Dizzy Gillespie famously said of his work in jazz music, “It’s taken me all my life to learn what notes not to play.” Such is the art of jazz improv, and such is the art in writing copy for marketing materials.
November 5, 2011 was a watershed moment in the financial industry. After years of consumers fleeing community banks and credit unions for Bank of America, Chase and other mega-banks, Bank Transfer Day marked the arrival of the “Bank Local” movement.
This is a story that reaches beyond the financial sector to encapsulate the demand for local, original and unique retail and service options across all industries. The space lends itself to those who invest in their communities and are not afraid to be vocal in creating and publicizing their niches.
After young PR pros have landed the agency job they tirelessly hunted for, immersed themselves in the entry-level support role and officially launched their PR career, the next phase is something I like to call the support to strategy switch. While we were first brought on board to aid account managers in the tactical elements of the communications campaigns for their clients, we have now proved ourselves enough to take on the role as account lead.
Just like any transition, there are growing pains. Similar to the journey from college to career is the process of getting accustomed to managing client accounts. It’s time to take it up a notch. So what can you do to make the move to management as efficient and accelerated as possible? Here are a few things I’ve learned through my experience:
How many predictions posts related to the communications world have you read in the past month? My guess would be at least 10. There have been all sorts of predictions, some interesting observations about the year ahead (such as small is big and social media crises will continue) and others just stating what we’ve already been talking about for awhile now (like content rules and measurement is in). For more smart observations about the year ahead, Shauna Nicholson makes you think with her expectations for 2012 in this post about marketing beliefs.
What started out as a customer service “don’t” for FedEx has turned into a PR “do.”
We’ve all watched—all 9 million of us!—the YouTube video of the FedEx employee carelessly tossing a computer monitor over a gate and onto the lawn of his customer. In case you haven’t, here it is:
