Remember that we are trying to shape opinions and help communicate a message. Looking for inspiration to improve your work can come from many areas — colleagues, customers, partners and even competitors. Inspiration can also come from reading, writing or simply going for an afternoon break to get your coffee. Sometimes inspiration can come simply from a quote. Here are a few quotes that guide how I view working in public relations and why. It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. — Henry David Thoreau. Breathe deeply. What is the big picture? MORE >>

For my presentation I was asked to address what we are doing and to help the audience target two questions:  Where should your business be spending its time and how much time should you allocate to the social channels? By doing so, it helps me to focus on both the quantitative and qualitative items that can help us see what’s working and who/what matters. While they are hardly scientific and lack context, they can help validate over time topics and issues that matter to your audience and who you are trying to reach. But don’t discount them. MORE >>

This current phase has helped us utilize many of our internal resources to build a better and more integrated site for our many stakeholders. In 2006 I took a leap of faith and decided it was time to outsource a key part of our website — the media room. At that time PR Newswire was partnering with The Fuel Team and provided an outsourced solution. When we launched the new media room later that year we had a more dynamic landing page for journalists, analysts, educators and customers who were interested in reading news from the company. Fast forward to this week. Banner Updates. MORE >>

The bottom line I believe is that motivated communicators are the ones helping organizations succeed. How else can they possibly understand where  communication can help add to the revenue stream? Helping drive the value of communications throughout the business and providing business value – not just media relations value – is a factor to success. What drives success in our profession? Source: Winnod. This has been on my mind lately because as I’ve talked with so many different people the topic has been raised. What skills does one need? We should encourage that. MORE >>

Here’s a breakdown of some of the research I’ve found interesting and helpful: Asia. A lot has been happening in the world of social media, and I do mean the world. As many B2B companies move into using more social and digital tools we continue to read about case studies involving the big three — LinkedIn , Twitter and Facebook. But what abo0ut Sina Weibo ? Orkut ? Renren ? Are these networks a part of your strategy? Do you know who they reach and what they do? Do you need to expand your reach by using them? Penn Olson breaks the study down for you. Europe. MORE >>