Technology continues to enhance our creativity and change the way we communicate and market to our clients’ target audiences. Regardless of what communication channels we use and what those individual messages are, there is one common trend that PR pros cannot ignore: The demand for and potential use of video in all that we do.

In November, we seized this opportunity and added professional video capabilities to our extensive lineup of services. What that means is that all video work is now done in-house, giving us, and our clients, full creative control over the content, concept, design and production of our client’s stories. And just as social media challenged us to think more succinctly (for example, in just 140 characters), integrating video into our programs challenges us to think visually about our clients’ messages.

We’re pretty sharp people, so I use the word “challenge” carefully here, but who couldn’t use a little inspiration? We’re constantly looking to other videos as sources for new ideas and new ways to present interviews, text treatments, animations and talking heads. What’s been done? What hasn’t been done? How can we engage our audiences and present this information in a new, innovative way?

In January, TED founder Chris Anderson announced a new initiative called Ads Worth Spreading. After receiving thousands of video entries, TED’s panel of experts recently announced the winners of the competition. This fantastic round-up of noteworthy videos has definitely served as a source of artistic and visual story-telling inspiration for us here at Matter.

So we ask, what videos have inspired you and your creative team?

As PR professionals, it is our job to be completely aware of news relevant to our clients. As you know, the PR world is fast-paced and ever-changing. It’s not always easy to find those extra minutes to dig through endless Google alerts or read through each national daily to ensure that we’re up to date with every piece of breaking news. My solution to this problem is my HootSuite social media dashboard.

I’ve found that no matter how busy I am, I can always find time to pop open my dashboard and get myself caught up to speed on what’s going on in the world. Isn’t it amazing that from glancing at the dashboard, you can go from completely unaware to engaging and helping spread the news, all in a matter of seconds?

My HootSuite dashboard is my version of The New York Times, USA Today, US Weekly and Boston Magazine all rolled into one digital publication that hardly requires any reading. I have the latest in U.S. news, Boston restaurant reviews and celebrity gossip right at my fingertips. This week, will your Sunday paper will be traditional or personalized?

Sometimes we come across those clients who are only interested in receiving coverage in national print publications and are reluctant to see the value in online coverage. Because social media has become integrated in everyday public relations in such a major way, we PR professionals must help our clients see the impact of online coverage and social media mentions, in addition to the benefits of secured print coverage. I recently shared an interesting article from the New York Times discussing the powerful impact mom bloggers have on the social media space with two of my clients.

The article, “Harnessing the Power of the Mom Blogger,” discusses how the mother blogger niche is active, loyal and deeply involved with spreading brand messages through different mediums.  It also stresses the importance of starting conversations with users and to engage users on social media, rather than pushing out a generic brand message.  

The impacts of a brand discussed on these mom blogger sites and on their social media outlets vary from customer retention, and trust to brand recognition and lead generation. Once your client is able to see the benefits of working with these bloggers, you can work to build your relationships with a group of loyal, enthusiastic, mom bloggers.

Do your clients appreciate the power of the Mom Blogger?

This week has been filled with some pretty great events.  Although we lost an hour of sleep, gaining a little extra daylight is the reminder we need that spring is right around the corner. On Thursday, many of us celebrated our first St. Patrick’s Day with the Matter team in Newburyport. And, although my record-breaking Friars still can’t make it to the tournament, we’re all excited for the start of this year’s March Madness.

I may not be the biggest sports fan, but the ability to have breaking news, stats and scores at your fingertips is pretty amazing. Many recent posts on MatterChatter have also addressed how the internet, mobile devices and social media have easily connected our world to the news. With instant access to apps to track your bracket, sites to read stats, stream live feeds and even check out President Obama’s picks there is more analysis than some can handle.

Does anyone miss watching full games or running to pick up a newspaper to check scores in the morning? I think it is great when an underdog beats the odds, but I’m wondering, in this information overload, has any excitement and anticipation been lost?

I recently went on a trip to welcome a baby to the family. The new grandmother, who recently signed up for Facebook, was confused by a comment left by her 30-something year old niece: “OMG! Congrats!” After a bit of explaining and discussion, she added another proud title to her repertoire: fluent text speaker.

ICYMI (In Case You Missed It), social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and texting have developed a language all their own. While acronyms have been around for years, with the introduction of texting and social media speak, we are undoubtedly speaking in groups of capital letters a lot more than we used to. But when is “social media slang” appropriate and when will YBS (You Be Sorry) you went with the shorthand?

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Friday morning we all awoke to news of a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake, followed by a 10-foot tsunami, hitting the coast of Japan. News, happening halfway around the world, was made instantaneously available at our fingertips through smart phones, laptops, televisions, tablets, and e-readers.

In 2009, I had the privilege to travel to Japan with a group of aspiring journalists and my experience was nothing short of amazing. The food, the sites, and the hospitality were all remarkable but it was the people we had the opportunity to meet that will forever stand out in my mind. While our journey has long since ended, those relationships have not thanks to social networks like Facebook – the same site that is now being described as a “lifeline” following the quake’s aftermath.

Computerworld reported that “with so many people unable to physically get to family and friends or to even reach them on the phone, countless people in Japan and around the world took to Twitter and Facebook to reach out to loved ones today.” On Friday, I myself frequently visited Facebook as a means for an update coming one from woman in particular whom I met on my trip and was grateful to see a post stating her and her family were well.

According to Computerworld, one hour after the quake “Online Social Media, which tracks social media services, reported that Twitter was experiencing 1,200 tweets posted every minute. And at most times [on Friday], eight or nine of Twitter’s top 10 Trending Tropics — such as #prayforjapan, #tsunami and #japan — were directly related to the earthquake and tsunami.”

But it wasn’t just Facebook and Twitter that played a role in the response to the earthquake. Google’s Crisis Response team launched a Japanese and English language Person Finder app to assist families looking for missing loved ones. Other efforts involved BusinessWire and PRNewswire waiving fees on press releases with news of aid and rescue efforts related to the earthquake.

These social media “lifelines” that awaken after a tragedy, allow us not only to act as a global community, but remind us of the power of connectivity and how everyday social media platforms can be executed for the greater good.

This week Matter announced the strengthening of our management team via new hiring and promotions. Congratulations to:

-        Kristin Amico, account manager.

-        Zachary Heath, account manager.

-        Anne Lines, account director.

-        Samantha Racki, account manager.

-        Greg Wind, account manager.

-        Tobi Young, account director.

We’re proud to work alongside these skilled PR practitioners. But they’re more than just PR pros. Each of them is a little, um, colorful, too. See if you can guess who’s who.

1-     At age 10, this person took apart a radio to find where all the instrument sounds and voices were coming from.

2-     This person has a puggle – a mix of a beagle and a pug – named “Lemon” after Liz Lemon, the character on 30 Rock.

3-     This person once shared a Capitol Hill elevator with Strom Thurmond, the U.S. Senator from South Carolina.

4-     This person lives in a 19^th-century house in the city where the U.S. Coast Guard was born.

5-     This person once drove across country writing about food and later started a cupcake truck.

6-     This person’s cats “Benson” and “Stabler” are named after characters in the TV show Law & Order SVU.

Think you can match the numbers with the names? The answers are in the Comment section below.

Charlie Sheen. I don’t need to rehash why he’s been in the news these past few weeks, and I don’t plan to offer any theories on what’s really going on. But one aspect of the Sheen saga that definitely grabbed my attention last week was when his longtime publicist, Stan Rosenfield, quit. The announcement was short and sweet: “I have worked with Charlie Sheen for a long time and I care about him very much,” Rosenfield said. “However, at this time, I’m unable to work effectively as his publicist and have respectfully resigned.”

One could say that Rosenfield was making the only smart — and sane — choice, running as far away from a hugely epic celebrity meltdown as he possibly could, without saying anything negatively about his (now former) client. On the other hand, is he passing up an opportunity to intervene, help a longtime friend and client navigate the mess he finds himself in, and perhaps (eventually) be a part of a major star’s comeback? Is he leaving when his client needs him the most?

When dealing with things like substance abuse, mental illness, big egos, celebrity feuds, and multi-million dollar contracts falling apart, it’s a lot easier to observe from afar and say “this is what I would have done.” For some, sticking around would have jeopardized Sheen’s publicist’s credibility: how can he expect to accomplish any degree of damage control when his client is behaving like a loose cannon and becoming more outrageous to the public by the hour? For others, staying on board might have been seen as honorable or brave: what’s more loyal than attempting to guide a client through a full-blown crisis, especially if (as many suspect) that client needs real help, much deeper than PR guidance?

It’s an interesting dilemma, but I’m inclined to agree with Rosenfield’s instinct. I probably would have wished Charlie the best and then run from that scene as fast as humanly possible, hoping, praying, and crossing my fingers that he ends up okay in the end. 

As PR professionals, we’re prepared to handle tough situations; running away is not typically an option. But there are certain situations where we cannot, in good faith, grin and bear it. With any luck, these situations are very few and very far between…but every so often, they present themselves and the only reasonable thing to do is to deliver a difficult recommendation and part ways.

What about you? Would you have stuck around, or walked away?