Listen to Inside PR‘s podcast interview with Conference Co-Chair Rob Flaherty to hear more on what to expect at the PRSA International Conference this year. The PRSA 2012 International Conference takes place October 13 – 16, 2012 in San Francisco.
Interview: PRSA 2012 International Conference Co-Chair Robert Flaherty, APR
Join Ann Wylie for her in-person training session, “Web Writing Boot Camp,” on Sept. 21, 2012 9 a.m.–4 p.m. EDT in New York, N.Y., and learn how to make your posts personable, and write dramatic, compelling status updates that draw followers and get clicks.
Are you still relying on words alone to tell your stories?
Comic by Bill Wylie
When Campus Progress published an illustrated story on education finance in April 2011, Erin Polgreen reported the following:
Join Ann Wylie for her in-person training session, “Web Writing Boot Camp,” on Sept. 21, 2012 9 a.m.–4 p.m. EDT in New York, N.Y., and learn how to make your posts personable, and write dramatic, compelling status updates that draw followers and get clicks.
In the headline for one of his articles, usability expert Jakob Nielsen asks, “How do users read on the Web?”
“They don’t,” he answers in the first sentence.
If you’re lucky, then your Web visitors may scan through your site, searching for specific facts and key ideas. But they aren’t reading. Check out these research results:
It’s enough to make a Web writer toss his or her laptop out the window.
But you can reach these online scanners if your page will pass the “skim test.”
Continue reading " Lift Your Ideas Off the Screen with Microcontent, or Online Display Copy "
Join Grace Leong for “Bringing the Power of PR to Brand Marketing” on Sept. 25, 2012 noon–4:30 p.m. EDT, and learn how to build brands with public relations insights and strategies.
What do the brands Chipotle, Chrysler and Nike have in common?
If you answered that these three brands are seeing strong growth in their sales, and consistently maintain top spots on the lists of the world’s most admired brands, you would be correct.
However, even more interesting to me as a marketer and a public relations professional, is the fact that each of these brands has recently won a top national or international award in an advertising competition for a campaign that was not led by advertising, but rather driven by a public relations insight and powered by traditional public relations techniques.
Yup, it’s true. As several bloggers in the communications industry have already noted, these brands, and dozens of others, are winning advertising campaign awards by embracing public relations practices and using our principles to drive deeper levels of engagement and connect more completely with consumers. An examination of some of these award-winning programs clearly shows that public relations ideas are serving as the foundation for best-in-class, 360-degree marketing campaigns.
What’s happening here? It’s simple really. These brands have evolved into a new era of marketing by adopting a values-driven approach. Simply put, values-driven marketing is based on the premise that brands can spark the emotional connection that leads to engagement by focusing on the values shared by both the brand and consumer.
Continue reading " PR’s Influence in the New Era of Values-Driven Brand Marketing "
Join Ann Wylie for “Anatomy of a 2.0 Release” on June 28, 3–4 p.m. EDT, and find out how to take advantage of online distribution to get your release posted on portals, help Google find your site, and reach customers, clients and other stakeholders online. This public relations writing training sesssion is free to PRSA members.
Boilerplates: We can’t live with ’em; we can’t get a decent one through the approval process.
A boilerplate is the short “about us” paragraph at the end of each news release that describes your organization.
The boilerplate’s ubiquity makes it important. An organization uses the copy over and over again. Depending on the scope and reach of your media relations efforts, reporters and editors might publish your boilerplate thousands of times, exposing it to thousands of consumers.
So what goes into a good boilerplate? To decide, think like your reader.
Continue reading " Three Tips for Writing a Better Boilerplate "
