Have you ever watched your client on television and thought: “Oh, my! Look at how many chins he has, and what’s that terrible glare coming off his shirt and forehead? I never noticed in our meetings that he was that heavy. He also looks scared to death – and why does he keep licking his lips?” You tried to coach him on his message. In fact, you did all you could do to help him develop sound bites, and now you can hardly concentrate on the message with the way he looks, because he is doing so many distracting things.
This CD will teach you how to effectively coach your clients and colleagues for appearances on TV, both live and prerecorded. It will teach you when and how to offer praise and criticism without being offensive. And it covers how interviewees should dress, posture themselves and provide effective message delivery. Your purchase also includes a slew of extras – at no extra cost!
Learning Topics:
- The tricks of the trade to help people appear calm and confident on camera, even if they are not
- How to look natural — from make-up to body language and movements
- Tips and techniques to help prevent some of the unexpected distractions that can prohibit your true message from getting out to your audience
- How to motivate your clients and colleagues to improve their media performances
- How to tactfully and effectively learn to stress the need for “rehearsal”
TJ answers real-world questions on:
- Suggestions to get your boss to undergo some training
- How to convince your CEO to talk to the press
- Techniques to overcome annoying speech tics
- How to keep your answers concise and to the point
- How to provide constructive feedback in a jiffy
- How not to come off as though you’re dodging a question—even if you are
- What your executive should bring into a television or radio interview
- How to prepare an executive for the hard questions
Instructor:
TJ Walker, president of Media Training Worldwide, is one of the world’s leading authorities on media and presentation training. With more than 20 years of media training experience, TJ has trained thousands of CEOs, authors and experts, including Nobel Peace Prize winners, leading government officials in the United States, European prime ministers and African diplomats. He is producer and host of daily audio and video Speakcast broadcasts, covering media and presentation training tips and techniques. A leading corporate trainer, he has personally trained top executives at Unilever, Bank of America, Hess, Allstate Insurance, Charles Schwab, Akzo Nobel, US Trust, Dun and Bradstreet, The Hartford and EMC. He is also the official media trainer of the Miss Universe Organization.
TJ is the world’s most widely published and produced media trainer, with more than 50 books, training videos, CDs and software programs to his credit. He has also been a media columnist for Investor Relations Magazine. Additionally, Walker is known internationally for his many years as a political commentator for the Voice of America Radio Network. More than 65,000 readers subscribe to his weekly Media Training Tips Newsletter, including most of the Fortune 500 corporations. He is a frequent news commentator and has appeared often on MSNBC, Fox News Channel, Court TV and Bloomberg TV. He also has been a syndicated TV and talk show host, appearing on or hosting more than 2000 TV and radio shows. He has also hosted talk radio shows on seven different networks and has been featured in the New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, CBS radio and most major radio news outlets.
Walker was a merit scholar at Duke University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He has lectured or conducted trainings at Yale University, Columbia University and Princeton University. He is also co-leader of the Communitelligence Media Training community and posts a daily video clip on the site.
Who should Purchase:
This practical, information-packed learning opportunity is ideal for public relations professionals, as well as professionals in:
- Corporate Communications
- Internal Communications
- Public Affairs
- Public Relations
- Marketing
- Webcast Marketing
- Anyone who is associated with television broadcasts
- College/university libraries and bookstores
Are you tired of struggling to get—and keep—people’s attention and convince them to take action?
You can improve your ability to connect with and influence others by learning how our brain works and applying some simple techniques based in neuroscience.
Forget about right brain/left brain, an archaic concept. Instead, the “social brain” drives our thinking and our actions.
This session will briefly cover basic neuroscience principles geared toward non-scientists. We’ll then focus on how you can apply those principles to help yourself and others think better and perform at higher levels. By taking these actions, you can improve your influencing skills and actions.
Learn how to:
- Increase your self-awareness to improve your ability to influence
- Design the best environment for influencing
- Speak and write with intent to make better connections with others
- Make your messages more compelling and memorable
- Listen more effectively
- Slow down and quiet the brain to tap into the unconscious and speed up gaining insights and influencing
- Ask powerful thinking questions that increase focus and gain greater clarity
Your webinar leader, Liz Guthridge is an award-winning consultant, leadership coach and trainer who’s studied with Dr. David Rock of The NeuroLeadership Institute, Dr. BJ Fogg, founder of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab and other luminaries in the fields of employee communication and organizational change. Liz has extensive experience supporting leaders improve their communication, develop new habits and adapt their organizations.
Liz Guthridge is an award-winning leadership coach, consultant and trainer with extensive change, employee communication and organization development experience.
As the founder of the boutique firm Connect Consulting, Liz works with leaders at all levels to help them move from blue-sky thinking to greener pastures actions. With her support, Liz’s clients enhance the clarity of their ideas, plans and actions. Her clients also improve the quality of their conversations, their ability to influence and their skill in building habits.
Liz contributed the chapter “Change Through Smart-Mob Organizing: Using Peer-by-Peer Practices to Transform Organizations” to the book The Change Champion’s Field Guide (Wiley 2013).
Besides being a certified coach in brain-based coaching, she is serving as a teaching assistant for the Executive Masters in NeuroLeadership program through the NeuroLeadership Institute co-founded by Dr. David Rock. Liz also is a graduate of Dr. BJ Fogg’s Persuasion Boot Camp and is one of his Tiny Habits™ coaches.
Copyright @ 2014 Communitelligence Inc.
- Do your communication efforts tend to be “one-offs” that consume a lot of time and effort but don’t always generate the results you had hoped for?
- Do senior leaders’ eyes glaze over when you explain your latest “big idea”?
- Do you wish you had more time to spend learning about new things and less putting out fires?
While strategic planning is probably at the top of the list of things that most communicatorsdon’t want to do, the reality is that when done well, strategic planning can not only help to save time, and money, but can increase the odds of achieving desired communication outcomes. And, the good news is, effective planning doesn’t have to take weeks or months or result in dozens of meetings. In fact, the process can actually be quite simple and straightforward.
This webinar will offer easy-to-follow steps and provide practical tips and advice that can be used for any planning effort—from developing an internal communications plan to developing a marketing campaign—or even focusing on a single initiative.
What You Will Learn:
- How to position the plan for success by starting with the end in mind
- Why your mission statement is your friend
- How and why to align your efforts with your organization’s strategic plan
- A step-by-step process for developing a strategic plan
- Developing a process for plan updates – how to keep the plan alive
- How to build measurement into the plan
- How to make sure things get done!
Who Should Attend
- Communicators, PR and marketing professionals at all levels.
Presented by:
Linda Pophal is CEO of Strategic Communications, and a marketing and communication strategist with 20+ years experience in healthcare, education and not-for-profit marketing and communications. She has managed all aspects of corporate and marketing communication including employee communication, public relations, advertising, social media, market research, brand management and strategic planning. Pophal has developed and implemented strategic business, marketing and communication plans for healthcare and educational organizations and consultants, generating measurable results based on client goals. She has developed and delivered training programs for national and local audiences on all aspects of communication management and employee relations. She is author of The Essentials of Corporate Communications and PR and Complete Idiot’s Guide to Strategic Planning.
