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Can good writing be tied to the corporate bottom line? We conducted a totally unscientific survey, tapping IABC colleagues, WorldWIT (Women in Technology) and other networks for insights into the [...]

In an age of increased accountability, competition and a drive for every department within an organization to prove its value, PR professionals must justify their existence. Businesses analyze every line [...]

An interview with industry influencer and blogger Dorothy Crenshaw is presented. The topics discussed include the need for chief executive officers (CEOs) to be consistent and credible in their advocacy for causes, the criteria that public relations and communications professionals should consider when advising CEOs about social and political issues, and the need for them to be prepared in the fallout of messaging about the said issues.

The article discusses media relations strategies as media relation leaps in another dimension in the print publication industry. According to Shannah Hayley, marketing director for Urban Design Group in Dallas, Texas, relations officers have felt the need to invent new approaches as traditional print publication declines. Moreover, editorial strategies in content sharing wherein articles are being reused in sister publications have led to the reduction of original articles and publication size.

The article discusses the approaches and strategies for media organizations to manage challenges and opportunities in the print publication industry. It notes the realm where print publications are on struggle for survival upon tough times wherein public and media relation are challenged to achieve effective media relations. Moreover, the rise of social media makes media relations a more integrated marketing communication as online media allows more opportunities to interact with the audience.

The article provides information on the impact of a global economic downturn on business communicators. It states that the global financial crisis, which is felt in 2008, will have an impact on communication strategies of the industry. In order to provide evidences, the author spoke to a group of International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) experts. According to president Bish Mukherjee of Misha Network PR, one of the biggest challenges of the economic turmoil is a crisis of confidence. Meanwhile, communication manager Rauf Hameed of Tetra Pak Arabia mentions the importance of sharing the right information through the available channels.

The article discusses the 2007 International Association of Business Communicators Gold Quill Awards, which are seen as the highest level of professional acknowledgment within business communication. Winners, which went through several rounds of judging by professional communicators, include Drive Away Hunger, a campaign that set clear and measurable goals and accomplished a lot on a meager budget, and "Taking the Trans Out: U.S. Soybean Growers Deliver Healthy Options to the Food Industry," which promoted soybeans.

The article discusses the importance of story telling and ways to become a better story teller as well. The article points out that business communicators use story telling in a variety of way, whether it be in branding, public relations or internal affairs. In-depth interviews conducted with more than 170 business leaders in 80-plus organizations throughout the world suggest that stories have strategic importance far beyond mere entertainment value. The article presents five practices used by executives to tell stories, which are; how to find stories, how to dig into them to uncover hidden patterns and themes, how to select those stories that need to be reinforced, how to craft memorable stories, and how to embody stories to positively affect attitudes, thoughts and behaviors. INSETS: CASE STUDY: U.S. Army deploys story strategy;The results are in: Stories affect ROI.

This article focuses on the code of ethics for public relations in business. An article in the January-February 2004 issue of the journal "Columbia Journalism Review," by Trudy Lieberman outlined her perspective of the current sad state of affairs in exchanges between reporters and corporate spokespeople. She lays the blame for this dysfunctional relationship squarely at the foot of media training. Comparing the various codes of ethics and professional standards governing today's business to the concept of not answering questions is an interesting exercise. Article 3 of the Code of Professional Standards of the Canadian Public Relations Society, says that, a member shall practice the highest standards of honesty, accuracy, integrity and truth, and shall not knowingly disseminate false or misleading information. The International Association of Business Communicators code of ethics, says that, professional communicators uphold the credibility and dignity of their profession by practicing honest, candid and timely communication and by fostering the free flow of essential information in accord with the public interest.

The article focuses on the recent developments in business communications. Marketing public relations (MPR) is history--new technologies and methodologies, coupled with a strict marketing imperative that demands a return on investment, are forcing marketing investment decision makers to think in new ways. Add to this mix the increasingly fractionated media universe and the business predicate that requires these media to turn a profit, and the result is an irrevocably changed marketing profession that gives rise to MPR. This new environment holds both opportunity and risk: the upside is that MPR can begin to supplant "paid media" because it offers so much of what advertisers envy — involvement, credibility and value. Through new applications of public relations research and advanced statistical analyses, public relations professionals have been able to clearly demonstrate PR's ability to drive sales. They've also been able to accelerate other forms of marketing by making them even more effective. Some observers opine that public relations has the most to gain in new environment. But to achieve some higher level of primacy, PR. departments have to change the way they work.

