Airfoil Public Relations

10 Tips for More Effective Email Communications

Emails expose the real “you.” In an organizational setting, the communications you send to prospects,
clients and partners usually pass through some kind of quality check—an editor, an administrative assistant or the guy in the next cube. But for the most part, we’re on our own with emails. We exchange email messages with all our brilliant insights and all our flaws right there on the screen with no one else checking our grammar.

Therefore, emails frequently provide the most honest assessment of the sender’s knowledge, capabilities and care. We should be taking as much care with the emails we send as we do with our annual reports, because our personal brand is on the line. In preparing your email messages, you may benefit by keeping in mind these 10 tips:

1. Use your best grammar, spelling and punctuation. Emails are presentations to important people and part of your “permanent record” in their minds.
2. Realize that even deleted emails may be retrievable forever. Many companies receiving your email (as well as your own firm) may need to retain them for legal e-discovery, so never send emails that could result in lawsuits over abusive language, threats, libel, racism, obscenity or other issues.
3. Never expect your email to be private. Recipients may forward, copy or publicly post them; so for private messages, meet by phone or in person.
4. Don’t use capital letters for emphasis. “All caps” indicates screaming. Instead, italicize, underline or bold the words you want to stress.
5. In business e-mails, avoid texting-style abbreviations. It’s very likely that your recipient may not understand the meaning if IMHO (in my humble opinion) or BTW (by the way). One woman purportedly confided in a Facebook post that her mother, in concluding condolences and other serious messages, has been signing off with LOL, which she believed meant “Lots of Love.” LOL!
6. Always proofread before hitting the send button. Just as news editors know that their biggest errors are most likely to occur in the boldest headlines, your biggest embarrassment may occur in the shortest message. Just ask apologetic business associates who follow up a mistake with a one-word email reading, “Opps!”
7. To avoid an accidental “Send,” complete the “To” line after drafting the message. If you’re replying, cut the “To” line names and paste them back in after completing the draft.
8. Use caution in choosing “Reply” or “Reply All.” Sometimes the initial recipients may not be appropriate for the reply, as many a former employee has discovered in responding to a company email message.
9. Create separate personal and business email accounts. In that way, you can avoid accidental auto-complete of the “To” line with a business contact name, rather than that of a friend. Also, an embarrassing personal message meant for a friend is less likely to end up in a business colleague’s inbox.
10. Be considerate of the recipient’s bandwidth. Never send very heavy presentations or video as email attachments. They may tie up the recipient’s inbox, blocking other emails while they download. Instead, store the document on your intranet or extranet or in your public cloud space and send the recipient a link.

If you feel these tips are helpful, you might email them to a colleague. But proofread them first, just in case.

 

 

 

--Steve Friedman is the director of marketing communications at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech PR agency with offices in Detroit and Silicon Valley

Have You Unlocked the Potential of Your Brand?

The playing field for brands has been leveled. Consumers use web, mobile and social to define brands on their own terms, ultimately transforming themselves into becoming the brand. Winning brands of today and tomorrow have only one choice – embrace and be empowered by consumer action and engagement. How can you get there? We’re sharing Six Rules for Progressive Brands. Check out Rules #1 Control Freaks Need Not Apply and #2 Check Your Ego at the Door.

This week we’ve released Rule #3 – Don’t Be a Clown at the High School Prom. In this day and age, you can’t force the customers to come to you - instead you must interact with your customers in the right places, on the right platforms, at the right time. Why be a clown at a high school prom when you can be lighting up young faces at an 8-year-old’s birthday party!

Hear some ‘Foilers explain why it’s critical to be where your customers are:

 

Need a recap on our previous two rules?

#1 Wanted: Creative Directors for Progressive Brands - Control Freaks Need Not Apply 

Accept that you can’t ignore and control online conversations, but you know that you can help direct the show with our tangible tactics.

#2 Check Your Ego at the Door 

What can progressive brands learn from Mr. Splashy Pants? Let go and embrace the power of your online community, but don’t do it blindly. Planning, strategic messaging and careful monitoring are critical, as is transparency, ongoing, regular engagement and activation of your brand advocates.

