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Optimizing Expertise in the Higher Education Sector: Southern Utah University

Higher education institutions are amongst the wealthiest knowledge-based organizations when it comes to expert resources. While many of these organizations acknowledge the value of their in-house experts, they often struggle to harness their expertise and communicate their strengths to external audiences. But when higher education institutions do take steps to market their expertise, the payoff is exponential. Here’s how Southern Utah University (SUU) leveraged expertise marketing to celebrate their staff, grow their digital presence and drive close to a 10x increase in media inquiries. Embracing Expertise SUU has been acknowledged as a leading university in the U.S. Most recently, the U.S. News and World Report’s 2019 Best Colleges list ranked SUU as one of the top Regional Universities in the West and the highest-ranked public school in all of Utah. Southern Utah University President, Scott L. Wyatt, attributes these accolades to the people within his organization: “Our faculty and staff have dedicated themselves to creating the best educational experience at Southern Utah University,” said Wyatt. “This recognition acknowledges their success and the wonderful learning community they have created!” In fact, SUU is so proud of their people that their initial motivation for expertise marketing was to show their experts exactly how much they were valued. SUU’s faculty and staff bring a wealth of expertise in their professional disciplines, but they’re also deeply immersed in the university’s culture and surrounding environment – including the region’s breathtaking national parks. With this in mind, SUU set out to celebrate their experts’ professional and personal achievements through expertise marketing. Optimizing Expert Content While SUU had expert content on their website, they didn’t have a great process for structuring, organizing and publishing. “We had an Expert Directory, but it just didn’t have background structure we needed to nimbly change profiles and deliver up-to-date content,” said Kenzie Lundberg, Internal Communications Specialist at SUU. ExpertFile’s Platform gave SUU the tools they needed to manage their content, but they still needed a bit of help optimizing their expertise marketing program. They reached out to our customer success team to see how they could better leverage the ExpertFile tool and implement best practices for expertise marketing. After auditing their digital presence, we identified three main areas for SUU to focus on: Showcasing Faculty with Relevant Stories: While SUU had some expert content on their website, it wasn’t structured in a user-friendly way. ExpertFile suggested that Spotlight posts would help them make their content more accessible and encourage audiences to get in touch with their organization. Unlike a standard blog post, ExpertFile’s Spotlights enable users to connect with experts or media relation teams directly from the post while simultaneously distributing the post to the Associated Press, Dejero and ExpertFile Search. By using Spotlights in multiple areas of their website, SUU would be able to drastically improve their visibility and gain better traction with media outlets. Highlighting Specialized Areas of Expertise within SUU: SUU used the ExpertFile Platform to organize and attribute areas of expertise in their expert profiles, but our audit revealed that the topics needed to be more specific to garner audience engagement. ExpertFile recommended that SUU add areas of niche expertise to their expert profiles. For example, a biology professor might list topics like “Invertebrate Evolution” or “Cardiovascular Physiology” in addition to the term “biology.” This optimization would make it easier for audiences like journalists and media outlets to find experts on specific topics. Expanding SUU’s Digital Footprint: One of the key advantages of the ExpertFile Platform is how easy it is for organizations to improve their digital presence. For example, the ExpertFile Design Lab allows marketers to quickly create, publish and manage Expert Directories and Spotlights across various pages on their website (click links for examples). To help SUU better utilize this feature, we suggested linking to their Expert Directory and Spotlights directly from the homepage. This would make it easier for audiences to find their expert content and increase opportunities for engagement.  SUU’s Results SUU took the ExpertFile Customer Success team’s advice and their results reflected just how valuable expertise can be to the bottom line. From Q1 in 2018 to Q1 in 2019, SUU went from 3,030 views and 12 media inquiries to 11,949 views and 115 media inquiries. And their success didn’t end there. SUU’s latest analysis of their expertise marketing program revealed some truly impressive results: CALmatters Feature: David Berri, professor of economics, was requested for an interview on equal pay in sports in September 2018. From the interview and stories that followed, SUU received the equivalent of $112,500 in publicity value and 25.3 million unique views. The State Journal Feature: Michael Mower, executive director of SUU Aviation, was asked to be featured in a story highlighting SUU’s partnership with Marshall University in March 2019. The story was published on The State Journal’s website and had the potential to be seen by 800,000 unique visitors. Qualtric’s X4 Conference: Ravi Roy, assistant professor of political science, was asked to join the ranks of the visionaries and leaders behind the world’s most iconic organizations and present at the 2019 X4 conference. Other presenters included President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Sir Richard Branson. Over 15,000 people attended the conference. “I really enjoy using the ExpertFile Platform,” said Lundberg. “It’s great that I’ve been able to learn about our experts’ backgrounds – we have some really fascinating people. It’s so unique to be able to see all of their talents and to be able to highlight that for them.” Kenzie Lundberg – Internal Communications Specialist SUU The team at ExpertFile is thrilled that SUU has seen so much success from the optimization of their expertise marketing program. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for their organization and their experts. Download the Complete Guide to Expertise Marketing For a comprehensive look at how expertise marketing benefits the entire organization and drives measurable return on investment, follow the link below to download a copy of ExpertFile’s Complete Guide to Expertise Marketing: The Next Wave in Digital Strategy or download one of our tailored Guides for Corporate & Professional Services, Higher Education Institutions, Healthcare Institutions or Association & Not-for-Profits.

