Korinne Bressler
3 Easy Research Steps to Minimize Social Media Panic

Are your executives, clients or other stakeholders in an uproar because of something they read on social media—that ultimately turned out to be untrue? And do you have to add extra research to your workload to help counteract the frenzy?

If so, you’re not alone.

In a recent Newsweek article, Trolls, Bots and Fake News:  The Dark and Mysterious World of Social Media Manipulation,”fake accounts that purport to be real people can produce as many as 1,000 social media posts a day.”

And fake news isn’t limited to any one topic. It can cover candidates, executives, geographies, companies and industries. As a research expert, how do you help determine what’s real and requires attention from what’s not real and ultimately a distraction?

As the saying goes, the best defense is a good offense. In the case of social media, one of the most effective ways to minimize the impact of false or worrisome stories is to equip your internal and external stakeholders with ongoing, trusted, organized research that grounds them in the reality of their business.

Step #1:  Develop a Plan and Communicate It

As you do ongoing research, turn it into an opportunity to organize a research plan and communicate with your stakeholders.  Get credit for the research you’re doing and give everyone peace of mind that you are on top of the issues, industries and trends that matter most to them. Are you distributing regular research and news reports? Are these reports organized into strategic insights so that they are easy to digest? Are you connecting face-to-face to walk through the insights to ensure confident in your information and the value you bring? If you’re consistent, organized and in front of your stakeholders, you are already one step ahead of social media meltdowns.

Step #2: Set Up Custom Alerts

One aspect of social media that makes it so appealing is the immediate nature of the information. You are constantly updated and almost wait with anticipation for that next tweet, post or pic. Use this mindset to your advantage by using alerts to notify you of changes or updates impacting your customers. By working with a research partner like LexisNexis, you can set up monthly or daily alerts so that no matter what you customers need to know, you’ll know it first.

Step #3:  Trust your Content

Often with social media, you are unsure of the original source. Be sure you’re equipping customers with content that is comprehensive and comes from reputable sources. Investing in a research solution like Nexis (LINK) not only gives you access to more reputable content sources, it also just gives you more content that is relevant, global, local, archived for 5+ years, and easily searchable. The end results? Trusted insights you need to keep everyone aligned to the truth versus the social media hype.

When you bring all three steps together into your ongoing research protocol, you can meet any social media meltdown with true, trusted and actionable insights, helping your customers turn to you for what they need to know, versus a social media source that may not even be human.

Three ways to apply this information now:

Lisa Thompson
Bribery and Corruption Investigation Highlights 'Foul Play' in College Hoops

College basketball in the United States is watched by millions and has become lucrative for the universities who compete and the companies who sponsor the teams. But college sport can also carry reputational, legal, and financial risks. We have seen the latest reminder in New York this week, when prosecutors expanded their investigation into bribery and corruption in college basketball.

U.S. college sports are big business. Having a good sports team can help a university attract students and raise more money from wealthy donors. Athletic departments raised $1.2 billion for sports programs in 2015, which is double the amount raised ten years ago. Companies see college sports as a chance to reach a wide audience through advertising and sponsorship. But in the heat of competition, some of those involved are prepared to commit bribery and corruption to win.

This week James Gatto, an executive at Adidas, has been accused of taking part in a scheme to bribe promising high school basketball players to attend two universities, whose teams are sponsored by Adidas. Investigators say he funneled payments of at least $130,000 to the parents of prospective students. Gatto had already been charged on suspicion of bribing students to attend two other universities that also have sponsorship agreements in place. Many athletic brands engage in such sponsorship activities with universities in the hope of promoting their brand to sports fans, but as the latest allegations demonstrate, brands face potential reputational damage and legal action when safeguards for ethical business conduct—including due diligence and ongoing risk monitoring—are not in place.

Companies are not the only organizations at risk from corruption in college sports. In the race to recruit the next Michael Jordan, universities sometimes fail to carry out proper due diligence on prospective students and sponsors or act unethically in other ways. Last year, the 2013 national college basketball title was stripped from a university because it allegedly paid for strip shows and sex for prospective recruits in a bid to convince them to join the team. The scandal has also hit their finances. Not only did the college sport’s governing body impose a financial penalty, but the scandal prompted major donors to withdraw multi-million dollar pledges to the university, including a $5 million bequest from a single donor.

