• With Great Power: How Hard Questions Improve Brands & Products

    I recently read Motherboard’s article on the wave of destruction our increasingly networked lives could usher in. It got me thinking about responsibility – where it begins, where it ends, and which individuals and companies should endeavor to carry the most weight. No matter how novel our ‘smart’ devices may be, they are all contributors to an expanding web; how confident can users be that all of these brands, large or small, are keeping an eye on the big, scary picture?

    The truth is a lot of brands, regardless of industry, have never been tasked with answering brutally provoking questions. They’ve never been forced to examine their place in an ecosystem far grander, or farther in the future, than the daily routines of their ideal customers. And here’s why that’s a problem: refusing to imagine your brand’s potential pitfalls not only undermines your ability to respond to crises, it keeps you from thinking about how the brand should continuously adapt to our world’s relentless, hurried evolution. By burying your head in the sand, you are actively planning your obsolescence.

    And this, in the age of collaboration, when we the users want our brands to work together to fill in the gaps and do us the best possible good.

    You won’t just be doing your brand and your business a favor by regularly taking a hard look in the mirror. You’ll be demonstrating that you place your customers’ well-being above all else, which will earn you a level of lasting goodwill that literally can’t be bought. So before you launch your latest product update, settle on a new logo, finalize product features or even finish your business plan, make sure you and your colleagues have wondered OUT LOUD:

    1. How does our product fall short? How would we improve it, if we could?
    2. How might our product be corrupted? Who would corrupt it, and why?
    3. What happens if our product breaks or fails today? Next year? Five years from now?
    4. What do we do to protect our customers? What could we do if we had more resources?
    5. How do we express our mission in a way that makes sense? How do we build the relationships we need to get better?

    Feel like you could use some help? There’s people for that.

    Vanessa Boynton

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  • Matter Reaches 500 Hours of Volunteerism!

    Matter Reaches 500 Hours of Volunteerism!

    “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.” – Arthur Ashe

    I am excited to share that the talented professionals here at Matter have reached their objective of dedicating more than 500 hours of volunteer time to worthy entities and initiatives across five offices nationwide.

    Since the start of the year our dynamite staff served meals at homeless shelters in Boston, Boulder and Newburyport, provided books to needy children in Portland, worked with the Ronald McDonald House in Providence, and all offices walked in “awareness events” for a worthy cause. And that’s just the beginning: on a monthly basis our team has been a force of goodwill by delivering on their promise to give back – and having their time as working professionals be even more meaningful. They’ve rolled-up their sleeves and got things done, and I am tremendously proud.

    We launched our Helping Hands initiative at the end of last year, and it has been embraced with gusto by employees who want to collaborate outside of the office in the spirit of making a meaningful impact on the world around them. In most cases, the monthly event in each office has a waiting list of participants from so many generous volunteers eager to participate. I am so grateful for the willingness the staff has shown to sacrifice both professional and personal time to give back to the communities that we care so much about. Please join me, in tipping my hat to this kind and tremendously generous crowd.

    People in need matter. Helping hands matter.

    Scott Signore

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  • Why Collaboration is Essential for Innovation in Boston – and PR

    Boston has had quite the 2016, so far. Over the past six months, the city has experienced incredible milestones, further raising its notoriety as “The Hub” of innovation. Not only has Boston been ranked No. 1 among the top 25 startup hubs in the U.S. (over Silicon Valley, ask Sergey), it was named the future home of GE, witnessed Salesforce’s high-value acquisition of Demandware, and will welcome both AmazonFresh and Google Fiber—just to name a few highlights.

    Boston is clearly a top spot for anyone in tech, PR pros included, and the No. 1 ranking is just the beginning. When this was announced, I promptly toasted a frothy UFO Hefeweizen to my adopted city and set out on a tour of Boston tech events to discover the people, organizations and trends that contribute to Boston’s innovation economy. As a member of Matter’s Precision group, designed for companies with focused budgets, we are all about collaboration with our clients and with each other. What I found on my tech tour is that collaboration is key to Boston’s success as well.

    Here are a few ways collaboration benefits both Boston’s innovation economy and PR.

    1. Collaboration between organizations
    “You create two great research institutions, wait 200 years and see what grows up around it.” – Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker on Boston’s original economic policy at BostInno’s 2016 State of Innovation (BOSSOI).
    Today, Harvard and MIT are collaborating with promising local startups in medical devices, wearables and big data; the nation’s best hospitals; leading venture capital firms, incubators and accelerators; and government entities to make digital health Boston next, pioneering endeavor. Even Fiona Murray, associate dean of innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management, called “inclusion, collaboration and contribution” the “blueprint” of Boston’s innovation ecosystem at Xconomy’s INFLUX Boston (shout out to my colleagues Emily and Diala for attending the event). Likewise, collaboration between PR, media and community organizations is vital for generating awareness of great companies, doing great things.
    2. Collaboration between big and small companies
    “If we fail to innovate, we almost certainly will not exist.” – Rob Biederman, co-founder and CEO of HourlyNerd at BOSSOI.
    “We” means everyone, big companies and small. And (surprise), collaboration is key. From small companies, big companies can learn to stay lean and adopt an experimental mindset, while throwing fear of failure out the window. From big companies, small companies can learn to create and maintain a company culture as they scale. Collaboration between big and small client teams is just as important for good PR, and we do it well at Matter. Knowledge sharing between Precision and larger agency accounts allows everyone to maintain a culture of innovation, with stunning results for clients.
    3. Collaboration between companies and their customers
    “Sounds like you’re in our target demographic. What would you think of…” – A local startup founder at Boston TechJam 2016.
    This was a fashion tech founder’s response to my introduction as a tech and Ann Taylor LOFT-loving, 20-something transplant to Boston. Spoiler alert: I thought the product was great. I also loved the way the founder paused his routine (handing out swag and drink tickets) to ask my opinion as a potential customer. But this only scratches the surface of collaboration between companies and their (potential) customers in Boston. Microsoft just hosted a public HoloLens Hackathon. Local entrepreneurs are using crowdfunding and crowdsourcing to generate capital and ideas. Likewise, PR collaborates with clients and customers of clients to generate customer profiles, case studies and third-party quotes for effective media relations. The talented Vanessa Boynton discussed why building a customer profile is essential to creating a “collaborative” brand in a recent Matter Chatter blog post. Read it if you haven’t.

    Collaborate to innovate is the name of the game in Boston and in PR. Put me in, coach.

    Matter

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