• 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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  • Companies Vying to be “Top Place to Work” – I’m Typing to You.

    Last week I had the tremendous pleasure of collecting the hardware associated with our agency being named a “Top Place to Work” by the Boston Globe – for the third year in a row! – and I’m taking some time to share how a business like ours receives such an accolade. We’re in great company, and while I’m confident that others on the Globe’s list manage their business similarly, here are a few steps we take to ensure that Matter is a place where people want to spend their time:

    First, we hire exceptionally well. We’re in a people business and having the very best PR, social media and creative professionals anywhere is key to our business success, and having such a high standard for employees drives expectations upward and fuels positive results. Delivering as a team or an individual – and being part of a culture with a results-focused foundation – directly contributes to Matter being a Top Place to Work.

    Second, speaking of culture, since our inception we’ve embraced a work-hard/play-hard approach, and balance work demands with a number of ways to clear our minds. We have active clubs for running, basketball, golf and yoga, and we have an active and robust agency-wide volunteer program – called “Helping Hands Matter” – which is a significant source of pride for all those involved. We collaborate as teams and in office-wide brainstorms, and celebrate all that we can while enjoying locally brewed beer poured from our Matter-branded beer tap.

    Third, we likely lead the PR industry with the amount of time off given to staff. In addition to a rich PTO (Paid Time Off) policy that includes our agency being closed between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and Summer Fridays from Memorial Day to Labor Day, our agency likes to offer some added time off for employees to make the most of holidays.  We have an extra day off around the Thanksgiving break, and we typically take a day to recover from our annual holiday party – among a long list of days off throughout the year. Our people rarely stray from doing 110% when they work, and having a few extra days to do whatever make them happy goes a long way.

    Fourth, our agency provides serious professional opportunity – in a way that you won’t find elsewhere. We have an established mentoring program that is one piece of a bigger pie that helps our staff reach important professional milestones. A career can be made while working at Matter, and several of our management team members have demonstrated exactly that. In addition, we are nimble and encourage entrepreneurial and creative thinking. While we have grown significantly over the years, we are still able to turn on a dime while embracing employee-suggested solutions on ways to become a better organization. That sort of environment encourages employee empowerment, rewards entrepreneurial thinking, and ultimately translates into increased revenues for the business.

    And, finally, we truly like one another and have fun coming to work and doing our jobs. Our agency’s vibe encourages friendship – in and out of the office – and it shows in client meetings and at company events. Our people genuinely like what they do, and have made a commitment to work as well as they are able while here at Matter. In turn I’ve committed to providing an environment that is supportive and fun, and that contributes to us being awarded as a Top Place to Work.

    If you take nothing else away from this blog post, it should be this: happy people do great work. And you know what else? They tend to stick around for years. That creates a virtuous cycle of consistency and excellence, and what could be better than that?

    Scott Signore

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  • Beating the buzzer: Capitalizing on breaking news

    Beating the buzzer: Capitalizing on breaking news

    A good chunk of a PR pro’s day consists of finding creative ways to get a client’s story out there. Obtaining killer press coverage without a steady stream of company news is one of the biggest – and most exciting – challenges we face. But every-so-often, things just happen. All of a sudden you’re not creating the news, you’re typing and dialing like a mad-person reacting to it.

    It’s not crisis communications, but the flurry you suddenly find yourself in leaves you feeling similarly. Here’s some advice on making your efforts count:

    • Remember to breathe: We work in a dynamic industry and sometimes that leaves us feeling like everything is urgent. Try to remind yourself that even though you’re reacting to breaking news, it’s important not to rush an announcement or an angle. Take the time to get it right. The results will be far more cohesive.
    • Pick a spokesperson: When in the trenches of this type of pitching, things happen fast. Journalists are looking to pump out stories same-day and want to speak with your expert ASAP. Scheduling can be a bit of a mess. Be sure to pick one spokesperson and discuss the best process for getting a hold of them when opportunities arise. Do they want to be emailed, called, texted or telegrammed? Do they prefer to dial the journalist directly, or have you hosting on a conference line? Should you just skip them entirely and go directly to their assistant? Lay out the process ahead of time so there’s no room for confusion and tedious back and forth.
    • News scan: While you should absolutely be opening up your existing press list and zipping the story off to your media besties, breaking news is the perfect time to make some new friends. Fire up Google News, see who’s covered the topic – or something relevant to it – in the past and pitch them! They’ll likely already be working on a story and as such open and responsive to new thought leader commentary. And the best part? They’ll remember that you’re good on the fly and reach back out for future stories.

    Have any reactionary PR tales to share? Tell us the good, the bad and the ugly on Twitter!

    Matter

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