This post is not intended to weigh in on either side of the gun control debate. Rather, it is to call out the inexplicable approach the NRA has taken since the school shootings in Newton, Connecticut. The organization, which represents 4 million gun owners – surely all of whom are sickened and heartbroken by the…

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Government IT managers today have to do more with less. For even as cloud computing and “government 2.0” initiatives are supposed to save taxpayer dollars, continuing security threats and ballooning government programs are straining agency IT budgets just the same. Pressures like these mean many agencies are paring private-sector contractors to a strategic few. In…

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Great public relations campaigns create tangible value for businesses that advertising or other marketing strategies often can’t match. That’s because the results are ‘earned’ rather than ‘paid.’  A message about your company that is repeated by a respected writer or analyst has far more value than one you insert into a paid banner ad, and…

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It’s the peak of summer in the Pacific Northwest. And that means the mountains here are full of people hiking, backpacking, and climbing. For years, well-equipped outdoors types have carried the “10 essentials,” a list of must-have items coined back in the 1930s by members of the Seattle Mountaineers club. The list includes things such…

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Most of the PR agency world is divided into business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B). But it would be a mistake to assume that the consumer doesn’t play a central role in a quality B2B public relations program. While my colleagues and I spend most of our time in the B2B sphere, working with businesses that…

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Can you name someone whose opinion you value, to whom you would look to for guidance, who might have an influence on how you conduct business? Chances are you can. You might think of that person as a mentor. But in a broad sense we have another term for it: “Thought leader.” What is a…

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