A reader writes . . . I read with interest your response to the gal looking for help with her arts site. You say in your response: As you may know, press releases have evolved from a simple announcement to a select group of journalists to powerful tools that merge search engine optimization, multimedia, social…
Searching for popular blogs to follow? Yahoo’s Blog directory lists blogs by category. Shown here is a screen capture I took this morning. At the time, Wired PR Works was number one. So . . . I told my newsletter subscribers about it. [Apologies to my newsletter readers for letting this news get me too…
Sometimes a seemingly tiny crisis can turn out to be a major ordeal. Little things can blow up into big matters very quickly – especially online. This week, United Airlines’ stock nose dived and almost crashed due to a story, published in 2002, about United’s bankruptcy filing. According to some reports, as much as $1.41…
When a first-time speaker asked for ways to improve their presentation before taking the stage, I put together a list to help them out. Even if you’re not a first-timer, I hope these tips I’m sharing that work for me, along with the ones I picked up from my professional speaker friends, will help you!…
Take a look at these guys. Heads on sticks with a lever to open and close their mouths, they’re meant to be child’s toys. Do you see them as talking heads or puppets? How does opening and closing on demand relate to the way organizations manage communications? Technorati Tags: organizations,communications,public relations,talking heads Image Source:…
A reader writes . . . I’ve been volunteering with The Peace School for the last couple of years to help promote their annual Peace Day celebration. This year’s free event, open to the public, will take place on Friday, September 19th, at noon, Daley Plaza. The event has been organized every year by The…
On September 2 Google revealed Chrome, its new browser. While most of the buzz about Chrome’s public relations is around the comic book Google mailed to bloggers, the idea that the project started on day one with the team writing a press release caught my attention. To hear how the team was challenged to write…
Ever wonder how many people really know what online social networking is and how many people participate in social networks? According to a study by Synovate released by eMarketer, as of April 2008, 23.4% of people in the U.S. participate in social networks. eMarketer predicts that 44.3% of Internet users in the US will belong…
If you’ve been reading this blog for more than a few posts, you know that I tend to stray away from sports, politics and sometimes, religion [disclosure: I am member of the United Methodist Church]. So, there will be no direct reference to any person, place. party or candidate here, from me anyway. However ….
Here in the U.S. It’s Labor Day weekend, a time to celebrate the last few sweet bits of summer. Last night while I sat in a friend’s driveway watching The Blues Brothers on a 16′ x 14′ screen, I got inspired to take a new look at the movie. This time, from a fundraising perspective….
Last Saturday, I discovered Wired PR Works blog led a group of 100 PR blogs –by over 650% – in the most improved Technorati ranking category. My big audience for my big announcement? Two boys: ages 9 and 13. The location: my sister’s almost empty attic. My announcement went something like this . ….
A reader writes . . . “How much money, lead time, etc is needed to get what kind of “result” – an elusive keyword for PR? Answer: Define Result: What does success mean to you? Where do you want your story to land? Who do you want to write it? Who do you want to…
A reader writes . . . “How much money, lead time, etc is needed to get what kind of “result” – an elusive keyword for PR? Answer: Define Result: What does success mean to you? Where do you want your story to land? Who do you want to write it? Who do you want to…
What do you do to welcome a blogger back to blogging? You write a welcome back post, of course. Thanks to Karen Swim and Brad Shorr I’m part of a group of bloggers writing a post today to greet Joanna Young on her return from a blogging break and a move into her new home….
Congratulations go out to every PR blogger who made Brendan Cooper and Matthew Watson’s recently released top-ranked PR blog lists. It Pays to Put PR in the title of your blog Matthew bases his Top 50 PR blog rankings on the AdAge Power 150. He looks for blogs with PR, Public Relations or Publicity…
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 bounce rate of 70% or higher, which means that most people glanced at my blog and clicked onto something else with ten seconds. In…
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, introduce a new project or product, celebrate an anniversary, launch your own blog? Theme Would a theme attract or…
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 see what works. 2. Leave a comment at sites that use CommentLuv 3. Research who’s linking to…
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 how we woke up to watch dawn breaking in Duluth. 2. People will still follow…
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 April 2007 with the first three steps only. Today, I’m adding in five more. What would you add? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Original…
Thanks to the agency who contacted me, Barbara Rozgonyi, about being a social media keynote speaker for a conference this fall. Do you have an event coming up? Feel free to use these mini-outlines as a starting point. Focusing on a single social media element is a good idea. There’s so much to talk about…
Type in online pr speaker – no quotes – and this is what comes up. Does your screen look like my screen? Click on the image to enlarge. My Unscientific guesses as to why these online pr speaker results rank the way they do Exact keyword match in page title and URL with mentions…
When you go to a popular restaurant, you often have to wait a bit before being seated. How do you pass the time? Do you think about what you’re going to order? How excited you are to be there? Perhaps starting a new public relations project or promoting an event is a bit like searching…
The gist of the call that got me into a part-time faculty position at the Academy for Nonprofit Excellence went something like this . . . The assigned instructor moved out of state. In three weeks, class starts. There is no set curriculum. You need to come up with 16 hours of teaching material for…
California and Illinois tied for top state with the most readers. That’s one of my more interesting findings from July’s end of month statistics. In June, I reported on the most read posts. This month, I decided to build in Google Analytics, a free service you can sign up for to track your web and…
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