Credit In media and blogger relations, PR typically wields two powerful tools to help boost the effectiveness of pitching and potential placement of news: the embargo and the exclusive. In the case of an exclusive, a story is usually packaged prior to official release for one particular writer, fully understanding their style, nuances, and audience. If the story is accepted, it is not pitched to any other media outlets until after the story runs. The benefit for PR is that…
Introducing The Social Compass
An excerpt from my next book… A compass is a device for discovering orientation and serves as a true indicator of physical direction. Inspired by a moral compass, The Social Compass serves as our value system when defining our program activities. It points a brand in a physical and experiential direction to genuinely and effectively connect with customers, peers, and influencers, where they interact and seek guidance online. The Compass features the artistic talents of Jesse Thomas and JESS3 the…
FTC Values Sponsored Posts at $11,000 Apiece
What follows is the unabridged version of my latest post for TechCrunch, “FTC Values Sponsored Conversations at $11,000 Apiece“ Source: Shutterstock In May, I reviewed the proposed Federal Trade Commission guidelines that would ultimately affect and change how brands employ endorsements into their marketing, advertising, and communications programs. Today, the Federal Trade Commission made good on its threat promise by releasing its final revisions to the guidance it gives advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in…
Social media consultants: A call to action
Guest post by Jennifer Leggio, Read her blog | Follow her on Twitter Source: Shutterstock If you’re dubbed a social media expert these days it’s almost like getting marked for professional death. It’s become even more popular to deny social media expertise as it has to claim faux expertise. Which means that the snake oiliest of the social media expert types have tried to give themselves a bit more oomph: they use the term consultant. Social media expertise in general…
Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is Now Back in Stock
Credit: Frank Gruber via Flickr When Deirdre Breakenridge and I initially heard that book stores were reporting that Putting the Public Back in Public Relations was out of stock, we suspected a distribution hiccup was at root of the issue. While it’s never good news to hear that customers cannot get their hands on the very object in which we dedicated and invested over a year of our lives, Deirdre and I were elated to learn that the month-long dry…
Using Twitter to Connect PR Students, Educators, and Professionals
Credit: Shutterstock I recently participated in #PRStudChat, a recurring discussion between PR experts and those looking to learn on Twitter. I found it enthralling. The interactive forum was created by Deirdre Breakenridge, my co-author for Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, and Valerie Simon in response to an ongoing series of questions they received from students seeking advice or insight into how PR was changing in the face of the “now” or real-time Web. In one such interview, PRSSA…
Is your PR firm ready for digital marketing? Use these 10 questions to assess their SEO and social media readiness
Guest post by Lee Odden: Follow him on Twitter | Read his blog 6 Questions to Assess Your PR Vendor’s SEO/Social Media Readiness Recently Jason Falls made an insightful comment on his blog about PR professionals being “social media ready”. In that post, he cited the need for specific social media marketing skills to be assessed for companies evaluating the effectiveness of their PR efforts. The state of the PR industry is in flux with increasing emphasis on the digital…
Why Authenticity Matters
Guest post by Jeremy Toeman: Follow him on Twitter | Read his blog Source There’s a blog post on MobileCrunch regarding a PR firm having their employees/interns put up fake product reviews on behalf of their clients. For the younger folk in the industry, let me make sure it’s clear that these techniques are nothing new. The difference is in today’s world the risks associated with such a move are so much higher, as you are more likely to get…
The State and Future of Communications: An Interview with Kara Swisher
This week, I was invited to speak at the Girls in Tech event in San Francisco as part of its evening discussing and exploring the nuances and opportunities defining and fueling Journalism 2.0. I’ve supported GIT founder Adriana Gascoigne since the beginning and will always help the chapters that now exist around the world. It’s an important organization. The evening was hosted at the San Francisco HQ of MySpace in the city’s South Beach district, which prior to their arrival,…
Building Bridges Between Knowledge and Aspiration
Image Credit: Jeremy Ginsberg There’s no shortage of businesses, and more specifically, the individuals who represent them, seeking insight, answers and direction to simplify, organize, and elucidate the intimidating and confusing social media landscape. Likewise, social media experts, gurus, and ninjas are seemingly ubiquitous. Far too many of us expect others to build bridges that connect disparate communities rife with individuals starving for logical and defensible insight and direction directly to us. In the end however, it’s our sole responsibility…
