• AP Style Matters

    AP Style Matters

    OK, I’ll admit it. I’m obsessed with “The Associated Press Stylebook.” It’s my bible to grammar geekdom. (Note the spelling of  “OK,” that quotation marks – not italics – are used around a book’s title and that “bible,” in this use, is lowercase because it’s a non-religious reference.)

    It pains me that most PR and marketing pros don’t use AP Style. I judge those people now, just like I judged them back when I was a newspaper journalist and editor. There’s a reason for our conformity, folks.

    First, it makes us look smart. You start losing points the minute you capitalize every word in your press release’s headline and subhead. Follow the rules. Doing so suggests that you comprehend the English language. Second, it makes editors’ lives easier. Traditional media outlets follow AP Style to create consistency across the publication. If you don’t write in AP Style, they have to edit your work so that it follows AP Style. Heavy editing doesn’t bode well for the publication of your release or article. I definitely “overlooked” a few poorly written submissions in my journalism days and, in a time when many journalists wear many hats, it’s nice to be nice.

    As journalism and PR continue to evolve – and expand into more channels with fewer characters, the disregard for my beloved Stylebook grows. Even if you don’t get it all right (“all right” is always two words – never one, BTW), here are a few that drive me particularly nutso.

    • Capitalizing job titles: Company presidents are, no doubt, very important people. However, the word “president” does not need to be capitalized every time it’s used. Titles – all titles – are only capitalized if they come directly before a person’s name. If a comma comes between the title and the name, or the title comes after the name, the title is not capitalized.
    • Get your datelines right: You’re used to two-letter abbreviations for letter writing, but with AP Style, states are a different beast (i.e. Florida is Fla., Arizona is Ariz., and Washington is Wash.). Also, you don’t need the state abbreviations in datelines when you’re writing out of larger cities. No state mentions needed for Boston, New York, Las Vegas, etc.
    • Towards is not a word. It’s toward. Period.
    • Website. It’s one word. No caps. Boom.
    • The numbers game: Spell out numbers below 10. For 10 and above, use figures. Also, avoid starting a sentence with a number. If you have to use it at the start of a sentence, spell it out. Calendar years are an exception to this rule.

    Matter

  • Five Ways to Make the Most Out of Your PR Internship

    Every ambitious college student knows that completing a successful internship is essential to success. Earning a degree has become just a piece of the puzzle for those who wish to graduate and be hired into the workforce. Employers are looking for more than just a certificate proving you sat through 104 credits of classroom time, they are looking for an experience filled résumé. That experience is gained through internships, some of which can be frustratingly mundane “hey intern, I need 500 copies of this TPS report by noon.” Others though, like my current position at Matter, can be valuable learning experiences you don’t want to waste. Here’s what I’ve learned so far, working at a high-energy results-driven public relations firm:

     

    1. Ask Questions: You have been hired already, now it’s time to do the job they brought you on to do. Any employer will be much happier answering a confused intern’s question than scolding them for a mistake. You are working in PR, so odds are your co-workers are extremely approachable and friendly people who are more than willing to help you out.
    2. Take Initiative: Demonstrate your value by volunteering for tasks. Don’t overstep your boundaries or drown yourself in work trying to impress your managers, but don’t sit around waiting to be told what to do. If you think you can handle a task, go for it!
    3. Punctual and Professional: This isn’t your part-time job during the school year. Your PR firm (hopefully) doesn’t make you wear a hair net, and showing up late to work is exponentially worse. Be on time and ready to work. Complete your assignments diligently, and act confident in your professional community.
    4. You’re going to make a mistake: It’s going to happen. At some point, you are bound to mess something up and there is really nothing you can do to prevent it. What you can do is learn from it.
    5. Be a Sponge: Remember that an internship is a chance to grow and learn. Try and take in as much information as you can, because most of it will be knowledge you can’t learn sheltered in a lecture hall or buried in a text book.

    Matter

  • 4 Summertime Tips for PR Firms

    Summertime at a PR agency is an interesting season for a few reasons. Sure, the staff has an extra lift in its collective step because the weather is nicer (with the exception of places like the San Francisco Bay area, which, as I experienced first-hand last week, is typically steeped in fog this time of year).

    But there are significant challenges to smoothly running a successful PR firm when the mercury rises.

