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News and advice

June 2010

IN THIS ISSUE:

WMA Selected as Global Lead Agency for Sourcemedia/IDC Financial Insights' 2010 FinTech Rankings

WMA Ranked as one of Atlanta's Largest PR Firms By Atlanta Business Chronicle

Battle-tested Former Bank CEOs Offer Advice to Current Community Bankers

PR FAQ's

Fintech Media Update

Social Media Corner

WMA Selected as Global Lead Agency for Sourcemedia/IDC Financial Insights' 2010 FinTech Rankings

This year marks the sixth consecutive year that William Mills Agency has been selected to support the ranking and it will handle North American outreach as well as manage a global network of support firms including: Hotwire PR (Europe), Infinity Communications (Asia/Pacific) and BrainPartners RP (Central America/South America). The FinTech ranking is published as an annual special report in American Banker and Bank Technology News. As in years past, an awards event will be hosted in conjunction with the Bank Administration Institute (BAI) Retail Delivery Conference & Expo, to be held Oct. 19-21 in Las Vegas.

WMA Ranked as one of Atlanta's Largest PR Firms By Atlanta Business Chronicle

WMA is consistently included in this important annual ranking, and this year was ranked number five. Companies included in the ranking must maintain 50 percent or more of their overall business through public relations and have an established physical office and staff in Atlanta.

Battle-tested Former Bank CEOs Offer Advice to Current Community Bankers
by Alex Shorter Alex 020910 (NEW)

I recently attended, “If I Knew Then What I Know Now,” a dinner event hosted by the Community Bankers Association (CBA) of Georgia. Ray Stanford, an attorney with Taylor English, led a discussion with former CEOs: Marvin Cosgray, Buckhead Community Bank; Mike McPherson, Unity National Bank; and Bill Gafford, McIntosh Commercial Bank. – the FDIC seized all three banks within the past year.

The discussion was especially insightful for the community bankers in attendance as the panelists shared unique insights on strategies in responding to sideline capital, negative media coverage, regulatory handcuffs, and opportunities in the current market environment.

Additionally, for bankers currently in “survival mode,” panelists recommended how to approach a variety of items such as employee and customer communication and dealing with regulators.

Some primary pieces of advice included:

• Focus on communicating and developing relationships with regulators
• Shrink balance sheets
• Consider third-parties for validating/verifying information on small business and construction loans
• Develop a crisis communications plan—for customers and employees

It is not easy for former bank CEO’s to discuss their mistakes. They earned my respect by offering their stories in order to help other bankers. CBA of Georgia, keep up the creative programming.

PR FAQ's
by Heather (Cunningham Heather 2

) Sugg

Q: How long does it take after an interview before the article appears?

This varies greatly, depending on the publication. An interview with a daily, like American Banker, can appear in print the next day. Weekly publications on average take two to three weeks to see in print; however, we have had articles appear several months later. The monthly publications have a longer lead time, which is about three months, although some are even more prolonged. And while this rarely happens, some interviews may never see print. This can be attributed to several reasons; including the editor changes the focus of the article; there simply is not enough space available in the publication, or the interview was for information-only purposes.

We have also been seeing many monthly publications introduce weekly e-newsletters. The beauty of these web-based publications is that they are quickly circulated, and they can often be easily forwarded to others without having to obtain reprint rights. A timely interview for an e-newsletter usually appears within a week.

Q: Why should a company need an online pressroom?

Online pressrooms have quickly become the “go–to” source for a majority of the media. While it is true that we do not get to proof what is going to be printed, we should take every opportunity we can to direct a company’s branding and corporate description. Let’s face the facts – editors and reporters deal with hundreds of calls and e-mails daily, and making their job easier by providing your corporate information in an easy to find, concise format, increases your chance of good coverage.

At the minimum, pressrooms should include press kit materials, new releases, summaries of recent articles, corporate biographies and headshots. And don’t forget, the media will not be the only visitors to your pressroom. Clients, prospects, partners and (sadly) your competitors can also visit your pressroom. While you don’t want to share too much private information about your company, a complete pressroom with public information is well advised.

Fintech Media Update

The financial media, just like the industry, is in a continual state of change. We thought it useful to share with you several of the major changes in the publications, such as changes in publication formats, editorial calendars and staff assignments.

PaymentSource
•Changed name from Cards & Payments

Credit Union Business
• Has a new editor, Larita Heat.

Commercial Mortgage Insight
• Jessica Lillian new editor

Social Media Corner

In the world of social media, advances are made, rules change and new platforms are introduced on a nearly daily basis. To keep you updated on the latest happenings, we will feature a social media piece in each newsletter, introducing you to new platforms, as well as changes to the ones we already use.

FriendFeed

As our social media contacts become active on more and more sites, it can become overwhelming to keep track of their status updates, comments, Tweets, photos, videos, group memberships and interesting articles from across the Web. FriendFeed alleviates the need to jump from site to site to keep up with your contacts by acting as a “lifestream aggregator,” collecting your contacts’ social media content from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and blogs, and displaying it in one place. The content is delivered on your FriendFeed page in chronological order. The platform gives you the capability to customize the information you receive from contacts as well – if you enjoy a friend’s blog posts, but are overwhelmed by their Twitter usage, you can block the Twitter posts without blocking the friend completely. In addition, you can post directly to your page, updating your status and sharing photos and other material, much like Facebook’s capabilities.

For more information, or to sign up for a FriendFeed account, visit www.friendfeed.com.

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