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Champing at the Bit over the Correct Use of Idioms: Its Just Good PR

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All languages employ idioms, or phrases that have a figurative meaning that goes beyond the literal use of the words and English is no different. In fact, the English language includes an estimated 25,000 idiomatic expressions such as “breath of fresh air” and “clean bill of health.”

We commonly use idioms in business and in marketing and public relations to emphasize a point or make it more memorable. Unfortunately, many idioms are often misused. So much so, that the incorrect usage of idioms in some cases has become more common than the correct use. As we know, though, impressions are everything when it comes to PR, so it’s important to get it right.

Here’s a refresher on commonly used and misused idioms that tend to come up frequently in PR:

  • Flesh out that idea or proposal, don’t flush it out. When you flesh something out, you’re giving it more substance and building out the details. Flushing out refers to clearing something out like a sewer line or getting it out of hiding.
  • Home in on your key messages, don’t hone in on them. To home in on something is to zero in on it, as a missile homes in on a target. Hone (which shouldn’t be used with in, in this way) means to sharpen. So you home in on your key messages, and then you hone them until they are razor sharp.
  • You’re champing at the bit to get started on a project, not chomping. If you’re eager to get a new initiative going, you’re champing at the bit as a horse does when anxious to start a race. Although horses also chomp, or chew noisily, they do so when eating not when anticipating something. (Note: This is one of those idiomatic expressions that is so commonly misused, some dictionaries include both versions of the expression. But the Associated Press Stylebook, the go-to style guide for major media outlets, has spoken and AP still prefers the original usage of “champing.”)
  • It’s for all intents and purposes, not for all intensive purposes. For all intents and purposes means “in effect,” or “practically speaking”: “For all intents and purposes, we have completed our crisis communication plan.” All intensive purposes is a misuse of the original phrase, which comes from British legal terminology originating in the 1500s.

As with “for all intents and purposes,” a number of idioms have “eggcorns,” which means a similar-sounding word or words are substituted for the original due to mishearing or misinterpreting the correct term. The word eggcorn is thought to be a playful descriptor based on a theoretical mishearing of the word “acorn.”

Since eggcorns most often occur with homophones, or words that sound the same to the ear, these idiomatic faux pas occur most frequently when writing a phrase after hearing it spoken.

Here are a few common eggcorns to keep in mind:

  • You toe the line, you don’t tow it. Toeing the line means you conform; you do what you’re expected to do and follow the rules. This phrase comes from racers placing their toes at a start line before a race. You can use a line or cable to help tow something such as a boat, but the line does the towing not vice versa.
  • You give people free rein, not free reign. When you give others free rein as you might with a horse you give them the freedom to do what they want. Reign refers to the act of a monarch ruling a nation or territory.
  • When someone is strongly favored in a competition, he or she is a shoo-in not a shoe-in. This is another idiom related to horses  are you sensing a pattern? If you think about “shooing” a fly, it’s moving in the direction you want it to. The same is the case with the horse/candidate/whomever you want to win some kind of race supporters cheer the candidate on, shooing him or her towards victory.
  • A creative idea piques your interest, it doesn’t peak it. If your interest is piqued, you are excited or curious about something. Peak refers to a pointed end or a hilltop or mountaintop.
  • It’s per se, not per say. Per se is Latin for “by itself”: “The correct use of idioms doesn’t make you a genius, per se, but it’s a point in your favor.” It’s surprising how often the incorrect “per say” appears in writing, and from some super-smart people. Likely a case of the error being repeated so often, it starts to look correct.
  • You wait with bated breath, not baited breath. The adjective bated means “with great suspense,” and this phrase refers to waiting for something anxiously or excitedly. When something is baited, on the other hand, a predator is attempting to lure its prey.

So now that we’ve homed in on the most common incorrect usage of idioms, I know you’re champing at the bit to toe the line when it comes to proper usage. (Yes, I had to do it.)

When you get a great opportunity, it's time to milk the PR machine.

More than One Way to Milk the PR Machine

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After 14 months, dozens of emails, numerous brainstorming sessions not to mention several bottles of Tums my PR team was excited to have our client profiled by Forbes. And then, just like the careful-what-you-wish-for dot-com Super Bowl ad, very quickly the number of article views grew  at last count, it was up to 6,800 online views, per the ticker on the Forbes site for that article. Seemed like a perfect opportunity to milk the PR machine.

In a call with our client after the Forbes article hit, we explored what the client could do to leverage this hard-earned placement. Nonplussed, the CMO turned to her social media director, who replied that the Forbes article did not align immediately with the calendar of themes they were planning in their integrated digital marketing plan.

