In my six plus years in the PR “world” a number of friends have shared their Devil Wears Prada like horror stories about the competitive nature of this industry among their colleagues and managers. For these friends, sharing media contacts is taboo, asking questions of your boss/team lead to make sure you understand an assignment is blasphemy and supporting the success of your team mates is unheard of. With that kind of thought process who would want to build their career in this field? Read the rest of this entry

Alright folks, I know using Twitter and email is all about speed and brevity, but their are sum things that our simply inexcusable for communications professionals.

Before getting into it, a few notes. Read the rest of this entry

Having your blog or Web site rank high in search engine is essentially a guaranteed way to convert sales. But as a PR person, how can you help your clients achieve number-one ranking nirvana?

While at the recent BlogWorld Expo, I sat in on a session that proposed the creation of a network of blogs with content specific to the various products or services your client sells. Relevant key words in the blogs’ titles and content will help it rank so that it does not dilute the keywords in other articles. The strategic use of keyword specific anchor text and linking structures will help as well. Read the rest of this entry

Wow. Guys. Did we really need to sit down and talk about how you probably shouldn’t steal? Man, I guess we do.

So here it goes: when you steal words, pictures, or ideas from other people, especially people who live in the constantly well-documented world of the blogosphere, you’re not being cool. Read the rest of this entry

When I had my first interview with Co-Communications, Account Manager Danielle Cyr, looked me straight in the eye with an icy glare and said: “We are not competitive here. Are you competitive?”

After I almost wet myself out of sheer fear of Danielle (we are best buds now, don’t worry!), I thought “yeah, I am competitive! I used to dance, horseback ride, play the violin, compete in pageants. I love competition.”

Danielle went on to further explain. She had seen the ugly-side of competitive at other jobs. She had seen cutthroat, death-stare, whispering behind backs competition. Read the rest of this entry

I was on the phone with a friend of mine the other day. She works at home and completely relies on e-mail and virtual communication. She let out this huge groan and states “I am hella annoyed right now. [She is from California, hence the usage of hella] Everyone always replies to my e-mails but NEVER actually answers any of my questions. Instead, they ask questions that I already answered in that e-mail. DOES ANYONE READ ANYMORE?” Read the rest of this entry

Yup, seems we do this quite a bit, but PRBC will be chatting live on Twitter this Thursday, October 29th at 8:30p (Eastern).  This time we’re hosted by the lovely Valerie Simon from Examiner.com’s PR Examiner. Read the rest of this entry

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on NBC’s allowing marketers to tack products on their programs promoting a cause, health or social issue, citing Campbell Soup as an upcoming sponsor for Today Show health segments in November and February.

This got me thinking – is advertising blurring the space between product placement and advertising? A throwback to days of yore? Read the rest of this entry

During another one of my random midday reads of interesting social media news and tidbits, I came across this fantastic BusinessWeek poll of CMOs. The big takeaway for me was that most CMOs think social media agencies are completely full of s***. Most agreed that those agencies have a pretty good understanding of what can be done with social media, the CMOs that were polled also noted that many of the social media agencies they have dealt with have no clue about business, the nuances of their client’s industry, who their clients’ competitors are or how social media can help a business get ahead of its competitors. Read the rest of this entry

Marketers, branding strategists, advertising agencies and PR pros alike probably wish they didn’t see it.  I speak from experience when I say it makes me twitch a little.  And I know it confuses consumers more than it benefits them.

So what is this annoying little blemish that irks us all and ages us prematurely?  The case of the confused brand.

Your brand has an identity (of note, the use of ‘an’ indicates singularity)

Yes, brands can represent different things to different people.  Starbucks can represent convenience to some and quality to others.  Different values aside, it doesn’t mean each market needs a different version of your logo.  Or that your Facebook and Twitter should appear so dissimilar that the consumer questions whether or not the same brand/product is being represented.

So just where do these little differences hide? Read the rest of this entry