Sink your teeth into our Top 50 Food Blogs list!

This is a guest post by Beth Blanchard, manager, electronic media, and Stone Hansard, supervisor, internet media.

Grandma’s secret meatloaf recipe, once neatly tucked away in a dark cupboard, is now available for the world to enjoy. Whether you want to try your hand at Vietnamese pho soup, Romanian chiftele meatballs or simply spruce up a frozen dinner for the kids, the Internet provides more inspiration than any cookbook could ever hope—and at no cost.

With services like Pinterest and Yelp dominating the social web, gastrophiles can boast their latest concoctions and dine-out obsessions in real time, foodie to foodie. It’s an exciting time for curious palates, so to fete the ever-growing trend we have compiled a list of the top 50 food blogs in North America, using proprietary research from Cision’s media database, ranked by Cision Digital Reach and inbound links. So take a bite out of these, won’t you?

If you’re hungry for more coverage of the food and beverage scene, download our free pitching kit!

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Here is our roundup of new talent, account wins and other PR and marketing industry news. Read below to find out about your competitors and friends, and be sure to share comments and discussion points!

- On May 29, more than 40 Boston PR firms are coming together to host Boston PRoud - an evening to raise money for The One Fund Boston. The event will take place from 5-8 p.m. ET with a cash bar, raffle prizes and hors d’oeuvres.

- Ketchum hired three new team members based in New York and one in Atlanta. Phil Swire has joined as SVP, digital strategy & technology; Amy Andrieux, VP, multimedia content & strategy; Kristen Massaro, VP, digital strategy, New York; and Matt Browher, SVP, digital strategy, Atlanta.

- Marina Maher Communications received four nods at The Holmes Report’s SABRE Awards. The agency won a Gold SABRE in consumer marketing, Platinum for best public relations campaign of 2012, Diamond award in brand building and a silver award of excellence.

- Burson-Marsteller announced a new executive leadership team for its Asia-Pacific region, including Patrick Ford as chairman; Christine Jones as Australia CEO and market leader; Korea market leader Margaret Key; Genesis Burson-Marsteller principal and founder Prema Sagar; and Hong Kong market leader Matt Stafford.

- Securities analyst Brian Rayle joined Dix & Eaton as a VP specializing in investor relations. Rayle is a Chartered Financial Analyst and regular guest host and contributor to several media outlets.

If you have content for PR & Marketing Wins, Moves & Other News, e-mail prwins.us (at) cision.com.

Photo courtesy of Nikia Jefferson

Today we’re talking to Nikia Jefferson of the blog ChiTown Fashionista! She gives us an look into the local Chicago designers scene, chats about her time in London, and about how she became known as “the enabler of fashion consumption.”

Q: First things first, what inspired you to start a fashion blog?
A: I spent almost a year in London, for work. And it was then that my interest in fashion really peaked. There were so many markets–that I frequented almost every weekend–that provided an opportunity for consumers to interact with local designers, and I felt there was a need for that in Chicago. A blog was the quickest and simplest way for me to provide a platform for indie designers and boutiques to gain some exposure.

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Last Thursday, Gina and I hosted a free 30-minute webinar, “You Asked, We’ll Answer—Your Top PR and Social Media Questions” and regrettably did not have time to tackle a new slew of queries from attendees. Here’s a follow-up to the presentation, with your questions (hopefully!) answered.

Q: I am working with a client—a law firm—that has only blogged intermittently. They have no audience, so to speak. How do I get them noticed when they don’t have an already established social network?

Ever hear the phrase, “If you build it, they will come”? (If you’ve heard it in a cornfield, you may be Kevin Costner.) Or, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint”? I think these maxims generally apply to growing a blog audience and a social media presence. Here’s what I would do:

Help the law firm establish a blog and social media schedule. They don’t have to update every platform every day—they could try blogging once per week?—so long as the audience knows when to expect new content. Suggest the law firm tap internal expertise and get everyone to write a blog post from time to time. This is how you build thought leadership, and multi-author blogs sometimes help with more-than-intermittent accountability. Read it all..

Photo courtesy of edenpictures via Flickr

Mother’s Day is this Sunday, so our colleagues here at Cision decided to share some of their favorite pieces of advice from Mom. Turns out those words of wisdom we heard growing up can actually be put to use when working on our careers and personal branding. Check out some of our favorites, and feel free to share yours in the comments! And Happy Mother’s Day!

