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Don’t Suck at Meetings: 3 Ways to Rock Business Meetings and Job Interviews
The Hiring Hub… By Marie Raperto
Meetings, meetings, meetings. According to the National Statistics Council and Verizon, “37 percent of employee time is spent in meetings. Other data indicate there are 11 million business meetings each and every day.”
Most people hate business meetings and don’t feel they accomplish much. Candidates hate interviews and feel helpless while there. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid them. The key to surviving either is to make them effective as you can. There are horror stories out there about bad interviews and meetings.
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Victims and Villains: What Every PR Pro Can Learn from the Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes Divorce Saga
Public Relations…By David E. Johnson, CEO, Strategic Vision
The Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes divorce was the media story that never was. Despite the speculation of a long and protracted divorce battle, it was settled within days of the announcement of the split confounding many legal and public relations experts. Many are still shaking their heads at how they could have been so wrong. Even more amazing is the story is dying down in the media. The Cruise/Holmes divorce non-story is a lesson for public relations experts to study and indeed follow:
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SEC Alert: Insider Trading – Physicians’ Rx for Wealth?
IR Therefore I Am… By Gene Marbach
The SEC alleges that Apparao Mukkamala learned confidential information from board meetings and other communications about the anticipated acquisition of American Physicians Capital Inc. (ACAP) by another insurance company. Mukkamala in turn shared the nonpublic information with fellow physicians and friends Suresh Anne, Jitendra Prasad Katneni and Rao A.K. Yalamanchili as well as his brother-in-law Mallikarjunarao Anne. The five physicians each purchased ACAP stock based on confidential information about the impending sale in the months leading up to a public announcement.
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Happy Anniversary, Live Global TV!
By Larry Thomas, Latergy for the Social Video Channel
Fifty years ago today, Arthur C. Clarke’s dream became reality when an experimental communications satellite owned by AT&T and launched via their partnership with Bell Telephone Laboratories, NASA, the British General Post Office, and the French National Post Telegraph & Telecom Office transmitted the first global TV signal. Telstar 1, the world’s first active communications satellite, launched on July 10, 1961 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Two days later it made history by beaming images of President John F. Kennedy, the Statue of Liberty, a Phillies-Cubs baseball game, the Eiffel Tower and French singer Yves Montand from the Andover Earth Station in Maine to the Pleumeur-Bodou Telecom Center in France.
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Patagonia, Dell & Starbucks: When CSR Drives Systemic Innovation
By Sarah Coles, SVP, Ruder Finn for CSRwire’s Corporate Social Responsibility Channel
We live in a continually changing and dynamic age where organizations must habitually look to re-invent themselves to address complex challenges in their industry. To be successful and innovative today, companies are looking beyond traditional innovation to their social and environmental impacts – from operational processes and spurring creativity among employees to designing new products and services. Corporate social responsibility actually plays a valuable role in fostering innovation both within companies and on the outside. Externally, more and more programs cropping up means more access to resources and opportunities for people and organizations than ever before.
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Crisis PR: Bad “Publicity” Cited as Motivator in Penn State Cover-Up
CBS
The Freeh report was released today detailing what Penn State officials knew about Jerry Sandusky’s actions before and after the sex scandal made national headlines. The findings show that Penn State leaders attempted to cover up Jerry Sandusky’s child sexual abuse for years in order to save the reputation of the school. The independent investigation also concluded that “in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity,” ex-athletic director Tim Curley, former head football coach Joe Paterno, former university vice president Gary Schultz and former university president Graham Spanier repeatedly concealed critical facts related to Sandusky’s child abuse from the authorities. The reports details a series of emails that vividly describe what Penn State University administration knew about the alleged Sandusky assault on a child in a shower on campus. It also paints a distinct picture of the steps taken after the incident …
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Does PR Discriminate? Publicis Sex Discrimination Suit Awaits Federal Approval
Business Insider
The proposed class action sex discrimination lawsuit against Publicis Groupe’s MSLGroup agency could be huge, if it gets the ultimate go-ahead from a federal judge: It could have ripple effects on the pay of 45,000 of Publicis’ PR professionals worldwide, 70 percent of whom are women. The suit alleges MSLGroup president Jim Tsokanos judged female employees on their looks, took the younger ones out for drinks a bit too often but fired them if they got pregnant. More widely, it claims that 70 percent of Publicis’ international army of PR executives are women, but female managers only make up 15 percent of the holding company’s upper echelons of management. MSLGroup denies the claims and is fighting the suit vigorously in a New York court …
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Corporations Transforming into Social Businesses, Says Second Study of Social Media Trends from FedEx and Ketchum
MarketWatch
The 2012 FedEx/Ketchum Social Media Benchmarking Study analyzed the changing impact of social media on business today found that: 85% of the companies who use social media to engage employees reported that employee participation in their organization’s social business efforts increased over the past 12 months. These companies believe they are effectively using these strategies with employees in the social space to: Strengthen relationships (46%), share and tap into expertise (44%), foster collaboration, and dialogue and discussion (44%), increase participation in a program or an initiative (38%). In addition, 34% list social media as a shared responsibility in their organization, often with pieces belonging to communications, marketing teams and/or web and digital. And 64% also said the structure and roles in the marketing, communications or human resources teams have changed as a result of social business …
