Ms. InterPReted

In this episode of MsInterPReted, we’re talking about tourism in Tennessee. Tennessee tourism generated $29 billion in direct visitor spending and saw 141 million visitors to the state in 2022, Tennessee ranks 11th in the nation for travel spending, the highest rank ever for our state.

Tennessee has approximately 13, 372 restaurants in the state, which is roughly one restaurant per every 500 people if you look at our population numbers and over 1600 hotels.

Sarah Beth is the CEO and president of the Tennessee Hospitality & Tourism Association. Her experience includes being Executive Director of the Tennessee Whiskey Trail and before that was also a part of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development as the Middle Tennessee Division Manager. HospitalityTN represents the interests of Tennessee’s lodging, dining, and tourism establishments and the related businesses involved in the hospitality & tourism industry.

Kim Mitchell joined the Blount Partnership in July 2014 after serving the past 2 ½ years as the special events coordinator for the Helen Ross McNabb Center where she contributed to the successful planning, management and execution of many Blount County special events with specific responsibility for achieving all fundraising goals and community awareness objectives. 

Her position with the Blount Partnership consists of recruiting events in the areas of leisure, business and group travel to the county for overnight stays. 
 
 A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Mitchell has worn many hats in a variety of industries during her career ranging from being director of catering for a national hotel chain to serving as a marketing and public relations specialist for a local marketing group.

Topics Discussed:

·        What brought these two professionals to the tourism industry

·        They describe the tourism boom they see in their respective geographic locations

·        How the Tennessee Hospitality & Tourism Association partners with tourism businesses

·        The tactics most effective in getting the word out to travelers about all that Tennessee has to offer

·        The rise of outdoor adventure and leisure travel 

·        The influence of the Tennessee Whiskey Trail on tourism

·        What’s on the horizon for Tennessee tourism

On this episode of MsInterPReted, Fletcher’s director of media relations, Allison Lester, talks about travel writing, pitching and hosting media tours. We welcome two travel writers to talk about their experiences in travel writing. They provide advice and talk about the trends in the travel journalism industry.

Susan Barnes has more than 20 years of journalism experience and writes for multiple outlets including USA Today, Food and Wine, Garden and Gun, Travel + Leisure - just to name a few. She writes about travel, lifestyle, food and beverage. 

Ashlee Fechino is the founder of the Happiness Function, which is a travel outlet she started to inspire happiness through travel and outdoor recreation in the U. S. She's also a nationally syndicated travel writer.

On this episode, we discuss multiple topics:

·       How our guests got into travel writing and what it’s like as a career.

·       The dos and don’ts of pitching travel journalists.

·       What qualities make for a great press trip.

·       How to get coverage in some of the travel industry’s biggest outlets.

·       Trends in the rise of wellness travel.

Sara Davenport is an award-winning journalist who followed her dreams and became an anchor in a top-10 market. But after winning all the awards, and covering all the stories, she need a plan B - something that gave her not just a fantastic lifestyle, but also a life.

She has created a life as a media mentor working with others looking to break the breaking news cycle.

• She wanted to work from home or just work from phone/wifi
• She wanted to travel and vacation for more than 8 weeks/year
• She wanted to make 6-figures, from one or multiple businesses
• She wanted to be a storyteller, content creator, and still remain 
   on-camera
• She wanted to coach others to success

On this episode of MsInterPReted she discusses how she made a plan and went after it.

Davenport provides valuable insight into writing a resume to highlight transferrable skills, using LinkedIn as a true marketing platform to market and creating multiple revenue streams for profitability and stability.

Through her former and current career, Davenport has collected a plethora of stories about the good, the bad and the ugly of working in broadcast news. She shares the moment that she knew she had to make a change and what she sees as driving the mass exodus from TV News today.

As we head into 2024, Fletcher Marketing PR Vice President, Sarah Merrell and Director of Media Relations, Allison Lester discuss the PR obstacles we foresee clients and firms facing in the year ahead and tactics to overcome these hurdles.

