Voices from Cannes 2017

At this year’s Cannes Lions International Festivalof Creativity, PR Council President Renee Wilsonsat down with several senior agency leaders todiscuss all things Cannes in these six videos.

Elise Mitchell discusses creativeinspiration at Cannes

Renee Wilson Sits Down With Elise Mitchell, Founder & CEO,Mitchell Communications.

Perspectives on the Work – Jon PaulBuchmeyer

Jon Paul Buchmeyer, EVP, Brand, Managing Director of Strategyat M Booth talks about the work at Cannes with Renee Wilson,

PRC President.

Gold Lion Winner – Virginia Devlin,Current

Virginia Devlin, Founder and President of Current and PRCBoard Member is interviewed by Renee Wilson, President at thePRC on the day of the awards, before winning big at Cannes.

Cannes Veteran – Jennifer Cohan, Edelman

Jennifer Cohan, President of Edelman New York is interviewedby Renee Wilson, President at the PRC on the day of the PR

Cannes awards.

A Juror’s Point of View – DarylMcCullough, Citizen Relations

Daryl McCullough, CEO and Chairman of Citizen Relations and2017 Cannes PR Lions juror is interviewed by Renee Wilson,President at the PRC on the day of the PR Cannes awards.

Day of Big Night at Cannes – RobFlaherty, Ketchum

Renee Wilson, PR Council President, interviews Rob Flaherty,Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Ketchum on the day of

the industry’s big night.

Real-Time Digital Marketing:The Ability to Leverage “Now”(Free Webinar On-Demand)

Webinar OverviewIn this webinar, Rebecca Lieb shares findings from herresearch on real-time digital marketing, including the top 6use cases, the benefits and risks, and 12 best practices forpreparing for real-time, plus countless examples of success.

During this webinar, Rebecca will discuss how real-timedigital marketing (RTM) can add tremendous value to customerinteractions; making brands appear relevant, with-it,informed, dynamic and buzzworthy. The movement toward RTM isalso driven by consumer expectations as immediacy, relevanceand access increase with technology.

Presenters

Rebecca Lieb

Strategic Advisor / Research Analyst /Author

@lieblinkRebecca Lieb is a strategic advisor, research analyst, keynotespeaker, author, and columnist. Her areas of specializationare digital marketing and media, with a concentration incontent strategy, content marketing and converged media. Sheworks with many of the world’s leading brands on digitalmarketing innovation. Clients range from start-up to non-profits to Fortune 100 brands and regulated industries,

including Facebook, Home Depot, Nestlé, Anthem, Adobe,Honeywell, DuPont, Fidelity, Gannett, IBM, Save the Children,Pinterest, Cisco, ad and PR agencies, and The Federal ReserveBank of New York.

Moderated by Steve Shannon

Senior Vice President, Sales andMarketing

Critical MentionSteve Shannon joined Critical Mention in 2009 after 17 yearswith the media monitoring firm BurrellesLuce. In his lastposition as executive vice president, he oversaw sales,marketing and product development. Steve began his career atBurrellesLuce as an account executive and was appointedregional sales manager in less than three years, doubling thesales of the firm’s media database service. In the productdevelopment arena, Steve conceived and led the launch of theBurrellesLuce web portal, delivering a per unit revenueincrease of 32%. He also designed and implemented iMonitor in2008 and led the team that closed more than 600 sales of theservice in the first six months after launch. Steve earned aBA in Communications from Kent State University.

Women’s Financial LiteracyGuide 2017

There’s been a lot of discussion around women’s rights thisyear. One issue that hasn’t received much attention is women’sfinancial literacy and the ability to make her own financialdecisions. While the other issues are important, this onecould be the most important of all. The ability to make wisefinancial decisions affects everything else you do for theduration of your lifetime.

Almost half (46.8%) of the U.S. labor force is women. Fewercompanies offer a guaranteed pension and even Social Securitymay not be as secure as we once believed it to be. And, as awoman, you‘re likely to be single at one time or another, dueto divorce or the death of a spouse. So understandingfinancial basics and learning to manage your finances isessential. To do this you need to be financially literate.

What exactly is Financial Literacy?

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation’s annual National

Financial Capability Study tests financial literacy based onthree concepts that are fundamental to how you manageresources and make financial decisions.

Interest rate calculations1.How Inflation works2.Risk diversification3.

Financial Literacy and Women

Several studies show that when asked just three questions thatmeasure knowledge of basic financial concepts, women are lesslikely than men to answer correctly and more likely toindicate that they don’t know the answer. In the U.S. theoverall financial literacy rate is generally low, but womenare lagging behind the men. Only 22.8% of women got all thequestions in the National Financial Literacy Quiz correct.

Download the 2017 Women’s Financial Literacy Guide to see thequestions, take the quiz and learn more about these basicfinancial concepts every women needs to understand.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES

Material contained in this article is provided for informationpurposes only and is not intended to be used in connectionwith the evaluation of any investments offered by David LernerAssociates, Inc. This material does not constitute an offer orrecommendation to buy or sell securities and should not beconsidered in connection with the purchase or sale ofsecurities.

The materials in the guide are provided for generalinformation and educational purposes based upon publiclyavailable information from sources believed to be reliable– wecannot assure the accuracy or completeness of these materials.The information in these materials may change at any time andwithout notice. https://news.davidlerner.com

Andrew Faas on a Boomer’sGuide To Millennials: H isfor HumbleEditor’s Note: This is the seventh in a series of articles onthe A-B C’s of Leadership, outlining the characteristics foreffective leadership.

Andrew Faas, Author and Activist

St. Augustine wrote: “It was pride that changed angels intodevils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”

Today we live in a world where narcissistic, self-serving,egotistical autocrats have taken control of almost everyaspect of society. We have allowed this to happen and if leftunchecked, these aspiring dictators will destroy Westerndemocracy as we know it. To understand the dangers, reflect onwhat occurred in the early 1930s in Germany and the horribleconsequences of what followed.

The business world plays a role in this cult of ego. Theworkplace has become a breeding ground for narcissisticleadership and, despite billions of dollars spent on

diversity, harassment, motivation, sensitivity, mindfulnessand other human resource programs, there has been preciouslittle positive impact.

In “Why do CEOs fail, and what can we do about it?” inPsychology Today, Ray Williams reported that, “According tothe Harvard Business Review, two out of four new CEOs fail intheir first 18 months on the job. It appears that the majorreason for the failure has nothing to do with competence, orknowledge, or experience, but rather with hubris and ego and aleadership style out of touch with modern times.”

This was never truer than with the bully boss. When we reviewthe downfall of the many organizations over the last couple ofdecades, the bully boss was the most common culprit. I assertthat the majority of North American workers work for a bullyboss, which I discuss in my recent book From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization out of the Line of Fire.

There’s a reason why bullies seem to reign supreme. After morethan 40 years as a senior executive in the corporate world,and after conducting research for my books, articles and blogson workplace dynamics, I have found that people who makedecisions on leadership hires rarely factor humility as aprerequisite characteristic. In fact, many perversely considerhumility as a weakness of character, in spite of having madeprevious hiring decisions that turned out badly because of thecandidate’s ego and hubris.

