This white paper provides an overview of the strategic dimensions of the Holy Trinity and some practical manifestations of how they can be applied in a business environment.

Throughout the paper, the complementary dimensions of the Trinity pillars are illustrated. Supporting this, tactical, practical advice on how they can be applied collectively, rather than as standalone methodologies, is provided.

Individually, the three pillars of the Trinity are a robust means of delivering tangible business outcomes, yet applying them in an integrated manner provides economy of scale. More importantly, however, when connected each pillar will then generate a greater momentum to deliver a collectively-driven result that exceeds the sum of its individual parts being applied separately.

Triple-treat challenges in applying the Trinity, then, and well worth getting right, are ensuring that:

• individually, suitable constituents of the pillars are put in place
• collectively, if applying an integrated Trinity approach, the different elements work well together and are likely to optimise investment
• an approach, or strategy if you like, that ensures the varying characteristics of any single or collective Trinity elements are harnessed and directed to optimise investment.

Holy Trinity PR pillars explained

Thought leadership – the provision of content that is original, thought provoking but, above all in the context of business results, useful for organisational target audiences and, ideally, prompts them to tell others about the value that it has provided them. Ideally, these ‘others’ will either be more target audiences or influencers on target audiences.

3^rd party credibility – provided by non-organisational employees that have credibility and/or influence on organisational target audiences, with their views on issues relevant to the organisation (but not necessarily about the organisation) being made apparent through communication mediums such as the media, social media or events.

Strategic alliances – forming business relationships between organisations to help them achieve their objectives, with primary rationales for the alliances being:

• They expand the reach of communication (i.e. information about each alliance partner can be included in each other’s communication vehicles)
• The credibility of each partner can be enhanced due to its involvement with the other credible partner
• ‘Riding on the coattails’ of the alliance partner’s communication vehicles normally costs either nothing or very little, thus making it comparatively easy to generate excellent ROI on the alliance ‘investment’.

Why the Holy Trinity is good PR = good business

Each of the Trinity pillars facilitate credibility to the organisation being delivered. Sometimes through non-organisational stakeholders (e.g. individuals, companies, non-government organisations such as think tanks) endorsing the organisation, either directly or by insinuation, and sometimes by providing value of substance to organisational target audiences.

The extensively interconnected nature of the Trinity is founded on relationships. None of the three pillars exists without taking into account and dealing with the relationship dimension:

• Thought leadership – to provide content of value, the needs of target audiences must be understood, which is almost impossible without a relationship existing or for there to be a genuine desire for a mutually beneficial relationship to be constituted
• 3^rd party credibility – necessitates a non-organisational stakeholder endorsing the organisation (either explicitly or implicitly), which will not occur without a mutually beneficial relationship existing
• Strategic alliance – one of its characteristics is mutually beneficial outcomes or ROI.

As noted, mutually beneficial outcomes are a consistent necessity and outcome of the Holy Trinity being applied. This is an extension, and application, of two-way symmetrical communication.

Evolving, learning: PR leads to better organisations

A qualitative manner in which the Holy Trinity, and hence PR itself, helps deliver ROI is through the learning and insights gained from actually applying the Trinity. As such, this is a continual improvement process that benefits an organisation’s entire business operations.

The methodologies:

• necessitate working with non-organisational stakeholders
• frequently require challenging organisational orthodoxies
• compel an organisation to adapt to the needs, methods and thinking of non-organisational stakeholders
• will see organisational approaches and content examined and tested; in essence providing a form of focus group or qualitative testing before ‘going to market’.

In each of these instances, the organisation can evolve and improve the way it operates.

Thought leadership for content strategy

Because so much communication, relationship building and reputation enhancement is based on content that is used in social and other digital media formats, the Holy Trinity pillars are a natural means of helping facilitate the development of this content. Of course, they should be integrated into any approach that delivers content to the organisation.

And if the goals of creating content are educating, informing, entertaining and inspiring, then this isn’t so far from what thought leadership entails. Certainly, all four of these characteristics need to be considered as part of an organisation’s content strategy, in itself a 101 pillar of any best practice public relations and/or marketing strategy.

The Holy Trinity of public relations white paper is available as a free download from this blog once you email subscribe to it. Once you check it out, if all good, please share news of its existence through your social media networks! Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn buttons are on this web page to make it easy for you to do this.

One dimension of this discussion is the opportunities blogs in particular are providing organisations – through PR-driven brand journalism – to make a proactive, high profile contribution to discussions on key issues, including industry news. Large organisations especially have the resources to gain high SEO rankings because of their relevance to issues and topics of conversation.

They can therefore rival even large news organisations as a provider of content – analysis and thought leadership in particular, leaving the daily grind of ‘news’ to the old school woolly mammoths.

It doesn’t have to be either/or, though. The two paradigms can operate in tandem, just as they are evolving to do.

And why wouldn’t organisations do this (i.e. create reputation-building safe haven sources of information that goes STRAIGHT to stakeholders (i.e. unmediated – getting the message across without media bias)? As long as this is done with credibility, authenticity and with stakeholders’ interests in mind, it will make an impact and is already doing so.

This is taking an issues management approach. Intelligently done, it is an approach that can not only build reputation proactively, it can also provide a bulwark against negative criticism that occurs in a crisis situation, including from the woolly mammoths.

But it’s not just organisational blogs that are at play there. There is the 3^rd party: the independent blogger. We’re coming to the new tiger in the jungle.

Public relations needs to be proactive in issues management

One strategic approach for brand journalism, especially when using a blog platform, is to frequently link to and address issues discussed by and/or relevant to influential, or potentially influential, bloggers (in the context of an organisation’s reputation and/or a specific issue). The organisation should be addressing these issues from its own perspective, providing insights and information that will be unique to it – thus helping with differentiation, SEO and thought leadership positioning.

Why should the woolly mammoths have all the exclusives, pray tell?

The recognition of the blogger’s perspective through taking this approach will make them make feel valued and respected, even if the organisation takes an oppositional perspective to them. This will definitely speed up the information flow in a crisis (i.e. potentially stamp out the brush fires of disinformation that can escalate an already explosive situation).

Would you say the same approach would work with traditional journalism (i.e. link to journalist’s stories on either their own blogs or media website)? In my view, it won’t work as well because the journalists are bred and paid to be difficult folk, taking the cynical, uber-sceptical position.

Journalists have egos. Who would have thought?

But there are exceptions to this rule, especially in vertical/B2B media outlets and, let’s not forget, journalists are people too and as such possess egos (often quite colossal ones) that will feel gratified and respected if an organisation links to their online endeavours and accords them recognition and respect when addressing their positions. So, in summary, it can’t hurt!

Non-journalist bloggers – tigers without manners?

