There's No Place for Product Love in Social

Prior to launching Strategic Communications Group (Strategic), I worked for a marketing, advertising and public relations agency that did a fair amount of business in the residential real estate market.  The Northern Virginia division of Pulte Homes was one of the clients I supported.

Upon standing up my own consultancy much of my day was filled with business development outreach to attract an initial set of clients.  To say I leaned towards the aggressive in my sales tactics would be an understatement.

One of my mis-steps was tearing out of the newspaper a print advertisement from Pulte Homes' Maryland group and sending it to their marketing director with a handwritten note that explained why it was poorly executed.

What came back was my handwritten note with a sticky attached from the marketing director that curtly suggested I refrain from commenting on their advertisements without an understanding of the company's strategy.  Good point.

Well...I suspect I may be reliving that mistake with this blog post.

Today, I came across a group on LinkedIn entitled "We Love Iridium Satellite Phones."  This is an example of how NOT to engage in social media.  The gang at Iridium is using LinkedIn as a platform to connect with key audiences.  That's good.

Yet, the title of their group is too self-promotional, rather than thought leadership, trend or topic oriented.  While this may work in a consumer environment, in business-to-business and public sector marketing this is inappropriate because of the reticence customers, partners and influencers appropriately display in any activity that promotes a particular vendor.

This is why convincing an enterprise or government agency customer to participate in a press release or media interview is so challenging.

It's encouraging to see a successful company like Iridium step into social media.  They just need to do so in a way that is more sensitive to the unique requirements of this emerging channel.

Exploding Satellites, Rapid Response

When an Iridium communications satellite slammed into a Russian one at 22,000 miles per hour it forced one company into crisis mode, while creating a unique public relations opportunity for another, unrelated firm.

The spectacular collision on Tuesday, February 10th nearly 500 miles above the Earth created a debris cloud that presents a remote threat to other satellites, as well as the international space station.
Although its satellite phone service will only be moderately affected for a brief period of time, Iridium’s communications team moved quickly, issuing a corporate statement and making top executives available for comment. (Image of Iridium satellite courtesy of www.spaceref.com.)

The communications leadership at Integral Systems moved just as rapidly. A provider of satellite command and control systems for commercial and government customers, Integral was in a unique position to provide journalists with an understanding of why the accident occurred and its potential implications.

The company’s public relations team reached out to a number of business journalists who had been assigned to cover the story. (Full disclosure, Integral has been a Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) client for nearly a decade.)

The resulting editorial in respected media outlets like the Washington Post and Associated Press further solidified Integral’s leadership in the market.

Integral’s rapid response media outreach proved successful because the company adhered to a number of important best practices, including:

1. Focus on how you can address the “why” when calling on journalists. The purpose of the outreach is to serve as a valuable resource for reporters, rather than hyping your company and its products.

2. Have a knowledgeable and engaging spokesperson available based on tight reporter deadlines. In Integral’s campaign, it was CEO John Higginbotham who made speaking with journalists a priority.

3. Understand your place in the article. It may just be a quote at the end of the story. That’s fine. This is high-value visibility, plus serving as a quality resource to a journalist on deadline cultivates a relationship.