This morning I had the pleasure of giving a presentation to an engaged group of people involved with early childhood education and family services at the Augusta Civic Center. Called “Engaged Communities, Growing Small Children,” the conference focused around a book called “The Charismatic Organization, 8 Ways to Grow a Nonprofit,” by Shirley Sagawa. I tied my presentation in to Shirley’s book by talking about how organizations can engage themselves better with their communities through effective communications if they share their stories and newsworthy events on an ongoing basis. Continue Reading »

There’s a wonderful organization based in Waterville, Maine called Hardy Girls, Healthy Women.  It’s a non-profit that works with girls and the adults in their lives to inspire social change to ensure that all girls and women experience equality, independence and safety in their everyday lives.   They have a complex mission and vision, and they do really important work.  Over the past couple of years, I have gotten to know Karen Heck, one of the founders of the organization, through our alma mater Colby College, so I offered to help the board with a message map.

A message map is a tool that we use as part of the Marshall Plan process at Nancy Marshall Communications.  A message map is the foundation of all our our public relations and marketing programs for clients. It includes a ‘key message’ at its center, which is 21 words in length. It takes seven seconds to say 21 words out loud. If you are familiar with  broadcast news, you know that reporters and editors love seven second sound bites. But we use the key message for more than just media interviews: we use it in brochure copy, speaking engagements, web copy, newsletter copy and everywhere we are talking about the client organization. Continue Reading »

This morning, Greg Glynn from my agency team and I presented a seminar on Social Media for Small Businesses at the Skowhegan Community Center. The workshop was sponsored by our client, Skowhegan Savings.  We talked about how small businesses need to define their goals, their identity, and their key messages before diving into the pool of social media. We recommended that people who are totally new to social media start by establishing an account on Linked In to start experimenting with the power of increasing your network of contacts. Continue Reading »

This week I attended one of my twice-yearly meetings with the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies. You can check out our new portal Web site at www.amcagroup.com.  This meeting was held in Phoenix, so I went from snowy weather in Maine to 90 degree heat in the Arizona desert. I love the diversity!

One of the agencies in our group walked us through a “Brand Re-launch” they just did for a communiity hospital. I was really interested in their process because it is similar to our “Marshall Plan” process that we use for cliens who need to define their brand and map out a comprehensive marketing communications strategy. Continue Reading »

My son was born just yesterday….or so it seems.  Yet this past week he went to his junior prom…how could that be? Here he is with his date Kelsey arriving at the prom last weekend. I know you’re thinking he wasn’t born yesterday, but if life was passing as fast for you as it is for me, you’d know how I feel.

I don’t know about you, but for me, time is literally flying by.

The only way I’ve discovered to slow it down is by scrapbooking. Now some friends who know me well are amazed that I would choose a hobby that involves sitting for hours, cutting out pretty papers, applying stickers, writing journal entries and organizing photos. But truly, it is the only way that I can slow the passage of time and try to remember the details of this busy life I lead. Continue Reading »

I’m giving a presentation this Friday to a group of executive directors who are members of the Maine Association of Nonprofits. The topic is ‘developing a communications plan for nonprofit organizations.’ I’ve been working on a handout and a PowerPoint presention and thought I’d share some of my thoughts here.

In the most basic terms, when developing a communications plan, there are four things to consider.

1. The recipient of the message.

2. The sender of the message.

3. The message.

4. The tools used to send the message. Continue Reading »

I may have mentioned here before that I belong to a national network of agencies called the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies which is managed by Dave Wood of the Agency Management Roundtable.  At our last meeting, Dave talked about a new business development guru named Robb High. Dave had attended one of his day-long workshops and learned a lot.

So when I received an E-mail last week from Robb High announcing a series of upcoming seminars on new business development for agencies, I opened it up right away. He is coming to Boston next Tuesday but unfortunately I already have plans that day. Continue Reading »

I had the pleasure yesterday of speaking to a group of women State Farm agents from around the state of Maine. We met at their offices in South Portland. 

I talked about Conversational Marketing which refers to the way today’s consumers want us to communicate with them. Social media provides us with a method of carrying on an open and online dialogue about our businesses or our lives in general. That’s the way the world is going. No longer do consumers want us to talk ‘at’ them, they want us to talk ‘with’ them in an equal, two-way dialogue. Continue Reading »

I took these photos along the shoreline near Pebble Beach last Thursday before my bike ‘encounter’ with the door of a Mercedes Benz. Not sure how the door fared, but I was pretty shook up and bruised (and still am!)  I was in too much of a daze after it happened to see if the door was damaged or not. At least that’s replaceable but my head is not!

Regardless, Monterey is a beautiful part of the country and it was a beautiful setting to learn about social media from Brett Giles and Andrew Bagley out of Sitewire in Tempe, Arizona.  They work on all aspects of search marketing for national clients like Olive Garden and Red Lobster. This field of social media and search marketing is evolving so quickly and there are so many different ways of getting involved with it that I find it extremely stimulating and fun. Continue Reading »

I spent five days in California this past week. It was a combination of business and fun.  Sometimes fun isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

I had flown into Monterey on Wednesday and stayed with a good friend, Betsy Shea, in Carmel Valley. She owns Shea Campbell, a marketing communications agency which is part of my national agency network, called the Alliance of Marketing Communication Agencies. Continue Reading »