Let’s stop and consider the public relations industry for a moment. What is it that we do, really? Informing the public about any number of corporate strategies aimed at increasing the revenue for our agency or clients. Right? Maybe that’s a tad cynical, and I’m certainly not the folks at Gawker, but what good in the world does public relations do? If you’re unaware of the #Milaap4Hope effort going on today, allow me to enlighten you. Continue reading
All posts by Matt LaCasse
Your Innate Fallibility
What is the worst feeling on earth for you? I’m not referring to tragic life events, I’m talking about those feelings that can happen any day of the week. For me, the worst feeling on earth is a combination of embarrassment and knowledge I was wrong about something. Being the former journalist I am, being wrong is not something I take kindly to. I was paid to be right. When I first started at KFRU in October of 2003, I was an arrogant and inexperienced reporter. I use the term “reporter” because I was nowhere near being a journalist as I quickly learned. Continue reading
Could Google+ Overtake Facebook By 2016
The running joke in social media circles is that Google+ is a wasteland. No one goes there or pays attention to anything posted there. Facebook and Twitter remain royalty with all other networks orbiting them. The more this myth is believed by communications pros, the more we do a disservice to ourselves and to our clients. Facebook is dying. Slowly but surely, it is committing suicide. I won’t be so bold to say that Google foresaw this when it launched G+, but clearly it has positioned itself as a viable alternative since Facebook went public. Continue reading
Drive By Crisis
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You’re a responsible brand. You may push the envelope every so often, but you pay attention to what’s happening and respond in timely ways allowing you to avert any kind of major PR crisis. You go to bed after having watched the NFL’s replacement refs botch ANOTHER game on Sunday September 23rd (New England vs. Baltimore), with all sorts of warm fuzzies in your tummy because of the epic performance of Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith. You’re confident in your brand, having monitored Facebook and Twitter for mentions of Johns Hopkins in any way. Then you wake up to this:
Progressive Insurance Does Not Deserve Your Business
I’m fortunate to be connected to hundreds of outstanding public relations and marketing professionals. All of them are fantastic at their job, and I’m a smarter person for just knowing them (that includes the proprietor of this blog, and the many contributors). Given all the good I see the industry accomplishing each day, at least one a month it seems an entity or a person commits such an egregious screw up that I’m left to question the future of public relations. Or at least how these people have a job that pays them more than minimum wage. The subject of today’s post is Progressive Insurance.
I’ll get right to the point. According to this Gawker article, Progressive paid to defend the killer of one of their client’s in court. Read that sentence again. Notice I didn’t say “basically” or “in essence”. No. This company paid its lawyers to defend a guy who ran a red light and killed Katie Fisher. Continue reading
Burning Bridges
Burning bridges. Is there ever a good or right time to do it? Niki Pocock has a post on that at her blog It’s All Wrong, which she spends asking that question. I have the feeling this is not a yes or no kind of topic, rather it will depend on who you are as a person. I’ll take a shot at answering it though.
In my experience, burning bridges in the professional world has never been an option. You have no idea what the future will hold, or what the person on the other side of that bridge you are burning (presumably an ex-employer or co-worker) will say about you. If there are negative feelings there already, burning a bridge simply adds to the bitterness, and gives your former employer another black mark (from their point of view) to discuss. Continue reading
The Summer Week That Was: July 14-20
The Dark Knight Rises comes out today, in case you hadn’t heard. I will include one link to a TDKR-related article, but that’s it. I promise. I assume most of you will spend the weekend in a line waiting to get into the movie, so here’s to you. Me? Well…I’ll probably do the same. Onto the links: Continue reading
Special Edition: Don’t Punish Penn State, Punish People
I’ll admit upfront that the headline here is a bit of a linkbait, and that you are probably furious at me right now for having the gall to type such a sentence in light of the Freeh report that was released Thursday morning. We all know the horrific details of the Jerry Sandusky case, and I don’t really have the stomach to list out the rape of each child again. Besides, you’re still pissed at me for writing a headline suggesting Penn State shouldn’t be punished. Consider this for a moment.
Pennsylvania State University didn’t rape those kids, nor did it cover anything up. Continue reading
The Death Of Sanity
I’ll warn you now. This is a rant. There’s been a whole batch of stupidity that’s been…upsetting…me lately. I won’t bore you with the entire list, but I finally found an outlet I could unleash this…upsetness (is that a word? I don’t care.) on. Enter CBS Television. Don’t worry. If they somehow came to their senses and took that down, I downloaded it and saved it here. Continue reading
The Summer Week That Was June 2-June 8
This is my first “curating” post for PRBC. I’ve compiled an impressive list of links for you from all corners of the Internet. There is zero rhyme or reason to these other than I found them interesting, they made me laugh, or I think you should pay attention to them. In some cases, all three. Without further ado: Continue reading