As a former sports PR guy, a career I immensely loved and was extremely passionate about, but also grew out of for many reasons (to understand a majority of those reasons, check out my friend Jeff Esposito’s excellent PRBC post about working in sports PR from Friday here), I have both fond memories of that profession, and a sense of understanding now that moving on from it nine months ago was the right thing for me to do.
Jeff gave an excellent rundown of what it is like to work in PR in the sports world. Yes, it can be incredibly exciting, and yes, you do get to work around some amazing athletes. And there are many other benefits and fantastic qualities to working in that profession. But it has its downsides— Continue reading →
As I get ready to leave the job that I’m currently at and embark on a new and incredibly exciting opportunity, I’ve decided to do a little bit of reflection at the suggestion of David, one of my social media mentors. When I took a position as an “intern” at the small NJ agency that I worked at during my senior year of college, I had no idea how much I would learn. Since it was my responsibility to teach the rest of the company about it, I had no choice but to throw myself head-first into the world of social media. Continue reading →
Choosing a profession is one of those things in life that everyone does, some taking longer than others, for one reason or another. The journey from point A to B is what makes us stand out from every other mammal standing in line at the coffee shop. Most PR folks I’ve spoken with have jumped into the field after college or transferred from a marketing or journalistic role. I took a different route and fell into the field during my sophomore year in college.
That year I landed a spot as a marketing intern with the Jersey Devils. Next, I interviewed with the New York Knicks, where the hiring manager let me know that I was a great communicator and that the skill would be wasted in marketing. Continue reading →
So we’ve all (hopefully) gotten over the importance of the Twitter follower count. Nonetheless you’ve got to have some core group of people you’re talking with or it’s just you shouting at the mountain. So the question remains what can you do, particularly when you’re new on Twitter to get followers (or more accurately, find your community). And so, a step by step guide from signing up to getting your first few followers. This post, of course, supplements TJ’s, on how the PRBC folks decide who they follow.
This might be particularly useful if you’ve got a friend that’s recently decided to join the SM world as part of a New Year’s Resolution (or your client’s CEO is just not getting ‘it.’)
For those who know me, many would say I trust too easily, and I’d agree. It has its benefits and faults but at the end of the day I trust until proven otherwise. However after being in the “working” world for a couple of years it’s come to my attention that PR developed a well deserved reputation for being a “dog-eat-dog” world . Inspired by Kristen’s post about departing and starting anew, I remembered what it was like to start my 2nd job and learn the ropes of a new corporate culture. Here are a few things I believe helped me: Continue reading →
As the internship coordinator for the Connecticut office of my firm, Co-Communications, I’ve interviewed a number of candidates. The one question I always ask no matter what?
“What kind of media do you consume?”
I’ve received a variety of answers and I consider myself fortunate to have never heard, “um, I don’t really read or watch the news…” Continue reading →
In the past month or so, I have been constantly utilizing the amazing insight and invaluable advice of my many PR “mentors” (the reason why will hopefully be revealed soon). This morning I was thinking about how lucky I am to have all of them, and it got me wondering about the nature of a mentor/mentee relationship. Mentor is a word that I toss around quite a bit, which is interesting because technically a person is only supposed to have one. So am I just using the wrong word to describe the people I go to for PR advice, or has the definition of a mentor shifted? Continue reading →
As most of you know, I suffered from a Twitter virus, and just recently took the big step to abandon all my followers, and start a new account. Over a year of developing a name for myself on Twitter, and getting over 500 followers was a great achievement, so it was a huge step for me to start a new account. (If you thought you followed me @ctmichaels, check again, and follow @ctmichaels again) So when I started my new account, I just went into my old follower list and went through and started “re-following” people that I actually knew/enjoyed talking to. Figuring people would be like, “Oh CTMichaels is following me, I need to follow again…” I just started going down the list. To my dismay, instead of followers, I was bombarded with private DMs. Continue reading →
Choosing who to follow on Twitter is like the tagline of any action movie sequel: this time, it’s personal.
Talking to fellow PRBC-ers made me realize all the different barometers people use to decide with whom they interact on Twitter. There is no right and wrong way, I guess, except spam-following. Which is totally doing it wrong. But discussing what makes someone followable or not is, I think, valuable because lots of us still aren’t sure what our personal rules should be. Continue reading →
Been a rough few weeks, eh? Between your network’s colossal short-sightedness and lack of foresight (hello, Big Three automakers!), plus an inability in the past 10 years to bring NBC back to relevancy after nearly two decades of being No. 1 in primetime ratings, first with the “Cosby Show,” then “Seinfeld” and ending a magnificent run with “Friends,” we recognize it ain’t easy being at the top of America’s No. 1 media punching bag. Continue reading →
