B2B Social Media in 2023
PR Tips

B2B Social Media in 2023: Six Noteworthy Trends

Social media has become an integral part of our lives. About 4.74 billion people use social media worldwide, 59.3 percent of the total population. The average time people spend on these platforms is two hours and 27 minutes daily. Needless to say, social media is an essential tool for businesses to connect with customers and prospects. The social media landscape is ever-changing, making it important to stay on top of the latest trends. With 2023 only

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Content Marketing
PR Tips

Content Marketing: 15 Quotes That Might Change Your Perspective

It’s no surprise that traditional (non-digital) marketing is on the decline. This is due to the rise of social media and digital communication. Overall, marketers continue to reduce their traditional advertising budgets, “while growth in expenses on digital marketing remained positive…In February 2022, CMOs in the U.S said their digital spending grew by 16.2 percent.” Content marketing, however, is gaining steam as the world modernizes and adapts to the digital world.  To better understand this

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B2b social media
Market Leadership

B2B Social Media Marketing: 10 Quotes to Use as Guiding Principles

As marketing professionals, we all use social media interchangeably throughout our day. It’s how we stay engaged, have conversations and create connections.  The tricky part is promoting these concepts to our B2B customers. Marketers need to try and tell a story from a strategic narrative point of view. If there is one thing I have learned, B2B social media marketing gains attention when storytelling is at the forefront.  B2B marketing on social platforms is a

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B2B Tech PR
Thought Leadership

B2B Tech PR: The New Reality of Securing Coverage

Earlier this year I overheard someone say regarding pitching journalists, “Public Relations is just expectation management,” and that could not be more true.  However, it’s becoming more challenging as a public relations professional, especially in the B2B tech space, to manage expectations in a consistent way. It seems the tactics to get coverage are changing constantly.  Is it due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Perhaps partly. But, according to Cision’s 2021 State of the Media report,

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category narrative
Thought Leadership

Use this Template to Create Your Category Narrative

Companies often adopt the Strategic Narrative Marketing approach because they want to lead markets, stand apart or define an industry category. The approach requires the development of an industry narrative to articulate your company’s vision and align it around a purpose-focused positioning statement. Sometimes, the narrative reveals uncomfortable truths. Perhaps an organization isn’t truly aligned with current trends that are impacting the future of the industry. Or, maybe the organization is aligned, but changes need

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industry narrative now
Strategic Narrative

There’s No Better Time Than Now to Adopt an Industry Narrative

As we transition into the ‘next normal’ for business, many marketers are re-evaluating their positioning and thinking about how to emerge as a leader in a changing and unpredictable world. We have long advocated for all companies to have an industry narrative, and if there was ever a time to adopt one it’s now. An industry narrative is the guiding light of an organization’s highest aspirations. It goes beyond what you ‘do’ and provides a

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messaging strategy
Strategic Narrative

Freshen Up Your Messaging Strategy: Spring Your Narrative Forward

Spring is in the air — and we are reminded of new beginnings. We see blossoming flowers, green growth on trees and longer days. In business, Springtime reminds us that the company messaging strategy also benefits from newness and growth.  So many companies suffer from stale, ineffective messaging with no significant changes for years. Or, internal efforts result in inward and narrow messaging that is ineffective and draining.  After repeated tries at differentiation and capturing

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social media managers
Thought Leadership

What Social Media Managers Need to Know About Monitoring

A social media managers’ job is not done once posts are created and scheduled. In a previous article in this series, we dove into exactly what it takes to craft the perfect social media post. However, to run a successful social media program, social media managers must regularly monitor all active accounts for mentions, messages, comments and more. For larger brands, there could be dozens of social media managers whose job it is to track all incoming

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Thought Leadership

Social Media Management Tips for Small Teams – The Art of Posting

Social media management is officially a full-time job and serious career path. While this trend has been on the rise for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic and recent social justice movements have pushed even more people to sign up for social media accounts. With new social platforms popping up at head-spinning rates and algorithms changing constantly, assuming a role in social media management is no small feat, for small and big teams alike. Social media

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Market Leadership

Three Reasons You Need a Strategic Narrative Messaging Assessment

It can be hard to get out of your own head. In business, we are all so close to our company messaging that we sometimes miss the flaws or opportunities for a better narrative. At Catapult, we’ve talked to dozens of CEOs who are unsatisfied with their company narrative but unsure how to go about improving it. When you’re busy running a business or leading teams, you tend to be inwardly focused on your products

