GD Omni introduce their new development Cambie62 located on the corner of Cambie and 62nd. This 6 storey concrete development will have 27 units consisting of 1 and 2 bedroom condos. Situated within walking distance is the lovely Langara Golf Course and Winora Park.
Floor Plans for Cambie62
Floor plans have yet to be finalized.
Pricing for Cambie62
Please register and join our VIP list for early access and be the first to receive information on plans and pricing.
Coming soon to the very popular Cambie corridor is a stunning concrete development by Cressey. This spectacular project will consist of two six storey buildings located opposite the amazing Queen Elizabeth Park.
There will be 65 units consisting of 26 – 1 beds, 27 – 2 beds and 12 – 3 beds. Cressey develop quality products and we can expect to see top class finishes throughout each unit.
Floor Plans for Cambie + 31st
Floor plans have yet to be finalized.
Pricing for Cambie + 31st
Please register and join our VIP list for early access and be the first to receive information on plans and pricing.
Apathy could take a toll on more than staff morale; it might be hurting your bottom line, too.
Dynamic Signal has released a “State of Workplace Communications” report, offering a trove of research and analysis for external and internal communicators alike. The report sheds light on common workplace challenges that communicators face, including budgetary constraints and getting through to disengaged colleagues.
Finding ways to help employees feel like a valued part of the team is a huge concern. According to Gallup, 70 percent of U.S. employees are “not engaged” at work. Dynamic Signal cites another Gallup finding that disengaged employees cost companies upward of $500 billion each year in lost productivity, reinforcing that employee engagement is about more than PR and good vibes.
The report offers workplace communication tips and strategies for increasing engagement, which can be a boon for any company’s bottom line. You can download the full report here or read through the infographic below to learn more.
Vancouver’s stunning Wilmar Residence located on a 1.95-acre site is going to be redeveloped and will consist of a full renovation of the current mansion along with 5 luxury single family homes.
Each of the 5 units will range in sizes from 3,600-3,800 sqft. The main mansion will be converted into a duplex and will consist of one 4,500 sqft home and one 5,200 sqft home.
Floor Plans for Wilmar
Floor plans have yet to be finalized.
Pricing for Wilmar
Please register and join our VIP list for early access and be the first to receive information on plans and pricing.
Coromandel Introduces a new townhouse development called Willow. This development will consist of 20 3-storey townhomes ranging in size from 1,279 – 1,416 sqft. Each townhome will have 3 bedrooms and come with its own private landscaped patio.
Floor Plans for Willow
Floor plans have yet to be finalized.
Pricing for Willow
Please register and join our VIP list for early access and be the first to receive information on plans and pricing.
In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Renwick Congdon from Imprev. I’ve known Renwick for what seems like ages, though given we are both Seattle-based and work in real estate technology, it surprising took us awhile to finally meet / connect for lunch on the Eastside a few years ago. He’s certainly one of the class acts of this industry, and has guided Imprev to a market leader in marketing automation for brokerages.
Without further ado…
What do you do?
I set the vision for the company and the products. I also make sure we have a great place to work, with a smart, conscientious team…that and pay the bills.
What problem does your product/service solve?
Real estate agents have a lot of work to do to be successful. We help broker owners and franchisors help their agents by providing a brand-specific marketing platform for websites, email, social media, virtual tours, flyers, post cards, YouTube videos, brochures (over 50 different products) that agents can easily select, configure, and distribute to their prospects and friends.
What are you most excited about right now?
Automation. As the consumer continues to move online, the number of places and methods agents are required to advertise and market has increased exponentially, as has the effort to keep the marketing materials in both the new and old locations up-to-date. Our Automated Marketing Service (AMS) monitors data feeds, creates or updates marketing and advertising materials as needed, distributes the materials to the appropriate target(s), and notifies the interested parties…all without the agent having to lift a finger.
What’s next for you?
I’m going to be a grandfather in September.
What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?
Homelessness and food insecurity. As a company, we work with Giveback Homes, and we have the whole company volunteer at the local Food Lifeline.
We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop me a line (drew @ geekestatelabs dot com).
Saying "I don't know" shouldn't be a stumbling block. Just because someone can formulate a question doesn't mean there's a ready answer.
Saying "I don't know" doesn't mean you're stupid or ignorant about your subject matter. It could even boost your credibility.
Even so, many speakers fear an audience member will pose a question for which they won't have an answer. Saying "I don't know" feels like a conversation stopper.
You might feel embarrassed or tempted to fake an answer, but don't. It's better to be honest and know a few ways to say "I don't know" with grace, style and a little bit of humor (when appropriate).
Try some of these back-pocket phrases during your next "I don't know" moment:
1. "I wish I knew that."
This clever phrase lets you explain why you wish you knew that unknowable thing. If the question is hopeful and forward-looking (i.e. "When will we be able to solve climate change?"), you can agree with the questioner in principle.
2. "If only I knew that."
This variation, which sounds like a lament, lets you talk about what could be accomplished, or what your work/life/research would be like, with this missing piece.
3. "If I knew that, I'd be a billionaire."
This suggests the answer is unknowable—not just unknown to you. Use this phrase when it's impossible to answer the question.
This is a philosophical answer. You can follow it up with many options, depending on the direction you want to take.
5. "That's just one of many things we don't know about X."
This is a great option for researchers presenting a dense or technical topic. Use this phrase to launch a discussion about the topic's many unknowns, or why that particular unknown is significant to your work.
6. "I don't know, and here's why."
Get factual—as long as you can deliver this phrase without sounding defensive. Do you have to conduct more research? Is there missing evidence? Use this response to launch into your explanation.
7. "Wouldn't it be nice to know that?"
This response is great for a pie-in-the-sky question. It lets you agree with the questioner and spend a minute thinking out loud about what life would be like if you did have the answer.
8. "I don't know, but perhaps someone else here does."
This is a brilliant way to look generous, honest and humble. As Gloria Steinem says, questions are an opportunity to find solutions. Pose the question to the audience, then listen to the responses. Make sure several people get to speak. This phrase is a compliment to the knowledge in the room, and audiences will love it-even if an answer isn't forthcoming.
Denise Graveline is a Washington, D.C.-based speaker coach who has coached more than 140 speakers for TEDMED or TEDx talks.A version of this article first appeared on her blog,The Eloquent Woman.
Environics Communications has released the results of its annual CanTrust study, which tracks Canadian consumer trends.
Word-of-mouth remains the most trusted source for product information at 67 percent, which is a bump from last year’s 58 percent. Online recommendations matter to Canadians, too: 70 percent say they consult product reviews prior to making a purchase.
Canadians seem to still trust members of the news media, as it ranks second as a trusted source (50 percent), next to non-profit entities (57 percent). The news media did see a four-percent year-over-year drop in trust level, however. Of note to PR pros and marketers in both sectors, large corporations (27 percent) were found to be less trustworthy than government organizations (39 percent).