Obstacles include:
AI - The rise of artificial intelligence raises ethical concerns and requires us helping our clients to understand the benefits and limitations of new technologies.
GA4 - With Google Analytics launching its new analytics platform in 2023, many businesses still don't have their GA4 and/or aren't yet using it to its fullest potential.
Other new technologies - as new platforms and software emerge, it requires education for our teams and clients to institute these new tools
Over-reliance on digital marketing - many businesses see digital marketing as a fast-fix for marketing goals, when it should really be viewed as one tool to pair with myriad of other strategies. It requires educating our clients on the benefits, but also limitations of digital marketing to keep them from making the mistake of relying too heavily on this strategy alone.
Media fragmentation - There are more media outlets today than ever before. This provides both an opportunity for media relations efforts, but also an obstacle. Media relations pros have to take the extra time to weed through the options to find the best fit and help clients understand the quality matters more than ever. 
Content overload - With so much content being pumped out into the world today, it's more important than ever to make your content standout. This requires creativity, strategy and research.
The prevalence of paid media - As there are more pieces of the pie, each individual outlet has fewer readers/viewers. This has led to a rise in paid media as media outlets are forced to find new revenue streams. This means clients will need to consider options such as advertorials, affiliate marketing and paid placements in addition to earned media efforts.
Integrated marketing - we know integrated marketing is 300% more effective than silo-ing your marketing efforts, but helping our clients understand the benefits of having one party handle all of the tactics still proves to be an obstacle.
Reputation management - In the day and age of 'cancel culture' it is imperative to give careful extra thought to all messaging - this includes, not only the content you produce, but also responses on social media. It's important to have diverse voices at the table to ensure you are using sensitivity and not overlooking biases. 
Rising labor costs and inflation - both firms and our clients are facing the biggest obstacle of 2024 that all Americans are facing with inflation and rising prices. It costs more to do business, which means many companies will be looking for ways to save. We encourage business owners and CEOs to consider the ROI you get from marketing, and to never save money but cutting good people.

In this episode of MsInterPReted, Fletcher Marketing PR Vice President, Sarah Merrell, and Director of Media Relations, Allison Lester discuss PR trends that we want to leave in the dust.
As 2023 winds down, we are looking ahead to the new year and new strategies. These are some of the common strategies and trends that are outdated or unnecessary.

We discuss:

• Overuse of buzzwords/industry jargon
• An overemphasis on media placement quotas without attention to the quality of placements
• Overly complicated metrics
• Vanity metrics
• Vanity awards/paid awards
• Hiding/Burying negative news
• Reactive crisis management vs. proactive strategies
• Mass/impersonalized pitching
• Overly complicated press releases

We address these outdated trends as well as the better way to approach metrics, media relations and crisis management. 

On this episode of MsinterPReted, we discuss hyperlocal journalism. This form of journalism focuses on reporting news and information at a very local level, typically targeting specific neighborhoods and communities. It emphasizes coverage of local events, issues, and stories that directly impact the immediate vicinity, including topics like local government, community events, business updates, neighborhood developments, and other hyper-specific news that may not receive attention from larger media outlets

Jesse Mayshark and Scott Barker are both former journalists who also worked on the public relations side and started a hyper-local news media outlet for the city of Knoxville, called Compass. 

Jesse worked as a reporter and editor at the local and national level for 20 years before going into communication for Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero in 2011.

Scott was hired as a reporter at the Knoxville News Sentinel in 1999 and has won numerous national, state and regional journalism awards as a reporter and editorial page editor.

On this episode, Jesse and Scott discuss:

• The need for local journalism
• Why they started Compass
• The business model for making this type of journalism successful
• PR blunders
• How PR pros and journalists can better work together
• The changing face of journalism

Follow Fletcher Marketing PR on:

Website:  https://www.fletchermarketingpr.com/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fletchermarketingpr

On Twitter:  @fletcherpr

On Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fletcher.pr/
On LinkedIn: Fletcher Marketing PR

Follow Kelly on Twitter: @KDFletcher

Fletcher Marketing PR Senior Strategist, Mary Beth West commissioned new worldwide ethics code research through her work on the PRCA Global Ethics Council.