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Market Leadership

Align Your Company with a Category-focused Strategic Narrative

A building is only as strong as its foundation. The same is true for relationships, education and business. One of the core foundational components of any successful business is organizational alignment. Organizations founded upon and aligned around a set of core values and a clear vision tend to lead industries. From our experience as a PR firm in the tech industry, alignment can be achieved through a strategic narrative that defines a new or existing

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Thought Leadership

Twelve PR Quotes That Still Ring True Today

“This is not a secret press bureau. All our work is done in the open. We aim to supply news.” -Ivy Lee In 1906, Ivy Lee issued the “Declaration of Principles.” This “declaration” laid the groundwork for public relations. In his “Declaration of Principles,” Lee stated that the public and the press had a right to know timely and accurate information regarding a company’s actions and thus the ideology of public relations was born. Ivy

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authenticity
Market Leadership

How to Achieve Narrative Authenticity in 2020 and Beyond

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” – Aristotle What separates an ordinary business from a market driver that propels an industry forward? It’s not just about the company’s products and/or services and it goes beyond being ‘cool’ or ‘edgy.’ You have to look a little closer and see what is woven into the fabric of these organizations.  Simply put, these companies are all about narrative authenticity. They stay true to who they are

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PR
Market Leadership

PR Predictions for 2020: The Great “PR” Revival

Over the summer, my family and I spent a long weekend at a cabin in the Colorado mountains. Having two young children, a campfire and S’mores were an essential part of our plans. The kids asked about 100 times when we were going to have S’mores – and on our final night, we made it happen. To my husband’s surprise, a chocolate ad promoting S’mores popped up in his Instagram feed the next day! This

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2020
Market Leadership

Top Marketing Tips for a Strong 2020 from Forbes

A solid plan and fresh ideas are great ways to kick off a new year in business. Marketers have a lot to consider as they enter 2020. What are the marketing goals and are they aligned with the overall business strategy? What is the budget? What worked and what didn’t work in 2019? Forbes Communication Council shared tips from 15 marketing thought leaders – including Catapult’s chief narrative officer and principal, Guy Murrel – on how to

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Market Leadership

Another DevOps Enterprise Summit in the Books

As DevOps Enterprise Summit 2019 comes to a close, the Catapult team heads home after three days of immersive learning and networking in Las Vegas. If you’re not already familiar with the DevOps Enterprise Summit – it is the premier industry conference for business and technology leaders to learn how to develop and deploy software faster and win in the marketplace. The Catapult team provided PR and social media support for the event for the

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20
Strategic Narrative

Catapult Celebrates 20 Years: 20 PR Lessons Learned

Twenty years ago today Terri Douglas and I took our own good advice and started our PR firm — Catapult PR. Since 9/9/99, there’s been a lot of hard work, an awesome group of employees past and present, many great clients, and a whole lot to be grateful for. There are also many lessons learned along the way on this wild and crazy ride. This year is especially significant because it marks the big “2-0”

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category leader
Strategic Narrative

Elements of Strategic Narrative Marketing for Category Leadership

‘Strategic Narrative Marketing’ elevates company positioning and messaging to help B2B organizations become category winners through their industry narrative BOULDER, Colo., June 12, 2019 — Catapult PR-IR (www.catapultpr-ir.com), a high-tech public relations and Strategic Narrative Marketing agency, today released the four elements for building a strategic narrative focused on industry megatrends, insights, vision and category definition. The four elements help companies discover their narrative for the industry so they can tell a story that is

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webinar
Thought Leadership

Webinar: Learn What Makes a Category Champion

As 2018 nears the end, many of us are busy planning and developing strategies to make 2019 an amazingly successful year.  On Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 at 11 a.m. PST/Noon MST, I will be hosting a webinar to help business leaders and marketers learn why industry category champions win in the marketplace. These are the companies that people want to hire, work for and invest in, and we’ll dive into why this is so important

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job
Thought Leadership

The Recipe for Landing Your First (PR) Job

The holiday season is a wonderful and magical time. It’s a time for making lasting memories, and a wonderful time for spending time with loved ones. Can it be a magical time for landing your first real job? Yes!  From personal experience, I am most grateful for my new job during this holiday season at Catapult PR in Boulder, one of the top B2B high-tech PR agencies. Some of you may have been wondering why

