Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

By Greg Abel
President, Abel Communications

I can’t remember the first time I went to a Chipotle restaurant. It wasn’t a life-defining moment, like witnessing the birth of my first child or going to my first Bruce concert. But I do remember thinking, “Damn, this is good!”

The feeling was not unlike the first time I flew and experienced Southwest Airlines. It was just different. And better.

I remember liking Chipotle right away. It stuck with me. At a Chipotle, you can always hear the sizzle of the meat on the grill. You see employees chopping meat and vegetables. For a little less than $10, you can enjoy a sensory experience that — while not exactly fine dining — tastes good and doesn’t leave you with that “Ugh, why did I just eat that?” feeling.

Ron Diamond, center, talks to the Abel team about Chipotle’s corporate culture.

From that first day on, I became a Chipotle fan. Not a five-day-a-week burrito-stuffed maniac, mind you, but a solid two to four times per month kind of guy with a regular order: brown rice bowl, peppers and onions, black beans, chicken, pico, a little hots, light sour cream, light cheese, hold the lettuce … just a cup for water please … thanks, here’s my credit card … bam, done.

For the Chipotle fans out there… how psyched are you when you’re about to crush a bowl or burrito? These are the good times, people.

Given what I’ve just shared, imagine my delight in meeting and befriending a longtime Chipotle employee, someone who had been there from almost the start?

My friend Ron Diamond and his wife Janelle moved to Baltimore a few years ago and we met through our wives, who are both journalists. Ron started with Chipotle when the chain had only five stores. At the time, he lived in Denver and discovered Chipotle as a customer. After having a near religious experience while enjoying a burrito, he applied for and landed a job in corporate marketing, eventually working his way up to a role running sports marketing for the entire East Coast. Then came family and kids and the need to travel a bit less, so these days Ron runs the Chipotle in Baltimore’s bustling Canton neighborhood.

Whenever I see Ron, I pick his brain about how Chipotle operates; how they find and train employees; how they keep things running smoothly; and how they are able to turn customers into true fans like me. And he has always been gracious with his time and loves talking about it.

Recently, I asked Ron to come to our office and talk about Chipotle’s growth and culture for one of our monthly lunch and learns. Ron was game and (bonus!) insisted on bringing everyone lunch. It was great. Let me share the love and hit you with four key takeaways from our discussion:

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1.) Provide a clear and exciting career path for employees – From day one, Chipotle employees learn that if they work hard and do a good job and represent the brand in keeping with the company’s vision and mission, they can move up. They can go from a modest hourly wage on the front lines to running the kitchen or running the front of the shop, to assisting the manager, to running a restaurant, to becoming a manager of multiple locations. In other words, you can go from $8.50 an hour to six figures and a company car. This can happen for anyone who wants it and can handle it. It’s up to the employee.

2.) Have a well-defined process for hiring and evaluating employees – Chipotle hires employees by looking for 13 key characteristics that they feel, with the right development, will make them what they call at “Top Performer.”  Ron explained that employees who are not or cannot become Top Performers don’t last long. Employees either get it or they don’t.

3.) Keep customers happy – Chipotle has a unique corporate culture that’s reinforced constantly at the local level: Serve good food, fresh and fast. (Chipotle locally sources its vegetables and meats, which means you’ll never see a freezer there.) Keep the place clean and efficient. Pay attention to details. Stay involved in the community. Keep the customers happy.

4.) Have a mission beyond the day-to-day – Chipotle doesn’t want to just serve great food – it wants to change the way people think about and eat fast food. Each local store supports a local farm. Simply by the way it operates, the company encourages consumers to set higher expectations for what they can expect in a quick service restaurant.

To be sure, it’s not always perfect. I’ve had a few experiences at Chipotle where things didn’t run as efficiently as I’ve come to expect. But by and large, when you factor in quality, taste, cleanliness and value, the Chipotle experience leaves competitors in the dust. It’s funny, about a week after Ron’s talk, I found myself at BWI waiting for a flight around 5:30 p.m. I wandered over to the food court in the A terminal and the line for Chipotle was about 20 deep. The next restaurant over was Arby’s and there was not a single person in line. McDonald’s had about 10 people waiting… no one else had more than one or two. Chipotle just does something special that people like.

