Category Archives: Marie Baker

Sounding Off on Social Care

Social Care. Customer Service. Guest Relations. No matter what the experts are calling it these days, social media and the consumer are intertwined. People demand answers, immediately. They expect companies to care about their complaints and issues, ASAP.

From Facebook to Twitter, social is a hotbed for customer service. I get it. I’ve used it. Lost your luggage? Tweet the airline. Had a cold burger? Let’s post about it on the brand’s Facebook page. Continue reading

PR Pity Party

A few weeks back, I sent out an innocent tweet about a new poll that showed PR pros preferred using Facebook over Twitter. Fellow PRBC-er, Jeff Esposito, read me the riot act about how he was sick of PR people taking ourselves so seriously.

Here I will quote Mr. Esposito: “I am sick of the self-promotional BS spewed lately. Last I checked our job’s function was to make co’s look good.” I tried to rack my brain about what my link had to do with this topic. After a bit of back and forth, we discovered Jeff mixed up my tweet with someone else’s and now he owes me a drink.

Yet, in the confusion, he did make a point. Do PR pros have a tendency to throw a pity party for ourselves? Recently, CNBC called Public Relations the #2 most stressful job in America (obviously, they did not fact check the salary portion). When I heard this news, I was ready to pop open a bottle of tequila and wallow about how bad I have it, how difficult my job is, and so on. Continue reading

The Secrets to Success in Social Media

Did I lure you in with my snazzy headline? Yes? Okay great. Now I’m going to spend the first few sentences using buzz words so that you will keep reading my social media post. Then after you’ve gotten through the first couple of paragraphs, I’m going to provide you with these awesome bullet points packed with information that you already knew.  Lastly, I will summarize the topic which pretty much has nothing to do with my headline that I created for SEO purposes.

Does this situation sound familiar? Every day my inbox and RSS feeds pile up with articles about social media. The articles seem to always be about the same topic but recycled, rehashed, rewritten – they are offering me nothing of value. If you are like me, you’ve probably about had it. Continue reading

Swearing and Social Media

I’ve wanted to tackle the subject of social media and profanity for a bit now, especially when I read this post about the persuasive power of swearing. When you are communicating in an open platform such as Twitter and you are a representative of your company, when is it okay to swear…or is it ever?

As the post and a book that I will be reviewing next week (hint) both demonstrate is that there are indeed positives to using expletives from time to time.  For example, light swearing can show your passion for a particular subject and draws in your audience to pay attention. You might also find yourself in an argument and have to use stronger wording to express your point of view.

In person, I’m unfazed by people that swear up a storm.  However, when I see someone send out a tweet using a naughty word, my eyebrow raises a little. Not because I’m offended but I wonder if that person just turned off his/her audience. It seems that the more we tweet and update our Facebook statuses and develop deeper personal connections, the result is that we have the tendency to act more casual. Continue reading

WANTED: Publicist Needed for Famous Actor

Famous actor is seeking a new publicist who must be able to bring it. The right individual will have tiger blood and Adonis DNA, and also ready to win at every moment.

Daily responsibilities include and are not limited to: corresponding with actor’s goddesses, managing actor’s Twitter and Facebook feeds, reciting Eminem’s poetry and drafting press releases.

Self-described as a “winning client” and “goddamn bitchin’” this experienced PR pro should be well-versed in crack cocaine, bad comedy sitcoms, late night drinking binges, hatred towards AA and comfortable working with a warlock.

This high-profile position will require you to work with a 10,000-year-old brain and the boogers of a seven-year-old. There will be some travel required such as rocket trips to the moon.

This highly desirable opportunity will be unpaid to start as the famous actor is currently underpaid. All applicants should have a success rate of 100 percent and be able to make a long-term commitment as this actor is still alive which is “pretty cool.” Vatican assassins need not apply.

Since actor does not have an attention span for resumes, please include your brief cover letter below to be considered for this prestigious position.

That’s a little ‘pitchy’ dawg

Oh yes, it’s that time of year where thousands of contestants try out to be the next American Idol. There are some great singers, some really awful ones, and then there are those that are a little ‘pitchy.’

I’ve been getting a lot more pitches lately that are starting to remind me of Idol contestants. They aren’t necessarily terrible but they aren’t that great either.

Do you want to wow the judges (the media) with your next pitch audition and get that golden ticket to Hollywood? Think of me as a sort of Marie Seacrest but taller; grab a Coke glass and sit back as we break it down for you. Continue reading

The Daily: Friend to PR or Just Another Set of Reporters?

With Rupert Murdoch’s much ballyhooed iPad-only daily newspaper, The Daily, now up and running, it’s time to consider its potential impact on the PR industry. Below is a series of thoughts and insights from various PRBC bloggers that we curated via e-mail conversations Wednesday.

Keith Trivitt: The Daily is like any other new publication that comes out: It’s incredibly exciting to see the new product, particularly the flow of news, who’s writing what, the columnists, etc. I’m a news junkie, so I love finding new publications.

As for the PR value of The Daily … eh, only time will tell. That’s waffling, I know, but we have to keep in mind that right now, it’s only available on the iPad (though reports have it soon branching out to other tablets and e-readers eventually), it’s not searchable on Google and the iPad still hasn’t reached a critical mass. Continue reading

Snow Day PRBC-style

For those of you that are enduring what seems to be the never-ending onslaught of snow, then you are probably becoming increasingly familiar with the “snow day.”

Perhaps you live in the suburbs and all forms of public transportation have been shut down – or, maybe schools are closed and you have no childcare back up – whatever the case may be, you find yourself in quite the snowy predicament.

Yet, even when Mother Nature comes screaming, we still need to work. What does this mean? It’s means working from home.

As some of us here at PRBC find ourselves snowed in and forced to work from home, we thought we would put all of our heads together and share our best tips for getting the job done…even on a snow day. Continue reading

Location-Based Marketing for Newbies

I’m first and foremost a publicist, but as you know these days, we need to know a lot of stuff. I spend most of my energy focusing on trends in public relations and social media, and I understand the basic gist of mobile marketing, but it’s definitely an area I’m a bit fuzzy on.

Why do I need to know about mobile marketing? Well, when you are strategizing and creating campaigns for your clients, you need to think about the “big picture.” I’m not a developer by any means; however I do need to understand the basic concepts about what would work for my clients.

Last week I attended a fantastic panel “What’s Hot in PR: Brand in the Hand — How Location-Based Marketing is Shaping the Future,” sponsored by AWNY. The panel included the likes of Jack Bamberger (Apps Savvy), David Berkowitz (360i), John Puterbaugh (Nellymoser), Jared Hopfer (Mobext) and Barri Rafferty (Ketchum). Continue reading