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'You have worn a furrow deep into the carpet as a result of pacing back and forth in your office pondering how to prep for the upcoming job interview. You struggle mightily understanding the company’s balance sheet and profit and loss statement. Your brain is filled with facts and figures on the company’s business strategy as you try to memorize the biographies of the company’s C suite.
I recently spent the bulk of the day on Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest and the other “usual suspects” marveling at how incredibly much information flows between people around the world by the second. Two separate posts by public relations professionals, though, caught my attention and brought my feet back to earth. The first was an interview in eMarketer Daily newsletter with the eminently wise Brian Solis , in which he emphasized the human side of online communication.
'Byline article pitches usually stink. This is because, even if the pitch is targeted, the article is usually included in the pitch. The recipient assumes the article has been sent to several other blogs or media outlets. And since most everyone likes to publish minty fresh content, the pitches are ignored. So when I finally received a good byline article pitch, I was twice as excited.
It all began when Michelle Quillin re-tweeted a recent post of mine. It was about remembering to use the headline and first lines to keep readers compelled to read, old and new. A follower of hers read it, and tweeted in reply, “That made me want to vomit.” I was totally at sea. Michelle asked him why. The points he tweeted back basically amounted to just one: social media cannot be used to sell anything, so why deceive people with tips to help them do that?
Speaker: Barbara Nonas, Award-Winning PR Strategist & Communications Leader
Have you ever sent out 100 pitches, waited eagerly for responses to pour in, but instead… crickets? You're not alone - journalists respond to just 3.43% of pitches, and a staggering 73% say less than a quarter of the pitches they receive are even relevant. But here's the good news: these numbers don't have to define your results. In this webinar, you’ll learn how to break through the noise, craft personalized, thoughtful pitches, and build genuine, lasting media relationships.
Facebook stock is not doing very well. Lots of reasons for that, put forward by people much smarterthan I, which you can easily read about via a Google search. Some are even beginning to question whether Mark Zuckerberg can continue as the leader of Facebook (somewhere, the Winklevoss twins are howling with laughter). Clearly, the experiment of Facebook as a publicly traded company isn’t going well, though I think it is still too early to be called a failure.
I know it’s been a while, but you remember the story of the intern and the executive coach, Part I. You do, don’t you? In case you don’t, it was. Wherein an intern for what seems to be a fairly decent PR firm committed a huge gaffe by emailing a ton of people to ask who was “in charge of receiving press releases” at their organization … Image: opensourceway via Flickr, CC 2.0. … and did so by including all their email addresses (including mine) in the &#
I know it’s been a while, but you remember the story of the intern and the executive coach, Part I. You do, don’t you? In case you don’t, it was. Wherein an intern for what seems to be a fairly decent PR firm committed a huge gaffe by emailing a ton of people to ask who was “in charge of receiving press releases” at their organization … Image: opensourceway via Flickr, CC 2.0. … and did so by including all their email addresses (including mine) in the &#
Ed: seeing as how it’s “holiday week” here in the U.S., we decided to give the WUL team a bit of a break. So we’re re-running, with relevant updates, some older posts … not necessarily the ones that got huge numbers of comments, but the ones that are personal favorites of the team. Today’s pick – a post I wrote in May on why public relations is everyone’s business – comes from Kirk Hazlett.
Can you have a competition that measures how “good” your social media is? A contest that pits two groups head to head in direct social media feud? The Business Journals (#bizjournals) believe you can. The Business Journals are a consolidated group of business media sources providing local business news in 43 cities. They write about hires, mergers and events in the business community.
Ed: seeing as how it’s “holiday week” here in the U.S., we decided to give the WUL team a bit of a break. So we’re re-running some older posts … not necessarily the ones that got huge numbers of comments, but the ones that are personal favorites of the team. Today’s pick (by moi!) is an updated version of Matt LaCasse’s terrific post from March 2011 on the secret behind good networking.
Today is India’s 65th Independence Day. It’s a national holiday in that country (as it should be), and despite the official parades, etc., people have probably been partying like it’s 1985 for a few days, definitely since yesterday. While I had to renounce my Indian citizenship some years ago in order to become, officially, an American (India doesn’t currently allow dual citizenship), part of me is always going to feel, if not be, Indian.
Leaked internal communications can be strategically valuable assets rather than just risks to manage. When used proactively, these leaks can highlight leadership and innovation—qualities that resonate in today’s media. By approaching internal comms with a dual-purpose approach, companies shift from mere risk avoidance to leveraging these moments as credible public messages around strategy.
Ed: seeing as how it’s “holiday week” here in the U.S., we decided to give the WUL team a bit of a break. So we’re re-running some older posts … not necessarily the ones that got huge numbers of comments, but the ones that are personal favorites of the team. Today’s pick (by J im Dougherty ) is one of Erin Feldman’s first cartoons from her “Waxing Off with Sarah and Sheldon” series (a WUL exclusive!).
'Your pitch is the stimulus driving an editor to Google the subject of your pitch. What does the editor''s zero moment of truth look like? From supporting creative briefs to fueling message tracks, reasons to believe are a critical part of any campaign or plan, down to an individual pitch. This is because reasons to believe are proof -- the facts keeping the wings on the creative plane giving your pitch altitude.
Just a small reminder that when you are driving and texting (or scratching your nethers) everyone can see you. It’s true. You are surrounded by windows … and people who like to tweet about other drivers doing dangerous things on the road. Just one of the many interesting factoids our group was given when the Regina Police Service (RPS) sent its social media officer, Kaeli Madill, to talk to us about all things Twitter and Facebook.
Ed: seeing as how it’s “holiday week” here in the U.S., we decided to give the WUL team a bit of a break. So we’re re-running, with relevant updates, some older posts … not necessarily the ones that got huge numbers of comments, but the ones that are personal favorites of the team. Today’s pick – Howie Goldfarb’ s May post on social media listening using Manwich as a case study – comes from Dan Cohen.
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.
'Some housekeeping rules regarding the care and feeding of this blog. In addition to reading the posts, you have other opportunities to interact with Bad Pitch content. 1) We want ALL pitches, good, bad and ugly "Give us your good, your bad. Your unsung pitches yearning to breathe free." With apologies to lady liberty and all, keep se nding bad pitches our way.
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