At Cisco, they’ve changed the way they use words. It’s saving them money and helping them work together better. It’s connecting the internal culture to the business in deeper, more meaningful ways. And that’s helping them serve customers better and sell more.
In this session, Mark Buchanan, program lead for Cisco’s brand language initiative, paints a picture of how Cisco is changing the way 75,000 employees are using words across a $130 Billion business. He’ll walk you through how the brand language team set the plan in motion and made lasting changes. He’ll include practical tips and share insights, successes, and challenges. And he’ll give you his thoughts about how the lessons from Cisco can make a difference for your business.
The session includes:
- Evaluating the opportunity
- Aligning your voice with your business
- Connecting with your audience
- Scaling the program
- Making it stick
Presented by:
Mark Buchanan is the program lead for brand language at Cisco. He’s helping the company use language that is simpler and more distinctive. And he’s helping bring empathy back to a technology company that has always cared about people, but has found those values challenged by rapid growth and increasingly complex technology. He’s worked with Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Services and Corporate Communications and has seen impressive results across every function. Together, Mark and the people at Cisco are changing the culture of language and communications, around the world for 75,000 employees, 50,000 contractors and vendors, across a $130 billion business.
When the exec or the client is stuck on newsletters, cool new technologies, or sending e-mails and memos, get them refocused on strategy. Quit being an order taker, and start doling out more value to your execs and clients by using questions and a little psychology to drive strategic thinking. Now more than ever communicators must be courageous and add value. Tight Q&A, skilled facilitation approaches and more enable the communicator.
What You Will Learn:
- Use questions effectively to drive strategic thinking
- Enable client or exec “discovery” of the right approach
- Use planning and flexible facilitation to create planning meeting that achieve goals and bring ‘em back for more impact
Questions that will be answered
- How do I tell my exec their idea is a bad one?
- How do I get my client refocused on the right stuff?
- What do I do when my exec high-jacks my planning meeting?
- What do I do when we stray off agenda at a strategic planning session?
Presented by:
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado. Stacy has more than 22 years of experience and has been completely focused on internal communication and organizational development since the mid 90’s. Her firm helps organizations communicate more effectively with employees, using internal communication as a lever to positively impact the bottom line.
Eloquor serves a broad array of industries with a full complement of internal communication services. Stacy and her team primarily focus on: Intranet, portal and social technology governance and usability; Change communication; Strategic internal and HR communication; Internal brand integration; Leader communication training and other OD assignments.
The firm’s sweet spots are technology-related assignments, such as portal governance and usability, and change communication, such as major systems changes. Clients include ConocoPhillips, MTS Systems, Tyco Electronics, IHS, the IRS, a Fortune 35 healthcare company, a Fortune 150 defense contractor and a Fortune 50 financial services company. Stacy is a past IABC international board member and recently chaired the 2008 IABC Southern Region Conference. She is also a member of the Council of Communication Management and the Society of HR Management.
No one has to tell you what a great speech is, right? You know one when you hear it.
Well you’re about to hear a bunch of them—and you’re going to learn from them, guaranteed.
Vital Speeches of the Day editor David Murray presents “Speechwriting Jam Session 2010,” 75 entertaining, inspirational and instructive minutes that will have the hair standing up on the same arm you’re scribbling notes with. We’ll discuss, even debate, what makes these great speeches great.
Through dramatic readings from winners of the 2010 Cicero Speechwriting Awards and highlight reels from the Vital Speeches YouTube site, Murray will help us reawaken the giants within us by sharing together excerpts from speeches contemporary and classic, famous and rare. (In the true spirit of an improvisational jam session, you’ll even have a chance to nominate some of your own YouTube favorites, so come prepared!)
You’ll come away from this session with:
• Concrete examples showing how leaders are addressing the issues of this particular moment in business, politics and society.
• A stockpile of examples—video and text—to show reticent speakers: rhetorical tactics that have passed the test and been pulled off by the best.
• Renewed enthusiasm and an expanded sense of what’s possible in leadership communication.
• And a goose bumps, guaranteed.
SESSION LEADER:
- David Murray writes and speaks about communication—business, political and personal. He’s editor of Vital Speeches of the Day, a monthly collection of the best speeches in the world. He writes about sports, people, politics and travel for magazines, newspapers and websites. publications and websites. And he discusses the communication life at his popular personal blog, Writing Boots.http://www.vsotd.comhttp://writingboots.typepad.com/writing_boots/profiles/http://writingboots.typepad.com/
Email is now so embedded into our daily lives that we think nothing of it. We need to, however, because the Internet’s original “killer app” is starting to kill employee productivity and focus. Consider these findings:
- The average business executive spends two hours a day on e-mail
- 70% of employees react to emails within 6 seconds of them arriving
- The number of e-mail messages sent is rising dramatically — by some estimates, by more than 20% a year
- Almost one in five emails was copied unnecessarily to staff members other than the main recipient
- The use – and, particularly, the misuse – of email costs businesses up to $16,000 per employee per year
This webinar is aimed at arming attendees with the insight and ideas to help them get a lot smarter about using email, for themselves and their organizations. Don’t miss this rare chance to learn the latest thinking and best practices from two of the foremost global experts on this topic.
What you will learn:
- The state of workplace email today, and why communication professionals need to get activated in the battle
- Why this problem is so hard to solve, and what you must do to overcome the hurdles
- How to develop a centralized strategy to minimize internal communication emails
- How to launch an effective email etiquette program that will make everyone in your organization happier about their inbox.
- Tools, tips and tricks to outsmart your inbox
“I learned that the biggest levers we can pull to change our email situation are behavior based, not technology based.”
“I didn’t realize how much research exists on this topic.”
Who should attend
Anyone who would like to learn how to better conquer their daily email war, and help their organization feel less pain and angst from their inbox. This webinar is especially suitable for professionals in the areas of internal communications, marketing and public relations.
Presented by:
David Grossman, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, is both a teacher and student of effective communication. He is one of America’s foremost authorities on communication and leadership inside organizations. A much sought-after consultant and speaker, David is often quoted in media, providing expert commentary and analysis on employee and leadership issues. Most recently, he was featured on “NBC Nightly News” about e-mail overload, and in the Chicago Tribune. David is Founder and CEO of The Grossman Group, an award-winning Chicago-based communications consultancy focused on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development and internal communications. His most recent books are You Can’t NOT Communicate: Proven Solutions That Power the Fortune 100, (now in its second edition), and its follow up You Can’t NOT Communicate 2: More Proven Solutions That Power the Fortune 100.
