Next week, I’m honored to present four programs at the IAPD/IPRA [Illinois Association of Park Districts - Illinois Park and Recreation Association conference]. Thanks so much to Jessica Alexenko of the Lisle Park District for booking me to speak at two workshops and two breakout sessions. We started talking about the conference almost a year ago and just last week I met several people at two different events who told me how much fun I would have at the …

I’m really excited to be presenting at my first ever Public Relations Society of America [PRSA] meeting.

Thanks to Diane Short for being such a professional and easy to work with program chair. If you’re in the Chicago area, I’d love to see you there! Here’s the program announcement.

January 12, 2010
PRSA Suburban Chicagoland
Social Media Releases: the “Swiss Army knife” of Public Relations

Barbara Rozgonyi will show you how to craft and pump up your press releases for maximum impact.

You’ve …

In this picture, I’m smiling at an authentic Chicago Italian beef joint with Marc Harty. We met for the first time a few years ago when I won a contest to be Marc’s guest at an Internet marketing seminar. We’re both Illinois grads, we both like Italian beef and we both have a passion for helping people get their news out and rank higher in the search engines.

When Marc asked me to review his new product: Online PR Made …

Rather than print out pages of handouts, I’m posting my Digital PR workshop materials here for the world to enjoy.

First, we’ll talk about how to become your own publicist using the PR P-R-I-M-E-R

Next, we’ll go over the Digital PR=Publicity Repositioned presentation.

Rozgonyi Publicity Repositioned Final
View more presentations from CoryWest Media, LLC.

Then, we’ll cover essential elements of online and social media press releases.

And, we’ll cover some real-life success stories. Have to join us in person to see those, but …

Coming up on October 30 in Lombard, Illinois . . . here’s a press release about an event that’s expected to draw over 500 people and 50 exhibitors. Need a business to business social networking or social media marketing strategies speaker? We released new about the expo via PRWeb.

Social Media Talks Buzz Up Lombard Chamber Business EXPO

Lombard, Illinois October 16, 2009 — Successful businesses know that one of the best places to network is a chamber of commerce business EXPO. …

While it didn’t take a press release to get interviewed in a feature about the power of press releases for small businesses on inc.com [published this week], it did take a personal connection.

A connection with the writer, Marla Tabaka, a contributor to inc.com’s one person business blog series.

Marla also writes for Sparkplugging. A few months back, she asked me to contribute to an article there about the greatest work at home challenges for entrepreneurs. And, soon you’ll be seeing …

Is it right to take someone down?

At this moment, an online press release someone distributed about their twitter accomplishments is on Digg. The title isn’t very complimentary.

And while I agree with the assessment that bragging about something isn’t the right way to market – especially if what you’re touting isn’t all that great – I wonder about the reaction.

If I hadn’t met the person in question in person, I might feel differently. But, I have met them and I …

As Halloween trends into a major holiday, why not tap into the promotion potential and be part of the revelry?

For a few Halloweens, I promoted my business by posing as a PR Witch. How did I get visibility? By judging the local chamber of commerce costume parade, of course. That’s me over there getting ready to size up the little ghosts and goblins in the  parade.

I first published most of this post in October 2006. Reading it two years …

Speaking to a group is a great way to get out in front of new audiences. Most organizations have a communications person who will publicize your appearance to their members and maybe the media. You can help them promote their event – along with your appearance – by sending out an additional news release of your own. Here’s one that recently went out to our local media contact list to let them know about my upcoming speaking engagement in …