The bill for my Washington Post subscription came in the mail the other day and I had a decision to make. To renew or not. Until now, not renewing had never crossed my mind. Keeping up with the news is a lifelong dedication, not just a part of my media relations work.
In times of crisis, people look to someone to lead them through it. Joe Manchin, Governor of West Virginia has done that well throughout the horrible tragedy at Upper Big Branch Mine that killed 29 miners.
Last week I found a marketing star in Cleveland on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. Mark, a proud member of the campus police force, made the most persuasive case for a prospective student to attend the university. We first met Mark crossing the street where he stood in his bright green vest directing traffic.
This question was very much on my mind at a BNI business networking event I attended this morning as a guest. The whole reason for the gathering is to connect with others to do business. Each of the 50 or so folks in the room got 30 seconds to talk about their company so that the rest of the people in the room could think about possible referrals or other opportunities. Thirty seconds is at once an eternity and a nanomoment.
Rules were meant to be broken. Not these. If you follow these, you will be well on your way to more strategic communications: better engaging of customers, clients, partners, funders or anyone else who can help you achieve your goals.
At a workshop I facilitated for nonprofit leaders on message development and communications, I was reminded once again of the critical relationship between organizational strategy, culture and communications. The workshop hosted by Coalition for Nonprofit Housing & Economic Development (CNHED) in conjunction with Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB) came out of a discussion a few months ago about the potential to create a campaign to heighten the awareness of policy makers, funders and other audiences about the huge and growing gaps in the financial security of Washington, DC families.
While the winds howled last week with the snow of the century, the power managed to stay on long enough so that I could participate in a webinar about building buzz through social media. Hosted by The Communications Network and by the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), session leaders Holly Ross, Executive Director of NTEN, and Nancy Schwartz, NTEN board member and blogger, the session presented three case studies about nonprofits and foundations that had successfully used social media.
It’s humbling to realize how easily our world can come to a stop. And how all the incredible communications tools we have don’t work when we don’t have power. After the first blast last weekend, all of our neighbors ventured out trading information. Some even ventured beyond the end of the street to get a good look at what was happening and then heard more information from others.
Today the respected British medical journal, The Lancet issued a retraction of Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 study that links measles vaccines to autism and caused so many parents to put their children at risk by NOT getting them vaccinated.
It’s a new year and as companies and organizations think of communications planning, it's good to step back and inventory your assets and think about how you will communicate their value inside and outside of your company or organization. Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how often organizations don’t fully understand what their true assets are.