Recently, Sticker Mule's Co-founder sent an expressly political email to the entire customer base of the company and then doubled down on the company X account. Whatever your political strip, there are messages that belong on company accounts and some that don't. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about what kind of messaging belongs where, and how to be ready to communicate in a crisis.

The media environment is shifting and more brands are keeping a closer hold on their own narratives which means that PR pros need to adjust their approach. Gini Dietrich is talking about the new reality of Earned Media and how you can evolve with it on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

If you try to use an AI tool for a complex or creative task, you might be disappointed by the initial results, but as often as not, that is the fault of the prompt more than the LLM. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast Gini Dietrich is talking about how the different AI platforms perform and how to provide enough training and context to get usable results.

What would you do if you didn't need to work to make a living? We may not be there yet - and we don't really know how the technology will develop - but there's no harm imagining a future where most of the labor is done by machines! Gini Dietrich talks about planning for the future that AI may be creating on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Gini brings in her first-ever guests! Gini's husband, Kelly, joins Gini to discuss his entrepreneurial and marketing journey with his company, National Democratic Training Committee. Tune in for guest, Allison (Kelly and Gini's daughter)!

Right now a lot of communications professionals are more focused on what AI can't do than what it can. In this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about why you should be getting a handle on AI's capabilities and making sure your own stay relevant.

Chris Penn once told Gini Dietrich that as AI tools develop, the role of communicators will be one of conducting a symphony of robots, designing and coordinating work from different sources for specific outcomes. That day is near, if it isn't here already and that's what we're talking about today on the Spin Sucks Podcast.

The most common question Gini Dietrich is asked about the PESO model is how to start implementing it. This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast she is talking about starting with the most important element of the model, Owned, and building a campaign around it.

Generative search is going to be affecting SEO sooner rather than later - but the foundations don't change - using your content to share your Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust is still going to be the best thing you can do to make sure your content gets found. Gini Dietrich is talking abut the changes you do and don't need to make on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Gini Dietrich has a vision about making the field of marketing and communications a better, more effective place with a shared understanding of how ROI is created and measured - and she's got a plan for how to make it happen. She's talking about it this week on the Spin Sucks Podcast.

The role of communicators is always changing - not least because there are always new platforms and changes to existing ones to integrate into our plans. What stays the same is balancing the demands of speed, accuracy, engagement and integrity - and today on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich discusses how.

Communications and PR is one of those industries where a few bad actors give everyone a bad reputation. But most communications pros are absolutely honest and most of their work can be seen as boring. This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini is talking about how most people are using their PR powers for good.

If you want your clients to be confident that your communications work is ethical, responsible, and measurable, becoming a PESO Model Certified Guide© is the best way to get there. Gini Dietrich answers your questions about the new program on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks podcast.

Are you tired of all the misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information in the media? Gini discusses what each type of information is and gives communicators tips for combatting the bad actors.

Earned media has been turned on it's head in the last few months - due to corporate restructuring and companies closing, the pool of media relations experts has shrunk considerably - but it's still an important strategy. Gini Dietrich is giving you 5 tips on how to get better results from your media relations efforts this week on the Spin Sucks Podcast

SEO has come a long, long way since the first search engines started using it to organize results, and Chat GPT is changing the game again. Today on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich talks about how SEO is working now, the role of communications in it, and what we need to know to take advantage of AI to make sure the right people are finding you at the right time.

Data interpretation and communication is critical to help translate your efforts to outcomes. This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about Coverage Impact, a powerful tool that can help you interpret, visualize and share your data and correlate them to organizational goals.

Measuring the results of your PR efforts is far more challenging than linking to the likes and clicks you get on your social media accounts. Gini discusses measuring PR success with outcomes vs. outputs, using AI effectively in a PR campaign, and the future of PR measurement.

The PESO model has become a foundational element of the communications industry. The industry isn't static, and neither is the model. Today on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking us through the changes to the model and graphic, and what it means for communicators around the world.

On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is reviewing the PESO model for any of you listening who aren't familiar with it yet, and providing some extra tips and insights for those who are.

Contributed Content is one of the unsung heroes of communications. While it isn't always the easiest to create, especially if content creation is outside your scope of worth, its a strategy that can pay huge dividends. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is explaining why you should be considering contributed content, what editors are looking for, how to create it and how to measure it.

As far as we've come, there is a long way to go when it comes to being a woman in the workplace... and the world. Professionally, women can be sidelined, diminished, talked over and infantilized by even the best-intentioned of men. And sometimes women help them do it. There is a long way to go and on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how you can make a difference in your workplace and relationships - whatever your gender.

Being a thought leader means having and sharing original thoughts that demonstrate your expertise. Doing this can take a lot of time or a lot of money or both, and that can sometimes be a challenge. Today on the Spin Sucks Podcast Gini Dietrich is talking about how to get thought leadership right.

Owned Media is the most important element of a PESO Model plan - it has the most potential for long term benefit, and can perform the heaviest lift in terms of driving your marketing forward. Of course, it also takes the longest to pay off. Gini Dietrich is talking about why owned media is worth the time and investment on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

The PESO model is evolving like everything else we do in business, and that means you need to review your strategy, evaluate it's results and make changes as the environment you're working in does. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about some of the changes you might want to make in your application of the model in 2024.

It's never easy to lay someone off, deny them leave, reduce benefits or share any other kind of bad news... but there are definitely ways to make it much worse - especially when your actions might end up on TikTok or another social media platform. Gini Dietrich is talking about what not to do, and what to do instead on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Requests for Proposals are the bane of many agency's existence, and although they're popular, they're rarely the best way to stary a new professional relationship. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about a better way to position yourself as an expert and get new business without the proposals.

To stay competitive in the new world of AI, you need to figure out how to use it, and any other new technologies that come along, to differentiate yourself and the solutions you provide. Gini Dietrich is talking about how on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast. Article about the Death of Digital Agencies

The internet made a huge change in how PR and Communications professionals work. Then social media did the same thing. Now, AI is changing everything yet again and on this week's Spin Sucks Podcast Episode, Gini Dietrich is talking abut how AI is changing the industry, and what it means for you.

If you've noticed that you are enjoying your time on the internet, and more specifically social, a lot less? Gini Dietrich has too and that's what she's talking about this week on the Spin Sucks Podcast.

The most reliable way to get people to open your emails is to make sure they recognize your name - and one of the best ways to do that is to engage meaningfully with the content they share on social media. Gini Dietrich is talking abut rediscovering the art of commenting on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

You've probably heard about the Open AI drama that has been happening over the las few weeks, and you may have noticed how they broke almost every rule of communicating an executive transition. On today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is taking a look at what went wrong with Open AI's leadership turbulence, and how to make sure your transitions, when the happen, go much more smoothly.

It can be easy to feel left out or offended when you're not included in media that your competitors are, but the answer isn't to throw a bunch of money at Earned Media (and it's certainly not the time the yell at your communications team!) - it's to remember you're building something that will take years to come into full effect, and your Owned Media should come first. Gini Dietrich is talking about how to set expectations for yourself and your clients on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Great leaders are made, not born. Gini Dietrich dives into what it takes to become and grow as a leader worth leading.

The 2023 Edelman Future of Corporate Communications Study is out, and Gini Dietrich is breaking down the results and what they mean for you on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast. You can find the study right here.

The CMO Survey from Deloitte is out, and as you might expect - it's a mix of good and bad news. Today on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini is breaking down the data, and making predictions for what you'll be running into next year. Check out the PESO Model Certification here!

Whether or not you're a fan of Taylor Swift's music, you cannot deny that she is amazing at public relations. Gini Dietrich is talking about what Taylor Swift is getting right, from authenticity to user-generated content, this week on the Spin Sucks Podcast.

There is a certain level of success and stability you can expect with a communications professional that is using the PESO model - ad on today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is going to be talking about how and why it's a solid choice to create the authority and reputation you need in your business.

Being a good communicator means being able to effectively tell stories - that is what helps you build trust and relationships. On today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about the stories that work best in business and how you can get comfortable telling them.

AI is making it easier and easier for people to create cold emails offering you the moon and more. Very often, these are pay to play firms who are selling what used to be called advertorials and similar placements. Gini Dietrich is talking about the reality of paying for coverage, when it might make sense and when it doesn't on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

When Spin Sucks first started it was called FADS: the Fight Against Destructive Spin. In today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking abut the early days of the blog, and what they learned about creating content that people can actually use - and that actually serves both the audience and the business.

Google Search Generative AI is coming, whether you like it or not, and that means you've got to make some changes to what kind of content you're making and how you make it. Gini Dietrich is talking about the strategic tweaks you'll need to make to keep getting in front of the people who need your expertise.

Most organizations don't think too much about crises until they actually happen, but having a communications plan ready just in case is reputation insurance that can make a huge difference in terms of how your organization is perceived for years to come. Gini Dietrich is talking about the role your crisis communications plan can play when bad things happen today on the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Futurecasting is all about identifying a range of potential outcomes or events that might impact your industry and business, and planning for the different possibilities you might have to deal with. In todays episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to get good at futurecasting, and how to integrate it into your strategy.

Workplace toxicity is caused by the action, or inaction, of leadership, and that is true whether you're working together in an office, have a hybrid setup or are fully remote. Gini Dietrich is talking about building trust and making sure that toxic culture never has a chance to settle in.

There is one thing that is critical when managing a crisis that has to happen in person and on time: saying you're sorry. This is easier for many executives in theory than practice and on today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast Gini Dietrich is talking about how to navigate different times of crises with empathy.

People are always looking for the easy way forward - it's kind of human nature - but it's usually not the best choice. You will always have better results with consistent work towards longer term strategies. Gini Dietrich is talking about how and why on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

There is a lot going on out there, and you need to be up to date on what is happening in your industry and the world at large if you want to be a valuable strategic partner for your company and clients. On today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about using anti-fragile tactics to protect your business no matter what happens.

Many of today's executives grew up understanding that you should never discuss money, politics or religion in polite company, but times are changing and more and more consumers are expecting companies to take a stand one way or another. Gini Dietrich is talking about how to communicate your values as a brand, and sharing some examples of massive successes and failures in doing so on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Very often, media opportunities involve providing access to members of the media - and that is a relationship that can be a little fraught. There are risks inherent in providing access to journalists and other professionals, and on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast Gini Dietrich is talking about how to navigate the line between being open and transparent and accidentally spilling the beans on sensitive or damaging information.

It's time for society to make changes - big ones - and generative AI is going to be a huge part of that. Today on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about the unintended consequences, both good and bad, that could happen as this process unfolds as well as what we might be able to do with all of the time AI could potentially save us.

It's a fact that women are still underpaid compared to their male counterparts, and there's no one who can change it but us. One of the reasons this happens is that women are less likely to negotiate for what they are worth when taking a new role, asking for a raise or even engaging with new clients. Gini Dietrich is talking about how to do it on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Perfectionism can cause problems in many different ways, and areas of your communications plan. Good and Finished is better than absolutely perfect for you, and for your team members. Gini Dietrich is talking about how perfectionism can demotivate your team and prevent you from moving forward on the Spin Sucks Podcast.

In this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about why it's so important to always live by the golden rule. Aside from being the right thing to do for it's own sake, you never know who you're going to meet, or who they know.

It seems like everyone is having more difficulty getting media placements than they used to - the old strategies for getting earned media just aren't working any more, and that means we need to update our approach. Gini Dietrich is talking about how on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

What does it mean for you as a professional communicator when you have to do more with less as budgets constrict? On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to navigate layoffs, hiring freezes, budget cuts and more over the next year. Now is the time to focus on what you know works.

Have you jumped on the Generative AI bandwagon yet? It can be a powerful tool to help you work more efficiently, and today on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about some of the strategies you can use to get started, the latest guidelines from the PR Council, and why you really need to fact-check.

It can be easy to create the expectation that you're always available via email or slack or any of the other channels we use to communicate with our teams and clients. On today's episode of the Spin Sucks podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to create a culture of communication that is a little easier to manage.

Complaints against a brand - real or not - can now be immediately distributed around the entire world, and that means that the role of communication professionals has changed too. Gini Dietrich is talking about reputation management in a highly-scrutinized environment on today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

It's important for the stories we tell to be meaningful to ourselves as communicators, and to the audience that ultimately receives them - but we don't want to drift into creating or exaggerating drama. Gini Dietrich is talking about how to become better storytellers on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

More and more companies are talking about bringing people back into offices, despite most employees not being interested. Apparently there is no replacement for in-person culture and mentorship. Gini Dietrich is talking about why remote can be perfectly fine if you're willing to make just a few adjustments.

When does it make sense to hire a coach? Gini Dietrich shares when and why you should hire a coach.

It used to be that the 'best practice' for companies having opinions on social issues was: don't! But that is all changing and today on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about the role of communications in helping an organization speak up about it's values.

