Who needs social media marketing? Back in my day we flacks used to actually meet reporters face-to-face over a nice big lunch, fueled by alcohol and generously provided by our clients. Continue reading
In My Day
It’s time for some Indian breakfast!
Every business has an ecosystem and PR has always evolved around media. In India, PR is at a crossroads. I would say that it is little indecisive at the moment—whether to ape western markets and jump directly onto the social media bandwagon, or still come to terms with the ever-expanding traditional media landscape of the country.
PRBreakfastClub Social Media Expert Challenge
It’s an issue many have talked about, even on this blog. Do you claim to be a social media “expert” (insert word of your choice here, i.e, guru, maven)? If so, it’s now time to prove it.
The Obligatory Kanye West Reaction Post
The following takes place via e-mail. What you are about to see is a dramatic reenactment of a group of caffeine-depraved flacks talking about the MTV Video Music Awards.
Play nice…unless we don’t know who you are…
In such un-Cog-like fashion, this will be brief. Well, because there’s only so much we all know about The Cog.
I made a comment on Cog’s Gear Grindings a while back regarding the “sheep mentality” in social media, particularly on blogs and Twitter. A little bit of, you can’t possibly love everyone’s blog you comment on, and a little bit of, are we just being nice to each other because life’s tough? Okay, it wasn’t that sour.
Christina’s Coffee Talk: Stephanie Smirnov
This week I had the pleasure of getting to know more about our favorite PR Mama: Stephanie Smirnov, president of DeVries Public Relations. Stephanie relies so heavily on three gargantuan mugs of Starbucks coffee a day that her family is trained to not talk to her until she’s had the first sip. Sounds familiar. She’s a pro at wakeboarding, Wii Resort Wakeboarding that is, and relaxes in her Catskills home with her husband and son “swimming, skiing, grilling and chilling.” Stephanie listens to the best old-school funk, disco, and R&B and reads her favorite mommy blogs (The Bloggess, The Pioneer Woman, and Rock and Roll Mama to name a few) and design/trend blogs—a new favorite Design*Sponge. Okay, enough of the fun stuff. When Stephanie said she would participate for Coffee Talk, I couldn’t wait to find out how she is so successful in her career and also a great mom with a very solid family. How does one find the time for it all? And so I give you, Stephanie Smirnov . . . super mom and PR pro:
PR Time Warp: The Palace
How did social networking get to be known as “Web 2.0”? Somehow it makes the first generation of the Internet seem so unconnected and solitary. Coming from that generation, I can tell you that the Internet was not so solitary but we didn’t necessarily use the Web for our interactions with each other. America Online was its own stand alone service but was so successful because it was all about the chat rooms and interaction, there was IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and there was even a virtual world: The Palace.
The Industry That Cried Wolf—Is the ‘evolve or die’ rule universal?
The press release is dead. The media is dying. It’s beginning to feel like we work for the industry that cried wolf.
While I am by no means saying PR pros shouldn’t be concerned about and keenly aware of the intricacies of the media’s evolution, it’s time we stopped panicking and took a look at the facts. Or more importantly, a look at the newspaper industry’s proposed solution—a new and improved online product. Can it work? Is it a universal solution?
Be Your Own Flack (“B.Y.O.F.”): So what is PR, anyway?
Before I started my business, I thought PR was about getting press. Period. A bunch of my friends are entrepreneurs, and they hire PR agencies to convince journalists and bloggers to write about them, TV shows to feature them, and twitterers to tweet about them. Some of these friends have entirely separate crews to handle their publicity (but isn’t that part of the whole PR thing?). So I sat down and asked some of my most successful small-biz owner friends what they pay for these services. And I about died. Since I’m running a start-up, my PR budget is exactly zero. As I mentioned in my first post, it was about then I decided I’d do this PR thing myself.
Flack In Training – Volume II
After I was “laid-off” from the job that never was, I dove right into my search for a new position. Begrudgingly, of course, since I hadn’t thought I would need to do one in the first place. I was surprisingly optimistic about it, thinking that my experience would help get me a job relatively fast. I couldn’t have been more wrong. After countless interviews and nothing but unexpected disappointments, I came to my senses. As confident as I was in my potential to be an awesome entry-level candidate, I was literally competing for jobs with every other person my age who had graduated with a degree in PR (okay, my degree is in Communications, but that’s besides the point) and lived in the tri-state area. How was I going to make myself stand out and shine?