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budgeting a stategic narrative
Thought Leadership

Budgeting a Strategic Narrative: Why Your CEO Will Love It

It’s that time of year where the B-word is front and center. That’s right, the budget. Budget planning brings up mixed feelings and it can get a little intense. As marketers, it’s not always easy to get the CEO on board with certain budget items. Demonstrating value and ROI can be tricky – and the CEO wants to know that the investment is worth it. Unfortunately, marketing also tends to get a bad rap for

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celebrating
Strategic Narrative

We’re Celebrating Our 19th Anniversary as a High Tech PR Firm

Wow – it’s hard to believe that we’re celebrating 19 years in business. Time flies when you’re having fun – and boy do we know how to have fun. As we reflect over almost two decades of hard work and success, we can’t help but feel a sense of pride as we think about all the good work we’ve done to help our tech company friends build awareness, thought leadership and create attention-grabbing positioning and

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brand leadership
Strategic Narrative

Brand Leadership And The Narrative Economy

The following is an excerpt from an article by Guy Murrel titled, “Brand Leadership and the Narrative Economy,” that was originally published on Forbes.com While just “words,” the power of narrative is now a force to be reckoned with — from politics and pop culture to social movements and business. All too often, we now see narrative take down the mighty and powerful and, at the same time, expose the once obscure to great fame.

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Top Quotes on PR and Narrative from Catapult

In a previous blog, I shared some tips on what I learned from my first couple of weeks in the PR industry. One thing I learned after joining the Catapult team is that, “Tips from co-workers are the best… if a co-worker gives you any information on how to make your time more productive or to make others in the office happier, take it. Many of my co-workers at Catapult have helped me with this.” Shouldn’t

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collaboration
Market Leadership

Collaboration: the Ultimate Win/Win for Everyone

Think about it. What is it about certain people or environments that make you enjoy your work more? You probably feel empowered, that there is an open exchange of ideas, and encouragement to express your thoughts, ideas and suggestions. Whether it’s personal or in the business world, it is clear. The more collaboration, the greater the trust, learning, growth and innovation. According to Wikipedia, collaboration is “the process of two or more people or organizations

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Market Leadership

Narrative + PR = Category Winner

It’s harder than ever to stand out — with most companies saying the same thing as competitors. It’s even harder to seize the top spot within your given category. Despite all the digital automation and intelligence available to marketers, effective public relations still provides the most credible path to winning the market positioning battle, especially for startups and B2B tech firms. Don’t get me wrong… Growth hacking is great. As is paid digital marketing that

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Strategic Narrative

How Communications Pros can get the Whole Company Excited About Category Building

Communications and PR people get the importance of narrative. You don’t need to convince us, it’s the world we live in. Stories shape and redefine our companies, our clients, the industry we are in and the industries we represent.  Our day-to-day work involves digging up those narratives, editing them, analyzing them and acting with the story as the backbone of our activity. Therefore, when the marketing team creates a plan or the PR agency comes

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Thought Leadership

We’ve Come Full Circle: Email is Dead.

I’m not one to jump on trends. If something brings actual value, then I’m all for it. If it feels like it’s all style over substance, it probably is. Business development in the B2B tech sector for public relations companies is often a timely convergence of need, trends and luck. In the age of email lists – bought and sold like bizdev currency – it is tempting to get stuck in the blast loop, trying

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Market Leadership

Women-in-Tech Narrative Aims to Empower and Inspire

This article is reposted from Business 2 Community. Read the original posting here: https://www.business2community.com/leadership/women-in-tech-narrative-aims-to-empower-and-inspire-02052220 An industry narrative presents a great opportunity for organizations of all types to stand for something higher than “what they do.” Crafting a narrative that aims to inspire industry change is the stuff that sets true market leaders apart and determines business winners and category champions. Sometimes it’s hard to grasp how a strategic narrative – not traditional messaging or storytelling – can

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Market Leadership

Dear CMO, What’s Makes a Tasty Marketing Recipe?

