Building Online Communities: Lessons from Seattle Children’s

Last week I had the opportunity to hear Jennifer Seymour, director of content strategy and integration with Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Cory Badger, vice president of corporate and strategic business development with Regence Blue Shield, speak over lunch at the Puget Sound American Marketing Association Healthcare Special Interest Group (SIG). Both presentations were informative. Since […]

Four Tips Gleaned From Analysis of Political Debates

In the past we have written about the importance of body language, but the topic came to my attention again during the eighth Republican presidential debate, and the subsequent analysis of that debate, when Mitt Romney and Rick Perry got into a heated exchange. Ann Gerhart with the Washington Post wrote a wonderful article about […]

Road Trip to Spokane: MarCom and Strategic Public Relations

Last Friday, Colleen Moffitt and I had the opportunity to speak to the members of the Spokane MarCom Association about the importance of strategic public relations. The journey to Spokane was one we will never forget. We began our descent into the city only to have our landing aborted, turning us back to Seattle due […]

Five Tips for Asking for Feedback

Part of delivering excellent client service is to solicit feedback. But this can be tricky. How do you set the stage or get busy managers, directors or VPs to take a few minutes to tell you how you’re doing? I have found this five-step process to be very helpful in effectively soliciting specific feedback so […]

Credit Card Processing Options for Nonprofit Organizations

When Molly McWhinnie and I were speaking last week to the group with the Washington State Community Action Partnership, we were asked for recommendations on credit card processing for those who want enable online donations on their nonprofit organization’s website. Since we have not had much experience with this, we decided to take our question […]

Leveraging Social Media for Fundraising: Our Presentation to WSCAP

In today’s world, organizations both large and small are all forced to do more with less. However, for nonprofit organizations that are already under constant pressure to run a lean operation, increase efficiencies and keep costs low, the need to raise money is a constant. The agencies that comprise Washington State Community Action Partnership (WSCAP) […]

The Council of PR Firms Code of Ethics

A couple of months ago I participated in a survey by the Council of PR Firms, which included a question about business ethics. It got me thinking about the topic and the importance of business ethics in our professional lives. According to Wikipedia, “Business ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is a form of applied […]

Leadership in Public Relations & Marketing

Several weeks ago I was perusing the Puget Sound Business Journal and came across an article by Lynn Parker titled, “How to lead effectively and not just manage.” The headline immediately caught my attention, and as I read the article, which was orientated toward people running small businesses, I could not help but think how […]

Better Understanding Complex Sales Situations

If you work in public relations or marketing then you are likely to be playing an indirect role on driving sales for your organization. Or perhaps you’re a PR person trying to motivate your company to engage in more activities. In either case you may want to have a better understanding of the sales process. […]

Making the Most of Business Travel: Peter Shankman’s Tips

While on a press tour in May, my client and I found ourselves with about five hours of time on a Monday morning in Washington, D.C. I suggested we find a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi and catch up on work and email, but my client had another idea. He suggested we do a bit […]