Nathan Zeldes is an independent organizational consultant, a role he has adopted in 2009 after a 26 year career at Intel corporation. A physicist morphed into an organizational change agent, Nathan is recognized as a global thought leader in the search for improved knowledge worker productivity. Having enjoyed a long career as a manager and principal IT engineer at Intel, he now helps organizations to solve core problems at the intersection of technology and human behavior. His experience includes initiating and leading optimal corporate technology adoptions in the domains of Information Technology, Internet applications, Innovation Management, Remote and Distributed work, and Knowledge Management. A key component in Nathan’s work is mitigating the problem of email and information overload which is harming the productivity and quality of life of Knowledge Workers everywhere. He had identified the problem 17 years ago, and since then he’s developed and deployed original solutions at Intel and other companies, and has founded the Information Overload Research Group to further its study. He is also active at present in the areas of Social Media adoption, Technical Leadership development, and the multi-generational workplace of the future. Nathan’s blog is Challenge Information Overload.
Social media is a two-edged sword. We tend to only talk about the positive side — how social channels creatively deployed can greatly expand your organization’s marketing reach. Not much attention is paid to the dark, destructive side of social media — how a single customer complaint ignite a firestorm sweeping the Web and causing the most hardened organizations to panic. What to do? What to say?
This webinar explains the dynamics of customer activism in today’s democratized media world. It offers practical, actionable avoidance and response strategies for business executives and professional communicators. It also outlines processes to building an attack-proof culture that centers on customer satisfaction.
The good news is that bad buzz can be countered by earnest and savvy customer engagement. You can actually turn the angriest customers into raving fans.
“Great information that I can share with others who handle social media. Very informative and loved hearing the case studies.”
What You Will Learn:
- Why common business responses to customer complaints often make matters worse;
- Why complaining customers can be some of an organization’s most valuable assets;
- How vocal critics can be turned into raving fans with an active response strategy;
- How to manage and respond to comments on customer review sites;
- Customer support strategies for Facebook and Twitter;
- How to organize a team to identify and respond to attacks in minutes; and
- How to create a culture that puts customers first.
Who Should Attend
This webinar is designed for everyone who would like to help their organizations react to any online crisis that might erupt. It is especially suitable for:
- Brand managers, marketers, PR pros, social media managers, communications department staffers, public affairs, security, employee communications, media relations and issues management professionals.
Presented by:
Paul Gillin is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. He is a popular speaker who is known for his ability to simplify complex concepts using plain talk, anecdotes and humor.
Paul is a prolific writer who has written five books and more than 200 published articles since 2007, in addition to two blogs. His award-winning 2007 book, The New Influencers, chronicled the changes in markets being driven by the new breed of bloggers and podcasters. His most recent book is Attack of the Customers. It documents the increasing incidence of online customer negativity and tells of businesses can avoid being victimized.
Think of any great presenter—Steve Jobs, Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos—and it won’t take you long to figure out that they are also master storytellers. Storytelling is increasingly becoming a “must-have” skill for business leaders, but you still won’t find it on any MBA curriculum.
This webinar will give you a deeper understanding why story is such a powerful strategic tool and how it can be used in the business setting. We will show you a specific “before and after” example of how a case study was transformed into powerful case story for pitching new business. We’ll also give you some key tips on how to craft and use stories to make an impact in your next big presentation or business meeting.
“As an ex-newspaper reporter, I have always recognized the value of storytelling. This webinar helped provide a great framework for bringing people into the important strategic and cultural stories I need to be communicating.”
What You Will Learn:
- The neuroscience and psychology that proves why stories work
- Tips for transforming run-of-the-mill presentation content into powerful stories that engage audiences
- How storytelling can be used as strategic tool to build chemistry and trust with others
- How even data-driven presentations can benefit from the art of storytelling
- The difference between conventional storytelling and strategic storytelling for business purposes. Please bring your ideas and questions!
Who Should Attend
This webinar is primarily aimed at those in the early stages of implementing or learning about strategic business storytelling, although it will also help more advanced practioners to focus their efforts. It is especially suitable for:
- Small and mid-sized business leaders
- Corporate executives who are new to storytelling
Presented by:
Jane Praeger is a former documentary filmmaker and faculty member in Columbia University’s M.S. program in Strategic Communications and Communications Practice where she teaches presentation design and delivery, communications strategy, strategic storytelling and writing. She founded Ovid Inc. in 1992 to help people find their public voices. Since then, she has provided speech, presentation, media training and customized workshops, to corporations such as Nickelodeon, Coach, Estee Lauder, McKinsey & Company, Euro RSCG Worldwide, as well as other technology, entertainment, and consulting firms. On the non-profit side, she has worked with Open Society Foundations, Doctors Without Borders, Atlantic Philanthropies, The Ms. Foundation, Harvard University, Columbia University Business School, and many others.
Heather Thomas is a business builder who has clocked countless hours performing “on stage” in the presentation spotlight. She earned her stripes in the agency world, working at Agency.com, Modem Media and the digital agency Critical Mass where she built their Business Development and Corporate Marketing practice from the ground up, ultimately tripling their revenue. After crafting hundreds of high-stakes presentations to win clients such as Procter & Gamble, NASA and Dell, Heather joined Ovid in 2010 to pass what she learned about persuasive presentations to others. In addition to her work with Ovid, Heather runs Winsome, a business development consulting boutique. She is also an adjunct instructor at Columbia University where she teaches Masters students the art of strategic storytelling. Heather is a cum laude graduate of Princeton University.
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Whether explicit or not, all corporate communication has an underlying goal of persuading an audience to do something, i.e., like you, trust you, embrace a scary change, buy your product or service, etc.
Even if you buy this logic, you probably aren’t yet persuaded that you need to purchase this webinar on moving an audience to action. Why? Because facts and data alone do not convince audiences; they have to desire to act. That’s where rhetoric, the study of understanding, discovering and developing arguments for particular situations, comes in. It behooves all of us in business, especially those in corporate communications, to know and use the essential time-tested secrets for changing an audience’s mood, mind and willingness to act.
Don’t miss this chance to learn from rhetoric expert and author of Thank You For Arguing, Jay Heinrichs, who has been described as a cross between Cicero and David Letterman. During this pithy and entertaining webinar, Jay will teach us the most practical tips and tools to master the art of persuasion, whether when speaking or writing, using sources as diverse as Aristotle, Lincoln and Homer Simpson. Whether you work in marketing, sales, public relations, internal communications or executive leadership, this webinar is for you. Are you persuaded yet?
“The Pivot concept was the best idea. Thanks for putting these together – you offer a valuable product at affordable prices.”
What You Will Learn:
- First, the 3-step strategy for getting the audience the mood and moving it toward action
- Ethos, pathos or logos … which persuades best, when?
- What’s the best medium for your message?
- A simple strategy to get an argument unstuck
- Aristotle’s three traits of credible leadership
- A “tool kit” of rhetorical tactics, from the Pivot to the Reluctant Conclusion
Who Should Attend
This webinar is designed for everyone who would like to win audiences and move them to action by understanding the power of rhetoric. It is especially suitable for:
- Corporate communicators, marketers, adverting execs, HR, sales, writers and editors, teachers, students and politicians.