There is no one correct way to make my favorite dish of all time – macaroni and cheese. With a plethora of options — from cheese selection to noodle type, in addition to different cooking methods involving butter, eggs or cream — the beautiful thing about making “mac and cheese” is that no matter what ingredients you use, the combination of pasta and cheese usually tastes good no matter what (though there are still ways

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Market Leadership

Time for CEOs to do Some Spring Cleaning

And Strategic Narrative Marketing is Blooming. . . Ahhh, Springtime. The grass is starting to turn green, the birds are chirping, and tulips and daffodils are popping up through the dirt to greet the sun. You’re probably even thinking about golf, vacations and scheduling a few outings with your friends and family. That’s the familiar narrative we are all accustomed to when we think about Spring. Now, apply that to what your company does each

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Market Leadership

Narrative Spotlight: Mavenlink

The narrative movement is gaining traction among industry leaders. An industry narrative is higher-level than storytelling and that alone forces companies to think differently. By participating in this movement, companies have the opportunity to offer a unique voice and contribute to the overall betterment of the industry. What we’re talking about rises above products and services. It is the essence of who a company is and its vision for the industry. Many companies that have

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Market Leadership

Selfless Marketing is a Thing (Let me Explain …)

Believe it or not, a company’s messaging does not have to be self-centered. Stay with me for a moment and let me explain what I mean. I know, I know the very word “marketing” means promoting and selling. So how can marketing be selfless? Isn’t the purpose of marketing always to increase the bottom line? Shouldn’t a B2B company focus on advertising and promoting its solutions? Sure, those activities matter and good marketing will end

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The Goldilocks Method of Collaboration

Slack. Google Docs. SharePoint. Dropbox. Add in calls, texts, emails and any of the other dozens of possible collaboration tools available today, and even the most mindful can be fraught with anxiety. In reality, we – the world of business and technology – got what we asked for. No more playing phone tag with remote workers, a reduction in trite emails and always-updated documents living in the Cloud safe from the accidental deletion or a

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Strategic Narrative

That’s a Wrap! DevOps Enterprise Summit San Francisco 2017 Musings

It’s hard to believe the fourth installment of DevOps Enterprise Summit San Francisco (DOES17) is complete! We are honored to be partners with IT Revolution and Electric Cloud to support what we believe is one of the best (if not THE best) DevOps conferences out there. Every year seems to be better than the next, and it’s safe to say that DOES17 was the best yet. DOES has been selling out every year since it

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Strategic Narrative

It’s Budget Time. . . .

And you know what that means. Looking at what you spent last year and seeing what worked, what didn’t (and why) Investigating ways to streamline resources, budget, yet get more impact Seeing where to invest to ‘move the needle’ so your organization/company can get more sales, be acquired, raise more money Let’s be honest. It’s stressful. Boards want justification for the money you (your company) spent and why. Investors want the same, but, they want

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stranger things in PR
Strategic Narrative

“Stranger Things” in Public Relations

Public relations can expose some interesting, challenging and even spooky situations. Oftentimes, PR professionals can feel lost when it comes to delivering (and measuring) results for their clientele. Unless specific goals and key performance indicators are set and understood from the start, trouble can arise. Additionally, the call to quantify public relations’ value for the boardroom can seem never-ending. Many are even starting to eliminate some (or all) of the PR line item from budgets

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Market Leadership

How an Industry Narrative Prevents Your Content from Becoming Spam

Content marketing standards might be at an all-time low. Many business-to-business companies are outsourcing content creation, often to “jack-of-all-trades”-content farms who do not have a deep understanding of the businesses they are writing about. Also, we are seeing automated content and the use of robots or AI for content creation grow in popularity. Heck, even journalism organizations like the Associated Press are using robots to write stories, so why not? But is all of this

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Thought Leadership

Starting My Career in the PR Industry: What I Did That Helped & What I Wish I Would Have Known

Well, I’m straight out of college and have my first job in the public relations industry. Catapult PR gave me a home after graduation, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! Now that first week jitters have come and gone it’s the perfect time to reflect on my thoughts from this past couple of weeks. Arriving at Catapult on my first day wasn’t at all bad. I had met everyone throughout the interview process, so seeing

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Thought Leadership

Practicing DevOps with Your Public Relations Agency: Tips for a Successful Relationship

Let’s face it – in today’s digital world, you are probably working for an organization that runs on software in some way. Even if you aren’t working directly with the software part of your business, there is a chance that you have heard the term “DevOps” buzzing around over the past several years. Not ringing any bells? DevOps, while many may dispute a concrete definition, is a term used in the software delivery industry to