If the looming recession is making you nervous for your agency or business, then you should be thinking about how to evolve your services and offerings to make sure you're able to weather the storm. Gini Dietrich is talking about what to do, and how to communicate it's value on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

It's time to stop procrastinating - your marketing needs to be working for you, and be resilient in the face of economic shifts. Identify what is really working for you, and make sure your income is diversified enough, to weather the tides. Gini Dietrich is talking about how on the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Gini Dietrich thinks that you should stop being afraid of contributed content, and make it an integral part of your communications strategy. You control the message, the anchor text and the URL - and it's easier to place than many other types of content. Learn all about it on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Requests for Proposals are the bane of many agency's existence, and although they're popular, they're rarely the best way to stary a new professional relationship. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about a better way to position yourself as an expert and get new business without the proposals.

A civil conversation on social media might sound like an oxymoron, but some companies have been making an effort with features that allow communicators to control the tone of conversations. Today on the Spin Sucks podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to moderate your social media accounts to keep the trolls at bay.

If you want to succeed, you need a strategic plan. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to create and communicate strategic plans for your company or clients.

The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, and the second best time is today. A new business tree is the foundation of a relationship that can turn into clients, opportunities and professional connections... if you can stay top of mind between the time you plant and the time it bears fruit. Gini Dietrich is talking about how, today on the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Most executives suck at communication, and they overlook the most powerful tool in their tool belt...the communications professional. This week on the Spin Sucks podcast, Gini Dietrich dives into a recent Axios article detailing why executives are bad communicators and what they can do about it. Axios Finish Line: Why leaders are bad communicators

There is nothing like the feeling of receiving and RFP and imagining what winning it could mean for your business. They're not always a good idea, however, and sometimes it makes the most sense to respectfully decline. This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about RFPs, what clients expect from them, and how much it can cost just to respond.

There is a lot in communications you have to react to rather than create and control, but Owned Media is all yours. On today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to make the most of your Owned Media and integrate it into your PESO program.

Is sales enablement all there is to communications? You and I would say no, but a lot of executives, especially those with a sales background might be inclined to think so. In this week's episode of the Spin Sucks, Gini Dietrich is bridging that divide by talking about how the PESO model can be specifically applied to the buyers journey.

On this week’s Spin Sucks podcast episode, Gini Dietrich is sharing a PESO Model™ primer: why you need it, why your communications program should evolve, how to measure it, and why executives love it.

Happy New Year! Hopefully you have had a lovely break, and you're ready to tackle a new year with new projects, new clients and piles of data to measure. Gini Dietrich is talking about what you should measure this year and why on the Spin Sucks Podcast. PESO Model™ Certification and Fundamentals of Media Measurement.

You might have heard about ChatGPT - the ai engine that can answer questions and generate content. Gini Dietrich is giving a demonstration of the tool and talking about when AI writing can be helpful, and when it won't be on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

You never need a communications professional more than when things get really, really messy. There is a certain type of tech CEO that doesn't seem to believe they need communications counsel - and the results are going to be extremely interesting. Gini Dietrich is talking about the fall of FTX and the actions of Sam Bankman-Fried on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

It's always important to stay up to date on the latest data! Especially when you're building and maintaining robust and comprehensive communications plans. This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is looking at the results from this year's Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs Content Marketing Benchmarks Budget and Trends Survey.

You need to apply the same skills to your internal and external clients as you do to your broader audience and community. Gini Dietrich is talking about creating client personas on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Your relationships with your clients are professional ones, but it's also important to understand them on the human level On today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about some of the things you should know about your clients to create the best possible working relationships.

Many people struggle when using the Peso Model with their clients and businesses. This week, Gini shares the four main issues many have and how to effectively overcome them. You may be surprised how simple shifts can make all the difference.

Do you remember when social media was social? Back when it was, Gini Dietrich connected with Scott Baradell and started a friendship that has lasted for years. Scott has recently published Trust Signals, and in this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is sharing an excerpt and talking about why you should give it a read.

Having a community around your business can be a huge advantage in everything from your sales to your content marketing to your brand reputation, and in this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about why that is, and how to build and nurture one.

Trust is a scarce commodity these days - but businesses have more of it than you migth expect. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about the lastest Edelman Trust Barometer, and how to use owned media to be seen as a trusted source of information.

It's important for the stories we tell to be meaningful to ourselves as communicators, and to the audience that ultimately receives them - but we don't want to drift into creating or exagerating drama. Gini Dietrich is talking about how to become better storytellers on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Join Gini as she discusses the differences between the praise men and women receive from their peers, colleagues, and bosses. Learn what you can do to end the deficit of praise for a more equitable workplace.

In PR, you have to educate your clients about what is possible, but also what is going to be the most effective in terms of earned media. That's what Gini Dietrich is talking about on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

16 years ago, Gini Dietrich and her team started the Spin Sucks Blog. Enjoy this special clip episode where Gini is talking about the history of the company and members of the Spin Sucks Community talks about what it has meant to them over the years.

Everyone gets ghosted from time to time - and it never feels good. When someone reaches out and you put tons of effort into creating a fantastic proposal it can hurt when you get crickets in response. It rarely has anything to do with you or your business, so today, Gini Dietrich is talking about what to do and how to handle it.

Sometimes a team meeting can (and should!) stray off of business topics, and get to really vital issues - like who is the greatest villain in literature. While we all need to get our work done, sometimes a little time devoted to getting to know eachoher, and who on your team is wrong about the worst villain's in literature, can be a huge benefit for your team's culture and morale. Gini Dietrich is sharing a shortlist on today's episde of the Spin Sucks podacst - and invites you to add your own villains.

Persuasion is an art that communicators need to constantly hone. We might wish that data and facts and evidence were enough to make our cases, we need to use a variety of different skills, and wear a variety of different hats, to achieve what we need to. That's what Gini Dietrich is talking about today on the Spin Sucks Podcast.

On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about the results some brand new data Frank Strong and Ned Lundquist discovered during the fifth annual JOTW (job of the week) Strategic Communications Survey, starting with why it seems like there's so much more work on everyone's desk right now.

Measuring the succes and impact of the work they do is one of the biggest challenges that communicators face. Today on the Spin Sucks podcast Gini Deitrich is talking about how to track, measure and communicate the results of the campaigns you run.

There are a few bad apples that seriously damage the reputaiton of every industry, and PR is no different. Today, Gini Dietrich is talking about how critical it is that professional communicators act with integrity.

There are introverts and there are extroverts - both are necessary for the running of the world, but the world isn't really designed for the introverted among us. Today, Gini Dietrich is talking about the different things introverts bring to the table, and how to make sure they're able contribute the value they bring to the table - without making them completely miserable.

We're taught to conform, to accept, and not rebel against the status quo. Sometimes breaking the rules is exactly what you need to succeed. Gini Dietrich shares the traits of rebel leaders and encourages you to be bored and let the rebel in you come out.

That's the question we're asking each other, and ourselves every week now, and when life and work are a pressure cooker of things to worry about, Gini Dietrich wants us to remember to take care of ourselves, and shares some ideas for how to do it.

There is reason to be nervous about the economy, and what is going to be happening in the coming months and years. But, it's all going to be okay. On today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about what you can do to make sure you are safe and protected as the economy changes.

Please enjoy this summer reply of last year's popular, The Differences between Marketing, Communications and PR! What drives Gini Dietrich absolutely batty? Thinking that the different elements of communication are totally different fields that stand alone. We're all communicators whether we're in email marketing or crisis communications or anything in between. Listen to this week's episode to find out why.

Lots of companies are hoping for thier big PR break - but most companies don't have the story needed to make it happen - and don't really know what they'd do if it did. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about what is means to go viral and why you should carefully consider whether it's worth pursuing.

This year's Muck Rack state of PR survey is out and it's a doozy. Gini Dietrich is breaking it down and talking about some of the highlights on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast. Check out the Survey here: https://muckrack.com/blog/2022/06/02/state-of-pr-2022

Research shows that when women step into executive roles, profits increase. Gini Dietrich is exploring why this is on this week's episoe of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Positive feedback is critical to the moral and motivation of your team. While it's important to give constructive criticisim when it's warranted, there's no need to find it just to balance out the good things you want to say! That's what Gini Dietrich is talking about on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

As much as we'd like to avoid it, recessions are inevitable from time to time. The is an old adgage that advertising was a bellwether for the economy, and it's proven to be true. Gini Dietrich is talking about how to weather the coming recession, and make sure you come out intact on the other end.

Happy 200th Episode! Fully recovered from moving house and Covid, Gini Dietrich is celebrating 200 episodes of the Spin Sucks Podcast with a hard hitting, no holds barred conversation with superfan and tough critic, Addie Dietrich.

Earned media is becoming harder and harder tog et with journalists and other gatekeepers, but is increasibly important to executive teams. Your pitches need to be on point, and this week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to do it.

Every now and then someone comes along and runs an absolutely epic scam. How people get away with it is baffling, and yet they do - and then sometimes people like to blame PR for at least some of the fallout. That is not necessarily fair - this week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about the role - and the responsibility, communications has when business owners are running scams.

Every really good PESO model based plan starts with owned content as the foundation. On this week's episosde of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Deitrich is talking about the media you create that lives on an online property you own, and how you use the other elements of the model to distribute and promote it.

Starting any new project can be intimidating, but starting a huge new content project is even more so - getting traction is *hard* and it doesn't go quickly. On today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast Gini Dietrich is talking about how to make that process as fast and efficient as possible.

Shared media is one of the PESO model elemtents it's easy to be wrong about - often because we feel like we should be on a particular platform without having a solid strategic reason to back that up. Today on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to make your social decisions strategically.

The changing media landscape means that it can be harder to get earned placements - but by thinking outside the box and considering different media properties and ways to contibute, you can get mentions for your company in a huge variety of places.

I always say that people buy from people, and if your clients are happy to buy from - and work with - the other people on your team, it is going to be much easier to scale. This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how and why to elevate your colleagues.

When you get a juicy media placement - how to you leverage it? Paid media is a great way to get more out of the mentions and attention you are getting by other means, and on today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to do that using the CAB method.

While parts of the world are in crisis, it can be difficult for communicators and companies to know what they should be talking about and how. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to communicate your ESG efforts.

There's more than one reason to keep your nose clean as a communicator - but not everyone does. There are plenty of companys out there who seem to be doing their level-best to keep the reputation of the industry low. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about the importance of speaking the truth - and what can happen when we don't.

Sometimes, bad things happen, and how companies deal with employees going through bad things is a huge point of potential success or failure. Grief leadership is the skillset required to navigate these situations. This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to do it, and what a difference it can make to your team.

Whether you're working for an agency, a non-profit or by yourself, you need a solid communciations plan to set expectations, define success and protect you from demands you can't (or shouldn't) meet. This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Deitrich is talking about the strategies and tactics you need to create a plan that keeps everyone informed and happy.

You never know who you might run into - and who they might know! It's always good practice to treat other people the way you want to be treated, and that principle has potentially huge implications in your business, in your communications, and in your personal life. That's what Gini Dietrich is talking about on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Sometimes we have times in our lives when we feel like we can do anything - we're creative powerhouses and nothing can stop us, and other times we feel like nothing will ever go right again. In this week's episode of Spin Sucks Gini Dietrich is talking about Hot Streaks - what they are and how you can have one in your career.

If you know what you know and what you don't know, you're doing pretty well - but do you ever think about where your knowledge and decisions are coming from, and if that information is inaccurate? That's what this week's replay episode is all about. Next week, Gini Dietrich will be back with a new episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

If change is low-risk, we tend to like it - but the higher the risk, the less open to it we are. This is a problem because things are constantly changing and to stay current, we need to keep ourselves open to the process and the outcomes. The answer to this is neuroplasticity - or how to unlearn what you think and what you know. That's what Gini is talking about on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is digging into the result of the 2021 State of Business Podcasting Report from One Stone Creative, and what you can take away from it to start (or refine!) your podcast this year. Download a copy of the report at OneStoneCreative.net/Report2021.

To start 2022, we're replaying the popular year-opener from 2021, with a PESO model primer where Gini Dietrich talks about how we can use the PESO model to do more with the skills and talents we have available.

Trust in the media, scientists and the government has taken a nosedive in the last couple of years - and it's one of the most difficult things to quantify. Given how important it is, however, the role of communicators is critical in establishing and maintaining trust within and for organizations. Gini Dietrich is talking about how on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast

If you're thinking about starting your on PR company, or going out on your own as a freelancer, then this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast is for you. Gini Dietrich is talking about how to tell if it's a good time to start something new - and how do do it if it is.

Enjoy this popular episode from earlier in the year! In the communications industry, we don't have a uniform way to measure what we do, which causes confusion about everything from what we should be measuring in the first place, to what kind of goals and objectives make the most sense to try and measure, and how to communicate it all to teams, leadership and boards. Gini talks about this industry-wide issue and shares some solutions on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

What do you think it means to share something "off the record?" On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about giving information on background, what you can expect when something is off the record, and how to navigate "on background" conversations with journalists.

