The Governor, The Teenager And Twitter: A PR Lesson
The awesome power of social media may be matched only by the withering force of teenage scorn. I was startled by the social blowback resulting from Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s public feud with a local high school student. It started last week when Emma Sullivan and her class attended a youth event in Topeka where […]
Read MorePR Holidays To Hijack
Yesterday, we celebrated Cyber Monday, a day that was brought to us by Shop.org in 2005 after coining the phrase to recognize this day as the biggest online shopping day. It’s not a “real” holiday but it is treated like one, and turned into PR gold every year. There are many examples of wonderful and wacky […]
Read MoreRedefining Public Relations: Does It Matter?
Years ago, a colleague who’d spent 20+ years at PR agencies joined a large marketing services firm. He told me he’d cracked the code to winning new business, significantly increasing his batting average in selling programs to existing ad and marketing clients. The secret? Never calling it “public relations.” Instead, he would say “promotion,” or refer to “adding […]
Read MoreTop Ten Gifts PR Pros Are Thankful For
10. TweetReach, Compete, TV Eyes: services which have our admiration 9. Mommy bloggers: who “get” our pitches and understand collaboration 8. Never again hearing a client ask “When will Oprah have me as a guest?” 7. Gayle King on the Early Show where there just might be hope for that request 6. The enduring power […]
Read MoreA November To Remember
In addition to the traditional Thanksgiving bounty of food and family, this month has offered its share of embarrassing political viral videos. This cornucopia of candidate catastrophes demonstrates how powerful and influential social media has become. Online social sharing is now as common, if not more, than reading the newspaper, and celebrating the successful is not […]
Read MorePR Lessons From Occupy Wall Street
Today is the National Day of Action, and the media noise around the Occupy Wall Street movement is louder than it’s been since the start. The mood around here is mostly business as usual, flavored with a little anxiety and mild distraction. But, is OWS a PR success? Many have criticized its lack of coherent message, […]
Read MoreSavvy Surveys That Work For PR
The nationally projectable consumer survey has long been a very popular tool in the PR arsenal. Polls on hot topics packaged effectively make easy work for time-starved media and are a great way to connect your client to the topical and timely. Win-win, right? Not so fast – there are surveys that succeed and surveys […]
Read MoreWhen PR And Legal Strategies Clash
A recent episode of “The Good Wife” offers a highly entertaining look at crisis management inside a law firm and the tension between PR advice and legal counsel. A strategy session for a client whose tainted cheese has sickened dozens of schoolchildren erupts in war between the attorney, who wants to stonewall media calls, and a $60,000-a-month spinmeister (played to […]
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