Public Relations

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ESI Group (ESIN FR0004110310), a pioneer and world-leading supplier of digital simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes, announced today the

LEIPZIG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Razer™, the world’s leading manufacturer

LIPSIA, Germania--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Razer™, leader mondiale nella produzione di periferiche da gioco di

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO) and KB Home (NYSE: KBH) today celebrated the one year anniversary of their KB Home Stapleton: Homes Created with Martha

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--After earning an unprecedented eight gold medals for Team USA and setting seven world records at the 2008 Olympic Games, Michael Phelps swam one more

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We have entered a new age. Never before has the world been more connected. From the sale and delivery of goods and services, to investor relations, customer loyalty, and employee satisfaction, this is a global economy which has redefined the way we do business and how we view the world. Being World Citizens...

New content creation is a key factor in publishers meeting marketers’ brand objectives. According to BearingPoint global director of integrated marketing Paul Dunay, 120,000 new blogs are created every day—an indicator that user-generated content is surpassing that created by publishers. In 2005...

In our last case study we showed how you actually have a couple of days when an online reputational crisis is brewing as long as you haven’t spoken yet.  In those cases, both Ford and Boing Boing hadn’t uttered a peep, and, despite a growing interest online, they had four or five days to...

Never a function ripe with proverbial sex appeal, investor relations has experienced a makeover in recent years, having been bitten by the digital bug alongside many of its conservative corporate counterparts. Now, IR executives are challenged to incorporate innovation into their strategies, while at the...

Yann will strengthen PRSA’s efforts to advocate for the public relations industry and its professionals through thought leadership and public discourse on communications best practices, ethics and other relevant topics, and by helping to create a broader understanding of public relations’ role and value as a business tool.

PRSA's new series of free podcasts, “PRSA Diversity Today,” aired its second program on Aug. 18.

Gary McCormick, APR, Fellow PRSA, director, partnership development, HGTV, Scripps Networks, Knoxville, Tenn., has been nominated as the 2009 Chair-elect of PRSA by the Society’s national Nominating Committee.

PRSA recently launched the updated and redesigned Jobcenter, which is now a fully featured career resource site that offers more information and easy-to-use functionalities for job seekers and employers.

Newmark, creator of the noncommercial community bulletin board and top-10 Internet company, Craigs List, will share his views on the future of online community and commerce.

I’ve been watching my fair share of NBC’s coverage of the Olympics these past two weeks (and I’m toting around some serious luggage under both eyes as a result).  As impressive as the athletic competitions have been to watch, equally amazing to me has been the obvious coaching that China did before allowing athletes and [...]

Ah, summer!  Barbeques, beach days, vacations… AND the annual 360PR Summer Outing. A day where we forget about press releases, holiday gift guides and editor events and focus on having fun! We’ve pretty much conquered the city - and beyond - over the last few years with a scavenger hunt, beach outing, tour of Fenway Park, [...]

It’s August and that means back-to-school time.  But many students planning to enter college this fall still have not secured financing.  According to a July survey by Tuitionbids.com (a 360PR client), 60% of students/parents seeking school loans were still trying to lock down financing for the upcoming semester.  More than half said they will have to change their [...]

Not THAT boss.  THE Boss.  I got to see Bruce Springsteen at Gillette Stadium over the weekend, along with Stacey Clement from our office and our SOs.  The concert was rain-delayed (they actually had to clear the field of fans as lightening passed through Foxboro), but worth the wait, of course. There are so many reasons [...]

Last night, the 360 crew headed to the Boston Common for “Shakespeare on the Common.”  This year’s production is As You Like It it’s the 13th annual production of Shakespeare on the Common.  We had the nose-bleed seats and it was a little hard to hear, so it was mainly a social event and just a beautiful night [...]

Last week I attended an all day training seminar on Google Analytics in order to hone my skills with this fabulous FREE web site analytics tool offered by Google.  If you work with Web sites in any capacity you should understand the basic metrics that are used to  measure the performance of a web site.  The following are some basic concepts that are used to analyze web site behavior: ALWAYS Define A GOAL for Success - An increased number of visitors should NEVER be your goal for success.  What if the majority of people that come to your site leave within 10 seconds?  What kind of value…

Yesterday’s WSJ contained a front page story detailing the Olive Garden’s unusual challenge of figuring out how to handle the repeated, vocal endorsements of Kendra Wilkinson.  As a playmate, Hef girlfriend, star of E!’s Girls Next Door, and “friend” of 730k+ on MySpace, Ms. Wilkinson has a considerable platform for her declarations of Olive Garden love regardless of the feelings the family-friendly brand may have about her. The core question posed in this situation is what do you do if you find yourself with a brand ambassador that in no way matches the…

You might wonder what types of conversational and social media to engage in online. The answer is probably more than just one type. In traditional media, it’s been shown that marketing messages delivered across multiple overlapping media (for example, television and print) are often more effective than those delivered through one channel - even if the reach and frequency in that one channel is optimized. Consider extending this offline marketing campaign notion to the online space by creating “distributed branding”. The idea behind this strategy is to ensure your…

Near the top of the list of social media questions I get on a regular basis is, “Why would anyone use Twitter!?” (This comes right after “How do you even find time to blog?!”, which Ian Sohn already answered.) I believe the Olympics have provided the perfect opportunity to convert non-believers to Twitter, as the platform has really exploded internationally around the Games - highlighting several of the most popular uses for the site in a way that is easy for the general, non-geeked out public to understand. Here are three ways that Twitter has been used effectively…

