05 10 2603By The Numbers: Trends Shaping The News

Intro:PR in the Age of [In]Attention

A Step-by-Step Guide to What This Means for Media Relations

Contributors

12 // Step 1: Create a Story, Not a

Features List

13 // Step 2: Lead with Your Point of View

14 // Step 3: Use Language People

Understand, not Buzzwords & Jargon

15 // Step 4: Spend Your Time on the

Pitch, Not the Media Tour

17 // Step 5: Perfect the Headline, the

Place Where Interest Starts (or Stops)

18 // Step 6: Rethink the Press Release

into a News Release

19 // Step 7: Nail the Interview

20 // Step 8: Seek Quotes, Not Briefings

21 // Step 9: Seize the Content

Opportunity

22 // Step 10: Socialize Your Content

24 // Step 11: Measure to Inform Strategy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

06 // Audience

07 // Mobile

08 // The Media

09 // Social Media

27 // Beth Monaghan

27 // Meg O’Leary

28 // Samantha McGarry

28 // Tina Cassidy

29 // Lisa Mokaba

29 // Danielle Laurion

29 // Jill Jankowski

4

We are living in what some have called the “attention economy,” one in which everyone has access to publishing platforms and is clamoring for your attention. That quest for your attention is being informed by the new science of engagement.

As Matt Honan wrote in Wired:

“We don’t learn about the world from

The New York Times, we learn about it

from the Times stories that our family

and friends share or that show up as

push notifications four minutes before

one from The Guardian does. Thirty

percent of American adults get news

from Facebook, according to the Pew

Research Center, and more than half

of Americans got news from a

smartphone within the past week,

according to the American Press

Institute. And these metrics are just

going up, up, up. The question for

news publishers is no longer how to

draw an audience to their sites, it’s

how to implant themselves into their

audience’s lives.”

And now we have engagement analytics.

We have access to information about what

message works, on which platform, with

which audience. This data is only useful if

we remain nimble. Successful public

relations programs must question

everything, every day. We don’t implement

campaigns because they worked last year,

or last month, or even last week.

In the battle for your attention and a place

as part of your life, tactics are changing

quickly. In the last year, we’ve seen the

resurgence of podcasts (Serial went viral),

and a move back to long-form content. At

the same time, the “listicles” we can’t resist

clicking on from BuzzFeed and others have

proliferated. Social media, too, is changing.

Many already feel the generational shift

from Facebook to Instagram as Gen Xers

enter middle age and Millennials begin to

dominate the workforce.

Today, it’s about fans, not audiences. Mary

Meeker’s Internet Trends Report quoted

Alex Carloss from YouTube: “An audience

tunes in when they’re told to, a fanbase

chooses when and what to watch. An

audience changes the channel when their

show is over. A fanbase shares, comments,

curates, creates.”

This e-book examines the shifting nature

of the audience, the media landscape and

the PR strategies that will be successful

in the coming year.

6

10,000:The number of Americans who turn

65 every day

75:Percentage of the workforce made

up of millennials by 2025

50.4:Percentage of non-white babies

born in the U.S.

50:Percentage of all high-net worth that

will be controlled by women

by 2020

50%

AUDIENCE:It’s not your grandmother’s U.S. anymore!

7

AUDIENCE:It’s not your grandmother’s U.S. anymore!

MOBILE:

69:Percentage of global

Internet usage represented

by mobile in 2014

2.6:Hours the average person

spends using the Internet

on a mobile device

each day

29: Percentage of vertical

screen viewing for videos

because of mobile devices

80:Percentage of Americans

who will own smartphones

by 2020

39: Number of the top 50

digital news sites that

receive more traffic from

mobile devices

Where anything that matters is happening.

8

Reaches more people than free TV Is the top news publisher on Facebook Is bigger than all newspapers and

magazines when measured by ad sales

and revenue

Has more U.S. subscribers than HBO Reaches more 18-34 year olds than

any cable network Is obsolete

AUDIENCE:MOBILE:AUDIENCE:THE MEDIA:AUDIENCE:MOBILE:AUDIENCE:Where users control the experience.

