We use Slack as a messaging tool in our office. It’s where we keep projects moving, send files and share information. Not a workday goes by when someone doesn’t share a news article in our main channel about something happening locally. Local journalism – especially news about transportation, restaurants and our clients – drives a lot of our conversations at Hodges. We have our local paper of record the Richmond Times-Dispatch to thank for that. When Hodges launched more than 15 years ago, we were primarily a media relations shop. We helped clients get in the news to build brand …
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If you’re like many marketing and communications departments, there comes a time when you get tasked with a new project or hit a saturation point in your current workload where you can struggle to efficiently manage your workload. Then comes the inevitable conversation, part financial, part philosophical, mostly to answer this question: is it time to bring on more staff or outsource to a freelancer or agency. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind as you mull this over: Budget + Timing – According to a study conducted by SHRM (the Society of Human Resources Management), the average …
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It’s the dirty little secret in PR. It’s the secret that felt so wrong to me when I first started, that I’m only now coming to grips with it. Here’s the reality: CEOs aren’t always the ones uttering profound statements about their companies or apologizing when something goes wrong. Chances are, those well-chosen words originate from communications professionals, crafted so eloquently and precisely that they not only reflect just the right tone but convey all the information and emotion that audiences have come to expect. Over the summer, Hodges (and its ragtag team of interns) read the front page of …
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Reaching the right people at the right time, with the right message is the pillar of a successful content marketing program. And with more organizations developing content these days, the competition to reach potential customers with tailored content is fierce. For many organizations, the challenge usually isn’t the creation of valuable content. The challenge is ensuring your content is breaking through the millions of pieces of content shared every minute. It used to be enough, for example, to share posts to your Facebook newsfeed or Twitter timeline. Organic reach would get your content to your desired audiences. Facebook posts used …
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Call it the great blogging debate. Should you post short, topical posts at a high frequency like multiple times a day? Or is it better to post in-depth posts with only the most highly-targeted information less frequently? The answer lies somewhere in between. What you want are quality blog posts in a quantity that drives traffic to your website, converts that traffic into leads, establishes your brand as an authority and drives long-term results. Blog frequently. Frequent blogging really does drive traffic. It also improves SEO and fosters a connection with your target audiences. HubSpot and Moz ran concurrent experiments to determine the …
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The old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” rings true in the digital age. Tweets with images receive 150 percent more retweets, and Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than posts without them. And when it comes to blogging, articles with an image once every 75-100 words historically get double the number of social shares than articles with fewer images. With everyone and their mother adding “professional iPhone photographer” to their resumes these days, finding great photography for your external communications is even more crucial. Your readers are digitally savvy, busy and know what an …
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Performance data for specific channels will help you gauge how engaged your audience is, based on the type of action they’re taking. However, tracking, analyzing and reporting marketing campaign success can be tricky. There’s a wealth of data you can pull from your website, blog and social channels. So instead of leaving your team to guess which metrics are important, use these KPIs as a guide for earned, owned and paid content. Paid social media metrics Social advertising platforms have become increasingly informative. Marketers can be as general or specific as they choose targeting audiences on most social platforms. To …
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You know your organization or brand should be pushing out content to your audience and followers, but getting over the hurdle of what to post can be a challenge. We’ve talked about generating content for Twitter, but let’s take a step back and see how you can generate ideas that can be used across all of your platforms. Role Play First, think of the adage about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. That is typically a healthy exercise as you contemplate what the audience you are trying to reach wants to read or what problems they are trying to solve. …
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Does your team regularly distribute media advisories? If so, make sure they’re incorporating social media when pulling together info. I love a good media advisory. Done well, it should communicate to journalists what to expect at an event, the types of video and audio that will be available, the on-site spokespersons and other relevant logistics. This is done through the five basic journalistic elements: Who, What, When, Where and Why. Because social media is such an integral part of the communication strategy for newsrooms, don’t forget to communicate about relevant hashtags or handles. If a journalist covers your event, whether …
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Content marketing has been around for ages and its accelerated growth and use especially in the last few years shows that it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. 89 percent of Americans use the internet to find new products and services and research potential purchases. The way consumers shop today differs vastly than they did even just 10 years ago. They are no longer swayed by overt, aggressive sales and advertising tactics—instead today’s buyers (both b2b and b2c) prefer to do the research and decide for themselves which vendor they want to go with. All of this discussion points to the …
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