For the past several days, we have been on the ground here in Beijing during the Olympics supporting efforts on behalf of Lenovo’s Voices of the Olympic Games project. The blogging project that John posted about several days ago has been a large effort from teammates across the world over the past several months to meet the challenge of recruiting 100 athletes, helping them to start blogs, training them and working to create the aggregation site. As the collective team has been here on the ground over the past several days, the Lenovo team is steadily spreading the word about the site…

Rubenstein Public Relations To Represent Industry Leader in PR Web (press release), WA - 27 minutes ago"We look forward to working with Rubenstein Public Relations to advance our mission of providing potable drinking water that is environmentally friendly and

CCA fires back with PR pushNashville City Paper, TN - 1 hour agoBedeviled this year by negative publicity on several fronts, Corrections Corp. of America late last week launched a public relations push to counter what it

Parish may fight fire flap with PRThe Times-Picayune - NOLA.com, LA - 2 hours agoParish President Aaron Broussard's administration has proposed hiring a public relations firm, The Ehrhardt Group, to manage the parish's public case

Berryism selects Relations PR & Marketing as agency of recordFood Business Review - 7 hours agoBy Staff Writer Relations PR & Marketing has said that as agency of record for Berryism it will use its contacts, skills and experience to increase sales,

Director, Corp CommunicationsSeattle Post Intelligencer - 11 hours agoProduct and Services PR. The candidate should have experience driving proactive public relations programs including innovative and breakthrough Product PR Business Marketing Event Reminder: Al Maag, Chief Communications Market Wire (press release)all 9 news articles

Our profession is intrinsically tied to journalism. As we write about social media and how it is revolutionizing public relations, it is important to recognize that it influences journalism as well. For better or for worse, the very definition of a journalist is beginning to change in our society. A changed world of journalism will inherently influence public relations as well. How do you think public relations is influenced by this changing definition of journalism?

At a BYU Chapter meeting last year, we hosted a panel of public relations professionals who talked about social media and its influence on the profession. Most of the session was spent discussing the uses of and potential for the field. At the end, panelists were asked what their biggest criticism of social media was. One panelist said that social media is still just a tactic and it is not the end-all of public relations. I know some in our audience disagreed with that idea because they felt that social media has influenced or will soon influence strategies. There are certainly many different…

Public Relations is a fascinating and unique industry.As economic times turn tough, the industry responds differently than many others.When profits decline in some organizations, public relations is the first thing to go, but the industry trend seems to be just the opposite.As a whole, the industry has been resilient throughout economic tough times.Adapting to circumstances seems to be inevitable.As always, these subjects leave us with a lot more questions than answers.A few that immediately come to my mind are: What distinguishes between a professional who is let go during tough times and…

Some of you may have read Andrew Cohen's remarks that impugned the integrity of the public relations profession. In a June 1, 2008 commentary following publication of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s book, Cohen, a legal analyst for CBS, made gratuitous allegations about the profession. “Show me a PR person who is ‘accurate’ and ‘truthful,’ and I'll show you a PR person who is unemployed,” said Cohen. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) replied to Cohen’s comments with a letter and video by PRSA chair and CEO Jeffrey Julin on behalf of the PRSA…

This post is tied to the latest edition of FORUM. We look forward to read your responses to this question:   Looking back through the course of the 2007-08 school year, what is the most valuable piece of knowledge you took from PRSSA?

Russia and Georgia have both hired PR firms to help tell their story and gain foreign support

LOS ANGELES: MGM Consumer Products partnered with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to launch Pinkitude, a multi-level branding initiative on August 14.

Defective chips cause headaches in Silicon Valley; Merck's marketing efforts in question; young Hispanics want bilingual social media; and more

PLANO, TX: Bennigan's Franchising Company (BFC) is working to distinguish its restaurants from the hundreds of corporate Bennigan's that were closed when the S&A Restaurant Corp filed for Chapter 7 July 29.

WASHINGTON, DC: Rosetta Stone, a language-learning software maker, is leveraging its work with several Olympic athletes who used its programs to learn Chinese prior to going to Beijing. The effort is part of its overall brand awareness strategy.

This post/rant started off as a comment on Richard Bailey’s blog, in response to a comment by Heather Yaxley. However, I thought it was worthy of promoting to a full post: Heather said: One final thought is that we may need to teach basic skills too. I'm constantly surprised by the lack of real ability many PRs have with Word, Excel and other software programs that were once taught and now are an expectation. Indeed, I was stunned when using some little keyboard shortcuts with PowerPoint that my class stopped me and asked me to show them what I was doing. It may all be in the help function…

Wolfstar really wants to do public relations and marketing for a baby related client – we nearly all have young babies and toddlers so we know want people with babies want! With this in mind I’ve drafted in some help from an expert: Technorati Tags: baby, marketing, public relations, PR

Leeds Metropolitan University PR lecturer Richard Bailey and PR student Natalie Smith (who is doing an intern placement with Wolfstar at the moment) have between them sparked an interesting conversation on how public relations degree courses should teach social media. Be sure to read both their posts and I know they’d both really appreciate any ideas and thoughts from other real world public relations and social media practitioners out there – I know you’re reading so don’t be shy. Technorati Tags: PR, public relations, social media