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Strategic Narrative

Catapult Wins TWO National Industry Awards for Strategic Narrative Marketing

We are honored to share that we recently received two national awards for our Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM) messaging framework that helps organizations define and own categories. We are now the proud owners of a Gold Stevie Award for PR Innovation in the 2017 American Business Awards™, and Silver for New Products and Services in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations in the 2017 Golden Bridge Awards.  “This is a big milestone for Catapult as we work

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air quotes dr. evil narrative
Market Leadership

50 Quotes on “Narrative” that Change the Way we look at Storytelling

While a picture may be worth a thousand words, the narrative itself is priceless. As PR and marketing pros, we strive to develop (and nurture) a strategic narrative that will help our clients leapfrog their competition and win in the marketplace. While this is not an easy feat, taking the time and making the effort to create a powerful narrative (at the industry level) helps establish thought leadership and the opportunity to “influence the influencers.”

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Strategic Narrative

Five Things You Need to Know From Digital Summit Denver

Last week I attended the Digital Summit Denver and soaked up fresh knowledge from some of the brightest minds in the digital world. This was my second Digital Summit experience and what I find most impressive is the quality of speakers each year. It’s hard to pick one session when there are five concurrent sessions all with juicy, enticing titles. The good news is that I left fired up and filled to the brim with

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strategic narrative
Strategic Narrative

An Industry Narrative Helps CEO’s Align Company Culture Around a Common Goal

A company that finds its voice and truly leads an industry often changes the world with new innovations and new ways of thinking. By blazing a path through unknown territory and beckoning others to follow, true industry leaders shape the future. It’s these brands that we remember through the decades, whose products become household names. Not only do organizations that achieve this kind of success provide good products or services, they offer a new way

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Strategic Narrative

The More You Give, the More You Get

I generally find that the saying “the more you give the more you get” holds true when applied in life and business. In life, the rewards of giving are more intangible and somewhat spiritual – feeling good inside, aligned and centered, and riding the wave of a positive force. It’s more of a karma thing. But what about in business? How much should you give and share with the market, even competitors? When I look

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Market Leadership

Takeaways from DevOps Enterprise Summit London 2017

DevOps Enterprise Summit London 2017 (DOES17) is a wrap! We (Catapult PR) were proud to partner with IT Revolution to help make the second year of the London conference come to life. DOES17 took place in the amazing Queen Elizabeth II Centre in the heart of London from June 5-6, 2017. Nearly 700 software delivery practitioners, business leaders and DevOps luminaries from around the world joined us for two jam-packed days of programmatic learning featuring

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Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narrative Marketing 101: What is a ‘Messaging Space?’

We (Catapult PR) talk a lot about our unique approach to positioning and messaging called Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM). The approach defies traditional company-centric messaging because it challenges a company to look at messaging from a higher-level and focus on the industry. When this is done correctly, the company has an opportunity to be more strategic and develop a narrative that is unique, compelling and actually means something to the industry. When we share tips

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Market Leadership

How a CrowdChat Can Bring Your Industry (and Narrative) Together

In the world of PR and marketing, it’s always crucial to keep a pulse on the latest and greatest tools and technologies. Why? These present new and innovative ways to help bring your client’s or your company’s messages and strategies to market. If you’re a Twitter person, like me, perhaps you’ve stumbled onto an application called CrowdChat – a social chat platform where a crowd creates the content through engaging conversations and a gamified experience.

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Market Leadership

Strategically Targeting Analysts as Key Influencers: AR is a Two-Way Street

Analyst relations (AR) and public relations are usually closely paired within the marketing functions of today’s businesses. At Catapult, we run AR programs for most of our clients, in addition to PR. This makes sense because in some ways, analysts function like journalists—although more technical, specialized and usually with prior firsthand industry experience. Analysts formally report on the movements they see within particular markets. They evaluate and review vendors, provide recommendations and forecast future growth

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Market Leadership

Raise Your Brand Volume with Execution-as-a-Strategy

One of the best ways to beat your competition is to out execute them. This is especially true when it comes to PR and marketing. All too often companies get bogged down when it comes to PR cadence and frequency. Activities are done in fits and starts. Then, long lags in time occur as the company goes “quiet.” Meanwhile, the leaders in the market seem to be communication machines – frequently and consistently posting social

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