As we grow here at Abel, I hope to incorporate similar core values that give employees a vision for a bright future while providing clients with a similar “Damn, this is good!” feeling.

By Jessica Callahan
Account Supervisor, Abel Communications

Last week, Google+ made news in the social space when they rolled out new design features the day before Facebook’s announcement. Comparisons between Google+ and Facebook are not uncommon, but when Google+ executives say that Google+ is not a social network, it’s understandable why so many of us are confused.

  

So what is Google+ and how should we be using it?  At Abel Communications, our research and experience have taught us that Google + in its current form, is a hybrid platform with some social engagement, but the real marketing benefit lies in its power to impact natural search results.

Put another way, do you know anyone who is “into” Google+ the way that many of our friends and colleagues are “into” Facebook? Google is still the dominant player in search and you can bet that the more content and interaction you engage in on its platforms, the better off you’ll be in search results.

With that in mind, here are five steps every company should take to maximize Google search benefits through Google+:

1.     Share content

Sharing content is as important a step in driving search benefits as building out the profile in the first place. Share links to company blog posts or media placements, or third party articles that are both relevant and credible. Google+ should not appear to page visitors as a dumping ground for links, though. Share links with a short but thoughtful comment that leverages important key words for your industry.

2.     Audit your existing presence

If you don’t think your brand has a page, check again. It’s surprising the number of unmanaged Google+ pages that exist. Companies that formerly built out Google Places pages automatically have Google+ pages now, but in many cases not all information has been transferred accurately, or at all. If you find that you have an unclaimed page, claim it. At this point, there is nothing preventing employees or consumers from creating a page in your company’s name, so audit for these brand pages, too. And if, after a thorough search, you’ve found that Google+ is still a blank slate for your company, create a page.

3.     Focus on the basics

Fill out company information – thoroughly and accurately, and don’t forget to include a link back to the company website. For Google+ users who visit your page, you’ll make a stronger impression when a cover photo and profile picture are in place. We also recommend asking your company’s key thought leaders and subject matter experts to do the same with their personal profiles, linking back to the company’s website.

4.     Add to your circles

As you may already know, adding connections on Google+ is different from Facebook. With Google+, you can’t request that someone joins your circles, so the best way to build out your own circles is by adding others. Categorize your connections. By categorizing your “friends,” you can share tailored information for each of your groups, enabling you to better connect with followers by sharing a more targeted message.

5.     Refresh

Once the basics are in place, maintaining each of the aforementioned steps is important. If company headquarters moves, update your profile. Constantly work to build out your circles, and keep a steady flow of links in the pipeline. And, don’t forget to periodically evaluate your audience. As Google+ changes, user behaviors, in turn, are changing. You may find that your target audience is beginning to engage with brands more frequently, in which case, it might not be a bad idea to build out a more comprehensive strategy.

Overall, our best advice is this – don’t ignore Google +. You might think it’s a ghost town, but we’re seeing more and more daily impact on search results from companies, organizations, and people with vibrant Google+ pages.

By Gina Zuk
Director of Client Service, Abel Communications

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Nicki Mayo, a reporter for E.W. Scripps’ new show ‘The List.’ ‘The List’ airs on WMAR-ABC2 at 7 p.m. in the Baltimore market and in a growing number of other markets nationwide. Nicki gave us some insight into how she got into journalism, what makes news, and tips for PR professionals.

In recent months, we’ve worked closely with Nicki to help our clients share tips and insight on ‘The List’ with segments such as STX’s ’12 Sporty Stocking Stuffer Ideas,’ ‘4 Ways to Protect your Phone from Hackers’ with Koolspan, and ‘NFL History at your Fingertips‘ with Keepr.

