I highlighted some of my top 2014 posts on Monday, ranging from interviewing my Mom on the PR profession to using the Budweiser Puppy Love video to illustrate how teasing out tension in a story requires bad stuff.
Here’s the rest of the list.
- Why PR Should Lead the Charge for Organic Search: The experiment we conducted around the Toyota recall in 2010 to see if it was possible to land on page 1 of the SERP forever changed the trajectory of the Agency. Our knowledge in organic search and how we’re creating holistic campaigns to establish online presence comes together in the SlideShare deck, “The Blurring Line Between Digital Marketing and PR.”
- The Skewering of Rikk Wilde and His MVP Award Communications Misses Two Points: Like most San Francisco Giants fans, I was soaking in the post-game show after the World Series ended when Rikk Wilde entered the screen to present the MVP award on behalf of Chevrolet.
- Genius Storytelling from the American Chemical Society: How do you help the masses understand the importance of chemistry in our everyday lives? Very clever on the part of the ACS to explain the science —and specifically the chemical makeup of Sriracha sauce. I had no idea that a group of molecules called capsaicinoids sits inside red chilies. I ran this shard of knowledge by a colleague over a bowl of pho. He wasn’t impressed, but that shouldn’t take away from the brilliance of the ACS video.
- While the media pummeled the poor guy for nerves of gel, I wondered who the Einstein was who determined that out of 200,000+ GM employees, Mr. Wilde should play to a national TV audience. The debacle was not his fault.
- Finally, a Test to Guide the Actions and Storytelling Behind a News Release: With millions of dollars wasted writing news releases that no one will care about, I developed this test as a service to the PR industry. With this tool, you can roughly project the expected media coverage before making the investment in a given news release. I will likely recalibrate my model on annual basis to ensure I keep pace with the times.
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.ishmaelscorner.com/2014/04/17/finally-a-test…a-news-release/" title="Hoffman Agency Infographic- a Test To Guide the Actions and Storytelling Behind a News Release"><img src="http://hawebpage.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/04_22_press_release_final_ORIGINAL.jpg" alt="Hoffman Agency Infographic- a Test To Guide the Actions and Storytelling Behind a News Release" width="467" height="1024" style="border:none;" /></a><br /><small>The Hoffman Agency is a public relations firm that emphasizes storytelling in <a href="http://www.hoffman.com">business communication</a></small>.</div>
- What the Heck Is a Word Visual? As communicators increasingly spearhead owned media properties, they need to come up the curve in visual storytelling. The concept of word visuals, the packaging of clever words in a way that brings a visual dimension to communications without a premium on design, is one way to close the gap. This post gets into the three types of word visuals and the nitty gritty in creating them.
If you think I left out a deserving post, who am I to argue?