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News

Making Your Gala Earn Much More than Donations

This is Gala Season for many nonprofit organizations, and the smart ones use these annual events for more than fundraising. Beyond honoring those who give the most or can attract the most in ticket and table sales, galas are opportunities to recruit new supporters and re-energize existing ones through strategic communications. It begins with the

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News

Three Tips for Protecting Yourself from Fake News

Whether it’s called “fake news” or “alternative facts,” all of us who share content on social media need to be wary of false information pretending to be facts. Even the most knowledgeable social media mavens have fallen prey to Internet hoaxes. Knowing what is fake and what is real news are essential to protecting your

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News

See how we got started!

Idea Mensch, a media outlet devoted to entrepreneurship, recently reached out to our founder and president, Laura Mecoy, to get her views on starting and building a business. Following are some of her answers. You can see more at https://ideamensch.com/laura-mecoy/ Where did the idea for Mecoy Communications come from? Taking a page from the presidential,

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News

Taking Tips from the Presidential Debates

Corporate and nonprofit executives can learn a lot about communicating externally by watching the presidential debates next week and in the weeks ahead. If the past is any indication, the two candidates will have spent hours being coached on how best to answer questions in a succinct and compelling fashion that will connect with voters.

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News

Infographic Tips: Keep it Simple

Infographics create great shareable content for today’s social media, and they’re easy to create. This simple infographic describes how to create a great infographic. It recommends keeping the content simple, the design clean and the facts organized. Following these simple tips will create an infographic that effectively conveys information, attracts attention and drives positive outcomes

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News

Storytelling Creates Empathy

This new infographic illustrates why storytelling is such an important part of any successful communications effort. It shows scientific studies have proven that telling a story actually alters the chemistry in the brain, triggering releases of chemicals that create empathy and neural connections that cause listeners to put themselves in the place of the subject

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marketing

How to Create the Best Blog Posts Ever?

Turning that blank page into a blog post that will attract readers short on time and attention requires answering that age-old question: What have you done for me lately? Providing useful information or stories that move them in some way creates content that attracts, holds and persuades readers. In other words, they have to see

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Fundraising

Storytelling Helps Nonprofits Win Support; Raise Money

Storytelling will create the emotional connections needed to raise funds for your nonprofit. and this video is an effective use of storytelling by one of our clients, Tejon Ranch Conservancy, at a local community meeting. Having strong storytellers, like the Conservancy Public Outreach Manager Scot W. Pipkin, as one of the “faces” of the organization

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News

What do Women Think?

It’s a perennial question with great significance to marketers because women tend to control the purse strings in most families. Here’s a good infographic that provides a look at what women think about 2015:

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News

Kirby Delauter – Don’t Use My Name

In our continuing discussion about improving email and other digital communications, we had to share how one locally elected official’s Facebook rant made him a top-trending topic and punching bag on Twitter; a source of numerous memes, like the one here, and the subject of unflattering coverage in media around the country. Kirby Delauter, a

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News

A Beluga Whale of a Mistake

Broadcasting digitally is fraught with the potential for mistakes, and one organization, DoSomething.org, recently made a “beluga whale of a mistake,” as it said. The organization, which works with young people on social campaigns, accidentally sent a text message to 2.1 million of its members that said: Hey Can-tributer! Together you donated 510,543 items! Wow!

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News

AARP Helping Caregivers

We work with the AARP in educating its membership about a wide range of topics, including this month’s article on how one California legislator is using her firsthand experience to help the millions who provide care to their aging loved ones. Please see it by clicking here. Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown helps her husband, Hardy, with

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News

Correcting Mistakes: Responding Quickly & Effectively

Credibility is a hard-won attribute in today’s fast-paced and multi-dimensional communications landscape. Thorough editing, fact checking and reviews by multiple levels of people within a company or organization will help guard against mistakes. But when they do happen, the challenge is retaining the organization’s credibility in handling the mistake. With a 24/7 news cycle, quick

