Like so much other advice, one of the best tips for an organization launching any sort of marketing or PR campaign is quite simple, yet at times, deceivingly difficult – define and differentiate. Let’s quickly explain both. Define involves clearly articulating who you are, what you do and whom you serve. Differentiate explains how your organization is different (and better) from your competitors. It might seem like basic advice, but it’s a step that often is rushed, fumbled or overlooked altogether. It isn’t necessarily because…
Read MoreEvery year, for as long as I can remember (since 2005), Pew Research Center has released its annual report on social media usage. The organization recently released its report for 2018. No shock here, Facebook and YouTube are the juggernauts in the social media landscape with 68 percent of U.S. adults saying they use Facebook, and 73 percent using YouTube. One key question moving forward: how will the Cambridge Analytica scandal impact American’s use of Facebook if at all, or is the social network too…
Read MoreOn the Gong Blog, we’ve written about brands that have done a poor job with crisis communications. (Remember United’s response to the doctor dragging? Or more recently, Mark Zuckerberg’s five-day silence in addressing Facebook’s data crisis?). But more often than not, even brands that do a decent job communicating through crises don’t get a lot of love. And that’s for good reason—because they handled it well, they are able to suppress its potential impact and even avert the crisis altogether. Then there are the communications…
Read MoreWe’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of media relations in rural areas throughout Hodges’ history. Here’s one of my favorite examples: For five years, we convinced journalists along the 340-miles of the James River to join students on canoes, kayaks and bateaux’s as part of the James River Expedition, a program that introduced students to Virginia’s history and ecology via week-long trips down America’s Founding River. Luckily, no one fell into the river (on-air). As you can imagine, the James River stretches through…
Read MoreIn the communications world, we often talk about knowing your story down pat. When the opportunity comes for an interview, you want to be ready to share who you are and communicate your core values and messages. But even more important than knowing it all cold is living those values and making good on them. We’ve had one great example of just that in the Richmond community this week. If you follow Richmond dining news (or even if you don’t as this made the front…
Read MoreFrom email to an iPhone, PR and content marketing pros have dozens of tools they can’t live without. If you’re like me, you regularly survey the landscape of tools you use and consider whether it may be time to retire or replace something. In that vein, here are three tools I currently can’t live without. Trello — Organize basically anything Yes, I’m the person in the office always pushing some new collaborative task application of some sort, but since we adopted Trello a couple years…
Read MoreI want to tell you a story…about storytelling. Over the past 16 years, I can’t recall a client who has walked through our door that did not have an interesting story. How they were founded. How they have conceived unique solutions to confounding problems. How they turned imminent failure into great success. How they have devised a better mousetrap. And the ever popular, how they were the best kept secret around. What’s curious is that, more often than not, those stories were not always readily…
Read MoreForbes recently announced the companies with the best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reputations, and Lego earned the No. 1 spot on the roster. How did they get there? According to the study compiled by the Reputation Institute, Lego behaves ethically, conducts business fairly, operates transparently, protects the environment and supports worthy causes. What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? There are seemingly infinite definitions for CSR. Here are a couple: CSR promotes a vision of business accountability to a wide range of stakeholders, besides shareholders and…
Read MoreIf you work in media relations, you’re familiar with the unabashed glee that comes when a reporter positively responds to your pitch, and before you know it, you’re scheduling an interview for your CEO. While your first instinct might be to prop your feet up on your desk and call it day, the reality is that your work is just getting started. Tight deadline or not, planning and preparation is key. With decades of experience preparing CEOs and other C-suite leaders for media interviews, we’re…
Read MoreEvery so often these days, our industry asks if the press release, a staple in the communications toolbox for businesses and communicators for 700 years, er, decades, is dead or alive. I’d argue that aging might be a better descriptor, as in the press release as we know it is aging. I’ll admit there are plenty of reasons not to announce your news or opinions in a press release (hey, maybe that would make for a good blog!), but to say that the press release…
Read MoreWelcome to the “PR Watercooler” a semi-regular series where I scour the web for interesting PR trends, news and people. It was a schizophrenic January full of snow and 60-degree weather in Richmond. Much like me at the end of a House Hunters episode, the first 31 days of the year couldn’t make up its mind. Here are a few PR-related stories I’ve enjoyed recently – just as easily read in a sweater or a short sleeve shirt. 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer Reveals Record-Breaking Drop…
Read MoreSydney Pollack’s masterful 1981 movie “Absence of Malice” holds for me a memorable scene. Without giving away the plot (cause if you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and download it on Netflix), a character confides some deeply personal and scandalous information to a reporter, who begins scribbling notes for the next day’s front page. Anxious as to how the story will turn out, the woman spends the night on her front steps, nervously awaiting the dawn’s paper boy. When she retrieves the paper…
Read More