Though some of the trust numbers for corporations may be low, the study points out in one of its summaries that marketers shouldn’t worry too much:
Resist the temptation to go down the doomsday rabbit hole. Though global trends and climate suggest a daunting uphill battle for trust, there is no need to sound the alarm bells. According to our data, Canada’s trust levels are still relatively healthy, and mass skepticism hasn’t taken hold of the populace. Trust levels have and will continually ebb and flow, but our 2017 CanTrust Index results have shown that there are industries, leaders and brands that are winning the trust battle.
You can check out full highlights of the study in the slide deck below:
Garnering media attention for yourself and for clients can be daunting.
Competing for reporter and blogger attention in a sea of emails can be time-consuming, but thanks to Help a Reporter Out, pitching is less tedious. It connects PR people and small-business owners with people writing about their industry.
Not all HARO pitches are created equal, however. Follow these tips to get better responses to your HARO pitches:
1. Systemize.
Filter out the daily queries you don’t need.
Will Coombe of Sharpe Digital recommends: “Add email filters to your inbox so only HARO questions that contain pre-selected keywords surrounding your expertise make it through. This way receiving a HARO email will be infrequent enough to motivate you to put the effort in to respond.”
2. Be concise.
Deliver exactly what the blogger or reporter is looking for, use bullet points, and convey your message succinctly. No reporter wants 10 paragraphs of information, only to use one key sentence.
Why are you relevant to the conversation? Start your pitch with a few bullet points as to why you’re the best expert to answer the question.
No one wants advice from someone who launched a business in their dad’s basement last week. If you’ve won industry awards or been featured in major media channels, mention it.
Marcus Miller of Bowler Hat add: “We always follow up and start with an introduction. We do this to illustrate why the input is valid and the pitch should be considered. If the person has clear credibility in the area on which he or she is commenting then it helps the author know this is a valid source.”
4. Answer all the questions.
Too often, people will offer an expert but won’t answer the questions in my initial query.
The idea behind HARO is to make life easier for bloggers and journalists. If they have to send you multiple emails just to get their initial question(s) answered, they’ll opt for another source.
Everett Sizemore of Inflow adds: “Pay attention to what reporters are asking for. If they want high-resolution photos, provide them. If they ask for a two-sentence response, send them two sentences. If you provide what they want and need in a timely manner, your odds of being used as a source increase exponentially.”
If you want any shot at getting publicity, answer the questions in every query.
5. Include links to your social media profiles.
Any journalist or blogger worth their salt will do research on you before tapping you as a source. Help them out by including links to your profiles.
As a bonus, if a reporter can see you have a large, engaged following on social media, that’s a point in your favor.
6. Be timely.
Spela Grasic of Cheeky Monkey Media says timing is everything: “Respond as soon as possible; don't wait to the last minute. As someone who also requests HARO pitches, I know that if I'm in a rush, I'll take the first few good ones and go from there. I might not have time to look into later submissions.”
7. Pitch relevant people.
“Focus. Time is money, so be selective with your pitches. Don't waste your time pitching anonymous reporters and/or no name websites,” says Ben Landers of Blue Corona. “If I can add value to a query, but I've never heard of a website, I do a quick analysis of the website to determine whether or not to respond. I use tools like Moz to determine domain authority and review the backlinks to the site. Stick to queries where you [offer] deep subject matter expertise and/or a truly unique perspective or story.”
By selecting only the queries for which you have true expertise, and by pitching journalists relevant to your business, you’ll get more out of the experience.
8.Stop with the sales pitch.
Reporters and journalists use HARO to find legitimate sources. I’ve yet to meet a single person who uses HARO in hopes of being sent cheesy sales pitches.
David Lowbridge of Two Feet Marketing says: “You should never be salesy. The main purpose for HARO requests is for journalists to find expert information, not to look for services. You will get more benefit from HARO from providing useful information showing your knowledge rather than showing you can sell your product.”
Your product or service is probably not as interesting as you think it is, so unless a HARO query explicitly calls for product pitches, just respond to the question(s) asked.
9. Include a quote.
Jonas Sickler of ConsumerSafety.org follows this method: “Don’t just provide great information; also provide a useable quote. Make sure you give the journalist an intelligent, succinct and useful bit of quotable text. Keep your quote under three sentences, and write it in a separate line.”
I can attest to this. I love getting an informative, relevant quote that I can copy and paste into a story. Quotes make it easy for journalists to do their job.
10. Include contact information.
HARO automatically includes your email address in responses, but that might not be the best way to reach you, and spam filters aren’t an exact science.
Add your website URL, preferred email address and phone number in all HARO pitches, so reporters have an array of methods to reach you for additional information.
11. Offer yourself as a future source.
Whether or not a reporter uses you for the query you answered, emphasize that you’re available for other stories.
If you present yourself credibly and list the topics you could weigh in on, media contacts will probably add you to their shortlist. Say, “Feel free to keep me in mind as a source for future stories related to X, Y and Z,” to let the journalist know you’re serious about being a long-term source, rather than a one-off placement.
Matt Boaman of Godfrey offers: “If you receive a response that your answer wasn't chosen, it at least gives you the opportunity to start a relationship and keep the lines of communication open for future possibilities. Consider sharing the article or story on social media when it's published, even if you weren't included.”
Pope Francis has garnered admiration for his use of social media, but his recent surprise has made even more headlines.
The pontiff took part in TED2017—a nonprofit talk series that stands for “Technology, Entertainment and Design”—which was held Tuesday in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The pre-recorded talk, titled, “Why the only future worth building includes everyone,” marked the first time the pontiff addressed an international conference—and the first time any sitting pope has made a speech like this.
According to Bruno Giussani, TED’s international curator, organizing the talk was a huge undertaking. While Pope Francis is on Twitter and Instagram, many at the Vatican weren’t aware of the series, and it took a number of meetings to arrange the speech, which was recorded in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Pope Francis’s home in Vatican City. Filmed in April, the talk was then edited and translated by a group of 40 translators. (The talk is currently subtitled in 20 languages.)
Since Wednesday, the video has racked up more than 935,000 views on TED’s website, as well as almost 239,000 views on YouTube:
His speech has several life lessons, but Francis also had advice for business leaders and brand managers.
… [H]is message quickly moved to the conference's core subject matter (technology and innovation), and seemed to be directed at the audience in the room: the founders of some of the world's biggest tech companies, as well as politicians, artists, entertainers, venture capitalists and leaders of major cultural institutions and foundations.
Here are a few takeaways:
1. Focus on your audience.
Pope Francis said:
… I would love it if this meeting could help to remind us that we all need each other, none of us is an island, an autonomous and independent "I," separated from the other, and we can only build the future by standing together, including everyone.
