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Link: Would you give your Facebook password to your employer? Employers now aren’t just limiting what their workers can and can’t say about them on social media sites. Some are actually asking for their Facebook passwords.

Link: Congratulations to Rivers Casino on their LEED Gold Certification! The 8-month-old Rivers Casino in Des Plaines has become the first casino to achieve the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The casino, which opened last July, was designed with a sustainability plan to achieve LEED

By DeRondal Bevly, Community Outreach Executive Here at Culloton Strategies, our personal and extracurricular activities often overlap with our professional lives.  Almost daily, I have conversations with my colleagues about our passions and interests and how connections made through those passions have enriched our professional development.  I personally have always been interested in the mechanics

By Patrick Skarr, Account Supervisor  The ever growing collection of campaign signs on the corners of busy intersections can mean only one thing, the election is just a few weeks away. So in the coming weeks as candidates and campaign volunteers sneak out to litter our streets with signs of campaign strength and support, too

Link: How Do You Cite a Tweet in an Academic Paper? The Modern Language Association (MLA)  likes to keep up with the times, just like we do. As we all know, some information breaks first or only on Twitter and a good academic needs to be able to cite those sources. So, the MLA has devised a

By Dennis Culloton In my experience when I have worked with politicians and pundits, I’ve found they sometimes dwell in an alternate universe where they believe there are no boundaries.  It is our job as media strategists to reign them in and remind them what the voters at home are thinking. There are people that

By Angela Benander, VP of Advocacy & Corporate Responsibly Good writing is critical in this industry. It also takes practice. A few years ago, I stumbled on what I have come to consider my secret weapon – George Orwell’s rules for writing. George Orwell’s six rules come from an essay called “Politics and the English

 By Tracey Mendrek, Senior Consultant A colleague of mine and I have a running joke about vegging on the weekend and PTO (personal time off).  We think of it as quite a concept in our busy, fast-paced world.  More importantly we are thankful that no one tells us we have to veg or take PTO,

By: Jodie Shpritz, Vice President of Branding and Media Relations In this day and age of Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Pinterest , it seems now more than ever that popularity matters.  Now I’m not talking about popularity in the sense of the 1980’s movie flicks where the cheerleader and football player win prom king

By Dennis Culloton, President & CEO I’ve recently had to explain to some clients who were, shall we say, of my generation (Old. Born before phones were smart and back when tweets were something the birds did outside) the importance of social media when you are in a crisis. Social media is better than a

The most recent and incredibly impressive Facebook stats (Source: PR Daily)

Rivers Casino’s Canopy buffet was featured in the December issue of Food Service Equipment Reports

By Ezra McCann, Senior Account Executive Boxer Floyd Mayweather is receiving a lot of flack from the media for a tweet he sent referencing New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin. Lin is an Asian-American that has captivated the nation during the past week for his sensational play on the basketball court. Lin is a graduate

By DeRondal Bevly, Community Outreach Executive   In my last blog post, I advocated for all of us to stretch ourselves in order to realize hidden talents and further develop core strengths.  In thinking about today’s post, I thought about what fuels a person to reach that inner potential.  I looked at one of my

Link: Why we must support Chicago Public School reforms The Chicago Teachers Union and some local school council members have joined in a lawsuit to try to block Chicago Public Schools from closing and…

By Dennis Culloton, President and CEO The most painful media and public relations crisis is the self-inflicted wound.  It happens all the time, as my colleagues have been discussing here on Checkmate. Just about any day in the news you’ll find an example of someone who has put themselves in the hole and thinks the

By Jodie Shpritz, Vice President of Media Relations and Branding As a graduate of Adlai E. Stevenson High School, I’ve been paying close attention to the recent story about drug raids at the high school.  In particular, parents and students outraged that the school is using student’s cell phones in a drug probe.  See the

By Angela Benander, Vice President of Advocacy and Corporate Responsibility Last evening, my Twitter feed blew up with news that one of the nation’s leading breast cancer research charities, The Susan G. Komen Foundationhad pulled hundreds of thousands in annual grant funding to Planned Parenthood. The grants had paid for breast cancer screenings and education

By Kirsten Kamerman, Account Executive and New Media Director Last night, President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union Address and today you will be reading lots of stories on how well President Obama did. However, if you were on Twitter last night, your feed was likely abuzz with tweets about the address. Twitter

By Ezra McCann, Senior Account Executive I know the title of this blog may throw people off, so allow me to preface by saying I am a huge fan of social media.  I post on Facebook and check my Twitter feed constantly throughout the day. It’s a great tool for reconnecting with old friends, networking

By DeRondal Bevly, Community Outreach Executive At the start of each calendar year, most people sit down vigorously sketching out resolutions to improve their lives.  Some resolutions include more time in the gym, spending more time with family, eating better, and other habits meant to help us lead healthier, more productive lives.  As I plotted

By Patrick Skarr, Account Supervisor Thanks to the political calendar, small businesses will once again find themselves in the hot seat and at the center of a feverish debate across our country premised on how we are going to get our economy growing again. Everyday our news broadcasts are filled with a cutthroat messaging war

By Jeanne Atkinson On New Year’s Day 1976, the public relations director of Michigan-based Lake Superior State University (LSSU) and a handful of friends decided to have some fun, PR style, so they created a list of words they believed should be excised from the English language. Thirty-seven years later, the “List of Words Banished

By Tracey Mendrek, Senior Consultant                                                              Driving home during the first snow event of 2012, I pondered two forecasts. Top of mind was the prediction of 2 to 4 inches of snow on one station, 6 to 8 inches on another, and of course, more than 12 inches from the weather forecaster who went to

By Angela Benander, Vice President of Advocacy and Corporate Responsibility “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made” – Otto von Bismarck Since making the switch from national politics to the private sector five years ago, I continue to be surprised by clients and contacts who express their, well, surprise