A while back, we were helping a client think through its market positioning strategy when we laid an important question on the table. We asked them, “Who is your competitor?” The question brougth the meeting to a halt.

Things had been going well for the client. The company was still young, but it had passed through the first few critical stages of growth. In fact, it had grown so fast that its handful of relatively close competitors were quickly fading. These competitors surely had some kind of future to them, either by focusing on niche solutions or exiting through acquisition, but it was clear that our client had lapped them.

And this created a bit of a quandry on the PR side. Why? Isn’t beating your competitors to a pulp in the early rounds of a 12 round fight the objective?

Think about it this way. Like many young tech companies, the client had an innovative product for a growing problem but in a relatively immature market. Early on, the fight between 3-5 viable competitors demonstrated that there was a real market. Now there was only one.

And mass is critical for investors, analysts, press and others. All of the sudden, we were the only ones talking about the solution. We were a lone voice asking people to rewire their brains around a nascent idea and commit to believing that it had a future.

So there we were with this question: who is your competitor? And we got the same response that we have heard from so many client in the past: “complexity”. And that’s fair. But complexity is amorphous. I can’t point to complexity easily. If you put “Complexity” on a Wanted poster, will anyone care?

We could see that the client was struggling with this, so we asked them to think about this way: “Who is your enemy?” That turned out to be a easy question to answer. There was a clear incumbent system at almost every customer and prospect site that was the enemy. But the client had never thought about it that way because it wasn’t a clear replacement cycle pitch, e.g. salesforce.com vs. Siebel.

Sure, other companies could easily say that this incumbent system was their enemy too. And we knew 100% that no one would believe today that the client’s solution was the absolute replacement. That wasn’t the point. Once we started unpacking this perspective, we started seeing a whole new path forward to telling our story long term - and one that no one had told cohesively. And following this path has made all the difference for the client.

If you want to know more about this case study, I’m happy to share the specifics with you. But just think about all of the incumbent systems and solution providers that we all hate dealing with everyday: your mobile phone provider, your cable company, your software/hardware provider… I’m pretty sure that you can come up with your own hit list pretty fast.

Let me back up. We had a big YAHOOTY last week at Reidy Communications for our client, digital agency POP.

As you can imagine, doing an Infographic is no small undertaking. Because we were asking our client to invest their time developing this I-graphic, and directing a a portion of our PR budget to it, we had to be sure it would secure IMPRESSIVE RESULTS.

To ensure your infographic has the best shot of going viral, here are THREE things you must do before diving into the Infographic Deep End:

Step One: Research the HOW, WHY and WHO. Yes, there is a lot of your PR knowledge that is transferrable to developing and pitching Infographics, but I found Sam Whitemore’s Media Survey session on Infographics incredibly helpful. Sam has been tracking the editorial world religiously since 1998 and his insights and advice were spot-on. Before diving in, we had a tight plan on what we were delivering, the look & feel, who was our top media outlet target (and Plan B & C), and how we were going to amplify all of it via social media.

Second: Pick a HOT Topic. Of course I’m stating the obvious, but the topic must be in the center of the news cycle universe for your I-graphic to have any chance of going viral. Based on the media coverage and our “buzz” analysis, we suggested our client track Group Messaging Tweets during the SXSW conference and do an Infographic on the winners and losers.

Third: Clarity Rules. The graphic must be incredibly clear or it doesn’t fly. Luckily, we had the perfect partner for this: our digital agency client POP works with some of the largest brands like Target, Amazon, Microsoft and many others. As a result, POP delivered a powerful and stunning Infographic. And, while some graphics are clear, some are incredibly hard to look at — “This Spam Infographic About Spam Infographics Makes My Head Hurt”

Here’s a snapshot of our results from the TechCrunch Infographic and Story:

• Over 990 people Tweeted the TechCrunch Story and Infographic
• According to TweetReach, “GroupMe Won The SXSW Group Messaging Wars” reached over 2.23M People
• Michael Arrington HIMSELF tweeted it to his 69K followers
• The TechCrunch article and Infographic ran in over 44 articles and blogs, including The WSJ.
• We also amplified this coverage through social media (not going to share our “special sauce” on this one;)

In summary, Infographics ROCK and we expect to see more of them in the future. BUT, not everyone has the stomach or budged to proceed. My $.02: make sure you have a rock-solid strategy and take the time to research the topics and trends before embarking. Oh, and a little praying doesn’t hurt either.

As I vented to my husband Dan last night I mentioned that a majority of the speaker events in this series had been outstanding and he commented that the “Conference organizers probably felt like they wanted to commit hari kari but were trapped in a butter knife factory.”

Onwards and upwards! I’m a believer in learning as much from bad experiences as good ones, so with that in mind… Here are a few straight-forward presentation tips that should be on everyone’s short-list:

STAND UP: Okay, we’re all tired at the end of the day, but if you are addressing a large group (100+) and it’s not a salon-style panel with a moderator STAND UP. People want to see you and your expressions and hear your inflections: that’s very difficult to do when a keynote is slumped in an arm chair.

HAVE A PURPOSE: Whether you are at a cocktail party or speaking at an event, “Start with the end in mind,” as my wonderful friend, PR partner-in-crime and executive coach Bronwyn Saglimbeni often says. Well in advance of getting up on the stage, speakers should always ask themselves a few questions: What is my intention? What gift am I going to give to the audience? What do I want them to take from this – inspiration, education, action?

LET’S TALK ABOUT “ME, MYSELF AND I,” AND NOW BACK TO ME: Okay, I’m a believer in sharing personal experiences for the benefit of others. Notice the “benefit of others” comment. It’s one thing to say “When I was in Rwanda…” and then have a point to your story, it’s another thing to pontificate and try and impress people, simply to impress. If we are giving you our time as a member of the audience, you better deliver something that we can take away from the session. Simply put, you got me here, now make it worth my time.

Net-net, not everyone is a great speaker and not everyone should speak. This particular speaker, because of her lack of preparation and self-awareness, disappointed a smart group of women who represented her direct target audience, potentially tarnished a well-respected conference group and negatively impacted book sales. I’m speculating on the last point, but by picking up the book I would only hear her painful voice and start looking for a butter knife myself.

That’s my opinion, what’s yours? You can follow Jen via Twitter @jreidy or post a comment on Reidy Communication’s blog http://reidycommunications.com/rightbrainleftbrain/

In an informal poll by Reidy Communications conducted through LinkedIn we were happy to discovere that folks believe PR spending will increase next year (whew). And, among the options, social media spending is poised for the greatest growth, followed by blogs, infographics and tech media respectively.

While I/Jen Reidy was the one who personally developed this poll, I was utterly torn about my responses. We’re optimistic about growth and impact in ALL of these areas for various reasons. Here’s my take on why increasing your investment in these segments of PR make sense:

Social media is about amplification and the number of Twitter users and uses continues to explode.

Blogs continue to be an important way to raise visibility and influence and let’s face it, the big fish are “reading” the little fish blogs and gaining news direction from them.

Infographics are craved by journalists and if you can invest in them, by all means do it! It gives your story greater impact, depth and increases its ability to go viral.

Tech Media continues to be the “bread and butter” for tech PR shops like Reidy Communications. Tech Crunch, ReadWriteWeb, mashable, GigaOm and others continue to gain momentum as the “must reads.” Sadly, many “traditional” publications seem to take direction rather than lead the news cycle and given the staffing issues, it’s of course no surprise.

Our advice. Try new things and constantly question how your audience is influenced. Are they serious B2B types, but influenced by the rapid “gamification” of casual and mobile gamers? Are they enticed by Twitter contest? What about polls (like this one)? Or are they bread and butter types that religiously read their trade mags and couldn’t tell the difference between a tweet, podcast or text? Luckily we don’t know many of those types, but you know where I’m going here. That’s my opinion. What’s yours?