Because non-media bloggers aren’t restrained by the same standards and regulation as journalists, they can put unfounded content and utter speculation on their sites, meaning the genie can escape from the bottle (even if the genie is a figment of the writer’s imagination or ego) very quickly. If the organisation has an established blog and possibly even relationship with the blogger, this fire can be doused extremely quickly.

PR content marketing is more than join-the-dots

As social media is such a well resourced and many-limbed conductor of contemporary crises and issues of a reputational nature, it is imperative that an organisation of any size cultivates more than just a ‘placeholder’ presence on a blog and other social media, as well as having a presence that talks not only about positive ‘pretty’ issues impacting on the organisation, but also about challenging and divisive ones.

For brand journalism to resonate with its stakeholders it needs to take this holistic approach, embracing a wide range of issues relevant to the organisation and its stakeholders’ interests, needs and wants.

Independent bloggers influence the media itself, thus giving their presence greater resonance. In an interesting summary articulated in a study in the Journal of Public Relations Research, which has influenced this post itself, it was stated that bloggers:

• Act as ‘watchdogs’ to media by identifying inaccuracies
• Remove barriers to information access that media might put in place
• Upset the once dominant agenda-setting primacy of the media woolly mammoths
• Democratise the sources of information and perspectives available to stakeholders to gather information.

All of this is true, of course. So now we have three sources of news and blogs:

• Media woolly mammoths
• Organisational elephants in the room
• Independent tigers of the jungle.

Care to venture outside?

Stop press: Very soon a new, free whitepaper will be launched on this blog called The Holy Trinity of public relations: thought leadership, 3rd party credibility and strategic alliances. Spread the word! #PRholytrinity

What role do you think organisations should play in the provision of thought leadership, industry information and news – either through social media such as blogs or other platforms? What are your observations on the rapidly evolving tripartite sources of news and insights we have – media, bloggers and organisations? Where are we headed?

If you found this post of value, please share it through Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Thanks!

If we don’t use the complementary elements of triple treat, we’ll struggle to have the content to leverage organisations to their potential, no matter what the platform:

• Media
• Speaking engagements
• Trade shows/expos
• But especially – SOCIAL MEDIA.

Of course, there will be situation where the utilisation of every (or any) element of content marketing, inbound marketing and brand journalism in an organisational communication strategy will not be appropriate. But they should always be on the list of boxes to check to see if, in fact, they should be leveraged.

Inbound marketing for public relations

Inbound marketing is not about interrupting people with television ads, print publication ads or cold calling, it is about providing resources of value to target audiences (e.g. through videos that potential customers want to see, business blogs with valuable insights and other forms of content such as white papers).

This leads to prospects contacting us looking for more information and sharing thoughts and observations on our organisations through social media and other avenues. The changing landscapes of media, communication and society are making outbound techniques less effective and more expensive.

Inbound marketing is an incredibly important strategic approach that the clever communicator will integrate into a plethora of proactive issues management and reputation building activities.

Additionally, it is a definitive platform through which to promote thought leadership (a prime approach to achieve organisational differentiation). It is an unmediated form of communication, so target audiences receive information and messaging precisely the way you intended it to be received. And, at its best, it enhances the anthropomorphic qualities (human characteristics) of an organisation, which is an effective way to enhance relationships with stakeholders.

Brand journalism underpinning excellent PR

Brand journalism ramps up to a more credible, values-driven level what PR professionals have been doing since the year dot, writing about an organisation and the issues which are relevant to it and its stakeholders.

Brand journalism has become a fundamental element of public relations:

• People don’t trust the media as much as they once did (due in no small part to its trend towards under-resourcing)
• People are looking online for information before picking up a magazine or newspaper
• SEO is directing people’s enquiry to well optimised sources of information.

Enter the opportunity for organisations to be THE provider of credible information on their organisation, their issues, their industry.

As Brian Solis has said of brand journalism, ““We have to become the resource, we have to become the influencer”.

To be an effective brand journalist, you must:

• be a trustworthy, consistent news source about your organisation and its industry

• provide information that has balance, authenticity and is produced in consideration of what your stakeholders are interested in (balanced with what drives your organisation)
• recognise that an emotional connection is key when it comes to stories and journalism.

Content marketing for stakeholder management

Content marketing is now an integral element of public relations and is an extension of the notion of thought leadership. It varies the thought leadership approach, however, in various ways:

1. It includes content not generated by the organisation
2. It can include content that is not necessarily ‘insightful’ or ‘high-end’
3. It broadens the range of issues an organisation might offer content on
4. It can increase the number of organisational employees who might speak, or represent the organisation, on certain topics.

Content is more than thought leadership. Not all content needs to be cutting edge, ground breaking etc. But it should provide value to the target audience.

By choosing some core pillars to provide original content (such as thought leadership), then having a ‘satellite’ of secondary topics where a content curation aesthetic is applied, organisations have the opportunity to have their cake and eat it too.

Excellent content educates, informs, entertains and/or inspires – all of which give you the best possible chance of engaging with stakeholders and developing advocates of them.

Other than thought leadership and curated content, options for inclusion into content marketing include:

• case studies
• analysis
• employee, customer, stakeholder stories: a diversity of voices (anthropomorphising)
• 3^rd party/strategic alliances content
• images
• videos.

As effective an approach as content marketing is, it is an insatiable beast. So remember to repurpose content as much as is feasible, customising it for target audience segments, to save time and get better ROI on marketing efforts.

If you’re looking for a great resource on content marketing, then I heartily recommend checking out DavidHenderson.Com.

Stop press: In a couple of weeks a new, free whitepaper will be launched on this blog called The Holy Trinity of public relations: thought leadership, 3rd party credibility and strategic alliances. Spread the word! #PRholytrinity

Do you include the triple treat methodologies in your organisational public relations or marketing strategy? How does your organisation offer insights and value to stakeholders that doesn’t have the explicit objective of turning a buck? Are you a good (make that an excellent) brand journalist? If so, share your secrets!

If you found this post of value, please share it through Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Further dimensions of the above assertions are that:

• the blog should be from the agency or one or more of their employees
• a number of employees should be active, from a business perspective, on some non-blog social media platforms (e.g. Goggle+, Twitter, LinkedIn, new darling Pinterest etc)
• PR agency employees’ thoroughly filled out LinkedIn profiles should include recommendations from those they have worked with/for (not including colleagues!!)

And no, you don’t need to be interested in having an agency undertake a social media program specifically for an agency to be adept in the items listed above.

But, and get this, if the agency can’t tick these boxes then they are not talking the walk when it comes to best practice PR and they are not conversant with the application of best practice PR.