The new London-based Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) research was released in the white paper entitled “The State of Ethics Codes in the Public Relations Industry: A Global Analysis” (available for free download). It documents that among 24 PR industry ethics codes in nearly as many nations worldwide, there is little unified consensus about how ethics codes should be employed as “living documents” in the everyday work of industry leaders and practitioners.

Some PR associations heavily promote simply having an ethics code as a crowning achievement.

But precisely how much dust a long-ago published code has gathered while sitting on a virtual shelf, unrevised for years – perhaps decades – may underscore how seriously its parent PR association authentically engages on the topic of ethics.
In this episode of MsInterPReted, Mary Beth discusses her findings with CEO Kelly Fletcher.

Discussion covers:

• AI
• Disclosing Paid Media
• Disinformation
• Giving/Receiving Gifts
• Whistleblower protection
• Privacy
• And other industry related ethics codes

This #PRethics Month, PR organizations are urged to take a fresh look at their ethics codes, compare them with best-practices documented in this white paper, and undertake a deep-dive effort to make codes more current, relevant, useful, and prominent.

DOWNLOAD THE ETHICS CODE WHITE PAPER: https://www.marybethwest.com/white-paper/

Mary Beth West, APR, FPRCA, is a long-time advocate of stronger ethical practices in PR, in balanced service to employers, clients, stakeholders, and also the public good. She can be followed on LinkedIn, at @marybethwest, and at marybethwest.com.

Casey Mank is co-founder of Bold Type and is a Center for Plain Language Board member. She also teaches English at Georgetown University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Casey and her company conduct workshops on writing skills, workplace communication and email etiquette.

In our digital world of communications, it is imperative that we think more strategically and holistically about how we communicate internally and externally with our business partners. Casey shares that, “no matter how good you are at your actual job, even if your actual job has nothing to do with writing, the way that you communicate with people about the work you've done impacts how they perceive your actual work.”

Writing effectively, including emailing, is such an essential skill. Casey highlights the need for more formalized training on how to do that well and what the expectations are within a company. Bold Type’s focus is very specific and they provide formalized training on workplace writing skills.

In this episode of MsInterPReted, CEO Kelly Fletcher talks with Casey about a variety of topics pertaining to effective professional writing including:  

·       Email etiquette

·       Using plain language effectively

·       Overexplaining

·       The importance of a professional pause

Follow Casey Mank:

Casey's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-mank/

Bold Type Website: https://www.boldtype.us

Bold Type LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boldtype/

Bold Type Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bold__type/

Plain Language Info: https://www.plainlanguage.gov

Follow Fletcher Marketing PR:

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fletcherpr/
 On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fletchermarketingpr

On Twitter:  @fletcherpr

On Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fletcher.pr/

Follow Kelly on Twitter: @KDFletcher

Today, all of us feel the impact of stress and burnout in one way or another. It could be we feel a little extra jittery at the start of the week, or maybe it even prevents us from doing what we need to in our professional and personal lives. Regardless, we need to always try and actively combat and healthfully balance our stressors. 

In Booth Andrew's career, she experienced her own burnout for years but it reached its peak when she went from a successful CEO of a $5 million non-profit, mom of 3, community leader and triathlete to unemployed, broke, divorced, severely ill and separated from her community. 

Over time, Booth found the keys to balancing her stressors so that her burnout and its impact would never impact her the same way again. Booth also found sharing her story and her journey back was helpful to others in understanding they are not alone. She now runs the Knoxville, Tennessee based company, the Booth Andrews company.

