Pop music star Sting held a news conference at a New York Apple store on Nov. 15 to announce his Sting 25 “appumentary,” an iPad app with historical interviews, music videos and concert footage promoting a career-spanning CD box set of the same name.

Similarly, Clear Channel Broadcasting, Inc.’s iHeartRadio app repurposes audio and commercial messages from 750 U.S. radio stations, extending its traditional content to a more interactive format.

The app era is in full swing, from mainstream to niche. Online searches show an abundance of apps spanning business, entertainment, news, productivity and lifestyle categories. Apps are even getting age-based ratings this year, like those used to rate video game content.

Half of all U.S. adult mobile phone owners have apps on their phones, according to a study by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. The study reveals that 74 percent of adult app users download news-oriented apps, including those updating weather, sports and investments, followed by 67 percent who download apps to communicate with family and friends.

Another Pew study (in collaboration with The Economist Group) regarding tablet news consumption says that 11 percent of Americans have purchased tablets in the less than two years the iPad has existed. Fifty-three percent of them read news on tablets daily, with 33 percent read from sources that they did not previously consider and 41 percent read articles that they tagged for later.

Fanfare for the common man

Much of this app-tivity, so to speak, lends itself to public relations.  You don’t have to be a music mogul or global brand to use apps as a communications medium. Development cost estimates range from a few thousand dollars for simple apps to tens of thousands for elaborate apps. Communicators typically have strong relationships with creatives and design experts, so tap your networks for possible cost advantages.

Communication strategist David Meerman Scott developed his own iPhone and iPad apps with Newstex, a real-time content technology company, which include his blog posts, Twitter updates, videos and links to his Amazon bookstore profile. A perfect content marketing activity for someone who makes a living teaching such tactics.

Apps can support many messages and purposes. Hunter Public Relations of New York created its “Faceboo” app, allowing users to simulate Halloween-themed press releases while generating agency awareness.

The Roberts Group, a health care communications agency in Waukesha, Wisc., helps client Saint Francis Medical Center of Missouri populate its Saint Francis Medical Partners app. Created by Dr. Edward Bender, the app helps patients locate offices and learn about their physicians’ specialties, medical school affiliations and residencies.

“Technology is helping people take better control of their health care,” says Katie Stensberg, emerging media specialist for The Roberts Group. “Apps that successfully create awareness and communicate with an audience benefit from a focus on basic human needs.”

This post also appears as the January “Digital Dialogue” column of the PR Tactics Journal published by the Public Relations Society of America.

Google+ debuted in June and amassed its first 25 million users faster than any other social network, according to PC Magazine. This finally established Google’s social media presence, after its previous Wave and Buzz experiments received little fanfare. Google+ functions similarly to Facebook, including requiring users to register their real names.

Google experienced crisis-level backlash in July when the company enforced this policy deleting thousands of pseudonym accounts and those of some celebrities, tech gurus and people with uncommon names.

As a result, Google updated its policy and offered concessions such as notifying users with naming violations before deleting their accounts and creating an “other names” field.  While Google+ continues to grow, this name-transparency episode illustrates trust issues with digital citizens, social platforms and, by extension, brands.

Augie Ray, executive director of community and collaboration for United Services Automobile Association, an association dedicated to military personnel’s financial well-being, agrees that there are instances when anonymity can protect people online, though he generally prefers transparency.

“More business can be transacted when people are open,” he explains. “Trying to identify ‘@princess5827’ on Twitter is difficult, whereas if members post concerns on our Facebook wall, we can easily contact and assist them.”

Ray, a former Forrester social media analyst, thinks that Google is wise to follow Facebook’s lead regarding name transparency because it encourages authenticity.

Yet, we live in an era of asynchronous transparency where consumers leverage social networks to demand brand honesty but offer less details about themselves in return. Consider consumer “distress” messages on Twitter:  Some are legitimate pleas for help, while others are shortcut attempts for support or freebies.

This transparency imbalance did not always favor consumers. Brands more or less controlled their messages since advertising’s inception until the social-networking revolution.

Ray argues that this divide between brands and consumers impedes social networking’s vision for transparency. For instance, brands could post service-issue specifics that are customarily kept private when consumers post aggressive complaints online.

