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In today’s digital-first environment, people are empowered to seek out uniquely meaningful information from an ever-growing pool of sources. Counter to this growth in choice, however, is the declining trust in traditional media channels, with business emerging as the most-trusted institution.

That’s according to Edelman’s 2022 Trust Barometer. For organizations, notably professional service providers, this is an opportunity – maybe even an obligation – to provide answers in times of great uncertainty through owned content channels. To be clear, traditional earned media engagement remains an invaluable tool and likely always will. But increased trust in business means that every research report, blog post, white paper, or podcast demonstrates your firm’s ability to meet the specific needs of your audience, helping them make sense of an increasingly chaotic world.

As such, some of the things that we (along with others in the public relations and content marketing space) have been saying for years about the importance of producing owned content – and producing it well – have never been more salient.

1. Quality, Self-Published Content Establishes Your Firm’s Authority

The experts at your firm know your industry inside and out. They possess valuable insight and experience that benefit your clients every day. And their deep knowledge empowers them to communicate positions of authority that differentiate your firm from the competition.

It can seem counterintuitive to give some of their hard won expertise away for free. But that’s exactly what effective content marketers do. They identify topics and ideas that will resonate with prospective clients and provide useful information to help solve their toughest challenges. This establishes credibility and sparks the prospect’s interest to learn more. 

How Sharing Expertise through Content Generates Business

Here’s a real-life example of how the content marketing dynamic works. I’m an avid runner, and I recently began experiencing hip pain that slowed me down. I turned to Google for answers. My search brought me to an article on the Treadlabs blog that explained how different types of foot arches can influence a runner’s gait. I scoured their site to learn more about what might be causing my issues. After reading several of their in-depth, thoughtful articles, I deduced that my high arches were the culprit. As a result, I purchased insoles from their site. They gained a happy customer, and I found a solution to lessen my pain. 

Although this is a B2C example, the same principle works in the B2B space. Communicating your message directly to your audience in a way that’s useful and informative draws them in and shows them the value of becoming your client.

Your Owned Media Program Must Function Like a Well-Oiled Machine to Be Effective

As you create an owned media/content marketing program at your firm, be aware of the pitfalls that can hinder your progress. For one thing, generating content takes a tremendous amount of time and attention. As such, it’s crucial to think like a publisher. Stay hyper focused on your content plan. Determine what questions your target audience needs answered and set deadlines to publish content regularly. Consistency is the name of the game. 

Additionally, it’s unlikely your subject matter experts have the bandwidth to author their own content without significant support. They have myriad priorities competing for their professional attention. And without a plan, your owned media goals can easily fall to the bottom of their lengthy to-do list. 

As a marketing leader, it will take a concerted effort on your part to draw out your colleagues’ expertise. Furthermore, you will have to think through how to position their ideas in a way that matters to your audience. You may find it necessary to hire an employee to focus on this effort or engage a comms agency to help. 

2. Content Marketing Gives You a Direct Line to Your Target Audience 

Media attention can be a cause for both celebration and concern. Yes, it’s exciting when a journalist picks up your story. But at the same time, you ultimately have no control over how that news outlet communicates your message. They might shorten a quote, leave out salient information, or pick and choose what to focus on based on their own editorial needs. 

Furthermore, it’s difficult to track the effectiveness of these PR efforts. Given the multitude of media outlets available today, there’s no guarantee earned media coverage will reach your target audience at all.

By contrast, a solid content marketing strategy allows you to craft the right narrative using your own brand voice and style. For example, let’s say you want to communicate your firm’s position on a hot button social issue. Owned media allows you to contextualize and fully flesh out your position so that your meaning is crystal clear. 

Using keywords and smart SEO tactics help your audience find the information they’re looking for. But you don’t have to wait for organic search to bring you prospects. Using paid media and social channels, you can share and promote content to attract your target audience. Additionally, because your insights live on your site, you can easily track what prospects read, see how much time they spend on each piece of content, and observe whether they take the next step to subscribe to your emails, fill out your contact form, or request more information. 

3. Owned Media Can Generate More of the Earned Media Coverage You’re Looking For

It won’t happen overnight, but once you’ve established a consistent owned media program, you may find that it generates meaningful earned media coverage, too. Highlighting your firm’s expertise while simultaneously providing useful insights to your audience has the potential to command attention. 