Presented by:
Jay Heinrichs “brings the art of persuasion to the masters of manipulation,” according to Bloomberg Businessweek. After 25 years as a journalist and publishing executive, Jay dedicated himself to studying persuasion full-time, researching ancient and modern rhetoric and linguistics, interviewing rhetoricians around the country, and studying modern neuroscience. Combining rhetoric with marketing techniques, he teaches some of the most powerful tools of persuasion, ranging from “Ethos C4” to the “Eddie Haskell Ploy.” Jay’s book, Thank You for Arguing, is published in six languages and bought in bulk by corporations, high school AP English programs, and college rhetoric departments. Jay is also the author of Word Hero, a fun guide to becoming a better writer and speaker. You can learn more atjayheinrichs.com.
In this age of rapid communication, openness and transparency, it becomes more important than ever to find common ground and forums for dialogue with stakeholder groups beyond customers and shareholders. Mutually beneficial alliances with environmentalists, health-care advocates and similar groups can provide insights into markets, societal trends and public concerns. Done well, such alliances can enhance the reputation of both the company involved and the advocacy group. Learn how McDonald’s and Tyson Foods have implemented mutually beneficial alliances with advocacy groups and NGOs.
What You Will Learn:
- What works and what doesn’t in building alliances with advocacy groups
- NGOs as friends, foes and collaborators
- Best practices in forming productive alliances with advocacy groups
Questions Asked and Answered
- What are some of the criteria you use to select NGO’s?
- Do you see significant variance between the individuals within NGO’s?
- Does McDonalds carry on an open dialogue with PETA and other antagonists in the 9 and 10 zone?
- Can you talk more about using social networking for NGO engagement?
- CSPI and PETA are very antagonistic; what guidance can you offer for dealig with these specific entities?
- What’s the most effective approach for a national company with only 1 PR and 1 Community Relations employee and no agency?
- Is it best to focus on one issue like Tyson is doing with hunger, and establish leadership over long term, or try to be involved in many other issues on a lesser scale?
- Are there any examples faith-based organizations who have been good partners for you to work with?
- Social media engagement takes a lot of manpower to do. Are either of you adding to staff to engage online with NGO’s?
- Can you both give examples of how you have enabled local leaders to emulate your corporate strategies on a local basis?
- Who is the most important audience to hear about your commitment to hunger?
Presented by:
Bob Langert is Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility for McDonald’s. His responsibilities with McDonald’s include social responsibility efforts, including McDonald’s social responsibility reporting; Global environmental management systems and issues; Global supply chain issues (e.g., sustainable agriculture, biotechnology, animal agricultural and animal welfare programs); Issues management; and part of McDonald’s “Balanced, Active Lifestyles” team.
Langert joined McDonald’s in 1983, with management positions in logistics and packaging purchasing in the 80s; and responsibilities for environment, energy management, animal welfare, Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, emerging issues’ management, and, most recently, social responsibility in the 90’s through today. He earned an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; a BA from Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois, and a BS at Hamburger University.
Ed Nicholson is currently director of corporate community and public relations for Tyson Foods, Inc. He has been with Tyson since 1995, previously serving as the company’s director of media relations, and primary media spokesperson. Ed is part of a team that helps create and implement community relations strategies in the 100 U.S. communities in which Tyson Foods has operations. He is also responsible for managing relationships within Tyson’s primary area of philanthropic activity, hunger relief. He has been at the forefront of Tyson’s use of social media, which is focused on creating community around the issue of hunger.
Peter Faur, president of RightPoint Communications Inc., has been
on the front lines of controversies ranging from environmental spills and cleanups to industrial fatalities to allegations of animal abuse at marine theme parks. He is known for keeping a cool head, getting people from many walks of life to talk together, and helping people learn how to explore each other’s concerns so they can find mutually agreeable solutions to problems they face. Faur moved to Phoenix in late 2002 to head the communications staff of Phelps Dodge Corp., a copper-mining company acquired in 2007 by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. As vice president-corporate communications, he was responsible for all the company’s internal and external communications programs. He designed and implemented a community relations and communications model now replicated in several communities in which the company is pursuing environmental remediation projects. While the issues are controversial, the company has been able to build bases of support and has kept strong, results-oriented dialogues in place.
Additional Resources:
- McDonald’s Corporate Responsibility homepage
- Tyson Foods Hunger Relief Homepage – Recent News Releases
- Peter Faur’s Common Ground Blog Post on this webinar
Stop repeating these 10 proven mistakes when dealing with the media and managing your media relations program!
Ever since outlaw Jesse James wrote and issued the first news release, media relations practitioners have steadfastly refused to learn from the mistakes of their forebears.In James’s case, he didn’t take into account the suspicious and questioning nature of the reading populace, who viewed his bombastic news releases as early American “spin control.”
Learning Topics
Underestimating the intelligence of your audience is just one of the 10 major mistakes covered in this session. Others include:
- Not being a student of the media, keeping up with their changes needs and trends
- Confusing media output numbers with bottom-line outcome measures
- Annoying editors with misdirected and/or badly-prepared materials
- Not routinely evaluating your media relations programs and management
- Trying to substitute media relations for communication
Wilma answers real-world questions on:
- Holding the media accountable and keeping them from allowing bias or half-truths from creeping into news coverage, so that what is reported is straight, honest and fair
- How recent college graduates — with no contacts — can build relationships with the media
- The most effective ways to pitch
- Dealing with a less-than-objective journalist
- The best way to get to know a editor, writer or reporter
- The most important and effective tools in media relations
- The best day/time to pitch stories
- The least offensive way to bring a reporter’s error to his or her attention – and how to ask for a correction
- Pushing the envelope: How persistent you should be in making your pitch
- Teaching senior management the difference between a subjective, self-serving news item and a legitimate, content-rich press release
- Measures practitioners should routinely implement to measure results on the fly – especially during a crisis
- The biggest changes in media relations over the past 10 years
Presented by:
Wilma Mathews, ABC and IABC Fellow, works for Arizona State University as director of constituent relations. She also conducts media relations seminars, provides media training for corporate executives and is co-author of On Deadline: Managing Media Relations (4th edition, Spring 2006). Her background includes corporate communications and international public relations for AT&T/Lucent; nonprofit communication for two chambers of commerce and a medical center; and writing/editing for a newspaper and magazine. A national and international speaker, Wilma also contributes articles to trade publications and lectures on PR and media relations at ASU.
Surprisingly, there is no defined background or career path for those who aspire to the position of global corporate brand manager. Public relations and corporate communications practitioners often believe they have the right to be the strongest voice in determining the brand. After all,among the responsibilities of the most senior public relations (PR) executive is that of promoting and protecting the reputation of the corporation.
But at a time when global brands are valued in the billions, there is a dearth of good practical advice on what business professionals from many areas could and should be doing to build and protect their organization’s brand. And everyone from designers to lawyers to marketers to advertisers and even HR professionals can and should be playing a role. Nothing is more important than living the brand.
This webinar offers a chance to hear Michael Morley discuss themes from his new book, The Global Corporate Brand Book. He will show how corporate brand value can be measured in finite terms and encourages PR people to aspire to the role of corporate brand managers. This way their own work’s importance will be recognized and funded. But before this can be achieved, they will need to widen their knowledge beyond traditional PR techniques.
