According to a study recently released by Bulldog Reporter and Business Wire, about half (48.4%) of corporate communicators have an online newsroom, and an additional 13% intend to develop one in the future.  The study also revealed the single greatest challenge with online newsrooms is a lack of resources to keep it updated.

According to the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, children and teens are drinking massive amounts of sugary drinks that increase the risk for obesity and diabetes. And guess who's to blame?  According to a new report entitled: Evaluating Sugary Drink Nutrition and Marketing to Youth," companies that are targeting young people and using more sophisticated and ubiquitous marketing tactics to reach them are the biggest problem.

In fairness to the other side, I would like to offer some pointed and useful advice on how to not succeed in business and life.  In the words of Dwight Schrute: "To me, success is simply the opposite of failure."  Indeed.

Measuring marketing campaigns is key to determining if you should continue a campaign and necessary when showing upper management the value of marketing.  The first step is setting measurable objectives and ensuring each marketing strategy has measurement metrics in place.

My dad (Dennis B. Sweeney) always said:  "All things in moderation... too much of anything is rarely a good thing." Interestingly he used that advice in two distinct ways, as a warning against getting carried away with things ("it's actually possible to drink too much beer") and as an encouragement to lighten up ("it is actually possible to study too much").

When considering advertising – whether it be print, broadcast, online or even through Facebook – run a test campaign before making a long term commitment.

Satchel Paige, the over-aged, overachiever is famously credited for once saying this about his  passion for playing baseball: "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you." Steve Jobs had a similar idea.  "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.

More often than not the critical step of conducting market research is skipped when developing a marketing strategy.  The oversight is typically because of lack of funding and time. However, the good news is market research does not have to be a costly and overwhelming undertaking.  If budgets or time will not allow for full-blown research, reach out to customers, media and employees.

If you guessed that a secret is NEVER a secret, you are correct. As a young boy, my dad once advised me that if I didn't want people to know my business, I should keep my mouth shut. That was pre-Internet, pre-social media, pre-Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame, pre-reality TV, pre-it is better to be seen and not heard days.