7 Tips for Executing Expertise Marketing

Now that you understand the value of expertise and have defined who your experts are, you might find yourselves asking, “What’s next?” Our research with hundreds of organizations reveals that there are major gaps in the way organizations present their expertise and how it impacts the effectiveness of their digital content. The challenge for many marketers is that they don’t know how to approach the creation and publication of expert content, but it starts making a lot more sense when you look at the bigger picture.    Expertise marketing is about evolving our content marketing initiatives to deliver a more engaging experience to audiences. And because it’s so closely related to content marketing, it borrows several of the core principles we already use for our digital channels – but with an expert spin. At the end of the day, we’re simply collaborating with experts to ramp up the credibility, authenticity and integrity of your digital presence.    The Core Principles of Expertise Marketing In the list below, you can see that expertise marketing shares a number of best practices with content marketing. The difference is in how we execute them and the quality of the end product. By following these seven core principles of expertise marketing, you’ll be able to create and deliver the content your audiences are looking for. Discoverable: If you work in the digital space, you know how important search is to your success. Experts produce a wealth of structured information that can be optimized to improve your rank on Google and increase your overall market visibility. Rather than limiting content to an About Us page or corporate intranet, you should make it more discoverable by publishing it across multiple areas of your website. Personal: Expertise marketing takes an inclusive approach to getting expert content mobilized across the organization. But even when we ask our experts to create content, we tend to attribute the outputs to the organization rather than the individual. When showcasing the work of your key employees, it’s important to personally recognize this. It builds trust with your audiences. Remember that people want to deal with people so let your experts be recognized and they will support your growth. Relevant: Organizations often miss opportunities to position their expertise for breaking news and emerging stories. In many cases, you may be an expert in the field, but if your content doesn’t align with current news topics, broadcasters and reporters won’t know to come to you for insights. Your overall readiness to speak to the topics in today’s news cycle greatly impacts customer engagement and your potential for earned media. Credible: Journalists and other audiences looking for expert sources require proof that your employees and their content are trustworthy. It’s not enough to have a headshot and bio on your About Us page. Enhanced profiles should be easy to scan and complete with important fields like education, certifications, research, publications, awards and media/speaking appearances. Visual: If you want interaction, you’ll need to first get your audiences’ attention. Rich media such as video, social media feeds and interactive content are proven to outperform text which can be tedious for audiences to read. It’s now critical to feature multimedia assets in a way that creates a more dynamic presence and maximizes audience engagement. Curated: Audiences are consuming more digital content than ever and it takes a lot of work to feed the content beast. Rather than rushing to market with sub-par content, organizations need to think about how their content serves a range of audiences looking for expertise. Is your content aligned with today’s emerging topics? Is it specialized enough to be relevant? Is it up to date or does it look tired? Audiences are becoming more discerning and even Google is determining search rank based on these factors. Distributed: As specialized third-party search sites grow in popularity, organizations need to ensure that expert content isn’t confined to a single website. This means thinking about social channels, directories, and reputable sites that help get your message out there. By dynamically synchronizing your expert content across internal and third-party sites, you’ll increase your reach, drive more visitor traffic and initiate better digital conversations. Download the Complete Guide to Expertise Marketing For a comprehensive look at how expertise marketing benefits the entire organization and drives measurable return on investment, follow the link below to download a copy of ExpertFile’s Complete Guide to Expertise Marketing: The Next Wave in Digital Strategy or download one of our tailored Guides for Corporate & Professional Services, Higher Education Institutions, Healthcare Institutions or Association & Not-for-Profits.

3 Steps to Earn Local News Coverage

“HOW DO WE GET OUR COMPANY FEATURED POSITIVELY IN THE LOCAL NEWS?” This is the question I get asked the most as a public relations professional, media coach and as a former long-time journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC): how do we get in the local news? The question usually comes from a small, independently-owned business owner — a company or organization that doesn’t have anyone doing marketing or communications. They are looking for LOCAL media coverage primarily — but they don’t even know where to start. It’s understandable for them to ask this question. Earned media is the holy grail of building credibility and reputation — having your executives featured in the news media as experts on a subject. Those stories then get shared on social media and it becomes the gift that keeps on giving, living on in perpetuity on the Internet, helping your search engine optimization. I can tell you this — the local media wants your story pitches. That doesn’t guarantee you’ll get covered. However, local media has been cutback so much and is forced to do so much work in such little time now, that they appreciate a good story idea landing on their desk for consideration — especially during a slow news cycle — and especially if it’s not coming from a slick PR agency voice on the other end of the line. They want authenticity. So, how do you get there? Here are 3 simple tips based on my experiences. In no way am I saying this is the only way to do it — but I’ve seen others have success with it and hopefully you will as well: #1 – Do NOT Hire An Agency Yup. I just said that. And, yes, I do realize I am a public relations professional. However, based on experience, I can tell you the majority of small, independent businesses aren’t going to be able to afford PR firms to get local news. I reiterate we are talking about getting local news coverage — not national news. So, if they’re not going to pay for it anyways, why not give them a hand? I believe in karma. With a little bit of guidance on this blog, you’ll be able to do it yourself. In the past, I’ve helped small companies, pro-bono, get in the media (hoping they make it big and hire me later). In the future, I’ll just send them the link for this blog and save me some time. You can do this. Just stick to the basics. #2 – Prepare A Newsworthy Pitch This is important. And, it can be as complicated and detailed as you want — but for the sake of this blog, I recommend keeping it very simple and keeping it authentic. Answer these questions to decide whether the story you want the media to cover is actually newsworthy from the reporter’s perspective — because they are the people who assess the newsworthiness of a pitch. What is the story? You should be able to summarize the story in less than 30 seconds. Just like a good pitch deck for potential investors, a good media pitch typically involves the identification of a problem or a trend and coming up with a solution for it or insightful analysis in the case of a media story. This is simplified but you get the picture. Why should people care about this story? A good reporter wants stories that appeal broadly to their audience, the public. So, be prepared to proactively explain why people will care about this? Is it timely? Does it impact a broad group of people? Does it solve a problem that’s been impacting society? Who is driving this story? Is it you? Is it one of your employees? Who will be the main interview for the reporter and why them? (FOR TV) What are the visuals? If it’s television, what are some strong visuals the news crew will be able to capture on video? What can viewers expect to see in this story? It will help your TV pitch if you can illustrate a visual image for them ahead of time. #3 – Pick Up The Phone Pick one media outlet you want to pitch your story to and make the call. First decide what news media is good for your story? Is it a story with very strong visuals? Perhaps TV is the way to go. Is it a story that requires a more fulsome conversation? Maybe public radio is the best option. Newspaper is the best if you’re a nervous person and worried about being on TV or radio. Newspaper is the least intrusive of the media. Once you’ve decided what outlet, decide which reporter specifically. No emails at first in my opinion. It’s too impersonal for local news and you risk getting lost in the inbox shuffle. Doing it by phone also allows the reporter to ask any clarification questions they may have, right then and there. Now, if you call the general media outlet phone number, you can end up in phone transfer Hell or end up getting an editor or producer who is putting out six fires and juggling 4 balls. So, you are better to call an individual reporter (perhaps your favourite one). Do this in the first part of the morning before they get too busy. If they’re not there, leave a message and be prepared to call back later. Reporters are busy and may forget to call you back. Don’t take it personally. If you reach them, thank them for taking your call and make your pitch. Get to the point. A few minutes tops for the pitch. If they like it, they’ll tell you. If they don’t like it — again — don’t take it personally and don’t burn any bridges. Thank them for their time. When you get off the phone, contact a reporter with a different media outlet and do it again. Shop that story around and you’re likely to get a nibble. Final Thoughts: This isn’t a science. There are no guarantees. This process is just my personal opinion based on experience. Just be yourself. Be genuine. The reporters will like that as opposed to dealing with professional PR people or communications officers. They may find it refreshing to deal with a “real person” who isn’t trying to spin them. Beyond the initial pitch, whether it’s successful or not, offer yourself as a research resource to them on issues related to your industry — even if it means you won’t be in the story. This is how you build a relationship with a reporter and it may bode well for you in the future. Good luck. Let me know how it goes.