If an agency is not applying and/or cannot speak articulately on why or why not the above approaches are relevant to your business then you are speaking to professionals who are not the best out there – go elsewhere!

In regard to the elements PR agencies should feature listed above, each of them should be a default inclusion in your public relations and/or marketing strategy. Certainly, they may not be ultimately suited to your needs, but it most cases they will be.

You will also find some agencies and/or professionals say that they don’t need to be active in social media, including having a blog, or to be producing their own thought leadership content. What an absolute load of bollocks. Inherent within this argument are the following rationales:

• We are good enough to undertake your social media programs but we don’t spend much, if any, time on these platforms in a professional business sense ourselves
• We are focused on achieving our own business aims and don’t believe in contributing to the advancement of our profession through the dominant communication mechanism of our times, the internet
• We don’t believe that the internet is the best mechanism through which to generate positive word-of-mouth branding and tactical awareness after face-to-face interpersonal communication
• Thought leadership and inbound journalism aren’t very important for differentiation and stakeholder engagement.

If you subscribe to any of the assertions noted above, then you definitely need professional public relations assistance (but not from any who agree with the assertions)!!

This is the second in a series on choosing a Sydney PR agency. The first post discussed the issues of who works on your account (junior or senior employees), quoting and hour allocation, matching agency capabilities with client needs, Chinese wall, customised attention to PR needs and does the supplier need to be based in the same city as the client.

Measuring the impact of PR investment

Whatever path is taken in Sydney PR agency investment, it is imperative that metrics are put in place as part of the strategising and the final plan. This does not mean that an agency should be dropped if objectives are not achieved. There might be very good reasons for this (client dysfunctionality and inability to provide content or sign off as needed for one!) but they need to be discussed and ways to gain better outcomes identified and incorporated.

The rationale behind the metrics needs to transparent.

Agencies are adept at putting forward potential outcomes (media coverage, social media sharing, links to sales etc) that are wildly optimistic and bear little relation to reality. Don’t fall into the trap of accepting sexy looking outcomes without questioning the rationale behind them.

If an agency does fail to deliver on silly objectives, well, they’ve only got themselves to blame if they aren’t achieved. And similarly, clients should not push for ridiculous outcomes that bear no relation to their financial investment in the PR program or the quality of the content they can offer for the various tactical mechanisms they are implementing.

An agreement should be:

• in writing before ANY WORK commences
• pedantic in addressing the nature of the work that it is required be done
• conscious in addressing the issue of activity reporting (and for goodness sake don’t get too anal about this as where do you want your time spent – getting results or reporting on results….?)
• sensibly applied by human beings and not machines as the nature of the public relations service means that the operating environment will change and the PR work will need to adapt to these changing circumstances. This can only be done effectively when the relationships between the PR operator and the client is a positive, mutually respectful one.

Honesty and challenging presumptions by Sydney PR agencies

Inherent in the discussion above is the need for total and ongoing transparency and honesty between a client and its agency. The reasons for this are pretty obvious I would have thought.

To get the best from the PR agency clients should welcome their assumptions and perceptions being challenged. One of PR’s core attributes is to argue the point and dig deeper. This can have strategic and issues management outcomes, but so can it enrich the narratives that will form the central part of client public relations activity. It adds rigour.

I’ve seen it occur where a client wants activity and narrative to occur strictly how they perceive it should be. This always leads to lower quality narratives and less than best-possible outcomes. Don’t do it!

Pitches are for cricket, not for PR

One of my pet hates (and I’m not alone in this) is the tendency of potential clients to want full-on pitches made for their business – what an absolute waste of time and insult to the intelligence!

You only have to look at the marketing/advertising industry where agencies can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on pitches only to be knocked back. There might be a cursory payment for the pitch in some cases but this doesn’t come close to recovering costs.

It is an evil system and should be destroyed at the earliest possible opportunity!

A pitch is often undertaken by agencies before they have had a chance to get to know the potential client’s business as well as they need to, leading to pitches which may not be in full alignment with client business and communication needs.

Additionally, I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen the blood, sweat and tears of a winning pitch ultimately end up being ditched. This is because when the agency and the client got down to brass tacks, taking another path to success proved optimal. This means all that time and creativity is wasted. Oh sure, the agency and the client may say we can use it again elsewhere, but that rarely occurs.

Another factor in this process is that the huge amount of effort that is put in a pitch does not necessarily translate into a huge amount of effort put into a client once their business has been secured. Sad but true. You can also be stone cold certain the big agency guns will work on the creative and strategy in the pitch, but that not all of them will be involved in the running of the client’s account in more than a cursory fashion, if at all.

Outcome? To decide on what agency is right:

• Check credentials for experience and capability that matches client needs
• Check with past clients asking the right questions relevant to what your specific PR needs
• Interact with the agency and those who will specifically work on your account – do you get the ‘good vibe’, cultural match and d*#khead-free zone feeling from them?
• Ascertain precisely who is working on the account and what percentage of their time will be allocated to it.

What are your thoughts on the effectiveness and appropriateness of preparing extensive pitches for new business? What is your experience of them and what instructive tales can you tell us? Do you think agencies need to be active in social media to be credible, or be making a contribution to the PR industry through thought leadership on internet-based platforms?

PS. If you’re wondering why I use the term ‘Sydney PR’ or variations of it in this post, the savvy amongst you will have realised I am doing it mainly for SEO reasons, otherwise I’d have ditched the Sydney bit and made it more generic. I’m telling you this in the interests of transparency and also in case you find it interesting I’ve done this. I don’t agonise too much over keywords for search purposes (content takes precedence), but am always conscious of it, as PR certainly needs to be in its approach to content marketing. It seems to be working so far, so let’s see if it leads to client/work opportunities!! Wish me luck.

[This is the fifth of a six-part ‘case study’ series on devising communication strategy for an infrastructure project, but can also be applied to non-infrastructure-related initiatives.].

With infrastructure projects such as the one under discussion it is almost certain that a corporate/project blog and a Facebook business/fan page will be utilised to complement the corporate website. The first question to answer is what is the role of each platform? What is the hub and what are the spokes? Some probable answers include:

• Website to contain basic information about the project, including detailed updates about progress and other major corporate issues
• Blog for ongoing thought leadership; insights into the project progress; primarily project-centred value for stakeholders; secondary stakeholder dialogic platform
• Facebook for small updates, links to blog and website, as well as other updates not about the project but of potential use to stakeholders; primary platform for stakeholder dialogue; issues management mechanism; contests, polls and other engagement activity
• Twitter definitely as an issues management early warning mechanism; depending on stakeholder needs could evolve into conversational medium and website/blog promotional medium, as long as content other than project-specific is shared
• YouTube and Flickr used for video and photo repositories that are linked to other platforms but conversation is limited and ‘pushed’ to Facebook and blog.

