Maureen Wolff Sharon Merrill Associates

Video: The Sharon Merrill Approach

What makes Sharon Merrill Associates excel in the world of strategic communications? Trust. Experience. Resilience. Passion. Vision. Perspective. Partnerships. Take a look at our story and see how we leverage these qualities to help you build value.

Preparing for a Social Media Crisis

By David Calusdian, Executive Vice President & Partner I recently participated as the designated “social media expert” as part of a crisis communications case study session at the 2012 NIRI Southwest regional conference.  This year’s conference was held in New Orleans and the session centered on a fictitious publicly held bead manufacturing company (apropos for…

Investor Relations for Industrials

Communicating That 1+1 = 3 By David Calusdian, Executive Vice President & Partner A well-known portfolio manager once said to me that he loved diversified industrial companies “for their break-up value.” If you’re in the industrial space, this is the polar opposite of how you want investors to think about your company. For an industrial,…

Follow These Simple Steps to Deliver a Better Investor Presentation [Video]

Sometimes the difference between success and failure when delivering a presentation is not the presentation slides at all. The problem most often is the presenter’s delivery. In the video below, Sharon Merrill Executive Vice President & Partner David Calusdian provides tips on how to get the most out of your presentation delivery.

How Do I Know You’re Lying? Your Body Told Me So.

5 Useful Tips for Reading Body Language in a Business Environment By Dennis Walsh, Senior Consultant & Director of Social Media at Sharon Merrill In business, people aren’t always completely honest. I know…stop the presses! As investor relations professionals, we are constantly playing a poker game with Wall Street.  So how do you know if…

Reputation Management for The Great Pumpkin

A Halloween Lesson with Apologies to Charles M. Schulz By David Calusdian, Executive Vice President & Partner Year in and year out, Linus sits in the neighborhood pumpkin patch trying to impress Charlie Brown’s little sister Sally with a personal introduction to The Great Pumpkin.  She forgoes trick or treating to wait for the Great…

Media Training: Preparing your CEO for a Successful Interview

By David Calusdian, Executive Vice President & Partner I recently spoke at the NIRI Fundamentals of IR Seminar on “Media and Communications,” and the part of the presentation that generated the most discussion was on how to conduct “media training” for CEOs, CFOs and other corporate spokespeople.  Of course, the most difficult part of media…

It’s Time to Face Social Media for Investor Relations

“But social media for investor relations won’t work for my company!” The use of social media is radically changing the way our society communicates – and the investment community is no exception.  But many investor relations officers still refuse to use social media as an IR tool.  I’ve heard any number of reasons why “social…

Preparing for the Media: A Checklist for a Positive Interview

In our media relations work at Sharon Merrill Associates, we spend considerable time training senior management on dealing with the media.  To be sure, not all interviews are investigative reporters looking to break the next big scandal.  Of course, reporters also are not being paid to write a glowing advertorial about your company either. Treat…

Crisis Communications: How to Best Prepare for those “Uh-Oh!” Moments

Recently, I served on a panel at the Publicity Club of New England’s “An Inside Look at Crisis Communications” program, along with other corporate and crisis communications veterans from the Boston area.  We each shared some of our most memorable cases including events involving government funding cuts, infant product recalls, massive layoffs, insider trading, embezzlement,…