Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 10th, 2012

January is an interesting month. People are setting goals in both their personal and professional lives. It’s a time of new beginnings, of focusing (or refocusing), of excitement and hope. We’re no different here at AHA. We took some time over the holiday season to set our goals and to outline what we want to achieve, experience and create in 2012.

One of my professional goals is to work with more clients who realize that great PR is about building relationships, about educating and informing, and about engaging with your target market or stakeholder group. Social media has made a huge impact on public relations. There are many avenues for great PR and they include traditional approaches and new media. One of the areas I am excited about is in the area of brand journalism. Brand journalism allows organizations to create interesting, useful pieces – video, articles, Q&As and more – that share relevant information that is of value to the stakeholder group.

We recently worked with a client who was concerned that if they took a brand journalism approach it would mean that their objectives would be left behind – that they would be putting budget towards something that doesn’t have measurable results. Their CEO was committed to creating a different avenue to communicate directly with stakeholders (who were consumers). They were surprised (and relieved) when we explained that not only can (and should) a brand journalism approach support the organization’s objectives, but also that response and reaction can be measured.

Brand journalism is about telling your organization’s story in an interesting and compelling manner. When we start a brand journalism project, we work with our clients to define their objectives and goals, we research and develop interesting (and authentic and true) story angles, and we define how the story should be told – articles, video, podcasts, town hall meetings, online live question and answer sessions, etc. – by understanding who the target audience is and what they want. In order to measure, we need to clearly understand what the goals and objectives are and we need to know the current status – where are you now and where do you want to go?

Brand journalism is an editorial approach to telling your organization’s story in a credible and interesting way. Think about a segment you might see on the morning news and how it shows more than just the sales pitch for an event, a product or a service. It talks about trends, about why something is becoming popular or important, and it focuses on why it matters to the audience. It focuses on the human interest component – the heart and soul. It’s about people, the experience and about providing some type of information that is of value to you. That’s what a good brand journalism piece or campaign should be – what it should do is make the person reading or watching feel like their time was well-spent, that they learned something, and that they have a new or different perspective. They should never feel like they are being sold.

Here’s to a fun, challenging and successful 2012 – filled with great and authentic stories and clients!

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on January 06th, 2012

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday from Barbados, Ruth talks about monitoring what is being said about your organization online.

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on January 03rd, 2012

I am not going to spoil the fun of today’s AHA Special Fast Take. All I will say is watch Ruth take the “plunge” into 2012. (And my apologies for the sound – it was very windy!)

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on December 30th, 2011

In today’s video, Ruth is in the AHA Creativity Studio (A.K.A. The Naked Cowboy) talking about setting goals for 2012.

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on December 29th, 2011

We take media pitching seriously. We do our homework and our research. We review the work of the journalist or blogger in context to what we want to pitch. We spend the time to get it right and that shows in our results. At AHA, we have generated some exceptional media and blog coverage for clients.

It was refreshing to read this article on pitching on Ragan.com. New York Times Tech Journalist David Pogue talks about the pitches that grabbed his attention. (Just for the record, we are big fans of Pogue!) It’s worth a read. And if you think the information provided by a tech journalist isn’t relevant to your organization and what you want to pitch – you’re dead wrong. This approach translates to almost any proactive media pitch for any industry. It’s about being relevant, being timely, understanding what the journalist or blogger is interested in, and catching their attention in a way that works for that particular blogger or journalist.

Great media and blogger relations takes time. Don’t slap together a news release and shotgun it out to everyone. It doesn’t work that way anymore!

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on December 09th, 2011

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday, Ruth is in Atlanta talking about having a road map to make sure you’re on the right track.

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on December 07th, 2011

Ruth has a special video blog post from her hotel in Atlanta regarding Alec Baldwin getting removed from an airplane.

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on December 05th, 2011

On Wednesday, I wrote about the CEO/President’s blog. Today we’ll have a look at the organization blog, the employee blog and the blend.

The Organization Blog

This blog is a little less about the person writing it than it is about the organization as a whole. Often there will be several writers who cover a range of topics and areas regarding the organization. It might be that different departments or division heads each write one blog post a week about news, events and interesting points relevant to their area.