On this episode of MsInterPReted, Fletcher CEO Kelly Fletcher talks with Booth about a variety of topics pertaining to balancing stress levels and burnout, including: 

• Knowing your limits and respecting those boundaries 
• Giving yourself permission to heal 
• The physiological impacts of stress
• Dealing with trauma 
• De-stigmatizing mental health 

Follow Booth on:
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/booth-andrews-69ba1a13/
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theboothandrews/?hl=en
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/theboothandrews

Follow Fletcher Marketing PR:

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fletcherpr/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fletchermarketingpr

On Twitter:  @fletcherpr

On Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fletcher.pr/

Follow Kelly on Twitter: @KDFletcher

Eric Olsen has been Senior Advisor and Communication Director for Congressman John Garamendi of California's eighth district in northern California since 2017.

Previously, he managed congressional campaigns and consulted on several presidential campaigns. His work as a senior PR communication staffer on Capitol Hill and for political campaigns has given him unique insight into the relationship between government and public relations. 

He has deployed a broad array of communication tactics throughout his career to communicate the complicated and multifaceted work that takes place in our federal government. He has also worked with major broadcast outlets and media outlets, like 60 Minutes and Meet the Press, and he has managed highly-targeted PR campaigns..

Eric is a graduate of the University of California Davis with the highest honors. In his free time, he works to bring a greater level of awareness and insight into politics and how our government functions.

On this episode of MsInterPReted, CEO Kelly Fletcher and Director of Media Relations Allison Lester talk with Eric about an array of topics pertaining to the world of political communication, including: 

• The relationship between politics and media 
• Crafting political messages 
• How to navigate the mistrust of the media as a PR professional in the world of politics 
• The value of reputable and trustworthy sources 
• The relationship between communication professionals of opposing parties 
• The possible future of AI use in the political communication arena 
• Crisis management 
• The myths about the political communications field 

Follow Eric  on:

On LinkedIn: Eric Olsen

On Instagram: @eric_olsen4

On TikTok: @ericolsen44

Follow Fletcher Marketing PR:

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fletchermarketingpr

On Twitter:  @fletcherpr

On Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fletcher.pr/

Follow Kelly on Twitter: @KDFletcher

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic idea, it is here. And now programs like ChatGPT are introducing AI to the world of writing, content creation and public relations, bringing with it a myriad of benefits, questions and ethical concerns.

Matthew Pittman is an assistant professor of Advertising and Public Relations at the Tombras School at the University of Tennessee. He has a Ph.D. in Communications and also serves as a consultant. He talks with Sarah Merrell, Fletcher Marketing PR Vice President, about the AI writing software ChatGPT. 

On this episode of MsInterPReted, Sarah and Matthew discuss what AI looks like in the world of PR and marketing, what the limitations of AI are and what the implications are for humans including:

• The extent to which AI can be utilized for writing. ChatGPT can be utilized for research, organizing outlines, and cutting down on writing time. Where is the line that separates an article written by a person and an article written by ChatGPT?
• The ethics behind utilizing AI as a writing assistant. Are PR and marketing professionals ethically obligated to notify clients or the public that AI is being utilized in the writing process? 
• What does the ethical use of AI look like in an academic setting? Are there ways to know when students are using AI to write their entire paper or is AI so close to human writing that it is undetectable?
• Can AI be used for strategy? 
• ChatGPT is proving to be a creative tool but still lacks a specific element of creativity. That element is human creativity. ChatGPT works based on prompts that are typed in. The program then spits out suggestions and ideas. Without the initial idea from human creativity, ChatGPT would not be able to create an article or blog post for that idea. 
• Will AI remove humans from jobs in the communication field? Will there be a time where PR and marketing professionals are no longer needed due to AI taking over the field? 

