Danielle Cyr

Sampling Spells Success in SM

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Stacked shirts with sale tag attached on store counter, close-upIt’s evident that social media is a hugely successful endeavor for many brands and companies, while others may as well not have entered the SM sphere. After seeing the disparity in results first-hand, I started thinking about what makes the difference, aside from the obvious differences in levels of engagement, nature of content, audience and relationship building measures. That led me to start thinking about how bakeries use social media (shocking, I know.)  There I found the big difference – sampling.

When you have the opportunity to bait consumers to take their SM love for your company or brand and establish a real life relationship, you are golden. It seems elementary, but sampling is a great way to distinguish oneself from the competition and generate monetized ROI on your SM investment. Continue reading →

Nathan "PRCog" Burgess

Houston, Embedded Tweets Go or No Go: No Go

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Thinkstock Single Image Set

This is a slightly polished version of a similar post that appeared yesterday on PR Cog’s personal blogs.

As some of you have likely heard Twitter recently opened up a system to embedded tweets on web sites, blogs, etc. Initially I thought this could be done well, but had my suspicions, particularly with deleted tweets actually being (more or less) deleted. Unfortunately the worst did happen and as it turns out I’m highly disappointed in the embedded tweets system (though I still love Twitter).

I quote tweets not infrequently and doing screenshots has definitely been a pain in the ass (until I found Screenhunter that is — see post here on that cute lil program).

Here’s my ideal list of what I’d want from an embeddable tweet system: Continue reading →

Christina Khoury

Portfolio Tips

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A laughing man with an open CD caseOver the last few weeks, I’ve worked with the internship committee on helping our interns update their resumes and begin a portfolio. A resume and portfolio should complement each other like peanut butter and jelly. A resume will help you get your foot in the door for a face-to-face meeting but a portfolio gives you an opportunity to really showcase what your experience is. It can truly set you apart from your competition and putting one together is not an easy task. Over the last few years I’ve received some great tips from my mentors that I will share with you here, and hopefully learn some news ones from you. Continue reading →

L. Drew Gerber

What You May Not Realize When Measuring PR Success

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Tape measureAny publicist in the midst of a PR campaign for a client has probably asked him- or herself this question: “Is my PR working?” And for a client who’s invested their money in your services, they’re probably asking the same question. Sometimes as publicists, we forget how PR works.

Evaluating a PR campaign based on sales or rate of return is all too typical. But here’s the thing: PR doesn’t work like that; it’s a long-term investment. As a publicist you know this already, but does your client? Sometimes you have to paint a picture for the client about what to expect. You have to make it clear that PR — when done right — will increase awareness of their product, service, book or expertise, to their target audience. And sorry, this doesn’t mean skyrocketing sales right away. Continue reading →

Kate Ottavio

Not “just a PR professional”

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Stacked pilesof cowboy hatsWe all wear multiple hats as PR professionals. Thinking about adding some new “roles” to your resume to show off your experience? Here are some to consider (and to be taken lightly):

  • Therapist

Hand-holding just comes with the territory. Whether it be calming a client down about a less-than-glowing article written about his or her company, or consoling a stressed out co-worker, we give our fair share of “therapy.” I joke that I should have double majored in PR and psychology.

  • Janitor

We clean up the mess. When things go awry and no one can keep it together, PR professionals are there to clean up after whatever has gone wrong. Continue reading →

Keith Trivitt

The Never-Ending Internal/External Review Process

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Portrait of a man reviewing a file in a home office settingAs communicators, we work with many different parties. From the marketing team, to C-level executives, the legal team and a whole slew of other internal and external parties, our days and activities can often be filled with balancing a series of discussions, hopes and wishes with a slew of people.

But at a certain point, after many meetings and conversations, we are tasked with writing that next big news release, or a big speech for our CEO or developing our company’s core brand messaging, and that’s where our big work really kicks in: the often never-ending internal/external review process. Continue reading →

Eric Berto

PR ADD

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Sometimes old PR tactics work the best.
Old tactics, new results?

In the business world, thinking outside the box is the unofficial motto. In public relations, we’re tasked with being creative thinkers. Our clients want us to find different ways to get in front of influencers and, ultimately, customers.

But we are so quick to focus on what’s next, sometimes we do it at the expense of what’s current. Continue reading →

TJ Dietderich

Your Copy Sucks: Touching On Purple Prose

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Fountain pen, close-upPurple is the color of a cloak which your words should never wear, treading on a barren stair in the dark to meet a woman whom they know is from a city they’ve never been and should not dare make haste toward.

Or, in other words, quit the #@$%ing purple prose already.

Purple prose means writing that is way too flowery, effusive, extravagant, or showy. It’s a phrase used to describe works or passages that are out of place or just plain stupid. The poet Horace coined the phrase (sort of) and the lesson is don’t ever, ever go overboard.

“Elaborate poetry?” you may ask. “Florid diatribes? Surely these never appear in my businesslike writing of business!”

Are you sure? Continue reading →

Nathan "PRCog" Burgess

Getting Things Done

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High angle view of a businessman holding a paper and thinkingGiven how much time I stole from any of you that tinkered with the tools presented in last week’s Fun Tools, here’s 5 free (or pretty close) desktop applications that should help you reclaim some of that time.  A number of these only became truly useful to me after turning the corner a few years back and joining the ranks of flackery.  Sorry mac users, these are PC only (because really, we’re writers and can do our jobs with a-buck-fifty worth of supplies from the office supply shop, a napkin from the local bar and borrowed pen, or as West Wing fans know nothing at all because “Paper’s for wimps” and we don’t need the Mac-spense for ‘pretty’). 🙂 Continue reading →

…..a chance to start the day off right.