Some of the blame lays on America’s top business schools,where the opposite of humility is engrained in the curriculum.In his book, The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, thelimits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite,Duff McDonald outlines how Harvard Business School fell underthe influence of former University of Rochester ProfessorMichael Janson in the 1980s. Janson wrote a paper that laidthe groundwork for a seismic shift in philosophy advancing theeconomic theory that shareholders and must always be first and

insisting that institutional investors and Wall Streeters bereleased from “the obligation of considering anything buttheir own narrow wants and needs.” I assert that this shift inphilosophy legitimized the culture of power, control, greedand corruption at the expense of employees, consumers,communities and entire countries.

Contrary to what they teach atHarvard Business School, some ofour greatest leaders werehumble. The myth that humilityis just about being nice andkind is debunked when weconsider these examples.

Moses was considered the greatest biblical prophet, andNumbers 12:3 of the Bible painted a picture of man notinterested in dominating others: “Now the man Moses was verymeek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth.”

Take the example of President Abraham Lincoln. Dr. RussellRazzaque wrote in Psychology Today, “Abraham Lincoln isregarded by many as the virtual personification of emotionalintelligence. Like few others in the corridors of history,Lincoln’s ability to regulate his emotions was the key to anemotional intelligence that produced extraordinary levels ofhumility.”

In her book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of AbrahamLincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin captures how Lincoln gained thetrust, respect and loyalty of his fiercest rivals by askingthem to challenge him with opposing perspectives, rather thanjust surrounding himself with people who would tell him what

he wanted to hear.

Perhaps the greatest example of humility, and lesson inleadership as well, was when Mohandes K. Gandhi said, “Theregoes my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.”

A more recent example of humility and leadership is that ofTheo Epstein, who recognized that he had to grow as a leaderwhen he became president of the Chicago Cubs—once Major LeagueBaseball’s punch line for any joke about perpetual losers.This recognition led the Cubs to their World Series win in2016 after a 108-year hiatus.

His extraordinary feat was lauded in Fortune, where he madethe top spot on the World’s Greatest Leader’s list, but whatmakes him truly remarkable is what he learned from his yearswith the Boston Red Sox. In his book, The Cubs Way, author andSports Illustrated senior baseball writer Tom Verducci,describes it this way:

“Once he’d joined the Cubs, Epstein gave his scouts veryspecific marching orders. On every prospect he wanted the areascout to give three examples of how that player responded toadversity on the field and three examples of how that playerresponded to adversity off the field.”

In other words, Epstein realized the importance of characterand wanted to build a psychologically healthy workplace. Hisprevious approach with the Red Sox was more of an obsessionwith statistics, number-crunching and little-known nichetalents, similar to the movie Moneyball, but it wasn’tsustainable. By the end of his tenure the team was fallingapart. Through this he realized no amount of data couldaccount for character and chemistry.

Describing this to Verducci, Epstein explained “If we can’tfind the next technological breakthrough, well maybe we can bebetter than anyone else with how we treat our players and howwe connect with players and the relationships we develop and

how we put them in positions to succeed.”

Moses, Lincoln, Gandhi and Epstein practiced what someone oncewrote: “True humility is staying teachable regardless of howmuch you already know.” Let us all become their students.

About the Author: Andrew Faas is an author, activist,revolutionist, philanthropist and management advisorpromoting psychologically healthy, safe and fair workplaces.Before becoming a philanthropist, he led some of Canada’slargest corporations for over three decades as a seniorexecutive. He founded the Faas Foundation, which supportsnon-profit organizations concerned with workplace well-beingand other personal health and research endeavors. Currentlyhe is partnering with the Yale Center for EmotionalIntelligence on a groundbreaking initiative, EmotionRevolution in the Workplace, which will revolutionize the wayorganizations operate, leveraging the power of emotionalintelligence; and Mental Health America, to help reduceunnecessary stress factors at work and eliminate stigmaaround a condition that affects one in five adults. Hislatest book “From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your OrganizationOut of the Line of Fire,” reveals deep-seated dangers ofbullying to everyone who works pinpointing the identifyingcharacteristics of bullies and outlining how bullyingundermines corporate profitability and value and how CEOs andboards can remedy it.

The Circle of SEO – HowDigital Marketing Has Becomea Competition Against Itself

Nathan Elly, Branch Manager, DigitalNext

Digital marketing has quickly become a necessity forbusinesses who want to reach their target markets. It’s moreaccessible and, in most cases, cheaper than traditionalmarketing and advertising methods, as well as enabling you toreach both a geographically wider and more demographicallytargeted audience.

The necessity of digital marketing has also led to intensecompetition in the space. Marketing professionals across theglobe are competing for online visibility, making it difficultfor any one campaign to stand out.

Trying to compete online may lead you to seek out an SEOAgency.

Using a professional agency can help guide you through thedigital marketing world and allow you to create a strategy todifferentiate you from everyone else who is also trying to getlikes on social media, traction on their PPC campaign andloyal content readers.

While everyone is competing in the same online arena, thestrategies you use to approach your online activities is what

will ultimately allow you to stand out.

Increasing competition

It can be overwhelming at times to manage digital channels dueto the heavy competition in what can seem like every channel.What seemed brilliant and easy when you were adjusting yourmarketing strategy to incorporate the latest trends for theyear, now seems frustrating and pointless because you’re doingthe same things as your competitors are doing.

For example, content strategies have been really popular overthe past few years. You’ve been told you need more content andyou need to become a thought leader in your industry so thatyour customers will look to you for information and guidance.This is a great strategy, but everyone else knows that too.Consumers are being inundated with content, whether it’s intheir email inbox, on their social media feeds or on theirGoogle search result. What is going to make them stop to readyour piece of content over some else’s?

Deliver value

The easiest way to stand out in the competitive digital spaceis to focus on quality over quantity. Rather than drowningyour customers in content, throw them a life raft in the formof a genuinely useful piece of information.

Churning out content for the sake of having content is one ofthe biggest mistakes you can make in digital marketing.Everything you create and do as a marketer should have apurpose and strategy behind it.

The article you’re writing should have value for the readerand it should fit into your larger marketing strategy.Creating one high quality piece of content is a better use oftime, money and effort than creating 20 pieces of content thatno one is going to read.

Delivering value is also a good thing to keep in mind for yoursocial media strategy. Having a presence on every social mediachannel isn’t going to help your overall marketing strategyvery much and it’s just going to take time, money and effortaway from the channels that are really impactful.

Whatever you are doing online, it’s important to first figureout what your customers are doing. Know what they’researching, what their problems are and where you can reachthem. Then design your strategies around these factors so thatin the end, your strategy will have maximum value.

Play the long game

If you want to look for areas of the digital marketing worldwhere you can surpass your competitors, think about your longterm strategy.

The thing most people like about digital marketing is thatthey can create campaigns quickly and then get quick results.Less people are thinking about long term strategies and thereality is that if you slowly build a long term strategy, it’sgoing to ultimately give you a better, more sustainableresult.

Long-term strategy also comes back to the idea of value.Carefully cultivating your content strategy and building yourSEO campaigns over time are going to be more valuable to yourcustomers then quickly shoveling out articles and PPC ads. Thelong term strategies may take longer to see a return, but theywill perform more steadily and build you a stronger customerbase.

