Branding: Be Yourself, Earn Engagement

 

In public relations, there’s a lot of talk about a company’s brand and its messaging – the ideas and public imagine the institution and its representatives. The value cannot be overstated.

Messaging and branding give a company its identity, making it appear “human” in the eyes of people. It gives anyone interacting with a company or organization an identity they can latch onto and work with.

A loyalty to your messaging and branding as a company is important. However, things are changing. If you’re an individual, even a CEO, the rules are not quite the same.

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In 2020, a “Thought Leader” is just a Regular Person

The phrase “thought leader” is one that is thrown around a lot in public relations. And it’s understandable: For any public facing organization or business, it’s important to have experts on hand who can speak to the public.

However, as someone involved in day-to-day media relations operations at an award-winning PR and marketing agency, I have a major gripe with thought leaders, and I wrote this blog specifically for them and their coaches.

In short, my gripe is this: You need to be able to talk about something else other than your products and services. You must be able to speak about something other than your business and your brand.

If you can’t do it, you’re not a thought leader, you’re a spokesman. And there is a difference. 

 

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Ethical Wins: Navigating Media Relations in a Pandemic

In this time of uncertainty over the Covid-19 pandemic, the seriousness of the issue presents a variety of social, economic, and health challenges for all of us.

While practicing “social distancing,” many of us are often glued to news services, looking for the latest updates, valuable survival tips, words of wisdom, and glimmers of hope. For me, as media relations professional, it presents some distinct challenges both functionally – that is, the success of my ability to pitch media and earn placements – and ethically, since I’m a person with a social obligation to my peers.

I want to offer some tips to navigate a unique media landscape where only one story is on everyone’s mind. Now, more than ever, all of us in marketing and public relations must think about everything we’re doing before we do it.

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The Basics of Healthy, Happy Relationships

Building relationships with journalists takes time. Smashing them to pieces takes little time at all.

One terrible, irrelevant pitch and you could end up on a journalist’s blacklist – and that isn’t where you want to be. Because as any good media relations guru will tell you, we need journalists more than they need us.

To build strong relationships – and maybe fix bad ones – there are some basic rules of the road anyone out there sending pitches should follow, lest you end up in the SPAM folder – where email goes to die!

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Guidelines for a Darn Good Press Release Headline

Editors and journalists get a ridiculous number of press releases in their inbox every day. It isn’t just this week’s news that a press release completes with – it’s releases from prior weeks, being re-sent and re-packaged to find new coverage. It’s a tough, competitive world for each press release. Even if you have a newsworthy story, getting eyes on it isn’t always easy. For yours to win, you need a great press release headline that grabs attention, tells a complete story, and makes a reader want to know more.

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Embrace the Paywall Future – Because it’s Coming

For several years now we all have lived in luxury, enjoying free content on the Internet that’s paid for through ads and data mining, with no paywall to contend with. But, as many prominent media outlets have noted, things are beginning to change.

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Unless You're Monitoring the Media, You're Missing Out

In college, I had a journalism professor ask our class how many of us had signed up for Google Alerts as a media monitoring tool to support our coverage areas. Aging myself a bit, Google Alerts was a relatively new idea then. All the same, when no one in the class raised their hand, we all got scolded. It’s a painful memory.

Luckily, I never forgot the core tenets of that lesson. Media monitoring is crucial for anyone with a media life, including healthcare tech companies. If you don’t know what is being said about your area of expertise, it’s hard to keep up with the conversation. And, more importantly, unless you’re actively keeping an eye on what the web is saying about you, you can miss out on valuable media coverage, not to mention all the insights hidden within the coverage you didn’t get.
 

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Agility PR

Have Press Releases Seen Their Day?

I'm quoted in this blog:

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What Star Wars and Loot Boxes Can Teach Us About Avoiding a PR Crisis

If you follow the world of video games like I do, you’re familiar with Electronic Arts (EA), a wildly successful, publically traded, developer/publisher whose industry prominence has earned them exclusive licenses to some of the world’s biggest brands, including the NFL, UFC, and Star Wars. EA is no stranger to controversy, be it a conflict over pricing or their purchase of smaller development talent. However, in late 2017, the company’s stock took a $3 billion hit after their latest controversy became a full-blown PR crisis, prompting legislative action that equated EA’s business practices to gambling, in addition to a major drop in consumer sales.

While the situation now stands as a shining example of a communication failure, the truth is, things should never have spiraled out of control. Hidden within this PR nightmare are lessons to be learned for communication professionals in every industry on how to better manage a crisis.

  

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Customer Spokespersons: The Path to PR Success

For companies looking to breathe new life into a PR or marketing campaign, product launches are exciting, as is news on awards or other recognition. But, nothing is more powerful than an advocate who can praise your company without sounding like an insider – yes, I’m talking about customers. Customer spokespersons are the special sauce of any PR campaign.

  

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Media Relations Pitching Pitfalls that Kill Relationships

Media relations pitching is challenging to say the least. Editors are busy people. Writers and journalists are often on the run, facing tight deadlines and email boxes that absolutely never get read down to zero.

When pitching a potential story, getting an editor to open your email is already a challenge, albeit one that can be overcome with a good subject line and some follow-up phone calls. But believe it or not, that’s the easy part.

Read More Here 

 

Should You Bet It All on a Trade Show Launch?

I contributed to this blog.

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Tips for Social Media Success

For many, social media is a mysterious beast. In part because it’s such a new means of communication, but also because the primary social media platforms we all use and love – Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter – can feel like a sea of noise in which developing best practices to engage human users (as opposed to the spam bots) inherently brings with it some challenges. That said, social media marketing in today’s world is a must if you want to engage potential clients, spread the word about what your company is doing, and support your brand with a robust online presence.  