Video and images are incredibly important. These should be used liberally through social media platforms. It has been proven time and gain how much visuals engage and enthuse people.

Methods to engage stakeholders through social media

Interviews with engineers, sponsored groups and school students on the project are one way of engaging stakeholders.

One engagement approach could be having a contest among high schools in the relevant geographical area to identify six student ‘journalists’ each year who interview engineers and other project employees, members of the community, perhaps even politicians, etc that provide reports/insight into the project. The students might need to have engineering aspirations but, just as importantly, they provide a continual narrative through the life of the project and also explain what they have learnt and what resonates with them.

It could be a Facebook-driven competition and, of course, the content generated would be promoted through social media platforms with the intent that it goes viral within relevant stakeholder demographics. If possible, the content would be driven so it is relevant to school curriculum. This initiative will also be picked up by the media.

A key part of the strategy will be to build up a large database of social media followers to assist with unmediated communication occurring.

This can be used to help promote local businesses and community groups (using their thought leadership rather than sales pitches) and their own initiatives. A policy/approach needs to be decided upon for consistency, with it being preferable that these external organisations in some way provide information on the infrastructure project or direct their own stakeholders/customers/members to the project’s communication mediums.

Taking this approach is one way of embedding the project into the local communities and underlining what a vital part the infrastructure will play in it. It is yet another way of generating 3^rd party credibility for the project (whilst at the same time increasing the communication ‘footprint’ of the project).

Social proof is a variation on 3^rd party credibility; to optimise social proof benefits, steps need to be taken:

• Having counters on the social media share buttons that should be a part of relevant social media platforms (a blog in particular). This shows viewers how many shares have occurred through platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg and Twitter
• Of course, having the buttons themselves is a first step as it provides an easy way for ramping up the viral dimension of the content through viewers’ personal social networks
• Comments on blogs and on Facebook are another variation of social proof as they provide evidence of engagement to others, piquing interest and hopefully leading to acclaim and advocacy.

The challenges of content marketing and social media interaction

Just as media outreach requires content, so does social and digital media, but the insatiable demand that having these additional platforms to ‘talk’ on means the demand for content has increased in recent years. This means additional planning, creativity and vigour is needed by the communication professional. It also means hard decisions need to be taken on just what it is possible to achieve and what communication platforms or tactics, as a whole, are utilised: cue returning to the market research (i.e. what suits stakeholders’ best?).

In content marketing, clearly original content is required, but so can a content curation approach be applied to assist in generating the volume of material needed. Promoting the content of others (where possible, adding value) has the benefit of potentially getting others to promote the organisation’s content (i.e. 3^rd party credibility and increasing the organisation’s communication footprint). It’s a manifestation of a ‘returning the favour’ mindset.

A balance of ‘low risk’ and easy to generate (though still high quality) useful content should be delivered, as well as edgier content that has the potential to galvanise stakeholders. The latter will take more time to create but has the potential to achieve a better viral and positioning outcome.

Organisations that utilise social media each need to find a balance between how much dialogue they can cope with and how much they wish to use it for broadcasting their own content. Whilst there should be an intended outcome, or goal, before beginning the communication, such is the unpredictable nature of how people respond and interact on different issues that the approach will evolve and needs, in fact, to be pliable.

An elementary factor to consider with social media, as with any business activity, is how much time will be allocated to the activity and what employees have a role to play in it. As anyone who has engaged in social media at all knows, it is easy for it to become a ‘time-suck’.

Because of the transactional nature of best practice communication and the characteristics of social media, the content provision approach needs to be a blend of what the organisation wants its stakeholders to know, what will influence them and, ultimately, what stakeholders want to hear. It works both ways.

The primacy of ‘smartphone communication’, social media guidelines and crisis communication

Smartphone-customised technology is now a fundamental element of any digital communication. The smartphone optimisation of websites and blogs is more important than apps in my opinion, but both can be useful and, obviously, can complement each other. People are moving away from desktops and laptop computing and are increasingly relying more on the mobile web-access devices, so it is imperative to get some skin in this game.

Social media guidelines for employees – both for those using it in a professional communication basis and for those using it purely on a social basis – need to be created.

Additionally, social media is critical for crisis communication and needs to be integrated into the organisation’s crisis management plan. Twitter is an incredibly valuable tool for crisis communication, enabling monitoring at the very least but valuable, speedy reaction and firestorm-dampening impact too

What is your experience, or what are your thoughts, on getting the balance right between broadcast, dialogue and organisational change coming through on social media? Have you updated all relevant comms so it is smartphone-friendly – why or why not? How have you segmented, or what are your thoughts on segmentation, of communication activity on an organisational website, blog, Facebook and other social media?

The next and final post in this six-part series talks about sponsorship, school education and community communication programs. Previous posts talked about approaches to public relations, market research and target audiences; the listening, conversational and adaptive characteristics of excellent communication strategy; the Holy Trinity of PR; and media relations and strategic alliances.

Strategic alliances will enhance the credibility of both alliance organisations, expand the footprint of communication and providing excellent ROI, not least because it should not cost anything to create the actual alliance itself (other than employee time). They should also provide content for little cost and be relevant to organisational target audiences (precious in this content-hungry world).

Thought leadership is almost a tactical, rather than strategic, manifestation of an approach/desire that sees the organisation helping and/or providing unpaid value to its stakeholders, thus helping build loyalty, positive WOM and enhanced reputation.

3^rd party credibility comes from being associated from non-organisational people and entities – their ‘good vibe’ rubs off on the organisation. This can occur through positive editorial media placement, independent market research, and supportive comments from experts.

[This is the third of a six-part ‘case study’ series on devising communication strategy for an infrastructure project, but can also be applied to non-infrastructure-related initiatives.].

Content marketing by public relations

Content marketing needs to be an integral element of the strategy.

Really, this is a tactical outcome of thought leadership and providing proactive, information of use to stakeholders. But its recent social media-driven evolution is so profoundly important that it needs mentioning in a strategic context.

The content provides a reason for stakeholders to both visit and gain value from the organisation, as well as proactively share it with their peers, thereby potentially prompting it to go ‘viral’. A very strategic sub-text of this (hello, holy trinity!) is that the sharing generates 3^rd party credibility (from the sharer) towards the content and, hence, the organisation (sort of win-win-win outcome, really).

