0 Items // Checkout // My Account

Blog

Business Evolution: Natural Selection Favors Patience and Self-Awareness

By Kenny Caldwell @ May 16, 2013
Tags: cicadas, core strengths

 

Ok, I’ll admit it, up until about a week ago I didn’t know what a cicada (pronounced sih-KAY-duh) was. I really mean it; I had no clue. I recently read an article about cicadas by Carl Zimmer in The New York Times that fascinated me. These large, extremely ugly insects interested me because of their abnormally long life span (at least for an insect). This group of cicadas (also known as Brood II) hatched 17 years ago! Until this year I had no idea there was an insect on the face of the planet that could survive this long. Once hatched, they promptly go underground to live off of fluid from tree roots. This spring they’ll emerge, mate and die; then the cycle starts again. To quote Zimmer, “Their time in the sun is short, but their 17-year life span makes them the longest-lived insects known.”
 
One thing I found particularly interesting is that the brood’s survival is rooted in its ability to stick to its strengths in order to survive and thrive. Each member of the group has to avoid the temptation to come above ground before the appropriate time. If a straggler ventures out, it’s game over. From the article:
 
“What makes this emergence truly remarkable, however, is how long it’s been in the making. This month’s army of periodical cicadas was born in 1996.
 
In any given species, the pace of life evolves. Natural selection is constantly shaping its genes, adapting it to its environment. How long a species lives and how much of that life it takes to reach adulthood are evolving just like every other trait.
 
For periodical cicadas, evolution favors growing up in sync. They can find protection from ravenous birds in huge numbers. There simply aren’t enough birds at any moment to eat a few billion cicadas at once.
 
This strategy has worked so well, in fact, that cicadas have lost their other defenses. They even fly sluggishly. When errant cicadas emerge in the wrong year, they are quickly eradicated by birds — along with their errant genes.”
 
So, how does all of this relate to business? You need to know yourself. By this I mean know your strengths and weaknesses and understand who you truly are and what you stand for. If you’re having great success with something don’t attempt to reinvent yourself and exit your element. I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t be looking for ways to improve yourself and your business, because you should. I’m saying you should never forget who you are and what caused your business to be successful in the first place. Don’t innovate at the expense of current successes.
 
Too many companies get the “me too” attitude and constantly worry about what the competition is doing. Everyone has to be aware of competition and look forward. It’s a good thing to have a five-year type plan in place but avoid the temptation to find the newest trend and continually jump on just because said trend exists. If you fight against your biology you will lose. Know your strengths and always strive to improve, just make sure your forward-looking goals don’t distract you too much from what’s working right now. Stick to your strengths, survive and thrive.  

Forbes Post -- Google Glass: Just For Men?

By Cheryl Snapp Conner @ May 15, 2013
Tags: entrepreneurs, google, marketing, USA Today

 

This article originally appeared in my regular column at Forbes.com:
 
Friend and fellow communications writer Sarah Buhr just raised an interesting point this morning in aSarah Buhr  guest OpEd for USA Today: Hey, Google Glass—Where the ladies at?
She makes a good point. While the marketing videos from Google show a fairly diverse set of “explorers,” the first wave of recipients are decidedly male.
In a statement to ABC News, Google said the following: “Glass is designed by and for people from all walks of life and we hope everyone will have a chance to enjoy it down the road. Our next step is to make Glass available to participants of our #ifihadglass initiative, which was designed to bring a diverse group of people into the Explorer program.”
Google wouldn’t comment on the ratio of women to men in the first round of distributions, but ABC notes that while the #ifihadglass initiative opened up Glass availability to the public, the current wave of glasses are going to those who signed up at the Google I/O developer conference last year, and not surprisingly, the entrepreneurial world continues to hold far fewer women programmers and product developers than men.
Are you listening, women entrepreneurs? Here’s your opportunity: Google’s contest allows anyone to submit their ideas of what they would do with the glasses. Also, Google is planning to hold a women in technology gathering at its upcoming Google I/O Developer Conference next week, May 15-17, in San Francisco.
I love Sarah’s article. I sense more than a few entrepreneurial opportunities here: in her OpEd, marketing professional Elizabeth Ziegler Murphy sheepishly admitted she would never wear GoogleGlasses because they were too unattractive. “Why couldn’t they put them in a frame style people actually wear?”
Salt Lake’s own Cydni Tetro, Entrepreneur in Residence for Disney and Executive Director of the Women Tech Council, will be demonstrating one of the prize Google Glasses at the Council’s May 23 networking event.
On a Facebook post, Tetro mirrored Murphy’s statement as well: “When will these be available in designs from Kate Spade?”
Are you listening ladies? Thank you, Sarah, for getting the dialogue rolling, and let’s hear it, Google, for women entrepreneurs. 

Creating Good Conent is a Full-Time Job

By Clayton Blackham @ May 14, 2013
Good Content isn’t created on a whim…unless you’re Oreo
Businesses hear about content successes all the time and think after seeing it done, “I could do that.” What isn’t seen is the work and thought that goes into content creation on the back end.  I joked in the headline about Oreo, and while they created that on a whim, they had 15 people on staff during the Superbowl to capitalize on things that were happening in the game.
 
Content creation is like a baseball game. You can’t hit a homerun all the time.  Sometimes you score by getting a single here or a double there. Sometimes you don’t get on base, but move the runners.  However, after doing that is when the runs come in and it makes the sometimes painfully slow game pay off.
 
Good content takes a while to master. It’s not always an overnight success, and that’s one reason I think some companies are skeptical to commit to it. They fear that they won’t succeed, and often these companies don’t have a lot of wiggle room for error due to tight cash flow.
 
If you are a company that really is interested in creating good content, here are some things to help you get started:
 
Get the execs onboard
The best content creation companiest are those that have upper management sold on the idea. This won’t go anywhere if your CEO is questioning what you are doing all the time and wondering what it is worth. It will end quickly.
 
Hire a full-time person to lead the efforts
While this might be taking money out of my agency’s pocket, I do realize that having someone internally to lead the charge will make the process go smoothly. I’ve worked with companies that had us leading it and others that had someone else that directed it with our assistance. For me personally, it ran better when it was someone’s dedicated job was to do that.
 
