Castle Picks 
 
New Restaurants
to Check Out this Summer 
 

 Asta

 

Blue Dragon

 

Giulia

 

Liquid Art House

 

Ostra

 

Puritan & Company 

 

Ribelle

 

Row 34 

 

Sarma

 

Spoke


It's clear that the rise of digital and social media has impacted our PR business. 

 

Now it's becoming evident that the rise of digital platforms and applications are enhancing our events business as well. 

 

From social media platforms like Pinterest to apps like Crowdcompass, the event planning world is evolving along with our digital world.

 

Here our Danielle Doyle weighs in on event apps and the benefits that mobile brings to gatherings. 

 

And hereCallie Ziobro shares how Place Pins can be used in planning meetups, incentive trips and team building activities.

 

Are you using apps and social media to enhance your events? Let us know your favorites at [email protected]

 

Giant Step Digital supports clients by taking a giant step toward leveraging all communications channels effectively to tell stories and enhance brands.

 

    

Castle, a member of the exclusive Public Relations Global Network executive committee, congratulates the organization's new president, Uwe Schmidt, CEO of Industrie-Contact (IC AG), Hamburg, Germany.  

 

Schmidt will lead the worldwide network of nearly 50 independently owned firms on six continents and continue to deliver exceptional professional services while expanding the global reach of the network. 

 

To learn more about his background and other important appointments, visit the announcement page.  

 

Did You Know?
 

 

The Boston University Bridge on Commonwealth Avenue is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train beneath a car that is driving below a plane.

 

  

At 90 feet below the surface, the Ted Williams Tunnel is the deepest in North America.  

 

 

Welcome New Clients: Google, Toyota, City of Boston and Attract China
Castle is proud to be working with Mayor Marty  Walsh, Boston Main Streets and the Office of Business Development on its Boston Main Streets Annual Awards Ceremony. 
 
The event, to be held on June 26 at the Strand Theater, recognizes the achievements of local businesses and volunteers by awarding a Business of the Year and a Volunteer of the Year award in each of the city's districts. The evening is open to the public and celebrates those who work to make the local commercial districts vibrant, thriving and welcoming. For more information, visit the City of Boston page dedicated to the event.  

Castle also announces that Google, Toyota and Attract China are new clients. More details to be included in our next newsletter. Stay tuned! 
Social Media: The CFO Perspective 
Sandy Lish, Principal/Co-Founder
Castle principal and co-founder Sandy Lish presenting "Social Media for the CFO" to the Treasurers' Club of Boston.

 

I was recently invited to speak to the Treasurers' Club of Boston, a professional group of area CFOs who gather monthly to hear from a variety of speakers, including, recently, Boston Business Journal Editor George Donnelly and WGBH CEO Jon Abbott. I was invited to speak about any topic I thought might be relevant to the CFOs gathered. I knew right away this was a rare opportunity to talk about marketing with CFOs, and decided that social media would be my focus. 

 
Anecdotally, I knew that many financial executives are not using social media to its fullest potential. I knew, also anecdotally, that social media is increasingly important to the financial community. I decided to do a little digging to find some of the facts behind social media and financial executives (this being a CFO audience, I knew I needed DATA, not just anecdotal evidence!), and found that "in the summer of 2012, the growing number of C-level executives who consider social media to be important to their business model more than doubled - from 13 percent to 33 percent - within a few months." We found data that proves institutional investors use social media when researching companies, and also data from BusinessWeek that said "57 percent of CFOs believe that investments in cloud computing, big data, mobile and social media will be critical."

So we focused the presentation on three things: How financial and C-suite executives are or are not embracing social media; how their companies are using social media, and how they can engage through social media comfortably and appropriately. It was sort of an inverted pyramid - the macro picture, the corporate landscape and their personal opportunities.

That middle layer was critically important. Because while CFOs may have responsibility for line items that include marketing and social media, they may not fully understand how and why social media is implemented at their organizations. And it can be difficult for senior executives to admit they don't understand something, but let's face it, if you have grey hair and decades of experience doing things the same way, it can be daunting to understand what is happening at social media's breakneck pace.