In this style, it is more like local news and opinion coverage, with a little thought-leadership, than the more personal column style of the CEO or President’s blog.

There is more organization and focus needed here to make sure that there is a flow of subjects and that writers don’t duplicate efforts or put out conflicting information – which we all know can happen when there are multiple voices. Often, the communications team would act as the news editor and review all the information before it is posted to ensure that overall consistency in style and tone is reflected.

The Employee Blog

These can be the most engaging – if you have the right employee(s) writing the blog posts. It has been our experience that organizations have some incredible people working on the front lines who are great at blogging. It’s these people who have engaging, interesting, amazing stories that showcase the product or services that you offer – and the heart and soul of your organization: the people.

There are, of course, challenges here. Not everyone on the front lines understands what should and should not be shared publicly. Training and coaching can be helpful here. The other side of this is that sometimes, as communicators, we get caught up in positioning, messaging and talking points. Having someone who lives the brand every day write the blog posts can bring us back to a reality that is important. There are times when it’s okay to say things are challenging and when it’s okay to talk about an issue and how it was resolved. Most people want to know about the heart of an organization – not just what your product or service does for them. They want to know how you act when there is an issue; they want to know what the day is like for someone who works there – to understand the challenges that you face and how you deal with them.

The Blend

Some of the best blogs we’ve helped develop and maintain are the ones that bring the CEO and the employees into the spotlight. The CEO might blog on Fridays, while a team of employee bloggers rotate through the other days. Some of the most popular blog posts have been where employees interview the CEO or the CEO speaks with employees and finds out about their role in the company.

The blend blog style allows for some great human interaction that showcases the people behind the product or service, something we’re all interested in knowing more about.

Does your organization have a blog? Who writes it?

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on December 02nd, 2011

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday, Ruth talks about the importance of understanding what people want to talk to you about…not what you want to tell them.

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on December 01st, 2011

Blogging has become a regular communications tool for organizations. One of the things that I have noticed is that when we work with the marketing department or agency of a client, there is a little bit of discussion over which area (communications or marketing) will develop and manage the campaign on Twitter and/or Facebook. There is never any discussion about the organization’s blog – it belongs firmly with the communications team.

Like any communications tool, blogging isn’t for everyone. It depends on the objectives, goals, overall strategy and, of course, the resources. It takes time and effort to produce a relevant, interesting and informative blog post on a regular basis.

A blog provides an opportunity to share relevant news and information, to educate and inform, to provide opinions and context within an industry and to clarify and correct any misunderstandings or factual errors, which could come from rumours or speculation. A blog can prove valuable during an issue or a crisis; and while it would be a positive to already have one up and running so that you have already created a community that reads the blog, starting one to share information during a challenging time that can provide reliable communications is appreciated – and read.

Depending on what the objective is, there are different types and styles of blogs. And some are a blend. Today we’re going to outline the CEO or President’s blog.

The CEO or President’s Blog

Typically this positions your CEO or President in a thought-leadership position within an industry or field. It also provides the opportunity to show the “human” side of your leader. These types of blogs work best with a CEO or President who is comfortable in the spotlight, who actively participates within your industry, likes to share her/his thoughts, opinions and ideas and who appreciates interaction and feedback. There are those who believe the CEO or President should write their own blog and, in a perfect world, we agree. However, most leaders don’t have the time it takes to do this. We have found that the most authentic and realistic way for this type of blog to succeed is to have regular meetings (which can be on the phone while the CEO drives to work) where she/he downloads ideas and key points and the post gets written in their personal style. The CEO reviews it to make sure that their thoughts and ideas are reflected.

There is some discussion about the authenticity of this approach, but in our experience it’s similar to having someone write a speech. It has to reflect the CEO or President’s thoughts, ideas and style, but it can be written for them. We always recommend that in the about section of the blog that this is explained or defined.

Think of this blog as your CEO or President having a column that is produced two or three times a week.
On Monday, we’ll visit the organization blog, the employee blog and a blended blog.