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The Cinematic Tangent Participates in #12DaysOfChristmasMovies

The Cinematic Tangent attempted to watch Christmas movies as part of Twitter's #12DaysofChristmasMovies trend. Below are links to my associated reviews. 

• 'The Christmas Bunny'  
• 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'  
• 'Elf' 
• 'Christmas with the Kranks'
• 'Christmas Vacation'
• 'Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever'  
• 'Four Christmases'

Health Management Technology - November/December 2016 Issue

I served as the Features Editor for the November/December 2016 issue of Health Management Technology.

*The magazine has been removed from the web*

 
 

Samples From the Issue:

• Rising Stars of HIT Leadership 
• The 2016 HMT Salary Survey
  

 

Visit HMT's Website

Heath Management Technology - October 2016 Issue

I served as the Features Editor for the October 2016 issue of Health Management Technology.

PDF Backup

Visit HMT's Website

Movie Review: Don't Breathe

Another flawed-but-effective horror film from director Fede Alvarez.

Read the Review:

The Cinematic Tangent

Heath Management Technology - September 2016 Issue

I served as the Features Editor for the September 2016 issue of Health Management Technology.

Read the PDF

Visit HMT's Website

Heath Management Technology - July/August 2016 Issue

I served as the Features Editor for the July/August 2016 issue of Health Management Technology.

Read the PDF Here

Visit HMT's Website

Various Custom Publications - 2014 - 2015 (Part 12)

From 2014 - 2015 I worked on several custom publications as a writer, editor, and photographer. Here is one example.

Cool Comfort:
Read it Here

Various Custom Publications - 2014 - 2015 (Part 11)

From 2014 - 2015 I worked on several custom publications as a writer, editor, and photographer. Here is one example.

Plumbing & Air Today

Read it Here

Various Custom Publications - 2014 - 2015 (Part 9)

Here is one example of a custom publication I worked on as a writer, editor, and photographer. 

 

Cool Zone:

Read the PDF Here

Various Custom Publications - 2014 - 2015 (Part 10)

I worked on several custom publications as a writer and editor. Here is one example.

Crystal Clear (Vol. 4, Issue 1):

• Read it Here

Various Custom Publications - 2014 - 2015 (Part 8)

From 2014 - 2015 I worked on several custom publications as a writer, editor, and photographer. Here are some of the results.

Comfort Zone:

• Performance (above)
• Russell's
• Tri County
• Jackson's
• Snyder

Movie Review: Swiss Army Man

A well-crafted prank.

 

Read My Review:

The Cinematic Tangent

PlayStation 4 Review: Doom

2004’s Doom 3 was a shooter that focused on survival, pitting the player against hordes of monsters in a progressive environment where opening fire isn’t always the best path to success. It’s a great game, but it’s not a Doom game. Classic Doom is about run-and-gun action, where one brutally clears a map of foes and triumphantly moves to the next area to repeat the process – armed now with cooler weapons and faced with demonic enemies that are harder to put down than the ones that came before. It’s simple fun, providing a constant adrenaline rush and non-stop carnage.

It’s this type of gameplay that has given the shooters from developer iD Software their identity, but recent releases seemed to signal the end of the formula. That is, until now.

Fit 941 Magazine - May/June 2016

I contributed to the May/June 2016 issue of Fit 941 Magazine.

Read the Full Issue:
PDF

 

Fit 941 Magazine - November/December 2015

I contributed to the November/December 2015 issue of Fit 941 Magazine.

Read the Full Issue:
PDF

HVAC & Refrigeration Insider (Florida Edition) - 2015

I contributed to the February and March (2015) issues of the Florida HVAC & Refrigeration Insider. Check out the PDF editions below.

February 2015:
Read it here

March 2015:
Read it Here

Health Management Technology - June 2016 Issue

 

 

I served as the Features Editor for the June 2016 issue of Health Management Technology. 

Read the Issue:

• PDF Backup
  

 

Check Out HMT's Website:

http://www.healthmgttech.com

Review: Mad Max

'Mad Max' used me up like a bloodbag and, much like the false promises of the warlords, Valhalla wasn't waiting when everything finally faded to black.

If you’re like me, an open-world game set in the universe of George Miller’s Mad Max has always been on your wishlist. It’s a setting ripe with possibilities for great gameplay: The Big Nothing, a barrier of sand, encapsulates an isolated enclave where the last remnants of humanity struggle to survive against the harsh elements of the post-apocalyptic landscape – including the maniacal warlords hellbent on conquest. We haven’t seen Max on a console since the NES, but finally his true sandbox title has arrived. And now that it’s here, I’m sad to report the experience feels devoid of life, but ironically not because it takes place in a desolate wasteland. There is fun to be had, and the game faithfully creates the look and feel of the movies; however, Mad Max falls short in capturing the depth and immersion that make its source materials beloved classics.

Health Management Technology - April/May 2016 Issue

I served as the Features Editor for the April/May 2016 issue of Health Management Technology. 

Read it Here:

PDF Backup

Check Out HMT's Website:

https://www.healthmgttech.com/

Health Management Technology - March 2016 Issue

 

I served as the Features Editor for the March 2016 issue of Health Management Technology. 

Read it Here:

PDF Backup

Check Out HMT's Website:

http://www.healthmgttech.com

Health Management Technology - January/February 2016 Issue

I served as the Features Editor for the January/February 2016 issue of Health Management Technology. 

Read the Digital Issue Here:

PDF Backup

 

Check Out HMT's Website:
http://www.healthmgttech.com