Rob McMurtrie

Each press release represents months or years of effort, and the PR Newswire team is honored to help you connect with the people who matter most. Discover how we empower our clients to amplify their news to a global audience. 📰📣🌎 Ready to get started? Let's chat! #MomentsThatMatter #PressReleaseDistribution #EngageYourAudience #PRNewswire

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Cision's annual 2024 Global Comms Report listed the following as top priorities for communications professionals: 🔹 Building sustainable growth and value 🔹 Ability to respond in a timely manner to changing marketplace dynamics 🔹 Customer acquisition/engagement 🔹 Driving revenue growth It's easy to link these priorities with external communications. After all, how can internal communicators impact the bottom line? The reality is, particularly in B2B organizations, internal communications is crucial. B2C companies have ads, influencers on social media and product reviews. But in B2B companies, employees are the main touchpoint for customers. And we all know that a more engaged employee is primed to sell with more passion and drive. The result? 4X the revenue growth (Gallup). A strong and effective internal communications function results in engaged employees, which in turn boosts productivity, reduces turnover and enhances customer satisfaction. It just makes good business sense. #internalcommunications #employeeengagement #customerloyalty #b2b

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Take a look at this passage from Axios promoting an upcoming webinar: "Jim VandeHei has built two of the most successful media outlets of all time, Politico and Axios, and is sharing his executive insights in a new book, 'Just the Good Stuff.'” Meh. Just another suit bragging from a pulpit. But that's not the full passage. Here's the other half of the promo: "Jim VandeHei, at 19, was a small town, beer guzzling underachiever, chalking up a 1.48 GPA at his hometown college. Nearly 30 years later, he’s built two of the most successful media outlets of all time, Politico and Axios, and is sharing his executive insights in a new book, 'Just the Good Stuff.'” This context, complete with a GPA that wouldn't make the mom proud, shapes a story with a dash of drama. Jim and Axios are willing to share what we've come to call a small "f" failure because they know there's a positive payoff. Unfortunately, companies in their business communications want to jump to the "good stuff." They resist rewinding the tape to the things that went astray. Their instructions to PR: "Focus on the positives." Yet, you need the context to generate the tension that underpins the story.

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The @PageSociety just released its newest report Beyond Communication: CCO Leadership in Navigating New Complexity. The findings underscore the CCO as an ever-more-essential partner with the CEO in defining and activating corporate character. Read more here: https://hubs.la/Q02x4nPQ0

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On this week's #MetricMonday we're looking at sentiment, a tricky data point to come by, but an inherently critical one to understand #crisiscommunications challenges in real-time. First, let me say that NO algorithm or tool allows you to push a button and get a perfect sentiment analysis – it just doesn’t work that way (i.e. "cool" means something different to a fashion brand than it does to an HVAC company). However, in most cases, you can train tools to give you relevant directional data on sentiment based on publicly visible conversations. Once you have a well-trained monitoring tool in place, the granular approach to assessing individual posts matters a lot less than how you plan to use the data. Typically, I'm using sentiment data to: 👉 Determine the scale of an issue: While sentiment tells you the balance of negative, neutral and positive conversation, it can also showcase how much of each can impact your reputation. For example, if there are 10 product reviews on an item with 2M SKUs sold, does it matter that 6 of those reviews are negative? Perhaps, but it's worth noting how big or small an issue is relative to the conversation volume. 👉 Understand trends over time: Net sentiment is typically driven by events in a company's history. A positive net sentiment can change overnight on the whims of a bad newscycle. Analyzing sentiment before, during and after a critical issue will typically indicate whether the issue will persist or dissipate, helping you determine what the proper next steps might be. 👉 Understand topical relevance: Within all the comments and reposts are natural indicators of what topics are driving sentiment. The public will usually TELL you why they feel the way they do, and thus give you data on what the proper response might be, what channel to share it on, and how that statement might be received. Example: If your brand experiences a wave of negative comments on Instagram, does it make sense to issue a press release to tamp down the noise? Perhaps, but there's a case that it might not work based on where the conversation volume originated. If you’re planning to issue a response during a crisis that doesn’t include the trending keywords among negative responses, how might that message be received? Hard to say for sure but your odds of shifting the narrative are narrow without letting the data guide your hand. In all, sentiment is a great signifier of brand health, but as with all metrics, it's only a good tool if we use it to full capacity. And one more thing...can we not use neutral sentiment as a leading insight? It's perfectly fine to note that your audience isn't impassioned at a given moment, but neutral sentiment is easily the least impactful metric when facing a public issue. If it's all you have, shrink the data set and retrain your monitor based on influencer, channel type, publication or post type. There are insights there somewhere, sometimes you have to hunt for them.

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"By the end of this decade, there are going to be two kinds of companies: those that are fully utilizing AI and those that are out of business." -Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Want to know how internal comms is leveraging AI? Join us in taking the survey below.

