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APRIL 8, 2016

Storytelling intrigues me. Man has loved to tell–and hear–stories from our earliest days, gathered together over a flickering fire as night falls… Even before fire was discovered. “Storytelling is one of the many things that define and bind our humanity,” according to this article on the history of storytelling. I believe it.

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APRIL 28, 2016

One of the things I love most about the combination of content marketing with search engine optimization (SEO) is how they work in concert together. If customers require multiple touch-points with a brand to become aware of it, and they do their online sleuthing long before they make a purchase… then it makes sense to take control of those touch-points.

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DECEMBER 1, 2016

The Trick? Facebook Preferred Audience. In social media, sometimes the tiniest of tweaks can make an incredible difference. When it comes to Facebook pages, taking just a few minutes to set up “ preferred audiences ” is one of those things that can truly raise the bar on results for local businesses. Here’s why. Facebook tries to deliver relevant content, tailoring the feed of each user to see more of what they like, and less of what they aren’t interested in.

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APRIL 26, 2017

I’ve been deeply interested in conversion for quite some time, and watching how different types of content helps or hurts conversion for each client is a fascinating thing. Because I focus on the integration of content with SEO and social media, I am lucky enough to see the entire spectrum from creation to ROI – something many marketers don’t get to do as an agency.

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APRIL 26, 2017

I’ve been deeply interested in conversion for quite some time, and watching how different types of content helps or hurts conversion for each client is a fascinating thing. Because I focus on the integration of content with SEO and social media, I am lucky enough to see the entire spectrum from creation to ROI – something many marketers don’t get to do as an agency.

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DECEMBER 1, 2016

The Trick? Facebook Preferred Audience. In social media, sometimes the tiniest of tweaks can make an incredible difference. When it comes to Facebook pages, taking just a few minutes to set up “ preferred audiences ” is one of those things that can truly raise the bar on results for local businesses. Here’s why. Facebook tries to deliver relevant content, tailoring the feed of each user to see more of what they like, and less of what they aren’t interested in.

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Facebook Banking Retail Local 100

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APRIL 28, 2016

One of the things I love most about the combination of content marketing with search engine optimization (SEO) is how they work in concert together. If customers require multiple touch-points with a brand to become aware of it, and they do their online sleuthing long before they make a purchase… then it makes sense to take control of those touch-points.

SEO 100

SEO Education Content Marketing Engineering 100

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APRIL 8, 2016

Storytelling intrigues me. Man has loved to tell–and hear–stories from our earliest days, gathered together over a flickering fire as night falls… Even before fire was discovered. “Storytelling is one of the many things that define and bind our humanity,” according to this article on the history of storytelling. I believe it.

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MARCH 1, 2016

Because they’re packed with so much valuable knowledge, we’re doing something new with our Twitter chats to give you a fast, easy read. We’re repurposing our favorite tweets –the smartest ones–into a short, simple “Best of #PRprochat” summary on SlideShare. There are a few tweaks and improvements still happening, but I thought I’d share one with you.

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FEBRUARY 17, 2016

Deceptive business practices REALLY p**s me off, so I’m not a happy camper today. I’m not a big believer in wire service for local news, but I’m always looking for new ways to get a press release on Google News, Bing and Yahoo, so I tested out a new wire service yesterday. It wasn’t expensive – just $49 for distribution.

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FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Above The Noise Now Available For Purchase. I deeply believe this book will help you. Why? Because so many business owners–even marketing communications and public relations professionals–are investing time and resources into online marketing that simply doesn’t produce results. They’re completely lost with zero online visibility.

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JANUARY 12, 2016

With my book launch coming up WAY too fast and not enough time in the day to do everything I’d like, I’m revisiting how I repurpose content. I don’t do it enough, and I know it’s far less expensive to adapt what I already have than it is to create new. Easier, too! Less brain power required. LOL. Like seeds blown from a dandelion, repurposed content grows reach and brings fresh life to your ideas while extending the impact of content you’ve already paid to create.

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JANUARY 7, 2016

The tide is turning. We’re starting to talk less about the importance of content creation and social media, and more about how these impact customer experience, trust and reputation. We’re transitioning from learning the basics and talking about features, to thinking about significance and the finer nuances of change. We’re moving past the shock of a massively different PR environment and the disruption that caused, into acceptance and leveraging it to bloom in visibility.

