June 28, 2010

Bookmark this digital glossary

This is a great article to bookmark if you're feeling a little less than tech savvy - it's a digital age glossary.

Read entire article

The days are over when a journalist could ignore those geeks in the corner who typed lines of code, worked on the website and spoke in a bizarre language populated with acronyms. Any journalist's story now may be distributed with an API; information gathered by a reporter could be used in a mashup or shared via Scribd.


This glossary will help you wade through such terms. They relate to Web standards, programming, online tools, social networking, online advertising and basic technology. If you're particularly challenged, this thing called an iPhone is even defined for you. Get started now -- the list will grow more quickly than your relatives join Facebook.

Go to the glossary

June 24, 2010

Media relations maven Margo Mateas will train local PR professionals

The planning for the Professional Development Conference are moving along nicely, and the team is happy to announce another exciting speaker has been confirmed: Margo Mateas. She will refresh us on the basics, reminding us all of the importance of packaging a story, developing an angle and pitching it.

You can read more about this media relations maven on her website http://www.mediarelationsmaven.com/presentation_skills.html.

June 14, 2010

Twitter Wedding - What does it mean for us?

These two are possibly (no question actually in my mind) taking an obsession with social media too far: they are live streaming their wedding and having a Tweet-up at their reception.

Read the story here

What do you think?

As public relations and marketing professionals, we need to remember that there are those that want this much information out there about them. This means their expectations of communication are different, and while it's an unorthodox way to host your wedding and reception, we should try to anticipate what this may mean for us.

June 11, 2010

Is the Recession Deleting Your Message?

Today’s PRSA Issues & Trends has an excellent article on circumventing the media, leveraging your PR with SEO, etc. (“7 Benefits of Partnering SEO & PR” at www.toprankblog.com/2010/06/7ways-pr-seo) I’m happy to say I’ve been doing this stuff with my biggest client for several years. I’m unhappy to say the excellent results of our efforts are dwindling. It doesn’t help that my client’s target market could care less about social media. They’re just not into it, thus eliminating a valuable tool. So, my client and I are scratching our heads mightily.

It’s no coincidence the trouble started in the fall of 2008 when it looked like the economy was slipping into the abyss. I think all PR professionals face a serious challenge as the recession drags on – getting your message read, viewed or whatever as those you want to reach are too busy running their struggling business, hanging onto their jobs or looking for a job. Don’t blame the ever-rising tide of marketing messages that bombard everyone 24-7 because that’s nothing new.

Is the recession a huge distraction for the folks we want to communicate with? How do we overcome this? If our target audience is focusing more on the economy than what we’re putting in front of them, then we have a trough road ahead because I don’t think our economic woes will go away any time soon. This recession is unlike any others and economists I have interviewed don’t see us breaking even – the economy regaining what it has lost – until 2014.


June message from the president

Professional conferences: Snooze? Or spark? If you don’t see the relevance to your particular niche in public relations, a conference can be one big yawn.


But don’t ask that question of chapter members Claire Faucett, Randy Berger, Tom Ellis and now president-elect Don Hendricks. They would tell you otherwise, having attended one of PRSA’s many top notch conferences this year. In fact, Don just returned from a PRSA Leadership Rally in New York City for chapter leaders.

However, you don’t have to go far for a top flight conference. On Sept. 30, our own chapter presents a professional development conference of the highest caliber. Planning chair Paula Ringer and her committee have already booked Dr. Joseph Trahan whose topic will be “Top Dog Barks First —The Spokesperson’s Role,” and Josh Stoffregen who has moved Prudential Financial’s global PR forward using social media. Josh is a fairly recent graduate of Missouri State University who now works in New York City.

Circle Sept. 30 on your calendars—you won’t want to miss our Professional Development Conference.

In October, I’ll be joining Melinda Arnold, our Assembly delegate, at PRSA’s International Conference in Washington, D.C. Would you consider attending, too? Leaders in social technology emergence, crisis communication, and public affairs will present keynote sessions. One of those is a panel on how health care reform and public affairs will interact.