Bribery in the cause of recruiting top players isn’t the only reputational threat to universities, sporting organizations and brands. As we’ve seen from recent headlines around sexual abuse in U.S. women’s gymnastics—or those six years ago involving a former college assistant football coach—organizations must not turn a blind eye to unethical conduct for the sake of sporting success. In the last few years, a cautionary tale has unfolded: The university has paid a $60 million fine to college athletics governing body and $2.4 million to the U.S. Department of Education for its handling of the sexual abuse allegations. The university’s president, vice-president and athletic director were charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and failure to report suspected child abuse in 2012. They were subsequently fired or resigned. Six years later, the scandal continues to taint the university’s reputation. Research suggests that young people want to buy from ethical companies and work for ethical firms, and they surely expect the same standards from their places of learning. The lesson is clear: unethical behavior is never worth it, even if it leads to short-term glory on the court.

Actions You Can Take Now 

1. Visit our Sporting Analytics microsite that looks at how LexisNexis media intelligence and research technology helps organizations understand the risks and rewards of global mega sport sponsorships.

2. Learn how LexisNexis® Entity Insight can help you proactively monitor for emerging risks—including threats to your reputation—so you can make informed decisions.

3. Share this post on LinkedIn to keep the conversation going

Korinne Bressler
10 Clever Tips for Media to Create Content that Keeps Attention

A goldfish has a longer attention span than your audience.

A goldfish? Yep, a goldfish.

You may have seen the story as it got picked up by a variety of media outlets. It seems some scientists (purportedly with Microsoft Canada) studied the brain activity of 112 people as they did various tasks. What they found is we modern-day humans have an average attention span of 8 seconds.

And the attention span of a goldfish is, well, 9 seconds. You might be shocked by this finding. For those of you who can focus longer than a fish, the message here is that media professionals must offer compelling content to keep their audiences engaged for the longer haul. Are you creating captivating stories?

We recently did some brainstorming here at LexisNexis to think about how our news, business and web sources can help journalists and producers create great content. Here are a few of our thoughts—and we’d love to hear yours!

Inspire!

Sometimes inspiration comes from uncovering the smallest tidbit of information. But first you have to find it and that’s where a broad collection of news, company and market intel, and even public records comes in.

Here are 10 tips for capturing (and keeping) attention with in-depth research:

1. Identify trending storylines or story white space opportunities.
2. Look to alternative markets you don’t normally cover for fresh ideas.
3. Dig into the past to uncover additional context or a different angle for the present.
4. Check news archives to see if your guests have previously made the news in ways that may help your production—or hurt it.
5. Look up past articles or business documents to uncover hidden connections.
6. Need an interview subject or a great quote? Identify the right people and reach out for an impending article or an expert commentator.
7. Research a subject and see what has already been written on it. Find a different angle.
8. Background famous executives for potentially eye-opening interviews and documentaries.
9. Set up Alerts to be the first to learn of the next great story.
10. Find very niche information from specialized sources.

For a more detailed report, check out our Tip Sheet for Media Production Research. 

Mobile or at your desk, Nexis® offers an unrivaled, global content collection, including a deep news archive going back 40 years. Whether you are educating the masses, enabling a public forum or spotlighting a scandal, the good news is that good information can help get you there.

By the way, the BBC isn’t buying the attention span study. They did some in-depth research of their own and for their counter-view, check out the story.

3 Ways you can Apply this Information

1. Get some tips! Download the “Four-Act Structure for Media Research” tip sheet. 
2. Learn more about how Nexis and research can help journalists and media producers, here. 
3. Share this blog with your colleagues and network.

Ulyana Androsova
New EU regulation calls for improved mineral supply chain due diligence

After three years of negotiations, the European Parliament—and subsequently the EU’s Council—approved a new regulation requiring importers of certain minerals from conflict-affected countries to meet supply chain due diligence requirements. While full enforcement is not required until January 1, 2021, the regulation’s requirements make it worthwhile for companies to get started on updating due diligence strategies and processes to ensure compliance.

 New due diligence requirements to mitigate compliance risk

 Designed to address inadvertent funding of conflict and human right abuses, the regulation will require companies to conduct supply chain due diligence based on OECD or other European Commission recognized standards before importing tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from a country affected by conflict or at high risk of human rights abuses. The OECD’s guidelines recommend that contracts with third parties should include due diligence commitments, and companies should “immediately suspend or discontinue engagement” with suppliers which it identifies as a “reasonable risk”.

 Additional requirements include:

By some estimates, the regulation will impact 95 percent of EU-based importers of minerals and metal, affecting a wide range of industries—from aerospace, automotive and construction to lighting, electronics and jewellery.