If you want to set your digital marketing strategy apart fromthe competition, just remember to think about your customers.The more specifically you think about your customers and theirneeds, the more successful you will be at standing out in whatis becoming a very large crowd.

About the Author: Nathan Elly is the branch manager atDigital Next, a full-service digital agency based in SouthMelbourne specialising in responsive Web design, SEO, PPC andsocial media marketing. He’s a passionate digital marketerspecialising in business development and long-term strategy,with experience from a multitude of SEO disciplines combinedinto a role which supports and progresses online businesses.

Blasting360, the FirstEuropean Content Marketplaceto Connect Journalists andEditors from All over Europe

CommPro.biz Editorial Staff

Blasting News – the largest global social news magazinefounded in 2013 by Italian entrepreneur Andrea Manfredi – withfunding from the Google Digital News Initiative (DNI),has developed an innovative project designed for the Europeanpublishing industry.

After little more than a year, Blasting News haslaunched Blasting360, the first European marketplace forcurated content, designed to connect journalists and

publishers all over Europe.

Andrea Manfredi, founder and CEO of Blasting News, willannounce the official launch of Blasting360 during a pressconference that took place in Milan on Tuesday the 6th ofJune, in the roof terrace of the prestigious Hotel The ViuMilan, in the restaurant of the Michelin-starred chefGiancarlo Morelli. Tom Corbett, Head of European DivisionInternational News Media Association, also participated at theevent as a guest speaker.

“I would like to thank again Google Digital News Initiative,which offered funds to help make this project possible.Blasting 360’s goal is to offer a completely new perspectiveto the European digital journalism industry. Leveraging on thenetwork we have built over the past few years and thetechnology we have developed at Blasting News, we want tooffer to all the European publishers the power of crowd-sourcing” says Manfredi.

Blasting360 enables all European publishers to receive orrequest tailored, multi-format media contents produced by aqualified network of journalists, content creators and opinionleaders.

Publishers finally have a platform that allows them to easilyaccess multi-format media, both mainstream or geographicallytargeted, in real time and at an absolutely competitive price.

Publishers will be free to choose the content that best meetstheir needs, either by selecting them through a proprietaryalgorithm which identifies the trending news and creatingtailored news feeds or by requesting customized content tospecific journalists according to the specific needs.

Social Media for Business –Jennefer Witter (Live Event,NYC)

Date: Mon,Jul 10,2017, 7 pm

Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd StVenue: Classroom

Price: from $30.00

Social Media are great tools for business development,publicity and revenue generation, yet many small businessowners do not take total advantage of these “free” tools.Jennefer Witter provides easily implementable tips on howentrepreneurs can use social media to their full potential.Witter has generated thousands of dollars via Facebook and hasbooked speaking engagements via LinkedIn, including anengagement at the Pentagon. She is author of The Little Bookof Big PR: 100+ Quick Tips to Get Your Small Business Noticed,which has a chapter devoted to social media.

Meets 7-8:30 pm.

Communicators toCommunicators: New! 3-MinuteC2C Insights Videos fromCommunicationsMatch™

Simon Erskine Locke,Founder & CEO,CommunicationsMatch™

Life lessons, the value of professional development and agencyeconomics are the focus of our Communicators to Communicators(C2C) Insights Videos from the recent PRSA Counselors Academymeeting in Seattle. We interviewed industry legend Tom Hoog,former Chairman of Hill & Knowlton; respected Executive CoachKen Jacobs; President of Second Quadrant Solutions, DarrylSalerno; and Rebecca Mosley, Managing Partner of Kite Rocket,who shared takeaways from the event.

CommunicationsMatch’s C2C Videos offer perspectives fromindustry leaders, agency heads, journalists, technologists,educators and service providers on a range of communications-related topics including financial and international PR,research and analytics, thought leadership, media training,branding, professional development, small business marketingand SEO.

In the coming weeks, we will highlight new and recently-postedC2C interviews on the CommunicationsMatch YouTube Channelwith: Joe Mandese, Editor-in-Chief at Media Post on the futureof Advertising; Orlando Carmargo, Principal of theDilenschneider Group on lessons from a career in internationalcommunications; Tony Cheevers, VP Business Development atResearchscape on the changing research landscape; andKahshanna Evans, Principal of Kissing Lions PR on tips forniche and emerging brands, among others.

We’re adding new interviews every week, and are always lookingfor interesting voices and perspective to share with thecommunications community. We welcome interview ideas.

Tom Hoog, Former Vice Chairman of Hill & Knowlton, and one ofthe most respected people in the industry, shares four keylife lessons for communicators to guide careers.

Ken Jacobs, Principal, Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching,discusses the importance of professional development.

Darryl Salerno, President of Second Quadrant, highlights thekeys to economic success for agencies and who clients need tounderstand what they are paying for.

Rebecca Mosley, Managing Partner of Kite RocketCommunications, who will organize the 2018 Counselors Academymeeting in Toronto, provides her takeaways from the conferenceand for agency leaders.

CommunicationsMatch™ is a search platform that helpscompanies find communications agencies and consultants byindustry and communications expertise, location, size, andmore . The site has 5,000 agencies and consultant profilesin areas including: crisis communications, public relations,internal communications, government affairs, investorrelations, content marketing, social media, SEO, websitedevelopment, photography and video. Listing & Search areFree. See more Insights articles and videos on our InsightsBlog. Prior to founding CommunicationsMatch, Locke heldsenior corporate communications roles at PrudentialFinancial, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank and foundedcommunications consultancies.

Climbing Telephone Poles (Op-Ed)

Thomas J. Madden, Chairman and CEO, Transmedia Group

The radio waves and wires of AT&T span my life like uncutumbilical cords.

I feel like Ma Bell raised me.

To this day I’m still grateful and steadfastly obedient to myMa, loyally subscribing to her unseen land lines andubiquitous cell phones. Bless her heart, she was my firstclient in New York after I climbed down from my perilous perchat 30 Rock to start my own PR firm, Transmedia Group, in NewYork City.

The valuable lesson I learned from MA is always do favors forpeople because they’ll pay you back in spades. And whateverpoles you have to climb in life, climb hard as you can to thetop.

While I was still in my perilous perch as a Vice President ofNBC, one busy day a frustrated AT&T executive called me andsaid he was getting an exhausting run around and needed tospeak to the right person about our phones. I looked up ourtop exec in charge of telecommunications and gave him the nameand his new extension. He reacted as if he were lost in adesert and I had just given him compass and a canteen of freshwater.

A couple of years later I had just put my shingle up and I was

looking desperately for my first client. Then I rememberedthe AT&T guy and called him as the company was in turmoilafter having to divest its operating companies in settlementof a landmark anti-trust lawsuit.

I told him that as a crisis management expert with lots offresh contacts at NBC and ABC, I could help AT&T through thefirestorm.

Thanks to thatAT&T exec I hadhelped, it wasn’ttoo long before Iwas invited tolunch near AT&T’sspectacular,sprawlingheadquarters inBedminster, NJ,the city whereeven back thenrobots deliveredthe mail and

where today President Trump’s palatial golf club has become ahub of presidential activity.