What You Will Learn:
- The six critical elements of a global corporate brand
- Case histories of successful global corporate brands
- The role of corporate communications in corporate brand building
“Presenter was extremely knowledgeable, presented well and used some excellent examples. He dug far deeper into branding and reputation management than I have ever seen or heard. His laying out of the six Vs was creative, sensitive and well done.”
Presented by:
Michael Morley is president of Morley Corporate Consulting, a firm of management consultants in corporate reputation and branding. For nearly 40 years Morley worked at Edelman helping establish it as the world’s largest independent PR agency. He founded the agency’s first overseas office, in London in 1967. He went on to be named President of Edelman International Corporation and established other Edelman offices in Europe, Canada , Asia Pacific and Latin America . Since 1984 he has been based in New York.
Morley has managed multi-national PR programs for companies that include UPS, AMADEUS Global Travel Distribution, NCR, VISA International, British Airways, Ernst & Young, Hoffmann-La Roche, Schering Plough, Procter & Gamble , S.C. Johnson and Hertz Corporation. From 1995 to 1998 Morley was President of Edelman New York and from 1998-2001 was Deputy Chairman and President of International Operations. He served as Deputy Chairman of Daniel J. Edelman Inc until his retirement in 2006.
He is also Chair of the Senior Advisory Board Experts (SAGEs) of the Echo Research Group and adjunct professor teaching in the Master of Science in PR and Corporate Communications program at New York University.
Before joining Edelman, Morley had served as an officer in the Royal Artillery and after a period in journalism had been a director of another British PR firm for seven years. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, lectures extensively on PR, holds the CAM Diploma and in 1981 was elected to a Fellowship in the organization that is responsible for P.R. education and examinations in Britain . He served as Chairman of the jury of the IPRA Golden World Awards from 1999-2002. In June 2003 Morley was awarded the Alan Campbell-Johnson Medal for distinguished service to International Public Relations by The Institute of Public Relations. Later the same year he was one of the first six PR leaders named to the ICCO Hall of Fame.
Brand champions are internal and external story tellers who spread the brand vision, brand values and cultivate the brand in an organization. Every organization needs committed and passionate brand champions. Be it your employees, investors, customers, or other key influencers, true advocates for your brand affect the corporate bottom-line and are critical to maintaining strong brand equity.
What You Will Learn:
- Why does branding matter, and how does it translate to profitability?
- What are the world’s most powerful brands, and what are they doing consistently right
- Does your brand really speak to all stakeholders? How is stakeholder value measured and valued?
- What are the best practices for building powerful brands?
What Do Your Customers Think About Your Company? (And Are They Right?)
A company’s image is perhaps its most powerful marketing asset. On the cutting edge of corporate strategy, image is essential for positioning a company for maximum growth. When finely honed and used correctly, corporate “image” can influence consumer choices, build brands, pre-sell products and services, and add value to a company in the minds of its public.
Case studies and best-practice examples: Jim Gregory, noted brand expert, will moderate this discussion and delve into Dell Computer and JetBlue Airways corporate case studies that will look at different stakeholders and how they can positively affect your brand.
Presented by:
Jim Gregory is founder and CEO of CoreBrand, a global brand strategy and communications firm based in Stamford, Connecticut with offices in New York, New York and Tokyo, Japan.
With 30 years of experience in advertising and branding, Jim is a leading expert on brand management and credited with developing pioneering and innovative tools for measuring the power of brands and their impact on a corporation’s financial performance.
Among the tools Jim has developed is the Corporate Branding Index® (CBI) – a research vehicle that has continuously tracked the reputation and financial performance of over 1200 publicly traded companies in 47 industries since 1990. CoreBrand uses the CBI to help clients understand how their brand compares with industry peers and determine how communications can impact corporate reputation and financial performance – including stock price and revenue growth.
Jim is a brand council member for both Bristol-Myers Squibb and New York Stock Exchange. He is a frequent speaker on the financial benefits of advertising and brand management for The Wall Street Journal as well as BusinessWeek.
Jim has written four books on creating value with brands, Marketing Corporate Image, Leveraging the Corporate Brand, Branding Across Borders and The Best of Branding. His latest white paper, Driving Brand Equity and Accountability, was sponsored by Barron’s and published by the Association of National Advertisers. Jim may be reached directly at 203.564.2439 or by email.
Bob Pearson serves as vice president of communities and conversations for Dell. As a member of Dell’s Communications team, he is responsible for digital media activities, ranging from customer resolution to management of IdeaStorm, Direct2Dell, StudioDell and other digital initiatives. His teams are also responsible for corporate media, public affairs, internal communications and the Office of the Chairman communications.
Before joining Dell, Mr. Pearson worked for Novartis Pharmaceuticals as Head of Global Corporate Communications and as Head of Global Pharma Communications, where he served on the Pharma Executive Committee. Prior to Novartis, Bob was President of The Americas for GCI and was responsible for creating and building the firm’s global healthcare practice. He was previously Vice President of Global Public Affairs & Media Relations at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi Aventis) and worked at CIBA-Geigy in both communications and field sales. He has more than 20 years experience in executive corporate communications and public relations.
As Brand Manager for JetBlue Airways Kim Ruvolo manages both internal and external brand strategy, including all brand communications, product and brand building, customer and crewmember experience, and delivering JetBlue’s brand promise to “Bring Humanity Back to Air Travel”. Her recent projects include the internal launch of Happy Jetting, JetBlue’s most recent advertising campaign; creating and re-focusing ShopBlue—JetBlue’s online retail store; reevaluating and redesigning the current uniform program; and executing JetBlue’s industry-leading Customer Bill of Rights.
Prior to being employed at JetBlue, Kim worked at Denver-based Frontier Airlines for five years where she spent most of her time re-branding the airline—a project that increased Frontier’s brand awareness from 47 to 89 percent in the Denver area. Kim attributes her knowledge of good customer service and understanding of airline operations to her first-years in the airline industry as a reservations agent.
PR & Marketing Is Changing – Are You? Online PR provides the means to reach target audiences directly, with or without participation of the news media. Internet marketers have been doing that for years, but public relations professionals have been slow to get on board. No PR professional can afford to ignore online PR or outsource it to specialists; it is an essential part of the skill set all PR professionals must have. It’s as fundamental as writing, pitching and building relationships.
So, what must you know to thrive in this ever-changing online environment? If you’re like most public relations pros, you need a broader knowledgebase, greater online skills – and perhaps, a new mindset. PR pros are doing a better job with social media than keyword research and SEO, which much change. To define online PR simply as social media is short-sighted and will lead PR pros astray. This jam-packed webinar will give you a critical understanding of the basic online PR skills you need to master fast, for the sake of your clients, employers and your career.
Learning Topics:
- When SEO meets PR: how to write effectively for sites, releases, articles and newsletters
- When PR meets social media: which sites, what to monitor, and how do you know it’s working?
