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As an English major in college, I spent a good portion of my time writing papers. Papers about books I’d read, how strange my family is, Disney World, why pre-1600 literature is riddled with sexual innuendo…you name it, there is a good chance I wrote a paper about it. One would think that with that many written projects under my belt, writing would come naturally to me by now. To some extent, that’s true. Unfortunately, I don’t write as often as I used to, so I’ve definitely gotten rusty. In the midst of the day-to-day distractions, the dreaded mental incapacitation that plagues so many seeking the written word sets in—writer’s block.

It’s been in the PR best practices for as long as I can remember: Find the local angle, and give the publication, station or blog something its readers will care about consuming.

Even though this is one of the cardinal rules of PR — the ones posted to the bulletin board hanging next to your desk — it is often a challenge that falls short of the mark. To really pitch to the local flavor of the tiny town that is home to your client and its customers takes time, research and resources. Before you develop a pitch that only sideswipes the local lifeblood, take a look at the impact Bank of Ann Arbor has made in appealing to its very local client base.

Many team members at Identity donate their personal time to give back to local charitable organizations—the Dearborn Youth Symphony, Gleaners, March of Dimes and St. Jude are some of our employees’ favorite charities, just to name a few. But beyond donating personal time, we have two awesome employees, who have stepped up to lend their [...]

Once upon a time, it started with a man with a dream. Rick Snyder would take on Michigan…his self-proclaimed nerd-ism leading his gubernatorial charge. But how did he do it? Snyder raised his nasally voice and declared that Michigan’s economic trail of devastation would be reversed. With business credentials to back his claim, Snyder’s “nerd it up!” attitude soon became an army of empathic nerd supporters who “saw themselves” in this guy.

This week, Nikki, Brandon and I had the very unique and gratifying opportunity to be involved in putting together our client Friendship Circle of Michigan’s (FC) record-breaking flash-mob freeze. What the heck is this, you ask? A freeze is a coordinated stunt in which a large group of people gather and immediately stop whatever they’re [...]