Mike Maney

Category: PR

  • 5 Tips: Starting out in PR

    5 Tips: Starting out in PR

    Paradigm Staffing’s Lindsay Olson recently posted a great question to Facebook:

    What is the best piece of advice you could give a new grad/entry-level looking to enter the PR profession? What do you wish you would have known when you started your career?

    I was lucky enough to start my career at one of the best shops and with one of the smartest teams in the industry: the corporate/issues team at Ogilvy & Mather (for those younger than me, that’s Ogilvy as in the David Ogilvy). Here are five of the nuggets of advice I contributed to Lindsay’s thread:

    1. Just get in the door. I started as an admin assistant for a top EVP at Ogilvy. You will see everything and be able to learn from it. Check your diploma at the door.
    2. If you aren’t a media junkie, become one. Everything from TechCrunch to WSJ to Politico to The Superficial. Make sure your knowledge of inane current events is a thousand miles wide.
    3. Blog. Get active on Twitter. Your peers — competitors — most likely aren’t. Companies hire humans, not resumes.
    4. Once you’re inside, take every opportunity that’s available to you. You can sleep* after you’ve made a name for yourself as a hard-working, get-it-done, creative team player.
    5. Make a list of all the free food, half-price drink happy hours around your new office. Trust me on this one. They money will come later.

    * I’m still waiting on the sleep part. Realize that the best in this business are always on.

    (Huge thanks to people like Henry Gomez, Steve Goodman, Ken Jacobs, David Tager, Russell Cheek ,Lisa Dimino and Brian Maloney for teaching me well.)

  • LEGO Does It Right

    One of the things I advise companies is that sometimes the best marketing is not marketing at all…it’s simply a matter of doing what is right. LEGO is now my poster child for that advice.

    And a spot-on post by B.L. Ochman -> “Lego: a company that doesn’t have to force customers to Like them on Facebook“

  • Don’t Be a PR Fluffer

    Video of my talk closing out day one of Monktoberfest 2012.

  • PR’s Caffeine Jolt

    Becoming a big fan of Starbucks…not for its coffee, but for its bold approach to PR. Traditional PR strategy would advise the CEO to avoid conflict at all costs; their modern approach is one of take a point of view – if even unpopular – and say what needs to be said and what others are afraid to say. Huge brand cred, IMHO. And lessons to learn for other organizations and PR pros. Having a strong position on an issue and doing the right thing is not the sole domain of national politics.

  • Marketing != Manipulation

    “The more authentic you are, the more authentic you can be with others. It has to come from an intention not to manipulate.” – National Geographic photographer Lynn Johnson.

    Great advice for modern marketers. The best marketing is not marketing.

  • Know What Makes Influencers Tick

    If you work with influencers – be they traditional media, analysts, bloggers or something in between – you need to know what makes them tick. In my “Influencing the Influencers” presentation, I somewhat flippantly called this stalking (of which I meant the non-creepy, from afar kind).

    This thread between the BBC’s Dave Lee & online journalism lecturer Andy Dickinson is but one example of how just doing something simple, like monitoring Twitter, can make you smarter about the influencers you work with…and, in turn, make their lives a bit easier.

    What looks like a fun exchange about headline character count is, to the insightful PR pro, a deeper education in how the BBC and Dave work. Armed with this newfound knowledge, a smart flack will tailor any story idea he pitches to Dave (or other BBC journalist) to the BBC’s 30-4-16-40 rule.

    So, sure, some may call me a professional influencer stalker. I’m okay with that, especially when it means I’m giving myself a leg up on my competition and doing my part to stop the spread of PR spam still running rampant in the industry.

  • Influencing the Influencers

    http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=influencingtheinfluencers-111011151001-phpapp02&stripped_title=influencing-the-influencers-9649216&userName=mikemaney
    This is a presentation I gave at the 2011 Social Media Summit hosted at Marquette University. I used the presentation to illustrate the changes in the disciplines of marketing, PR and analyst relations, as well as provide new rules on how those functions must work today and in the future.

  • My Wild Ass Idea to Save Cougar Town

    The Problem: Cougar Town (a fan-loved show by the guy behind the successful Scrubs series and produced/starring Friend’s star Courteney Cox) is at risk of being cancelled. ABC, which owns the show and on whose network the show airs, has all but indicated they no longer support it…despite a passionate and loyal fan following. The show’s creator and cast have shown a willingness (and creativeness) to do what it takes to keep the show alive for their fan base.

    The Fix: Use new crowdfunding services like Kickstarter to:
    1. Buy the show back from ABC
    2. Fund future episodes based on loyal sponsors, fan micro-donations and series subscriptions, and
    3. Reduce/eliminate distribution costs and network fees by offering the show exclusively on iTunes or the web for $1 per episode.
    While I have zero clue what it would cost to purchase (or even license) the show from the network or what each episode costs to produce, I do know that Cougar Town is pulling roughly 4 million viewers each week. And, given the lack of support by the network, it can be assumed that a high percentage of those are loyal viewers who would most likely be willing to shell out a shekel to see the show continue.
    Insane idea? Just insane enough to work? An opportunity to create the first mass-market, viewer-funded show? Let me know what you think.

  • Leadership. Recognized.

    Rod Adkins at Mobile World Congress 2003I’ve had the opportunity and luck to work with some very smart, very influential people over the course of my career. Which is why I am very proud to have served as director of communications in 2003 to 2011’s Black Enterprise Corporate Executive of the Year, IBM’s Rod Adkins. I worked with Rod when he led Big Blue’s pervasive computing strategy, moving it from an emerging business into what has become the core of IBM’s (and the industry’s) vision to harness the data coming from all of the sensors and computers embedded in non-traditional computing devices (things like refrigerators, cars and paint chips).

  • Once an IBMer, always an IBMer

    I spent six very formative years of my career at IBM, rising from PR specialist to one of the youngest directors of communication in the company at the time. I may no longer work at Big Blue, but I will forever be an IBMer.