Why You should Generate Visual Content to Brand your Company

Relevant content and quality writing drives effective marketing, however, visual content is also crucial for building a lasting relationship with your customers. Today’s digital age demands better means to transfer messages. With the increase in the use of visual social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest, B2B marketers can grow their businesses faster than ever before. Both these tools provide endless opportunities for B2B marketing, as they are simple to use and are quickly becoming central to successful visual content marketing strategies.  

How to Avoid a Personal Crisis on Social Media

We are all part of the digital age, and use Facebook, Twitter and other social media to stay connected with our friends and family. However, as professionals, there is a fine line between our personal lives and our work lives when it comes to using social media and how we should conduct ourselves.

In Sarah Skerik’s article, 6 ways to avoid a personal PR crisis on social media, she presents helpful rules to remember that are often neglected. So before you send that tweet or update your status, run through this list to make sure you won’t have a personal PR crisis on your hands.

What NOT To Do

Ok, so this may seem like common sense, but here are a few things no PR person should ever do, and yes, I’ve seen these before.

So here it goes. A list of things to avoid:

How To Write a Press Release: The Video Version

I know that we all learn in different ways, so when I came across this video I had to post it for all of you audio/visual people. I think all of the tips in here are on target and I hope you enjoy it!

Let me know what you thought of this video.

How To Use a White Paper To Your Advantage

White papers present your company with a unique opportunity to share your industry know-how and set yourself apart as an expert in your field. They are a great resource for reporters looking for background information on a subject and can help you to become a source for a story related to your industry.

The challenge of writing a white paper is what to do with it once it has been written. A white paper cannot be distributed as a news release would—reporters wouldn’t get beyond the first sentence—but without touting its existence, a white paper can get lost in the Internet abyss. After you spend the time and effort to write a white paper, it is important that reporters and consumers in your industry read it.

Eye-catching News Releases

Whenever you are writing a news release, you always want to make sure that it will catch the reporter’s eye. To make your news releases more captivating, try keeping the following in mind.

Because a news release is, in essence, promoting a product, service or company, sometimes it can sound gimmicky. It’s important to remember that a news release needs to be informative, to the point and easy to read. Keep in mind that not everyone is as familiar with your product as you are, and that the audience may not understand the jargon or technical terms.

The Power of Repetition

Have you ever had one of those ideas that you think is brilliant, so brilliant that you have to tell your boss? It might be a miss the first time, but if you are persistent and keep bringing up the idea – your boss might start to think that it is her idea. Believe it or not, public relations strategy tends to work the same way.

New Year’s Writing Resolution

With the New Year underway, many individuals are still making resolutions for their personal and professional lives. One thing everyone can stand to work on is improving fundamental skills such as writing. In the article 3 Unusual Exercises to Improve Your Writing in 2012, author Laura Hale Brockway gives a few examples on how to change up your process and improve your writing.

4 DIY Ways to Score More Media Coverage for Events

For many public relations practitioners, being able to effectively promote events through media is an integral skill. At one point, it was key for public relations practitioners to pitch events to the media for coverage. While the skill of pitching is still relevant, technology has allowed PR professionals to use tools like blogs, smartphones, online video and photo sharing to cover their own events. Arik Hanson of PR Daily speaks on “4 DIY Ways To Score More Media Coverage:”

Have Your Own Style

In this blog we’ve addressed AP style many times, however, one thing we’ve never really discussed is creating your own company style. Creating a style guide for your company is an important part of the branding process, because, believe it or not, there will be things your company deals with that may not be covered in the AP style guide.