A Better Editing Process

By Mary Gorretta | May 6, 2015

I know the saying goes that is far easier to edit a piece of writing than to start one from a blank page, but I sometimes find the editing process just as hard. These four steps recently offered by Ragan’s PR Daily have really helped me lately to break down the process of editing as […]

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America's Favorite Sport in a PR Crisis

By Jillian Stephens | Apr 23, 2015

America loves football – everyone knows that. But it’s beginning to look like the sport itself is in crisis and does not reciprocate these feelings. A growing body of evidence is beginning to show that football players are prone to concussions and thus prone to degenerative brain disease later on in life. These diseases (CTE […]

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A tale of two cities: ACME shows how good employee relations made good business sense

By Kelda Rericha | Apr 20, 2015

In addition to being an incredible A. Wordsmith client and a brilliant business partner to some of Portland, Seattle and San Diego’s biggest and best companies, ACME Business Consulting is a really great place to work. Sara Fritsch, ACME’s marketing team lead, has worked with ACME for nine years in a variety of roles. Today […]

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What Social Media Content Gets Shared the Most?

By Lisa Lavora-De Beule | Apr 20, 2015

Between June and November 2014, Buzz Stream and Fractl analyzed 220,000 pieces of content from 11 verticals (automotive, education, health, finance, food, business, technology, travel, entertainment, news, and lifestyle) to assess what social media content gets shared the most. The content of articles was divided into five types: how-tos, lists, what-posts, why-posts, and videos: How-tos: […]

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What We Can Learn from Ellen Pao

By Jillian Stephens | Mar 31, 2015

This past Friday, March 27th, Ellen Pao lost her lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the top venture capital firms in California’s Silicon Valley. Needless to say, a great deal of controversy has emerged as a result of both the workplace discrimination suit itself and the verdict. What happened In case you’re a little […]

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C'mon Get Happy

By Lisa Lavora-De Beule | Mar 20, 2015

On Friday, March 20th, we celebrate the first day of spring (yay!) and the third annual International Day of Happiness. Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, International Day of Happiness recognizes, “the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world and […]

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3 PR opportunities on St. Patty's Day

By Jillian Stephens | Mar 17, 2015

St. Patrick’s day is notoriously a whirlwind of green accessories, clovers, occasional pinching, little men with pointy shoes, and ample beer for drinking. Who couldn’t love a holiday that revolves around mirth and merriment? Sure, we’re a whole ocean away from the country who gave birth to this day, but we enjoy it just as […]

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The 5 Key Elements of Outstanding Emails

By Lisa Lavora-De Beule | Mar 5, 2015

Email is widely used today as a form of business communication. While email is considered to be an efficient and reliable communication tool, one needs to exercise care when crafting emails in the workplace. When used appropriately, emails can help garner the results you want. To be safe, use a disposable email address from 10 […]

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What Does it Mean to be a Thought Leader?

By Jillian Stephens | Feb 17, 2015

  As you may (or may not) have noticed, A.wordsmith has recently changed it’s descriptive title from “a boutique PR and marketing firm” to “a boutique PR and thought leadership firm.” Likewise, you may be thinking, “What exactly does that mean?” Well, I’m here to tell you. Marketing for the sake of sales By definition, marketing involves […]

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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 […]

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My Hometown Hero Gets an Ivy League Shoutout

By Ann Smith | Nov 25, 2014

I’m a ranch kid who grew up in the south-eastern corner of Oregon.  People ask me all the time where I’m from and my natural response is “Southern Oregon.”  They then usually start guessing places – Ashland? Medford? Grants Pass?  No, keep going. At this point I can see they are persistent to so I […]

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#WhyIStayed: A Social Movement of Domestic Violence Support

By Ann Smith | Sep 10, 2014

Last week marked the opening day of the NFL season and within a few days the national spotlight was shining an ugly beam on one of the league’s star players. On Monday the world was seeing the horrific altercation between Baltimore Raven’s star Ray Rice and his wife Janay in a casino elevator where he […]

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