On that mild spring day, it became the mother of all lunches. I was lunching with the then Director of PR at AT&T and hisboss, a senior VP of Advertising. They had heard about mefrom the guy I had done the favor for. They also had read myswan song article in TV GUIDE, which mentioned I had startedmy own PR firm.

Beautiful Bedminster was the home of the mighty AT&T LongDistance network, the telecommunications nerve center of theworld. They asked me a lot of questions about the innerworkings of TV networks where I had been a top executive andparticularly about my ex-boss, NBC’s then CEO, Fred Silverman,

whose right hand man I was for several tumultuous years beforedeciding I’d live a lot longer being my own boss.

There I was at that momentous lunch having just climbed downfrom that precipice at 30 Rock. I had no office yet, noassistants, no clients. I had surrendered my most treasuredasset, my NBC credit card that I used to charge flights fromParis on the Concorde, and to my children’s greatest dismay, Ihad turned in my supply of VIP passes to Saturday Night Life. Now having reached the most humiliating stage of myprofessional career, waiting for my first unemployment checkto tide me over until I landed my first client, I was askedhow much I wanted to represent . . . the mother of allclients.

I took a long sip of my dry Martini and blurted out sixfigures.

Okay, the top guy said, but could I start right away bookingthen AT&T chairman Charley Brown on network TV. That’s right,Charley Brown was the name of the top guy who literallystarted as a pole climber who climbed right up to the telecomsummit.

Sure, I said managing somehow not to stammer.

Good, then we’ll send you over a contract on Monday.

That night I told Angela and the kids we were going to sellour Long Island home, move into the city and open an office. We had landed the mother of all clients–a full-year contractwith AT&T, which it would renew four wonderful times.

And while I got Charley Brown on The Today Show, CBS Morningand lots of other network shows, we added a slew of newclients to our expanding roster, including the City of NewYork.

I continued to get Charley Brown all the media bookings he

wanted. And then some.

So thanks Ma! And thanks to that AT&T exec who was lost andwandering the media desert . . . until I did him a favor!

About the Author: Thomas Madden is CEO of TransMedia Group,one of the largest independent PR firms in Florida, where itcurrently operates. The firm’s clients have included AT&T,American Red Cross, City of New York, GL Homes, JordacheEnterprises, McCormick and Schmick’s, Rexall Sundown, StanleySteemer.

Effective RepublicanMessaging on Health CareNeeds the One Thing TheyDon’t Have but Democrats Do:Unity

Andrew Ricci, Vice President, LEVICK

A curious thing happened just about two hours after the SenateRepublicans unveiled their long-awaited health care bill:President Trump admitted that there were no tapes of hisconversations with former FBI Director James Comey.

This, I suspect, was no accident, and although the two arecompletely unrelated, it should be seen as a telling forecastof the difficulties that Senate Republicans will face inmessaging their health care legislation beyond the halls ofCongress. By diluting the big news of the day with anothermajor story that was bound to come out eventually, thePresident effectively diluted the coverage that both newsitems would receive. The networks reflected that by jumpingback and forth between coverage of the two as they tried togive them both the “breaking news” treatment.

For weeks, Republicans in the upper chamber have been slammedfor the secretive process by which they attempted to drafttheir supposedly eight-years-in-the-making health care repealand replace effort. Tweets and on-camera statements were dugup from the archives of prominent Republicans – includingthen-Congressman Mike Pence and Senator Mitch McConnell –blasting what they alleged was a closed process, despite theDemocrats’ legislation undergoing robust action in three Housecommittees and two Senate committees and hours of bipartisanfloor debate. This bill, comparatively, is not scheduled forany Senate committee action at this time.

While the bill was being drafted in secret and kept under lockand key, Democrats have been out in full force with theirmessaging about what it would likely entail and why they feltit would negatively impact the country.

It’s an oft-cited axiom in the communications business thatplaying defense in a communications campaign is almost alwaysa weaker position than playing offense. This has been the casefor millennia, and Chinese military strategist outlined asmuch in his famous 5th century B.C. military treatise The Art

of War. In Chapter 6, on weak points and strong, Sun Tzu said“Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of theenemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in thefield and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.”

(Photo source: Twitter)

Nothing could more clearly illustrate the current situation.Democrats’ messaging has defined the narrative here already,before the bill text was even released. Republicans have beenput on the defensive from the start of this process, and thereare no signs that it will be letting up any time soon.

After the bill was released to the public, Democrats werequick to blitz across local and national TV networks withtheir criticism, which will almost certainly leave Republicansexhausted as they try to play defense. Pennsylvania SenatorBob Casey was quick to take to his twitter account, offeringline-by-line criticisms – each of which Republicans will haveto defend before this debate is over. Republicans hoping tovote on this next week before they leave for their July4th recess are in for a long couple of days indeed.

Further frustrating Republicans’ messaging efforts, fourRepublican Senators – Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of

Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Mike Lee of Utah –quickly came out opposing the bill in its current form. Stillothers have already expressed serious concerns or are expectedto have problems with specific provisions. Republicans’overall messaging is not helped when they can’t even count ontheir own to either hold their nose and support it or at leastkeep quiet about their individual issues.

While I suspect President Trump made a strategic decision toissue his Comey confession right after the Senate bill droppedin an attempt to dilute coverage and scrutiny of both issues,Republicans in the Senate will still have to defend theirlegislation now that it is in the public sphere. And they willhave to speak with one voice if they want to have any shot atwinning the messaging and political war. That may be a longway off and time is not on their side.

In the meantime, as Republicans try to find their commonground, Democrats are demonstrating unity and putting forth astrong offense. And, as Sun Tzu would remind us, “once peopleare unified, the brave cannot proceed alone, the timid cannotretreat alone – this is the rule for employing a group.”

The next week will surely be interesting as both sidescontinue girding for battle.

About the Author: Andrew Ricci, Vice President at D.C.communications firm LEVICK. Andrew, an experienced mediarelations expert, content-creation specialist, and publicaffairs strategist, started his career working on politicalcampaigns and on Capitol Hill, serving as a seniorcommunications aide to Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio) and as theCongressman’s official spokesman during his reelectioncampaign. At LEVICK, Andrew now counsels a wide range ofclients navigating reputational challenges in the public eye.

SheKnows Media and Google toCo-Host a #BlogHer17 Panel toHelp Bloggers MaximizeRevenue Potential byLeveraging Partner Networks

CommPRO.biz Editorial Staff

Leading women’s media company, SheKnows Media is co-hosting apanel with Google’s Certified Publishing Partner Program at#BlogHer17 on June 24 in Orlando to discuss the latestadvertising and monetization trends. They are also looking tohelp bloggers and content creators learn to leverage partnernetworks to increase their revenue potential.

The session, titled “Digital Advertising Demystified: How toEarn Money with Partner Networks,” will be providing insightinto viewability, native ads and the importance of page loadspeed.

The session will also conclude with an interactive Q&A withspeakers Amy Shih, Product Specialist, Google OnlinePartnerships, and Phil Bohn, Vice President of Programmaticand Data Strategies at SheKnows Media, who will moderate the

discussion.

Shih and Bohn will be joined onstage by Carole Jones, Creatorof the blog My Kitchen Escapades, and Lisette Harrington,Creator of the blog Northern Belle Diaries – both of whom willshare how they are successfully using the SheKnows MediaPartner Network, a Google Certified Publishing Partner, toprovide value to brands while giving their users a positiveadvertising experience.