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News

Sony Hack Attack, Part 2: More Ways to Avoid Damaging Communications

Our recent post on the Sony hack attack generated a great deal of comment on LinkedIn, mostly from people who agreed that email should be treated more carefully. Most agreed with our contention that that “all communications should be professional. Being derisive, racist or sexist in comments not only opens us to litigation and damaging

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News

Lessons from Sony’s Hacked Emails

The revelation of racially insensitive comments in emails written by Sony Pictures Entertainment co-Chair Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin provide another lesson in what not to do with our most frequently used form of communication. Their comments, suggesting President Obama would only like African American-focused movies, came to light because of a cyberattack on

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News

Why are People so Bad at Pitching Stories to the Media?

Pitching stories to the media is a fine art. Most people have no idea what makes for a good story. We have a background in reporting. It helps us be more successful because we understand what makes a good story. PR News created the following infographic, which details many of the tips for successful pitching.

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NPR Coverage
News

Three Lessons from Bill Cosby’s Silence

Bill Cosby, once one of the most beloved TV sitcom fathers, tried to remain silent when decades-old allegations of rape and sexual assault resurfaced in the media on Saturday. But his silence reverberated through the media’s echo chamber, spreading more widely with each passing hour. Cosby only shook his head and said nothing when first

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News

Honoring Veterans’ Sacrifices through Storytelling

As we honor our veterans today for their many sacrifices for our liberty, we are reminded of one of the great storytellers of modern times and his ability to capture one of history’s greatest moments, the taking of Pointe du Hoc during the Battle of Normandy. Whether you liked his politics or not, you must

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Who uses social media more?
News

Do Men or Women Use Social Media More?

This is a fascinating look at the differences in the sexes’ use of social media. While this plays to stereotypes, it’s probably not surprising to see women leading men in the use of Facebook, Twitter and other social media that aims to build relationships of all types. The men, not surprisingly, are more likely to

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News

Giving Back

We believe in giving back to the community, and we are especially proud to be raising money and serving as spokespersons for JDRF, the world’s largest charitable funder of type 1 diabetes research. Our president, Laura Mecoy, and her son, Ryan Walker, were interviewed on Los Angeles classic rock radio station, The Sound, to promote

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News

What Taylor Swift Can Teach Us about Marketing

With numerous awards, sold-out concerts and one of the country’s biggest fan bases, Taylor Swift is a proven marketing phenom at the age of 24. The launch of her latest record, “1989,” offers even more examples of how she’s mastered the PR and marketing game, all of which can be instructive for marketing other products.

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News

He Said What? Five Basic Rules for Crisis Communications

Twenty-five years ago, as viewers tuned in to watch Game Three of the 1989 World Series in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, the Loma Prieta earthquake shook the stadium’s foundations and caused widespread damage in San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. The 6.9 magnitude temblor knocked down a section of the Bay Bridge, collapsed a

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News

Six Commonsense Tips for Avoiding Email Contretemps

California Public Utilities Commission President (PUC) Michael Peevey’s  announcement yesterday that he would not seek another six-year term in the job was not a surprise after emails revealed a cozy relationship with at least one of the companies, PG&E, he’s charged with regulating. Peevey had withstood his critics’ charges in the past, but the emails

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News

News from our Clients

Art Papier, the founder and CEO of Logical Images, the company that created VisualDx, writes in The Health Care Blog about how clinical decision support tools could help prevent the misdiagnosis we saw with the first case of Ebola in the U.S. On the patient’s first trip to the hospital, the Emergency Department physicians misdiagnosed

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News

Telling Your Stories in Pictures

Capturing special moments — both public and private — is an important part of telling your story. Halloween is one of those special times with the kids that will be part of your family’s story. Don’t miss a chance to capture the fun and excitement in photos. Our colleague, Jon Crowe, is offering a photo

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News

PR more welcoming to Women than Journalism

Editor Jill Abramson’s termination from The New York Times earlier this year triggered a renewed discussion about gender equity in journalism. Unnamed sources reportedly used words like “pushy” to describe her management style. Most women regard this as a pejorative way to describe practices that would be called “assertive” if a man did the same. Reporters,

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News

News from our Clients

Interested in plein air paintings, like this beautiful one by John Cosby? Then join the Catalina Island Conservancy on Oct. 26 in Balboa for its annual art show and sale. Here’s more information. Researchers at LA BioMed have resolved a dispute about the timing of one of the most common abdominal surgeries, gallbladder removals. Here’s

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News

LA Register Folds: Another Nail in Print’s Coffin?

