Your PR Architect

This is not a tale about grade school kids, despite the headline. Camille* and I began a conversation at a professional dinner. We hadn't met previously, but I knew the not-for-profit agency she headed. She liked a few things I said about strengthening their external communications, took my business card, and promised to call. Image by Kaz, from Pixabay, via Wikimedia Commons Reaching out to Camille over the next few weeks yielded no response. Then, one night, about eight weeks later, she phoned to ask for ideas to better market her agency's new counseling service. I shared a few thoughts in writing -- it took about an hour -- and she indicated we should meet soon and move toward a working relationship. Nothing happened, even after multiple follow-ups from me. A few months later, around 8 pm on a Friday, Camille called in a panic. An ex-client of the agency was frustrated with its policies, and his unhappy friend posted disparaging remarks on the agency's Facebo...

On the day I wrote this post, bloggers were creating and posting more than 2.2 million new posts. On a Sunday afternoon. Ready to enter the long tunnel of blogging? You want a presence in the blogosphere. You know social media can reach new customers and prospects. But, creating and maintaining a business blog isn't easy. A well-written blog can help build your brand and visibility. The downside: you need to refresh a blog consistently with meaningful, persuasive content that your customers and followers will find engaging. And you need to get them to read it. And come back to it again and again. That's how you build awareness and a relationship. It can seem like you're entering a long tunnel, without knowing where the journey may lead. Steamfeed.com recently shared a concise article about business blogging. The most useful tip: planning ahead, and developing a steady flow of topics and stories that resonate with your customers. That's a tall order. You...