Researchers at Queen’s University in Canada have established a method that, for the first time, can detect indirectly when one thought ends and another begins. Dr Jordan Poppenk and his team call them “Thought Worms,” consisting of consecutive moments when a person is focused on the same idea. This is…
Micro media is a somewhat new term we can use to describe media created by companies, brands and individuals housed (mainly) online. Personal blogs and corporate sites that invite fans and industry leaders to contribute, are two other examples. In the olden days (circa 1980) the most common way to…
Within Public Relations and Marketing we often use what are considered to be best practices for our strategies. It’s natural. If a methodology, including survey and analysis, has worked in a similar situation previously, that’s the one to use. The challenge with surveys or polls is they’re often unreliable. They’re…
Stephen Krempl believes if you want to get noticed the right way by your senior leaders you must recognize there are only five situations in which those leaders will see or hear you. And when those situations arise, if you can master the art of turning a negative into either…
The World’s intelligence agencies have long suffered from a perspective they’re too secretive. That’s not just the stuff of Hollywood movies and books, these are real perceptions backed by studies and reviews critical of the communications in those agencies. They all conclude there’s a need to be more intelligent about…
Worldwide Karen Jacobsen is known for her voice – the voice of female Australian SIRI or GPS Karen. She’s been heard on 400 million GPS and smart-enabled devices and today she’s a successful motivational speaker, singer/songwriter, and author. But the road to success was trickier than you might image shortly…
In the work world the true generalist is very different from the specialist. The specialist tends to have a deep understanding of a certain content area while the generalist has a broader scope of the work landscape. The pros of being a generalist are understanding connections between departments and, theoretically,…
So, you’re graduating with a Communications or Marketing degree? Congratulations. It’s a growing industry and there are plenty of opportunities. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts employment of PR specialists to grow 11 percent from 2020 to 2030 with 29,000 new jobs every year. One Canadian study (McGill University…
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A new survey by Brunswick Group makes it clear executive leaders today are not only expected to be online, but to be active and connected. 2,800 readers of financial publications and 3,600 employees in large companies were surveyed worldwide and in-depth interviews were conducted with more than a dozen leaders…
In today’s world a social media influencer is one who has the power to affect purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, their knowledge, their title, or their relationship with their audience. Often that means they have a large social following, but it can also mean they just have…
Utility Safety Partners has a simple message. Like all One-Call services it advocates for people and professional contractors to contact them before they dig a hole. One contact and locate markings result a short time later by any company with buried facilities int eh area, and you can dig that…
This Spring the PRCA (Public Relations and Communications Association) updated its Guidelines for Accessible Communications. They provide more detail on video and animated graphics, thoughtful use of language and representation, and hosting of physical and virtual events. We talk about making our processes and materials more accessible and at times…
The hot hand fallacy in basketball. Why we tend to grab a coffee to start our day or to have difficult conversations. The fact IKEA furniture is so hard to assemble sometimes is part of why it’s so popular. How does that make sense? All examples well-explained by Behavioural Economics.…
LANGUAGE IS CLEAN IN OPENING CLIP When actor Will Smith went up on stage at the Oscars and slapped comedian Chris Rock – the noise was shocking… the impact reverberating. At the Oscars, Rock had made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith having a buzzed haircut. Pinkett Smith…
The Harris Poll conducted a survey recently on how Americans understand and perceive the metaverse. While the majority don’t understand what it is, 70% of Gen Z and Millennials (22-40 year olds) are interested in interacting within it. They’re interested in video games yes but also social interactions and virtual…
Communication between and among cultures has existed for thousands of years. Successful rulers such as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan built enormous empires because they appreciated and assimilated aspects of different cultures as they expanded. But fast-forward to 2022 and we as communications professionals can often seem to struggle…
A lingering pandemic, accelerating technological abilities, in turn creating ever increasing stakeholder demands and expectations – combined with misinformation and disinformation in rampant circulation. Where are we going? What does the role we fill today look like in the future? If it is our job as Comms Pros to help…
More working from home, more freelancers, great focus on influencer marketing, and the rising wave of popularity for audio and video formats. In her December newsletter, communications trend-setter Michelle Garrett takes stock of many of the things impacting marketing and communications right now. Surveys are showing more than 90% of…
We know it as comms-pros – communications is the glue that holds a business together. But too often smaller businesses can’t afford professional comms. It’s a pure expense that doesn’t seem to directly generate revenue. In this episode we speak with a New York Agency that has found a solid…
One could argue the concept of strategies that are both transparent (fully allowing for freedom of choice) and subtly manipulative at the same time is hardly new – perhaps only the term “Nudge Theory” is what’s new. In this episode we explore whether Nudge Theory is a brilliant concept of…
Nudge Theory burst onto the scene in 2008 when Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler published their book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.” The simplest models of economics take preferences as given, but nudge ideas suggest we can be moved, steered, and in some cases manipulated. Nudge has…
Research shows more than one-quarter of crises spread to international media within an hour; two-thirds of crises reach media outlets worldwide within the first 24 hours (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer). The democratization of information means we all have access to a global audience 24-7. First impressions set the narrative within minutes…
There has never been a more important time for good science communication. Not only is it important for us to understand the value of evidence-based solutions but to actually understand the fallibility and imperfection of science too. Since 2005 Laurentian, University in Sudbury Canada, has delivered graduate education in Science…