Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and I are finally getting our chemistry down (it only took something like 12 weeks) and we’re having a blast recording InsidePR! Well, I’m having a blast because I get to make fun of Joe’s slight accent (aboot instead of about) and Martin’s “step forward” when he delivers a punch line. They might not appreciate it, but you are sure to enjoy it!
On today’s episode, we received a question from Jody Koehler, a PR pro and agency owner in the Netherlands, who asks whether or not you need to really understand PR 1.0 before you can consult on PR 2.0.
You can listen to the episode and our debate by clicking here. Be sure to listen to episode 2.14 for July 28, 2010.
What we didn’t discuss on the podcast, but what I’ve been thinking about since we recorded (we always record on Monday nights), is this is becoming the age old question about whether or not you let interns run your social media program. Continue Reading »
Picture a CEO in a suit, with a cigar in his mouth, saying to his PR team: “Our customers don’t know what they’re talking about.”
I witnessed this reaction from a CEO (ok, sans cigar and suit) when he received unfortunate news from his PR team. Word on the street about the current customer experience was, um, bad. Really bad. Some tweets had recently tied the company name and “customer service fail” together. They were editing as fast as they could on the company Facebook wall, but it was hard to keep up with the influx of tirades.
This company was excellent at selling. They sold and sold and sold some more. They were growing – fast. But the dirty underbelly of all that rapid growth was a total lack of attention to their current customers. These customers were seen as practically pests – cogs in the wheel of their marketing machine. Continue Reading »
Coming to you from Modesto, Calif., the city of “water, wealth, contentment, and health”, I pay homage to Lois Arbogast, a freshly minted U.S. citizen, and answer a question from Alex Parker.
Alex asks, “What new skills and initiative do new and mid-level PR pros need now and in the future?”
Watch the video and see if you agree. What skills do YOU think PR pros need now and in the future?
(For those of you viewing from FeedBurner, click here to see the video)
What if I told you there is an innovative communication tool that allows you to talk with millions of new people in a way you’ve never been able to before? What if I told you this new way to communicate would integrate seamlessly with all forms of social media you currently use?
On Friday, Angelica Colantuoni and I were riding our bikes along the Lakefront (Chicago, for those of you who have never been). Just as we rounded the corner at North Avenue Beach, we saw a jogger go flying across the path, as a cyclist ran right into her.
The jogger crossed the path, from east to west, without looking to see if anyone was coming from the north or the south (which is the direction the path runs so you’d think she’d look both ways before crossing). And she got hit. And she flew through the air. And Angelica and I both had to ride into the grass to keep from running over her. Fortunately, she was not hurt and she realized her mistake, and the cyclist was not hurt, but it could have turned out disastrous. Continue Reading »
As part of our expert Q&A series, we chatted with David Olson, vice president at ARANet, about what’s happening in the more traditional media relations world with the changes in our industry. We’ve used them for many years and have watched them change with the times, by adding links and SEO, which have been very beneficial for us and our clients. But we’ve been a little disappointed with the fact that they don’t allow specific landing pages so we can more accurately track results to a specific campaign. We like what he has to say about all of this…see if you agree.
ARA allows links and videos within a release, but in regards to social media, what is special about your SEO reporting?
Our SEO reports are part of a new, comprehensive restructuring of our online client reporting. In addition to the standard metrics related to article placements – which, of course, benefit from our outbound social media efforts – we’re very excited about rolling out the new SEO-specific metrics.
The SEO program delivers hundreds of backlinks from credible media sites to our clients’ websites. We try to visually showcase these backlinks through charts that highlight the lift in results over time. Another cool feature is a pie-chart that shows the percentage of our clients’ overall backlinks that were generated specifically from the ARAcontent media distribution. Continue Reading »
I know none of us want to give any more ink to LeBron James, but I have something to say about the PR nightmare he created for himself.
Look, I wanted him to come to Chicago just as much as the next guy (but maybe not as much as Philip Nowak). I wanted him to take the challenge the Bulls created, with help from Leo Burnett, to fill Michael Jordan’s shoes. Heck, I would have even been happy had he filled them AND won more championships in a Bulls jersey. But now, like most NBA fans, I don’t care who he is, what he does, and I hope the Miami Heat never win a championship with him there (however unrealistic). Continue Reading »
I knew I’d be a writer when my eighth-grade English teacher told me to read aloud my essay on her two-page assignment called “If I could go anywhere in the world, where would that be and why?”
While everybody else tried to stretch into two pages dreams of DisneyWorld, Six Flags, or the beach, I wrote about the religious and historic significance of Rome, and how that one-of-a-kind culture has affected every generation since its Biblical beginnings. Continue Reading »
Guest blog by Paige Worthy, a magazine editor for three horticultural trade publications
Remember Highlights magazine? It was in every single doctor’s office when I was kid. There was a black-and-white cartoon in each issue called “Goofus and Gallant” that was about two very different little boys. Goofus was bad: He pulled on puppies’ tails and played pranks. Gallant was great: He spent his free time helping old ladies cross the street. Goofus made Gallant look even better. And Gallant made Goofus look that much worse. Continue Reading »
Facebook
Linkedin
RSS Feed
Twitter
YouTube
Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and I are finally getting our chemistry down (it only took something like 12 weeks) and we’re having a blast recording InsidePR! Well, I’m having a blast because I get to make fun of Joe’s slight accent (aboot instead of about) and Martin’s “step forward” when he delivers a punch line. They might not appreciate it, but you are sure to enjoy it!
On Friday, 
I know none of us want to give any more ink to 
Today’s
