If my video is about effective engagement, this blog is about opportunities missed.

What opportunities do corporate PRs forgo if they fail to optimise content?

What risks do corporate PRs run if they remain wedded to comms practises that are no longer aligned to the environment in which they operate?

So here’s my top three list of lost opportunities:

1. Journalist-only focus: Here’s what a global VP of marketing told me last week. He said two years ago it was all about journalists and corporate stakeholders. Now that no longer adds up. Most people that come to his website are not mainstream media or investors. So the newsroom is not just for journalists; it’s for current and future employees, customers, bloggers, investors, sustainability advocates, and community leaders. The lesson here is we ignore our expanded roster of stakeholders at our peril. Not a risk worth taking.
2. Not providing options to share on social networks (tweet this, Facebook like, Stumbleupon etc): Yesterday I had a session with a comms director for a major retailer. He told me a critical objective for him is to “make more noise”. I asked him how many employees the company had. Turns out they employ over 130,000 people and the majority of those people are from the “Facebook generation”. So he recognises he has an untapped asset that can communicate his core messages (“make more noise”). Of course the content has to be composed and packaged appropriately so that it can be shared and re-shared easily. Imagine this company has a campaign around organic fresh food. Let’s say they communicate this with their own employees and one in ten like the campaign enough to share it with their family and friends on Facebook. On average people have 130 friends on Facebook so that’s potentially a personal recommendation of your story to over 1 million people – that hasn’t cost you anything. And that is just one group of stakeholders. As an ex-journalist himself he noted that journalists share content with each other via twitter. So it makes sense to make it easy for them to do so. Point made.
3. Not linking to relevant content: So let’s say a blogger has read an article about your CEO and sustainability that a friend shared with them via twitter. The article has got a link back to the original post on your site. So now what do you do? If your story is about sustainability then why not have a list of related stories on the same subject alongside the article? Now this blogger can find out more about your initiatives in this area and has access to additional content. He’s able to write his own story and add something new to the discussion rather than just repeating what’s already been said. The blogger is happy, the PR is effective and the CEO’s message has increased exposure. Job done.

This list is not exhaustive. These are just three quick wins. Please feel free to add to the list.

Alistair

In January 2010 Glide will be seven years old. It’s been quite a journey since the days when three of us were squashed into a small office in Ladbroke Grove.  We’re now a team of 30+ happily settled in our Shoreditch office.

Back when we started in 2003, my job was pretty evangelical. Talking about online media centres and PR software wasn’t exactly top of most Comms Directors’ agendas and I spent a lot of time selling the need as well as our nascent product.

Today of course things are very different. It’s rare to meet a PR now who doesn’t acknowledge the importance of online content creation, effective targeting and precision analytics.  Blogs and social media have also changed the media landscape for good and the most exciting thing is that there is a lot more change to come.

Innovation is part of our ethos so this year we’ve launched a range of Glide features, including social media share tools, streaming video, B-Roll hosting and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) best practice tools. We’ve also just launched GlideInsight, our real-time market research tool.

2010 will also see us bring some pretty special tools to the market – but more about that another time!

On to the blog

We wanted our blog to be something everyone in the company owned, so you’ll notice posts from a number of contributors from all corners of the business, ranging from serious to conversational.

If you’re thinking of working for Glide or hiring us, you should be able to get a feel for what kind of people we are, which, in my opinion is vital for either decision.

Enjoy the blog and come back soon.

Sam