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Cre8con 2019 Recap

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On Friday, September 27th, I attended my very first Cre8con! This annual event is a conference that celebrates and explores creative work across all industries. Each year, a selection of keynote speakers gives a presentation on what inspires them in their work, the challenges they’ve faced, and their adventures in the creative field.

There were a lot of amazing speakers at the conference this year. Here my three favorites!

Schuyler Telleen

A 2-time Emmy award winner, member of the Screen Actors Guild and successful Production Designer and Graphic Designer, Schuyler captured the audience within seconds of hitting the stage. He walked into the spotlight visibly shaking, reading off notecards that he began to drop. His voice faltering, he looked out into the crowd and whispered: “I’m…I’m sorry. I can’t do this,” and ran off stage. The crowd, hoping to encourage Schuyler to come back, began cheering: “You can do it!” And suddenly, Schuyler came back onto the stage a different person. Laughing, he exclaimed: “And that was improv!” The crowd burst into applause and laughter.

Schuyler has an impressive resume. He’s worked on Portlandia, Shrill, American Vandal and Trinkets as a Production Designer. As a Graphic Designer, he’s worked on Mad Men, Veep, Parks and Recreation, and Glee. For Parks and Rec fans, you can thank Schuyler for the iconic “Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness.” Yeah. He MADE that. It blew my mind, too.

Ruth E. Carter

Ruth is an fierce, Academy Award-winning Costume Designer. This year, she won an Academy Award for her work on Black Panther. To make that win even cooler, she’s the first African-American woman to win in that category. She has had two additional Academy Award nominations for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, plus an Emmy nomination in 2016 for the reboot of Roots.

Ruth shared behind-the-scenes photos of work on the set of Black Panther, explaining the intricate process that comes along with costume design, and the satisfaction of watching it all come together on the big screen. Ruth’s main piece of advice about working in the creative industry was this: lead with your passions. Don’t let anyone treat you less than you deserve, and fight for what you love.

Photo by The Hollywood Reporter

Ken Davenport

Ken is a 2-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer who is well-known for his work on the popular Broadway show, Kinky Boots. He is one of the co-founders of TEDxBroadway, has been featured in Vanity Fair, and has even gotten a mention in Jay Leno’s monologue on The Tonight Show.

Ken was so inspiring. In his talk, he emphasized the importance of focusing on the things you do know how to do instead of what you don’t when it comes to creative projects and jobs. You will naturally be able to eliminate the things you don’t like/don’t want to become an expert in if you do this.

He encouraged the crowd to plan to do one thing every day to move a project along, whether you’re working on something personal or for your career. At the end of his talk, he left plenty of time for questions. A common question was simply how to get started, especially when you find yourself in a creative rut. Ken’s answer was to start doing something, anything, even if it’s not perfect or exactly what you hope to do. Often times, this can transform into something amazing.

Ken at The Tony Awards

Hook, Line and Sinker: How to Engage Your Audience

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Whether you’re writing a blog entry or social media post, hooking your reader is crucial. Successful content catches the eye of its audience with just the first line, then continues to engage them. Here are a few tips to enhance your content.

Write a Killer Headline

Like the headline to this blog post, start with a title that builds an image in the reader’s mind, poses a question, or sparks interest. According to PRDaily, “A proven headline approach is to begin with a topical keyword phrase, followed by a colon—or dash—followed by a statement or question.” In addition, let your interest in the subject shine through. Use words that conjure up emotions and compel the reader to click.

Include Interesting Visuals

Pepper in a few visuals within the post to break up text. Readers will be more likely to continue reading if their eyes are drawn to engaging visuals. Use relevant infographics, bright photos, and shots of people. Fun fact: “Georgia Institute of Technology and Yahoo Labs researchers looked at 1.1 million photos on Instagram and found that pictures with human faces are 38 percent more likely to receive likes than photos with no faces. They’re also 32 percent more likely to attract comments.” –Georgia Tech  

As human beings, we are attracted to faces. Use that to your advantage with your content!

Use Outbound Links

Don’t just describe interesting people, products and studies…show the reader where they can find more information. Including external links boosts SEO. Plus, according to SEOProfessor.com, “If you provide backlinks to high authority pages, you build a search engine’s trust in your website that you are a legitimate player in your field, which will increase a search engine’s confidence when serving up your page as a result to their users.”

End with a Call to Action

Wrapping up your post with a phrase like: “What tips do you have? Tweet us!” encourages readers to connect with you and future content.

Crisis Communication In the World of PR

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What Is Crisis Communication?

“Crisis communication is a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation.” –Wikipedia

When something unexpected happens and affects the success of your company, PR professionals step in. While emphasizing transparency, honesty, and acknowledging any customer concerns, crisis communication also includes taking preventative measures for future crises.

Company Crises

Crises come in all different forms. A few crises companies may face:

  • Lawsuits
  • Labor troubles
  • Fires
  • Product recalls
  • Workplace harassment
  • Poor customer service
  • Theft
  • Fraud

A negative review on social media or a hate comment doesn’t qualify as a crisis. An issue becomes a crisis only when it affects/hinders workflow or harms the brand’s reputation. Media monitoring is incredibly important for this reason. In order for your company to maintain a positive reputation, knowing how customers see your brand is vital. According to TalkWalker.com, “Don’t stop monitoring. Running sentiment analysis during a crisis will determine how your customers, influencers, prospects, and your industry are reacting. How they’re reacting will carry significant weight and if negative, could harm your brand.” By keeping a close eye on social media conversations about your company, you may be able to prevent a crisis before it even occurs.

