Online Communications

Chris Brogan has an excellent post on the point that social media needs to be a team sport. In it he focuses on social media and the need for a team approach, but I think that it is worth applying that approach to communications as a whole.

Connecting with your stakeholders, with your public – with your community works best when it is approached holistically. You can have a great PR strategy and not be able to execute on the plan if there isn’t a connection between what you want to share, how you want to start and maintain the conversation and where the content comes from.

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Jeff Bullas has a great post on his blog that outlines many of the reasons that companies aren’t using social media. The post showcases many of the points that we, at AHA, have heard from senior communicators and CEOs. What I also found quite interesting are the comments. They put forward a range of perspectives and are worth a read.

In the world of a communicator or marketer, there is a great deal of focus on social media. It’s important for those of us who work in this area to keep in mind that not everyone has embraced social media the way that we have. We have had many senior executives talk to us about their fears about using social media and their concerns are valid. We’re facing a culture shift and change isn’t easy – even change for the better.

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We have regular production meetings at AHA and during today’s briefing, it hit me that public relations is a different profession today than it was even a year ago. Technology, specifically online technology, has changed how we do our job.

At AHA, we have always approached the publicity and media relations component of what we do much as a media outlet would. We have regular story meetings, we hold our ideas up to scrutiny and we review each pitch through the eyes of the specific journalist and media outlet that we are approaching. We have a focus on acting (as much as possible) like a newsroom would when it comes to clearly identifying the news value and the heart of the story before we take it to media.

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We often get calls from communications directors and managers asking us to come in speak with them (and often their senior executive) about what they “should” be doing when it comes to social media.

When we meet, our discussion always begins with a few questions:

What do you want to achieve?
What are you doing currently to meet your objectives?
Who is your target audience or community?
How do they want to connect with you?
As you can see – there’s not a question or directive about any of the social media tools until we understand more.

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We have had some very interesting discussions here at AHA about the blurring of lines between friend, colleague and boss on social media network sites. It’s a hot topic right now and everyone has their perspective on it. I believe that my business partner Paul and I have a pretty good working relationship with everyone on our crew. Each of the communications professionals who work here are just that – professionals. They come in to each project and each client interaction with their “A game.” It’s not just something that we as the owners expect, it’s something that comes from within each person. This commitment to excellence shows and is rewarded.

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