Your marketing team is putting in a lot of creativity, strategy and effort into making sure your company’s content marketing plan is as effective as possible. But, are they following simple best practices that will ensure content from your company will stand out from the rest? Here are a few best practices to share with your marketing team, broken down by platform, that will help them keep content user and search engine friendly, reach target audiences and generate more leads. Whether your team is aiming…
Read More“We talkin’ about tactics. Not a strategy. Not a strategy. Not a strategy. We talkin’ about tactics.”– Allen Iverson (OK, maybe not an exactly transcription of what he said.) One of my favorite YouTube clips is Allen Iverson’s infamous press conference where he bemoans the criticism directed at him over missing practice. His point, the games are what really matter, but people are obsessing over the wrong thing. While this metaphor certainly isn’t entirely transferable, many companies fall victim to a similar trap – jumping…
Read MoreThe Associated Press recently added a new section on polls and surveys. The guidance is focused on political polling and explains in a blog post, “The new chapter, available immediately to AP Stylebook Online subscribers, leads with longstanding guidance that the mere existence of a poll is not enough to make news.” While the new chapter is focused on political polling – PR practitioners should keep this guidance in mind when considering consumer surveys for media relations outreach. You know the one. Seeking media attention,…
Read MoreWhat happened? Cambridge Analytica (CA) obtained personal data of about 87 million Facebook users without their consent with the hopes that they could use this data to develop psychographic profiles of those users. The data was collected a few years ago through a third-party app that had to be downloaded by a user, and the app was approved by Facebook (it was created by a university researcher who claimed it was for academic purposes). Those who downloaded the app unknowingly gave CA access to their…
Read MoreChances are, if you are like many organizations, there’s not a crisis communications plan sitting in your top drawer, one that’s been updated and rehearsed and that lets you sleep soundly at night should some emergency befall you. Undertaking the painstaking process of developing a crisis plan seems to be that task that never quite gets off the back burner, kind of like cleaning out the gutters – there’s always something more pressing or more interesting to do. But then, inevitably, it rains and, well,…
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 More“It’s a PR Podcast.” This is the answer Kelsey and I give when asked one of two questions: What are you recording? What are you calling your podcast? We’ve been super excited about this podcast for months now. From Slack side conversations to recording with microphones, the day finally arrived, and we’ve already released a few episodes in our first “season.” For anyone interested in starting a podcast, we’ve boiled down our process and a couple of lessons learned into a few steps to help…
Read MoreFive days. That’s how long it took Facebook to respond to perhaps the greatest crisis in the company’s relatively short life. This is not a commentary piling on the company for its failure to abide by one of the core principles of crisis management – to respond early and honestly. After all, they totally blew the former and the jury is out on the latter. But the delay was more than just a strategic mistake. With recriminations flying all around them, users threatening to abandon…
Read MoreThat dictum from Frederick the Great, the famed Prussian leader known as one of the great military tacticians of all time, has an indisputable ring of truth, even to us civilians. Spread your armies too thinly, and you’ll not have the critical mass to mount a sufficient defense. Makes sense. The same is true of marketing. If you attempt to market to everyone, you really aren’t marketing to anyone. And for the same reason – you’ll have diluted your resources to the point where you…
Read MoreMidway through the second half of 16-seed UMBC’s historic win over No. 1 Virginia, CBS’s Jim Nantz reminded viewers that UMBC was short for University of Maryland, Baltimore County. In becoming the first No. 16 seed to beat a top seed in NCAA Tournament history, the Retrievers were sure to be the talk of the tourney’s opening weekend. But thanks to a Twitter game that was savvy, hilarious and authentic, UMBC went even more viral. Yahoo Sports and others shined a well-deserved light on Zach…
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 MoreThere was a time when landing a key media relations hit was the be-all end-all of public relations. But today, securing that placement is merely just lighting the flame of its potentially luminous value. It will burn even brighter if you put the right merchandising fire behind it. What do I mean? Media relations works First, let’s acknowledge that there is great power in a media placement. It raises your profile, establishes credibility and provides a third-party, objective endorsement that your company or your products…
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