In my last posting, about the “New” News Release, I alluded to a sea-change in the job descriptions of the flackus desperandi (PR professional). In the past PR was predominantly “media relations” based – sending spam and harassing journalists.

Sure there was some internal communications thrown in, communicating on behalf of the government) communicating to the government (lobbying), investor relations for the financial specialists and physician communication from the healthcare group.

But underneath a raft of very high-level strategic counsel, media relations essentially underpins the business in the same way that media buying underpins the advertising industry.

But social media has changed that on its head.

read more

You remember the saying “You’re only as strong as your weakest link” right? It’s an expression used to convey the message that even the best at something are often lumped in with the worst at something. That expression applies nicely as we talk about the field of public relations.

PR practitioners come in all shapes and sizes: some are great, some aren’t, and some are downright bad. Since this is the Blog Herald, I want to focus my attention online. When we look at how public relations is being done online, we need only look at how it’s being used in the social media space. More communications efforts are targeting online media outlets and bloggers, which means PR people like myself are going to be asked to deliver on blogger relations campaigns. The term “blogger relations” is just a term cooked up to describe PR for bloggers. It’s not traditional PR because bloggers aren’t the mass media. It’s difficult to describe what “blogger relations” actually are because it hasn’t been a glowingly successful part of PR practitioners jobs yet.

read more

Introduction
Is social media changing the way you work? My job as a PR/online communications consultant has changed an awful lot since I started as an intern cutting articles out of a newspaper or transcribing entire electoral rolls into an Excel sheet. There are a metric ton of examples I could use (monitoring, who we reach out to, client based initiatives) but the biggest one is, I believe, the communications vehicle formerly known as the “press release”. read more

A while back on my own blog, I wrote about using social media at work. It was the kind of post that I spent days writing because social media has a presence in nearly everything I do at work. I wanted to share the ways I use social media at work in public relations because the tools available are vital resources in my day-to-day affairs. Without them, I would probably be lost. For those PR practitioners not using these tools, I’d recommend spending some time learning more about them and how you can put them to use.

read more

Last week Chris had a great discussion over the slow uptake of social media by PRs. This week I’ll put forward some reasons why the new Internet should interest the PR community and, reciprocally, why PR should be embraced by the digital natives. That’s anyone involved in social media, or as Time would put it: You.

read more

…Or at least I hope that’s the case.

Public relations is a business in a state of change. When the Internet emerged as a force roughly ten years ago, I suspect that PR practitioners were wondering what the future would hold for them. Since that time, the ‘net has boomed, busted, and recently re-emerged, yet PR practitioners as a whole aren’t ready for the new media that we call “social media”.

How come? For starters, most PR practitioners don’t have time to learn new things. This is probably true of every industry: you’re so busy trying to catch up on yesterday’s work that you can’t even begin to think about what tomorrow will bring. It’s no different for PR, as we’re talking about an industry that hasn’t changed a whole lot historically. read more

In my first column I discussed what PR is, from a corporate standpoint without really addressing the publicity, or celebrity, business – which is what most readers will be exposed to the most.

While I would never be called upon to give expert testimony in the area of celebrity publicity, I feel I know enough to lift the curtain a little and show you one dirty little trick that can be used.

This oft used trick is the one that magicians learn first – misdirection. Let’s say I’m your client, a highly paid sports stud like Ladainian Tomlinson who is enjoying a record breaking season – not too far from the truth (!).

read more

Ah, PR. I’ll readily admit it: I’m only barely a professional PR practitioner. Six months ago I was a student, and six months from now I can only hope to still be employed. I’m just getting my feet wet and am myself trying to figure out what in the world PR is and is not, so bear with me.
read more

For many bloggers, their experience of PR extends to a deep rooted distrust, borne out of reading about a company or celebrity PR masterstroke or, more likely, a PR disaster. Other bloggers may have actually witnessed the PR (flackus desperandi) in action; possibly due to a cack-handed approach made to them by the PR to get some coverage for whatever goods or services the PR is hawking that day. read more