Follow Matthew on:

On Twitter:  @matthewcpittman

Follow Fletcher Marketing PR:

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fletchermarketingpr

On Twitter:  @fletcherpr

On Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fletcher.pr/

Follow Kelly on Twitter: @KDFletcher

Follow Mary Beth on Twitter: @marybethwest 

Tanisha Fitzgerald Baker is the manager of DEI for Knoxville Utilities Board, where she works on creating a diverse and inclusive work environment with equitable opportunities for all. She supports areas that impact the employee and customer experience through the lens of DEI. Tanisha is a native of Knoxville, Tennessee and she's a graduate, valedictorian, and Ms. Austin East from the Austin East High School class of 1988. She continued her education, graduating from both Florida A&M and the University of Tennessee with degrees in Actuarial Science and Education. She spent more than 20 years working for equity, access and education as an educator and leader with Project Grad Knoxville.

She retired from Project Grad in 2021 and started a new career with Knoxville Utilities. 

She completed her certificate in social enterprise effectiveness from the University of Tennessee's Haslam School of Business. She's a graduate of Leadership Knoxville class of 2020. She was one of 30 across the state of Tennessee chosen for the 2021 Complete Tennessee Leadership Institute which she completed, along with the Mosaic Change Fellowship 2021 cohort as one of 21 across the state of Tennessee.

She's the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions including the 2020 MLK Community Service Award. In addition to her professional responsibilities, she's a sought-after panelist, presenter and consultant. She's passionate about her calling to educate and elevate others.

She founded Educational Enhancement Services Incorporated in 1998. She's also a founding member and current president of the Five Points Up Community Action Group. Founding member of East Knox Lions Club, founder of the unifying concept of the Village of Knoxville, and the host of a weekly radio show: Talking with T.

She serves on several community boards as well as serving as the chair of the city of Knoxville's African-American Equity Task Force. She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and continues to reside in the East Knoxville community. 

On this week’s episode of MsInterPReted, Tanisha, and Kelly talk about what DEI looks like in various spaces and how to apply DEI to a multitude of aspects in the work place:

• DEI as it relates to hiring and human resources
• What diversity looks like in different spaces
• How to integrate DEI practices into every part of business
• DEI data conversions
• DEI in virtual workplaces
• Good DEI practices

Follow Tanisha on:

Website:  https://www.talkingwitht.com

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwitht/

On Twitter:  @talkingwitht

Follow Fletcher Marketing PR on:

Website:  https://www.fletchermarketingpr.com/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fletchermarketingpr

On Twitter:  @fletcherpr

On Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fletcher.pr/

Follow Kelly on Twitter: @KDFletcher

Follow Mary Beth on Twitter: @marybethwest 

Greg Jarboe is president of SEO-PR, which he co-founded in 2003. Their digital marketing agency has won awards for generating results for a variety of clients, including: The Christian Science Monitor, Get City Dealz, Harlequin Romance, MarketingSherpa, Parents magazine, the SES Conference & Expo series, Southwest Airlines, and Rutgers University. He’s also the author of ‘YouTube and Video Marketing’ and one of the 25 successful online marketing gurus profiled in Michael Miller’s Online Marketing Heroes. 

Since 2003, Jarboe’s written more than 1,600 posts for ClickZ, Inked, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, The SEM Post, and Tubular Insights. He’s spoken at over 80 industry conferences. In addition, he’s an instructor at Coursera, Rutgers Business School Executive Education, and the New Media Academy.

Katie Paine, aka The Measurement Queen, has been a pioneer in the field of measurement for three decades. She was recently awarded the prestigious IPR Jack Felton Medal for Lifetime Achievement, an award made for lifetime contributions in the advancement of research, measurement and evaluation in public relations and corporate communication. Her books, Measure What Matters (Wiley, March 2011) and Measuring Public Relationships (KDPaine & Partners, 2007) are considered must-reads for anyone tasked with measuring public relations and social media. 

Her latest company, Paine Publishing is the first educational publishing firm entirely dedicated to making more Measurement Mavens. In her consulting practices, she designs measurement dashboards for some of today’s most admired companies. 

More recently, Katie was named one of “25 women who rock social media” by Lee Odden’s prestigious Online Marketing Blog. 