PRIMETIME

9

INSTAGRAM:The most important social

network to teens. 300

million people use it

each month

FACEBOOK:#1 used social media

network among those 12-

24. It drives one quarter of

overall traffic and leads

social traffic referrals

TWITTER:#2 most important social

network to teens, but #4

most used. 288 million

active users

SNAPCHAT:#3 most used social

media network and #4

most important

LINKEDIN:1 out of 3 professionals on

the planet are on LinkedIn.

It’s more popular than

Twitter among U.S. adults

AUDIENCE:MOBILE:AUDIENCE:THE MEDIA:AUDIENCE:MOBILE:AUDIENCE:SOCIAL MEDIA:AUDIENCE:MOBILE:AUDIENCE:THE MEDIA:AUDIENCE:MOBILE:AUDIENCE:Where it’s all about sharing, and it’s all about attention.

11

Media relations has changed dramatically. Reporters are on tap

for sometimes 10 stories a day, so speed and relevance are

critical. The good news is that the opportunities for coverage

have never been greater, if you abide by the new rules.

In 2014, Fractl conducted a survey of reporters and writers that

revealed some interesting facts:

• On average reporters receive 26,000 pitches a year!

• 85% of reporters decide whether to open an email based on

its subject line.

• 56% of reporters write stories based on PR pitches

sometimes or very often.

• Reporters cited exclusive research, breaking news, relevant

content, and emotional stories as the defining characteristics

of the “perfect piece of content.”

Now let’s dig into the mechanics of good PR.

A big part of turning audiences into fans involves social media and content creation. We’ll address those here as they relate to media relations, but this book is about the best ways to engage with the media – very often the first phase of engaging with your future fans.

12

Hint: It’s not your product features list. Successful PR campaigns rest on great stories, not just great facts.

On their own, facts lack context. They lack heroes, villains and conflicts. When

companies look to make their stories public, the facts can distract them from the

stories that make those facts interesting.

To break through the clutter and distracted attention we’re all clamoring for amid

today’s connected age of mobile, social, digital, and its associated busyness, we

need a compelling story.

Greg McKeown’s book, Essentialism, reminds us of the importance of digging

through to the core. We need the sound that will ring through the noise – the

proverbial signal. McKeown recounted a story about the writer Nora Ephron

(of “Sleepless in Seattle” fame). During a high school journalism class, her teacher

explained the concept of a lede – who, what, why, where and when. For PR

people, these are the makings of our press releases.

Ephron’s teacher gave her these facts:

• Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today

that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for

a colloquium in new teaching methods.

• Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, college President

Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, etc.

Ephron and her class then wrote their news stories, and not one found the lede,

which was this: “There will be no school on Thursday.” What are the 10 essentials

to your story? Now delete nine!

13

It’s time to think less about product and more about your point of view (POV).

Showing how and what you think is what will motivate your audiences to pay

attention to you. Your POV should be as tight as your messaging — and once you

create it, own it and infuse everything you do in PR with it.

To formulate a POV, you must have three critical elements:

1. Unique perspective: What views do you hold that reflect a new way of thinking

in your industry? What’s your perspective on where the world in which your

company lives is going? You need to identify the open sky in your industry and

create a point of view that will give reason for your company’s existence — and

at the same time, rise above the din of the 24×7 news cycle and social media

chatter. Your POV should have some sizzle in it — not controversy for the sake

of it, but something that makes people sit up and take notice (maybe even bris-

tle a little). A little discomfort can go a long way in

getting your audiences to pay attention to you.

2. Authority: To take hold, your POV needs to be anchored in authority. What

expertise do you possess that positions you to be a real voice in your industry?

This authority could be rooted in your usual company or executive proof points

based on experience or milestones (e.g., you are the inventor of this, or the

leader in that). Other times, you can help create or augment your authority

through your own research or study of some kind — where you have looked at

a particular sector or issue in depth and understand the dynamics of it better

than others.

3. A strong tie to your objective: Your POV also needs to move the needle for

your business. Is it getting the right people to pay attention to your company for

the right reasons? Your POV should motivate your key audiences to take a

deeper look at your company’s offerings because they like the way you think —

and trust that your product offerings are based on that thinking.

Once you establish a POV you believe in, stick to it! Issue announcements, tie it

to customer case studies, blog about it, create industry roundtables, pitch it as a

panel, develop infographics and videos that convey it…then be patient. Chances

are your company perspective won’t become well known until after you are sick of

talking about it.

14

Words that are overused or generic lose their punch.