    1. Juggling vacation schedules is a challenge when each PR pro tackles considerable responsibilities for the broader team. For operational continuity, it’s critically important for the staff to get their hard-earned vacations on the books in the spring, so there will be no surprises in July and August. Sounds simple, but it requires foresight from management.
    2. Reporters, analysts and bloggers are also hard-working human beings who deserve their own vacations, meaning it’s a good idea to think carefully about conducting big product launches during beach season. We’ve done it many times, and enjoyed success, but it gets a heck of a lot more challenging when you receive a spate of “out of office replies” to your pitches. Choose your launch dates wisely for maximum impact.
    3. It’s a difficult mental leap to start crafting story angles for the winter holidays, but especially for consumer clients, those long-lead publications need to start pulling together their holiday issues. That means your PR team better be thinking of jingle bells while filling their glasses of sun-brewed iced tea with ice.
    4. Your PR teams are thinking about weekend cookouts and beach excursions, so there’s an unavoidable element of seasonal distraction that can compromise quality if left unchecked. To help combat this phenomenon, and to provide our crew with some additional free time, Matter offers “Summer Fridays” to all employees. That means at about 1 p.m. or 2 p.m., assuming their managers have signed off and client work is wrapped up for the week, our team is free to embark on a long weekend.   Maintaining this privilege helps our employees focus on succinctly and properly tying up the week’s loose ends, rather than running out the clock while waiting for the weekend to begin.  

    What do you do different for the purpose of making the most of summer? Let me know…

    Scott Signore

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  • PR Firm Matter Communications Launches West Coast Office!

    It’s official: after months of careful research and planning, today we open the doors to our new, full-service PR office in Portland, Oregon by acquiring The Hollenbeck Group in Portland. The new office will be run by long-time PR veteran Kent Hollenbeck, who joins Matter as Vice President.

    Effective immediately, Matter Communications has a bona fide West Coast presence strategically located in a burgeoning city full of promising technology and consumer companies as well as PR talent. Moreover, the location positions Matter squarely within shouting distance of key geographies such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Boise, where a healthy number of Matter’s existing clients reside.

    I’m thrilled about this move, which comes on the heels of an earlier announcement that we’ve opened an office in Boston’s Innovation District. Our careful expansion directly reflects the continued health of our business, which is owed to the tremendous work and spirit of our 60+ staff of talented PR professionals.

    Kent and his team are an exciting addition to our staff, and their collective experience working  with technology companies is a perfect complement to Matter’s 10-year history . He’s philosophically aligned with Matter’s approach to client services, which is to say he knows that smart strategy and flawless execution are critical ingredients for client longevity in today’s demanding PR environment.

    To our existing clients, today is a good day because it means we have you covered with a physical presence from coast to coast. And to our new friends in Portland and across the West Coast, I’d love a chance to meet with you on one of my upcoming trips out West.

    Onward and upward!

    Scott Signore

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  • Matter Communications Expands to Western U.S. with Hollenbeck Acquisition

    Newburyport, Mass. – July 17, 2013 – Matter Communications has announced the acquisition of The Hollenbeck Group (THG), a boutique technology public relations firm based in Portland, OR, with clients in the mobile, startup and enterprise sectors.

    As a result of the Portland PR firm acquisition, THG founder Kent Hollenbeck joins Matter as Vice President, West Coast and member of the firm’s senior staff. Matter also gains existing THG staff, network and clients.

    “After a thorough analysis of West Coast options, it was clear Portland provided the best combination of characteristics important to our business,” Matter Founder and CEO Scott Signore said. “Portland’s central location gives us easy access to important markets like Seattle, the Bay Area and Boise, there is a burgeoning tech scene in Portland itself, and the city has a focus on craftsmanship and doing things right that meshes perfectly with Matter’s culture and approach. By acquiring The Hollenbeck Group, we have established a foundation of great talent, connections and existing clients from which to grow our West Coast presence.”

    The acquisition of THG complements an already significant business for Matter on the West Coast by adding clients like HTC and Redapt to the company’s existing roster, including Esri (Redlands, Cailf., and Portland), TriQuint (Portland), Lexar Media (Fremont, Calif.), Crucial (Boise) and StillSecure (Colorado).

    “My goal for starting The Hollenbeck Group was to fill a void in the Portland PR market of boutique thinking and expertise, paired with mid-sized agency capabilities,” said Kent Hollenbeck. “Matter’s ten-year track record of providing unmatched client service while strategically expanding its offerings is perfectly aligned with that goal.”

    Matter’s other office locations include Newburyport, MA, Providence, RI, and Boston. The PR firm won a 2013 “PR Agency of the Year” award from the American Business Awards (The Stevies), as well as being named a “Best Place to Work” by the Boston Business Journal in both 2012 and 2013.

    About Matter Communications, Inc.

