Every nonprofit plays a unique value role in enriching its community. Communicating that role to the public is no simple feat. Jennifer Dekel’s mission is to help organizations distill their value and determine how to best talk about it, both internally and externally....
When a crisis hits, it is essential to take an honest assessment of where you stand. To do this, you need to surround yourself with team members willing to give you the brutal truth, so you can shape your crisis communication plan from there....
Read Shoutout LA's interview of Miller Ink CEO Nathan Miller, including starting a business, where Miller Ink focuses on behalf of their clients and some great Los Angeles food recommendations!...
In strategic communications, writing is a very collaborative and iterative process. This is not the case for a novelist, for instance, who works alone and has complete creative control. At a company like Miller Ink that writes with strategic intent, collaboration is critical to producing excellent content....
In a media landscape that’s constantly shifting, many organizations are left wondering how they can best cut through the noise and tell their story. While many companies feel compelled to join every new platform, this approach could actually compromise their ability to reach target audiences....
Just a few years ago, social impact work was widely viewed as a “nice to have” for companies. Today, social impact work is increasingly understood to be a “need to have.” As millennial leaders increasingly come into positions of power in business, government, and philanthropy, accountability will be prioritized more than ever, says Emily Kane Miller, founder and CEO of Ethos Giving, Miller Ink’s...
Quotes are soundbites. They are the written equivalent of the snappy, insightful clips that make the news after a presidential debate, red carpet event, or championship game. Unlike a lede or body paragraph, they have a uniquely human feel. When you read a good quote, you can sense the cadence of natural speech and hear the subject’s voice in your head....
In 2013, Nathan Miller – our founder and CEO – stepped down from his position at the United Nations to start a strategic communications firm in Los Angeles. With a hunch that the media landscape was profoundly shifting, and that strategically integrating old and new approaches to media could transform the industry, Nathan founded Miller Ink to help organizations tell their stories and navigate...
Successful op-eds are clear, concise, and compelling. They provide provocative, insightful color about current events. They entice readers to broaden their understanding of a particular issue, anchored by strong statistics, stories, and soundbites. Most of all, they establish thought leadership—to anyone who reads your piece, your client becomes the expert on record....
On the record, on background, and off the record - It is critical that when on the phone with a reporter about sensitive information, you specify the expectation of the conversation by confirming the status of the conversation....
Having the proper technical skills is essential to getting any job. At the same time, hiring managers overwhelmingly stress the importance of soft skills. We recently sat down with Allie Longo, Miller Ink’s Account Executive, to discuss what soft skills are, why they’re important, and how moving to a foreign country for a year helped her sharpen these skills for herself....
You hear a name – for a person, company, or organization – and want to know more. What’s the first thing you do? For most people, the first stop is Google. The results that turn up will fundamentally frame how the searcher views their object of interest....
From employee layoffs to store closures to a rise in e-commerce sales, the COVID-19 pandemic created fundamental changes in how businesses operate. One business trend that has gained momentum over the past year, and looks as if it’s here to stay, is Corporate Social Responsibility....
The communications landscape has changed profoundly over the last two decades. Declining ad revenues and shrinking newsrooms have caused a paradigm shift in journalism, at the same time that social media platforms have empowered everyone to become their own publisher and speak directly to an audience....
As CEO of a strategic communications firm in Los Angeles, I frequently work with lawyers. Whether my client is a high-profile individual in the middle of active litigation, a nonprofit engaged in a public education campaign or a large corporation getting ahead of a story — good or bad — there is a legal team at the center of the action....
COVID-19 has overwhelmed our hospitals, halted our economy, and transformed our culture overnight. It has also filled our inboxes, as seemingly every non-profit we’ve donated to, brand we’ve bought from, hotel we’ve visited, airline we’ve flown, and local business we’ve frequented has reached out since this pandemic erupted. How can you ensure that your communications meet this complex and challenging moment?...
How do ideas and information travel from out in the world onto our phones and then into our brains? When I ask this question, people often respond by describing how big tech companies monitor our online behavior and sell our data to advertisers. And while the Googles and Facebooks of the world are certainly a part of the story, they only scratch the surface....
A short video on YouTube or TikTok now regularly garners more viewers than a prime-time slot on CNN. A website put up overnight masquerading as “news” may make a bigger splash than an in-depth investigative report in the Washington Post. And a well-executed tweet can build more buzz than an appearance on GMA. These radical changes in the communications landscape are driven by several interrelated trends....