Create a content calendar
What tends to happen with companies that I’ve worked with in the past that assign the receptionist to “handle” their content is that they are often bogged down with work and post something thoughtless and sloppy just to mark it off their to-do list.  The idea behind a content calendar is to get people thinking not about just tomorrow, but 6-8 weeks down the road and how they might hijack stories that other media outlets are writing.
 
If you are interested in content creation, then really you need to cannonball into it. It’s more detrimental to start and stop than to not create content at all. We’ve all had that friend that says he or she is going to lose weight. They start and stop over and over, and the next time they bring it up you roll your eyes and think “not again.” The same goes for your audience when they see you do this with your content.

5 Marketing Principles Bo Jackson Would Use

By Adam Torkildson @ May 2, 2013
bo knowsBo Jackson had nearly achieved superhero status by the end of his first stint in professional sports. Many of us will remember some of his more amazing feats (a 4.1-second 40-yard dash, jumping over the entire line of scrimmage in the Auburn/Alabama game, running up the back wall in a baseball game while playing for the KC Royals).
 
His exploits were all over the news. Every day, it seemed, for approximately 2 years.
 
Bo Didn’t Forget His Roots
Yet with all his fame, fortune, and skills, Bo Jackson was one of the most soft-spoken, humble, trustworthy players of his time. Many of his peers succumbed to drugs and other vices— it was almost expected because of their status.
 
Bo never forgot his humble beginnings in a small town with nine brothers and sisters in a 3-room, 700-sqare-foot home in Alabama.
 
What Does Bo Teach Us About Marketing?
There are 5 principles that Bo lived by in his life, whether on the field or off. If you took away Bo’s natural physical talents and speed, you’d be left with someone you’d still want to have come over and spend time around your family, friends, and loved ones.
 
Which brings up a question…
 
If you took away all the pretty pictures, sweet words, and amazing deals surrounding your marketing presence, what would be left? 
 
Hopefully not a ‘Blank Slate’
 
To achieve the same level of success in your online marketing as Bo did in professional sports, you must rely on the principles of honesty, integrity, humility, trust, and agility.
 
Honesty Is About Being Proactive But Knowing Your Limits
Even if it hurts, always being honest about your product/service has proven to be the best policy in any situation, crisis or otherwise.
 
Bo Jackson left all professional sports when he was 28, after a hip replacement. He played for a little while as the only professional athlete ever with a synthetic hip. But he knew when to call it quits, so he did.
 
On your next social media campaign, if you don’t or can’t put forth 100% of the effort it takes to research, do outreach, and publicize your campaign, you can’t and shouldn’t expect to see a huge return.
 
Marketing Tip: Be the company that dispels the biggest myth in your industry, and address it head on.
 
Integrity Takes Communication Skills
Walk to the beat of your own drum, rather than copying other people. This has proven to be a time-tested technique for successful social media campaigns. And for Bo Jackson.
 
Bo was the 1986 #1 draft pick in the NFL. But he decided not to play because he didn't want to support a team that treated him like crap. Here’s the backstory:
 
Blackmailing never works….
 
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed Bo as the #1 draft pick in the NFL. But the only reason he was even in the NFL draft in the first place was through blackmail.
 
The Buccs told Bo that they could fly him out to their practice facility, while he was still an NCAA player, and there would be no repercussions. That was a bold faced lie.
 
And the Buccs knew that! They also knew that Bo would get suspended from playing NCAA sports. And would therefore have to take any option available to him if he wanted to play professionally.
 
Thus, he put his hat in the ring in the NFL draft. And the Buccs signed him. But he wouldn’t play a single game for them.
 
The key to having integrity is communicating the correct and proper message for the situation. No matter the cost to your bottom line or follower count. Stay focused on your core brand message. Bad things happen when you don’t.
 
Marketing Tip: You might be tempted to use a titillating, envelope-pushing, or slanderous message for your next marketing campaign. Don’t. You’re not Victoria’s Secret or Playboy.
Bo Knows Humility and Conversion Optimization
 
You might remember the big Nike cross trainer campaign “Bo Knows.” It featured star athletes like Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretsky, etc., all saying ‘Bo Knows.’
 
The thrust of the campaign was that Bo Jackson was a cross-sport athlete and was very good at anything he chose to do.
 
According to an interview with Bo in the documentary 30 for 30: You Don’t Know Bo, Jackson claimed “Nike had a 1,000% increase in sales on the cross trainer shoe.”
 
Fame and notoriety didn’t so much as make him bat an eye. He accepted the fact that people looked up to him, and he gave them his true self.
 
He never tooted his own horn.
 
Once when asked what a few of his hobbies were, he claimed one was “having as short a press conference as possible.”
 
From a conversion optimization standpoint, it’s actually a fairly accepted practice to put your awards and other trust symbols near or close by your main call to action.
 
But often you’ll see them greyed out and less prominent than they could be. InsideSales.com does a great job of this; and I know they have tested the placement, color, and size of those elements extensively because I know the president, Ken Krogue, personally.
 
Conversion Optimization Tip: Put your awards, trust symbols, and important achievements or testimonials by your main call to action. But grey them out. Make them understated, not overstated.
 
Bo Knows Trust, Authority and Super Heroes
If you say you're going to do something, do it. If you mess up something, be the first to admit it.
 
Bo Jackson was characterized in a Saturday morning cartoon as a huge crime fighting man with super human strength. That’s how people perceived him in real life.
 
His coaches and teammates often said from the sidelines, “If Bo Jackson was coming on the field, you did not go to the urinal or leave the field for any reason. You just knew something amazing was going to happen.”  
 
Your brand may never get to that level of authority. But you can help yourself along by being consistently on message, with 100% factual data, and making interesting points when you do publish content.
 
Blogging Tip: Quality is better than quantity if you want to be a trusted thought leader in your space.  Write 1,000 words of well researched, documented, visually rich content.
 
Bo Knows Agility
 Bo was blessed with natural speed and hand-eye coordination. This isn't something you can necessarily learn; but if you're prepared to act quickly (like the Oreo tweet ‘you can still dunk in the dark’ during the XLVII Super bowl), even those of us without the innate abilities Bo had can see amazing results.
 
I don’t know how to teach agility, I’ll be the first to admit. But preparation is at least 50% of the secret formula.
 
We mortals need preparation time to be our best, whether as a major brand or a small startup.
 
