Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 23, 2011
This post has been sitting in my dashboard for quite a while. Before I started writing it, though, it was just a lonely title, somewhat like a bemused shepherd who’s waylaid his sheep, and is wistfully whistling for them to gather (hey, nothing wrong with a shepherd whistling, is there?). You see, I just couldn’t find the right hook for it.
Bad Pitch Blog
AUGUST 20, 2011
'There’s a breed of PR people out there that can get the meeting, do the interview and chat the darn thing all day long on the phone with journalists, email every producer and blogger on earth and yet.they have an anemic list of coverage, though, and the buzz-o-meter isn’t reporting the faintest blip. The shortfall in coverage usually reflects a disinterest in following up.
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PR Conversations
AUGUST 9, 2011
How should you use Twitter for public relations events? This is a topic we’ve pondered among the PR Conversations team ( Judy Gombita , Markus Pirchner and Heather Yaxley ). Twitter offers potential for conferences, launches, announcements, stunts and many other PR events – and we’ve seen it used well, and badly. We’ve used Twitter at events, and participated remotely in real world activities and those that only exist online.
PR Job Coach
AUGUST 19, 2011
'Cover letters and resumes play critical roles in career management and job search. You can argue that one trumps the other but the fact is they work together as a team. And the cover letter plays a starring role because it can get the recruiter, HR folks and the hiring manager warmed up for the main pitch of the resume. In short, the cover letter should cover your bases and home runs.
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Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 31, 2011
There’s been a lot of chatter recently over conferences that have a voting component to their submissions. That’s because the “panel picker&# part of the 2012 South by SouthWest Interactive conference is currently in progress, ending on Friday, Sept. 2. I remember the first year I paid attention to SxSW. I wasn’t anywhere close to attending, but it was new to me, and I was in awe of people who were submitting proposals.
Public Relations Today brings together the best content for PR professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 4, 2011
Guest post by Katrina Esco. Sometimes, a really great campaign gets noticed for the right reasons ( Starbucks’ “Pass the Cheer” campaign comes to mind.). Other times, despite our best intentions, we really step in it. Summer’s Eve has been in the hot seat for its talking vagina commercial series. The set of three commercials originally showed: a white woman who likes to use the product after the gym and says something about her BFFs, a Hispanic woman who has an accent and cries, “Ay-
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 26, 2011
Yesterday I had the honor – and it really was an honor – of introducing Dr. Donna Vincent Roa as she received the 2011 Matrix Award (that’s her on the left) from the Association for Women in Communication’s DC chapter , in recognition of her accomplishments in the global communication field. As I said in my remarks, long before I met Donna (who is IABC-accredited and a former IABC/DC Metro president, as I am), I bumped into her reputation.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 18, 2011
Yesterday, I came across a really interesting post by John Jantsch that posited “it’s time to purge the word entrepreneur&#. In part, John wrote, “The issue centers on the notion that if you’re an entrepreneur you care about high growth and if you’re a small business owner you’re somehow destined to struggle to make ends meet while working your fingers to the bone.&#. and. “You can view your business as an entrepreneurial high growth machine and still work your fingers to
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 5, 2011
Guest post by Thom Holland. As business leaders, we often operate in what I like to call “collected chaos”; a million different business decisions coming at you at once. Often times, to combat the chaos we look to streamline and automate any and every process that we possibly can. After all, that makes perfect sense, right? The easiest way to free up our valuable time is to automate something that consumes it.
Journalists receive an overwhelming number of press releases daily, making it hard for your news to stand out. While some news is valuable, most is not.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 25, 2011
Well, whaddya know? After more than a year (much more, though I don’t remember exactly how long, that’s how long it’s been), I woke up at 4:50 am today to see this email (bolding mine): Subject line: Alltop Submission Accepted. Thank you for submitting your blog or website for inclusion in Alltop. We’ve added the feed to the PR topic: [link]. 4:50 am is not usually when I tumble out of bed, bursting with energy.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 9, 2011
A week ago today, I spoke to Marshall Sponder for the very first time. I was quite excited, because I’ve been following his blog for ages. I mean, when you spell “measurement geek,&# you are really spelling M-A-R-S-H-A-L-L-S-P-O-N-D-E-R.&#. That’s how much into measurement he is! Marshall and I have been trying to connect for a long time, and I’ve always wanted to have him as a guest on #measurePR.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 19, 2011
Adam Toporek created this infographic on the state of small business in the US (click the image to see it larger and on IntenseFence’s site, please). The numbers reflected. the impact of the economy on SMBs and the impact of SMBS on the economy. The figure that stuck out to me and a few other commenters on the post was the little factoid on the bottom left: Small Business Don’t Think Marketing Will Help.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 16, 2011
Yesterday, Ken Mueller published a post that he wrote and filmed (it has a video in it) from the beach … while on vacation. His blog opened with: “I’m currently on vacation at the beach but that’s no reason to not continue blogging and shooting videos.&#. You should read the post and watch the video, because Ken gives some great tips on what you can do to keep your business moving while you’re out.
Speaker: Michelle Garrett, PR Consultant, Author, Speaker
Yes - press releases are still relevant in the world of public relations! 🎯 Ever wondered how to write a compelling press release, or what are current best practices for pitching your news to earn media coverage? In this exclusive webinar with Michelle Garrett, PR Consultant, we’ll cover tips and advice to help you get the most out of each piece of news you pitch!