As part of our own content marketing program, Greentarget has written and spoken about fake news and its impact on journalism for the past two years. We’ve conducted and published in-depth research and shared our POV on the topic with our audience in various channels. As a result, MSNBC picked up the story and used it as a basis for further exploration of and conversation around the topic.

We’ve worked with clients to achieve similar results with their owned media programs as well. It takes time and dedication, but the results speak for themselves.

Make Owned Media Part of Your Multi-Faceted Communications Program

Owned media isn’t meant to supplant your other communication efforts. Rather, it should work in tandem with your paid, social, and earned media efforts to function as part of a vibrant ecosystem. You write quality content and promote it via paid and social media channels. Your audience engages with that content by visiting your site and perhaps sharing insights with their own network. And when that happens, you’ve created the right conditions for journalists to use your content to craft compelling earned media stories. 

Do you need guidance thinking through how to tell your firm’s story while highlighting your talent’s expertise? We’d love to help direct conversations that matter as part of your comprehensive media strategy. Let’s talk.

Computer vector graphic created by freepik – www.freepik.com

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When we put out our second annual Fake News survey late last year, the challenges were clear: an overwhelming 93% of journalists believe fake news has a negative impact on their profession.

Less clear, however, was what exactly should be done about it. Our respondents, comprised of over 100 journalists, said – perhaps a bit predictably – that journalism was the answer. Yet their optimism was not exactly overwhelming. Only 14% said their efforts had a significant impact on lessening the spread of fake news.

They’re not the only ones who are skeptical. When former White House correspondent and political reporter Marc Ambinder wrote about our survey for MSNBC, he expressed disbelief that fake news could be fixed by more journalism. With democracy in retreat, he wrote, more media will just lead to more “anti-media” attacks. He suggests instead that, “What is needed is more relentless, sophisticated and unyielding pressure on the superspreaders of misinformation.”

While how and who might apply that pressure remains to be seen, Ambinder’s thinking does at least present another solution to the problem. Nieman Lab’s Predictions for Journalism 2022 series, which we’ll dig into below, offers more. As we’ll see, media institutions, editors, and journalists aren’t the only ones who need to play a role. In a world where CEOs are increasingly more trusted than media and government, business and expert authorities can (and should) contribute as well.

Insights from Nieman Lab

Each year, Nieman Lab “asks some of the smartest people in journalism and media what they think is coming in the next 12 months.” This time around, many (unsurprisingly) addressed fake news. Though each piece in the series is worth a read, we’ve gathered a few key insights.

Diagnosing the Root Cause  

Several Nieman Lab contributors begin by addressing the underlying problems with today’s news media: namely, structural misallocations and the so-called “infodemic” – “a deluge of information so overwhelming that it becomes impossible for ordinary people to figure out what is or isn’t credible information.”

Several Nieman Lab contributors begin by addressing the underlying problems with today’s news media: namely, structural misallocations and the so-called “infodemic” – “a deluge of information so overwhelming that it becomes impossible for ordinary people to figure out what is or isn’t credible information.”

For instance, Izabella Kaminska, outgoing editor of the Financial Times’ Alphaville blog, writes that mistrust in media stems largely from “structural, economic, and bureaucratic forces that have come to underestimate editorial risks and misallocate resources in a bid to maximize returns from reach, digitalization, and standardization.” These forces, she goes on, favor “predictable clicks drawn from knee-jerk, and often erroneous, takes that ride the consensus wave, while sensationalizing content and narrowing the public debate spectrum.”

This is in part what happens when news tries to keep up with the shift to online – from the pre-digital notion that information is finite, to the infinite nature of today’s news. As Shalabh Upadhyay, founder of NEWJ in India, puts it:

…why rely on a journalist if your peers have the same access to the same information from the same source? News organizations are increasingly moving from being a primary source of information to being a source of validation of already-consumed news. With the presence of multiple media players, one of them is bound to validate your version of the consumed information, making the rest of the organizations seem misguided. Hence the emergence of the post-news world and the general erosion of trust in journalism and journalists across the globe.