EXPERT PITCHING 101: The Power of Spotlights

Of all the angles and perspectives, when pitching your experts, you need to figure out how yours stands out amongst the rest. How are you getting the perspectives of your subject matter experts out there? Have you figured out your 'bench strength' to know who can comment on what and how? Do you have a good way to get your people out there to the public? Sadly, when asked these questions, most PR and Marketing professionals struggle to give you a straight answer with confidence on how they get their people to comment on certain storylines. With a defeated tone, I often hear, “Well – we have our resident rock star, Professor Jones, who does most of our media interviews” often followed by, “but he’s not always the best person for the story.” Although, most organizations have a list of subject matter experts, they are often over-reliant on the same ‘go-to’ people. Here’s why: First, these people are tried and true. For media, it’s a big deal when contacting an expert for comment - especially if the interview will be conducted on camera. So, why risk the chance of speaking with someone new? The second thing, it’s time consuming. It’s easy to find a previous expert pitch in an email and forward it on to someone new. However, gathering this content for each new person every time an individual is being pitched is very time consuming and difficult to manage. Especially, when this content is strewn across the web and you need to add links for videos on YouTube, books on Amazon, articles on ResearchGate, presentations on SlideShare etc. Once you’ve found the right person for the story, and you’ve aggregated the necessary background content to send, you must tie the loose ends and make the person contextual and relevant. Why is this person the best individual to comment on the story? What angle is this person going to provide? What sort of background qualifies this person to being the subject matter expert on the topic? Don’t worry, help is on the way At ExpertFile, we’ve heard the stories about organizations missing out on opportunities to get national or international media coverage because of their small team. These understaffed teams don’t have enough bandwidth to continuously pitch their people and comment on storylines. Their websites don’t paint a full picture of their experts’ abilities and knowledge. So, we got together with these PR, Marketing and Comms people, and looked to develop a solution. Then we created “Spotlight” - putting all of the necessary tools into the hands of PR, Marketing and Communications teams. Spotlight allows you to contextualize the relevance of your expert with a the story. Write your expert pitch to explain why that person is the best to comment on that topic, and the angle they’d be able to provide. Combine that with rich media profiles created by the ExpertFile team, you now have a central home for all of your experts’ content, and it provides a more engaging representation. So, when the media are vetting, they can now watch a video of that individual speaking in front of a camera, see their latest Media Appearances to know they have experience talking to reporters, and a Contact button for the quickest way to reach that individual, while simultaneously routing to any other internal stakeholders. This last part is important to consider as every story has many angles. Take the recent United Airlines debacle, where a passenger was viciously pulled out of his seat due to the plane being overbooked. Aside from the traumatic events from the video that surfaced of the incident, after the dust settled media are left scrambling to find out more on the protocol for overbooked flights, the global impact (there was a big uproar in China due to initial reporting that he was of Chinese descent), and the economic impact on the company. Which means, you don’t need to limit yourself to an aviation expert in order to comment on an aviation story. Every story has multiple angles - this lets you offer up a unique perspective, pitch a concept others are not covering and insert your expert into an already crowded narrative. Spotlight helps you grow those invisible experts into great sources, and it helps you efficiently pitch when you have resource constraints. Spotlights in Action Since the launch of the ExpertFile News Digest service, we’ve seen some significant results for our customers. We've only been with ExpertFile a short time. We've been using Spotlights from the News Digest and have noticed a lot more attention from media. They're easy to request - and the turnaround is fast. We recently were asked to comment on the Supreme Court nominee and booked a radio show thanks to a Spotlight. It’s been a great way to get additional exposure for Augusta University. We've only been with ExpertFile a short time. We've been using Spotlights from the News Digest and have noticed a lot more attention from media. They're easy to request - and the turnaround is fast. We recently were asked to comment on the Supreme Court nominee and booked a radio show thanks to a Spotlight. It’s been a great way to get additional exposure for Augusta University. -Kelly Jasper Senior Digital Media Coordinator - Augusta University With Spotlights we are seeing immediate pick-up of the stories we want to be part of. It’s letting us tell the Cambrian College story to a wide audience. As well, we’re noticing one Spotlight generates multiple media contacts. Once one outlet sees or reads our expert weighing in on a trending topic - the others follow. It’s an earned media coup. -Shawn Poland Associate Vice President, College Advancement - Cambrian College Once I integrated my Spotlights onto the Emory University business school website, it was so simple for me to have the ExpertFile Newsroom team whip up a pitch and publish it. Especially with limited resource on my team, it’s been a huge help to get my people out there in a more efficient manner. -J. Michael Moore Senior Communications Manager, Emory University - Goizueta School of Business Want to see an example of how to pitch your expert? Send your storyline to success@expertifle.com and we will have our Newsroom team send you a draft Spotlight ASAP. Is there anything that I missed? I’d love to hear what’s worked for you to get your people speaking with the media.