Like it or not

Questionable online activities manifest in ways beyond anonymity and deception. Some real-life behaviors create confusion when exhibited online. Facebook Likes are one example. People often Like brands to get deals, not as an endorsement.

When Netflix announced subscription increases in July, thousands of angry customers posted negative comments on the company’s Facebook page, and many Liked the page in order to do so.  Some visitors may assume that those Likes are from adoring fans. The value of a Like depends on context and interpretation, which skew impact.

Communicators must be clear about their intentions online. Ray says FTC guidelines can aid Facebook transparency. The guidelines require that companies promoting customer endorsements disclose the material exchanges, or perks, offered.

“Transparency leads to authenticity then listening, which should lead to honest communication,” he says.  “This is what social media is all about.”

This post also appears as the September “Digital Dialogue” column in the PR Tactics Journal published by the Public Relations Society of America.

The President completed a social networking trifecta in July, hosting a Twitter town hall meeting that generated 119,000 #AskObama tweets containing 40,000 unique questions, according to TwitSprout.

The President’s digital communications strategy may focus on balancing activity across several channels, but in the private sector, Facebook, Google and others are waging the battle for social media supremacy.

Migrating, defecting and reflecting
Facebook, Twitter and other networks on the otherwise openly social Web covet a “walled garden” model. Generating the most traffic can likely wield the most influence and yield the most revenue. It’s a successful approach for Facebook with more than 700 million users, most of whom will never feel restricted in a community of such size.

Competition for users is fierce as social media mania settles into normalcy and users can only manage so many profiles. New networks continue to emerge and compete for attention and lucrative market share, defined by impending IPOs and the aforementioned monetization.

Google’s previous attempts to enter the social space with Google Buzz and Google Wave were short lived, but initial hype for its more robust Google+ with Facebook-influenced features like “circles” (groups) and “stream” (newsfeed) has prompted defensive tactics from competitors.

Facebook blocked an exporting tool that allowed users to export contact information to Gmail as well as Google+ related advertisements on its network while Google suspended real-time search that had included Facebook fan page updates and tweets. Facebook also integrated with Skype in what came off as an over-hyped response to the previous week’s Google+ launch mirroring a video chat capability that Google already offered.

Tumblr, the short-form blogging platform, has drawn competitive comparisons with Twitter. In June, former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez declared Tumblr “the next great tool for reports and news organizations.” Likewise, Edelman communications guru Steve Rubel adopted Tumblr after previously using the competing Posterous service. Rubel and Sanchez both admire the blog and social media hybrid that  Tumblr provides, expanding content sharing and curation capabilities beyond Twitter’s 140-character limit.

Of course, these are not the first instances of social media migration. MySpace users defected in droves when Facebook became the social heir apparent.

What do such movements mean for digital communications professionals? Most are not worrisome. Technologies evolve. Communicators must focus on positioning clients where their audience is already, which often means managing presence on several communities.

Keeping abreast of each network’s maneuvers is helpful for counseling clients appropriately, and clear thinking can guide you the rest of the way.

Navigating your way
Committing to social media means managing a network of networks. It’s a heavy workload for big brands and niche players alike. In this column, we’ve evaluated strategies and tools that can help.

• Popularity trumps allegiance. Critical mass is not difficult to identify even when it shifts. Standing out is the real challenge, so focus on message and differentiation matter regardless of location.
• Social networks are evolving and new ones emerge constantly. Evaluating your options is healthy, but when one social network is working for you resist the urge to change it.
• Technology and complacency don’t mix. Embrace change.

This post also appears as the August “Digital Dialogue” column in the PR Tactics Journal published by the Public Relations Society of America.

LinkedIn Corp. closed its first day of public trading on May 19 at $94.25 per share, tallying a net worth of nearly $9 billion.

This development triggered optimism for other social media companies anticipating Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), including Facebook — with a projected $100 billion valuation, according to CNBC — and eventually Twitter. Regional deal-of-the-day site Groupon filed with the SEC for what could lead to an IPO valued at $20 billion.

These activities, however, are also drawing skepticism for similarities to the Internet boom and bust of 1995-2000, when tech companies launched pricey IPOs on lofty visions and little, if any, profits.

IPOs and acquisitions represent the next era of social media awareness. Communicators should welcome this new boost in enthusiasm. We’ve implemented the tools for years — and while concern over another tech bubble is a drama all its own, there are also positives for PR practitioners to leverage during investment and consolidation activities.