He later cautioned against focusing on products and systems, instead of the people they serve:
Only by educating people to a true solidarity will we be able to overcome the "culture of waste," which doesn't concern only food and goods but, first and foremost, the people who are cast aside by our techno-economic systems which, without even realizing it, are now putting products at their core, instead of people.
The airline’s chief executive, Oscar Munoz, said in a statement:
Our review shows that many things went wrong that day, but the headline is clear: our policies got in the way of our values, and procedures interfered in doing what's right. This is a turning point for all of us at United, and it signals a culture shift toward becoming a better, more customer-focused airline. Our customers should be at the center of everything we do, and these changes are just the beginning of how we will earn back their trust.
You don’t have to wait until your organization’s policies get in the way of building relationships with customers—or until they cause a reputational disaster—to change.
If your customers are the focus of your values and mission, meet regularly with your team(s) to ensure that they remain at the core, and that your messages and tactics show this. If you have put your products and services on a pedestal, take this time to correct your course. You might have an awesome technology or application, but without your audience, you are nothing.
2. Use your power wisely.
The pope encouraged listeners—especially those in positions of power—to act humbly and with tenderness:
Please, allow me to say it loud and clear: the more powerful you are, the more your actions will have an impact on people, the more responsible you are to act humbly. If you don’t, your power will ruin you, and you will ruin the other. There is a saying in Argentina: "Power is like drinking gin on an empty stomach." You feel dizzy, you get drunk, you lose your balance, and you will end up hurting yourself and those around you, if you don’t connect your power with humility and tenderness.
The pontiff’s message should ring true for leaders of all stripes, and brand managers can help their organization’s executives better connect with both employees and consumers.
Why is it important for people to trust organizations’ chiefs? Without it, an organization’s value can decline, and you can be more susceptible to bad press and crises (think Uber). With trust, you can more easily build a community of brand advocates, better retain employees and gain investors’ confidence.
Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer shows trust in CEOs is at its lowest level ever, 37 percent, having fallen 12 percentage points in the last year. The report isn't saying specifically that employees don't trust their own CEO, but one might infer that.
Gose said the solution is to encourage executives to participate in internal communications and employee relations efforts. To increase trust with consumers, brand managers can also ensure that executives receive regular media training and have a social media plan for their personal accounts.
The more your executives can connect with those in and outside of your organization, the better your culture will be—along with your bottom line.
3. You can make a difference.
It can be easy to think that one person’s words or actions can’t affect much, especially when widespread change is necessary. However, that’s not the case.
Francis said:
The future of humankind isn't exclusively in the hands of politicians, of great leaders, of big companies. Yes, they do hold an enormous responsibility. But the future is, most of all, in the hands of those people who recognize the other as a "you" and themselves as part of an "us." We all need each other.
PR and marketing pros, let this be a call to remember your community.
The trend of “influencer” relations has shown many brand managers that their organizations don’t exist in a vacuum. The effect that one viral video (such as Kohl’s and “Chewbacca Mom”) or online reviews have on an organization’s sales and a brand’s image can be huge.
Working with members of your community—whether through an official “influencer” campaign or via social media listening and engagement—can strengthen your organization and bring you additional insights.
PR and marketing pros should also note how the pope exemplified how “none of us is an island” with this closing remarks.
In case you missed it, here is the most powerful man in the Catholic Church, humbly asking a bunch of TED conference attendees to keep him in their thoughts, seeking their help as he goes about his work.
That kind of role-modeling helps underscore his message in a world that still muddles authority with leadership and conflates power with muscle-flexing. It offers an example for a world where an American president—one who never apologizes and mostly speaks in boastfulsuperlatives—campaigned that “ I alone can fix it ” and considers “ strong control ” evidence of a better leader. It's an immediate illustration of what humility in leadership looks like.
People who work in the marketing communications field have grappled with a very existential question in recent years: If marketing comms is becoming a more data-driven profession, then what happens to the art of storytelling I’ve cultivated my whole career?
The science of data and the art of storytelling shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. In fact, I know from experience, they coexist nicely. In my days as a journalist, the narratives from the interviews I did with business people, along with my research, informed the stories I crafted. When I later moved into software product marketing – and spent more time with engineers and data scientists by extension – I also learned that tools could help me collect, aggregate, and analyze massive volumes of data about my target customers.
Coming from a bachelor of arts background, it’s one thing to say, “yeah, I should be more data-driven.” It’s another thing to actually to do it. And it’s here where I feel the industry has been short on specifics.
So I went through an exercise recently that helped bring some clarity: I defined the things I believe make great stories. Then, I borrowed data attributes I know are commonly used for targeting in marketing, and mapped data to storytelling buckets.
1.Be Human
Despite advances in machine-learning and automated content development, great stories that have major economic or social impact are still consumed by real people. As a result, it’s important to work with specific audience data that helps you understand who they are. This data isn’t about what they say; it’s about what they do.
Data Mappings:
Demographic
Behavioral
Past Purchases
Product Preference
2.Be Emotive
People are emotive creatures; and social media created a scenario where we started publishing those emotions with fewer barriers to entry than the old days of print publishing. When crafting a story leveraging this pillar, we’re talking less about what people do, and more about what they say. The social networks can be helpful for this. For consumer B2C brands and retailers, Instagram and Facebook reign supreme. B2B marketers are starting to glean a lot of insights of this kind from LinkedIn and Twitter.
Data Mappings:
Sentiment
Affinity
Psychographic
3.Be Original
Originality represents the biggest challenge in 21st century storytelling. That’s because, well, so many stories have been told at this point in human history. Proof of this has permeated the dramatic arts. Hollywood is doing constant remakes from movies 20, 30 and 40 years old. Broadway is copying movies now (didn’t it used to be other way around?).
To be original, you need to look at data even more intuitively. These data points are as much about what people are not saying. Start with your competitors, but also I’d argue timeliness is vitally important here. Often, the originality or freshness of a story will very much depend on the timeliness.
Data mappings:
Competitive Data
Industry Vertical Data
Trending Topics
As communicators want to leverage data for their pillars of storytelling, it’s important they identify stakeholders that possess that data. The social teams usually work in close proximity to comms, so getting that social listening data can be easier. Web analytics owners can be a good place to get valuable data about your target audience. Marketing CRM (B2C) and sales automation systems (B2B) are also worth the outreach.
The faster you can incorporate this data into the campaigns you craft, the more your stories will resonate with your target consumer and the influencers that reach them.
Chris Lynch oversees Cision’s global marketing teams. Serving as Chief Marketing Officer, Lynch is responsible for Cision’s global marketing strategy — spanning communications, product and digital marketing. Previously, he ran product marketing and go-to-market strategy for Oracle’s Marketing Cloud business and also held leadership positions at companies like Badgeville and TIBCO. Based in San Francisco, Lynch attended Northeastern University where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. Follow him on Twitter @cglynch.