Countering Fake News with Credible Experts: 5 trends you need to focus on to build trust with your content.

With 2018 in full swing there’s no sign that the issue of fake news is going away.  In fact, it continues to plague major social platforms such as Facebook as well as the traditional media players.  This erosion of trust begs the question – how can we ensure the right experts on important topics are at the center of the conversation?  If your organization has experts, there is a silver lining. There has never been a more important time for experts – the real ones – not the “fake it till you make it” collection of posers and promoters that have read a blog on personal branding.  We’re talking about the people who have put in their 10,000 hours of researching, building and publishing. Presenting your top people in a more visible, engaging and approachable way presents huge opportunities for you to build trust and deepen relationships with a variety of audiences, including customers and partners – not just the media.  However, to really capitalize, you have to look closely at how audiences interact with your expert content. Based on our work with thousands of experts and their organizations, we’ve prepared a list of key trends and predictions you need to watch if you’re a communications and digital media professional. Trend 1: Organizations are measuring their “Internal Bench Strength”. The power behind any organization is its people, but many organizations fall short in taking stock of their roster of experts who are capable of building voice and reputation with key audiences. Communicators are increasingly turning to internal pulse surveys and annual assessments that better identify competencies, professional interests and attitudes across the organization.  Smart organizations are using surveys to create an efficient roster of internal experts and match them to the news cycle. Identifying a “core group” of go-to experts who will best benefit from programs such as media training and carefully mapping key topics to experts will ensure the organization is aligned to support communications objectives – both for proactive story development and responding quickly to breaking news opportunities. Trend 2: Organizations are starting to function more like newsrooms. As newsrooms in the print and broadcast world continue to be streamlined and downsized, organizations can play a key role in helping journalists by making relevant content and credible sources more accessible. Incorporating better search features that allow journalists to quickly find experts using simple keyword searches is an important starting point.  Showcasing experts in the context of key news events in a content hub with interesting story angles are increasing in popularity Trend 3: Next generation newsroom platforms will change how media find expert sources. Journalists have a challenging role today amidst a backdrop of fake news and increasing cynicism about the credibility and sources of information.  They still have the same day deadlines, but with an increased responsibility to get the story right, so reliable sources are critical to their success.  So it’s not surprising that journalists, television bookers and producers are gravitating to solutions that make it easier for them to discover, evaluate and connect with expert sources. We recently integrated our ExpertFile global directory into the Associated Press newsroom software which is used by thousands of print, broadcast and digital newsrooms around the world.  The AP, as the world’s leading news organization, recognizes the pressures that publishers and broadcasters are under. They are committed to technology advances that help news organizations.  Few journalists have the time to rummage around in poorly designed corporate websites and university faculty directories looking for the best expert. And if you think it’s just junior reporters using these online tools think again. We’re seeing seasoned journalists from top media outlets including The New York Times, CNN, Time Magazine, NBC, The Washington Post, the BBC, NPR Radio and the CBC making regular use of the ExpertFile platform. The bottom line: If you aren’t thinking about broader distribution of your expert content beyond your website you are missing out. Trend 4: New search technologies are helping organizations cut through the content clutter. Searching for the right person based on attributes such as key topics, publications, or geography inside an organization remains a challenge – even for those organizations that have invested heavily in content management solutions and intranet platforms.  The organic and onsite search user experience has become a top issue for marketing and IT teams. Audiences who have been spoiled by “Google-like simplicity” expect to find relevant information, or they’re gone within seconds. That’s why many organizations are investing in new search technologies powered by machine learning to provide faster discovery and connections with their subject-matter experts.  Last year we built Elasticsearch features right into our platform to save our clients the time and money of doing this for themselves. Search remains one of the biggest opportunities to quickly drive more market attention and audience engagement, as well as to improve internal collaboration between experts. Trend 5: Video will continue to outperform all other forms of content. There’s nothing quite like video to drive the value of owned content.  But remember that video is becoming essential to boosting earned media. We’re continually impressed by the new research that continues to emerge on the power of video content.   Last fall, LinkedIn reported audience engagement numbers for its new video feed feature that showed 20 times more engagement for video vs. all other forms of content on its platform. As more audiences demand video content, so does the demand in television newsrooms for broadcast-ready experts.  That’s why we also partnered with Dejero to help broadcasters who use their platform to search for experts suitable for interviews.   If you are looking to get more television coverage, then you have to invest some of your budget on video to showcase your experts.  We predict that the most successful organizations will adopt a video-centric approach to storytelling, creating snackable multimedia content that connects with a range of audiences.  Many marketers are overthinking video as something requiring a massive production with a big annual shoot”. That doesn’t work for audiences such as journalists who are feeding a real-time news cycle.  Our simple advice – look carefully at your video strategy and identify opportunities to use video across your digital properties in areas such as your homepage, media room and even landing pages. We’re interested to hear how your organization is capitalizing on these trends to better promote your experts to key audiences.  For more information on how ExpertFile can help your organization incorporate the latest software and services innovations into your thought leadership and expert marketing strategies please drop us a line at dtaenzer@expertfile.com.

