The Importance of Effective Storytelling

I’ve now been working for an amazing nonprofit for two years. I feel a deep connection and passion for the work we’re doing, which I try to translate in my messaging to our audience. This can be a difficult task. It’s easy to feel a connection to the work a nonprofit or company is doing when you’re steeped in that work every day, but when you’re telling an audience about that work, how do you get them to feel connected or dare I say passionate about it? The answer is: effective storytelling.

Storytelling is something I have been doing throughout my career, and as the years go on, the importance of doing it often and doing it well has only been reinforced. For example, at Playworks, the nonprofit I work for, we use safe and healthy play as a tool to help kids develop social and emotional skills. So, I can tell our audience, “we impact the lives of Utah’s kids.” Or, I can tell a story like this about a student who finally felt like they belonged at school because her classmates were taught the importance of inclusion, and brought what they learned to the four-square court.

Stories evoke emotion and build a connection for your audience. They get to actually experience the work we’re doing in a sense. They’re painted a visual picture and they’re feeling something. That is how you can get buy-in from an audience.

That being said, there are ways to be more effective in your storytelling. Here are some tips to make your stories the best they can be. Tip number one: focus on evoking emotion. In my opinion, this is the most important tip of them all. Try to step back and hear your story as if you’re hearing it as an outsider, as opposed to someone steeped in your work. Does it make you feel anything? If the answer is no, try again. Tip number two: be concise. Get to the point, and get to it fairly quickly. If you drone on too long with every detail, you’re going to lose your audience. Tip number three: keep it simple. Keep in mind that your audience doesn’t understand the ins and outs of your organization/company the way you do. Keep your stories simple and easy to follow.

Next time you’re stuck on messaging, try telling an emotional, concise, and simple story to get your point across. You might be surprised at the connection you’re able to build between your brand and your audience.

Happy storytelling!

Networking Woes

I must say, networking is one of the most valuable and necessary skills you need to succeed in the Public Relations and Marketing fields, however, it also happens to be one of my pain points. 

I find networking events a bit awkward and forced, while at the same time very beneficial. I know, it sounds contradictory – let me explain. For the most part, every job I've ever landed in this industry was because I had a contact refer me. An employer is more likely to trust a referral from someone they know personally than a random applicant they know virtually nothing about outside of their resume. The more people you have vouching for you, the more likely you are to land that gig.  

Now, as I mentioned, networking events feel awkward to me. But, I can't stress enough its importance in this industry. Networking with other PR/Marketing professionals, journalists (this is is extremely helpful when you're working in PR) and people who work for a company you might be interested in working for some day are all necessary tasks. So, you just have to go for it. Keep in mind that about eighty percent of the other people at these events are feeling the same way you are, so strike up a conversation and eventually, the awkwardness will fade. 

Tips on starting the conversation:

1. If they're wearing a badge that lists where they work, approach them by saying something like "Hey, I notice you work for Overstock.com. How do you like it? What department do you work for?"

2. Ask them what they think of the networking event. Have they been to many before? Then you can segue into what they do, where they work, etc.

Networking with journalists is a bit of a different ball game. I find you can easily network with this group via email and social media. A few weeks before you want to pitch them a story, shoot them an email telling them how much you enjoyed an article they've written. You can also tweet that article and tag them in your tweet, or post it on LinkedIn. This doesn't guarantee they're going to cover your announcement, of course, but they may be more likely to open an email from you. I have networked with journalists this way in the past and it has been extremely helpful just to get on their radar. 

 Now that you're armed with a few tips, get out there and start networking! If you're not on LinkedIn, go create a profile right now. It's hands down the best way to "network" with potential employers. 

Managing Exepecations

When you work in an agency, you will have several clients expecting various projects and results from you on any given week. An important part of keeping your clients happy is by managing their expectations, i.e. if you can - under-promising and over delivering. Let me give you an example. 

Your client has a groundbreaking (in their mind) announcement coming up in the next few weeks. The people you work with are always going to be very passionate about their business, as they should be, and every announcement will be New York Times front-page worthy to them. However, you know that this is simply not the case. When they ask about getting in a major publication for a minor announcement, should you tell them "absolutely?" No. This is the time to explain to your client a concept that is never easy to explain. Not every announcement is going to garner major press coverage. Not every announcement is newsworthy. Period. 