Finding Solutions

To combat these problems, Nieman Lab contributors offer several solutions:

  • A collaborative and open model of journalism – powered by technology and focused on credibility

“In a world of information overload, credible information – or credibility itself – is the opportunity gap for journalism to rally around to create a sustainable value proposition,” Upadhyay writes.

But given the subjective nature of credibility, especially amid rampant polarization, the process by which journalism achieves it must change.

One of the ideas Upadhyay suggests is “transparent processes that provide the general public with the means of validating their work.” Technology and collaboration can help here. Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer of Frontline, cites Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa’s efforts on this front in the Philippines, including a “fact-checking consortium among news groups to try to help identify online disinformation in near real-time” that also works with “civic engagement, legal, and academic partners.”

Rath also cites the Pandora Papers as evidence of technology’s ability to enable “hundreds of reporters around the world to join forces in secure ways, and to tell a global accountability story with implications that continue to reverberate.”

  • More curation, less noise

Another commonly articulated solution: Focus on quality and curation – not just clicks. Simon Allison, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Continent, Africa’s most widely distributed newspaper, says that in the context of a universal “information-rich environment … journalism now functions to condense, contextualize, and curate the sheer volume of information that is out there and accessible to all – to stand between readers and the abyss of the infodemic.”

The news product that does this the best, he says, is the old-fashioned newspaper, which is tightly edited and carefully ordered. The worst is the news website, which offers a “dizzying array of stories” and contributes to decision fatigue. Yet focusing on quality content is easier said than done. It’s a matter of aligning the right incentives and resources to combat engrained structural forces that prioritize the sort of “predictable clicks” Kaminska talks about.  

With that said, Tamar Charney, consulting senior supervising producer for NPR’s Throughline, thinks that in a lot of ways, we’re getting there. “Daily news podcasts and newsletters are a growing way people are getting their news. Most daily news podcasts are relatively short, meaning that in 10, 20, or perhaps 30 minutes you can walk away feeling like you are pretty well informed. Newsletters also give you that sense of ‘Okay, I’m caught up,’ so you can turn your attention to something else.”

  • Community engagement is key

“If local newsrooms are going to rank alongside direct service providers seeking support from the same philanthropic people and institutions, newsrooms will have to show that they are listening beyond their existing audience and taking steps to strengthen the community, not just report on it,” writes Ariel Zirulnick, senior editor for community engagement at Southern California Public Radio.

As an example, she cites her team’s work “hosting listening sessions and researching the information needs of Angelenos underserved by journalism.” Collaboration here is key – not only between a newsroom’s audience and engagement teams, but with local, civic and academic organizations.

Other Nieman Lab contributors echo these sentiments, whether they’re discussing going beyond data and into local communities, the importance of face-to-face reporting, or collective impact models that can strengthen and redefine local news.

How Businesses Can Help

If there’s one takeaway from all this, it’s that no one journalist, editor or media organization can beat back the tide of fake news alone. In fact, according to Edelman’s 2022 Trust Barometer, it’s businesses – and, to a lesser degree, NGOs – that should help provide societal stability in an era when media and government are viewed as increasingly divisive.

For instance, business’ trust score is 61, government’s is 52, and media’s is 50. More people trust their own employer than their government or news sources, and the majority of respondents now want business leaders to speak up about societal issues.

At Greentarget, we believe that business leaders who see the need to speak up should do so by developing effective positions of authority. That means speaking on timely, relevant issues that executives are experts in; crafting distinct points-of-view and/or tangible guidance that provides utility; participating intelligently in ongoing media conversations; and supporting or supplementing trusted news outlets, journalists and editors with expert commentary and insights.

Their role is to supplement and support traditional journalism and add expertise to important discussions – bolstering journalists’ efforts, when appropriate. And when they do participate, they shouldn’t just follow consensus or add to the noise. This is what Kaminska thinks is missing in today’s media landscape: “…contrarian quality reads that might be slower to come to market but are much harder to discredit over time because they have been properly researched, considered, and tested.”

There may be no one-size-fits-all solution to fake news, which is why now is not the time to be short-sighted or, worse, cynical. More than ever, we all have a responsibility to play a part in providing and supporting credible, quality news people can trust.

