Here at Cognito, we pride ourselves at the coverage we secure for our clients. Whether it is the Financial Times, Bloomberg Television, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires or our beloved trade magazines – we are constantly inspired to facilitate achievement for the firms we represent.

We are excited to share that we have been named one of the 50 Most Engaged Workplaces™ in 2011 by Achievers!

With Europe struggling with its own debt woes and the United States dealing with recessionary risk, it was Asia that was first to rebound from the 2008 global financial crisis and will continue to lead economic growth going ahead even in the current volatile environment. With the emergence of increasingly competitive markets, companies need to try harder to convey a positive image and sell their products and services.        

Last week, Cognito threw its annual Summer Executive Networking Reception at the “Top of the Strand” rooftop of the Strand Hotel in New York City. More than 80 financial services executives, including Cognito’s clients and industry peers, gathered to enjoy cocktails, enlightening conversation, and the glowing lights of the Empire State Building. Amongst the crowd, we had representatives from the DTCC, Goldman Sachs, Intel, LCH Clearnet, and even the Belgian Trade Commissioner made an appearance.

Twama [twah-muh] -noun- Carrying on your personal issues with someone over Twitter.

Always curious about our clients’ needs, Cognito went out and surveyed communications professionals from leading financial services and financial technology firms across the globe. The questionnaire, carried out last month, was designed to gauge the top priorities financial marketing and public relations executives have for second half of 2011.

Twitter itself can be daunting, let alone working out how to use hashtags effectively. The simple truth is that hashtags signal which topic you are addressing and allow your voice to be heard. So anyone wanting to look up the conversation around High Frequent Trading on Twitter for example, needs only to search for #HFT and they will be able to find that conversation. So if you are involved in HFT and want to be seen in the conversation and your voice to he heard, simply hashtag relevant messages with #HFT. Hashtags are also used for sentiment or even humour, but the basic principles are as above.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) holds its annual Financial Services Cares Gala to raise money and carry on the legacy of Gene O’Kelly, former Chairman for KPMG LLP, who passed away in 2005 after being diagnosed with cancer. This year, Cognito is proud to announce its support for the event by volunteering its time and services to the ACS.

In the latest issue of Harper’s, there is an eloquent, playful piece by “Easy Chair” columnist Thomas Frank on a curious thriller Glenn Beck published mid-last year.  Characters and issues in the thriller are familiar to those of you who may know the Beck worldview, but interestingly, the PR industry – oft maligned by the left – is the enemy here, corrupting the world and crushing democracy.

Much has been said about the death of blogging, by blogging I  mean written content longer than just a paragraph or two.  However, there has been a dramatic rise in micro-blogging, meaning very short content, like the 140-character posts of Twitter, or Facebook updates.