Creating Blogs to Captivate Your Readers
In the world of social media, blogs have become an important medium to share your company stories beyond a traditional press release, allowing you to promote your company’s services as well as your perspective on relevant industry topics. In addition, blogs allow you to gain valuable feedback from your customers as they write comments on […]
SOPA, PIPA and PR
On Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, the online world rose up against legislation being reviewed by Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). While everyone agrees preventing piracy and protecting IP are noble goals, Internet powerhouses like Wikipedia, Wired, Google and 60,000 other websites censored their homepages in what […]
Tips for Developing a Customer Survey
Today’s marketing communication professionals have a plethora of tools they can use to connect with current and prospective customers. Whether it is engaging in a strategic social media or PR campaign, hosting webinars or speaking engagements, or pursuing traditional marketing tactics, companies are often evaluating what the right marketing mix is to effectively reach their […]
8 Tips for Managing a LinkedIn Group
LinkedIn has quickly become a hotbed for professional networking. With more than 100 million users, the site continues to add value to business professionals by offering a variety of ways to increase engagement and boost brand presence. For example, we recently wrote about its new features that allow users to follow companies and give companies […]
Results for RPI: “Customizing” Key Messages and PR Plan to Announce a Strategic Company Acquisition
We recently started working with RPI, Inc., a leader in make-on-demand private label personalized products, such as photo books, greeting cards and stationery products, for mass and specialty retailers. As we began our engagement, it was fascinating to learn more about mass customization (the ability for a consumer to tailor a product’s appearance, features or […]
Executive Leadership Transitions and Achieving Coverage
Changes in executive leadership can be an exciting time for a company. Change often signals a continuation of momentum or the start of a new direction. These announcements are also interesting to media, who get to know executives in their given industries over time through numerous briefings and product announcements. Recently, Opscode, the leader in […]
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 […]
PR: A Critical Success Factor for Business Leaders
Are you surprised to learn that, only 16 percent of MBA programs “offer a single course in crisis and conflict management, strategic communications, public relations” or reputation management? This week an op-ed in Bloomberg BusinessWeek made the case for change. If you haven’t read the article, “Master’s of Spin: PR Belongs in B-School Studies,” I […]