A series of opinion pieces last week by Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire business mogul Mark Cuban asserting that startups “should never hire a PR firm” got the PR world buzzing with outrage. But does he have a point or is it too general a brushstroke to paint that PR can “never” benefit a startup? Let’s look at the tape.
PR: The land of content and the home of the brevity.
I thought that perhaps it might be a good time to visit the subject of brevity in PR. We live in a world with increasingly strict space limitations and tightened engagement protocols to grab attention. From writing content to posting tweets to email media pitches to blog posts to writing news releases, the maturation and digitization of the Information Age has spawned an enormous number of people vying for attention and doing everything they can to be noticed. Continue reading →
Providing counsel on Twitter, and sometimes specifically Twitter chats, frequently falls in our laps at the request of clients. While we’ve all seen the ‘best practices’ for these things, there are of course, worst practices. Some of my top ones, as well as those of some contributors, are below. What are some of the worst practices you’ve seen?
Having come from a large agency background, I’ve grown accustomed to working on sizable account teams. This also means that I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some great, young talent throughout the years. I’ll never forget when I first started out in agency life. Fresh out of college, I landed my first gig in healthcare public relations and haven’t looked back since. Throw in some traditional media relations, thought leadership and a bit of crisis communications, and I was well on my way to using the skills I had learned in college…right?
In many fields including public relations, classroom knowledge can only take you so far. Internships are an important tool for getting the feel of the daily routine of a PR pro. But, a mentor is what separates a new professional in the fold.
I have reached a fork in the road of my career which takes me away from seeing my mentor on a daily basis. With that change I have been reflecting on the wealth of invaluable knowledge that I learned from my mentor. This knowledge is not just how to craft the perfect press release or pitch a reporter but how to conduct myself as a professional and the importance of being an eternal student of the trade. Continue reading →
In public relations, we are taught that preparation is key for any crisis or situation that may need our attention. But, it is equally important on how we train our clients. One of the integral parts to keeping a client prepared is media training.
How your client looks and sounds on television or comes across in a newspaper story can go a long way to showing they are credible. I entered public relations after a long career in television and radio. Taking that experience, I’ve been able to assist my clients in making sure they are well prepared for the media. Continue reading →
The Guardian recently published an article arguing that digital news offers a choice in reading topics/sources, but that print “…offers something extra: stories that people didn’t know they wanted to read until they had read them.”
Although the article brings up good points about the importance of diversifying one’s reading material(s), I beg to differ. Continue reading →
I recently wrote a blog post about the death of Andy Rooney and how PR and social media pros would be wise to learn the art of storytelling by observing how he had the innate ability to take the simplest of topics and weave a creative story that taught us a lesson about life.
I had the opportunity on Tuesday to participate in ConnectChat where our Editor-in-Chief Nathan Burgess touched on many topics surrounding the PRBreakfastClub blog including a brief discussion on how the blog comes up with story ideas. A transcript of the blog can be found here.
Jason Mollica pointed out during the chat that often times inspiration for a blog post comes from odd places and as PR and social media practitioners, our observation skills must be keen and sharp because you never know when an event, encounter or news story will spur us to cultivate it into a post where we can draw a parallel to our profession. Continue reading →
Generally, the week between Christmas and New Years are filled with cheer and good spirit. However, with all the hubbub of the holidays, you may have missed one of the biggest PR disasters seen in the history of the video game industry. Continue reading →
Welcome back to PRBC. We hope you had a fantastic holiday and are ready to hit the ground running.
The kind folks over at PRNewswire / ProfNet have asked me to participate in their regular #ConnectChat Twitter chat today (Jan. 3) at 3p-4:30p Eastern time. Full details can be found here. Continue reading →