trend data shows that’s already afoot with younger generations. Acknowledging that all things change over time, staying educated on new technologies – opportunities to interact with customers, really – will continue to be key to a brand’s success.
Much has changed in our market since we started our business 15 years ago, and much will change in the 15 years upcoming. I’m looking forward to all of it!
I was fortunate enough to attend the annual Health IT Marketing and PR Conference or #HITMC (pronounced hit-mick) in Las Vegas. For those outside of the healthcare marketing and PR world, HITMC is a conference put on by one of the most successful and influential bloggers in the space, John Lynn, and his partner Shahid Shah, who is also a widely respected thought leader in the health IT world. The conference is unique in that it brings together some of the best and brightest, and me, from healthcare marketing and PR, both in-house and agency side. When you consider how quickly healthcare and PR / marketing are evolving, it is immensely valuable to be able to collaborate with and learn from others who are facing the same challenges as you. I was hoping for a very collegial and educational experience at HITMC, and that was exactly what I got. Here are a few key takeaways worth sharing for both healthcare and those in healthcare communications.
Healthcare Trends to Watch
These represent just a handful of the many takeaways that I had from the event. Since these topics have inspired several follow on conversations between me and my colleagues over the last week, I thought that perhaps they’d be worth sharing more widely. For anyone in healthcare tech marketing or PR, I’d definitely recommend the HITMC conference as a great way to collaborate and sharpen your skills. There are also pretty active social communities on Twitter and LinkedIn for anyone looking to engage today. I look forward to attending next year’s event and hope that it will continue to grow in popularity. Please don’t hesitate to drop me a note if you’d like to discuss any of these topics or if you’d like to connect at next year’s event.
Event recap videos are a great way to create quick and easy video content. It allows companies to showcase their collaborative, fun-loving culture whether its showing off their BBQs, beach trips, volunteer events or bike-athons.
Too often, though, event videos resonate primarily with the people who were a part of the event. While that’s great for internal camaraderie to boost morale, it’s essential to engage a wider audience, like prospective talent and customers, with the same piece. With these three strategic tips in mind, you can elevate your event recap from merely an enjoyable video for the attendees to a creative piece of content to capture the attention of a wider target audience.
By keeping these few principles in mind, you can significantly enhance the effectiveness of any event recap video. So get out there this summer and enjoy your team activities while driving greater business impact along the way. Need a hand? We’re here to help.
The sun is shining here in New England, so there’s hope that the spring season has finally arrived. And, with warm weather and sunny skies comes the thought of spring cleaning – getting the things around you in order so you can make the most of every day. Here are a few tips for corporate-side public relations managers who may want to seize the season and evaluate their current PR agency team and the program they execute:
First, it’s a good time to audit your PR and social media team’s results against the metrics established at the start of the program. (Frankly, it’s always a good time to do this type of review!) You developed the metrics in concert with your business objectives, so you should take a close look at exactly how your communications program is contributing to your business success.
Second, it’s also a good time to look at the various components of your program. Do you have a good volume of creative elements that strengthen your message and help you tell your story visually? Or, do you need to do more to get the attention of your key audiences? Remember, more than 90 percent of B2B marketers and 75 percent of B2C companies employ valuable visual content as part of their communications mix. Why? Because it drives revenue. That’s a pretty compelling reason.
Third, take a look at the team supporting your business – are they still coming to the table with high energy and creative ideas? Are they asking the right questions and helping you to strengthen your story before it gets out to the market? In general, are they pumped to be working on your behalf? Your agency team members are representatives of your organization, and your expectations of energy and enthusiasm should be met. If not, it may be time to consider an alternative.
Fourth, do you have a plan in place to best exploit the results of the team? Leveraging media successes helps any organization get the best ROI on their initiative, and pausing to determine if you are supporting the sales team appropriately is a smart thing to do. In addition to helping these folks to succeed in their job, you have a more convincing way to justify your agency spend.
And, finally, dig down into your organization’s story-telling – and poke holes so the media doesn’t take that step first! Evaluate the always-changing market and solidify your key messages with new facts that support your positioning. And, seriously consider media training for the spokespeople who are active contributors to your program, as the message is only as clear as the way it is delivered!
What other steps should we take this time of year?
Having worked at a number of PR agencies before Matter – and proudly sharing that I had a great experience at each stop! – I can credibly comment on the kind of in-office behavior that helps keep an environment professional even when tension with clients and colleagues arises. It’s important for staff at all levels to operate in a way that supports professionalism in the office, and here are a few recommended ways to keep a top-notch tone:
First, keep the foul language out of the office. You may be comfortable letting a few choice words fly, but your colleagues may view such behavior differently. In addition to setting a poor tone, foul language demonstrates a meager vocabulary, as if you have so little to say that you need to emphasize your content with brash demonstratives. Don’t devalue your smarts or offend your colleagues, and save any foul language for another venue.
