Blink and you might’ve missed it. Earlier this year we revamped our monthly newsletter, The Press Box, to include some of the industry-related news and trends we’re talking about around the Hodges office. Think of this aptly named section, The Rundown, as your monthly recap of all things PR, social and content. Like what you read below? Subscribe to receive the next issue of the Press Box. Millennials makin’ bank? Find them on Instagram. Not surprisingly, 59 percent of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and…
Read MoreProduct launches are the stuff marketing campaign dreams are made of. There are your typical campaign tactics—advertising, media relations and maybe even a tour du jour, as we like to call it at Hodges, where you take your product on the road for a series of launch events. But for a recent product launch, our client wanted to take a more educational, behind-the-scenes approach, one that leveraged the advantage of an owned platform to push out messaging. Tridium, a B2B IoT software technology company, was…
Read MoreBuilding community online is one thing–most organizations have spent years amassing followers and fans on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with communities amounting into the tens or hundreds of thousands. And those communities can spur hundreds of likes, comments and shares a day on these platforms. But translating all that online activity into real-life excitement and engagement is a different story…and an important one. For many marketers, hosting tradeshows, conferences and events are ubiquitous elements of their annual marketing strategies, and yet while planning those events,…
Read MoreWhile tweets may be a mere 140 characters long, the majority of corporate leaders say they’re far too busy running their organizations to spend their time posting to Twitter. What’s more, many see it as a fruitless exercise that doesn’t increase revenue, they don’t like the idea of ceding control, and they’re leery of sharing too much – or not enough. The result is that fewer than 6% of Fortune 500® CEOs use Twitter and of those, only 60% tweet on a regular basis. But the benefits…
Read MoreIf you’ve been on the fence about bringing your brand’s blog to the forefront of your inbound marketing strategy, there are plenty of good reasons to jump in and harness this powerful tool to both position your brand and turn hesitant leads into loyal customers. Let’s begin with some statistics: Brands that blog 15 or more times per month see five times more traffic than those that don’t. B2B marketers who use blogs receive nearly 70% more leads than those who choose not to. Marketers…
Read MoreWe’ve seen a lot of trend pieces recently heralding video as the top content marketing tactic for 2016. At Hodges, we’ve used video for both clients and ourselves with much success. (Have you seen our “mean tweets” video?) The proliferation of video online and the ease with which people can now consume high-quality videos, whether from their desktop or smartphone, makes video a tough channel to ignore when planning your marketing strategy. Just consider that at the moment, online video accounts for more than 50 percent of…
Read MoreOver the weekend a few of my fellow Hodgers and I attended an HTML & CSS Coding Bootcamp held by the awesome folks at 804RVA. One of the great things about working at THP is the Js’ (our nickname for Jon and Josh) generosity and propensity for encouraging us to learn new skills, attend workshops or just to pursue things that interest us. So when a group of us expressed interest in attending the bootcamp and learning more about coding, they happily obliged. Through the…
Read MoreWe all know that content is king in the social media game, but for those of us actually producing the content, we know how difficult and time consuming it can be to churn out a constant stream of original posts. Content curation helps fill the gaps where you don’t have original content to post, and at Hodges, it’s a big part of our social media mix. When done right, content curation isn’t merely just a re-post of someone else’s content. Companies and brands who do…
Read MorePart of working for a PR agency that specializes in media relations requires that you not only keep abreast of the news, but also pay special attention to the different outlets, its editors and reporters (and the comings and goings thereof) as well as the structure of the content, including any special columns or sections. Keeping this mental map of the media landscape comes in handy when trying to figure out where and to whom to pitch your client. Lucky for me, I happen to…
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