Getting “press,” as this job ad I saw on HackerNews claims to want, is more than measurement. It’s about relationships, news, an eye for tying a company’s story into wider trends, and having an experienced gut feel for when a story is worthy of press and when it’s better suited for some other type of…
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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…
Read MorePR’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…
Read MoreStop Selling
Last week, I had the pleasure of being the opening keynote speaker at the second annual Social Media Business Life Conference produced by Chuck Hall. I’m usually the guy writing speeches for others, so it was an interesting role reversal to be the guy in front of the audience for a change. Chuck does a…
Read MoreA Face for Podcasts
Last week, Redmonk’s Michael Cote interviewed me on the topic of how I stay on top of what’s happening in the tech industry. We discussed the tools I use, some of the ways I use those tools, and a number of other topics that address the shifting role of the PR pro (listen to the…
Read MoreWhat’s Old is New Again (Or is It?)
I just read a great post by Ustrategy’s Ravit Lichtenberg on ReadWriteWeb highlighting the 10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010. It’s a great read and worthy of being carried under the ReadWriteWeb banner (I have no shame in being an unabashed fanboy of good tech reporting). However (isn’t there always a “however”?), here’s…
Read MoreHigh honors for a PR pro
Know what’s cool? Scrolling through your Twitter feed and seeing a post like this from a reporter you have an amazing amount of respect for: Know what’s also cool? Seeing your first accepted submission on Slashdot for a great client (if you are a geek, you’ll understand how unbelievably cool this is):
Read MoreDefrag 2009: Day .5
It was arrival day for one of the tech industry’s most brain-straining conferences, Defrag 2009, in Denver. Lots of catching up with old friends like Graeme Thickins and meeting new ones like PostRank CTO/founder Ilya Grigorik. Here’s a quick shot from our table at the John Minnihan/Freepository-sponsored pre-conference dinner hanging with Infectious Greed’s Paul Kedrosky,…
Read MorePimp my profession
For the past 18+ years, I’ve worked in the field of public relations. A flack. A spin doctor. And, apparently, not much different than your average, everyday hooker. You see, years ago I came across a top 10 list of reasons PR is similar to prostitution. Along the way, I lost the list. No amount…
Read MoreMy Face In Your Face
Late last week I commented on an online story by B.L. Ochman that was running on BusinessWeek’s web site. B.L.’s post, “Debunkiing Six Social Media Myths,” is a good read and incited nearly 100 comments. Out of that 100 — correction, out of all of the comments on BusinessWeek — my comment was chosen as…
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