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…
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…
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…
Updates: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations
Deirdre Breakenridge and I are both proud and humbled by two recent landmarks for our book, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations” and we owe the thanks to you. 1. The rights to translate and publish the book in Japan were solidified last week. 2. The book is currently in its second printing. We’re looking forward to the book reaching as many as countries as possible as its message and benefits are indeed global. Thank you and we hope…
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,…
Evolving the Herd Mentality: Wall Street Journal Bans Embargoes
Credit: Nick Brandt, Available for sale here According to Rafat Ali, The Wall Street Journal today amended its editorial policy to no longer participate in embargoed news herds and will only consider exclusives from this point on. In March, The WSJ introduced a new plan to grade journalists based on the stories they break for the newswires. For those who need a bit of clarification, embargoes are a form of PR where journalists and bloggers work on a story prior…
Are You Talking to Me?
I’ve been spending a fair amount of time touring the world in support of my ideas and thoughts on the direction of new PR, branding, service, and marketing communications. My reward and inspiration to continue is sourced from each person I meet and the experiences and challenges they share. I’ve learned that our greatest hindrance to evolve is not our unwillingness to do so, our indoctrination in new media and communications is truly obstructed by the executives to whom we…
