Yes. Yes, you.
I think we can all understand there is a certain element of me to social ME-dia. There is also the ME generation. Hi! Member 1,276,024 of the ME Generation reporting for duty. PR, Marketing and Ad folks have caught on and are milking this self-centeredness like nobody’s business. And I in no way claim myself an expert in this arena and am aware this sort of targeting has been happening for quite some time. But go with me here… Continue reading
Monthly Archives: December 2009
Collaborative Pitching: Pitch With Me
If content is king, then it’s about time we crown collaboration the queen.
By now, we all understand the value of quality content — in terms of SEO, traffic, engagement, readability, and so on. But, only recently have PR people begun to rethink our uber-competitive nature. And, we’re discovering that working together leads to better results for our clients.
For example: How many of you have seen a HARO query, and thought “Hey, that would be a perfect fit for X.” If X is another PR person, technically they’re a competitor. I don’t know about you, but when I first started my career, I never would have shared a lead with a competing agency. But, now I don’t think twice about giving someone a heads up if I see a HARO that might be relevent to them or their clients. If nothing else, it’s good karma, right? Continue reading
Your Copy Sucks: In Offense of Ellipses
To the chief bottle washer, Cog:
Today, we’re staging a little intervention. Cog, we’re not doing this to punish you; we’re doing this because you’re our friend and we want what’s best for you. It’s getting to the point where you can’t handle it anymore. You’ll destroy yourself if you keep using at this rate!
I speak, of course, of your rampant abuse of ellipses.
I am completely biased, but I think they’re the most wimpy punctuation mark available. Lots of people use them (or, in my view, overuse them) because they lend a sort of pause in a sentence, and we naturally pause when speaking to breathe or think. Except I believe that our writing should be better and more compelling than our speech. We have the time to set it in stone (or word processor, as the case may be); we should strive for perfection.
So let’s talk about dot. Dot. Dot.
Continue reading
A Caroling We Go
With preparations for our office holiday road trip in full swing, I thought it was time to pick some holiday carols for the car ride ahead. Being the PR loving girls that we are, I thought some updated classics might be just the trick: Continue reading
Christina’s Coffee Talk with Amy Mengel
This week I had the opportunity to pick the brain of Amy Mengel (@amymengel). Like some of my other guests, Amy is one of those rare breeds that doesn’t rely on coffee. Although she enjoys “fake coffee” like Frappachinos, you’ll more than likely find her sipping Diet Coke for a little caffeine fix. It’s okay Amy, we promise to not throw any fresh produce your way ;). In the summer months you can find her commuting to work often on two wheels as she is an avid cyclist. During fall months Amy is all about college football and skis slopes in the winter months. When she has free time, this book nerd can be caught bumming at the library looking for some new favorites to dive into. Amy relies on her well managed Google Reader to help her stay on top of the PR/SM news. Some of her favorites include: The Brand Builder, Todd Defren’s PR-Squared, and Dave Fleet’s blog. She also geeks out over Marginal Revolution and Strange Maps. And so I give you, Amy Mengel, discussing corporate communications, consulting, Facebook, and the importance of strategy/tactics.
5 Tips to Keep in Mind When Going Solo
Whether you’ve been an independent PR consultant for 15 years (like Kellye) or are just starting out on your own (like Heather), being a solo PR pro can be an incredibly rewarding (and lucrative) career path.
It’s exciting to be free to choose your own course. But there can be some intimidating moments when you realize success or failure depends entirely on you. If you’re looking at PR consulting and facing some difficult decisions, here are 5 tips to help: Continue reading
Flack Gift Guide
As you may have noticed, I’ve recently been in holiday mode. I’ve given thanks to PRBC, detailed the do’s & don’ts of holiday parties, and now I am here to solve your gift giving dilemmas. See as a young PR professional, I’ve become pretty crafty when giving gifts to my friends and family. I consider it an art. Every year they’re amazed at how creative I get, when actually I’m just looking for something that won’t break my piggy bank. Why not share the “wealth” of creativity with the PRBC community? Here are my picks of the seasons must-have gifts for PR professionals: Continue reading
“It’s like Vidal Sassoon said: if you don’t look good, I don’t look good.”
A ways back when I was a wee little PR minion at my first agency I scored a TIME Magazine exclusive for a client early on in my tenure. My boss was pleased, the client was ecstatic and I thought I might just have the knack to make public relations a career.
One afternoon the CEO of the agency was making his way through the halls and stopped outside my boss’s office, which was a mere 30 feet from mine, and congratulated her on the great media success for our client recently featured in TIME. Naturally, my ears perked up, and I expected to hear my boss take the compliment and move on with the day. Instead my boss, the great Anne (whom I’m coming to reference far too often on this blog!) told the CEO – “hey the person you should congratulate is Kristen, she has gotten some big hits for them lately.” Up until this point I was sure the CEO did not know I existed. He turned around, told me keep up the good work and moved along. Continue reading
Are Clients Ready for PR 2.0?
I first wrote this post in August, just before we started PRBC, thinking it would be a nice way to give others a glimpse into my thoughts, particularly since I consider myself a pragmatic practitioner and evangelist for the benefits of social media PR. Enjoy!
A while back, my good friend Lauren Fernandez wrote a great post where she asked the proverbial question: “What does PR mean to you?” Lauren and BethHarte began discussing the true role of PR as we enter the second decade of the 21st Century, and where we all actually stand with clients, or if you’re on the corporate side, with your organization. But it was this question from Lauren that really grabbed my attention: “Do you think clients are ready for PR 2.0?” Continue reading
Your Copy Sucks: Fancy Language
Normally, any attempt to stifle what little creativity we have in this business makes my skin crawl. Really takes the cake. Gives me the pip. But in this instance, I have to put my foot down.
Guys. Stop using figures of speech in your business writing. If I had a nickel for every time someone mucked up some folksy sayings, well, I’d have a bird in hand, which I’m told is worth two in the flora.
Okay, I’ll put the stupid jokes on the back burner now. My point is, writing pitches and press releases is hard enough without figures of speech ruining everything. Two reasons: colloquialisms are easily misused, and easily misunderstood. Continue reading