The Gold Quill Awards program is an annual international competition that offers professional communicators an opportunity to have their work evaluated by a Blue Ribbon Panel of expert judges. The 20 awards categories range from community relations to electronic and digital communication to marketing communication, with top entries receiving awards of Merit and Excellence. Additionally, the judges choose winners of the Jake Wittmer Award, which spotlights research excellence, and the Business Issue Award, which salutes the role of strategic communication in sustaining an organization facing serious economic or viability challenges. Maine Street Marketing receives an Excellence award in Community Relations for its work with Australia's Department of Immigration. The Jake Wittmer Award was established by the IABC Research Foundation, the research and development arm of IABC, with generous support from executive Bob Berzok, to recognize outstanding worldwide research commissioned or developed by an organizational communicator.

Public relations is enjoying a beginning within many organizations as more communication-investment decision-makers come to recognize the ability of Public Relations (PR) department to deliver credible and involving messages relatively inexpensively. As a result, PR professionals are being met with increased levels of accountability and scrutiny.In the midst of this time of enormous change, an informal survey of 100 professional communicators attending the International Association of Business Communicators and Delahaye Research and Measurement Conference in New York in November 2002 yielded interesting findings indicative of the challenges and opportunities PR practitioners now face. Important points of the recent survey, highlighting reported trends are as follows. Communication program objectives of company are often tied to its business objectives. Top management is mostly aware of communications program objectives of PR personnel. Senior executives with an impact on PR spending agree that objectives must be measurable, meaningful and reasonable.

Part I. Presents an overview of a survey of professionals in communication and public relations conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators and the Public Relations Society of America. Work environment and plans for the future; Communication program structure; Employment profile; Workplace demographics.

Highlights a survey of professionals in communication and public relations conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators and the Public Relations Society of America. Organization profile; Departmental budgets; Supervision; Department and organizational size; Where communicators work.

Highlights a survey of professionals in communication and public relations conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators and the Public Relations Society of America. Years in profession, gender and age; Job titles, accreditation and areas of responsibility; Professional development.

Highlights a survey of professionals in communication and public relations conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators and the Public Relations Society of America. Staff, budgets and developments; Documented objectives for the communication budget; Decisions for communication programs.

Highlights a survey of professionals in communication and public relations conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators and the Public Relations Society of America. Job satisfaction; Time at current organization; Time in current position; Future plans.

Focuses on public relations (PR) and advertising for marketing communication needs of a business enterprise. Perception that advertising is the king of marketing efforts of businesses; Examples of flip-flop trend in advertising-PR in 1998; Existence of corporate communication to support the movement of a product into the hands of the consumer.

By doing just one thing, you can turn the CEO column from a space-wasting bore into a dynamic communication tool. And that one thing is: make the column interactive. Let [...]

Some companies spend millions on charitable endeavors in order to build a good reputation in their communities, not realizing that individual employees can undermine that reputation every time they open [...]

The article reports on the Unilever's inaugural Development and Accreditation Programme to be part of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). It offers information on accreditation processes which are focused on the connection of internal communication, research, and evaluation. It discusses the communication profession which is an ethical profession, corporate social responsibility, managing media relations, and understanding the marketing communication.

The article discusses challenges involving business communication in the Middle East. The Middle East represents a challenge for businesspeople not only because it is unstable, but also because its population and customs are so heterogeneous. The Middle East region hosts a plethora of social, political, economic and religious opinions, policies, and trends, making it difficult to foreigners to adopt to local customs. With the region's economic future potentially limitless, the need for clear and accurate communication is obvious.

Focuses on trends in public relations in business enterprises. Honest self-scrutiny; System of checks and balance; Public relations debunking.

The article presents blogs on developing strong brand with the role of communicators including Public Relations (PR), internal communications in the development.

The article focuses on how professionals in business communication can use social media and channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to develop good public relations with journalists and other media professionals.

The article presents the author's views on how to deal with uninteresting corporate topics and provides several choices on how to convert it into an exciting one. He states that when communicators face boring topics they do not have a choice anymore because if they find their work boring how much more their readers. He notes on several ways on how to handle the problem which include writing a bad headline, listing a group of statistics and putting bad quote.

The article reports that the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) has partnered with the Shanghai Public Relations Association (SPRA) to bring IABC's accreditation program to China. IABC will conduct a training program to help SPRA members complete the IABC accreditation program. Ultimately the program will confer IABC accreditation upon qualified SPRA members and train volunteers to administer the program for other communicators in China. The program will also offer mentorship opportunities.

