As any true child of the 80s knows, Gargamel is far from a friendly face. Bent on capturing Smurfs to turn them into gold, eat them for lunch, or just destroy them, Gargamel is enough to terrify any Smurf… and likely the 80’s child that still lives within many of us.

It thus goes without saying that, as a marketer, you don’t want to scare your audience away like Gargamel. Papa Smurf is a preferable role model (if you’re set on an 80s cartoon star as your social media analogy, like we are here).

The technology revolution has turned the marketing and public relations world upside-down. In today’s world, traditional PR strategies and models no longer gain the traction they once did. However, this is not a bad thing for those businesses and PR firms that are able to think laterally and re-adjust their approach. When you consider the fact that many of the more modern approaches, such as social media, blogger influence and PPC campaigns, are efficient and cost-effective tactics, it is easy to understand why so many companies are integrating these services into their approach to PR.

The rapid advance in communications technology has created a situation in which news travels at nearly the speed of light. Where once there was a time in which the traditional media was able to control what went out on the wire and when, today’s news often reaches the public at the same time, or sooner, than it reaches mainstream media. This creates the opportunity for “real-time” engagement. Meaning that, during or within minutes of an event occurring, a company can literally engage their customer base or target audience on the subject. By adding modern PR tactics like social media to their communications strategy, a business can send out a relevant and responsive tweet in a matter of seconds after a relevant event has taken place.

In an unprecedented move, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has recently released almost 400,000 iconic works, in the form of high-resolution computer images, to the general public – and in turn – created a great opportunity to increase the Museum’s Brand PR. These images are available on their website for free download. The website designers have cataloged and sorted the pieces for easy retrieval by the public. They can be used for free, so long as you are not being used for commercial use. However, you can download a beautiful Van Gogh, print it out, and put it on the wall of your home. The images that are available are that high of a quality, and large enough to make a decent sized print for personal use.

The pieces are sorted and can easily be located utilizing several methods of searching. You can look for a specific artist, or look for a culture and the art that they produced, or perhaps you are interested in a specific era in art history, or even if you have a desire to see art only produced in a certain medium, all of these categories and more, will help you to find exactly what you are looking to see.

The days of hiding in the shadows are over for the modern day celebrity. In order to stay relevant and gain continued popularity these Hollywood stars need to perform to a daily off-screenjuggling act. Between raising children,entertainment careers, appearances and more – to say that a Hollywood celebrity mother’s life is hectic is an understatement!

@DrewBarrymore –Business Mom

Although the term “public relations” means different things to different people, the general definition incorporates the idea of a company’s effort to maintain a favorable, positive public image that helps facilitate its continual growth and expansion. Public relations is important within every field, and it is particularly significant in the world of fitness given that people who operate within this sector rely on the development and maintenance of positive relationships with clients to facilitate sales and growth. If you represent a fitness brand and are attempting to take your business from good to great, the following fitness brand public relations strategies can be of great use to you:

One of the best ways to maintain a positive relationship with the public is through the use of social media. More and more people are using social media channels like Facebook and Twitter every day, and fitness brand managers should recognize and respond to this reality. You can easily set up accounts with major social media platforms and manage them yourself. Or, if you don’t have time or social media skills, 5W can take care of that for you.

Sometimes, when sending out public relations messages, it can be the basic things that trip you up. There you are, creating excellent public relations messages, following press protocols … then waiting and waiting and waiting. For nothing. But, it may not be the actual content of the message that is keeping your PR from being received and published.

Ronn Torossian reminds you to make sure you have taken care of these simple fixes before worrying that your messaging might be off.

It goes without saying that good writing skills will always play a critical role in any society, although lately there has been a drastic decline in this field. Students who are graduating as Valedictorian of their class today do not possess the same keen grammar skills as in the past. Today, one can even pick up the local newspaper and find numerous grammatical errors. Details matter, that’s why a public relations firm can handle these fine details.

Once upon a time, the newspaper was like a dictionary – with seemingly zero errors and the picture of proper use of grammar. Today’s magazines are no better either, spelling and grammar issues frequently slip through the cracks and make it to print. As an added blow to the age-old arte of writing, it was recently announced the cursive, will no longer be taught because it lacks useful purpose in society. But also, students of today’s generation can’t read it.

January has been quite a month for Seahawks defensive back Richard Sherman. Stuck at the center of a swirling media storm after his bizarre postgame interview, after the ‘Hawks beat the 49ers in the NFC Championship, Sherman has transformed that attention into a brand boosting PR win. Sure, a lot of people who really couldn’t care less think he’s a blowhard, but legions of football fans love the guy they hadn’t heard of just a few weeks ago. The proof is in the numbers.

A few benchmarks that can help tell the story of Sherman’s PR blitz in real numbers: