The holidays always elicit a flashback to the one thing that wasn’t so “joyous” for me as a kid: the thank-you notes. Many of us had parents who made us write to everyone who gave us presents—and not just during the holidays either. For us kids, it was a chore. In retrospect, I now see that, for our parents, thank-you notes were a way to build stronger relationships.

As a managing director at AB&C, I often attend events on behalf of my firm, where I walk into a room and strike up a conversation with complete strangers, or give the opening remarks to a crowd of unfamiliar faces. Today, I get excited about these opportunities to promote our agency. But once upon a time, networking was an uncomfortable experience for me, characterized by nervous glances around the room, a sweaty brow and awkward silences.

It’s one thing to claim a diverse workforce or patient population. It’s another thing to nurture a genuine culture of inclusion — one in which everyone feels welcomed and valued, one in which everyone can contribute to his or her fullest potential to achieve organizational objectives. This is where the rubber meets the road. Organizations that understand and address the unique perspectives held by their entire patient and employee population can gain significant ground.

Before reading further, please to do me a favor: Dismiss any notion you have that influencer marketing is just the latest buzz term for “celebrity endorsement.” Celebrity endorsements attach your brand to a big name (a Michael Jordan of the 1990s, if you will) in order to hit anyone and everyone.

When it comes to new technology, marketers are often like a newborn playing with a set of keys. It’s new. It’s shiny. And we just need to have it and play with it. But, just because it is new and cool doesn’t mean that it’s the right fit, and often marketers adopt a new technology or platform just so they can scream “first!” with reckless abandon.

By Megan Egan and Samantha Mueller

There’s something uniquely empowering about sharing a room with 12,000 women (and a few brave men) at the largest annual gathering of women in the country. It was a day where the world’s most influential women—among them former First Lady Michelle Obama and writer, executive producer and creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, Shonda Rhimes—got candid about what it means to lean in, speak up and keep your seat at the table.

That’s it. The world is ending. These millennials are going to ruin what is great about our businesses. You know, they’re lazy. They don’t communicate well. They’re completely self-absorbed. They’re… they’re… going to do amazing things if we allow them to!

Gone are the days when the “newness” of a news item was ample motivation to get people interested and mobilized to support a cause, buy a product or develop brand loyalty. Think about it: When was the last time you saw a press conference—including those at the White House—that didn’t include at least one member from the community sharing the impact of the news on him or her? Consider the same question about recent articles you’ve read, TV news reports you’ve seen or interviews you’ve heard.

What is Google for Jobs?

When posting open job opportunities on the web, you may find that the same job posting appears in the search results from multiple job sites, through an applicant tracking system (ATS) or on a corporate careers page. To remove these redundant and often confusing search results for job seekers, Google recently launched a new AI-powered job search feature called “Google for Jobs.” This mechanism is built right into the standard search engine everyone is already familiar with.

Recently, I was reacquainted with The Art of Client Service, a must-read for any aspiring account executive eager to set his or her agency (and the ad world) on fire. Flipping through the pages, I wondered why there was never a companion piece, The Art of Being a Great Client. Looking back on the countless clients I’ve worked with over the years, there were certain traits that uniformly predicted who would be a great client and, in turn, where the agency would do its best work.

So, your business needs a marketing communications agency. Where do you start? Common sense tells you to ask for recommendations, look up agencies that you’ve heard have a good reputation and do lots of internet research.

Even if my intention for this blog was to offer you advice on starting an agency search, I couldn’t—not without knowing specifics of your industry, business model and objectives. But what I can offer any business that’s facing an agency search is insight, to help you avoid what I call the “new-home letdown.”

Ever since there’s been the practice of marketing communications, there’s been a concept inseparable from it: the customer journey. If you understood your target audience and could communicate effectively at each stage of their purchasing journey, you’d do OK in the marcom profession.