Here are the words that we’re voting off the island:

1. First, there’s “nounification” everywhere – think: “the ask, the solve.” It’s a pet

peeve of Julie Wittes-Schlack who discussed her frustration with corporate

speak recently on WBUR.

2. Then there’s “literally,” which is literally used too often.

3. What about “engage?” We all want to engage with each other, drive

engagement, be engaging.

4. Let’s not forget “disrupt.” We are so over the disruption and being

disruptive, people. Kevin Roose thinks so too as he opined in this New York

Magazine piece.

5. A “leading xyz.” Either you are or you aren’t and if you are, you should need to

state it yourself.

6. And my pet peeve: “leverage.” It takes the number one spot in The Guardian’s

PR jargon: the most overused words.

A new expression was recently brought to my attention: “on fleek.” If you’re not

sure whether you are on fleek, BuzzFeed offers this handy quiz. Savvy brands

have already caught on. But watch this space, folks, on fleek is already a strong

contender for next year’s list of words to retire.

15

It’s easy to forget that reporters are in the news business. It’s all they care about.

Reporters’ jobs have changed. Some have to post up to 10 articles each day. On

average, reporters receive 70+ pitches every day.

The reality is that sources who are fast, interesting and accurate get coverage

and build relationships. Those who seek relationship-building meetings often take

second chair. Reporters don’t have time for meetings, so instead, give them

something they can print today.

The best way to build media relationships is by simply doing great work that is

centered on relevance, newsworthiness, honesty and responsiveness. And by

the way, good PR people go against the grain – they question how it’s been done

even in the face of scrutiny. They do things like:

• Convince seasoned CEOs to take that meeting with a young and

inexperienced journalist. We know those journalists could quickly become

tomorrow’s experts.

• Remove marketing collateral from meetings with the press.

• Make spokespeople quotable by paring down their one-hour talk to 15

minutes of crisp points.

• Eliminate PowerPoint from media briefings.

• Follow up to make sure the reporter gets the information she needs before

her deadline.

• Find a good replacement when a spokesperson cancels.

• Withhold advance briefings on news from reporters who break embargoes.

• Take no for an answer. We gain nothing from pushing a story that a reporter

does not want to write.

Smart PR people situate stories in the context of today’s news and trends. They

understand the market dynamics and how their stories fit (or don’t). It is our job not

to sell, but to prove why this story matters now.

16

In a report by Fractl, 63 percent of reporters said a personal connection with the PR person is of at least moderate importance, including nearly 15 percent who said it’s very important.

17

Great headlines are hard to write, but they are often slapped onto a press release

at the end, with little thought. Before you write a headline. Stop. Ask yourself:

What is the most interesting thing about this release? Don’t pull out the most

interesting fact from the release itself. Consider that fact within the context of

the market. Why does it matter to other people, not the company issuing the

press release?

A reporter at The New York Times said, “The more direct, the better” when it

comes to press releases. She said the worst press releases are the ones that

strain to be relevant to current events. For example, “In the wake of Hurricane

Sandy, corporate event planners look for celebrations that are charitable,

yet festive.”

The debut of a new product/opening of a new office/hiring of a key executive/etc.

is not interesting in and of itself. To make it interesting, the release must illuminate

why the company is making this move, what need it fills and who will benefit in

ways that matter. The inverted pyramid still applies. Find the things that set your

announcement apart. And if you don’t have them, maybe you should not be

making an announcement.

While you are writing the headline, remember that less is more. Keep your

headline short, and put your key words at the front end. Twitter has made us used

to 140 characters and headlines should be easy to tweet.

Perhaps more importantly, to optimize your release for search engines, you should keep your headline to 66 characters or fewer.

It’s also noteworthy that, according to Sam Whitmore, founder and editor of Sam

Whitmore Media Survey, outlets such as Upworthy write 25 headlines for each

article before publishing one. Headlines are important because if you miss the

headline, no one will read the content.

18

Despite vocal complaints from the press, the press release remains the most

trusted form of company news (InkHouse/GMI Research). The press release is a

lost art. Perhaps more importantly, in many situations, it has become a

communications tool that reporters regularly (and often willfully) ignore. Yet, PR

people diligently continue writing them, and issuing them.

A press release should be designed as a news story. The goal is to produce a news story worthy of publication in a newspaper.

This might sound humorous today as you think through the hundreds of press

releases you’ve seen (and maybe even written, cringe) that begin with, “XYZ

Corporation, the leading provider of best in breed e-commerce solutions…”

However, today’s news cycles make the reality of verbatim pickup a very real

outcome – if the release is written well. Time-constrained bloggers often take

pieces of news releases and print them as parts of their stories. This is good news

for PR professionals because it means that the integrity of our intended messages

is intact because they are printed word for word.

This also means that we need to rethink the press release. It’s a missed

opportunity if we create a press release that looks like a marketing brochure. If

you want a story in The New York Times, write a press release you believe could

appear in that paper.

19

Have you been misquoted? Not quoted? Taken out of context? Or frustrated because a

reporter didn’t do his or her research before speaking with you? In today’s 24x7 news

cycle, being first (even by one minute) is important because it goes to the top of Google’s

search terms, so comprehensiveness and accuracy can sometimes take second-chair to

speed (it’s become a common practice for reporters to update and correct their stories after

they go live).

However, with some thoughtful preparation, you can get quoted as you intend. Here’s how:

1. Expect the reporter to know nothing. Ask her upfront if she had a chance to look at the

background that was sent. If not, use the opportunity to open up the conversation and

message the news in the way you see fit.

2. Know what the reporter covers. Look at the most recent stories the reporter has

written and make sure your comments are relevant.

3. Know what’s happening in the news. If you’re in the wearables market and Facebook

acquires Oculus for $2 billion, you’re going to get asked about it if you happen to have

a press call that day. If you prepare a comment in advance, you could get quoted in two

stories: one on the breaking news item and one on the original topic of your call.

4. Anticipate the questions. Write down the five most likely questions you think the

reporter will ask. Then write down the two questions you hope she or he will not ask.

5. Write your answers. Write two- to three-sentence answers to each question. Then

wordsmith them until you have crisp sound bites. Print them out and refer to them

before answering any question. Spend the most time on this tip!

6. Practice. Speak your answers out loud. Do they sound like you? Do they trip you up? If

so, rework them so they feel natural. Then practice again.

7. Use pauses and silence well. Don’t fill the space after you’ve answered a question.

Mindless chitchat is how misquotes happen and often how major scoops happen.

Answer the reporter’s question, let him or her take notes and ask you another question.

8. Be yourself. Reporters are people too. Make a connection and build a relationship. This

mean you have to be your natural self.

9. Clarify. If you think the reporter misunderstood your answer, ask. Then clarify.

10. Follow up. Send the materials you promised to supply. This gives you an opportunity to

clarify any points of concern. Send a crisp note with the materials and your clarifications,

which makes it easy for the reporter to cut and paste the quote you provided.

11. Don’t go back afterward and ask your PR team to pull the story. If you move

forward with the interview, expect the story to appear. If the interview is going wildly

off track, politely end the call. Note, however, that this should only be done in the most

extreme circumstances.

12. Once the story appears, make sure it is on track. If not, you can request the

corrections – but only to the facts. Don’t expect a reporter to change tone or opinions –

and asking for those kinds of changes can hurt your relationship with the reporter (and

the publication) down the road.

20

When it comes to rapid response, the key word unsurprisingly is “rapid.” Gone are

the days when there was time for long phone briefings to explain in detail your

take on what is going on in the industry. We’ve all waxed poetically on the

increasing speed of the news cycle and the ability to comment on a story that is

breaking depends on your ability to say something and say it quickly.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when pulling together thoughts to send along to reporters who you anticipate will be interested in, and cover, the news:

• You need to provide something they can use in your email. Offering up just a

phone call is not enough anymore. It helps the reporter get your take on the

issue, so he or she can run with it as is, or schedule a follow-up conversation

if needed.

• Use a conversational tone and include short points and sound bites. Your job

is to add to the story, not write it. It’s important to use a few quotes that could

stand alone.

• It’s not about you. You should focus on staying vendor neutral and sharing

your point of view, not advertising your company or product.

• Speed is critical. Reporters are working on extremely tight deadlines,

particularly when it comes to breaking news. It doesn’t matter how good your

comments are if they come in after a story is filed.

• Say something, or I’m giving up on you. No one wants a generic statement

that doesn’t actually say anything. Safe or sterile messages don’t add any

value and certainly don’t make it into stories.

• See the big picture. It’s just as important to look ahead as it is to talk about the

present. What does this news mean for the future of the industry?

21

Garbage in, garbage out. The problem and the opportunity in the age when

content is so accessible and plentiful, is eyeballs. Everyone wants content

because it can create leads so we have lots of content in search of stardom

through native advertising, guest posts, Op-Eds, Medium, LinkedIn Publishing

and more.

This rush of content will eventually ebb, and the best will rise to the top. It begs an

important question for PR people and our clients:

What is good content in the age when everyone thinks they are an expert and anyone can publish?

Before you finish your opus, blog post, Medium post, you name it, consider

these questions:

• Is your idea original? Is it your idea? You need to be passionate about the idea

or else no one else will be. Authenticity shines through interpersonal

relationships, and it’s no different between an author and a reader. The reader

absorbs the author’s state of mind.

• Is the topic relevant to the industry conversation? If yes, why? Is it a unique

perspective or is it the same as everyone else’s point of view?

• Is your topic timely? If it’s related to news, make sure it’s today’s news, not last

week’s or last month’s.

• Is your content promotional? Does it include verbiage about your products

and services? Does it include links back to your product pages and sales

teams? Does it include your favorite company buzzwords that have lost their

meaning through over use (“best-of-breed” and “leading edge” are red flags)?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, no respectable media outlet

will run the piece.

• Is it well written? We’re not all natural writers, and many great thinkers need

the support of great writers. Enter good PR people!

• The same timeless basics of good PR apply to contributed content. Make it

thoughtful. Make it relevant. Make it unique. Make it good.

22

As Sam Whitmore notes, social media is threatening the territory of the traditional home page for news organizations. PR professionals can no longer consider a client’s placement in print or online as the last step in a campaign. Getting on the coveted home page isn’t enough anymore.

BuzzFeed reports social is now the number one source of referral traffic to

content on websites and that 71% of millennials visit social media sites daily.

Therefore, every piece of relevant content, whether long-form, a listicle, or a

15-second video, needs to be shared on social media. This is the last step to

fully amplify your content to reach as many scrolling and browsing eyeballs

as possible.

23

How we prefer to share news: According to

InkHouse and GMI Research, email is still the

number one preferred way to share news. Make

sure you have social share buttons and an email

plugin to encourage people to share your article.

Social media is a close second. Not surprisingly,

Millennials are most likely to share news on social

media with 50% of 18–24 year olds and 45% of

24–35 year olds.

With mobile, we are constantly plugged in. News

now comes to us across all social media channels

and apps. With one click, we have retweeted a

#BREAKING news story summarized in 140

characters to our network of followers, instantly

reaching a whole new audience than the tweet

that was originally sent.

Know your fanbase. Keep up with the times:

Kevin Spacey at Content Marketing World 2014

said, “Anyone with an Internet connection and an

idea can develop an audience. Stay true to your

brand voice and the audience will respond to it

with enthusiasm and passion.” Once you have

established an audience, you hope their

enthusiasm and passion drives them to share and

engage with your content, becoming a fanbase.

But where should you share your content?

You need to know where your fans are on

social media.

For example, teens now view Instagram as the

“most important” social network. It also beats out

Twitter’s activity, with 300 million monthly users. At

4.21%, brand engagement rates are the highest on

Instagram, whereas brands achieve less than 0.1%

engagement rates on other channels, including

Facebook and Twitter. Are you on Instagram? If

not, you might want to get a strategy in place.

In addition, the rise of Snapchat, which is growing

at a rate of 56% a year (making it the fastest

growing messaging app), has created a new

medium for brands to share content – especially

through Snapchat Discover. But keep in mind the

fanbase. Seventy-one percent of overall Snapchat

users are younger than 25-years-old, including

teens. For LinkedIn, however, the most active age

bracket is 30-49 — those in the prime of

their careers.

Social media should be a two-way street: No one

likes someone who only talks about herself. While

social media is the best way to continuously share

content, a brand’s validity goes a long way when

you engage with others. For starters, publications

won’t look like a content robot that only shares out

headlines to every article on its site. Brands and

users should take the time to share, retweet, reply

and use other forms of engagement to build even

more credibility and to show the human side, the

person behind the screen; something that is often

lost with the rise of mobile.

