MarCom Professional

Individuals that want to get ahead in digital PR should use social media to build their personal reputation. At least that was the conclusion of the CIPR Summer Social workshop that I led last week on getting ahead and getting hired in digital.

I included examples from recent graduates such as Ben Cotton, Jed Hallam, Laura Tosney and Matt Watson that have used digital techniques to build their personal reputation during the last two to three years.

Their experiences getting hired into some of the UK’s leading PR and social media agencies are inspirational and worth sharing more widely. More...

It will be increasingly difficult to grab attention from anyone on the Internet or in person. You may spend hours writing a great blog article, creating a high-value video or designing your marketing slicks only to find that people just aren’t interested in consuming them. Why? Because we’re being bombarded by messages, alerts, and feeds every second. We’re constantly distracted and interrupted when we invest our time on the Internet. As a result, our brain essentially reconfigures itself.

This is what Nicholas Carr, the author of the book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, found when he studies how the Internet influences the brain and its neural pathways. More...

In a situation where you’re selling to multiple personalities, it’s best to first connect everyone on a common ground then articulate clearly what’s in it for each of them.  The goal is to stimulate an engaging conversation that allows us to change perception, diagnose expectations and bring clarity to the dialogue.

That’s the essence of developing a brand strategy – the foundation of your communication that builds authentic relationships between you and your audience.  It is by defining your brand strategy that allows you to utilize marketing, advertising, public relations and social media to consistently and accurately reinforce your character.  Without defining the core strategy, all channels of communication can often become a hit and miss expense. More...

Anyone else notice that LinkedIn is really becoming the de facto source for business to business (B2B) personnel checking? When you are doing demand generation for your business – do you use LinkedIn to background check?

I have been doing demand generation for my clients this week. And twice people I approached immediately went to LinkedIn and checked out my profile and invited me to connect with them.  They also replied to my cold approach and invited me to present my client’s business to them.

This change in behaviour is very telling – business is now moving fast into online spheres and neglecting the old-style write a letter, then phone, then agree to meet. More...