It’s no surprise to see the news today that the LA Register newspaper is folding and giving up on its grand experiment in print journalism. All of us who love newspapers had great hopes but knew that this was probably an ill-fated effort to restore an antiquated concept of actually reading your news in a

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News

Top 5 Reasons for Re-branding

By taking responsibility for the beheading of two American journalists, the radical group now identified as ISIS by most in the media has turned the name of an Egyptian goddess into a dirty word. Unfortunately, several companies also have the same name. CNBC’s Jane Wells tackled this topic in her report today. She reported that

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News

Are press releases still relevant?

The answer from a new Business Wire survey is a resounding yes. Its survey of 300 journalists found 9 out of 10 had used a press release in the preceding week. While there is increasing focus on social media to speak to a wide constituency, only 1 percent of the journalists surveyed by Business Wire

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News

FIVE TIPS FOR A POWERFUL PRESENTATION

With studies showing the fear of public speaking ranks up there with the fear of death, speakers are often advised to picture their audience naked. Don’t worry. You don’t have to strip the audience bare to communicate effectively. But you do need to become intimately familiar with who your audience will be before deciding whether

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News

The “Gig Economy”

This is a term that’s gaining popularity as our nation shifts from the traditional 40-hour, one employer, office-driven workforce to a more entrepreneurial and independent workforce. Rather than jumping into the car for a long commute to an office, America’s workforce is increasingly opting for a more mobile and, arguably more creative and efficient, way

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News

South Beach Doc Speaks

Here’s a great opportunity offered by one of our clients for health care professionals to hear from Dr. Arthur Agatston, the developer of the South Beach Diet and the Agatston Score:  

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News

Why Do Journalists Make Good PR People?

A prospective client recently asked why we pride ourselves on being former journalists. Our network includes two former journalists, both of whom left the business several years ago and have spent the intervening years mastering the skills of communicating beyond the pages of a newspaper. The experience we have gained since leaving the news business

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News

Diversity in the Media

The racial tensions in Ferguson highlight once again the need for diversity in the media, and an excellent post by Gabe Rosenberg shows that newsrooms have made few advances in hiring a more diverse workforce. As the Pew Research Center has shown, the percentage of minority (a word that really no longer fits in California

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News

What’s in a Name?

On this morning’s highly rated KTLA-TV newscast, the anchors spent a couple of minutes ridiculing the term Mayor Eric Garcetti used for his “Great Streets” program. He called it “urban acupuncture,” and that became the headline in the LA Times, rather than the “Great Streets” brand. Unfortunately for the mayor, the news anchors seemed to

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News

It’s Alive!

A new infographic from Burrelles Luce, the media monitoring service, shows newspapers aren’t dead yet. Circulation in the nation’s top 25 newspapers has grown an average of 25% over the last five years. More than half of Americans are still reading their newspapers in print, and some of the country’s savviest investors are buying newspapers.

