social media Archives

Three Common Social Media Mistakes – and How to Avoid Them

As a PR firm, we counsel clients on social media best practices, helping them to take a fresh look at what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and how it’s performing. Based on our many client interactions on the topic, here are three common social media mistakes companies make, and tips for avoiding them. 1….

Castle’s 2019 Public Relations Recap & 2020 Social Media and PR Trends

After a successful and bustling year, the Castle public relations team reflects on the trends that defined the industry in 2019, the biggest media moments – from viral heartwarming social media moments to Operation Varsity Blues rocking the nation, and shares PR and social media trends to watch in 2020. What do you think was…

Finding The Why of Social Media Through a Social Media Audit

Author Simon Sinek popularized the idea of finding your why. Many organizations, including our own, have created “why statements,” allowing us to succinctly state the purpose behind our work. Before getting to work, Sinek proposes that organizations “start with why.” But when social media exploded, many organizations jumped in feet first. It was something they…

Castle Empowers Nonprofit Communications Through Consult Café

The Castle Group recently created and produced the first-ever Consult Café, a pop-up communications forum for small nonprofits, in partnership with the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network and Babson College. This exclusive event at Babson’s downtown campus gave nonprofit leaders the opportunity to connect, engage, and discuss best practices for creating and building relationships with key stakeholders…

Castle Public Relations and Social Media Trends

Fake news. Podcasts. Instagram stories and IGTV. As we look ahead in 2019, we’re recapping our favorite media stories and trends from the past year and sharing our predictions for what’s next. What do you think was the most inspiring media story of 2018? The action taken by the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High…

Five Best Practices for Working with Bloggers and Social Media Influencers

As the traditional media landscape becomes increasing crowded and noisy, brands large and small have needed to modify their media and marketing strategies to create alternative opportunities to get in front of their desired audience. One growing alternative to traditional earned media is social media and blogger marketing, where brands work directly with blogger and…

Bianchi PR President Jim Bianchi reflects on his career in automotive PR, secrets to social media and client retention, and his firm’s affiliation with PRGN

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with friend and Public Relations Global Network (PRGN) partner Jim Bianchi, the president of Detroit-based Bianchi PR. Jim shared with us his agency’s secrets to social media and client retention, as well as the interesting story about how he got his start in automotive PR. How and…

Events: The Missing Link in the Paid/Earned/Social/Owned Marketing Model

The ever-evolving marketing industry has defined the PESO (Paid/Earned/Social/Owned) model as a way to categorize marketing activities in the context of our digital world. It makes sense and is an important lens through which to consider our work. One critical element, however, always seems to be missing from the PESO model: events. As our team…

Boston Celtics President Rich Gotham Talks Teamwork, Culture & Community Service

Boston Celtics President Rich Gotham recently sat down with Sandy Lish to talk about his most defining moment with the organization, the importance of teamwork on and off the court and how great it is to be a part of “Celtic Pride.” He also shared a few things most fans may not know about the…

Make your audience your ally

One of the first rules of effective communications is to know your audience. This is particularly important when crisis hits.

Consider this: all the prepared holding statements, Q&As, talking points, letters and response strategies in the world won’t help in times of crisis if you don’t have an understanding of how your audience views a particular issue in the first place. In fact, if you don’t have a general awareness of who your various stakeholders are and what they think, your communications efforts could take what is actually a minor issue and inadvertently turn it into a full blown crisis.