She contributes to Communications World, PR Week, and Business Marketing. 

They talk with Fletcher Marketing PR’s Director of Media Relations, Allison Lester, about the upcoming transition from Google Analytics to the new GA4. Google Analytics has been utilized by professionals for the better part of a decade and is now being transitioned due to the fast-paced growth of our world. 

They talk about the difference between Google Analytics and GA4 regarding:

• Measurement of events rather than sessions
• Engagement rates
• Adjustments in the attribution model
• Tracking of cohorts
• The process of setting up goals 
• Integrated Marketing 
• And why you shouldn't wait until Q2 to get started on transitioning your business

Sessions will be held this April to provide information on GA4 to PR professionals. Visit www.painepublishing.com or email Katie at measurementqueen@gmail.com. 

Listen to this episode of MsInterPReted to find out more about the transition from Google Analytics to the new GA4. 

Follow Katie Paine on:

Follow Jill on Twitter: @queenofmetrics

Visit: https://painepublishing.com/

Follow Greg Jarboe on:

On Twitter: @gregjarboe

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-jarboe-876364/

Follow Fletcher Marketing PR on:

Website:  https://www.fletchermarketingpr.com/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fletchermarketingpr

On Twitter:  @fletcherpr

On Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fletcher.pr/

Follow Kelly on Twitter: @KDFletcher

Follow Mary Beth on Twitter: @marybethwest 

Jill Kilgore has been with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development for the past five years as the public relations media manager. She is a graduate of Southern Illinois University. The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development is the go-to for all things vacation related in Tennessee. 

Sara Beth Urban is the CEO and president of HospitaityTN. Her past experience includes being Executive Director of the Tennessee Whiskey Trail and being involved with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development as the Middle Tennessee Division Manager. HospitalityTN represents the interests of Tennessee’s lodging, dining, and tourism establishments and the related businesses involved in the hospitality & tourism industry.

In this episode of MsInterPReted, Jill and Sara Beth discuss what they both love about the hospitality and tourism industry in Tennessee. 

They talk about the state of tourism in Tennessee regarding: 

• TDTD and HospitalityTN efforts in the industry
• Tennessee Music Pathways https://www.tnvacation.com/tennessee-music-pathways
• Economic impacts of domestic and international travel 
• Current trends and attractions
• Predictions for upcoming trends in tourism
• The Bill Dance Lake initiative
• Women in tourism and hospitality 
• What everyone needs to see when they visit Tennessee

 Listen to this episode of MsInterPReted to find out more about tourism in Tennessee. 

Follow  Tennessee Department of Tourism Development on:

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tdtdindustry/

Follow Jill on Twitter: @jillrkilgore 

Follow Jill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-kilgore-4909299a/

Follow HospitalityTN on:

On Twitter: @tnhta 

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hospitalitytn/?hl=en

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HospitalityTN

On LinkedIn: ​​https://www.linkedin.com/company/hospitalitytn/

Follow Sara Beth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-beth-urban-13290143/

Follow Fletcher Marketing PR on:

Website:  https://www.fletchermarketingpr.com/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fletchermarketingpr

On Twitter:  @fletcherpr

On Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fletcher.pr/

Follow CEO Kelly Fletcher on Twitter: @KDFletcher

Allison and Sarah discuss the Fletcher Marketing PR team’s predictions for public relations trends for 2023. With the end of the year around the corner, it is important to be thinking about strategic plans for the future. They talk through these predictions, the implications and benefits for businesses to look toward in the new year. 

In this episode Allison and Sarah discuss predictions about: 

• Changes in the economy 
• The death of influencer marketing
• The importance of paid media 
• Gathering and dissemination of data 
• Increase in need for owned media 
• Innovation and integration 
• Taking a stand on social issues 

Sharon Fenster is a public relations and diversity, equity and inclusion expert. In 2018, while serving as president of the NYC chapter of PRSA, she advocated for greater diversity equity inclusion in the PR world. This included a controversial stance at that time - calling for the release of diversity data among various organizations, not only industry associations, but private companies and agencies.

In this episode, Sharon discusses what it means to be an ally, checking your privilege and using it for good, her personal journey to allyship and the changing landscape of diversity equity and inclusion in corporate America. We discuss how to handle the threat of retaliation for standing your ground and how to handle the possibility of internal or external blow-back.

Learn how allyship feeds into authentic leadership or heart centered leadership and why its so important for workers today.

Robin Wilhoit, anchor of Knoxville's NBC affiliate WBIR, shares her insights on journalism, ethics, the changing face of the industry and what it's like being a woman in this ever-changing field.

Robin is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She has been a broadcast journalist for more than 30 years, and has been anchoring the weekday newscasts at WBIR since the 90's.

She is passionate about being a community advocate, serves on several local nonprofit boards and frequently lends her time to serve the people of East Tennessee. In 1998, she helped to launch Buddy Check 10, a program to promote breast cancer awareness.

Beyond being an award-winning journalist, leader, and community advocate, she is also a mother of two. She shares the challenges of managing it all.

Robin shares her experiences on:
Ethics in the newsroom
Trust in the media and how to differentiate truth from fiction in news-gathering
Maintaining humanity in journalism
Sharing your gifts and talents
The importance of mentorship
Being a woman in a male-run industry at the beginning of her career
Maintaining mental health in an emotionally difficult profession

Paid placement should be considered another tool in your public relations toolbox.
It's an especially good tool when trying to raise awareness about new and emerging brands.
There's paid news release distribution that should be used for big announcements or seeding.
Another form of paid placement is affiliate marketing that is another great tool to get your brand noticed in major media outlets.
Syndicated content is a good way to control the messaging and imagery to release paid content that is prominently displayed and clearly labeled as sponsored content.
Sarah goes through the different ways that these avenues impact SEO which is incredibly important for getting clicks.
One of our favorite options that isn't exactly paid, is content contributor programs where you pay a fee to be considered, but there's still an application process. This option helps to gain credibility for your brand and helps to position you as an expert in thought leadership in your field.

With the possible repeal of Roe v. Wade in the headlines, Mary Beth West and Kelly Fletcher talk about public relations strategies for businesses considering weighing in.
Many people feel corporate brands need to take a definitive stand on these types of hot-button issue.
There seems to now be a high level consumer expectation that corporations take a stand on issues and also consumer criticism if your corporate brand is remaining silent.
Mary Beth and Kelly agree there's a time and a place for companies to speak out on issues that are relevant to their business, interests and industries. And then there are times when it's absolutely not.
They talk through companies that have taken a stand on Roe v. Wade specifically, and the criticism surrounding PR Firm Edelman and Zeno's advice to not.

The past few years have been tumultuous in the journalism industry. From shrinking newsrooms, fragmentation, audience mistrust, COVID and other global crisis. Muckrack conducted its annual survey of more than 1,000 journalists to assess the state of journalism in 2022.
Greg Gallant is the co-founder and CEO of Muckrack and speaks on the company's annual report.

Greg talks about his career as an entrepreneur and how he navigated a career from philosophy to what he does now.
"Once you get to any meaningful scale, the number one job of being an entrepreneur or a CEO.
Is communicating ideas boiling down what's happening in the world and coming up with kind of a way to explain it and a way to position your company to be relevant."

Some key findings from the report:
Journalists are busier than ever and are covering more beats than ever before.
Journalists are more likely to respond to pitches in 2022 than they were in 2021.
Journalists feel trust from the public is improving.
Twitter is the go-to social media platform for journalists. But that's not where they want to get their pitches!
Greg offers some tips about how to use Twitter to connect with journalists and how to make authentic connections.
Greg addresses the gender gap in journalism and what his company is doing to combat the issue.
Finally, Kelly and Greg talk about leading in a remote world and the transition to remote work.