THINKing

10 Things To Do Today

Sometimes we become paralyzed because there seems to be so many things we could and should be doing to market our companies. Longtime readers know I’m typically a strategy first guy, but sometimes you just need to do something to get  things rolling. So, here are 10 easy marketing ideas you can start on today:

How To Plan For Issue Management And Successfully Engage The Marketplace

Photo credit: maxstraeten from morguefile.com

Earlier in this series we talked about the life cycle of and issue, which moves through four distinct stages.  Additionally, in our previous post, we defined an issue as a trend with the capacity to alter how your company operates as the trend  evolves. Here’s a prime example:

Media Continues Self Destruction

Photo credit: Grafixar from morguefile.com

The US media aren’t trusted by Americans, and the self destruction continued this weekend with the incessant drumbeat of impending doom ahead of so-called Hurricane Irene. As Kendall Allen tells us in her piece Fools In Raincoats,

Creativity 2011 – Week #34

9 Ways To Keep Innovation Alive In Your Organization - When your company has an existing, proven method of conducting business, it can be a struggle to keep innovation alive.

How Good Stress Breeds Creativity – Those of us in the trenches know a little “good stress” can actually help boost creativity and innovation.

Generate Your Own Infographics

Above is an infographic generated using Visual.ly, a service that allows users to create their own infographics. These visual representations of data are a great marketing and public relations tool. Are you using them in your marketing and PR?

Here are a few infographic resources you may want to investigate.

Bad PR Firm, Naughty PR Firm

Well, here we go again. You’ll remember back in 2006 when Edelman PR was caught flogging for client Wal-Mart . It seems that we have another PR debacle. There now are stories about Facebook hiring PR firm Burson-Marstellar to discredit Google in the press.

Playing Both Sides Of The Table

Editor’s Note: this is a guest article from Danny Wong, who manages Media Relations for Blank Label Group, and he helped to co-found the group’s startups Blank Label, Thread Tradition, and RE:custom. He’s also played on the other side of the table writing for outlets like the HuffingtonPost, ReadWriteWeb and TheNextWeb.

Content Focused

Blogging experts often tell you to hyperfocus on a topic if you want to build a following. We have been thinking a lot recently about our blog’s content. (We’d love your thoughts, as well. So, feel free to jump in.)

Forgotten Gems

Through no fault of their own, sometimes really good posts just get overlooked. Here are a few forgotten gems you may have missed.

Grandma Says -  Southern grandmothers have often said, “there are only three times a respectable person’s name should be in the paper: when you are born, when you are married, and when you die.” This is the one area in which I part company with my grandmothers.

Top 5 PR Posts

Our PR-related posts are among the most well-read. So, I thought we’d bring to the forefront some evergreen features on PR.  Now, let’s review.

Communications Planning 101 - Developing a communications plan requires a disciplined approach. Your first order of business is reviewing your current program for impact and efficiency.