In today’s economic environment, every company is looking for ways to improve efficiency, cut costs and pack the new business pipeline. For savvy C-suite executives, public relations is a key component to building the right personality for their brand. As a result, it also sets the stage to build the new business pipeline. How does… Continue reading How Digital PR Strategies Drive New Business
For thousands of years, humankind has chronicled stories to learn from and teach others, and it is through the recounting of these stories that lessons have been passed down for generations. As a species, we have progressed greatly from those early days and technology has made way for more detailed representations of these lessons. While… Continue reading Storytelling: Four Tips to Succeed in 2023
In the last two decades, digital advancements have drastically changed the way people select products and services. Newspapers, magazines, TV news and press releases are all still relevant and valuable forms of communication, but social media platforms have had an explosive impact on an entire generation and offer more contemporary tools to connect with your… Continue reading Signs to Watch When Selecting the Matching Influencer for Your Brand
As the global Covid-19 pandemic has so clearly demonstrated over the past few years, every organization—no matter its size or industry—is vulnerable to the ever-looming threat of a crisis. These threats can range from security breaches and product recalls, to natural disasters and workplace violence incidents. As PR professionals, we understand that a company’s response… Continue reading 7 Simple Steps to Developing a Crisis Communications Plan
How the Largest Free, Open-Source and Decentralized Microblogging Network in the World Works As a result of Elon Musk’s interest in acquiring Twitter, and despite some hesitation about the examination of fake accounts, the name of another social network has been bouncing for months, so that it would represent the ethical alternative to the most… Continue reading Mastodon: The Social Network Alternative to Twitter?
Regardless of your industry, social media can be a powerful tool for a company of any size to market its products and services to other businesses. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter might be the most common platforms mentioned in day-to-day interactions, but LinkedIn is the most relevant for B2B communication. A recent survey conducted by HubSpot… Continue reading 10 Ways to Leverage LinkedIn in B2B Communications
Virtual meetings are now an indispensable companion. They have helped and are continuing to help many navigate through life in a pandemic. In March alone last year, there were more than 200 million daily meeting participants on Zoom, both free and paid. In this era of advanced technology, coupled with the onslaught of Covid-19, the… Continue reading Reduce Carbon Footprint in Your Daily Operations
It seems like ages ago, but when a public relations or marketing professional wanted to create buzz for their client or brand, they used to quickly fall back on media relations. These days, that’s not necessary the case. Thanks to the rise of the internet and social media, all media are being consumed differently and… Continue reading A New Approach for Media Relations
As companies embrace public relations as a means of positively influencing a brand’s perception by managing communications with the media and influencers and the public, it’s important to continually review the tools that have proven to be most effective in consumer public relations. The benefits are clear and include boosting top-of-mind consumer awareness, building credibility,… Continue reading Top 10 Tactical Tools of Consumer PR
From its origin as a trendy new way to promote a brand, content marketing has grown into a versatile and easily customizable strategy to reach a highly targeted audience. Businesses and organizations across all industries now utilize content marketing to build brand awareness, thought leadership and lead generation. However, it takes more than publishing a… Continue reading Content Marketing at its Best
A traditional communication tool ended up in the shadows, thanks to the advent of social media, but newsletters are back and are on the rise again. Newsletters are now seen as the most suitable strategy for effective communication with consumers, especially in times of lockdown, according to the Talkwalker and Hubspot report on Social Media… Continue reading The Return of Newsletters
Without a doubt, technology has opened the door to one of the most remarkable and recent inventions, social media. Its thriving popularity is apparent — as of the start of this year, more than 55% of the total global population are now social media users. Social media has become an essential part of organizations Public… Continue reading Navigating the World of Influencers in PR
“Between saying and doing there is the sea,” says a well-known proverb. This quote can be applied to today’s brands as they are called to cross this sea and take their Corporate Social Responsibility strategy to a new level by developing brand activism strategies that mark the transition from storytelling to storydoing. What is brand… Continue reading From Brand Purpose to Brand Activism: Time to Act
