Social media creates dialogue, and peer to peer interactions. In financial services in particular, there’s an opportunity to inspire a more emotional, more intimate and honest relationship through social channels than with ‘push communications.’ Banks and brokerages have not moved ahead as forcefully as other brand marketers with innovative, big idea campaigns that get their customers thinking about how much they LIKE their brand, how much they IDENTIFY with the product or service provider.

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For investors under the age of 40, much of their adult life has been occupied by accelerated boom and bust cycles in the world of finance, peppered liberally with doses of scandal and market turmoil. A lack of growth in the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 over the past 10 years (don’t ask about the NASDAQ) has led to the this period being referred to as a “lost decade.”

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Are you marketing your commercial property to businesses or consumers? While business to business public relations was once the obvious answer to this question, marketing to consumers is becoming increasingly important for driving revenue in commercial properties. While business to business marketing positioning strategy– particularly to leasing and investment brokers – remains critical, there are other audiences to consider.

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On my flight to Cleveland recently for the Worldcom PR Group Americas Region meeting, the attendant turned a routine flight procedure into a memorable experience. How? He came to our aisle and said: “Ms. Rhoads, Ms. Sosnow, what would you like to drink this afternoon?” Seeing our surprise at his request, he said “service isn’t dead in the world, people have just forgotten that it’s part of their job description.”

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When Harry Met Sally is one of my all-time favorite movies. I’m a real sucker for romantic comedies. Plus, there’s something about Meg Ryan’s and Billy Crystal’s unlikely friendship – and ultimate romance – that’s ennobling. It’s a story of growth. Two opposite temperaments learning to understand, befriend, complement and enrich each others’ lives.

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For B2B businesses, including professional service firms,  a company blog can frequently serve as the home base of their social media or digital strategy.  This of course makes perfect sense and is a reasonable approach.  A blog provides corporations almost everything they could want – a platform to put out their content (from whitepapers to [...]

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Facebook has become one of the de facto channels for organizations seeking to make, or reinforce, a connection to their audience – it almost feels like “everyone who’s anyone” is there. But (and perhaps not surprisingly) banks haven’t been as quick to sign in.

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What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Unless you get a tattoo. Or you work in PR and have a blog post to write.

I was in Las Vegas last week for an event my client (a consulting firm) stages for their retail clients – a function in its 24th year that brought together about 100 people from 60 different companies with whom they represent now or in the past. An impressive gathering, but it hasn’t always been so. It has taken serious TLC over the years to grow it to what it is today.

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Figuring that I was old enough to have learned something in founding and running a PR firm for 30+ years – but not so old that I had forgotten it all – the three Managing Directors of our firm asked me to develop a number of staff training courses dubbed Bliss University.

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(This is a rant. Feel free to come back tomorrow for our regular B2B Public Relations ideas.)

I had a pretty successful third grade. My grades were good, hot chocolate was plentiful and I had lots of opportunities to create time machines with my colored shoelace collection.

But my teacher Mrs. DiSilvestro was concerned. I had a bad habit that she couldn’t seem to curb. I am a reading addict.

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