Every marriage begins with the engagement. The engagement for “The Bartel Years(TM)” began in 2006 at a Bartel Communications’ staff meeting. One agenda item was how to celebrate the firm’s 10th business anniversary the following year. We...
In baseball, a changeup is thrown so it looks like a fastball but takes its time arriving at the plate. The media relations’ version is called the thumbs-down. The thumbs-down pitch involves sending an event-announcement media release less than two weeks before...
June is an anniversary month for businesses as well as for brides. For example, Henry Ford incorporated Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903. Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic made its inaugural flight on June 22, 1984. I opened the doors to Bartel...
The Stinker Pitch involves sending a media release containing no newsworthy content. Some business people confuse what’s new with what’s news. While teaching a building-a-buzz-for-your-business seminar, I asked participants to list company achievements that could be...
I met Clueless Carl at a Chamber networking mixer. This small-business owner was vexed by the media’s inattention to his company. “My competitors are always in the papers, but they never write about me,” Carl grumbled. When I asked if he had reached out to the...
