Join Ann Wylie at PRSA 2012 International Conference in San Francisco on Monday, Oct. 15, for her breakout session, “Make Your Copy More Creative: Paint Pictures in Your Readers’ Minds.” You’ll learn how to bring your ideas to life through storytelling, metaphor and wordplay.

My husband likes to quote “anonymous”:

“If a man speaks in the forest, and no woman is there to hear him, is he still wrong?”

For communicators, the question is a little different. David Murray, editor of ContentWise, says:

“If nobody hears your strategic messaging, does it make a sound?”

The biggest risk in communications is not that we might offend someone or write something that’s eye-rollingly goofy. The biggest risk communicators face is that we never get heard at all.

One way to increase your chances of getting heard: Make Your Copy More Creative. Creative copy communicates more clearly, builds reader loyalty, creates a “buzz” for your topic — even enhances credibility.

Continue reading " Why Be Creative? Interesting Copy Helps Readers Learn "

Join Kathleen Dunleavy for her Digital Impact Conference session, 3D Bubble Mania: Combine Traditional, Social and Mobile PR Outreach. The PRSA 2012 Digital Impact Conference, to be held April 2–3 at the Sentry Center in New York City, offers workshops where public relations professionals will hear from entrepreneurs and others who specialize in technology communications or social and digital media. 

How do you make a video go viral? I am not convinced there is a prescription to follow for making a video go truly viral. However, in my workshop, “3D Bubble Mania: Combine Traditional, Social and Mobile PR Outreach,” we will look at the importance of video in corporate communications by looking in-depth at “3D Bubble Mania” – and find out what worked and what didn’t.

Instead of speaking of viral videos, I recommend that we talk about Internet videos. Multimedia content that both engages the viewer and provides shareable content is a vital component of any comprehensive public relations campaign. And the challenge, as with all PR work, is to get noticed. It’s estimated that 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute to YouTube. That’s a lot of video. So, how do you make your video stand out?

Continue reading " Don’t Pop this Bubble! Find Out How to Use Internet Videos in Successful PR Campaigns "

The PRSA 2012 Digital Impact Conference, to be held April 2–3  in New York City, offers workshops where public relations professionals will hear from entrepreneurs and others who specialize in technology communications or social and digital media.

Pinterest is the latest hot social media platform. The public loves it but what exactly is its best use for businesses? Is it a relevant marketing platform or is it more of a sharing network where marketing messaging isn’t welcomed?

Like many professionals, public relations practitioners (PRSA staff included) struggle with implementing new technology to make the user experience of for their customers more worthwhile. It’s a problem that seemingly never goes away yet gnaws at any professional who wishes to stay abreast of trends in an ever-changing marketplace.

There are hot technologies that never quite become as ubiquitous as people predict. It seems like just yesterday that Second Life was being featured on the cover of magazines, bringing in an era of changed platforms and virtual reality. In truth, it was eons ago (OK, 2006) and we are no nearer to conducting all of our earthly transactions in a virtual world then we were then.

I bring this up because some institutions, at the behest of their PR and communications departments, pursued aggressive engagement strategies on the platform, often to the detriment of other mediums like Facebook or the blogosphere, whose proliferation continues relatively unabated.

This isn’t to excoriate those institutions or campaigns. Maybe for their audiences, utilizing those platforms made sense. Maybe they were bowing to the pressures of a CEO whose entire knowledge of the digital world was based on a magazine cover they saw in an airport (it’s happened to all of us.)

The point is, most PR and corporate comms departments are small and resources are limited. A prudent institution with limited means should be thinking very carefully before dipping its toes into a new platform or technology.

Which brings me back to my original point: when a shiny new technology comes out, we here at PRSA give serious consideration to its application and utility to our members. As I’m sure you guessed Pinterest is the buzz around here at present, as it is throughout much of the PR industry.

Continue reading " How Should You Be Using Pinterest for Business? "

With thoughts (and client budgets) turning to the New Year, PRSA continues our tradition of an annual PR industry forecast. This year, we feature contributions from 12 creative thinkers in public relations. We asked for insight into trends they believe will fundamentally change the PR industry in 2012.

Below is a compilation of their thoughts. Starting Jan. 3, 2012, and running for 12 consecutive business days, PRSAY will publish each trend as a full blog post.

We hope you find value in reading these predictions. Please add your own in the comments below or by using the hashtag #PRin2012. We’ll capture the best contributions and publish those in a special baker’s dozen post in late-January.

Related: Read the top-11 PR trends for 2011 in this Dec. 22, 2010, PRSay blog post..

Continue reading " 12 Trends to Watch: 2012 Public Relations Forecast #PRin2012 "

The PRSA 2012 Digital Impact Conference will be held April 2–3, 2012, in New York City.

We’re looking for online influencers, experts and leaders on the client and agency sides to present strategies, theories, ideas, research and results.

Caryn Marooney, director of product communications at Facebook, is confirmed to keynote, and we’re now accepting speaker proposals until 8 p.m. EST, Dec. 9, 2011.

The Digital Impact Conference is dedicated to profiling the impact of digital technology on the business of communications. We are looking to spotlight projects, programs, organizations and individuals who are effectively leveraging the power of digital to get their message across, increase productivity and manage reputations.

So if you’re ready to share detailed, thoughtful information and concepts (no cream puffs, please) that attendees can put into action immediately, check out the official Call for Presentations and submit to present on one of the following three conference tracks:

Continue reading " PRSA Digital Impact Call for Presentations: Seeking Online Influencers to Share Knowledge and Experience "