Working with Faculty Experts to Build Reputation and Market Visibility

The Baylor University Playbook Featured in CASE Currents Magazine PHOTO CREDIT: BAYLOR UNIVERSITY MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS As traditional and social media organizations such as Facebook race to expose and disrupt the onslaught of “fake news”, a major opportunity exists for higher education institutions to more prominently feature their research and expert opinion to quell this steady flow of misinformation. We know that the gold standard of news reports and social media posts are substantiated with expert research and opinion. What gets in the way of comprehensive reporting and dialogue? It’s often the lack of input from great institutions and their experts. More than ever, traditional media organizations need to provide a steady flow of credible information to trump the influx of unsubstantiated content. But the media (from local mainstream editors to award-winning international investigative journalists) struggle with big challenges: growing editorial demands, small budgets, little time, limits to accessing information – all restricting their ability to pursue new research, data and expertise.  So how do they get around this and cut through the clutter? A lot of the responsibility falls on organizations to be more approachable to journalists to help them with expert sources.  Schools doing this well are already boosting their reputation with media and other key audiences by showing the relevance of their institution and faculty. In this month’s CASE Currents magazine, a feature article titled “Are Your Professors Ready for Their Close-Up?” Eric Eckert, Baylor University’s Assistant Director of Media Communications and Faculty Development, shares with other institutions the process his team took to prepare its faculty experts for the media spotlight with an in-house training program and the necessary tools to succeed. the Baylor playbook is a great read for any organization looking to boost media coverage and build reputation. Eckert, whose list of responsibilities at the university includes “Faculty Experts”, notes: “We demonstrate our commitment to this program by investing in tools that spread awareness of our researchers’ work. In addition to the time we devote to training and promoting our faculty members, in 2017 our office started using ExpertFile, a content marketing platform that includes the capability to create dynamic faculty profiles that expose our professors to a wider audience of journalists. We can also manage media inquiries through the platform. The software has reduced the time we spend updating faculty profiles. We can quickly add photos, videos, and links to an expert’s media hits and create faculty spotlights—a feature that helps us rapidly promote a professor’s expertise to take advantage of breaking news.” ExpertFile worked with Baylor to develop a searchable platform and content placements for their experts integrated into the Baylor website. To extend the reach beyond the website, Its experts are now also synchronized with the ExpertFile global experts directory and are also visible to thousands of newsrooms throughout the world through our partnerships with the Associated Press and Dejero. Eckert goes on to explain his organization’s use and success with ExpertFile Spotlight.  Spotlight is a unique content hub solution that is growing in popularity with marketing teams looking to quickly feature their experts in the context of breaking news, emerging stories, valuable research and newsworthy events. Virtually all of our clients are seeing the importance of providing relevant story angles that can be produced to help journalists on same day deadlines. Eckert goes on to speak of his experience with Spotlights:  “In September 2017, we created a spotlight to distribute a Baylor law professor’s comments on President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw authorization for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. A media inquiry received through ExpertFile resulted in a guest appearance on a nationally syndicated radio program in Canada.”  Other coverage generated recently by the Baylor team includes: Are you ‘phubbing’ right now? What it is and why science says it’s bad for your relationships The Washington Post You might be cheating on your spouse with your smartphone The Toronto Star Four bad habits that executives should nix The Economist Can ‘bedtime’ teas really help you fall asleep faster? Women’s Health The better way to take a break Fast Company The profile that experts develop through thought out programs such as Baylor’s can extend well beyond media to other key stakeholders, including potential research partners, funders, event organizers,  student enrollment and employee recruitment. How are your marketing, communications and media relations’ teams working with your experts across the campus to build market visibility and reputation for your institution?   We’d like to know. For more information on how ExpertFile Spotlight works or to read more success stories please drop me a line at Deanne Taenzer at dtaenzer@expertfile.com

Make Your Expert Profile Stand Out!