Since the day I marketed my first IR website in 2000, I’ve been a staunch evangelist for the product. It’s a hellava smart and simple marketing tool that combines superb, reliable content with a professional presentation of your financial brand. It’s your transparency library.
But I am a tad bias. (Material disclosure: I am paid to love them.)
Thus the genesis of our Shareholder Communications 365 Study.“Hey…we should ask investors what they think.”
Now in its fifth year, this exclusive study asks investors 30 tactical questions regarding how they consume your shareholder communications content. Beyond the IR website, we asked about earnings calls, annual reports, news releases and overall transparency. From these tactical answers, IR teams can sculpt their shareholder communications efforts and budget.
Since 2012, the study has evolved. Initially, it was predominantly retail investor-based. In 2016 we added a Wall Street v Main Street comparison (CLICK HERE). This year, per client discussions, we cut to the chase: 3,780 responses from 100% institutional investors.
Question #1:
Historically, this question always receives a wide variety of comments:
Communication with the investment community is an essential component of a well-managed public company.
Companies have to have an investor relations section on the company website to consider investment.
Depends on how well I otherwise know the company and the information the company makes public.
Depends upon information obtained from other reputable sources.
Generally no, but if I have knowledge of the company and other reliable source of info I might consider the company.
I do not look at IR websites when I look at companies to invest in.
Investors have to invest using their own due diligence and not rely on the spin the PR departments spew out to shareholders.
I probably would if the company met my investment requirements.
I think all my companies now have websites. It would be an unusual situation to invest in a company that tells no story.
If I am very certain about the quality of the company fundamentals.
If just a startup but with a web presence under construction, perhaps; more mature business, no.
IR websites are largely irrelevant to making an investment decision.
Maybe, depending on what other “reliable” information is available.
Not likely, depends on what access to management I would otherwise have.
Only if I was investing on technical criteria and not on the story.
They are not serious without a site.
Interestingly, as well as a little surprising, 1/3 of analysts don’t view the IR website as a deal-breaker.
The strongest strategic take-away I have made from this is the IR website is not quite the power tool I always imagined: the key data is very redundant on Bloomberg terminals, etc.
From our inside viewpoint, another factor is the how IR websites are managed today (compared to 2000). Then, they were manually built, pixel-by-pixel, needing very expensive, inflexible and hard-to-find datafeeds. It was work for everybody involved.
Today, the ubiquitous and low-cost of stock data, the ease of HTML5, the backbone of broadband and even the using a company’s own XBRL have eliminated the IROs burden to micromanage their site (and frankly, made our job easier too). Except for during earnings period, most IR websites sit in a very passive set-and-forget mode… allowing IR teams to concentrate strategies on active tasks like targeting and improving their shareholder narrative.
PR Newswire hosts over 780 IR and PR websites for clients.
Question #2 coming soon.
Author Bradley H. Smith, a self-confessed connoisseur of IR websites, isDirector of Marketing and Shareholder Communications at PR Newswire / Cision.
There is much hyperventilating over Mastodon, the upstart social network du jour.
It’s easy to drop it into the same bucket as all the other presumed Twitter killers moldering in their digital graves, which is exactly what a lot of people are doing. Without even giving it a once-over, they remind their followers of Ello, Plurk, Jaiku and the long list of other social media hopefuls. Let’s not even start picking through the trash heap of Google’s various attempts.
I’m not ready to proclaim Mastodon a keeper. Odds are good that in five years, when the next startup hits the scene, the doubters will ask us to remember Ello, Plurk, Jaiku and Mastodon before getting amped up about the New Big Thing.
There’s something tugging at the back of my mind, though, insisting that Mastodon might, just maybe, find its place in the constellation of social networks.
What (besides a terrible name) is Mastodon?
If you want details, you can find them. One of the best offerings is by Qina Liu, digital engagement editor at The Buffalo News. There are other good introductions here, here and here.
Or just watch this:
Mastodon is a network of social networks that all use the same software created by a German developer named Eugen Rochko. It uses GNU social, a free open-source microblogging server that has been around since 2014. As Wikipedia puts it, “GNU social seeks to provide the potential for open, inter-service and distributed communications between microblogging communities. Enterprises and individuals can install and control their own services and data.”
Anybody can set up and run an “instance,” which is Mastodon jargon for a server. The people who join that instance can communicate with one another. They can also communicate with people on other Mastodon instances thanks to federation, in which each Mastodon instance is connected to all the others. (Well, sort of. More on that in a bit.)
As Dan York put it, it’s a bit like email. Your email account is on an email server. It could be Gmail or Hotmail or SBC Global or your company’s server or your own (like mine at holtz.com). You can send and receive email with people who have accounts on the same server as yours. You can also communicate with people whose accounts are hosted on other servers.
It also reminds me of the old FidoNet, which fueled community messaging back in the old bulletin board system (BBS) days. According to the Big Dummy’s Guide to FidoNet, that platform is a “a loose confederation of bulletin board systems which stretches around the entire world. Each BBS belongs to a local NETWORK. Each Network handles its own operations more or less independently of other networks in the world. Each Network belongs to a larger REGION, and each Region belongs to a ZONE.” You participate locally but get the benefit of what others have posted through their local BBS.
Of course, Mastodon isn’t exactly like either email or FidoNet.
First, there’s the interface. If you’ve ever used Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, it’ll seem comfortably familiar. One tab is for writing and sending your messages (called “toots,” which have a 500-character limit, allowing you to write a standard paragraph). The next is your “Home” tab, where you’ll see toots by everyone you follow, along with toots that reference you. The home tab also features toots from people who—well, I haven’t yet figured out why they show up.
The notifications tab is where you get toots that include your username. The final tab lets you select from a variety of options, including the local timeline (chronological toots from everyone posting to your instance), the federated timeline (the toots from people who are followed by you and other users of your instance), the toots you’ve marked as favorites, your preferences and more.
Finding people on other instances is no easy task (yet); to engage with someone on another instance, you must include their account name and their instance (e.g., @SLHoltz@mastodon.social).
If all this sounds daunting, that’s one reason so many naysayers have proclaimed Mastodon dead on arrival. The same dismissal was aimed at Twitter back in 2007, though, and those who found value there figured it out.
Mastodon has a lot going for it. Rochko created it to limit trolling, avoid blatant commercialism, provide a true chronological timeline and promote privacy. None of that will make it thrive or even keep it alive. That will happen (if it happens) because of the federated model.
Federation? Like Star Trek?
Yeah, sort of, if you want to think of each instance as a planet with its own sentient race that lives together but communicates and trades with other races on other planets. Quina Liu likens instances to subreddits in that “each [is] moderated by a dedicated team of volunteers and each may have [its] own specific rules, interests, themes or cultures.”