- How keyword research for Online PR differs from online advertising
- Online PR best practices for your website
- Optimizing online press releases—what’s most effective now
What You Will Learn:
- 4 results-driven SEO techniques for online PR
- A 10-minute keyword research method that always yields insights
- The right and wrong role websites play with Online PR
- 3 proven ways to write copy for both humans and search engines
- Traditional vs. online releases: the real data may surprise you
- An overlooked yet powerful method to gain consistent web site traffic
- The Online PR Social Media blueprint: it’s not what you think
- Buzz and reputation monitoring: recommended tools and tactics.
Presented by:
Jim Bowman has broad experience in all functional areas of public relations and corporate communications, with an emphasis on media relations. As Vice President of Corporate Communications for Nokia Inc., he was part of the global team that established Nokia as one of the world’s top 10 brands. Jim’s strategies and creative thinking have helped build the brands and images of some of the world’s most respected companies and get small companies known. As owner and President of J. R. Bowman and Associates, LLC, Jim now concentrates on serving small-to-medium-size businesses. Jim’s ability to diagnose PR problems and suggest solutions earned him the name, “The PR Doc®” among his associates. He has launched http://www.theprdoc.com to help small agencies and individual public relations practitioners get affordable access to PR tools and expert help from senior practitioners. Jim was recognized by his peers with election to the Arthur W. Page Society, a selected-membership organization of senior public relations executives, and appointment to the client advisory board of the Council of Public Relations Firms.
Mike Moran, is author of the acclaimed book on Internet marketing, Do It Wrong Quickly, on the heels of the best-selling Search Engine Marketing, Inc., Mike Moran led many initiatives on IBM’s Web site for eight years, including IBM’s original search marketing strategy. Mike holds an Advanced Certificate in Market Management Practice from the Royal UK Charter Institute of Marketing, and is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He also writes marketing columns for Internet Evolution and Search Engine Guide. Mike frequently keynotes conferences on Internet marketing for marketers, public relations specialists, market researchers, and technologists, and serves as Chief Strategist for Converseon, a leading digital media marketing agency. Prior to joining Converseon, Mike worked for IBM for 30 years, rising to the level of Distinguished Engineer. Mike can be reached through his Web site (mikemoran.com), which is also home to his Biznology newsletter and blog.
Marc Harty is CEO of MainTopic Media, Inc., a strategically focused, values-driven, marketing consultancy and training company. Ever the entrepreneur, Marc has owned an ad agency, a web development firm, and a search marketing firm. A marketing strategist with over two decades of distinguished service, Marc has won over 200 local, national and International awards, including two Clio’s and “Best Of Show” from The Dallas Ad League. Marc speaks regularly on Online PR, Thought Leadership, Social Marketing and Internet Business Transformation. His true passion? Developing proven marketing programs that can help anyone get the visibility and results to successfully manifest their life purpose.
Proving the value of public relations continues to be one of the profession’s most vexing challenges. Mark Weiner, CEO of PRIME Research in North America, and John Gilfeather, President of the Marketing Research Council, share their experiences in helping some of the world’s most admired companies and brands, including Procter & Gamble, ATT, GE and more. In addition, the two provide the tools you can use now to demonstrate and generate a positive return on your PR.
What You Will Learn:
- Three keys to optimizing objectives-setting
- How to conduct an “Executive Audit,” a proven approach to uncovering the often secret PR value system within your own organization
- How to establish credible measurement systems for reputation and other key outcomes
- The three established criteria for generating a positive return on your investment in PR with case studies from GE, Miller Brewing and TXU
Additional questions that will be answered:
- What is a reasonable budget to conduct a credible measurement program?
- What is the risk-free approach to setting objectives?
- How do I minimize the risk of evaluating our PR?
- What can I do now to begin generating a positive return on investment?
Presented by:
Mark Weiner is the CEO of PRIME Research in North America. PRIME Research is one of the world’s largest public relations and corporate communications research and consulting providers with offices in Western Europe, North and South America, Eastern Europe and the Far East. Since 1993, Mark has devoted his career to helping many of the world’s most respected organizations and brands to demonstrate and generate a positive return on their investment in corporate and brand communications. He is the author of “Unleashing the Power of PR: A Contrarian’s Guide to Marketing and Communication” published by John Wiley & Sons.
Prior to PRIME, Mark Weiner was the Global Director and Senior Vice President of Ketchum Research where he led an international team of analysts. Prior to joining Ketchum, Weiner was the CEO and president of Delahaye, a global public relations research and consulting firm.
Weiner is a member of the PRSA, IABC and the Institute for Public Relations for whom he served as Trustee and Chairman of the Research and Measurement Commission. He is an editorial advisory board member of PRSA’s Strategist and PR News. A frequent provider of provocative public relations content, Weiner is a recurring conference speaker at international and domestic events, and a prolific author, having published more than one hundred articles.
John Gilfeather is an expert in corporate reputation measurement, public affairs research and B2B marketing. He was Managing Partner at Yankelovich and was responsible for all the custom research of the firm. After 30 years at Yankelovich, he joined Roper Starch Worldwide where he was Vice Chairman and head of Roper Public Affairs and Media. For the past 2+ years, he was Executive Vice President in charge of Stakeholder Management research for TNS in the North America.
Mr. Gilfeather conducted groundbreaking research in corporate reputation for Time Magazine on the 1970s, for Brouillard Communications in the 1980’s and for Fortune Magazine in the 1990s. In the current decade, he created the Roper Corporate Reputation Scorecard and the TNS Corporate Social Responsibility Report Card. He is a frequent speaker on reputation matters for the PR Leadership Forum, the CCI Leaders Forum, PR News seminars, the Fortune Corporate Marketing Forum and the Fortune Global Marketing Forum.
Mr. Gilfeather is a Past Chair of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) and served on it Board for nine years. He is a founding member of the Institute for Public Relations’ Commission on Measurement and Evaluation. Currently, he is President of the Marketing Research Council.
Communicators have been using PR to deliver value for decades. What’s new is that a handful of leading professionals are now scientifically proving how they are generating measurable benefits from the public relations activities. The progress that this change represents is significant: rather than relying on subjective perceptions of what represents value, they are applying the concept of “return on investment” (ROI) and objectively measuring the economic benefits of public relations activity against its associated costs. In this perspective-packed web conference, Mark Weiner offers a research-based model for creating and implementing public relations programs that will generate meaningful results and improve an organization’s ROI. You will also learn how to speak to senior executives in a way that will improve communications and ultimately help strengthen PR performance and results.
What You Will Learn:
- The Difference between “proving value” and “delivering a return-on-investment.”
- The three elements of PR-ROI
- What some of the world’s greatest organizations are doing to prove and improve their PR-ROI (and how they do it)…including branded case studies
- How you can take your PR programs to the next level in clearly demonstrating ROI
- What’s required to go beyond “ROI
Real-world questions that will be answered:
- How do I prove the value of my PR?
- What is the difference between “proving value” and “delivering ROI?”
- How do I connect our PR to meaningful business outcomes and Return-on-Investment?
- What are the three forms of PR-ROI?
