PRBreakfastClub

Over the last year, chatter between brands and agencies continues to circle around the top of the defining and understanding the value of a Facebook fan.  There is no direct answer given the multiple of impacts that go into a Facebook brand strategy.  Many fans are gained through a combination of organic growth and paid acquisition – in light of GM’s announcement that it will no longer use Facebook ads, will other brands follow suit and change the conversation again on the value of a Facebook fan?  Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since Howdy Doody showed up in the 1950′s, PR and marketing folks have wanted to know how many people are watching a particular TV show. This sets advertising rates, actor salaries, and a million other things. Most of this is based on the Nielsen ratings, which is possibly the most laughable measurement tool in the history of everything. Nielsen selects a certain amount of people to wire a box to their TV that sends data OVER A PHONE LINE or to keep a journal about what they’ve been watching. Seriously. Starting to understand why CBS cleans up in the ratings? They target older demographics since older demographics are the ones most likely to use a systems like Nielsen. Enter Viggle. Read the rest of this entry »

There are many articles out there on how PR professionals should seek, contact and engage with bloggers. We are focused on building a relationship with bloggers and converting them into brand ambassadors for our client. We hope that they will write amazing posts about our clients and it will spread through the blogger world like wildfire.

But as PR pros have we stopped to think about what the bloggers want from us?

I am a mom blogger, crawfishtales.com, and I have had the opportunity to be on both sides of the pitch. This has given me insight that I have used to mold the way that I, as a PR pro, engage bloggers. I constantly remind myself that bloggers are receiving multiple pitches just like a reporter and that I need to make my pitch stand out from the others. The best pitches are the ones that are thorough and have thought through the pitch from the bloggers prospective. Read the rest of this entry »

Worried! © by photoloni

For the most part, I find the PR industry’s trade publications — PRWeek, PRNewser, PRNews, etc. — to be good standard-bearers for effectively covering the ins-and-outs of this diverse and growing industry. Sure, they tend to focus too much on AOR announcements  — the old-time stock ticker-tape reports of PR — but they do the job.

So I try to do my best not to critique. Look, reporters and editors have a tough job at those publications. They are reporting on the very people — PR pros — who know how to promote a cause or a person better than anyone. So I imagine there is quite a lot of pushback and calls for fluffier fluff pieces than at your standard trade reporter’s job. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I wrote about the marketing issues associated with the Rebel Race, a military style, mud-laden obstacle course.  The organizers promoted it as a grueling course that allows participants to “test their physical toughness and mental endurance.”  Because of a lack of mud and a few unsafe obstacles, the race failed to live up to the hype which sparked a muddy revolt on the company’s Facebook page.  Read the rest of this entry »

Help a Reporter, as it says was designed to be helpful to both the PR pro and the reporter. I know that as a PR pro I have scored many cool PR opportunities for my clients by answering queries. As a contributing writer for PR Breakfast Club, I have often used this service to get quotes and answer topics for stories that I am writing.

Being the recipient of pitches has been very interesting to say the least. I have quickly learned that there is a huge difference between the helpful query response and the annoying query response. Read the rest of this entry »

“Hi NAME,

Hope all is well! Just wanted to touch base with you regarding XYZ. COMPANY will be exhibiting this year AT EVENT and would love for you to stop by the booth to have a little fun, check out the new PRODUCT and discuss what’s going on in the industry. Please let me know your thoughts and if you are interested in scheduling a one-on-one booth appointment with COMPANY, as I’d be happy to help!

Kindly, PR REP” Read the rest of this entry »

All too often, we see CEOs put their foot in their mouths. Remember Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ “apology” last year? Or how about former BP CEO Tony Hayward and his “relatively tiny” Gulf oil spill comment? These types of words cannot only stain a chief executive; it can also hurt a company. In the cases above, both Netflix and BP suffered mightily.

These types of instances are very preventable though. One of the things that are often forgotten about in our PR planning is media training. Read the rest of this entry »

Content creation in the form of curating content, your own and that of others, is the hot new trend  in the digital world. Notable platforms have emerged which cater specifically to this form – YouTube playlists, Tumblr blogs, and, of course, Pinterest.

Tuning the content you’ve created is a bit of a different beast than doing the same thing to content you’re curating.  When actually creating new content there’s a built in system to avoid creating too much irrelevant content (at least for good writers and self-editors).  You’ll know if you’ve done something before, and if so from what perspective and tone. Read the rest of this entry »

“People forget we’re a new company. It’s one of those things where, OK, we’re still growing up as a company. Now that we figured that out, there’s no reason to think it’s going to happen again.”

So said a Groupon exec in response to a Financial Times reporter asking about accounting irregularities that have plagued the recently IPO’ed tech startup. Read the rest of this entry »