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More than Half of All Mobile Phone Owners Own a Smartphone
Marketing Pilgrim
According to Nielsen, more American phone owners are making the switch than ever before, with 2 out of 3 choosing a smartphone over a feature phone in the past three months. As of June 2012, smartphones were in the hands of 54.9% of all U.S. mobile phone subscribers. Android is still leading the pack in sales due to their wide variety and lower price points. And with smartphones already in the hands of so many mobile users, it’s imperative that marketers learn how to navigate this new frontier. Whether you’re building your own apps or simply making your site work on mobile, now is the time to get it done. And once it’s done, make sure you test your content on both the iPhone and an Android phone …
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Fed Signals Support for Further Stimulus If Economy Slows
Bloomberg
The Federal Reserve signaled that a further economic slowdown would bring growing support among policy makers for additional steps to spur the three-year expansion. A few members of the Federal Open Market Committee said the Fed should ease policy to move the economy toward its targets for full employment and stable prices, according to minutes of the June 19-20 meeting released yesterday in Washington. Several others said more action could be warranted if growth slows, risks intensified or inflation seemed likely to fall “persistently” below their goal. Joe Gagnon, who worked as an associate director at the Fed Board’s Division of International Finance from 1999-2008 and is now with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said the Fed’s next move could come as early as the Sept. 12-13 meeting …
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Analysts Blowing It? Europe Profit Downturn Exposes Bullish Forecasters
Reuters
Mid-year profit warnings in northern Europe have wrong-footed equity analysts who forecast strong earnings despite a global economic slowdown – the latest embarrassment for a profession whose own value many investors now question. Thomson Reuters data show average analysts’ forecasts for earnings growth in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Belgium were broadly stable, or even raised, in the first half of the year. Yet in that time there was no shortage of evidence of global slowdown, from China and the struggling euro states of southern Europe to business sentiment surveys even from the likes of Germany. Sure enough, among the mid-year updates from companies, a raft of profit warnings has disappointed investors who took the advice of bullish analysts and have seen share prices drop. Many analysts are now revising estimates downwards …
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PR Pros on the Go: Windstar Cruises Appoints Amanda Graham Director of Public Relations
MarketWatch
Windstar Cruises announced today that Amanda Graham has joined the company as Director of Public Relations. In this role, she will be responsible for Windstar’s public relations efforts, media relations, social media strategy and crisis communication. Graham will be reporting to Joe Duckett, Vice President of Marketing. Graham brings a strong background in the travel and tourism market. Most recently, Graham served as the manager of media and public relations at Norwegian Cruise Line, the third largest cruise line. In that role she was responsible for the inaugural activities and launch of Norwegian Epic, various film projects, organizing high profile press conferences, press trips and promotions as well as handling all media inquiries and interviews …
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Crisis Communications: Activist Investor Sets Sights on P&G
The Wall Street Journal
Procter & Gamble Co. is in the cross hairs of activist investor William Ackman, a sign that hedge funds are feeling more emboldened to demand changes in management and strategy at the nation’s largest companies. Mr. Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP has bought about $2 billion worth of P&G stock, people familiar with the matter said. Funds like Mr. Ackman’s build stakes in companies, then use their standing as big shareholders to agitate for changes that might boost the value of their holdings. By investing in the consumer-products giant, which has a market value of $175 billion and a broad investor base, Mr. Ackman appears to be preparing to try his activist-investing strategy on an unusually large scale …
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Japanese Ad Giant Dentsu to Buy London Firm Aegis
The Globe and Mail
Tokyo-based advertising giant Dentsu Inc. will buy London-based media and digital communications company Aegis Group. It is a $5-billion bid to gain a larger foothold in Europe and the U.S., and expand Dentsu’s digital and media offerings around the world. The deal is part of a larger plan that Dentsu has been working on in the past three years to expand its business globally. It is also part of the ever-growing consolidation of the advertising business around the world under large multinational holding companies. As advertising agencies seek to cater to more clients with global marketing strategies, greater reach is part of the perk of network ownership. Dentsu has agencies in 29 markets around the world …
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Microsoft Job Cuts Point to Digital Advertising Shift
Information Week
Layoffs, coupled with $6.2 billion charge, may indicate that Redmond is backing away from digital ad business. In the latest sign that it may scale back its presence in the digital advertising business, Microsoft this week cut a number of jobs in its online services group, including that of a high-profile digital marketing evangelist. Word of the cuts come a week after Microsoft announced that it would take a $6.2 billion charge against earnings in the just-ended quarter to cover a write-down of the goodwill value of its aQuantive ad business. Microsoft acquired aQuantive in 2007 for $6.3 billion. Microsoft did not disclose how many positions were cut, but a spokesperson confirmed that layoffs have occurred. Among those to get a pink slip was Mel Carson, a longtime digital marketing evangelist whose job was to liaise with key members of the advertising and publishing communities …
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