The best content wins. The rise of digital communications and forms of digital marketing see to that. This never-ending thirst for content is recasting the PR profession. The chart below (source: LinkedIn and Recode) depicts job hires in the U.S. by function over the past 14 years (source: LinkedIn). No surprise, the job …more
I’m dusting off an interview I conducted a few years ago with Casey Coonerty Protti, owner of the Bookshop Santa Cruz. This indie bookstore, a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean, is one of our favorite destinations for weekend road trips. A mashup of beach vibe, weirdness and stories waiting for you all come together …more
If you’re not familiar with the “996” acronym in China, it stands for working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days each week. Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, seemed to have hit a nerve last week when he remarked on WeChat: “I personally think that being able to work 996 is a huge blessing.” …more
The public relations function typically constructs media pitches based on the story that the company wants to tell. These stories tend to be pristine narratives — the sun is shining; birds are chirping — that dull the senses. That largely explains why 95%+ of pitches to the business media fail. Instead, we should be thinking …more
We’ve been touting the virtues of SEO in PR strategies since 2010. Our push to integrate SEO and PR accelerated in 2013 when Google revamped its search algorithm with the Hummingbird update. It was at this point that Google squeezed most of the gamesmanship out of organic search. Those backlinks sold out of …more
I interviewed author Ella Frances Sanders in 2015 after her book “Lost in Translation” had caused quite a sensation and landed on the NY Times bestselling list for four months. I remember thinking how improbable that a single blog post, “11 Untranslatable Words from Other Cultures” could morph into a bestseller. Thanks to over 2 …more
I’m not talking about our friend Lord Baelish who discovered that chaos wasn’t exactly a ladder. I simply like the line. With the last season of “Game of Thrones” soon to kick off, it’s a good time to dust off a lesson in persuasive language from the show. Let’s turn our attention to Tyrion’s plea …more
Writing feeds my soul, so producing 1,000 blog posts on public relations, storytelling and everything in between hasn’t exactly been combat duty. Still, there’s something about a round number with three zeroes that causes one to pause, to consider what went into this corporate blogging journey. Even though the destination was unknown, my anxiety was …more