Let us know what you think and stay tuned for next week’s rule!

--Eric Dornbrook is an account coordinator at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech PR agency with offices in Detroit and Silicon Valley. Follow Eric on twitter @ericdornbrook

 

The Lost Art of Human Interaction

Given the option, which would you choose: watching the NCAA Final Four on TV, or attending the games in person, immersed in the energy, sights and sounds of a packed arena?

It’s a no-brainer, right?

With the proliferation of email, cell phones, Skype, iPhone’s FaceTime and Google+ Hangouts, we now have access to exciting and affordable technology that makes it easier than ever to interact with each other, regardless of distance. But believe it or not, the same factors that tip the scales in favor of watching a basketball game in person still play an essential role in communication as well.

A few months ago when one of Airfoil’s clients appointed a new executive, our team thought long and hard about how to best introduce him to the media and our public audience. With no hard news to share, we looked at our assets: 1) an energetic and knowledgeable new executive, 2) a company that, despite being between new product cycles, had compelling products on its roster, and 3) a high concentration of key reporters in two major cities.

The solution? We enlisted our new executive to travel the East Coast, meeting with reporters to share his knowledge and perform hands-on product demos along the way. And thus, the “Traveling Product Showcase” was born.

It seems deceivingly simple, right? But unfortunately, it appears this strategy is becoming less and less common, and based on the feedback we received from our reporters, “in person” is all too often an overlooked form of communication.

So what specifically makes an in-person meeting so impactful? There is seemingly endless research available that touts the importance of non-verbal communication cues, but on a less scientific level, I’ll share a few of my own observations:

1. Energy: Unless an email is filled with exclamation points (and let’s be honest, over-punctuation can be hard to read!!!), it’s difficult to convey the enthusiasm and energy needed to make something compelling. Phone calls can also fall flat, especially when hindered by zero facial expressions or body language and awkward pauses (does “Sorry, I was on mute,” ring a bell?). 
2. Tone: You know what email doesn’t have? A sense of tone. Do you know how often this has caused a recipient to misinterpret/overreact/under react to a simple statement? All the time.
3. Give-and-take: During the “Traveling Product Showcase,” one of the best interviews we conducted was less of a Q&A session, and more of a conversation. The verbal tennis match between our executive and the reporter was unlike anything I’ve seen during a media engagement, and the discussion was exhilarating, informative and valuable for all involved. As the reporter later put it, “There are just some conversations that can’t be had over the phone or email.”
4. Effort: Taking the time to arrange an in-person meeting says a lot about how much you value the other person. Trust me, it won’t go unnoticed.
5. It’s just more fun: This may be oversimplifying everything, but humans are social by nature. We thrive on interaction, so why should we limit our engagements to computer screens and phone lines?

So the next time you’re planning an interview (or any type of interaction, for that matter), consider making the time and effort to meet in person. You’ll be surprised by how much value it can add to your experience.

I’d love to hear what people think about this so leave a comment, or if you’re feeling bold, shoot me a note and let’s meet in person for a happy hour. It would be much more fun, don’t you think?

 

-- Susie Johnston is an account executive at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech PR agency with offices in Silicon Valley and Detroit.

The Internet of Things

Once upon a time people in offices across the world used technology to make themselves more productive. Then, at the end of each day, they went home and left their computers (what we now call devices) behind to rest up for tomorrow’s work.

It sounds archaic – right? Seriously, how did we ever get work done back then? While we didn’t believe our parents’ stories of walking five miles uphill in the snow to get to school, our kids won’t believe that we were once forced to look up information in these massive books called encyclopedias.

We live in the “Internet of things” age in which almost any object can be connected to the Web via Wi-Fi to transmit and/or receive data — from our cars, phones, tablets and houses to consumer-centric objects like scales, cameras, power meters and televisions. We even monitor the health of our kids on apps! 