It is amazing, and extremely frustrating for all parties involved, how often this takes place  a great placement finally hits the web or print edition, and then it gets lost in the ether-nether digital filing cabinet, never to be seen again.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Yes, we encourage our clients to develop integrated digital campaigns that leverage all of the various content assets being developed. But some things cannot be anticipated, and one of those things is when the national media will decide to run a story on your company. Don’t let it go to waste just because the calendar doesn’t have a placeholder for it.

To avoid such painful conversations from taking place in the future, here are a few tips for optimizing your media coverage for sales, marketing and lead generation regardless of what campaign you are currently working on.

Leveraging earned article placements

When a quality bylined article placement, award or other newsworthy item hits  expected or not expected  there are several channels you can leverage to compound the interest among your target audiences.

One of the most effective ways is to immediately review the coverage and then list it on your company’s and executives’ Linked In profiles under publications. Over time, the list of articles will grow  this is important because these proof points can be used for award nominations, speaking abstracts, and effectively demonstrating your company’s and executives’ track record, all made quickly available by clicking on a simple hyperlink on a LinkedIn profile.

Your sales team should also get in on the act and proactively promote the article placements, blog posts, awards, speaker nominations and other PR activities. This is to their advantage, as it helps soften the sales cycle by positioning your company and executives as industry thought leaders both for prospects and existing customers.

One way to quickly accomplish this is to draft an email “wrapper” for the sales team that they can then distribute to their contacts through sales force automation tools, such as SalesForce.com. (Your PR firm can help with this.)

And last but certainly not least, be sure to display your PR hits on your web site, adjacent to the online pressroom. We advise clients to keep media coverage separate from company press releases by calling it “XYZ Company in the News” or “Media Coverage of XYZ”. If you get lots of hits and this becomes too much of a burden (a nice problem to have!), there are electronic services available that will automate the newsfeed selection and posting process for you.

Leveraging speaking engagements

So you’ve been accepted to speak at an industry conference. What’s next? Don’t wait until the conference is over to harness the power of social media. Have the speaker and your company Tweet about what an honor and thrill it is, ask if anyone else is going and invite them to attend your session.

Here are a few more practical ideas on promoting your conference workshop or concurrent session:

  • Arrange for a meet-the-speaker hour at your booth following your presentation.
  • Send e-blasts to your customers and prospects with details about your session. Even if they don’t attend the conference, it’s good for your image to make them aware that you were selected.
  • Take the extra step to print flyers to hand to people when they stop by your booth.

These are just a few ideas for milking the PR machine. Have you seen other ideas that have worked well?

Blog writing can be frustrating when you have no ideas. These tips will help you generate some.

6 Tips for Generating Blog Writing Ideas

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By now you’ve no doubt heard about the benefits of establishing a corporate blog. One of the most important, of course, is for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. Google (and other search engines) rewards frequent content updates on your website, so if your blog is connected to your website, and it’s active you’ll rise in the organic search rankings. That makes blog writing a pretty important part of your marketing program.

This simple fact creates an ongoing challenge for many, however. Namely, coming up with interesting topics to blog about.

Sometimes the ideas flow easily, especially at first. It seems like you have a cornucopia of information to share with the market. After that initial gold rush, however, you find yourself staring at the blinking, nagging cursor for longer and longer periods of time. You’ve expended the obvious topics and begin to wonder if establishing that blog was such a great idea after all.

The reality is great blog writing ideas are all around you. They crop up in your life every day. Like Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza’s idea for a show about nothing, you just have to learn to recognize them.

Comment on industry articles

One of the good things about working in healthcare and health IT (HIT) is that there is never a lack of new information, new approaches, new discoveries or new regulations coming out. Most of us get several newsletter and at least scan the headlines every day.

These articles can become a rich source of blog fodder. For example, if an article announces a new rule or a change to a program from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that will affect your customers/clients, that’s a blog post! Link to the original article, provide a one- or two-sentence synopsis, then add your thoughts about what it means to the industry.

Or perhaps a new research report has come out that could affect your clients. Again, bringing it to your clients’ attention and providing a little analysis with it can provide added value to them while giving you a blog post that practically writes itself.

Share a tip or trick that helped a client with a general issue

This is another rich source of blog writing ideas. Perhaps your team has helped a client solve a particular issue, such as data that needed to be scrubbed in a certain way in order to be used in a specific electronic health records (EHR) system. Whatever the issue, there’s a good chance it isn’t just that one client who is facing it.

Talk about the challenge, and the problems it’s causing, then explain how to solve it. All you really have to do is recap what you’ve already done  no original thinking required. If you’re not directly involved with this aspect of the business, check with the development or customer service team. They can probably keep you supplied with ideas for months. Just be sure not to give away anything the business would consider a competitive advantage.

