The world is changing. Customers are changing. Not in any fundamental way – you cannot undo millions of years of evolution in less than a generation. But the interaction between businesses and their customers – whether those are consumers or other businesses – is not the same now as it was just a decade ago.

You can no longer force-feed customers with information. Nor can you hide things from them. The internet and the digital communication channels that have developed alongside it – such as ‘social media’ – have put more power in the hands of customers.

As a customer, I welcome that. From a seller’s point of view, though, it is a nuisance at best.

However, as business managers we have to live with this new situation. In fact, we have to do better than that. We have to thrive in it. More...

Huge congratulations go to Hannah Thomas, one of the communications consultants here at Metrix, for passing her Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Advanced Certificate with a ‘merit’ grade.

As a result of the course, Hannah has a better knowledge and understanding of public relations theory and practice, and has further developed her skills and expertise, becoming a more effective communications professional. (Of course we didn’t need a piece of paper to tell us Hannah’s an effective communications consultant, we already know she is, but the letters after her name do look good on her new business cards!) More...

We cannot envisage a business for which the answer to this question would be anything other than ‘yes’. Unfortunately, research shows that many of your customers probably do not believe what you tell them.

Even worse news if you are a chief executive is that they probably believe you personally even less than they believe other people in the business. More...

The rapid growth of social media has added another string to the bow of many marketing campaigns. Let’s take a look at how social media can be beneficial to a B2B marketing campaign and the issues surrounding that all important return on investment (ROI).

Pretty much every survey you read on social media marketing cites the 'big three' as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, so for the purposes of this article we'll focus on those three. More...

Here’s an interesting article on the way the financial services sector does (and doesn’t) use social media - http://ow.ly/acMFm. Some good points and some interesting insights into how social media can be used to a company’s advantage.

We like this quote from Eric Rehl, first VP- interactive at wealth management company Robert W. Baird and Co: “I don't think that million-dollar client will just come through the door. It takes work. It's more about nurturing the community with meaningful relationships that over time will result in business coming your way.”

Of course, social media isn’t the right marketing platform for every company and it certainly isn’t the answer to every marketing communications problem. But it’s certainly worth thinking about.

No matter how many checks are made, how many times you look over things and how careful you are, mistakes happen. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, problems occur.

Since the arrival of social media, the face of crisis PR has changed dramatically. The strategy hasn’t changed but the implementation has.

Back in 1978 when 1.5 million Ford Pintos were recalled due to an unfortunate design flaw that, in some cases, could cause it to catch fire in rear-end collisions, Ford didn’t have to worry about people inciting panic on Twitter, or the creation of a ‘Ban Ford Pintos’ Facebook page. More...