Perspectives

In the course of the hundreds of formation skydiving jumps I did and competing at two national championships, I learned a few lessons that I now apply professionally in business communications.  For people who's only exposure to skydiving is the movie 'Point Break', it may come as a surprise that it's not like that at all.  Don't expect to exit an aircraft and 'naturally' get it right.  Skydivers proportionately spend a lot of time preparing for jumps to get them right - to stack the odds in favor of getting a complex 3D maneuver come together and work.  Because screwing up has real and immediate consequences, skydivers have developed simple, easy-to-remember best practices that have given the sport a good track record for safety despite the inherent risk.  These best practices translate effectively to crisis communications. 

b2ap3 large Search Traffic Position Pie ChartContent marketing can be a very effective method to boost the visibility of an organization and strengthen business outcomes.  In a world in which specialization is an increasing fact of life, the terms and phraseology that may be common to one group is often gibberish to others. 'Content marketing' is an example by itself.  It's a term web, SEO and digital marketers will be familiar with but may mean nothing to people outside the communications and marketing field.  It basically means using content posted to the web to grow an organization's visibility and rank with search engines like Google, Bing, etc.  Acronyms are also often industry specific, so 'SEO' stands for 'Search Engine Optimization', which is getting web pages ranked as highly as possible by search engines.  Content marketing uses the specialized language common to an industry sector or service niche and turns it into an asset for web marketing, showcasing an organization's strengths and capabilities and why clients should do business with them.  

"75% of PR agency owners don't know much about social media"  That's a headline from a recent PR industry survey showing the extent to which social media is impacting some of the traditional ways of doing business.  The survey highlights how 90% of Public Relations owners don't believe social media will replace traditional print and broadcast media, but simultaneously assert that 78% say it's important to offer social media services. 

Pitching a campaign with a social media component tacked on doesn't work.  It isn't culturally sustainable, and can create and expose brand and messaging dissonance with consumers and stakeholders. Tweets say this, practice says that. New media has consequences for organizations who are being caught flat-footed at the speed with which conversations can evolve and communications should be organized - to use a military phrase - to fight today's war, not the last one.

From Our Blog

  • Cost-effective content marketing

    Fresh content on a website is one of the most important ways search engines rank where you will be found - on page one, or buried.

    Content marketing uses online content to increase the visibility of an organization and is an effective marketing method. Done right, it can help you get to page one.

    Many organizations have experienced staff, provide good services, and have everything needed to create great content with the regularity needed for this kind of marketing, but find it difficult to do so. We can solve that for you. We will turn what it is you do into effective web content. In short, we make content marketing easy for you. Contact us to find out about our rates and to discuss how we can help.

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  • Consortiums, initiatives, associations and partnerships

    They all have the same challenge - and advantages. They require everyone to get in the boat, to row in sync together, and to row in a shared direction.

    Integrated Media Strategies has more than a decade of experience working highly successfully with these kinds of communications projects. We have spent hours in committees getting groups of people to come to agree on shared areas where strategic positioning of messaging can benefit all parties. And then working with those partners to implement the communications tactics to make it all work. We like herding cats.

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  • Integrating Communications

    Many organizations are facing the current communications revolution with teams organized to create and disseminate information and grow business for what worked as little as two years ago.

    Coherent Marketing can assist organizations either set up new integrated digital communications structures or help transition communications teams.  This communications revolution is not just about technology, but the way in which organizations should be conceptualizing content, leveraging opportunities for new niche audiences and new business, vetting material, distributing authentic communications, archiving material and reviewing metrics. Social and digital media have empowered people to be able to easily talk about you and share their opinions and experiences. And that includes future clients as can also be deliberately negative from your competition.

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