The article presents a case study of Eskom, South Africa's national electric utility, as it faced severe supply shortages. As the crisis unfolded, the company used corporate communications as a cornerstone of the emergency strategy to avert large-scale power interruptions. Because the company supplies ninety-five percent of the nation's electricity, a major technical fault that severely affected the running of the utility was considered a severe and possibly deadly crisis. The authors examine how communicators dealt with these problems.

The article discusses crisis communication plans for business communicators. A tragic shooting at Virginia Tech has revealed the need for crisis plans that include outbound media public relations communications and internal communications. These communications should be workable with the resources at hand, be workable in real time, be able to go on auto-pilot in case communicators are too busy dealing with the crisis, be communicated in advance, and have low-tech backups in case of emergency.

The article reports that market and public opinion research has been around for a long time, but it remains underutilized in business communication and public relations. Research can help to develop programs with confidence. It can help ensure that the right audience is addressed. Research can help position new entities and reposition others. Sophisticated research techniques can help stake out advocacy turf and grow favorable public opinion, manage long-term strategic issues and influence behavior on everything from health care to education, from farm aid to financial services, from the energy of high technology to the high technology of energy from smoking to obesity. Research can provide the insight needed to evaluate and respond to ever-changing client demands. The essence of good research is to listen to what audiences are saying, understand what they are thinking and anticipate what they have in mind.

The article reports on an upcoming training program regarding the importance of ethical issues in corporate communication. In the first module, the program covers the importance of ethics training for businesspeople, including communicators. Each module emphasizes the impact of ethics on relationships, credibility and reputation, or RCR. Communication researcher, Shannon A. Bowen and Robert L. Heath argue that in all communications with stakeholders, both internal and external, affect these three elements. Because of their ability to influence their various audiences, communicators have a responsibility for ethical communication. The second module of Bowen and Heaths training program offers a brief overview of the basic ethical principles round in moral philosophy. One approach to understand ethics is utilitarianism, which holds that ethical decisions are based on what will create the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Another approach, deontology, takes into consideration universal and generalized moral principles, independent of the consequences of possible actions.

This article focuses on the role of corporate editors. The primary role as a corporate editor is to help employees help the organization succeed. And corporate editors don't do that by burying them with values statements or by listing promotions and service anniversaries. One sure way to help employees help the organization is to be the one thing that every company needs, a translator. Every business group has its own jargon, a lexicon that only people with a background in that area of expertise can understand. Accountants have their jargon, marketers have theirs. Engineers, salespeople, nurses, truck drivers, operations folks, they all speak their own private little language, loaded with acronyms, terms and phrases that nobody else in the organization understands. The job of business communicators and corporate editors is to translate those different languages to the rest of the organization. They need to be the bridge between various content experts and employees. Because the more employees understand how the different factions of the organization work, the better position they'll be in to help the organization succeed. INSET: Two phrases that can help you be a translator.

The article discusses how companies should manage their reputation and avoid being trapped in rumors. Companies have to scramble to find ways to manage their reputation, which brings a brand-new headache for brand guardians. In 2003, a news item on cable television misrepresented earnings of Federal Express Corp. (FedEx), suggesting that FedEx was not meeting Wall Street's expectations. Within a few minutes of the report, FedEx's stock dropped by nearly two dollars. FedEx subscribes to Critical Mention, one of the new breed of media monitoring services that keeps tabs on all mentions of a company in the news media. More than just clipping services, media monitoring and analysis are used not just by brand guardians, but also by public relations companies on behalf of their clients and those handling investor relations. Monitoring services are very attractive to companies that want to protect their reputation. They are sensitive to the fact that in a world where media is everywhere, information travels outside of the predictable channels.

This article focuses on challenges faced by business communicators. Communicators now wear coats of many colors as they work in various positions along the wide spectrum of the field. The demand for the knowhow of professional communicators has burgeoned as corporations have come to understand and respond to the requirements of the Information Age. But it was nor so long ago that communicators mainly wore shades of corporate blue and gray, in their roles as the self-effacing press contact or the industrial editor. Today, communicators are a colorful lot, with responsibilities in all sectors of business, industry, government and nonprofit organizations. Some perform the tactical duties of writing, producing, programming and distributing information; others are creating and designing high-impact programs to help their organizations reach the hearts and minds of their constituencies. What the next 10 to 20 years will bring for communicators will depend not only on the nature and scope of the challenges ahead, but also on just how the communication profession will respond.