    Headquartered north of Boston in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with offices in Providence, Rhode Island and Boston, Matter Communications executes creative, results-driven public relations programs on behalf of clients across the U.S. and Europe. Matter maintains a broad portfolio of clients in high-technology, consumer-technology and consumer markets – including, among many others, Harris Corporation, Lexar Media and Verizon Wireless. Founded in 2003, Matter’s PR services include company and product launches, product reviews, analyst and media relations, social media, crisis communications and thought leadership programs. For more information, please go to https://www.matternow.com or visit the PR Whiteboard blog.

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    Media Contact

    Parry Headrick
    VP of Marketing & Communications
    [email protected]
    978-518-4547

     

    Matter

  • Krafting A Crisis Communications Response

    Krafting A Crisis Communications Response

    How would you like to be Stacey James these days?

    For the uninitiated, James is the Vice President of Media Relations for the New England Patriots, a position he’s held for twenty years.  He’s been here through the really bad times, through three Super Bowls wins and two heartbreaking losses, through the very public and very messy Bill Parcells-Robert Kraft divorce, through Spygate and more.  He’d arguably seen it all, until June 26.  Up until that day, James’ biggest challenge was serving as the middle man between one of the most voracious press corps in the world and the smartest, most uncommunicative coach who ever walked God’s Green Earth in Bill Belichick.

    James likely has not had many a good night’s sleep recently and Sunday was probably no different. That’s because on Monday, Patriot owner Robert Kraft broke the team’s two-week long silence to address the Boston media following the unfortunate death of Odin Lloyd, allegedly at the hands of Mr. Kraft’s former employee, Aaron Hernandez.

    In dissecting his eagerly anticipated – and many would say– long overdue media statement, I initially wanted to find fault with Mr. Kraft’s and the organization’s approach. Crisis Communications 101 tells us to move swiftly and decisively when revealing bad news or talking to the press.  James and the team’s legal counsel surely spent hours debating the pros and cons of addressing the media and then preparing for yesterday’s pow-wow with reporters from the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and ESPN Boston.

    I am not naïve enough to buy into “The Patriot Way” – it has become a shattered myth – thank you Alfonzo Dennard, Aquib Talib and now Hernandez. But I have to give a fair amount credit to Kraft and the Patriots for:

    A) Facing the music when they had no real obligation to comment publicly at this time. Even the lawyers told Kraft not to do it.

    B) Doing so face to face, not hiding behind another scripted statement or teleconference from his European vacation. And at least with the Herald’s Ron Borges, having the stones to meet with one of their harshest critics.

    C) Admitting that his organization had failed. Failed when it drafted Hernandez in the fourth round out of Florida when many teams took him off their daft boards. Failed when they signed him to a multi-million contract extension last year. And, failed when they did insufficient due diligence on the player before making him a Patriot.

    Did Kraft come completely clean? Doubtful. Did he hold back at the advice of legal counsel? Likely. Will we ever know the full story?  Unknown.

    But the point of this post is that Robert Kraft took his medicine yesterday. He could have taken the easy way out and issued a statement scripted by James and the lawyers during a time when there were several other stories grabbing headlines in Boston – the Bruins epic and heartbreaking Stanley Cup Finals loss and post-season trades; the Celtics house-cleaning and Doc Rivers’ LA Confidential story, the Red Sox terrific start, not to mention the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev court appearance build-up, the Markey-Gomez special election, the Whitey Bulger trial and the Hub’s spectacular Fourth of July holiday festivities.

    Kraft knows public relations and crisis communications. He proved it again yesterday. He knows PR much better than he knows Xs and Os and much better than he apparently knows his own employees.

     

    Matter

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  • 10 Ways to Be Invaluable to Your PR Firm

    The public relations industry is enjoying something of a renaissance in recent years, because social media is all about engagement, and engagement has always been the lifeblood of solid PR pros.

    It’s what we do, whether it’s building relationships with print media, bloggers or influencers on various social channels. In short, it’s a great time to be in PR, and an even better time to for public relations folks to become indispensable to their respective agencies.

    Here’s what I look for when hiring PR staff, whether they be junior folks looking to cut their teeth, or more seasoned pros hoping to make their mark at a new PR firm:

    1.    Know how to employ modern communications tools and explain the value of these tools to others, including colleagues and clients. Become an expert with monitoring and measurement tools, and develop a talent for communicating the results.

    2.    Be one of your PR firm’s best, most reliable writers. Be the person others look to for help crafting a meaningful pitch or a pithy post for Facebook or Twitter. A PR pro who can write the lights out can generally go far in this business, provided he/she plays well with others.

    3.    Play well with others. Credit your peers for work well done. Do not attempt to climb over the backs of others to get up the next rung of the ladder. Earn it by being aggressive, smart and loyal.

    4.    Be loyal. Don’t be the PR person who drifts from agency to agency chasing dollars or titles. Instead, show your employer that their business is your business, and your gumption and loyalty will be rewarded.