So pretty much everywhere we go, we are connected – a situation that exists without requiring any specific action on our part. We’ve gone from a 9-5 society to something that starts with a quick pre-cursor between 7-8am, followed by a 9-5 workday, some family time at home, a little evening bonus time in front of the television, and then perhaps back online at around 10pm to ‘check-in’ on work and get ahead of the next day.

Sometimes as a business owner, the constant state of connectivity brought on by the consumer technology evolution can feel overwhelming. I realize all of these devices should allow me to get more work/play/shopping done faster and that it’s my own choice on how much effort I put into these daily activities. There is a certain discipline required to ‘shut down’ the email, stop the Angry Birds, Pinterest or QVC.com, though, and just be in the moment with my family and friends. Sure it’s not easy, but with the proper balance, the “Internet of things” will bring us more joy when online and more time with our families and co-workers – balancing offline interactions and conversations with those we have online.

Try taking part in the National Day of Unplugging for a digital detox from sunset March 23 to sunset March 24, 2012. Learn more here:  http://www.causes.com/causes/648905-national-day-of-unplugging/actions/1533560

At least until the next Pinterest comes out!

 

-- Janet Tyler is a co-CEO at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech PR agency with offices in Silicon Valley and Detroit.

The Content Key

As I wrote about in my last post, the avenues open to brands needing to engage with audiences is evolving at an alarming pace. Nowadays, businesses simply won’t succeed without a smart content strategy to communicate with customers in the right place at the right time.

Click here if you need help creating content.

But here’s the part that many of these marketing studies seem to habitually ignore. What happens when you’ve got the story down cold? You’ve found the community/audience. They are ready to listen. But, for whatever reason, the message doesn’t resonate. Or worse, what if the community dismisses it?

As this article suggests, one reason has less to do with a “content” problem, and perhaps more to do with a “brand authenticity” problem.

Stated another way, if there’s any BS associated with your message and/or how it’s delivered, it’s a pretty good bet that today’s savvy consumers will immediately dismiss it (and your company).

How many times have we read articles of brands that tried to be something they are not or ignored a problem that could have been easily addressed with some good old-fashioned honesty and candor?

Just because the places we deliver these stories has evolved in recent years doesn’t mean we need to change the way we deliver them.

Speak in your own voice, be authentic, don’t promise what you can’t deliver, avoid clichés … this is stuff we learned in Communications 101. If this still isn't clear, I'll keep it simple: quit the BS. 

If you want people to know and trust your brand … to be true fans and ambassadors … then you have to be yourself. The more approachable you are on the Web and elsewhere, the more likely we’ll be to strike up a conversation.

Thanks for listening,

Janet Tyler  

 

 

-- Janet Tyler is a co-CEO at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech PR agency with offices in Silicon Valley and Detroit.

Be Present, Be Pleasant

We are all guilty of checking our phones when we shouldn’t. Whether you’re at an event or you’re out with friends for happy hour, there is a constant need to check our phones for texts, emails, Facebook/Twitter notifications, etc. A study from 2011 in the Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous

Computing shows people check their phones an average of 34 times a day, not because they actually need to check them, but more out of habit.

Why the constant need to look at our phones? Maybe we are avoiding interacting with people or feeling awkward in a particular situation (think a networking event where everyone seems to know each other but you). There are certain instances, of course, where we’re waiting for an important call or text, but for the most part, that text from your friend or your turn in “Words with Friends” can wait. Ignoring people for your phone sends the clear message that you are interested in what’s on your phone rather than interacting with them.

Recently, Airfoil Public Relations held our annual agency meeting where we were fortunate to have PR industry guru Darryl Salerno deliver a keynote. During his speech, Darryl shared his impressive background and knowledge from working in PR for decades, but what stuck out to me was his advice to “be present and be pleasant.” He acknowledged that while checking your phone is common and sometimes unconscious behavior, it’s important (and pleasant) to pay attention to those around you.

