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Open Advice/Who are You - What are You Selling - and Why Should I Care
Who are You, What are You Selling, and Why Should I Care?
- by Sally Khudairi
- in: Open Advice
This text is available under the CC-BY-SA license. (see also: Open Advice/Info)
Everyone is a marketer. From the CEO to the superstar salesperson to the guy in the mailroom, everyone is a representative of your company. Technologies and tactics have changed over the years but good communications remain paramount. At the end of the day, everyone is selling something, and it is an interesting balance in publicity, as who and what you are and what you sell are often enmeshed. When people tell me that they do not know who I am, I ask if they have heard of W3C, Apache, or Creative Commons. The typical reply is “of course”, which assures me that I am doing my job. If you know who and what they are, things are good. It is about the product, not the publicist, after all. I never set out to be in this space: cutting my communications teeth during the nascent web years was not easy, but I am grateful to have had the opportunity to observe others and dodge quite a few bullets. A sharp ramp-up and some very highly-visible projects later, what advice would I share with a budding PR bunny, seasoned media flack, or technologist daring to ride the promotions bucking bronco?
Never forget to declare yourself
In selling your story to the press, remember that the media, too, have something to sell. Sure, at the top level the role of a journalist is to tell a compelling story (truthfully or not, factually or not, ethically or not, is another issue). From attracting readership to securing subscriptions to promoting ad space, they too are selling something, and your job is to help them do their job. The reality is that some folks may not have heard of you, even if you have been around for a long time. Or even if they have, they may not know who you are exactly. Be clear with what it is that you have to offer. What is the press hook – what is the news? Be sure that the news is really news. Be direct and get to the point quickly. You have got to be prepared to answer the questions: “So what?” “Why should I care?” “What is in it for me?”, and that means having to ask questions of yourself and your product. People buy ideas, not products, so promoting the benefits of what you are pitching will help improve your chances of securing coverage. Spin aside, what are you really selling?
Never on a Friday
The worst day to launch a new website, issue a press release, or brief the media is on a Friday. The chance that something wrong will happen with nobody available to deal with the fallout is greater than you can imagine. A poignant reminder of this happened to me early in my career when I launched the new W3C homepage on a Friday evening, left the office and boarded a plane for Paris. Coming from the world of commercial web publishing, using a proprietary tag was not an issue whatsoever as long as it got the job done. Doing so on the website of an interoperability-all-the-way organization on the other hand was Not A Good Thing. Within minutes dozens of messages were pouring in, wondering how the <now-deprecated-markup>-tag got on our site. And no, it was not <blink>...
Never think that it doesn’t matter
Credibility is everything. Despite being overworked, overcommitted or overextended, you can not un-strike a bell. Try to deliver as much as you can to the best of your ability and ask for help if you can. Some deadlines have to be adjusted, and many editors can accommodate shift in schedule but it likely will not matter (as much) once the story/fire has gone out if you are unable to follow through. Like art, standards development, and copywriting, the process can go on ad nauseam. Whilst creativity can not be time-managed, hard deadlines force a line to be drawn at some point. But you have got to care about the details. Stop. Proof-read and check all links. Make sure it maps properly to the overall campaign/brand strategy. Lather-rinse-repeat is part of the greater communications gestalt, and the work will keep piling up. Sort it out and protect your reputation.
Do go at it alone
It is important to trust your instincts, particularly when doing something separate from the norm. In the early days of that newfangled web thaang, everyone was seemingly tacking on the usual branding/PR/marketing tactics to a brochure-ware Website. Then everyone was “following the leader” (leader = “whoever did it first” in many instances). Trends are one thing, industry expectations and requirements are another: “that is how everybody does it” does not mean that it is right for you, your project or community. My career in communications began when I fired our retained agency and brought everything in-house. We were one of the earliest organizations to use a URL in a corporate boilerplate, and were the first to use a URL as the originating location on a press release dateline despite news wire agencies telling it was non-conformant and against policy. Stand confidently in your knowledge. Go against the grain and challenge the rules responsibly. Individuate. It is OK to be a dissenter as long as you can back your ideas up.