PR is well placed to undertake content marketing, despite some understandable misgivings by some, as PR is fundamentally dialogic, as it listens (that word again) to stakeholders and adapts communication accordingly. There is plenty to get wrong with it, however, such as expecting an immediate and sudden ROI. It takes time, as any relationship does, to make an impact,

Mediated, non-mediated and the public relations ‘holy trinity’

Incorporating a mix of mediated and non-mediated communication mechanisms into the strategy is imperative:

• Non-mediated (e.g. social media when it is used as broadcast, email marketing, website content, advertising) is a bridge. It facilitates direct communication with messages being delivered in precisely the way an organisation wants them to be delivered
• Non-mediated is critical in today’s business world as a hedge against organisational loss of control over their reputations due to the dialogic, viral and extensive user-base aspects of social media (which is heaped on top on general word-of-mouth and coverage in the media): ‘customer’ recommendations rule, remember!. The building of email databases and subscribers/followers to social media platforms, therefore, is an absolutely critical element of any contemporary communication strategy – yes, believe it or not, email is still bigger than Facebook
• Mediated (e.g. editorial media) often boasts the 3^rd party credibility of the medium itself

More on PR strategy: don’t be a control freak!

Further strategic approaches to be applied include taking an approach where ‘control’ is not paramount. This will help engender a sense of shared project ownership. Sometimes this will mean not stamping up and down on non-complimentary messaging about the project that may be disseminated by stakeholders. They would have appeared anyway and a recognition of the right of supporters, critics and infrastructure potential users to have their say will reflect positively on the organisation.

This mindset is equally relevant to working with stakeholders. It should be about negotiation and a recognition of difference rather than a closed, negative, bunker-down approach, which will only come across as ‘spoiling for a fight’, or non-cooperative at best

Recognising and leveraging WOM (word-of-mouth) is likely to be the most credible form of communication for stakeholders. This will manifest itself through both WOM mediums as face-to-face social media.

Further strategic approaches to apply include:

• Anticipating that there will be criticism of the project and building up the reputation bank as much as possible to provide insurance against those occasions when issues do arise
• Looking at ways to benefit the local community through the construction phase. For instance, using local suppliers whenever feasible and local people for employees in the construction of the project – is this possible, or even legal?
• On the back of the fact that the infrastructure will benefit the community, use this as a reason for engaging with school children, partially as they will be infrastructure users, partly because they may have an interest in engineering aspects of the infrastructure and partly because they can act as a conduit of information to adults and because of their influence over them
• Address the potential misfit between who community stakeholders perceive to be credible people or organisations to be associated with the project and who political stakeholders want to see associated with it (e.g. themselves!).This is a difficult issue to resolve and often there is little that can be done about it, other than ensure the spokespeople have the most positive, relevant and stakeholder-useful communications content possible to utilise.

Where have you found the letting go of or, conversely, attempting to retain, reputation/communication control has worked or not worked in organisations you have been involved with? What is your experience and/or view of the holy trinity I have outlined? Do you think PR is skilled up and intelligent enough to run the content marketing for an organisation?

The next post in this six-part series talks tactical elements of the communication strategy, including media relations and building strategic alliances. Previous posts talked about overarching approaches to public relations, market research and target audiences; and the listening, conversational and adaptive characteristics of excellent communication strategy.

PS. If you got something out of this post, spread the word with a Tweet or Share!

I don’t think when Jim Grunig and colleagues thought up two-way symmetrical communication they would have conceptualised the internet and social media, for instance, nor:

• electronically changing signage at sporting arenas
• signage on bus shelters
• in elevators with further messaging
• incredibly integrated manner in which sponsorship, marketing, public relations and other business disciplines have become so enmeshed.

The opportunities for information provision have accelerated and become more dynamic as technology has advanced. It would be nice to see more of the law of the jungle applied to this growth in ‘media’, but whilst avenues such as print media have had their influence decline, unfortunately the jungle has primarily fostered growth on growth.

The information thicket is evolving into impenetrability.

Of course, and this is encapsulated by younger people as they are born into this battle zone of media and content, we are evolving to cope with, counter and take advantage of the growth in media and content. But the opportunity to engage with and enrich stakeholders is getting slimmer and more slippery all the time.

And whilst communication will always be necessary to discuss attributes of organisations, products and services, without a customisation of all three to the needs and wants of their stakeholders then they are destined to go the way of dinosaurs. Unless, and this is a big unless, those responsible for these big three take an unethical, entirely self-centred approach and do things like engage in lobbying for their own – and their own alone – interests.

Many of us in public relations preach the thought leadership gospel, seeking a higher content ground on which to engage our stakeholders. And it’s a gospel I subscribe to. But even then, thought leadership is hardly thin on the ground. And this blog is an example of being part of the problem – more information!

Quality not quantity in PR communication

Part of the solution is communicating less and doing it better.

This goes to two of the basic precepts of effective public relations, customisation and targeting (underpinned by a third – knowing your audiences through market research). I think we often talk a grand old talk in this regard but mostly we trip over miserably in the walking of it.

Customisation means refining the content of our communication until is suits, as precisely as can be, our target audience. Too often we are happy with a ‘broad embrace’ of content, one that tries to tick too many boxes. This is an ineffective way to gain ROI. It will actually lead to disenchantment and intellectual and emotional ‘calluses’ being formed – scar tissue that builds up barriers to being affected or influenced.

The ‘broad embrace’ thinking applies equally to target audiences. We say that we have a specific target audience in mind, but really we’re happy for more than this audience to receive the information, in the hope it might generate a sale or pique the interest. It’s a real long shot, guys, and once again doomed to deliver dodgy ROI.

So how do we improve our customisation and targeting? Well, market research is your first port of call. And it should frequently be integrated into the communication to help with speedy feedback and ROI. Social media provides plenty of opportunities for this but so do nearly all other forms of communication:

• Who liked your Facebook post?
• How many click throughs/sales occurred through a Facebook or blog post?
• How many comments did you get on your Facebook post/blog?
• After a speaking engagement what did the attendees say about the presentation?

There’s many more, but undertaking thorough, evidence-based market research is the most reliable way of moving forward.

Moral dimensions of communication overload

There is a moral dimension in regard to information overload, too, as well as its customisation, as Kathy Cripps recently implied. Studies have confirmed the negative impact on health of too much information. It is a psychological burden.

We can either be part of the problem or part of the solution. We can help people with quality, customised relevant information or we can essentially ‘junk mail’ their brains with clutter.

We can also use meaningful forms or modes of communication, as Kathy also points out, such as images to help facilitate information flow if, of course, the target audience is receptive to and/or prefers receiving information in this manner.

There is a tension, of course, between the information that people want to receive and the information an organisation wants to supply them with – such as the promotion of a new product, for instance. But such is our lot – balancing commercial/organisational interests with stakeholder well-being.

Changing the focus of public relations

It isn’t really changing the focus of public relations as it is meant to be. It is changing the focus of what we in public relations are trying to achieve, a constant refrain of this blog.

