Ms. InterPReted

In this exciting episode of the Ms. InterPReted podcast, Fletcher Marketing Communications pulls back the curtain on a major new venture that's set to shake up the world of Public Relations and Marketing for financial services brands. Allison Lester and Vice President, Sarah Merrell introduce Fletcher Financial Communications and dive into the inspiration behind this passion project, why this sector has long been underserved in PR, and how Fletcher’s expert team is uniquely positioned to bridge that gap. Whether you're a B2B brand or just curious about where PR is headed in 2025, this is a can't-miss conversation fu...

As we head into 2025, the Fletcher team predicts the public relations trends the industry will see in the next year and how brands and PR firms should adjust for the oncoming changes.

Trends include:

In this episode of MsInterPReted: Public Relations Demystified, we introduce you to two social media influencers we’ve had the pleasure of working with at Fletcher Marketing Communications: Chelsea Davis and Jensen Savannah.

We'd love to help your brand connect with influencers who could expand your reach. Contact us to learn how we can help you up your influencer game.

Chelsea Davis is a freelance journalist and content creator based in San Francisco. With a passion for exploring new places, Chelsea covers everything from food and drink to travel adventures. Her Instagram, @cheycheyfromthebay, and her bl...

On this episode of MisInterPReted Fletcher Director of Media Relations, Allison Lester talks with two newsroom managers about the state of the U.S. media.

Martha Jennings, WRAL's Managing Editor, coordinates assignments and staffing for Raleigh, NC's #1 news station. She was the News Director for WBIR, in Knoxville, TN. an executive producer for WFLA, in Tampa, FL. and a producer for WRAL and WCBD. She's a graduate of the University of South Carolina. 

With over 25 years of media experience, Jeremy Campbell is Managing Director at Spectrum News in New York City, where he o...

In this episode of Ms. InterPReted, we’re discussing the importance of trust. It is one of the most important things you can focus on as a brand. Think of it as the currency that fuels revenue and can make or break your business. 71% of people are more likely to buy from brands they trust - those numbers are even higher among Gen Z.

Quick, slick sales pitches don’t work for a lasting impact anymore - today's consumers want authenticity, transparency and a genuine connection.

Fletcher Vice President, Sarah Merrell and our director of medi...

Tiffany Carpenter started her career in the public relations agency world and went on to manage communications for the athletics department at the University of Tennessee, including managing the reins of Mike Hamilton, Joan Cronin, Pat Summitt, Phillip Fulmer, Buzz Peterson, Bruce Pearl the infamous Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley.

She went from there to the University of Tennessee Foundation as Assistant Vice President for Communications and Marketing and she managed communication with 355,000 alumni across four campuses. She has gone to serve the University of Tennessee system-wide as Vice President of Communications and Marketing; Associate Vice President...

In this episode of MsInterPReted, we’re talking about tourism in Tennessee. Tennessee tourism generated $29 billion in direct visitor spending and saw 141 million visitors to the state in 2022, Tennessee ranks 11th in the nation for travel spending, the highest rank ever for our state.

Tennessee has approximately 13, 372 restaurants in the state, which is roughly one restaurant per every 500 people if you look at our population numbers and over 1600 hotels.

Sarah Beth is the CEO and president of the Tennessee Hospitality & Tourism Association. Her experience includes being Executive Director of the Tennessee Whis...

On this episode of MsInterPReted, Fletcher’s director of media relations, Allison Lester, talks about travel writing, pitching and hosting media tours. We welcome two travel writers to talk about their experiences in travel writing. They provide advice and talk about the trends in the travel journalism industry.

Susan Barnes has more than 20 years of journalism experience and writes for multiple outlets including USA Today, Food and Wine, Garden and Gun, Travel + Leisure - just to name a few. She writes about travel, lifestyle, food and beverage. 

Ashlee Fechino is the founder of the Happiness Fun...

Sara Davenport is an award-winning journalist who followed her dreams and became an anchor in a top-10 market. But after winning all the awards, and covering all the stories, she need a plan B - something that gave her not just a fantastic lifestyle, but also a life.

She has created a life as a media mentor working with others looking to break the breaking news cycle.

As we head into 2024, Fletcher Marketing PR Vice President, Sarah Merrell and Director of Media Relations, Allison Lester discuss the PR obstacles we foresee clients and firms facing in the year ahead and tactics to overcome these hurdles.

Obstacles include:
AI - The rise of artificial intelligence raises ethical concerns and requires us helping our clients to understand the benefits and limitations of new technologies.
GA4 - With Google Analytics launching its new analytics platform in 2023, many businesses still don't have their GA4 and/or aren't yet using it to its fullest potential.
Other...

In this episode of MsInterPReted, Fletcher Marketing PR Vice President, Sarah Merrell, and Director of Media Relations, Allison Lester discuss PR trends that we want to leave in the dust.
As 2023 winds down, we are looking ahead to the new year and new strategies. These are some of the common strategies and trends that are outdated or unnecessary.

We discuss:

On this episode of MsinterPReted, we discuss hyperlocal journalism. This form of journalism focuses on reporting news and information at a very local level, typically targeting specific neighborhoods and communities. It emphasizes coverage of local events, issues, and stories that directly impact the immediate vicinity, including topics like local government, community events, business updates, neighborhood developments, and other hyper-specific news that may not receive attention from larger media outlets

Jesse Mayshark and Scott Barker are both former journalists who also worked on the public relations side and started a hyper-local news media outlet for the city of...

Fletcher Marketing PR Senior Strategist, Mary Beth West commissioned new worldwide ethics code research through her work on the PRCA Global Ethics Council.

The new London-based Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) research was released in the white paper entitled “The State of Ethics Codes in the Public Relations Industry: A Global Analysis” (available for free download). It documents that among 24 PR industry ethics codes in nearly as many nations worldwide, there is little unified consensus about how ethics codes should be employed as “living documents” in the everyday work of industry leaders and practitioners.

Some P...

Casey Mank is co-founder of Bold Type and is a Center for Plain Language Board member. She also teaches English at Georgetown University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Casey and her company conduct workshops on writing skills, workplace communication and email etiquette.

In our digital world of communications, it is imperative that we think more strategically and holistically about how we communicate internally and externally with our business partners. Casey shares that, “no matter how good you are at your actual job, even if your actual job has nothing to do with writing, the way that you communicate wi...

Today, all of us feel the impact of stress and burnout in one way or another. It could be we feel a little extra jittery at the start of the week, or maybe it even prevents us from doing what we need to in our professional and personal lives. Regardless, we need to always try and actively combat and healthfully balance our stressors. 

In Booth Andrew's career, she experienced her own burnout for years but it reached its peak when she went from a successful CEO of a $5 million non-profit, mom of 3, community leader and triathlete to u...

Eric Olsen has been Senior Advisor and Communication Director for Congressman John Garamendi of California's eighth district in northern California since 2017.

Previously, he managed congressional campaigns and consulted on several presidential campaigns. His work as a senior PR communication staffer on Capitol Hill and for political campaigns has given him unique insight into the relationship between government and public relations. 

He has deployed a broad array of communication tactics throughout his career to communicate the complicated and multifaceted work that takes place in our federal government. He has also worked with major broadcast o...

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic idea, it is here. And now programs like ChatGPT are introducing AI to the world of writing, content creation and public relations, bringing with it a myriad of benefits, questions and ethical concerns.

Matthew Pittman is an assistant professor of Advertising and Public Relations at the Tombras School at the University of Tennessee. He has a Ph.D. in Communications and also serves as a consultant. He talks with Sarah Merrell, Fletcher Marketing PR Vice President, about the AI writing software ChatGPT. 

On this episode o...

