When Jessica Curry took her daughter Parker to the National Portrait Gallery to see the recently installed portrait of Michelle Obama, a fellow museumgoer was struck by the little girl’s expression. Ben Hines snapped a photo with his cell phone and later posted the photo on Facebook.
It’s that time of year again. Communications planning time! Don’t have one? Maybe this is the year to create one. And if you do have one, it’s time to examine how well you did against this past year’s efforts and what adjustments you would make for the coming 12 months.
Several years ago, a colleague asked me to do an informational interview with a young woman who was thinking about getting into public relations. Happy to do this as a favor to a helpful colleague, I met with the young woman on a Saturday, answered her questions, and gave her the names of a few others to contact. I never heard from her again.
It seems everyone and everything these days is strategic. We have strategic plans, enter into strategic partnerships, undertake strategic marketing, make strategic hires, and even, according to one State Department official, practice “strategic patience” in the Middle East.
For a milestone wedding anniversary, my husband announced he had gotten me a great present. My first thought was, “Tiffany.” After all, what girl doesn’t like the blue box and the delights that might be found within it? Instead, I got something better: an Apple Watch.
Brian Williams may have disappeared from our television screens. But the issue that led to his becoming the news instead of merely reporting it, has not—and that is, trust. For a journalist who is supposed to seek and tell the truth, embellishing the truth is careless malpractice.
Media relations have never been more challenging. With the speed of communications, the multitude of communications platforms, and the rise of press release distribution services, reporters and editors are simply overwhelmed by the number of pitches and press releases they receive.
In our last blog post, we wrote about the need to Leverage All Your Communications. To become adept at leadership communications, we have to better connect with our internal and external audiences. We need to become more strategic in our actions and consistently express value within our organization and with our enterprise’s key audience(s).
A great Olympic moment occurred not on the medal podium but on the sidelines as dejected snowboarder Shaun White failed to achieve his dream of capturing a third gold and earning a unique place in the history books.
The stars of this year’s Super Bowl weren’t the Broncos and Seahawks but the adorable Labrador puppy and muscular Clydesdale featured in a 60-second Budweiser beer commercial. At last count, the ad had more than 40 million views on YouTube. Pollster Frank Luntz noted on CBS This Morning that women and men in a focus group he arranged to watch the big game ads were deeply moved by it, some to tears. So why is this commercial so powerful?