Jane Smith at pr.(in a jar) has an interesting post on the good general knowledge skills, or lack of, in the public relations industry. She worries that it might “sound fogey-ish” to complain that “today’s new graduates don’t read much by way of books, for example.” At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man I’m with Jane on this one. There is a distinct lack of general knowledge amongst younger people. I’m not expecting Master Mind levels of general knowledge (I’d lose) but I do expect anyone who works in PR to know things like: The names of most government departments…

One of the most impressive things about all the Obama YouTube videos is that people are prepared to spend significant time creating them. As the internet plays a bigger and bigger part in UK politics it will be interesting to see what happens in the next General Election. Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, YouTube, politics

"Digg-like" news takes on a new twist today with the launch of Newscred.  The service, which has undergone months of alpha testing, ranks sources based on user feedback.  Users rank mainstream media sources, blogs, reporters, and specific articles.  The site then aggregates the data with a super-secret algorithm to generate public-facing results. The jury is still out on the accuracy of Newscred's data, and there are some questions about its algorithm and methodology.  However, bloggers are already applauding the "clean," customizable design. Those interested in Newscred…

Buzz, the Yahoo News site that in some ways resembles popular social news site Digg, had previously only accepted submissions from a few hundred publishing partners. Starting last night, however, anyone can submit a story to Buzz. However, it is not quite the same as open voting sites like Digg. Because stories making it to the top of Buzz will ultimately be added to Yahoo's home page, many are worried that open submissions will make it open season for those looking to game the system to their advantage. To handle this issue, Buzz will still be using "editorial discretion in determining…

Olympic Victory Measuring UpThere has been much discussion in recent weeks in the run up to the ongoing Olympics in Beijing. Much has been made of the PR issues surrounding the event, but Ed Moed points out that the China location may have actually saved the Games. I think it's probably more the Phelps factor than the China factor (and Ed does acknowledge Phelps's role) but his argument is interesting. "But ultimately, I think the "China Factor" is why we initially tuned in. And, it's what keeps most of us constantly coming back for more. This mysterious, little understood emerging world…

Three Ways to Continue Your Professional Development While Working from Home Our world today is changing the way we work: Gas prices are driving an increasing number of professionals to telecommute and the economy is driving more and more employers to cut back on internal staff (especially in the areas of public relations and marketing) and seek external resources on a project-by-project basis. The result is significant growth in the number of professionals working from home. And while it has its obvious benefits - what other job lets you stay in your pajamas? - it has its unique challenges…

HTC has just been awarded FCC approval for the HTC Dream, the first phone to be based on Google's Android operating system. The widely-hype handset often referred to as the "Google Phone" or "Gphone" is now cleared to launch as early as October, and should be available no later than November 10. The subject of months of speculation, the first Android-ready phone is expected to quickly generate strong sales. The first version will be available through T-Mobile, but other carriers plan to join the party in the coming months.

Just a short note to any subscribers to this blog: The blog feed was a mess there for a little while and I apologize for not noticing.  Apparently I’d mistakenly set things up such that every page on this website was included in the feed.  Obviously if you subscribed to read about media relations, SEO [...]

I just finished a complete redesign of this site, as I mentioned in the blog post previous to this one. As I also mentioned, it’s now build using Wordpress as a content management system (CMS). I’m building a client site in a similar way right now as well, and will post about that [...]

Surely you’ve noticed (unless you have a serious vision problem, or had never actually visited this site before today) that I’ve redesigned the entire EndGame Public Relations website and the Media Relations & SEO PR Blog.  I’ve been working on this for about a week, and made the change for two reasons: This website hadn’t had [...]

Tonight I sat in my living room and watched a stream of The Daily Show on the big screen TV in my living room.  It would be unremarkable except that the video being displayed on my TV was actually coming from a website called Hulu.  I found a way to easily hook up my laptop [...]

I just posted a client video on YouTube and on the client’s blog. This was a “let’s get this done right now” type of project, so I shot and edited the entire video myself rather than hire a pro videographer. The video is for Save Our Shelters, a Richmond, VA-based animal rights group [...]

I feel a rant bubbling under the surface, but I don’t currently have time or energy to give it the wrath it deserves, so I’ll desist for the moment. If you read PR blogs, you’ll know that there’s another (yes another) little firestorm brewing on the subject of "the death of Public Relations" - well I say public relations but given many of the "knowledgeable" muppets writing these death posts don’t really have a grasp of what "Public Relations" is, what we’re really talking about is media relations. While I go and implement my…

You know sometimes you sit back and wonder at what is exactly going through someone’s mind before they hit the send button.  It’s another reason why it’s so hard to defend our profession.  Click over to Kevin Dugan for more.   Andrew Bruce Smith piles on the pain with a report from Matthew Gwyther, Editor at UK magazine Management Today: And they’re not all spam offering me four gross of Cialis for $129.99, or a chance-of-a-lifetime opportunity to help some West African whose father has sadly passed away and who needs help getting his secret stash out of…

Well with three hours polling left, it appears that, not unexpectedly, "Murphy’s Law" has been defeated in the first round of the PR Week blog poll. BUT… a big thank you to the 200+ people who kindly took the time to vote, I can re-assure you, I am bloodied but unbowed Best of luck to the rest of the competitors and of course to the Intake blog which kicked my butt! ShareThis

To celebrate its tenth anniversary PR Week is hosting a competition to find the most popular PR blog. Keith O’Brien and the team at PR Week have selected 32 blogs. [Actually they selected 16 and then asked those 16 bloggers to nominate 16 others, so given I wasn’t asked to select a blog, one of the final sixteen was kind enough to nominate this blog - probably in a sly move to ensure weaker competition ] Given the calibre of the short list, I’m not sure that this blog can survive in such esteemed company, but following the inspiration of Professor David Weinbaum: "while…

I am wading through oodles of RSS feeds and e-mails, here are some things that caught my eye..   Filed under: "Rare as hen’s teeth": It is often impossible to find nice things written about our profession online.  Well ladies and gentlemen, we have one!  Shel Holtz has a great example of good work from a PR person, in this case Jim Babb at Circuit City. The story took a turn for the great, though, when Jim Babb, who works in Circuit City’s corporate communications department in Richmond, Virginia, sent a note to Consumerist. The note is a lesson in how to…

I am taking off for a few days, and it will be difficult to blog from where I will be. This blog will return by Aug. 26.

There have been predictions for some time that the next war will be as much a cyber conflict as a shooting one. That is what is happening in Georgia. There are widespread reports of massive Denial of Service attacks against country and government web sites to prevent the government from getting its messages out. The attacks emanated from Russia. While Denial of Service attacks are not new, their use in this way is.There is nothing to prevent such attacks against any organization anywhere. This is a threat that is beyond PR but can stop communications in its tracks. It is an issue…

This article on the fragility of the iPhone was news to me. It wasn't to my daughter. She told me two days ago that 3G iPhones were having trouble, so she didn't want one. For an eighth grader who doesn't read tech publications to know that is scary. It means she and her friends passed around information gained from the internet long before it reached traditional media. If that is happening among the young, what is the future of reputation management? It has entered an era in which the concept of "management" is nearly fictitious. Even with careful online monitoring, companies can hardly move…

This kind of article is becoming more frequent about Barack Obama. He is about to take his turn in the harsh media spotlight. The question is whether he can take criticism without losing perspective. From what little I know, he has been less forthcoming with reporters than his opponent, but it hasn't hurt him so far. But, the media will turn. They have their own self-correcting compass. If a candidate is thin-skinned, it will show soon enough, and the media will be merciless in pricking.This is a hard lesson of media relations that leaders often fail to learn or to remember. They want to…

There is something about size that automatically attracts media interest. That is the case here with the Large Hadron Collider. Everything about the proton smasher is huge, and reporters have been breathless in describing its components and the work that has gone into building them. Certainly the machine has potentially major importance in understanding the building blocks of matter and universe, but we haven't heard much about that -- not yet anyway. That story is complicated and will take terabytes of data to tease out of the machine. When it comes, if it comes, reporters will rely on the…

We've been working on our social media press releases (SMPRs) in COM 459, Public Relations Tactics. This is part of what has turned into a multi-week assignment. For the first part, we wrote traditional news releases for a local yogurt store that just opened across the street from campus. (News releases for class use only, not for real distribution.) Then we discussed the difference between

Got a call and e-mail last week from a reporter at one of the local dailies who was working on a story about the very public debate over building a rail transit system in Honolulu. (Just Google "rail transit system Honolulu" if you're wondering.) She was particularly interested in how pro- and anti-rail groups are using online media. This sets us up well for a discussion of our title topic for

It's sad to hear my hometown paper (The Palm Beach Post) is cutting back, but I'm not surprised at the other angle mentioned by Sarah Schewe of Editors Weblog - more journalists switching over to public relations. With Web 2.0, the skill sets of journalism and public relations may overlap even more than they used to. The values, however, are still different (i.e., public relations people do

Kelleher ICA 2008 From: tkell, 1 minute ago | View | Upload your own Tom Kelleher's ICA presentation on experiment with organizational blogs and public relations contingencies (for ICA on May 25, 2008) Key finding: Not all PR people are hyped on social media. SlideShare Link

Just posted my out-of-office reply. Kenny Chesney lyrics ringing in my ear: School's out and the night's roll in Man, just like a long lost friend You ain't seen in a while You can't help but smile

If there’s any validity to this competition, that would be the headline at the end. Alas, that’s not going to happen, so we will announce the real winner now. All other PR bloggers are nibbling at the edges, Richard Edelman is square in the center, week after week, post after post. He deserves recognition for the most important, insightful, useful and consistent blog focusing on public relations. When Richard started 6 AM four years ago “blog” was still a new term. As the namesake of the world’s largest independent PR firm, he was a visible and vociferous…

What is going on with the shellacking of The Flack by Beyond the Hype in the PR Week blog competition? The lopsided results point to several problems with this competition that the PR industry, in its slap-happy embrace of anything that creates PR for PR, is not willing to acknowledge. There is no criteria for this competition. It is not for the most effective, worthwhile, important or insightful blog. You are asked to vote simply on impulse or prejudice. The results are easily skewed. When I said in a prior post that any 12 year old could game the results I wasn’t kidding.  Anybody…

Combat PR I should have known better than to go mano o mano with a Marine. Frank X. Shaw at Glass House, President of Waggener Edstrom and former Marine public affairs officer, creamed PRBlogNews in the first round of PRWeek blog competition last week, 58% - 42%. Late Thursday afternoon we were knotted at 50/50. An hour or so later The Flack IM’d me to gloat about how badly PRBlogNews was being trounced.  What happened? These online surveys are suspect.  Any 12 year old can game the results and legitimately Wagg Ed, I am sure, has more than enough computers company wide to…