Successful organizations know that leveraging their leadership and subject matter experts is important to driving visibility and value for the organization. Most About Us pages and corporate bios fail miserably in their goal of engaging key audiences – and they are often very out of date. Based on our years of working with corporate, professional services clients, academic and healthcare institutions and others, we’ve put together the “Top 5 Tips for Creating a Winning Expert Profile”. By following these simple tips we’re confident you’ll be well on your way to driving better conversations with prospective customers, media, analysts, conference organizers and others. We hope these tips provide you the starting point for better showcasing your people. Tip #1:  BE VISUAL Your Headshot Creates a Human Connection Profiles with photos get 14x more views (according to research from LinkedIn). A good head shot humanizes your profile and helps establish trust. Make sure to invest in some professional headshots. Avoid busy backgrounds and lose the props unless they are relevant. Tip #2:  BE SEARCHABLE Choose Topics to Help You Get Discovered Pay very close attention to which topics you list on your profile as they help determine search results. Find the right balance between general and specialized terms. For example “tax inversion” is a specialized accounting term. But “offshore tax”, “tax havens’”; and “corporate tax planning” or geographic tags related to specific tax havens such as “Bermuda” are more likely search terms used by various audiences looking for a tax expert. Tip #3:  BE APPROACHABLE Create a Tagline that Draws People In Your professional headline (tagline) and biography must create and sustain attention. Don’t misuse this prime real estate to simply restate your current job title. Focus on your value proposition to advertise what you’re trained in and summarize the experience you have. Keep it concise using relevant keywords. Here’s an example of a powerful headline for an accomplished expert: “15 Years Experience in Commercial Real Estate | Author | Adjunct Business Professor | Keynote Speaker | TV & Radio Guest | Architectural Enthusiast.” Tip #4:  BE DESCRIPTIVE Focus Your Biography on Accomplishments Keep your biography clear, descriptive and up to date. Describe your responsibilities in concise statements led by strong verbs. Incorporate industry specific keywords and topics. Whenever possible, quantify your accomplishments and responsibilities with numbers or percentages. Don’t forget to mention international experience and any special awards or recognition you received. Remember it’s not your life story or a chronology of all your work experience. Leave that for your resume. Tip #5:  BE ENGAGING Multimedia Helps Prove Your Expertise Journalists and conference organizers will often avoid profiles that don’t have multimedia as they need to see how well you present your ideas in front of an audience. Videos, photos and audio of podcasts or interviews provide quick validation of your ability to communicate your ideas. If you’re an author upload a thumbnail of your book. Upload clips of your speaking sessions. Did you appear on TV? License a copy of the interview or upload a screenshot of the broadcast.

Building a Gateway to Real News in Broadcast Journalism

Long gone are the days when local media were held up as the first and final word on current affairs. It’s safe to say, the world has never experienced such a period of widespread participation in the news generating process. At the same time, we’ve never seen a more prolific inundation of content and voices from so many corners, all striving to reflect their two cents in the final story. This has also resulted in some of our most credible voices with relevant stories struggling to be heard. Why is that? The train may have left the station, but there is a more effective track it can follow before it’s too late. Video defines the news agenda One of the most formative trends we are now witnessing is the exponential increase in the amount of video created by local and national news outlets around the world, as well as mainstream contributors – from the general public, to corporations, and interest groups – who are producing video content at a staggering rate. The quality of this content is left to the creator’s standards. In this era of fake news, there has never been a more critical need in broadcast news for credible sources. Experts: Undiscovered or inaccessible? Many respected organizations (from research institutions and higher education to think tanks and private sector organizations) maintain significant stockpiles of critical and timely expertise – like research, analysis, and raw data – with which they are challenged to cut through the noise to get into the hands of those who need it. Broadcast media at all levels, from local to international, continue to play a critical role in getting these stories out. But many legitimate media outlets are facing financial burden and an onslaught of competition for audience against a growing field of alternative news sources. Ironically, current editorial and newsgathering processes even for the most mature media organizations remain cumbersome. Reporters’ search for information and sources in the field increases as their own numbers dwindle by the day. As credible news sources continue to battle unqualified viral content, the question remains: What can we do to make real news easier, faster and cheaper to create and deliver? Building a gateway to credible sources The secret may just lie in making credible information, broadcast-ready expert sources, and relevant stories more immediately accessible to media. Today, ExpertFile and Dejero announced that we are partnering to enhance broadcast newsroom access to credible expert sources by making the ExpertFile directory available through Dejero’s LIVE+ Control management system, which leading broadcasters around the world are now using to capture and distribute high quality live news feeds. We’re at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show in Las Vegas this week demonstrating this powerful integration with Dejero. Experts on over 25,000 topics will be discoverable directly from the Dejero control panel in newsrooms all over the world. For us, it’s about helping journalists more easily pursue compelling, timely news stories by connecting them to those credible, broadcast-ready experts. We are focused on building a gateway to the people, content and story ideas that can help define and respond to today’s news agenda. By building the world’s leading search engine and content platform for experts, we’re opening a new chapter with partners such as Dejero to build the bridges and channels to distribute this content to those who need it now…and fast! Already the response we’re getting from some of the biggest broadcast networks in the world here at NAB2017 is very encouraging. But there’s much more work to be done to help this industry. We look forward to some great conversations. If you are at NAB, please drop by the Dejero booth and say hi or drop us a line.

