A PR professional who fails to educate themselves about a client’s industry is like a ship captain with no map; you will find yourself going nowhere or steering in the wrong direction. Becoming an expert in your clients’ fields helps you see how you can add value. Understanding their industry will help you reach target audiences and help clients to [...]
Starting a new job can be daunting. Oftentimes it brings a variety of challenges, such as a more intensive workload, new co-workers to meet, new software to learn, and new institutional knowledge to acquire. Overcoming these hurdles during an in-person onboarding can be difficult. In a fully remote environment, though, these challenges can seem overwhelming. With 36.2 million Americans expected [...]
As I finish my work for Communiqué PR, I want to set my replacement – and the company – up for success. To that end, here are some best practices for transferring institutional knowledge. What is Institutional Knowledge? Institutional knowledge is the cumulative knowledge that an organization requires to run smoothly. Because individual knowledge varies by role, assigned tasks, and [...]
Due to growth across the firm, we are looking to add several individuals to our team. The Communiqué PR team is made up of highly collaborative professionals that provide strategic counsel and tactical support for our clients across a variety of industries. Our team is collectively focused on delivering exceptional results to help our clients achieve their most important business [...]
In a fast-paced work environment, professionals tend to address problems with the same, overused solutions. This copy-and-paste maneuver is an efficient use of our brain’s energy but tends to treat unique problems with generalized solutions. What if we could hack our brain and force it to think in more creative ways? Dr. Shelley Carson, author of “Your Creative Brain: Seven [...]
Point blank, transitioning back to work after family leave is challenging. Getting your head back in the game after a weeklong vacation can be difficult. Imagine after several weeks or months. It’s an “intense physical and psychological adjustment,” notes Denise Rousseau, a professor of organizational behavior and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. While I have only been back to [...]
This month, we approach the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic hitting the U.S. While it is a grim milestone, we are not without hope, as we’ve seen the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and the recently authorized vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. President Joe Biden expects the U.S. to deliver enough coronavirus vaccines for all adults by [...]
If you run a business or manage employees, you may be accustomed to the evaluations that can estimate how successful your workers are. You analyze people’s productivity, the quality of their work, or qualitative feedback from customers and co-workers to ascertain the value they bring to the company. However, people don’t work in a vacuum. The environment, including policies and [...]
At the end of the year I saw numerous social media posts about being ready to say goodbye to 2020 and the events of the past year and welcoming 2021. Yet within days, it became evident the change of the calendar was not going to miraculously solve the variety of fundamental issues we are facing – including the global pandemic, [...]
In the past year we’ve celebrated drive-by graduations from the safety of our cars and shared meals in make-shift plastic igloos in restaurant parking lots. We’ve adopted video conferencing for such diverse purposes as doctor’s visits, wine tastings, family holiday gatherings and worship services. And the COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed the way we gather for school and work. How [...]
Last month I received a beautiful flower bouquet and note from Communiqué PR celebrating my first year at the company. It’s been an amazing journey this past year, jam-packed with different experiences and projects that have helped shape me into the public relations professional I am today. In college, I had taken one public relations class before I joined the [...]
It has been nearly eight months since employees began working remotely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many companies have announced they will continue to support remote work until the summer or fall of 2021. While others are considering integrating remote work into their long-term business model. This means many employees are stuck in their homes with the task of [...]
Is your inspiration and motivational drive lacking this morning? Maintaining a positive and determined mentality while confined to working at home with the world in unrest can seem impossible. Recently, I came across an article published by Forbes that stuck with me, as it succinctly summarized five key "power skills" to focus on during the pandemic. Reading this article, I [...]
Congratulations: You’re having a baby! Between reveling in the news, taking weekend power naps (while you can) and dreaming about your future mini-me, you might begin panicking about how your life will change — including your professional life. Sure, you’ll probably take a break from late nights at the office and Friday happy hours, but having a baby doesn’t mean [...]
Earlier this month, I fielded an email from an early-stage CEO planning an announcement about the debut of his company and gathering information to inform his process and selection of a public relations partner. In responding to his email, I realized we have written on the topic of firm selection over the years several times for our blog and thought [...]
September typically marks the return to school for children all over the country, but earlier this summer I had the opportunity to pack up my notebooks and pencils and head off to Harvard for a leadership workshop with Communiqué PR’s management team. The session, “Managing Yourself and Leading Others” was packed into a solid two days of case studies, live [...]
As a student studying public relations, one of the first things taught is the importance of interning. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs for public relations specialists are growing at 7 percent annually. With a large number of students receiving degrees in communication, it’s now more paramount than ever to “get your foot in the door” and gain [...]
“We are excited to have you onboard,” one of the founding partners told me as I was settling into my new role. Little did I know, what I was about to embark on would change my perception on PR, business and what it means to do what you love. It all started with my fascination with how stories are told [...]
They say do what you love and it will never feel like work, it’s cliché but it’s essentially true. Just recently I began my career in PR and though I absolutely love my new job, it triggered a huge lifestyle shift. I worked in the hospitality industry for the past eight years and I did every job you can imagine [...]
We’ve all been there. It’s 3 p.m. and you’ve hit a wall. Your creative juices are no longer flowing and it seems like every sound, sight and smell is a distraction. But plodding through an eight-hour work day with no breaks doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get more done. In fact, many studies suggest you are more productive and creative [...]