In September, I spoke to the Public Information Officers who work for the Veterans Administration. These professionals are challenged in several ways with systems and methods for which they have little control. Yet, they are deeply committed to demonstrating success to their leadership. While we talked about trends in measurement and industry best practices, it […]
If your organization has gotten into a good social media routine, monitoring channels, posting content regularly and seeing results, maybe it’s time to double up on your content output. What do I mean by doubling up? If you’ve been posting two to three times per week on your channels, try doubling your output for a […]
If you think that reaching out to bloggers might be important for your brand, then you are joining hundreds of companies who consider bloggers a vital component of their marketing plan. But before you get started, here are three things to consider to make the engagement worth your while. The first consideration is to make […]
Are your customers having good, bad or GREAT experiences? I recently had 3 different service experiences in each of these categories which really surprised me, and not always in a good way. Let’s start with the bad surprise. Retail Fail When trying to make a purchase at a large department store, I found that the […]
Last week, I facilitated a session by the same name at the Texas Travel Industry Summit in Corpus Christi. It was a “shirtsleeves” session designed to help travel professionals talk about their successes and challenges and draw from the collective group to find solutions or ideas they could take back to their organizations. Our panel […]
This week I led a session for the Texas Travel Industry Association on productivity tools and apps for small travel organizations. It was fun to talk about some of the tools I use to increase my efficiency and simplify the day-to-day functions of my business. At the beginning of the session, I polled the group […]
I’ve written and edited hundreds of press releases, blog posts and other media materials throughout my career. And I’ve coached writing students on the basics of newswriting. There are three errors in applying Associated Press style that I see the most in writing. Using Commas in a Series If the series is simple, then lose […]
For public relations practitioners, writing style can be boring and dry. But style is important in good writing. It sets standards and formats that give uniformity to writing. Surprisingly, many in the profession are unaware of style types and how they can bolster your writing efforts. Applying a style to your writing puts an end […]
You are, of course, looking deeply at your Facebook insights to see how your fans are interacting with your organization, and analyzing what content resonates with your community. But you can make some instant observations by looking at that little chart which is nestled just above the cover photo and between the “New Likes” and […]
How you respond in a crisis largely depends on what you do in the first hour after you become aware that something bad has happened in your organization. The suggestions given here are to supplement the crisis communication plan you are already using and should help with work flow in the first hour. Clear Your […]