Social Media Tip: Expect to spend at least 2 hours of preparation time for every 1 minute of potential national publicity for your social media campaign. You want 15 minutes? Do the math.
 
In the wake of the 2013 NFL draft, remember Bo Jackson’s qualities as an individual and try to bring those same qualities into your own marketing.
 
About the Author: Adam Torkildson grew up idolizing sports stars such as Bo Jackson, Michael Jordan, Muhammed Ali and others. Their strength and character helped Adam develop his own personal motivation for life. Torkildson is currently a Senior Associate at Snapp Conner PR,
He is on Linkedin and Google +

Forbes Post -- Reputation Management: When Your Business is Disparaged Online

By Cheryl Snapp Conner @ May 1, 2013
Tags: brand, reputation management, social media
The following post originally appeared in my regular column at Forbes.com:
 
Yes, we’ve come that far. The theme of internet reputation has even spawned a genre of jokes. Forbes’ Susan Adams has aligned the steps to take to protect your personal reputation online.
 
But what do you do when it’s your company that has gotten slimed and maligned unfairly in the press or on one of the prevalent consumer feedback sites such as PissedConsumer.com? Do you fix it? Can you fix it? Do you need to hire a pro?
 
It’s interesting that “Reputation management” has evolved from a catchphrase to a science to an actual industry. Has anybody run a search on reputation management agencies lately? Prepare to be buried—you’ll get at least 25 pages of Google results.
 
 
The industry divides its clients into two categories: 1) Proactive – the people and companies such as celebrities and major consumer brands who are actively seeking reputation protection, and 2)Reactive – the folks who are in the agency’s office because they’ve just been smacked with an incident.
 
(While the crisis firms may smile to see the Paula Broadwells and Monica Lewinskys of the world at their doorstep, as someone who’s appeared on the air in follow up to our clients’ occasional PR [mis]adventures, I can assure you it is not for the faint of heart. )
 
As any brand that’s been dragged through the internet mud can attest, it’s a dirty business, and there are far too many businesses affected to count.
 
As public-facing feedback forums gain increasing audience and traction, there’s an important lesson emerging: Consumer forums can be your company’s best friend or worst enemy. If you’re not proactively monitoring the tide of opinion, it may be too late to save a sinking brand.
 
While reputation management as an industry may not yet have de facto appreciation, the issues it addresses can instantly command your respect. Even if your business is too small for a reputation management department or program, the principle behind the science is one every company ought to master: Communicate.
 
When an issue happens, and ideally well before an issue can happen, your business should make the effort to communicate accurately, often and well. With this goal in mind, here are six tips to help you manage your venture’s reputation online:
 


Exaggerations, Hyperbole and Embellishments Oh My!

By Jeremy Kartchner @ Apr 30, 2013
Last weekend I took my son fishing with two of my brothers-in-laws. One of the brothers-in-laws family has a cabin up Logan Canyon in Northern Utah where we fished the Logan River. When my son caught his first fish of the weekend and we were releasing it, he reminded me of the first time I took him fishing and the first fish he ever caught.
 
On that first fishing trip we stopped to take pictures with his first catch. After we took pictures I casually told my son to, “toss the fish back in the lake.” He was young, probably about five years old at the time and had just started playing little league baseball. He did exactly what I said. He wound up and tossed the fish into the lake. The poor fish probably flew about 30 feet or so before splashing back into the lake.
 
I turned and laughed as did my brother who was with us. My son didn’t understand what was so funny and I explained to him that I was laughing because he had done exactly what I told him to do. I don’t think he quite got it at that time but now that he’s older he realizes why my brother and I laughed.
 
I had a similar, more recent experience a couple of weeks ago. I live in Utah where Spring is always a big tease. One day it’s sunny and warm and the next day it snows. After one recent April weekend of nice weather, we started the week off with a rainy and wet Monday. I didn’t realize just how rainy until I ran an errand with a colleague. On the way to the car we were both surprised at how rainy it was and how wet we both were in the short distance it took us to walk form the building to the car.
 
After running the errand, on the way back into the office, I had my head down to shield my eyes from the rain. As we climbed the stairs leading up to the office, I somehow missed the last stair and fell face forward on the wet, cold pavement. My colleague heard the noise I made as I fell. Other than my pride, I wasn’t hurt. My pants were wetter than I liked and I ripped the plastic bag I had in my hands. My colleague asked if I was ok and I told him that I was fine.
 
Later in the day, I called and talked to my wife and was telling her about my fall. I’m prone to exaggeration and I jokingly described my tumble as a face plant. My wife was immediately concerned. I’m sure in her mind, based on my word choice she had an image of me falling and my face bouncing off the pavement. Naturally, based on my exaggeration she was concerned that I was ok. I told her I didn’t really fall flat on my face and as I told her about what happened she was able to laugh at my clumsiness. 
 
Later that night as I walked in the house, my seven-year-old daughter ran up and asked me if my face was ok. I said yes and was waiting for the punch line. Turns out there wasn’t a punch line, she was just concerned that I had fallen on my face.
 
I explained that I was able to put my hands down as I fell and caught myself before smacking my face on the pavement. She seemed relieved and happy that I wasn’t hurt.
 
After explaining this to my seven-year-old, I proceeded to walk into the kitchen and my five-year old daughter asked me the same question, “Is your face ok?” I explained to her too that I was ok and didn’t actually hit my face on the ground when I fell. My five-year-old also expressed relief that I wasn’t hurt.
 
My ten-year-old son was doing homework in another room and when he finished walked into the kitchen and the first thing he asked was if my face was ok. I was touched by the concern from my three kids and also more aware than ever before that it pays to be accurate. My joke about face planting while walking up the steps caused needless concern and worry to my family. Often jokes like that or other forms of exaggeration and or hyperbole that seem commonplace in regular vernacular can regularly be misinterpreted and cause unnecessary concern or confusion.
 
A good rule of thumb is to remember to be accurate in the way you answer questions or describe something. You never know when somebody might take what you say literally. In the case of dealing with the media it’s especially important to avoid hyperbole, absolutes and exaggerations. In describing my family’s reaction to my fall, if I describe it as, “They asked me a million times if my face was ok” may seem innocent to most people but may also be interpreted as fact by someone else. In these cases where somebody understands my statement as fact, it could come back to prove embarrassing or may make me look even more foolish.
In my case, my fall, if described accurately, would have sounded more like, “I wasn’t paying attention as I walked up the stairs and was in too big a hurry to get inside and out of the rain. In my rush to get inside, I missed the top step and fell forward. As I fell, I was able to extend my arms and catch myself before falling on my face. I was ok, other than being embarrassed by my lack of grace.”
 