The greatest value in public relations resides in its ability to understand the needs, wants, issues and preferences of both the organisation that employs it, as well as organisational stakeholders. We are the boundary spanners. We are the bridge between an organisation and its stakeholders.

Our role is to provide information and counsel to organisations and their stakeholders to assist all parties in being aligned. The most powerful way of doing this is often prompting an organisation to change the way it operates. If we focus more on this dimension of the discipline and less on generating reams of content – no matter how well intended and customised – then our profession will add more meaning to the organisations we work for and the society in which we exist.

Are you up for the challenge?

Do you ever reflect on the impact the abundance of communication we in PR distribute in the context of information overload? Do you think we have a moral responsibility to reduce the amount of information we are responsible for distributing? How can we solve this issue? Where do you think public relations should focus its effort in organisational business life?

[This is a guest post by public relations and communication management specialist, Judy Gombita.***]

Helping to flow stakeholders to relevant and useful pools of information about our companies or clients is definitely a worthwhile investment of resources. When monitoring what stakeholders self-select – particularly when they land on and dive into organizational reservoirs of core offerings or knowledge and expertise – opportunities exist to refine and shape the direction and current of corporate story telling (from both a mediated and disintermediated standpoint).

The sustenance and water analogies aren’t a prescriptive diet to abandon traditional PR practices; rather, think of it as adding new dimensions and value as an internal journalist and SEO pro. It’s a natural progression, as the 21^st century PR regime really needs to be looking to the internet as a legitimate outlet for ‘earned media,’ particularly via our own ‘media’ sites. (See my interview with Ira Basen about Engineering Search: The story of the algorithm that changed the world.)

By examining subject choices and phraseology, the focus of PR pros can move from a ‘how’ to attract attention, to a ‘why’ (and about ‘what’) search perspective. And, in assuming the role of internal chronicler, the organizational narrative can then be framed and shaped accordingly.

Support from research

From a strategic PR and marketing perspective, lending credibility to these supplementary-role suggestions are two recent studies:

• Pew Internet ‘Generations Online’ research, succinctly summarized by MarketingProfs
• (In particular) the annual Edelman Trust Barometer (Executive Findings 2011 PDF page numbers referenced below).

Top-line takeaways

What do both studies tell us? No matter what their age, increasingly people[ii] are using the internet to search for information, verified and/or analyzed by subject experts (both externally and internally) and, to a less significant extent (in terms of generations and numbers), to connect directly with organizations.

They are searching for organizational collateral beyond products and services offered. People want to determine if a business is a ‘good’ and humanized one, which can be trusted in the way it treats a variety of stakeholders (e.g. its employees – Trust Barometer, page 26).

Although companies continue to funnel resources into social media, results of the 2011 Trust Barometer suggests the self-collecting of desired information (much of it by way of search engines) remains more prevalent than the ‘two-way symmetrical communications’ (beloved by many in PR) afforded through new media channels (corporate blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc).

And yet, I see some tremendous opportunities to build on early social media efforts (partly by using search), based on the data provided.

Edelman Trust Barometer 2011 news release (January 25, 2010)

“Trust in business may have stabilized globally, but it is different and conditional, premised on what a company does and how it communicates…. Search engines rank No. 1 as the place people go first for information about a company, followed by online news sources and print/broadcast media. Traditional news, in one form or another, rank as the most trusted sources in major markets… (business magazines, radio, television, and newspapers, respectively).” Richard Edelman

Working with the Trust Barometer data

From an organizational PR perspective, following are 2011 data extracts that I see as significant in terms of areas for consideration and future focus.

PR-perspective mashup: internal experts

1. From a strategic corporate perspective, what’s particularly significant in the 2011 findings is that the highest ranked (and new) trusted internal source is ‘Technical expert within the company.’ This information is important, as likely internal experts (e.g. engineering, HR or financial staff) were hitherto under-used in ongoing organizational narratives.

Suggestion: don the internal journalist’s workout gear and start sourcing internal experts and information that might be of interest to stakeholders. (Use existing ‘search’ information gleaned from corporate websites and/or social media channels to influence the nature of the experts and information used.)

2. Given how often PR practitioners make use of the head honcho as the organization’s public face, it’s encouraging to see that the CEO position has increased in perceived trust (by 19 per cent, globally) over two years, regarding credibility.

Perhaps now is the time to push for implementation of (and real commitment to) a corporate blog and/or Twitter account, with at least some of the postings (or tweets) coming from the CEO. The organization’s various ‘technical experts’ could contribute posts, too….

Corporate blogs allow for both disintermediation (i.e. a nimble platform of wholly owned real estate – versus some third-party social media sites, such as Facebook, where your organization is really a sharecropper[iii]) and the humanizing of the organization (from the top down).

It’s prudent to implement disintermediated social media platforms prior to an unforeseen crisis or even before monitoring efforts unearth information searches from stakeholders that use negative terminology. Both potential circumstances should move the ‘do-we-need-a-blog?’ debate onto the critical-priority list, with lightening speed.

3. Although trust in the ‘Regular employee’ rose two per cent, overall the rank-and-file descended to the bottom of the ‘trust’ (or ‘interest’) heap. This undercuts declarations by social media gurus who believe the focus of organizational digital channels should be on ‘regular’ employees.

Rather than rejecting participation in corporate social media channels entirely, involve employees in figuring out what information and stories might be of the greatest interest and through which channels, particularly in regards to age preferences (as per the Pew Internet ‘Generations Online’ research).

Being platform-SEO savvy

As discussed, increasingly the success of organizations being heard or seen in the important online sphere, is dependent upon SEO earned media, whether it be through online news sources (i.e. mediated ‘pick-up’ of your organization’s stories or spokespeople, products or events) or via your corporate real estate (i.e. disintermediated corporate information and narratives).

Note that external journalists use search engines to find the same corporate stories perceived to be of interest (‘Why should this matter to me?’ and ‘How does this impact on our readers/viewers/listeners and what would they find of use and interest?’). Don that same (internal) journalist perspective during the ‘research’ and ‘subject-expert sourcing’ stages, in addition to the actual writing (for website, blog or Twitter) or telling (podcast or video) phases.

Original and valued information, whether on your corporate website (‘11 per cent trusted’), blog or other social media channels, can serve as resources to a traditional journalist researching a story. Third-party endorsement of corporate information (‘earned media’) and online (news) links only adds to your SEO clout.

