Public relations is all about putting the right message in front of the right people at the right time.  Traditional media is one of the main channels we use to drive our clients’ messages, but, while a great tool, articles can often dilute the clients’ messages.

Enter the byline.  Byline articles, guest columns and op-eds are great ways to get your clients’ messages directly to their audiences without any third party interference.  Bylines are a great tool for PR, but they can also be stressful for practitioners who may not have a journalism writing background. By following a few simple tips you can successfully write and place a byline and position your client as a leader in their field.

1.    Have a target in mind

Choose a publication before you draft anything.  The outlet will help drive the content of the byline, while providing guidelines for length and style.  If you don’t decide where you want to place a story before you write it, it may end up collecting dust rather than reaching your audience.

2.   You aren’t the expert – your client is

Tap into your clients’ expertise for bylines.  Hop on a call to chat about the subject, email them questions to pick their brains or include prompts in a draft of the piece.  This will improve the byline’s content and lessen the chance of massive edits on the client’s end.

3.   Be mindful of length

One of the first things a paper’s editor will tell you is the word length.  Pay attention to it.  You can say a lot more with 1,500 words than you can with 500, so knowing from the beginning will help you get your points in without going over the limit.  Also, save room for your client, who may add 100-200 words during the editing process.

4.   Don’t be afraid to censor the client

While the client is the expert on the topic, you are the expert on the media, so don’t be afraid to share your opinions.  If something doesn’t fit in the byline, say so, but be sure to offer an alternative solution, such as a blog post or video on the new topic.

5.   Do your research

Make your byline as timely as possible by connecting it to breaking news, current events or holidays.  This will make your piece more interesting to your target audience and up the chances of them reading the byline.

Once you’ve written and placed a byline, the work isn’t quite over!  To get the most bang for your buck, make sure you’re sharing the placement through all of the client’s social media channels, writing a blog post on the topic, exploring other outlets for additional coverage or recording a video of the client discussing the topic.  This placement is your opportunity to get the right message across to the right audience – so make sure you’re getting the word out there!

1. Avoid launching a new product during an election year: Sixty-seven percent (67%) of consumers surveyed could not recall a single new product launched in 2012. This is the second lowest recall rate of the decade, trumped only by the 69% unable to recall a new product launch in 2008—another election year. Repeated low recall rates during election years suggests that it is harder for brands to break through the proliferation of political ad clutter to gain consumer attention.

2. Political ads push new product ads from consumers minds: Respondents said that four out of the last ten commercials they could remember contained political messages. This shows that in an election year, consumers are less likely to recall new product ads, either because there are simply more political ads, or that the political ads make more of a lasting impression.

3. Domestically-made products are more popular than ever: “Made in The USA” was cited by 62% of consumers as influencing their purchasing decision, a five percent increase from two years ago.  “Made Locally” experienced a similar boost in influence, with 52% of respondents influenced by it, up from 48% in 2011 and 46% in 2010. MMNPL data from the past decade shows that attributes such as “Made in the USA”  spike in influence during presidential election years.

4. Amazon Kindle Fire still hot after nearly a year: Amazon’s Kindle Fire topped the Most Memorable New Product Launches list with 30% of surveyed consumers remembering the launch. Other products that made the top ten were Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Taco (#2, 18.8%), Tide Pods (#3, 15.6%), Pepsi Next (#4, 13%), Samsung Galaxy Note (#5, 11.7%), the all-new iPod Nano (#6, 10.6%), Nintendo’s Wii U (#7, 8.2%), Taco Bell Cantina Bowl (#8, 7.1%), Duncan Hines Frosting Creations (#9, 5.7%), and McDonadl’s Chicken McBites (#10, 4.9%).

5. Young & healthy at heart: Millenials are more concerned about product attributes such as high fructose corn syrup, trans fat, organic and low soidum than any other age bracket.

6. Dads are the new moms: More men are making household purchasing decisions than ever with 49% of  male respondents identifying themselves as the decision-makers. And increase of nearly ten percent since 2009.

To find out other key trends that emerged from our survey data, watch the video below. To download the 2012 MMNPL Data deck, click here.

 

Register FREE ($60 value) with shareable code: 2012TopTen 

It’s never been more difficult to launch a new product. Consumers are more fragmented than ever.  With 40,000 products launched each year, how can marketers make sure their launch will stand out?Join us in this Google+ Hangout with brand experts from the 11^th Annual Most Memorable New Product Launches who will share how they leveraged earned, owned and paid media spend to create a launch that captivated consumers and led to incredible sales.