Chime in and click here to VOTE on “What Will YOU Increase in Your PR Mix Next Year?” And, follow Jen via Twitter @jreidy or post a comment on Reidy Communication’s blog http://reidycommunications.com/rightbrainleftbrain/

Whether or not you agree with Clinton’s political views, you have to admire his presentation skills. He has that rare ability of connecting with each member of the audience and bridging to messages that are important to him and you. Plus, if you are the sponsor of the event, he has an amazing way of supporting your goals and weaving in your messages seamlessly.

How does he do it – Three tips we can learn from Bill:

Humor: He opens with, “Well, I must say, after a lifetime as a mediocre musician, I never thought that Stevie Wonder would be the opening act for me,” shortly followed by “The great thing about being a former president is you can say whatever you want. The sad thing is that nobody cares anymore.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBGusHLt4No
Result: You’re laughing and you’ve let your guard down a bit. You’re relaxed and ready to open your mind to new thoughts and concepts.

Relevancy: He touched on a variety of topics ranging from Wikileaks (http://www.switched.com/2010/12/09/bill-clinton-wikileaks-dreamforce/), Haiti’s troubles, climate change and Israel’s dominance in electronic car usage, among other things. Somehow he did this seamlessly and engaged the masses throughout his talk.
Result: Every individual in attendance received a “gift.” No goods from Santa, but insight and inspiration into an array of current social and economic issues. As a result, his speech flew by and everyone seemed to leave Moscone informed and optimistic.
Bridging – I “heart” Bridging: One of my favorite topics during media training is bridging. I’ve had CEOs comment that it helps them in tough client situations and even an exec comment that it helps him through awkward first dates. What exactly is bridging? It’s taking your idea/platform and blending that with that is relevant/important to your audience. Clinton is passionate about how inequality leads to instability and how positivity from the public and private sectors are critical to improve our global economy. And, to paraphrase, he commented at least twice that it’s companies like Salesforce who are passionate about sustainability that are examples of how to do it right in the private sector.

Brilliant. Kudos to the Salesforce and especially the sustainability group, and my pal Paige, for bringing in Clinton to leave us all a bit more enlightened, while we happily sip our “Salesforce Kool-Aid” in gallon jugs.

I would argue with the position that “Apple gets more coverage because Apple is “especially effective at seizing journalists’ attention,” and has a “very public way of releasing products.” Ask any journalist and they’ll tell you how difficult it is to work with Apple. They are highly secretive and will only work with journalists if they get the exact story they want. If they don’t you are a bit “black balled” and they won’t give you access for the next big story. A reporter we work with frequently complained to us about them recently because of their internal PR practices.

I’d argue that Apple HAS tapped lifestyle tech better than anyone and lifestyle tech is the easiest story to sell to the masses, hence why Google is #2. And I get that it’s an “all about clicks world” but at 15%+ of the articles being about Apple, I would bet that only a few people are really getting those clicks. Who reads the same story over and over? My point is that it isn’t sustainable and there’s bound to be a backlash. Not that enterprise software is headed to a center-fold near you, but there’s got to be a leveling of the coverage field.

The only question is, who has a better story than the iPhone/iPad right now? Not anyone I can think of.

Oh and I love how much coverage is devoted to problems of texting while driving. Wait, that’s a problem? I think we heard that one somewhere.

As long as it’s not YOUR client’s crisis, it’s fascinating to see a crisis unfold and see how spokespeople respond (and don’t respond). It’s a drama that’s filled with everything from bad judgment, inability to admit fault, diarrhea of the mouth, and sometimes even hand cuffs.

Real Housewives of New Jersey MOVE OVER – Toyota, Goldman Sachs and BP have stolen your thunder!

In Sunday’s NYT’s there was an extensive seven page article that re-hashes some of the biggest crisis communications missteps of the year. It’s stock-full of real experts and self-proclaimed experts like the former spokesman for Rod R. Blagojevich…

Here are some of my favorite nuggets from the NYT story:

•“ Good PR may only ‘get people to hate them less.” True. You can’t make people NOT hate you, but if handled well, you may be able to decrease the visibility of the crisis and move those haters to “neutral” at a future date

•“Rare is the consumer with affection for an oil company, but Toyota enjoyed immense good will.”
Well stated. Can you name someone (who doesn’t follow Oil & Gas at an I-bank) that LOVES an oil company?!