Tanisha Fitzgerald Baker is the manager of DEI for Knoxville Utilities Board, where she works on creating a diverse and inclusive work environment with equitable opportunities for all. She supports areas that impact the employee and customer experience through the lens of DEI. Tanisha is a native of Knoxville, Tennessee and she's a graduate, valedictorian, and Ms. Austin East from the Austin East High School class of 1988. She continued her education, graduating from both Florida A&M and the University of Tennessee with degrees in Actuarial Science and Education. She spent more than 20 years working for equity, access and...

Greg Jarboe is president of SEO-PR, which he co-founded in 2003. Their digital marketing agency has won awards for generating results for a variety of clients, including: The Christian Science Monitor, Get City Dealz, Harlequin Romance, MarketingSherpa, Parents magazine, the SES Conference & Expo series, Southwest Airlines, and Rutgers University. He’s also the author of ‘YouTube and Video Marketing’ and one of the 25 successful online marketing gurus profiled in Michael Miller’s Online Marketing Heroes. 

Since 2003, Jarboe’s written more than 1,600 posts for ClickZ, Inked, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, The SEM Post, and Tubular Insights. He...

Jill Kilgore has been with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development for the past five years as the public relations media manager. She is a graduate of Southern Illinois University. The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development is the go-to for all things vacation related in Tennessee. 

Sara Beth Urban is the CEO and president of HospitaityTN. Her past experience includes being Executive Director of the Tennessee Whiskey Trail and being involved with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development as the Middle Tennessee Division Manager. HospitalityTN represents the interests of Tennessee’s lodging, dining, and tourism esta...

Allison and Sarah discuss the Fletcher Marketing PR team’s predictions for public relations trends for 2023. With the end of the year around the corner, it is important to be thinking about strategic plans for the future. They talk through these predictions, the implications and benefits for businesses to look toward in the new year. 

In this episode Allison and Sarah discuss predictions about: 

Sharon Fenster is a public relations and diversity, equity and inclusion expert. In 2018, while serving as president of the NYC chapter of PRSA, she advocated for greater diversity equity inclusion in the PR world. This included a controversial stance at that time - calling for the release of diversity data among various organizations, not only industry associations, but private companies and agencies.

In this episode, Sharon discusses what it means to be an ally, checking your privilege and using it for good, her personal journey to allyship and the changing landscape of diversity equity and inclusion in...

Robin Wilhoit, anchor of Knoxville's NBC affiliate WBIR, shares her insights on journalism, ethics, the changing face of the industry and what it's like being a woman in this ever-changing field.

Robin is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She has been a broadcast journalist for more than 30 years, and has been anchoring the weekday newscasts at WBIR since the 90's.

She is passionate about being a community advocate, serves on several local nonprofit boards and frequently lends her time to serve the people of East Tennessee. In 1998, she helped to...

Paid placement should be considered another tool in your public relations toolbox.
It's an especially good tool when trying to raise awareness about new and emerging brands.
There's paid news release distribution that should be used for big announcements or seeding.
Another form of paid placement is affiliate marketing that is another great tool to get your brand noticed in major media outlets.
Syndicated content is a good way to control the messaging and imagery to release paid content that is prominently displayed and clearly labeled as sponsored content.
Sarah goes through the different...

With the possible repeal of Roe v. Wade in the headlines, Mary Beth West and Kelly Fletcher talk about public relations strategies for businesses considering weighing in.
Many people feel corporate brands need to take a definitive stand on these types of hot-button issue.
There seems to now be a high level consumer expectation that corporations take a stand on issues and also consumer criticism if your corporate brand is remaining silent.
Mary Beth and Kelly agree there's a time and a place for companies to speak out on issues that are relevant to their business...

The past few years have been tumultuous in the journalism industry. From shrinking newsrooms, fragmentation, audience mistrust, COVID and other global crisis. Muckrack conducted its annual survey of more than 1,000 journalists to assess the state of journalism in 2022.
Greg Gallant is the co-founder and CEO of Muckrack and speaks on the company's annual report.

Greg talks about his career as an entrepreneur and how he navigated a career from philosophy to what he does now.
"Once you get to any meaningful scale, the number one job of being an entrepreneur or a CEO.
Is...

