You love social. Me too. But too much of a good thing is possible. Here are 7 signs you might need time away from social media: When someone says, “size matters” your first thought is about Twitter follower counts. You actually believe that Justin Bieber is more influential than President…
“How many press hits did we get?” “What’s our rating on Klout?” “Have we doubled our Facebook fans this quarter?” “How many retweets did we get on the latest blog post?” You’ve heard these questions if you work in PR or digital. They all speak to quasi-important things. They also…
I’ve long wondered about why people follow me on Twitter. Weirder still, is the culture of “follow back.” You know what I mean, that “follow me, I follow you” shit. It’s garbage. It’s for follower counters. I follow people who help me. It ain’t a favour to them. I learn…
A friend recently asked me about his PR program. His agency is getting him play in traditional media. That’s great. You need that. But, in 2010, you need more. When I started my career PR people chased media. Now we are media. Today PR has to be a centre of…
Charles Bukowski is my favourite author. His writing has this beautiful rawness to it. If you’ve never read Post Office or Women, do yourself a favour and grab both at your local library or bookstore. If you blog, there are two lessons you can learn from Bukowksi: 1) You have to…
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…
You’ve seen this before: A pretty woman is walking on the street/sitting in a coffee shop/doing something in public where there are men. Invariably, some strange man or collection of men walk up to her and profess their love/tell her she is gorgeous/ask her on a date. None of them get…
I chatted recently about a few things I wish journalists would stop doing. Got me some bones to pick with bloggers too. Before that though, let’s again reiterate that I know a tonne of smart, cool people who also happen to be bloggers. This post is, by necessity, a generalization….
I enjoy my job. Over the years, one of the best parts has been meeting a myriad of talented, thoughtful, professional journalists. The great ones are passionate people with an eye for detail and the ability to learn new things quickly. That said, in a general sense, there’s a few…
PR people tend to talk a lot. In fact, to be less polite, we can be REAL big mouths. The more I learn about this game though, the more I realize that listening is the most important part of the profession. Here are 4 reasons PR pros need to listen more: In the era of social…