Second, do the right thing and dress respectfully – if not for you, for your colleagues. If you give minimal thought to your appearance, you’re sending the message that you give minimal thought to your work, too. Perhaps you dress more casually once in a while, but keep in mind that those with whom you interact will form an opinion based not just on how you act, but also on how you look.
Third, don’t punch the clock – you didn’t sign-up for that type of gig. A career in PR and social media requires you to embrace early mornings and late(r) evenings, and you need to be attentive to activities happening off hours. And, please don’t ignore what you see on your phone or in your inbox – that’s far from the “team player” message that you want to send to your colleagues and clients.
Fourth, be a self-starter and get things done on your own. If this isn’t clear, I suggest you look around and consider the workloads of your colleagues and support staff. They, too, have things to be done, so spare all of them silly requests and ridiculous inquiries, and get it done on your own. Knowing when to ask for help is a key attribute of good agency leaders, and don’t you want to be perceived this way?
And, finally, good PR and social media agencies have channels for sharing feedback regarding client activities or agency happenings. Take the smart high road and maintain a supportive and encouraging vibe – particularly during challenging situations. You have to be practical, sure, but be level-headed in your reaction and your suggested route to success. My experience strongly suggests that professional growth – and business growth! – is stymied by taking any other approach.
Any other common sense attributes of a professional environment?
The opening of our new and expanded office in Boston has me thinking about all of our office locations – 5 nationwide – and how we’ve situated our smart and savvy staff in regions that directly benefit our clients. Here are a few credible reasons as to why clients should consider PR and social media agencies with the depth and breadth of multiple geographies.
First, it really does help to have team members sharing a time-zone with the writers and editors they connect with so frequently. Matter is as flexible of an agency as I know of – and constantly we speak of getting things done wherever the team or client may be – but it really does make the working situation better when you have the opportunity to react and respond to inquiries at a time of day that makes convenient sense.
Second, it also helps to have the creativity that comes from varying geographies. What’s smart and savvy in the great northwest may be different than a noteworthy communications trend in greater Boston. Like the way we leverage the strategies and successes we experience when working with both consumer and technology clients, we have the opportunity to learn from happenings occurring in other local markets.
Third, some prospects and clients gain a sense of comfort knowing the team working on their business “gets” what it’s like to do business in their region. When an agency is able to hire stellar professionals from the local market, they reflect some of the region – and what makes that particular region special – within its walls. They understand local habits and nuances, and ultimately those team members can strengthen the relationship with the client.
Fourth, there’s opportunity for employees who have the freedom and flexibility to consider growing their career elsewhere – and the positive enthusiasm that comes with embracing a new city or town can positively impact performance. Here at Matter we’ve had a number of employees transfer from an East Coast office to our locations in Boulder and Portland, and their energy and enthusiasm is directly contributing to the positive vibe in each location. And, that positive energy is transferring to the work being done.
And, finally, and this one is very tactical, having a national presence is extraordinarily helpful for social media monitoring and execution. There’s really no way around it, but starting the work day early – and having the opportunity to end it late – is necessary these days, and having someone in the agency and from the team involved will allow for timely social activity.
Can you think of any other reasons as to why having a national presence Matters?
At year’s end, most video production houses should be recapping their latest and greatest work into a short video for the world to see. Also known as the “sizzle reel,” this video showcases said video house’s best work and truly provides good insight into the group’s production value, quality, aesthetics, and knowledge in industry. This best-of-the-best video is ultimately edited very intentionally to project or parallel the type/style of video the House wants to be creating in the future, so I’m offering some tips of what to look for when watching a video house’s sizzle reel. If you’re a B2C or B2B content marketer or business in need of a video and researching production houses, keep an eye on these key elements within a sizzle reel:
A simple quality control check, ask yourself this question: does this look good to me? From drones to jibs and image stabilizers to dollys and sliders, there’s nearly an infinite amount of production gear readily available to video producers to create dynamic video that help craft your story and detail your message. A professional video house should be using ALL of them, and not resting on the laurels of any given one. The sizzle reel should exemplify all facets of production tools and techniques. And two major things that are equally as important as the video quality are the lighting and audio. Lighting sets the tone and mood of the picture so working beyond just natural lighting is important. And many splashy sizzle reels tend to omit audio clips and soundbites, choosing to let the music bed do the talking, but we all know that audio can make or break a video so it’s important to provide examples of professionalism.
After these essential fundamentals, it’s important to dive a little deeper and acknowledge the editing choices and techniques showcased in the sizzle reel. Shot selection in a sizzle reel is important to acknowledge because every video editor should be very deliberate in any video project; each shot should tell it’s own story in some way. In a sizzle reel, each shot should highlight some facet of the video house’s production value: camera movement, framing, lighting, audio, video coverage type, and/or industry knowledge. Lastly, bonus points for advanced editing techniques such as timelapses, transitions, overlays, color grading, motion graphics, animation, etc.
