North Star Research:1/3 of Pro Communicators Unsure of Grammar
Infographic on the confidence of professional communicators.
North Star survey shows what skills communicators need
A 2013 Communications Career Survey
PRWeek covers North Star work with social media skills
PRWeek’s July 2013 issue
It’s performance review season: ho-ho-HELP!
Yeah, Happy New Year, now tell me what you did last year. Maybe it’s not quite that abrupt, but this time of year, Communications and Marketing professionals have to launch 2014 initiatives while prepping to tell their own stories of 2013 performance for upcoming reviews. Whether we’re reviewing our team members or gearing up for our […]
Six things a communications pro should never say
One thing every communicator knows is that the words we choose matter. We sometimes agonize over a single word or phrase that captures the essence of our message for our clients, products or services. We obsess over how that “overarching message” works across a range of stakeholders. But when it comes to our own work, […]
Test your crisis plan b4 it tests you: 6 tips to ensure readiness
A few years ago, I’d taken a leadership role with a new communications team. After a month or so on the job, I asked the senior team members to participate in a table-top crisis drill, just so I could understand the processes and protocols built into the team’s crisis response plan. I introduced the first “event” […]
Wild West Days of Social Media Are Over: Time For Discipline
Within the last year, I’ve attended dozens of meetings with communicators in which a single, consistent order is dispatched: “We’ve got to incorporate social media in ALL our strategies.” To the casual observer, it sounds like a slam dunk. Right? After all, we know how to create a Facebook page or Twitter handle, and we’ve honed the […]
Communicators Career Growth Survey indicates growing skills areas
With three years of data from more than 500 professional communicators, North Star Communications Consulting today shared results of its 2013 Communications Competency Study, and three-year trends the consultancy has collected. 2013 Communications Competency Study Approximately 200 professional communicators participated in the 2013 survey in June and July of this year. The vast majority of […]
Boxed in a communications job? 6 tips to break free
We’ve all been there: that point in our careers where we feel “stuck” in a role, or pigeon-holed as a specialist who is destined for more-of-the-same until the end of time. I once had a boss who described it as being in a “home for the terminally inert.” Communications and marketing professionals increasingly see the […]
Who’s got game? Gamification is the communicator’s next frontier
If you’ve ever seen anyone other than Alec Baldwin playing Words with Friends on an iPhone, you’re seeing the new frontier that every communicator needs to understand: gamification. Now, before I lose all the Monopoly haters and Xbox intolerants, let me say that gamification simply is the use of game thinking and mechanics to engage users and solve […]
