One of the wonders of the English language is that it’s always evolving. For example, according to Wikipedia (disclaimer: it is Wikipedia so the following information may have no basis in fact and could actually have been made up by a seventeen year old sitting in his bedroom, but because it serves my purpose I’m [...]
Tags: PR·Profession·Public Relations·Skills
I blame my grandmother. She loved providing real-time feedback on my grammar and her favorite was the difference between ‘off’ and ‘from’. If I innocently reported to her that I had received something off someone, she would immediately respond that “you get fleas off people, but you get things from them”. Indeed. While I am [...]
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 [...]
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
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 [...]
I am off to the great state of Michigan for the first time tomorrow to attend and speak at the 2010 Net Impact Conference at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. A map of Michigan from Bing Maps (of course) I’m looking forward to what should be a great event. I’m [...]
Tags: Conference·CSR·PR·Social Media·Speaking
Here are some personal picks from my most recent trawl of the RSS feeds… What is PR? OK this is late (from last February) but worth a listen. It’s a podcast from the BBC World Service program The Bottom Line, with some well known PR executives having a lively discussion on what Public Relations is. [...]
Tags: Media·PR·Social Media·Storytelling