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Professional services firms are under more scrutiny than ever when it comes to the clients they represent. Employees are no longer reticent about protesting clients they consider unsavory. We’ve seen other stakeholders and the public actively lobby firms to drop certain clients, as well. 

Think about the way at least three law firms distanced themselves from representing the Trump administration after initially agreeing to help challenge election results. Public and internal pressures forced these firms to reconsider their willingness to be involved.

Controversial scenarios like this can land on the doorstep of any professional services firm.  To protect your firm’s reputation in an era of more aggressive social activism, you can mitigate risk by considering carefully which clients you’re willing to work with.

Professional services firm can do this by applying the logic investors are increasingly using – it’s associated these days with three letters: ESG.

ESG Minimizes Risk and Maximizes Long-term Results

In the financial services realm, investing with a fund manager who touts a strong commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices is not just about making a positive social impact. It’s also a way to reduce the likelihood that your investment will lose value while increasing the likelihood of positive returns over time.

Companies with weak ESG performance often find themselves in situations that can lead to a decline in valuation. If a company is cutting corners on safety protocols, harming the environment, or exploiting its workers, there’s a much greater likelihood it’ll eventually be sued, fined, or otherwise penalized, which can negatively impact its stock price. Activision’s shares have tumbled since revelations of sexual misconduct among its employees, a clear failure of governance. So an investor or fund manager may choose to benefit society by putting her money into a company or a fund with stronger ESG standards, sure, but it should also de-risk her investment.  

How is this strategy relevant to who professional services firms take on as clients? Like investors, they should weigh the short-term gains they stand to make against the long-term risks associated with their choices. Is the initial financial windfall of working with a client of questionable or dubious integrity worth a ding to your firm’s reputation?

Socially Responsible Investing is a Way for Investors to Live Out Their Values

There are firms who choose to represent society’s most controversial and polarizing characters as a matter of principle. In the legal industry, for example, firms rightly argue that everyone deserves skilled representation, even those who some may consider unsavory. That’s certainly true, and if the employees and stakeholders of those firms know that is how they make decisions, there’s less risk for those firms. But when a firm purports to hold certain values and then makes decisions that contradict those values, the firm takes on significant reputational risk.

Assuming you’ve taken steps to define your values, applying an ESG investment lens to client selection can help you live them out.

Ethical investing got started in the 1980s when students in the U.S. demanded that their colleges and universities divest from companies that did business with the apartheid government of South Africa. Over the years an investing strategy known as “exclusionary screening” became popular, wherein investment managers would screen certain industries out of their portfolios. Tobacco, firearms, pornography, fossil fuels, etc., were common targets. 

Investors have largely moved from screening out whole industries to selecting best-of-breed companies across all sectors of the economy.  Regardless, protocols aligned with your corporate values can help you make decisions about the types of clients you’re willing to represent or the kinds of projects you’re comfortable taking on. Failing to make decisions in this way can cause backlash among other clients, employees, and even law enforcement.

Google, whose motto remains “Don’t Be Evil,” faced intense blowback when employees discovered its plans to work with the Pentagon on a project using artificial intelligence technology. After workers spoke out, walked out, and even resigned in protest, Google abandoned the project. Executives recently announced they’ll be exploring another contract with the Pentagon — but this time Google took care to explain how this decision fits with its principles.

PR giant Edelman has been assailed recently by employees who decry statements it made praising COP24’s “new level of international consensus that climate change is an existential threat,” calling for “more scrutiny of corporate climate lobbying efforts,” and arguing that many pledges made at the conference “fall short of what is necessary to avert climate disaster,” all the while representing companies that exploit fossil fuels and the trade groups that lobby for them. 

McKinsey advised the pharmaceutical industry for years about how to increase opioid sales at a time when abuse of pain medicine was widespread. Sued by 46 states’ attorneys general for contributing to the opioid epidemic, the firm ultimately apologized for the work and paid a $573 million settlement to resolve investigations into it conduct, though the firm remains beset with fresh lawsuits. To avoid such entanglements in the future, the CEO Kevin Sneader struggled to draw bright-line rules around the kinds of industries from which it would no longer take clients, including defense, intelligence, justice or policing institutions in nondemocratic countries. Consensus among its partners on this has been difficult to achieve, and the divided opinions are said to have contributed to the Sneader’s ouster.

