Recently a reader asked me how I started my Chicago area marketing and public relations consultancy. I answered background questions on how I transitioned from a corporate career to an independent creative consultant. To extend my answer and benefit others, I’m including the outline for a course I teach called “Write from the Start: How…
Interested in what happened at BlogWorld? During the sessions, I sent out enough twitter updates to fill a 15 page Word document, which added up to over 300 updates. This post covers Book Deals, Digital Assets And Corporate Sponsorships with Prince Campbell, Jonathan Fields and Geoff Nelson. You’ll find all of my BlogWorld08 twoverage [tweet…
Two years ago today on September 19, I wrote a post called PR Takeaways: Talk Like a Pirate Day. At the time, there were 130 Google News searches for talk like a pirate day. Today’s count: 340 talk like a pirate news stories and counting. Google’s even getting in on the act. Hat tip…
Two years ago today on September 19, I wrote a post called PR Takeaways: Talk Like a Pirate Day. At the time, there were 130 Google News searches for talk like a pirate day. Today’s count: 340 talk like a pirate news stories and counting. Google’s even getting in on the act. Hat tip…
After writing about Google’s Chrome comic book, I asked Brad Shorr, who frequently writes about business humor and is a business cartoon writer to guest post and talk about . . . Why Don’t Companies Use Cartoons in Their Marketing? By Brad Shorr, guest author As a business cartoon writer, this question crosses my mind…
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!…
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 . ….
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…
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…
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…
Do you spread your ideas around or leave them up at the same URL all day, every day? That’s a question for bloggers. How about the rest of you? How far does your message travel? Do you spread it or do other people do that for you? Today a friend called in need of an…
That’s my only update on Friday night, the first night of BlogHer 08. If I ever needed confirmation that someone valued what I had to say, this was it. Making it onto Alltop’s online PR blog feed-magazine rack, a collection of the best of the best feeds, was a dream come true for me. What…
Every Tuesday, Liz Strauss at Successful-Blog hosts an open comment night. Last week the group came up with the idea to host a blog showcase. Blog-to Show? Showcase Your Blog at Successful-Blog July 26-27 outlines the details of how to get in. With all entries in, the show is up – live – now with…
A reader writes: Love to hear your thoughts as to why Heather Armstrong has some negative perceptions about her as alluded in the article about BlogHer and how Mommybloggers profit. [To take the focus off of Heather and her blog – www.dooce.com I’m modifying the question to: Any downsides to being “too” successful in the…
Warner Brothers, Bravo and Hearst opened the day with a HybridMedia keynote. To read more, visit the BlogHer08 live conference posts. See what I had to say on twitter about BlogHer, including a live tweet stream from the monetization panel. In the Home and Garden breakout session, I heard about the water usage restrictions in…
Since they arrived from England last week, I’ve been passing them out almost everywhere – even in the streets. I have to admit to feeling a bit sheepish and silly about giving them away at an outdoor festival, but people really liked them. In fact, whole groups of people wanted one – and I got…
“I don’t mean to offend them. It’s just so obvious how much cooler and better the other Dairy Queen is.” 13 year old field marketing researcher How can two stores in the same franchise be so different? An innocuous trip for ice cream turned into a lesson in branding consistency. Driving home from a late…
His name is Joe. He is a screenwriter. He goes to parties in Malibu. He flies to London. He will be famous. He wears it well. He is not proud. He is not humble. He is who he is. Last night at a techy-type social/networking event, I wondered who these people really were. What if…
Are you influential or popular? For Galinda, a Wicked witch it’s all about being popular . . . When I see depressing creatures With unprepossessing features I remind them on their own behalf To think of celebrated heads of state Or specially great communicators Did they have brains or knowledge? Don’t make me laugh! They…
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