Millennial moms are more than their skinny jeans. Eighty percent of children in the U.S. are born to millennial mothers, and with moms controlling 85% of household purchasing decisions, millennial moms grasp about $2.4 trillion in spending power, according to Forbes. Communicating with millennial moms requires rethinking your biases and reworking marketing strategies to ensure… Continue reading Side Parts and Sippy Cups: Speaking the Language of Millennial Moms
Working with influencers is like braving the wild, wild west. Without any specific guidelines or code of ethics, each brand-influencer partnership is unique and can result in really great coverage, really awful coverage or something in between. With each passing year, influencer trends shift dramatically, too. The of-the-moment Instagram star is the micro-influencer, a social… Continue reading How to Find Micro-Influencers That Match Your Brand
From podcasts to Clubhouse, new communication trends are putting oral culture back at the center of communications and public relations. With around two million users worldwide in January and around 50,000 users in Italy just weeks after its arrival in our country, Clubhouse is a networking platform that has brought voice, the most traditional communication… Continue reading Clubhouse: Voice-Based Communications Returns as a Key Element in Building Relations
Let this sink in for a moment. Facebook launched in 2004. Twitter became a word in 2006. Instagram? 2010. In roughly the time it takes to conceive a child and see them get a drivers’ license, the innovation of social media disrupted, overwhelmed, inspired and challenged public relations professionals around the world. Both as individuals… Continue reading How PR Will Absorb the Social Sphere in the 2020s
Let this sink in for a moment. Facebook launched in 2004. Twitter became a word in 2006. Instagram? 2010. In roughly the time it takes to conceive a child and see them get a drivers’ license, the innovation of social media disrupted, overwhelmed, inspired and challenged public relations professionals around the world. Both as individuals… Continue reading How PR Will Absorb the Social Sphere in the 2020s
What a year. 2020 might as well have been “the year of crisis.” Or maybe it was just one big 365-day crisis. It certainly felt like it, as The Castle Group’s crisis communications practice managed more than 100 crises for 57 clients in 19 states and two countries. As we reflect on 2020, we all… Continue reading 2020 – The Year of Crisis
There’s been no shortage of discussion about social media’s seemingly endless potential to bring people closer together. Clearly, it is a powerful tool that can efficiently provide information to the masses and create stronger bonds in any number of communities. However, along with these positive opportunities come threats to all entities, especially in today’s “new… Continue reading Social Media — A Boon or a Bane?
In today’s world, savvy PR pros need to be more than just good writers, they need to be knowledgeable about what constitutes optimised digital platforms and they must know how to manage the interaction between these platforms to maximise the chances of achieving the best possible SEO ranking. Two of the critical factors underlying successful… Continue reading It Takes More Than an Optimised Press Release to Hit the SEO Mark
Managing reputation for a brand or a company at the turn of this decade has been challenging for a variety of reasons: First: Everything has become faster and global, from news to information exchange, movements, trends and issues. Many of the recent grassroots movements and major issues, such as Brexit, #MeToo and Extinction Rebellion, have been… Continue reading The Five Pillars of Online Reputation Management
Possibly right now, more than ever, social listening is an important aspect of your brand and reputation, and even your clients’ brand and reputation. As the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns still continue to affect our day-to-day lives, businesses, nonprofits, schools, shopping, entertainment habits and more, people are turning online to engage with one another and… Continue reading Expand Your Monitoring, and Brand, With Social Listening Tools
Don’t expect a big surprise when reading our answer to this question: No, a formal certificate of any kind of curriculum is definitely not necessary to work and survive in PR – as many agency owners, pr managers and employees without a degree can tell you from their experience. But having said this, of course,… Continue reading Is a College Degree Necessary to Work in PR?
So, how do you keep an eye on your competitors? One of the best and easiest ways to keep watch is to audit your competitors’ communications. It requires you (or your agency) to keep an eye on (as well as an ear out) for what they are saying. The right places to look and… Continue reading Keeping an eye on the competition
Nowadays, PR is much more than media relations, press releases or launch events. PR becomes a modern combination of classical and new communication trends – integrated, 360 degree PR strategy including visuals, digital solutions, and, of course, blogging. Blogs fit the taste of those who are looking for interesting pieces of news, non-traditional recommendations or… Continue reading Why should blogging be a part of your PR strategy?
Do you Google yourself and your company? If not, you should. Google is the first impression for anyone who doesn’t know you. It’s common for clients, customers, colleagues and even competitors to use the Internet to form their opinion of you. They want to know who is saying what? Is the information positive, negative or… Continue reading Reputation Management and Monitoring Your Web Presence