Darryl noted that the people you meet and network with in life may not directly or immediately help you or your company, but if they know and respect you, they will recommend you to others and your web of contacts will continue to grow. This applies beyond meeting new people; it can impact your relationships with clients and colleagues. When you are present and clearly involved, your attention is more focused and without the distraction of your phone, you can get higher quality and more strategic work accomplished.

This may seem like a no brainer, but we’ve all done it. Your Twitter and Facebook feeds aren’t going anywhere, so next time you’re in a social situation, try to resist checking your phone. You’ll come across as more inviting and approachable, and you’ll be giving people you’re talking to the respect and attention they deserve. You never know the networking opportunity or new friend that could be right in front of you.

-- Laura Cumbow is an account executive at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech PR agency with offices in Detroit and Silicon Valley. 

The Digital Revolution

Pinterest anyone? It’s the newest golden child of social media and it’s changing the way we operate both as PR practitioners as well as consumers.

Social media is just part of how digital is growing. With the rapid growth of mobile, tablets and connected TVs, companies need to think outside the box when it comes to influencing consumers. No longer are we in the world of the second, third or even fourth screen. We have reached 24 hours of screens according to a recent Mashable article.

Growth of digital

Comscore’s recent social media study shows that social media activity accounted for 16.6 percent of time spent on the Internet in 2011 and is expected to surpass portals as the most engaging online activity.  Video activity has also experienced a dramatic increase, with the U.S. online video audience surpassing 100 million in December, a 43-percent increase from a year ago.

Measurement is king

One of the most important things to consider when launching new digital campaigns is defining how you will measure the success of the program. Paid (advertising and sponsorships) and owned (content created by brands) media are traditionally easier to measure. Earned media is much more valuable and credible, however it has been harder to measure since it is changing every day. Lucky for us PR pros, measurement tools are becoming better, helping us measure the value of earned media, and therefore define success. Right now there is no magic all-encompassing tool to measure earned media, but you can leverage several social media tools such as CrowdBooster, Hootsuite and even Facebook Insights.  Whenever possible, it is a good idea to also utilize website analytics to measure the traffic being driven to the company’s website as a result of digital efforts. 

-- Deana Goodrich is a senior account executive at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech PR agency with offices in Detroit and Silicon Valley.

Regardless of platform, customers are hungry for content

A recent study on the use of social media tools with Inc. 500 corporations supports the idea that blogging is officially a trend on the decline.

However, from my perspective, the real revelation from this study is more about how radically fast the communications playing field is changing than the decreasing metrics of any one channel. 

It’s insane how quickly things change. Five years ago, the idea of having a corporate blog was viewed in many circles as a fairly revolutionary way for businesses to foster a meaningful dialogue with their target audiences.

Now, a blog is just a one of many “check the box” avenues on the conversation superhighway that extends from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to emerging platforms such as Pinterest. As each space continues to grow, putting yourself where your audience is becomes even more important. Just having a Facebook and Twitter presence isn’t enough - what matters is what that channel is producing to create engagement and show thought leadership.

The one constant – i.e., the thing that often gets lost – is the need to produce good, smart and relevant content. Regardless of your company’s social tools of choice, if you create a steady flow of quality content, your audience will engage.

Without content, what conversations will you drive? What message are you sending your followers? What change will you inspire?

At the end of the day, isn’t that the only social media/business metric that truly matters? 

 

-- Janet Tyler is a co-CEO at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech PR agency with offices in Silicon Valley and Detroit.

Six Considerations for Communicating Globally

There was a time when being able to claim that your city offered an international airport was a big deal. The ability to accommodate international flights, with customs and immigration facilities, bestowed a cache of cosmopolitan worldliness on the community. With globalization of the economy, however, international airports became a requirement for any town that expected to meet the demands of the new economic order. Today, in fact, if Wikipedia is credible on the topic, the United States is populated with 158 of these prestigious airports.

Similarly, there was a time when communicators—journalists, public relations practitioners, marketers and others with a message to proclaim—could afford to focus only on their local geography.  They could thrive by routing their communications to their town, their state, perhaps their region or even the nation. Today, however, communicators—like airports—are discovering they must extend their reach globally if they expect to survive and grow in their jobs.

