All posts by Kate Ottavio

Like, duh! Ten Tips to Totally Rock Your Internship

Thinkstock Single Image SetYou got in the door! You landed that dream internship that will be a glowing addition to your resume. So now that you’re hired, don’t forget to try not to get fired.

Here are ten tips to keeping your internship…even excelling at it. This should be common sense, but I’m sad to report some people just don’t get it. Continue reading

How dare you denounce the gods!?

Clouds with crespuscular raysA recent tweet by a friend of mine struck me. She said something along the lines of “just because I don’t agree with So-And-So (big name social media guru) doesn’t mean I need to get privately burned via direct message.”

I approached her via DM explaining how every once in a while, I’d like to respectfully disagree with some of these PR and social media professionals we have collectively dubbed “gods.” Respectfully disagree as I would do with anyone else. But why haven’t I? Why can’t I?

Because: I would literally be stoned to death via 140 characters at a time by an overwhelmingly loyal band of lemmings. Yeah, I said it. Continue reading

URGENT e-mails – Please stop abusing the ! notification

sign post with exclamation markI have one MAJOR pet peeve.

Who am I kidding? I have a lot of pet peeves.

Ok, well one of the things that I’d like to vent about today is the High Importance E-mail Indicator ! ! !

One day last week, POP goes an e-mail right into my inbox. This e-mail was from a lovely young lady I had spoken to about internship opportunities with my firm. A routine e-mail at best. But definitely NOT of high importance. Lucky girl . . . she marked that e-mail with that little red exclamation point. Continue reading

Stress Relief for the PR Pro

Woman sitting at desk by crumpled papers on floorAny job/career can cause stress. My dad, for example, is an engineer. He builds buildings. He loves his job and does it well, but it’s demanding. He’s one of the most HIGH STRUNG people I know I will ever meet in my life and is always a little on the stressed side. Coming from his lovely gene-pool, I am also high-strung, Type A, etc., etc., which translates oh-so-conveniently into the fast-paced, multitasking world of PR. And I have to say it has only worked to my advantage in this field. Ask me 20 years from now…it might be a different story. Continue reading

HR’s Grasp on Social Media

Everyday People 2I recently presented at a summit in Hartford with my colleague Danielle. Our breakout session was focused on educating small to mid-sized businesses about social media and which platform(s) might be right for their organizations. At the end of our presentation, we opened it up to questions.

One question that sticks in my mind was from a gentleman who worked at a large health insurance company. He asked (I’m paraphrasing), “From a Human Resources standpoint, what do we do to control or monitor our employees’ use of Social Media?” Continue reading

Agency Eater – they’ll chew you up and spit you out!

Portrait of a LionYou know that song by Nelly Furtado, Man Eater? She’s brutal, ain’t she (in a good way)? Perhaps I can go all PR-geek here and suggest we do a spoof called Firm Eater…

They’re a firm eater
Make you sweat hard, make you work hard, make you ruin relationships
Work for a month

Makes sense in my head…(Feel free to laugh at me here.) Continue reading

When does holding companies accountable in SM turn to whiny, woe-is me annoyances?

I recently saw a tweet from someone who complained that Verizon had it out for them and that they’d have to wait until their contract was up to get a new phone when the one they had was dysfunctional. The next day, I saw a tweet complaining that a hotel didn’t let people walking on the street into the lobby when it was pouring rain outside.

Seems we’ve all discovered the customer service side of social media. Hundreds of companies are in the social media sphere now to not only spread the word proactively about their organizations, but also to do damage/crisis control with less than happy customers.

But when does legitimate customer dissatisfaction turn into a public twitter and blogosphere annoyance? Continue reading

Are you a Twitter Snob?

Businesswoman with briefcase peering down at subordinatesThe most fascinating aspect of Twitter is that you can literally find millions of different people with personalities that span the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I love it.

One thing that I’m always keen on studying and writing about is narcissism and ego in social media. So I came up with a little quiz to determine whether or not you are a Twitter snob. Please keep score as you go along. Continue reading

Journalists vs. PR Pros: This debate will never be settled

When High angle view of five business executives in a meeting I read PR Week’s Industry backs controversial campaign aimed at cutting PR spam, posted on January 29, I had a #HeadHitsDesk moment. This battle, this debate, this controversy will never end, will it?

To sum up this piece by Gemma O’Reilly, a number of PR professionals have endorsed a campaign to end the spamming of journalists. My first thought? Kiss-ups. If you really want to do your part in not spamming journalists, don’t do it yourself or put outrageous demands on your lower-level staff to land an unattainable number of media placements (note: this is not me accusing any of those PR people backing this initiative. I have no idea how they individually operate themselves, their businesses or their staff. Rather this is a call to all PR pros.) Continue reading

Can You be a Success in SM and Still Have a Real Life?

Broken heart shaped biscuit on dish by cup of coffeeThe innumerable articles and blog posts that have spawned from the Vanity Fair “tweetheart”article have been well…innumerable. Here’s another one.

Stefanie Michaels’s (1.4 million followers) husband considers himself a “twidower.” He says his wife found Twitter and dropped him. Ouch. I’ve received some of my own backlash from friends and family. It’s more like mockery, but I’ve gotten less than stellar feedback from my non-Twitter friends on my commitment to this social medium. I’ve even had to create BlackBerry rules for myself (…which I sometimes follow) so I don’t dismiss the company I’m in for the ambient glow of UberTwitter. Continue reading