All posts by Nathan Burgess ("PRCog")

Nathan "PRCog" Burgess

Commentary: Blogger Compensation

29 Comments

All opinions expressed herein, unless otherwise noted are my own.  They do not represent the opinion of other PRBC bloggers, affiliates, etc. – NB

Payments to bloggers are one of the many “Blogger” issues that has been coming for some time and last week came to a head around “Mommy Bloggers” at the evo ‘11 conference when conference sponsor, Aveda, through their Director of Global Communications, Evan Miller, clarified their position on engaging with bloggers.  Since I wasn’t at evo and didn’t want to misphrase or mischaracterize anything coming from Aveda, Mr. Miller clarified by email.  In short:

Since Aveda began working with bloggers in a PR capacity it has abstained from compensating them with cash payments. Aveda has offered bloggers compensation in the form of Aveda.com gift cards, product and salon/spa services. Aveda’s Digital Marketing team has conducted, on occasion, more extensive campaigns with bloggers in which it has compensated via monetary payment.

Just to be completely clear, again – this was merely a restatement or clarification of Aveda’s position – not a new position, and not a change from old policy. Continue reading →

Nathan "PRCog" Burgess

Are Your Employees Undermining Your Business?

4 Comments

Quite a few of us have been there – the new agency on the block – handling a portion of a client’s business while another agency hangs out with the lion’s share.  Either it’s a new line of business for the company or the old agency fell down and this particular part ended up in your lap.  Everyone play nice but there’s no mistaking it – you want the rest of the business and the other agency, no longer resting on their laurels, wants to get the part you have back.

But we “play” nice. Continue reading →

Nathan "PRCog" Burgess

How Do You Use Facebook Lists?

8 Comments

Going back to an earlier post of mine, at “another” blog 😉 the issue will certainly begin to arise for the recently hired (or anyone really) who may have the pleasure of administering Facebook pages on behalf of clients, or your own firms – “How do I separate work (client), work (colleagues and bosses), and friends on Facebook?”

After all, for the last n number of years Facebook has been your playground and you’d like to keep it that way – at least a little bit. Further, for the “older” folks who have a larger outside-of-work life they’re now dealing with the question of friending clients on Facebook. Continue reading →

Nathan "PRCog" Burgess

Dear PR Pros…

7 Comments

This is why you need to revisit your lists on a regular basis and if at all possible do as much background checking as you can.

This is not the first press release we’ve received from this organization. At first we thought it might just be a mistake. Then they kept coming. For no apparent reason.  You tell us, reader, on this glorious (depending on where you work) Friday – how does this fit into our wheelhouse?

Continue reading →

Nathan "PRCog" Burgess

New Platforms: Pinterest

65 Comments

Oddly enough, only a few months ago I was lamenting the rapid influx of new social media platforms trying to supplant (or support, depending on how you looked at it) the holy trio that are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  Yes, I know YouTube, Flickr, etc. all have their own history and their own niche markets, and are ready to be tapped at a moment’s notice for the right purpose.  But by and large FLT (FB, LI & Twtr) are based on communicating with other members of the community.  Sure, you’ve got soap-boxers on each of them, but success isn’t based on soapboxing on those platforms.  The other platforms don’t really require engagement from the content creator for them to be seen by the right audience or even considered successful.

And so it was, with a bit of nostalgia for the good ole’ days of cool new platforms that I began to consider the upstarts – FourSquare (though it’s somewhat in the middle of the foundations of SM and the spawn), SCVNGR, GetGlue, Empire Avenue, etc. Each of these new platforms relied heavily on your existing digital footprint.  You connected with people you knew primarily elsewhere and saw what they produced on each of those platforms.  For the record – I’ve yet to find anything worthwhile about GetGlue that I couldn’t just get from posting a normal status update to FB and Twitter.

Then along comes Pinterest. Continue reading →