Reputation
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 30th, 2012
I have been travelling across the country this week for client meetings. Contrary to what some believe, this doesn’t mean that I saunter into meetings at 10 a.m., that we break for lunch at noon and then in the evening, drink good wine and eat fabulous meals. It does mean I get up early (earlier than usual… which is already pretty early!) and that I watch a lot of television news shows and read even more newspapers than usual. (Hey – if they are going to make the effort to deliver it to my hotel room door, I am going…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 27th, 2012
U.S. President Barack Obama is in hot water because he had a conversation that should have been private in front of a hot microphone. You can learn more about that story here.
This blog post isn’t about Obama; it is about the fact that you need to be vigilant when dealing with the media – especially when there is a camera, microphone or audio recorder involved. Obama is a smart guy, he deals with the media on a daily basis… it was a lapse in judgment. And it happens to the best of us.
Of course there are…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 22nd, 2012
I read an article recently about a computer company in Germany that undertook what they thought was a smart promotion. They began gluing hard drives to alarm clocks and sending them to companies with a note reading, “Your time is running out.” Well, many of the people who received them were terrified and called the police, thinking the package held a bomb. You can read more about it here.
It reminded me of an old episode of WKRP in Cincinnati in the late 70s/early 80s, where they did a Thanksgiving promotion by dropping turkeys out of a helicopter……
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 19th, 2012
There is an unflattering news clip making the rounds right now of B.C. Premier Christy Clarke’s new communications director. I am sure it is going to be included in every media training session for the next decade – it is a perfect example of what not to do. If you haven’t seen it, you can view it here.
I have an entire rant about how valuable journalists are to a free and just society and how I believe communicators and journalists actually work in partnership (we don’t always have to agree or even like each other, but we…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 14th, 2012
For some reason, we are experiencing an increase in those time-wasting, frustrating, painful calls from telemarketers that try to sell you something that you don’t want and you don’t need. We’re also getting companies that want us to send business their way because “we’re good” and “your clients would be happy using our services.” (Really? Is that why I get up in the morning? To introduce you, someone I don’t know, to the clients we have built strong relationships with over many years???)
So for any of you reading this that recognize yourself in the paragraph above—STOP CALLING! (I doubt…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 09th, 2012
I’ve written about this before and will write about it again… Be careful what you put on social networking sites—professionally and personally. If you wouldn’t want to see it on the front page of your local newspaper, don’t put it up.
The people on my Facebook page represent a range of relationships to me. Some are close friends, other acquaintances, others are former colleagues and some I have only met either briefly in person or not at all. It’s a bit like a neighbourhood coffee shop where there are a lot of different people hanging out.
With the recent changes…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 17th, 2012
This blog post isn’t about what to do should your organization be faced with an issue or a crisis. It is about what you can do today, proactively, even if there isn’t the slightest evidence that there might be a challenge in your future. (A word of warning: A small mistake by someone in your organization could get a lot of interest online and turn into a huge crisis. Don’t think a crisis would never happen to you. It can. And at some point, it likely will.)
Back to today’s post…
We are often asked to develop issues and crisis…
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Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on January 06th, 2012
In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday from Barbados, Ruth talks about monitoring what is being said about your organization online.
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on November 16th, 2011
Our AHA blog is listed in Cision, a media database. It’s pretty clear, even if you only read a couple of our posts, that we write about communications: brand journalism, public relations, media relations, social media, positioning and messaging. It’s all related to strategic communication.
It seems pretty straightforward to me what to pitch to us. Which makes us shake our heads in wonder when we get pitches from random PR agencies and independent PR practitioners that have nothing to do with what we write about here. It looks to me like some people just grab any email they can…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on November 14th, 2011
I am on location at a video shoot for a client today and as I took the early ferry into Vancouver (a short 40-minute commute from my home on the Sunshine Coast), I heard a report on News 1130, a local radio station, that grabbed my attention.
It seems that a local politician used the images of two children in campaign brochures without getting permission from their parents. As a communicator, when I see issues like this, I wonder how it happened. In this day and age, taking photos of children without the written consent of their parent(s) or legal…
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