Escaping Ideas

Close-up of a light bulb with its filament glowingDo you ever have one of those vivid dreams—you know, the ones where you show up pasty white and naked in front of your entire 8th grade English class, only to be transported to some tropical jungle wrestling boars because you’ve watched one too many episode of LOST—only to wake up and not remember a single detail?

That’s sort of how I feel about blogging.  Most bloggers will tell you their biggest challenges are discipline and content.  While I’ll fully admit to lacking discipline some days, content is no problem.  I come up with a new blog idea every few hours.  The problem?  Capturing all of those great ideas before my mind wanders on to the next thought. Continue reading

Fun Tools

Open toolbox, close-upOver the last month or so I’ve posted a few technical stories over here – Email tracking and Tweet Dilution (as well as an April fool’s piece and the chance to play devil’s advocate).  Today we’ll have a bit more fun with the more websites and services that have popped up around and support our favorite social media sites (or feed our habits)

FriendOrFollow.com – Remember that person who worked for Widget, Inc. in Chicago that you followed months ago but can’t recall her username to save your life.  FriendOrFollow.com to the rescue.  The service allows you to download your friend, follower and fan lists as CSV (Comma Separated Value – readable by Excel and other, similar programs) including their username, location, bio, etc.  making it easily searchable.  Throwing a party – find all your area fans at once (except those that use coordinates as their location) with a simple resort of the column.  Concerned about your account being suspended, use ForF to keep a backup of all your Twitter people. Continue reading

3 PR lessons from the recent Ning announcement

Loudcloud Chairman Marc Andreessen Keynote at Oracle Open WorldIn case you missed it, Ning recently announced it will be phasing out its free service to users–one of the core tenets of the platform since it launched years ago. There have a been a few interesting posts about the decision, including a great rant by Shel Holtz.

But, let’s set the actual decision aside for a moment. I’d like to take a closer look at how Ning communicated this key decision. In many ways, they could have improved their approach. But, instead of being critical, I thought we’d look at three PR lessons we can all learn from this experience: Continue reading

The Morning Show Show-Down

Sunrise in the Florida Keys - Big Pine Key, FloridaAlright, I’ll admit it. I love PIX morning news. I watch it almost everyday. I feel that Sukanya Kristian is my sister and John Mueller is my uncle. I get sad when they are not on and are replaced by the 2nd tier anchors. Why more people don’t watch PIX morning news baffles me. It is the most fun and laid back pre-9am news program that gets me ready for my day while i’m putting on my underwear and otherwise getting ready for the day. I don’t understand why PIX news isn’t the preferred choice by all. I also don’t understand who watches Good Day New York, but that’s just me… Continue reading

Christina’s Coffee Talk with Alex Aizenberg

For this week’s Coffee Talk I had the opportunity to chat with Alex Aizenberg, a successful PR professional, avid coffee drinker (just make sure it’s regular coffee with 2% milk), beard enthusiast and musician. I have gotten to know Alex through his rather entertaining Twitter stream, a nice blend of business and pleasure. I’m always learning something new from Alex as he is a savvy professional, currently working with one of the leading global public relations agencies, Weber Shandwick for 5+ years. I guess you could say he knows what he’s doing ;). In addition to PR, you can find Alex relaxing with his supportive wifeadorable dog, and playing on one of his eight guitars. Bet you didn’t know that A) Weber Shandwick has a house band named “Webster’s Sandwich” for an annual event called Agency Idol and B) that Alex has been the lead guitarist since the start! I hope you enjoy this chat as much as I did and learn something new along the way. Continue reading

Touching on !!! and ???

Exclamation PointIt’s one of those things we all agree we hate yet are all guilty of doing. Like not holding the elevator doors. But guys, seriously, this !!! and ??? stuff is getting out of hand.

One exclamation point? Fine. Necessary if you’re an excitable person! One question mark: cool. No problem.

Two exclamation points or question marks? Okaaaaaay, but you’re on thin ice, mister.

Three or more? Oh. Oh, we gonna fight. Continue reading

The Five Second First Impression

High angle view of two businessmen shaking handsWith college graduations fast approaching, I’ve found myself fortunate enough to be on the speaking circuit. Visiting a few college classes and clubs to impart (hopefully) some wisdom about working in PR, manage entry level career expectations and, when possible, offer some guidance for the job hunt. Among the endless string of seemingly trivial and questionably relevant content offered, has been the following platitude: You have five seconds to make a first impression. Continue reading

Wha!? PR people who don’t answer the phone??

memo with urgent messageWe’ve all heard of the “good karma” e-mail. “Hi. This is So-And-So and I see you’ve recently been writing on topics X, Y and Z. I have clients in a number of related areas who might be able to serve as a source for you. Please let me know if I can ever be of any help…”

I love good karma e-mails. No pitching. No berating. Just an “I’m here to help.”

My co-workers and I like to take this to a new level. We are huge believers in helping journalists even when we hand them an expert who is not our client. We hold our relationships with journalists in very high regard. Continue reading