Brands and marketers are rapidly leaving the orbit of “paid media” dominance and entering the gravitational pull of the age of “earned” and “social media.” But first a definition, compliments of Wikipedia:
This Week’s Top 5 Posts
Welcome to the conclusion of Week 1 of PRBreakfastClub.com. It’s been a great week for us here and on #prbc. We hope you’ve enjoyed our content, banter, and anything else you may have found of value (music, pictures, literature, fashion tips…whatever it may be).
In case you’re concerned you missed a crucial post this week, I present to you, in alphabetical order (because I like to keep a bit of mystery in all our lives) this week’s Top 5 posts.
Your Copy Sucks: a flack writing workshop
Here’s the thing about writing: it’s on everything. Newspapers, TV shows, blogs, web sites, Twitter, e-mails, press releases, yogurt cups, bus terminal walls, billboards, handbills—all these things are covered in copy. And, like most things in this world, 90% of it is just terrible.
It’s a lifeless, mediocre attempt at grabbing and keeping our interest, of sparking our imaginations, of helping or guiding or moving us. But until the PR industry comes up with some sort of sci-fi helmet that we can use to just beam our pitches directly into the brains of the people we want to speak to, we’ll have to learn to be brilliant among all this flotsam that the unfortunate public has been exposed to.
Ethics…you mean there are ethics?
This one’s in response (expansion) to a post from the lovely Ms. Campbell (@prsoapbox), who was kind enough to grace me with her company at dinner last week along with Ms. Vallejo and Ms. Sena. She recently brought us this blog post addressing the ethics in our chosen profession—the great world of public relations in its various forms.
As in many other fields, there are some bright lines that we dare not cross. Then there are those ethically grey areas. Yes (!)—there can be ethically grey areas, not everything is easily placed on a black or white square. These usually pop up when our own ethical rules for various areas of our life (personal and professional) come into conflict and we must step up and make the decision of what/which is most important to us.
What’s a Girl Like Me Doing Writing for a Blog Like This?
I’m sure all many of you are asking just that question—a former lawyer, banker, and hedge fund analyst who’s now running her own walkie-talkie rental company—what in the world is she doing writing for a PR blog?
Street Dish: The Reality of Public Relations
Scene 1: Camera One pans to girls at door. A faint voice states “thirty seconds till we air.” Final checks in place, Louboutins (check), black dress (check), clipboard (check), stern look (check.) Let’s roll, 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . air.
Camera Two pans to X celebrity arriving in the black sedan and walks up to red carpet; she stops to pose for a few photos to hear cat-calling from paparazzi in the galley. Cut to second scene.
Scene 2: Louboutin-wearing girls hovering around a VIP table having a cocktail (yes, at their own event) and hanging out with their friends they snuck in. Drama begins to unfold. Cut, end scene.
Okay, how many of us have watched reality and primetime television shows where this act is played over and over again? (Pause for all PR people to verbally grunt at the computer.) Exactly.
Will The Real CT Please Stand Up
For my first post, I wanted to make it a point to say that I am what you read. I won’t change my point of view to go with the masses and I say it as it is. All of my posts will be in this vein, and I know you will enjoy the time you spend reading them. I write to spark conversation and would love to hear feedback.
Before You Ridicule Each Other, Think of Helping Others
I should probably start this post by noting that I’m an eternal optimist . . . I look at the bright side of practically everything, so if that isn’t your style, you may just want to skip this post. OK, that’s out of the way, here we go!
Maybe it’s the “dog days” of summer still, or the fact that we’re still mired in a major recession that has everyone in a tizzy and seemingly at each other’s throats in the PR business when almost every minor situation that arises. Accidentally blast out an e-mail to thousands of people and forget to use the very helpful—but often misused—BCC function? Boom! You’re facing at least a week of full-on ridicule from your own brethren. For many of us, it can get to be a bit too much sometimes.
Flack In Training – Volume I
By now, it goes without saying: The college graduates of 2009 had the extreme misfortune of graduating into the worst economy in decades. Not only are they competing with their fellow classmates for jobs, they’re also going up against professionals who should be further along in their careers, but are being forced to apply for entry-level jobs due to lack of anything else. This recession has taken the image of starry-eyed post-grads with their entire, exciting lives ahead of them and turned it into a picture of desperate young adults taking on part-time positions just to make some money. It’s incredibly scary and disheartening.
Blogs are for Dialogue; Twitter is for Snippets
After reading Danny Brown’s recent post ‘Is Twitter Killing Blog Comments’ I couldn’t resist answering the last question he posed – ‘What’s your take?’
While I could go on for paragraphs rallying in support of Twitter and defending its merits as my social media platform of choice, I’ll spare you the cheering and keep it simple: Blogs are for dialogues. Twitter is for snippets!
Blogging now, party of one
If you had come to me a month ago and asked about my blogging experience, I would have sheepishly admitted to merely reading blogs and been quick to point out that I did not comment on them, despite an often overwhelming temptation to do so.