Today’s guest is written by Jayme Soulati. Public relations practitioners strive to develop authentic relationships; we want genuine and sincere romance with our tiered audiences, and we get there with engagement. The word “authentic” itself begs for definition. It was used in a variety of ways by a variety of practitioners when I launched an effort awhile back to  define public relations on my blog. Social media allows for creating real communities with give and take, with nurturing and education, and with growth by engagement. Enter automation. So, I did, and lo – more traffic. I MORE >>

Having already looked at how LinkedIn has grown over the last eight years ,  we thought it would be interesting to look at the growth of LinkedIn in comparison to another online networking giant – Facebook – as well as in relation to Internet use in the more general sense. Whilst LinkedIn’s growth has been continuous, the rate at which this growth is occurring has been in decline since 2007. In fact, when comparing the decline in growth across the three areas, LinkedIn’s user decrease correlates to that of the Internet, whereas Facebook has seen a rather more rapid decline. MORE >>

Mayor Keisuke Hiwatashi of Takeo, Japan, a city located in Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, frowns when people leave comments on municipal websites (especially those with blogs or other interactive content) with anonymous names and handles. “When people give their opinions or ask questions, they should take responsibility for this as adults, and this should be done using their real names,&# said the mayor at a press conference announcing his city’s migration from their traditional website to Facebook. Will other cities follow? Should they? Should yours? Marketing Facebook MORE >>

Have you every noticed that even some of the best actors have a difficult time as talk show guests? They may be very good at delivering a role that follows a script – but without one there are gaps that leave a space for all kinds of things to happen – some of which undermine the authority they have previously earned. There are many rules for communicating well with all types of media, though nearly all of them can be explained by that very common adage – less is nearly always more. Here are three tips for making that happen. Guess what? It made it better. Start in the middle. MORE >>

In this day and age, companies and solopreneurs alike use social media to take their promotional endeavors to the next level. However, while the Internet makes it a breathe to connect with people across the world, rules still apply. And if you do not follow them, chances are that your campaign may never be successful. Branding Great Resources Tips Twitter Wordpress social media campaign social media tips MORE >>