Blog about discoveries in a related field

Everything you write about doesn’t have to be directly in your company’s space. Sometimes it can just have a loose relationship with a tie-back later.

Take the example of cognitive computing. There are all sorts of advances in this area going on outside of healthcare as well as inside. If you hear about how cognitive computing is being applied to make self-driving cars smarter, there’s a blog post. You can write about what is already happening with cars, the speculate on how it might affect healthcare or HIT in the future.

Mine some key data

Data and analytics are huge in healthcare and HIT these days. It seems just about every organization is generating tons of them. Most, however, are under-utilizing that information, especially when it comes to marketing.

You can take advantage of that by looking through the reports for trends that are interesting without giving away anything that again is proprietary. For example, if you have software that enables payers to create member portals, and there is a sudden uptick in the number of portals your team is creating, you may want to comment about how portals are on the rise and speculate as to why. That will also give you an opportunity to talk about the advantages of portals to encourage more sales.

Or maybe you see that your clients’ customer satisfaction scores are suddenly on the rise. You can find out what changes they’ve made to enable that to happen and share them with your blog audience.

Pay attention to day-to-day conversations

Each day you, your co-workers, your clients and others share information and ideas in passing. It may be through conversations, emails, reports, meetings or some other sources.

Hidden within the ordinary course of business may be a few nuggets that can make worthy blog posts. All you’ll need to do is listen to them with that filter in mind. If a co-worker says something you find interesting write it down. Establish a folder for emails that contain good ideas that you can reference later if you’re stuck.

However you save them, the good news is when you need an idea and none are coming to you immediately you can go back to your files and dig one up. Just be sure you have enough information available to remember what the original topic was. Nothing worse than having a great headline and no idea what it means.

Work with your PR agency on ideas

While most healthcare and health IT companies tend to be very specialized in a particular aspect of the industry, PR agencies such as Amendola Communications cover a much wider swath. That can work in your favor by bringing in ideas that are related to, but not dead center in, your sweet spot.

If you have one, you can brainstorm topics with your PR agency, taking advantage of their experience to in other areas, especially general industry knowledge, to develop blog topics you might not have thought of on your own.

Of course, having a PR agency also means you can turn over some or all of the content creation to them, particularly if writing isn’t your strong suit. But even if you prefer to do your own writing, that sort of collaboration can open you to new ideas and areas that help build your blog as a go-to resource for your target audience.

Yes, blog writing can be challenging. The Internet is always hungry for new content. But the reality is great ideas for posts are all around you. You just have to know how to find them  or let them find you.

Getting healthcare vendor clients to do PR can feel like a tug of war.

Prepping Healthcare Vendor Customers for Public Relations

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It happens to healthcare vendors all the time…

It’s a great day at the office. Your sales team inks a deal with a major client. Your development team tells you that a recent implementation has been an earth-shattering success. An industry-renowned customer casually mentions to your CEO that your company’s platform should be an industry standard.

You fire off an email to your PR agency and the machine is set in motion. Press releases are drafted. Media alerts are sent. A steady cadence of pitches for bylines, case studies, and interviews land in the inboxes of scores of reporters and editors. Momentum begins to build.

You turn to your marketing team to begin coordinating strategy with your PR team, when suddenly a single e-mail or phone call brings the entire endeavor to a screeching halt.

Your customer the shining example of your company’s efficacy in a fiercely competitive marketplace can’t or won’t do a press release. Previously unknown policies against speaking to the media begin to pop up. Oh, and about that opportunity to co-present at a major healthcare conference yeah, turns out they will have to pass on that, too. So sorry, but perhaps they can do something as long as it is stripped of any quotes, endorsements, or mentions of the client.

A healthcare vendor’s clients are a critical and bountiful resource for your PR and marketing program. They offer third-party validation for the efficacy of your solution within the industry. They act as vendor-neutral sources for editors and reporters in the trade and business press. They provide real-world solidity to the larger trends and narratives impacting healthcare in the United States.

Though your clients may understand the value they could bring to your PR strategy, that doesn’t mean they will go along with it. Communication with a healthcare vendor’s clients about PR initiatives not only clears up misunderstandings, but also helps establish with your client boundaries and a level of comfort about deliverables being created with their name and reputation affixed to it.

Here are some tips to consider:

Reach out to their PR department. A big part of PR is relationship building. A quick huddle with your client’s PR or corporate communications department and agency is great for setting boundaries about what they will or won’t participate in.