This description is accurate and leaves less chance of being misconstrued or misunderstood. Had I provided this description of my tumble it would have saved my family worry and perhaps provided them all with a laugh at my expense.
 
 

Cheryl Snapp Conner to Participate in Sales Superstarts Panel at The Great Salt Lake Business Expo

By Clayton Blackham @ Apr 29, 2013

The panel is May 1st at Noon.
The show is May 1-2, 11 a.m. till 5 p.m. at the Southtown Expo Center
Stop by the Snapp Conner PR booth (H22) to check your PR Scorecard, spin the prize wheel and enter to win an iPad Mini!
 
Panel Description:
You know the saying. "Nothing happens until someone sells something." So what's more important to great business than great sales?
 
For the best sales training and information you've got to check out the "Sales Superstars Panel" featuring the very best around, such as Ken Krogue from InsideSales.com, Brandon Fugal from Coldwell Banker Commercial, Dallas Robinson, entrepreneur and founder of Kisstixx, Brad Jensen of Griffin Hill, Cheryl Conner, founder of Snapp Conner and Dylan Ferguson of SalesForce.com. If you know these people you know you want to be there. It's all moderated by our very own Tyler Dabo of Salt Lake's favorite business magazine, Utah Business. It's the perfect way to train the whole sales staff or find that hidden gem that moves your business sales forward.
The keynote begins at noon in the main Keynote Area inside the show. Admission if free with Expo admission
 
For details click here Great Salt Lake Business Expo

You Don't Want To Be This Guy

By Jeremy Kartchner @ Apr 23, 2013
With his first two words on his first newscast with Bismark, North Dakota’s NBC affiliate, A.J. Clemente’s job ended and his career will probably never be the same. Rarely does a first day on the job end so quickly or go so badly, so quickly. It’s just that Clemente’s first two words happened to be two four letter words he uttered while his microphone was on and broadcasting to the entire state of North Dakota.
 
In PR we do a lot of what we call media training with new clients and on an ongoing basis with existing clients as we secure interview opportunities for them. The purpose of media training is to prepare clients for each interview so they’re prepared to make the most of each interview opportunity. One of the things we always tell clients is to be aware of what you say, who you say it to and, if there is a microphone, to always assume that it’s on.
 
Clemente should have known better, but he’s not the first, and I’m pretty sure he won’t be the last person to say something they didn’t want to into a live mic. A couple years ago CNN anchor Kyra Phillips left her microphone on during a live speech by former President Bush and went to the ladies room and began gossiping. The gossip in the ladies room was aired over President Bush’s speech and only ended when a producer alerted her to the fact that her conversation was being aired live on national television.
 
There are a number of other instances where people have been recorded saying things they shouldn’t have or didn’t want the entire world knowing about. Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney famously said that 47 percent of Americans are dependent on government, see themselves as victims and believe the government has a responsibility to care for them. Many feel that this drastically damaged Romney’s bid to be President.
 
In the PR world things have changed dramatically. The media doesn’t run around with a media credential around their necks or, as in the old cartoons, with a hat with a paper sticking out of it that says “press.”   With social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogs anybody can be media and break news. Smart phones that enable people to take photos or record video and upload it to these social media platforms have made it even easier for somebody to get caught saying something they don’t want to.
 
To avoid these mishaps I recommend the following:
 
1.     If a microphone or recording device is nearby, always assume it’s on. It’s not worth the risk of saying something and having it amplified via microphone to a room full of people or to a television audience of potentially millions. Wait until you no longer have a microphone attached to or in front of you or until you know who is in the room and that they don’t have any recording devices.
2.     Only say what you want the public to know. If you don’t want anybody to know something then don’t say it. You never know who’s listening in so be cautious about what you say.
3.     Ask who you’re talking to. If somebody approaches you and starts asking a lot of questions, ask them who they are and why they’re asking these questions. You should always know who you’re talking to and why they want the information they’re asking for and how they intend to use the information.
4.     Be careful what you say and where you say it. If you’re on a plane or at a tradeshow, be aware of your surroundings. If you’re on a plane and say something in confidence and another passenger hears it, they can publish or share that information with anybody they want.
 
In any circumstance, not just in a media interview you should be aware of who you’re talking to, what you’re saying and whether or not a microphone or any recording device is on. If you don’t want something to be repeated or held against you, don’t say it.   
 
Remember that anything you say can and will be used against you. If you don’t believe me, watch the links on the examples above.
 
 
 

Provo, UT Becomes Third U.S. Google Fiber City

By A. Cory Maloy @ Apr 17, 2013
Tags: Google, Provo, UV Chamber
 
John Curtis, Mayor of Provo, Utah, announced Provo will become the third U.S. city to get Google Fiber – behind Kansas City, Kan. and Mo. and Austin, Tx. Provo residents will begin receiving the service by the end of 2013.
 
During the press conference, Curtis said working on the agreement to bring Google Fiber to Provo was one of his career-crowning moments and is part of his vision for Provo to lead in innovation.
 
Google Fiber is an Internet based media delivery system (that’s fancy talk for Internet/cable provider). It’s touted as a ‘different kind of Internet’ with one gigabit upload and download speed and provides a channel TV lineup with HDTV, Internet service and a host of other services including Internet storage.
 
Following the Provo City/Google Fiber press conference, the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce chimed in with it’s own statement in support of the move.
 
“While Google Fiber understandably has chosen not to divulge the precise figures of its anticipated investment in Provo’s network, our quick, ‘back of the envelope’ valuation reveals just how significant the company’s investment in our community could be,” said Val Hale, president and CEO of Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce, in the statement.
 
The statement clarifies some of the questions associated with the rollout of Google Fiber in Provo.
 
  • Google Fiber has committed to finishing the network build out of the existing iProvo fiber network to every home in Provo.
  • Currently there are 35,000 homes in Provo and only 9,000 are currently connected.
  • It costs $600 to $1,000 to connect each home.
  • To connect the additional 26,000 homes (figuring an average $700 per home) will be an $18 million infrastructure investment.
  • There will be a $30 activation fee, but basic Internet will be free for seven years. Additional services such as higher bandwidth, TV service etc. will have subscription fees.
  • The approximate investment Google Fiber will make in Provo is about $50 million.
 
