[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). Continue reading →
As publicists we are constantly plagued by the famed phrase “Please remove me from your list.” Alright, fine, no big deal, we all know that what you’re really trying to say is, “Ugh, I’m so sorry but I don’t know where my delete button is and your e-mail is going to permanently stay in my inbox.” We get it, we got it. Woo. Sometimes we are all privileged to get messages saying, “YOU MOTHER #$%^$# PIECE OF @#$% REMOVE ME FROM YOUR $%^&*% LIST” (You can tell this person is young). Or you get the “I’m telling all your clients you wrongly e-mailed me” (This person is old).
Anyway, this week I was added to a list. Not just a mass e-mail list, a list attached to an e-mail so that when you replied to it, everyone on the list got it. About 10 of my colleagues, and about 150 others I imagine were all included on this e-mail. Continue reading →
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)
I had the distinct pleasure of playing one of my favorite roles recently — Devil’s Advocate — to a post written by our own Christina and Marie (which can be found here). The best way to convey my message was with a brief(ish) letter….
As you both know I hate to deliver bad news, but it’s finally time. There is no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or Team Unicorn that will be joining you in your meetings.
The points you mention in your post are lovely and, of course, completely workable. And I’m sitting in a chair made of Skittles. Continue reading →
It’s a common, and possibly over-analyzed, topic. One that has been discussed at nearly every social media conference I have attended. Yet, I’m going to broach the topic again. Should you engage in social media?
Instead of debating the pros and cons of engaging in social media, I’m going to take a slight detour. If you can’t or aren’t willing to engage, you at least need to monitor.
I think one of the largest misconceptions among organizations not involved in social media is that, if they don’t have a social media presence, nobody is talking about them. Continue reading →
One of my favorite office tricks is organizing my e-mail so that my inbox is empty. Productivity nerds sometimes call this tactic Inbox Zero, and it’s a rule by which I live my business life. I know that PR pros can be inundated with e-mail, perhaps more than most, and I truly believe everyone can tame their inbox.
How do you even begin? Let’s go on a magical productive journey. Continue reading →
Despite all of my love for social media, digital communications, community engagement etc., something that is beginning to particularly strike me as a clear fact of 21st-century PR is that yes, media relationships do matter. A whole lot. And dare I say it? It does matter who you know. More importantly, how well you know/trust them.
Let me put this into a bit more perspective: Say you’re working on a pretty time sensitive client announcement that has a lot of moving parts (e.g. 2-3 parties involved with multiple executives/personalities and many different times zones), which requires you to be both confidential with how closely you hold the client announcement/information and also proactive enough so you obtain the desired outcome from the announcement with a little extra audience reaction thrown in from a good pre-announcement story or two. Continue reading →
Ok, so I’ll admit it . . . I wrote this post a while back called “Give it Away . . . For Free!” sharing how free advice will ultimately pay off and bring good karma. And yes, I still stand by everything I wrote. But perhaps I’m seeing business bottom line with more of an ice cold eye than I once did.
On an episode of Kell on Earth, Kelly Cutrone struggles with people constantly asking for free advice, actually taking a cell phone call from the uncle of her daughter’s school friend. He inquired about his own business (whatever it was) and asked what he should be doing. But, Cutrone owns her own business (People’s Revolution) and she has to worry about paying her employees and getting food on the table for her seven year old daughter (oh, and paying for her country house in France…technicality). Constantly dolling out free advice sets her back in her day taking away valuable time from her paying clients. Continue reading →
We’ve all been there. The first few days of new jobs are always troublesome, finding out who you want to talk to, who you can click with, who you want to make your new happy hour buddy, etc. Every job has their characters among the employees from the cool kids, the slackers, the hard workers/overachievers, and the toxic coworkers.
What is the Toxic Coworker? The worst coworker of them all. They may be amazing and fun, and even your best friend, but at they end of the day, they are the venom that flows through your skin slowly killing you…day by day, hour by hour. The toxic coworker is the person that just slowly complains and complains about the job. They tell you all the bad things about work, even if you have no complaints and are happy go lucky about it! Continue reading →
A few days ago a minor firestorm brewed over the importance of your (whether that’s you, your brand, your company, etc.) follower count over at Kate’s post. Everyone providing commentary had valuable input (in my opinion) and certainly each has a different goal, or at the very least different way of approaching the issue. One even found great pleasure at the hypothetical situation that an account would have more followers outside its target audience than inside of it because then at least there’d be confirmation you (or the account) was in-fact doing something right.
All of these conversations centered on how many followers the account itself has. There is another factor to consider in this formula to determine reach — How many people are your followers following? Yes, I’m serious. We’re talking TweetDilution people. Continue reading →
[We received this question on a recent blog post about short job stints]
