For the past week, we here at TVG have been inspired by the back-to-school season. Here are some things we wanted to share in the spirit of learning:
Keeping It Legal
The always evolving realm of social media provides opportunity for growth and advancement. It is also important to stay on top of to the latest developments. [...]

For the second straight year, readers of St. Louis Small Business Monthly have voted The Vandiver Group, Inc. (TVG) as the Best in Business Top PR Firm in St. Louis.  We couldn’t have received the honor without incredible support from our clients, employees, board and many others.  TVG was one of the top vote-getters in [...]

So, you want to have a press conference.  Once you have your subject set and your speakers lined up, it’s time to alert the media, right?  Not before thinking through strategy and some best practices. TVG has facilitated press events, large and small, and we have a few tips to help you make your event [...]

At a recent conference, one of the speaker’s told us that smiling at someone fires off synapses in their brain in the same spot that chocolate does. In fact, he said one smile does the same thing to your brain as 2,000 chocolate bars.  I’m not sure he actually had the stats to back this [...]

Take a lesson from Amazon.  When they promoted the Kindle reader on their home page, they didn’t talk about the technology of the device.  Instead, they talked about how it was the “best selling, most wished for and most gifted.”
The other thing we know from looking at trends research for several years is that if [...]

In light of the recent email breach that exposed customer data from more than 50 major retailers, we decided it’s time to take a look at email marketing privacy issues. To summarize the situation, a huge security breach at email marketing firm Epsilon exposed the names and email addresses of customers of major brands, including [...]

We’ve been hearing about unemployment for several years, but now there are signs that jobs across America are picking up in both the public and private sectors. With economic improvement comes more jobs, and not just for entry-level and junior positions. Companies see high value in quality employees, and often that means investing in top [...]

Russian delegates from the Community Connections Program (CCP) visited the Vandiver Group this afternoon to learn about public relations and communications practices for non-profits. CCP is managed by the Bureau of Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Agency for Information Development (USAID) and is run locally by the World Affairs Council of St. Louis.
The Community [...]

A recent article on PR Daily discussed why some clients feel the need for a big agency to handle their PR and marketing efforts, most likely one headquartered on either coast, and why that’s not always a good idea. As a smaller agency from the Midwest, we tend to agree with that argument.
The article, “Midwest [...]

Christmas is next weekend, which means you have one week to finish any holiday shopping. Good luck! Here’s the Friday 5:
1. Foursquare vs. Facebook
Foursquare has emerged as one of the premier check-in services for your mobile device, but is facing stiff competition from Facebook Places. In response, Foursquare is focusing more on discovering new places, [...]