Mobile has “taken the lead as the primary platform

for social” – 60% of time spent on social is on

mobile. From scrolling to swiping, to clicking to

double tapping an Instagram photo, news now

comes to us most easily on mobile across social

media channels. We no longer have to dig and

search for content; it searches for us. Once we

place a great byline or end up on a home page,

we have to make sure we take the added step to

socialize the content in order to reach the largest

fanbase possible.

Here’s what you need to consider when sharing content on social media:

01 02 03

24

How do you measure PR?

Just 10 years ago, advertising equivalency was a PR person’s only measurement

tool. We counted clips. Then we added up the impressions based on each

publication’s advertising rate. We also made clip books with good old-fashioned

rulers, photocopiers and invisible tape.

Today the definition of PR has expanded far beyond media coverage. PR often

includes content marketing, social audiences, influencers, and real-time

conversations. As the definition of PR expands, so too does its measurement. At

the very top of that scale is an organization’s goals. PR programs and

measurement must map to a company’s business objectives. The excitement of

seeing the company and its executives in print only lasts a short time. Once

coverage moves beyond a novelty to an expectation, executives shift their

attention to its impact on the bottom line. Media placements are critical to the

measurement process, but not because of their quantity. Their impact must be

viewed in combination with the social media ecosystem.

We break down measurement into three buckets...

25

External exposure. External exposure is the

audience for your earned media (media coverage

and its social reach) and owned content channels

(your corporate blog and social channels). External

exposure will likely include the traditional metrics

of clips and impressions, which will become more

meaningful when combined with the other two

metrics that follow. However, it should look beyond

the number of placements to their direct impact.

Which media properties and topics are referring

traffic to your site? Which earned media

opportunities drove the top Web traffic spikes?

Exposure should be the first benchmark, even

though it’s the most traditional one. Without

distribution, your message will remain mere words

on a screen.

Audience engagement. Engagement measures

your audiences’ connection to your message and

your organization. The primary way to look at

engagement is through the sharing of your

content. How many are sharing it through their

own social networks, and where? Then we look at

how they are engaging with your organization and

its messages. Are they following your company

and thought leaders on social channels? Are they

interacting with you through those channels? Are

they commenting on the articles that mention your

organization and its thought leaders? Are they

commenting on blog posts and articles authored

by your executives?

Influence. Influence measures the desired action.

Are your prospects considering your organization

in their decision-making processes? Are they

associating themselves with your brand? Are they

coming to your Web site? If so, which pieces of

content are most engaging to them? What are

their landing pages? And finally, are they signing

up, purchasing your product, etc.

PR measurement is easier to write about than to document. It requires an arsenal of tools that we mix and match based on each organization’s goals and programs, but it’s worth it. Good measurement fuels a more successful PR program because it will be informed by important insights into which content is working, which media outlets resonate with your audience and which social channels perform best. PR will always be one part branding. No tool can measure the full halo impact of a standalone feature in The New York Times. But we have the tools – and the insights – to move PR from an intangible branding exercise to a powerful engagement tool.

01 02 03

26

27

Beth Monaghan is principal and co-founder of InkHouse.

Named by PR News as one of the Top Women in PR, Beth’s

views and Op-Eds have received broad coverage in outlets

from NPR, to Time, Harvard Business Review, Forbes,

Fortune, NBC News and more. She sits on the board of

directors for Xconomy, was an appointee to the

Massachusetts Women in the Workplace Task Force, and

also sits on the Women’s Network Advisory Board for

the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

Twitter: @bamonaghan

A passion for launching new innovations is what drove

Meg to co-found InkHouse. She has extensive experience

in positioning and marketing new innovations across a

number of market segments and is the strategic lead for

InkHouse clients Raytheon, GE and Converse, among

others. As a principal at InkHouse, Meg sets the tone, the

style and the expectations across the organization, with an

emphasis on both top performance and quality of

relationships. Prior to starting InkHouse, Meg was part of

Charles River Ventures, consulting to the firm’s portfolio of

B2B technology companies on a range of marketing

issues. Before CRV, Meg held various product marketing

and communications roles for RSA Security where she

helped position the company as an enterprise security

leader. Twitter: @moleary

BETH MONAGHAN MEG O’LEARY

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Samantha McGarry is a senior vice president at InkHouse

and a 2+ decade veteran of public relations. Her career

started in the United Kingdom and has taken her to

France and ultimately the United States. In addition to

being a full-time PR professional, Samantha also publishes

a personal blog and her writing has been published on

Huffington Post, BlogHer and Patch.com.

