Everyone knows headlines rule. The ceaseless bombardment of information has turned the headline into eye candy. Write a good one, and readers stop to give the body copy a chance. If not, the readers’ attention never breaks stride and they’re on to other things in a nanosecond. Perhaps no media property has perfected the art …more
Every company correlates the recruitment of top talent to long-term success. Yet, companies continue to churn out job descriptions like soulless widgets on an assembly line. Even in Silicon Valley where rule-breaking serves as a badge of honor, job descriptions get zero respect. I wrote last summer that 99 percent of companies borrow from the …more
If bands can do it, why not a blog? Only, I’ve defined a “greatest hit” as having “hit” the publish button in 2011 or later. With the housekeeping out of the way for these business storytelling oldies, here are seven that fit the description: My Aha Moment in Storytelling Being raised in the command-and-control era …more
It wasn’t that long ago that poaching a journalist to write a company blog was considered avant-garde. Now that most major brands have figured out the potential power of owned media, the real experimentation begins. This dynamic isn’t lost on publishers still in search of the killer revenue stream. If companies harbor illusions of cultivating …more
The value of visual storytelling will only increase over time. You don’t need a research grant from the feds to reach this conclusion. There are only so many words a human brain can process before the overload buzzer goes off (unless you’re Stephen Hawking). Which brings us to the infographic. If a picture is worth …more
I met a colleague, Jane Wang, for a cup of coffee at Roy’s last week. Once and for all, she puts an end to the great debate of what’s more valuable in media relations, a flush Rolodex or great content (storytelling). Before going further, it occurred to me that the under-40 crowd might not have …more
Jack and Jill. Romeo and Juliet. Shrek and Fiona. The news release and storytelling. Not exactly a stanine buster figuring out which one doesn’t fit. Don’t blame PR Newswire. Their services are merely the delivery vehicle corporations use to fling their dull announcements – OK, I’m being kind – to the masses. To combat …more
At its core, global PR isn’t about infrastructure or titles. The most important factor in the success or failure of an international PR campaign comes down to mentality. Two basic questions go a long way toward revealing the presence of a global mentality: Do the account team members collaborate in a way that leverages content …more
Everyone wants stronger #SEO and more qualified traffic coming to their digital properties. Everyone agrees that backlinks play a huge role in achieving this objective. But generating those backlinks can open the door to the murky world of link bazaars. That’s why I shared a case study on natural link building earlier this week, bringing …more
