Daily Archives: December 8, 2009

Heather Whaling

Collaborative Pitching: Pitch With Me

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pwt-logo_transIf content is king, then it’s about time we crown collaboration the queen.

By now, we all understand the value of quality content — in terms of SEO, traffic, engagement, readability, and so on. But, only recently have PR people begun to rethink our uber-competitive nature. And, we’re discovering that working together leads to better results for our clients.

For example: How many of you have seen a HARO query, and thought “Hey, that would be a perfect fit for X.” If X is another PR person, technically they’re a competitor. I don’t know about you, but when I first started my career, I never would have shared a lead with a competing agency. But, now I don’t think twice about giving someone a heads up if I see a HARO that might be relevent to them or their clients. If nothing else, it’s good karma, right? Continue reading →

TJ Dietderich

Your Copy Sucks: In Offense of Ellipses

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AbstractTo the chief bottle washer, Cog:

Today, we’re staging a little intervention. Cog, we’re not doing this to punish you; we’re doing this because you’re our friend and we want what’s best for you. It’s getting to the point where you can’t handle it anymore. You’ll destroy yourself if you keep using at this rate!

I speak, of course, of your rampant abuse of ellipses.

I am completely biased, but I think they’re the most wimpy punctuation mark available. Lots of people use them (or, in my view, overuse them) because they lend a sort of pause in a sentence, and we naturally pause when speaking to breathe or think. Except I believe that our writing should be better and more compelling than our speech. We have the time to set it in stone (or word processor, as the case may be); we should strive for perfection.

So let’s talk about dot. Dot. Dot.
Continue reading →