Launch Expert and Author, Julie Hall, Behavioral Research Expert Aaron Reid, and moderator the Founder of The CMO Club Pete Krainik and brand representatives from Taco Bell, Pepsi, and McDonald’s will talk about the 2012 Most memorable new Product Launch findings, like:

• How “Men Are The New Women’ on Madison Avenue
• Why “Made in the USA” is more important than ever
• How social media may not be considered “earned media” anymore
• Don’t launch your new product in an election year, and
• A look back on the best launches of the past decade what marketers can learn from them

It’s the middle of your junior year and you and a friend are looking for that one great internship to complete your nearly perfect résumés. You have the grades, the work ethic, and the writing chops, and you’ve whisked cover letters and CVs into the inboxes of every internship coordinator in a 50-mile radius. Your friend is called in for an interview, but you’re still waiting for a response. What gives? It could be something as simple as your Facebook photo.

As the Intern Coordinator at Schneider Associates, I told my current interns, “When I hired you, I wanted to know you before I met you.” Internships are an investment by the company and the student and it’s important for both parties to be sure the investment is worthy, which is why both company and intern should check each other out. A candidate may have the chops, but their social media activity can be the deciding vote when it comes to being picked out of the position-seeking crowd.

We’ve asked our staff and star interns to recommend their best social media practices, which include:

The Good:

• Inquiry is the best form of flattery. Send a private LinkedIn message or utilize your university’s alumni database to connect with those in your target career field. Don’t post publicly on a potential employer’s personal pages. Ask to meet for coffee and come prepared with thoughtful questions.
• Be one with your surroundings. Share current events and industry-specific news on your active social pages. When trying to land an interview, frame a company’s struggle or success within a current event or find some interesting industry news and speak to your insight on the topic in your inquiry. This will help you stand out from the crowd and peak their interest.
• Use privacy settings, but don’t shut us out. When we look at your profiles, we should have an idea of your personality, interests and what you’re talking about, but we don’t need to see the photos from your friend’s 21^st. If you do keep your profiles (especially Facebook) open, keep it PG.

The Bad

• Personal space. Only connect on social channels with hiring managers if you’ve interacted previously. If you are going to reach out, stick to LinkedIn or a company email address; we like to keep our personal and professional lives separate, too.
• Research is a two-way street. Hiring managers can research you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find them. Do some digging to identify the right person and avoid using “Dear Sir or Madam.” Also avoid the “one-size-fits-all” approach by ensuring your cover letter is personalized for the company to which you are applying.
• Don’t be a fair-weather fan. You may follow a company on multiple platforms, but are you retweeting, sharing and commenting on their content? Show you’re involved before you join the team.

The Ugly

• Typos. We expect you to proofread and use correct grammar in the office, but it’s always a bummer to find sum1s profile dat luks lyke dis. Your profiles and materials represent your first test, so use spellcheck and proper grammar and go through word by word – “if” looks like “of” looks like “off,” but none will trigger that little red line.
• Say my name, say my name. If you’ve found the hiring manager’s name, be sure you spell it correctly. This seems obvious, but I (Jamie) have been called everything from Jaime to Jaimie to Janice.
• If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it. It’s frustrating to be turned down for that dream position, but keep it off social media. Taking unfortunate developments in stride is a benchmark of professionalism, and you never know – maybe you’ll meet the intern coordinator again down the line. Don’t set yourself up for an awkward situation.

Don’t be afraid to get creative. One of my favorite examples of savvy social media use is Rachael King’s living resume. If you’re just starting out, you may still be working up to your own personal living resume, but these tips and tricks will give you the necessary head start.

Jamie Berman, Account Coordinator, Consumer Group

(Photo courtesy phandroid.com)

Yesterday, USA Today featured the results of the 2012 Most Memorable New Product Launch (MMNPL) survey in a snapshot on the front page of the Money section. The snapshot announced the top five most memorable new products of 2012 according to our  survey. Amazon’s Kindle Fire topped the list with a surprising 30% of respondents remembering the product launch, even though it had been almost a year since the Kindle Fire first hit the market. Taco Bell’s comeback was solidified by the Doritos Locos Taco coming in at the number two spot, followed by Tide Pods, a launch whose huge marketing budget clearly made and impression on consumers. Pepsi Next, the reduced calorie soda, and the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone rounded out the top five, showing that soda can still compete with big tech products when it comes to making a connection with consumers.

Stay tuned for the release of the full results of the 2012 MMNPL survey, including key consumer purchasing behavior insights.

