Posts Tagged with Kelli+Matthews
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According to the Bad Pitch Blog (love them!), the answer is between and three and five pitches. And sometimes it can take up to a year to work a good story in a key media outlet. Based on Kevin Dugan’s anecdotal evidence, this post does a great job of giving you solid guidelines for managing client expectations for a media relations campaign. I suggest you save it, bookmark it, print it, tattoo it somewhere, print it, whatever. I have certainly had clients that, despite my best efforts to manage expectations, never understood why the ratio wasn’t 1:1 (pitches:stories). I love Kevin and the Bad Pitch Blog for laying this out so simply. The Bad Pitch Blog: The Math Behind Good Pitches... Permalink
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The Creative Group recently polled 250 marketing and communication professionals about the most overused buzz words. The problem with buzzwords, of course, is that when overused they become meaningless and cliche. When in doubt, use clear concrete language that cannot be misunderstood by any audience. The same language should be effective when talking to your peers as it does when talking to a client… or, the real test, when talking to your mom. Here are some of my favorites form the Creative Group’s survey: (and my commentary) Outside-the-box: outside what box? i think this is so overused that the outside of the box has actually become the inside of the box. Synergy: Guilty of using. Probably even in public. Bad. The big idea: Isn’t this the name of that TV show on CNN with at advertising guy? Hmmm… ROI: This one is tough. In some situations, you’re almost expected to... Continue Reading
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According to a great article in AdWeek, PR represents the largest growth sector as compared to our marketing and advertising sisters. The articles tracks trends from 1994, when the numbers were nearly equal, through the dot-com bust and then back again. Excerpt: One big winner in this shift has been public relations. A lot of marketers, notably the pioneering dot-com companies, relied heavily on PR to create a buzz and get their stories told. The PR sector, though still much smaller than advertising, grew more than three times faster than advertising between 1990 and the peak. And even though both disciplines saw massive employee cuts after the Big Burst, public relations today, as measured by the body count, is 44 percent larger than it was in 1990, while advertising is up by only 14 percent. Read more… Steve Rubel says that this means that PR is really driving the marketing... Continue Reading
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From one of my favorite new reads: Indexed by Jessica Hagy I often find myself telling clients what Jessica has illustrated so clearly and what they should know. Just because you say you have a plan, or you have a great vision does not mean people are going to buy what you’re selling. People need proof. They need action. Say you’re about being socially responsible and committed to your local community? Prove it! Say you’ve got the best new product to revolutionize the way people do this or that? Show me! Arlie & Company, a local Eugene, Ore.-based real estate developer (and a client) is my favorite example of a company that does this. Arlie gives thousands to local nonprofits that owners Suzanne Arlie and husband John Musumeci believe are doing good work. And they are committed for the long-haul. Organizations like Relief Nursery and Womenspace benefit from Arlie &... Continue Reading
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This is part two of a guest post is from Marilyn Hawkins of Hawkins & Company PR. In part one, she listed 1 – 10. Here she rounds out the 25 qualities that will set you apart in the PR industry. If you’re serious about the public relations business, you can never settle for beingjust an average professional. Here are 25 ways to shine – waaaayyy beyond the solid list of tactical skills and basic attributes you may have acquired already. There are probably 2,500 qualities of a great public relations practitioner, but I’ll only tick off the top one percent. Are these in any particular order? Nope. They’re just as random and chaotic as the average PR pro’s typical workday. So, what do you have to do – or be – in order to walk on water? 11. Tolerant of contradictory points of view. You must be able to... Continue Reading
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This guest post is from Marilyn Hawkins of Hawkins & Company PR. She offers 25 qualities that will set you apart in the PR industry. If you’re serious about the public relations business, you can never settle for beingjust an average professional. Here are 25 ways to shine – waaaayyy beyond the solid list of tactical skills and basic attributes you may have acquired already. There are probably 2,500 qualities of a great public relations practitioner, but I’ll only tick off the top one percent. Are these in any particular order? Nope. They’re just as random and chaotic as the average PR pro’s typical workday. So, what do you have to do – or be – in order to walk on water? 1. Ethical. ‘Nuff said. If you’re not a fundamentally ethical person, public relations is not the career path for you. In order to act ethically, you need to... Continue Reading
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A paddle (or paddling): group of ducks.Portland Paddle: a group of PR Ducks who travel to Portland for informational/mock interviews with professionals in agency, corporate and nonprofit public relations work. In the spirit of preparing for Portland Paddle, this is the first in a series of posts to help my students, specifically, prepare for the Portland Paddle. But to provide tips for anyone getting ready for a job search.First up… the resume. Five tips: 1. Start with the basics. There are basic rules that everyone needs to follow. Former Slacker offers these mind blowing tips like: proof-read and follow basic resume formatting guidelines. Some of the author’s tips are personal preference (for example, some firewalls will block unsolicited attachments), but the point is really that you need to know what your resume-receiver prefers. The Washington Post also had a great article this week, specifically for communication jobs. Maryann Haggarty offers... Continue Reading
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Erin Caldwell, a recent graduate and employee at Edelman attributes her hire at the agency in large part, to her PR blog. Here, at the Forward Blog (see the blogroll, it’s a great one for students!), she talks about the importance of understanding new media for new graduates. At Allen Hall PR, our student-run PR agency at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, my AE, Michelle Pera, and I talked about blogging specifically – giving students a step by step to get started.I credit Nedra at Spare Change for being my “seed blog.” I’m sure I was searching for social marketing for a presentation I was giving to the United Way Success by Six leadership team and came across her blog. She’s has a great blogroll. And the rest, as they say, is history. I’ve always been a little nerdy, but I know lots of students resist.... Continue Reading
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Crisis guru Jonathan Bernstein, will be joining my PR Campaigns class this Thursday to talk about the Matt Bandy case specifically and using the Web to fight crisis generally. To get you up to speed on this case, here are a few posts:The Matt Bandy Story: Justice4Matt.comThe 20/20 StoryClassically Liberal: They couldn’t win in court, so they smear a teen in the press (2/10/07)My post on the topicFox News story from 1/28/07 Looking forward to our chat, Jonathan.... Permalink
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It’s usually about this time of the year that seniors start panicking, er, I mean, thinking about their future after graduation. I’ve come across a couple of good posts today for students figuring out where they want to go with their career (and how): Forward 10: Ways to Effortlessly Network for Business and PleasureThe new professionals at Forward offer some great tips for networking – a necessary part of not only the job search, but a public relations career. Informational Interviews…Should you ask for one?I’ve always encouraged students to set up informational interviews (sorry, Heather!). I really appreciate this perspective and think that it really adds more value to events that the University of Oregon School of Journalism sponsors like the Portland Paddle (structured informational interviews for advertising and PR students). And the portfolio reviews with professionals that I arrange at the end of the PR Campaigns class.... Permalink
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