Investing in Funds with a Low ESG Index Can Influence Positive Change, Too

Sometimes, investors with a strong ESG commitment still invest in companies with environmental, social, or governance liability, but make this seemingly contradictory decision to encourage a company to change. For example, they might invest in an oil company to influence management’s decisions around replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy.

This logic might guide you to take on projects or clients that appear to be objectionable on the surface but have the potential to drive reform.

One example of this is impact litigation, which Harvard Law School defines as filing or defending lawsuits focused on changing laws or focused on the rights of a larger group of people than is directly involved in the suit. On the surface, such representations could beg the question, “Why are you doing this work?” But under certain circumstances, a firm may enter unsavory territory not only to earn fees, but also to make the world a more equitable place for more than just its client. Alan Isaacman’s work on behalf of Larry Flynt, published of Hustler in Hustler Magazine v Falwell, a landmark First Amendment decision, is a clear example. Indeed, John Adams’ defense of the reviled British soldiers who fired on colonists at the Boston Massacre in 1770 – rooted in his concern for the rights of the innocent and the rule of law – reveals how this practice has long been a feature of American jurisprudence. 

Make Business Decisions that Align with Your Firm’s Values

Whether you’re more concerned with mitigating risks to your firm’s reputation or using your talent and expertise to effect social change, the business decisions you make are most defensible when they align with what are commonly understood to be your organization’s values. Applying an ESG filter can help your firm make choices that maximize long-term earnings over short-term gain, enter boldly into social reform territory, or screen out clients and projects that don’t fit with your core principles.

It all comes down to who you are and what you want to represent. Define your values. Communicate them to your clients, your employees, and the community at large. And then commit to making decisions with those guidelines in mind.

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Your effectiveness as an executive often hinges on your ability to persuade. What you say and how you say it can either inspire your audience to buy into your vision for your organization or cause them to look elsewhere. Likewise, your words wield enormous influence in attracting and retaining the talent that drives your business forward, a dynamic more important and relevant today than at any point in recent memory.

You may think your instincts and hard data are enough to guide you, but you’ll be much more effective if you hone your skills based on what behavioral science tells us about human decision-making. Because you need to convince people to follow you every single day, likely even more often than you realize, it’s crucial to understand exactly what motivates your team to make decisions, change their minds, and take action. 

So whether you’re trying to convince your audience you’re still relevant in an era of social reform or you simply want to strengthen your in-office culture after a long season of working remotely, here’s what you need to know to tap into the power of persuasion.

In Decision-Making, Human Beings Lead With Emotion

Much of what we believe about persuasion in business is wrong. We want to think that decisions are consistently made on the basis of fact and rational thought. After all, the ability to reason is a hallmark of the human experience.

But the truth is people don’t make decisions on facts alone. Emotion is what actually drives us. Surprisingly, this is the case even in professional services where many leaders assume that logic reigns supreme. That’s why your business development team doesn’t simply bombard prospective clients with statistics. They build relationships and tell stories about the impact your firm has on clients just like them. It’s these narratives that compel prospects to hire you.

In his book Descartes’ Error, Dr. Antonio Damasio argues “We are not thinking machines that feel. We are feeling machines that think.” We lead with emotion and then use facts to rationalize our decision to others. This is particularly true when the stakes are high and when decisions are made in groups, two common elements of decision-making in professional services.

Trust, competitiveness, curiosity, uncertainty, a desire for safety — all of these feelings factor into the decision-making process. And to evoke the emotions that drive decisions, you need to first understand the role narrative plays in influencing hearts and minds.

Compelling Narratives are the Transporters of Persuasion

Facts alone don’t persuade. That’s because cold, hard data doesn’t make people feel much of anything. Stories are what spark interest and effect change.

“Tell me a story” is the refrain of our childhoods. And we echo that refrain throughout our lives every time we reach for a novel or lose ourselves in a good movie. Your business narratives should always be rooted in fact, not fiction. But the best way to ensure your audience absorbs those facts is to transport them via narrative. 

