One of my favorite questions to ask in intern interviews is, “Where do you get your news?” First, it’s always nice to hear the variety of responses, from local outlets to major national organizations, but one answer we hear a lot is just broadly, “Twitter.” Currently, Twitter is still relatively chronological. Like our intern candidates, I also get a lot of my news from Twitter because I follow many outlets and brands, and I’m seeing a feed of news in real time (verses seeing something breaking on Facebook, only to realize the time stamp was from days ago). And while …
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When it comes to tradeshows, the focus for marketers tends to be on developing the creative for the booth and collateral, while the sales team is focused on customer appointments. Taking some time to look at your tradeshow strategy through an EOP (earned, owned, paid) lens can help you get more mileage out of these big budget events. Below are some suggestions for prepping for tradeshows from an EOP perspective. Earned Industry tradeshows are often attended by trade media. Whether you’re in the tech industry (think CES), fashion or even the packaging and dispensing business, tradeshows are a time for …
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Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I love reports. I love falling into a big pile of information and pulling it together into something digestible to help my clients, and our team, evaluate our work and make strategic decisions for the next cycle. I’ve worked up reports of all shapes and sizes – for both media relations and content marketing clients, that range from multi-page narratives with lots of charts and graphs, to boiled-down infographic reports – with everything in between. We’re about to flip the calendar to December, and end-of-year planning and reporting is looming around …
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ELI5, TIL, /s— don’t worry, these aren’t new slang terms teens are using to communicate with friends about how unfair their parents are being about a 10 p.m. curfew. IIRC they’re common abbreviations used on the social media platform Reddit. More to come on them in a minute… For the unfamiliar, Reddit is a social platform that refers to itself as the “front page of the internet,” a “community of millions of users engaging in the creation of content and the sharing of conversation across tens of thousands of topics.” The platform is broken down into subreddits (subs), or Reddit …
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This will likely expose my nerdiness – to the extent that it already hasn’t been widely exposed – but I’m not one of those people who uses social media to stay abreast of my favorite celebrities. Although I will confess to following Michael Palin – wait, that’s now Sir Michael Palin – on Facebook, there’s not much else. I don’t see what famous people are opining about on Twitter. I have scant interest in seeing the latest red carpet fashions on Instagram. And I subscribe to just a single, solitary channel on YouTube. And that’s where my nerdiness comes in. …
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The team here at Hodges knows media relations in Virginia. From the Eastern Shore to Bedford and beyond, there is a level of nuance and finesse needed to navigate the ins and outs of Virginia’s various media outlets, which differ in shape and size. On the surface, media relations may seem like a lot of copy and pasting the same email without much rhyme or reason. But the reality is, there’s a significant amount of planning and strategizing before we click “Send.” We surveyed the office to get some thoughts about everything from planning and timing to writing and sending …
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Those who know me best know I love to cook. If you were a fly on the wall in my kitchen, you’d likely hear me narrating my dinner preparation like I was a Food Network Star. In fact, when I was little, I drafted up a pitch for Food Network because I was disappointed in its lack of children’s programming. Never followed through though. You’re welcome, Hodges. My YouTube homepage is filled with cooking videos. My Pinterest with recipes. At 26, I own a KitchenAid mixer. And the pasta attachment. And I am pretty sure my pulse increases when I …
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When our clients announce new products, one of the best ways we can help spread the word is to get samples in the hands of influencers and media. It’s a fun part of media relations. Why sampling is good: Samples are a natural, cost-effective touchpoint and a great way to keep a brand top of mind with important contacts within the industry. When you see products in magazines or on broadcast segments, sampling is often where it all started. The goal is two-fold: first, to get key contacts to try or experience whatever the product is, leading them to cover …
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Building the perfect sandwich takes precision, finesse, gusto. The same goes for building the perfect report. With the flair of a sous-chef, I’m serving up a recipe for one top-notch report. Start with the bread The bread is what makes the sandwich. It’s the first and last thing you sink your teeth into. Your goals and objectives are the bread. Start your report by reiterating your goals and objectives as a reminder of what the metrics you’re about to present are supporting. Slab on the mayo Before I get to the bulk of the report, I like to add a …
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I talk to a lot of young people who are interested in finding a job in public relations. They typically fall into two buckets. There are the recent graduates, wide-eyed and earnest, who really just need to catch a break and find that entry-level opening. If they’re lucky, they have some PR-related internships under their belt, and I have a personal prejudice toward those who wrote for their college newspapers, although, sad to say, that is a rarity these days. But between their degree in communications and some extra-curricular experience in public relations, they ultimately just need to find that …
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