TJ Dietderich

How to Avoid Pitching in Bizarro World

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Suitcase near antique wooden doorway on beachUnless you grew up being too cool for school, you’ll remember the Superman comics where Supes stumbles into Bizarro World, where everything is backwards. Or at least really weird.

Bizarro World can occur at any moment in real life too, and it’s an affliction that especially affects flacks and their clients. Here’s what happens when a flack enters Bizarro World: every single news story, every possible current event starts to look like an angle for you and your pitch. It doesn’t matter how illogical or tenuous; you see your assigned product everywhere, important to everything, and necessary for everybody.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s great to love your client. But pitching in Bizarro World isn’t about being passionate or creative. More often than not, it’s a sign of desperation. And it inevitably leads to failure because a flack who’s been Bizarroed isn’t capable of making informed decisions about angles, pitches, and appropriate targets. Continue reading →

Heather Whaling

You’re Invited: #Chatmixer, March 9

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People drinking at a party in kitchenDid you know that there are more than a dozen inudstry “Twitter chats” that focus on PR, social media, marketing and blogging? You may participate in one or two of these conversations, but it’s impossible to find time to chime in on all of them, right?

Until now.

You’re invited to join us for the ultimate chat mixer, taking place this Tuesday, March 9, starting at 8 p.m. EST. Justin Goldsborough, Valerie Simon and I are hosting this party to help people interested in PR and social media forge new connections and build their network. Continue reading →

TJ Dietderich

Your Copy Sucks: subject/verb/pronoun agreement, or how to count

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Hands countingLast week, we here at the PRBC HQ received one of Cog‘s many passive-aggressive e-mails about meeting our deadlines. We don’t really mind those e-mails; we usually ignore them while our deadlines go whooshing by. But this one was more ingeniously manipulative than most. “For those of you without posts in the queue,” it said, “(and you two know who you are) this is a reminder to get your posts in on Sunday as early as you can.”

Obviously our internal e-mail thread devolved into lots of people apologizing for being one of those two. Which was weird, because at least 10 people came forward to claim their place of shame in those two slots. Waitacottonpickin’ minute, I said, clearly we are all slackers, not just two of us! You really made us scared, Cog, that we were only one of two deadbeats in the group. Cog tried to defend himself by saying that “you two” referred to the two goody-two-shoes that DID finish their posts under the deadline. Continue reading →

Marie Baker

It’s all about the “relationship”

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Two businessmen shaking hands, close-upRaise your hand if you are sick of hearing “it’s all about the relationship.” When it comes to producers, reporters and bloggers, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that it all comes down to relationships. Yet, as many times as it’s been said, it seems no one talks about how to create those relationships.

Whether you are just starting out in PR, or you’ve switched focuses, media relationships can prove to be a tricky thing. How do you establish a relationship? How do you maintain the relationship? Furthermore, how do you prove you are an actual person rather than just a flack robot?

With such hefty questions to tackle, I thought I would poll our PRBC family to get their advice and perspectives on everything having to do with relationships. Continue reading →

Keith Trivitt

Storytelling Is At the Heart of Effective PR

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Red book, close-upI have been reading a lot lately. Really, way more reading than I was doing in previous months. From the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times on the weekend, to amNY and Metro weekdays, and a slew of business and advertising trades in between, I have been trying to immerse myself in two of the professional areas I have the most passion in: small business and media.

Despite the fact that many of the publications that I have been reading have their own unique audience (For anyone who hasn’t done it yet, check out FT Weekend. Honestly, one of the best papers you will read.), the underlying fact of the matter is that each and every one of them tries to do the same thing at the end of the day: tell its readers great stories in a compelling medium that they enjoy. Continue reading →

Danielle Cyr

Do you believe in social media?

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Computer and globe montageWhen I spoke at the PRSA-CVC Social Media Conference last fall, I told my audience, “You can’t engage in social media for the sake of doing so.”  To my audience, the majority of whom were there because they lacked experience with but felt pressured to engage in social media, this statement probably seemed bizarre.  As though I were implying that you don’t have to jump on the SM band wagon.

A few months later, I realize that my statement was a bit more accurate than I initially thought.  With SM, there is virtually nothing to be gained by going through the motions.  Having made what I am sure some will perceive as an incredulous statement, I think it is important for companies to understand the value of SM before engaging in it. Continue reading →

Nathan "PRCog" Burgess

35 tips in 30 minutes (text edition)

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As many of you know members of the PRBC group presented today at Ragan’s Social Media panel.  Below we share some of our thoughts on SM.  The names in parenthesis indicate who brought up the point.  Hyperlinked to their twitter account on the first use.

Diving Into Social Media

Before any company, agency, or professional decides to become involved in social media, there will no doubt be some basic questions that they want answered, or some background information that they would appreciate hearing.  The first group of points provide some helpful hints for diving into social media, whether you’re interested in using it for clients or becoming the resident thought-leader for your company. Continue reading →

Christina Khoury

Christina’s Coffee Talk: Rob Guerrera

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Over the last six months, Coffee Talk has taught me and hopefully you, about the many sectors of public relations. We’ve learned about agency and corporate life, entertainment, and consumer PR, juggling careers and a family, and how to go solo and much more. PR is so diverse that we can learn something new about it everyday, but what about the rest of our communications professionals? We work with media professionals on a daily basis, yet we never really get the chance to see what a day is like in their life. So I’ve decided to open Coffee Talk to media professionals too. I will interview hard working professionals from all different levels to give us an inside look at their daily life. First one to bat, Rob “Stats”  Guerrera, production assistant for ESPN’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning”.

Continue reading →

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