    5.    Become a brainstorming, strategizing machine. Be the person every team wants in the room for creative brainstorming. Practice stretching your mind with brain games and out of the box thinking. Watch how the best at your agency unlock the creative process, and then develop your own style.

    6.    Have your own unique work style, but be comfortable within the agency parameters and know when to flex your individuality to the benefit of clients and/or teammates. Nobody wants to hire a robot – we just want folks to execute like a well-oiled machine.

    7.    Have a sense of humor during times of adversity. Be comfortable laughing at yourself when times get tough. Your co-workers will sense whether you’re out of control or simply set-back, and the ability to smile through the pain separates the goods from the greats.

    8.    Speaking of “the greats,” the best people in any business turn challenges into opportunities. They don’t spiral into an abyss of complaints and despair. They are solvers. They provide solutions. And they aren’t afraid to fail.

    9.    Don’t be afraid to fail. But if you do fail, do so quickly and then brush yourself off and try something new. Your clients aren’t paying you for the status quo; they want you to positively impact their revenue. That requires being smart and bold.

    10.           Be bold – but smart. Bring big ideas to the table, but always make sure they’re grounded in business fundamentals. Have a rationale that you can sell, and make sure you actually believe it can work. Hit a few home runs with smart ideas and trust me, your boss, and team, will covet you.

    That’s my roundup of ways to be invaluable at your PR agency. What’d I miss?

     

    Scott Signore

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  • America’s Pastime

    Few things are as American as watching a baseball game and so it seems only fitting that just days before we break to celebrate Fourth of July, the Matter Providence office caught a Pawtucket Red Sox game for an evening full of fun, food and fastballs.

    The rain held off just long enough for us to make our way into McCoy Stadium where we were treated to a private buffet. There were burgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers, and more. It was classic, and delicious, American fare. Chatting over a round of cold ones, we took in the sights and reflected back on some of the greats that rolled through the Boston farm system including Marty Barret and Mike Greenwell.

    To the shock of those following the local Doppler, the rain came and went and made way for a perfect summer evening. It was time to make our way to our seats for the start of the game. Play ball!

    During the third inning, Matter was treated to a guided tour of the stadium where we marveled over memorabilia that dated back to its 1942 opening. We even got to meet Paws, the team mascot, as he made his way through the back halls!

    A victory over the RailRiders capped off the night as the sun set on yet another entertaining Matter outing. Before we officially head out to enjoy the long holiday weekend, share with us how you plan to celebrate Independence Day. And have a safe and happy holiday!

     

    Matter

  • How to lose a PR client in 3 easy steps

    How to lose a PR client in 3 easy steps

    This article originally appeared in PRWeek.

    There is no shortage of reasons why a company will seek out new PR representation, but here I’m summarizing three points made to me by a number of new business prospects that have recently ended their working relationships with their PR agencies.

    While, naturally, the details of each situation have varied, consistently these three topics have emerged in discussions with organizations that have contacted Matter for public relations, social media, or creative services support. If you care to lose a client, here are three steps to make that happen:

    1. Glaringly obvious but often overlooked: the PR agency takes its eyes off its client’s business objectives. In general, if the team strays from why it was hired in the first place, it will doom its chances of being a long-term partner. Inevitably, at some point during the program, the agency will measure its performance against established metrics. In the spirit of maintaining a happy and healthy relationship with your client, it behooves agency teams to review the metrics and the subsequent overall objectives regularly throughout the program to be certain the team is on track. Alignment with overall business objectives is a key part of the process.

    2. Put client service on the back burner. Some people just “get” client service. They entered the work world with a solid understanding that a business is only as good as its customer base, so without instruction, they know to find the way to work that benefits both the client and the business. They “get” that you need to be smart and savvy, but also responsive, reactive, and available. Others, however, need to be trained to be this way. The latter category of professionals occasionally need to be reminded that good client service is capable of keeping a client or company relationship moving forward, and that it can be a differentiator between agencies. Another group just never gets it, and those people will cost you clients.

    3. The agency partner is so rigidly structured that it can’t deal with clients’ immediate and, perhaps, evolving needs. In brief, a PR agency team needs to be nimble. (Blogger’s note: I love “nimble” and use it often to describe our teams here at Matter.) Few are the public relations or social media programs that “stay the course” from strategy to execution, so never should a team expect to execute only what was discussed early-on. PR agency teams need to react – with gusto – when called on by a client for a change in strategy or specific tactical needs, and doing otherwise doesn’t bode well for the long-term relationship.

    I consistently hear the above from new business prospects who have ended their relationship with their PR agencies – are you hearing the same?

    Scott Signore

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