•“The quicker you apologize and make it right, the faster it goes away,” he (Brad Burns) says. “The longer you stonewall, the worse it gets.” Toyota and BP really blew this one. Goldman at least had the sense to remain vague.

•“They will not forgive a dishonest cover-up” (said Mr. Reeves, former Merrill Lynch media relations exec). It will be interesting to review Toyota’s perception in a few years

This article didn’t touch on the impact of social media in a crisis – which I found surprising. As I mentioned in a recent social media blog because of the sheer nature of social media and the drama involved in crisis, it spreads like wildfire – or in BP’s case a nasty oil spill!

Our typical answer is that it’s like oxygen, it’s a must-have that’s core to how we do PR. Sometimes we lead with it and sometimes it’s incorporated into other PR initiatives. But either way, it’s critical and here to stay.

Now that “everyone is doing it,” it’s more important than ever to think creatively about social media. Here are a few recent examples of creative thinking around social media:

• Zuora is the leader in subscription billing and recurring payments, and also happens to be a client of Reidy Communications. A few months ago they wanted to raise awareness of a product launch and held a contest through (you guessed it) Twitter. Webcast participants being briefed on a new product were asked to Tweet about the new product and the 10 people with the most creative tweets won an iPad. As you can imagine, because of the sheer frenzy around the iPad, the contest generated tremendous interest among the more than 400 webcast attendees. And, to add further momentum, Zuora did PR around the top tweets via a press release.

• CatchaChoo (http://twitter.com/catchachoo) is a current social media promotion from the magnificent shoe titans at Jimmy Choo. Choo recently launched a “Choo hunt” on the streets of London via Twitter and Foursquare that’s creating some nice of interest in the fashion community. Jimmy Choo trainers, aka sneakers, check into various locations around London before they travel to the next destination. If you catch up with them before they move onto their next stop, you could win a pair!

• Gowalla, a geolocation service, recently did a promotion to benefit Lance Armstrong’s Foundation at this spring’s SXSW conference. It was significant in that by offering challenges and prizes it was able to go up against huge rival Foursquare at the conference and actually get more attention than it’s more prominent competitor.

Those are interesting campaigns, but you may be asking yourselves, why should I care? Simply because social media continues to head in ONE direction - straight up! According to The Nielsen Company, global* consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82% increase from the same time last year when users were spending just over three hours on social networking sites.

Making small investments via creative social media campaigns can help early stage companies break through the noise, while larger brands can benefit by finding creative ways of expanding and engaging with communities. To quote one of our wise Reidy team members, Bronwyn Saglimbeni, “Taking calculated social media risks and mitigating those risks with charity is a smart approach.” Stay tuned and I guarantee we’re going to see a LOT more in the coming months.

I lost all respect for Tiger when this all came out, and this ad doesn’t change it. But I do believe in forgiveness and redemption, and in that light I think the ad is pretty revolutionary. Nike the brand calling its superstar to the carpet, “what have you learned?” and without saying it “what are you gonna do to make things right?”

While we all have a legitimate beef with Tiger’s actions, this is one of the biggest reputation case studies unfolding before our eyes. Unlike almost any culture in the world , Americans have proven an unbelievable ability to forgive. We don’t forget, but we do forgive. But no one in my memory has fallen as much as Tiger has. John Edwards, well, pretty close when you denied your own kid, but from high to low, Tiger has even him beat. And the fact that he is trying to get back into the spotlight is the big difference while Edwards is wisely underground. Given that, I’m not sure you could have an approach any different than this. Neither Nike nor Tiger can gloss over what happened. And by Nike sticking with Tiger, they are going to be forever intertwined.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIYejgkqd0o