Therein lies the potential. Mastodon instances have been created (as a Mashable article notes) for pizza fans, book lovers, people who attend Burning Man, and more. Podcasting’s podfather, Adam Curry, has set one up for people who listen to No Agenda, the popular podcast he co-hosts with John C. Dvorak. (Adam Curry is a hardcore geek.)
You could create one account on one instance and use it like Twitter to engage with people on instances everywhere. More compelling, though, is to have accounts on each of the instances that revolve around your specific interests, engaging heavily on the local scene and using the federation for related conversations.
The complications of maintaining several identities across the federation could be too much for most people. If Mastodon lasts long enough for late adopters to find a thriving instance populated by like-minded people sharing an interest, I suspect this single instance will be the gateway. A lot of people may hang out in their local instance; others might venture beyond.
This could also present an opportunity for organizations—not to hawk their products as they do on Facebook or Twitter, but to create a place for people with relevant interests to hang out.
Ford Motor Co. could launch an instance dedicated to Mustang lovers. Dell might create one for cloud engineers. My friend and former podcast co-host Neville Hobson suggested I set up an instance for everyone engaged with the FIR Podcast Network. Maybe I will, if I find the time.
We in the communications profession talk endlessly about building real relationships around substantive conversations in online communities. Mastodon’s model provides the foundation to do exactly that—and get it right this time.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, a lot.
To begin with, most of the instances created so far are run by hobbyists who could lose interest and fail to install updates, fail to enforce the rules, let the whole thing die or uninstall it altogether.
Then there’s the Twitter analogy, bringing people who expect to find Better Twitter. Yes, Mastodon addresses a lot of what’s wrong with Twitter, but it’s not really a Twitter clone. Frustrated, those people will give up quickly.
Rochko could do a lousy job at improving the interface, leaving only early enthusiasts and failing to attract new users.
It might never get easy to find an instance that interests you.
Marketers could flood Mastodon, presenting an insurmountable challenge to volunteer moderators and kill it with commercialism.
A spike in interest
Instances are cropping up everywhere. People are joining instances like crazy. A user count bot on Mastodon.Social—Rochko’s original instance—shows 50,364 accounts, 904 of which joined in the hour before I checked, 2,894 in the prior day and 7,353 in the previous week. Some other instances are experiencing equally impressive growth, but that doesn’t mean squat in terms of a long-term prognosis.
I do know I’m enjoying the hell out of it, more than I have enjoyed Facebook or Twitter recently. It has a more organic community vibe to it.
If I had to bet real money, I’d bet against Mastodon. I know the chances of an upstart social network’s succeeding are slim. They’re even slimmer when there’s no money behind it, just a bunch of hobbyists, but I hope it becomes something important. It could fill a sorely needed gap in the social networking world.
Last summer, two days of computer woes forced Delta Airlines to cancel hundreds of flights nationwide—dozens of them at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport—and many more were delayed.
As passengers prepared to bunk in on sleeping mats and airport restaurants extended their hours, Mall of America newsjacked the event by offering an alternative.
The 5.6 million-square-foot shopping megalopolis is a 13-minute light-rail ride away from the airport, and the mail cranked out a blog post titled, “Flight delayed? 11 things to do at MOA.” (Among other attractions, the site boasts a 27-ride amusement park and a 1.3 million-gallon aquarium.) Then MOA pushed the message.
“We targeted social ads to people at Minneapolis airport,” says Timothy Pate, blog and digital project manager. “It was a huge success, where we not only saw readership [increase], but through social listening were able to see those people stuck at the airport enjoying their layovers at Mall of America.”
Birthday bash
As the mall celebrates its 25th birthday this year, its blog, named 55425 for the mall’s ZIP code, seeks to hook customers at a time when online shopping threatens many brick-and-mortar retailers.
In the countdown to MOA’s Aug. 11 birthday, the mall launched a series called “25 weeks—25 stories.” One of them recalls celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg and Angelina Jolie who have appeared at the mall in over the years 55425 has been around for under two years, and it marks a new strategy, changing “from a marketing approach to more of a content-brand journalism approach,” Pate says.
Asked about readership numbers, he declines to lay out his cards, but he says the blog has grown consistently each month.
Although 10 to 15 marketing staffers write posts for 55425, the mall also contracts with journalists to tell some of the stories. Mpls St Paul magazine’s food and dining editor tells how she and the mall have grown up together.
The sheer scale of the mall and its entertainment sites means a brand journalism approach makes sense, Pate says.
“We have a lot of stories to tell and a lot of different audiences to tell those stories to,” he says. “Taking a brand journalism approach allows us to tell these stories on a continual basis and direct the stories to those we know will want to read them.”
Have a cigar
Another 25th anniversary story recalls the movies and TV episodes that were shot at the mall. While performing in a movie being filmed at the mall, Arnold Schwarzenegger would drop in on a Planet Hollywood restaurant he co-owned there.
“He’d come in all the time for Chicken Crunch,” the eatery’s publicist told 55425. “He’d still be in makeup.”
Disappointed to find his restaurant half empty, he dreamed up a charity cigar party and was able to pack the place at a week’s notice, raising money for the Minnesota Film Board and Camp Heartland in the process.
MOA uses a variety of ways of finding stories, starting with social media monitoring, says Jill Renslow, senior vice president of marketing. The mall also engages with people after learning about them from their posts.
“When people are out celebrating birthdays and they’re posting on social media with photos from here, we will actually surprise and delight those individuals by meeting them up in the mall or giving them a gift card or a ride pass,” she says.
Social media can also reveal common questions that the staff can turn them into blog posts, Pate says.
Another source of stories is reacting to pop culture trends and conversations, Pate says, such as a story on Pokemon Go tips. “We pay attention to what would make sense for our brand to join in those current topic conversations,” Pate says.
Tacos and toddlers and tulle (oh, my!)
Contributors themselves are also a wealth of ideas. The senior experiential marketing manager is a huge fan of tacos, Pate says. So, when actress Jennifer Aniston touted the so-called “taco cleanse” diet, the manager jumped in with a report from eateries in the mall (and a Barnes & Noble bookstore).
MOA also does its best to attract customers around events in their lives when they’re looking to spend money. A two-part series advises girls looking for the perfect dress and hairstyle for that festival of teenage awkwardness known as the prom.
At the other end of the kid spectrum, “When Toddlers Take Over” offers news of a weekly “Toddler Tuesday” that is no doubt welcome among caregivers tasked with entertaining screaming tots or joining them in vrooming plastic fire engines around the living room carpet.
Asked for tips for organizations covering their own stories, Pate offered these:
Let your writers have their voice.
Don’t try to pigeonhole your writers to sound like robots.
Embrace your brand.
