Media Relations

Our 2011 Media Affinity Study showed that, for the 500 top executives we surveyed, traditional media like technology and trade magazines were primary information sources for most (80 percent and 76 percent respectively). Today’s media relations challenge is how to best take advantage of the additional media channels such as blogs and forums that have grown up in the past 20 years.

What matters most. Connectsm has stayed apace with the development of these online channels. Their power lies in the near real-time speed and breadth of the Internet. Nonetheless, when placing client news in whatever channels are most appropriate for their objectives, our media relationships matter most in gaining coverage.

Many of the people behind the blogs, forums and other so-called new media are the same with whom we established close relationships while they were writers or editors for print media. Quite a few now work in both camps.

Conversation architects. In many respects, we consider ourselves “conversation architects” who specialize in steering an industry’s narrative forward by providing influencers with valuable new information and insights from our clients.

Connectsm focuses its media relations initiatives on market, customer and prospect engagement. Article placements, while still important, are not as important as other metrics such as share of voice, message penetration and changes in brand perception are better measure “expressions” — the extent to which our client messages get relayed and amplified within their industry — than the more traditional “impressions.”

In fact, one client that used to measure its media relations efforts by impressions, would count more than 100 million impressions most months with upwards of 200 million impressions in good months. So what? Were new prospects engaged? Were sales cycles accelerated? Were sales closed? They couldn’t say, as they weren’t measuring what actions resulted from their efforts.

Strategy execution. Unlike most other agencies, we help our clients put their media relations efforts in the broader context of helping to drive their overall marketing and sales strategies. We work with them to develop an integrated strategic plan that will build credibility through thought leadership, then help them execute that plan across all media channels relevant to their target audiences.

Connectsm seeks more than influencer and editorial coverage for your company; we seek coverage that matters — to your business, your brand and your bottom line.