Consider the following:

Big-ticket IPOs and acquisitions validate digital communication strategies. If your organization is engaged in networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as a way to connect with audiences and develop customers, then you can tout these activities as signals of strong demand and longevity for social media tools. This is a good time to justify the use of your chosen platforms with internal stakeholders and propose additional investments within your organizations.

Likewise, if leadership is still skeptical of social media, then you can now speak in terms executives appreciate: IPO and acquisition activity is proof that social technologies should be taken seriously.

Publicly traded and acquired social channels have more funding and more stakeholders. LinkedIn now has additional cash to further develop functionality. Imagine what is possible for cash-infused companies and the increased frequency at which they can introduce new features.

As social sites go public or companies acquire them (such as Microsoft buying Skype for $8.5 billion in May), currently free features may become subscription-based as companies look for return on their investments by monetizing some services. Such changes could alter or limit the composition of certain digital communications campaigns.

Mainstay social channels are building on their ideal-use cases. As technology markets mature and consolidate, remaining players position themselves based on core competencies. Brands and the communicators supporting them can better prioritize which tools to use and how much effort they should place on each. Twitter, for example, is impressive at 75 million users, though it’s dwarfed by Facebook’s 600 million users. Twitter is ideal for peer discussions, generating buzz and business-to-business or nonprofit campaigns. And Facebook is better positioned to create communities that consistently influence sales.

Recent behavior demonstrates that each platform is building on these roles. Twitter acquired TweetDeck for $40 million to help users manage high volumes of real-time conversations, while Facebook has introduced services that could supplant competing standalone tools: Facebook Places (location-based sharing; foursquare), Facebook Deals(opt-in sales deals; Groupon) and Facebook Email accounts (Gmail, Yahoo! Mail etc).

PR professionals can follow suit. It’s a great time to use this latest technology buzz as a catalyst to reinvest in and advance your digital communications programs. Even Wall Street says so.

This post also appears as the “Digital Dialogue” column in the July issue of PR Tactics, published by the Public Relations Society of America.

Image betadaily.com

Aflac fired “spokesduck” Gilbert Gottfried over his comments about the Japanese tsunami. GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons documented an elephant hunt that angered PETA.  An Applebee’s restaurant in Michigan accidentally served alcohol to a toddler.

These headlines illustrate how crisis topics vary. However, there is a common mindset that PR practitioners can apply to help manage and minimize the online footprint of such incidents.

“People often go off the cuff in a crisis and that’s their No. 1 flaw,” says Jocelyn Broder, vice president at Robin Tracy Public Relations in Atlanta, describing how a client who was upset about a negative blog post opted against her counsel and contacted the blogger personally.

That exchange resulted in another post by the same blogger casting more negative light on the spokesperson’s  “claims” and five other bloggers picked up the story.

“The original post, while unflattering, was accurate and directed at maybe a couple hundred readers,” explains Broder.  “In relatively contained situations like these it is good to have a statement prepared in case you are contacted, but proactively offering it may cause more damage than would’ve likely occurred.”

Dorothy Crenshaw, CEO of Crenshaw Communications in New York, says the first rule in the crisis response playbook is being timely and authentic — often to issue an apology — but the realities of the accelerated news cycle can require deft interpretation and application of this rule.

“Parsons’ GoDaddy hunting video was posted for some time before going viral and since he didn’t believe he was doing anything wrong, the company needed a different response,” adds Crenshaw. “Knowing he’s a hunter and ex-Marine who makes no bones about his lifestyle suggests GoDaddy’s team is prepared to some degree for negative news.”

Parsons’ explanations about helping poor African villagers control the elephant population and preserve crops, however, came across as defensive to many viewers, including Crenshaw.  She thought that he did an admirable job of making himself available for response but could have communicated a more sincere desire to help the region reduce poverty.

Preparing your response

The digital communications landscape requires more frequent vulnerability assessment so that practitioners can better help companies and clients manage potential and real crises scenarios. Successful communicators apply the following:

• Study the past — Companies generally find themselves in situations that they (or someone like them) have been in before. Studying how peers handled past mistakes aids crisis readiness.
• Anticipate the future — Crenshaw suggests vulnerability assessments that generate responses for your top five most likely crisis scenarios. Broder advises identifying team members who are automatically contacted no matter where or when a crisis occurs.  The sooner they are engaged, the sooner they can determine how to respond.
• Mend while you trend — Broder also recommends measuring the actual reach of a crisis by evaluating everywhere it occurs online.  This helps determine who else may become aware of it, which messages should be prepared — if any — and what message frequency is best for quelling rather than exacerbating the news.

Apply a rational rather than an emotional examination to whether news requires a response.  It is also wise to identify one spokesperson whose position is commensurate with the situation to respond when necessary.

“If you don’t have a thoughtful and strategic response within the first four hours, then you generally lose round one,” says Crenshaw.  “And sometimes, it’s only a one-round battle.

This post also appears in PR Tactics Journal, a publication of the Public Relations Society of America.

Published by Jossey-Bass

I’m fortunate on occasion to receive books for review. Such is the case with When the Headline Is You: An Insider’s Guide to Handling the Media, authored by media and crisis communications trainer Jeff Ansell, with Jeffrey Leeson. My thanks to both for sharing a copy.

Ansell’s 16 years of journalism and 22 years of media consulting experience pay off for readers. His book addresses balancing the art and science of media relations, instructing readers how to apply responsive and proactive approaches to a diverse set of crisis communications scenarios.

I began reading When the Headline Is You with the expectation of learning how to better identify, examine and manage the myriad of negative media exchanges that organizations and business professionals can encounter. And the book delivered. What I did not expect at go, but now makes perfect sense, was such depth of writing and speech tutorials dispensed within the crisis management lessons. These skills, of course, go hand in hand; essential for effectively managing crisis situations, and for any measure of communications success. My point, or additional discovery, is that the writing and speaking skills Ansell covers can help strengthen your communications for situations beyond crisis. I plan to keep this book handy to assist with persuasion and accuracy.

Ansell handles crisis examples in an enlightening manner throughout the book using both real-world and hypothetical scenarios. My one criticism of the book is that I would have enjoyed a few more references to “classic” online examples (classic from a social media traffic perspective) that brands like Domino’s Pizza, Kenneth Cole, Gap or Motrin have experienced in recent years. Learning what Jeff would have prescribed in these situations would be interesting, although perhaps is too much of a “me t00″ format since he has years’ worth of consulting examples to offer. The Internet sensations, after all, are just a Google search away.

When the Headline Is You gets right to work noting how anyone can ask questions, but the real skill is in answering them. Ansell cautions that truth and perspective are the casualties of reporting, especially given the sensationalism and trivial distractions common in our present news culture. Conflict, of nearly any sort it seems, is how reporters earn a living he says.

You’ll be able to use this book both as cover-to-cover instruction as well as for situational reference. For the former, Ansell offers three key tools – his Value Compass, Problem Solution Formula, and Compelling Message Creator – used to illustrate how a pharmaceutical client navigates the highs and lows of crisis management, building upon this example client’s story from chapter to chapter as each tool is applied.

Along the way Ansell covers critical support topics including: what questions to ask reporters so responses are mutually beneficial, coupling stakeholders’ concerns with your commitments to action, skills like constructing standalone sentences to ensure your messages can withstand the most ruthless media edits, how PR professionals can get lawyers on their side, and assessing your messages against an honesty continuum.

The material is dense across barely two-hundred pages. It’s a page turner (yes, I marked up the hardcover) not only for its compelling advice but also for the drama evoked by its examples; the stories will have you anxious to see what happens next. And if that’s not enough, there’s even a fun Stones reference on page five.

So my thanks again to Jeff for sharing a review copy. I hope to meet and discuss more of it with you someday — ideally under the most pleasant circumstances!

You can find out more about Jeff Ansell and his book at www.whentheheadlineisyou.com and hear him discuss the book here on a Jossey-Bass podcast.

Online news consumption surpassed newspapers for the first time last year according to Pew Research Center’s 2011 State of the News Media report. Forty-six percent of respondents access news online at least three times weekly, compared to 40 percent from newspapers. Pew also finds that 47 percent of Americans access local news via mobile devices.

These stats may not be revelations to informed communicators, but they illustrate how the volume of online information is rapidly expanding — and Pew’s data only measures editorial content. Even Google algorithms are challenged to provide relevant results from such an enormous pool of possibilities.

Enter the content curator

Content curation consists of identifying and organizing information that others have produced about a specific topic to share with your own audience.

It is a skilled and growing effort among individuals and prolific content creators alike. Pew estimates 18 of The Huffington Post’s 70 to 80 editors (pre-AOL acquisition) produce content, while the rest aggregate and curate.

This can include using social bookmarking tools such as Delicious and Digg, tweeting, linking to blogs and guest posts, among other social sharing examples.

The most serious curation, however, is consistent and focused rather than random. Information curators are trusted editors to those who follow them, and this results in communication potential for PR practitioners.

Author and consultant Don Tapscott says that curation and context are among the most important elements of content strategies. He points to the rise of curated resources overtaking traditional models to illustrate its inherent organization, publishing and engagement qualities. Examples include Flickr photo sharing eclipsing Kodak Gallery, Wikipedia rendering Britannica Online irrelevant and The Huffington Post competing with The New  York Times.

A targeting tactic

PR professionals, their companies and their clients can gain notoriety and create an engaged audience by becoming the person, organization or Web destination that shares the best information about a particular category.

“If you’re going to be a content marketer, then you need to specialize or risk not being relevant to anyone,” explains Michelle Golden of Golden Practices Inc., a communications advisory to professional service firms.

Golden’s client, Paul Neiffer, now with LarsonAllen, publishes the Farm CPA Today blog for the agriculture industry. The blog is successful for its blending of original items and curated links about related topics of interest to farmers, rather than merely sharing accounting tips.

Golden has benefited from overseeing a longtime list of accounting bloggers. She was approached to submit a book proposal based on her demonstrated passion for the space, resulting in “Social Media Strategies for Professionals and Their Firms.”

Successful content curation includes defining what and whose content you will select and developing your topic with the support of your community of followers. These people ultimately help to organize, discuss and promote your material.

Producing original material for your information stream helps too. If the maintenance is not practical, then stay mindful of your industry’s trends during PR messaging and brand journalism efforts to improve the likelihood of surfacing on aggregated sites like LinkedIn Today and Alltop, or someone inviting you to contribute in communities such as the American Express OPEN Forum.

“Whether you create or curate content, you need to be an avid reader,” Golden says. “Continuous education keeps you current. You can’t fake an interest. You must be authentic to win.”

This post is also featured as the May “Digital Dialogue” column in PR Tactics Journal, published by the Public Relations Society of America.

Foursquare and the NFL scored more than 200,000 check-ins worth of awareness from Super Bowl XLV parties across the United States and 125 countries, becoming the site’s most checked into venue to date. Old Spice awarded a fan exclusive, limited-time use of a promotional video. And Ultimate Fighting Championship held the first large-scale sporting event exclusively broadcasted on Facebook.

Applying social technology in innovative ways effectively attracts attention to your message — a topic that I recently discussed with Amy Martin, the CEO of Phoenix-based Digital Royalty.

Achieving results
I first met Martin in 2009 when she was organizing the NBA’s first fan Tweetup. She has since parlayed that experience into Digital Royalty, her own agency that manages digital communications for an admirable roster of sports teams, athletes, celebrities and corporations.

Martin and her team continue to create new initiatives that draw fan support to their clients’ causes, such as their work on Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Facebook campaign.

The preliminary matches for UFC’s Jan. 22 “Fight for the Troops” event was the centerpiece of its Facebook broadcast. Viewers simply had to “Like” UFC’s Facebook page to gain access to the fight. UFC has previously streamed backstage interviews and fighter weigh-ins, so streaming an event (or a portion, in this case) was the next logical step.

The “Fight for the Troops” campaign goal was to reach a new audience.  Tactics included social media, traditional media and website placements.  The campaign generated 123,000 new Facebook fans — 49,000 of those on event day.

The league clearly understands the value of going where fans are, rather than fighting to change their behaviors.  This approach works: The UFC is second only to the NBA for most pro sports league Facebook fans, according to public fan pages.

The UFC selecting the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund as its charitable partner was a significant part of  its Troops strategy. Martin finds that people come together for a cause, especially with social media.

Connecting IRL
It’s vital for practitioners to bridge the virtual and physical worlds, given that personal relationships are a cornerstone of public relations and successful business ventures.

