Stories by Diane Schwartz

As we enter a new year, it’s time to take stock of how we spend our time at work and how we might change our habits. How many meetings and activities were you a part of in 2016 that were just an utter waste of time? Can you do better in 2017? To achieve a better return on your time, consider what I call extreme calendaring. It might even burn some of those extra holiday calories.

You need better and smarter ways to approach reputation management than Googling your brand’s name or your own name. Here are six questions that, if you can answer them correctly and/or honestly, will take you to the next level (however you may define a higher level). For instance, what’s your brand’s story? Can you imagine reading a short story about your company to your child at bedtime?

Your stakeholders – humans just like you and me – want to be part of a movement, not part of a marketing moment. That statement rang true to the hundreds of attendees at PR News’ Platinum PR Awards gala held Oct. 19 in NYC. That morsel of wisdom, shared by one of the award winners, was in great company with other bits of sound advice offered by communication leaders from corporations, nonprofits and agencies who took home their coveted prize.

It’s imperative that as communicators we showcase our good work, we prove our worth, we take integrated communications seriously and we don’t squander the leadership position in content marketing and social media. To get there, we need to brush up on measurement, data and analytics.

There’s a science to waiting, to delaying a behavior. Think about dating and travel sites where the customer stares at a screen anticipating the “perfect match” or “best price” on a flight. You want the site to take its time, not rush into something important that could change your social life or save you money. If the match popped up on the screen too soon, you’d think it were a generic algorithm and you’d dismiss the recommendation.

Ah, the joys of summer. It’s enough to make you forget what’s going on back at the office. It’s also a good time to unlearn bad habits. Re-energized from your vacation, you might be ready to wash away these misconceptions that have become woven into the communications fabric.

You still have another five solid months to make this your best year ever as a communicator. First, you’ll need to take stock of what you and your team have accomplished and perhaps reset priorities. Here are the seven most important areas of focus for PR leaders, according to Diane Schwartz, SVP, PR News.

Several themes bubbled to the surface of the PR News Digital PR & Marketing Conference, attended by hundreds of PR and marketing professionals. Among them were: storytelling should be shared by all employees; ignore video at your own peril; influencers and peer networks are critical to reputation management, social media is a top way to build brand awareness but the jury’s still out on its ability to drive revenue. And I’ve bent over backwards and compiled for you a list of 21 insights and ideas from our esteemed speakers because great ideas should be shared.

When you look closely at the things and people you’re surrounded by every day at work, do you get the sense that maybe you need to call shenanigans? Are all the portraits hanging in the company lobby of male leaders? Do your team members look and think an awful lot like you? When reviewing a candidate’s resume, do you make assumptions based on the person’s name or address?

If you’re measuring every activity because you think more is more and that everything is important, then it’s time to switch lanes. But as you embark on a week of heavy measuring, I realize you might need a pep talk. So here’s a few morsels of wisdom from our conference speakers to get your engine running.