Archive: June 2013

The phrase has become a mantra among PR and marketing mavens: Your employees are your brand’s best ambassadors. Regardless of the size or the company, employees need to feel that they are integral to the brand’s success.

In abruptly firing Men’s Wearhouse founder and executive chairman George Zimmer, the men’s clothing company has sent a few messages to the marketplace, none of which are likely to help the brand’s reputation or its PR efforts.

One of the best bosses I ever had was a great communicator. He would take the time to sit down with his team and share important organizational news.

If PR pros want to improve their writing skills, perhaps they need to carve out some time to read Charles Dickens, Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald and other literary lions whose writing talents have transcended the generations. It’s one piece of advice for how PR pros can improve their writing skills, compliments of Beth Haiken, VP of corporate citizenship and communications at WayPoint Homes.

Twinkies connoisseurs rejoice. Hostess on Sunday announced that the spongy yellow confection is returning to shelves on July 15.

Content marketing is an essential skill in the PR professional’s tool kit. From Red Bull’s “extreme content marketing” to Old Spice’s numerous viral videos about the way a man should smell, content marketing is a superb way to define your brand’s personality, engage consumers and even garner media coverage. But where should you start?

Every year, senior level PR research and measurement aficionados trek to exotic locales for the Annual AMEC (International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications) European Measurement Summit. The Summit has grown from a small gathering in Berlin to a mecca for the latest thinking in the measurement industry.

Most online readers leave the Web page at (or before) the 60% point of a scroll, according to a recent Chartbeat study. The U.S. digital video sector earned a combined $6.3 billion in revenue, and $9.4 billion globally in 2012, according to AccuStream Research.

It’s one of those conversations that starts casually, but that can quickly become all consuming if you’re not prepared. You’ve been there before.

As a PR professional you’re probably aware that client testimonials are an extremely powerful marketing tool. The reason they can be so effective is simple: While it’s fine for a business to tell customers and prospects how great its products or services are, it’s much more persuasive when people who have used those products or services sing the company’s praises.