Bohn added, “Monetization has become much more complex overthe last few years. Bloggers today are inundated withinformation and options that often make it more difficult tomake decisions that increase their earning potential. Togetherwith Google and two successful content creators that partnerwith the SheKnows Network, we look forward to helping bloggerswho attend this session better understand the most criticalfactors that go into increasing on-site monetization.”

#BlogHer17 is taking place June 22-24 in Orlando. Theconference series, produced by SheKnows Media, attracts morethan 2,000 women bloggers, vloggers, writers, social mediainfluencers, entrepreneurs, industry luminaries and brandexecutives each year.

To register for the conference, or to learn more about thispanel, visit the #BlogHer17 website. More information aboutSheKnows Media can be found at www.sheknowsmedia.com.

Beyond Crisis Days: Gaining

Advantage from Your MorningEmail

Russ Schwartz, Director, PRIMEResearch

If your organization’s news alerts are boring on a slow day,or if you only remember they exist during product launches andcrises, you might be ignoring a vital resource. Corporatecommunicators who look beyond the basic utility and format ofdaily media reports develop an intelligent view ofopportunities and challenges while applying a useful tool forinternal messaging.

What is a News Briefing?

A daily news briefing is a collection of the day’s toprelevant stories as defined by an internal or externalclient. Usually delivered in the early morning, thecollection of articles and social posts may go beyond companyand brand news to include competitors, emerging issues,regulatory action, and industry developments. The briefingsfeature headlines, publication information, and online articlelinks; options include expertly written summaries, translatedabstracts, cumulative data reflecting news trends, and more. The briefings can be presented in the form of a menu,delivered to desktop and mobile devices wherever and wheneverone does business. Copyright compliance is essential, withnon-compliance carrying heavy penalties.

How to Achieve theHighest Value froma News Briefing

The foundation of a briefing is often the expertise of asingle person (or team), translated into criteria for searchengines, database checks, media scans, and other methods forcontent gathering. Consistency tends to be the primary concernearly on, with goals such as capturing all high-priorityarticles on a target company or subject. However, if the teamresponsible is not challenged to question their results, thinkbeyond the explicit criteria and apply broader industryknowledge, the product’s value and insight can be lost.

Close collaboration between the news team and their clients isrequired given the active nature of business and the “alwayson” dynamics of news and social media. Consider a Wall StreetJournal article that includes just one mention of a targetcompany appearing halfway through the text. This could be aminor reference, not worthy of top-level attention; it alsocould be a painstakingly placed article that tells thecompany’s story perfectly, albeit subtly. You know thedifference, but your team needs to know, too, and they need tobe able to make this distinction without you, and to get itright every time.

To that end, foster critical reading, independent research,and a broad industry vocabulary in reporting teams. They mustbe able to question what they read and view it in context,

rather than scanning for easily found mentions, and to trackhow storylines and media channels grow and change. In additionto supporting clearer, higher-quality reporting, this canbuild an element of exploration, enabling your news service tohighlight conversations your organization may want to join.

And when a big news day does occur, you’ll want more than aclip count. Whether your news service team is internal orexternal, make sure it’s up to date with positions on criticalissues, and plan ahead for how to handle sensitive topics.

Why News Briefings Matter

At their best, news briefings present an efficientcommunications tool that supports trust, coordination and afocus on organizational objectives:

A briefing offers transparency when deliveringnewsworthy content, regardless of whether it’s positiveor criticalA briefing delivers emerging trends across businessunits, brands, industry areas and regions, to equipexecutives to act and respond intelligently, cohesivelyand professionallyIts structure reinforces the priorities of theenterprise, as the selection of the day’s top newsrepresents that which the organization values mostPairing a briefing with media analysis provides both acurrent and retrospective view to what is happening, whyit’s happening, and what can be done about it

How to Begin

Whether executed in-house or through an outside provider, it’simportant to work with the intended recipients to identifytheir objectives for a news briefing. Based on the audiencesthey serve, some organizations deliver multiple versions tosatisfy the needs of individual business areas and geographicregions. Once understood, the audience’s priorities will guide

the selection of media, topics, frequency and time ofdelivery. Be sure to get sign-off before beginning, with theunderstanding that your organization’s priorities regardingcontent and media may change over time. Become familiar withthe rights available to you through your content provider. Double-check for any pay-wall requirements and honor them.

Rather than being just another company email, your morningnews briefing is a chance to inform management andcolleagues, to help the enterprise make more informeddecisions, and to reinforce the importance of the publicrelations function.

About the Author: Russ Schwartz is Director and co-leader ofPRIME’s news division. He works with clients across multiplesectors to create customized news and media deliverables. Learn more about PRIME Research at www.prime-research.com.

Trends in CommunicationsIndustry Show Companies Slowto Adopt New Technologies

CommPRO.Biz Editorial Staff

Recently, theEMPLOYEEapp by APPrise Mobile and The PublicRelations Society of America (PRSA) released findings from anew study on technology usage by the Communications Industry.

Based on a survey of more than 600 communicationsprofessionals, this survey reveals that though many companiesare embracing social media to communicate with audiences, theyare still relying on older technologies like email tocommunicate internally with employees. The study found thatwhile the majority of individuals use mobile devices, mostcompanies are still not effectively using them forcommunications and content distribution.

The survey looked closely in to how communicationsprofessionals use technology in four main categories: email,social media and mobile technology, and also investigatedmessaging and social collaboration tools. The survey was todetermine how each technology is being used, and how effectivethey are

“Communicators understand the importance of finding technologythat suits our ‘always on’ culture and emphasizing the rolethat digital storytelling has in today’s mobile-first world,”said PRSA 2017 National Chair Jane Dvorak, APR, Fellow PRSA.“Yet, based on organizations’ seemingly limited investment innewer technologies and reticence to move away from email andintranets, old-school communication tactics remain thedominant method of distributing information.”

Jeff Corbin, CEO of APPrise Mobile, commented, “The past

several years have seen a very rapid change when it comes tothe use of technology to communicate with an organization’sinternal and external audiences. It is safe to now say thatmobile technology is here to stay. The question thereforebecomes how does our industry have to change to remainrelevant in light of the fact that content is now beingconsumed primarily through the small screens of iPhones andAndroids. The research that we conducted with PRSA addressesthis question and shows where we are succeeding and where weneed to rethink the way our work is done.”

Highlights from the Survey

Key findings from the survey are below. A more detailed reportwill be released in the coming weeks. To sign up to receive acopy of the report once it is issued, visitwww.theEMPLOYEEapp.com/PRSA2017.

Email is not likely to go away anytime soon. However,when other factors are considered such as emailoverload, newer messaging technologies and greaterconsumption of content found on mobile devices,communicators agree that it is not the most effectiveway to reach external audiences.

Email is used by 91 percent of respondents tocommunicate with external audiences; however only27 percent believe it is the most effective way tocommunicate externally.Communicators found social 11 percent moreeffective than email for communicating withexternal audiences.Email is used by 95 percent of respondents forinternal employee communications with 69 percentsaying it is the most effective way to reachemployees.A large percentage of respondents (63 percent)believe email will always be used, especially withinternal audiences.

