By Karen Riordan

I was pleasantly surprised to see that we sold 60 more tickets than we did the past year for ADDYs. A sold out crowd! The Ad Club also achieved its sponsorship goal for the event (which was unexpected) and although the total number of entries was down, the same number of entrants stepped up and entered back in January.

By Annette Minkalis

Do you need a celebrity to have a successful public service campaign?

The short answer is you don’t need one.

By Alan J. Waldinger, Jr.,

As an editor at Business Wire, I’m used to scouring press releases for any and all mistakes – misspellings, grammatical issues, punctuation errors, etc.  And while our clients do an excellent job of composing releases, there are a few key items that are occasionally omitted from them.  The following aren’t errors in a traditional sense, but correcting them can add to the visibility and utility of your press release.

By Maria D. James

During my sophomore year at Virginia Union University, one of the oldest of the 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the United States, I was introduced to a magical tool called a credit card.

Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR) hosted a brown-bag lunch event with Janine Driver, author of “YOU SAY MORE THAN YOU THINK: Use “The New Body Language” to Get What You Want!” The March 17 WWPR Professional Development Brown-Bag Lunch was a huge success!

While mobile marketing may be hailed by many as an integral component of digital strategies in 2010, there is still uncertainty about how to connect it back to revenue, according to a recent survey by R2integrated.

It was 1995. Fifteen years had passed since some three dozen women who worked in communications in the Washington area began holding monthly networking meetings. And it had been nine years since they formalized the arrangement by establishing a nonprofit corporation called Washington Women in Public Relations.

By Annette Minkalis

While it’s true that for-profit corporations do not qualify for public service time and/or space donated by stations and publications, corporations with consumer awareness campaigns can take advantage of the donated media time by partnering with nonprofits with like-minded missions. 

In today’s atmosphere of increasing public skepticism toward institutions, attorneys need to proactively protect their firm’s brand as well as that of their clients, CommCore CEO Andrew Gilman told a gathering of attorneys and insurance industry liability professionals.

Qorvis Communications released an analysis of the impact of Twitter on the 2009 gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey and the January 19, 2010, Read More »

Capitol Communicator Thought Leadership Series: Paul Vozelzang discusses measurement with Debbie Friez, BurrellesLuce, in a Capitol Communicator TV video and podcast sponsored by RHED PixelRead More »

In its U.S. Local Media Annual Forecast (2009-2014), Chantilly-based BIA/Kelsey forecasts the U.S. local advertising market to reach $144.9 billion in 2014, representing a modest compound annual growth rate of 2.2 percent from 2009. A closer look at the forecast period reveals, following a significant contraction in 2009, local media spending is expected to be slow through 2011, with meaningful recovery beginning in 2012.

By Tracy Schario Johnson

Many of the students in the media relations class that I’m teaching are frustrated with social media. They work for companies in Salt Lake City and Cairo. For Federal, State and Local governments around the country. For Fortune 500 companies. The common compliant?  I can’t get the CEO, legal counsel or other senior executives to approve a blog or other social media channels.

"Creatives" love toys, writes Ernie Mosteller, VP, Interactive Creative Director of Brunner Digital, in Adotas. Take a walk around the creative department of an ad agency, he writes, if you don’t find a ton of toys scattered across desktops and perched on cubes, you either (A) made a wrong turn into accounting; or (B) have draconian office decor rules that resemble a gulag and you really should lighten up.

Capitol Communicator Thought Leadership Series:  Limor Schafman discusses Word Of Mouth with Shaun Quigley, Brunner Digital, in a Capitol Communicator TV video and podcast sponsored by RHED Pixel.  Read More »

Spectrum reports landmark findings from a recent women’s reproductive health campaign that reveal definitive proof that online advertising, when used as an exclusive communications vehicle, has the power to impact audience opinions and awareness levels.

By John Heenan, RP3 Agency

We’ve seen a flood of expert opinion, statistics, and posts about the rise of social media and the demise of traditional media. It’s on every CMO’s list for 2010

While mobile marketing is recognized as an integral component of digital marketing strategies in 2010, uncertainty looms over its return-on-investment, according to a recent survey by R2integrated (R2i), a leading Internet marketing and technology company.

By Tracy Schario Johnson

When the Pope encourages the priesthood to proselytize the “Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) alongside traditional means,” you have to ask yourself:  What Am I Waiting For

More than 1,000 executives with marketing responsibilities were asked to rate seven types of media (direct mail, internet, newspapers/consumer magazines, promotional products, social media, trade publications and TV) in terms of achieving eight attributes generally considered important to marketers. The result was that promotional products rate No. 1 in five of the eight listed attributes. Direct mail and internet came in as No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

By Carol Clurman

For my first column for Capitol Communicator and for the new decade, I thought it appropriate to take a quick look at what changes lie ahead in the media mindset. Here’s my take on what’s new for 2010 and what’s being left behind in the rubble of the oughts. Here goes:

An overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories, reports a new national survey conducted by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University’s Master’s Degree Program in Strategic Public Relations. Among the journalists surveyed, 89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter. The survey also found that 61% use Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.

You receive an email from an organization you have been trying to reach for the past two years. You’re elated because they want you to bid on the redesign of their Web site. There is an attachment with all of the criteria they require¾a fairly routine RFP.

Susan Davis International sent out a list of seven social media tips.  These include having a clear, concise Social Media policy.

The current healthcare reform negotiations are an issue with high stakes for the Obama administration, Congress, interest groups, citizens and media, all trying to make sense of a dizzying array of lingo, updates and challenges.  And it’s all happening in the midst of a communication climate that has changed dramatically, from the way reporters cover stories to the changing face of online and grassroots communication. 

By Ashley Settle

Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR) kicked off 2010 with its annual meeting on Jan. 12 featuring keynote speaker Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence. Following a networking lunch at the Grand Hyatt, Bhargava presented “10 Social Media Trends for 2010.” With a focus on the importance of authenticity and transparency in online communication, Bhargava presented ten tips and techniques for communicators in the burgeoning digital world:

By Barbara I. Berschler, Esq., Press, Potter & Dozier, LLC

In Part 1, I described, in general, the broad array of formats that intellectual property (IP) can take so you will be in a better position to identify an IP Read More »

The end of a year is always an appropriate time to look back and identify trends that shaped the communications world – in part because they probably will continue into 2010.  To us, among the many, here are five worth noting:

Searching for new ways to generate revenues as their traditional lines of business have been impacted this year, Chris Huebner, president of Mac Mannes, Inc., tells us that corporations are increasingly looking to branded ad specialty items as a new revenue channel. Heubner tells us a trade industry publication states that while hats and t-shirts with their own logos on them will never become their primary business, these ecompanies appreciate the extra dollars as well as the extra advertising impressions they get from selling these items.  According to Huebner

Capitol Communicator Thought Leadership Series: Paul Vogelzang discusses social media with Mary Fletcher Jones in a Capitol Communicator TV video and podcast sponsored by RHED Pixel (www.rhedpixel.com).  The Capitol Communicator TV Thought Leadership Series podcast is up in iTunes now.  The transcript of that interview follows: