Stories by Dustin Siggins

Given enough pressure, even the grumpiest baby boomer in communications will admit that social media can earn a media placement. The problem is that everyone else knows that already.

When it’s good, AI can improve our processes, like how a calculator spares us the need to write out long division. But speeding up your math means nothing if you still can’t balance your checkbook.

When PR clients understand your process, trust your judgment and feel empowered to contribute their own expertise, the work becomes more strategic, more efficient and more impactful.

AI is a readymade solution for scaling. For the price of a ChatGPT subscription, the firm expanded capacity immediately in a way that could also easily cut back without impacting the team.

What do you do when your boss seems ready to dismiss your work as “just press releases”? You can take control of your career by developing the professional and psychological skills that show decision makers that you—and your function—play an important role in the company’s overall success. Here’s how.

It’s a precarious time for communications departments that haven’t earned the C-suite’s trust. So in-house teams and agencies alike risk cuts to their budgets unless management believes in their value.

A new C-suite outlook report from The Weber Shandwick Collective indicates that business executives have little confidence in their teams’ abilities to properly respond to an unexpected PR disaster. But communications professionals shouldn’t panic. Executives cited their team’s lack of resources to handle crises—which creates a tremendous opportunity for CCOs and their teams to bring value to C-suites and play a bigger leadership role in corporate structures.

PR “spin”—in its proper and ethical context—is simply helping people tell their story better to reach target audiences more effectively. Here are the three steps to show anyone (and clients in particular) that spin is just fine—as long as it’s ethical.

Misunderstandings about client expectations for media placement are often the result of PR professionals’ failure to help decision-makers understand what would be necessary to achieve success long before the contract is signed. Here’s how to turn such challenges into trust-building opportunities and prospects into long-term clients.

What compounds the problem and leads to the worst kind of viral media coverage is company leadership shirking accountability by saying sales dropped due to impatient Starbucks customers.