Name Dropping
Here's a sampling of what's going on with our clients and staff:

Appleton-based Hoffman Planning, Design & Construction has been selected by U.S. Venture to oversee the design and manage construction of U.S Venture’s new corporate headquarters in downtown Appleton. This will be the second time Hoffman has developed a new corporate headquarters for U.S. Venture.

Stevens & Stevens Business Records Management co-owner Marshall Stevens was quoted in a neat online infographic of the 50 biggest data breaches of all time .
 
Congratulations to NEW Water’s Tricia Garrison , who was named PRSA-NEW’s “Communicator of the Year.” Tricia has done an outstanding job of community outreach and education relating to the R2E2 project; a new wastewater treatment facility being built in Green Bay.

Congratulations also goes to Leonard & Finco Public Relation’s Noelle Cutler for receiving PRSA’s Award of Excellence for her whiteboard video about the Port of Green Bay. It’s the second award for the piece; the first coming from the American Association of Port Authorities earlier this year.
 
Great Northern Laminations and its packaging solutions were highlighted in a recent article titled " Heavy manufacturing equipment meets match with custom shipping solution " in Packaging Strategies.

Anna and Corey Linsley are the new Wisconsin CASA Association spokespeople. Corey, the Packers starting center, and Anna, a well-known certified yoga instructor, are both CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates); volunteering with children who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in the court system. Watch for Anna and Corey on a new, statewide PSA.

A “Flight of Champions” will take place in Brown County this November. This will be the first honor flight out of Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport for area veterans who served in WWII, the Korean and Vietnam wars. Brown County is partnering with Old Glory Honor Flight to coordinate the event and related fundraising.

Dickinson County Health Care System in Upper Michigan has signed a letter of intent to be acquired by Bellin Health .  The two systems have worked together for many years. The move ensures the continued offering and expansion of high quality, low cost, local health care. The acquisition is expected to be final by June 2018.

Congrats to Wisconsin Plastics, Inc (WPI) on the launch of its new, interactive website . The site features a new look, is easy to navigate and highlights WPI’s one-stop-shop capabilities. Check it out! 

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help recently welcomed Don Warden as its new Chief Operating Officer. Warden joins the Shrine from Elizabeth Ministry International where he served as executive director.
2018 Trends in
PR & Communications
‘Tis the season to talk about trends in…….well, you name it and someone is talking about trends in their industry. So, of course, we did a little research and came up with our own predictions for PR and communication trends in 2018:

The need for speed. Communication won’t slow down so organizations will need to speed up their go to market communication strategies as well as responses to issues and crisis situations. We’re all on the clock 24/7/365.

Social media continues to grow. But don’t abandon traditional PR and earned media; you’ll need all of them. Understand how they can work together. Your efforts will be more successful because of it.

Visuals will continue to be king. No matter the approach, strategy or tactic, the use of visuals will continue to grow in importance.

Measurement matters more than ever. Help your CEO understand what can - and can’t - be measured and why it matters. Then do it!

Relationships are a key to success. No matter how you communicate, or who you communicate with, developing mutually beneficial relationships will continue to be a key to success in PR. Take the time to tend to your relationships!

Here’s to a happy, healthy and successful year of PR!
School’s in session -
putting your social media ads to the test
If you thought the days of testing ended when you graduated from school, then this might be difficult to hear: when you’re running ads on social media, testing is an important step in the process. The good news is you won’t technically be the one taking the test—it’s your ads themselves that have to be put to the test.
 
When you set up social media ads, there are a lot of “test questions” that have to be answered. What’s your ad objective? What website page is your ad going to link to? What photo or video are you going to use with your ad? All of these variables work together to result in your ad’s performance, aka how many people see your ad, click on the website link, etc.
 
Remember, Facebook advertising is set up as an ad auction—meaning your ad is in competition with other ads. Facebook only allows so many ads to show on up on the news feeds of the people you’re trying to reach. So that’s why you’re not guaranteed any set number of results. Basically, you need all of these variables to line up correctly, beat out the other ads and reach through the screen and grab people’s attention.
 
Getting all of those variables right the first time doesn’t usually happen. It’s a process of finding out what resonates with your audience and fine tuning the inputs so you get the output you want. The best way to do this is test your ads. Run a few different versions of your ads and see which one does the best. Then nix the other ads and keep the best performing version running; otherwise they will end up in that ad competition against each other. Good luck on your next social media ad test!
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Quick Quote

"Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's like riding a bicycle or typing.
If you're willing to work at it,
you can rapidly improve the quality
of every part of your life."
-Brian Tracy