Social media: Given the size and reach of social mediaplatforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter,communicators have grown increasingly familiar with howto best use these tools, especially for externalcommunications.

Most respondents (77 percent) said their companyhas a policy around social media.Fifty-five percent said their company had a formalpolicy.Forty-four percent said their company has aninformal policy that relies on employee judgment.

Mobile technology: Companies recognize the importance ofmobile as a workplace tool and necessary counterpart todesktop computers. But most employees cannot accessimportant company information through their Apple andAndroid devices.

Roughly half (48 percent) said their organizationhad a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy.Sixty-two percent said they either don’t access orhave a very difficult time accessing theircompany’s intranet through their mobile device.

Messaging and social collaboration technologies: A lackof uniformity exists with the use of messaging andsocial collaboration technologies and it is unclearwhich solution is the best and/or most effective.Importantly, messaging technologies are beingimplemented at a group level rather thaninstitutionalized throughout an entire organization.

Thirty-one percent said they use a variety ofmessaging technologies, while only 46 percent saidtheir entire company uses the same platform.Slack is used most frequently (41 percent) amonggroups of employees; Workplace by Facebook rankssecond (21 percent); disparate others are used aswell.

The Top 5 Strategies forMastering Enterprise LocalSEO

Matthew Hunt, CMO & VP of Sales,Powered by Search

Local SEO is not just for “Mom & Pop” businesses.

Ever since Google’s Pigeon Update, any business can takeadvantage of showing up in Google’s search results for searchqueries that have local intent.

Being visible in local search is an incredible way to attractpeople who are ready to buy.

Local search queries have a much stronger intent to buy (asopposed to non-local search queries).

According to the Google Think Study on Local:

Consumers search with their location in mind. 4 out of 5consumers use search engines to find local information.50% of consumers who conducted a local search on theirsmartphone visited a store within a day, and 34% whosearched on computer/tablet did the same.

Local searches have higher purchase intent; 18% of localsearches on smartphones led to a purchase within one dayvs. 7% of non-local searches.Enterprise Local SEO is similar to Local SEO, but italso requires a deep knowledge of scaling SEO practicesfor companies with hundreds or thousands of locations.

Enterprise Local SEO Strategies are hugely dependent on anumber of factors: industry, number of brick and mortarlocations, budget, current market placement, agility,aggressiveness or risk tolerance, existing infrastructure, andmulti-team stakeholder buy-in.

With that said, these are the top 5 Enterprise Local SEOstrategies that apply to a good proportion of enterprise-classwebsites.

1. Accurate Location Data

When working with millions of pages, it’s important toleverage dynamic content.

Consider the insurance industry: home and auto insurancecompanies understand the need to have and maintain contentthat describes their services. This is a small amount ofcontent that should be easy to both create and maintain.

However, this industry also has a huge amount of region-specific searches. Take the following phrases for example:“Condo Insurance in New York” or “Car Insurance in FortLauderdale.” How does one create powerful, persuasive, anduseful pieces of content that will pull in that aspect of theinsurance market?

For each of our service and location pages, such as “CondoInsurance in New York,” you need to have unique content thatmeets the need of the user. In this example, having access todata sources is key. This allows the location page to answerquestions such as:

How much have condo or homeowners in New York paid indamages in the past ten years?How many natural disasters have occurred?Has the cost of condos and condo maintenance beenrising? Is that cost high comparable to other citieswithin the state?How common is theft in New York?Is incidence of theft rising?Is the city more at risk than other cities within thestate?What kinds of cost savings can a New Yorker get throughgovernment programs?Have local users left positive reviews for us?Each of these data points can be put into dynamiccontent and used to tell a persuasive story. They areavailable through various APIs, which allow the creationof these dynamic pages on a massive scale.

Note: Implementation can change dramatically betweenindustries, what we’ve listed here is a general strategy.

2. Keyword& Content Mapping

From an SEO expert’s perspective, a website is a series ofpages that are strategically planned. Keyword research is theact of doing the research around which ideas are most valuableand represent a market. Keyword research is considered thegroundwork that provides the foundation of any website.

Enterprise websites have massive foundations. While the scopeis somewhat intimidating, it’s even more frightening toconsider that the foundation may have had little to no thoughtbehind it, or that it’s old and falling apart.

In many cases, we find that the best strategy for both shortand long-term results is to refine this foundation,retargeting and expanding the keyword and content map todominate the market.

3. Unique Local Landing Pages

Every specific phrase and search query that you want to rankfor should have a preferred landing page (PLP) that istargeted to that keyword. Often, we don’t see a landing pagefor each keyword that an organization wants to rank for orthey have a thin page that does not deserve to rank for thatkeyword.

The strategy is to create PLPs rich in content that arescalable and still provide great UX to improve conversions.

4. Site Structure Optimization & Local Store LocatorOptimization

A site’s structure is like a web where each node is a page,and each page is connected to other pages by links. Links toyour pages from your website are called internal links, andlinks from other websites are external links.

Internal links connect the pages of a website together. Thisallows users and search engines to navigate through a site anddiscover content. These links may be website navigation, in-content links, breadcrumb links, footer links, or evenpagination links. Every link on a site, whether humanlyvisible or not, matters for Enterprise SEO.

A good rule of thumb is that your Preferred Landing Pagesshould have the highest number of internal links.

Consider your site navigation: since navigation is availableon every page of your site, it means that every link withinthe navigation is also on every page. Therefore, thesenavigation links must direct to extremely important pages. Ifyour navigation links to pages that are not important, they’restealing ranking and traffic power from other pages.

Using this thought process; we organize enterprise sites sothat the most valuable pages get the most activity. Enterprise

websites have complex structures, and within these structuresit’s important to ensure that the most valuable pages get theappropriate amount of internal links.

An extremely effective strategy for enterprises is toestablish the priority of each page (across sometimes millionsof pages), and create an implementation plan that results ineach page being internally-linked to according to its searchpotential and ability to achieve business objectives.

5. NAP Data Syndication

NAP stands for Name, Address & Phone and to Google it’s likethe fingerprint for each location. That fingerprint must beclean throughout the local ecosystem. Incorrect informationlisted on any of the local data aggregators can lead toduplicate listings and confuse the search engines. It candilute the power of any of your citations and split reviewsbetween multiple listings. There are endless problems if yourNAP data is not correctly syndicated.

The solution is to understand and control the sources of thelocal data aggregators so that only clean local data issyndicated. When this is done, business locations will gainbetter visibility, and ultimately provide a better experiencefor their customers.

In conclusion, understanding these key principals is just thefirst step towards mastering Enterprise Local SEO. One keything to bear in mind is that Enterprise Local SEO is not aquick-and-easy endeavour and it requires patience and acumen,but when mastered, it can become the cornerstone of yourbusiness’ marketing and lead generation strategy.

To learn more about Enterprise Local SEO download the freeguidebook “The Ultimate Guide to Local SEO for EnterpriseBusinesses”

About the Author: Matthew Hunt is an ex theatre-actor turnedinternet marketing junkie. He’s the CMO and VP of Sales atPowered by Search. He’s been helping Fortune 1000 companieswith their digital marketing for the last 10 years. He’sworked with brands like FedEx, RE/MAX, Allstate, Valvoline,Rogers, and many more. Matthew has worked with over 350 CEOsand business owners and helped them exceed their businessgoals by leveraging digital marketing.