Consider the role persuasion plays in recruiting talent. If your success depends on attracting the best of the best, how might you use the power of narrative to stand out from your competition? Here are four approaches to consider:

  • Make it personal. Highlight the individual experiences of one person. Rather than talking generically about your firm’s employee culture, tell the story of someone who chose to make your firm their professional home. Every good story features a hero’s journey.
  • Paint a picture. Details make for good stories. Talk about your hero’s struggles and triumphs at your firm with specifics while avoiding generalities. Did they salvage a tenuous client relationship? Land a big account? Draw your listener in with vivid descriptions.
  • Use action verbs. Don’t be afraid to lean into your flair for the dramatic. Make your narrative interesting by choosing words that propel the action forward.
  • Awaken the senses. Put your listener in your hero’s shoes. Make them feel the pressure of that challenging client relationship. Help them imagine everything your hero experienced.

Include Elements of Your Own Story

The command-and-control leadership mindset of yesteryear isn’t effective today. Stakeholders now expect transparency and a degree of vulnerability from their leaders. And if you want to persuade them, one of the best ways to do that is to share personal experiences and anecdotes from your own life. 

We recently worked with a dynamic leader of a major professional services firm who was preparing for a media interview for a story highlighting her new leadership role. She wanted her skills and expertise to carry the story and was hesitant to share too much about her personal background. But the truth is, her upbringing and involvement in a series of family businesses founded by her immigrant parents is what shaped her into the leader she’s become.

Another executive spoke with us to develop an obituary for a longtime colleague who was a pioneer in his field and a mentor to other leaders. Rather than simply saying that as a point of fact, we worked with the executive to include a short anecdote about how he had learned “much of what it takes to be a good leader” sitting on his now-deceased colleague’s couch decades earlier, listening to conversations over a speakerphone.

People respond to stories like these. They envision the sweat and tears it took to triumph over challenging circumstances. Or they relate to how a mentor’s hands-on approach made a difference that had lasting effects. In both cases, the tangible details are key ingredients to telling compelling and effective stories.

So what’s your story? What can you share from your background that will allow your audience to see and connect with you and your firm? You don’t have to “tell all.” But find kernels of your personal experience that will resonate with your listeners and craft them into narratives that persuade.

Audiences Engage with Concrete Language, not Jargon

Concrete language turns the brain into a simulator and enables your audience to experience what you’re describing. By contrast, jargon causes empathy to flatline. Sometimes it’s essential to use certain business terms and phrases to establish credibility with certain audiences. But by itself, lingo won’t help you persuade.

Think about the words you use to describe your business. Do they awaken emotion and stimulate interest? Can your audience draw what you’re describing — or at least picture it in their mind’s eye? Or are you leaning on meaningless (and even trite) business-speak? There’s almost always a way to translate jargon into narrative.

For example, we recently helped a client who struggled to describe what their firm does. In official communications, they used words like “synergy” to talk about a complex service offering. We helped them transform this buzzword into a much more persuasive analogy using jazz music. In jazz, musicians play off of one another, take turns taking the lead, and embrace improvisation as they work together to create beautiful music. 

This client’s service offering functioned just like that. Describing their work in jazz terms gave their audience a better idea of what to expect than the word “synergy” ever could.

Effective Communicators Master the Art of Persuasion

To communicate effectively, don’t shy away from the fundamental humanity of your audience. Connect with them by evoking their emotions, telling powerful stories, and using concrete language to draw them in. 

Greentarget is well positioned to help you skillfully participate in the persuasive conversations that will drive your business forward. If you need help crafting the narratives that will elicit the response you’re looking for, reach out. We’d love to hear from you.

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Journalists continue to feel they’re the last and best defense against the spread of fake news. Yet only 14 percent say their own efforts have a significant impact on improving the situation. And they’re skeptical that mitigation efforts such as media literacy campaigns and anti-fake news laws will do anything to turn the tide. 

According to our 2021 Fake News report, 84 percent of the 103 journalists surveyed agreed that the weaponized use of the term “fake news” — i.e., when it’s not being used to describe misinformation and disinformation — is contributing to the delegitimization of traditional media and news sources. Furthermore, 89 percent believe that actual disinformation is as dangerous or more dangerous than no news at all.