It is extremely important that your client understands this. Otherwise, you are setting them up for disappointment, in turn, making yourself look bad. When explaining to them that this announcement likely won't generate a lot of buzz amongst the media, be ginger. You don't want to come off sounding like you don't respect or believe in their business initiatives. Something like this is a safe approach:

"While this is a major and exciting milestone for your business, it's not typically something that the mainstream, top tier media would cover. I think the best strategy is to hit the trade publications hard. That is likely where we'll see the most success." 

Remember, you are the expert in your field and you need to be constantly educating your client. They (likely) don't have any PR experience and don't know the ropes the way you do. 

The same strategy goes if you work in-house. Your CEO is your client, and his/her expectations need to be managed. Set yourself up for success by educating them and walking them through your decision making by pointing to examples of how this strategy has worked in the past. 

Never Ending To-Do Lists, Meetings and Deadlines

My career in the PR industry began in 2011 at an agency in San Francisco called SutherlandGold Group, where we represented startups in the tech industry. 

When I started my internship I knew very little about the tech industry and didn't really have any professional hands-on PR experience. When I arrived on the first day, I was immediately placed on six different client accounts and was thrown in both feet first. While this was painful and terrifying at the time, I am so grateful for the experience. 

Within the first few months, I got a firsthand look at how quickly the tech industry moves and how crazy busy working in PR can be. I learned to fill my calendar with reminders for myself ensuring I would never miss a deadline - because - when you miss deadlines your clients get angry. Very angry. 

Every morning when I got to the office I'd look at my never-ending to-do list and place a one, two or three next to each task, ranking them by priority, which to me was the only way to juggle all the assignments for different clients, and again all of the deadlines. I learned that some days will be full of mandatory meetings leaving your to-do list untouched, meaning you were staying late that night to check off those tasks ranked number one.

Working in PR can be a crazy, overwhelming and a daunting experience, but when you learn how to prioritize your tasks and manage your workload effectively, it can be extremely exciting and rewarding. There is no better feeling than finally securing that interview with the New York Times that your client has been asking about for months. 

I found working in in-house PR to be slower paced and a bit easier to balance. After all, when you're working for a company, you're only representing one "client," not six. Projects move a lot slower in a corporation because you have to get every piece of content, every social media post, every press release and every briefing book approved by six executives who are typically in back-to-back meetings every day. 

My suggestion to anyone interested in working in the PR/marketing industry is to start with an agency. You will learn the most valuable lessons to manage a career in this fast-paced industry while working in that environment. If you burn out (which, you probably will at some point) working in-house can seem like a walk in the park in comparison, that is, if you find a company that really interests you and has strong, level-headed leadership. But, don't get it twisted, if you choose to work in this industry, there will always be days where you don't leave the office until midnight. It's just the nature of the beast, and those deadlines...oh those deadlines. 

The Importance of Testing Social Media Marketing

As I delve deeper and deeper into the world of social media marketing, I have come to appreciate the importance of testing - testing content, testing the various times you post that content and which audience responds to what content. 

I think testing is a common practice among companies with large social media teams and big budgets but is often overlooked by small businesses and freelancers. After really diving deep into my analytics I found some very insightful nuggets and you might be enlightened as well if you take the time to look. 

For starters, I found that when I post my content early in the morning, on every single channel (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter), it is not getting the same engagement as when I post a few hours later. Industry-wide data has shown the best times to post are typically in the late afternoon - 3 or 4 p.m. - however, this varies for everyone's audience. I see the most engagement when I post anywhere from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., which could possibly mean my target audience is skimming its social channels during lunch breaks. 

I have also found that my audience responds extremely well to video content. Which, to be honest, kind of surprised me. It didn't occur to me that my target audience - investors and entrepreneurs - would have the time to stop and watch a video, which could point to the importance of posting the best content for your target audience. Your content has to be worth their time, period. You have to bring valuable information to the community you are trying to reach, otherwise, you become noise in an overcrowded space. 

Moral of the story is, take a look at your analytics and test your timing and your content to see if your audience responds better to videos, questions, how-to's etc. You might be surprised by what you find.