5 Ways Automation WillForever Change How We DoBusiness

Lauren Ruef, ResearchAnalyst/Copywriter, Nvoicepay

Fintech isn’t a trend, and now more than ever, businesses arestarting to believe it. Governmental regulatory bodies likeThe Office of the Comptroller of the Currency grantingFintech a special charter to dodge regulatory barriers couldfundamentally change everything about the future of finance.

While many welcome this change with open arms, others fear thepace of adoption in an industry that’s slow to give bankcustomers what they want—more access to their money and a

greater sense of personalization in the user experience. Thesecustomer expectations are part of raising the bar.

Fintech—much more than a buzzword—is doing more thandisrupting. Fintech is building partnerships with banks todeliver the technology pipeline needed to engage a generationof Millennials hungry for on-demand, personalizedservices. According to Deloitte, Millennials will be theprevailing global workforce by 2025, accounting for 75 percentof it in all.

Automation on a mass scale has paved the way forward. Let’slook at a few ways automation is tearing down barriers todoing business.

1. Increased competition: Automation lowers barriers for newentrants into the market.

The McKinsey Global Institute released a study in January of2017, assessing the impact of automation on a global scale.The research firm conveyed that while automation might be aslow-building wave, it is a far-reaching one for individualsdoing fixed tasks in predictable environments.

The study implicated jobs from low-skilled factory labor towhite-collar professionals like doctors and engineers areunder the lens of reorganization due to automation. The reportsays:

“The effects of automation might be slow at a macro level,within entire sectors or economies, for example, but theycould be quite fast at a micro level, for individual workerswhose activities are automated or for companies whoseindustries are disrupted by competitors using automation.”

This means it’s going to be much easier for the small fish toenter the same streams that the big fish have been running infor some time. We’re already seeing it with small ecommerceretailers competing with big box department stores likes Macys

or Nordstrom for sales. This kind of movement will onlyincrease with the rapid expansion of automation solutionsenabling businesses to focus on their core competencies withlaser-like precision.

2. Markets free of legacy technology have an unparalleledadvantage.

Riding the front of the automation wave are countries andindustries that lack the burden of legacy technology. There’sno sharper advantage than being legacy-free, and many emerginginternational markets are picking up that edge.

BRIC is an acronym for the emerging international marketsshowing the most promise for economic development andinfluence in the twenty-first century. The phrase was coinedby Jim O’Neil of Goldman Sachs back in 2001, identifying thenations of Brazil, Russia, India and China as those showingparticular promise based on GDP and other growth factors.China is showing itself as the strongest contender,particularly in its manufacturing and technological prowess. Afew years ago, a statistic said that in China there are morecellphones in circulation than people in America.

There’s little holding back the rest of the world from takingthe lead in tech innovation that has typically been dominatedby Western Europe or Silicon Valley. Places like Brazil,China, and India are picking up the pace. New entrants free ofthe shackles of old technology are able to scale at animpressive rate. Call it outsourcing or a global economy butmoving faster is the name of the game.

3. Blockchain will cut out middlemen and their servicescompletely.

Blockchain has earth-shattering automation potential, and itseffect in recent headlines is not overstated. Some arecomparing blockchain’s expected influence on financial marketsto the advent of the internet. Some of the reason why is the

way it will give both sides of a transaction immediate andunprecedented access to a single truth source.

Part of its novelty is that there is no central authorityrequired to maintain or verify its record of truth. It isself-verifying, by attaching an ordered list of records calledblocks. It creates a unique fingerprint that cannot bemodified or altered by referencing the previous block.

The audit process of the future could be completely automated.Ownership of assets including inventory could be registeredand tracked using this new form of technology. Thepossibilities are endless, but one thing is certain, anintermediary to verify the legitimacy of these transactions isnot required.

4. Federal regulatory branches swing open the doors toinnovation.

Fintech is just one example of how disruptors can change theentire mindset of an industry. But for most blazing new trailsin any industry, there are a few frustrations unique to astartup. Fintechs must gain licenses to bank in each statethey have customers in, which quickly translates into costlyregulatory hurdles to scale.

When the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a divisionof the United States Treasury Department, granted fintech a“special purpose national bank charter” back in December of2016, this welcome news meant one less hurdle to clear beforegaining traction as a business. It removed some of the built-in resistance to innovating in the financial sphere, givingfintechs the green light to proceed with their idea.

5. Traditional banking services will be driven by new values.

As Brian Stephens National Leader of Financial Services forKPMG says: “Be prepared for customers to move money how theywant, when they want.” This differs dramatically from what

traditionally structured banking services have offeredconsumers, though we’re starting to see a positive shift withmobile banking functionality and the elimination of fees totransfer money.

Financial startups and fintechs are changing all of that. Nowbiometrics are being used to verify bank account ownership.Imagine instead of typing in or remembering a password,account access is granted with a selfie. And if that is notfuturistic enough, there’s always the idea of finance botsrecommending smart investment strategies or even tradingstocks in the near future.

So what’s the ultimate goal of automation?

To break down barriers to competition, to make finance moreaccessible to a broader range of people than ever before, andto outsource tasks that are not high-level, to automation. Andwhile not every disruptor will bring qualitative change, thoseaimed at shape-shifting to fit customer expectations have agreat chance of changing the future business landscape.

How to Blend Email Marketingwith Instagram for BestMarketing Results

Maria Jones, Digital Marketing Expert

Current conventional wisdom is that email marketing is dead.Well, anyone who believes this is dead wrong, because thenumbers prove otherwise. By the end of 2017, email users inthe U.S. alone will grow to 245 million. Worldwide, the numberof email users will grow to 2.9 billion by 2019. Gmail boastsover 1 billion current active users, around the globe. ACampaign Monitor Survey in 2016 showed that you are six timesmore likely to get a click-through when you use email asopposed to a tweet.

The Ideal Business Romance

Clearly, email is not dead. You just need to get creative withyour email marketing to get more out of it. By fusing emailwith Instagram, for instance, you can harness the power of oneof the most versatile marketing tools available today.Instagram boasts around 700 million monthly active users withover 400 million logging in daily.

Marrying email marketing with Instagram is a no-brainer forsavvy marketers looking to boost traffic, increase conversion,build their brand, increase brand awareness and improve thebottom-line in a highly competitive business environment. Thismarriage works by incorporating social elements into youremails.

By adding images and visuals into your emails, you willincrease the chances of meeting your business objectives.Instagram is an image-heavy, hash-tagged platform which can

easily blend into your email marketing campaign.

While the numbers clearly indicate that Instagram stands outas a marketing force today, there is always the question ofdoing it right. If you already have an active Instagramaccount for your business, then you are ready to get started.

True, millions of emails are ignored, and you need to becreative to boost click-through rates (CTR). A HubSpot Surveyshows that that Instagram delivers more engagement perfollower (58 times more) than Facebook and an amazing 120times more than Twitter. By inserting Instagram images in youremails, you are going to boost engagement.

