Category: Community Relations

Consistency in Giving Practices Avoids Ill Will

Corporate giving and community support have become more important than ever before in an environment where need is great—and growing. Organizations benefit not only from the goodwill generated through their giving efforts from those they support, but also from the loyalty and goodwill these efforts generate among employees. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)are major focuses today for companies, for investors, for employees, and for others.

The world is watching. Continue reading “Consistency in Giving Practices Avoids Ill Will”

Best Practice Insights: Include PR Implications in Decision-Making Processes

by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA

 

In recent weeks there have been multiple high-profile instances of company policies garnering unwanted national attention. Continue reading “Best Practice Insights: Include PR Implications in Decision-Making Processes”

How Negative Reviews Can Help Boost Your Business: If You Handle Them Effectively

Sales professionals will be quick to tell you that a positive customer review goes a long way toward converting prospects into eventual customers. What better way to convince the market that you can walk the walk than to have satisfied customers tell your story for you? Conversely, negative reviews can be quite damaging. Data suggests that positive reviews influence the purchase decisions of 90 percent of respondents, while negative reviews influence around 86 percent.

But negative reviews and customer complaints can actually be good for business. Let’s look at some potentially counter-intuitive reasons why. Continue reading “How Negative Reviews Can Help Boost Your Business: If You Handle Them Effectively”

Avoiding the Top 3 Networking Blunders

Hiring marketing or content marketing talent?Networking is an important activity in any industry. The term has many definitions depending on who you talk to, but in a broad sense you can think of it as just getting to know people in your industry. It’s surprising how many employment, mentorship, sales and partnership opportunities come about just by tapping into who you know and who you’ve met through networking activities.

Unfortunately, we don’t always leverage those relationships to best advantage. Continue reading “Avoiding the Top 3 Networking Blunders”

Preparing for a Social Media Crisis: Before it Happens

content marketing, content management, newsjacking, social media, digital marketing, SEO, online marketingAt Strategic Communications, we are firm believers in the value of social media and online publicity for a business. It’s a huge part of what we do and what we advise our clients to do. But, while the impact of social media on a business is overwhelmingly positive, there are occasionally situations that have the potential to be extremely damaging to a company’s reputation and livelihood. We’re talking, of course, about the dreaded social media crisis. Continue reading “Preparing for a Social Media Crisis: Before it Happens”

Corporate Social Responsibility: Difficult Choices Require Strategic Approach

Boardroom tableSupporting the local community can be expensive. Even large organizations have to be careful about how and where they lend their time – and money. Is there value – beyond personal satisfaction – in supporting local events and activities? Which ones? How can you say “no” graciously to the many requests that come your way? Continue reading “Corporate Social Responsibility: Difficult Choices Require Strategic Approach”

Community Outreach Best Practices

Supporting the local community can be expensive. Even large organizations have to be careful about how and where they lend their time – and money. Is there value – beyond personal satisfaction – in supporting local events and activities? Which ones? How can you say “no” graciously to the many requests that come your way? Continue reading “Community Outreach Best Practices”

Supporting the Community: Tough Choices Need to be Approached Strategically

Supporting the local community can be expensive. Even large organizations have to be careful about how and where they lend their time – and money. Is there value – beyond personal satisfaction – in supporting local events and activities? Which ones? How can you say “no” graciously to the many requests that come your way?

Research from the Council on Foundations, indicates that over a 10-year period, companies with good corporate citizenship images and programs enjoyed a 33 percent lead in growth of profits over competitors without such programs.

These efforts, though, need to be done strategically! The factors that go into determining whether you will support specific goodwill advertising requests are the same factors that go into virtually every business decision you make: your market, your business objectives and the resources you have available (your budget).

As you work to develop your own “goodwill policy,” follow these steps: Continue reading “Supporting the Community: Tough Choices Need to be Approached Strategically”

Focusing On Community Relations: What’s Your Strategy?

Supporting your community can be expensive. Even large organizations have to be careful about how and where they lend their time – and money. For the small businesses and independent consultants these issues can be even more challenging. Is there value – beyond personal satisfaction – in supporting local events and activities? Which ones? How can you say “no” graciously to the many requests that come your way? Continue reading “Focusing On Community Relations: What’s Your Strategy?”

Creating Online Communities

I assist some clients with their social media activities, including the managing of online groups–some are more successful than others. As I’ve managed and monitored their groups, dabbled with my own, and evaluated other groups I’ve noted a number of factors that seem to impact their success. Continue reading “Creating Online Communities”