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Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on March 08th, 2010
Our friend and colleague Della Smith of Q Workshops has been telling us about Drive by Daniel H. Pink. We asked her (as we wait for our copy of the book to arrive from Amazon) to write a book review for us for the AHA blog. Here it is:
DRIVE – THE SURPRISING TRUTH ABOUT WHAT MOTIVATES US
BY: Daniel H. Pink
This book resonated as strongly with my brain as it did with my heart. Dan Pink presents a strong case for a new way at looking at motivation. Say goodbye (well, maybe not totally) to carrots and sticks and say hello to autonomy,…
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Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on March 04th, 2010
I came across a blog post today from Twitip on 11 reasons why you should be on Twitter.
When Twitter originally came out, we, at AHA, didn’t see much of a business application for it. It seemed to us that there was mostly a lot of noise going on, chatter of no value. As time went on, more and more business-minded people signed up and for our purposes, that added value. It then made sense for us to join in the conversation.
Find us at @AHApr. And don’t worry, you won’t see us talking about what we had for lunch. We’re sharing information…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 02nd, 2010
There is a very interesting piece by Grant Cardone on the Huffington Post. It has a compelling title: Do PR Firms Make Sense Anymore?
According to the article, Mr. Cardone has had some disappointing results using PR agencies over the years. Not knowing the background of what the objectives and goals were, what the strategy was or how the agencies approached the work, I don’t have the information to comment on that component of his article. But it is never a pleasant experience for anyone when you don’t achieve success.
As to whether PR firms make sense anymore, I believe they do…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 01st, 2010
Measurement in PR has always been a challenge and that hasn’t changed with social media. Understanding and showing the value of what we do isn’t always easy for communicators.
There is a good article on Socialtimes.com that addresses measurement in social media. It’s more from a marketing viewpoint, but it applies to the use of social media in PR or communications efforts.
One of the points in this article talks about bounce rates. It asks: Are people coming to your website from social media sites or networks, but leaving quickly? This is a good question and one that is worth talking about.
Participating in…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 24th, 2010
I had a discussion with a client yesterday about the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. She is based in L.A. and the only coverage they get of the games is from NBC. NBC, for some reason, has chosen not to provide live coverage of the games. My client is in the same time zone as the games, she has a television in her office, she would have the competitions on if she could—but they aren’t live.
This is a conversation that we have had quite often recently in the AHA Creative Strategies office. AHA partner Paul Holman is a sports fan and…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 15th, 2010
The Harvard Business Review has a good article on how social media is impacting coverage of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, B.C. It’s worth a read.
Right now, Vancouver is in the world spotlight. We, at AHA, have an office in Vancouver and have been watching with interest on how the games are being covered by both traditional and social media.
How information is reported has changed drastically. While social media was in play during the Summer Games in Beijing, it’s now two years later and Vancouver is a much freer society than Beijing. Those who support the games—and those who don’t—now have…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 04th, 2010
Shawn Bannon has a great blog post that goes to the heart of media relations: the art of the pitch. It’s worth a read. We all know that the traditional media landscape is changing, but journalists are still incredibly important to PR. Understanding when to pitch them and how is crucial. Understanding when not to pitch and why (and how to explain that to your client or CEO) is also key.
At AHA, we take pitching seriously and go through the AHA Pitch Process to develop a pitch. That means that the pitch has to be short, catch the attention of the…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 03rd, 2010
I came across a great post by Brian Solis on social media integration. It’s worth a read. (Just about everything Brian writes is worth a read.)
Integrating social media into your communication efforts doesn’t stop when you write a strategic plan. It is an ongoing and evolving effort. We have recently had some interesting conversations with a client that we work with on a project basis. This client is someone that we have a huge amount of respect for and we want to see him succeed. His company is young and growing and he has a strong philanthropic focus. He came to…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 01st, 2010
There is a great post on problogger on how to add more fun to your blog. It is worth a read. Adding more fun to your blog will inspire you to blog more often and, done well, it will re-engage your readers. When you are into it, they will be into it.
Just a quick note on blogging…I have read plenty that says blogging is dead. I don’t think blogging has hit its prime yet. I think it goes back to understanding your objectives. Not every CEO should blog and I don’t necessarily think that every organization should have a blog. However,…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 27th, 2010
In my role at AHA, I attend conferences, I take online courses, I read blogs and online media, and follow social media and PR visionaries on Twitter and on other social networking sites. I am always learning.
A few years ago, I went through a stage where I felt I had to know all of the social media, social networking, and online tools and technologies to do my job. It became overwhelming and I realized that I started to view each new things as “it.” The old adage that if your only tool is a hammer, you treat everything as if…
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