Common Sense PR

Finding the Wow Factor in Business

Just as important as the product or service you deliver is the way in which you do it. Today we celebrate some examples of people and companies that create a sense of occasion, a sense of...

Strategic Thinking and Persuasion Learned from Horses in the Desert

Joe Williams knows how to tell a story. So much so that business people from all over North America pay thousands of dollars to sit with him in the desert outside Tucson, seeking that which cannot be...

The Media’s ‘Bad News’ Bias

The media is obsessed with bad news. Given the chance, they will take the worst possible angle on a story and play it up. Just ignore the average sports story, the average business story, the average...

Quick Tip: Be Yourself in Business and Life

This is the big one that makes you sit up at 2 a.m. on your 42nd birthday and realize you have to quit your job. Despite all the self-help books that suggest you can be anything you want to be, you...

I Stared at the Lunar Eclipse and Learned that Simple Is Better

I dragged the family out to see the lunar eclipse Wednesday night. One kid was home sick all day, the other didn’t have pants on. Spouse is just getting over a nasty cold. Still, there we were,...

Personal Connections Matter More than Ever

Google has automated what would previously have been a call to the library’s reference department, or a visit to Lexus-Nexus’ database of media stories. But that doesn’t mean we...

Differentiation Is Just As Important in Corporate Public Relations

Companies spend a lot of effort, time and money differentiating themselves from competitors for marketing purposes. In a great think piece, Kevin Kelly examines the homogeneity that comes from...

Do Companies Help the Environment by Going It Alone on Green Labelling?

If you use an electronic chainsaw, is that more environmentally friendly than a gas-powered one? What has a smaller carbon footprint, a wooden-handled paintbrush (doesn’t hurt trees) or one...

Attracting Communications Students - Video Is a Starting Point

It’s possible to attract people to a communications program without a video, but given the nature of the work, why wouldn’t you use video to get your message out? Easier said than done. A...

Quick Tip: Talk to Real People and Act on What They Say

It’s easy to focus on the opinions of experts and executives. But unless the end users of your product or service are primarily experts and executives, you need to break out of the Circle of...