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DECEMBER 23, 2015

One of my favorite things about my Twitter chat, #PRprochat, is that it brings smart new people into the spotlight, giving them a chance to shine and make new connections. One of those people is a wonderful PR pro out of Columbus, Ohio: Michelle Garrett , who consistently joins the chat and contributes in wonderful ways with her knowledge. ( Check out her contributions to our most recent chat , with fabulous guest Ann Handley!

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DECEMBER 21, 2015

It’s live. IT’S FINALLY LIVE. My book page is up on Amazon for pre-sales, with a publication date of January 27th. I’m so excited!! If you’re interested in building trust and reputation online (including two GREAT case studies from two of my very favorite pet brands), reserve your copy today. Don’t worry – if the price goes down before the mail date due to a launch promotion, you’ll get the book for the lower price.

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DECEMBER 16, 2015

From a brand perspective, social media is the gift of a brand platform ; a place to step up to the podium and let your voice ring out. There’s no better place to share content and be heard. When we share a post on social media–particularly Facebook and LinkedIn–a title and summary of content from that hyperlink are pulled in right along with the link.

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DECEMBER 10, 2015

(Photo Credit: Deposit Photos, Canva). I have a local bank client that just started working with me in September. In Arizona, most business publications run their finance issues in November and December; therefore, I expected a frenzy of pitching immediately, followed by a lull. That dreaded lull. That gap between editorial placements where your client starts questioning value of the PR retainer, even asking, “What have you done for me this month?

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DECEMBER 1, 2015

(My current skating skills). I was sitting on the sidewalk, lacing up my white roller-skates. A neighbor came out and said, “Good morning, Carrie!” What could I do but strike up a conversation? So we talked about skating and, being the gregarious child that I was, I found myself asking if he would like to learn to skate. He did, so I found myself teaching a swami living in the monastery next door how to skate.

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NOVEMBER 25, 2015

Rock The Pitch #14. A pitch hit my inbox yesterday from a writer. It wasn’t a bad pitch, just mediocre, but it did have obvious signs that the person sending the pitch didn’t do his basic homework before pitching. These are very, very common mistakes and worth talking about. If a new step only adds minutes to your pitch process, but helps you land two out of three pitches instead of one out of twenty, isn’t that worth the extra minutes?

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NOVEMBER 18, 2015

Finding time for media training can be difficult. It’s one task on a massive to-do list. However, some of the best value-adds we can bring to a client relationship take virtually no time at all. Seconds, even. These, for instance: Sending readership demographics right before an interview. (thirty seconds). Discussing what to wear or not wear before a TV interview.

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NOVEMBER 11, 2015

Photography by Cade Martin. If you don’t know Shonali, she is a PR consultant and incredible PR educator on the faculty of The Johns Hopkins University ( she teaches at Rutgers University, too! ). Shonali just launched a brand spankin’ new program called Social PR Launchpad – go check it out or see the image below for details. It’s completely free and sounds pretty terrific!

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NOVEMBER 8, 2015

Trolls. Complainers. Haters. They’re unavoidable on social media and most of us quake in fear at the thought of handling them wrong. The topic is top-of-mind this week due to our recent #PRprochat ( get the transcript here ). I came across this absolutely wonderful infographic yesterday that explains different types of complainers and how best to handle them.

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OCTOBER 27, 2015

Every community manager worries about trolls. Potential risk, how to respond in a way that minimizes damage or–in a best case scenario–boost reputation when a troll jumps into a conversation… When you aren’t sure what to do, decision trees can make the decision simple. This one from Kuno Creative is pretty ingenious. (Kinda fun, too, in a pre-Halloween kind of way.).

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OCTOBER 19, 2015

According to a 2015 Brandwatch study , only 46.6% of brands engage with a tagged mention. Even worse, LESS THAN 5% respond to a complaint that isn’t tagged – leaving a whopping 95%+ of brands who allow trust and reputation to erode. It’s not that they don’t care–most, anyway–I believe they don’t have resources in place to catch (or handle) the mentions, and they don’t realize how damaging neglect can be.

