Avoiding the Death Traps of Reverse Auctions and RFPs

We all know that being a commodity is the kiss of death in business. The second you start to sense that sales prospects are viewing you as a commodity, you’re on the cusp of business failure, unless you immediately embark on the proactive actions that I’m going to prescribe to you below. The Problem Before [...]

When is the right time to launch your startup to the public?

When considering the right time to do a PR push for your startup, you should make sure that it’s truly ready for a media blitz and all the kinks are ironed out before you announce your company on a large scale. There are tactics for executing this in a smart way, which end up being the most successful in the end.

Advice for Marketing Interns

Getting an internship at a marketing firm is an important first step for those who want to work in marketing.  Once you’ve obtained a good marketing internship, be sure to make the most of it. We’ve hired quite a few interns over the years, and, based on my observations and experiences, here are three tips [...]

Jay Cutler’s Broken Thumb – A PR Dream Machine for Hand Surgeons!

When Bears quarterback Jay Cutler broke his thumb, most of us in Chicago were thinking (no pun intended): “What a bad break for the Bears!” Being a twisted PR junkie and practitioner, I thought: “What a great opportunity for the nation’s experts on broken hands!” If you are in the PR biz long enough, and [...]

Recent Examples of Data-Driven PR

We love data-driven PR at Walker Sands. Whenever our clients can mine their data and come up with newsworthy statistics or trends, we find we are able to hit a grand slam for them on the PR front. Does your organization have access to data that could be used to get better PR results? To [...]

Ten Reasons Your 2012 Marketing Plan May Fail to Get Results

It’s annual marketing plan time! If you are not done preparing a 2012 marketing plan, or if you are not in the midst of writing a 2012 marketing plan, then you are behind the eight ball. Last year, we posted an annual marketing plan template that should come in handy again this year. We use [...]

Facebook Changes (Again)

The internet has been abuzz since social networking giant, Facebook, launched a series of rather radical changes to its platform Wednesday. These changes are the largest overhaul to the site since 2008 and although Facebook deems these changes “improvements,” many users are in an uproar. This happens every time Facebook unveils a new series of [...]

Google Plus for Marketing

Is Google+ going to be the perfect social media for marketing? Well, until we see what the business pages are going to look like and how they will work, we don’t really know.

Heisman Trophy PR: Is the Press Better Than the Prize?

It’s nearly college football season and no doubt you’ll soon be hearing plenty of talk about the best teams and players in the nation. But while biased fans and alumni are expected to pub their alma mater, it’s those alma maters themselves that might be most guilty of self promotion. For many athletic programs around [...]

Four Big Brands Making Big Use of Foursquare

Foursquare, a location-based social networking platform, has been making a splash since its 2009 inception. At the beginning of the year foursquare released its very own infographic highlighting the company’s enormous growth. In 2010 alone, foursquare grew an unprecedented 3400 percent, with “check-ins” in every single country on the globe, and even one from space. [...]