News & Opinion

By Roxanne Leone, Director Marketing & Communications   Mentoring is a two way street. If you’ve already made your decision to become a mentor to a college student, a new employee or other aspiring professional, I would recommend you put yourself in their shoes to ensure you are filling their needs as well as your own. I’ve chosen the top 5 tips that helped my mentor and I be successful and grow my career. Assess your own skills. Identify your skillset and which skills you feel your mentee would benefit most from. You don’t need to have experience with every skill your mentor may need – or want – but you must be willing to grow and learn with them. Take time to analyze how you started in your own career and document the guidance that you found the most, and least, helpful to you as you moved up the corporate ladder. Set goals jointly.  It might seem like a small task, but setting up the logistics of when, where and how often you’ll connect is very important. My mentor put the needs of his sales department first, as most VP’s do, so our mentoring time was set weekly between 5:30-7:00 pm after sales were closed out for the day. Set expectations for the mentoring relationship from the get-go. By understanding your mentee's goals will show your commitment to the relationship and his or her professional development. A goal may be narrow in focus or on overall career progression. For me, it was critical to get more comfortable in front of an audience. By being a more effective communicator I could strengthen my leadership skillset. I joined Toastmasters International, a local public speaking club, during evening hours and my mentor, also my manager, planned all of my corporate presentations first thing in the morning to lower my anxiety. I spent 2 years in the program and then became the founding member of a club within our own organization. Listen I’ve seen mentors so excited to help a mentee that they make decisions for the individual instead of listening to what they want. Sure it’s a difficult ask, but do your best to stop what you’re working on, focus and listen. And if you can meet outside your office and in a common area like a conference room that may work out best. The more you listen, the more you discover and your colleague may just surprise you. My mentor chose to mentor me after we attended an industry trade show. He said his issue with me was that I was all business. But after a week on the road getting to know me on a personal level he felt I had the creativity, confidence and passion to drive my success. Be professional. Trust and respect is of the utmost of importance to any professional relationship. It’s also critical to make your mentee feel safe and that what you choose to discuss will remain confidential. Both of you should have the comfort level to have dialogue to work through issues without passing judgement. With my mentor’s 30 years of experience in the industry I was new to, he served as a role model with very high standards for professionalism in the workplace. I was also the second women to join a team of 30 white men. One of his management goals was diversity and inclusion and growing our staff to include more women and people of color. Share your network. I think one of the most valuable things you can pass on to your mentee is your professional network. People across the globe are expected to communicate and build camaraderie to get the job done, and done well. Working on a professional network takes years of practice and is always ongoing. To prepare your mentee for the long road ahead, introduce your mentee to relevant contacts that can be valuable resources for them today or in the future. In addition, ensure your mentee participates in professional development programs such as the Intrapreneurship Academy (IA) to strengthen leadership skills and grow their network. The Cable Center’s IA Program has a robust training program suitable for people in the cable industry or any technology industry driving innovation. One of the most worthwhile networking opportunities offered to me was managing my VP’s public relations interviews with the trade media. I was able to plan and attend speaking opportunities, professional meetings with the press, meals with high-level colleagues, customers and partners. Keep your mentee’s interest at heart through laser-focused attention on opening doors of opportunity.

