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Editorial Calendars: The Endless Search Yields Valuable PR Lessons

Editorial calendars are a vital part of a successful public relations campaign. They give PR practitioners like me a glimpse into the future, granting us some foresight as to what opportunities for coverage we may be able to leverage for our clients that year.

Gathering them for review is absolutely critical, but I think I speak for most PR practitioners when I say that they are also a total pain to obtain. They are often difficult to locate on Web sites and posted at different times of the year by each publication, thus requiring an ongoing, repeated and tedious search.

Fortunately, my ongoing effort to attain editorial calendars has also been a surprising source of enlightenment. As I reflect on my first three months working at Articulate, I am struck by how much I have learned through this basic task. Here are just a few of the lessons that I feel will serve me well in all of my future public relations endeavors that I have learned through my labor:

• Go after every opportunity: While some editorial calendars are much easier to find than others, and it is often tempting to ease up on those that seem impossible to capture, I have realized it is necessary to pursue them all because you never know what opportunities you could find for your clients.
• Pay attention to detail: Many publication’s Web sites seem to almost hide their editorial calendars, burying them deep within the site’s content. But, if you carefully sift through, paying close attention, what you are looking for can often be discovered.
• Be patient: Not every publication releases their editorial calendar at the same time but most will eventually, so patience is key.
• Be persistent: If at one point you are unable to locate the editorial calendar you are looking for, don’t give up! Check back often to see if things have changed.
• When you need help, ask for it: Sometimes, despite your best efforts, an editorial calendar simply eludes you. In this case, contact someone at the publication or enlist the help of a coworker in your search.

These lessons correspond to the work we do for our clients at Articulate. We expand our horizons, looking for creative opportunities. We are detail-oriented from the planning process through execution and measurement. Where some PR professionals could become frustrated with the learning curve for our client’s technical subject matter, we love the challenge. Finally, we embrace team structures, understanding that not one individual could achieve the success that we do as a team.

While the seemingly never-ending search for editorial calendars will likely continue to mildly frustrate me until I am able to collect them all, I am thankful for the valuable lessons that the task of their collection has afforded me and I look forward to pursuing all of the great media opportunities they have indicated for 2010!

By Bess Hammitt

Pearls of Wisdom: Social Media Strategy

We recently partnered with a very smart guy named François Gossieaux of Beeline Labs on behalf of client CT Wolters Kluwer to discuss social media.  We’ve started a rudimentary social media awareness campaign for CT and some other clients, namely nascent broadcasting of company news and insights via Twitter and LinkedIn communities and becoming more actively engaged in online discussions.  François’ insights were geared specifically toward how to build on that foundation and use social media as a true “platform of participation” to make customers front and center. 

A few of François’ pearls of wisdom:

• “The key is to be customer-centric, not company-centric.” Social media is about communities, specifically your customer community. Social media enables companies to make their customers’ voices and opinions front and center. It first and foremost is a fundamental shift in how a company views its marketing, sales, nurturing, prospecting, employees – in short, every aspect of the company can truly be about the customer.
• “People are only going to belong to a certain number of communities.” It makes sense, doesn’t it? You only join so many clubs or read so many newspapers. Online, it’s going to be the same way. So be smart about “building your own vs. buying into an existing.” Look for synergies with existing communities, blogs or groups to see if you can achieve scalability there before trying to go it alone. Look at small-business sites – Staples and HP tried, but only American Express Small Business has succeeded. Engage where your customers are today before trying to build a new place for them to come.
• “The most successful groups are those with a common set of characteristics.” Look to build your own groups and communities around basic characteristics like chemistry, commitment, passion and pride. Unite around a common purpose or goal, measure and evaluate the group’s progress and build a community around people with a vested interest in making themselves and the group successful.

In sum, and as I’ve said before, look at social media as part of your entire arsenal for customer delivery.  After all, if they’re happy, you’re probably making money.

By Laura Grimmer

We Are Professional Communicators, But Does Anyone Understand What We’re Saying?

Earlier this week, I completed the second-to-last semester of my master’s program at NYU, with a group presentation of a strategic communications plan for the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).  Beyond acclimating myself to working on group projects again, this semester’s assignment reminded me that as much as we as PR professionals may complain about the jargon thrown around by our clients, we in the PR world have our own jargon that we often forget about.

When presenting to a group of individuals who are not involved in PR, it’s too easy for us to use terms that we are used to hearing on a daily basis:  media monitoring, live-Tweet, trends pitch, etc.  How often do we stop to explain these terms, making sure that our clients understand what we plan to execute and the outcomes they can expect?

The first draft of our presentation, looking back, was crammed with PR jargon.  After much tweaking, we presented the plan in layman’s terms.  During the Q&A session it was obvious that we had gotten through to the UNGC.  The light bulb had gone off and they understood the tactics they could implement to make their event successful.

This opportunity to present to a non-tech audience allowed me the opportunity to step back and understand that the basic element of PR is communication.  We should not just aim to communicate with journalists and analysts, but with our clients as well.  During this time of the year we are planning with our clients for 2010, and communications becomes more important than ever.  As we develop our plans, we are not only planning on achieving our client’s business goals, but ensuring that they are also easily understood.

A former president of Yale University, Kingman Brewster, Jr. said that incomprehensible jargon is the hallmark of a profession.  While we like to think here at Articulate that we are some of the leaders in our profession, PR jargon is one hallmark that we are happy to reject.

By Ashleigh Egan

The Holiday Slowdown? Never Heard of It.

Now that the holidays are finally upon us, it’s time to sit back, slow down and take stock of all the things we’ve learned over the past year.  With holiday parties gearing up, visions of shiny gifts dancing through our heads and the prospect of a little time off becoming ever-more realistic, work is supposed to start winding down so we can enjoy some of this stuff, right? 

Not even close. 

Here around the Articulate offices, you’d swear that December was any other month in the calendar year.  Teams are continuing full steam ahead on 2010 planning, strategic outreach campaigns, meetings with terrific current, new and prospective clients and scoring big client successes (witness Antenna Software and Cycle Computing in this year’s just-announced InfoWorld 100).  Make no mistake, we’ve certainly got a sweet holiday party on the horizon (hat tip to the boss – a.k.a. @lauragrimmer – for that).  Of course we’ll also be conducting the traditional Articulate Holiday Gift Exchange, as it really wouldn’t be December without it.  Other than this, though, it’s pretty much business-as-usual around these parts.

This is a good thing.  The holidays are a wonderful, joyous time and using this month to take stock of the previous year is a perfectly noble intention, to be sure.  Yet it can also distract us from the task at hand, and when it comes down to it, the thing that truly makes the holidays feel special is the feeling that we’ve earned them. 

Here at Articulate, we’re earning every bit of them.  The gifts will be given, the trees will get decorated and the eggnog will be drunk – for those who like that sort of thing.  But finding the balance between revelry and the satisfaction of a job well done is what ultimately makes for a truly Happy Holiday. 

By Mark Van Hook