What’s being reflected back to you?

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on September 23rd, 2011

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday, Ruth talks about the importance of listening to your stakeholders when you are communicating.

Can You Respond in Time?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on July 04th, 2011

At AHA, we are working with a new client that is dealing with a serious issue within its organization. This particular issue had a great deal of misinformation, miscommunication and speculation around it. One of the challenges that this organization faces is that for quite some time, it has had an internal culture of little or no authentic communication. Not because the senior executive team is uncaring or doesn’t want to communicate, but it is a busy, successful business that has seen rapid growth in the past decade. For many people, there just didn’t seem to be the time to…

Managing The Approval Process

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 14th, 2011

Getting copy, videos, images, etc. through the approval process is a challenge that every communicator I know has faced. It’s not always easy to get through the approval process, whether you are in-house, at an agency or a freelancer. Quite often, it isn’t about how good the copy is, it’s about the culture of the organization and, at the core of it, about the person who has the power to approve.

Quite often, people don’t understand what the review process is supposed to achieve. From a communicator’s perspective, it’s usually about ensuring that the piece is accurate…

What Do Travel And PR Have In Common?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 07th, 2011

Over the past eight days, I have been to Calgary, Toronto and Tampa for meetings. I am used to travel – AHA clients are all over North America and while we work easily day-to-day using technology, meeting face to face is always a good thing.

I can work just about anywhere – airports, hotel lobbies, coffee shops and even busy sushi restaurants, if I have to. One of the things that always strikes me when I travel is the importance of being prepared, organized, flexible and still hitting our marks and our deadlines. As communicators, that’s who…

Content, Content, Content

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 10th, 2011

There is an interesting post on how B2B PR will fail in 2010 on Ragan.com. It’s worth a read for several reasons – not the least of which is the list it provides on what type of content will be important for us to do our work.

At our Vancouver PR agency (and in every city that AHA is in), content has always been important. The stories that we tell on behalf of our clients are at the heart of what we do – we share relevant, authentic and interesting information. We engage, connect and actively listen –…

Strategy Always Comes First

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on May 22nd, 2009

There is an interesting article in the New York Times about one of the “hot new jobs” – the social media specialist. Social media, emerging media, interactive media or online communication is becoming more and more mainstream. Communication has changed and organizations that want to engage with their stakeholders and community need to understand that and include social media in their strategic planning.

One of the key points that isn’t included in this article is where the social media specialist “lives” in an organization. Is he/she in the communications department, marketing, or sales? And how is social media being integrated…

The Social Media Mindset

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on May 15th, 2009

Paul Chaney of MarketingProfs has an excellent blog post entitled “Seven Social Media Mindset Markers.” He points out that many marketers – and, I would add communicators and PR people – have adopted social media tools without understanding the philosophy of social media.

The world is a different place because of online communication. We have struggled in finding the right “name” for social media – online communication, interactive PR, digital communication…it’s a challenge because by naming it something other than “communication,” we isolate it from traditional or classic communication, and that shouldn’t happen.

One of the key points…

The Obama Standard

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on May 01st, 2009

There is a very interesting blog post at techpresident.com focusing on the tech side of Obama’s first 100 days in office. Don’t let the word “tech” throw you off – the technology used is important, but it’s just a vehicle for communication and conversation. As a communicator, this article hits some key points that you will find relevant.

In speaking at events, delivering workshops and collaborating with clients – many of the points touched upon in this article come up. Obama has made a commitment to move toward a more open and transparent form of Government – and…