Last week, Gawker Media owner Nick Denton told employees to keep headlines under 70 characters. Why? Google search. Denton explained, “Why this drastic measure? Google and others truncate headlines at 70 characters. On the Manti Teo story, Deadspin’s scoop fell down the Google search results, overtaken by copycat stories with simpler headlines.” This announcement has implications for communications professionals writing and distributing releases over the wire. The lesson? Keep those headlines short and to the point. Historically, headlines have been way too long. According to…
Last week, Facebook profiles were a sea of red. After a call to action from the Human Rights Campaign, millions of users changed their profiles to show solidarity for marriage equality as the Supreme Court debated DOMA and Proposition 8. According to Facebook, profile photo uploads jumped 120 percent. In all, 2.7 million more users changed their photos than compared with the previous week. Even brands jumped on the meme and created their own red and pink logos, from men’s online retailer Bonobos to Bud…
It’s been a bad few weeks for Burger King. First, horse meat was found in beef patties at European locations. And today, hackers took over the company’s Twitter account, tweeting lewd and inappropriate content and making it appear McDonald’s bought Burger King. Now, the @BurgerKing account is receiving more retweets than the Triple Whopper has calories. Many mainstream news outlets jumped on the story, including ABCNews.com and CNN.com. If I was a betting man, I’d say this story lands in the nighttime news broadcasts and…
I really love Richmond. I’ve called it home for the past 27 years. As a Fan-dweller, I enjoy being able to walk to restaurants, parks and the ultimate Richmond destination: my friends’ porches. The 8-minute drive to The Hodges Partnership is also a perk. How people survive 45 minute commutes, I will never know. As a young professional, our agency has some great perks: flexible schedules, a fun environment, collaborative culture and other things like agency-wide pizza (and beer) brainstorms and an annual baseball outing….
(Quick editor's note: There are few better at getting the word out about events than Cam. Great ingredient list below. -JN) I’m fortunate to work at an organization that encourages employees to volunteer and give back to the community. As a guy who loves to work with nonprofits, this makes me so happy. Throughout the year, in and outside of work, I help nonprofits publicize their events to the public. It’s not only an opportunity to fundraiser for a cause, it also gives the nonprofit…
Editor's note: Here's a guest post from THP's Cameron McPherson who is leaving tomorrow to cheer on his alma mater VCU in it's quest to bring home the NCAA basketball championship to Richmond. I’ve been tempted to email Oprah’s producers all week and say, “nana-nana boo boo” because I just one-upped O’s latest Australia audience trip. How’s that? I’m going to the Final Four! That’s right! The Final Four. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind an Australia visit, but I think we’re all…