A new direction: I’m moving to Chicago
Life is comprised of key decisions that affect you and the closest people around you. This is one of those decisions.
I’ve accepted a position on the Digital team at Weber Shandwick in Chicago. This is a great opportunity for me to further my career. I’m excited to be working in a very hot niche that is a necessity for companies to excel – digital media.
This move also allows me to be with my beautiful girlfriend who has stood behind my every decision for the past four years. We both couldn’t be happier and we’re very excited about the future.
Now the hard part – Feb. 5 will be my last day serving as Public Relations Specialist for Thunderbird. It feels like just yesterday that I joined the team (ok it was really July 2, 2007). The experience I received was priceless. I went from not knowing anything about higher education PR to falling in love with it. Whether it was the local media looking for an expert source or the international media reporting on higher ed trends, the phone was always ringing. It was a great job.
Special thanks to my director Carol Sunnucks for taking a chance on me almost three years ago, then giving me the skill set I have today and finally for being a great mentor. I also want to thank Frank Neville and Emily Gladnick for always leading me in the right direction. I lucked out by having such great colleagues (too many to name) and a fun work environment.
I wouldn’t be active in PRSA if it wasn’t for two people I admire in the PR world – Felice Appell and Abbie Fink. Of course I plan to be just as active in the Chicago chapter.
I also want to thank Tiffany Erickson, Matt Simpson, Deborah Rosenstock, the Phoenix PRSA New Pros, all my Theta Chi brothers and of course my family for always lending an ear. There are so many more people who have shaped my Arizona years, the last six year’s of my life, that deserve my praises and thanks. I thank you all.
Goodbye Arizona.
Here’s to the future….
Bill Gates bursts onto Twitter
Around 3 p.m. EST Bill Gates officially became a member of the Twitter community. His number of followers was increasing by the hundreds every minute. The PR Practitioner has a minute by minute breakdown of the amount of followers he has and lists he was part of from earlier today. He gained 5,345 followers between 6:43 and 6:58 p.m. That’s almost 6 followers per second!
Time Followers Listed
6:43 p.m. 13,862 555
6:44 p.m. 14,075 567
6:45 p.m. 14,359 583
6:46 p.m. 14,705 601
6:47 p.m. 15,093 621
6:48 p.m. 15,415 634
6:49 p.m. 15,828 652
6:50 p.m. 16,103 667
6:51 p.m. 16,601 688
6:52 p.m. 16,891 702
6:53 p.m. 17,501 727
6:54 p.m. 17,836 736
6:55 p.m. 18,139 752
6:56 p.m. 18,462 767
6:57 p.m. 18,873 778
6:58 p.m. 19,207 792
9:23 p.m. 86,178 2,588
10:37 p.m. 103,346 3,101
As of 11:19 p.m., Gates had 113,152 followers and was part of 3,420 lists.
When does sponsorship go too far?
I was recently watching the People’s Choice Awards. The television show “Glee” received an award for best new TV comedy. They took the stage and said thank you to the fans, but this thank you was different than most. One of the cast members said they wanted to thank all of their fans by buying the audience pizza.
All of a sudden at least 20 waiters and waitresses (really models) marched down the aisles holding DiGiorno pizzas and wearing DiGiorno aprons. The cameras followed the models as they handed out pizza.
This is sponsorship at the next level. We’re used to the corporate sponsors for sporting events and awards ceremonies, but this goes too far. Sponsors diluted the real meaning of this awards show.
Will there ever be a limit as to what people can sponsor?
The video from the awards show (start watching 1 minute into the video):
Companies pay you to talk and tweet about them
Attention companies: Kim Kardashian will tweet about your product for a mere $10,000 (per tweet).
Attention companies: If you provide excellent customer service and I enjoy using your product, I’ll do it for free!
I’ve never used Web sites such as PayPerTweet.com or PayPerPost.com, but it’s more and more evident that others do. I think it’s great that ordinary people and celebrities get paid to endorse products in the online world, but I don’t know if I could ever bring myself to do that. It’s great because it’s an easy way for people to make money, but it’s completely wrong because your tweets/blog posts lack authenticity.
Who are you if you don’t have your own voice? Who are you once people find out your receiving money for your tweets/posts? Do you then become less credible?
I hope everyone who uses these services discloses to their readers/followers that they are reading paid content.