Case studies of digital communication

Check out PR Conversations interviews with:

• Tom Murphy, of Microsoft, who focuses on the company’s CSR narrative
• Mike Spear*, of Genome Alberta – learn about the GenOmics site, a highly customized Facebook page that serves as a 24-hour science newsroom, collecting stories from around the world and laying them out like a digital magazine
• Andrew Arnold*, of LEGO, who makes use of social media, both for education purposes and to discover ‘brand champion’ communities around the world
• Avril Benoît*, of MSF Canada, who branches out the international NGO’s work onto a variety of platforms, whilst fiercely protecting a correct and sensitive portrayal of both its medical volunteers and the countries and victims served
• James Topham, of War Child Canada, who partners with musicians and pushes the boundaries of social media ‘games’ and depictions in the NGO’s fight for attention.

Is it a coincidence that three* out of five of these remarkably nutritious, fat-free ‘storytelling’ PR practitioners are former journalists? All five appear to have ‘worked up’ a pretty good handle on SEO, too.

***With more than 20 years of experience, primarily in the financial and lifelong learning non-profit sectors (employment, board member or committee), Toronto-based Judy Gombita is an accomplished, internationally well-networked and creative public relations and communication management specialist. In-depth experience includes initiating, planning, budgeting and maintaining integrated communication programs. Her skill set includes resource development, relationship building and reputation management. She values collaborative working environments, where strategy and ingenuity are valued. Judy can be networked with through the PR Conversations blog she co-edits, her LinkedIn profile or on Twitter @jgombita.

[This post is included, with many other posts, in a free strategic PR report that can be downloaded from this blog by email subscribing to it. The report - Public relations 2011: insights ideas issues - features professional practice-adding value from 10 global PR leaders (and me).]

Thank you to quality graphic design consultant, Pennington & Co, for its assistance with graphic elements of this post – CP.

[ii] Edelman Trust Barometer: 5,075 informed publics in two age groups (25-34 and 35-64) in 23 countries.

[iii]‘Sharecropper’ analogy courtesy of Valeria Maltoni, a prolific and articulate blogger who champions the necessity for ‘business transformation.’

We’re lucky these days. The internet is a university. And some of the best lecturers (practicing professionals, academics and their hybrid sisters) in the world have blogs, which is where I’ve learnt a hell of a lot about not just social media, but a range of public relations, marketing and business issues. It is incredible just how much you can learn from great blogs and, underpinning that, how generous people are to provide their insights and advice.

One of these blogs’ best characteristics is that they cut to the chase. They’re pithy. You get some theory but so do you get the cold, hard, slap-in-the-face and here-and-now of what matters and what you need to do about it.

Content is king ipso facto content marketing is NOW

Content management and its nimble sibling, content curation, are the new marketing central. In this online-centred world with its reliance on search, its appetite for quality content and its proclivity to send it viral, quality content and its intelligent leveraging is almost unspeakably important for marketing and public relations.

And, partly because of the sheer NOISE of all this online activity, this means that thought leadership, value and insightfulness – and let’s not forget HUMOUR – are more valued than ever before.

One set of content management stats = this:

• 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement
• 70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company
• 60% say that company content helps them make better product.

So that’s two posts I’ve flagged with only one promised. But the real point I want to make is encapsulated in the issue of where does content marketing belong in the social business? Now, this is an entirely valid question but, more importantly in my view:

What business cannot afford to be social, when so much of the conversation about it will be online?

The question of where does content marketing belong, however, is articulately explored in the conversionation post linked to above. One upshot is that if you have no single person or business unit coordinating content generation and utilisation, you do so at your peril:

• Content may not appear
• It may be shoddy and reek of a lack of professionalism and care
• Different elements may contradict each other, either in a specific tactical sense or an organisational branding sense.

In any of these cases: disaster.

Being a winner at getting targeted traffic for your blog or website

A post was published recently on Problogger by marketer Eric Enge that I consider one of the most important marketing/PR posts ever written. That sounds like hyperbole, but I’m sincere.

The reason it is the most important is that it provides an easy to understand explanation of long tail keywords and how to leverage them on blogs, websites etc. it is important because:

• as we now know, the internet is the number one source of information, after word-of-mouth (in fact, it’s often another version of word-of-mouth, but let’s not go there just now…), for many, many people
• searches/Googles for the most searched for keyword terms are extremely competitive, so being strategic about how we articulate content on our sites (i.e. the application of keywords) is absolutely stone-cold imperative
• the use of long tail keywords means that we will be able to funnel the most targeted, relevant search queries to our online real estate (and please remember, identifying target audiences as opposed to those who are generally irrelevant is crucial for effective marcomms).

Eric talks about Google Adwords keyword tool as the baby to use, but Google’s Wonder Wheel is another fun and very useful tool to consider utilising as well – both free!

And if you’re a B2B marketer or PR professional, don’t think long tail is not for you. In fact, I think the incredible specificity of much of B2B marketing makes long tail even more valuable.

PR and marketing needs to identify, cultivate and harness the power of 3rd party advocates

3^rd party credibility is a fundamental strategic approach that excellent PR and marketing uses. It works well with thought leadership, in fact. This is because not all thought leadership needs to come specifically from the organisation that wants to leverage off the goodwill and brand impetus 3^rd party credibility delivers.

Using a non-organisational employee to deliver thought leadership that the organisation benefits from is a subtle form of brand advocacy. But there are other reasons why your company should use brand advocates:

• They create lots of content
• They are influencers
• They talk a lot!
• They use social media a lot
• They care about their own reputation and like to share and influence
• They are loyal to brands they love/like/respect/ have a personal ‘thing’ with…

3^rd party credibility, thought leadership and brand advocacy are not the sole property of online communication, either. They are relevant to the entire big, wide world of marketing and PR.

Are your assumptions about media relations in PR on the money?

In a recently syndicated post, public relations and communication pro Greg Matusky explored five media myths that he believes apply to many public relations and marketing professionals.

• Sometimes it’s actually okay to say ‘no comment’. The main message here being don’t interact with the media solely on their terms. Organisational imperatives are important, too
• The media can play dirty. They cannot always be trusted. Don’t take them on their word unless you have good reason to
• If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Query a journalist on their rationale for the story. It might actually help to provide them with information that suits the needs of both the journo and your organisation
• You can negotiate with the media. If you don’t try, then you’re leaving options and opportunities unexplored
• Media can sometimes surprise you by taking a perspective or running a story that logic doesn’t always tell you they will. It goes back to the section on content noted above. Have you got the content and rationale to convince?

For mine, another myth you can also add is that a PR media relations pro needs to have a network of journalists to get good media placement. Rubbish. The main element a PR pro needs for this is decent content, insights, thought leadership, POD in perspectives.

It is simply not necessary to have a journalist relationship that requires them to be a Facebook friend, to be going to each others’ kids bar mitzvahs or to have season tickets to the same sporting teams. Relationships, of course, help. But how do you think the PR pro-journalist thing became a useful relationship in the first place?