Name: Nicki Mayo
Company: E.W. Scripps The List
Title: Multimedia Journalist & Reporter for ‘The List’
Education:  Syracuse University
Residence: Park Heights, Maryland
Hobbies: Going to shows, concerts, and tastings events providing new cultural experiences.

How did you get into journalism?
In middle school, I was always nosy and talkative and asked tons of questions.  This led me to narrow my career choices down to a reporter and lawyer in high school. When I discovered what being a lawyer entailed, I opted for the reporter!  My sophomore year of high school, I had so much fun in English that it confirmed this was the right path for me. The first week I walked on the Syracuse campus, I began reporting for WAER 89.9 FM, a NPR member station.   I didn’t get paid anything but I got access to a vehicle to cover downtown Syracuse events, City Council, and other real news at the tender age of 17 years old.

Nicki Mayo, reporter, The List

In your opinion, what makes news?
If everyone is talking about it, it makes news – no matter what it is, whether we like it or not.  While our job is to document history, sometimes we must cover the trending topics and non-traditional material typically classified as infotainment.

Tell us about the concept behind Scripps’ new television show, The List.
‘The List’ is all about what is trending currently and what people are talking about. Basically, it is the intersection of the news of the day and pop culture content.

What types of stories are you seeking for your show?
We are always looking for what is hot and new in Baltimore. Think arts, entertainment, celebrities around town, sports, etc.  We want to cover what’s trending but also the fun or random side of the news.

What are some helpful tips you can provide to someone who is new to the PR industry?
One – Network is your biggest mantra. You need to have extensive group of people to generate stories from.  The old saying your Rolodex is your bloodline still rings true but now it is your Smartphone contacts that are gold.

Two – Open mind. As a journalist and PR professional, we both have to pitch stories.  If you have an extensive background in a certain area you naturally feel more confident pushing those types of stories. Early in my career, I learned that sometimes you must push yourself out of your comfort zone and try different ideas outside of your core expertise.

Three – Timely Content. Understand how the seasons, holidays, current events and awareness days or months can be tied to your client’s stories.  For example, if you represent an alterations company you could play on the recent Oscars fumble of Jennifer Lawrence tripping on her dress and pitch a segment about ‘How to Dummy Proof your Clothes so you don’t have an Oscars moment.’

Four – Perception is everything. Appearance is very important and as a PR professional you need to always put your best foot forward.  When you are working with the media, ensure you make a good first impression and a smile never hurts!

What is your biggest pet peeve when PR professionals pitch a story to you?
Not prepping your client. It doesn’t matter how many interviews your client says they have done, ensure that they have studied their talking points and participated in mock interviews.  It is also important, specifically for radio and TV, that your client understands how to be conversational and relaxed.  If your voice sounds monotone on the radio or you look too stiff on TV, viewers will not respond to your message.

By Adam Curtis
Account Manager, Abel Communications
@curtissays

Recently, CareerCast.com ranked Public Relations Professional as the fifth most stressful job for 2013. Ahead of police officer. Ahead of brain surgeon, coal miner, or prison guard.

Image via quickmeme.com

I take exception to the survey’s methodology, one that gives equal weight to “working in the public eye” and “hazards encountered” on the job. To even suggest that what we do (talk to media, manage client expectations, write blog posts, etc.) is more stressful than traveling two miles underground to excavate anthracite from beneath a mountain is, in my view, demeaning to those with legitimately stressful jobs.

Judging from the comments, most people agree with me. But, there were a select few who feel that, yes, being in public relations is more stressful than being a police officer. These are, most likely, the same people who humble brag at any chance they get, “Wow, I’m so busy. PR, 24/7. Can’t believe the deadlines I’m on.”

This is not to denigrate those in PR who take pride in their work, or public relations professionals who are on legitimate 24-hour call. This is to point out that there are those in PR who can’t see the relative difference between a job where you might have to control a prison riot and one where you might have to deflect hostile media questions.