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One of the hottest topics in comms at the moment..is your organisation ready? Learn from the experts on how to prepare in this upcoming webinar. #cybercrisis

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This article from Columbia Journalism Review is fascinating, and an argument for the importance of a reputation management communication plan. There are volumes authored by PR pros advising against ignoring reporters inquiries, yet this article documents how frequently it happens. Throughout my career, I can count on one hand the number of times I have made a calculated decision not to respond to a media request, and 99.9% of the time it was after multiple engagements with a reporter who repeatedly misrepresented or distorted information (even if not intentionally). I suspect, more often than not, reporters get ghosted because the brand is caught off guard. They haven't planned how they will respond in a reputation crisis. Or haven't socialized the planned response with stakeholders. If the PR team is haggling with executives and lawyers on what to say or how to say it when the reporters' questions start rolling in, the opportunity to frame the narrative is quickly lost. Thanks for sharing the article Jennifer Johnson Avril! https://lnkd.in/gYmTA9CW

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It could be time to lead with internal communications. I recently attended an Axios Communicators event in Washington, D.C., "Navigating an AI-Driven Election," to learn what's on the mind of top corporate communicators. Through interviews conducted by Eleanor Hawkins, right, of Axios Communicators, we heard from industry experts like Dani Dudeck, left, Instacart's chief corporate affairs officer; Deisha Barnett (UPS president, global communications); Sabastian V. Niles (Salesforce president & chief legal officer); and Ron Bonjean (co-founder, ROKK Solutions). In keeping with Axios smart brevity style, here's a quick hit on what's on their minds: ☑ Employees First: UPS banned the term "employee communications." No longer treated as a separate function with siloed messages directed at them, UPS takes advantage of the power and external reach of their 500,000 employees. Barnett said not all UPS messages are shared through PR, advertising or social media channels, "but reaching our employee base is a lever we always pull." Instacart places a similar priority on honest and open employee communications. ☑ Be Deliberate on Social Issues: Follow a well-defined process for addressing social issues, not a knee-jerk "we need to fire out a statement by the CEO." If it's a go, the statement needs to align with your values and core stakeholders. "If you're a bagel shop you should comment on food security, not Roe v. Wade," Bonjean said. ☑ AI Playground: UPS created a protected environment called the "AI Playground" where their communications team can explore AI tools and techniques, including using AI to predict media coverage based on press releases. Try this: Once your press release draft is completed, drop it into AI and ask "What news story would Axios (or media outlet of your choice) likely write using this information?" TL;DR Summary: Take a new look at internal communications and maybe even lead with it. AI is here to stay, but be strategic and intentional with it. Focus on tone and explore the risks of commenting - or remaining silent - on social issues, but use a process, not a conversation with the CEO. #AI #internalcommunications #PR #publicrelations

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🌟 Mike Pastore's latest article on MarTech.org delves into the fascinating world of martech and poses some critical questions: Do CMOs truly understand how their teams utilize martech? And perhaps more importantly, does it really matter if they don't? 🌟 Mike raises thought-provoking points about the evolving landscape of marketing and technology integration, emphasizing the increasing importance of every marketer embracing their role as a marketing technologist. Check out the article below and join the conversation on the future of martech! https://lnkd.in/eBXYC96x #Marketing #Martech #Leadership #CMOInsights

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Crises are surprises — but your response can’t be. But how do you create a crisis communications plan and what should be in it? Click on my piece below and find out. Then ping me! ICR

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PRWeek's great 2024 Business Report highlights the key challenge facing our industry. Communications is more important than ever. Comms and policy leaders are being asked to play far larger roles as business partners supporting ever more stakeholders. So why did the industry suffer so much in 2023 after many years of growth? As an sector, we are not adapting fast enough to the needs. Organizations are desperate for help but also under tremendous financial strain. They now need both senior level counsel and advisory support as well as deep domain expertise to actually produce. By and large, our industry is still split by this chasm - between strategic and tactical. Clients cannot afford to separate these, either in time or money. At Bully Pulpit International our goal is to bridge this divide, building a team that can both 'think and do' at the highest levels. It's not always easy. Last year was a challenge. But if you share this vision for the future, please check out some of our open roles: https://lnkd.in/dGQwJUSG

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Why do we do PR? Well, I would answer it's because trust and confidence among all audiences is at historic lows—an avg of 28%. With low/no trust, there is no commerce, there are no deals and business GRINDS to a halt. So, THAT is why we do PR. https://lnkd.in/g9M-_JQ4 #publicrelations, #pr, #trust, #credibility

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Struggling to demonstrate the business impact of your PR campaigns? Discover the Top 5 Survey Tools that can help you gather valuable data and insights. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3WGVme7 #PRMeasurement #SurveySolutions

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