented scientists in developing countries with resources including lab equipment, training and professional connections. Thermo Fisher Scientific is assisting Seeding Labs by providing used lab equipment, provided by customers who upgrade to new scientific instruments.

The video above, produced with help from Seeding Labs and Thermo Fisher, provides an overview of their partnership. It's a great step to empowering scientists in Africa and other developing countries.

Contributed by Aaron Kellogg. Follow him @KelloggAaron.