” …. this is feeling a lot like a presidential election where it doesn’t matter who you vote for because the results are pre-programmed.” That’s the comment, among many, that sent us reaching out to the lawyers.  For two days now friends, clients, and the media have complained to us about the difficulty of voting for PRBlogNews in the PRWeek blog competition. Yesterday at approximately 4:00PM EST PRBlogNews was 50/50 with Glass House and then irregular voting patterns emerged that lead to a surge by Glass House. This coincided with outreach by a Wagg Ed shill…

The PRWeek blog competition has been a revealing exercise in the PR business examining itself. As if we needed further proof - we are a stilted profession with no sense of humor and no imagination. Basically, that is why, no matter how hard we try, we are unable to grab a measurable piece of the advertising/marketing budget with this newly packaged “social media” hoohah.    I am sure that Frank X. Shaw at Glass House (my opposition) is a fine and honorable man. His bio says that he was public affairs officer in the Marines, he heads the Microsoft business, and he is…

A few weeks ago, one-time corprate raider now would-be guardian of corporate governance (talk about the Mother Of All PR coups) Carl Icahn won a seat on the Yahoo Board. Yahoo and Icahn forces issued press releases and seconds later, in the land of digi PR, it’s news on a zillion on-line news services and websites. In time traditional media gets in on the act too. Moments after the news breaks, I get a call to rush down to Fox Business Channel to appear on air to talk about how a 70 plus year old who doesn’t use a computer winds up on the board of a an Internet giant. I wrote a…

Ok, not exactly. But, one of the secrets to Obama’s success has been to take a major page from the Republican playbook, compiling a platinum mailing list of contributors and supporters. Unlike the Carl Rove variety, this one eschewed snail mail in favor of email. The Democratic candidate whipped Hillary and may do the same to McCain because, in great measure, his machine has mastered the art of everything digi. When the McCain camp thinks of releasing news, the powers that be turn to the AP, the networks, and USA Today. On the other side of the age/philosophy/political divide, the…

A few days ago I had lunch with a producer at the Fox Business Network. He asked me, “Why are PR people so lazy?” When I asked what he meant, he said, “They send these pitches no one cares about, in part because they have no news angle.” When I asked him why he attributed that to laziness as opposed to incompetence or another form of failure, he was poised to strike. “There are all kinds of news stories on the Web - on the top sites- that producers like myself monitor. And we go in search of experts who can comment on these stories. And we find them. But not from…

Sometimes , the Internet is like a crazed lover. It does the dumbest things and swears by them. I mean think about it: I have a Wikipedia page. Why do I have one? When the Encyclopedia Brittanica ruled the information roost, there would no page for me. Not even a footnote. But then along comes this vast democratization called the Web and anyone and everyone can say anything on it. I’m not at all opposed to the free speech element of it, I mean as a libertarian I applaud it, but then the Internet gets completely drunk on itself and as all drunks (believe me, I know) makes an absolute ass…

So what happens when you fuse raw commerce with strong journalism on a website? Well, you get the power of stuff that is greater than the sum of its parts. And that is the real octane in business and all of life. You experience it when PR pros land great stories about our clients’ products and services and they take center stage on those clients’ web sites. I know. I know. The IT so-called gurus want to have the sites to themselves. They think it’s all about technology. They have no idea it’s really about marketing and then again, they don’t know what marketing…

I think our guest columns, editorials, and PRWeek columns have been featuring some great fodder for debate. Here are some: Impressions Cultural diversity Agency pitching Where are the men? Discuss.

PRWeek is now accepting nominations for its second-annual “40 under 40” feature, to be published in the December 8 issue. This special feature will profile 40 agency, corporate, and nonprofit professionals, as well as educators, under the age of 40 that are doing outstanding work for their clients/companies and for the PR industry as a whole. Individuals featured on the list will demonstrate innovative thinking, strong determination, and results that indicate a long and successful career in the PR industry. Those individuals profiled on last year’s list are not eligible for inclusion in…

We have a PRWeek Twitter feed these days. You can follow us at Twitter.com/prweekstaff. During the seven minutes a day it works. Kidding!

We’re going to be calling for submissions soon for the 40 under 40 feature, which runs in December. This will no doubt please Erica Iacono, who has been inundated with pre-submission solicitations.

I’ve been following the news that the New York Times‘ declined to run John McCain’s Op-Ed on the grounds that it did not announce anything new and merely served as a refutation of Barack Obama’s recent Op-Ed that ran in the same paper. Of course, this is fertile ground for conservative critics to allege liberal bias to the NYT’s - a point the paper poorly tries to deflect by reminding the McCain camp that the paper endorsed McCain in the Republican primary. What has been heartening is that editors of all stripes have appeared on talk shows to support the…

For most bloggers, conventional wisdom says that Stumbleupon traffic is good to spike your numbers, but not so good at holding attention. Usually, I agree. Typically, my Stumbleupon traffic has a... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

After attending an event recently, I came up with a few ideas on how I would plan a blogging party for our clients. How to Throw a Party for Bloggers Purpose What’s the point? Make connections,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Take an active approach to getting inbound links and watch your rankings rise. Here’s how . . . 1. Write great content - yes, this is a given. Mix up your style and try on content tangents to... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

1386 miles in 5 days - that’s what it takes to meander to Ely, Minnesota and back from our town. Here’s what I learned along the way . . . 1. It pays to ask for a good view. That’s... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

If you’ve ever won a contest, you know how good it feels to be a winner. Hosting a contest invites participation and gives people something to talk about: you! This post first appeared here in... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I’m encountering a new breed of comment spam on my blog. To date, comment spam has fallen into a few basic categories. There’s nonsensical spam (like xyeosi@wocpar.xir). There’s blatant spam (e.g., lists of Viagra sites). There’s spam designed to make you think, with the quickest of glances, that it’s legit (such as, “Great post.") Now, though, I’m getting spam that shows the spammer has actually read the post; the spam offers varying degrees of legitimate commentary, but includes the link to the same sites that were being promoted in the other forms…

Blogging company Six Apart to launch blog about blogs Download the file here (MP3, 2.0Mb; length 4:16), or sign up for the RSS feed to get this cut segment and all future ones automatically.