Melanie White, executive vice president of Virgin Experience Gifts, shares insights from the experiential gifting field about where the market is headed and how Virgin experience gifts is leading the way in the U.S. market.

Among her remarks:

Allison Lester -- director of media relations for Fletcher Marketing PR -- shares insights on transitioning from the pressures and challenges of years working in a media newsroom environment to the front lines of PR strategy and media relations execution for a PR firm.

Among her remarks:

Business development for any company (or fund-raising and audience engagement in the non-profit sector) can be driven extensively through sharing the heart, soul and mind of the brand.

Podcasting has emerged as one of the top conduits for sharing brand voice in the competitive marketplace of ideas, through owned-media platforms that brands can directly curate and control.

Chris Hill shares with Kelly and Mary Beth his production recommendations as well as marketing strategies, to help those with something to say in the podcasting space to be successful, in building a podcast from the ground-up.

In this episode, Kelly and Mary Beth discuss their PR Industry Predictions for 2022, including:

When crises strike, having a plan is essential -- and most strategists know that rule-of-thumb. 

But what about a crisis that unfolds in real-time, right before one's eyes (and the eyes of hundreds, thousands or even millions of stakeholders), when seconds count and the cameras are on?

Kelly and Mary Beth discuss some recent events and several new pieces of industry data that PR pros and client teams alike should take into consideration.  

On this special Holiday Season episode of #MsInterPReted, Kelly and Mary Beth share special moments from past episodes of the podcast with:

In this episode, Woolf McClane's Chad Hatmaker shares:

Links:

In this conversation, Travis Parman shares his insights about:

In this episode during PRSA's #EthicsMonth, Mary Beth West interviews close colleague Susan Hart -- a past president of the PRSA Nashville Chapter, a past PRSA Nashville Chapter Hercules Award honoree, and a now-former / resigned PRSA College of Fellows member. 

Susan voluntarily discontinued her 35-year membership in PRSA in 2018, in disgust with PRSA's National leadership cultural shift, after what she describes as "one of the most stressful experiences of (her) life" at the hands of PRSA National leadership, who infamously opposed ethics-driven bylaw reforms -- after secretly reversing course from prior assurances that measures would be supported. 

Recorded on #WorldPRDay (#WPRD), Kelly and Mary Beth welcome one of the PR industry's most prominent and prolific thought leaders, Gini Dietrich of Spin Sucks, an entire learning platform that Gini founded and her team manages, in service to the industry, including consulting work for fellow agency owners and entrepreneurs.

Gini opens up about her passion points for the industry, on both the positive / uplifting front as well as frustrating sides... and on the latter, including discrimination and misogyny that she has experienced first-hand as a business owner and public speaker. 

In this episode of #M...

On this #SocialMediaDay2021 episode, Chris McCarty of Knoxville-based law firm Lewis Thomason delves into the larger issues at hand for companies/organizations and individuals alike in managing the good, the bad and the law, when it comes to leveraging the power of social media in productive and legally compliant ways.

Kelly and Mary Beth set the stage by providing a flashback to a November 2020 episode of #MsInterPReted (Social Media & Surveillance Capitalism: Dr. Candace White), and Kelly also shares a recent challenge experienced with a Facebook hacker ... indicative of the power -- much of it unchecked -- that...

AlexAnndra Ontra of Shufflrr discusses the art of the presentation:

Disc...

During his second visit to the “Ms. InterPReted” Podcast, Francis Ingham shares his latest insights about the state of ethics in the public relations industry, amid real-time issues that have impacted Fletcher Senior Strategist Mary Beth West, MPRCA, who now is serving a second term as PRCA Ethics Council Co-Chair.

Susan Hart, MPRCA, guest-hosts alongside Fletcher Marketing PR CEO Kelly Fletcher, MPRCA. 

Francis Ingham is Director General of the PRCA, and Chief Executive of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO).

With a background in politics and public affai...

In this chat with Kelly Fletcher and Mary Beth West, Blount Partnership President / CEO Bryan Daniels, CEcD, discusses: