For some reason weddings come in bunches for me (and, since I have been happily unmarried to one person for years, never include my own). We went to one last weekend and are going to another in a few weeks. Before a wedding you get an invitation, which gives you…
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…
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….
Each day I become more convinced that Twitter is the ultimate media relations tool. Here is why: For years, PR people have tried a myriad of tactics to: Get journalists/bloggers to notice them Ensure journalists/bloggers knew that they (the PR pro) knew the journalist’s/blogger’s area(s) of interest and were familiar…
Social media is very much of the here and now. It is the newest of the new. Still, certain figures from the past would have grasped, employed and benefited from these channels were they alive today. Here’s a list of folks from the past that I believe would have harnessed…