I interviewed my Mom last year in honor of Mother’s Day. Doing my best imitation of Geraldo Rivera — we both attended the University of Arizona and we both wear glasses — I peppered her with questions thinking that she didn’t understand the PR business. Heck, after 30+ years in PR, there are times when …more
Contrary to popular belief, content is not king. Compelling content is king; i.e., content that offers fresh insights or educates or informs in a way for easy consumption. As discussed in previous posts, most B2B content falls into the dreadful content bucket. Too much “me, me and here’s a little more about me” as opposed …more
It’s amazing how survival has a way of tuning one’s senses. That was the situation for our U.S. operation back in the 2011/2012 timeframe. It calls to mind the famous line from Albert Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” It was time for …more
In preparation for our storytelling workshops, we request that participants complete some light homework. We often ask them what B2B company does a particularly good job in building its brand and public profile. With rare exception, GE wins this unaided awareness test. In a “cement mixer” with thousands of B2B companies, what is GE doing …more
Since Craigslist eviscerated the classified ads business in newspapers, journalists have been writing the “poor me” story. At some point, it became fashionable for these “poor me” stories to blame the PR industry for journalism’s shrinking job pool. Before jumping into the latest “poor me” piece in The Washington Post, the Pew Research Center delivers …more
As a PR nerd, when I read a story in a publication that vacuums my attention, two questions immediately come to mind: Was PR the catalyst for the article? What storytelling techniques carry the narrative? Such is the process I went through with the NYT piece, “A Chinese Billionaire Spinning Research into Investment Gold.” As …more
Thanks to the wonders of Internet and WordPress, any company can rationalize the cost of digital publishing. What’s more, Google’s decision to communicate the dialing down of activities in China on its corporate blog gave street cred to owned media. Since Google’s act on January 12, 2005, organizations of all shapes and sizes have become …more
Before jumping into the sense of urgency part, let’s frame the issue. Mobile devices are taking over the world. In terms of raw numbers, mobile users surpassed the desktop users last year. Yet, this only tells part of the story. For PR and other communication functions, the core question comes down to behavior. Are consumers …more
It occurred to me that I could write a grab bag post every single day. Social media platforms like Twitter serve up wacky as well as useful fodder in a never-ending stream. Of course, the challenge lies in the fleeting nature of this information. These grab bag posts provide a forum to “stop” on three …more
