Hill & Knowlton Canada (H&K) today announced the expansion and restructuring of its social media and digital communications practice in response to the tremendous interest in the team’s offerings by both stand-alone and existing H&K clients.  

 

Toronto-based Boyd Neil was appointed national practice leader, while Michelle Sullivan joined as a director in Montreal and Kerri Birtch joined the Toronto team as a consultant. They join a thriving team already working in Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto, and working closely with colleagues across North America and around the world.

 

“Hill & Knowlton was one of the first public and government relations agencies to recognize the potential of online engagement in the communications mix and has been offering clients strategies that meet their business objectives for several years now,” noted Mike Coates, president and CEO Hill & Knowlton, Canada. “We are now at the point in our development where the volume of work and accumulation of best practices mean we will benefit from the direction of a dedicated national practice leader – in addition to the experience and French language capabilities – of seasoned practitioners across the country. We are very excited about the prospects for our team.”

 

Clients have turned to Hill & Knowlton for a range of social media and digital communications solutions that integrate with their public relations or public affairs campaign, or that exist solely as social media mandates. These clients have included: Bruce Power, Canada Post, Canadian Olympic Committee, Enbridge, Industry Canada, HP, Loblaw, Molson, Motorola, Ontario Ministry of Health, PetroCanada, Royal Canadian Mint WarChild, and Waterfront Toronto among others. The Waterfront Toronto, WarChild and Molson projects all have won Society for New Communications Research awards. 

 

“After spending the last seven years at H&K managing the national corporate communications team, it is a privilege to be able to focus on this new role, and work with a team as talented and experienced as ours,” said Boyd Neil, senior vice president and national practice leader, social media and digital communications. “Whether for online advocacy, issue management, awareness and education campaigns, product marketing programs, or internal communications, Hill & Knowlton is able to bring industry-leading social media strategies and practical know-how to bear for our clients, in both national languages.”

 

A 13 year veteran of H&K, Boyd Neil led Hill & Knowlton’s Canadian corporate communications team prior to taking on the role of social media and digital communications practice leader. He has provided counsel on social media strategies to a range of clients and thought leadership in the field through writing and speaking. He blogs at The Intangibles (http://www.boydneil.com) and can be found on twitter at @boydneil.

 

Fluently bilingual, Michelle Sullivan has worked on a number of national social media projects across nearly every sector – starting with the launch of Quebec’s first social media campaign in 2006 and Quebec’s first multimedia corporate blog, which was nominated for Paris’ 2008 Prix Intrablog 2.0. Michelle is the founder of the 3e mardi | Third Tuesday Montréal series which brings together public relations and marketing professionals interested in social media to discuss latest trends and ensure best practices, and is a founding member of PodCamp Montreal, an annual event which attracts social media enthusiasts from Canada and the United States.

 

Michelle can be found at www.michellesullivan.ca as well as on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

 

Kerri Birtch joins the Toronto team with several years of social media and public relations agency experience. Kerri has worked with clients such as Rogers Communications, Zoompass, Pfizer Canada, Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, Travelocity.ca and a variety of others. Kerri is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Technology and Communications and has an undergraduate degree in online journalism from Ryerson University. David Jones continues to lead the Toronto team as vice president. Included in several lists of the “top PR people to follow on Twitter”, David is well known in social media circles for his blog davejones.ca and his two industry podcasts: InsidePR and Shill. In addition to setting the strategy and overseeing a number of local, and national clients, David is leading the team’s thinking around social media measurement.

 

Other members of the team include: Brendan Hodgson (Ottawa & Washington DC), senior vice president, North- American digital corporate and public affairs ; Cassandra Richards (Ottawa), senior consultant; Lynn Crymble (Toronto), account director; Amanda Brewer (Toronto), account director and internal communications expert; Lisa Walker (Calgary), Glen Whelan (Calgary); and Whitney Sanford (Vancouver).

 

Hill & Knowlton’s social media and digital communications offerings build off its strength and subject matter expertise in healthcare, advocacy and public affairs, packaged and consumer goods, and issue management.

 

Included in the current services are:

 

• A unique service that assists organizations in evaluating their social media readiness and prepares internal communications staff to develop, launch and evaluate an employee-focused social media program.

• From Facebook applications and pages to mobile strategies to social media outreach programs, the right set of tools for the job are developed based on a strategic approach that focuses on building online word-of-mouth by engaging

• With hundreds of millions of online touchpoints, determining who the Canadian influencers are in any give category is difficult. Using a combination of analytical software and research, we help clients see the top influencers in their sector.

• Modern PR requires a modern set of tools. From bespoke YouTube channels, custom Facebook pages and social-media-enabled online newsrooms to the strategic use of new and emerging online channels, search engine optimization and search engine marketing, H&K helps clients choose and use these tools to reach their audiences in new ways.