2011 Trends from Social Media Guru Charlene Li

Charlene Li of Altimeter Group Charlene Li, one of my favorite social media pundits, gave a speech at the PRSA International Conference this week and then gave a “press conference” to those of us (including me) who were designated “press” for the conference. Li said that like most analysts, she is in the midst of [...]

No Free Wifi at PRSA International Conference – Here’s Why

This may seem like a nitpicky post, but trust me it’s not. It’s 5pm on the first day of the PRSA International Conference and I’m sitting in the lobby bar blogging on the ‘net, rather than sitting in a session, ironically, on using online tools to do and manage PR programs. My colleague Sandra Fathi [...]

PRSA Delegates Not Ready for the Future Yet

The PRSA National Delegate assembly voted down a non-binding resolution today asking the association’s Board to regularly consult the elected delegates on “issues of concern” by submitting them to the  assembly’s electronic discussion group. The vote was 95 for, 118 against. Unfortunately for PRSA, this vote told me that the association is even more entrenched [...]

The Real Steve Jobs Teaches a Lesson About PR to Student Journalist

Steve Jobs has always had a reputation in Silicon Valley as an asshole. A brilliant asshole, and one that I greatly admire, but an a-hole none the less. So it was almost refreshing to know that some things don’t change, when a Long Island college student shared with Gawker her exchange with Jobs about trying [...]

Starbucks’ Free WiFi is a Big Deal – Here’s Why

News flash: I just moved to an office in downtown San Francisco — woohoo! I love The City, and now I have a chance to be here everyday again. I last worked in SF in 1997. One thing that has changed since 1997 — there are a LOT more Starbucks in downtown SF. No duh. [...]

“Vitch” is the first new PR catchword of 2010

Why send a plain old written PR pitch when you can send a “vitch” — a video pitch? That’s right, the new thing is to make your pitch via video. It’s certainly simple enough to do — plan your video, shoot it with an inexpensive video camera, upload it to Youtube and spread the link. [...]

Top Tech Products of the Decade Were All About Communications

HuffPost has a “top 11″ list of tech products of the decade, and I was stunned at how many of them were communications tools that radically reshaped the way we think, interact, and entertain ourselves. Among HuffPo’s top 11: iPod: little needs to be said, except, do you remember your life before having gigabytes of [...]

Company Gets $500,000 in VC Funding to Bridge the Gap Between PR and Media

I am one who believes there will always be a chasm between the media and PR, unless and until the media dies and all media is PR. Which I hope does not happen. I’ve been working on the media/PR divide much of my career. I was known as a sympathic media person who helped PR [...]

Is This the West Coast’s Top PR Event of the Year?

The PR industry has typically had a serious East Coast slant, mostly for good reason, and that means the biggest PR events usually happen in New York or Washington. Many of the biggest companies in the world are located in the Northeast Corridor, as is the stock exchange, the capital, and the media industry. Here [...]

Are PR Embargoes Dead?

The embargo is one of my favorite PR tactics, but it looks like it will soon be another casualty of the Internet, if it isn’t already. In the ooollllddd days, you could hand out embargoed news and assuming you had a good relationship with the media, the news would sit in the can until the [...]

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