Make your content as evergreen as possible. “Even if there is an ‘of-the-moment’ topic, we try to make it content that will still be relevant in a year,” Pate says.
“Mall of America happens to have a lot of quirky stories, and we aren’t afraid to share those with our readers,” he adds. “We find when you really let your quirks shine through, readership goes up.”
We all love shiny new objects. It can be tempting for communicators to jump on board with the latest trends immediately.
But without a thoughtful strategic plan and a strong grasp of basic communication principles, your efforts to get ahead will be fruitless.
Just ask the experts at our Corporate Communicators Conference, June 14–16 in Chicago. Here’s some of the fundamental yet often overlooked advice they recommend:
1. Build a culture that is prepared to adapt, rather than managing change after it happens.
2. Write like a journalist to get more coverage—cut out jargon and unnecessary words.
3. Create a human voice on social media by adding personality to your online content.
Learn more from the experts at Lyft, Microsoft and The Associated Press during this can’t-miss conference featuring three summits for all types of communicators:
June 14—Internal Communications Summit
June 15—Practical PR Summit
June 16—Business Writing Summit
You’ll build a stronger foundation for all your programs and leave prepared to take on new trends with ease!
Fear of public speaking, or glossophobia, can be debilitating.
Those who have spoken publicly with success or viewed a well-given talk will tell you that preparation is the key to overcoming it.
If the thought of speaking in front of a room full of people doesn’t make you weak in the knees, being prepared can enhance your speech and make your words more powerful. Success can lead to an lasting impression that can influence audiences in profound ways.
What do nearly all TED Talks have in common? They’re well presented.
With that in mind, there are a few do’s and don’ts that every communicator should follow when prepping for a presentation. Consider these:
The Do’s
1. Grab your audience’s attention starting with your first sentence.
There’s a lot of “crap” to wade through when searching for a home.
Over the years, I’ve had many many conversations with folks in the industry (both brokerages & vendors) working on approaches to more efficiently find buyers the perfect home online.
But here’s the thing.
What if, heaven forbid, that’s not actually a problem in need of solving?
What if buyers don’t want you to find them the perfect home? What if they actually enjoy looking at tons and tons of houses? What if THEY want to determine what the perfect home is?
I often tell people real estate and travel are very similar industries. Travel planning has a similar dynamic. Many techies who travel constantly are driven crazy by the inefficiency of finding information — and build products/companies to solve that personal pain. In all honesty, most people actually enjoy travel planning. It’s not a “problem” for the general population.
Say a buyer finds your website. Say you somehow show them the perfect house/listing within the first property or two they look at.
When you’re spending $200,000, $600,000 — or even $1,500,000 — do you honestly believe a buyer would be thinking… “This home is perfect, there’s no need to look at any other homes, no need for comparisons, let’s go get a mortgage and buy the house“.
Instagram remains one of the world’s fastest growing social media platforms.
The visual app’s growth doesn’t show signs of slowing down, either. It just hit a new milestone: 700 million users.
The Facebook-owned photo sharing app took only four months to gain its latest 100 million users, which places it at double the size of rival Twitter.
A company representative told TechCrunch:
Growth was driven by a number of factors, including our ability to better connect people with their friends on Instagram. We also took steps to simplify and improve our sign-up process, which helped bring in new people from all over the world.
The spokesman also confirmed to TechCrunch’s Josh Constine what many have speculated—that its cloned Snapchat features have “impacted growth and retention.”
Earlier this month, the platform reported that one such feature, “Instagram Stories,” reached 200 million daily active users. Its “Direct” feature, which enables users to send permanent and ephemeral messages, is nearing 400 million users.
Another factor in Instagram’s success is its global growth. The company has expanded into large markets that include Brazil and India.
What does this mean for PR and marketing pros? If you don’t already have an Instagram strategy, you might in the upcoming months. The harder part will come with figuring out how to attract users’ attention and stand out against the plethora of other content on the app.
When organizations' leaders want to enhance their brand and take advantage of their prospective clients’ hunger for information, they often turn to content marketers to create engaging content that develops leads and advances them through the all-important funnel.
However, they rarely look beyond the content. After all, it’s the content that develops leads, not the creator. Anyone can write, right?
There’s a difference between copy and copy with depth, clarity and context. And chances are you want the latter, not the former.
• We’re curious. We always want to know how something works. We always ask why. We always question our world. We feel bored when we’re not chasing down the scoop.
That obviously bodes well for readers who depend on curious reporters, but it’s also effective for organizations that want an edge in educating customers about why their offer makes sense. “You’re telling me this product, process or brand addresses customers’ needs? Prove it. Tell me more.”
• We know a lot. Whether via formal education, life experience, years on the job or a combination of all three, journalists know a little bit about a lot of things. You could argue that reporters earn paychecks by learning.
• But we don’t know it all. Good reporters find out quickly that the more they know, the more they don’t know.
We freely and constantly admit it. Far from turning us off, admitting what we don’t know is like pouring gas on a fire. If we don’t know, odds are good our readers don’t, either. It’s on us to tell them.
Good research drives good marketing content. Reporters are right for the job because our success depends on locating the information we need to tell well-rounded stories.
There will always be a learning curve, especially with complex topics in niche industries. But that curve will always be shorter when a reporter is on the job.
• We’re good translators. Reporters are experts at translating jargon into layman’s terms. That’s partly an innate skill and partly because our duty to readers demands it. Asking sources to put on the brakes and explain something like we were born yesterday is second nature.
Experts wary of getting too deep in the weeds of their brands or products can take comfort in working with journalists to develop content. Tell us what you know. Tell us why it matters. We’ll work through the weedy parts together. Complexity doesn’t alarm us.
• We’re obsessed with facts. Gumshoe reporters take facts seriously. You don’t know real despair until you’ve put your name on something that turns out to be wrong. That’s why we work so hard to get the story right.
For example, journalists and metallurgical engineers likely don’t have much in common, but they share a devotion to precision. A few degrees Fahrenheit separates metallurgy from playing with fire; an exact dollar amount on a city budget line item separates public interest reporting from town gossip.
Did you get the dog’s name? Was the corpse wearing shoes? If your mother says she loves you, get a second source. Trust us. We’ll get it right.
• We’re skeptical. We don’t believe you. It’s nothing personal. In fact, it’s a good thing. Journalists are trained not to take anyone at their word. If there’s a way to independently verify information, we do it.
This skepticism in the service of the public can be channeled into serving organizations and brands in a number of ways. For one thing, skepticism ensures that the information we relay comes from reputable sources. For another, skeptical reporters are well versed in playing devil’s advocate, trying to poke holes in sources’ statements to see what holds up to scrutiny.
Reporters turned marketers aren’t out to trash your brand or organization, but you’d be surprised at the depth that can emerge when a reporter starts pushing. There’s always more to the story.