In a 1-to-2 minute sizzle reel, there’s plenty of opportunity to showcase one’s expertise in any particular industry. Especially when, to reiterate, the sizzle reel is a video house’s opportunity to present the type of work they want to be doing. As a content marketer, it’s important when reviewing a sizzle reel to note what type(s) of industry said video house has produced work with/for because each has it’s own opportunities and challenges. Primarily working with an industry that’s based mostly outdoors vs. working indoors is probably the most obvious, but others include: product vs. service, people vs. places, and action vs. static.
Working with a creative services group that’s in-house of a PR and social media agency offers a wide berth of industry perspective and knowledge that ultimately translates cross-businesses. Not being stuck in just one industry can open up possibilities for how you look at other projects, and allows for fresh perspectives as well as best practices when creating different types of videos.
A video house’s expertise can fall under any number of arenas: company explainers, thought leadership, company or product launches, testimonials, recruitment, lifestyle, event coverage, social media, live broadcasting, etc. And obviously a sizzle-reel is a compilation of many such individual stories. But it’s important that the sizzle reel should tell a story within itself as well. A content marketer should be able to watch the sizzle reel and have a good understanding of the video house’s service offerings as well as the expertise they can bring to the table.
If you’re a content marketer who plans to produce engaging and compelling video, we’d love to brainstorm your ideas. What types of video do you intend to create? Check our Agency Reel:
To observe an elite star at the height of his or her powers can be vexing or inspiring. I suppose that’s why there are Instagram posts and coffee mugs to remind us all that Beyoncé also operates in a day with 24 hours – whether we’re meant to feel bad about ourselves or determined to do more is a matter of perspective. This weekend, I watched two different types of stars at the pinnacle of their games: Taylor Swift and the athletes of the CrossFit Games. And, yes, I swear this post is not total clickbait.
On Saturday night, along with 60,000 other #Swifties at Gillette Stadium, my ticket was scanned, my LED bracelet adorned my wrist and my eyes were fixed on the 1989 Tour. What struck me more than the manic jubilation of the mainly tween crowd was the incredible precision and care given to every set piece, light, costume and word spoken on stage. As a longtime fan who admittedly cringed at some early live performances, it was impossible to ignore what a pro Swift has become since her teen years – from her voice to her command of the stage and crowd.
https://instagram.com/p/5le9Lko0V_/
The rest of the weekend, aside from summiting a “mountain” and grabbing brunch with friends, found me on the couch, keeping up with the 2015 Reebok CrossFit Games. Like 270,000 other CrossFitters, I competed in the CrossFit Opens this year and, needless to say, was a few Kettlebell swings and muscle-ups short of qualifying for Carson. During the Individual Men’s Snatch Speed Ladder, Elijah Muhammad failed on his first attempt at the final Olympic lift, and 200+ pounds crashed down on his head and back – a scary sight so I’ll spare you the link. Rather than quit, Muhammad composed himself, returned to the bar and hit the lift.
So, does any of this pertain to PR, or is this just a thinly veiled ploy to tell the world I’m a CrossFitter who likes Taylor Swift and wants more Instagram followers? The answer to both questions is yes.
Here are three things I’m taking to work from my weekend of stargazing:
I have to admit that on the first day of my internship at Matter Communications I had some major jitters. I had no idea what to expect, and all I knew about PR, or account management in general, were the shady antics that Pete Campbell conducted on “Mad Men.”
Having been a journalist with two internships under my belt, I knew I could handle the craziness that is a newsroom and crank articles out with an editor breathing down my neck. What I didn’t know was if I could handle the type of assignments that would be thrown my way at a PR agency. When asked to picture what an account associate did all day before this internship, all I could conjure up in my head were images of endless phone calls and an out of control office that was filled with people looking like they needed a nice long vacation.
Fast forward to the end of my first week. Yes, phone calls were made, but to my surprise the office was, and is, a level-headed environment. Mind you this was just my first day, and I couldn’t help thinking that the calm was a fluke. As the week went by, I started to get more comfortable and settle in. I helped my team with research, which was something I did a lot as a reporter, and began to learn about key PR tools, like press releases, media lists, awards and editorial calendars. Prior to this internship, the only contact that I had with the PR world was a constant flood of press releases in my inbox. What I‘m beginning to see is the amount of work that goes into writing a press release before it is ever sent.
I have to give the PR world props; the energy in the office is great, and I learn so much just by listening to the conversations that happen around me. My coworkers, although passionate at times, are super helpful, nice and down to earth, and it’s great to see that they love the work they do. I’ve also found that data is prolific, and that’s something I want to learn more about. And, of course, I can’t wait to start learning how to manage accounts and even – gasp – pitch reporters.
With about two weeks under my belt, I know that I still have a lot to learn, but I’m excited to continue this journey. My honest review? It’s different, but in the best way possible. Plus, no one has tried to poach a client from one another – the “Mad Men” fantasies have been put to rest.
