Shakespeare wrote that when words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain. It’s not a problem we typically encounter these days. In fact verbal flatulence is everywhere. Back in olden times (early and mid 1990s) one of the favorite journalist tricks was the pregnant pause. Sit and look at your interviewee. Peer over your [...]
Tags: Blogs·Journalists·PR·Strategy
I’ve been reading a variety of stories (links below) recently about Marketing, PR and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the one thing that became very apparent is that there’s a lot of disagreement and perhaps no little confusion about the intersection of Marketing/PR and CSR. In fact I found myself agreeing and disagreeing in equal [...]
Updated: October 13, 2011 It’s interesting to watch the response to Reed Hastings’ announcement that Netflix is splitting its DVD unit to a new business called Qwikster. As we know, on the internet everyone is an expert and no one is shy on casting judgment on anything within minutes of it being announced. Of course [...]
Tags: Netflix
As you might know, I’m not shy about sharing my often strong views on the shortcomings of many of the self styled social media gurus. Recently, due to work and family commitments - sometimes referred to as the real world - my consumption and participation in social media has been extremely limited. The upshot was [...]
Tags: Marketing·Podcast·Social Media
David Reich has a post about a Ragan.com survey that asked what PR people don’t like about PR. Topping the list is ‘cold calling’. OK I can understand that. But what was second on the list? What was the second greatest thing that PR people don’t like about PR? Apparently it’s having their press releases [...]
Tags: Gurus·Journalists·PR·Press Release·Public Relations·Video
Not surprisingly, Richard Branson is always one of the old reliables when it comes to people choosing their ‘most admired business people’. It’s not by mistake. Branson represents one of the most acceptable faces of business. He’s an entrepreneur, an adventurer, a risk taker, but most of all he’s a great boss and by all [...]
Tags: Branson·CSR·Public Relations·Reputation
Here are some common sense posts on various aspects of Public Relations. Heather Yaxley has a nice post on PR Conversations: Future leaders need more than digital PR: The beauty of building your career around knowledge and skills gained in public relations is that you have transferable competencies that offer a solid basis for extending [...]
Tags: Career·E-mail·PR·Profession·Public Relations
Sometimes you happen upon a blog post title in your RSS reader (yep I’m old school) that grabs your attention. Great headlines work. Unfortunately you then read the post and find it has the consistency of a marshmallow, it’s gooey and melts away pretty quickly and has little substance. That was my reaction to to [...]
Tags: Grumpy·Marketing·PR·Public Relations
Earlier this week Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff published a plea to PR professionals to take a stand against unprofessional practices. Compared to many previous rants on this issue and the shoddy practices we’re all aware of, his plea is rational and completely fair. If you work in Public Relations, then you should passionately care about [...]
Harold Burson’s 2004 memoir E Pluribus Unum – The Making of Burson Marsteller was my second book of 2011 and to be honest I was looking forward to starting it. Mr. Burson is one of the few giants of the Public Relations business. In 1953 with Bill Marsteller he started Burson-Marsteller and drove its growth [...]
Tags: Books