“The magic of social media is most effective when you make things come to life,” explains Martin, who stresses simplicity over technology for technology’s sake. “Geo location apps, for example, now give us more complex ways to make connections, yet it all boils down to making online relationships come alive, whatever the method may be.”

Martin cites public relations as an essential contributor to the digital communications landscape.

“We call a lot of what we do social PR because it factors into every campaign. We rarely write press releases unless mandated by clients, and instead ask PR pros on our campaigns to reach out personally to their media outlets,” she says. “Humans connect with humans, so the pitching process changes when you’re building relationships with media who engage in social networking.”

Martin’s advice to communicators is to build your personal brand beyond the organization you represent, since it is transferrable. Modify these social media tactics to support your goals or even inspire innovation of your own.

Attract more attention online

Digital communication tools offer practitioners many methods for helping their messages be discovered. Consider the following when seeking new audiences online.

• Take Q-and-A to the next level — Create dialog in your blog and community comment sections; readers return when you engage frequently. Or try Quora, a Q-and-A site becoming a reputable thought leadership forum for posting and following questions, as well as rating response value.
• Mobilize your message — Connect with people in proximity by offering access to deals or events using geo-location apps like Foursquare and Facebook Places. Or create your own app to qualify the followers who most want to receive your communications, and update them instantly.
• Polish up a podcast — There are thousands of podcasts. Those with congenial hosts, hot topics and slick production garner the most listeners or viewers. Select a frequency and duration you can manage, and for production try Audacity for sound editing and Audiojungle for theme music.
• Be vivid with video – You know YouTube, Skype and have probably viewed a Ustream event. Go beyond these staples with Qik (recently acquired by Skype) to stream public or private videos live using your mobile phone, and create a channel on a video sharing community like Vimeo.

This post also appears as the March “Digital Dialogue” column in the PR Tactics Journal, published by the Public Relations Society of America.

Here is a recap of the 2010 Digital Dialogue column covering digital communication advice as published in the PR Tactics journal from the Public Relations Society of America. Enjoy the Holidays, and here’s wishing a prosperous 2011 to everyone!

Welcome to the DARC Side: creating compelling web content (Jan 2010) – HubSpot co-founders and “Inbound Marketing” co-authors Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah help identify digital communicators’ ideal traits.

Getting ahead of the class, social media style (Feb 2010) – How PR students channel social networking know-how into marketable career potential. Cites Butler University’s Evan Strange and Ferris State University’s Mikinize Stuart as best-practice examples.

What profile mining means for you (March 2010) – A look at online research and ge0-location tools with insight from strategy consultants and bloggers Valeria Maltoni and Jay Baer.

Building an online community with PRStudChat (April 2010) – How Mango! Marketing’s Deirdre Breakenridge and Valerie Simon of BurrellesLuce created the PRStudChat online community for PR students, educators and professionals.

Online newsrooms in the digital era (May 2010) – A discussion with The News Group Net’s David Henderson about the real audience for online newsrooms and how to make them valuable destinations people will actually return to.

Livestreaming removes broadcast boundaries, expands PR potential (June 2010) – Suggestions for outfitting your team to make the most of video technologies from Ustream, Skype and others. Quotes Jeramie McPeek of the Phoenix Suns.

Blogs and the art of thought leadership (July 2010) – Why blogging is an essential business communication tool with insight from Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 and the Content Marketing Institute, and Amanda Miller Littlejohn of Mopwater PR.

Crowdsourcing for innovation (Aug 2010) – A look at crowdsourcing’s business value with quotes from PepsiCo’s Shiv Singh and Go Daddy’s Marianne Curran.

Tumbling and posturing through the statusphere (Sept 2010) – An examination of short-form blogging with free tools such as Tumblr and Posterous. Quotes Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital.

Brand journalism creates another viable news outlet (Oct 2010) – How corporations are publishing valuable information free of sales and marketing jargon in an effort to educate, assist and engage their customers.

Influencing the news cycle in real time (Nov 2010) – An interview with David Meerman Scott, author of “Real-Time Marketing and PR: How to Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business.”

Where PR pros are heading with the social Web (Dec 2010) – Suggestions for digital communicators as we head into 2011 with inspiration from Diane Sawyer and advice from Abbie Fink of HMA Public Relations and Christine Perkett of PerkettPR.