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Keybridge Communications Tag

Photos: 2015 Retreat to the Bahamas

Earlier this month, our entire company traveled to the Bahamas for a 3-day retreat. It was an incredibly rewarding experience. In between all the eating, snorkeling, and waterslides, we even squeezed in a few team-building activities. Here are some photos from the trip. ...

PR Tips | Arial or Times New Roman?

Back in the 15th century, type foundries didn't offer much in the way of font choices. But we've come a long way since then. With so many available fonts to choose from nowadays, how do you know which is right for you? The first part of your decision will be determined by the two main classifications: Serif and Sans Serif. Serifs are small strokes on the edges of letters. Sans serif fonts (sans meaning without) do not have these decorative features.image-1   Common wisdom holds that long paragraphs are easier to read with serifs, as they make it easier for eyes to scan letters, words, and sentences. Generally, books and newspapers use serif typefaces. In contrast, many believe that sans serif fonts are preferable on digital displays like computer or cell-phone screens. Once you've chosen whether to go with serif or sans serif, the next step is choosing a style. Serif typefaces have three main styles: Modern, Old Style and Transitional. Modern fonts tend to have the biggest difference between the thickness of the strokes. images-300x126So the left leg of the letter M might be really thin, while the right leg is thick. Old style typefaces are more balanced and modeled after early lettering design. Transitional serif typefaces fall between these previous two. Examples would be Garamond or Didot.

Happy Birthday, Keybridge Communications!

Exactly 10 years ago today, Keybridge Communications was officially formed. I was 29 years old with $17,000 of credit card debt. At the time, the risk of starting a new business from scratch seemed overwhelming. The financial burden alone was daunting. I had no source of...

A Day At King’s Dominion

Every quarter, we take a company retreat. Most recently, we hit the roller coasters at King's Dominion in Virginia. It was a great trip. Here are some photos from the day.

Afternoon at Miriam’s Kitchen

Last week, our company spent an afternoon preparing and serving food at Miriam's Kitchen, a charity dedicated to ending chronic homelessness in Washington, DC. It was an eye-opening experience -- and allowed our company to get out of the office and join together in a...

PR Tips | Want Quick, Quality Hits? Go Local

Pitching a story or oped successfully takes a lot of hard work. In fact, it can be so difficult that many people – and even PR practitioners – simply give up. But if you pitch locally, your job suddenly becomes easier. For example, let’s say you wanted to pitch a story about the mayor of a suburban town outside Philadelphia. If you tried pitching the Miami Herald, you’d probably strike out. You’d have a much better success rate if you targeted the Philadelphia Inquirer or a local paper because of the geographic connection. So going local makes it easy to get fast hits. But what if you want to make a bigger splash? You can also apply this technique in reverse. There’s often a way to broaden the appeal of even the most local stories. For example, let’s say the suburban mayor’s solution to his town’s unemployment crisis contains lessons for how other towns could solve their unemployment problems, as well. Voila. With a few small tweaks, we have national appeal. To make our pitch even more attention-grabbing, we could plug in unemployment data for whatever state we’re pitching. If we pitch the Detroit Free Press, for example, we could call attention to Michigan statistics showing Detroit has a major unemployment problem – and our small-town mayor is offering a solution.

PR Tips | Building Your Media Footprint

Everyone likes to see his name in the paper. At Keybridge, we specialize in just that -- finding ways to get our clients and their messages into the media.

But there's a lot that folks can do on their own to increase their media footprint. The key is to proactively present yourself as an expert in your chosen field. You have important things to say! But reporters won't know that unless you tell them.

Here are two things you can do. First, sign up for the free HARO (Help A Reporter Out) service. Reporters submit queries to HARO seeking sources for the stories they're writing. Then, three times a day, HARO sends its subscribers an email with all those queries.

Perhaps a reporter working on a story on home prices in Chicago would like to include some examples of recent sales. If you happen to be a real-estate agent in the Windy City, you might be able to provide the anecdotes she's looking for. Send a quick email to the reporter with your bona fides and a description of the information you can provide, and you just might land an interview.

Second, set up a few Google Alerts on issues, topics, and keywords important to you. Google Alerts put the search engine to work for you by automatically delivering search results to your inbox. You can even filter those results so that you only receive news stories, blog posts, or videos with your keywords in them.