Lifeguarding your reputation

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.

Looking to 2012 from the AHA Creativity Studio

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on December 30th, 2011

In today’s video, Ruth is in the AHA Creativity Studio (A.K.A. The Naked Cowboy) talking about setting goals for 2012.

Blogging for business – part 2

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on December 05th, 2011

On Wednesday, I wrote about the CEO/President’s blog. Today we’ll have a look at the organization blog, the employee blog and the blend.

The Organization Blog

This blog is a little less about the person writing it than it is about the organization as a whole. Often there will be several writers who cover a range of topics and areas regarding the organization. It might be that different departments or division heads each write one blog post a week about news, events and interesting points relevant to their area.

In this style, it is more like local news…

Our communications audits findings

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on November 28th, 2011

Recently, at the AHA office, we have been working on communications audits for several clients. One of the areas that we review is their use of social media. (We also research and analyze how other organizations in the same field use social media and provide them with best and worst practices during this process.) In our research, we discovered an interesting trend: many organizations have reverted to a more traditional approach of pushing information out through social media channels rather than engaging and starting or participating in conversations.

Of the five communications audits we have done in the past few…

HSBC uses brand journalism to tell their story

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

HSBC has developed an online editorial style website that uses brand journalism. There are differing opinions on the value and benefit of the site. I have to say we lean towards the side that says this is a great site. I think it can be easy to criticize without taking into context that it is brand journalism – not journalism. While the stories should be credible, balanced, multi-faceted and provide value, it is still a brand that is responsible for creating this content.

Step by step, we are moving into a more credible approach to sharing the stories…

What will be of value to your organization in the future?

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on September 30th, 2011

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday, Ruth is outside the Palace of Versailles talking about understanding what will be of value in your organization in years to come.

Social media – first steps

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on September 26th, 2011

We have had several new business meetings over the past week or so and the discussion always turns to what the organization can be doing in regard to social media.

Not everyone is ready to leap into social media full throttle, but it is important to start the process of listening. See what people in your industry/area of expertise are doing online. Pay attention to the conversations that are happening. It’s a good first step into connecting with your specific community.

Have a critical look at your website. We often get clients calling and asking for a social media strategy…

Bring PR into the mix early

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

We’re working on a campaign for a client right now that got off to a bit of a slow start. We were brought in after the approach had been chosen. In a perfect world, we prefer to be a part of the concept and initial campaign strategy planning because the PR perspective adds value to that component, but sometimes that isn’t what happens and we live with it.

This campaign has some challenges. It’s a crowded market place and there isn’t much news value in what the client wants to announce. Not that it is isn’t interesting to the…

Crisis communications and social media

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on September 06th, 2011

There is a great article on Ragan.com that focuses on the results of a study that says most companies are not prepared for a social media crisis. It’s worth a read.

How and when an organization responds and reaches out using traditional communications vehicles and through social media is crucial. One of the challenges is that social media has turned the world into a 24/7 news cycle. Many organizations aren’t prepared for that. How do you strategically and authentically respond if you aren’t prepared?

There are many steps an organization can take to put processes in place…

What’s your story?

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on August 26th, 2011

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday, Ruth talks about content creation.