 Why companies need to implement risk-based due diligence and monitoring

 The EU regulation steps up the pressure that multinationals already face from the UK’s Modern Slavery Act, as well as federal and state regulations in the U.S. when it comes to improving supply chain transparency to mitigate modern slavery risk.  Moreover, many consumers today expect social compliance from brands—and they won’t wait until 2021—which increases reputational risk should a company fail to identify human rights abuses in its supply chain. 

 As a result, companies need to start now on developing effective processes for risk assessment, due diligence and monitoring. Using a PESTLE-based approach can help companies right-size these processes to ensure efficient, effective risk mitigation. Risks are classified based on Political Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors. Based on the initial assessment, companies can determine whether enhanced due diligence is merited and the key risk areas to focus on when monitoring for adverse news mentions and regulatory, industry, country or company mentions. What will it take to get your own organization’s processes ready?

 3 Ways to Apply This Information Now 

1. Download the eBook The Risk Monitoring Imperative to read more about the importance of ongoing monitoring to help mitigate business risk.

2. Request a free demo of LexisNexis Entity Insight - our newest tool for proactive supply chain and third-party risk monitoring.

3. Share this blog on LinkedIn to keep the dialogue going with your colleagues and contacts.

 

 

Anna Stevens
5 Tips From PR Professionals to Remain Career-Relevant

In such a fast paced world, it is important to continuously develop a skill set that helps you remain career-relevant, especially in the PR world. Recently, we hosted a webinar with three PR experts: Lauren Doyle, Vice President of Wordsworth Communication, Sean Parker, Vice President & PR Director of Fifth Third Bankcorp and Ryan Williams, Director of Enterprise Media Intelligence at LexisNexis. Throughout the webinar these experts discussed tips to remain relevant in today’s PR industry, below are some of the top tips.

Understand the PESO Model

When looking at the new PR economy it is critical to look at the way paid, earned, shared and owned media – the PESO model – work in conjunction. Having a delicate balance of these is paramount for PR pros as we look at skills that will be needed in the new decade. Skills that have been identified as the most relevant for PR executives in the upcoming decade include social media community management, creativity, multimedia media creation and insight and planning

A Shift from “Publicist” to “Content Strategist”

Lauren Doyle, Vice President of Wordsworth Communications, has identified the greatest opportunity for PR practitioners as the move from “publicist” to “content strategists”. With 69% of marketers creating more content than one year ago the demand for content is clearly on the rise. Having such vast amounts of content does create clutter, so it is important to staff your department with roles that may be non-traditional but align with where the market is headed. This includes having a greater focus on video and digital strategists than ever before.

The Art of Building Relationships 

Building relationships with individuals that can influence and amplify your core message can be extremely beneficial and can last a lifetime. Sean Parker, Vice President & PR Director of Fifth Third Bancorp proposed that the “Quality of relationships outweigh the quantity of stakeholders and influencer relationships.” Having a deeper connection with influencers can have a greater impact and prove to be more valuable in establishing mutual benefits.

Performing Analytics

One way for PR professionals to better understand communications performance is to explore performance analytics and identify relevant information. There is estimated to be 44 zettabytes of data in the world by 2020 so it is pivotal to filter data and to select the insights that are pertinent. Make use of technology like a media intelligence solution to quickly capture and analyze information.  

Know How to Measure the Impact of PR Campaigns

There are four basic principles of measuring the impact of PR campaigns: outputs, outtakes, outcomes and the overall impact. Outputs include tangible metrics and impressions, while outtakes focus on behavioral changes in consumers such as increase in website traffic or a change in stock price. Outcomes take into account the outtakes and connect them back to the overall impact of the campaign. Ryan Williams, Director of Enterprise Media Intelligence at LexisNexis, who created this model stated, “This is the framework that every PR pro needs to start thinking about in terms of how you come up with strategy, analytics platforms and relationships and having it all tie back together.”

The evolution of PR is moving at a significant rate which means modern PR professionals have to continuously develop new skill sets to keep up with the trends. To stay up to date with these trends and remain career-relevant you can improve your skills by attending seminars, webinars, online classes and briefing experts in other departments.


Here is an infographic that quickly recaps all of these tips and tricks:


3 Ways to Apply This Information Now

  1. Keep up with the media buzz with a media monitoring and analytics solution like LexisNexis Newsdesk®.  
  2. Sign up for a personalized demo and consultation of LexisNexis Newsdesk®. 
  3. Share this blog on LinkedIn to keep the dialogue going with your colleagues and contacts.