Consider contractual language. Speak with your sales and legal teams. Do you contracts include any language about PR participation? Most client would understandably balk at being required to participate in a full-fledged PR campaign, but many contracts have a line or two mandating that a press release be distributed within 60 to 90 days of signing the contract.

Introduce your agency. You know and trust your PR agency but that doesn’t mean your client does. A quick meeting between your agency and your client clears the air and ensures that everyone is on the same page.

Share your plan. Any client who is participating in your PR efforts should have a voice in the actual strategy and tactics. This thinking goes beyond press release approval. It includes how and when they will be positioned and prepared for media interviews, speaking engagements, or other opportunities.

Establishing a regular cadence and open line of communication with a healthcare vendor’s client’s marketing and PR team ensures that you both make the most of your public relations efforts.

7 Factors for Finding Your PR Agency Soul Mate

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I often tell my clients that selecting a PR agency is much like selecting a spouse. It’s an intimate relationship; we often talk with our own clients several times a day on the phone and email, so we know how important it is for agencies and their clients to “click.”

As for finding this perfect PR match, it’s a lot like real life dating. Sure, an online search can reap lots of possibilities, but referrals from people you know and who know the other party are often the most effective way to find the agency just right for you. So be sure to ask your colleagues, strategic partners and industry editors who they’ve worked with in the past.

After you’ve identified a viable candidate, do your due diligence to confirm it really is a match made in (business) heaven. With 25 years of experience running a successful PR agency, I’ve narrowed this vetting process down to 7 key factors.

Expertise

Do you need an agency with experience in multiple verticals or do you want an agency in a specific market niche such as healthcare IT (HIT)? With the latter, you’ll get knowledge that’s both broad across different niches within that space and deep a combination which uncovers many more messaging opportunities and angles. Such an agency is going to have more relationships with HIT media and digital influencers, along with media experience and skills in national and local markets.

But don’t just take the PR agency’s word for how experienced its team members are find out how long the agency has been in business and be sure to review customer case studies. If possible, seek a conversation or two with the agency’s clients.

Size

It’s amazing to me that some companies, even really small start-ups, think they need a “large” agency to succeed–the “nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM” mentality. I have heard so many clients and prospects describe their experiences working with a large PR agency and their inevitable discovery that the agency viewed them as one of the smaller fishes in the pond. How much attention do you think these companies ended up getting?

There are some companies who start with a small or medium PR agency and then become so big that they do in fact need a large, global partner or multiple agencies and very often, it was the dedication of an independent agency that helped get them there. So when it’s time to hire your next PR agency, make sure to scope out how much personalized attention you’ll get. Ask how many people will be on your team, and their different levels of expertise. Find out their roles and responsibilities and get a good sense of how much access you’ll have to each one.

Location

In the old days before email, Skype, web conference calls and the like, companies largely felt they had to work with agencies in their town or state. But that’s no longer the case. Today companies can communicate and work with any agency in the world, meaning they have exponentially more agencies to choose from. Of course, time zones are a consideration, so you’ll want to seek a PR agency with staff located in all zones. But aside from that, you now have so many more agencies to choose from. So many choices can be overwhelming, so again narrow them down by how well an agency meets the criteria I’ve outlined for you. It really does work!

Range of Services

It’s so much more convenient to work with an agency that offers a roster of services that clients can choose from, either a la carte or integrated. Look for a PR agency that can offer media relations, social media, PR strategy, content marketing, digital marketing, and writing at a minimum. Ask about their connections with video production firms, graphic design and other auxiliary creative services. An experienced agency will either offer these services themselves or have numerous connections on hand they can refer you to and work with on your various campaigns.

 Partners

On the subject of agencies working with other creative groups, choose one that can collaborate not compete with your existing agency partners. This is important for integrated campaigns that are executed by multiple agencies to actually work.

Team

Here’s something you might not discover until after you sign the retainer contract with some agencies: very often the high-level execs you met at the presentation aren’t the team who will be working on your account. That’s unfortunate, because experience and compatibility matter. Ideally, at the initial presentation at least one of the people who will be on your team should be there. Do you feel a connection with them? Are they someone you would enjoy working with on a regular basis? Remember this is going to be a close relationship. There are days when I speak with my clients more than with my own husband!

Budget/terms/scope of work

When evaluating agencies you will want to compare apples to apples in terms of services, quantities/deliverables, etc. Are you going to engage in an annual retainer program or a PR project? Will you be billed by the hour or by scope of deliverables? Based on my experience, the latter will get you more value. Teams won’t be clocking out the second your hours for the month are used up; instead, they’ll work tirelessly to successfully execute your campaigns with no limit to the time they put in.