Whats YOUR Audience Engagement Score

Despite the billions of dollars now being spent on content, many schools have a big problem – Invisible experts. Faculty remain one of the most valuable assets for building market visibility and brand reputation. Yet surprisingly, most schools struggle to develop a strategic presence for their expert content beyond blogs and simple text based biographies and boring head shots. In this age of multimedia and social content, it’s a fact that visitors will go elsewhere if you haven’t created an engaging presence for your expert content. The costs of invisible experts Missed Media Inquiries: Print and broadcast media go elsewhere if you haven’t made it easy for journalists to find, evaluate and contact your experts. Less Engaged Visitors: Lack of multimedia content means visitors won’t spend as much time on your website and will feel less compelled to respond to your calls to action. Poor Discoverability in Search Engines: Google is a starting point for most audiences, so not appearing in the first few pages means lost opportunity for engagement and brand recognition.   Poor Research Recognition: In academia, the lack of details on faculty research means missed licensing revenues, government grants and less opportunities for research collaborations. Faculty Engagement: Faculty want to see an online presence that professionally recognizes their work and builds their reputation. Lost Talent: Faculty prospects want to see how you represent your best people. Publishing professional, engaging expert content helps you recruit and retain the best talent through proper recognition of their contributions. So How Does YOUR Organization Score? Based on our research working with thousands of experts, Fortune 500 clients and leading higher education and healthcare institutions we looked at all the best practices in working with expert content. Then we created a quick diagnostic tool called Audience Engagement Score (AES) that is a simple way to assess how your organization is performing in 5 key areas. AES gives you a score based on a simple 100 point scale. If you are scoring below 70% there is certainly more you could be doing to create an engaging online presence for your experts. Until now, there hasn’t been an industry benchmark by which an institution can effectively measure how well they are promoting their expertise online.   Here are the 5 key areas we assess: Discoverability Can audiences quickly search your website for your faculty experts and their content by topics, keywords and names?   Are you missing important leads because your faculty content isn’t ranking high enough in Google search results? Credibility Can visitors quickly review detailed biographies and overviews of your experts related to their areas of research?   Can past speaking engagements and featured interviews, articles and publications be easily referenced? Engagement Do you have up-to-date content such as videos, photos, publications and social media feeds available for journalists to review prior to booking media interviews?   Are you creating news alerts for breaking or popular topics to make them more interesting to prospective clients and journalists? Responsiveness Have you made it easy for audiences to reach you and your faculty experts within seconds at the moment you have their interest?  Or are they going to other schools? Mobility Is your content well designed for a growing base of mobile phone and tablet users? Remember the experts that walk the halls in your organization are your greatest asset. Would you like to know how your organization scores? If you have 30 seconds, click here and we’ll put together a customized, report for you including helpful industry benchmarks. Send us the website address you’d like us to review and we’ll do the rest. Get YOUR Free AES Report

