The grab bag makes its 2014 debut today.
Three takes coming at you.
A Little SEO Humor
Marcus Thompson II, the San Jose Mercury News sports journalist, showed his storytelling chops with a terrific column on Barry Bonds lending a helping hand to the Giants during Spring training:
- “At a news conference to kick off his stint as a guest hitting coach at Giants camp, Bonds had morphed from renowned jerk to giggly middle-aged man. It was like Darth Vader after a spa day.”
The headline read, “Barry Bonds Like We’ve Never Seen Him.”
Naturally, the Merc’s digital team went to work handcrafting the URL.
But rather than play to the SEO gods, they went for levity.
Well played!
It turns out a search on [Barry Bonds has great teeth] does pull up the column at the top of page 1
Turning Back the PR Wayback Machine to 1985
I stumbled across a 1985 LA Times feature story on Regis McKenna and the early days of the Silicon Valley PR scene.
If the name doesn’t a ring bell, Regis and his namesake agency pioneered the tech PR genre. Most credit Regis with creating the concept of influencer relations.
It’s a fun read and a quick history lesson on the formation of tech PR.
The story also reminded me that PR practitioners don’t always bring the same finesse to their own communications that they apply to clients. Check out this quote from McKenna group account manager Andy Cunningham regarding client Apple:
- “This agency knows more about Apple Computer than Barbara Krause.” (Krause headed Apple’s in-house PR function at the time.)
Not exactly a relationship-building moment.
My Attempt at One-upping Ellen’s Academy Awards Selfie Falls 3,394,618 RTs Short (as of 3/15/14 at 2:26 p.m.)
Every communications professional appreciates the near-impossible nature of generating viral content.
Still, I thought I sniffed an opportunity – allergy season has yet to kick in – when Ellen clicked the selfie heard around the world. Like news hijacking, why not “selfie hijacking” as a form of visual storytelling?
Thinking back to the Woody Allen movie classic “Zelig” which chronicles the human chameleon Leonard Zelig (played by Allen) and his penchant for showing up around famous people.
Perfect.
I would “add” Mr. Zelig to the Ellen selfie and watch social media work its magic.
Not so fast, proving once again that what one man thinks amusing, another finds banal.
And why a search on [esoteric smart ass] puts me at the top of the SERP.