As a former reporter, I understand journalists’ cynicism — a sentiment common in newsrooms even in happier times. But I also think journalists are wrong to take such a bleak view. From my vantage point, there are two actions that would reduce fake news’ impact, at least over the long term.

We absolutely should support reform efforts around Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. And we must simultaneously invest in media literacy education efforts. Here’s why.

Lobby for Section 230 Changes to Hold Big Tech Accountable 

A thriving free press plays a vital role in speaking truth to power and holding people accountable for what they say and do. And that means disinformation and misinformation’s threat to journalistic credibility is a threat to the very fabric of our democracy. 

We asked journalists what, if anything, can be done.

Journalists don’t believe Big Tech’s efforts to police themselves will be effective. There are plenty of instances, including a Facebook insider-turned-whistleblower, to suggest they’re spot on about that. 

But when we asked journalists if the government should move forward with amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and enforce greater regulations on Big Tech, the response was lukewarm. Fewer than half believed reforms were necessary, and 38 percent remained neutral on the subject. Those who definitely did not support reform were more forceful in their responses. One respondent adamantly said, “Free speech shouldn’t be trampled on.”

It’s understandable and commendable that members of the press are protective of the First Amendment. But there are already limits to free speech that act as guardrails for society. And amending Section 230, if done right, can be another smart limit.

Section 230 currently grants broad protections to internet platforms — including social media giants — from liability associated with comments made by their users. But the law was written 25 years ago, long before the advent of the digital-first era and prior to social media’s ubiquity. It doesn’t — how could it? — account for the vast reach disinformation can have in today’s world. And it certainly doesn’t factor in the algorithms and machine learning that propagate fake news while turning a profit for the platform itself.

Given that both sides of the political divide have legitimate concerns about the power of Big Tech and its influence over our society, it seems feasible that lawmakers could reach consensus about reform. Holding social media and Big Tech accountable through greater regulation could be an important first step in stemming the tide of fake news and reducing its harmful impact.

Stay Active in Media Literacy Efforts 

All that said, I can understand cynicism by journalists and, really, most people about the government’s ability to regulate our way toward ending fake news. Gridlock has been a fixture in Washington for a long time to say nothing of how journalism’s very integrity was attacked by the highest office in the land for four straight years.

But it’s surprising that reporters and editors are also so cynical about the potential for education to make a difference. Only 33 percent of respondents felt media literacy efforts have a high or moderate impact on lessening the spread of fake news. One in five said they had no impact at all. 

Journalists should hold out a little more hope about the positive effects of education. This report found that media literacy intervention in the U.S. and India “improved discernment between mainstream and false news headlines” by 26.5 percent. Meanwhile, media literacy efforts are increasing across the nation. In fact, 14 states have taken legislative action aimed at teaching media literacy to K-12 students. Illinois recently became the first state in the nation to mandate all public high schools include media literacy as part of the curriculum. And in Colorado, lawmakers enacted legislation to create an online repository of media literacy resources that teachers can easily access and use.

It will take time, but media literacy efforts have the potential to help a new generation engage with media in a more responsible, discerning way. Only when audiences have the knowledge to help identify disinformation and misinformation themselves will they think twice before hitting that “share” button. They might even take time to debunk the bad information they see on social media if they’ve been taught how to do it. 

If Journalists and PR Professionals Don’t Take Up the Fight Against Fake News, Who Will?

We can’t afford to throw up our hands and give into cynicism when it comes to the future of our society. We must lean into opportunities that will make a difference. That means being open if not supportive to reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act or other ways to leverage regulation so it can catch up with technology, like perhaps taking a different view on antitrust law.

But it also means not waiting for the government to act. We need to do our part to invest in media literacy efforts in our communities. That might mean supporting nonprofits committed to advancing this cause. Or it could involve volunteering to speak in a classroom and work with students first-hand.

In the coming months, Greentarget will be renewing and ramping up our investment in local media literacy education efforts. And we’ll continue to stand with journalists to combat the negative effects of fake news. 

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In the crowded financial services sector, it can be hard to set your firm apart. After all, there are many firms that offer investment strategies in the major asset classes, like large cap equity, high yield bonds, global equity or even emerging markets – all of which can be difficult to distinguish from one another.