Most PR agencies, if they have hit your top 5 or 10 list, are probably going to be solid contenders. They can all probably write a solid press release and know the nuts and bolts of working with the media. But hone in on how they’ll work with you. Zero in on the fit. Does it feel right? Is this the company that you want to serve as an extension to your own team? As with all other relationships, this comfort level is the key to finding your PR agency soul mate.

Vocera Taps Amendola for Public Relations, Social Media, and Content Marketing Strategy & Execution

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Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and healthcare IT public relations and marketing agency, announced today that it has been selected as the agency of record for Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA). Amendola will provide a broad range of public relations and content services that promote Vocera’s mission to break down communication barriers and improve the healthcare experience for patients, families and care team members around the world.

“We knew Amendola Communications was the right agency to promote our unique value proposition to the right audiences and media outlets, with its deep industry knowledge and significant media and analyst relationships in the healthcare and healthcare IT sectors,” said Kathy English, Vice President of Enterprise Marketing. “The decision to hire Amendola was a clear and easy one to make after vetting the agency’s track record of delivering high-performance PR and marketing campaigns in our targeted markets. In just a few months, Amendola has already exceeded our expectations.”

Smartphones and wireless technology are fundamentally changing how care teams connect and collaborate, and Vocera is leading the way by supporting all types of communication, working in concert with multiple devices, and integrating with more than 70 clinical systems. The Vocera Communication Platform provides a secure, enterprise-class solution with an intelligent active staff directory that enables users to connect and communicate with each other instantly via voice communication, secure text messaging, and contextual alarm notifications. Used by more than 1,000 hospitals around the world, Vocera delivers the right information to the right person at the right time, saving valuable steps and time.

Amendola Communications is executing public relations, social media and content marketing strategy and programs for Vocera, with a special focus on the company’s thought leadership. Vocera’s leadership team is made up of widely respected clinicians and tech industry luminaries who are at the forefront of national movements in healthcare today, including offering technology solutions that address longstanding communication challenges and restoring the human connection at every point of a patient’s healthcare experience.

“We felt an instant connection to Vocera’s impressive team and look forward to promoting their initiatives and successes in this high-tech market where we have deep expertise,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications. “Our team is leveraging both Vocera’s thought leaders and clients to convey their important value proposition to the healthcare industry that critically depends on teamwork and the right information in order to globally dismantle communication barriers across even the largest healthcare enterprises.”

About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation four times by PRSourceCode, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and HIT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contact: Tara Stultz | 440.225.9595| tstultz@acmarketingpr.com

Company success begins with believing in the value prop

The best indicator of company success? Believing in your value prop

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Confidence. When you have it, life is a panorama of possibilities. Success just seems to follow, and even the occasional failure turns into a new opportunity. As a longtime marketing and PR copywriter, I’ve noticed company success follows a similar trajectory. Highly successful companies are, without exception, led by true believers in the company’s products and mission. And they tend to prove this faith in how they deliver their marketing and PR messaging.

By the same token, organizations that doubt their value proposition do exactly the opposite like when the US Postal Service infamously sent a status report to US Congress members via Fed EX. Or when Blackberry tweeted about a new marketing launch with an iPhone.

Both are textbook examples of how fear can paralyze an inherently good offering and jeopardize future success. With that, here’s a checklist of traits exhibited by companies that do believe in their ability to radically impact the market:

  • They leverage and promote what they are uniquely known for, even indeed, especially if this value proposition bucks industry norms
  • They are not overly spooked by the competition. They are obsessed with delivering outstanding outcomes for their customers.
  • They don’t agonize that they’re not packing enough information in a single marketing or PR piece. They are laser-focused on getting information out to enough audiences.
  • They are single-minded in their mission to make their industry and their customers worlds better and put their resources to work in proving how this can be done.

Content Marketing = Messaging Confidence

So how can companies do all of the above, in a planned, strategic way? From my experience at Amendola, they are the ones most likely to dive enthusiastically into the realm of content marketing creating and strategically distributing a valuable library of information until they effectively dominate, if not own, their industry’s narrative.

I absolutely have to call out our client Health Catalyst here. The company has methodically built the definitive online knowledge hub on how healthcare organizations are creating better outcomes through, in part, analytics and other data-informing tools. Searches for various terms and trends in healthcare often lead one to the Health Catalyst website the knowledge library is that extensive and well-crafted.