Branded keywords gaining currency in search Download the file here (MP3, 1.54MB; length 3:15), or sign up for the RSS feed to get this cut segment and all future ones automatically.

Content summary: Next FIR Live on Aug 23; update on PR Week blog contest; discussion: Is PR dead? Oh, God, not again...; the Media Monitoring minute with CustomScoop; News That Fits - Inc magazine study on US company adoption of social media, unique medical simulation in Second Life; Michael Netzley reports on Singapore’s Social Media Breakfast 3; listeners’ comments discussion and FIR Friendfeed round-up; music from Manda and The Marbles; and more. Listen to FIR now: Get FIR: Download the MP3 file (27.3Mb, 59:43) Subscribe to the RSS feed Get the show at iTunes Messages from our…

John C. Havens, my co-author, and I presented a session last Friday at the New Media Expo on the subject of our new book, ”Tactical Transparency,” which is due out in November from Jossey Bass. Early indications (as represented by the tweet shown here) suggest the session was pretty well received. The relevance of transparency to the expo is based on the book’s focus: the use of social media to promote organizational transparency. Ours is not the first book to address transparency. I read several, including ”The Naked Corporation” by Dan Tapscott and David…

Keith O'Brien just announced a PR Week best blog competition. In doing so he pits 32 industry blogs against each other -- tournament style.Vote for the Bad Pitch blog. Click here, then click on our name to vote before end of day, Tuesday, August 5th.We're up against Voce Communications' Voce Nation blog. The Voce team provides stiff competition. It's all the more noteworthy considering that drawn out loitering trial Mike Manuel was embroiled in. Not to mention the "invisible press kit" scandal.We're sending Slick out to make Voce an offer they can't refuse. Until they mysteriously pull…

Some fun is coming in the next few days. And before the rumble begins, we are finally putting up our new blog logo. Design credit goes to Nick Kastner.

Happy August. Today's post is a peek into the thoughts of BusinessWeek's Stephen Baker (who has been with the magazine for one astounding 21-year tenure!). Baker is one of the New York technology reporters for BusinessWeek; he began to report on tech in Paris (Rue Oswaldo Cruz, 16th ar.) as European correspondent in 1998 smack in middle of the dot calm boom. He came to New York in 2002 as acting senior editor for info tech, and is now a senior writer — also tech. Before the whole technology bug hit him, Baker was bureau chief in Pittsburgh and also in Mexico City, which are two cities with…

“I heard the news today, oh boy…” PimpMyNews is a new, free service allowing you to hear the latest news from your personally selected mix of news sources and blogs. Anyone with an MP3 player and Internet access can use it. CEO John Atkinson was kind enough to do a quick Q&A with us as we try and find more ways to make it easier for you to know the news.1) PimpMyNews is a great name and service. What’s the inspiration behind each? My Co-founder Roy Georgia and I used to always struggle to keep up with news and current events. Before starting PimpMyNews, we were both "road…

Here’s a story of a lovely lady — who is so pissed off she turned to me to vent! “Richard,” she wrote. “Here’s a really stupid email pitch.” What she meant: What’s wrong with this woman?First, the pitch – which I have to say is about the dumbest I’ve seen in many months, so her name is left in (sorry Kev): [Brackets mine.] And I got to say this is the first bad pitch about cake, which I did not think was possible, since I'm all about the sweets in life!Here you go, for your reading pleasure:...Donna B's Bakery in Laguna Niguel [yet] was chosen to serve the wedding cake…

Unleashed: Last month, 27 years after graduating from there with an honours degree, I returned to the University of Sydney as a full-time PhD student. The three years (1987-1990) I spent on the personal staff of John Dawkins while he 'revolutionised' Australia’s higher education system has given me an added interest in the changes the last quarter of a century has wrought.

Mixed farewell for Dr Phil | smh.com.au. After several years, nowwearetalking remains Australia's one major example of corporate use of social media and its existence and success is almost entirely due to the drive of Burgess. It will be interesting to see if the momentum can be sustained without his forceful presence.

Notes from conference presentation, "Enterprise 2.0 for Information Professionals", Sydney 14 August 2008. The presenter: Andrew Mitchell, national Manager, Technology and Knowledge, Urbis. Slides will be posted on slideshare. Playing videos of staff members talking about how they use the wiki. Use it as a project delivery tool. Many beneficial behaviours naturally managed - weren't built-in. Every day about ten per cent of staff use it for project work. Wikis don't have to be like wikipedia and produce fully formed articles but can be partial, on the fly comments etc Do need some structure…

Notes from conference presentation, "Enterprise 2.0 for Information Professionals", Sydney 14 August 2008. The presenter: Sharon Cartwright, Director, Impact Employee Communications (an Ogilvy PR Worldwide Company). Link to EY-Australia facebook page. Ernst & Young not fully open to facebook mainly just for recruitment purposes. (odd) It's a form of marketing. Don't encourage conversations. Worried about staff sticking to approved messages. Everything is generated in-house. There is a discussion forum but not being used at the moment. 900 positions available annually - number and quality…

From the Associated Press: “(U.S. Sen. John McCain’s) top (vice presidential) contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent.”