To stand out in this homogenous market, performance and product attributes aren’t enough. You need to sell your firm’s talent and ideas. In other words: Don’t sell your product, sell your people.

Your team’s insights, expertise, and points of view can help you thrive in a competitive landscape and volatile times. But you can’t just blast out content from your fund manager or chief economist and expect it to make a splash. To rise above the noise, you’ve got to position your team members as authorities who draw on deep experience to offer unique (and useful) insights.  

Here are three best practices to get started.

1. Develop Useful Insights That Meet Your Audience’s Needs

As we’ve said before too many thought leaders get hung up on what they want to say without stopping to consider what their audience wants to hear. So to create messages that keep your audience at the forefront, you first need to define — and seek to meet — their needs. To get started, ask yourself and your team:

  • Who is our ideal client?
  • What problems are they trying to solve? (e.g., What do they not understand about the implications of their investment decisions? How can they be more strategic with their assets?)
  • For the issues you’ve identified, what content already exists on those topics? How credible is it?
  • What viewpoint can your organization share to not only enter that conversation, but add to it meaningfully?

Ultimately, the goal here is to be useful by offering a fresh perspective (something your audience hasn’t heard before that makes them think) and/or practical guidance (that they might not be able to get anywhere else). As our research shows, utility attracts your audience more than any other characteristic. 

That’s what RBC Global Asset Management did to set themselves apart in the increasingly crowded ESG space. Five years ago, when data on how many investors were deploying ESG strategies – and where and how they were doing so – was less common, they identified the need and surveyed their clients, prospects, consultants and advisers to provide this data to the market. They’ve been doing the survey every year since.

To amplify this effort, we work with their team of experts to secure media opportunities on a wide array of ESG issues, as well as share their expertise and approach through owned content, such as blogs and podcasts. For the 2020 research alone, RBC GAM garnered more than 40 media placements, including those in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg News. Social media posts received more than 225,000 impressions and the report was downloaded 5,500 times from the survey microsite.

2. Say Something Meaningful (Even if it’s a Little Provocative)

If you really want to differentiate yourself and provide utility, it’s essential to say something meaningful – something that will inspire your audience to action.

Too many firms play it safe and hedge their bets. They give noncommittal advice and leave their clients to wade through endless possibilities. By contrast, true authorities draw a line in the sand, make their case, and back up their position with well-supported rationale. 

Let’s think back to our ESG example. There’s a wealth of ESG data out there — and many ways to approach ESG investing. To win over your audience, you need to say something meaningful that will make an investor choose your strategy. You may believe that investing in fossil fuel companies is an essential step towards developing more sustainable solutions. Or you may believe the opposite, that a sustainable fund should never include gas and oil exposure. 

Whatever it is, you need a position. And you need to communicate something that matters — even if it’s conceivably provocative. You must show your audience you’re thinking about challenging issues and prove you have the brainpower to guide investors in smart directions.

3. Be Ready to Engage Different Points of View

When you have the courage to say something meaningful, it stands to reason that someone will disagree. That’s a good thing. There are few better ways of honing your authority position than participating skillfully in the marketplace of ideas.

A researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science — Iain Begg — wrote that public engagement is a great way for technical experts to stay sharp because it forces them to render complicated, theoretical or abstract ideas in practice, concrete and accessible terms. He put it this way: “The challenge of having to explain scientific propositions in terms that informed, non-specialist audiences can grasp, forces academics to think about how those outside academia will view the research.” Making the theoretical and abstract accessible also builds trust and credibility. 

The bottom line? Enter boldly into the marketplace of ideas. And beyond that, understand the value of inviting others to interact with and iterate on your own. Be prepared to listen and consider alternate points of view along the way. The work of refining your firm’s position of authority is never done, and there is plenty of wisdom to learn from others as you do this important work.

Differentiation Starts with Authority 

Setting your financial services firm apart from your competitors is challenging — but it’s not impossible. The key to doing it well is to establish your firm’s authority and promote unique points of view. This requires you to identify your audience’s needs, deliver useful information that solves their problems, say something meaningful to earn their respect, and engage skillfully with those who disagree. 

We can help you identify and develop the points of view that will establish you as the authority you are. Just reach out — we’d love to explore how we can help direct a smarter conversation at your firm.

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