The Shoemakers' Children Refresh Their Brand

We've always been focused first and foremost on our clients -- on their announcements, their messaging, their branding, their return on investment. Our efforts on growing and evolving our business are always driven by how we can provide our clients with the best resources and services available. This focus has helped us successfully navigate 25 years in the constantly shifting world of strategic communications. But now more than ever there is a major shift in the communications landscape, a shift...

What We Are #Thankful For – and NOT!

One thing for which social media is great is providing a platform for anyone to share with the world what they are thankful for at this time of year. We agree and have been doing that on Beyond the Hype for five years. In 2011, we have many important reasons to give thanks: Our loyal clients and long-time friends of the agency that have been the most important part of our success and the reason we could celebrate our 25...

Activating Your "Inner Monk" to Deal with Information Overload

I'll admit it. I loved Monk, the former USA character in the series of the same name. I do straighten blinds and pictures in my "Monk moments." I particularly love (and have often borrowed) his phrase: "It's a blessing and a curse," which is how he described his amazing ability to analyze and see information that others couldn't see to solve crimes. It was particularly amazing, given his debilitating obsessive compulsive disorder in every other walk of life. I thought...

Snippets on Social Media from @PubClubofNE Event #pubclubofne

Last night I attended the Publicity Club of New England's panel discussion, "Tools and Tips for Social Success: Taking Your Social Media Program to the Next Level." The panel was moderated by my colleague, @TedWeismann. The panelists were: Janet Aronica, Head of Marketing at Shareaholic (@JanetAronica) Eric Leist, Emerging Technology Strategist, Allen and Gerritsen (@EricLeist) George Snell, Senior Vice President of Digital and Social Media, Weber Shandwick (@HighTalk) Andrew Teman, Vice President, Social Media Strategy, Hill Holliday (@andrewteman) Anne Weiskopf,...

Taking Social Media to the Next Level With #PubClubofNE

Social media is not new. It's so much a part of mainstream culture with "Find Us on Facebook" signs on nearly every business' front door and Twitter hashtags on the screen during TV programs like X Factor and the World Series. Social media is now part and parcel of most communications programs, but measuring the business impact is something with which most practitioners continue to struggle. Given that, the Publicity Club of New England is hosting a great panel discussion...

Surma’s Cool Communications and Precision Navigates the Penn State Debacle

John Surma has been president and chief executive officer of US steel since 2004, yet until a couple of days ago, wasn’t a household name. However, Mr. Surma is also vice-chairman of the board of trustees for Pennsylvania State University and had the unenviable task of managing the public announcement that legendary head football coach Joe Paterno was being relieved of his duties, effective immediately. The fact that the move was not unexpected did little to dampen the hostility of...

Hey, Red Sox. Don't Poke a Stick in the Cage.

Despite the many worthy candidates, including Herman Cain, we just have to award a special "What were they thinking?" communications award this week to the marketing team of the Boston Red Sox for their invitation to "Jingle Your Way to Fenway." The invitation arrived in my email box yesterday morning. Here's part of the cheery message: "Fans showed so much creativity with the Jingle Your Way to Fenway contest last year that we just had to bring it back! To...

The Google+ Pages Land Rush: Highlights and Recommendations

Earlier this week Google announced Google+ Pages, and so the land rush began. We have been exploring and learning the ins and outs of the new Google+ Pages, and have compiled a quick set of highlights and recommendations for those who wish to claim their territory -- particularly in light of Google’s new search algorithm and how much content and conversations on Google+ will affect search results. Highlights: Anyone with a Google account can create a Google+ Page. Note that...

How to Leverage Social Media to Enhance Everyday PR Activities

Last week I had the opportunity to lead a peer training session at our agency where we discussed, what you will come to realize is one of my favorite things – social media. This was especially significant for me because for one, it’s only been four months since I started working at Lois Paul & Partners and our agency’s culture of creating opportunities for co-workers to learn from each other manifested itself in yet another way. As a new employee,...