The Muckrack State of PR Measurement Report has recently been released and the results are shocking. 94% of respondants say they measure success and results by the number of stories placed - but that is nowhere close to how you get the full story. Gini Dietrich talks about what you should be looking at instead on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Gini Dietrich loves content. All kinds of content. But especially blogs. The door is open for absolutely everybody to tell stories in ways that area meaningful for them, and if you invest the time, over time, there are likely to be people paying attention. Today, Gini is talking about the insights found in Andy Crestodina's and the team at Orbit Media's annual Blogger Survey.

A lot of people (although not all!) love working remotely. That means that re-opening workplaces is a minefield in more ways than one - and that means it's an interesting time to be a communicator. From vaccine status, to racism and misogyny, to the ongoing struggle between school hours and work hours, Gini Dietrich is talking about returning to offices (or not!) and how professional communicators are talking about it.

There has never been a better time in history for communicators. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich discusses the research findings of the 2021 Future of Corporate Communications Study and how the communicator's role is forever changed. She breaks down her four favorite insights she found in the report, shares what that means for you, and how you can make 2022 and beyond successful.

It's been 12 years since the first Trends and Insights report from The Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about the report, and particularly, what changes Covid has wrought. Tune in to find out what the report means for your communications work.

Where were you during the Great Facebook Outage of 2021? Was it a tech problem that could happen to any company, or something a little more suspicious? That's what Gini is talking about on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Trust in the media is declining - and often for pretty good reason. On today's epispde of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about why, what role PR professionals and journalists have it it, and what you should be doing to keep your credibility high. Join the Spin Sucks Community SpinSucks.com/spin-sucks-community.

PR has expectations and a perception issue - together these can make for a challenging reputation and a major hurdle to overcome when they're pitching their services - especially when there is someone sneaking around with alternative goals. Gini Dietrich talks about why this is and what you can to about on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Mental Health has always been important, but it hasn't always been something we talked about. The pandemic has changed all that and employees around the world are reconsidering their work lives. Companies who want the best talent need to be hyper aware of how their employees are doing. That's what Gini Dietrich is talking about on this weeks episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

In this week's episde of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how far Spin Sucks has come over the years. She looks back to the beginnings of the blog (and shares the very first blog post that appeared on it!) and talks about how things have, and continue to change for the better.

Usually, when someone shares copywritten content, it's often an innocent, or perhaps ignorant, mistake. Most people are gracious when you point it out, and correct the issue - but then there are those that don't- and they tend to blame it on the intern. A lot of things get blamed on interns - is that fair? Find out on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast with Gini Dietrich.

While the PR industry isn't as diverse as it should be, many agencies have made tangible commitments to do better. These commitments don't mention pay equity - which is still a problem. Learn about it on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast with Gini Dietrich.

Annual CMO Spend Survey from Gartner is out and it's not pretty. Marketing budgets have fallen to their lowest point in the history of they survey. So what are companies spending their marketing money on, and how can you make the most of it? Find out on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast with Gini Dietrich.

If you're in PR you probably send pitches, and if you're a journalist, you probably get them! A recent survey from Propel says that "journalists are remarkably quick to open media pitches if interested..." Gini notes that it's more likely to be an email scanning service within the first 10 minutes after sending than a human being who can make a decision. Gini breaks down the reults of this survey and talks about how to tweak your strategy accordingly. https://www.propelmypr.com/blog/propel-media-barometer-q2-2021

Business leaders need to change their thinking around the value of communications. There are a lot of erroneous perceptions (some of them pretty mean!) about PR, and we need to combat them! Gini Dietrich is talking about how on this episode of the Spin Sucks podcast.

When organizations have public mishaps, it's often blamed on faulty PR - and the thinking goes that if you fix the communications problem, and a future free of damning press scrutiny awaits. This is sometimes true - but not usually. PR woes are usually a result structural issues within a company, and on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about why it happens, and how to make sure it doesn't happen to you.

If 2020 taught us anything, it was that everyone has been re-examining the brands we buy from, for, invest in, work for and otherwise support. Issues of morale, engagement and culture are more important than other, and that means a new emphasis on internal communications. But mistakes are still being made - especially in communicating how we're going back to work. Find out how to make sure you're saying what you need to on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

How much can AI really do for us? There are tool and services available now that are offering some pretty impressive AI generated materials - but they're not quite ready to replace us yet. Join us on this week's episode of Spin Sucks to talk about what artifical intelligence can do for your communications program.

The JOTW Strategic Comms Strategy Survey has recently been released, which analyzes what is going on in the communications industry, and as you might suspect, there are some challenges that communicators are facing. From DE&I to internal communications, from leaders that don't get it to the lingering effects of the pandemic, from measuring efforts to cutting through the noise, Gini Dietrich talks about how to manage these challenges. Resources Included 2021 JOTW Strategic Comms Survey MuckRack Survey Ragan Survey PESO Model Certification Ned Lundquist  Frank Strong Spin Sucks Community

As much as we might like to trust who we meet, watch and read - there are people and companies out there using fake personas to handle their outward facing communications. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about the ethics of fake personas, and what to do if you encounter one.

On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast Gini Dietrich is breaking down the results from a recent survey conducted by MuckRack about the challenges that the PR industry is facing. From budget limitations to inability to measure quantifiable results, find out what other communicators are working on, and what you can do to improve your own results.

If you're starting a corporate blog, you need it to start producing results as quickly as possible, but that's no easy feat. Blogs can be one of the most challenging projects communicators take on. Gini Dietrich knows all about it and is sharing seven ways to start seeing success out of the gate.

Our role has become more essential as we have helped keep organizations focused and moving forward in the past 15 months. The Ragan Communications Benchmark Report breaks down the changes in communications and what a communicator’s role will be in the next three to five years. Gini Dietrich reviews the findings of the report, including communications budgets, technology and mobile communication trends, crisis planning, and much more.

As a communicator, you need to be able to stand up to yourself—on everything from boundaries and your personal time to protecting your ideas and intellectual property. IP theft is a major concern for us right-brained creatives and you need to find the balance between being friendly and making sure you're compensated for your work. Gini Dietrich talks about how you can walk that line in this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

If the pandemic has taught us anything about business, it's that communications expertise is not just necessary, it's imperative. From political and economic upheaval to a global movement for social justice to a mass exodus of women from the workplace—it's the first time in history we've seen so many crises at one time, and the companies weathering them are the ones with communications experts at the decision-making table. Gini Dietrich explains why in this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast episode.

Sometimes you have to make tough decisions about opportunities that come your way. You might have heard the advice "if it's not a heck yes, it's a no." If you're waffling on a decision, or you feel like there are important reasons to say yes to something you're not wildly enthusiastic about, there are really good reasons to maintain your boundaries and priorities and say no. Gini Dietrich is talking about how to do that on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

You can tell things are starting to get back to normal when your small child brings a run-of-the-mill cold home from school. So today, please enjoy this popular episode from 2019 about doing your own professional development, so you can stay up to date with what's happening in your industry. Gini Dietrich will be back next week with a new episode!

Things are getting better in the world, but the covid-fog doesn't seem to be lifting; people are still bone tired. Gini Dietrich is one of them, and on today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, she's talking about strategies for dealing with it.

On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich continues last week's discussion about business models—and gets deep into how a service business can find the types of clients who follow the Goldilocks Principle: they are just right.

It's hard to scale a business offering just on thing at one price point, so in this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is sharing 8 different pricing models that you can use to diversify your offerings and serve a broader range of people.

One Pitch released a survey of journalists because they thought that other reports didn't sufficiently address what journalists really want and the tactics for pitching them effectively. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich discusses what that new survey reveals. 

It is important for communicators to understand how our cognitive biases and assumptions affect the messages we're sending to our different audiences. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about empathy and compassion in our communications.

The last week has been Spring Break in Chicago, so instead of a new episode, Gini Dietrich is sharing the most popular show of 2019, all about the different ways you can make money on the side of your traditional salary as an employee or income as a business owner.

There have been a lot of wild PR-Related stories in the news lately - a cinnamon-coated shrimp tail, Dr. Oz on Jeopardy, and a hospital giving vaccines to friends rather than the people who were entitled to them. Sometimes crises are of a company's own making, but oftentimes they're not. What's real, what needs attention, what is attention-getting, and how to handle a crisis when it's made out of thin air? That's what Gini Deitrich explores on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Journalism is one of the industries that has been thrown on its head because of COVID-19. In this episode of the Spin Sucks podcast, Gini Dietrich talks about the changes journalism professionals have seen, what they're doing about it, and what it means for you.

By now, many workers are completely digitized - with work and leisure all happening online. There have been major changes in every sector, while companies and governments try to figure out exactly what it all means as parts of the country start to re-open. One of the biggest changes in the way companies are talking about their values, and what customers are beginning to expect from the brands they use. That is what Gini Dietrich discusses on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks podcast.

The theme of International Women's day this year is Women in Leadership - and that's a topic that can't be underestimated in importance. Gini Dietrich talks about the impact of the pandemic on women's lives and careers and shows we can choose to challenge the institutions, biases, and situations that create inequality for women on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast. #ChoosetoChallenge

In the communications industry, we don't have a uniform way to measure what we do, which causes confusion about everything from what we should be measuring in the first place, to what kind of goals and objectives make the most sense to try and measure, and how to communicate it all to teams, leadership and boards. Gini talks about this industry-wide issue and shares some solutions on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

What's more common than an outright ban on social media? A shadowban. Gini Dietrich is going to be sharing what that is, and what to do if it happens to you or one of your clients on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Social Media is a powerful tool for connecting with your audience and community, but it's not easy when the truth is that there are people out there on social media with the sole intent of damaging your reputation: bad actors. How do you moderate social media comments in this environment? That's what Gini Dietrich is talking about today on the Spin Sucks Podcast.

We may hope that life will be getting back to normal once we're all vaccinated, but a recent report by the Content Marketing Institute is saying that consumer digital behavior has jumped ahead by five years. There's no going back, and that has huge implications for content marketers in B2C and B2B businesses. Gini Dietrich has the details and how to get ahead of these rapidly changing trends on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

There are 13 things every business needs to have in their plan - and if you're not a business or agency owner yourself, these are elements that should be in your communications plan. Gini Dietrich explains what they are, and why they matter on this week's Spin Sucks Podcast episode.

More than half of CEOs are not convinced their marketing departments are driving results (according to a survey by Strategy Box). That means that if you're listening to this, there's a coin flip of a chance that your boss doesn't think you're doing your job. Gini Dietrich goes into more detail about this survey, what the results mean, and what you need to do to make sure you're communicating what you need to in this episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

In this week's Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about podcasts - how she started making them, why she still does, whether you should have one and how to make it sound great. You can download the report Gini is referencing at OneStoneCreative.net/Report.

If you know what you know and what you don't know, you're doing pretty well - but do you ever think about where your knowledge and decisions are coming from, and if that information is inaccurate? That's what Gini Dietrich is talking about in this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Welcome to 2021! In this episode of the Spin Sucks podcasts, Gini Dietrich kicks off the new year with a discussion about how we can do more with the talents and skills we have available.

Welcome to the 11th Day of Spin Sucks Christmas, where Gini is talking through the 11 terms, words and phrases that ought to be banned in 2021 and for the rest of time.

On the 6th day of Spin Sucks Christmas, Ginie Dietrich brings you Six SEO tricks - otherwise known as best practices that you can use to help focus your content efforts, and keep your long term strategy top of mind.

It's the first day of Spin Sucks Christmas! The 12 Day Countdown is an annual tradition for Gini Dietrich and the rest of the Spin Sucks Team, and to kick things off this year, we're talking about mindset, why it matters, and how you can work on your own.

Productive Procrastination makes it feels like you're working hard and making progress - but it's an illusion. Join Gini Dietrich on this week's Spin Sucks Podcast to talk about the trap of productive procrastination - why it ruins your real productivity, and how to combat it.

Last week on the Spin Sucks Podcast we started a conversation about planning, and today Gini Dietrich is continuing it by focusing on you, and your own personal goals and plans. Enjoy!

On this week's Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to effortlessly plan your communications for the next 90 days. Really! Book mentioned in this episode: https://www.eosworldwide.com/traction-book

As we hit the motherload of crises - social, health, economic, communications professionals need to take a close look at how they are communicating internally and externally. We've seen new challenges, and learned new ways to convey what we believe in. In this week's episode of the Spin Sucks podcast, Gini Dietrich talks about the future of crisis communications.

In this episode of Spin Sucks, Gini talks about her first experience as a manager in an agency, and what she's learned since then about the difference between managing and leading - and how to be a better communicator and leader of your colleagues.

What drives Gini Dietrich absolutely batty? Thinking that the diffrent elements of communication are totally different fields that stand alone. We're all communicators whether we're in email marketing or crisis communications or anything in between. Listen to this week's episode to find out why.

