By Kristan Leedy, Senior Counselor

The comma is king. 

Writing is hard work. Never mind being artful, or changing hearts and minds. Writing what you mean in a way your audience will understand is tough enough. One reason is that writers have lots of choices. There’s a whole language out there, and choosing precisely the right word can be as maddening as choosing your bath soap: Powder Fresh or Flowery? Antibacterial or sensitive? Exfoliating or moisturizing? Original formula — bingo! 

We also make choices about punctuation. If grammar can make us peevish, punctuation can drive us nuts. Consider the comma. 

The organic, friendly looks of this little mark are misleading. The comma is all-powerful when it comes to writing what we mean so that others can understand it. Indeed, an actual debate rages over the fate of the serial comma, which the AP Stylebook is accused of killing with the stroke of its dictum: 

 ”Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series: The flag is red, white and blue. He would nominate Tom, Dick or Harry.” 

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By Dennis Brown, Vice President

A guide for execs on how to stay relevant in this social media-filled world.

With Betty White set to host Saturday Night Live (thanks in large part to Facebook), I recently saw an article that was only half-joking when it suggested that “80 is the New 30.”  

I had a different perspective when, in the summer of 2009, we started what would become The Middle-Aged Executive’s Guide to Social Media: How to Stay Relevant and Prosper in an Increasingly Social World.  

When it came to social media, 50 felt like the new 80. 

Suddenly, social media was everywhere, and I was feeling old beyond my years. I found myself fighting the urge to rise from my figurative rocking chair, toddle out to the front porch and, shaking my fist in the air, scream, “You kids had better keep your tweeting and friending off my Internet!” 

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By Aaron Brown, Associate Vice President

Grammar rules.

I really can’t believe I’m blogging about grammar. I vividly remember sitting in my precision language course at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. I was afraid of grammar. The professor told us, “One day, you’ll be listening to the radio or watching the news and you’ll become frustrated with the bad grammar used.” Seriously? I was used to spelling grammar as grammer. 

But it happened to me. In the nearly 10 years since graduation, I’ve been the annoying guy correcting my friends’ grammar. I find solace knowing that my clients expect it from me. They want their communications to be grammatically correct. Now, if we could just get the lion’s share of the media to feel the same way. 

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By Aaron Brown, Associate Vice President

Spokespeople: it’s time for a tune-up.

There’s no question your business has changed in the past year. You’re probably looking forward to launching that new product or service that had been shelved because of tightened budgets. You’ve got things to say about your business. You want customers, analysts, media, bloggers and maybe even competitors to know how you’re better – and different. 

So before you run to the mountain top to tell the world your story, please know what you’re going to say when you get there. While a seemingly tedious exercise, a thorough messaging and media training update is an important investment. Consider it an update to your corporate and personal global positioning systems. Here are some elements of the update process:

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By Jennifer McQuiston, Senior Account Executive

Who’s spinning the public relations industry? 

While perusing the Barnes and Noble fiction section recently, I was amazed at the number of number of books casting their sexy, fabulous heroines as associates at PR firms. The back covers read like soap opera teasers: “Devastated by her recent breakup, Taylor moves to New York to start a career in the fast-paced world of PR. She soon finds the career and love life she always wanted — and most importantly, she finds herself.” Gag. 

Who decided that public relations was fabulous and chic? That every female PR exec charges her way down bustling city streets, cell phone and designer bag in hand a la Samantha Jones, leaving a trail of men in her wake? Who is doing PR for the PR industry to make it seem so sexy? 

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By Jenny Fuerst, Director, Corporate Communications

Neil Mortine and Kathy Cupper Obert

Fahlgren, Edward Howard to Join Public Relations Businesses

Alignment Forms Independent Powerhouse:

Largest Firm in Ohio and Top 30 Nationally 

The acquisition, which joins the capabilities of Fahlgren Mortine Public Relations and Edward Howard, is expected to close during the first quarter of 2010 although integration and coordinated new business and marketing efforts will begin immediately.

Check out more details of today’s exciting announcement in the news release.

By Dennis Brown, Vice President

How technology marketing has evolved in the past 10 years 

Ten years ago this month we were all living in fear of disaster. Not disaster in the form of a meteor hitting the earth or raging wildfires. No, this was a disaster created by a lack of foresight.   

Programmers at some point in the past had failed to account for the changing of the thousands digit in the clocks inside computers. Nobody was quite sure what would happen when these clocks tried to tick from 11:59:59 on December 31, 1999 to 12:00:00 on January 1, 2000. 

(My wife and I were in the process of adopting two children from Russia and had to frantically expedite all our paperwork to get over there in December because the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was planning to shut down for the month of January due to concerns that “Y2K” problems would paralyze the country.) 

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By Dennis Brown, Vice President

How to create a trade media measurement system 

It’s never been more important - or more difficult - to measure the success of trade media relations programs. 

B2B marketers are adjusting on-the-fly to a media landscape where content (and presumably readers) is migrating from print to online and where the lines between professional and amateur journalism are no longer clear - or particularly relevant. 

As much as possible, they want to use metrics to drive decisions about how these changes affect their marketing spend. The more effectively we can help them do that in regard to trade media relations, the easier it is for them to justify continued investments in those programs. 

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By Aaron Brown, Associate Vice President

Hey, where’ve you been?

It’s been about seven months since my last blog post. Let’s call it a blogcation. Well, an extended blogcation. Maybe a blogaticcal? Regardless, it’s been awhile and here’s why: blogging is hard.

Considering how many of my B2B clients are interested in starting blogs, I’m glad that they haven’t rushed into the decision to move forward because of the time requirements and intellectual investment required to be successful. I’m not the first to say this, but I’ll say it for the first time: blogging isn’t for everyone. Based on my blogaticcal, I’m not even sure it is for me. Yet, similar to my clients, I often have an opinion to share and look for other ways to express it.

If you’re a B2B marketing executive managing a steady stream of knocks on the door inquiring about when the corporate blog is going to appear, I’d like to chat with you. The first thing we’re going to do is have a strategic discussion about the best ways to communicate a point of view and engage with your audiences. Certainly, there are many reasons to consider a corporate blog despite the effort required. Some of these reasons may include establishing a direct and immediate way to connect with audiences, increasing executive visibility and improving your Web site’s organic search engine performance, among others. If we decide that a blog is the most effective tactic, we’ll develop a plan to ensure it’s successful as measured against defined objectives. Conversely, if we decide that the best approach for your business is investing in a thought leadership strategy designed to produce content that your sales teams and channel partners use for their pursuits, that’s fine too. We’ll have a plan that makes an impact with memorable tactics.

My point is this: blogging may be here to stay but it’s not a mandatory tactic for B2B marketing campaigns. The thing that is mandatory is communicating a point of view that motivates discussions, actions and/or reactions.

  photo credit: Selma90

By Julie Russo, Vice President

Geek Is Chic

Two weeks ago, my client, Emerson Network Power, previewed Emerson’s new global data center to the media and analyst community.

As I got ready to make the trip to St. Louis, telling my family and friends where I was going and why, I noticed a familiar refrain, whether verbalized or just manifested in glazed-over eyes: Oh, you’re going to a data center preview. That sounds thrilling.

I was thrilled.

I got to see data center power and cooling equipment UP CLOSE. Does anyone else think the switchgear that switches power between power busses or sends the IT load to generator looks like it could control a large seafaring vessel?

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