Mia’s last two columns were very different, but both featured some great communications insights.  

The first – Art that appeals to the masses – featured Lisa Diamond and Shira Wood, co-owners of Toronto Gallery Art Interiors.

Diamond and Wood started their small business out of a basement in their early 20s, and now, 17 years later, it is still going strong. 

“When these two women opened their gallery they wanted to do something different: make art appeal to the masses,” Mia writes. “Their goal was to make artwork more accessible to homeowners – they believed there were many up-and-coming, talented artists with nowhere to exhibit other than coffee houses and community centres, but also that there was no place for the average person to buy original work.”

The tactic they’ve been using to drive their business forward is pretty simple: in exchange for public acknowledgment, Art Interiors lends its artwork to home and décor magazine shoots and television shows.

“Most art galleries were for people who already knew something about art – and that is a small percentage of people,” Wood said. “We wanted to try and get outside of that and be much more practical. We wanted people to be able to visualize the art in their homes … so we worked with designers and stylists.”

For the gallery, having its art featured in the pages of Style at Home or on Citytv’s CityLine delivered what Diamond called “third-party validation” from the influencers. But it also introduced their target audience to accessible, original art.

“Art Interiors works closely with a range of well-known design icons, including Kimberley Seldon, host of HGTV’s Design for Living, and Suzanne Dimma, editor-in-chief of Canadian House & Home. They’ve also jumped on social media, host an active online store, and engage online influencers and their audiences by providing free art for blog giveaways,” Mia writes. “Their success has been about much more than just a good marketing decision at the outset – Art Interiors continues to effectively and creatively manage its relationships over time.”

Mia’s second column – Give first impressions the royal treatment – was about how in business, and in life, you only have one chance to make a first impression.

Drawing on the buzz surrounding Prince William and his fiancée Kate Middleton’s first official outing, Mia talked about what it takes to ensure you leave a good first impression.

“The impression [Middleton] left with the media and the general public was a statement about whether or not she could be expected to succeed in her new, very public, role as princess,” writes Mia. “That’s got to be a lot of pressure.”

“Though you almost certainly don’t have the same number of eyes on you when you make official appearances on behalf of your business, the pressure to leave a good first impression is very similar,” she writes. “The confidence with which you handle yourself in public will translate into the confidence that people will have in your leadership abilities and your personal brand. Depending on how you do, the public and the media will either love or hate you – or, almost worse, not have an opinion about you at all.”

With that in mind, Mia offers up four tips on how to ensure you leave a good first impression:

1. Do your research
2. Establish your key messages
3. Connect with people
4. Be yourself

To read the full details on each tip, click here.

Check out Mia’s column every Thursday in the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business.

Inspired by Lady Gaga’s entrance at the Grammy Awards, in her latest column, Mia wrote about the delicate art of the PR stunt.

“For those of you who haven’t heard about it – and I’m sure there aren’t many – she arrived in an egg, before emerging from “incubation” on stage to perform her new song Born This Way,” Mia writes.

“That Lady Gaga would make an incredible fashion statement at this awards show was a given, and it is always exciting to see what she and her designers will come up with next. But this time, something was different: chatter was focused not only on what she did, but why she did it. Everyone was asking the same question: ‘Why an egg?’” Mia writes. “In a crowded news cycle focused on red carpet outfits and award winners, Lady Gaga succeeded in making sure that all eyes were on her, cleverly carving out a space to talk about the meaning behind her new chart-topping song. What she and her team did was successfully pull off a brilliant PR stunt: not only do I have Born This Way stuck in my head, but I (and people across the globe) now know all about the message and the intent of the music.”

But Mia says that you don’t have to be a superstar to execute a great PR stunt – with the right tactics, a focused strategy and a creative approach, stunts can be amazing tools for businesses of any size that are looking to inspire a crowd and create a buzz around their brand.

Mia then asks businesses to consider five key questions before committing to a PR stunt:

1. Does your plan clearly map back to your communications objectives? 
2. Is it newsworthy? 
3. Will it be accessible? 
4. Does it pack a visual punch?
5. Do you have a social media strategy to back it up? 

Click here to read the full column and Mia’s full insights on each of these key questions. Her column every Thursday in the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business.

In Mia’s latest column, she wrote about the importance of engaging with your brand’s online influencers.

“Scoring positive media coverage has long been one of the key indicators of a strong public relations campaign but, for the past few years, marketing and communications professionals have been balancing their efforts to include a new powerhouse of influencers: bloggers. In the early days of blogging, many were hesitant to give these writers the “cred” they deserve: They often weren’t perceived as journalists, which, in many cases, meant they were not taken seriously. Even more important, many businesses did not expect the audiences these writers spoke to would grow as large and committed as they have.”

“But today, good marketers know the value of a popular blogger that speaks to a brand’s subject of interest,” Mia continues. “A nod from an online influencer offers something you simply can’t get anywhere else: authenticity.”

In conversation with Rob Ostfield, CEO of Canadian pop culture site andPOP, he hits the nail on the head: “When people are writing blogs, the subject they are writing about are their passion,” he says. “They’re not always doing it because it is their jobs, they are doing it because they are genuinely excited about what they’re writing about.”

Mia then offers five key tips for brands interested in getting connected with their online influencers:

1. Do your research;
2. Be unique in how you reach out;
3. Provide something of value;
4. Work together; and,
5. Have reasonable expectations.

“The great thing about online influencers: With their passion and talents, they have already done a lot of the work for you,” Mia writes. “They have established a connection to a loyal following that just might be your exact target audience.”

Click here to read the full article and expanded tips from Mia. Her column every Thursday in the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business.