Month: August 2015

3 Lessons in: Becoming a Media Resource

Welcome to Lessons in PR, an ongoing series of public relations tips and advice from the professionals at Matter Communications. Have your own tip to submit? Respond in the comments or email [email protected]. Our daily tasks can end up working like blinders. While we plow through our tactics with dazzling aplomb, we can sometimes lose sight of the big picture – a big picture that demands… Read more »

The Chronicles of Boulder PR

On May 6, Matter Communications announced that it would open a new office in Boulder, Colorado. The tech, the startups, the passion for entrepreneurialism – what wasn’t to love? There is certainly a kinship between the People’s Republic and Matter’s headquarters in Massachusetts, so the announcement was met with excitement about what was to come. But wait, that was just a little over three months ago…. Read more »

How Matter Taught Me S'more About PR

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”- Vincent Van Gogh As a recent college graduate, the professional world seems like an uncomfortable, unforgiving, unfamiliar place filled with infinite possibilities. I can’t help but to reflect back on the experiences leading me up to this point. More than just words on my resume, they have taught me numerous life lessons and professional… Read more »

10 Common Business Video Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

With millions of videos on the Internet, how do you make your business video stand out? To find out, CIO.com asked dozens of video marketing professionals to identify the biggest, or most common, mistakes companies make when crafting and marketing business videos. A few of my submissions were selected for the article, but as EP and Director of Video Services here at Matter, I see my… Read more »

Ashley Madison Leak: A Survival Guide for the Exposed

Did you see Hugh Grant on Jay Leno years ago when he was asked about picking-up a prostitute? (The classic TV moment of Leno asking Grant “what the hell were you thinking?”) The same could be asked of the customers of the Ashley Madison website (solely designed to help married people cheat on their spouses) when news broke in June that the website was hacked and… Read more »

An AC’s guide to surviving PR

As I approach my five month mark as an Account Coordinator here at Matter Communications, I’ve realized how much I’ve learned in such a brief time. Yes, I’ve learned a lot more about media, pitching and press releases, but more importantly I’ve learned how to work in an agency. It’s an experience like no other and navigating through it can be tricky. I’ve finally found my… Read more »

Bridging the Gap: Best Practices for Working Remotely

As technology continues to improve, it has become more convenient for people to work remotely/in different offices across a variety of industries. Inter-office IMs, video conferences and the like are great communication tools that can connect employees in different geographies, but that said, nothing can compare to face time with your co-workers (actual, in-person face time … not FaceTime). I have recently started working in Matter’s newest… Read more »

Going Organic in the Silicon Forest

Although I am one of the newest team members with Matter Communications, I have been doing this PR thing for while—eight years to be exact. During my early years in PR I saw the emergence of the smartphone app, the dawn of the very painful 2008 recession, and the rise of social networks like Facebook and Twitter. I learned early on that having a Swiss Army… Read more »

Target, Toys and the Art of Newsmaking

“No news is good news.” You’d be hard-pressed to hear this uttered in any PR agency setting. It’s a perennial responsibility of agencies to portray clients as dynamic forces in their industries. If our client produces nothing but guitar picks, we’ll go hoarse cheering that this year they sold the MOST guitar picks, or that they’re the first company to produce picks from 100% post-consumer recycled… Read more »

3 Lessons in: Staying Organized

Welcome to Lessons in PR, an ongoing series of public relations tips and advice from the professionals at Matter Communications. Have your own tip to submit? Respond in the comments or email [email protected]. One of the most enticing and exhausting aspects of the PR industry is: variety. Unless you work with an in-house team (and sometimes even then), you’ll be exposed to astounding assortment of perspectives,… Read more »

4 PR Tips to Attending a Client Tradeshow

As a public relations professional, I’m fortunate to have a career that allows for frequent travel, so you can only imagine the excitement that ensued last month, when I got to spend four days in Las Vegas to attend Ceridian INSIGHTS, one of our clients’ largest annual customer forum. Throughout the four days, I spent a significant amount of time learning about the client, its services… Read more »

Like a German: 4 PR Lessons from a Summer in Berlin

I spent the summer after college graduation working alongside branding and marketing wizards in the Silicon Valley of Europe: Berlin. Throughout the summer, I learned to speak, write, and even eat spaghetti with a fork and spoon like a German, but nothing prepared me more for my current role as an Account Coordinator at Matter Communications than learning to do PR like one. To be clear,… Read more »