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OCTOBER 6, 2015

When you think of the biggest changes in the move from traditional #PR to #DigitalPR, what comes to mind? I think of HOW FUN our job has become. Challenging, true, but very fun. After decades of media relations and pitching, everything is suddenly changing. Like the first summer monsoon washing away a year’s worth of dust, or a squeeze of fresh lemon bursting on your tongue when you sip water, the industry is becoming infused with new ideas, new influencers and experts, and a deluge of alt

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SEPTEMBER 23, 2015

Social media has completely changed our lives. Sitting down to personally chat with the most influential, amazing people in an industry was virtually impossible before social media. One-on-one conversations with heroes, influencers and leaders rarely happened. They just weren’t accessible. How we learned was completely different, too. Experts are now available with the click of a mouse and five seconds of social media searching, and Google happily delivers free education on any topic we c

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SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

PR Newswire’s Kate Goebbel ( @kate_city ) wrote a wonderful blog post several months ago, called How to Add Personality to Your Next Personnel Press Release. I found it fabulously inspiring! The idea stuck in my head. When a client asks us to write a new hire press release, it’s easy to dismiss its importance, churning out a cookie cutter release talking about their new role, their background and a quote that sounds like a million OTHER new hire quotes.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

Are we focused on social media platforms with hardly any users? … making decisions on where to build audience for brands based on buzz, instead of fact?? S ocial media is fantastic – but choosing the right platforms to focus your effort is critical. Otherwise, you are speaking to an invisible audience. The truth. The marketing industry overflows with massive hype about social media – but is it worth the time investment?

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AUGUST 20, 2015

(Nerd post alert. Endorsed and paid for by Carrie’s Inner Geek.). Well, this is rather interesting!! I thought I’d take a quick look at Google Trends to come up with new keywords (blog inspiration!). First, I searched trends on content marketing. . Looks promising, right? The growth is a bit obvious, since everyone is buzzing about content marketing like it’s Columbus arriving at the New World.

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AUGUST 19, 2015

I came across this interesting infographic (below) from BusinessWire this morning. I’d seen it before, but here’s what struck me about it this time: publications are using vanity metrics to determine if a story is successful or not. It’s a simple metric – easy to track. What does that actually mean? They like successful stories – who doesn’t – so when something generates a nice amount of comments, likes and shares, they produce more content that is simil

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JULY 30, 2015

My Dad has brain cancer. It’s a traitorous, inexorable assassin that isn’t just ravaging his body. It’s murdering everything about my dad that MAKES him who he was before cancer snuck in, while he’s still here. I hate it. I have a fresh understanding of what dementia caretakers go through, since damage to his poor brain is causing similar behavioral and memory changes.

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JULY 17, 2015

What is the difference between repurposed content and copied content? How can PR pros make use of it to expand coverage? What are a few ways to repurpose a press release? These were just a few of the topics we touched on during a recent #PRprochat Twitter chat – let me go into a little more detail. This post appeared first on Rock The Status Quo and is written by Carrie Morgan.

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JULY 14, 2015

Reviews matter, yet so many companies let them grow by default and inattention, rather than a focused effort – rarely monitoring what is being said unless a crisis flares up, grabbing everyone’s attention like firecrackers lit inside a public library. Most restaurants and retail businesses make an effort – smart ones realizing just how much new business they fuel – but monitoring is slim-to-nonexistent for many other types of businesses and there’s no effort made to

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JULY 10, 2015

This video is part of the #PRprochat video series, where we explore one question from the most recent #PRprochat Twitter chat, and dive into more detail. This week’s video is from the June chat, discussing if the blame for poor media lists lies with inexperience or lack of time, and what to do about it. This post appeared first on Rock The Status Quo and is written by Carrie Morgan.

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JULY 6, 2015

The trouble with reading blog posts about SEO is that everyone believes they know what they’re doing. Argumentative about it, even, as we all fiercely defend our little podium of truth. But like many things in life – which we conveniently forget – everyone’s truth is different, especially when it comes to SEO. It’s deeply intertwined with levels of experience in an infinitely complicated field.

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JULY 1, 2015

This video is part of the #PRprochat video series, where we explore one question from the most recent #PRprochat Twitter chat, and dive into more detail. This week’s video is about whether we are mistakenly using press release distribution lists for pitching… Here we go! This post appeared first on Rock The Status Quo and is written by Carrie Morgan.

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JUNE 30, 2015

If you do anything in the digital space – PR, content marketing, search engine optimization, social media – the one thing that matters most is experience. Every skill gained is improved by experience, clients expect incredible amounts of it no matter what their budget might be, and we are all challenged at finding the time. Enter multitasking!

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