Holtz Communications + Technology

(c) Can Stock PhotoNobody goes into the planning for a communications effort believing the customer is a tabula rasa, a blank slate. Knowing customers have interests, biases and other characteristics is the very reason we conduct audience research. Having seen new research from The Futures Company, however, I’m wondering if that research digs deep enough.

When we study the people who comprise our…

(c) Can Stock PhotoEarlier this month, Todd Defren wrote eloquently about the importance of a solid media strategy, noting that, “Earned Media is far and away the most effective influencer of consumer trust.” (The emphasis is Todd’s.) Pointing to the Edelman Trust Barometer, Todd notes that “‘traditional’ news is not only the most trusted source of information, but also is growing.” Trust in “someone like me,” within the…

In the beginning, there was CREWE.

Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement is a closed Facebook group dedicated to a thoughtful, high-level discussion among organizational communicators and Wikipedia editors—known as Wikipedians. The goal is to find common ground between these often-adversarial groups’ efforts to ensure accuracyin Wikipedia business entries. The robust discussion has produced several documents, including a flow chart clarifying the process…

Choosing the right medium for communication has always been a critical step in the strategic planning process. Crafting communications to accommodate audiences’ tendencies to shift seamlessly from one medium to another, however, has never been a consideration.

Through casual observation, it has become obvious that people do switch fairly seamlessly between media these days. Thanks to research just out from Google, which…

(c) Can Stock PhotoThe Friday Wrap is a collection of items from the last week I found interesting. Not interesting enough to turn into a whole blog post, but interesting enough to include in The Friday Wrap.

Frank Eliason, who rose to folk-hero status for introducing the Comcast Cares Twitter account—one of the first…

On Monday, I posted a call for certification in the PR profession to establish a basis on which to establish trust between clients, the media and practitioners. If there’s any evidence that the client-media-PR world of a decade ago has changed irrevocably, it’s contained in a 45-minute conversation hosted on Google+ Hangouts on Air today by Duct Tape Marketing‘s John Jantsch. I was honored to…