The Pew Research Center, which regularly tracks the ups and downs of the nation’s newspapers, recently offered some encouraging data. Americans are rediscovering their newspapers…on digital platforms. While print edition readership continues to dip, the traffic to newspapers’ websites has been growing considerably. Digital circulation is up a whopping 30% from 2019 to 2020. Since 2014, when Pew first started tracking online circulations, the average number of unique monthly visitors to local news websites is up 44%. At the same...
Read More
Is your social media content falling flat? The solution might be easier than you think. Reference this blog post next time you’re looking to add some spice to your organic content. It’ll take your social media skills to the next level – I promise. GIF or JIF? Graphic Interchange Formats (GIFs) have been a large part of internet culture for years, and in many ways, they manage to say all the things we can’t. Feeling sad? There’s a GIF for...
Read More
Having a photo bank full of relevant, authentic brand photography goes a long way. Those photos can be used in a number of ways: printed collateral, social media, advertisements and more. But keeping your bank of photos up to date is important, especially in the tourism industry. With any locality, there is always one thing that seems to be a constant: change (we like that c-word better than construction). New street art, new residents, new restaurants, green spaces and businesses....
Read More
Did you know that influencer marketing is projected to become a whopping $16.4 billion industry in 2022? That means partnering with the right influencers can be more important than ever to position your brand for success. That said, finding the right influencers for your brand is not always easy. It requires a whole lot of research to identify the perfect combination of product and influencer. To help navigate the world of influencer partnerships, I’ve put together a guide on ways...
Read More
Editor's Note: As part of the 20th anniversary of The Hodges Partnership, we are taking a more intimate look at the agency’s namesake and why co-founders Jon Newman and Josh Dare chose to honor Gil Hodges with the company’s name. Here is the latest installment. You can catch up on the previous piece here. Among the varied objectives for hiring a public relations agency, reputation management ranks among the foremost. Sure, clients want greater visibility and added exposure, and they...
Read More
It’s hard to believe that Hodges is celebrating its 20th birthday this summer. Harder to believe is that this year marks my 19th anniversary at Hodges. I’ve been fortunate to call Hodges home – first above Siné Irish Pub on Cary Street, then here on Broad Street, then across the parking lot in a one-bedroom apartment cozy enough for four Hodgers while renovations were made here and finally back in this building – for all but the first six months...
Read More
Over the last several years, I’ve found myself in front of rooms of social media marketers and PR professionals vocalizing my disdain for the term “boosting” because it is often a signal to me that people are leveraging the Boost button instead of applying concrete strategy. When it comes to social media advertising, boosting can be a loose cannon – if used strategically, boosting could work wonders, but if you are boosting ad hoc, you might as well be throwing dollars...
Read More
As a young, Black female professional, I’m no stranger to exclusion in the workplace. And after years of working twice as hard to be heard and becoming a codeswitching extraordinaire, I was thrilled to hear that one of the country’s most popular acronyms was getting one letter longer. Now, before your executive team gets too excited, it’s not enough to give quarterly trainings or plaster your DEIB statement all over social. Cultivating belonging in your workplace takes time and a...
Read More
Whether your goal is to increase enrollment, showcase life-changing research or establish your school as the best option to earn a certificate or degree, having a well-rounded communications plan is a must as a higher education institution. We’re big believers in the EOP model (earned, owned, paid), so here are three must-do tactics to add to your strategic communications plan and why they work well for higher education. Earned Media: Media Relations Incorporating media relations into your communications strategy gives...
Read More
From aesthetically pleasing graphics on Instagram to incredibly addictive videos on TikTok to podcast advertisements during a morning commute – it’s nearly impossible to avoid content. And with the volume of captivating content swirling around these days, it can be especially difficult to create content that catches and keeps your audience’s attention. If you, like me, are writing multiple content calendars a month, it can be easy to forget that the goal isn’t just to create content that supports your...
Read More
For the first several years of our agency’s life, we eschewed pursuing awards. Come award season, we’d casually brush aside suggestions that we put our best work up for industry honors. Given the time and effort it takes to nominate yourself, we reasoned our energy would be better spent promoting our clients rather than ourselves. But over time, this sense of modesty gave way to a real-world practicality: awards are a valuable tool for validating the quality of your work....
Read More
As one of the co-managers of The Phil—Hodges’ online publication that focuses on local philanthropy — I often encounter a set of challenges not unlike others who are tasked with managing a team’s creative output. Chief among those hurdles is organizing an engaging and comprehensive editorial calendar. When you have a rotating group of writers, all with their own areas of expertise and ideas, the process can begin to feel a bit overwhelming. Herding cats comes to mind. Yet blogs...
Read More