• It’s not about us. No one showers reporters in praise or riches. We get as many angry phone calls from know-it-all readers as we get bylines. We don’t do it to get famous and very few of us make any real money.
Someone would have to be either insane or insanely dedicated to keep reporting, dim prospects of living the good life be damned. That dedication never leaves us even after we leave the newsroom.
Whether we’re reporting the news to readers, writing marketing content for clients or sending a text to Mom, you can bet it will be well written, well researched, clear, concise and truthful. That’s just how we are. There’s a code we learned that we never forget no matter what we write or for whom.
Toby Wall is a writer at Gorilla 76, an industrial content marketing firm in St. Louis. He was a former journalist covering breaking news, politics and business in the St. Louis area. A version of this article originally appeared on the firm's blog.
Today I want to talk about FLYTE, this website’s nonprofit arm.
Over the last few months, I haven’t kept everyone as up to date about the organization as I would like. I apologize for that and promise that, starting today, that will change.
Though quiet, we’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, improving our website and strategy, and creating new partnerships so that FLYTE becomes a more integral part of this website and community.
First, as a refresher, what is FLYTE?
The Foundation for Learning and Youth Travel Education (FLYTE) provides logistical, planning, and financial support to high schools and teachers who want to take their students overseas to give them a real-world context for what they are learning in school — think visiting the D-Day beaches in France or learning about sustainable development in a rainforest in Costa Rica. I started it in 2015 because I believe not enough kids get the chance to travel, see the world, experience other cultures, and realize the practical side to their education!
While many wealthy school districts send students on overseas educational trips, schools and teachers in underserved areas have little or no opportunity to offer their students this experience. Their schools and communities lack the resources to make such a trip happen. I wanted to create an organization that helps people in forgotten parts of the country, because everyone deserves a chance to see and learn about the world!
Thanks to you, FLYTE has raised over $88,000 USD. Last year, we sent a group of students from Atlanta to Mexico and another group from Washington, DC, to Cuba (and we’re preparing for a third trip in June). These students had an amazing time and the trips had a profound impact on them. Here’s what a couple of the students said about their experience:
“This trip means so much to me because having the opportunity to travel outside of the country and my community (an opportunity a lot of peers don’t get to have) is amazing and it really helped open my eyes and see that there is so much more outside of Atlanta.” – Nokio, BEST Academy student
“I would’ve never thought I would have gotten out of my city, where people hurt and do bad things to one another. It makes me want to travel and learn the history of every country in the world!” –Tija, junior at Anacostia High School
So, today, I want to talk about a few other changes with FLYTE:
First, we’ve created a volunteer section on the FLYTE website. Now we’ve created a space where volunteers can help grow the organization with us. I love the passion this community has for FLYTE and I want to better channel that into action. You can visit this page to see our current volunteer needs.
Second, we’re looking for interns. We need help. We’ve tried to do it all alone, but we need some help growing FLYTE. If you live in the NYC area and are fluent in social media, we’d love to have you! We’re a licensed 501(c)(3) and you can get an internship that counts for college credit. You’ll work in my office in NYC with my executive director and the rest of the Nomadic Matt team. You can apply here!
Third, this website now has a dedicated FLYTE page where you can see all the updates and information about the program, school trips, and anything else FLYTE related. Moving forward, FLYTE is going to become a more integral part of this website. Let’s work together as community to show more kids the world (especially in today’s environment where people want to close borders rather than open them)! This page is a work in progress and we’ll be expanding it over the next few weeks!
Fourth, we’re starting weekly emails to donors that will update them on the school, kids, organization, and everything in between. This is something that should have happened a long time ago, and I just never got my act together. My executive director and I are now making it a priority to send out weekly emails to you, so that you will always know what is going on in the organization and the kids, and how your donation is being used.
Fifth, we’ve moved to a new donation platform that will allow us to host donations right on our website (no more going to another website), reduce fees, and accept recurring donations. This new system will ensure that it’s easier to donate and that there are fewer fees when you do! It will be live by tomorrow!
Finally, I need your help again. We’re sending a group of students from Excelsior Academy in Newburgh, NY, to Quito, Ecuador in June! The students will volunteer at Casa Victoria, a grassroots community betterment program located in a struggling section of Quito, and work with local students in an after-school program. Not only will they get to experience another culture, country, and continent but they will also give back while there.
Please help us finish raising money for the students at Excelsior. We’re a little over $20,000 from our goal. I’ll be matching donations up to $10,000, which means that if the community can donate at least that much, we’ll hit our goal and send the kids on their way (any extra money raised will go to future trips)! For most of these students, this will be their first time out of the country so this is a chance to really make an added difference!
Newburgh, once a thriving manufacturing center on the Hudson River, has faced deindustrialization and failed urban renewal attempts that have left the town struggling both financially and socially. Complicating the matter, the Newburgh school district is located in what the FBI has repeatedly named one of the ten most dangerous cities per capita in the United States.
As Excelsior teacher Christine McCartney says, “At Excelsior Academy, we strive to create global citizens who recognize their power to enact change at both the local and global level.”
Here are the students talking about why this is so important to them — and what this trip means to them:
$50 – For donations of at least this amount, I’m offering my e-books How to Teach English Overseas and The Ultimate Guide to Travel Hacking, and my guides to NYC, Paris, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
$100 – For donations of at least this amount, you will get the e-books and city guides PLUS a signed copy of the print book How to Travel the World on $50 a Day and a FLYTE t-shirt (US shipping only).
$250 – For donations of at least this amount, you will get all of the above PLUS an hour of travel planning with me, a souvenir from Ecuador, and a thank you card from the students!
If everyone donated just $10, we could fund the entire trip – and many more like it – right away. The more we raise, the more we can help these students and others like them.
Ten bucks isn’t a lot — it’s one less Chipotle meal, a couple of beers, one Old Fashioned, one Uber ride. It’s not much in the grand scheme of things.
If you can’t donate, you can also help by sharing this campaign on Facebook and Twitter, and by emailing your friends, family, cousins, pen pals, coworkers – anyone – and letting them know about this. Help us spread the word about this cause so we can change as many lives as possible. The more people know about this, the better!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your past, present, and future support of this program!
P.S. –Here’s a super awesome and shareable Adobe Spark page that has all the essential information you want to know about FLYTE! You can share this page with your friends, family, and on social media! Please help up spread the word!
On Thursday, United issued a press release announcing “10 substantial changes to how it flies, serves and respects its customers.”
In it, the airline addressed overbooking, increased its compensation cap for bumped passengers to $10,000 and promised to curtail its dependence on law enforcement:
Limit use of law enforcement to safety and security issues only.
Not require customers seated on the plane to give up their seat involuntarily unless safety or security is at risk.
Increase customer compensation incentives for voluntary denied boarding up to $10,000.
