Word-Of-Mouth Amongst Chicago PR Community Key to Hairy Charity Event

Most of us strive to be known as brand builders, reputation managers, crisis maestros, et al. For better or for worse, I’m considered the world’s foremost authority and advocate on mustaches.

Sad but true.

In summer 2006, I mused with a few friends “Why not bring the mustache back into prominence?” That turned into a non-profit organization, online community, living and breathing digital Petri dish going on six years now that’s been featured by CBS Sunday Morning, Rachel Ray, USA Today, ESPN, “Fashionably Late With Stacey London,” the “Colbert Report” and more. Continue reading

PR Needs a Moneyball Makeover

Even though The Lion King in 3D topped the box office this weekend, I raced to see the new Brad Pitt flick, Moneyball. I read the book on which the movie is based when I was in college just getting into PR and measurement. (If you haven’t yet read Michael Lewis’ book, Moneyball, I highly recommend it.)

In the movie, one baseball coach uses the power of statistics to build a record-breaking team after losing his three all-star players. The movie glosses over much of the nitty gritty math, but you walk away with the same overall message: numbers are powerful. Continue reading

Thought Leadership For Sale: Surviving in a Pay-to-Play World

Most PR practitioners quickly learn that the Chinese Wall protecting editorial integrity from the influence of paid advertising can be, like the Pirate’s Code, “more of a guideline than an actual rule.” For better or worse, at a great number of well-known and respected media sources, advertising can purchase anything from regular coverage of meaningless news items, to top billing in an industry roundup, or even an outright puff piece.  Continue reading

Five Ways Pitch Letter Writing is Like the Golf Swing

With the PGA Tour season coming to an exciting close this past weekend with more than $10 million on the line for eventual winner Bill Haas, it is timely to offer up insights on how pitch letter writing is like the golf swing.  I’ve been an avid golfer for most of my life and like many golfers believe that golf itself is a microcosm of everything we do in life. So here’s my take on how developing a pitch letter is similar to developing a sound golf swing (please note that I am a PR professional NOT a golf professional though it is still a dream to be one someday): Continue reading

Five Ways PR Campaigns Are Like Getting Married

Recently, I got married to my beloved Laura. As newlyweds, life is great. But like any relationship, it’s a lot of work, a whole lot of give-and-take and, yes, it can be stressful at times.

Hmm … sounds a lot like managing a PR campaign. To continue PRBC’s theme of exploring five ways in which PR is like __________, I thought I’d address the five ways that PR campaigns are like getting married. Continue reading

Five Ways Being in PR is Like Running a Group Blog

A brief note before we really get into today’s post – you may have noticed a trend in our posts since Monday – all the posts are lists of metaphors explaining why PR (or social media, metrics, analytics or some other aspect of the biz) is like something else.  The great metaphor post – only we’re doing ’em in series.  If you’d like to offer up your own contribution to the effort, drop me a line.

In the 2+ years I’ve gotten plenty of questions about how we “manage” to get the blog published every day, usually on time, and how things are scheduled, setup, arranged, enforced, etc. etc.  Most of those secrets are in the vault with the KFC original recipe recipe, but it’s occurred to me, not infrequently, putting this show on the road every day is quite a bit like working in PR in general: Continue reading

5 Ways PR Measurement is like Predicting Who Will Win the NCAA

With the college football season in full swing, I’m having a harder time focusing. After all, the college basketball season is only about one month away. There’s nothing I love more than college basketball, and there are surprising correlation between measurement and the NCAA, specifically predicting the outcome of that tournament in March. Continue reading

5 Ways Fitness Helps Sharpen My PR Saw

There is a school of thought that striking a balance between professional life and extracurricular activities allows you to work towards a healthy body to facilitate a healthy mind.  Not an easy task as demands increase in our profession and we increasingly discover that in the fast paced world of PR, dedication, effort and real time expectations require us to seemingly be on the job 24/7.  Continue reading