- What are companies doing now to deliver and improve their ROI?
- How do I get started?
Presented by:
Mark Weiner is the author of “Unleashing the Power of PR: A Contrarian’s Guide to Marketing and Communication,” published by John Wiley & Sons. Throughout his career, Mark has focused on providing research-based consulting to help clients improve their PR-ROI. Most recently, Mark was the SVP/Global Director of Research at Ketchum after having been president and CEO of Delahaye, the preeminent provider of research solutions for public relations and corporate communications professionals. Mark is a frequent speaker at conferences including those produced by The Conference Board, The American Marketing Association, The PRSA, The IABC and Bulldog Reporter, and he frequently contributes to publications such as Communication World, PR Week and The Daily ‘Dog and has appeared on PBS and CNBC. He is on the editorial advisory boards of PR News and PRSA’s The Strategist, and is an active member of the Institute for Public Relations, for whom he chaired the Measurement Commission in 2004.
Can you prove the value of your communication, marketing and PR programs? It’s a simple question, and your bosses rightfully expect concrete answers. How you respond affects the objectives you set, the programs you embark on and ultimately your career success.
Join “Unleashing the Power of PR” author and PRIME Research CEO, Mark Weiner, and SVP of BurrellesLuce, Johna Burke, as they walk you through the current communication measurement landscape in a way that makes new sense. Moderated by award winning journalist, communicator and president of Communitelligence, John Gerstner, Mark and Johna will answer — and sometimes debate — the most important and challenging questions every communication professional needs to know to prove the value of their internal and external communication programs.
This won’t just be a 5,000-foot fly-by of the topic. You’ll gain practical takeaways and actionable advice. Don’t miss this special webinar designed to amp up your skills in measuring PR programs and proving your worth. Did we mention this stuff is critical to your career?
Audio Excerpt
Some of the questions that will be answered:
- What kind of metrics should PR people be measuring?
- Why are clear, concise terminology and metrics so important when executing a public relations research and evaluation system?
- How can research be used to set better objectives
- What are the Barcelona Principles and what do they mean to me?
- How does research and measurement help to guide business decision-making?
- How can research and be used to avoid catastrophe?
- How do you foster a culture for communications research within the team? Among executive leadership?
- How do conduct research and measurement with little or no budget?
- What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative research? How do you know which to use and when?
- What’s critical to know about measuring social media programs?
Presented by:
Mark Weiner is the CEO of PRIME Research in North America. PRIME Research is one of the world’s largest public relations and corporate communications research and consulting providers with offices in Western Europe, North and South America, Eastern Europe and the Far East. Since 1993, Mark has devoted his career to helping many of the world’s most respected organizations and brands to demonstrate and generate a positive return on their investment in corporate and brand communications. He is the author of “Unleashing the Power of PR: A Contrarian’s Guide to Marketing and Communication” published by John Wiley & Sons. Weiner is a member of the PRSA, IABC and the Institute for Public Relations for whom he served as Trustee and Chairman of the Research and Measurement Commission. He is an editorial advisory board member of PRSA’s Strategist and PR News. A frequent provider of provocative public relations content, Weiner is a recurring conference speaker at international and domestic events, and a prolific author, having published more than one hundred articles.
Johna Burke has 23 years experience working both as a public relations practitioner and a provider of services that are vital to the successful performance of communications professionals. For 11 years, starting in 1989, she was associated with U-Haul International, ultimately becoming head of public and investor relations. Ms. Burke joined BurrellesLuce, in its Phoenix office, in 2000. She served as West Coast regional vice president, a corporate vice president in 2008 and October 2009, was appointed senior vice president-marketing. Ms. Burke is a highly rated speaker who is often invited to talk about best practices in media relations and monitoring, including the measurement of PR effectiveness; her written views have appeared in a variety of PR industry outlets and she is a regular contributor to Fresh Ideas, the incisive blog produced by BurrellesLuce. Ms. Burke is immediate past chair of the Southern Region of the International Association of Business Communicators and current chair of its Nominations Committee.
Can you speak the language of management? If not, here’s what you’re missing:
· The ability to add value in financial discussions with your boss and other top managers
· The skills needed to get your latest brainstorms adopted by key financial decision makers
· A plethora of financial tools that can help you make better business decisions
· An understanding of how your company’s financial performance affects its most critical asset: the workforce
In just 90 minutes, you’ll gain a new skill set¾and a potential ticket to the management table
Before you take a seat at the management table, you’d better have a solid understanding of key financial terms and accounting concepts. If not, you won’t be able to converse with those seated around you, because finance is the only language they speak.
Overcome the financial language barrier — for good — by attending this audio seminar. Using an easy-to-follow format, James Cole will demystify financial terminology, translate the accounting jargon and illustrate how communicators use financial information to increase their effectiveness.
Don’t miss this vital training event, designed to give you the skills and knowledge you need for holding your own with those who hold the company’s purse strings.
Key learning objectives:
· What’s at stake: Why every communicator should have a solid understanding of finance
· How a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement are used to analyze a company’s performance
· What management accounting tools CEOs use to monitor a company’s fiscal health, including EBITDA and pro-forma earnings
· How to cut through the jargon to translate complex financial data into meaningful and useful concepts
· Which financial terms are “must haves” for boosting your business vocabulary, including expenses, assets, capitalization, cash, accrual transactions and many more!
Audio Seminar Bonus: Understand the basics of financial decision-making
James answers real-life questions on:
- What communicators can do to help their organization’s employees better understand how their business works, with the objective of improving performance
- Tips to better communicate financial concepts to a lay audience
- Learning from the mistakes made by Enron
- The best tools to measure financial performance
Your audio seminar leader
James Cole is director of development for the Masonic Home of Virginia. His 25 years of professional experience include roles as auditor, founder, officer and consultant with numerous organizations throughout the U.S. He regularly speaks on such topics as financial reporting, taxes, accounting, fundraising and board development. He was a featured speaker at IABC’s 2005 International Conference in Washington, D.C., and Financial Communication Conference in New York.
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On the surface, it would seem social media is at odds with investor relations. The new media channels — Twitter, blogs, podcasts, social networks, company websites etc. — are all about conversation, informality and transparency. Investor Relations has by necessity always been necessarily buttoned down. After all, employees can go to jail for violating SEC fair disclosure rules.
Still, if investor relations is charged with enabling the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company’s securities achieving fair valuation, why should social media tools not be used? In this webinar, our experts will talk about the opportunities and risks associated with using company websites, blogs and social media to supplement traditional channels to acheive broad, simultaneous and fair disclosure. They will also talk about how to approach and practice the delicate balancing act of using social media channels for communicate financial performance, without getting into disclosure hot water.
What You Will Learn:
- What the US SEC’s public disclosure requirements are.
- How some IR professionals are creatively pushing the envelope on using social media in investor relations
- Do’s and Don’ts when integrating social media into your IR program
- How to not violate any disclosure rules
- How to calculate the ROI of using social media for investor relations
- What is the social media news release and should every news release be social?
