Tag: communications

Is All Press Still Good Press?

Who would have thought that adding a handful of french fries to a hamburger would spark such a controversial conversation online? Burger King launched the $1 “French Fry Burger” because apparently, that is what their customers wanted. It seems like such a simple strategy, listen to your customers and then implement their idea, just like Burger King did. But is the outcome always going to be… Read more »

Pitch Please!

The art of the pitch – it can be delicate and precise like threading a needle, to something much more direct and forceful, like demolishing a wall with a sledge hammer. Regardless of your style, if you are going to get into PR, you should enjoy breaking down the walls and building relationships with the media. As PR Snoop Dogg (Snoop Lion does not exist to… Read more »

PR People: We Know Enough to be Dangerous

              Public Relations was not my first career choice, or so I thought. I thought that I wanted to be a lawyer, in fact I took the LSAT not once but twice, but the universe it seems had different plans. Now I find myself in a career where I represent my client’s best interest in the court of public opinion – sound familiar?  I often find… Read more »

The Resurrection of the Turkish Coffeehouse (in 140 characters or less)

While mainstream media takes up a fair amount of mindshare in our society, and certainly in my profession, it is, by no means, the most important avenue of influence. In fact, mass media is a fairly new phenomenon. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that national news, syndications, and bureaus started to take shape. Since that time, our eyes and ears have been focused on the… Read more »

How to blog like a lobster dealer

My favorite blog isn’t a newspaper site. It’s a blog by a lobster dealer who started working on the docks when he was 9 years old. Good Morning Gloucester gives a daily snapshot of life in Gloucester, Mass., the nation’s oldest fishing harbor. It’s hugely popular, with 22,000 to 30,000 page views per day.

Eight is Enough: PR ranks in top ten of “America’s Most Stressful Jobs 2010” list

Today CNBC posted a countdown of the most anxiety-inducing professions in America, sourced from a CareerCast.com survey. Aside from the outrageous omissions of corporate lawyer and Andy Dick’s personal assistant, it’s a well-reasoned register of vexing vocations. A cursory peek at the subject matter would tempt one to believe the listed jobs are day-in, day-out nightmares that no one would possibly desire. Not so it seems:… Read more »

Keeping It Real

Anyone who has ever sat or scrolled through a “Twitter 101” is probably familiar with two of social media’s top rules: 1) be authentic 2) share worthwhile media assets/content. It’s often struck me as funny that these best practices are being tossed around as something new for PR.