With a simple Google search, any PR professional can find dozens of listicles, recommendations and tactics on how to successfully pitch a story to the media. So, why do most editors still say ALL the pitches they receive are bad, not useful, or an embarrassing display of awkward transitions? If you’re having a difficult time earning coverage for yourself, a client or a brand, it’s time to buckle down and commit to the following five core principals of pitching. If you do, you’ll improve your chances of earning the respect, attention and, most importantly, interest from reporters. Know your audience. We all know each reporter covers a different topic or “beat.” So, doesn’t it make sense to read their previous stories for an indication of whether they might be the right person to cover your story? Yes. The answer is yes. Give your story a chance to be heard by taking the necessary time to find the right people to pitch. And when you do, try incorporating a ready-to-use quote or stat to make things easier for the reporter, while proving you’re a valuable source. Pitch like a human. This is what separates us PR professionals from the animals…I mean robots. Machines can blast generic emails to media lists, but you? You’re better than that. Your pitch needs to be personalized to individual editors and publications as if…here me out…it didn’t come from an automated platform. Less is more. It’s time to parlay Marie Kondo’s method into your pitch writing. De-clutter your pitches and aim for one to two paragraphs. Be short, straight forward, and show value. Writers, editors and producers are generally so busy that the less information they must read, the better the chances that they’ll read it. Make sure to answer these two questions: What is exciting about this story, and how is it relevant to the readers of this publication? Do NOT attach. If you’re sending pitches with attachments and wondering why you hear crickets afterwards, it’s probably because your pitch ended up deep within the confines of a junk or spam folder. However, reporters love visuals, so be sure to provide multimedia elements by including a link to view or download them. For Pete’s sake, pick up the phone. Following up on a media pitch is as important as sending it in the first place. When I first begun pitching, I made follow-up phone calls a priority and guess what happened? I was able to build more personal relationships with reporters who later became future core contacts for entirely different clients. Just make sure to start the call by asking if it’s an OK time to talk – this shows you understand deadlines and respect their time. Follow these five principals and you’ll be pitching like a pro and building meaningful relationships in no time. Now repeat after me: “I shall not be flagged as spam once more,” and repeat.

By Roxanne Leone, Director, Marketing & Communications I’ve been a marketer for over 20 years…and in my opinion only a select few of former employers have managed headcount optimally. Therefore, I’d like to share one piece of advice that helped me along the way: align yourself with top performers across the entire organization. It’s the key to shortening campaign timelines and driving success. As a marketer or communications professional, you may agree that your role becomes critical only after other departments such as engineering deliver first -- like sharing new product benefits and specifications for you to develop promotional materials. Depending on others can mean days, weeks or months of waiting for assets, and by the time they arrive, you’re already expected to have results in hand. Whether you’re flying solo, or leading a small team, bandwidth is likely your greatest challenge… but it doesn’t have to be.I overcame bandwidth constraints by building camaraderie with colleagues across the entire organization that most resembled my perfectionist-like working style. As Morten Hansen documented in his best-selling book, Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More the people that outperform their colleagues are those that Do Less, Then Obsess. Based on his research, these people are able to set a few key priorities and do them exceptionally well.I agree with Hansen’s research and always kept my priorities in check. So, whether I was tasked to lead a new product launch or secure attendees for a special event, I knew that when I didn’t have my own staff, I would have to broaden my reach. Until I could build a case for new headcount, I nurtured long-lasting relationships with these individuals. I counted on my extended team to shorten my marketing timelines as they related to sales materials, advertising, website development, and media relations. By working diligently through this process I realized that securing headcount was not as critical as I had thought. By building relationships with mission-driven colleagues I was able to push off the immediate need for staffing, secure budget to grow the business and work my way up the corporate ladder.

