Earlier in his career, William Murray, my boss at PRSA, spent 20 years working under Jack Valenti as the COO of the Motion Picture Association of America. Along the way, he learned a little bit about what goes into the production of the Academy Awards, and he always has entertaining stories to share.
(Full disclosure: Keith Trivitt, a founding PRBC blogger, also works for PRSA.)
So Bill was a bit puzzled when I asked if he had seen the Tweet sent on Oscar night by Richard Robbins, AT&T’s director of social innovation. In it, Robbins suggested that the producers of live broadcasts put contingency plans in place for making mid-production changes when the social media buzz turns ugly, as it did in the case of this year’s Oscars.
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 →
As the NFL barrels toward a potential March 4 lockout (potentially leaving a comically ridiculous $9 billion in annual revenue on the table), there have been a myriad of ideas, excuses and fanciful dreams from all sides as to how the league, the owners and the players can collectively get richer.
One idea that I haven’t seen — until now — is intriguing, but controversial: selling ad space on player’s jerseys. And as the New York Post reported recently, more than $230 million in annual advertising revenue is up for grabs if the NFL is willing to go the way of European soccer teams, NASCAR and other leagues that have opened up the most valuable advertising real estate in sports.
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.
As communications professionals, we understand the power of a strong press release. And while our clients (and for you in-housers, our C-levels) often believe sending out press releases are important, it’s our job to make sure that the release has a purpose. Unfortunately, there are many companies who dismiss or ignore the strategic value of a release and instead send out something that could have been announced through a different vehicle: website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. These tools have made communicating to audiences easier, faster and cheaper. So with this, we start a new column here called Wasted Money Press Release highlighting releases that could have been better served using alternate communications vehicles.
Today’s is about how an unauthorized biography of Carl Icahn can now be found on audio. This is the kind of release that could have been announced via the author’s (or book’s) Facebook page, if there is one. Continue reading →
The CMO Survey looked at the rate of integration of social media within companies’ marketing mix, as well as how well social media is actually being integrated. Some of the results were quite surprising. Let’s take a look at the key takeaways:
Over the next 12 months, social media spending will nearly double to 9.8% of surveyed CMO’s marketing budgets, up from a current level of 5.6%.
In the next five years, that percentage will increase to 18.1%.
Service companies on the B2B and B2C will experience the biggest increases, as they look to promote product-focused digital and social media initiatives.
via eMarketer
That’s the good news. The bad news, however, is that the confidence level among CMOs that they and their companies are successfully integrating social media into more traditional work and marketing strategies lags behind the increase in spending.
According to eMarketer, a full 25% of survey respondents said social is not effectively integrated at all within their companies. So, on the plus side, budget allocations toward social media are up — significantly — with the expectation that it will continue to rise in years to come. But, we still have a ways to go before we can say that yes, social media is as fully integrated and understood within marketing services as more traditional service offerings.
The timeliness of this report couldn’t have been better, as recent trends, revenue reports and a general feeling of buoyancy within the PR and ad industries point toward big agencies going into a buying and M&A frenzy to boost their agencies’ digital chops, as I wrote about last week.
As PRWeek pointed out in a recent editorial, “right now the conversation in PR is all about social media and digital, and no agency can seemingly have a glut of these skills and services on hand.”
The question is, will our industry’s bravado in the digital sector match clients’ expectations for top-level digital and social media services that just two years ago, we couldn’t match, and even now, ad agencies are chomping at the bit to reclaim?
Confidence is on the rise right now in PR; but do our marketing industry counterparts feel the same bluster?
I’ll be the first to admit, I am always skeptical about team building and bonding things. Many public relations agencies have their methods of team bonding, from purge days to beer Fridays. Being part of a team is integral to working at an agency. Got to have trust right?
Now I’ve been through my fair share of team building exercises over the years, from ropes courses to stupid scavenger hunts where you have to go into a diner and just say “burgermeat,” but recently I encountered the most amazing team building exercise – one that I will back 100% and recommend all agencies get involved in…Intramural Sports! Continue reading →
Line Up 2, a small, easy-to-learn game for the iPhone is one of my favorite iPhone apps for killing time. It’s a very simple game that requires you to locate 3 or more blocks of the same color next to each other and tap them. Simple right? Rows continue to pile on from the bottom and if the top-most block hits the ceiling of the game screen your game is over. As you advance in the game the rows pile on faster until you hit a certain score and then they slow down again. Additionally, the longer the chain of blocks – the higher the score. So if you see a very long chain forming as the rows pile on you have to determine if you should wait to get the most bang for your tap score-wise or if you should just tap tap tap along. And did I mention you only get a set number of taps per round?
This simple game is a perfect analogy for the PR pro’s activities. Continue reading →
[This post originally appeared on Antonia’s Blog at Social Glitz. Normally we don’t repost materials, but this particular piece merited an exception. — Ed.]
There’s something I’m increasingly starting to notice about myself and before you ask, no, I do not like what I’m noticing. Like not at all. I have issues. Serious issues. Not *that* kind of issues but issues nonetheless. I tweet a lot. I facebook a lot. I spend a lot of time reading blogs. I take pictures of my smoothie to then put them on Facebook and Twitter because I’m so excited about drinking a smoothie. That, my friends, I call a serious issue. Not to mention, the nature of my job fosters this bad habit. But hell, I enjoy my job! Now what?
Thanks to the digital age, I often miss the point of the simple things right in front of me. Enjoy the moment, Antonia. Oh and whilst you are at it, grasp the period of solitude with both hands and hold onto it as long as possible. Trouble is my hands are too busy tweeting about the moment I’m apparently enjoying right now to start thinking about holding onto any moment of solitude. (Issues!!) Continue reading →
It’s a given that involvement in social media demands us to be omnipresent. We need to be available and accessible to our friends and fans in all places at all times in order to respond to those who enter our world and want to get to know us. Developers have become keen on this by introducing scheduling and management tools like HootSuite and Tweetdeck, as well as some other “stand-in” devices. The constant emergence of new tools and updates makes it impossible to keep up, though. Along a learning curve paved with good intentions, we are likely going to commit some unintentional blunders, or social media faux pas. Continue reading →