Twitter: @samanthamcgarry

Tina Cassidy is senior vice president and chief content

officer at InkHouse. She is a former journalist and has

written two books, Birth: The Surprising History of How

We Are Born; and Jackie After O. Twitter: @tinacassidy2

and @historyofbirth

SAMANTHA MCGARRY TINA CASSIDY

29

Lisa brings to InkHouse more than 10 years of

experience driving media relations and thought

leadership programs on behalf of her clients.

She is responsible for providing guidance on

company messaging and strategy and fostering

strong relationships with key media targets in

both the B2B and B2C press. She has

successfully secured placements on behalf of

her clients on CNN, USA Today, The Wall Street

Journal, The New York Times and various other

publications relevant to their businesses. Lisa

earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from

The Carroll School of Management, Boston

College. Twitter: @lmokaba

Danielle Laurion is a senior account executive

at InkHouse. Her love of communicating with

brands and helping them to share their

messaging started right out of college as a Social

Media Strategist at a digital marketing agency.

Working in public relations for the past two years

has enabled her to help even more brands reach

their target audiences and tell their stories. The

term “performing well under pressure” has

translated from her life on the stage as a ballet

dancer, to her role at InkHouse. Twitter: @dlaur5

Jill Jankowski is an artist at heart with a

professional passion for storytelling. Prior to

becoming an account executive at InkHouse,

Jill spent four years in digital agencies focused

extensively on uncovering the world of social

media marketing. From bylines to blogs, to

conversing in 140 characters or less, Jill is

always refining her way with words to keep

up with how the world communicates.

Twitter: @icanhazjill

DANIELLE LAURION JILL JANKOWSKI LISA MOKABA

Page 4

• http://www.wired.com/2014/12/new-media-2/

• http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends

Page 6

• http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/

baby-boomers-retire/

• http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brookings-now/

posts/2014/07/millennials-will-be-75-percent-of-

2025-workforce-brookings-data-now

• http://www.nationaljournal.com/thenextamerica/

demographics/census-minorities-constitute-37-

percent-of-u-s-population-20120517

• http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/buying-

power-women-us

Page 7

• http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends

• http://www.economist.com/news/

leaders/21645180-smartphone-ubiquitous-

addictive-and-transformative-planet-phones

• http://www.journalism.org/2015/04/29/state-of-the-

news-media-2015/

Page 8

• http://www.businessinsider.com/blodget-boom-will-

become-bust-2015-2?op=1

• http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends

Page 9

• http://www.businessinsider.com/blodget-boom-will-

become-bust-2015-2?op=1

• http://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2015/02/

fascinating-social-networking-stats-2015.html

• http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends

• https://blog.shareaholic.com/social-media-

traffic-trends-01-2015/

• http://qz.com/374450/could-periscope-solve-

twitters-biggest-problem/

• http://wersm.com/top-linkedin-facts-and-stats-

infographic/

Page 11

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ers-weighed-content-marketing-best-practices-

research-90603

Page 12

• http://gregmckeown.com/essentialism-the-

disciplined-pursuit-of-less/

Page 14

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linguistic-pet-peeves-julie-wittes-schlack

• http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/06/

lets-all-stop-saying-disrupt.html

• http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/

media-network-blog/2014/nov/14/pr-jargon-

overused-terms-words

• http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/are-you-on-

fleek#.yapQ4PWk5

Page 16

• http://marketingland.com/500-publish-

ers-weighed-content-marketing-best-practices-

research-90603

Page 18

• http://inkhouse.com/press-releases-the-most-

trusted-form-of-company-generated-news/

Page 22-23

• http://insights.buzzfeed.com/industry-trends-2014/

• http://inkhouse.com/tv-the-most-trusted-and-

preferred-news-source/

• http://inkhouse.com/downloads/watch_read_

tweet.pdf

• http://www.businessinsider.com/2014-social-

media-demographics-update-2014-9

• http://sproutsocial.com/insights/5-instagram-stats/

• http://inkhouse.com/three-things-you-need-to-

know-about-snapchat-discover/

• http://insights.buzzfeed.com/industry-trends-2014/

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