I once told a young family member of mine to learn to sell, because “you’re always selling something to someone.” Like I’m doing now, trying to get you interested in whatever I’m going to type below. For years I’ve thought that sales should be a higher-profile topic at colleges and universities as the bulk of graduates will try to secure the interest of – and the… Read more »
In today’s culture of 24-hour Twitter news cycles, a string of bad PR moves can completely alter the public’s perception of an established brand or organization. My beloved Boston Red Sox know this all too well, and the bad PR the team has dealt with since September of 2011 is cringe-worthy and well documented. But, after heading to Fenway for a game this weekend, I’ve been… Read more »
This post originally appeared in PRWeek. It’s become something of a sport for social media and business types to beat up on the youngsters joining the ranks of PR: They’re too self-absorbed. They don’t think long-term. They feel entitled. They ignore some forms of punctuation – and overuse others!!!! I say knock it off with the youth-bashing, folks. Every older generation since the beginning of time… Read more »
Having been around the block a while, I believe I have a good understanding of the personal characteristics that are commonly found in a successful PR professional. At a minimum, these are the traits of the folks we seek when filling key positions here at Matter Communications. In my humble opinion, PR people need to be… Business-minded What’s the end goal? That’s what PR people need… Read more »
Having already worn many hats at what I still like to think is a young age, I took a less traditional path into PR. I worked in the fashion industry as a runway and print model directly after high school. The lessons learned from that short but extremely fast-paced year and a half taught me a lot. I used the money made from modeling to earn… Read more »
I believe any PR agency in 2013 that is not obsessed with the inherent value of Search Engine Optimization should immediately sell to a conglomerate for pennies on the dollar or declare bankruptcy to protect what assets remain. You’re over. I believe that PR agencies who don’t understand how to actually engage with “influencers” ought to acknowledge this distressing fact candidly when pitching prospects, rather than… Read more »
I turned 40 today and that means I’ve reached a significant milestone in my life: that I’m a hell of a long time away from when I spent time faxing out my press releases. Eighteen years ago, I was an intern at Dorf & Stanton Communications in New York. That firm hired me as an account coordinator, and I’ve been a PR guy ever since. In… Read more »
I’ve been reflecting on the past ten years of managing clients here at Matter, and another decade before that at other agency stops. And while my peers often write about “what makes a great PR client,” I think it’s equally instructive to examine the reasons why a handful of client relationships were doomed from the start:
Whenever I tend to get philosophical about the current media landscape (in my case, mainly as it pertains to video content), I’m reminded of perhaps the most oft-quoted, yet undeniably true, maxim that I’ve ever heard regarding media creation: “Nobody knows anything.” This quote is from multi-Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman, speaking in particular about the business of Hollywood (if you have a chance, watch this fascinating… Read more »
I only occasionally watch the late-night talk shows. So maybe that tells you something when a clever and witty stunt this week by Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon got my attention, and in a good way. In case you haven’t been following it, NBC announced this week that Leno, 62, will step down as host of “The Tonight Show” in the spring of 2014, giving… Read more »
Like most public relations professionals, I like a good challenge and I’m competitive by nature. Not always, but when I put energy and time into something where there’s a possibility of winning, I of course would strongly prefer the W. A little information on my family’s sports background: my husband was a three sport varsity athlete in high school, and along with his brother and father,… Read more »
Somewhere along the way the PR industry got a bad rap. Maybe it was one too many gum-snapping, vapid airheads masquerading as public relations pros that tarnished our field. They’re a rare and feckless creature, but they have and do exist. Just as the newspaper business has caricatures of hard-boiled, cigarette-smoking, bourbon-swilling reporters, the public relations industry has its own cartoonish persona that undermines the very… Read more »
