This spirited, open forum by Maxwell PR staff members, studio mates and colleagues features people who are, in our opinion, doing the right things to get people talking. You’ll see us rave about organizations building communities and rant about those who are missing obvious opportunities. We sprinkle in a little marketing and PR rhetoric from time to time for extra vigor and enthusiasm, and will share observations and insight based on our own experience honing our craft every day.

PR Newswire’s Mike Pranikoff presented this question last week at Portland’s Communicators Conference. Since it’s so difficult to push your content through all the clutter these days, you want to make sure your audience knows what to do with it when they find it.

(By the way, I want you to share this post, Tweet it, send it to your friends and talk about it at your next cocktail party. Am I asking too much?)

To communicate your message, try using Pranikoff’s three principles to optimize visibility and encourage engagement. Make your content:

1. Accessible

By accessible, think mobile. More and more, content is viewed on a three-inch screen, so whether it’s a press release, web page or newsletter, content and images should be easy to view.

2. Searchable

Thirty-nine percent of search users link search ranking to company prominence. And now, with Google+, search is a personal experience that allows you to see relevant photos and posts from your friends alongside web results.

3. Sharable

Humor, simple infographics, new data and survey results are among the most shareable content. This can be as simple as digging up a little behind-the-scenes nugget about your company or client to share on Facebook or Twitter.

The Guardian created this ad to show how news is increasingly being curated and shared, using the classic tale of the Three Little Pigs to illustrate how folks might react today.

The ad alludes to the influx of information we receive, and how the process of consuming and pushing out content is easier than ever. I drive out content as much in my personal life as I do at work, so applying these three principles will become more and more important to communicate online and reach consumers, fans, colleagues and even friends.

According to Kristin Thompson of Thompson Professional Development, a speaker at this year’s Annual PRSA OCIABC Communicators Conference, our brains can hold endless amounts of information, but in order to increase the strength of your memory (yes, you can) you need a STRATEGY. Techniques like using mental pictures (a birthday cake) held in a specific place (squished between your knees) with an additional bit of pizazz (4^th of July sparklers as candles) can solidify any idea in your brain.

So why should we pay attention to developing our memory? As communications professionals we carry hundreds of key messages on the behalf of our clients in our brains every day and it’s crucial that we are able to recall the best/most accurate message on the spot (“Oh hi, Wall Street Journal…”). Blanking on key messages at crucial times can not only be personally embarrassing (Sheryl Crow), but leave a lasting, negative impression on you and your client in the eyes of industry reporters.

Oops! Did I just stress you out? Turns out stress isn’t good for memory either… sorry about that.

To avoid blanking, and stressing, spend time developing your memory skills the same way you work on developing your writing skills – and practice, practice, practice!

Okay, we’ll stop! The menu from our Columbus Foods “Family Dinner” at The Carillon in Austin last week speaks for itself. The event, which kicked off a food-filled week leading up to Austin’s Food & Wine Festival, was an opportunity for Columbus to demonstrate the breadth and quality of its salame line.

Famed Chef Josh Watkins created an incredible six-course meal, each featuring one of Columbus’ unique artisan varieties. Local media and bloggers joined us for the evening, which also included an apertivo hour and salame tasting tutorial. Needless to say, no one left hungry!

Chef Josh puts the finishing touches on one of his six creative courses.

It was great to be surrounded by media and bloggers who are dedicated to giving their readers resources to make healthy eating choices, as well as like-minded brands committed to making good products available to consumers. Didn’t hurt that the smoothie was DE-LISH too!

1.) Leverage your existing contacts.

In addition to anxiety attacks and ramen noodles, post-graduation job hunting invites a lot of advice. The number one piece of advice I got while I was looking for a job in PR: network, network, network. And so I did, but my golden ticket came from a Facebook group my peers from college created to keep in touch. Only a month after I posted a question asking if anyone had heard of any job opportunities, I joined the Maxwell team.

2.) Practice email writing.

Positioning, clarity and conciseness are key in email writing, and this is something that challenges me every day. Whether communicating with media contacts or a client, email is the primary form of correspondence that needs to be on point all day every day. Start with these 21 ways to keep your writing sharp.

3.) There’s a reason for group work.

I grumbled and rolled my eyes with everyone else in the class when my professor announced a group project. But unlike college, everybody actually contributes work in the “real world.” At Maxwell, we work in teams for each client, but beyond that, we collaborate as an agency on a day-to-day basis. Last week, my colleague and I were suffering from Friday 4 p.m. fatigue and were hitting a creative wall, so we emailed the agency asking for help. We received some awesome suggestions (even a coworker on the road at the Austin Food & Wine Festival chimed in), and our team nailed down a creative theme before the start of the weekend.

4.) Generate content on social media.

I was stoked to learn that I would be writing Facebook content on behalf of our clients, but I found that capturing the brand’s voice, understanding the Facebook audience and producing a variety of content is a lot harder than it may sound. Hone your skills before you land the job by producing your own engaging content that captures your personal style on Facebook.

5.) Writing a strong plan is essential.

I was assigned to write a lot of PR plans in college, but often thought that it was unrealistic to expect an entry-level position would be writing a full-blown plan for a client. It’s true that in my role at Maxwell I’m more part of the execution process, but I found that it’s critical to always understand the plan and keep in mind the objectives, strategies and target audience when executing a project.  It helps me remember the “bigger picture” without getting too down in the weeds.

We jetted back and forth from Miami, Austin and Washington DC to San Francisco and New York. We dined at some amazing restaurants including Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink, Restaurant Eve and Prospect. And we picked nine haikus out of those 156 for dining honors. (But here’s the one haiku we loved the best!)

triple cream cowgirl

dances a saucy two-step

with her rosy brut

So, what are we looking for exactly? Glad you asked. A Maxwell intern should have a degree in journalism, PR, communications or related field, plus a previous PR internship. Of course, PR agency experience is always a plus.

Interested candidates should send the following to jobs@maxwellpr.com with subject line “Maxwell Internship”:

• Cover letter
• Resume
• Three PR writing or work samples

The deadline is May 18. Only candidates that send their information to jobs@maxwellpr.com will be considered. No phone calls please.

Cover photos are the new Wall

On old brand pages, wall posts got all of the attention. With the new Timeline format, researchers found that viewers’ attention focused on the cover photo first. Overall, they spent more time looking at that cover rather than at actual Timeline content.

Cover image trumps profile image

Of course the cover photo has more real estate – but to put a number to it, 100% of viewers looked at the cover photo and between 65-92% noticed the profile photos.

Timeline content comes last

Every single person studied looked at either the left or right column of the Timeline content last – after they’d already looked at ads on the page, navigation buttons and brand logos.

Likes, events, apps all get more attention

Facebook moved these to the top, right below that cover photo, and it’s getting these features more attention. This is a big shift from the old format, when number of page Likes probably didn’t get much focus.

What does this mean for your page?

1.) Your content is most often experienced via user newsfeeds, not on your actual page. Is it succinct, engaging and inviting to fans?  Is it good enough that they’ll leave their homepage and click over to yours?

2.) Make the most of that cover photo! As we’ve said before, it’s your first (and biggest) opportunity to communicate your brand to visitors in a bold, visual manner.

3.) Make sure your apps have an appropriate thumbnail image and title. And make sure your elevator pitch (to the right of your profile picture) conveys a welcoming on-brand message to introduce new folks to your page.

4.) Take another look at your ad plan. If users are looking at ads before Timeline content, should you take advantage of targeting current fans and fans of competitors?  Remember that you can turn your Timeline content into ads and get more exposure.

We asked Greg how he stays inspired and innovative. Turns out that retreating to a quiet place has been the secret to his creative success for a long time. Even as a kid, he’d climb to the top of Smith Rock in Central Oregon (his original “soul place”) to write poetry as the sun went down – then scurry home on his bike.

Today, when faced with a creative opportunity or challenge, Greg doesn’t go immediately into problem-solving mode; he lets a variety of ideas come and go in his brain. He ruminates on headlines, creative concepts and copy for days, not writing anything down, just letting the thoughts ebb and flow.  And then he forgets about work, taking off for one of his favorite places, Garibaldi at the Oregon Coast.

While he’s more likely to be writing web copy than poems and he goes by car rather than bike, we felt it apropos that the would-be poet who pedaled to a peaceful place as a boy would pen a poem about how he feeds his creativity today. A prolific crabber, Greg puts crab pots out in Tillamook Bay before turning in for the night. Then he retrieves them at first light the next morning.

For your creative inspiration, Greg offers this poem.

Brainstorm On Tillamook Bay

By Greg Robeson

This is my spirit place

My religion

My surrender

My Holy Trinity of tide, traps, and time

Me against Dungeness

Me against deadlines and headlines

Me against myself

I come here for the clarity that one brings to the others

And hope

That the next pot I pull will strain

And the next concept I channel will release

Just as Jonah Lehrer recommends in his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, Greg puts physical distance between himself and the problem, freeing his mind to come up with breakthrough concepts. Advocating for travel as a way to enhance one’s life, I couldn’t agree more.