White Papers

The Convergence of Marketing, PR and Customer Service
by Greg Kihlström, VP of Strategy
and Kaitlin Carpenter, Marketing Associate

A paradigm shift has been happening in the world of corporate communications for many years now. For a variety of reasons, the convergence of marketing and public relations is well documented and much discussed. This white paper adds another dimension to that discussion, which is equally important to any enterprise organization: customer service.

The white paper places this PR/marketing convergence in context with the growing need for organizations to take customer service, including idea generation, feedback and complaints, into account when planning communication strategies and internal communication structure. This white paper also aims to get a conversation started about how best to do this on both the enterprise and the small and medium-sized business level. The best examples of this type of integration are yet to come, but the hope is that by furthering the conversation we will see continued innovation.
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Social Search for Hospitality and Tourism
by Greg Kihlström, VP of Strategy

While the term began to pop up in 2004, social search didn’t really affect anyone until around 2008, when Google first began displaying Twitter posts in its search results. Since then, a number of developments have taken place along with the expected consumer backlash when new features are rolled out on popular platforms, but it seems that social search is here to stay.

Social search incorporates the next evolution of context to a user’s search engine results. This takes into account the social activity related to pieces of content, whether that is in the user’s immediate social network or simply the social popularity of content (based on the number of +1’s or Facebook Likes). Its goal is to add a layer of social relevance that is unique to each user who performs a search. In a way, it is similar to a recommendation engine like Netflix or Amazon, except that it spans the entirety of the Web.
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Creating a Digital Strategy for Nonprofits
by Greg Kihlström, VP of Digital Strategy

Built upon our years of experience, this guide walks you through an easy-to-follow, 7-step process for creating the building blocks of a digital strategy for nonprofits. It’s a useful tool for any company or organization whose communications or online presences need a solid foundation and course of action, or even those who might just need to refine their existing approach.

This includes both parts of a two-part guide written by our VP of Digital Strategy Greg Kihlström. It is designed to help nonprofits – large and small – to create their own digital strategy from scratch and rethink the relationship between the properties and tactics they are currently being used in terms of their appeal to key audiences, measurable results, and alignment with key organizational goals.
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