At AHA, we are consistently focused on finding the best ways to work with our clients. What makes a client stand out is that they focus on finding the best way to work with us. Working in partnership means that we build a mutually beneficial, respectful relationship. We have a commitment to client service and to delivering excellence and results for our clients. We also expect our clients to have a commitment to us as an agency as well.

Here are some points on how to get the best from your agency:

• Approach this relationship as a partnership. They don’t work for you; they work with you.

• Communicate, communicate, communicate. Make sure your agency is kept up-to-date, up-to-speed and understands what you expect. If you don’t have time for them, they can’t do their job to the best of their ability.

• Listen to their input. You hired them for their expertise and skill set. If you just want someone to take orders from you, you are wasting money paying agency fees. This doesn’t mean you will do everything they recommend, but take the time and make the effort to hear their ideas, thoughts and feedback. It is what you pay them for.

• Discussion and disagreement are positive activities, being disagreeable is not. If you are having a tough day and take it out on the people in your agency, they won’t be your agency for long.

• If you feel the agency has made a mistake or is off strategy, put it on the table in a respectful, professional manner and work towards a solution together.

• Make yourself available to provide information, input and feedback when they need you. They aren’t out to waste your time. If they request a meeting or need more information it is because they are focused on doing a good job and getting results.

• Respect the fact that you are not their only client. If something urgent comes up, a good agency will be there and will work late and work on weekends to get the job done. If you continue to give them last minute assignments on tight deadlines for no real reason, they will be looking for other clients.

• If you can’t meet a deadline on your side that impacts their work, let them know as soon as possible so they can adjust their workflow.

• Pay them on time.

• Tell them when they have done a good job. We know that working in communications can be a thankless job. Make sure you show your appreciation when appropriate. It goes a long, long way.

Good content helps with search engine optimization (SEO), it helps to build community and it allows you to reach out and share stories with your stakeholder group.

One of the first things a potential client asks us when they approach AHA about working with them is: What makes good content? That might seem like a question that is easier to answer than it actually is, because what the CEO, president or senior team see as good might actually be more like brochure copy or marketing speak – and that style of outreach is pretty old school. People are intelligent, they are informed, and sales copy doesn’t cut it anymore.

There are lots of blog posts and articles online that list overused buzzwords. You can check out a couple here and here.

The development of good content – whether it is an article, a white paper, a news release, a video, images or a podcast – has to provide interesting, relevant and useful information to the audience. It shouldn’t be about what you want them to hear; rather something that will make their life better, will teach them something, and will make them think. And by doing that, you will better position your organization. I realize that seems counter-intuitive to some – especially to people who are used to using the buzzwords. But it is time to learn to use a new language – one of authenticity, one that shares rather than sells, one that tells a compelling and engaging story.

David Merman Scott (an AHA favourite) has a great piece on HSBC and their approach to sharing information about their organization and how well they have done it. His piece is worth a read if you are interested in creating great content for your organization.

To help determine your story’s news value, ask yourself the questions below.

Is the story timely and relevant? It’s surprising how many things are put forward as great ideas and when we dig a little deeper, we realize that it’s not timely. With few exceptions, there is a time element attached that makes the story “old” before you realize it.

Does the story have significance to a trend, a cultural standard or shift? What does the story mean in the bigger context of your organization, industry or the world? Does it show a shift in how things are done? Is it a part of a growing trend or does it buck a trend that most people are starting to see as a standard?

Who will care about this story? We have had clients with “news” that makes their team jump and down with excitement, but outside of their organization, it means nothing. Understand that what might be of interest within your industry, may have no value to the larger business community. It’s still may be worth telling a story to a specific audience, but it’s important to know who that audience is.

What is the best way to tell this story? This is all relevant to the specific story and the audience you want to connect with. Sometimes video is the right medium, other times, an editorial style article or a white paper provides a more relevant way to share the information. Deciding how to tell your story first starts with finding out what stakeholder group you want to tell it to, then identifying how this specific group likes to receive information, and then determining the best way to tell the story. All of these elements have to come together and create a compelling “package” for the story. If you create a video for a demographic that doesn’t watch video, you likely won’t get many viewers. However, it may be that you have multiple stakeholder groups and need to tell the story through several mediums – a video, an article and a Q&A with experts.

How can you expand and extend the reach of this story? It may be as straightforward as telling the story through different mediums. It can also be telling the story from different angles through those mediums – the technical aspect, the human resources aspect, the collaboration and teamwork, or the business outcomes. Once you have defined the story and the primary audience and mediums(s), take another good look and search for additional opportunities. Is there a complementary approach that would let you create something that can be shared with your board of directors, with government, or used in sales meetings or speaking engagements?

AHA Fast Take Friday for July 15, 2011 from AHA Creative on Vimeo.

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday, Ruth talks about finding budget where you least expect it.

This particular client wanted to know what they were doing well and what they could do better. Social media was something that had just kind of happened at their company – with great intentions. Staff had taken it upon themselves and started a Facebook page and Twitter account and the CEO had taken to Foursquare. To their credit, they updated quite regularly. The challenge was that the communication coming from this company was all push out – and this wasn’t just through social media channels. The tone and style of communication was outdated throughout the organization because it was a top-down, “we want you to know this” style. Facebook and Twitter were used to send out information about what the CEO was doing – board meetings, business events, etc. and on Foursquare, we could learn at any given time where the CEO was having coffee, drinks or dinner. And there was no interactivity. It was all about what they wanted you to know.

There were solid intentions from the people of this organization; it’s just that the execution fell short because their approach wasn’t based on any kind of strategy. (Do most people care where company’s CEO gets his/her coffee or have dinner?)

If you want to improve your organization’s outreach on social media or through any communications vehicle, it’s important to identify how people want to get the information (e-newsletter, blog, website update, Facebook, etc.) and this means doing your research. Don’t make assumptions. It is crucial to define what your audience or stakeholders are interested in hearing; don’t assume you know what they need to hear. And, last but not least, don’t make it all about you. It’s about them and the value you can bring to them. Create opportunities to interact. Ask questions. Ask for feedback and comments.

While you are developing a communications strategy, take a moment and think about that time you were at a party and the most boring person in the room cornered you and talked about themselves for half an hour. Do you want people to feel that way about your organization? (The fact is, if you are boring them, they don’t have to be polite and stick around for half an hour. They have a delete button.)

Have you taken a realistic look lately at how you reach out – what did you find?

A blog gives you the opportunity to connect with your organization’s stakeholders. It allows you to provide valuable, relevant information to people. It can help, depending on the writing style and the content, show the “human” side of your organization. All are important components of your brand and how your organization interacts with your community.

Our AHA blog is currently under review by our crew. We are committed to our blog and find that it provides great value to our community. Our objective with this blog is to provide interesting, relevant, useful information that focuses on communication – both traditional and social media – for our stakeholder group. Readers who may potentially be clients, contractors or partners see who we are, our expertise, skill sets and experience and they understand our approach to business. Having said that, we have written this blog for several years and it’s time for us to see what we are doing well, what we could do better and what we need to drop or add to stay current and relevant to our readers.

I came across a good post on Ragan.com about how to use stats to make your blog a must-read and I found it valuable. I hope you do too.

Ragan.com has a great piece on this new online tool – it’s worth a read.

As the Canadian PR agency for Tourism New Zealand, we connect with Canadian travel journalists on a regular basis. We work with Tourism New Zealand to create the opportunity for leading travel journalists to visit New Zealand and to share their experience with their readers and/or audience. Recently, we have been fortunate to have received coverage about New Zealand in The Toronto Star, Canada AM, The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail, Sympatico.ca, Canoe.ca and The Discovery Channel and many others.

Without fail, what we hear back from travel journalists that visit New Zealand is how incredible the country is, how beautiful the landscape is, how delicious the food is, how amazing the wine is and how many things there are to do in New Zealand. One of the fabulous things about New Zealand is that there is something for everyone.

Below is an article that we wrote and distributed free of charge to media across Canada. Hope you enjoy it!

Five Things You Might Not Know About New Zealand

You probably know New Zealand for its adventure, adrenalin, and the great outdoors, but there are also a lot of interesting things that most people might not realize. Here are five fun, funky, and unforgettable things about the land of the long white cloud.

The South Island city of Dunedin celebrates chocolate for a whole week during the Dunedin Cadbury Chocolate Carnival  (July 11 – 17, 2010). One of the highlights has organizers letting two sets of 25,000 Jaffas loose. As the chocolate candies roll down Baldwin Street – the steepest street in the world – thousands of spectators eagerly await their arrival. (Just for the record, Dunedin is known as the “quirky capital of New Zealand” and this small city also boasts the country’s only annual naked rugby game.)

North Island’s Napier is known as the “Art Deco City” and maintains that title because of the local Art Deco Trust. The buildings in Napier underwent massive reconstruction after an earthquake in 1931, which almost leveled the city. Art Deco was in fashion at the time and it greatly influenced the rebuilding. Now Napier and South Beach in Miami, Florida are considered the two best preserved Art Deco towns in the world.

New Zealand is well-known for wine tours and tastings, but for those who like their drink with a little hop, there are also a wide range of microbreweries and brewery tours. For beer aficionados, there are many different types to choose from including North Island’s Galbraith’s Alehouse in Auckland, Waiheke Island Brewery on Waiheke Island, and Sunshine Brewery in Gisborne. The South Island brew opportunities include The Twisted Hop in Christchurch, Moa Brewery in Blenheim, and Bays Brewery in Nelson. Asking what local microbrew to try in any local bar or pub is sure to make you new friends.

New Zealand is predator-free, which means no cougars, bears, wolves or snakes. A walk in the forest is much less worrisome than a stroll in the woods in North America. There’s nothing waiting up around that bend except more flora and fauna, and perhaps a waterfall.

And last, but certainly not least, New Zealand makes exceptional espresso-based coffee drinks. According to locals, it has only been over the past five years or so that the country has embraced great coffee. (But when Kiwis decide to do something, they do it right!) Even in little out of the way coffee shops, you can get an exceptional Americano, latte, cappuccino or flat white (similar to a “wet” cappuccino). The best of the best are honoured at the annual New Zealand Coffee Awards.