Working with a new client is exciting - there are so many possibilities, and opportunities to tell new stories and try new things. But to start on the right foot you need a strategic plan - and that is something that is often overlooked. That's what today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast is all about. Enjoy!

To swear or not to swear in your marketing? In this week's spin sucks podcast Gini Dietrich talks about what the science and stats say about swearing, and how it might be percieved by your audience.

User-generated content is an amazing part of your social media efforts, and most of us have some kind of system to monitor and manage our mentions on the different platforms. What you use depends on your needs, goals and how many mentions you have to deal with! Today we're talking about what you need to do when it's time to graduate from monitoring alone to adding social media moderation to your workflow.

What can we learn from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg as professionals and as human beings?

Sometimes dificult, challenging or even damaging things can happen to a brand through no fault of thier own. These days, a crisis isn't an "if" it's a "when" - so on today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich is talking about how to tell when a crisis is brewing, and how to prepare.

Last fall, we released an episode about the importance of diversifying your income, and we thought that going into the fall of this uniquely challening year would be a good time to revisit it. Enjoy!

In this month's last Agency Leadership cross post, Gini Dietrich and Chip Griffin talk about getting extra help for your business in the form of virtual assistants, sites like Upwork, in-house hires and other ways to relieve the burden of repetitive tasks. Next week we'll be back with the Spin Sucks Podcast!

In this cross-post from the Agency Leadership podcast, Gini Dietrich and Chip Griffin talk about offering services like social media, community building, crisis - and maintaining some semblance of work life balance while you're at it. It will help you think about setting boundaries and expectations, no matter what your role in an organization is. Enjoy!

Welcome to another August episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast where we're sharing great episodes from the Agency Leadership Podcast that Gini co-hosts with Chip Griffin. Today you're going to hear about one of my favorite topics: non-traditional revenue streams!

Please enjoy this cross-post from the Agency Leadership podcast! This month on the Spin Sucks Podcast, while we're getting ready for another school year in a pandemic, you're going to be getting cross-posts of some of my favorite episodes from the Agency Leadership podcast that I co-host with Chip Griffin. Today, we're playing a recent episode about generating new business! Enjoy!

In this week's episode Gini Dietrich talks about how to measure the results of your PESO model strategy. This can be intimidating, but communicating the successes and opportunities for further improvement to leadership and the rest of your team is a critical factor in a program that provides value over the long term.

The last piece of an integrated PESO Model program before you start measuring is authority. That's what happens when you've built a reputation for an individual or organization. If you've been listening to the PESO model series, and learn how to implement it through the certification, you know that authority is the result of your work. There is some work you'll need to do as well as the organic results you'll get, and that's what Gini is talking about on this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

Paid media often brings to mind mascots, jingles and Super Bowl commercials - and while they are all important, they're not part of a PESO model strategy driven by communications and marketing! Today, Gini is talking about using paid media in search and social to help turn traffic into clients and customers.

It seems like every day brings with it a new social media channel or trending meme. What TikTok dance craze have you learned during the pandemic? What are we going to do about our influencer programs? Will a broom really stand up by itself on a particular day because of a hashtag trend? And what the heck is this Vero thing all about? It’s tough to keep up. Every day there is something new and fun and cool that other people are doing on social media, leaving you with a sense of FOMO—fear of missing out. We all get FOMO, but it’s a terrible way to decide how to spend your time on social media and to allocate your content budget. Instead, you need to “fish where there are fish.” In social media terms, that means to be where your audience and community already talk about you, your competitors, and industry topics, and engaging with them there. And that’s what we’re going to talk about on today’s Spin Sucks podcast episode. That and how shared media fits into a larger PESO Model program.

In the PESO Model process, where earned and owned media overlap, search engine optimization reigns supreme. Though SEO seems scary to a marketer or communicator who is not trained in the intricate details of the specialty, we are not going to focus on anything technical. Rather, the process focuses on doing what you do best while implementing some search engine optimization at the same time.

If there were ever a time to learn how to build a strategic PESO Model program, it is now. Between the pandemic and furloughed jobs, and civil unrest and social injustice, the ability to evolve quickly is more and more relevant, and that's what Gini talks about in this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast.

The role of the communicator is to adapt, and evolve, especially now. Not only do we have to keep up with current events and work to stay top-of-mind without seeming tone deaf, we have to learn and use everything new that comes along—or be able to make the decision you don’t have to use everything new that comes along. In this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini talks about how the PESO Model can help in all of these instances. Links Mentioned In This Episode Spin Sucks (the book) Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business Built to Sell PR Pros Must Embrace the PESO Model Spin Sucks Community PESO Model Certification

In today's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini talks about what it means for a company to take a stand for social justice, the kinds of conversations you need to have with your team and clients, what it can cost, and why it's absolutely necessary to do. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Gina Luttrell and Natalia Flores  Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Spin Sucks Community Employee Activism  

A recentWall Street Journal article talks about how to survive the pandemic by taking cues from nature. Naturally, of course.  As it turns out, wildfires, pine cones, armadillos, geckos, and mantis shrimp hold the key to out coming out of the pandemic with our heads on straight—and a new found passion for our careers.  The idea that we can innovate by observing and copying nature is a concept popularized by Janine Benyus, an American natural sciences writer, innovation consultant, and author. It applies to new products, such as adhesives inspired by the sticky feet of the gecko and underwater cameras suggested by the eyes of the mantis shrimp.  But the natural world offers so much more than simply ideas for product design. It can also offer insight into how to keep up with quickly changing markets, cooperating with peers, and fostering resilience—each which are relevant to every one of us, no matter where we are in our career growth. Many of the roughly eight million species on Earth have weathered times of intense disruption—something human beings are experiencing now. The non-human species have developed strategies to help them not just adapt to harsh conditions, but to thrive. Strategies we can learn from.  The aforementioned article looked at five ways organisms respond to periods of extreme adversity—and the insights they hold that are valuable to you. And that is what this episode of the Spin Sucks podcast is about: what you can learn from nature to pull yourself—and your career or your business—out of the pandemic. Links Mentioned In This Episode What We Can Learn from Nature Janine Benyus Marketing In the Round Spin Sucks (the book) Spin Sucks Academy Spin Sucks Community

Gini Dietrich makes a confession in this week's Spin Sucks podcast episode. She describes that, because she's run her own company for years, taking the responsibility and the risks and reaping the rewards, she’ll never be a good employee. She says she wasn’t a good employee when she was employed so today she is certain she'd make whomever hired her absolutely miserable. But that isn’t to say creating an agency has been easy. It’s not. It’s one of the hardest things she's ever done—and just when you get good at something, the business changes or, you know, something like a global pandemic happens, and you have to learn something new. Or completely change your business model.  But it also is the best employment for some—and it could be for you, as well. As we figure out what the next 18-24 months could look like, becoming your own boss might be an option for you. Some of you because you’ve been furloughed or laid off or because the business has scaled down or because the company has completely gone out of business. Whatever the reason, let’s talk about what it takes to be an entrepreneur and scale a business.  Shownote Links 10 Key Traits of a Successful Entrepreneur Crucial Conversations Agency Jumpstart Program Spin Sucks Coaching Program Spin Sucks Community

Creating strong, engaged online communities is more important now than it has ever been - in this replay of an episode from early 2019, Gini talks about building online communities, the secret sauce of engagement, and the short and long term benefits of having one.

The last piece of an integrated PESO Model program, before you get to measurement, is authority—or thought leadership. If you implement a full PESO Model program, complete with the full foundational work of paid, earned, shared, and owned media working together, it will be inevitable that you’ll build authority for your organization and its executives. But you also have to create some of it on your own. There isn’t a single piece of content out there about marketing that doesn’t extol the virtues of thought leadership. In fact, it’s so prevalent the phrase itself has become a word most marketers hate to hear. Test it out. Tell a marketing friend that you want to be a thought leader and watch his or her eyes roll back into their head. Even though most hate it, thought leadership is a very important part of a content strategy in today’s business world. But what does that mean? How can it be effective? The Benefits of Thought LeadershipIn an article written by Haydn Shaughnessy, “The Growth of Thought Leadership as a Marketing Strategy,” he describes it as essential as companies search for new markets, where they have no presence but see opportunity, and as they seek to defend their positions from competitors. He describes it as a strategic necessity in an era of “hyper-innovation,” social enterprise, and social media. Thought leadership drives new directions. It pushes the economy forward. It makes the rest of us think, question, discuss, and purchase. Thought leaders can develop organically. We’ve all known someone who is wildly creative, persistent, hard-working, and vocal. Who has been willing to take the time to study and work at her craft, to learn from his mistakes. Someone who has pushed past the fear of how it looks, how it should be done, and has produced magnificent results. Or controversy. Or both. To some degree, thought leaders can be created. That’s what we talk about on today’s Spin Sucks podcast episode. Links for Your Perusal PR Pros Must Embrace the PESO Model Moving From Thought Leadership to Thoughtful Leadership PESO Model Certification Thought Leadership Resources Spin Sucks Community

One hundred episodes ago, we launched the Spin Sucks podcast with trepidation, anxiety, and a sense of adding just one more thing to the weekly task list. Today, while not exactly the easiest task for me to complete each week, it’s one of the most effective. And that’s because of you, dear listener. You show up week after week after week. You listen while you walk the dog or clean the house or soak in the tub or lock yourself in the bathroom to escape the insanity that is a global pandemic. Or maybe that last one is just me. It’s been quite a ride—from a whopping 53 downloads per episode to more than a thousand today. We’ve had quite the journey together and I thought it’d be fun to celebrate 100 episodes by taking a walk down memory lane. As I thought about how to celebrate this journey with you, I asked my buddy Chris Penn what he thought. I also tried to get him to produce this episode, to no avail. But if you know Chris, you know his advice was to look at the data. Big surprise! So I did. And of the top 10 episodes, six are about the PESO Model. You love it, which makes me very happy (because I do, too).  In this celebratory episode, we go through the top 10 episodes of the last 100—according to you. And, if you missed any of the most popular episodes, the links are below! Show Links Reworking Earned Media How to Do Your Own Professional Development A Podcast About Podcasts Why Communicators Struggle To Implement the PESO Model The Newly Refreshed PESO Model Graphic and Process The Do’s and Don’ts of Holiday-Themed Content Campaigns Are You Out of Your Mind, Ernst and Young? Star Wars, the PESO Model, and a Challenge for You How to Prepare For a Down Economy  Who Can Use The PESO Model? The PESO Model Certification with Syracuse University

Before the world fell apart, we were talking about the different media types in the PESO Model—how they work individually AND together. When we stopped talking about the PESO Model (for obvious reasons), we were at paid media and, because social media ads in particular, are so cheap and still crazy effective, I thought we’d pick back up there. While we may never see the level of a consistent, reliable, and scalable source of traffic and new leads that we got to enjoy even just a few short months ago, there is still the opportunity to use paid media effectively. The dream is to build a consistent, reliable, and scalable source of traffic and new leads—and paid media is a part of making that dream a reality.  Especially before “The Corona” as my seven-year-old calls it, it certainly seems like something every other organization in the world does. And you definitely can’t read a digital marketing blog without seeing case study after case study of success stories where people just like you are opening the floodgates of high-quality traffic generated from a single blog post or webinar or guest appearance or video or what have you. The internet was pay-for-play before—and it will become increasingly so, but in this exact moment, many organizations are fearful of doing any marketing at all, which makes paid media inexpensive and far more approachable. And, while earned, owned, and shared media are still critically important to a robust PESO Model communications plan, paid media is required to get the full value out of them.  On today’s Spin Sucks podcast episode, we’ll talk about what that looks like, how to go about it, and what needs to shift in your paid media strategy amidst a global pandemic. Links to Peruse Episode 16 of the Spin Sucks Podcast MarketingLand Paid Media Trends Digital Advertising Plan from Digital Marketer Spin Sucks Community The PESO Model Certification

There are a lot of memes and graphics floating around that talk about how, if you don’t come out of this global pandemic with a new skill, a new invention, a new body, a new something...that you will have wasted this time you’re sheltering in place. A couple of days ago, a graphic was floating around that listed all of the companies that didn’t exist before the Great Recession, including Venmo, Uber, Snapchat, Twitter, and more. Yes...and.  The hustle mentality isn’t right for right now—and shaming people who don’t have the time (or don’t take the supposed extra time they have) to do something new the absolute wrong thing to do.  That’s what we talk about on today’s Spin Sucks podcast episode.

At the end of March, Gannett has announced they will furlough workers at more than 100 newspapers between April and the end of June. Every journalist making more than $38,000 a year will have to take one week unpaid sometime during the three months. This includes USA Today, The Arizona Republic, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and many other city newspapers. At the same time, journalists are on Twitter talking about how exasperated they are because of the massive number of emails they’re receiving from PR professionals that they just don’t have time to read—relevant or not. Now you add on top of that they will not be able to answer emails while on unpaid leave—or on an extended furlough—and suddenly earned media goes out the window. What is one to do when an executive or client wants publicity or ink or press and you don’t have anyone to pitch? Check Before You Pitch We’ve been here before. During the Great Recession, many of the journalists I’d spent my career building relationships with were furloughed...and then never got back to work as newspapers and magazines went out of business. And, while earned media never really returned to where it was pre-2008 (hence the creation of the PESO model), we did figure it out. And we’ll figure it out again. But here’s the thing: right now, you have to be incredibly careful about pitching anything to anyone. Yes, there are lots of journalists who need to cover something, other than COVID. And that’s great! Stay on top of those relationships, but be really careful about pitching those who are furloughed. Those who are furloughed have been told they can’t read or respond to emails during that time. A journalist at the Tennessean Democrat said she was told she will be on furlough for seven days and she’s not allowed to open her work email. She said, “I haven’t done that in, well…ever.” You can bet if you send something while they’re furloughed, it will never see the light of day. We’re also hearing rumors that it isn’t just Gannett newspapers, but the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, The Boston Herald, Sports Illustrated, and more. Forbes has a daily updated tracker where you can check before you send that news release or email pitch. And do check! Not only will your pitch not be seen—it’ll likely belong to a mass delete when journalists get back to work.  I know this is challenging when you’re being tasked to get earned media attention right now. Get Over the Earned Media Slump Spend some time gathering ideas that will help you in this earned media slump. That’s what we'll do in today’s Spin Sucks podcast episode. Shownote Links Forbes Media Tracker PESO Model Certification Spin Sucks Community

The Spin Sucks team launched the PESO Model Certification with Syracuse University right before the world caught on fire. And, even though things have changed drastically since then, the online course and certification are still one of the best things you can do for your communications career. There are, of course, different nuances of how to implement the PESO Model in large, small, and one-person teams. Which is what Gini Dietrich talks about today. How to implement the PESO Model, no matter the size—or experience—of your team. Owned and Shared Media The order of the PESO Model acronym does not reflect the order in which you implement the media types. The first step is owned media because you need content to share on social media, to use in email marketing or lead generation, and to establish your expertise. If you are a small team, start with one type of content. And then use automated tools to curate content to share on social media. Earned and Paid Media Use Google to search for media outlets and blogs that write about your topic. This is a quick and easy way to create an earned media list of places that are likely to publish your content. Gini advises you to break up your earned media production over several weeks, to make it more manageable. In addition, you can simplify your paid media strategy by using boosted content and paid social media. If you have a small team, boosted content is an easy way to reach new audiences without having to learn social media and pay-per-click advertising. Have Your Say The PESO Model Certification goes deeper into how you build your foundation no matter the size of your team, and provides you with all the tools you need to grow. It also teaches you how to measure the work you’re doing so you can prove a return-on-investment. If you want to become certified—and learn how to appropriately use the PESO Model inside your organization, check out Spin Sucks. Resources PESO Model Certification Trust Insights Adrienne Richardson 

These are unprecedented times we are in. While we’re all struggling to make ends meet, business does have to go on. How do you know what is appropriate and what is not? The good news is you can still market during a crisis. The bad news is someone will find it offensive and light you up. There are some guiding principles by which to live as you decide what and how to market. And that's what we talk about in this week’s Spin Sucks podcast episode.  It feels weird to market right now—and some of you may have bosses or clients who are dictating what you say and how you say it, no matter the climate. Gini Dietrich provides five guiding principles to help you figure out what will work and what needs to stay on the shelf. What is the context? Is your message right in the current context? Keep abreast of what’s happening in your or your client’s local markets to help you decide. Does it still make sense? If the answer is no, postpone it. You’ll be able to come back to it when things get better. Is the creative appropriate? Don’t overthink it, but do take a step back and ask yourself if the creative is appropriate in the moment. Which products or services do you support right now? Are there products or services that are better served with your marketing right now, even if they are not your core product or service? Think about switching your marketing messages to support products or services that make sense in this time. How can our brand be helpful? This is the most important way you can market right now. Focus on being helpful to your clients and community over immediate profits. People may not remember what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel. If you can answer all five of those questions, and tweak your messaging to match, you can market in this environment. Have Your Say You’re invited to be part of the best community for communicators on the internet. Resources How to handle agency business development during the COVID-19 crisis PESO Model Certification

They have said millennials are the first generation ever to experience two global economic crises that will put them on a path to end up financially worse than their parents. The Great Recession happened as they were graduating from college with the country’s highest unemployment rate in 80 years. Now, as they’ve finally gotten jobs and begun to create some stability, they should be buying homes and stimulating the economy that way. Instead, we’re at the start of one of the worst economic crises the world has ever seen.  During the Great Recession, Gini Dietrich was in her early 30s. She says she had no business running a business nor managing a team of professionals. She claims to have been incredibly naive and a bit ignorant, too. Today, she is a bit older and wiser. Not so naive to how this can (and will) damage her business. Not so ignorant to what it’ll do to her team. She has all sorts of contingency plans in place—if this happens, she’ll do this. If this happens, she’ll do that. And if this happens, well...maybe she’ll start an online bakery or write that novel she's always talked about writing. She has planned for the worst and hoping for the best. Which is really all we can do. Plan for the worst. Hope for the best. 10 Mindset Shifts to Make During a Crisis During the aforementioned Great Recession, Dan Sullivan, the founder of Strategic Coach, published an article titled, “The Scary Times Success Manual.” At the time, he proposed 10 mindset shifts, which are as relevant in this moment as they were 10 years ago. Forget about yourself. Focus on others. Forget about your commodity. Focus on your relationships. Forget about the sale. Focus on creating value. Forget about your losses. Focus on your opportunities. Forget about your difficulties. Focus on your progress. Forget about the “future”. Focus on your today. Forget about who you were. Focus on who you can be. Forget about events. Focus on your responses. Forget about what’s missing. Focus on what’s available. Forget about your complaints. Focus on your gratitude. In today's podcast episode, we cover the first five mindset shifts, as they relate to communicators. The last five will be covered on Spin Sucks (albeit in written, not audio form) on March 26, 2020. Have Your Say If you are not already part of the Spin Sucks community and you need virtual human interaction and support from your peers, we are here for you. It's free, it's fun, and you'll be surrounded by people who get you.

It’s a crazy, crazy time to be alive right now. Things change pretty much every hour. What’s happening our world feels eerily similar to 9/11. Of course, we didn’t have warning back then and I didn’t run a business nor have people’s livelihoods dependent on me. But the eerie feeling of everything stopping is very much the same. If you aren’t used to working at home, let alone with kids around, we’re going to spend today talking about how to do it, how to make your life easier, and what to do when your cognitive energy is taxed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 29 percent of Americans can work from home, including one in 20 service workers and more than half of information workers. So while servers are still manning the restaurants—at least as of this recording—the technology sector has effectively gone remote. Even before the pandemic struck, remote work was accelerating in the U.S. The share of the labor force that works from home tripled in the past 15 years, according to the Federal Reserve. Two of the accelerants are obvious: living costs in metros with the highest density of knowledge workers, and technology, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, that moves collaboration and gossip online. Work from Home Recommendations Here are two recommendations to make working from home easier and more productive: Schedule specified working hours: at the end of your work day, shut off your computer and walk away; Designate an area to use only for work: it should not be in your bedroom or in front of the TV. Two tools that facilitate working at home are Slack and Zoom. Use Slack to communicate and to share information, to check in, and to recreate the water cooler. Videoconferencing with Zoom can replace face-to-face meetings, though not the same, they come pretty close. There also are some practical ways to incorporate both tools into your daily work from home routine, as well as how to mitigate common challenges. You’ll also find your stress level decreases—at least it will as far as work goes. It may not with what’s happening in the world and we all will need to fill our cognitive energy reserves when this is all said and done. But the mere fact that you don’t have to commute into an office is going to reduce your stress level. You’ll get things done. You’ll be far more productive. And you’ll get results. Outside of needing human interaction, I’m willing to bet most organizations will create, at the very least, a flexible work schedule after all of this. That’s how productive everyone will be. Have Your Say Do you have more questions or comments about working at home? Share them in the Spin Sucks Community.

The PESO model is like a pyramid with four corners. Each corner must be built solidly, or the entire structure will collapse. In this week’s show, Gini Dietrich talks about the improvements made to the PESO model graphic and process, and the official certification that is now available:  The tactics listed under each media type were updated to focus more on strategy.  Lead generation, search engine optimization, distribution and promotion, and marketing communications were added. Paid Media has been expanded to include marketing communications as it intersects with earned media. Lead generation is now its own subcategory that intersects with owned media. The PESO model graphic and process was updated to include lead generation and sales. Earned Media is not just “publicity” or media relations anymore. Community has been added as a new category. Shared Media has evolved to include reviews, forums, and organic engagement. Distribution and promotion have also been added. Partnerships is a new subcategory at the intersection of shared and earned. The biggest change to the PESO model is the strategic approach to your communications program that will allow you to make a direct tie between your work and sales.  Have Your Say For more information about the new PESO model graphic, process, and certification, head over to spinsucks.com/academy.  Resources The new PESO model graphic PESO Model official certification  Eric Schwartzman article 

A Star Wars superfan has written a thirty thousand word dissertation detailing the problems with the Star Wars franchise. He also created a plan to help Disney generate an extra $20 billion. To make that happen, however, he needs Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney to read his thesis. In this week’s show Gini Dietrich will talk about the challenges the superfan might encounter using some of the strategies suggested to him. Gini also issues a challenge to listeners at the end of the show. Here are a few things the superfan should consider: The first and biggest challenge the superfan faces is that he published his entire thesis publicly. People steal intellectual property all the time.  One Redditor suggested that he should share the thesis on Twitter and have a friend retweet it with a provocative hashtag. While using a popular hashtag is a solid tactic as part of a shared media strategy, the hashtag suggested was last used years ago.  Another Redditor advised creating a short report with visuals, with enough teaser content to entice the company to engage with him. This is a good strategy, since a short report is more likely to be seen and read by an executive. Have Your Say Gini has a challenge for you. If this passionate Redditor came to you for a comprehensive communications plan to get his thesis in front of the CEO of Disney, how would you do it? Comment with your ideas in the Spin Sucks Community. We’ll eventually pull together everyone’s ideas and write a blog post to help this guy out. Resources Reddit thread of suggestions The entire thesis: Resurrecting Star Wars  Blog Post: How do you use hashtags in your marketing?

It's still PESO model learning month, as designated by the team at Spin Sucks, which means you get to continue your professional development around this process. In this week’s show, we talk about who within an organization can use the PESO model, the different ways they can use it, and what happens when they don’t. Business leaders with a good grasp of the PESO model are able to better prioritize their resources to achieve their goals, as it provides a framework to develop a balanced mix of media types. Solopreneurs can use the PESO model as a tool to justify their recommendations, and generate the data that matters to clients. Account managers, or anyone who has to create reports for clients, bosses, or team members, will find the PESO model particularly useful for communicating how a campaign is progressing or for conveying how successful a project has been. The entire framework is focused on measurable activities, so these professionals will have data-driven information on which to base their reports. And specialists can use it to be certain the work they're do is integrating with that of their colleagues.  With everyone in an organization—from leadership and marketing to communications and project managers—it's important that everyone understand how each team member’s work fits into the big picture.  This is why knowing about the PESO model, the four media types, and how they intersect is crucial for each team member. When all of the different players in a campaign, understand a PESO model strategy, everyone will be empowered to make their best possible contribution to it.  Have Your SayWe are hosting a free masterclass: PESO Model 2.0—A New Masterclass for a New Decade. It's today (Wednesday, February 26) at 1:00 ET. If you can't attend live, we will send you the recording. Register now! 

