In the summer months, my day job is mostly event PR – specifically, charity runs, walks and rides. It is rewarding, largely because it presents unique challenges. If you’ve ever pitched media stories about covering charity events (the event itself, not pre or post event coverage) you know these are,…
The other day a friend was asking me about sourcing PR help. Basic questions about what to look for when engaging the services of an agent or agency. The conversation got me thinking about how easy it now is to check out a potential agent or agency. Go to a…
Call this a case study of sorts. A rough one, but a real life example no less… Last week, over at Made Here the FAIT ICI blog, we did a five part guest post series featuring a number of Montreal-based foodie bloggers. Hardly a groundbreaking initiative in terms of innovation, but one we’re…
I wanna kill ‘dead’. Not in all contexts. The word has its moments. For instance, I might need to mention that “Gandhi is dead’” or my “Grandfather is dead”. The word is also useful when ominous signs appear on the horizon, such as “Oh no, a grizzly bear, we’re fucking dead!” But I am sick…
I’ve been a contributor to Ragan’s PR Daily for approximately 4 months. It has been an interesting experiment and, thus far, has panned out better than I imagined it would. This type of activity takes time. That’s the output. It also generates returns; some easy to measure, some harder. I don’t get…
You might have heard that the North Korean Government is on Twitter. (And Facebook and Youtube as well). A tad bizarre for an organization whose chief interactions with its citizens involve spying on them and sending them to gulags. But there are, I have learned, sound reasons behind Pyongyang’s foray into the 140 character world….
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…
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,…
The position of “community manager” is relatively new. It’s also increasingly important. The person in charge of tending to your online tribe needs to possess certain skills. Obviously writing, the ability to produce multimedia content, comfort with tech, experience, work ethic and intellect matter – as they do for any modern day…
I had some social media guru follow me on Twitter recently. It got me thinking about what that term stands for. I think I figured it out: ‘S’ is for “so so.” At most, this is the quality of advice you will get from the guru if you hire her/him….