Because the journalist was consistently provided with quality content, customised to their needs with probably a little bit of ‘exclusivity’ icing on top.

Why we don’t need to measure PR

Measuring the impact of business activity, and oh yes that includes PR and marketing, is somewhat of a no-brainer for any pro that is serious about their work having an impact. How else can you tell whether your work is achieving meaningful, business-relevant outcomes?

Determining what those objectives should be is one thing, but taking an arch-eyebrowed contrary view, Sean Williams argues that sometimes, well, you don’t need to measure PR. Sean says don’t do measurement when:

• you’ve been flickpassed a dodo. No matter what you do it won’t make a difference
• your organisation isn’t going to change or do anything to meet stakeholders’ needs and wants. Clearly, stakeholders are going to crucify you. All you can do is hand them the hammer and nails and grimace politely whilst they are put to use
• the cost of measuring exceeds the cost of the program or work you are measuring. Time to take a punt on the impact. Or talk to a few of the target audience. Measurement for the price of a pint. There are worse ways to do business…

On the other hand, do measurement when:

• you care about the program’s results. Really care. You might even depend on the results for your own organisation’s or your own (i.e. Le job) existence
• you know you need to change and data is the way to convince the purse-wielding powers that be
• you want insights and information to speak confidently and persuasively on your key issue(s).

What are your thoughts on the propositions put forward by each of these five (plus) posts? What is missing from the arguments put forward? Should there be another topic included? Is there anything here which has challenged your own perceptions of what we need to prioritise and implement?

PS: I’d welcome you joining my 1,500-strong LinkedIn network (send me an invite!) or interacting with me through Twitter. You can also learn more about my PR and marcomms business through my About page.

It is marketing 101 to say that keeping a customer is cheaper than acquiring one. Ipso facto, it is cheaper to keep an employee than recruit one.

One dimension of this equation is that it is more productive for the organisation, too, as keeping employees obviates downtime lag which occurs as new employees get up to speed with their new position. Business continuity is not just optimised by retaining employees; its momentum is probably going to be enhanced.

Based on this thinking, it is arguably more important for employer branding to prioritise current employees than potential ones. The reality, of course, is that there needs to be a focus on potential candidates as well, not least because of some industry’s increasing levels of turnover due to social and demographic changes (did anyone say Gen Y?), including:

• what constitutes acceptable job tenure
• what employers should be doing to retain employees (doona days, anyone?).

It is with internal target audiences (i.e. employees) in particular where dialogue has an opportunity to profoundly engage. This truly is a captive audience. And it is an audience where public relations (in its internal communication or employer branding guise) should really be excelling.

The more that employees feel they are an intrinsic and valued component of an organisation the more loyal and productive, and hence efficient and value-delivering, they will be.

Media and social media for employer branding

Important and influential conversations and information on organisations can be found in both traditional and social media. This provides an opportunity for organisations to enhance their brand (for both external and internal audiences). One reason for this is the third party credibility of these conversations, whilst another is the momentum that increasing SEO will bring to bear on organisational branding (with its attendant, more specific, ‘employer branding’ roll-on effects).

For each organisation there are three relevant media segments that can be leveraged to gain employer brand benefits:

• Media relevant to the specific industry an organisation operates in (e.g. finance, engineering etc)
• HR/recruitment specific media, in both a vertical B2B and metro media
• Metro media that is not specifically related to HR/recruitment, but is interested in topical issues with POD.

Further to this, there is social media activity that is relevant to each organisation and very different and dependant on the organisation’s industry sector.

Another important facet is that there is a lot of both metro and vertical media that is online. An implication of this cross-fertilisation of media formats is that the SEO of specific organisations, due to conversations or articles on them, is impacted on.

 Thought leadership helping employer branding

Thought leadership is a highly strategic approach to reputation management and/or branding that can be applied across both media and social media with the specific aim of enhancing employer brand equity.

At the heart of an organisation being perceived as providing thought leadership is generating content. Generation of content occurs in three ways:

1. Interviewing the relevant leader who will ‘front’ the organisation in this program and determining what thought leadership he or she possesses, as well as his or her interests, passions, ambitions and capabilities. In many cases thought leadership content will be driven entirely by this one person. A variation on this is if there are multiple leaders who are going to be put forward as thought leadership leaders

2. Identifying ‘non-leader’ employees that can generate thought leadership content or who possess thought leadership capabilities. This content can be used in two ways:

- As ‘ghost written’ or ‘ghost generated’ content that has the leader’s name attached to it

- As content actually ‘authored’ by the employee, even though they are not being positioned as a leader as assertively as in the point 1 option

3. The communication professional researching, building and recommending content based on the interests, passions, ambitions and capabilities of the designated leader of this program that can comfortably fit into their vision and they are happy to put their name to.

An extrapolation of these approaches can be undertaking market research that provides insights in itself which can form the basis of thought leadership. Another layer, however, should be added to this wherever possible. This is the perspective that a leader will value-add to the content the research generates through analysing its implications and, if you like, adding insights to the insights. All three basic approaches noted above can be applied to this extenuation of the process.

In all of the above the communication professional adds value to the thought leadership content generation process, acting as a both a prompt and digging deeper, as well as a devil’s advocate. This entails undertaking desktop research and, potentially, speaking to other industry stakeholders to enrich the content.

Additionally, there is no reason why a multiple-pronged approach cannot be applied to thought leadership content generation.

The designated thought leader, of course, will always need to feel entirely comfortable with the content that is put forward under his or her name.

A challenge in the thought leadership content generation is making it relevant to the sponsoring organisation as well as the professional lives of the target audience (and potentially their personal lives as well). Believe me, as much as the upper echelons of organisational hierarchy like to think that their industry, their company and their thoughts make for fascinating reading, this isn’t always the case!

Whether it’s through market research or simply a solid bout of reflection and desktop research, it’s always worth having a good think about what content will actually achieve two very important goals:

• Engagement of target audiences
• Enhancement of employer brand.

For this thought leadership-driven employer branding to deliver best-possible outcomes, a communication SWOT will need to occur which, if applied in a best practice manner, includes a social media audit that includes the organisations’ competitors and their social media and traditional media activity.

How to apply employer branding at a tactical PR level

In my next post I’ll continue along the themes noted in this post. I’ll go into some tactical dimensions of how to roll out thought leadership for employer branding for both internal and external audiences.

In the meantime, why not share what experiences you have had with employer branding in the PR or marcomms space? Does PR have a role to play? Have internal audiences been focused on and, if so, how? This is a relatively young area of marketing and business communication – what do you think should be focused on? What are the strategic keys to the palace?

PS: I’d welcome you joining my 1,400-strong LinkedIn network (send me an invite!) or interacting with me through Twitter.