As the internship coordinator for the Connecticut office of my firm, Co-Communications, I’ve interviewed a number of candidates. The one question I always ask no matter what?
“What kind of media do you consume?”
I’ve received a variety of answers and I consider myself fortunate to have never heard, “um, I don’t really read or watch the news…” Continue reading
I find inspiration to write PRBC blog posts in the strangest places at the oddest times. This one (not so strange or odd) was after a long day at the office while driving home on the parking lot us Connecticut-ites like to call I-84.
Let’s face it. We all hit a “wall.” Some of us blog daily, some weekly, some monthly. At some point inspiration runs a little thin…if not entirely OUT. Coming up with fresh blog posts all the time gets a little bit tiresome, draining and can be overwhelming. Even being surrounded daily by our topic of choice (PR and Social Media), we can be at a loss. Continue reading
Dear Kate,
I’ve noticed recently that I’ve had a drastic drop in my Twitter follower count (I already checked and there was no Twitter spam cleaning). I just don’t understand why people aren’t loving me and everything I have to say. I tweet about the things I do, what I eat, what kind of decorative head ornament my Chihuahua is wearing each day. I talk about how awesome I am, tweet my new blog posts (every day) and generally radiate hotness. So, Kate, why have I lost so many followers? Continue reading
I’ve seen it. The template pitch. The “cut this person’s name out <here> and insert next person’s name <here>.” Outlook usually has this cute feature where any new text in a forwarded e-mail turns a different color making any changes obvious. I cannot stand when people carelessly forward along identical e-mails. Even more when they make it so obvious. It makes me wonder how many of these e-mails editors, producers and reporters receive… And I shiver.
Below is an e-mail I received from a guy we’ll call Jason. Jason is a very nice man. He came into my office, asked for some business contacts I knew and said he’d be happy to refer me any clients he had looking for PR. Great! All the greatness ended when Jason sent me this e-mail: Continue reading
I recently had lunch with a woman I met at a client meeting a few months ago. This woman is making a career switch and wants to explore social media in her new position promoting events (she had little to no previous knowledge about SM). So, I happily accepted a lunch invitation to share my passion for social media with her.
After an hour and a half of talking blogs and Twitter, she was thrilled at the information I supplied, and was fortunately, not overwhelmed. Continue reading
Yes. Yes, you.
I think we can all understand there is a certain element of me to social ME-dia. There is also the ME generation. Hi! Member 1,276,024 of the ME Generation reporting for duty. PR, Marketing and Ad folks have caught on and are milking this self-centeredness like nobody’s business. And I in no way claim myself an expert in this arena and am aware this sort of targeting has been happening for quite some time. But go with me here… Continue reading
Dear Kate,
One year and four months has passed since you embarked on your career in the field of agency public relations, and boy, have you learned a lot! Congratulations.
Just for fun, here a few pointers and tips I wish I could have told you back when you first started: Continue reading
“Sign me up!” were the words I exclaimed back in February when I found out the gym I was checking out allowed free guest passes, anytime, any day of the week. What a huge plus!
A few weeks ago, I walked into my gym with a guest. I hadn’t been in about a week and I was ready and raring to go. I told the girl at the desk I’d like to sign my guest in.
“Oh, you can no longer have guests for free during the week. Only weekends. It’ll be a $10 charge today.”
<Squealing brakes>
“What?” Continue reading
Are you in PR? Yes? Ok, go ahead. Take a look around your office right now. What’s the ratio of men to women?
Looking around my college classrooms as a public relations major and around my office, I was and still am surrounded by women. The percentage of women in public relations varies from 60 percent to 70 percent depending on categories and the specific type of PR they work in. In essence: Girls, we dominate this profession numbers-wise! Continue reading
When I had my first interview with Co-Communications, Account Manager Danielle Cyr, looked me straight in the eye with an icy glare and said: “We are not competitive here. Are you competitive?”
After I almost wet myself out of sheer fear of Danielle (we are best buds now, don’t worry!), I thought “yeah, I am competitive! I used to dance, horseback ride, play the violin, compete in pageants. I love competition.”
Danielle went on to further explain. She had seen the ugly-side of competitive at other jobs. She had seen cutthroat, death-stare, whispering behind backs competition. Continue reading