CommsConsultants.com

The “take a hint” gut check for media pitching: 1?? Pitch a reporter something you think is closely aligned to their beat, interests, writing cadence. 2?? Wait at least 18 - 24 hours for a response. 3?? If no response, re-ping with a gentle follow up. 4?? If no response after the initial follow-up, you’ve now received feedback that they’re just not that into your pitch and/or too busy. 5?? Move onto the next target whether it’s another reporter, owned/borrowed channel, etc. The “Hi Rick, I’m just circling back one final time” is not your friend for future pitches. Less is more, people are busy, news cycles are short and chaotic, so don’t take it personally. Happy pitching next week, the last real one before the beginning of the Holiday season.

When does it make sense to bring in a communications consultant? What are the moments you need to be prepared for? Here are just a few: ? When you're considering opening up a new FTE role on your comms/marketing team, and want to test the waters with a contractor first ? When you're searching for a FTE and need some interim support to fill gaps and keep the team afloat ? When a valued team member goes on parental leave, family leave or sabbatical ? When you need someone who "gets it" to manage and oversee the day-to-day work from your agency ? When you've got a new leader in place who wants to evaluate things and consider best practices from other leading orgs ? When your team is overstretched but you don't have the budget to add full-time headcount or bring in a pricey agency ? When you want to expand your brand's awareness and reach, but you only have $5K or $10K as a starting budget ? Before, during or after a major transformation ? Before, during or after a crisis or significant issue ? When you're seeing a downward trend in key metrics (audience engagement, retention, etc) ? When you're growing fast and want to capitalize on it / manage growth with your key audiences ? When you're noticing that your CEO / exec team needs to be better prepared to effectively speak, present and communicate ? When your people managers are struggling to effectively communicate and connect with the teams they lead ? When your frontline employees feel disconnected from your mission, vision and leadership ? When your social media engagement doesn’t match up with your competitors ? When you're receiving critical feedback from customers, employees or other stakeholders ? When it’s been more than 1-2 years since you audited your comms / marketing channels, content and measurement processes ? When you want to run focus groups with employees or customers and want to ensure participants feel comfortable opening up / being candid Fellow #consultants - what did I miss? What are the other key moments you see clients bringing you in? * ?? I’m Ashley Dennison. I connect leaders to pre-vetted, independent comms & marketing talent. When you share and support CommsConsultants.com, you’re supporting a woman-owned startup dedicated to global accessibility for all. You’re also creating future opportunities for 200+ solopreneurs in 20+ countries.?

Freelance crew, Today we're bringing you a quick, no fluff list of 15 places to find new freelance gigs this week. Don't hesitate. Get to bookmarking and subscribing. - 1. Sign up for the?Harlow freelance newsletter to get a shortlist of the hottest jobs for writers, designers, marketers, developers & more delivered to your inbox every week. https://lnkd.in/gZmHNiqD 2. Get daily freelance writing gigs delivered straight to your inbox from?Freelance Framework by?Chris Bibey. https://lnkd.in/gs6-iXhY 3. Kaitlyn Arford's?Freelance Opportunities newsletter is chock-full of opportunities for journalists, copywriters, social media managers, and more. https://lnkd.in/gmY_cdak 4. Get fresh freelance leads every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from?The Daily Lead. https://lnkd.in/gBPWkXBN 5. Founder Gigs?curates fractional roles for founders who want to supplement their income. https://foundergigs.com/ 6. Get fractional jobs delivered to your inbox as soon as they're posted directly from the company's website from?Mylance. https://lnkd.in/gszX3gf2 7. Surely Work?has hundreds of open freelance jobs across professions, industries, and locations. https://lnkd.in/gnX_W4Ai 8. We Work Remotely?is one of the largest remote work communities in the world and is jam-packed with freelance opportunities. https://lnkd.in/g972A9-Z 9. Functioning as a community, directory, job board, and resource hub,?Freelancing Females?is a haven for self-identified women who work for themselves. https://lnkd.in/gPu5WYeE 10. Looking for creative, marketing, or technical work??Shoutt?is a commission-free marketplace. https://www.shoutt.co/ 11. 99designs?has been helping designers find work since 2008. https://99designs.com/ 12. Acting as both a freelance job board and a membership marketplace,?Dribbble?is a flexible option for designers to find work. https://dribbble.com/ 13. Get work-from-anywhere marketing roles delivered to your inbox every Friday by?Content as a Career by Tamilore O.. https://lnkd.in/giyAv5TY 14. Tofu's free Slack community for content marketers and SEO specialists features fresh job opportunities, resources & more. https://www.jointofu.co/ 15. Yentalist?by?Olivia Dreizen Howell?and the?Fresh Starts Registry?crew features a curated list of great remote marketing jobs. https://yentalist.com/ - Looking for even *more* places to find freelance gigs this week? Don't miss our list of 50+ places to land new clients. https://lnkd.in/gUjBZcSa

