Digital & Technology

It may have seemed like a good idea, at least on paper. Aggregate pictures and posts as a way to remind users of some of their milestones this past year. But the effort backfired miserably.

We are living through a creative and transformative period in professional communications. With each passing year comes a time to reflect on how far we’ve come and, perhaps more important, how much we still have left to figure out.

Whether you’re a technophile unable to contain your excitement about the latest release of your favorite product or a Luddite lamenting the days of pen, pad and typewriter, it’s a certainty that the brands that stay abreast of the latest digital trends will have the best footing in 2015.

For a cohesive and integrated program, it’s necessary for both PR and content marketing to collaborate in order to create a comprehensive marketing plan that will improve an organization’s market awareness and increase lead generation and nurturing capabilities.

Content marketing. Brand journalism. Branded content. Call it what you will, but communicators are increasingly on the hook to produce editorial-based content that can help tell their brand’s story and, with any luck, put more fannies in the seats.

The growing challenge of how to develop (and sustain) content marketing programs was cast into the spotlight earlier this month when Verizon Wireless shuttered its Web publication, SugarString, a little more than two months after its debut.

PR pros must be excellent storytellers. Today that means tailoring material for a variety of platforms and being familiar with all aspects of your company’s or client’s business.

You may get some inspiration from YouTube Rewind: Turn Down for 2014, a video mashup featuring some of the most popular trends of the year.

Winner: David Daigle, Associate Director for Communications, Public Health Preparedness and Response, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dave Daigle is a nationally recognized expert on crisis and emergency risk communications. In 2014, Daigle… Continued

Winner: Tim Ryan, General Manager at Sawyer Miller Weber Shandwick Across the Weber Shandwick network, Tim Ryan is the go-to expert when it comes to campaigns designed to help consumers make informed healthcare choices. He… Continued