This article reports that today's communication technologies have shifted the dynamic, opening a dialogue between senders and receivers. The fact is, unless communicators are talking about one-on-one, face-to-face communication, they probably can't communicate without employing some manner of modern technology. From the outset, online communication promised that those once confined to the role of information consumer could now become content producers. With e-mail and message hoards, people suddenly found they could wield the same degree of influence as experienced PR professionals. Even more significant, audiences began talking with one another. This unprecedented conversation allowed people to exchange information broadly and quickly. Organizations that had counted on the lack of person-to-person communication to contain potentially damaging information suddenly found there were no secrets anymore. But many companies remained defiant or ignorant of the new marketplace dynamics. They used the web to minimize printing costs but not to engage in conversations with customers, investors, regulators, consumers and employees.

The article presents information related to communication technology. New media tactics and communication tools can effect the public relations (PR) and advertising game. A whole new set of communication tools has quietly upstaged trusted old ones, corporate video, the press briefing, the product launch, the employee handbook and the carefully storyboarded Television commercial. The little black box, often referred to as a personal video recorder, introduced Television viewers to a new form of time shifting. Advertisers saw this as a dangerous trend because viewers could "TiVo" a program-record it, skip past the commercials or stop a program in its tracks for a bathroom break. BuzzMetrics, a company that pharmaceutical and automotive marketers turn to, tracks the "naturally occurring conversations," aka buzz, on message boards, blogs, review sites and gripe sites. The shift away from mainstream media-a model based on 'grabbing eyeballs'-challenges marketers to create their own media, that is, a model based on generating buzz. Buzz, the modern variant of gossip, is a combination of marketing communication and public relations in a highly networked world.

When the IABC Research Foundation decided 20 years ago to fund one of the most ambitious research projects in the study of business communication, it was the start of something big. It continues to be a landmark study in the practice of public relations, backed up by examples of excellent corporate communication. Through the years, this research investment has netted the IABC Research Foundation a number of related projects and served as background for many ancillary research studies and lectures. The first book stemming from the research project rolled out in 1992. The book "Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management," provided an in-depth literature review of the discipline. The book reaffirms research as the foundation for planning and measuring communication programs. The research applications exhibited provide an audit tool for practitioners to collect data, compare their current practices to the Excellence index and sample cases, and model improved practices in communication management. Finally, the cross-cultural data from the surveys and the case studies provide insight into the applications of public relations and communication management.

The article provides information on the Gold Quill competition. It states that the competition is keeping pace with new communication companies and in the 2009 event, the Gold Quill Awards is adding a Social Media category. In connection, the judges for this category will be drawn from among the leading practitioners of the sector and they will be looking on how the technology has been applied.

The article presents an interview with Beth Haiken, senior vice president at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide in San Francisco, California. The executive explains the nature of her profession as a business communicator. She mentions the best reward of performing a good job. The executive also shares her personal motto.

This article presents information on efficient public relations strategies, depicted in the book "Ethics in Public Relations: A Guide to Best Practice," by Patricia Parsons. In her book, Parsons explains why PR professionals often get a bad rap and offers a framework that communicators everywhere can use to integrate ethics into their planning and activities. Parsons takes a practical approach to ethics. She looks at the issues all face as communicators, both personally and professionally, and analyzes how our sense of ethics can influence our decisions and actions in the workplace. A PR consultant and a university professor, Parsons breaks down the process step by step. Children, she notes, make "ethical" choices to avoid punishment or meet their own needs. As people mature, they think more about how their actions affect others. arsons does not pretend to tell readers what is right, but rather encourages them to examine how they decide what is right. She helps readers understand the kinds of ethical challenges PR practitioners face today and creates a mechanism for ethical decision making within organizations.

This article presents information on events related to business communication. The conference "Chaos in the Public," will be held from May 10-11 in New York City. Another conference titled "Employee Engagement" will take place from May 10-12. The teleseminar "How Blogs Are Changing the PR Landscape," will be held on May 12. Another teleseminar "The 10 Rules of Successful Brands," will be held on June 09. IABC International Conference will take place in Washington, D.C.

Presents information about business communications in the United States according to a report by the Public Affairs Group. Average public relations (PR) and communications budgets; Average PR and communications staffing; Salaries.