This slow-moving car wreck that is Twitter has turned me into a curious rubbernecker – strictly professionally of course. I find myself craning my neck from moment to moment to assess the damage and divine whether there will be any survivors. So often in the near aftermath of such crashes, there remain way more questions than answers. First, a confession: I’m not a big Twitter fan. While I signed up for the platform not long after its launch, I never...
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Every year during performance reviews, you can ask almost anyone in our office, and they will likely tell you one of their goals is to complete a certification or training. But the reality is, it can be extremely hard to get that done. When you have client work and life demands, it’s difficult to work the professional development that so many of us want – and need— into the week. Enter: HodgesCon. HodgesCon came about as a way to protect...
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He’s baa-aack. Faithful readers of these pages may remember Andrew Knight. He interned with Hodges back in 2020. At the time, he was simultaneously pursuing his M.A in Communication at Virginia Tech and teaching public speaking. A couple years later, we are excited to welcome him back to the team. Through his upbeat personality and optimistic perspective, Andrew brings great energy to the office. To balance the fast-paced nature of agency life, he enjoys spending time on the river. He loves...
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Let me start by saying that I’m not a big fan of news conferences. I can safely say that the greatest moments of anxiety in my 40-plus years in public relations have been those insufferably long minutes leading up to the beginning of press conference when, despite all the best preparations, there are no reporters around. No camera crews. No sound guys attaching microphones to the podium. No eager journalist wannabes working for the local shopping news. The good news...
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Creating a communications crisis plan is like writing your will. You know you should, but the thought of willingly putting yourself in a nightmarish situation that hasn’t even happened yet isn’t exactly the best motivator. And as much as I hate to break it to you, that’s the exact reason why you need to have a plan in place, because when that crisis strikes – and it is a when not an if – you aren’t going to have the time...
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Trying to be everything to everyone is a recipe for disaster. People often have conflicting needs, and individuals—or organizations for that matter—only have so much time and attention. Trying to appease everyone is difficult even in the best of times, but in a crisis, not knowing how to prioritize your stakeholders will compound the problems facing your team at an already stressful time. However, before you can start prioritizing stakeholders, you first need to know who they are. Identifying...
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I had lunch with an old friend not long ago who regaled me with the pleasures of retirement, one of which was an indulgence he never made time for – novel writing. By all accounts, he has made a seamless transition from journalist to novelist, a pivot that not everyone can make, but his first works display a flair for fiction – for storytelling and characters and drama – and I found myself eagerly turning page after page. When I...
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One element of a productive content strategy is effectively repurposing your messaging on various platforms. After all, you only have so many stories and only so much expertise, so the trick is to find multiple ways and places where you can tell those stories. That’s what helps keep the content pipeline filled on all fronts. At Hodges, those fronts run the gamut – from our monthly e-newsletter (Press Box) to our video podcast (Teaming Up) to the Gong Blog, all of...
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Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging mean different things to different people. However, when it comes to taking those values and translating them into an inclusive campaign that highlights the experiences of BIPOC individuals, it’s important to take a moment and think to yourself: How might the people and voices you are representing feel about the message your brand is attempting to convey? Well, you might just want to ask them first. Your BIPOC consumers are more than just metrics that...
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Online shopping has become increasingly popular, even before the onset of the pandemic, and social media, email and website tools have evolved to make purchasing as easy as tapping a button on your smartphone. While this can be great for increasing sales, it may not support services, enhance experiences or increase brick-and-mortar foot traffic. Whether your motivation is to keep tenants leasing commercial property spaces or you’re hoping to increase sales and in-person experiences for your business, here are...
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By the time you are reading this, Gil Hodges – our agency namesake – will have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The old saying “good things come to those who wait” seems especially appropriate. Gil’s 18-season playing career ended on May 5, 1963 at the Polo Grounds. Gil trotted out to his familiar territory at first base, starting the second game of a Sunday doubleheader against the Giants. He would go 1-4 in his valedictory...
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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...
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