A wood hotel key card that replaces the traditional plastic version will make its U.S. debut in Denver at the Democratic National Convention. Sustainable Cards LLC has donated 70,000 of the sustainably harvested birch cards that will carry the logo of the Denver 2008 Host Committee. Denver’s Stefanie Jones PR is handling communications for Sustainable Cards.

It looks like your grandfather is more average than you thought.

The mystery/blessing of former 850 KOA critic Reggie McDaniel’s disappearance has been solved.

The Denver Police Department has issued a flyer with suggested guidelines for Democratic National Convention protesters, and Paula Woodward can stand down. It is clear that none of the DPD money budgeted for new weapons has been illegally diverted to a graphic designer.  Hat Tip: 5280’s Elevated Voices

As I mentioned on Twitter yesterday, Hotwire's 9-strong digital media team is looking for two new guns. Firstly we're looking for a top notch PR person with experience of PR in the media sector. Think clients in TV, tech, web or traditional media (like news papers and that). It'd be cracking if you have at least three years experience, but we're looking for someone ideally at account manager or account director level. Come and boss us all about if you have big trousers. The package is excellent and designed to attract top top talent. Secondly we're looking to hire a social media maestro.

Mark Hopkins at Mashable has written a post that's a must read for PR people who ever find themselves doing PR in the blogosphere. It's our day to day here at number 33, but there are some useful tips for any PR person in Mark's post. The post originates from an article by Edelman's Steve Rubel on how PR needs to change from pitching to something a little more sophisticated. All too often I hear that people in PR are told: "never pitch to a blogger". Fact is, we do, and some are doing it a very ok way. So have a read of this post and see what usefull logs you might find laying about: "Instead…

Some discussions have been happening in the office and on Twitter about what a good company blogging guidelines document looks like. I always say when asked that question that a really good example is Yahoo. Not only because they published their guidelines online openly at a relatively early stage (like four years ago I believe) but also because one of their social media evangelists re-wrote his own version and published it on his blog - and his version became the defacto standard version (or so the story goes). His name is Jeremy Zawodny, and I believe he no longer works for Yahoo. But here…

I saw this morning an article about St Pancras Station in London providing free WiFi to all its passers-by. Nice huh! If only St Pancras was my commuting station. It would make the train-waiting a little less tedious. There are pockets of free WiFi across London, but not too much. Aside from web access being for the commuters, for people passing by, or working nearby, there's no reason why not to perch yourself inside one of the swish-looking brand spanking new coffee shops or bars in St Pancras and slurp off the WiFi. A change is as good as a rest, as they say, and that's what I like about…

Oliver Luft at The Guardian has posted on the PDA blog that Telegraph.co.uk has today launched a free WAP and 3G version of its site. The Telegraph joins other UK national newspapers - the Times, the Sun and the News of The World - in running a free-to-use mobile platform, says the Guardian article. My first reaction, having taken a look just now (here's my pic), is that the site is nothing different from anything else you look at on your mobile. Links and text. But good that it exists nonetheless. el

Breanna Wagner, a consumer PR veteran formerly with Golin Harris / Chicago and known for managing signature accounts for Unilever, SC Johnson, the Florida Department of Citrus and General Mills, has joined Twin Cities-based Kohnstamm Communications. Wagner's high-profile campaigns and new product launch experience features familiar brands including Glade, Breyers, Good Humor and Popsicle, often involving L.A. celebrity events and generating media impressions totaling in the hundreds of millions. Previous consumer brand campaigns include work for OfficeMax, Buffalo Wild Wings, Buca,…

There is an interesting article in MinnPost today by John Reinan that discusses the increasing ability for companies to place "articles" in publications that look like articles but are actually advertisements. The article points out that as newspapers cut their staff the need for quality information still exists and companies like ARAnet can provide that service at a fraction of the cost. To me this is reminiscent of the on-going Video News Release debate of yester-year. Are companies still using VNRs, yes. Will some companies choose to use services like ARAnet, of course. Like so many…

The Saint Paul Public Library will host Mark Halperin and Susan Estrich early next week as part of Saint Paul-itics, a program series to inspire the public to get politically involved and informed.Mark Halperin, author of TIME.com’s The Page (http://thepage.time.com) and political analyst for ABC, will speak at 7 p.m., Monday, Aug. 18 at Founders Hall Auditorium, Metropolitan State University, 700 East Seventh Street, Saint Paul. Halperin will talk about covering the 2008 election and providing perspectives from the frontlines. Halperin recently wrote The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the…

THIRD ANNUAL ALPHABET BASH OFFERS LOCAL MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS PROS UNIQUE NETWORKING OPPORTUNITYWHAT: Minnesota's popular annual gathering of professionals in marketing and communications, the Alphabet Bash, will take place on August 21 at Epic Event Center in Minneapolis. The Alphabet Bash aims to connect marketing, communications, advertising, and public relations professionals in Minnesota and give them an opportunity to help them to make business connections, develop long-lasting relationships, explore other business development opportunities – or just have a good time.The…

