4 Lessons from Apple Watch to Improve Your Business

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.

Communications: Reducing the Trust Deficit

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.

By |2022-02-23T12:55:58-05:00March 1st, 2015|Categories: Influence and Thought Leadership|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Media Relations: Finding Your Perfect Pitch

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.

Five Tips to Help You Leverage Communications

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).

Leadership Communications: Grace in Defeat

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.

Puppies, Clydesdales Lead to Great Storytelling

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?

Message Development and Our Negative Bias

Anyone who is serious about message development has to factor in the negative bias of the human mind, as I  wrote this week in a blog post for The Washington Business Journal: Have you ever wondered why no one seems to hear the positive messages about your company or cause? It may have something to do with the basic wiring of the human mind.

Spokesperson Training 101: Never Lose Your Cool

It's not been a great week for the Anthony Weiner campaign.  Aside from the candidate's own missteps, his communications director and spokesperson, Barbara Morgan, made her own mess. Speaking to a reporter from a political website, Talking Points Memo, Morgan lambasted former intern Olivia Nuzzi and her article, which painted an unflattering picture of the Weiner campaign and its team. Morgan's tirade broke just about every spokesperson training rule and used almost every expletive in the book.

Message Development is Essential to Communications Planning

Good message development is a critical part of any communications plan.  Despite all the talk about the importance of good messaging, it remains an elusive part of communications planning and in some cases down right mysterious to many companies and organizations.

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