Corporate Eye

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Bridget Wright

Bridget Wright

Special interest groups in the media

Special interest groups have long been known to persuade companies and organizations to support their causes in various, creative ways. Whether the causes are only of special interest to the special interest group themselves, or perhaps they feel that other organizations would benefit from their passionate causes, finding an audience to spout their cause to is highly important for them.

Often, the best way for special interest groups to market their passions is to be as extreme as possible. The idea is to get as much as exposure as possible with a poignant, direct and compelling message. Consider this:

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has a campaign to convince people of the healthy style and benefits of living vegan. They have celebrities representing them and outlining the many benefits of the vegetarian lifestyle. Since some people are highly-tuned to the opinions of celebrity figures, PETA is likely to be successful in convincing people to give the healthy lifestyle a try. Photos of famous singers like the one shown here is bound to get someone’s attention and make them a believer of the vegan lifestyle. This type of media relations is often more than marketing and can veer off into an attempt at branding, marketing, information sharing and even politics.

Recently, PETA also made a public relation open request to the folks at Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream to start substituting their milk-based ice cream product with women’s breast milk instead of cow’s milk. Of course this outlandish idea was met with public comments across the board ranging from complete support to utter disgust. Perhaps it was not so much that PETA wanted to actually get people to take seriously that it would be a good idea to extract milk from women for ice cream (or were they?), but perhaps it was their marketing attempt to further establish their purpose and cause. For this story, PETA got a lot of attention from blogs and news articles, whether they were taken seriously or not.

News articles and developments in various organizations can bring the company lots of attention, often more than is expected or bargained for. Impassioned views, special interest subjects and unusual business ideas help companies develop strong media relations and uncompetitive exposure. Coupled with a strong presentation and the right timing, their story is almost guaranteed to never be boring or dated. For a company of any size to establish themselves strong in their niche, their focus must be on creating impacting, compelling ideas and stories that will draw their audience in, creating images, thoughts and ideas that turn window-shoppers into life-long customers.

Texting: The New Corporate Communications

What is the next best most effective form of communication for corporate businesses?

Newsletters allow businesses to disseminate their information on a regular basis. Whether that’s weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly, corporate communications via newsletters has been a preferred method of communications for years. They can be managed online and offline, which can increase its marketability and effectiveness.

Blogging is another very popular form of corporate communications that has become an effective strategy for communicating with clients in most any business industry. It has taken the Internet by storm and allowed corporations and organizations to blossom within their niche and attract new customers. Some companies attribute blogging for increased sales and growing customer bases. As new business blogs are being added to the blogoshpere on a daily basis, the potential for any business’ growth is exponentially increased within each of their target markets.

But there is now a newer (although not new) form of communication that will soon prove to be the next “in” thing to do to communicate with customers: Text Messaging

Text messaging allows you to send short messages of 140-characters or less via a wireless instrument like your cell phone or Blackerry. Most any type of marketing message can be sent through text messaging and allow you to market and/or communicate more efficiently with customers. New technology allows businesses to send out short quips to their customer base about a myriad of topics; news, developments, product sales and product reviews. Customers enjoy texting because they’re able to get certain business information before it becomes available to the public. So how can text messaging help your media relations?

Standard blogging usually requires a full-time blogger and/or researcher to compile articles and posts and make them available to the public. This arrangement works well for some companies, but in other industries, a full-time blogger or writer can be an overkill, a bad match or economically unfeasible. In cases like these, it is more than appropriate and even suggested to do things that will reach as many people as possible and save money in the process. Text messaging could be the answer.

How Can Your Company Use Text Messaging Effectively ?

* If possible, assign a person to the task of texting your customers. Inform customers of sales, specials and discounts through this medium and always ask for their comments and opinions. This increases sales and your sites networking abilities.

* Communicate on a frequent basis with your clients.  Create brand identity and branding through communication and with customers.

* Send frequent text message updates to your customer data base to keep them alert on company developments and change.

What are some things that your company can do to make text messaging more effective? Can any industry benefit from texting? Can it be counter-productive for any business?

Advantages of Social Networking for Corporate Blogs

One of the first things that a new blogger learns when he or she joins the online world of blogging is to network, network, network. This mantra is heavily engrained into his business through other blogs, blogging manuals and books and by studying other highly successful blogs. It is a widely held belief that a blog (or any business for that matter) cannot be successful without deliberate and calculated formulas in marketing and connecting with customers. Corporate blogs, often by their very own definition, are maintained by senior levelers or any other upper level manager within the company who has a vested company interest and wholly understand the integral importance of effective networking. Since they are ultimately responsible for the content and tone of the blog, it would stand to reason that the blog’s writer or author must have some degree of maturity and responsibility.

