Joseph Vasquez

Q & A with Good Day Austin’s Lauren Petrowski

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It might come as a little bit of a surprise that my debut post for PRBC is a Q & A with an up and coming news reporter for the local Fox affiliate in Austin.  In my 13 years of working in PR, I’ve always been one to share knowledge with colleagues especially those who are new to the field.

Enter Good Day Austin reporter/anchor Lauren Petrowski who was kind enough to indulge me when I asked her to answer a few questions for PRBC. Lauren was very candid with her replies. Since most of us work with the media on a daily basis, I think it is important to actually get to know who some of these folks are.  I hope her answers would help some, if not many of us, who pitch the media. Continue reading →

Marie Baker

Cision Announces Agreement with Sarah Evans

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Businessmen shaking handsAs you might have heard, Cision recently announced its new agreement with Sarah Evans, new media consultant and founder/moderator of the increasingly popular #journchat.

According to the press release “Cision will provide transcripts of every #journchat, the lively weekly Twitter chat for PR professionals, journalists and bloggers… It will work with her to produce white papers, webinars, conference and seminar discussions, and other thought leadership initiatives that explore the impact of online communications and new media.”

If you aren’t familiar with #journchat, every week on Twitter, the media and PR community come together via the hashtag #journchat, to openly discuss a number of topics and share ideas with each other. Continue reading →

Keith Trivitt

Thoughts from SMPR: Part 1—This Isn’t Rocket Science

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Mature Businessman at lectern outdoors, holding microphone and documentsI had the rather unexpected honor of being a panelist at the recent SMPR event at Social Media Week New York for a discussion about social media use among agencies and client initiatives. The panel, hosted by my good friends Elliot Schimel and David Teicher, was a compilation of bright young minds discussing how their various agencies integrate social media initiatives within other client work.

I say “unexpected honor” because I was not initially slated to speak on this panel. Having shown up about 30 minutes before the panel started, I was chatting with Elliot and David about various social media topics of the day and the panel itself, and Elliot was kind enough to extend to me an invitation to be on the panel after someone had been forced to drop out earlier (great thanks to you, Elliot, as this was a tremendous event, and a terrific pleasure to be a part of). Continue reading →

Uncategorized

Taking Time Out to Teach

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DeskDuring my television viewing/live blogging of “Kell on Earth,” a familiar situation reared its head – a staffer was complaining that she was never trained to do the job, and admitted that she had no idea what was supposed to do. When the supervisor showed up and noticed it was all done the wrong way, the poor staffer sure got an earful. Was it the staffer’s fault for not asking, or the supervisor’s fault for not teaching?

Let’s face it, in the world of public relations, we are incredibly busy people. Between press releases, client meetings, strategic planning sessions, e-mails, phone calls, media lists – there is no question that we have a lot on our plate. Continue reading →

Alex Tan

Raising Your Hand Isn’t the Only Way to Get Noticed

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Female office worker holding pile of paperwork, gesturing with handAt any stage of our PR careers, most of us have our eye on the next rung of the hierarchal ladder. Chasing after the next promotion isn’t the only reason we give everything we have to our clients, but let’s be honest, we didn’t jump into the sandbox to avoid building a castle. When I entered the PR world, I thought the clearest path to an upwardly mobile career was to raise my hand for every new project, taking on as much as I could.  Taking this approach puts you in the position to be the one to secure that big placement, execute on a massive client program or contribute to a new business win. Of course all of these things make us tick, make us challenge ourselves and they’re viewed pretty positively by our bosses. Sounds like a pretty good plan, right? Continue reading →

Kate Ottavio

Are you a Twitter Snob?

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Businesswoman with briefcase peering down at subordinatesThe most fascinating aspect of Twitter is that you can literally find millions of different people with personalities that span the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I love it.

One thing that I’m always keen on studying and writing about is narcissism and ego in social media. So I came up with a little quiz to determine whether or not you are a Twitter snob. Please keep score as you go along. Continue reading →

Nathan "PRCog" Burgess

HAPPO Days are Here

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Businessman Offering HandshakeFor any of you who missed Friday’s announcement, the next two leading up to what should be an amazing 4 hours on Friday February 19th.

This new project, spearheaded by Arik Hanson and the amazing Valerie Simon, this amazing project looks to put together job seekers with those with job openings.  For the full background and inspiration, including inspiration from Dave Mullen, be sure to check out Arik’s post, linked in the first sentence.  For those of you looking for the short version, and what you can do to participate in HAPPO day, take a look below: Continue reading →

Mike Schaffer

The Intrigue of Sports Villainy

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Mug shot of man in drag with blue wig and feather boaWe love our sports heroes. Oh, do we LOVE our sports heroes! Babe Ruth, Joe Montana, Magic Johnson, Roger Federer, Mia Hamm, Cal Ripken, LeBron James, Peyton Manning – the “good guys” of sports are beloved by fans and marketers alike.

These stars win championships (or compete for them every year), donate money, work in the community, sponsor brands – they do everything heroes should do.

Heck, Drew Brees has helped rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina with time, effort and money – and just last night brought the Super Bowl trophy to his adopted hometown. It didn’t complete the economic and social recovery, but it gave the city something wonderful to rally around.

But you know what? Continue reading →

Christina Khoury, TJ Dietderich

Are you done talking yet?

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Close-up of father reading story to son (10-11)We all have that friend or colleague that will come in Monday morning, uber excited to tell you all about their weekend and you’re already cringing at the thought of it. It’s not that the story won’t be interesting. Perhaps they won a million dollars or got engaged. It doesn’t matter. Your friend can’t tell a story to save her life. In fact after she finishes the story, you’ll have aged about 20 or so years and forgotten what she was talking about in the first place. What does story telling have to do with PR? Well, everything. Telling a story, in my opinion, is very similar to pitching a story to media professionals. Continue reading →

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