On the front page of today's Wall Street Journal is a story about Kendra Wilkinson and her professed love of Olive Garden. What's the problem?Wilkinson is a Playboy cover model and Olive Garden doesn't approve of her endorsement of their Chicken Parmigiana.Talk about making a non-issue into an issue. By complaining about Wilkinson endorsing the company, Olive Garden has brought it straight to the front page of the WSJ and an audience that otherwise may never have been exposed to Wilkinson and her love of Italian/Americana cuisine.Entertainment sites like Gawker and Radar may be expected to…

The malaise of newspapers is a popular theme on the media beat this year, but magazines are getting a bit of a free pass. The robust news budgets, colorful pages and expensive glossy ads that pay for mag publishing might not be as immune from the media doldrums as somehave thought. So, as magazine publishers eye their ink-stained brethren with concern, they are trying to put a spark in slumping circulation numbers with a new approach. Time Inc., the industry titan which publishes 127 magazines, is turning to a cable TV-like pricing model this fall in a proactive move that will allow readers…

Pierce Mattie PR is now hiring for our New York and Los Angeles offices. Please feel free to forward this post to anyone that may be interested. Open Divisions: • Beauty • Jewelry • Women's Fashion • Men's Fashion • Food & Beverage • Home Furnishings • Resort & Travel • Fitness • Men's Lifestyle • Women's Lifestyle Open Positions: • Account Supervisors • Account Directors • Account Manager • Sr. Account ExecutivesRead more on how you can join our award winning team! 

China might be dominating the medal count (at this very moment they lead the U.S. by 2 medals) but as an entire country they are participating in an even larger olympic event: World image. It has been no secret that China is willing to do whatever it takes to change their image in the world's eye. The opening ceremony was simply one big PR event broadcasted to the world.  While it remains incredibly impressive that thousands of performers coordinated many intricate arrangements in outlandish costumes on even more outlandish sets (who ever knew a 500 ft LCD even existed), some of…

Would you believe me if I told you that one of the beauty industries biggest companies has a co-founder that used to make a measely three dollars a day returning bottles while living out of his car? Well it's true, and it's the rags to riches story of Jean Paul Dejoria, co-founder and president of Paul Mitchell, the multi-billion dollar beauty biz leader.Because he is very familiar with what it's like to be in an unfortunate position, philanthropy is very important to him and he does everything in his will to instill it into the legacy of his…

As more and more media switches to online, print outlets are seeing a significant drop in readers. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, magazine sales at the newsstand dropped 6.3 percent in the first half of 2008. This brought the 47.1 million copies sold in the last half of 2007 down to around 44.1 million. It could be that people just don’t read anymore, but it’s more likely that consumers are holding onto every cent they have these days in light of the recession.While the decrease has forced many popular magazines to fold or move to the online medium, others are…

Born in Galicia, Spain, Vicente Rey developed an interest in fashion at an early age and made his debut in design as a trainee in Barcelona. At that time he designed costumes for the stage, dance shows and short films. In the scope of his graduation project, Vicente Rey presented for the first time a shoe collection with curved iron. In Paris he developed his skills in shoe-making with master Aris, who taught him the ins and outs of shoe design. He presented his first collection of shoes in Imagine at Midec in September 1999. By 2001 he won the Escarpin de Cristal New Designer award and in…

One reason we love Google Analytics is that you can quickly identify who is seeking out what services on your website and blog. My recent Max Mosley post attracted visitors intrigued to learn more about orgies (one even examining several pages - now that’s total dedication to a cause!) The recent crisis communications post continues to draw visitors’ attention through search engines. One in particular asked the question ‘Can you say ‘no comment’ in a crisis?’ - which prompted me to compile this post. As our tips on crisis communications highlighted saying ‘no…

So, Max Mosley has been awarded £60,000 in compensatory damages from the NOTW – plus they get to pay his estimated £450,000 in legal fees. But was it worth it and what does this mean for the future of investigative journalism? Assessing it from a purely PR standpoint I question his motive. He has stated that the public shaming his family went through had been “totally devastating” and “humiliating” yet he chose to prolong it. The story itself was hugely salacious – and the associated video gave it added public interest and sauciness – the court case has simply retained the…

The furore - and shambles - surrounding the fiasco around the late publication of this year’s school SATs exams starkly highlights how to not to handle a crisis. So, if the boss of ETS, the company in charge of the marking, is reading then here are Quest PR’s top tips for keeping your reputation as intact as possible during a crisis: (more…)

In the spirit of sharing best practice I’m picking up on a popular blog story analysing the latest list of books, this time compiled by the US organisation National Endowment for the Arts which runs a reading programme called The Big Read. Its purpose is to “restore reading to the center of American culture.” They estimate that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed. I’ve copied my personal list in below along with instructions on how to pick up where I’ve left off. I took up the mantle from Sally Whittle, who herself took if…

Wow, what a month! The Quest team has completed an unprecedented 20 award submissions and board applications for clients and ourselves this month. Based on what we already know we are running at a fifty per cent success rate - one which we hope will increase once all 20 are in. The benefits to clients are clear. One - EnviroVent - has already been acknowledged as a Barclays Green Leader thanks to our powerful writing in bringing together their business success with the needs and key messages the award judges will be seeking. Clearly it’s a gamble - you’re not guaranteed to be…

Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) could supply thousands of times US energy needs Mountain View, Calif. (RUSHPRNEWS) August 19, 2008 - In the continuing effort to develop electricity from renewable energy cheaper than from coal, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), through its philanthropic arm Google.org, announced $10.25 million in investments in a breakthrough energy technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). [...]