A recent tweet by a friend of mine struck me. She said something along the lines of “just because I don’t agree with So-And-So (big name social media guru) doesn’t mean I need to get privately burned via direct message.”
I approached her via DM explaining how every once in a while, I’d like to respectfully disagree with some of these PR and social media professionals we have collectively dubbed “gods.” Respectfully disagree as I would do with anyone else. But why haven’t I? Why can’t I?
Because: I would literally be stoned to death via 140 characters at a time by an overwhelmingly loyal band of lemmings. Yeah, I said it. Continue reading →
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, chances are that you’ve heard the sports news that has also made its way into the gossip rags and morning talk shows – Tiger Woods is returning to the PGA tour at the Masters.
While the return of the world’s top golfer will help the Tour’s ratings, it also marks an interesting event for the media. In his public apology spoken press release, Woods did not field any questions and has not answered any questions about his marital infidelity. So while we’d like to say that the media will stick to the tournament at hand, drama sells and the opportunities for juicy questions and an irate golfer are some must-see TV in the making.
But hey, you don’t come to this blog to read about sports or infidelity so let’s get to the root of Tiger’s return to the PGA at Augusta National as a PR move – one that is safe, nostalgic and was strategically planned. Much like a CEO, Woods is advised by some top notch PR folks who carefully chose when he would return to golf. Given the course’s history, importance and pageantry, the Masters is an intriguing choice for Tiger. Our two in-house Sports PR experts don’t agree with each other on this topic:
The introduction for this post can be found here
Stacked Deck – Every flack likes controlling an interview situation as much as they can. The course is private and the only folks to get in will be credentialed or have tickets. According to the PGA’s site: the Masters is more restrictive of media credentials than any other major, and it is the one tournament where the media is not allowed inside the ropes, so chances are that the TMZ’s and Talk Soups of the world will not be granted access to the course. In a sense, the PGA can pull out a wild card and only offer press passes to the regular golf writers making the event pretty sterile. Continue reading →
The introduction for this post can be found here
As my esteemed colleague outlined above, some people believe that Tiger Woods returning to competitive golf at the Masters is a good PR move. I whole heartedly disagree.
Let me count the ways:
Walk Before You Crawl – Would you want your first game of the season to be Game 7 of the World Series or even the Super Bowl? From a sheer golf mechanics perspective, Tiger will not be at the top of his game. He will not have played a round of competitive golf in nearly six months when he tees off at Augusta. Why not work your way into peak condition before the biggest tournament of the year? Continue reading →
…..a chance to start the day off right.