We all like to go after the “Social Media Experts” claiming there’s no way anyone can a) be an expert in such a new field or b) such a quickly changing field.  Beyond the semantics (“expert” vs. “experience” (as much as one can get), “guru,” “knowledgeable in,” “has an instinctive grasp of,” or my favorite undefinable (but likely true in some cases) “just gets”) there’s certainly something to be said for being able to use labels professionally which make us appear to have some higher level of comprehension in our field (and in many cases this is true).

Here’s the kick in the pants — PR pros, and other professionals in the related communications fields, don’t really “know” anything either when it comes to this stuff that a first or second year wouldn’t. Read the rest of this entry

There is no doubt the public relations business is a busy, exciting and hyperactive assault on the mind, senses and body. Simply put: It is a profession that requires you to mentally (and sometimes physically, particularly with those pesky events) give it your all every day. And at one end of the spectrum, these indelible facets of the business are what makes it so great and such a wonderful profession to work in, but they can also be the downfall of many, the cause of extreme burnout, if not managed and dealt with properly.

Which is probably why there are so many damn blog posts, articles, books, and Web sites devoted to work/life balance and effective time management and whether you need to separate your personal life/time from your professional life/time, or if you should choose the new trendy time-management theory of “your job and your personal life should blend harmoniously and in perfect sequence with one another.”

I say bulls*** to all of that. Read the rest of this entry

I’m writing this post at the tail end of a very busy, but incredibly inspiring weekend for me, so I’ll make it pretty short and to the point. My thought for this week is: EXPLORE. Always. In PR and marketing—and particularly in a service industry—it is imperative that we constantly keep our minds engaged and exploring new ideas, opportunities and thoughts. Even the most simple of concepts that come to us at seemingly the most random time (“Hey, a weather-map like visual feature of what is hot and cold could be really cool for client XYZ!”) may not be something you implement today, but those little random ideas have a way of stewing together over time and becoming your next big idea. Read the rest of this entry

Imagine you are an editor of a newspaper.  You’ve got limited resources.  Not enough staff, out-of-date computers, maybe even labor problems, too.  You check your e-mail one deadline morning and see a ready-made article about Product SuperAwesome prewritten from your favorite PR pro (wink wink)!  With your publisher breathing down your neck, 30 minutes until the final edition goes to print and a gaping space in your publication, you slap the article about Product SuperAwesome’s industry into your paper and everyone is happy. Read the rest of this entry

Since the majority of us PR professionals work for agencies where we have a variety of different companies as clients (maybe I’m just imagining this, but that’s definitely the way it seems), there’s a sector of communicators that we all tend to forget about- the straight up publicist.  More specially, celebrity representation.  However, somewhere off in the great, big state of California (pardon me for my generalization), there lives a whole lot of people who work incredibly hard to keep the reputations of their clients squeaky clean, or at least a little bit less awful than they already are. Read the rest of this entry

In a recent post from blogger Complicated Mama, she talked about a few encounters she had at last week’s Toy Fair. In a surprising turn of events, she was confronted with rude company reps that wanted nothing to do with bloggers. What was even more interesting is that in addition to writing for her own blog, she was also writing for a toy industry trade publication. Oops!

I know from personal experience that trade shows, especially ones as large as Toy Fair, can be incredibly hectic and exhausting. Camera crews, journalists, reporters – there are hundreds of companies all vying for the attention of the media. PR reps go to great lengths to set up appointments beforehand, create attention-getting stunts and more. Read the rest of this entry

A daily thought to be said each and every day for PR pros.

Almighty gods of PR,
May my day today be a success, with happiness and joy;
Let my pitches be newsworthy and perfect, being loved by all;
Help me create that amazing stunt, that will make someone go WOW;
Please photograph Beyonce with my product, with the label facing out;

Almighty gods of PR,
May my day stay on target, and promise me some lunch;
Let my server make it all day, without shutting down;
Help me double check my subject lines, spell check doesn’t work;
Please cut back on the hate mail today, sometimes it hurts my feelings;

Almighty gods of PR,
May my day go by smoothly, regardless of what comes up;
Let my segments go unbothered, breaking news isn’t that important;
Help my clients just understand, and get it without a fuss;
Please have the Wall Street Journal* call me back today, because I was so nice.

Amen
*designates a fill in the blank

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• 22 March 2010 : Free Labor or Priceless Experience
• 22 March 2010 : Your Copy Sucks: Talkin’ British
• 19 March 2010 : Could SM Become the New Product Placement?
• 19 March 2010 : We Know Nothing
• 18 March 2010 : The Decline of the R.S.V.P.

While most publicists understand the importance of educating themselves on all things social media, there is still a large number of professionals that do not have that same mentality. I can’t tell you that why that’s the case, perhaps it’s the new school versus old school (no pun intended) way of thinking, but getting employees up to speed on social media should be just as important to an agency as it is keeping current clients happy and pursuing new business.

So realistically, what can agencies do? Can they force employees to read books on SM? Give assignments to follow Chris Brogan’s blog or have them monitor Robert Scoble’s tweets? Assign quarterly reports on which brands have the best SM campaigns? I certainly don’t run my own agency and I haven’t done the research on what effects this type of program might have on company morale, but my short answer to these questions is a resounding YES … current and future employees should be required to do all of these things, and more. The positives of putting your staff through a ‘Hell Week’ type of SM program far outweighs the negatives, in my opinion. Read the rest of this entry

One of the things I love about the communications profession is the fact that while walking down the street, it’s often difficult to immediately pick us out from a crowd. Let’s be honest: You can usually tell with one quick glance when someone is a real-estate agent, lawyer or an account (perhaps because each requires significant training and/or licensing in their respective professions that often gives them a bit of an aura of being . . . different from the rest of us, but I digress). But when walking down the street, you can’t really immediately pick out a communications pro. We just come in all shapes, sizes, demographics and personalities. Read the rest of this entry

It’s very interesting to see the evolution of social media. From just networking with friends and looking at fun pictures, to conducting business and measuring interaction, social media has become the means of communication. The response time of a complaint or compliment on when someone is mentioned is astonishing. One time I mentioned, “Everytime Kate Perry E-mails me, I get excited for a split second thinking it was the singer, then it’s Vocus” and instantly Vocus responds “We’ll be sure to mention that to Kate!”

Its a great feeling having your voice heard, just recently I tweeted something negative about Cision, our best friend and worst enemy. I tweeted that Cision was going way too slowly and i’m sure I did a big “You Suck,” but I instantly got a response asking to do something to my brower to speed it up. Great customer service there. However, that is not the point of this post. Read the rest of this entry