Turning customers into true believers, too

Health Catalyst also leverages its vast knowledge for an annual conference that is becoming the best-known event in the healthcare analytics arena. I think that this, too, is another hallmark of the true believer who leads his or her company to success: there is constant interaction with customers. If not conferences, then smaller user groups. If not weekly or monthly face-to-face meetings, then certainly regular opportunities to connect via webinars, online forums, and more. There are newsletters, both print and electronic if not sent monthly, then quarterly. (All of these efforts, incidentally, provide your loyal customer champions with information they can take to the powers-to-be to make the case for your company.)

This leads to another trend I’m noticing companies increasingly have someone in charge of elevating customer experiences. Critically, these people work closely with customers to set benchmark targets and then help to meet or exceed them. This can greatly benefit content marketing campaigns by cultivating case studies that reveal astonishing results.

A tell-tale sign of insecure messaging

Here’s an inescapable fact about the healthcare IT industry: many companies in this space are convinced that healthcare executives and clinicians exist on a remote and humorless plane away from the rest of humanity.

You can easily see this in much of the marketing and PR messaging that churns out from these companies. It reads as if written by a robot programmed to generate only acronyms, jargon and ubiquitous claims such as “transforming operational efficiency” and “aligning business and clinical outcomes.”

That’s about the only kind of writing that will get the greenlight in a company that isn’t confident its prospects have actual emotion buttons. Or, more to the point, aren’t confident the company’s product is compelling enough to push these emotional buttons.

In his delightfully titled blog post “What HIT Writing Needs is More Cowbell” my colleague Ken Krause lays out a good case for taking a more consumer-oriented approach to writing for healthcare audiences. “At the end of the day, clinicians and HIT leaders put their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else,” Ken reminds us.

He adds, “When physicians plunk down money for that highly coveted BWM, it’s not because of gas mileage research; it’s because they’re sure they’ll look cool driving it.”

Indeed. And these all-too-human people work in a profession that can be extraordinarily stressful, chaotic, astoundingly over-regulated, chronically under-staffed, and many other characteristics that are a recipe for howling-out-loud humor. You read that right. As comedy writing guru John Vorhous has astutely noted, the essence of comedy is rooted in truth and pain and there’s a lot of pain in delivering healthcare in today’s modern era.

That said, I’ve yet to see healthcare IT break the comedy barrier (some of us are trying), but inroads are being made in tech B2B, thanks to a series of brilliant Adobe Marketing Cloud commercials. It is very clear that Adobe knows its audience: marketing professionals. Specifically, Adobe knows what drives us insane and nails it in what are hands down some of the funniest ads I’ve ever seen.

When customers know you get them, they have more trust in buying from you. And humor is one of the most effective ways of translating this empathy. Are you confident you understand your customers true pains? Then be more confident in using humor to market to them.

Becoming more confident in your value proposition

Sometimes, all we need is a taste of success to get a big boost in confidence. Engaging in some or all of the above activities content marketing, focusing on the customer experience, cultivating more customer interactions, crafting messages that speak on a human level increases both the odds of company success and confidence in your product. Basically, these activities get the word out about your value proposition which is 98 percent of the work involved in getting this message to take root.

Learning to be a PR Intern

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Honestly, before I started as a PR intern at Amendola Communications three months ago I knew relatively nothing about Public Relations.

I’m currently studying journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, so while I have had some exposure to PR, I really didn’t know what it takes to work in the field day to day. I only knew how the two fields intertwined.

Add to that the challenges of having a focus on healthcare and health IT and if feels like I’m in a very demanding school when everyone else is off for the summer, simply because I’ve continued building upon what I’ve learned at school with what I have learned here. So here are a few things I have learned about PR since I started my internship.

PR Is More Complicated Than I Thought
Before my internship what I knew about the field of PR is that it includes a lot of press releases and pitch writing. In fact, my desire to learn more about the PR field is what drove me to pursue an internship at Amendola Communications. Boy, did I learn quickly that PR is a lot more than press releases and pitches. Here are a few things I learned that PR professionals do:
1. They manage social media accounts. Can you imagine being in charge of someone’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and more?
2. They create content for those social media accounts, like infographics and videos.
3. They manage websites, and sometimes even manage creating them to begin with.
4. They create, gather and analyze large amounts of data. Then use that data to create strategies to use for everything else they manage.
5. They set up and do research for interviews.
6. They even help train people on how to do interviews if they don’t have experience.
7. They manage any sort of PR crisis, or as I’d like to think they’re the firemen and women that put out the fires.
8. And you know they manage press releases and story pitching.

Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Managing all of these aspects of PR is too much for just one person to handle. To make all those social media posts roll out smoothly and assure that everything is meeting its deadline takes a team of professionals to make a company look like a PR pro. It really does take all the teamwork of the “A Team” to make sure the PR machine is running at full capacity. I can’t stress enough how important it is for everyone who is my age and in college to learn how to work in a team, as much as we all hate doing assigned group projects. It’s more important than you’d think, and very much an everyday occurrence in the working world.