By Roxanne Leone, Director, Marketing & Communications Facebook’s made its share of crisis-communications missteps over the past two years.  Among other stumbles, the company has been accused of slow responses to various reported breaches and allegations.  These include data-protection lapses resulting from its involvement with Cambridge Analytica, as well as sharing of personal data with device manufacturers including Apple and Amazon, and inflating video-view metrics in its dealings with advertisers.But this isn’t to pile on.  Actually, the opportunity remains – as it always does for companies with substantial resources, frankly -- to repair its reputation substantially…perhaps even to net out ahead of the game. But first, let’s cry over a bit of spilled milk.Facebook, like so many companies that achieve market dominance, has long been the target of critics. It hasn’t helped that legacy media organizations feel frustrated by the social network’s ability, alongside Google, to soak up most digital ad spending, even as the platform uses much of their original content to draw traffic. According to eMarketer, nearly 60% of all 2019 digital advertising dollars are expected to go to these two companies, Facebook and Google; about 15.5% is projected to go to Amazon, Microsoft and Verizon…leaving the remaining portion – less than a quarter of the pie – to be fought over by countless other digital-ad sellers, including the many legacy media companies scrambling to offset the sagging flow of ad dollars to their traditional platforms.    In short, Facebook has long needed “friends.”  So, when it got rough for the social network starting more than a year ago, there seemed to be little sympathy. Just the same, Facebook had the opportunity to seize the narrative quickly toward its advantage – and the playbook has been there for decades.  It’s the cornerstone crisis-communications example of the mid-1980’s Tylenol scare and Johnson & Johnson’s now-textbook response.   After it was learned in 1982 that Extra-Strength Tylenol had killed a number of consumers, J&J CEO James Burke was faced with difficult decisions.  No doubt he was receiving advice from legal advisers to say virtually nothing in response to the crisis.  Fortunately, he listened to the advice of public relation’s experts who helped him understand the need to communicate in order to save his brand. First, J&J smartly made it clear that it was the victim of an attack.  Then the company undertook great expense to remove the product from all shelves and to re-tool all new bottles with the tamper-proof protective sealing we all know today.  And at every step of the way they communicated with all their constituents – current and prospective Tylenol consumers, distributors, retail stores, regulators, politicians, shareholders, the media and others.  The result was that Extra-Strength Tylenol – and J&J – came back stronger than ever. Had Facebook taken a similar route from day one – namely, acknowledge that it had been the victim of hacks, and that it would staff human curators, reinforce security protocols and to do essentially whatever it would take to earn back the trust of its users – then the narrative over the past year may have been different.  As it is, calls have grown for Facebook to be regulated – a near-nightmare-scenario outcome for this publicly traded company.Nevertheless, it’s not too late for a company with Facebook’s resources to polish its image.  Mark Zuckerberg’s obviously a very intelligent guy; he listened to his advisers and he acquitted himself deftly during his 2018 Congressional hearings. But it’s actions more than words that truly sway consumers, regulators and legislators, and Facebook has been taking action as well.  In an arguably overdue olive branch to the legacy journalism sector, Facebook has committed to invest $300 million in local-news initiatives. And most recently, Zuckerberg has sought to get out in front of the issue by calling for a greater role for government – of course, on terms he finds more palatable.  “Facebook already publishes transparency reports on how effectively we’re removing harmful content, he wrote in a March 30th Washington Post opinion piece.  “I believe every major Internet service should do this quarterly, because it’s just as important as financial reporting.” However belated, it’s all a step in the right direction towards brand recovery.

In a recent report released by Clutch, a B2B research and reviews firm, Bob Gold & Associates is featured as an industry leader and Bob Gold shared his insight on how businesses should approach corporate social responsibility. Most people say businesses across industries should commit to corporate social responsibility, regardless of industry. How a company approaches corporate social responsibility can influence people’s buying decisions and people want to support businesses that share their values. Gold emphasized the importance of trust, consistency, and value to a business’s PR strategy. “There are three core qualities that are essential to every business,” Gold said. “These are trust, consistency, and value. Business need to ask themselves how do we build trust? How do we deliver consistency and what does that look like? What is value?” When approaching corporate social responsibility, businesses need to consider how they display trust, consistency, and value in their brand and how they relay these qualities to their customers. Understand the Value and Fragility of Trust With social media and the internet, the world is more transparent than ever and people expect businesses to be transparent and hold themselves accountable. “Trust is in every step of the supply chain,” Gold said. “When you say something, you should mean it.” Businesses should not only talk about why social responsibility is important, but embody social responsibility in every part of their business model. Build Trust Through ConsistencyBuilding trust is a gradual process that depends on your ability to communicate consistent messages about your brand and its value to your customers. Anytime a business adopts policies of corporate social responsibility, they should think about how it relates to their brand purpose and their customers’ values. “You always want to stay close to the mission of the brand so that it’s an authentic statement,” Gold said. “It’s authentic in that’s consistent with the values of the brand and it provides continuing value because we believe in what’s going on.” Perception in PR and Corporate Social Responsibility Matters PR and corporate social responsibility are closely linked, but are not synonymous. If corporate social responsibility is approached purely from a PR standpoint, people may view the brand as unauthentic. A brand that doesn’t consider their PR strategy at all when approaching corporate social responsibility also doesn’t consider their brand purpose or customers, which can mean people may start to view the brand negatively. “Businesses have to believe in what they’re doing,” said Roxanne Leone. “We don’t believe in publicity stunts. We believe in recommending the right publicity with the right social reason.” PR and corporate social responsibility are interconnected, but different aspects of business and brand. Businesses should consider their PR strategies when adopting socially responsible policies that are both relevant to their brand and customers. Consider What Makes Sense for Your Brand Bob Gold & Associates approach corporate social responsibility how it makes sense for our individual clients. As one of the top PR agencies, we help our clients identify their brand values and expectations of their customers so they can adopt corporate social responsibility policies that will elevate their brand, the cause they choose to support, and their customers who share the same values.