The latest algorithm update from Google, BERT, is out for revenge on irrelevant, spammy content—and you'd better beware if this has been your MO of late. BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, which means it uses deep learning to understand and respond to human language as humans use it. It also means Google now understands context, including word order, better than ever before.  This update has many implications for communicators. For one, local content will be even easier for local people to find; for another, using insider language and jargon will be useful for SEO and engagement. Naturally, this means you have to laser-focus on your specific audience. Your content has to be targeted and in-depth. And it has to be the very best content on the internet for your topic. Creators who have been writing great content for humans all along will see (or already have seen) a real jump in their search rankings.  An easy way to think about it is this: your content should be EAT-able. EAT stands for expertise, authority, and trust. When you create content that is original, informative, targeted, and engaging, you automatically check all the E-A-T boxes, and Google will reward you with high search rankings and more traffic. In addition, now that BERT understands context and nuance, you will rank highly when people search for information that’s related to your topic, even when they don’t use your exact keywords! The Ultimate Blog Checklist lists all the elements you should include in your web content to make it EAT-able. As a content developer you should always aim to create the very best piece of content on the internet for your topic. If you do that, it won’t matter what Google does—you’ll always be compliant.  Have Your SayShare your thoughts about BERT in the Spin Sucks community. ResourcesWhat BERT means for communicators Ultimate Blog Checklist AI and SEO In the Post-BERT World 

About eight years ago, we launched the PESO model. Today it’s everywhere. Although we’ve constantly refined and improved it over the years, it’s not always easy to implement. In this week’s show we’ll talk about the four reasons people can struggle with the PESO model, and how to overcome those obstacles.  Experience and wisdom: People with expertise and experience often know what works and stick with that. Often, however, they’re not open to learning new skills, strategies, or tools. Start small, and show them how the PESO model can be used to make decisions based on data. Being. So. Excited. About. Tactics.: Tactics aren’t strategies; they’re just steps along the way to fulfilling the goals in your PESO model communications plan.If you’re someone who gets excited by every new thing, help yourself by allowing some wiggle room in your PESO model program to experiment with different tactics.  Wishful thinking and untrue assumptions: Strategy, communication, and logic aren’t quick fixes. PR isn’t an instant fix or a miracle worker. The best way to correct wild assumptions is to use the PESO model itself and tie it to specific short term goals that lead to long term outcomes. Lack of a big picture understanding: Christopher S. Penn says that you should think about artificial intelligence as a symphony, with you as the conductor. This means you have to know everything about the PESO model, how it works, and how to integrate it all to create authority, credibility, and results.  Have Your Say What do you struggle with in trying to implement the PESO model? Share your insights in the Spin Sucks community.  Resources PR Pros Must Embrace The PESO Model  Media Relations Is A Tactic, Not A Strategy The PR Industry and The PESO Model 

Gini Dietrich discusses the innovations, changes, and new opportunities in the podcasting space in this week’s Spin Sucks show. She outlines the pros and cons of micro- versus long podcasts. While most podcasts today are 10 minutes or longer, Gini points out that the length of your podcast depends on your audience’s preference, the type of content you’re creating and the amount of time you have to invest in planning, recording and post-production. Podcasts are almost all pull: listeners listen when they want to, usually while they’re doing other things. However, podcast listeners are loyal, and often have a listening schedule that you’re a part of. Podcasting is starting to attract serious investment, which indicates that it is being seen as an effective communications medium which has the potential to generate a lot of revenue. Smart businesses use podcasting as a part of their content strategy, generating value from their shows in multiple ways. In addition, podcasting can be an efficient way to generate owned media, and provide materials for shared media. You can also repurpose your podcast into many smaller pieces of content. Have Your Say What do you think about podcasting? Other than this one, what are your favorite shows? Have you thought about being a host or a guest yourself? Where do you need help? Let us know in the Spin Sucks community. Resources 2020 Communications Trends

In our trends piece from a few weeks ago, one of the most mentioned issues was what role PR is going to play in the upcoming election. One statistic from that article has really stuck in my mind: Of the top 20 most viewed news stories on Facebook about the 2016 election, the “fake news” stories received 8.7 million engagements, whereas the mainstream news only received 7.3.More people engaged with fake news than real content. What’s a communicator to do? Between the impeachment trial and the forthcoming election, this year will be dominated by political news—and noise. Can we get the attention of journalists? How are we supposed to talk about it, if at all? How do we prevent the spread of fake news? And how do we counsel our clients and/or executives during what is sure to be a bit of a crazy year? We discuss this and more in this week’s show. We each have our own opinion on whether politics should be discussed in a professional setting. If you decide to broach politics in your business dealings, keep these tips in mind: Know the basics. Do your own fact checking. Don’t spread something you don’t know to be true. Who is your audience and what is your brand persona? For the most part, your social tactics won’t change. Business will go on as usual, but you do need to be attuned to what’s going on at a national and global level. The best thing you can do this year is change the way you use the tools, as they relate to what’s going on around us. Have Your SayWhat place does politics have in your communications programs this year? How will PR practitioners’ social tactics change in the face of the political campaigns? Tell us what you think in the Spin Sucks community. Resources Communications Trends How the Presidential Elections Affect Communicators Emily Post on Talking Politics Hootsuite on Facebook Demographics

The Spin Sucks community predicted AI would be the biggest trend in 2020. In today’s show, we look at how big AI is predicted to be, what it could do for communicators, and what we may need to be concerned about.  AI can profitably scale activities that are proven to be effective for business, such as content personalization, market research, risk assessment, and customer communication. Forbes Insights and Quantcast research found that marketers who used AI increased sales by 52% and improved customer retention by 51%. In the near future, more companies will be using artificial intelligence for: Analytics enhancement Augmented customer relationship management Customer communications Risk assessment However, AI poses several concerns, including data bias, misinformation and transparency. We discuss all of this and more in today's show. Have Your Say What do you want robots to do in the future? What are you afraid of robots doing in the future? Tell us in the Spin Sucks community.  Resources Communications Trends Lessons of 21st-Century Brands Modern Brands & AI Report  How to Put AI in PR by Martin Waxman  How to Spot Red Flags  

Whether it’s business, a new job or a client, it’s important to be realistic and weigh the risks against the opportunities. Looking for red flags is the best way to do that. A red flag is a sign, signal, or symptom that a person does not fit your ideal profile. What might be a red flag in one situation is not in another.  The most common red flags in the communications industry are that executives: Often want more than they will pay for. Have unrealistic expectations. Don’t want to put in the work or time necessary for success. Want things that are not possible in their timeframe. Ideally, you should develop a system to identify red flags. Part of your system should be a goal to disqualify every opportunity so that you only work with your ideal clients. Ask questions (you can find a link to a comprehensive list of questions in the Resources section) and dig deep to find red flags. And obey your gut. It will never steer you wrong.  Have Your Say What types of questions do you ask to find red flags? What are your red flags? Share your thoughts in the Spin Sucks community.

Making a resolution may not be the best way to make changes in your life or business. A resolution is a decision to make a change that has no end in sight. A goal, on the other hand, has a finite start and end, and something specific you want to achieve in between. It’s much more effective to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based) goals.    Follow these techniques every day to help you achieve your goals: Focus on three key tasks a day: list your top priorities for the day and accomplish them. Block time to do deep work: allocate time for your big goals and fit everything else around them. Eliminate distractions: for example, lock the door or turn off your devices. Evaluate your day: did you accomplish your key tasks? What do you need to eliminate or improve on? Have Your Say What are your personal and professional goals for this year? How are you going to use these techniques to keep yourself on track? Is there a productivity strategy you love that we’ve missed? Tell us in the Spin Sucks community: https://spinsucks.com/spin-sucks-community. Resources Blog post: Achieve Your Goals By Using These 7 Techniques: https://spinsucks.com/entrepreneur/achieve-goals-techniques/ Video: 7 Big Rocks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmV0gXpXwDU Book: Deep Work: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=deep+work&qid=1576676440&sr=8-3

One of the most frustrating aspects of a communicator’s job is how little control you have over the earned media that you do. Not every interview you give is published. However, if you maintain a good relationship with the interviewer, you can repurpose those unaired interviews into your own content. This episode of Spin Sucks features an interview Gini Dietrich did with Megan Dougherty of One Stone Creative. They discuss content creation, the PESO model and the pros and cons of writing a book. Here are a few highlights of their conversation: Gini wanted to systematize her process so that her team could serve their clients as well as, or better than, she could. The PESO model represents how authority is built when all types of content work together. You have to be willing to put in the time and money to test before you start reaping rewards with content as well as with Facebook ads. Megan says that podcasting, as well, is a long game. The quality of your content matters more today than how often you publish. Gini recommends making the type of content you are most comfortable creating, whether that’s a blog, a podcast or video. Being an author makes you more credible to many business leaders. However, you don’t need to be an author to have credibility. Gini advises you to write a book only if it aligns with your goals. Updates Gini updates listeners about a few topics discussed in the interview, including Facebook ads. While they will continue to be more effective than any other social media platform, Facebook ads are going to be more expensive in the new year. Email is cheaper and can produce great results.  Have Your Say Happy New Year! Why not join us in the Spin Sucks community?

🎶On the 10th Day of PR Christmas, Spin Sucks gave to you 10 PR Metrics to Track,  9 ways to be more productive, 8 communications podcasts, 7 PR pros to follow,  6 SEO tricks,  five breakable habits, four productivity tools, three AI experts, two PR trends, and one mindset shift in a pear tree.🎶 The right metrics are those that show you how well the campaigns and strategies in your PESO model communications plan are working. They’ll tell you what you need more of and what you can let go. Here are 10 metrics that you should be monitoring actively: Paid Media Metrics Social media marketing ad conversions - You should see a correlation between clicks on your ads and purchases. Email database - Your email database should be growing, and the number of people who click the links in your emails should also be increasing. Leads and conversions - How many leads at the top of the funnel will correlate to a conversion? Earned Media Metrics Web performance - Understand your site analytics and review it frequently. Media, blogger and influencer scoring - Develop your own internal scoring metric for media and content creators so you know who you should approach for earned media opportunities. Shared Media Metrics  Rating system - Assign points to your social media updates and shares to learn which campaigns are working and which are not. Unique stuff - Use unique URLs, codes and landing pages for your social media campaigns. This way you can easily track their effectiveness. Owned Media Metrics The vanities - Pay attention to unique visitors, time spent on the site, and bounce rate. Community - Track the effectiveness of your community via sales, referrals and engagements. Sales - This is the ultimate goal of all your PR efforts. Have Your Say Check the Spin Sucks blog for the rest of the 12 Days of Christmas series. Share your insights in the Spin Sucks community.  Resources Join the 30-Day Communication Challenge 

🎶On the sixth day of Christmas, Spin Sucks gave to you…six SEO tricks, five breakable habits, four productivity tools, three AI experts, two PR trends, and one mindset shift in a pear tree.🎶 Search Engine Optimization, SEO, may seem like magic but it’s an easy skill set to master. Here are six SEO best practices you should incorporate into your communications planning: Use one priority keyword every month in your content and master it before you move on. This includes pitching the media with an article that includes your priority keyword as well as a link to content of the same topic on your site. Earn links to your site with your priority keywords as anchor text. Most times it’s as simple as asking for it. Understand domain authority. Try to work with media outlets and blogs that have a higher domain authority than your own. Optimize your content for online, voice, and mobile. Use the blog checklist to help you. Understand the Google algorithms. Create the best content by answering the questions your prospects and customers ask and you will always be relevant despite changes to the algorithms. Write for humans first. Have Your Say Check the Spin Sucks blog for the rest of the 12 Days of Christmas series. Share your insights in the Spin Sucks community.  Resources Article about domain authority Blog checklist The Future of Voice Search article Join the 30-Day Communication Challenge 

🎶On the second day of Christmas, Spin Sucks gave to you two PR trends and one mindset shift (in a pear tree).🎶   You can start the new decade on a strong footing by embracing these two trends: creative storytelling and the PESO model.   Creative storytelling allows your customers to imagine how miserable life would be without your product or service. Good stories build trust and generate engagement. They help you form relationships with prospects who will then become lifelong customers and brand ambassadors. Customers are able to relate to your business through your stories. Within your organization, stories can bridge gaps between departments, and help employees understand and get to know one another.     The second trend you should embrace is the PESO model -  that is, you should integrate paid, earned, shared, and owned media into your communication plan. Traditionally, PR falls under earned media, but in today’s world, you should also incorporate the other media types, since it’s getting more challenging to get earned media without some sort of media buy. Shared media is also going to continue to change. While shared media is still one of the best ways to engage with your audience, you should strategically integrate the other media types so you can adapt as changes happen.   Have Your Say What do you think are the PR trends for 2020 and the new decade? Share your insights in the Spin Sucks community. For the rest of the 12 Days of Christmas series, check out the Spin Sucks blog.

