Imagine for a moment Bizarro Social Media land. If the folks who dreamt up Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. had taken that alluring left turn instead of going straight on with their vision and concocted (or Cogcocted) something entirely different than the fertile playgrounds, erm – rather platforms, we’ve got today.
Under these horribly delicious and highly inconceivable conditions we might have ended up with sites like…
Some of us flack products that can be scientifically proven to be quite good. A certain make of car can win an award for luxury; a brand of paint can be tested to show its properties of longevity; a hotel can have scads of positive reviews from guests.
Some of us, on the other hand, are representing products that are good strictly as a matter of taste. I work for a publisher, for example, and books are notorious for being judged on a very private, personal scale of excellence. One critic may think a book was sent down from heaven itself with a whole gaggle of angels; another may think it’s the worst thing every to be put on paper. There’s just no accounting for taste. Continue reading
OK, maybe I have a biased opinion about this, but I don’t think PR measurement was ever intended to be an exclusive club.
I remember learning about measurement during the first week of my first PR course in college. We even learned an acronym that included research and measurement: RACE (Research, Action, Communication and Evaluation). Research and evaluation were engrained in me right off the bat.
Perhaps this made me wrongly assume that measurement was already an integral part of the PR industry, and I’m still continually surprised by how few professionals talk about it. Continue reading
Have you ever walked into an office or a meeting and instantly judged someone based how they were dressed? I have. I do it all the time. I feel the way people are dressed can instantly give a negative or positive vibe to a potential client or journalist you are meeting with. I’m all about personal style, but there are definitely some rules that one should keep in mind when getting ready in the morning.
Read a Magazine – an Elle, GQ, Details, Lucky – Whatever floats your boat – and take note. Shoulder pads and suit dresses are way out of style and if you aren’t dressing in modern times, then you might as well not even present a new business presentation to a start-up. On the other hand, if you do then you’ll give off the vibe that you know what’s going on today, tomorrow, and in the future. It shows that you can evolve to what trends are popular – plus it shows that you keep up on the news. It is impossible to not be affected by fashion even if you read a different magazine. Continue reading
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.” – Coach John Wooden
John Wooden’s death over the weekend, at the age of 99, got me thinking about the man they called “The Wizard of Westwood.” As someone who spent the early years of his career working in sports marketing, I thought about Wooden’s NCAA-record 10 national championships while coaching the legendary UCLA Bruins of Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) and Bill Walton and many others. I also remembered the man’s great humility and sense of humor, as well as his uncanny ability to get the best out of his players without overtly trying to put his ego or his own highly-respected reputation ahead of the game, his team or his employer (UCLA). Continue reading
Mel Brooks once famously observed that “it’s good to be the king.” It’s probably also pleasant to be Bill Gates or Michael Arrington. I’d even guess that some folks think it’s pretty good to be me.
What is it like to have responsibility for running a PR firm? You might be able to imagine the upside, but there are struggles too. Here are some of the pain points — and some of the issues that folks like me think about on a daily basis: Continue reading
Finally, the ability to be two places at once! For a while, Hootsuite users have loved the ability to schedule tweets and now the new Tweetdeck is taking it one step further by including scheduled tweets and Foursquare check-ins. Correct me if I’m wrong, but how can we check-in via Foursquare if we’re not physically there? How do we engage conversation without being around to respond? Tweetdeck has given us the opportunity to have a social media clone ensuring our presence is still in our community without physically doing the work.
Last week during the #u30pro chat, hosted by Lauren Fernandez, David Spinks, and Scott Hale, the group discussed pros/cons to scheduled tweets and many users chimed in. Here are some reasons members dislike the feature: Continue reading
While the title of this post may lead those who know me well to believe that I am finally going to blog about cupcakes, I regret to inform you that this is not the case. Well, not exactly, at least. Although it is my soft serve and frosting flavor of choice, I am not a universal fan of vanilla. When I see it in news, I simply cringe.
Yes, there are the obligatory news items – a new hire, a promotion, a new office – you get the idea. But do some of the standard ‘vanilla’ news items need to be wrapped without sprinkles, without dragees and without a little ganache? (Read: glitz, allure and panache.) Even when the budget doesn’t allow for a big splash, there are ways to turn your vanilla into caramel with a pinch of fleur de sel on top. Continue reading
If you were to ask me about my PR firm’s competition, you would only hear good things.
Really!?
Eight years ago my friend and mentor Joan Stewart shared these words of wisdom with me that even in this economy I still believe ring true: “There’s enough business to go around.” I really took that idea to heart and have made a great effort to never turn away from, or ignore, other firms specializing in the same areas my firm does. Continue reading
Let’s face it, PR isn’t all about sending press releases to anybody with an email addresses (or who likes pizza). Sometimes PR is about how to reach people without the use of media.
I recently sat in on a brainstorm for a client that will be launching a product. We were debating video when the idea of a slide show popped up. I quickly said that would not work. And when asked why, I simply pointed to my mobile device. Continue reading