Since our company’s start in 1997, we have consistently delivered powerful results through strategies that reflect our unparalleled connections and industry insights. For years, we have been recognized for our strategic thinking and our expertise across all areas of communications in industries as varied as cable TV, programming networks, sports, telecommunications, technology, real estate and health care. To continue growing our clientele and our brand, we partnered with Clutch.co this year. Clutch is a business-to-business ratings and reviews firm in Washington, DC.   After being with Clutch for only a short period of time, we have received five incredible reviews by our clients, earning us a 5 star rating! Our clients have shared some incredibly kind comments, like: “They did a great job introducing our company to the world.” – Founder & CEO, Global Net Solutions “[Bob Gold & Associates] provides a good product, a good profit, and good process management.” – Executive Director & Founder, MESA “They’re the best firm we’ve ever worked with.” – Chief Marketing Officer, Viamedia   Because of our positive client reviews and our strong market presence evaluation, we’re ranked on Clutch as the number one PR firm in Los Angeles, we’re listed on their sister-site The Manifest amongst the top 100 PR firms worldwide, and we’ve joined the elite Clutch 1000, which is a new award rolled out this year that highlights the best agencies on Clutch regardless of industry.   We can very confidently say that 2018 has been a great year, and we’re very grateful to our business partners and supporters over the years who have helped Bob Gold & Associates get to where it is today. Public relations firms have always been an integral part of running a successful business, and it’s only becoming even more important for brands to maintain a solid reputation in today’s digital age. As we continue to grow as a company and as we accomplish new goals, we are excited for the projects that we’re working on now and for the new projects that will come our way in 2019. Reach out to us today to get started!

Roxanne Leone, director, marketing & communications I grow businesses by developing and implementing public relations and marketing initiatives each measured by ROI. I’ve learned a few tricks and tips and hard knock lessons that I want to share with you.  For example, it’s always best to leverage core messaging, resources and creative assets to get the most mileage out of any communication plan. One of my former clients was challenged to show steady growth with its investors. Before joining the team, it was pre-determined that the company would take its limited budget and jump into pay-per-click advertising with the hopes of converting leads into customers in 3-6 months. The majority of leads generated were early in the buying cycle, were not properly set up for nurturing in a CRM system and sales representatives didn’t have the patience to walk leads through the buyer’s journey. Therefore, conversions remained flat, there was high employee turn-over and investors were losing interest. For this young organization, engaging with a public relations agency would have been the more cost-effective solution to raise brand awareness, draw in more educated prospects, and satisfy investors with a solid pipeline. If you’re operating like a start-up, consider a public relations campaign to lay a solid foundation for a more successful marketing program to follow. Choose public relations over marketing when you want to: Elevate your reputation and brand: If you wish to improve your reputation and drive brand awareness with key audiences, public relations will help you build credibility through earned media placements, awards and speaking opportunities. Generate newsworthy content: Your marketing team may take the lead on messaging and funnel it into your PR department, but the way you communicate your story through a sales team is much different than the way you tell your story to journalists. PR professionals understand the needs of journalists and seek to dive deeper into supporting statistics and case studies to pitch a newsworthy story to the media to secure press. Improve investor buy-in: By earning positive media coverage investors see organizations as more established and aligned to meet audience needs. This helps pave the way for a sensible timeline to plan and incorporate an integrated marketing campaign, gather leads, close new business and keep current customers informed. Raise stakeholder awareness: Communicating internally is just as critical as managing your reputation with the media and your prospects. When your staff at every level of the organization speaks to the same message, the organization is positioned for success. It’s in the best interest of your staff to understand what you’re doing and why, and to give them the right tools to leverage correctly. In a 2017 study by USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 47% of public relations professionals and more than 60% of marketers surveyed felt that the two disciplines will become more closely aligned with each other within the next five years. So, why are there still internal battles to secure budgets and leverage content and creative assets? At Bob Gold & Associates, we are a public relations firm first and foremost, but we have the talent and expertise to know when and how to leverage marketing to get the most out of your investment. Reduce frustration and seek the advice of a full-service PR agency. Contact us today for a free consultation. We want to hear your story.

