Digs Majumder is a media strategist with more than 20 years’ experience. Having worked with PR/strategic marketing agencies, with clients and in the media, he brings a 360-degree perspective to each project. He’s developed and executed media- and market-facing strategies for companies in a wide range of industries, from technology and financial services to consumer goods and fashion. His past client engagements span the gamut from multinational conglomerates like Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba to small startups in diverse industries such as alternative energy and men’s wear. Before striking out on his own to offer specialized services, he was most recently a consultant with Access Communications, a top-ranked PR agency with a diverse client base ranging from enterprise and consumer technology vendors to vodka and video game makers. Before that he spent five years at bi-coastal agency GlobalFluency, the last three as Chief Strategy & Services Officer. In that capacity he managed multiple accounts, oversaw 12 staffers and helped broaden the firm’s portfolio of services to include competitive intelligence, media and message training and White Paper creation and distribution. Before that he was Director of Corporate Marketing at Zefer Corp., an e-business consultant. Earlier, he spent 11 years in high-tech media, including four years as Chief Technology Editor of WINDOWS Magazine, and six as senior editor at InformationWeek Magazine. In that time he met with virtually every company that played in the Internet space, from tiny startups that eventually went public to multinational conglomerates gradually moving operations online. He spoke at many industry events, moderated panel discussions around the country and appeared regularly in the media to comment on market and industry trends. He has also specialized in taking to market thought leadership initiatives that build on quantitative surveys and qualitative research. He was instrumental in developing the Citrix Online’s Worldwide Workplace Council and authored its groundbreaking report on web commuting. He previously helped build the core competencies of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and the Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum, developing reports and media strategies for sponsors such as Deloitte, Hyperion, Dun & Bradstreet, MarketBridge, Cognos and AXS-One. Each report generated extensive coverage and helped solidify the sponsors’ brand in target markets. Digs earned a Master’s in Communications from Iowa State University and a B.A. from St. Xavier’s College in English literature.
Think strategy The right strategy means knowing exactly what to say, building a narrative context around it, and using the right channels to use to reach the right audience. The communications universe is today more fractionalized than ever, and it’s going to get more so. At the same time, your target audience hasn’t stopped reading newspapers or watching TV watching TV altogether just because it’s also browsing through blogs and Twitter and Facebook. The key is to develop a complete media strategy that still communicates the right positioning while customizing it for every appropriate channel, from the largest TV network to the smallest blog. That’s what we do.
Messaging: What’s your company’s descriptor? What’s the differentiator? How do you easily communicate the benefits of your products and services to a diverse audience (media, customers, investors, potential employees)? Everything said or written about your company, by you or anyone else, should reflect fundamental messaging. Otherwise, it’s an opportunity wasted.
Content Development If content is king—and it is—what’s the best way to fit your company’s offerings into content streams that span multiple channels—website, company backgrounders, sales collateral, blogs, op-eds, speeches? How do you ensure that content about your company is consistently on-message? What process do you put in place to ensure that content (digital, print, even verbal) is regularly updated to both promote new offerings and capitalize on current trends?
Media Relations The media isn’t interested in your product, or your company, or you. The media wants a story. We’re also long past the time where a press release can generate much attention. How do you create original, media-friendly storylines that conveniently place your message at the center? How do you customize basic pitches to suit the needs of each target outlet?
Thought Leadership What’s your company’s big idea? Getting coverage of a new product or service is typically a one-off proposition. Thought leaderships means developing a broader theme that plays to multiple issues and delving into problems that your new release helps solve, and this is turns brings consistent attention to your message. With the right idea, backed up by the right mix of quantitative data, case studies, third-party opinions and appropriate talking points, you don’t just participate in the debate, you own it.
Social Media The greatest advantage of social media is not that it offers us new tools like blogs and Twitter. The key benefit is that these tools (and others) enable us to reach a target audience without having the basic message filtered by gatekeepers such as reporters and editors who have their own agenda. But that’s not all. Today, everyone blogs, everyone tweets, everyone posts on Facebook, and so on, but while everyone’s writing, who’s reading? How do you find that elusive audience for your blog? How do you use webinars to target potential customers? And yes, we all know how to write (kind of). But even if you do it really well, is that the best use of your time? Or is it more beneficial to bring in someone who can speak in your voice (perhaps better than you) while you work on your other priorities?