Author: A. Cory Maloy |

Forbes Post - Report: How Grammar Influences Your Income

By Cheryl Snapp Conner @ Mar 14, 2013
Tags: grammar, pr

This article originally appeared in my column at Forbes.com:
 
I’ve talked about the costs of poor grammar before. There are no good excuses. The world has two billion English writers, according to Brad Hoover, CEO of Top Ten Reviews #1 ranked grammar software program, Grammarly. We can all attest, however, that it’s a far lower percentage of English speaking executives who communicate well.
 
But this week I came across a report that caught my eye (both of them, in fact): Grammarly recently completed a study of the LinkedIn profiles of 100 native English-speakers in the consumer packaged goods industry to see what they could learn. Among the 100 professionals examined, each had worked for no more than three employers over the first 10 years of his or her career. Half were promoted to director level or above within those 10 years, and the other half were not.
 
Here’s what they found:
  • Professionals with fewer grammar errors in their profiles had achieved higher positions.The profiles of those who’d failed to achieve director-level positions within the first 10 years of their careers made 2.5 times as many grammar mistakes as their director-level colleagues.
  • Fewer grammar errors correlate with more promotions. Professionals with 6-9 promotions made 45% fewer grammatical errors than those who’d been promoted 1-4 times.
 
Clearly this report was an informal study with a relatively small sample size. It is also unclear whether the individuals who progressed came into their careers with strong language skills or if they acquired progressively better skills as they rose. But the report clearly supports the premise that good grammar is a fairly accurate predictor of professional success.
 
Kyle Wiens, the CEO of iFixit, wrote earlier this yearthat he refuses to hire anyone with bad grammar. I agree with him (albeit my own company is a public relations business, so it’s fair to say that communicating effectively is the core of our living).
 
Wiens maintains that grammar skills typically indicate positive workplace traits. According to Hoover, these may include:
 

Forbes Post: The '8 Great' Challenges Every Business Faces (And How To Master Them All)

By Cheryl Snapp Conner @ Mar 6, 2013
Tags: business challenges, consulting, small business

The following article originally appeared in my column at Forbes.com.
 
This week I interviewed a personal mentor of mine – his name is Neal Jenson, Managing Director of consulting firm Qazztek, in Salt Lake City. He has one of the most diverse business backgrounds I’ve known, ranging from stints with Fortune 500 firms includingCitigroup and Bank of America to start up firms looking to bootstrap or seeking their start through Angel funding or SBA loans.
 
He’s also one of the only people I know closely who actually has two masters degrees – an MBA from Brigham Young University (my own alma mater) and a masters of science in Information Service from the  University of Utah. In addition to acting as a mentor, Neal is also a friend—his son is the husband of our daughter, which makes us co-grandparents to two extremely adorable little boys, Riley and Peyton (our next generation of business leadership is in very good hands).
From his client base of all sizes, I asked Neal to narrow down for me the greatest challenges he sees for the businesses he counsels, as well as his thoughts on the ways to navigate each. Here are his responses.
 
First off, Neal notes that navigating a business is extra tricky these days.  The speed of economic and technological changes means that the right path yesterday may not work today and could be a disaster by tomorrow. Solving these dynamic problems is what separates those who excel from the companies who are closing the doors.
 
While Neal’s experience base ranges from Fortune 500 CEOs to small business entrepreneurs, he notes in our first interview a set of challenges that are common to both:
 
1. Integrity. Business has never faced the type of moral challenges that it faces in today’s global economy.  Everyone is struggling to be more successful, to make the next quarterly earnings estimate, to keep their job, to earn a big bonus, or to compete effectively.  The temptation to cut corners, omit information, and do whatever it takes to get ahead occur every day. Many business employees and executives succumb.  Sadly, the theme becomes highly infectious and soon people actually start to feel like lying a little, or stealing a little, or deceiving others, is just “a part of business”.  These practices erode the trust that needs to exist between employers and employees, between business partners, between executives and shareholders.  Without trust, the business will not be able to compete effectively and it will eventually fail.
 
2. Cash, Borrowing, and Resource Management.  Cash is King!  We’ve all heard this maxim and it is more true today than ever before.  A healthy profit may look nice on your financial statements, but if capital expenditures or receivable collections are draining your cash, you won’t be able to stay in business for long.  Too often executives and small business owners fail to focus enough on cash flow generation.  In order to head off this problem, businesses must either be adequately capitalized and must shore up cash reserves to meet all obligations as they are needed and to handle downturns and emergencies that may arise. Cash management becomes even more important during recessionary times when cash is flowing more slowly into the business and creditors are less lenient in extending time to pay.  For small businesses, handling business accounting and taxes may be within the capabilities of the business owners, but professional help is usually a good idea. The complexity of a business’ books go up with each client and employee, so getting assistance with managing cash and the bookkeeping can allow you to excel when others are calling it quits. Cash flow challenges are exacerbated by the lending climate, particularly for small businesses. Bankers are unlikely to be more liberal in their lending policies any time soon.
 
 

Forbes Post - 5 Rules: How to Survive (and Thrive) in the Chaos of Current Media

By Cheryl Snapp Conner @ Feb 25, 2013
Tags: communication, media, new media

The following article originally appeared in my regular column at Forbes.com:
 
Today’s journalism industry is in “seismic turmoil,” says Forbes editor Tom Post. Forbes’ Lewis Dvorkin is commiserating what we’ve been noting as well. Very few of the star journalists (the ones who made the lives of PR people havoc during the last two decades) have made the transition to digital media.
 
So what are we left with? Fewer true journalists, with far too many demands on their hands. In some cases, the results are laughable. Last week I noticed three of our agency staff amusing themselves with the headline attempts of one of our local news organizations. The station was reporting a tragic story (an SUV whose driver had cleared the ice from only a small patch of their windshield hit a man on a bike next to a train track, pushing him into the path of the train, where he died).
 