Did I Say THAT? Three Reasons Why Executives Need Media Training Getting a client’s key executive on the phone with a key member of the media or analyst firm always seems to happen in a rush: schedules are jammed with team meetings, global travel and hey, everyone has a personal life. But while the meeting is the goal, no one should forget the strategy session going into the interview. A good PR professional will be focused on WHAT the exec is going to say, not just on getting the opportunity to say it. Why should the spokesman have media training? Here are our three top reasons: The reporter has a goal in mind, and it might not be the same as yours: Reporters are not there to sing the praises of your latest product or service: they are tracking trends and looking for inside information. PR professionals talk to reporters in advance of a call to determine the goal of the call and can provide executives messaging points that match both the reporter’s goal and that of the executive. The executive may be too close to the company’s own story: The executive may be dealing daily with the development of a new product and service, the reporter is not. The PR professional is there to distill the messaging points for today’s story and make sure the executive actually relates them to a journalist! This seems obvious but we’ve all had those “I didn’t say that?” moments in reviewing the one-on-one interaction. Keep it short and to the point: We all have brilliant clients who can speed extemporaneously, and at length, on salient points affecting their companies and their industries. Our advice: don’t. Reporting staffs are small and getting smaller, and deadlines fall every hour. Work with your PR professional to distill the messages into easy-to-remember, relatable sound bites: if the reporter has time for you to expand upon the message, he or she will ask. The end goal of any interview is to be quoted with the right message. In addition, a good quip is more likely to get you featured in a multi-source trend story. Media training is essential for even the most seasoned executive and will help secure earned media.

By Christopher D. Huppertz Whether you’re the designated Facebook pundit of your office or a laggard who’s just sent their first tweet, it’s inevitable as a PR professional that you’ll need to know your way around the wonderful world of social media.  Of course the act of sending a single post is simple – you create your content and click the button which says “post” – but once you begin to juggle numerous accounts across the myriad of different social networks, even those who consider themselves “wizards” of social media find themselves lost from time to time. Fortunately for both you and I, there are a plethora of tools across the web designed specifically for the job. Before you start your next social media campaign, or even if you’re midway through one now, take a look at these six social media tools; you may be surprised by how much easier your job has become. 1. Hootsuite Hootsuite is our go-to tool for managing social media on a large scale. If you’re not already familiar, Hootsuite allows users – free of charge – to manage several accounts across varying social networks, all in one place. Need to schedule a post to go out later today, tomorrow, next week or next month? Hootsuite has you covered. The platform also provides analytical reports, among other nice benefits, to its paying users. 2. Bit.ly Bit.ly is a great tool for anyone sharing links online. This free instrument goes beyond allowing users to create their own custom short links – it also provides in depth analytics, allowing you to track and analyze how and when your audience is engaging with your posts. 3. LikeAlyzer If you’re in need of advice on how to improve your company Facebook page then look no further. LikeAlyzer is a simple to use tool from Meltwater, which generates free reports identifying the strongest and weakest points of your Facebook page. It even offers suggestions on the next steps to take for further improvement. 4. Tweriod Similar to LikeAlyzer, Tweriod is another free tool offering analytics for twitter. The tool measures the level of engagement from your audience, determining the best time and day for you to post. 5. Giphy One of my personal favorites – Giphy is a must-have for anyone who wants to share GIF images. Not only does Giphy offer a near endless archive of GIF images ready for use, it also offers you the ability to transform any video file into a custom made GIF. 6. PicMonkey PicMonkey is a great, easy to-use photo manipulation tool which just about anyone can use, without the skill or money required for similar programs such as Photoshop. The essential tools are all free to use, and can turn an “OK” image into something amazing.  Try out these tools and let us know what you think. If there’s anything you think we missed, let us know on Facebook or Twitter!