In this Era of Fake News and Alternate FactsExperts are King

There’s nothing new about fake news. Satirical media outlets such as The Onion have been around for a decade giving us a good laugh. But somewhere in the past 12 months, something changed for the worse. The wool that was being pulled over people’s eyes wasn’t so obvious anymore. Satire and bad humour were replaced by visceral accusations, conspiracies, and smear campaigns. How did we get to this point, and what can be done to stem the tide? A sure sign that we had a problem was a development that was apparent in the last presidential election. New voices were on the national scene branding our traditional media outlets as biased, and elitist. We saw the phrase “mainstream media” become a bigger part of the conversation. Now we have to contend with “fake news.” Unlike traditional journalism fake news outlets deliberately spew wrong information. In an effort to get a story out, mistakes will happen. But in the world of fake news there is no retraction or correction of these mistakes — even when they are exposed as blatantly untrue. Further damage ensues when social media then acts as an enabler as fake news articles get amplified to millions of people, who are clicking away, feeding advertising revenues to these publishers. No matter what your political stripe or where you stood regarding the recent US election, fake news was rampant on both sides spreading false information, invoking anger, and deceiving the public. More recently, a fresher version of fake news has emerged as “Alternate Facts.” A term made famous by Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway as she defended the statements made by Press Secretary Sean Spicer who lectured and insisted that the crowd present for President Trump’s swearing-in was “the largest audience ever to It seems that the whole nature of the game has changed almost overnight. Even the White House press gallery isn’t immune to these developments. This week’s Saturday Night Live sketch brilliantly sums up the aversive relationship that we’re seeing develop between the media and the new administration. (Note: For the record, the photo at the bottom is NOT a C-SPAN broadcast. It’s a comedy sketch. It did not really happen. This is NOT Sean Spicer in the photo below — it’s an actor portrayal). Perhaps most ironic for me is how believable fake news can appear to be. A friend of mine, a former investigative journalist commented that “given the outright absurdity of the actual “real” news cycle,” it’s getting hard for people to sort fact from fiction.” Perhaps this says as much about society as it does about media. So Where Does All This Leave Us? Some say the solution is as simple as removing the bias from our news media. The problem is, I know quite a few (real) journalists and they are serious about reporting facts. They work in newsrooms and report the news, they tell stories, but gathering and checking facts are what define them. As they work to a set of professional standards and deliver real information. However, we’re witnessing a massive change in the way that ideas are shaped and communicated to the public. Sadly, the traditional avenues of information flow and the mutual respect that even democratic nation states have had with the media appears to be eroding. There is also a disturbing undercurrent of thought that traditional news organizations are biased, and every outlet is always serving a hidden agenda. Recent events have prompted the need for news organizations to brief their journalists on how to govern themselves in these very “interesting times.” John Daniszewski, Vice President for Standards for Associated Press in a recent blog post called for clarity regarding the definition of the so-called “alt-right.” “We should not limit ourselves to letting such groups define themselves, and instead should report their actions, associations, history and positions to reveal their actual beliefs and philosophy, as well as how others see them,” writes Daniszewski. Other news organizations are looking at recent events and taking the opportunity to internally brief their journalists. In a recent message to staff, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler wrote about covering President Trump the Reuters way: “The first 12 days of the Trump presidency (yes, that’s all it’s been!) have been memorable for all — and especially challenging for us in the news business. It’s not every day that a U.S. president calls journalists “among the most dishonest human beings on earth” or that his chief strategist dubs the media “the opposition party.” It’s hardly surprising that the air is thick with questions and theories about how to cover the new Administration. So what is the Reuters answer? To oppose the administration? To appease it? To boycott its briefings? To use our platform to rally support for the media? All these ideas are out there, and they may be right for some news operations, but they don’t make sense for Reuters. We already know what to do because we do it every day, and we do it all over the world. To state the obvious, Reuters is a global news organization that reports independently and fairly in more than 100 countries, including many in which the media is unwelcome and frequently under attack. We don’t know yet how sharp the Trump administration’s attacks will be over time or to what extent those attacks will be accompanied by legal restrictions on our news-gathering. But we do know that we must follow the same rules that govern our work anywhere.” Adler goes on to provide a set of rules for the Reuters team that I think are very wise, especially given the current environment. Do’s: Cover what matters in people’s lives and provide them the facts they need to make better decisions. Become ever-more resourceful: If one door to information closes, open another one. Give up on hand-outs and worry less about official access. They were never all that valuable anyway. Our coverage of Iran has been outstanding, and we have virtually no official access. What we have are sources. Get out into the country and learn more about how people live, what they think, what helps and hurts them, and how the government and its actions appear to them, not to us. Keep the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles close at hand, remembering that “the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of Reuters shall at all times be fully preserved.” Don’ts: Never be intimidated, but: Don’t pick unnecessary fights or make the story about us. We may care about the inside baseball but the public generally doesn’t and might not be on our side even if it did. Don’t vent publicly about what might be understandable day-to-day frustration. In countless other countries, we keep our own counsel so we can do our reporting without being suspected of personal animus. We need to do that in the U.S., too. Don’t take too dark a view of the reporting environment: It’s an opportunity for us to practice the skills we’ve learned in much tougher places around the world and to lead by example — and therefore to provide the freshest, most useful, and most illuminating information and insight of any news organization anywhere. Winning back the public trust — Why Experts Matter Perhaps a way to help reverse this trend is to ask more of our experts within our organizations, and get them to contribute more to these important conversations. It’s about getting our academics, physicians, professionals, and leaders in their respective fields to contribute more to help the media present a more balanced set of perspectives in ways that engage the public. In this new era, it appears that many experts are invisible to the media on a range of big issues such as climate change, economic data, security, crime and healthcare policy. Opinions — not always informed opinions — are taken as fact. People without qualifications are being asked to speak on topics that require years of study, research, and experience. This is why, now more than ever, we need to see a return of intelligence and knowledge to present true facts. Credible Experts Matter Credible sources are vital in helping ensure the proper degree of research has been done. Published work, peer-reviewed studies, as well as policy that has been developed and practised all play key roles in determining an actual expert. Proven credibility cuts through rhetoric. It promotes the delivery and flow of facts as opposed to feeding only one side of a debate. Being Approachable Matters We have to agree that the current sentiment that many have toward traditional institutions and their experts is that they are not providing enough practical information of benefit to the public. The term “ivory tower” comes up frequently to describe environments such as universities and think tanks. While we need these environments of intellectual pursuit they cannot be seen as disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life. Transparency Matters Do you know where your information is actually coming from? The flow of money into the development of fake news and so-called “experts” who are pushing agendas is tremendous. We’ve seen it recently with the sugar industry — much like the tobacco industry who literally wrote the book on manipulating and re-wrapping expertise and research in the middle of the last century — setting ideas on nutrition back decades. The market is crying out for a more consistent way to discover and evaluate the credibility of experts. We need a quick and trusted way to review their education, background, publications as well as their affiliations. We need to be able to conduct a front-line background check before we give them the platform to share their perspectives on television, radio, or in print. We need to vet the expert before they reach an audience that relies on the information being communicated to form opinions and make critical decisions that affect their lives. Local News Matters Local media is shrinking. Newsrooms are currently being threatened by constant shifts in both consumption and business models. If we are to promote accurate information and win the war on actual facts, we must make it easier for local journalists to do their jobs. Mainstream media still carries a lot of weight, especially online and television where the nightly news reaches a massive audience. Though the ratings are large, the subject matter doesn’t always resonate with viewers at home. We need to do a much better job helping local media get better access to the experts in our organisations so they can localise issues and tell stories, and do it in ways that everyone can understand. For example, a story on national unemployment numbers has a different context in San Francisco than it does in Flint, Michigan. Climate change is impacting Miami a lot differently than it is in the Great Lake states. In the end, all news is local. Speed Matters News is increasingly a speed game. With social media, a 24-hour news cycle, and the race to be first, time is of the essence. But in this game, haste may not only make waste, the truth may be a casualty as well. Most recently Fox News reported on a violent shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada. Six people were killed by a lone gunman. Fox News reported that the suspect was of Moroccan origin — that was false. The shooter was in fact of Canadian origin. It wasn’t until the Canadian Prime Minister’s office requested a retraction that Fox walked the story back…but it took almost two full days. In true Canadian fashion, Kate Purchase, Communications Director for Prime Minister Trudeau thanked Fox News. In the meantime, wrong information was shared across multiple platforms and seen by millions of people. This is when having your experts prepared, media-trained, and trusted internally to speak with media is key. In times of emergency and chaos, it may be the words, advice and perspective of a high-level expert that can calm a nervous public, or at the very least, clearly explain a situation and its outcomes with accuracy and trust. So Why Should This Matter to You? If you are focused on building your market visibility and brand reputation, making your organization’s experts more discoverable and responsive to media is as much a function of good public relations as it is a public service. In these days of fake news, alternate facts, and unclear agendas, an unbiased and objective point of view presented by a credible expert may be one of the few remaining pillars of integrity we have left. Experts bring credibility, reliability, and an elevated level of perspective and advice that the public can trust. It’s up to all of us to ensure our thought leaders rise above the fray and help rebuild the trust that is essential to building a civil society. How is your organization working with its experts to respond to these challenges? I’m particularly interested in speaking with communications and media relations professionals in higher education, healthcare and professional services as our team conducts more research in this area. Let us know what you think by sharing below. I read every comment.