Archive: September 2016

For the third year running as part of AMEC’s September Measurement activities, we’ll be hosting a Twitter chat with some of PR News’ Measurement Hall of Famers. Mark your calendar for the Measurement Twitter Chat: Monday, Sept. 19, 11 a.m. to noon ET. Hashtag: #PRMeasure

The question of Hillary Clinton’s health has dogged her campaign for president well before she quickly left a ceremony in New York on Sept. 11 that honored the 15th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. Republican candidate Donald Trump has tweeted consistently that Clinton lacks the strength and stamina to be president.

Impacting an audience starts with understanding that audience. So, if you want to encourage a specific behavior with your audience (such as making a purchase), then you need to understand their preferences, concerns, and behaviors.

It’s imperative that as communicators we showcase our good work, we prove our worth, we take integrated communications seriously and we don’t squander the leadership position in content marketing and social media. To get there, we need to brush up on measurement, data and analytics.

In Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends report (2014), it was estimated that 1.8 billion photos were shared on select social channels daily. In her latest report, for 2016, Meeker estimates the figure for 2015 to be 3.25 billion photos daily. There are a bit more than 7 billion people on Earth. Think about how often every person on Earth, even those without internet access, would have to upload and share a photo each week to reach that figure. So the longtime practice of image analytics in traditional media has become a hot new topic in social media, and listening tools are starting to add image recognition to their capabilities.

It’s hardly a surprise for loyal Data Dive readers that video is one of the main ingredients driving consumer engagement for B2C and B2B brands. Media companies are catching on.
The latest evidence is BuzzFeed’s reorg, announced August 23, when founder Jonah Peretti told employees, “Having a single ‘video department’ in 2016 makes about as much sense as having a ‘mobile department’… as digital video becomes ubiquitous, every major initiative at BuzzFeed around the world will find an expression as video….”

Do hiring practices change when building a digital team? We asked ESPN’s Paul Melvin, senior director, communications, what he seeks in a digital hire. Here’s what he said: “I think people make a mistake if they hire for a ‘digital’ or ‘social’ communications role based on the idea that criteria are fundamentally different than what you look for in any communicator. I always look for the ability to write, passion, a combination of self-confidence and self-awareness, and emotional intelligence.

One of the biggest trends PR faces is too much noise. I mean this for reporters who are inundated with pitches that might not be appropriate for them as well as the competition we face within the television industry for viewers. We’ve developed three strategies for facing this competitive environment.

We conclude our 2-part series about how PR and communications are taught in colleges and universities.
There was plenty of agreement between what our PR and communications pros told us and what the quartet of academics we interviewed said. Writing—specifically, writing for PR vehicles that is clear, concise, creative and persuasive—was among the skills both the pros and academics emphasized. Several of the academics said students lack familiarity with PR writing, which, they said, is different from writing term papers. Our academics said this is an area they stress extensively with students.

A look at the week that was in PR. This edition includes several Wells Fargo miscues and a poor showing from NBC Today host Matt Lauer during a presidential debate.