Earlier this week I chatted with Assistant Professor Brooke Fisher Liu and Lecturer Susan Whyte Simon from the University of Maryland, the winners of the #PRStudChat Challenge. UMD won the challenge by having the most students contribute to the chat. The university had over 30 students participate in the challenge (You can find a list the students here*.) I had the opportunity to chat with two of them: Jeana Zamanski, a junior communications major, and Rowena Briones, a graduate student in the department of communications. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: November 2009
As Availability Decreases, Value Can Only Rise
Clients want it. Publicists work for it. But not everyone can have it. That’s right. I said it. Not every brand can be a cover model.
It’s an ugly reality, but we all need to accept it. Particularly as print publications, even well-established icons like Gourmet, cease publication. With less publications to cover the same amount of, if not more, content, the battle for the cover, or even a column, can only become more intense. So how will this new world work? Is it possible that the day will come where clients won’t want print hits? (Even I thought that sounded a little funny as I wrote it. Can we say ‘pipe dream?’) But, seriously. How will it work? Continue reading
Is Your Favorite Celeb Giving You a Headache on Twitter?
It’s hard to remember a time when there were no celebrities on Twitter. We used to get all of our juicy gossip from the entertainment rags (or Perez, of course), but now we can hear almost any actor, musician, or athletes innermost thoughts and their impulsive commentary just by following them. While this new system is great for the fans, the problem is that celebrity publicists no longer have any control over what their clients are saying through their feeds. With the media being able to access anything they write, celebrities are having to become their own representation; their personal brand can be affected positively or negatively by each Tweet they send out. Continue reading
Your Copy Sucks: NaNoWriMo
It’s November, which means NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).
NaNoWriMo can also be called “the month where all your wordy friends disappear from the planet.”
If you’ve never heard of it, here’s the scoop: for the month of November, participants sign up for the NaNo challenge. Their goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month. Some quick math reveals that this means writing a little under 2,000 words a day on average, and that doesn’t sound very difficult. Continue reading
Twitter Ratios & Profile Builders: A Message Thread
Editor’s Note: As some of you know the PRBC founding bloggers exchange e-mails quite a bit. On most workdays we trade between 150-200 msgs per day. We talk about everything – potential posts (seeking input and conflict checking), insight on an outlet, formal PRBC events, informal area events all the way to dinner plans and what one should wear to one of these events. It’s really a bit scary.
This entire post started with a brainstorming e-mail after I happened to see a GMail ad for a twitter profile builder. This one happened to intrigue me (the ad was well written). And so … in most of its glory, most of its ‘rough around the edgedness’ and edited for readability, part of our message thread. From the first message to the last one included here a total of 1 hour and 1 minute passed.~Cog Continue reading
Coffee Talk with the Winners of #PRStudChat Challenge
On October 21st over 409 participants joined in the #PRStudChat Challenge. This challenge was organized by Deidre Breakenridge and Valerie Simon. The conversation consisted of students, professors, and PR pros with Christine Perkett as a special guest. Over 40 schools participated but the winning school, with the most contributors, was the University of Maryland. After the challenge, I got the chance to chat with Assistant Professor Brooke Fisher Liu and Lecturer Susan Whyte Simon about UMD’s communication program and how they integrate social media into their students’ education. There will also be a part two of this interview with two public relations students from UMD. Continue reading
The disease of Twitter…
Dear Twitter,
How could you do this to me? I was a huge supporter of you, I loved you. I converted so many people to join you. I went through hundreds of people laughing at me and dealing with phrases like “Who Tweets?” Yet, I still prevailed and kept on tweeting. Twitter has been an amazing time for me. I absolutely love it, and have made some great friends from around the United States, England, and even Australia! Continue reading