It Also Takes a Wide Range of Skills
When I started studying journalism my professors told me that companies are looking for people who are well-rounded, with many different skills and abilities, rather than someone who is only trained in one thing. It really helps in the working world to know a lot about different things such as different forms of media, different computer programs and more. Now I don’t mean everyone should go out and become a jack of all trades and a master of none. You can be a jack of all trades and a master of some, but don’t spread yourself too thin.

It’s Not Impossible to Start a Business
During my time as an intern I got to sit in on calls and meetings. During them I couldn’t help but be inspired by the people I met or spoke to who had started their own businesses. It was amazing working with people who were so excited about what they were doing and so ready to get their businesses up and running with a little help from Amendola Communications. It made me realize that starting a business isn’t always a bust and that it can be a huge success.

The Healthcare System is a lot More Disconnected Than You Think
During my internship I quickly learned that most people are under the illusion that anything involving their health, such as their medical records with their primary care physician and their health information from the last time they went to the emergency room, are all somehow connected and easily accessible among different doctors and nurses, simply because we now have computers and electronic health records. Most of the time, we couldn’t be more wrong. From what I’ve learned it’s actually very difficult to transfer information between doctors and emergency rooms and elsewhere. I’ve also learned that people are purposely creating programs and companies to help correct this issue.

It Takes One Angry Person to Cause a Healthcare PR Crisis
At one point during my internship I helped one of my supervisors make a vlog about “How to Handle a Healthcare Media Crisis.” At the moment, I understood the topic but I didn’t realize just how important it was. Until someone close to me had a medical emergency where something went wrong. Obviously they were angry and about to go on a social media rampage, when a lightbulb went off in my head. I immediately thought “this is what the vlog is about, this is why it’s important.” In our world of social media, all it takes to damage a healthcare or health IT’s reputation is one angry Facebook post to trend. Trending happens so quickly, and as stated in the video, most healthcare or health IT companies don’t even get a chance to comment on what has happened before it is too late. This is possibly one of the most important things a PR team handles.

In Conclusion
As my internship starts to wind down due to school starting I’m glad I was able to learn so much about PR, along with building upon what I already knew, from Amendola Communications. Going back to school I feel like I have a much better understanding of the PR field, and even my own field and how to interact with PR even better. In addition I now know more about healthcare and health IT than I had ever expected. At school I feel like I’ll be able to give some good insights to my fellow students about how we will be using what we’ve learned, and what we need to prepare for once we all enter the working world.

Overall, I’m happy that I got the opportunity and experience of being a PR intern at Amendola Communications. It really made me feel reassured that what I am studying and learning at school is very important and what I really enjoy.

(All GIFS courtesy of GIPHY.com)

How PR agencies were Cloud before Cloud was Cool

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Cloud technology gets a lot of deserving recognition for equipping organizations with a modern IT infrastructure at a fraction of the time and upfront cost it would require to build one in-house. In an interesting paradox, the value of hiring a public relations agency is less perceived, even though the benefits are much the same professional expertise and tools (and not to mention, valuable media relationships) all at the ready, priced at a pay-only-for-what-you-use basis. Yet PR agencies are often asked, “Why should I hire you instead of adding a full time employee?”

As it happens, there’s a quantifiable difference. While there’s no doubt that a full-time, senior-level or even junior employee can bring value to an organization, there’s a decided limit in experience, media relationships and hours in the week. By contrast, a public relations agency like Amendola typically assigns a team of five people to each client account. On average, each team member has 15+ years of experience in one or more niches such as account management, strategic counsel, crisis communications, social media, media relations, content development and more all of which won’t necessarily cost more than bringing on a single full-time employee. In addition, when employees call in sick or go on vacation, you may be caught short. Not so with an agency team behind you, where PR activities are constantly covered.

Hiring the PR agency brain trust

One of the most compelling reasons to hire an agency like Amendola is that our employees come from a variety of backgrounds, giving our clients access to broad expertise. Some of us hail from agencies, while others are former TV, newspaper and radio reporters. Others come from the client side, including provider and payer organizations, healthcare IT companies and industry trade associations. What this means for Amendola’s clients is that instead of having one person with some degree of knowledge in multiple areas, they can put multiple experts to work in many different areas.

For example, a client that’s been focused on the provider side may at some point want to enter the pharmaceutical space. That’s no problem at Amendola, where we can quickly add strategists or writers, social media or media relations experts–deeply versed in life sciences to the existing client team. We even have market intelligence researchers who can uncover valuable information about newly targeted spaces. When it comes to gaining insight and a foothold on new markets, the power of an experienced PR agency works faster than just one or two insulated employees.

