Archive for January, 2008
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We’re back to blogging in J452: Advanced PR Writing and with that comes the weekly posts for my students’ responses. I had a lot of feeds to go through and this isn’t half of the interesting things online this week. But it’ll do. Blogging:Tips for Promoting PR Student Blogs: As it turns out, I’m not the only instructor that makes you write a blog. You might as well make the most of it. Great tips from Karen Russell at Georgia One Blogging Command and Seven Sacred Tips to Beat Burnout and Avoid the Lazysphere: I’m enjoying Tiffany Monhollon’s blog called Personal PR. She has some great blogging tips and this post is a perfect example. PR posts:Six Steps to Better Blogger Relations – I like that Geoff starts his post with the basics: know your audience, have something of value to say and be committed for the long term because... Continue Reading
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Consumer Reports WebWatch and the Center for Media Democracy recently launched Full Frontal Scrutiny. They explain it this way. “The American public deserves to know when someone is trying to persuade them.”—U.S. FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008 We strongly agree. That’s why we created this site: to focus public attention on the people and organizations who function in our society as hidden persuaders. You’ll find them at work posting to blogs, speaking before city councils, quoted in newspapers and published on the editorial page, even sponsoring presidential election debates. All this while pretending to represent the grassroots when in fact they are working against citizens’ best interests. We call these organizations front groups. One of the best ways to put their agendas in proper perspective is to expose their work. That’s what this website is for. We hope you’ll use it, tell your friends about it, even... Continue Reading
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I was lucky enough, very early in my career to be trusted by a colleague to help manage the crisis communication of a very serious incident. I’ve since been fascinated by crisis communication and hope that I have the opportunity to help other organizations during my career to survive and even thrive after a crisis. Shel Holtz has an outstanding primer for crisis communications. If you’re truly interested in public relations as a management function, you have to understand crisis and how to successfully communicate though it. I highly recommend this post. Take a look.... Permalink
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Came across a few opportunities on the WWW this week that I thought you might be interested in: Public Relations Coordinator: DaVita, Inc. (El Segundo, CA)Why it’s interesting: an entry level position with a pretty broad list of projects in which the new coordinator will participate including copywriting, research, powerpoint presentation development and project coordination. Junior Publicist: CNN (Atlanta, GA)Why you might want to take a look: an interesting entry-level opportunity in one of the fastest growing cities in America. Primarily media relations work. Marketing Coordinator: Stern Elkind Curray & Alterman (Denver, CO) Why it’s interesting: Marketing and PR at an entry-level for an immigration law firm. Public Relations Assistant: Jakks Pacific, Inc. (Malibu, CA)Why it’s interesting: Jakks Pacific makes Blue’s Clues toys! This would be a huge hit in our house. Includes working with media, too. And it’s in Malibu. Internship – Public Relations: Apple (Cupertino, CA)Why it’s interesting:... Continue Reading
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“I thought I was reading the movie script for ‘Cuckoo’s Nest 2.” This was the reaction of Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem when he receive the report from the Justice Department regarding the deplorable conditions at the Oregon State Hospital. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, of course, was filmed at the Oregon State Hospital 30 years ago. The Justice Department documented incidents of patient-to-patient assaults, multiple suicide attempts by patients who were supposed to be on one-on-one monitoring, improper use of seclusion and restraints alongside mice in the rooms, outbreaks of norovirus and scabies and seclusion rooms where staff refused to clean up ‘messes.’ Courtney’s reaction, I think, was a bit flippant for such a horrible situation. Fortunately, he’d prefaced that comment with a more appropriate reaction at least partially in line with the crisis communication mantra of “tell it first, tell it fast, tell them what you’re... Continue Reading
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Cross-posted from my PR Campaigns Class Blog. Neil Tortorella at BODO (Business of Design Online) dishes out marketing and PR advice for designers on this blog. Often his advice is good for students, entrepreneurs of all sorts and anyone looking to build their career or their business. Because of the service learning approach in our classes at that School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon, students often work with nonprofits or very small businesses that have little experience with public relations and no one in house who manages the organizations’ communication. That results in students serving not only as technicians who carry out tasks, but as a consultants to their clients. And that, my friends, is good practice for the real world. Clients, bosses, boards of directors may think they know what they need, but rather than just fulfill pre-determined tasks and move on, Neil has this... Continue Reading
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I love nice paper. And I have what some might call an obsession with pens – no ball point pens in my bag or on my desk; gel and roller balls only. My current favorite is the Tul line from Office Max. Well, according to Unity Marketing (via MediaPost), consumers age 25 – 35 are the biggest consumers of luxury stationery products. From the report: “The generational shift in the market for stationery is bringing dramatic changes in the marketplace,” the report says. “Suddenly specialty retailers like Crane & Co. Paper Makers, Papyrus, Kate’s Paperie and Paperchase found in Borders stores nationwide are destination shops for young people to pursue their paper passion.” Understanding trends such as this is important in your work in public relations. Of course, if you worked with a luxury stationery company, the application of this particular trend would be obvious (I hope). If you don’t,... Continue Reading
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St. Petersburg Times & CQ.com have launched PolitiFact, a service that rates the claims of the political candidates with a Truth-O-Meter. Not sure about what you’re hearing from candidates? Seem a little too… something? Apparently Guiliani has made the claim that he’s among the top 4 or 5 most well-known people in the United States. Yeah… he’s not. He’s #10, rating him in the “pants on fire” category of the Truth-O-Meter. My other favorite in the pants on fire category is Joe Biden’s claim that President Bush is brain dead. Apparently, not literally.... Permalink
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