If your company maintains a corporate blog, no doubt you’ve also joined or participated on social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, StartUpNation, YouNoodle and a host of others. Social networking is an invaluable tool for existing businesses and new startups alike. The benefit that a business or entrepreneur can gain from being an active part of social networking sites can create phenomenal ROI (return on investment) of your time, talents and creativity that you place in your blog.

Seasoned bloggers understand the benefits of networking with their sites and visiting and commenting on other sites. They know that in order to ramp up their blog traffic and connect with other power-bloggers who aspire to high-profile status, they must find and network with other bloggers in their niche industries in business. And in addition to networking with other sites in your field of specialisation, providing solid, valuable content is even more important while networking. It would be very bad business for your blog if your readers found the content on your blog unsuitable or worst, boring.

New bloggers are often jaded by all the hype and buzz that abounds on the internet concerning social networking. Often as loners, new bloggers make the mistake of thinking that they can make a go of it alone and increase their own blog traffic. This most often happens with new bloggers who are new to internet marketing, social networking or the online world altogether. However they fail to realize that nothing could be farther from the truth.

Corporate blogs need traffic to thrive. They need readers in order to have a purpose and an audience with which to share their information. Therefore, if a corporate blog has aspirations of taking their blogs to the next level, they must first realize the inherent benefits of consistently maintaining a valuable, enriched blog that readers refer to over and over again. Hence, the need for social marketing. Here are some advantages of social networking for blogs:

1.) Join sites that complement your business’ purpose. If you sell a specialized product or service, find the social networking site that responds well to it. You don’t want to make the mistake of selling or advertising (perceived) useless products to a third party.

2.) Visit other blogs in your niche area on a daily basis. Read and comment on their blog. This is a sure-fire way to drive traffic to your blog.

3.) Write compelling, crafty content on your blog and website. People want not just content but valuable content. Be sure to update the blog daily (if it is of that compelling nature), but no less than three times a week.

What other reasons can you offer that are advantages for network blogs? Does your organization employ any of these strategies?

Verizon Diversifies Its Market Presence To Latina and Hispanic Communities

Cultural diversification in the workplace community is an exciting issue for businesses as it helps the business in developing a more personal touch. Businesses that have a strong cultural diversification department and systems in place to ensure fairness are more apt to enjoy long-term business success. Many companies who reach out to its customer base are offering products or services to enhance their existing revenue base. However, companies like Verizon make measureable goals to reach customers through their human resources by employing people of varying cultures, backgrounds and racial groups.

Just recently, Verizon made headline news because of their commitment to racial and ethnic diversity in their hiring practices. Because of this, Verizon has been listed as one of several businesses who stand out in making a difference in ethnic and diverse corporate communities.

Hispanic Business Magazine, for the fourth consecutive year, has named Verizon to the Top 15 of its Diversity Elite 60, an annual list determined by more than 30 variables that measure companies’ commitments to Hispanic hiring, promotion, marketing, philanthropy and supplier diversity.

What is notable about Verizon is their commitment to corporate diversity and their focus in hiring varying racial and gender specific people, in an effort to show that they are in fact culturally aware.

At Verizon, women and people of color constitute nearly 60 percent of the workforce and 44 percent of the company’s top management team. Partnerships with colleges and universities, as well as with professional and community-based organizations, serve as the cornerstone of Verizon’s recruitment strategy.

Companies who are naturally focused on diversity within their business are noticed almost immediately by consumers who want to do business with companies that are considered “politically correct.” In other words, companies that take an interest in subjects that are perhaps not as mainstream as other topics are more likely to affect certain segments of the population and garner a share of that business. In Verizon’s case, because they are culturally diversified in their hiring practices, consumers notice and take note of this and often choose to do business with them based solely on that reason.

What else besides increased business can companies gain by being culturally sensitive? How does being diverse in hiring practices affect the mainstream? Do you think people automatically support diverse hiring practices or lean favorably towards those that do?

 Press Releases:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080911/nyth070.html?.v=101

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/verizon-ranked-among-best-companies/story.aspx?guid=%7B8A2A06C6-83BA-40D1-B22B-953FC65D247F%7D&dist=hppr 

http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2008/verizon-ranked-among-best.html

5 Blogging Mistakes Made By Corporate Media Blogs

Corporate blogs are all the rage these days. Major corporations are finding that maintaining corporate blogs are a valuable and effective marketing tool for corporations. However, even in the frenzy and flurry of escalating their blogs to the top of the list, corporate media blogs can often fail to tweak areas that need attention or perhaps even elimination. The mechanics of blogging require an observance of many nuances, a few to include a connection with readers, substantive content and being on point in the content. With a myriad of factors for a corporate media blog to consider, which can often be even worrisome, it is imperative that the blog establishes itself firmly in its respective business industry and sets the tone for it to be perceived as authorities on their blog topic. With that, why then do some blogs struggle to maintain an effective corporate blog presence? Following is a list of 5 major mistakes that corporate media blogs make that could potentially hinder and almost halt their growth:

1. No clear idea of what the blog is about.

Blogs that have topics, ideas and subjects that are all across the board are confusing and discouraging to its readers, if they manage to keep any. Although the About Us page of the blog should be sufficient enough for readers to understand what the blog’s topic is about, more often corporate blogs may find themselves touching on a myriad of topics that relate to the corporation, but no clear cut angle on what the blog itself is focusing on. More than simply filling out the About Us page, corporate blogs should make a point to convey their mission and objective to their readers in a way that dismisses any fog on what their focus is.