The story was a horrific occurrence, but the site’s attempts at a headline were downright comical:
 
Attempt #1:
Man hit by vehicle then Frontrunner dies (Who died? The train, apparently.)
Attempt #2:
Man hit by vehicle, Frontrunner dies (Say what? Someone in the copy room has spotted the problem and attempted a fix. But according to the new headline, it’s still the train that has met its demise.)
Attempt #3:
Provo man dies after being hit by vehicle, then Frontrunner (Finally. Still a poor headline, but hours later, readers can at least deduce what has actually occurred.) 
 
What does this mean? As a society and as consumers we still need news, we need analysis, and we need company and product reviews. We have many more sources (far too many sources) of information. But we have progressively fewer sources we can actually trust, when even the few remaining journalists at our news organizations, purposely or not, are prone to lead us astray.
 
We must find and become our own reporters. I smiled at a recent press conference we hosted to see two of my agency partners interviewing, filming and delivering the edited video package to the local stations who, despite their great intentions, had too little resource to peel away to get to the actual event (when the morning’s one available camera guy gets the flu, they are basically stuck.)
 
I was also stunned to hear Sam Whitmore, former editor in chief of eWeek (now head of Sam Whitmore Media Survey) report that consumers are so desperate for comparative information about technology products they are willing and grateful to accept that information from the vendors themselves (so long as the source of the testing and the information is disclosed). For example my great friend Tom Henderson, in Indianapolis, runs a technology testing facility that will do reviews for hire. He is meticulous for thorough testing and an agreement that he will call the results exactly as he sees them, for better or worse. There is no way for a client to “buy” a favorable review. Clients can, however, choose not to release or publish his findings. If they do choose to issue, Tom’s ExtremeLabs is listed as the source, and it is clearly noted that the vendor hired him to conduct the review.
 
 

Apiary Fund - Can Personality Traits Help Make You a Better Investor?

By A. Cory Maloy @ Jan 23, 2013
Today I participated in Apiary Fund’s new Investor Profile. The profile is a personality assessment tool designed to help investors recognize personal characteristics that may be beneficial or detrimental to their investment strategies. (Take the Investor Profile quiz here: http://www.theinvestorprofile.com)
 
After taking the profile quiz, I found I am an Analytical – Intuitive. The profile went on to tell me what my profile specifically signifies in relationship to my investment style and personality. In the result section of the profile, it said:

“You are easygoing, even-tempered and calm and you project a relaxed, confident air about yourself. These attributes reflect well in the trading markets because it allows you to approach the market in an objective manner even when the current market environment is changing quickly. Your even-tempered manner makes it easy to be persistent in the face of opposition, even when the markets are going against you. It helps you keep working and perfecting your skill to achieve higher levels of success. You don't allow stress to get to you and are very self-confident in your abilities.
 
“Personally, you are friendly, kind and cordial, and you don't intimidate others. People find it nearly impossible not to like you and often come to you with their problems because you genuinely like them and are willing to listen. Your warmth, sympathy, empathy, and understanding help in such situations to make suggestions in an indirect, inoffensive way. Although you are confident and carry yourself with poise, you also radiate a modesty that prevents you from appearing arrogant to others, and a gentleness that tempers your actions. The persistence that you apply to personal endeavors also applies to your relationships with others; when you want to be somebody's friend, you work at it until you make it happen.”
 
The profile went on to state, “Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics.”
 
The Investor Profile determines an investor’s personality through a 28 question easy to take quiz. Each investor receives a primary and secondary personality type that will help identify their overall profile.
 
The result combines two of the following four trading personality types:
 
  • Aggressive – Quick to enter a trade, but may exit quickly when a loss appears
  • Intuitive – Relies on emotional intuition to get in and out of trades
  • Analytical – Analyzes every possible variable before taking action
  • Methodical – Likely to trade on a system, not much regard to gains and losses
“There’s no such thing as a ‘bad profile’ for an investor,” said Shawn Lucas, CEO/Founder of Apiary Fund. “The Investor Profile simply identifies characteristics that each person should know about themselves before they invest. After the assessment the investor can see traits they may need to adjust and how they might respond to market changes.”
 
After getting the results of the Investor Profile, participants have the option to obtain the Investor Profile eBook by Apiary Fund’s CEO, Shawn Lucas. The eBook goes into more depth about each of the 16 possible profile personality types.
 
Author: A. Cory Maloy |

Forbes Post -- Communication's Biggest Secret: Knowing When To Keep Your Mouth Closed

By Cheryl Snapp Conner @ Jan 9, 2013
Tags: communication
This article originally appeared in my regular column at Forbes.com:
 
Sometimes, Silence is Golden
 
This is coming from someone who communicates for a living, and yes, it is true. I am here to tell you that the most important strategy of business communication, in my opinion, is the finely honed sense of when to not talk. Especially as a communicator, I can tell you (humbly, even) that the greatest business lessons I’ve learned have occurred during the times that my own mouth was shut.
 
Silence in the critical moments of a sales negotiations is a fairly widely known rule: He (or She) Who Speaks First, Loses. Fellow Forbes contributor Ken Krogue, of InsideSales, refers to this skill as The Paul Jarman Secret of Sales, in honor of a regional executive who uses the tactic exceptionally well.
 
Conversely, the inability to remain silent in negotiations can be deadly. For example, years ago, my partners and I were given 30 minutes to make our case in front of a senior executive. At the end of the presentation, my partner asked, “What would be your potential obstacles to hiring us?” We’ll never know what the CEO might have said, had he gotten a word in edgewise. The team member we’d brought along for experience filled the remaining air with praise for our company’s strengths. The prospective client was never given the opportunity to speak. Needless to say, we did not get the deal. (Nor did we ever take that associate into a sales discussion again.)
 
Silence is always golden when ego reigns:
1.  Many a deal has been lost when someone feels the need to brag about a deal that isn’t yet closed (thanks for the heads up–perhaps it’s not too late to step in and win that deal?) In fact this is the way I’ve actually won several significant accounts.
2.  Reputations have been tarnished when it’s just too tempting to blare your negative opinions of a competitor’s flaws. If you think good news travels fast, just see what this inopportune tactic will do.
 
 

"Extreme" Content Reuse is King

By Kelly Wanlass @ Jan 7, 2013
Tags: blog, content, marketing, PR, reuse, sales, video

 

As any marketing professional can appreciate, generating enough content for marketing, sales and PR initiatives is a huge challenge and can be time consuming, difficult and costly. As a result, I’ve tried to make it a goal to reuse any content I create in as many ways as possible. For example, if I’ve generated a case study (after weeks or even months working with the client to write and get approvals), the content is used online, handed out to potential clients, pitched to editors, included in speaker opportunity abstracts, included in contributed articles as quotes, etc.  
 