We should have multiple sources of income to protect our businesses and our personal lives. This means that we should have various revenue streams from several products or services making up our total income.  Types of Income Streams for Communications Professionals Consulting is an easy add-on if you provide done-for-you services. This is great for organizations that need someone to teach their internal teams how to deliver a certain result. Memberships and community groups are a great long-term strategy. If you build an active community, you would have an engaged audience who will give you feedback and market research, and who will be your best brand ambassadors. Books and infoproducts give you credibility so you can increase your fees. They also be additional revenue. Brainstorming Additional Streams of Income A business should have at least seven revenue streams. At Spin Sucks we have eight. If you need some ideas for additional income streams, check out what your competitors are offering outside their core business. Your clients are another great source of ideas: what other services do they buy? What problems do they mention to you that you don’t currently solve? Give them an easy way to keep you top-of-mind when they have other challenges to solve. Finally, talk to your colleagues and your team. Their diverse perspectives can be a goldmine as they may see opportunities you may not. Have Your Say What are your different revenue streams? If you don’t have enough of them, what are you going to try? Share them in the Spin Sucks community. Resources Our Coaching Services The graphic we use on our invoice

As a business owner, an economic downturn is a pretty scary thing and can be hard to predict. However, we’re seeing the same trends today that we saw in 2007 and 2008 and this may be an indication that another downturn is on the horizon.  It’s best to be prepared. Here are some things you can expect to see in a recession, and how you can mitigate them: Clients will begin to delay payments. If you anticipate you’ll need access to cash, work with a bank to get a line of credit right away. Companies cut their marketing budget. Formulate your plan B in case you lose clients or you’re let go from your job. Companies with big marketing budgets may look at other options. If your products and services are competitive, you may win their business. Show your clients how your work contributes to their bottom line. Forbes advises that you do the following to prepare for an economic downturn: Manage your profitability; Identify and maintain your strengths and best customers; Be ready to decide what you can stop doing; Manage your liquidity like you do your profitability. If you’re an employee, you should be prepared as well. Share your expert ideas to help your company weather the storm, but you should also improve your skills and make sure your CV and LinkedIn profiles are up-to-date in case the worst happens. Have Your Say Do you think a recession is coming? How are you preparing for it? Tell us in the Spin Sucks Community.  Resources Forbes Article: 4 Ways to Prepare for the Coming Recession  How Virtual Companies Work  Scaling Virtually 

Most large organizations have professional development budgets. The same isn’t true for smaller companies or solopreneurs, so you have to get creative in how you’ll stay up-to-date on the latest trends and industry development, and improve your skills.  Your professional development ultimately benefits your clients in many ways. You’ll be able to think in original and creative ways to meet their needs. While it can be time-consuming and expensive, the cost of not doing professional development is way higher! For one, your competition will surpass you, and in business the goal is always to stay ahead.  Here are some ways to do your own professional development: Read the news every morning. Spend 80% of your non-work time learning and improving yourself. Go to conferences based on your learning priorities. Take an online course. Hire a coach. Have Your Say I’d love to know your favorite professional development methods, tools, and ideas. Share them in the Spin Sucks Community. Resources Article: Four Ways to Fit Professional Development Into Your Life

Women get a lot of advice about how to succeed at work. Much of it conflicting. More of it extraordinarily offensive. On this week's episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini talks about workplace diversity, why it matters, and what you can do to make sure your workplace is inclusive. She talks about: A brutally terrible "empowerment" training provided by Ernst & Young. Representation of women, and pay disparity at industry events. Improving diversity in politics. How to make changes as an owner or as an employee. https://spinsucks.com/entrepreneur/female-dominated-industry/

The holidays are fun and not just for kids. Communicators can have fun with the holidays, too. Done well, holiday-themed campaigns can connect you with your audience, generate a lot of engagement and be a good time for everyone. Done poorly, they’re cringe-worthy. Here are some dos and don’ts for creating holiday-themed content campaigns. Do’s Get your community, customers, or audience involved; Make your instructions clear and simple to follow; You and your team should also be involved; Plan well in advance. Don’ts Don’t alienate part of your audience; Don’t approach the season with the wrong attitude; Don’t stray too far from your brand voice. Have Your Say What’s the best holiday campaign you’ve ever seen? Do you participate in branded campaigns around the holidays? Share your insights and experiences in the Spin Sucks Community. Resources War on Christmas

Negotiation is uncomfortable. Even for the most confident of us, we worry that things won’t go as intended and we’ll end up with nothing instead of something. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Essentially, an app is a piece of software on your mobile device that allows you to perform specific functions. It’s not a full program, but a tool designed to let you to certain things in certain ways.

Everything you do shouldn’t be reliant on one lead nurturing tactic. Your PESO model program allows you to reach people at different times of the day or week, in their communication channel of choice. Look at email marketing as one small part of your PESO program.

Pop-ups may be annoying to us in the internet marketing industry, but in the real world they’re very effective.

It’s been about 9 months since we talked about digital decluttering. How are your resolutions faring? What have you accomplished? Did you slip off the wagon a time or to? Chances are, if you’re human, you haven’t done perfectly. But that’s okay – it happens to the best of us.   What is digital decluttering?   It’s when you’ve got too much stuff. When your digital environment looks like a 9-year-old’s room after a sleepover. Subscriptions you don’t remember agreeing to, your social media is a jungle, and… yeah. You get the idea. It’s time to get your digital environment looking and feeling spick-and-span.   Cleaning up your email   Email subscriptions seem to multiply like rabbits in our inboxes. You unsub from one today, and you get ten new ones tomorrow. But we have a secret weapon: Sanebox. It helps filter and organize your email inbox so you only see what’s important. What’s more, it pays attention to what you do so it LEARNS what’s important to you.   If you’re not ready to let a robot wrest control of your inbox, you still have options. Make it a habit to unsubscribe from any newsletters you don’t care about or read. Gmail has some pretty sweet options for manually taking control of the madness as well. For example, you can have Gmail move any email with an ‘Unsubscribe’ link into a folder called ‘Optional.’   Taming your social media   Before anything else, take a peek at your various profiles and make sure everything is up to date and your ‘pinned’ content is current. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that. Oh, and that profile photo of you from 20 years ago? You might want to make that current, too.   Data and analytics   Why is this even on the ‘digital declutter’ list? Because you need to make sure all that data is something you need, rather than something you just want. When you look at your data, as yourself two things: First, is this information you can take action on? Second, is the information helping you reach your goal?   If the answer is no to either one of those, you’d probably benefit from paring down the amount of data you have coming in, so that you can make better decisions on what to do to reach the goals you have set.   Credit cards   Okay – this might seem like another one of those off-the-wall decluttering strategies but hear us out. Sometimes your digital clutter can hide money that’s leaking out of your hands. Take a look at your last statements from each of your cards and ensure the transactions are ones you still want. You might even find you forgot to cancel a ‘free trial’ that you’ve been paying for for months. Not cool.   And now it’s your turn. I want you to brag about your decluttering - find us on Facebook, or Tweet @spinsucks with how many email subscriptions you’ve canceled, how many keywords you optimized, and how much money you’re saving after your digital declutter!

Dealing with customer complaints has always been a concern for businesses, and more so now with the internet and social media. You want them to come to you to solve their problems, but when they are angry they want the world to know it. Therefore, you should have a policy about how to deal with customer complaints: your customers should know how to contact you if they have a problem, and your customer-facing team members should know what your procedures are and how to apply them.

Everything we read or hear tells us that entrepreneurs should love every moment of their work. Not just love it, but be passionate about it. That’s just not true. Many entrepreneurs spend every waking hour of their day in their business believing that they have to sacrifice everything to be successful and create an environment that employees are successful and happy in. Inevitably, the result is burnout.

Taking a vacation is important for your mental health and work-life balance. It helps you refuel your productivity and creativity. Our brains are not meant to work 24/7: we can't perform at our best when our brains are tired. Taking time off lets your brain rest, plus you come back recharged and ready to solve any challenge.

This week on the Spin Sucks podcast, we’re repaying one of our earliest episodes about brand voice. Brand voice has a huge impact on everything from blog posts and videos to your email marketing, which we discussed last week. More than anything else, it’s the guideline that makes our communications consistent! Find out what goes into your brand voice, how to review and audit whether its working for you, and how often you should be revisiting it to make sure it’s still doing what you need it to.

Email isn’t dead! It’s a convenient way to connect with people who care about what you’re sharing. This week we’re talking email, specifically how to write great ones (that don’t suck).

There are days when ideas come faster than you can handle, and then there are the days when every idea you come up with sucks. In today's show we are going to talk about four places you can get content ideas.

Instagram is a powerhouse of a social media platform, and you should take a good long look at using it for your business. Today on the Spin Sucks Podcast, your host, Gini Dietrich talks about why it matters for businesses and the different strategies you can use to engage your audience, teach and inspire your community, showcase your culture and promote your products and services. Instagram can be a strong component of your communications plan, so listen to the episode and tell us what you think.

When you’re running out of bandwidth with your current team, or when it seems like there are plenty of opportunities just out of your grasp if you only had some additional skill sets in the office, hiring can feel like your best option. But sometimes it makes more sense to test the waters by outsourcing some or all of part of your business. That’s what we’re going to talk about on today’s version of the Spin Sucks Podcast: what you can outsource, and when you should do that versus hiring someone ful

After a deal is signed, it’s time for onboarding: onboarding is what you do for new clients after they begin services with you. It’s a stage of the relationship it’s important to get right because we’ve all had that experience where you sign the contract, pay the invoice and… nothing happens. It’s disorienting, uncomfortable, and makes you doubt the company you’re dealing with. On today's episode of Spin Sucks, Gini is going to take you through the elements of really excellent onboarding.

This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini talks about how to integrate your owned and earned media and get the most out of both. Each element of the PESO model works well - but you get more mileage if you integrate them as a comprehensive strategy. This episode covers developing content campaigns that use both earned and owned media, and how to promote them using syndication, social media, content repurposing - and how it can even improve your relationship with other bloggers, journalists and publications!

This week on the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini talks about those special introductions, often considered the Golden Goose of running a services business. Referrals. They come directly to you. Often highly qualified and already ready to buy. The best way to get referrals is to ask for them - but that can make some business owners uncomfortable. This episode explores how to make asking for and giving referrals fun for everyone. Check it out! And if you like what you hear, don't forget to subscribe and share.

In this episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini talks about the work involved in providing consistently good customer service over the long haul. It starts with tieing your customer service to the big picture of your company. She covers the importance of setting boundaries, consistently clear communication, ensuring your whole team is on board and being proactive in how and when you reach out to your clients - If you’re a communications pro who works with clients - you’ll want to check out this episode.

When you’re the expert, clients, colleagues, friends, and family expect you to know what’s going on in your industry. And you should, but communications is changing so fast, on top of the industries in which we work. So how do you stay updated? Gini shares 5 strategies for keeping up with your industry - without having to spend every waking moment doing it. Technology combined with clever use of curation and talking to people, are methods that will help you stay on top on things.

Fellow listeners, please enjoy this replay of last year's episode #28! When did we stop talking to each other like real people? In our industry, it’s getting hard to sort through all the hype. What’s the difference between a meaningless buzzword and a genuinely useful phrase? Take the term ‘Thought Leadership.’ This is what we’re getting into today, so sit tight because we’re going to be looking at how to synergize the 30,000-foot view to maximize our authenticity. Just kidding.

We’ve been feeling a bit nostalgic since our one-year anniversary episode of the podcast. Which was a great episode, by the way. Our listeners weighed in with some of the amazing things they’ve learned! But back to this week. Coming up in September, we’ll celebrate 13 years of the Spin Sucks blog. Can you believe it? We can’t! Today, we’re time traveling back to the beginning and taking a look at how far we’ve come.

At the end of every year, you can expect every content creator on earth to talk about trends for the coming year. And, at the end of 2018, they all said the same thing (and nothing has changed six months into the year): video. It’s all about video. For everyone. So how do you create video marketing that is timeless in a constantly changing world?

Can you believe it’s already been a year? We’ve had 52 episodes and 52 chances for our listeners to add crucial knowledge to their arsenal, from using content to being productive, and from PESO to SWOT. In today’s episode, we reached out to you, our listeners, and asked what you learned in the past year.

Sometimes things happen in business that leave a sour taste in your mouth. They might not be malicious or intentional, but they can still hurt you, your clients and your brand. Join us on today’s episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, where we talk about the mistakes in your strategy that will come back to bite you.

It doesn’t matter how clear your client proposal is, or how beautifully you design your scope of work. You’re going to get clients who are going to ask for something you aren’t selling, and you’re going to be tempted to give them what they want. Fake it until you make it, right? Wrong. Don’t do it. Here’s what can happen when you work outside of scope.

Let’s talk about robots. Not actual robots, for the most part, but automated tools, technologies, and systems that can take work off your desk and let you get back to what only you can do. As you grow your business, you’ll often end up working a lot more than you need to, but there are so many available to help you automate your life. And let’s be real. You absolutely should.

On today’s episode, we’re talking about the customer lifecycle, and how your clients and prospects engage with you throughout this entire cycle. This is how it works: you want to attract your ideal client, sell them your offers, onboard them in your systems and processes, deliver on your promises, and either engage them for more or part as friends. Let’s go through each of these things.

Let’s talk about what we don’t know — more specifically, as it relates to our communications strategy. Our internal biases and things outside our control can have a big impact on the quality and success of our communications plans, so here’s how to mitigate the damage they can cause.

A huge number of Requests for Proposals are badly written and take tons of time and energy with no guarantee of a return — and yet, they persist. You can’t always avoid them, but there are ways to make them less of a part of your business life, and ways to protect your time when you DO have to respond.

How many times have you seen a company screw something up, and then make the situation 10,000 times worse by either not apologizing or apologizing badly? Mistakes and screw-ups happen. World events happen. Natural events happen. You will unfortunately eventually have to deal with some kind of crisis communication, and you’ll do a much better job of it if you’re prepared.