By not recognizing this fact, these PR pros show an alarming lack of judgment for what is important. This ability to judge story lines, competing ideas, or severity of a crisis situation is paramount to providing solid and meaningful advice to clients. They rely on us to be the expert and to tell them, “This is nothing to worry about,” or, “You need to act fast or this will be damning to your company.”

How can we, as a whole, be trusted to make these critical decisions when some of us think our work is more stressful than a police officer? If our understanding of what is meaningful is that out of whack, why should clients listen to our advice about what story idea to pitch, what expert to put in front of the media, or what social media platform is the next big thing?

People with this mindset also lose sight of the fact that our clients work as hard or harder than we do. Yes, we work long hours. But who else is there at 6am for the morning show interview? The client. Who is responding to our non-essential emails at 11pm? The client.

The more we humble-brag how constantly busy we are, the more we hurt ourselves and cheapen our industry. We hurt ourselves by completely erasing the line between work and personal lives. We hurt our industry by making our time less valuable. We hurt our clients by making their time less valuable.

Getting work done on time and on budget becomes nearly impossible when you proudly work 24/7. Either you suffer from over service and under-profitability or your client suffers with under-productive hours and budgets run amuck.

Take pride in your work, but don’t make it seem to be more than it is. Anything else is a disservice to public relations.

By Jessica Callahan
Account Supervisor, Abel Communications

Measuring PR deliverables has long been a topic of debate across the industry, but recently we’ve seen a shift in how we evaluate success. In past years, we would work long and hard with clients to develop pitches and story angles that hit on the right mix of news value and exclusivity. And then, in our perfect world, a positive story would appear in a priority publication and everyone would go home happy.

Sort of. There was, is, and will always be the complicated requirement of ‘metrics’ and how we quantify the value of PR results.

Making the Most of Media Hits in the Social Media Era

It’s a complicated topic and one that has only become even more so in the era of social media, where one media hit can be repurposed in many different channels to maximize exposure. What exactly is the value of a Like or a Share or a Tweet? How do we measure such things? And should we spend our time figuring out those metrics or working on the next media hit to share?

Regardless of how you measure success, whether it’s impressions or media hits, likes, or shares, here are a few tips that have helped our team succeed:

1. Optimize, optimize, optimize

Did we say optimize? Google’s algorithm changes constantly, but one factor that has remained consistent is the need for high quality links in driving search results. Embed every press release, news announcement and contributed column with links to relevant and meaningful content – from client and partner sites to other authoritative websites. Work with digital marketing teams to identify peaks in web traffic and correlations between media hits and spikes in web traffic.

2. Use, and recommend, Google+

From what we can tell, Google+ is still being used predominantly for search and less for content sharing. Although content sharing is soon to follow, at this point the greatest value is in driving search results and highlighting subject matter experts. Every brand should have a Google+ page, and subject matter experts should be encouraged, if not required, to create pages. It can’t stop there, though. To maximize results, company websites should include links to the Google+ page, as well as subject matter expert pages as part of the company bio. The goal here is to both drive company search results and to secure a photo link for author bios.

3. Don’t just tweet – follow through

It’s not surprising that many companies are still trying to figure out how to best use social media. In many instances, we have the opportunity to work with our clients to manage social campaigns, but in others, we can still make an impact in the social sphere by making media placements work harder. Provide recommendations of key influencers to follow, including prominent media in the industry, and encourage engagement with those users. Maximize channels when sharing articles by sending suggested tweets with shortened links or identifying an image for Facebook sharing. Provide a suggested status update and ask the client and others at the company to share via their LinkedIn pages. Repurpose the placement on the company blog. Greater exposure drives brand recognition, and a larger number of quality links in circulation will impact search.

While the lines continue to blur between PR, social media and search marketing, it is our job to align expectations with clients accordingly. Metrics are evolving with the changing landscape, and should be reflected in how we measure success with our clients. Ad equivalency and multipliers are old news. As we look ahead, we need to continue aligning efforts with search and social teams, working together toward the same goal of driving search results and brand awareness.