2. Failure to really “connect” with the readers.

Corporate blogs have a reputation sometimes for being “stale” or “dry.” This can happen with corporate blogs when they have a talk at them approach rather than a talk to them approach. Readers know the difference and can take offense to it, rightfully so. Connecting with your blog audience is defined by really listening to and interacting with the blog readers.

3. Not inviting or encouraging comments from readers.

Media blogs give opinions and slants on news and information from their perspective. But, the corporate’s opinion is not the only one there is. The reader’s have a very lively opinion on particular topics, and many of them very passionate in their opinions. When you invite readers to share their thoughts in a professional, non-threatening matter, you are encouraging readers subscriptions through participation. This can turn into referrals, RSS feeds subscribers, forum activity and repeat readers.

4. Being “stuck” in a topic or subject.

Like #1 states, yes, a blog should be focused on a particular subject or topic. However, a blog can pigeon-hole itself and become mundane if it failes to excite or motivate the readers. It can motivate readers by periodically straying from the main topic of discussion. In other words, it is sometimes beneficial and highly encouraged for blogs to shake things up a bit by blogging on topics outside or parallel to its main focus. This doesn’t mean that your blog has dual personalities, but that it is in fact attuned to changes outside of its own world and has the ability to draw in readers based on this.

5. Having a “one blog” voice.

The CEO is quite special, but there are others within the corporation who have a voice as well. Many corporate blogs make this mistake of only letting the executive team blog and overlooking the everyday employee who has something to share. This is where there is a plethora of good information. Consider allowing senior team leaders or stellar employees have a guest blogging spot or even a feature page (perhaps) on the blog. Then, sit back and watch the blog develop a life of its own…

What are some things that your corporate blog does that you’d like to change? What can you do to make your media blog more effective for your company?

Other blogs on blogging mistakes:

Top Rank Blog

Corporate Blogging Essentials

Krishnade

Will A Media Hostage Situation Make Sarah Palin Talk?

Political talk around the blog-o-sphere has seen some pretty heated discussions in the last week or so with much of it centering around the United States Republican’s presidential nominee – Sarah Palin. With such a controversial figure, her personal life, her opinions, candor, politics and family have all been called into question by the media. Much of the wonder has been on:

1. What are her thoughts on foreign policy?

2. How will she juggle family responsibilities and the vice-presidential role, if elected?

3. What are her real qualifications for this office?

4. Why won’t she schedule an interview with the press or any other news media outlet?

The last question is the clincher that has got more news shows, talk shows and blogs fired up on just why this candidate won’t talk to the media. During her speech on the other night, she gave some rather flippant remarks about Obama/Biden and poked fun at them for their politics and experience. She wowed the crowd, made them laugh, cry, boo and scream. There were a myriad of emotions to be seen at the Republican National Convention as they embrace Sarah Palin as their new rock star. But, how long can she keep her rock-star status if she doesn’t face the media and start answering some tough questions?

As most people, entertainers and politicians alike, have realized is that the media is very powerful. Not necessarily accurate generally, but very, very powerful. The media can portray an individual and/or slant news stories and opinions in any fashion they choose, and often there isn’t anything the person can do about it. While no this is not fair nor is considered good journalism, the fact remains that the media can and does perform like this, and often. However, John McCain and Sarah Palin don’t seem to be overly concerned about this possibility and are content on doing things their way as it relates to the media, until they feel like they’re ready to give the media what it is they want. But will it be too little, too late?

What would happen if the media decided to hold their campaign hostage until they decided to talk to them? Where would that place the campaign’s and the election’s fate? All the media wants is for Governor Palin to address various issues as it relates to her office as Vice-President and how she plans to handle certain hot-button issues. Although the media feels as if they are not asking for too much, the Republicans are simply not in any hurry to oblige them. Perhaps refusing to give them any attention, negative or positive, will be enough to draw them out and beg to be interviewed or even asked questions.  

With the power that the media wields, it perhaps would be in Madame Governor’s best interest to at least play nice with the media. With so much negativity and questions surrounding this newcomer-candidate, she needs all of the help she can get. Even if it does come with a ransom note that reads:

“Talk to us or your campaign dies!”