You can also add live social feed to your email marketingtemplates. This makes it possible to include Instagramvisuals, which are very popular with users. Over 40 billionvideos have been shared so far on Instagram. This is reasonenough to add these videos in your email blasts.

You can also boost your email marketing campaign by optimizingyour Instagram account profile to make it easier for users tosign up. In essence, you are converting your Instagramfollowers into leads, using an easy sign up form. The formshould allow you to gather unique insight into the users fortarget marketing purposes.You should nurture your leads with relevant content, whichmust be based on customer insight. As you build your emaillists, it becomes easier to target the right people with theright content.

Email still reigns in online marketing, even with an onslaughtof other creative digital marketing tools. As email is core toyour business, integrating Instagram will boost your brand,increase traffic to your site, enhance visibility and boostsales.

About the Author: Maria Jones is an expert in digital

marketing with over 19 years’ experience in the industry. Shehas written widely on techniques for getting followers forInstagram and other social media networks.

Mastering Social Media forYour Brand

By Jill Kurtz, Owner, Kurtz DigitalStrategy

Using social media means much more than posting content on oneor more social channels. To see results, you need to bestrategic.

Develop a social media strategy

The first step is always to develop a detailed social mediastrategy. Without a strategy you are just spending (wasting?)time with no purpose.

A solid social media strategy should outline your goals andthe specific measurable ways you will work to achieve them.Your goal(s) should be specific to your business and caninclude brand awareness, generating website traffic, increasedsales, or engagement around a specific issue or service.

The strategy should define the specific activities you will

take. Take time to define the resources needed, how often eachitem will be done, and the content that will be leveraged. Themore time you put into your strategy, the more success youwill see with your social media efforts.

Mind your branding

Review your branding, including words, images, and colors, toensure it is clear and consistent across all of your socialmedia channels. Use your logo for your profile pictures andensure all profile images reflect your business.

Create an editorial calendar

Structure to your posts by creating an editorial calendar.Define categories of content that will support your strategyand plan posts that target each category. Research dates andevents that are relevant to your business and audience andplan content around them.

Schedule posts

Using a tool that allows you to schedule your posts is a greatway to save time and make sure you post according to yousplans. Hootsuite and Buffer are great scheduling tools. Thereare others. Find one that you find easiest to use.

Participate

Your social media activities should not just be about creatingand posting your content. Respond to messages or comments fromfollowers within a reasonable time frame. You can createtemplate responses to help speed up the process. However,always ensure that every response is personalized in some way.

You should also be looking for relevant conversations that arehappening without you. Search for keywords related to yourbusiness, industry and competitors. To help, try using toolssuch as TweetDeck, Hootsuite and Sprout Social.

Evaluate and measure

The great ideas you write into your social media strategy maybe great or a flop. Take time to evaluate your activities. Youshould have written measures of success into your strategy.There can be unexpected measures too, like when a postgenerates a great deal of conversation. Make sure you taketime to regularly assess your social media activities andadjust to maximize successes.

About the Author: Jill Kurtz founded Kurtz Digital Strategyto help clients see the communication potential of the newesttrends and technologies. She is an expert at website strategyand redesign, social media planning, and developingexceptional content.

One In Four Americans HasBoycotted A Product ForPolitical Reasons

CommPro.biz Editorial Staff

Ipsos, a leading market researcher, tested some well knownbrands and their need to keep their reputations safe by

avoiding the political fray.

Through their research, they looked at many brands, some whohave already dealt with the wrath of Trump, and looked atoptions these companies could take.

The survey looked at the rising nationalist and populisttrends that underlie our political landscape and tested theirpotential impacts on brands and marketing. Download the fullPOV here.

The survey revealed that a quarter of Americans have stoppedusing products or services from a company because of theirpolitical leanings or because of recent protests or boycotts.Among the 28 companies polled, those with the highest rate ofconsumer boycotts also experienced the worst stock marketperformance.

These consumer actions should not surprise companies. Actionsby companies, staff and brand ambassadors can take onunintended consequences. The need to plan and prepare is key.In recent years, the partisan divide is growing with manyAmericans lacking confidence in politics and politicians. AsAmericans have turned to social groups and ideology asorganizing forces for their identity, partisan identificationhas exploded.

Companies should be taking a closer look at their riskprofile. In the past, companies have been able to keep theirheads down, however these days it is hard to hide fromPresident Trump’s twitter rants, which often name specificcompanies. It is increasingly hard to predict what factorswill drive a company into the limelight, forcing companies toprepare for this unwanted press before it happens. Brandsshould also have a complete understanding of their customersso as to avoid acting against their base.

Monitoring social media is necessary as customers become morepolarized. Tracking the early conception and spread of brand-

political connections can give companies necessary warning formarket impacts. Finally, contingency plans to respond topolitical crises can save companies from going viral for thewrong reasons.

Cover Letters: 5 Tips To GetThem Read

Marie Raperto, The Hiring Hub

Cover letters can be harder to write than a resume. Somehiring managers want them, some online sites won’t take them. Just like resumes, everyone has their own likes and dislikesabout them.

If hiring managers scan a resume for 6 seconds, how long dothey look at a cover letter?

Here are some tips when writing your cover letter:

It’s about what the company wants, not what you want to1.highlight. Read the ad or description and highlight theskills the company wants.Keep it short, concise and to the point. You want to2.introduce yourself and state your experience in the

first paragraph.Tell them why they should meet you. Use bullet points3.to highlight your qualifications.Be organized and specific. You don’t know who is4.reading the cover letter or how long they will spend onit. Make it easy to read/scan and specific to the job.Use the keywords. The keywords in the ad should be used5.in your cover letter. Just as an applicant trackingsystem scans for keywords so does the human eye.

If you are using one cover letter for every job, you might aswell not use one at all. If a hiring manager takes the timeto read a cover letter, they want to know why you want thisjob and that you have the specific skills.

Marketers to Increase PRSpending Over Next 5 Years –New Study Says

Vilan (vē-län) Trub, Marketing Content Lead, Business Wire

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the USCCenter for Public Relations at the Annenberg School for

Communication and Journalism have released a new report thatoffers a candid look at how marketers plan to tackle publicrelations in the upcoming years.

The most eye-opening data found in the report is that 75% ofrespondents answered that they plan on increasing PR budgetsover the course of the next five years. When it comes tointernal PR staffing, 79% said that their numbers would staythe same in the next year with 13% saying they wouldmoderately increase. When the same question was asked but inthe timeline of the next five years, 54% said it wouldmoderately increase.

Learn moreabout thereport onAdweek

This study exposes just how public relations is evolving andits growing importance within the marketing landscape. A lotof this can be attributed to the digital technologicalrevolution and the speed with which communication now takesplace between businesses, clients and the public. The resultis a convergence between PR and marketing and a shared use ofspecific tools aimed at building a bridge with potentialclients and customers.

Needless to say, the future of PR looks very bright.“Digital has put PR front and center, as it allows immediate

outbound communication and inbound feedback,” said ANA groupexecutive vice president Bill Duggan.

When asked how PR programs can best demonstrate their value,there was a strong consensus with 89% saying they can achievemeasurable business objectives. Industry lines are beingblurred and industry leaders are well aware of thisphenomenon. The only question now is how far will marketingand PR grow together.

Find out how to best track inbound traffic from apress release.