Firm Voice Categories
Advocacy
Getting Social, Doing Good, Driving Impact: A Message from Council Chairman Andy Polansky
Facebook’s coming IPO has shone a spotlight on the financial upside of social media, but it’s important to keep in mind how much potential social platforms hold for serving the public good. Social media is helping advance the mission of non-profit organizations across a broad range of issues. In fact, nonprofits account for some of more…
Business Development
The X Factor—Reflections on Female Entrepreneurship in Public Relations
Women and women’s issues have claimed a prominent position in the Presidential campaign in recent months, and that should only become more pronounced as November nears. But what about women in business? It’s no secret that public relations offers unusually exciting opportunities for talented women to establish careers and build companies of their own. At more…
C-suite
Air Traffic Controller and Collaborator — Why Your Growing Firm Needs a Chief Operating Officer
Does your growing PR firm need a Chief Operating Officer? Quite possibly—and more urgently than you think! Today, many small- to mid-sized firms remain reluctant to designate someone to lead their operations. That’s not surprising, for unlike other top spots on the organizational chart, the COO position, even in global corporations, is difficult to define more…
Communications
What A Great Idea! Public Relations and the Marketing of Innovation
With both business and communications evolving faster than ever, and with companies increasingly relying on innovation to fuel growth and competitive advantage, talking about innovations is becoming more important—and trickier. The famous flop of “New Coke” back in the 1980s reminds us what can happen when companies don’t properly introduce innovations (although in that case, more…
Community
What We’re Wondering about Social Media—Eight Burning Questions
With all the writing that has swirled around social media in recent years, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and also to assume that all the good, stimulating, provocative questions have already been asked. Yet judging from last week’s Critical Issues Forum, the discussion around social media is far from stale. Panelists, facilitators, and audience-members alike more…
Corporate
Communicating Failure in the Age of Social Media
Failure has cachet. Harvard Business Review devoted its April 2011 issue to the subject, with many authors agreeing on its importance to the running of successful, innovative enterprises. Since Steve Jobs’ death, observers have catalogued his missteps—he never graduated from college; he was fired from the company that he himself had started—and ranked them as more…
Counsel
Massaging the Message—What the State of the Union Can Teach Us about Business Communications
It’s the day after the State of the Union, and the airways are crammed with political prognostications as well as the usual Monday morning quarterbacking. To offer a fresh alternative, we thought we’d stay focused on the present and ask leading communication experts to reflect on the basic communications challenge President Obama faced in giving more…
Creativity
Data Storytelling: The Art and Science of Social Media Metrics
Understanding how your social campaign is performing requires a fine mix of data and interpretation, as many marketers know. But it’s not always as simple as that. A lot of brands are left asking, “What does all of this data mean to my social channels?” Social media firm 5Loom, which is owned by Council member more…
Data
What Are Consumers Up To? A Late Winter Snapshot
Are consumers spending again? What are they thinking about? What trends do you most need to know about as you’re framing communications strategies for consumer-facing brands? In a volatile marketplace, it’s more vital than ever to aggressively track consumer sentiment and behavior and translate that into fresh, effective marketing approaches. To get you started, we more…
Digital
Consumers and the Digital Life: Staying On Top of “Facebook Fatigue”
Some eighteen months ago, the Firm Voice ran a piece highlighting resistance to social media and cautioning firms not to ignore conventional forms of communications outreach. It’s worth revisiting the point, not for the sake of prophesying doom and gloom, but with an eye to examining how we can make public relations activities even stronger. more…
Diversity
Spotlighting Diversity—Two Award-Winning Agency Programs
On April 26th, the Council in association with PRWeek announced the opening of the second annual Diversity Distinction in PR Awards. These awards honor excellence in promoting ethnic diversity and inclusion within public relations, and are intended to encourage professionals of diverse backgrounds to seek opportunities at firms and the PR industry more broadly. Last more…
Engagement
A Test of Time – A Reason to Celebrate
Longevity is often something worth celebrating. And so it is with great pride and gratitude, along with an equal measure of humility, that I am delighted to say that Text 100 and Ketchum have achieved 10 great years working alongside IBM as its global public relations partners. Way back in 2001, IBM’s agency review process more…
Ethics
Reverberations: The FTC Means Business (and What PR Firms Should Do)
In recent weeks, the FTC has demonstrated that it is not fooling around when it comes to blogging ethics. We strongly encourage public relations agencies to consult with legal counsel and to adopt strong and clear policies regarding blogs and other forms of consumer-generated media. In late August, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a more…
Firms
Developing An Outside Game—Engineering Tomorrow’s Virtual Workforce
This past February, the UK telecommunications company O2 asked almost 3,000 employees at one of its offices to work from home for the day. The results raise eyebrows: Employees saved almost $15,000 in commuting costs, got 1,000 extra hours of sleep, were more productive (36% of them claimed as much), and spent more quality time more…
Innovation
Retreating to the past: Interpreting (and Lamenting) the Current Retromania
The other day, while waiting for my plane to board, I was treated to a throaty remake of the Beatles classic “Penny Lane” running over the airport PA system. Didn’t catch the artist, but didn’t need to: The re-make, of very recent vintage, was decent, but it didn’t ring half as true to my forty-something more…
Intellectual Capital
Moving to the Center of the Marketing Mix—Strategic Shifts Brightening the Outlook for Public Relations
Today’s market is a dynamic one for marketing services. It’s a “jump ball” environment, and public relations firms, ad agencies, branding and digital shops, among others, are all seeing opportunities to compete but also to collaborate in new ways. Clients and prospects clearly seem less concerned about which discipline to work with; it’s all about more…
Issues
Hey, Would You Work for A Buck?
