As a PR agency that specializes in healthcare, we rely on Twitter as a way to stay up to speed on all of the breaking news and policy changes that occur on an hourly basis in today’s 24/7 media world. More than that, Twitter is also a way for us to show our personality, engage with other industry experts, debate a hot topic, or take ourselves a little less seriously. Whether you are looking for a way to stay up to date on the latest news in healthcare IT or looking for a little entertainment, here are some of the Aria team’s favorite Twitter accounts:

As PR professionals, we are constantly working to get our clients in the conversation – from securing press opportunities and speaking slots to announcing new product launches and strategizing social media programs. The goal of all of this, of course, is to get in front of decision-makers that will be moved enough to take out their wallets – but it’s challenging to directly link PR results to sales, or even to leads. Every once in a while, I get a call or email from someone that read an article about a health IT client and wants to discuss purchasing their technology, but it’s a rare (yet oddly satisfying) occurrence.

After spraining my ankle in August, I started going to see Matthew Kraft, PT, DPT at Baystate Physical Therapy on a weekly basis to rehab my newly sprained ankle as well as strengthen my other previously broken ankle. He worked wonders and got me up and running (literally) – and also provided such great tips for addressing other bodily pains I was experiencing.

Prior to my college graduation this past December, I had the opportunity to work as an intern at Aria Marketing for eight months. During that time, I was able to not only explore the world of healthcare PR, but also gain first-hand experience working in an active marketing agency. Communicating with reporters, drafting monthly reports, and tracking events/awards were a few of my daily tasks that allowed me to expand and enhance my skills learned in college. It was even more exciting to learn that, at the end of my internship, Aria wanted to offer me a full-time Account Coordinator position. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing you have a job waiting for you right after college.

If I had to sum up the goals for The Pitch, I would say that they are:

• Provide useful information that helps healthcare marketing and PR professionals to do their work.
• Give our clients, employees, prospects and prospective employees a closer look at who we are, what we are interested in and what life is like at Aria.

As we begin the New Year, we can’t help but do some reflecting. So, for this first blog post of 2018, I sat down with an Aria veteran, EVP Jessica Cohen, to uncover some of the lessons she has learned working in healthcare PR, her thoughts on the changing industry, and why she has called Aria home for more than a decade.

I started working at Aria Marketing just over a month ago, and one of the first things that impressed me about the company is that there are so many people who have become “Aria lifers” (Scott, Jessica, Ross, Nancy, Chanel and Katie). So, I set out to find out what keeps people at this PR agency. Is it the #BreakfastWednesdays (a habit hard to break, once you get used to it), the diversity that each one of Aria’s clients brings to the table, the continuously evolving and exciting field of healthcare, the energetic and passionate  team, or Aria’s monthly #HappyHour event? To get to the bottom of the “Aria lifer” trend, I decided to go right to the source(s). Here’s what they had to say:

Every so often we like to use our blog to highlight our amazing partners. One such partner is our go-to freelance writer, Maggie Van Dyke. We’ve worked with Maggie for years to produce compelling content for our clients, which has appeared in a number of top-tier publications. We asked Maggie if she could provide our readers with some tips to combat something we all struggle with in this industry at one time or another: writer’s block. Please enjoy these “insider tips” provided by Maggie, and another one of our star freelance writers, Jeni Williams: