Earlier in my career I worked in television publicity at various levels of responsibility. 

Since then my career portfolio has evolved to more fully encompass today’s hallmarks of the communications landscape: digital marketing, social media, blogging and other online content with public relations as its foundation.

Indeed, this reflects my more robust portfolio of communications skills, but more importantly, reflects today’s landscape in which all companies, brands and individuals need to navigate to tell -- and sell -- their story. While 20 years ago it may have been enough to write a press release, send it to reporters (often by fax rather than email!), and follow up by phone to determine their interest -- in today’s marketing universe (or should I say, Twitterverse), you need to have ‘all jets running’ to fully communicate your story and disseminate your message.

In other words, it’s not enough to simply send out your press release, post it to the web, and hope for the best. You also need to employ digital channels -- namely, social media, where people are looking for and finding news headlines. You do need to post it to the News and Announcements section of your website, and hopefully, garner press coverage that reflects your leadership talking about the announcement and answering specific questions. Blogging is another way to achieve the same goal as a press release in a succinct and compelling way -- as is paid media in the form of online advertising. Naturally, paid media may not be the avenue every company chooses for every announcement, particularly as there are enough avenues to get your word out for little or no cost: emailing a press release to your key press contacts, posting on the web, employing character-limited social media accounts such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to broadcast your announcement.

What matters is that whether you are a member of a corporate leadership team, or building your own personal brand, you want to utilize all of the communication channels available at your fingertips -- and on your mobile devices -- to get the word out!