Online Presence and Preventing Crises

Company employees should adhere to strict social media guidelines. Everything and anything posted by your company will be viewed, shared, and criticized, so its important to establish what is and isn’t okay to share. Social media blunders are all too common these days, but they’re easy to avoid by proofreading and simply double-checking to make sure nothing has been shared that shouldn’t be.

In the Midst of a Crisis

If a crisis does occur, it’s important to take action as quickly as possible. The company’s CEO, marketing team and HR should all be involved, and one of the first steps is to identify who will speak to the media and answer questions on behalf of the company. According to TalkWalker, these are the most important guidelines to follow in dealing with a crisis:

Taking responsibility for the issue is crucial. According to Forbes, “In today’s real-time world of social media, and with critics everywhere, reputation management matters more than ever and it can be lost in an instant. The tenets of any crisis communication are to be proactive, be transparent, and be accountable. When put into action it looks like this: acknowledge the incident, accept responsibility, and apologize.”

Before taking any action, issuing a public apology takes precedence. In doing this, it’s important for companies to remain human in how they react. “Saying ‘you’ll look into it’ doesn’t make anyone feel better. Saying you’re deeply saddened by what went down and will work on making things better is important,” says Forbes. Another important note: NEVER go silent on social media about what’s going on.

Working to understand the situation, listening to customer concerns, then responding accordingly = effective crisis communication.

 

AM:PM PR offers crisis communication services! Find out more information here.

Finding Your Creative Niche

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What Is It?

Niche (noun): a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted. –Merriam-Webster Dictionary

You’ve probably heard this word before. It’s commonly used in the world of ad, business and PR…but what can it mean for you?

A niche is what you do best, what you’re passionate about, and what sets you apart from the crowd.  These days, uniqueness is essential when it comes to promoting a product, business or brand successfully. A niche brand targets a specific audience or group of people, and offers what other brands don’t.

“Niche branding, also called narrow branding, is connecting with your audience (customers and prospects) in a targeted way that focuses on their needs and circumstances, not on you or your product.” –Your Brand Inc

Successful Niche Brands and Products

Finding Your Niche

What do you enjoy doing? Do you write about music? Vlog while shopping for clothes? Film your own cooking show? Whatever it is you may enjoy, you can likely make a brand out of it. Want to learn how? Check out this article on Wordstream for these tips and more:

  • Know your target niche inside out
  • Solve your audience’s problems
  • Listen to your audience

My Niche

As a music blogger, I have a lot of competition. There are countless music blogs all over the internet, so it’s often difficult to produce content that no one has seen before. So, when I first started my blog in 2014, I targeted a very specific audience: teenage music/concert fangirls. I chose this audience because at the time, I was one too! I was always looking for blogs and websites that catered to my specific interests, and never found one that fit. So I launched my own.

My first few, niche posts (please keep in mind that I wrote these posts more than five years ago, haha):

Although my blog’s content has changed a lot since my fangirl days, one thing has stayed the same: I strive to produce music-related content that readers/music fans can’t find anywhere else. That’s my niche.

AM:PM PR’s Niche

Strategy is our niche. Good communicators are first good listeners. No two clients are the same. We work with your objectives in mind and build strategies focused on results. Whether you want to position your organization, connect with your audiences, sell a new product or need help managing a crisis, we believe effective communications are rooted in such timeless principles.

-Sophie

Meet AM:PM PR’s Newest Intern!

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Hello!

Sophie Cettina here, AM:PM’s newest intern. I’ll be managing the agency’s blog and social media over the next few months. I’m thrilled to be here! 🙂

Bio

I graduated from the University of Oregon last month, where I earned a B.A. in Journalism/PR. When I wasn’t studying, I spent my time as a DJ at KWVA, UO’s college radio station. On the air, I played my favorite music and then discussed it as my alter ego, “DJ Vu.” (It’s a spin on the word “déjà vu”…haha, so punny!) My show, The Half Moon Tavern, was live every Thursday afternoon. My favorite part of being a DJ was receiving phone calls from listeners–sometimes, people would call to let me know how much they enjoyed the music I’d picked, or they’d call just to chat about artists and records. It’s pretty fun to share your music with the world in that way.

4 Fun Facts About Me

  1. I have a pet cockatiel named Quincy and two backyard chickens. (#PutaBirdOnIt!)
  2. My favorite movie is School of Rock starring Jack Black. (Stick it to the man, dude.)
  3. I write poetry and short stories.
  4. I have a tattoo of a chicken (that I drew myself) on my left ankle.

My Personal Blog

I’m a huge music nerd, and I love to write. My music blog, A Perfect Playlist, launched five years ago, and it’s grown so much since then! I post interviews with artists from around the world, concert and album reviews, tips and tricks on how to meet your favorite artists, and other music-related content. (Follow A Perfect Playlist on Instagram to stay up to date!)

Why PR?

I’m a storyteller with a passion for public relations, content development and music. I’m often asked, “you’re so excited about both music and PR. How do those two connect for you?” The answer is easy: I believe in the idea that songs are stories. As an avid storyteller, I know the power of words and connecting with an audience, just as songs do.

I’m so excited to help AM:PM tell their story.

-Sophie

Connect with me:

Twitter

Instagram

LinkedIn