Do provide perspective
Many of the technologies I am involved with wind up in products 3-5 years down the road. This means that, in many instances, it is hard to establish some sort of relationship to a comparable product. It is critical that you explain your position clearly with as little jargon as possible. Most non-developer journalists/analysts I deal with do not follow the day-to-day activities of a certain community or know the technical ins-and-outs of why one feature is better than another, no matter how much of a no-brainer it is to you. The saying of “sell the sizzle, not the steak” is more relevant today than ever. Sizzle. Steak. There is always a split on this when I teach media training: provide too much steak or too much sizzle and your campaign could fail. Perception is key and the cause of a lot of conflict: All Sizzle = “hype + hyperbole” = “oh, you PR types”. All Steak = “0s and 1s” = “oh you geek types”. You need to understand and be able to clearly explain the painpoint that your product solves. Knowing how to better present the problem allows you to better explain the solution. Context, anecdotes, and success stories give the press a way to make their readers care. You have got to know the answer to the question “What is in it for me?”, because that is what incents journalists to delve deeper into your story, which, in turn, gets readers to learn more about you. Sizzle answers “What’s in it for me?”, and is therefore the hook. Steak is how you get there.
Do queue up your spokespeople
Always have someone available to talk to the press. Yes, it can be you, but know that there will be a time that although you have a well-planned story to tell, you may not be available to tell it. Who else do you work with? Who knows you? Who endorses you? Defining those individuals and making a message map that clarifies who says what helps alleviate an awful lot of potential headaches. I usually act as the “backgrounder” spokesperson so I can spend time with a reporter to find out what specifically are they looking for and how can we best provide them with relevant information. I explain how things work, mostly process-oriented; this puts my “actual” spokespeople in a better position to say what they need, and minimize the risk of having their participation getting lost elsewhere. Getting the right people ready is just as important as making them available. In my media training classes, I include some “Yikes!” slides that highlight particularly interesting lessons learned over the years. For example, we experienced spokesperson mayhem in the early days of the Apache Incubator, where 15 people responded to a press query in 48 hours... lots of opinions, but who was the “right” one to quote? Do not leave it to the press to decide! Another oft-shared “Yikes!” scenario involved a global launch party with hundreds of guests, press everywhere, DJs spinning, music blaring, cocktails flowing, and the event running very late into the night, with rumored spin-off after-parties. Very early the following morning the press queries came in (yes, of course I will accept a phone call from the Financial Times at 4AM PT!). I pitched excitedly. However, it turned out that we had no spokespeople available: Chairman on a plane to Japan; Director’s mobile phone was off (with reason, apparently); Board members unavailable; staff unprepared. Dozens of opportunities missed. Remember: when the press release goes out on the wire, the work has just begun.
Don’t be surprised to take it from all sides
Everyone has an opinion. And they will likely give it to you.
Don’t overcomplicate things
If you think you have got too much to tell, you probably do. Attention spans are not what they were way back when; distraction/failure is just a click away. Remember that you can always work in steps. Break up your story if needed. Cut a lengthy press release and use supporting documentation such as technical fact sheets and testimonial pages instead. The chunking principle (“5 plus or minus two”) is something I continue to utilize again and again. Create your own message release cycle, and reinforce your presence regularly. Bring a FAQ; if there is a question that needs to be asked and is not there, find the opportunity to bridge your message. Repetition breeds familiarity. Progressively reinforcing your call to action is goodness.
Don’t touch it for 24 hours
Sometimes you need to walk away. From a project, from an argument, from work altogether. Give yourself a break and try to pace yourself; allow a day for things to settle down and for you to get a chance to breathe. Whilst that is usually not possible in a deadline-driven industry, it is something to aim for. The mad rush, non-stop emails, and continuous tweets often trigger reactions for emergencies that do not exist. Put the project down, clear your head, and come back with a fresh perspective. Step aside and regain your life.
Expect greatness
Keep your standards high and know your worth.
about the author
Active in the Web since 1993, Sally Khudairi is the publicist behind some of the industry’s most prominent standards and organizations. The former deputy to Sir Tim Berners-Lee and long-time champion of collaborative innovation, she helped launch The Apache Software Foundation in 1999, and was elected its first female and non-technical member. Sally is Vice President of Marketing and Publicity for The Apache Software Foundation, and Chief Executive of luxury brand communications consultancy HALO Worldwide.