Strategy driven by business goals instead of personal comfort levels

Speaking of the in-house bubble, very often whoever drives public relations and marketing in these departments makes decisions based on their own expertise, comfort and convenience. This isn’t a criticism so much as the natural propensity of humans to do what they do best even if it’s not necessarily best for the company’s business objectives. And so, these professionals end up spending all of their time/energy/budget on their favorite or most familiar strategies, and neglect other often important areas.

At Amendola, we offer expertise in all areas of marketing communications, branding, PR and content, which no single person can possibly provide. This enables us to determine and deploy strategies that are most likely to meet our client’s business goals. If that includes social media, we’ll assign a social media expert to the account. If brand awareness, we’ll bring in a well-connected media relations. We will customize our services to meet your business objectives.

The rewards of resource sharing

You might be skeptical that all this access to public relations expertise really can be had without investing in a sizable in-house department. But as a PR agency that works with many different clients, Amendola is able to spread the business costs across this extensive client portfolio another commonality with cloud services vendors that spread the cost of infrastructure across multiple accounts, sparing any single customer from having to shoulder the entire cost. While we offer a full range of services, including some that are a la carte, the majority of our clients have monthly retainer agreements in place that are comparable to the monthly payroll of a single employee, minus the costs of training and other in-house employment expenses, such as health insurance.

Again, these clients benefit from the experience already gained by our work for others; very rarely do we encounter a completely unfamiliar topic in the realm of healthcare or healthcare IT. And when we learn something new, all of our clients benefit sooner or later. That’s the power of “public relations-as-a-service” it brings top-tier public relations services to all.

Healthcare IT PR & Marketing Leader Kate Donlon Rejoins Amendola Communications

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Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and healthcare IT public relations and marketing agency, welcomes back Kate Donlon, a “founding employee” of Amendola who worked side-by-side with Jodi Amendola to help turn the agency into one of the most successful in healthcare IT. Donlon returns to Amendola as Vice President, and will expand the executive leadership team and the agency’s content marketing, inbound marketing and digital marketing services.

“It’s such a thrill to have Kate back in the Amendola family, bringing her rare ability to strategically integrate digital, content marketing, public relations and social media into successful campaigns,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications. “As both a strategic and tactical doer, Kate is a strong complement to our existing team. Our clients will soon be as happy as I am. Kate is, hands down, one of the best marketers and communicators with whom I have ever worked.”

Donlon is a seasoned communications professional with more than 20 years of experience in delivering high-performance campaigns on both the agency and client side, from start-ups to Fortune 500 organizations. She has held numerous marketing and PR leadership positions at Intel Corporation; Mayo Clinic Health System; Ulthera, Inc.; and Aptus Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck & Co.

Deeply versed in almost every marketing and PR skill set, Donlon specializes in “integrated communications” that weave together PR, digital marketing and social media, content marketing and branding, resulting in highly impactful and evocative campaigns.

Her return to Amendola is a timely one. The agency’s portfolio of healthcare and healthcare IT clients has rapidly expanded, sparked by exponential growth within the healthcare IT industry and increased demand for integrated PR and marketing programs that drive market awareness and produce quantifiable outcomes.

“I’ve always loved working with Jodi Amendola as part of the Amendola team, from the early days as part of an ambitious start up, to what the company is today the most knowledgeable and experienced agency in healthcare and healthcare IT,” said Donlon.

She added, “Career is such a big part of my life that I have to love what I do and with whom I work! That’s easy at Amendola where camaraderie and collaboration are the norm. It’s also gratifying to work with an agency that has such a deep and broad reach within the healthcare and healthcare IT media ecosystem. Because of Amendola’s extensive media relationships, it’s not Oh, we’ll have to research that editor because, very likely, one of our team members has just spoken with that editor the day before.”

Donlon has an MBA in international management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, as well as decades of business and cultural experiences throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. This globally-infused background brings an international perspective to her strategic counsel and integrated communications programs. In addition to an MBA, Donlon holds a B.A. in Spanish from Michigan State University.

To download Donlon’s photo, click here.

Tweet This: #HealthcareIT #PR & #Marketing leader Kate Donlon rejoins @AmendolaComm as VP. | http://bit.ly/2aLriaQ @kdonlon_PR

About Amendola Communications

Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation by PRSourceCode for four years running, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and healthcare IT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Media Contact: Marcia Rhodes | 480.664-8412 | mrhodes@ACmarketingPR.com