A.wordsmith | Portland PR & Communications

Why Corporate Blogs Matter

By Gretchen Hoffman | Aug 26, 2015

As web publishing has gotten easier, more and more organizations have turned to corporate blogs to share industry news, company announcements and insights. Self-service platforms like WordPress make it easy for small organizations, and individuals even, to easily create and publish a blog, and increasing numbers of businesses are taking advantage. (On WordPress alone, which […]

How do you respond to criticism of your organization? Don't forget about compassion.

By Gretchen Hoffman | Mar 19, 2015

What do you do when your organization is faced with criticism from customers or stakeholders, particularly when that criticism is going viral via social media? I’ll put aside major crises for the sake of this blog post – I could write for days about how to effectively plan for a true crisis and how to […]

Vince Vaughn Cameos in Stock Photos for Movie Promo

By Gretchen Hoffman | Mar 4, 2015

When it comes time to update your website, collateral or even a company PowerPoint presentation, you don’t have a lot of options for visuals: You can take your own photos, hire a professional photographer to build you a library of images or you can shop around for stock photography. If you don’t have the skills […]

With Twitter reach slowing, how do you measure success?

By Gretchen Hoffman | Feb 7, 2015

Twitter came under fire this week for a slowing growth rate, with industry watchers citing concern that lower-than-expected growth numbers released in its earnings report could put the social networking site in a vulnerable position a few years down the road. Twitter’s executives, however, are trying to convince investors that its reach far surpasses the […]

Girl Scouts Go High Tech

By Gretchen Hoffman | Jan 21, 2015

It’s that time of year: My Facebook feed is slowly but surely starting to fill up with pictures of Girl Scouts and their cookie order forms. But the changes this year go far beyond the addition of a new cookie; for the first time since cookie sales began nearly a century ago, the parent organization […]