PRBreakfastClub

Congratulations! You’ve scored a phone interview for your client with a big name reporter. Now comes the big question – do you join in?

I have worked for people that have stood on both sides of the issue as to whether or not you should be on the phone while a client does the interview. If the decision has been made that you will be listening in, do you tell the reporter you are on the other line? Do you chime in? Or, do you just pretend you aren’t there and take a back seat? And, what do the reporters think?

There are so many opinions that surround this topic; I thought I would poll the PRBC crew and a couple of reporters to get their thoughts. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s safe to say that the majority of us that work in PR tend to fall into the workaholic category. I will fully admit that I am one of those. Of course, I’ve trained myself to take social media breaks, etc., but I am now about to enter new territory.

If you haven’t heard yet, I’m almost ready to deliver the next member of the PRBreakfastClub family. That means that I’ll be taking maternity leave for six weeks. SIX WEEKS! Gulp.

Now, I know having a baby is like a big deal, but not being immersed in the PR universe for six whole weeks? This concept is starting to turn into a very hard pill to swallow.

If you are a workaholic like me, when you go to sleep, you dream about work. When you’re on your way to the office, you think about work. When you watch the news, you’re always wondering how you can get your clients on it. Read the rest of this entry »

During the #prbc Ragan panel, I brought up the point that the line between a blogger and marketer will continue to blur, and you will start to see more bloggers taking a stab at becoming publicists/marketers.

As this trend continues – which I have a feeling it will – everyone is going to have an opinion on the subject. Can bloggers be publicists? Should companies stick with PR firms?

I’m not saying that bloggers shouldn’t be marketers or they can’t be publicists, but I do think a select few might need some insight. So, what’s the reality you may ask? Well, being a publicist/marketer isn’t as easy as it looks. Read the rest of this entry »

With less than two months to go, my away-from-work-life has consisted of registering for baby stuff, painting a nursery, complaining about maternity clothes, trying to avoid ice cream – everything and all things baby!

Now my husband just informed me that he bought a domain for our future son as a gift. My first reaction was “We don’t even have diapers yet.”  So, I sent out a tweet about his latest purchase, and got an immediate number of responses.  It seems he isn’t the only one preparing for our child’s SEO future.

Honestly, this would be the last thing I would even think about as I get ready for parenthood, but these days, should it be one of the first? Read the rest of this entry »

I was invited to an event recently that I was really excited about. However, much to my dismay, I was only able to last a half hour before I high-tailed it out of there. From a cramped event space to complete confusion about where I was supposed to go, let’s just say this event didn’t live up to all the hype.

We thought we would use this opportunity as a learning experience, and provide a few tips that you should keep in mind when planning and executing an event. Read the rest of this entry »

Some of the comments on the personal post of one of our writers brought up some points that I’ve been thinking about for awhile now. See a friend of mine spent two entire work days at a social media conference. After it was over, I asked him what he learned.

Imagine a very long, brief pause.  Then he started talking in circles, so I pushed again, “No, I mean what did you actually learn?” He proceeded to fess up that it was more of a networking event than an actual learning experience. All in all, he didn’t learn anything new. Read the rest of this entry »

[We received this question on a recent blog post about short job stints]

Dear Flack,

How does one stay active in the PR/marketing world and keep up their skills when they’re unemployed?

This may be a bit off topic, but I was late to the other unemployment posting, so I thought I’d ask here since it’s somewhat relevant.

I’m currently unemployed, and I really want to keep my PR and writing skills active while I continue to search for work. I would appreciate any tips that others have tried during periods of unemployment to keep their skills current and continue doing what they love (and it would also be great to be able to share what I did to keep on top of things while unemployed with potential employers). Read the rest of this entry »

There is no “I” in “team” but there is a captain even if there is no “C”. A few weeks ago Cog wrote on the importance of teamwork in PR and how as PR professionals we often work collaboratively. However the post reminded me that behind every great team is a great leader. Someone the team trusts, believes in, and who believes in the betterment of the group. Perhaps it’s the manager that goes the extra to mile, ensuring all players are on board or making sure the separate tasks are meeting the end goal. In the simplest terms, thanks to Dictionary.com, a captain is a person who is at the head of or in authority over others;a chief; a leader. In my opinion, if you want a successful team you need a great leader. Marie and I came up with a few necessary traits, in no particular order, we feel a leader should have.

(Note: Marie and I know taking on the role as captain isn’t all rainbows and unicorns and we needed someone to play devil’s advocate. In true PRBC fashion, we turned to our resident devil, Cog, and asked if he would put together why, although our traits are important, it’s not that easy. You can see that post here)

Read the rest of this entry »

On occasion a PR pro makes the wrong decision about taking a job. Whether it was the money, or the potential opportunity for growth, changing jobs might not always end up how you envisioned. I know this all to well from past experiences.

Let’s say you have taken a job you’ve come to now realize was the wrong move, and you have only been there a short few months.  Or you recently took a position and the company was forced to do layoffs and you end up on the cutting room floor. More than likely your next step is to look for another job ASAP.

Obviously a short job stint isn’t necessarily a great thing for the resume, and it also could be a red flag to potential employers. How do you approach short job stints? Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, TechCrunch featured a post about an e-mail they received from a PR firm, which the publicist obviously didn’t mean to send. To summarize, the firm accidentally left an internal exchange at the bottom of the e-mail that discussed the actual art of pitching TechCrunch.

Since I started out in the PR industry, I’ve quickly seen more and more publicists get blasted throughout the interwebs for their mistakes. Granted this public exhibition of PR faux pas has made communications professionals more aware and cautious about what they send out for mass consumption. One could also argue that at the same time, it’s made us totally terrified. Read the rest of this entry »