Presented by:
Richard Brewer-Hay is Senior Manager, Corporate Communications at eBay.Richard has more than a decade of communications, marketing and production experience. In January, 2008, he joined eBay as Chief Blogger to direct its social media initiatives and launch “eBay Ink” (http://ebayinkblog.com), where he captures and shares his insights and perspective on the company and provides another conduit for corporate communications.Richard launched the ebayinkblog Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/ebayinkblog) in June, 2008 that allowed eBay to become the first Fortune 500 company to live-blog financial announcements and earnings’ calls via Twitter. In March, 2009 Richard introduced the first social media guidelines for corporate disclosure for both blogging and micro-blogging. Prior to joining eBay, Richard was with PodShow (now Mevio), a new media network where he oversaw the company’s programming lineup for two years. As Sr. Director of Talent and Marketing for PodShow, Richard grew the signed talent pool from 25 to over 250 contracted individual video and audio show producers, and contributed to network growth from 25 to over 16,000 shows before his departure in December, 2007.
Robert (Rob L.) Williams II serves as director, Investor Relations for Dell Inc. He is responsible for the strategic direction of the investor relations function and executing Dell’s global investor communications program in conjunction with the chief financial officer and senior management. Dell’s Investor Relations is involved in global industry conferences, a large-scale analyst conference, on-site investor visits, quarterly earnings, the annual shareholders’ meeting, strategic research projects and a broad competitive analysis function. Mr. Williams also provides guidance regarding Dell’s operating results and business strategies to global institutional investors and sell-side securities analysts. Mr. Williams is a 17-year Dell veteran and has served as director of investor relations for the past seven years. Prior to joining investor relations in 1995, Mr. Williams held positions in corporate treasury, finance and marketing at Dell. He serves as president of the Austin-San Antonio chapter of the National Investor Relations Institute and is an active national speaker on topics ranging from strategic impact of investor relations to social media. Mr. Williams received a bachelor’s of business administration degree in management from the University of Texas and a master’s of science degree in finance from Texas A&M University. He serves on the board of the Austin Children’s Museum, where he is a member of the executive committee.
Serena Ehrlich recently started her own consulting firm focusing on social media strategies and implementation for public and private companies. During her years at Business Wire, Serena worked closely with public and private companies providing guidance on investor relations and public relations trends, marketing, product development, social media, SOX trends, XBRL and trade show services. In addition, she worked with some of the largest companies in North America, including ExxonMobil, Walt Disney, Mattel, Textron and more. In her spare time Serena serves as chairman of the interim social media club (www.socialmediaclub.org ) board of directors as well as a senior advisor for the international YoungPrPros (www.youngprpros.com) and is a 8 year board member for NIRI – first in Dallas and later in Los Angeles.
- “The webinar was great today … helpful and insightful.”
- “Both presenters gave real-world examples. Much better then other Webinars I’ve attended where it’s just a vendor trying to sell you a product.”
On the surface, it would seem social media is at odds with investor relations. The new media channels — Twitter, blogs, podcasts, social networks, company websites etc. — are all about conversation, informality and transparency. Investor Relations has by necessity always been necessarily buttoned down. After all, employees can go to jail for violating SEC fair disclosure rules.
Still, if investor relations is charged with enabling the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company’s securities achieving fair valuation, why should social media tools not be used? In this webinar, our experts will give an overview of the new financial communication landscape and offer practical advise on deploying all the newest tools including shareholder forums, Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare, docstock and YouTube to supplement traditional channels to achieve broad, simultaneous and fair disclosure. They will also talk about the risks of using social media channels for communicate financial performance and avoiding disclosure hot water.
Real world questions addressed:
- What are the respective roles of the key IR players in your company, i.e. CEO, CFO, Legal, IRO with respect to participation, review, approvals?
- How difficult was it to sell the idea internally to start using social media for IR?
- How effective has your use of social media been in engaging investors and building/improving relationships?
- How do you measure the effectiveness?
- For IROs who aren’t doing these yet but are thinking about it, what issues should they keep in mind, what possible obstacles/roadblocks should they be aware of and plan for?
- Where do you see your company going/growing next in use of social media for IR?
- How is the overall financial communication paradigm is shifting and why is that important to your company?
- What are the pros and cons of setting up a shareholder forum, and what is involved?
- What are the risks of using social media for investor relations, and how do you manage them?
Presented by:
Ruth Cotter is the director of investor relations at Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD). Her responsibilities include leading AMD’s global relationships with shareholders and analysts. AMD is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. Ruth has 12 years of IR experience. Prior to joining AMD, Ruth’s expertise spanned several years at CRH plc, one of the worlds largest building materials
groups listed on the Irish, London and New York stock exchanges. Following that, she spent a number of years at Trintech Group plc, co-headquartered in Ireland and the USA. A leading provider of transaction risk management solutions listed on Nasdaq. In addition, Ruth has public relations experience within the public, banking and consumer industries. Ruth holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and History from University College, Cork, Ireland.
Laura Graves is Director of Global Investor Relations at Cisco, a Fortune 50 company with sales approaching $40 billion annually. Ms. Graves joined Cisco in late 2004 and assumed leadership of the Company’s award winning IR practice in 2006. Since that time, she has expanded Cisco’s IR activities on a global basis and is recognized by Wall Street for having developed thought leading processes for IR engagement and outreach. At Cisco, Ms. Graves manages a diverse team responsible for strategic corporate and financial communications, including M&A and Treasury communications. She is a senior executive on Cisco’s Corporate Communications team, and regularly collaborates on strategic public relations, executive & employee communications, social media planning and corporate social responsibility. Previously, Ms. Graves was Director of Investor Relations at InVision Technologies, a homeland security explosive detection company. Graves was responsible for increasing corporate visibility, analyst coverage and institutional holdings for InVision, and was instrumental in positioning the sale of InVision to General Electric Company in 2004. InVision products continue to protect air travel under the GE umbrella today.
Abe Wischnia is Principle and CEO of Abe Wischnia and Associates. A respected investor relations and public relations professional with more than 20 years of experience, Wischnia, APR, has created successful investor relations, public affairs and corporate communications programs for clients in a broad range of industries including biotech, high tech, defense, financial services, chemicals and energy as well as government agencies. He is a published writer with articles on investor relations, public relations, and other subjects, not to mention articles he has written for corporate publications. He has also taught writing at the university level. He has been a television news anchor, radio talk show host and a paid public speaker at conferences. As a journalist, he won awards for television news reporting on public issues. Prior to forming Abe Wischnia & Associates to specialize in investor relations and shareholder communications, he was senior director of IR and corporate communications at Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc., a biotech company headquartered in San Diego. Before that, he headed IR and PR for San Diego-based Cubic Corporation. He also spent ten years as a public affairs executive at Chevron Corporation.
- “It gave insight into areas we have yet to consider in our IR mix.”
- “It’s a relevant issue in my industry.”
- “I learned a lot on Social Media in a short time frame.”
- “Gave me enough background to start seriously planning for introduction of social media in my IR Program.”
- “Learned how other companies view the IR and social media dynamics.”