Stories by Christopher Rieck

Becoming a leading voice on one of the hottest issues in the country is not easy. If you really want to move your brand ahead and get into true thought leadership space, one of the best ways is to become a credible source for a momentous national news story.

A recent study by Public Affairs Pulse has revealed that Americans hold a decidedly unfavorable opinion of the Federal government. A recent survey of 329 professional marketers revealed that marketers are changing their channel focus in 2013.

At the same time we suffer from stereotypes in the eyes of our elders. Think about how intimidating it can be trying to prove yourself to someone who thinks you spend the better part of your day tweeting, texting and keeping up with the Kardashians.

Soon after the U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, Chick-fil-A President-COO Dan Cathy chimed in on his Twitter account about the decision.

PR pros who work for nonprofits, associations and NGOs (Non-governmental organizations) play a vital role for their brands. They do everything that their PR counterparts working for consumer or B2B brands do—cultivate sources in the media, drive the social media strategy and find new ways to get the message out—but often with much smaller budgets.

In this digital age, many Americans have a hard time stepping away from their hand-held devices. The annual National Day of Unplugging (NDU) encourages the world to take a break from technology for just 24 hours and remember that there’s more to life than staring into your screens all day.

Is social media turning PR pros into quasi accountants? The growth of social media has upended the communications industry, creating dozens of new channels at our disposal, as well as questions about its value to organizations.

One of the primary goals of PR practitioners is to leverage relationships. Whether it’s with reporters, colleagues, vendors or spokespeople, our job is all about establishing relationships to ultimately gain exposure for our clients, but also to make us more effective at what we do.

Career communicators will invariably say their skills and expertise are highly transferable. That is 100% true—with one exception.

For PR pros, telling the social story to an anti-social CEO is easier today than it was five years ago, but still has some pitfalls. Even the most digitally savvy CEOs can focus on the wrong metrics.