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 17, 2011
Yesterday a friend of mine emailed me. He said, “I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. I am teaching a _ class at _ starting this fall. I’ve never taught before. I know you have. Any guidance or tips?&#. I replied with one of my shortest emails ever: “Work closely with your program chair, follow instructions, record everything, and don’t let students give you crap.&#.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 22, 2011
Good morning and happy Monday (or good evening or good night and here’s to a great Tuesday for you, depending on where you are as you read this). You may not have noticed, but for the last couple of weeks, Waxing UnLyrical has not been publishing over the weekend. The three main reasons for this are: 1. While I love blogging, the blog community, social media, etc., more and more I’ve been feeling the need to decompress and stay offline as much as possible during the weekend (just as
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 11, 2011
I’ve been participating in or moderating Twitter chats (ok, “tweetchats,&# if you must) for about a year and a half now. My, isn’t that an eternity in Twitterverse! Last year, I wrote two posts based on questions I received about Twitter chats. The first discussed 3 questions to ask – and answer – when launching a Twitter chat , and the second talked about making the most of a Twitter chat.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 6, 2011
A few days ago, Ann Bingley Gallops responded to one of my Triberr tweets that shared a blog post Patrick Reyes had sent out. The post itself shared Nosh’s quite innovative video that they use as part of their “404 Not Found&# page. Ann said that “she thought it turned funny until it turned violent,&# and then followed up by explaining that she is Norwegian, so perhaps her sense of humor was a bit stunted right now (and I really assume you know what she’s referring to).
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Bad Pitch Blog
AUGUST 4, 2011
'Some PR anthropology on my part has me fascinated with William G. Werner. I’ll spare you the back story on why I’m digging. But I will note it’s required me to use something other than Google and the Interwebs to unearth information. So who’s Werner and why should you care? In 1941, he founded the PR department at Procter & Gamble. And, while Edward Bernays is considered the Father of Public Relations – even helping P&G in the 1920’s, William Werner took up where Bernays left off and he
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 10, 2011
I finished my masters degree in PR and corporate communication at the end of 2009 – only 19 months ago. However, as a young professional continuing to learn every day in the professional environment, I wondered what my degree might look like were I to embark on it all over again tomorrow. To do that, I need to backtrack a little. So, what subjects made up my degree and would remain in my revised edition?
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 1, 2011
When was the last time you got public relations lessons from a humpback whale? This past Friday, as I was looking at various social media platforms, I came across a video that one of my Facebook friends had shared. It was a video from the Great Whale Conservancy , a program of a project (not a typo) of the Earth Island Institute (I checked them out on Charity Navigator , and they are, I think, legit).
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 15, 2011
The other day I read that higher education consulting firm, Noel-Levitz, found that more than three-quarters of students and parents it surveyed never or only rarely read blogs on college websites. I manage a blog for a mid-sized Canadian University. The study was listed as one of the bullet points in Academica’s Top Ten , a daily scan of the news stories in Canadian Higher Education.
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Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 12, 2011
This may be the crown jewel in my Wall of Shame for bad pitches thus far. Note what I’ve bolded … Hi. I’m <name>, I’m a tech writer and I’m looking for opportunities to contribute interesting and original articles to relevant blogs and websites like (insert site here). Would you be interested in me writing a free article for your site?
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 30, 2011
Guest post by Jonny Bentwood. TweetLevel and BlogLevel are two purpose built tools for the PR industry that aim to be a GPS for navigating influence. At the former’s heart is an open and transparent algorithm that seeks to measure who is important within each social media channel. Resting behind the methodology are several key insights: Influence without context is irrelevant.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 2, 2011
There was a radio station we used to listen to pretty often during my morning commute. It used to proclaim at program breaks: “WXXX, where information is power.&#. The hair immediately rose on the back of my neck, and from then on hearing that phrase intoned by the bass voice had me grimacing inwardly. It’s an easily digested lie. Information of itself (in hands other than Google’s, Facebook’s, or the FBI’s) is useless.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 29, 2011
In all the chatter over Hurricane Irene (which, thankfully, left everyone I know as well as myself more or less unscathed), a hurricane of its own tore through the public relations world on Friday: VMS (Video Monitoring Services of America, LP) has closed its doors. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, VMS was the dominant video monitoring service for years.
Speaker: Shawna Bruce, Director of M.D. Bruce & Associates Ltd.
Are you ready to face the unexpected? When the stakes are high and the pressure is on, there's no time to waste - you must be prepared to communicate clearly and confidently. In today's unpredictable world, mastering the art of crisis communication is a must-have skill for any public relations professional. Whether you're facing a weather disaster, a cyber attack, or a PR nightmare, knowing how to craft a clear and compelling message can mean the difference between chaos and calm, confusion and
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 24, 2011
Last week Marshall Sponder returned to the bi-weekly #measurePR Twitter chat. As I said when I wrote up his previous “appearance,&# this is someone who eats, lives, breathes measurement, and that always makes for a good guest. In addition, with his new book out, Marshall has a pretty busy schedule, so I really appreciated him making the time to chat with us.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 7, 2011
I’m a little late in posting today’s weekly roundup, because I just got back from an almost-2-mile walk with two of our dogs (and wondering whether handling a combined 115 lbs at the end of two leashes improves the quality of the walk…?). So when I started combing through my Reader for good stuff to share with you, the very first post I read was perfect, and I borrowed its title for this post’s title as well. 1.
Waxing UnLyrical
AUGUST 8, 2011
Every day is the same. The sun rises, the darkness recedes. Bird calls get louder and then fade as the roar of traffic takes over. Your alarm clock goes off (or maybe your dog wakes you up), you begin your morning ablutions, you take the same route, you get to work. It’s another day. Every day is not the same. The sun rises, the darkness recedes.
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