You can find a treasure trove of blog posts about creating a healthy corporate culture. They all make it sound so easy. Most of these snack sized bites of wisdom cite Google or Zappos as paragons of virtue. Too bad we can't all be Tony Hsieh. I've had the pleasure of…
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April 19th marks the first anniversary of Guru's death. What a tremendous loss for Hip Hop. He embodied the best of the genre and culture. In Guru's life and music there are a myriad of lessons for PR pros. Here's a cursory list of four, culled from my favourite Guru/Gangstarr songs: It's mostly tha voice: Guru's self-described…
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NOTE - this piece is cross posted from the FAIT ICI blog, where it was originally published. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris Anderson, the man behind Wired and 'The Long Tail', really likes declaring things 'dead'. Awhile back he said print media was dead. Then he said the internet was dead. Anderson's very…
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Awesome. I use it. You use it. It seems massive tracts of the blogosphere use it. It's damn versatile. If you need to describe something that is actually great you say 'awesome' (i.e. - 'I just had the world's best corndog. It was awesome!') If you…
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I am always amazed at the power of a fedora hat to make women sexier. I cannot explain why I feel this way, but there's no doubt that tiny details can really accentuate appeal. This is especially true in the world of media relations. When you pitch someone a story idea,…
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I haven't posted on email in awhile, but it's a favourite subject. I've been wondering about those messages pertaining to how we should consider the environment before printing an email. In fact, I've got several questions. If you can answer them, please do so in the comments: Does this now omnipresent blurb…
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There are right ways and wrong ways to ask questions when you are new to the Comms business (or any business). No sane manager expects entry level people to place clients in huge outlets or solve massive PR crises. However, everyone likes to see that new folks think, even if…
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I've spent a good chunk of the last two days going over key messages with staff and clients. Perhaps because of time spent in politics early in my career, terms like "key messages" and "talking points" have negative connotations for me. Here's the thing: talking points - including the ones…
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I hire lots of people who are fresh out of school for my PR team. Below are the job specific things that I look for in new hires. A sense of what news is: PR pros are not yet glorified community managers. We still 'do' news and pitching. The latter requires…
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North Korea uses the most over the top official rhetoric of any country on Earth. In fact the language is so routinely bizarre that sometimes you wonder if the place is actually on Mars. Every year at this time the North Korean government issues a collection of crazy statements related…
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