My mom always says “Nothing is the end of the world. You’re still alive aren’t you?” Sounds silly but I always remember this advice when I do make a mistake (and I make some doozies!)  Sometimes your personal (or even professional) brand takes a hit but keep it in perspective, you can recover! – Vanessa Bugasch, Senior VP, Global Marketing

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Photo of Amanda Yang, courtesy of ShopClearThePath.com

This is a guest post from Amanda Yang, media statistics specialist at Cision and founder of Clear the Path.

This Monday, I gave a talk to a group of about 70 investors, innovators and business owners at the Start Up Lightning Round hosted by Entrepreneurs Unpluggd in Chicago, where a fantastic community comes together for one night of drinks and honest tales of successes and failures in entrepreneurship.

Along with fellow startup founders Todd Jones, Lisa Russell, Tim Jahn and Chris Campbell, I talked a little bit about my cycling apparel company, Clear the Path. Currently, we are in the process of building a brand and product line of apparel and safety tools to make cycling a more enjoyable experience and to encourage a sustainable lifestyle.

Aside from developing a solid product, it’s equally important to make your presence known by successfully publicizing your new company. Free is key for bootstrappers like me, when it comes marketing a startup. With limited time and money to be spent on marketing, here are Four Tips on Marketing Your Startup for Free-Ninety-Nine (that means free):

Create content to complement your brand. Startups are about creating meaningful connections with loyal consumers and brands. Engage with businesses who complement the mission of your company to further your company’s mission to make your customer’s experience tops.

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This week we got to chat with Michelle Henley, president and founder of FashionEdits.com. Below, she shares some insight into the world of trade shows and the changing digital fashion scene, and advises PR pros on the benefits of  collaboration.

Q: You say on your website that you have a bachelor’s from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and have a background in fashion sales. When and how did you decide to start FashionEdits?
A: Yes, after many years as a designer and brand rep and even owner, the time was right. Traditional cycles have been turned on their heads. Retailers can’t be everywhere, yet they have to be to stay ahead of the game, that’s where FashionEdits.com comes in. Trade shows may still be the principal way of viewing new lines, but today’s retailer, who need to constantly stay “fresh” need rapid information and other methods of getting the scoop on shows. We saw the opportunity to the digital world to bring information directly for little or no cost.

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Many bloggers, PR professionals, SEO consultants, advertisers and marketers have been singing “the times are a changing” by Bob Dylan over the past year. These industries have been rocked by the advent of Google’s Panda/Penguin updates, the influx of content marketing and the rise of native advertising.  As Geoff Livingston and Gini Dietrich discussed in their book “Marketing in the Round,” communications professionals have been pushed by these and other industry trends to present a holistic solution for clients in the new ecosphere. They go on to describe using a multifaceted approach for attacking communication problems based on The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi.  These approaches are broken down into 4 separate parts:

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No one wants to be the office dinosaur. In addition to keeping up with industry-specific changes, we must understand the new ways people communicate. From phone calls to text messages, emails to tweets, blogs and Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest, there are a lot of places to talk and share.

We host a weekly Public Relations and Social Media Webinar series to discuss these topics with the PR and Marketing industries, and have a very engaged and active audience. We answer audience questions in real-time and wanted to share some of the most-asked Q&As with you:

Q: Do you have numbers for how many people use Facebook on a desktop vs. a cell phone?
A: Ironically, Shift Communications wrote a post on this exact topic last week. According to Facebook’s most recent SEC filing (and Shift Communications’ post), more than two-thirds of Facebook users access the service via a mobile device at least some of the time and 1 in 6 people use ONLY a mobile device to access Facebook’s services.

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If you’re a daily Pinner, like me, you’ve probably noticed Pinterest has debuted a new look and a few more additional features. If you’re not a regular user, maybe you haven’t noticed, but that’s why I’m here. To fill you in! If you don’t know what Pinterest is and have no idea what I’m talking about, this isn’t where you should be. You should be here!

But back to the matter at hand. Here are some things you should know whether you currently manage a Pinterest account or are thinking about creating one.

Images via Cision NA Pinterest page

Pins are Bigger
Pinterest is a visual platform. In fact, that is the whole point of Pinterest. So, the minds behind the site decided, Bigger is always better! Which is true in this case.

Why this should matter to you: Since you want to tell a story through your pins, having larger images just makes it easier for your followers to see what you’re all about. Maybe you’re adding a quote or some kind of text to an image—being able to see what it says without having to click on it makes a big difference when people are browsing. Read it all..