If you're a CFO or interact with your company's CFO, it's helpful to take some time to really understand the drawbacks and benefits of social media from the CFO perspective.

First, the drawbacks:
  • It can be time consuming
  • It can lead to a loss of control
  • There are privacy concerns
  • There may be compliance concerns
  • It can involve a learning curve (=time consuming, again!)

However, what CFOs may or may not know is that, done well, (and in compliance with corporate policies and messaging), social media: 

  • Provides direct access to customers
  • Creates avenues for online networking and business development
  • Drives thought leadership
  • Reinforces brand promise
  • Drives sales
  • Leverages existing efforts and extends traditional public relations channels

And CFOs love to hear this: It's FREE! Yes, we know there is a cost to developing the strategies, executing and monitoring, but all things being equal, there is no specific price tag on using a social media channel. 

 

We spent the last third of our time together honing in on one very tactical exercise for the CFOs - leveraging their LinkedIn profiles. I asked the attendees how many felt they were using LinkedIn effectively and were happy with their profiles.  FOUR of the 80 attendees raised their hands. We discussed tips and tactics that would help improve that ratio, and the feedback was tremendous. 

 

Marketers and CFOs don't necessarily speak the same language; we perform different functions and embrace different metrics. But a little understanding can go a long way.

Client News  

Congratulations to  Biogen Idec on its FDA approval of ALPROLIX™, the first hemophilia B therapy to reduce bleeding episodes with prophylactic infusions starting at least a week apart.

Burns & Levinson LLP announced a significant expansion of its Intellectual Property Group with the addition of six new hires, bolstering what was already one of the largest and most sophisticated intellectual property practices in New England. Widespread coverage of the announcement included a  Q&A with managing partner David Rosenblatt in the Boston Business Journal.    

  

Stacy's Juicebar - the second venture founded by Stacy's Pita Chips founder Stacy Madison, launched to much fanfare in Needham. At the bar, fruit and vegetable juices are made with fresh ingredients, on the spot.  

 

Dr. Eric Roseen, a chiropractic physician at Visions Healthcare, volunteered his time at the finish line of the Boston Marathon and provided free consultations to marathoners with a bib the week after the race. Dr. Roseen also provided tips for runners recovering from the marathon. 

 


 
EOS Foundation staff members with the recipients of the first annual Healthy Start Awards, which took place at the Massachusetts State House on May 20. The awards recognize schools in Massachusetts that have successfully implemented free breakfast programs.   

 

Around Town
Castle's Sandy Lish was a mentor for the first-ever Boston Business Journal Mentoring Monday event, which took place in 40 locations across the US to harness the power of local women in business. This BizWomen event featured speed coaching from local leading female executive mentors and a video keynote address by Shark Tank's Lori Greiner. It also afforded mentees the opportunity to network in an unprecedented way. For a more in-depth look at BizWomen, click here and choose video clip #9.

Castle is proud to annually sponsor the yearly Goodwill Put Your Clothes to Work Drive. The drive provides interview-appropriate and business casual apparel to low-income men and women who are transitioning into the workforce. These individuals are graduates of Goodwill and other Boston-based job training programs that need our assistance in making the right impression on interviews and at their jobs.

As we do each year, Castle participated in the March of Dimes' March for Babies walk to ensure that babies are born healthy. Take a look at this CBS Boston clip where Sandy, a member of the March of Dimes board of directors, discusses the organization's mission.
You're receiving this email because of your relationship with The Castle Group. To ensure that you continue to receive our emails, please add @thecastlegrp.com to your address book today. You may unsubscribe here if you no longer wish to receive our emails. We hope you won't want to! 

 

Sincerely,

sandy       wendy

Sandy Lish             Wendy Spivak
Principal/Founder   Principal/Founder
View our profile on LinkedInFollow us on TwitterLike us on FacebookFind us on PinterestVisit our blog

The Castle Group 2014 Issue 02