If you’re Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Citibank, the answer is yes. Last year, Pandit vowed he’d take no salary until the bank became profitable. So he didn’t. But Citibank is now back in the black, which is why this past week, Citibank’s board announced that they’d reinstate a salary for Pandit. Of course, Pandit more…
Management
Measurement
Talking with Clients about Measurement
Communications professionals, whether on the client or agency side, often struggle with how to quantify the results of public relations programs. Clients sometimes don’t commit the funds for measuring programs, and when they do, they are not always satisfied with how results are communicated at the end of a program. At times, clients and agencies more…
Media
Brands on the Red Carpet—Re-evaluating the Marketing Role of Celebrities
With the red carpets for this year’s Academy Awards unrolling as we speak, we were wondering: Is the A-list still as valuable as it once was to a brand in our age of social media? Are brands missing out if they’re not visible at an event like the Academy Awards? And how do we measure more…
Procurement
Building Relationships That Stick: The Other Client to Engage
A lot has been written in our industry about how vital it is to build strong and trusted client relationships. But who is the PR client today? Most public relations professionals have long regarded the in-house public relations and corporate communications teams as key players. Yet the marketing team and the Chief Marketing Officer play more…
Publics
Creative Tips for Talking about the Unmentionable
When’s the last time you spoke to your next-door neighbor about your itching problem—down there? Or your thinning hair? Or your use of feminine hygiene products? Or incontinence? Today, it often seems like nothing is taboo. People visit websites to confess their deepest darkest secrets, television shows seem to break new bounds every year in more…
RFP's
Oh, the Joys of RFPs
Isn’t there a better way? I’m talking about RFP’s. Clearly they serve a necessary function: How else are clients going to choose among the many potential partners who can provide the service they seek? But that doesn’t mean all RFPs are created equal. One public relations executive we spoke with complained of “nightmare” RFPs, noting more…
Social Media
Deepening Brand Co-Creation: The Council’s Panel at SXSW
If I have one impression to share about the panel discussion the Council put on last weekend at this year’s SXSW conference, and about the conference in general, it is the sheer energy, excitement, and interest we encountered. We have attended SXSW these past two years in the belief that as marketing communications gets more more…
Stakeholders
Sorry to Say: Public Relations Isn’t Changing
I know the world is changing at a dizzying pace, but not everything is changing. If you really think about it, public relations at its core is all about influencing the influencers. So when people say that our industry is changing, I generally think “not really.” The thinking, the process, the methodology, and much of more…
Strategy
Content is King – Or, Why We Started Our Own Content Marketing Firm
Two weeks ago, APCO’s Margery Kraus wrote in this blog of the blurring lines between every major marketing practice. PR firms are producing advertisements, ad agencies are controlling massive social media campaigns, and branding shops are helping define SEO strategies. As these traditionally silo-ed marketing areas continue to blend and overlap, one nascent offshoot in more…
Talent
Sourcing Creativity—The Firm Voice Showcases Ketchum’s Mindfire
Creativity pays, which is why we all want that next great idea, that flash of brilliance that will delight clients and keep them coming back for more. What if I told you that a firm out there has devised a pathbreaking new tool, at relatively low cost, for harnessing some of the best young minds? more…
Technology
Healthcare Communications: Inspiring Interactions
Innovation in medicine alone is not sufficient to meet the growing health needs of the world’s population. As healthcare communicators, our priority is to improve understanding and shape positive behaviours to achieve the best outcomes. Traditionally, communications have focused on individual groups; engaging patients and healthcare professionals to transfer information. However, the increasing power of more…
Uncategorized
The Day-by-Day Revolution: Insights from The Council’s Program on Measuring and Monetizing Social Media
Think you’ve heard it all about social media? Last week, The Social Media Society and The Council of Public Relations Firms presented a program entitled, “Igniting Opportunities: Measuring and Monetizing Social Media,” hosted by my law firm, Davis & Gilbert. This eye-opening program revealed that the pace of change continues to accelerate, and that more more…