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If you want content that effectively draws in prospects and stakeholders months and even years after you create it, then you should be producing at least some evergreen content. In this context, evergreen means that like the tree, the content stays fresh and functional instead of eventually“dying off” in terms of relevancy as time goesRead more

My husband bought memorabilia trading cards based on the DC and Marvel superhero movies. In addition to having beautiful graphics, these (very) thick cards included a tiny patch of the hero’s costume. So, I got to touch Batman’s cape and the jacket that Tony Stark wore while he was held captive in Afghanistan. Touching theRead more

Creating enough original content to satisfy content marketing strategies is cited as one of the most common challenges by businesses engaging in content marketing. Luckily, an alternative exists: content curation, which is the selecting and gathering of online content from various sources and organizing it in a way that is relevant and useful for specificRead more

If you’re a content marketer, creating your own version of an editorial calendar can help you keep on schedule and save you from a ton of frustration. That’s because an editorial calendar allows you to plan your posts or articles in advance so that you don’t have to scramble for ideas. As a quick recap,Read more

As 2014 begins, experts are making several predictions about what we’ll see in terms of public relations and marketing. I’m sharing information on three trends related to content and writing that I’ve seen and my take on them. Trend #1: More Social Media Integration with Advertising One of the most interesting predictions I heard onRead more

Since we’re well into the time when most of us are making professional and personal plans, I wanted to quickly examine two types of planning that we all need to do: strategic planning and day-to-day activities. Both of them should be written down, either on paper or electronically. Strategic Planning Strategic planning is your “bigRead more

If you haven’t started already, it’s time to start looking at editorial calendars in order to plan next year’s pitches, press releases, and articles for your clients. An editorial calendar is an annual or semi-annual calendar of articles or topics that a media  outlet or social channel will be covering. Since organizations are increasingly becomingRead more

Some professional communicators feel that using a reference resource makes it look as if they don’t know what they’re doing, but as I’ve often said, a well-thumbed reference book is an indication of a conscientious writer. Different writers will need different resources, but I’ve listed a few of my favorite tools below in alphabetical order.Read more

No matter what you’re writing, your piece has to be coherent. Readers should be able to easily progress from one sentence to another and one paragraph to the next without losing the train of thought within the text. Transitional devices connect the ideas within your text and allow them to flow smoothly from one  toRead more

Organizations are constantly hiring or replacing personnel, so alerting stakeholders (e.g., business partners, investors, employees, customers, or/and relevant media) to changes in key staff is a standard public relations task. The most straightforward and most commonly used tool for this task is the appointment release. When I wrote my first appointment release, I found itRead more