The NY Intern Project

I’ll never forget the day I found out that I had been hired for my first PR internship in New York City. For me, the opportunity was more than just a way to earn three college credits, but rather a chance to kick start my career in what I considered the PR capital of the world.

Like millions of students across the country, working in NYC is something I always wanted. And growing up only an hour from Manhattan, I knew I would get here sooner or later. But when you live hundreds of miles away, the Big Apple dream can often end up being just…a dream.

That’s why I was extremely excited when our agency, Affect Strategies, decided to team up with Strutta, an interactive promotions company, to launch The New York Intern Project, a contest designed to help us find our next summer intern. Continue reading

‘Churning’ Through PR’s Big Questions

A couple of high-profile incidents last week once again raised questions as to whether PR is, in effect, “controlling” the national media. Personally, I don’t buy that notion, but the facts do bear some soul-searching.

The week began with a new website, Churnalism.com, aimed at exposing how the British media falls prey to PR’s supposedly sinister efforts to promote client agendas at the expense of fact-based reporting. Essentially, you paste a press release into the site’s search engine and it provides a percentage of that release that appeared, verbatim, in the UK national media. PRWeek (UK) has full coverage and commentary.

Also last Monday, a scathing article in POLITICO reported that Kurt Bardella, deputy communications director for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), was leaking private e-mails from certain journalists to a New York Times reporter who is writing a book on Capitol Hill journalism. The hub-bub around that story quickly escalated, and Bardella was summarily fired (rightly so, IMO). Continue reading

Calling All PR Pros for PRSSA’s Digital Career Fair

We all hate career fairs. They’re intimidating, uncomfortable and sometimes, just plain awkward. But what if they didn’t have to be?

In this digital age, we’re constantly thinking of new ways to reach our target audiences. What if you could recruit the best and the brightest from the comfort of your very own home? No stuffy suits, no long lines of resumes being thrown in your face. It’s a win-win. PRSSA hopes to help you do just this as part of the #PRSSA “Digital Career Fair” during the monthly chat Wed., March 23 at 9 p.m. ET.  Continue reading

The Secrets to Success in Social Media

Did I lure you in with my snazzy headline? Yes? Okay great. Now I’m going to spend the first few sentences using buzz words so that you will keep reading my social media post. Then after you’ve gotten through the first couple of paragraphs, I’m going to provide you with these awesome bullet points packed with information that you already knew.  Lastly, I will summarize the topic which pretty much has nothing to do with my headline that I created for SEO purposes.

Does this situation sound familiar? Every day my inbox and RSS feeds pile up with articles about social media. The articles seem to always be about the same topic but recycled, rehashed, rewritten – they are offering me nothing of value. If you are like me, you’ve probably about had it. Continue reading

Three things to look for in your workplace – Or – Why I still work here

Tenure at PR firms is rare. I suppose that is why I get frequent questions about mine. I’ve been with BlissPR since 2003. Last week I was asked why, three separate times. My answer has always been the same: there are lots of reasons but essentially I like and respect the people I work with.  Upon reflecting further I have three reasons which can also be things to look for in your own workplace: Continue reading

Interest, Activity in Social Media Intensifying Across All Health Care Sectors

A roundtable discussion of agency executives from the Worldcom Americas Region Health Care Practice Group indicated that interest, expectations and budgets for leveraging social media are increasing considerably across all sectors of health care clients, and budget increases are being instituted for 2011 programs.  Agency experiences – coast to coast – were almost universally the same.

Worldcom is the world’s largest partnership of independent public relations firms with 112 offices located on five continents. The Worldcom PR Group’s Health Care Practice Group has 50 members worldwide, all of which have a specialty in the market segment.  A dozen of the 20 Americas Region firms participated in the roundtable. Continue reading

Public Relations at South by Southwest

We’ve had it on our calendars for months. March 10-15, Austin, TX. South by Southwest.

Maybe you have a client making an announcement there. Maybe a new, young startup out to change the world. Maybe you represent a global brand rolling into town with a caravan. As a communications pro, you have a game plan. You’ve got your metrics and deliverables all set. It’s time to put those away for a minute.

It’s time to figure out how you’re going to be a part of the amoeba-like mass that manages to keep in a constant state of motion. How do you, as a PR/communications counselor extract personal and professional value from an event such as SXSW?

Meeting in meat space

Jason Falls and Becky McCray at SXSW 2009. That's how I get down..

