A few weeks ago, I attended a PRSA Health Academy session on “serious games” led by Ben Sawyer, co-founder of game-consulting firm Digitalmill. In this session, Sawyer argued that games have enormous potential as motivational tools. “Because games require players to make frequent decisions, they can be can be used to develop smart habits and [...]
[ view full post ]FDA Embarks on Unprecedented Initiative for Transparency in Patient Communications
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched its long awaited website called FDA Patient Network. The FDA Patient Network is part of the Office of Health and Constituent Affairs (OHCA) and seeks to help patients, patient advocates, and their health professionals connect with FDA during the drug approval and commercialization process. This marks the [...]
[ view full post ]9 Tips for Professional Service Firms to Maximize their Website Content
Many professional service firms forget to leverage one of their greatest marketing assets: their intellectual property. Your ideas, stories and even methodologies are the single best way to differentiate your firm. Many firms are willing to invest in thought leadership campaigns. But, in order to maximize that investment, you need to design the right “home [...]
[ view full post ]Do You Know Who You’re Talking To?
The business of communication can be boiled down to two major concepts: knowing how to effectively send a message and knowing who you are sending the message to. Of course, that is an overly simplified way of thinking about the communications industry. However, the latter can be much harder than it sounds. One audience that [...]
[ view full post ]Oh, the Places CMOs Go!
Chief marketing officers (CMOs) have one of the toughest jobs within any organization. Being responsible for all marketing-related activities—product development, advertising, sales management, market research, etc.—commands the skill of a professional who can wear many different hats. A recent Marketing Week article looked at a survey released by Accenture, which found that CMOs felt less [...]
[ view full post ]Where Do All The Old PR People Go?
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal about a 50 year old successful Advertising executive trying to “keep current” in his profession helped trigger an existential question that has been creeping into my conscience thought and haunting me over the past few years – “Where Do All of the Old PR People Go?” It’s [...]
[ view full post ]Social Media Training…It’s Not Just for Problems. Six Best Practices to Get it Right
Social media training is usually undertaken to prevent future problems. Most companies build programs to ensure that employees will understand what to do with negative comments or how to behave in the face of a crisis. That is important and necessary work. However, successful social media training should extend much further than a discussion on [...]
[ view full post ]Five Ways the ACA will Re-shape Healthcare PR
There’s been a lot written about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its potential impact on key industry players – i.e., pharmaceutical and device companies, clinicians, health plans and patients. But what about the PR professionals who work alongside these players? Whether we reside in-house or on agency teams, we know that everything that affects [...]
[ view full post ]Sink or Swim: On The Challenges of Becoming a PR Manager
Over the course of my career, I’ve come across the full spectrum of managers. The leadership style of your managers – and the one that you ultimately settle on yourself – seeps into everything. While leadership is partly a factor of personality and your past experiences, good managers push themselves to learn and evolve. As [...]
[ view full post ]SEC Gets Social: Why Social Media is a Good Thing for Investor Relations
Last Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC) announced that public companies will now be allowed to circulate material information via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, as long as they first tell investors which sites they intend to use. The SEC’s decision comes after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings came under fire for a [...]
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