When you work in communications, you’re going to spend a lot of time pitching. You’re going to get rejected a lot — but you could get rejected a lot less. You don't want to send crappy pitches. You want to send excellent pitches! So here's how to write them so they get accepted more often than not.

With so many online community options out there, do you ever get Bright Shiny Object Syndrome? If you’re looking for a platform to host your community on, you’ve found the right episode. We’re talking about all the major community platforms and how to decide which one is right for you and your business.

You've probably heard this quote by Rumi at least once:, "When you are everywhere, you are nowhere. When you are somewhere, you are everywhere." As cryptic as it sounds, Rumi has a great point, especially when you apply this wisdom to social media. The thing is, you can't possibly be on all the social media channels AND still build a meaningful connection with your target audience. This week, we talk about the wonderful world of social media and how to keep your communications plan simple and effective.

Whether you’re the leader of an organization, a freelancer, or an enthusiastic member of the rank and file, there is never a downside to investing in yourself and getting better at things. But what should you get better at? And how do you do it? The best way to learn any skill is to practice, and today, we’re going through my top suggestions on things you should make an effort to learn, practice, and keep on improving.

Do you consider yourself a creative person? As a business owner, there’s something incredibly exciting when you get an idea. It’s that feeling of coming up with something, solving a problem — being creative. How can you hone this skill (because yes, it is a skill!)? Just remember the 3 C’s: Curiosity, Constraints, and Conflict.

If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of starting your own business, this episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast is for you. Today, we’re talking about the strategies and challenges that go with being an entrepreneur and scaling a business. It’s not the easy, but if it’s right for you, you may never want to go back to being an employee again!

Offices are a necessary evil for businesses … or are they? What if you could do away with the commute, distracting officemates, and paying for rent and utilities? On this episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, we’re talking about Virtual Companies: how they work, and how you can arrange your own.

On this episode of the Spin Sucks Community, we’re talking about online communities. A community is made up of people who know, like, and engage with you or your brand (or both) — and engage with one another. This takes your content marketing one step further, as not only will your fans get to know and support one another, they’ll also evangelize for your products and services. So how can you build your own?

Stories are how humans understand the world. Whether we do it consciously or not, we tell ourselves stories about the things that happen to us, the things we believe, and the things we hope for. Smart use of stories can convey a message, encourage a decision, and connect with your people. In short, storytelling can dramatically help your brand in almost all business areas and is a worthwhile investment of your creative energy.

How are your resolutions faring now that January is drawing to a close? What have you accomplished? Did you slip off the wagon a time or to? Chances are, if you’re human, you haven’t done perfectly. But that’s okay – it happens to the best of us. Maybe what YOU need is a little digital decluttering. It might not inspire you to eat more broccoli, but it WILL make you feel better.

Have you received a pitch in your inbox that was just a little … off? Because the pitch made totally no sense for you and your audience? Today we’re talking about the importance of doing your research when it comes to earned media. When done right, pitching is a powerful way to get your content in front of a lot of the right people. But what we often see is a more indiscriminate mass-email situation that’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. So how can we do this better?

There’s a new social media channel starting to gain steam, and you might want to get in while the getting’s good (and the competition isn’t too fierce)! Enter: Alexa Flash Briefings, a new service offered by Amazon for their Alexa/Echo customers. Here’s how to make the most of it and leverage it for your business!

Happy New Year! This is the time of year that we’re all used to setting goals, starting new projects, and making the changes we’ve been meaning to for ages. And to make effective plans for 2019, you need to be in the loop about what in the communications industry is likely to be most important. Here are three things we need to pay attention to this 2019.

It’s time for year-end roundups! What happened in 2018? Were our predictions right? And what’s going to happen in 2019? I’ve been waiting all year for this. Here are my predictions from last year… let’s find out whether or not they came true!

Networking can be the key that opens many doors to growth and success. Much of it comes down to meeting the right people at the right time for the right reasons. It’s not easy, but it’s worth putting in the time and getting it right. On today’s episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, we’re talking about networking. What are the different ways you can do it, and how can you make sure you’re doing it effectively?

What are you good at? Do you believe that’s something you’re born with? Hold your horses. That’s a fixed mindset. And in business, communications, and … life, we need to move forward with a growth mindset. What are these mindsets? Why are they so important? And what can we do if we find ourselves on the fixed mindset end of the spectrum?

When did we stop talking to each other like real people? In our industry, it’s getting hard to sort through all the hype. What’s the difference between a meaningless buzzword and a genuinely useful phrase? Take the term ‘Thought Leadership.’ This is what we’re getting into today, so sit tight because we’re going to be looking at how to synergize the 30,000 foot view to maximize our authenticity. Just kidding.

Reality is still changing — the way we interact with it, and the way we think about it. It’s weird. It’s different. In this episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, we’re diving into the world of artificial intelligence. Computers can now learn, programs can talk to our clients, and everything is tracked or automated. What does this mean for our businesses?

Over the past few weeks, Gini has gone into detail about the PESO model, and how you can develop a killer communications strategy that will boost your authority, build brand awareness, and generate qualified leads. In this week's replay episode, we go back to the beginning and for a refresher course on one of her best developed secret weapons: the PESO model.

From cat videos to memes, and Wikis to slews of selfies — user-generated content is happening all around us. What is user-generated content? This is any content, from tweets to blog posts, that people who aren’t directly in your brand and business create. How can you harness this boundless creativity and production in your communications strategies? People want to share stories and experiences with one another online. Our job as content marketers is to give them something good to talk about.

Pay to play: If you’ve ever heard someone mention the phrase — especially about a platform like Facebook — they’re probably talking about paid social media. That’s what Gini is diving into in this episode of Spin Sucks. Paid media is exactly what it sounds like: paying to reach new audiences. If you’re new to the podcast, listen to Episode 16 first (the basics of paid media), then come back here when you’re done! You’ll discover how you can leverage paid social media to improve your communic

Those who practice the best social media etiquette often go unnoticed - and you'll want to do the same. "But don't we want people to acknowledge how well-behaved we are online?" No, not exactly. You really only want people's attention on two things: your content and personality. Last week, Gini gave you 6 Social Media Don'ts. Today, she's back to talk about ways you can engage on social and make a great impression!

Our actions have consequences, and social media denizens love to remind us of said consequences. Twitter is especially volatile when it comes to delivering social media justice. It's a mob wielding metaphorical pitchforks and torches, impatient and merciless. Want to avoid their ire? We’ve got a few guidelines to help you become a consummate social media user. Let's talk about mindfulness and accountability, shall we?

You've probably heard this quote by Rumi at least once:, "When you are everywhere, you are nowhere. When you are somewhere, you are everywhere." As cryptic as it sounds, Rumi has a great point, especially when you apply this wisdom to social media. The thing is, you can't possibly be on all the social media channels AND still build a meaningful connection with your target audience. This week, we talk about the wonderful world of social media and how to keep your communications plan simple and effective.

The Spin Sucks community is the best! We’ve received a lot of really smart questions, and today, Gini is giving you some really smart answers. From analytics to revenue and contractors to demonstrating ROI, there’s sure to be something you’ll find useful and can implement today to make your business more successful. Also, make sure you listen to the very end and find out if Gini survives the lightning round!

What does your blog, your podcast, your eBook, and your newsletter all have in common? They’re all content and they are YOURS. If you haven’t been investing time and effort in creating your own content, then you’ll find today’s focus even more valuable. Because we've saved the best for last, the last letter in the PESO model, Owned Media, and why you need this in your communications strategy.

Have you ever posted something cringe-worthy on your social media account? The thing about the internet is mostly everything stays there - FOREVER. Today, we're diving into the third letter of the PESO model: Shared Media. What happens when a company (or a person) makes a mistake and social media absolutely dumps on them for a couple of days? It’s time to learn how to be masterful with social media as part of your communications strategy, and why it’s a force to be reckoned with.

We already talked about how to get the most out of Paid Media, but now it’s time to jump in and understand the second letter in PESO -- “E” for Earned Media. Done correctly, Earned Media is an effective strategy that can catapult your business or product in front of the masses, and more importantly, the right audience. Today, Gini explains how this section of the PESO Model allows your brand to develop credibility and authority and why it is crucial to your success when targeting your audience.

Last week on the Spin Sucks podcast was a refresher course on how implementing the PESO Model in your business communications and marketing plan can significantly increase your authority among consumers, build brand recognition, and generate qualified leads. In today’s episode, Gini shares how you can get the best bang for your buck and harness the power of Paid Media regardless of the scale of your budget or the size of your intended audience.  

Last week, Gini dove deep into blogging and how it can be beneficial to some businesses’ communications and marketing strategy. Blogging is just one of the many moving parts that fits into a much larger communications strategy. So how do you create an effective communications strategy that would boost your authority, build brand awareness, and generate qualified leads? Look no further, because in today’s episode, Gini gives us a refresher course on one of her best developed secret weapons: the PESO mode

It seems that almost everyone has their own blog these days. From influencers to entrepreneurs, heck, even corporations joined the blogging scene to gain traction, and maybe even try to understand what all this, “blogging is king” hullabaloo is about (caution: the latter probably is not as dynamic as the first two, ugh). But is blogging really good for your business? In this episode, Gini talks about her blogging roots, how said roots have evolved, and how you can blog better, faster, and more effective

Being an influencer doesn’t mean being lazy and using clickbait. It means having a real audience and making the industry better. If you’re trying to grow your business and your brand, how do you know which influencers will really help you? In today’s episode, Gini talks about how to work with the kinds of influencers who will truly help you AND your industry.

Everyone’s got issues, no exception. But when it comes to achieving your goals, there are few personal issues that can truly hamstring your attempts to make progress. In this episode, Gini covers the four horsemen of The Issues List and dishes out some advice for tackling each one.

What do rocks, pebbles, water and a glass have to do with communication plans? With some help from Gini Dietrich, more than you think! Tune in to this week’s episode to find out how to get your biggest rocks in a row and make time for all the pebbles and sand that tumble on to your plate every day.

We’re at mid-year, and we have an important question for you. How are those resolutions you made in January coming along? If you’re one of the few who actually follows up on your goals, good for you! If this question made you uncomfortable, then this is the episode you need to hear. You might just be setting goals in a way that you can’t keep them, and Gini Dietrich has some solutions to help you finally get it right.

Facebook is dead. LinkedIn is a wasteland. Twitter is a waste of time… or so people would have you believe. Is it even worth it for your brand to be on social media at all these days? The answer is no AND yes. Today, Gini talks about why some brands should leave social media and how, for other brands, it’s a golden opportunity to make some real traction. In this episode, you’ll discover how to jump in and put the social back in social media.

Sometimes it only takes one SWOT to rule them all. When it comes to your business, product or strategy, breaking down your greatest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can help you to make the right decision at the right time. This week, we’ll be demonstrating the SWOT analysis and discussing its ability to give you a quick and clear picture of where you’re at.

“Dark social media” isn’t as ominous as it sounds, we promise. These days, conversations on social media are getting smaller and smaller. While the days of broad public engagement have been dissolved into the era of the social media bubble, it’s still possible to gain some worthwhile traction in the smaller corners of the web.

What are your values? What will your brand engage with and what will it stay away from? Knowing the do’s and don’ts of your brand will help your organization find great clients and create solid working relationships.

There’s nothing that makes a CEO happier than good metrics. And nothing annoys a CEO like fluffy and flashy PR numbers that offer no real insight into their business. Check out some of Gini Dietrich’s favorite metrics that will help you communicate progress and change in a goal-focused and actionable way.

Are you one of those people who sees faces in everything? The clouds, dark alleys, toast? It’s called Pareidolia, and it makes the unrelatable, relatable by turning inanimate objects or abstract concepts into something we can tell stories about and have experiences with. You can harness this phenomenon with your brand by creating a brand persona.

Elon Musk launched a Tesla into space. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you also know he named the mannequin driver Starman. It all seems like a ridiculous PR stunt, but it wasn’t. At least not in the sleazy way. What Elon did was share his sweeping vision for the future in a way that was guaranteed to go viral. You might not have billions and a major corporation backing you, but you can take some profound lessons from Mr. Musk.

Everything you write for your fans should be instantly recognizable as you. If not, you’ll be lost in obscurity along with the deluge of emails from other companies. If the only way your fans recognize you is by the reply email, it’s time to rethink how you write.

You’ve nailed your brand. Now you need to figure out how to make it come alive. Not Frankenstein alive, but living, breathing, and authentically representative of your company. It’s way too easy to make your brand voice what you wish it were rather than an accurate portrayal of you and your clients. That’s why it’s very easy to fail at creating a compelling brand voice.

The Spin Sucks podcast is your one-stop-shop for modern communications. The lines between PR, marketing, search, advertising, social, and content continue to blur, making it difficult to decide what belongs where. Rather than decide, let’s come together and work as one to grow organizations. Join host Gini Dietrich for tips, tricks, and stories. We can change the PR industry...together.