I can’t stress enough just how important relationships are. Even in today’s world of perpetual connectivity, it can be difficult to foster and grow a relationship without being present. Without being part of the conversations that happen in the real world. Without interaction. That’s why in order for you to extract value from SXSW, you need to embrace the subtitle of the conference: Interactive.

Set up coffees/happy hours/brunches with the folks that will be there that are outside your core list of media. Recognize other influencers such as the corporate bloggers of your company’s customers or analysts that tend to create more real-time content.

It’s really hard to be a part of the mix from our offices. It’s difficult to maintain the currency of the PR industry — relationships — when the majority of people that we interact with are based at least two states away. There is inherent value to meeting with somebody in person.

Disconnect and connect

SXSW 2009
Me and @Hawaii, aka Ryan Ozawa at SXSW, 2009.

As you look at the events that your clients want to be a part of beyond SXSW, keep a part of your planning dedicated to “how can I serve my clients aside from hosting meetings?”

You’re going to recap the event. Why not add a little color to it? If you’re at a tradeshow, fire up the video recorder of choice and take a tour of the show floor. Set up a Tumblr, Posterous account or posts for your company or agency’s blog to document the event in real time. I also like to take pictures at the events I go to.

A few folks have written posts recently either defending why to go to SXSW or why not to go to SXSW. In my opinion, it is one of the single-most conferences you can attend as a PR person.

Conversations go both ways

Do you follow folks on Twitter? Do you subscribe to their RSS? Maybe it’s as easy as having a two-sentence “nice to meet you” email in your drafts you can send 30 seconds after you connect with somebody. The point is, you just met somebody, foster that relationship. You never know who you’re going to meet.

A community or relationship does not occur spontaneously. They must be curated, maintained and developed. By having a strategy in place of how you as an individual communications counselor can continue to build your own little community after each event, you will see a significant increase in your event ROI.

As we look forward to South by Southwest, community building should be one of the guiding factors of our presence down there. In order to influence the conversation, we must be part of the conversation. We must become influencers ourselves in order to influence the influencers. This is why we go to SXSW.

Why are you going to SXSW?

The Red Cross Raises Awareness on Home Fires by “Burning” Facebook Pictures

Perception is a huge game changer in the public relations industry. If you can swing the public’s opinion of a brand from a negative view to a positive light, you’re essentially golden. Perception is not black and white—in fact that is hardly the case—and it definitely does not always have to be viewed as just positive or negative. Sometimes PR pros have to change the public’s opinion from one overarching association to the realities of the day-to-day mission. This can be tricky especially when media coverage tends to be higher during the anomalies.

For the American Red Cross, this game of perception has become increasingly challenging. The public sees the organization as a humanitarian non-profit that deals with blood and large scale disasters. While this is true, it does not represent the single largest disaster that the Red Cross responds to across the nation. And quite frankly, people need to know the truth. Home fires destroy memories every 80 seconds. Continue reading

Caveat Twittor

Earlier in his career, William Murray, my boss at PRSA, spent 20 years working under Jack Valenti as the COO of the Motion Picture Association of America. Along the way, he learned a little bit about what goes into the production of the Academy Awards, and he always has entertaining stories to share.

(Full disclosure: Keith Trivitt, a founding PRBC blogger, also works for PRSA.)

So Bill was a bit puzzled when I asked if he had seen the Tweet sent on Oscar night by Richard Robbins, AT&T’s director of social innovation. In it, Robbins suggested that the producers of live broadcasts put contingency plans in place for making mid-production changes when the social media buzz turns ugly, as it did in the case of this year’s Oscars.

“Say that again,” Bill asked. “He suggested what?” Continue reading

Swearing and Social Media

I’ve wanted to tackle the subject of social media and profanity for a bit now, especially when I read this post about the persuasive power of swearing. When you are communicating in an open platform such as Twitter and you are a representative of your company, when is it okay to swear…or is it ever?

As the post and a book that I will be reviewing next week (hint) both demonstrate is that there are indeed positives to using expletives from time to time.  For example, light swearing can show your passion for a particular subject and draws in your audience to pay attention. You might also find yourself in an argument and have to use stronger wording to express your point of view.

In person, I’m unfazed by people that swear up a storm.  However, when I see someone send out a tweet using a naughty word, my eyebrow raises a little. Not because I’m offended but I wonder if that person just turned off his/her audience. It seems that the more we tweet and update our Facebook statuses and develop deeper personal connections, the result is that we have the tendency to act more casual. Continue reading