By Joan Schneider, President and Creative Director, Schneider Associates

At Harvard Business School, they always talk about managing by walking around.  It’s hard to have new ideas when you are constantly sitting in the office—talking to the same people, looking at the same scenery, thinking about things in the usual way.

I’ve found that travel is one way to do this, as well as an excellent way to bring color to my work life. Recently, I attended Art Basel in Miami, the global art fair where in one tent alone were featured $2 billion of art.  Painting, sculpture, experiential works—anything you can think of was exhibited at Art Basel.

Art lovers from around the world gathered to see what’s happening in the art world and to be part of the “in crowd” attending this bi-annual event (also held in Switzerland, where the fair began).

The coverage of Art Basel in The New York Times and the Miami Herald focused as much on the fashion, shoes and people-watching at the fair as they did on the art.  It was a scene.

The biggest takeaway for me is how viewing the art inspired me to create art.  I saw this statue that I fell in love with…it was originally a garden statue that had been re-engineered to have a smooth surface in bright green. When I innocently asked how much it costs, I learned there were only two in the world and each costs $325,000—only slightly out of my price range. The good news is this wacky statue inspired me to buy a small statue (from Homegoods at $39, reduced from $100), plus some bright pink paint to create my own art.

Most importantly, I came back to work feeling energized and full of colorful ideas to launch because of three days spent looking at one of the world’s largest exhibits of first class art.  I believe the art of business can be enhanced and enlightened by the business of creating art.

But next year, I am going to spend more time ‘creating’ my outfit, since fashion is an important aspect of the visual experience at Art Basel.  The smarter your outfit, the more people talk to you—the more people that talk to you—the more you will learn and that’s why one makes the pilgrimage to Miami—to shake up the creative molecules in your brain.

Here’s a picture of the statue I created as a result of Art Basel. Her name is Artemesia and she formerly was beige, but after Art Basel, she’s hot pink.  There’s no doubt she’s way more exciting in fuscia.

Joan Schneider, President and Creative Director

Social media has become the soapbox of the 21^st century, a swift and efficient vehicle for the world to deliver complaints 24 hours a day. When those grievances involve a specific company, they’d better be ready to quickly face the music or they may lose valued customers. In fact, according to Talk to the Manager, 58% of customer complaints voiced through Twitter never receive a response and by 2014, ignoring a complaint logged through social media channels will be as harmful as ignoring an email or phone call.

As PR practitioners, we love that social media allows us to easily and freely communicate with our audiences, but what happens when they communicate back? Here at Schneider Associates, we offer three basic rules – a code of conduct, if you will – for our clients in the social sphere. Using a recent personal incident, let’s walk through these top three rules to turn a complaint into a positive experience.

First, some background: As a recent college graduate, I’m saving money by commuting from home and chose to streamline my day by paying my MBTA commuter rail parking fee through my phone using Parkmobile. In theory, this should be efficient, but one unfortunate week I received THREE ‘nonpayment’ tickets from the MBTA despite having the digital receipts to prove otherwise.

On the evening of my third ticket, as the social media savvy often do, I took to Twitter to air my frustration. With this first “Tweet-plaint,” we will see where good social customer service can make or break your brand.

Rule #1: Scan For Potential Issues. Parkmobile had a great start; their community managers were actively looking for customer feedback and criticism, and when I woke up the next morning, I found this waiting for me:

Rule #2: Be Timely and Informative. Parkmobile representative Dee Q had responded to my inquiry overnight and within two hours of her initial tweet, my problem was resolved. I also had a nice email in my inbox with an explanation of exactly what went wrong, how Dee was fixing it, and next steps to appeal my ticket.

Rule #3: Take Proactive Measures. Dee Q could have told me how to appeal and sent me on my way, but she reached out to the MBTA and resolved the issue once and for all – for me and future customers. By doing so, she eliminated future similar complaints and kept more MBTA and Parkmobile customers happy.

Overnight (literally), Dee turned me into a brand advocate with her attentive social customer service skills.  Social media is king in this digital age, and using these three rules as a foundation, you can expect to see increased brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.

Oh, and the best part…every ticket was dismissed! As they should be.

Jamie Berman, Account Coordinator, Consumer Group

To learn more about how WorldCom and its partners give our clients “The Local Advantage”, watch this 75 second video peek.

In the below video case study, Panasonic‘s Marketing Director Stephen Yeo gives a firsthand account of how WorldCom helped Panasonic solve B2B Communication challenges.