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News

Breathe Free MB on KNBC

We wanted to be sure you saw KNBC-TV’s report on Breathe Free MB, the public education campaign we’ve put together for Manhattan Beach to explain the city’s new Smoke-Free Public Places ordinance. In this report, you can see some of the signage we’ve developed with our graphics partner, Robin Weisz, to educate the public about

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News

Please Help – for Your Health and the Health of the Community

We need your help on Tuesday, July 22, in downtown Manhattan Beach. We are working with the City of Manhattan Beach on “Breathe Free MB,” a public education campaign about the City’s new Smoke-Free Public Places ordinance. We are seeking volunteers to help distribute materials to Manhattan Beach businesses. If you could spare 90 minutes

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Conservative Storytelling

As we like to say, storytelling moves audiences. They connect emotionally to stories, and they remember stories. Jonah Goldberg, a LA Times op-ed writer and a conservative, in his column today, writes about the importance of storytelling to political ideology. He says conservatives don’t do a great job of storytelling – but liberals can’t sell

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News

Congratulations WilmerHale

We’re proud of all our clients, and especially pleased when they get the recognition they deserve. Law360, one of the leading national legal news sites, conducted a survey and found WilmerHale, one of the nation’s pre-eminent law firms, is the “most-favored” IP group by corporate counsel. WilmerHale specializes in intellectual property litigation and represents some

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Location, Location, Location

This is the successful real estate investor’s mantra, and it also applies in many successful communications campaigns. We were in Oklahoma when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in support of Hobby Lobby’s policy denying health insurance coverage for certain types of contraceptives on religious grounds. The response here – in the “buckle of

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News

OC Register Fail

The OC Weekly’s analysis of the OC Register’s failure to fulfill its mission to grow its business through the revitalization of print media shows that – much as everyone suspected – the new owners were looking at the changing media landscape through rose-colored glasses, at best, or even blinders. It is a blow-by-blow description of

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Going Viral

It’s the goal of every successful marketer, and many claim to have made an art of it on YouTube and other video sharing services. Jukin Media, for instance, has based a whole business on figuring out what will go viral and monetizing it. PR professionals are always looking for ways to go viral – including

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News

NY Times Red-Faced Over Intern?

Our friend, the Washington Post’s Paul Farhi, is one of the nation’s best media reporters. Today, he has a great story about the Post’s rival, the New York Times, hiring an intern who had been an Obama speech writer. Paul covers it in a very even-handed fashion. There was a time when such political affiliations

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Developers Buying Support?

Our friend, Bill Boyarsky, has an interesting look at how neighborhood groups are wringing concessions from developers by getting contributions to their associations in exchange for the neighbors supporting the developers’ projects. Building almost anything in California is difficult, and it’s no surprise the developers would view these contributions as the “cost of doing business,” which

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Stopping the Spin Cycle

Spin control — an attempt to give a bias to news coverage, especially of a political candidate or event. -Dictionary.com Too often, we hear clients suggest that we should “spin” something. We, instead, discuss how to explain something because spin has lost its spin. Today’s consumers are much too savvy to be spun, and today’s

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News

Hot Properties Make News

For many Angelenos, the rapidly rising equity in their home is their retirement plan, so housing prices are always a great source of interest. Add to that the stories of celebrities who can pour millions into a mansion, and you have a recipe for a bestseller. At least, that’s the idea at the LA Times,

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News

OC Register Optimist

We would have to put ourselves in the category of the nostalgic NYU academic Clay Shirkey faulted here for hoping the OC Register’s big commitment to print would work. We knew the economics probably didn’t work. After crawling under our car for the third day in a row to fish our paper out, we know

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News

Long Strange Trip it’s Been

The NY Times Maureen Dowd decided to try out some marijuana edibles in Colorado, now that weed is legal there. What followed was more than a bit disturbing for her and a great yarn for the Times. So now she’s being taken to task for being so silly to sample edibles alone and to fail

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Douglas Jeffe: Wright is Victim of a Stupid Law

We want to share with you this recent posting by our colleague, Douglas Jeffe, and his wife, Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, on Joel Fox’s must-read political blog, Fox and Hounds, about the flaws of the residency law responsible for Senator Wright’s recent conviction.

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News

Sorry, I was on Mute

How many times have heard or had to make that excuse for checking out while on a conference call? For conference call participants, this humorous look, via video, captures all the things we hate about conference calls – from the barking dog in the background to the cellphone participant who keeps dropping off and dialing

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