However, according to marketing professional Aaron Dun in his article on MarketingProfs.com, “Just reusing your content isn’t working anymore,” it’s time to take this content reuse up a few notches by realizing that “EVERYTHING is content.”
 
“Events are content, support calls are content, the storyboards that go into your new product animation are content,” Dun continues. “The brainstorming session on the whiteboard is content; the video of that brainstorming session is content.”  
 
So basically you can take one theme and reuse it in 8-10 ways. The whitepaper with 10 tips on implementing driver safety features, for example, can be turned into a conference presentation, a contributed article, a webinar, a sales document, an infographic, social media posts, a video, and on and on.
 
Here are Dun’s tips on a few easy ways to get started: 
•    Shift your mindset. Remember that “everything is content,” so you need to step back and see all of that content as it pours out of your walls.
•    Make sure you have a mission or a strategy for what you want that content to do for you. Create a mission statement or a vision for your content. What story do you want it to tell? And be sure to define how you will measure the success of your Extreme Reuse effort.
•    Break down the silos in your org and get all of your teams collaborating, no matter the ultimate content distribution channel. You will be amazed at how much content exists that you just aren’t taking advantage of.
•    Get your technology out of the way. If you can’t do anything on your corporate website, don’t have access to a blogging tool, or have some other roadblock, you need to fix it fast.
•    Map it all out. When you create your campaign plans and your content strategy, map out how you are going to go extreme, so you have it loaded in your plan up front.

How do you reuse your content? Who has the most “extreme” example? 

World's Top Google Searches of 2012

By Ryan Oaks @ Dec 27, 2012

Before I decided to major in public relations in college I was studying history to one day become a professor. I’ve always been fascinated by the things we can learn when we look back on the mistakes and successes of our ancestors.

I often wonder what future generations will think of us and what we accomplished during my lifetime. I’ve found that one of the easiest ways to find what we were interested in in a given year is to look at the most popular Google searches for the time period.
 
Here are the world’s 10 most searched items of 2012 according to Google’s Zeitgeist:
 
10. BBB12
 
It is definitely an interesting mix with celebrities, sports, video games, and tragic events taking up some of the top spots. Every year has its huge moments. I wonder what will captivate us in 2013.

Author: Ryan Oaks |

Seven 2013 New Year Resolutions to Avoid Your Personal Fiscal Cliff

By A. Cory Maloy @ Dec 26, 2012
One of our newest clients, Apiary Fund (www.apiaryfund.com), located down in Lindon, Utah, released its seven 2013 New Year resolutions to avoid your own personal fiscal cliff.
 
“It’s that time of the year when people begin making New Year resolutions,” said Shawn Lucas, Apiary Fund founder and CEO. “With all the talk about the “fiscal cliff” we thought it would be fun to provide some resolutions people can make to avoid their own personal fiscal cliff during 2013.”
 
  • Resolve to diversify your income. You can diversify your money by taking a small portion of your income and putting it to work for you in other investments. Doing so will put your money to work and give you additional forms of income in addition to your job earnings. Even $50 - $100 more per week in earned income can have a significant impact on your personal finance situation. It allows you to trade money for money instead of just time for money.
  • Resolve to use leverage. Like any industry that uses tools, leverage is the tool of choice in the financial world. Using small amounts of collateral or money deposits to control larger amounts of investment gives your money a bigger bang for your buck. A lot of people don’t understand what leverage is or how to use it. If you resolve to learn how to use it properly, it can become a powerful tool to allow you to do things with your personal investments that you couldn’t do before.
  • Resolve to diversify your risk. Risk diversification is key to financial success, but most people fail to diversify risk correctly by forgetting most of their assets are in U.S. dollars. Diversifying some of your assets in foreign denominated currency can add that last bit of safety you need in case of a deterioration of the U.S. dollar.  
  • Resolve to invest in yourself. You don’t need to eat the entire financial elephant in one sitting, instead commit to investing a small amount of time each week learning new financial strategies and concepts. In just a few short weeks, your new found knowledge can sharpen your financial skills and senses.  
  • Resolve to follow your personal investing style. Just as certain physical traits are more conducive to different sports or certain personality traits are helpful in different professions, each person has financial traits conducive to different styles of financial management – financial traits that are good for success. Learn what makes you tick and invest based on your personal financial trait.
  • Resolve to always pre-calculate your risk of loss. Any time you put money to work, there is a risk of loss. Risk of loss should not be a problem if you correctly calculate the risk before you invest and are financially willing to accept some predicted loss. A good investment is one where the potential gain is greater than the pre-calculated loss.
  • Resolve to mix-up your markets. There are more markets than just the stock market - or the mutual fund market. There are five separate and independent financial markets: stocks, bonds, derivatives, commodities, and currency. Not all markets move the same way at the same time. This opens up new opportunities for profit as well as protection. Learning what the other markets are and their structure and advantages can give you a leg up in your financial future.
Apiary is a new and unique trading fund that allows participants to manage Apiary’s money and share in the profits with out personal investment and risk. Participants only pay tuition to learn the program.
 
Apiary succeeds because trading activity is diversified among many traders – reducing risk and increasing reaction to the market.
 
Some of Apiary’s most successful traders have no trading experience in the market. They come from almost any background – retirees, stay at home moms, students and people from any industry looking for flexible, supplementary income.
 
We welcome Apiary Fund to the Snapp Conner PR family of clients.
 
 
Author: A. Cory Maloy |

Forbes Post: An Entrepreneurial Wish List: My Top 3 Hopes (and Fears) For 2013

By Cheryl Snapp Conner @ Dec 26, 2012
Tags: business strategy, content, PR, PR Tools

This article originally appeared in my regular column at Forbes.com:

 

My company is booming. I’d like to say I’m one of the lucky ones – but thankfully, at least in the Salt Lake City region, I’m hearing the same from scores of other businesses too.

At just under six years old, our communications agency has closed a record November, a record December, and a record year in 2012.

Yes, we have put the recession behind us. But I attribute much of our recent success to progress we’ve made in helping to evolve the model of communications. The traditional models for public relations are not the factors that matter most any more (although they still do matter, and in my opinion, always will.)