By Gina Zuk
Director of Client Service, Abel Communications

Good times with Abel clients and friends

Gobble gobble, family gatherings, Mayflower, turkey, Pilgrims, and pumpkin pie. When we think of Thanksgiving, everyone has a different meaning that comes to mind. Most importantly on this holiday, we all remember to give thanks.

Recently, the staff at Abel Communications reflected on the common characteristics of our best clients, those things that we give thanks for. In other words, when we do our best work, what is happening on the client side to enable that success?  And when we are looking for new clients, what qualities do we hope are in place?

While we all could agree there is no perfect client (or perfect PR firm for that matter!), we came up with a list of key attributes that often make or break PR success. This week we are especially thankful for our great clients, most of whom have these qualities and then some:

Understanding of Public Relations: This is the one of the most fundamental aspects of a successful program. The executive team should have a strong understanding of what PR is and what it isn’t; and filter this education down to the rest of their team. PR programs typically include media relations, speaking engagements, social media, and special events, sometimes all at once. But at the core of PR is the art of conveying your organization’s key messages to the audiences who matter most.  This is often achieved through thought leadership and relationship building. PR is not about buying ads, where you can control the exact content and timing of the exposure.

A Great Point Person: With all of our clients, there’s always a key point of contact who helps us get things done. The importance of this person’s job can’t be overstated – they are critical to the success of the program. The point person should be someone who is engaged, accessible, and sensitive to deadlines. He or she should be able to effectively communicate the company’s goals and objectives with the ability to either make decisions or obtain a decision quickly. The contact should also take the time to brainstorm with the PR team and distinguish and share interesting developments at the business.

Sounds like a long list, huh? Well here’s the payoff. When we work with points of contact who give us what we need and form a true partnership, we make them look like total rock stars. It’s worth the effort.

Trusted Partner: Where is any relationship without trust? Our best clients treat us as a trusted partner and an extension of their staff. They invite us to key strategic planning meetings and trust our advice. If you hired a PR firm to guide your communications program, and make a difference in your company, let that firm do its job. Trust us.

Be Newsworthy: Good clients have differentiators and success stories that make them stand out from the competition. If you can’t identify and substantiate (with actual facts and numbers) what makes your company different, you must allow your PR firm to help you do so.

Keep in mind, it’s a two-way street in this business, especially if media relations success is the goal. We always say, “the media is not on the marketing team,” so you must present a compelling story that will help them do their jobs, instead of simply providing a self-serving advertisement.

Here, by the way, is where great PR firms (in our opinion) earn their keep. When the story isn’t patently obvious, your PR firm should be coming at you with ideas. And your job in that situation is to listen, engage, and try things. Which brings us to our next trait of a great client…

Respect the Process: Clients who value the thought leadership process and invest the necessary time will see PR results. Thought leaders need to be identified within the company and – here’s the biggest thing – set aside time to meet with the PR team on a regular basis. Thought leaders should bring new perspective to industry topics and trends, speak candidly and knowledgably in their area of expertise and have the willingness to be controversial. You should lead the debate, not follow it. We won’t be any good at driving attention unless you have something meaningful to say.

Disclose Everything: Treat your PR firm like they are your lawyers (for the most part anyway!). Share information early and often. In order for your agency to do its best work, they need to know everything that happens within your organization including the good, the bad and the ugly. When it comes to generating news ideas, even some items that might seem insignificant to you might help your PR team spur the next big story idea. Share what’s new, share what’s different, share what’s weird! Did I say share?

Provide Feedback: It is important that your PR agency knows if the hard work is making a difference on the bottom line. If something isn’t working, agencies can quickly change their focus and implement a new plan IF they are given the feedback. Also, remember that most PR professionals are Type A personalities who are crazy competitive, always striving to outdo themselves and work extremely long hours to get your company’s name in lights. A small token of appreciation, like “thanks” or “nice hit” goes along way. We all need a gold star once in awhile!

At Abel Communications, we are lucky to work with clients that “get” PR. We wish all of our clients, partners, friends and family a happy and safe Thanksgiving!