Editor’s Update: In an effort to see what everyone is talking about, I just signed up for ad.ly. If I am chosen to tweet about products (which I doubt I will be), I will fully disclose this AND I plan to do a full blog series on how it changes my Twitter relationships.
Social media for your special occasion
Photographer – Check
DJ – Check
Videographer- Check
Social Media Consultant – ????
It’s no secret that if companies don’t have social media presence already, they have severely fallen behind. It’s also not a secret that individuals use the social media site Twitter to express their thoughts on everything, from everywhere (such as the bathroom, the park and work).
I seem to see a lot of live tweets from special events such as weddings. I recently read an article about a groom posting a just married tweet before kissing his bride. With twitter now main stream, how long will it be before we see individuals offer their services as a professional tweeter for special occasions? You already hire a photographer and a videographer partly because Aunt Robin and Uncle Joe can’t make it. Why not hire a professional tweeter who is responsible for live tweeting throughout the occasion?
There is nothing stopping consultants from charging for a strategy and day of execution. I bet a hash tag on Twitter to follow along and a video of the first kiss almost instantly as it happens would be part of the consultants plan.
Would you hire a social media consultant for your special occasion?
*photo from: The All Tweet Journal
Getting creative: making a video resume
More and more people seem to be looking for employment. The unemployment rate in October 2009 was 9.5% of the labor force in the U.S. (14.3% in Michigan!). Job seekers will do anything to be creative and get the attention of a hiring manager. One creative, but not so new way to grab the attention of a hiring manager is creating a video resume.
There are over 15,000 results when you search “video resume” on YouTube. One of the keys to a solid video resume is substance. Make sure you introduce yourself, talk about your qualifications and show your true character. Most PR pros don’t have a problem showing their true character. Here is a great blog post that provides 10 things that go into a great video resume.
Watch Ray’s (spoof) video resume for an example of what your video resume should not look like:
What are you video resume experiences? Have you successfully landed your video resume in front of a hiring manager?
Guest Post on Twinked.In
I recently wrote a guest post on Twinked.In “Twitter & LinkedIn Link Up Benefits PR Pros.”
TwinkedIn.com aims to be a resource for professionals who are ready to take their social networking to the next level. The site features guest posts and how-to’s, as well as a community forum.
Guest Post on PRSA’s New Pros Blog
I wrote a guest post on PRSA’s New Pros blog, “The mistake I stopped making.” The post is about a mistake that I made when I first entered the full-time workforce. PRSA’s New Pros blog is a great resource for new professionals and college students focusing on PR.
Conferences: Share with me, don’t talk at me
Last week I attended the AACSB Building B-School Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona. This conference was different than most. Besides it being exclusively for higher education communicators and development folks (the people who ask for donations), 60% of it was simply sharing best practices.
Each participant was asked to fill out a questionnaire before hand and was notified of each session’s topics. There were only 25 people in the communicators track. The AACSB asked participants to come prepared and this model for a conference worked effectively.
I’ve attended other conferences where you would sit from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. for three days of constant sessions and keynoters. I would write down information and want to discuss it with others in the room, but there would never be time because you would always have to keep moving to the next session if you wanted to get a good seat.
Sharing best and worst practices with other people in your industry is priceless. More conferences should allow an extended period of time for this advanced sharing and networking.
*According to Wikipedia, symposium originally referred to a drinking party. Of course we had a “reception” at the symposium.
Nine factors that determine news value
It’s always important to be reminded of the basics. Earlier this week I sat in on a presentation for new newspaper writers. The presenter went over the basics of news writing and what journalists should look for when thinking of stories.
The following are nine major factors that determine news value. As PR practitioners, we need to craft our pitches with the following factors in mind:
- Timeliness – Don’t pitch or send a news release about an event that happened two weeks ago. New news is always better than old news (unless it’s a source pitch about an anniversary of a major event)
- Proximity – Don’t pitch your news to the locals in Detroit if your company is located in Arizona and has no Detroit ties.
- Usefulness – People love practical tips and lists.
- Prominence – Even though cable news shows are always looking for sources, they would still rather have the leading expert (or someone famous) on to comment as opposed to someone with an uneducated opinion on the subject.
- Impact – The more people your story affects, the better.
- Novelty – The weird and odd stories are always an easy sell.
- Conflict – We love to hear about turmoil, fighting and the little guy defeating the big guy.
- Human Interest – People are interesting.
- Sex Appeal – Things that are trendy sell easier.
In your opinion, which of the above are the more important factors that determine news value?