SEO – Social SEO – and Social Media are giant factors in the new communications equation. So is content development. Content that “promotes” has little or no use to today’s impatient consumers. Efficient communications, and content that provides a high value-add is the name of the game.  Broadcast is increasingly important. Infographics. Video. eBooks. Columns and authorship. Several of our strongest clients have published or are currently in the process of publishing books.

Our own business model is evolving as well. Generally speaking, the function of communications holds an increasingly vital role at the executive table. Organizations are realizing the role communications strategy and execution can play in their very success.

We are providing services that are more leveraged, with the help of new tools. Our hope is to make PR tools available to an entire generation of new consultants and to startup and growth companies who couldn’t afford traditional agency resources before.

We’re growing upward and outward at once.

Here’s my 2013 wish list:

  • 75% growth—while adding just 25% to our company headcount. Software tools and contractor resources will help us accomplish this goal.
  • Affordable healthcare. So far so good – amazingly, the insurance package our provider was able to offer has given us the option of traditional PPO policies again, at least for this year. Next year may be another question—but for now we are good.
  • Workable tax rates. Like all business owners in America, we are holding our breath.

 

And my 2013 fears:

In honesty, we’ve designed our growth model around the need to hedge our bets on our fears. To achieve high growth, our model relies increasingly on software tools and contractor resources. We can’t risk the additional overhead of more space, more employees, and probable increases in business-unfriendly tax legislation. We’ve watched too many agencies be felled not by their inabilities, but by the leases they signed and the staffs they hired in advance of actual needs, putting them in positions they couldn’t successfully unwind. We will never make that mistake.

But what are my other fears?

  • I’m concerned that some of the new functionality we offer may prove to be more difficult to obtain, to share and maintain than we think.
  •  I also worry that if we configure or price our tools incorrectly, it will cost us invaluable time.
  •  I fear the prospect of creating and enacting a pro forma for a company that includes a SaaS software component. While I know how to forecast and operate a service company like the back of my hand, modeling a hybrid company that provides both service and software is another story. I will need help. Thankfully, we have superb mentors, including several of our most accomplished client partners,  Alan Hall and David K. Williams, who are available to help and advise in these tasks.

 

We live and work in volatile times. But for the most part, as I survey the year ahead of us, I am extremely excited. Our business has never been more ready to go.

2012: Year In Review

By Abe @ Dec 13, 2012

I’m a big fan the Zeitgeist report and video that Google releases at the end of every year. It serves as an informative look back at notable events and people—things that defined the world’s conversations throughout the year. Although the report leads me to personally reflect on how my perspective has been impacted by events going on around me, it can also serve as a tool for marketing professionals.

 

It’s important to stay up to date on the things that matter. It seems like Americans’ attention spans are shorter than ever before, and what was cool yesterday can be irrelevant today. Stakeholders better receive a company’s messaging, outreach, and social media activities if they perceive the company has a good pulse on reality, a pulse on the things that matter to them.

 

Am I suggesting your news releases feature viral videos from the likes of Korean pop sensation PSY? Not exactly. But you should stay up to date about what’s hot using a site such as Google Trends and look for opportunities to correlate your news with what others are talking about.

 

So what did people search for in 2012? Here’s Google’s list of the top 10 searches worldwide:

 

1. Whitney Houston

2. Gangnam Style

3. Hurricane Sandy

4. iPad 3

5. Diablo 3

6. Kate Middleton

7. Olympics 2012

8. Amanda Todd

9. Michael Clarke Duncan

10. BBB12

 

What will be big in 2013? We’ll just have to wait and see. 

 

#establishsocialmediapoliciesbeforeitstoolate

By Kelly Wanlass @ Dec 4, 2012
Tags: Twitter Facebook social media McDonald Burger King policy


Six of the 10 PR disasters of 2012, according to a BusinessInsider article on Monday, started on Twitter.  For example, a twitter campaign by McDonald’s backfired in January when people started using the #McDStories for negative stories instead of the positive ones the marketing team had anticipated. “Fingernail in my Big Mac” and “Hospitalized for food poisoning…” made its rounds on Twitter. #notthestoriestheywanted. Or remember the Tweeted photo of the Burger King employee standing in lettuce in July? #gross. Or more recently, when American Apparel (and several other big brands) exploited Hurricane Sandy as an excuse to offer sales to victims? (Are you bored during the storm?” the company tweeted. – #PRfail.) Burger King fired the lettuce-stomping employee, McDonalds pulled the hashtag as soon as it saw the campaign going south, and American Apparel chose not to do anything.  All three brands suffered to varying degrees.

 

So how can you take advantage of the benefits of reaching thousands – even millions – of potential customers on social media without falling victim to social media gaffes that land your company on the front page for all the wrong reasons? 

 

Put a social media policy in place. While this wouldn’t have mattered for the #hugeidiot that posted photos of himself in lettuce at Burger King, it should establish set guidelines that will help guide the majority of your employees to keep on topic with positive stories from your company.  

 

Make sure your employees understand that while they are free to express their views, if they reference being an employee of your company in any posts or choose to discuss company happenings, they basically represent your company at all times, even off the clock.  

 

In light of this, your social media policy should include at least some of the following:

 

1.     Be Yourself: On your main social media page (whether Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or a personal blog), make it clear to your readers that the views you express are yours alone and that they do not necessarily reflect the views of your company.  

2.     Be Confidential: Avoid disclosing any information that is confidential or proprietary to the company or to any third party that has disclosed information to your company.   

3.     Be Respectful: Since your Twitter or Facebook account - or blog - is a public space, be as respectful to the company, its employees, its customers, its partners and affiliates, and others (including competitors) as the company itself endeavors to be. If you start to get negative feedback, count to 10 before responding. Consult your company’s PR/marketing team to help determine the best way to continue the discussion, if at all.

4.     Be Mindful: Know that as with any coverage, your company is watching for and tracking any mention. They will see your posts. Speaking of which, limit social media while at work to posts and comments related to work as part of an intelligent, strategically directed social media campaign.  Even more important, if you have any doubt about whether to Tweet or post something on Facebook, have someone you trust look at it first!! 


Am I missing anything? Do you have any stories to share of Tweets gone bad? 

 

 
 

 

Next Page »