We’re taking a break from our regular monthly meetings in June, but I look forward to seeing you in July.

June 10, 2010

Professional development conference set for September 30

The Southwest Missouri Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is excited to host the upcoming 6th Annual 2010 Professional Development Conference, September 30, 2010, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., at the Springfield Chamber of Commerce.


Your PRSA committee is making preparations to engage you in relevant, lively professional development again this year. It is our intention to give you a power-packed day at last year’s prices, and we’ll offer the early bird registration discount again. Registration will soon be available online at our web site.

Keynote speakers this year are Dr. Joseph Trahan, APR Fellow, who will energize you with the nuts and bolts on bringing positive PR to your organization, by teaching company spokespersons how to remain focused and proactive. Keynote Josh Stoffregen will tell his real-life story of moving global PR forward in the “traditional” financial corporate structure of Prudential. Find out what breakthroughs in the digital realm played a part in his advancement. Plus, we’re working on a panel centered on this question: If we were hiring today, or being hired, what would we bring to the table?

Please attend! The conversation, networking and learning opportunities will be worth your investment. Be sure to watch for updates at http://www.swprsa.org/. Invite clients and colleagues to this one.

Vocus acquires HARO

I've mentioned Help A Reporter Out on here before, but now, it's about to get even more exposure - VOCUS acquired it. You can read the details at "Journalistics."

HARO has built an impressive base of users over the past two years, becoming one of the most popular PR services. HARO’s success is largely due to its foundation as a journalist-friendly PR service.


From day one, HARO founder Peter Shankman (@skydiver) has gone to great lengths to protect journalists from the persistent problem of PR spam – the sending of off-topic pitches to journalists. By being strict about the rules of engagement for pitching journalists through HARO, the service has also become one of the most popular tools used by journalists in the news gathering process.

While I suspect a lot of long-time HARO purists will worry about how the service will change once it becomes part of the Vocus offering, both sides know users don’t want that. According to Peter Shankman, “Nothing will change.” He’s joining the Vocus team and will be working with the company on further extending the value of HARO to users, as part of the Vocus family – while preserving the integrity of HARO, and finding ways to make it even better.

Bill Wagner, CMO for Vocus, reinforced that HARO will not change, assuring me that the company plans to keep HARO free – but they want to make it even better. He says, “HARO is staying free, we’re just going to make it more valuable for users. We’re still exploring our options here, but want users to know we’re not getting rid of anything that’s there.”

Read the entire article here

June 8, 2010

To schedule or not to schedule

Hootsuite and now Tweetdeck allow users to schedule Tweets. It's nice if you know you'll be out of the office. You can keep the flow of information going. Or, if you have multiple posts to make and don't want to make them all at the same time.

But, is it genuine communication in the true spirit of social media? Some say "yes"; some say "no." Read more from the PR Breakfast Club.

What do you think? Do you schedule or only post live?

June 2, 2010

AP Stylebook Adds 42 New Guidelines for Social Media

Check out these new changes - reported on Mashable today:

The AP Stylebook has released its new social media guidelines, including the official change from “Web site” to “website” (a move first reported back in April) and 41 other definitions, use cases and rules that journalists should follow.


Among the more interesting changes –- at least from a grammar and style standpoint –- are separating out “smart phone” as two words, hyphenating “e-reader,” and allowing fan, friend and follow to be used both as nouns and verbs.

Click here to read the rest of the article

June 1, 2010

Integrating social media into event planning

When you are planning your next event, take some hints from this Journalistics article, Social Media for Event Marketing.

Whether you’re marketing an international trade show, a regional conference or an informal ‘tweet up’, there are a variety of social media tools out there that can help you boost attendance and generate widespread buzz for your event marketing efforts. I’ve pulled together a few social media event marketing suggestions that I’ve found helpful, organized by Before, At and Following your event activities.

Read the rest of the article here.