The difference between personal brand and reputation - does it matter? It does to me, and here's why: ? Personal brand is what you say about yourself; reputation is what you say about yourself AND what others say about you ? Personal brands don't affect share prices; reputations do ? Personal brand is aspirational; reputation is inspirational ? You can pay for a personal brand, but you have to earn a reputation ? Personal brand is words + brand identity; reputation is words + behaviour + context I'd love to hear your thoughts. ** I help executives build reputations for great leadership in challenging times. DM me if you're interested.

A very dear work colleague told me early in my career that I was a completer finisher. I wore that badge with honour for years. Telling myself "I always see it through", "People can rely on me to get the job done" Nowadays, I'm letting that badge slip a bit and not making it such a defining quality because with that comes unnecessary pressure, perfectionism, taking too much on, and a sense of drowning. Instead, I'm dialling up other skills like prioritisation, saying no, setting realistic boundaries and deadlines, and letting things go. We live in a fast paced, always on world with never-ending to-do lists. Sometimes, it's ok to embrace 'strategic underachievement' and to not finish things! If being a completer finisher is taking its toll and leaving you feeling overwhelmed, why not cut yourself some slack, work out what really matters and chuck some of that other stuff in the f&ck it bucket. #mentalwellbeing #burnout #prioritisation ________ ? I'm Jo. I help organisations improve their culture, communications and employee experience through employee listening. I also love connecting people and spreading joy and positivity ?

Yes, PR stands for "public relations", but you don't have to have a relationship with a journalist to get your story covered. I have this conversation regularly with folks who ask about my media contacts and what relationships I have with specific reporters. I tell them that yes, while relationships can help, they're not the end all be all. If you want your story covered in the press, you have to have an actual story - one that's timely, relevant, interesting, etc. I don't care if my brother is the editor, he's not going to cover it if it doesn't meet those criteria. Focus on crafting a compelling story and the coverage will follow.

I got 10 out-of-office replies in a row this week while pitching my clients for holiday gift guide coverage. So what's the deal? Current events impact media outreach. We're just a week away from an election that will change the course of our country, and many reporters are deep in election coverage, even if politics isn't their usual beat. For those of us in PR, it’s a good reminder: timing is everything. For clients, please be patient. Know that we understand how important your investment in PR is and that you want coverage to drive sales this holiday season. Anyone else adjusting their approach as we head into the final countdown?

?"How can we get employees to open our email newsletters? We have low click rates." This is the question I tackle in tomorrow's edition of my email newsletter. [Yes a newsletter about newsletters, it's all getting very meta] It can be brutal to invest so much time and energy into crafting emails and have them go unread, right? It's super frustrating. Here's my unpopular opinion: I think newsletters are a great channel. Seriously, I love them. I know that's very uncool to say and lots of people will disagree with me. I'm okay with that. If you do a newsletter well, it can be an incredible tool for internal communication. It can reduce email volume, synthesise news announcements and reduce the overall noise in an organisation. But to do this, a newsletter needs to focus on one word: value. It must deliver value for the readers to earn their trust and keep them coming back for more. What does this look like and how do you do it? In my newsletter tomorrow, I share practical advice to help you. And I know that my advice works because I follow it myself - my own newsletter has an average open rate of 71%. After nearly 2 years of publishing the open rates are steady and are even increasing. Want to read this? Join 4,641 readers who get my weekly internal comms tips straight to their inbox by subscribing here: https://lnkd.in/ez3_eq4c