Archive: April 2016

Strong blog content is the “gift that keeps on giving.” Every post you publish boosts organic search engine relevance, thus keeping your brand top of mind and at the top of online searches. It’s also a highly effective way to stay engaged with your readers, building an atmosphere of long-term trust among your audience. And of course, it’s a way to further extend your brand’s personality in ways that traditional marketing may not.

When Instagram first caught our attention and won our hearts, it was through the platform’s utter simplicity: One-size photos, a handful of filter options and no frills. It was so simple that if you don’t use the app regularly, you may have formed an idea of what it is that isn’t as fluid as the reality. But if you aren’t familiar with the latest tweaks, you can be sure that the actual users of the platform are.

Companies around the world now face new and complex crises—things like cyberattacks, phishing and hacking—that can pose enormous threats to safety, reputation and profitability. Damage to a brand is pretty much guaranteed to happen when a company is not prepared with robust business continuity and crisis communications plans. There are now more than 80 to 90 million cybersecurity events each year, costing the global economy $575 billion in 2014. It is predicted that the number of cyberattacks will only grow from here, and with it the concern felt by the general public.

Going off script with journalists, in front of a live audience or on social media works just fine if, say, you’re a celebrity or politician (or both) who is expected to go off script and wing it, and you routinely benefit from making outrageous and provocative statements. How many senior executives, midlevel employees and new hires at brands fall into that category? One or two people, maybe, in the whole country. Everybody else needs media training in the workplace.

Continuing its efforts to keep users on its platform for as long as possible, Facebook has opened up its Instant Articles feature to all publishers. The mobile-centric program offers publishers the ability to post content that lives on Facebook, with promises of quick load times and advertising options from the company. In an era where organic reach is all but nonexistent, Facebook’s new hub of native media will offer brands an easy way to connect directly with the platform’s vast audience.

Google’s search algorithm rewards websites that are focused on improving the user experience and that publish quality content, and punishes those sites that do neither. You know what kind of punishment this entails—your content will be buried under your competitors’ content in Google searches that use the keywords tied thematically to whatever product or service you sell. That’s the strategic side of SEO—here are some tactical tips.

It appears Mossack Fonseca simply did not have a proper crisis management plan in place—an inexcusable omission for a company that has been in operation for over 40 years and regularly handles billions of dollars in client assets.

While most organizations will never have to deal with media fallout of this global magnitude, there are certain lessons all companies should learn from the Panama Papers scandal

There’s little doubt that successful communicators need to constantly adapt to myriad changes in content creation and distribution.

“The digital age has not made [being a communicator] simpler,” says Erin Streeter, SVP, communications, National Association of Manufacturers(NAM). “The talent and infrastructure needed to be successful is greater and more complex than ever,” she says. Her org chart illustrates this.

Brands and organizations from Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) to the member unions of the AFL-CIO last week hopped on one of the week’s trending hashtags #EqualPayDay, celebrating a holiday that brings attention to the disparity between the pay of men and women in some sectors.

Every day, another organization finds its way into the headlines embroiled in a once-preventable crisis that threatens its reputation, financial health, even its very survival. In this age of instant global communication, no organization is immune. Entire companies and their stakeholders can suffer from the consequences of poor decisions made by people at every level of the organization. Often, powerful cultural influences in an organization disguise the warning signs that can identify smoldering issues that spell disaster.