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Winchester House

4 Ways to Make Sure Your Website Isn’t a Winchester Mystery House

July 24th, 2018 by

While a successful donation campaign or high number of form fills is cause for celebration, it’s often what isn’t working that gets overlooked, whether you’re updating an existing site or launching a new one. A bad website might be compared to the Winchester Mystery House, famous for its eccentric and haphazard construction, including stairways and doors leading nowhere.

A Crisis Communication Process Map for Product Recalls, or for Any Old Crisis

July 24th, 2018 by

It hasn’t been a good week so far for cracker makers and food phobia sufferers. Two snack food giants, Mondelēz Global and Campbell Soup subsidiary Pepperidge Farm, have recalled iconic cracker products because a whey powder supplier has notified them that its ingredient may be tainted by Salmonella, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fever, among other symptoms.

What PR Pros Can Learn From Elon Musk’s Weekend of Deflection

July 23rd, 2018 by

Communicators probably prefer a press-friendly CEO as opposed to one who’s media-averse. On the other hand, when the CEO’s mouth overshadows the brand and damages its reputation, communicators often reach for aspirin. An example, of course, is “Papa” John Schnatter. Another is Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, who recently spent a weekend deflecting stories.

Why Gmail’s ‘Confidential Mode’ Offers PR Pros a False Sense of Security

July 23rd, 2018 by

Confidentiality is paramount to professional communicators, and while embargoes are hard to enforce, Google’s new “Confidential mode” positions Gmail as a top tier security safeguard. The problem with these new security features, says leading digital digital privacy nonprofit The Electronic Frontier Foundation, is that they offer users brittle security measures that can easily be breached.

The Meat of the Story for Communicators in WeWork’s Bold Vegetarian Policy

July 23rd, 2018 by

We can all agree that food is an important part of our lives. So when the CEO of one of the fastest-growing startups issues a memo proclaiming that it will no longer serve meat at corporate functions or reimburse employees on expense accounts for meaty meals, the business world took note. Stomachs growled and the haters started to hate.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft Team Up on New Data Project

July 20th, 2018 by

Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft announced a new program called the Data Transfer Project (DTP), an initiative to “create an open-source, service-to-service data portability platform so that all individuals across the web could easily move their data between online service providers whenever they want.”

Is Anyone Clear About What Mark Zuckerberg Said?

July 20th, 2018 by

The distinction between misinformation and disinformation is at the heart of Mark Zuckerberg’s thinking about why Holocaust deniers’ material can remain on Facebook. He’s likely debated this thorny question with his senior team. Unfortunately, his comments this week and his subsequent walk back muddled the distinction. In terms of walking back, though, he had plenty of company from other prominent people.

Leading Editors Tell You How to Get Your Content Published

July 19th, 2018 by

There was a gathering of editors from leading D.C. publications whose job includes evaluating op-ed submissions from outside writers. Their tips on how to get published amounted to a clinic for authors. A major takeaway was that while editors want jargon-free submissions with strong points of view, each publication has certain preferences. This means the road to success for media pitchers is to know those preferences.

Keyword Targeting and Site Authority Building for PR Pros Who Think SEO Is Somebody Else’s Job

July 19th, 2018 by

Though many don’t realize it, SEO is influenced by every department that touches digital content in a given organization. While you don’t have to be a technical genius to understand how that impacts your marketing and communications efforts, it’s important to be aware that even if you hand off SEO to your resident SEO expert or to an agency, your actions with your brand’s digital content are already affecting your search rankings.

6 Ways to Play Offense Before the C-Suite Questions PR’s Value

July 18th, 2018 by

It is better to play offense than defense. Don’t wait until you and your team are asked to prove your value to the business. Start a measurement program now so that when the inevitable happens and the C-suite wants proof of communication’s contributions to the organization, you’ve already got it in hand.