While an airport may go global simply by adding some flights and customs personnel, a communicator in the United States may need to undergo a personality transplant and a significant re-education program to be effective internationally. Every job and every target audience around the globe will present distinctive challenges—surprising customs, unintentionally embarrassing misuse of idioms, totally misguided audience selection, so each of us needs to carefully study the nations and populations to which we are aiming our articles, media materials and speeches. 

As a guide for beginning the process, here are six considerations that you should assimilate before applying your brain to your international keyboard:

1. Understand cultural differences. How will other cultures interpret your choice of words? How does your target audience perceive the roles of women, religious minorities or the military? Is enclosing your business card with a letter considered offensive?
2. Consider language differences. Are you offering a version of your communications in the target audience’s language? How does your communication read if the audience uses Google to translate your English version? What idioms that you may commonly use could cause consternation to someone in a different culture, or what happens when you translate a foreign idiom literally?
3. Factor in schedule differences. Remember that releasing an urgent communication at 1:00 p.m. in San Francisco means that it is being received at 8:00 a.m. the next day in Sydney. Planning a major event aimed at a business audience in Europe or South America can yield disappointing results if it falls in one of their most popular four-to-eight-week vacation periods.
4. Learn the laws. What you may write freely in America without a second thought (e.g., criticism of a government action) could land you in prison in other countries. Even a simple action like chewing gum at a news conference can get you hauled out of the room by law enforcement.
5. Learn how media work. The way media are controlled and operate in the Middle East bears no resemblance to European standards. And while paparazzi thrive in London, they may wilt across the channel in Paris. 
6. Learn history. When writing about Europe, it is as important to understand the impact of World Wars I and II on nations there as it is to understand the impact of the Civil War and the Vietnam War on American attitudes. History shapes biases and preferences, traditions and family values, heroes and villains in ways that can impact communications for centuries.

As you move toward an international frame of mind, keep that mind open to the backgrounds of those about whom you write and to the conventions that may bind them together but separate them from your own experience.

 

-- Steve Friedman is the director of marketing communications at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech PR agency with offices in Detroit and Silicon Valley.

Pining for Pinterest

As marketers across the globe are busy developing decks to show their clients why they should be on the hot new social network Pinterest, Pinterest users are largely blissfully unaware of the land grab that’s in the early stages.

Instead, these users are quickly becoming addicted to and enthralled with pins and boards, creating ideal house projects, recipes and fashion must-haves for themselves and their friends.

Should you, as a brand, join Pinterest? Well that depends. Here are some pros and cons to joining the social network at this stage:

Pros:

• As an early adopter, you’ll be among the first to experiment with the site and its new audience.
• Media are adopting Pinterest profiles, so it provides an additional venue to connect.
• “Pinners” are hungry for visual content and putting ideas together for them can create brand loyalty and affinity.
• Adding monetary symbols ($xx.xx) creates price tags for items, and users can click through to your ecommerce site if you include a hyperlink.

Cons:

• Because it’s not designed for brands, there are no design features or functionality to help you connect differently than an individual.
• Metrics are not available.
• Because it’s growing so quickly, Pinterest is working at full steam to help its community by meeting its demands. At the same time, the company has taken some flack surrounding affiliate links.

Lands’ End and Barney’s have developed brand promotions and contests via Pinterest, and several other brands will be following suit shortly.

And the site is not just for recipes and fashion. Media such as The Wall Street Journal to the Detroit Free Press are there, as well as the hardware company AMD, Major League Baseball and universities such as Miami of Ohio.

As one of the fastest-growing websites in history, Pinterest is sure to stay on the radar for many brands in the coming months. With more than 12,000 unique users per month, it would be hard to ignore such a large audience.

For more on how to use Pinterest for brands, see our presentation. Happy pinning!

Pinterest for Brands

View more PowerPoint from Airfoil Public Relations

-- Tonja Deegan is the social media director at Airfoil Public Relations, a high tech PR agency with offices in Detroit and Silicon Valley.