Establish a customer solutions team to provide agents with creative solutions such as using nearby airports, other airlines or ground transportations to get customers to their final destination.
Ensure crews are booked onto a flight at least 60 minutes prior to departure.
Provide employees with additional annual training.
Create an automated system for soliciting volunteers to change travel plans.
Reduce the amount of overbooking.
Empower employees to resolve customer service issues in the moment.
Eliminate the red tape on permanently lost bags by adopting a "no questions asked" policy on lost luggage.
Chicago Business Journal reported that several of these commitments either have already been implemented or will be in place by the end of the month. United’s “no questions asked” lost luggage policy will also include a $1,500 reimbursement for bags that are permanently lost.
Chicago Business Journal’s Lewis Lazare wrote:
Though the report is short on some key details, it does provide the groundwork for what the carrier now says will be a concerted effort to earn back the flying public's trust.
The airline’s chief executive, Oscar Munoz, also issued a statement promising that United would become “a better, more customer-focused airline”:
Every customer deserves to be treated with the highest levels of service and the deepest sense of dignity and respect. Two weeks ago, we failed to meet that standard and we profoundly apologize. However, actions speak louder than words. Today, we are taking concrete, meaningful action to make things right and ensure nothing like this ever happens again.
Our review shows that many things went wrong that day, but the headline is clear: our policies got in the way of our values, and procedures interfered in doing what's right. This is a turning point for all of us at United, and it signals a culture shift toward becoming a better, more customer-focused airline. Our customers should be at the center of everything we do, and these changes are just the beginning of how we will earn back their trust.
Munoz’s recent apology differs strikingly from his previous mea culpa, which garnered the airline even more criticism.
PR pros might note the executive’s sincere tone, as well as the promise to take “concrete, meaningful action.” Corporate apologies do little to regain consumers’ trust, unless they are accompanied by a plan to fix the current problem.
Additional crises and image damage
United’s statement comes after two additional crises made headlines this week—a professional golfer’s broken clubs and the death of a rabbit.
On Monday, Matthew Goggin tweeted the following dig at United:
First time in 20+ years I've opened my bag to find this... I was going to complain but I must admit I'm a little intimidated by @unitedhttp://pic.twitter.com/bmKwquMqb1
In a statement sent to the BBC, United said: "We were saddened to hear this news. The safety and well-being of all the animals that travel with us is of the utmost importance to United Airlines and our PetSafe team.
"We have been in contact with our customer and have offered assistance. We are reviewing this matter."
Though the rabbit’s death isn’t provoking the outrage that the airline’s leggings policy or passenger removal incidents have, the BBC reported that United’s track record with animal injuries and deaths is the worst of any U.S. airline:
Of those, 14 deaths were on United flights, with a further nine creatures injured. Across the year, United carried 97,156 animals, meaning there were 2.37 incidents for every 10,000 animals transported during the period.
That was the highest rate seen on any US airline, according to the data.
It might seem like United’s image can’t get much worse, but even with that, it ranked No. 6 on a list of United States consumers’ favorite airlines.
Airfarewatchdog recently surveyed 1,300 travelers and found that although United had dropped a spot, low-budget airlines Spirit and Frontier were at the bottom. MarketWatch reported the entire list:
1. Southwest
2. Delta
3. American
4. Alaska
5. JetBlue
6. United
7. Virgin America
8. Frontier
9. Spirit
However, the survey might be more of a reflection on consumers’ negative perception of several airlines, rather than support for United.
“Our singular focus is on continuing to review and improve the broader customer experience,” a United spokesman told MarketWatch.
The blank page stares back at you from your computer screen. The words are in your head but you can’t seem to get them out. Your deadline is coming up faster than you can type.
Sound familiar?
If writing isn’t your specialty, having to whip up stories and presentations can be stressful and intimidating—but it doesn’t have to be.
Veteran editor Rob Reinalda wants to show you—or your colleagues new to writing—how to get your message on paper with ease.
· Identify your audience and the channels they frequent
· Understand the importance of syntax in getting your message across
· Edit your work for clarity and brevity
· Fix stubborn punctuation mistakes
· Persuade audiences to act on your central message
Even the most novice writers will leave prepared to craft engaging and concise copy. Register today—or refer a colleague who wants to add writing to their list of skills!
These are strange times for those in the news business, as public trust and confidence in the news media have eroded.
By a measure of their own assessment, “journalists perceive they are now struggling to maintain the public’s trust.” Moreover, “91 percent of journalists believe that the media is somewhat or much less trusted than they were three years ago.”
That’s according to the 2017 State of the Media Report by Cision, which surveyed some 1,500 journalists in the U.S. and Canada. This report is an annual event, and the vast majority of respondents were affiliated with traditional media outlets.
The Cision report says the findings align with the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer. That study found “the general population’s trust in all four key institutions—business, government, NGOs, and media—has declined broadly.”
In reviewing the State of the Media report, we noted several key factors for PR and corporate communications, including the following:
1. Getting it right matters more than getting it first.
For a long time being the first outlet to report a story mattered more than anything else. Today that’s just not the case, as 92 percent of respondents said getting the facts right mattered most.
Few, if any, news outlets can compete with the instantaneity of Twitter for breaking news, and the risk of spreading misinformation is far too great to try to keep up. PR pros, to the extent that credible internal experts can help a reporter and their audience, can break down and process an emerging issue. This affords you time for a more thoughtful response.
A pitch is certainly one way of getting the word out, but email inboxes are crowded. Owned media channels, such as corporate blogging, are excellent alternatives. Good content earns your company a spot in the search index, which reporters do check for sources. In addition, the public nature of blogging means your organization stands behind those words, which matters in attributing sources.
2. Email is still the preferred pitching channel.
Most reporters prefer that PR pitching or outreach is conducted by email, rather than by phone or through social media. The Cision survey found that “92 percent of journalists and influencers prefer email pitches.”
Reporters have preferred email for many years because phone calls often disrupt their workflow. However, you can and should pick up the phone when you have something urgent or specific, but be considerate; the journalist you’re phoning could be on deadline.
Remember though: Good ideas usually supersede the means of conveyance.
3. A good reputation helps sell a story.
According to the survey, “more than half of respondents said displaying knowledge of past work, interests and beats is what drove an influencer or journalist to pursue a story.” Often this means that a reporter wants evidence of previous media citations or historical body of work.
In other words, journalists want credible sources with a proven record of public trust. This is a good case for contributing content to reputable trade publications or helping an expert build a body of work on the corporate blog or another owned media channel.
The work has to be solid, which requires proper and diligent attribution of research statistics and clear disclosure of conflicts.
As the saying goes, nobody watches the media like the media.
In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Renwick Congdon from 
We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, 
There’s a lot of “crap” to wade through when searching for a home.
