It happened again in a meeting last week. Someone mentioned the dreaded phrase.
I felt itchy and sort of annoyed, the way you do when you’re beginning to get sick. But I wasn’t. I was just having my typical reaction to the words “press release.”
The mountains of Southern Arizona recently jolted me with a wake-up call on the importance of listening – a caffeine-fueled reminder from the makers of my new favorite fair trade coffee, Café Justo (www.justcoffee.org).
When we ask someone the core question of “So, what do you do?” there are a few answers you never hear:
“We run a me-too operation.”
“I’m a mediocre doctor/lawyer/landscaper.”
“We do just enough to keep the client from complaining.”
At the Business Development Institute’s Financial Services Social Media Communications event here in NYC last week, I had the opportunity to hear Craig Pfeiffer of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney discuss his company’s social strategies. (You can hear what he and other presenters had to say at the event here and here.) I was keen to [...]
Over the last few posts I’ve discussed potential strategies for professional service and B2B organizations to implement social media in their marketing and communications campaigns. At the other end of the spectrum internally we frequently create highly detailed How-To documents for ourselves and clients covering how to specifically use a service, platform, or specific feature [...]
Like hordes of others, I worship at the writing altar of Seth Godin. I scan every single blog post, searching for marketing strategy to help make me a better professional. Linchpin dominated my last family vacation. And there’s a probably not a day that goes by that I don’t share one of his thoughts on Twitter.
Overheard: PR Power brokers share thoughts on PR today and the future
Last month CEOs of some of the best and most respected firms in the profession assembled for the Board of Directors meeting of the Council of PR firms. Toward the end of the meeting, we got to the best part – a “round robin” discussion of what’s on people’s minds. The group at this table is so impressive – apart from their tremendous individual success as business people and communicators, you can see a lot of wisdom, natural talent and just a heck of a lot of personality.
Based on an abbreviated audit of the top 25 national firms and top 5 firms in each region (according to Accounting Today) we determined that there are some liabilities on their social media balance sheets. Firms have assets as well (as noted in our previous post,) but in order to have more assets than liabilities [...]
How are you telling your company’s story to the marketplace? What are your customers hearing?
Well, I guess that makes two questions.
When you look beyond the typical themes, key messages, intellectual capital, etc. that we all plot out for public relations and marketing programs, what does the big picture look like? Are your customers really getting an accurate impression of who you really are?
It’s 2:00 a.m. I am tossing and turning in my bed, mumbling incoherently about “Groups” and “Engagement” and “blog frequency.” My husband is used to my restlessness and simply rolls over.
