Distractions Detract from Work

Ironic that I'm blogging about distractions detracting from work, when I probably could be doing something more productive myself. I just saw this article being tweeted about by Vocus, and I was intrigued.

Once, after a loss, former Tennessee Titans’ coach Jeff Fisher made this statement to the media about his team’s effort:

“I think you have to be able to deal with distractions, put them in perspective and move on. Distractions are the primary reason for losing football games. ”

He didn’t chalk up the loss to a poor planning, a bad strategy, or lack of effort. He pinned the losing effort on distractions.

Read more about "Why Distractions Mean Failure in Football and Marketing."

Making QR Work for Your PR

We all know what QR codes are, and what they do, but few of us have figured out how to use them consistently and effectively in our public relations and marketing efforts. We might have stuck a toe in the water to see if the general public knows what to do with them, but being tentative in this case doesn't get the job done. Just like any effort in public relations, there must be solid strategy behind it.

Read 5 Steps to a Successful QR Campaign

Questioning the Media

In our local chapter, we have had a few speakers over the last couple of years address those scary moments in PR - the ones where you are on the defensive or are in desperate need of your crisis communication skills. Even this last month, we had Jeff Nene from Convoy of hope relay a great message about keeping communication lines open with all audiences during crisis mode.

Today, I found a quick article about Media Training to share - one that addresses the kinds of questions you should ask the media BEFORE responding to their questions. The author points out that this is your opportunity to get your information out there, you don't want them to have the opportunity to manipulate your words and you need to protect your organization (and your job).

Take a look and see if you have anything to add - feel free to sound off below!

Ladies, you get what you grab for!

Public relations is a field for both men and women, but this article is geared specifically toward helping women get noticed and promoted for their own abilities. I think the content is worthwhile for anyone, though, so take a moment and read Sarah Evans' piece, "Five Social Tips for Women to Increase Media Exposure." You'll see how you can gain credibility to draw in business - especially for those who choose to freelance or work in an agency (rather than working for one organization).

Hyper Alerts - the notifications Facebook doesn't provide

For all it's benefits for organizations, Facebook lacks function to notify page admins when someone posts to a "fan" page. I came across a Facebook post from Social:IRL linking to a Hubspot blog post about Hyper Alerts, a free service that sends these missing e-mail notifications.

Note: Apparently, because of its popularity, the "ASAP" option on e-mails is temporarily suspended while they move to a new server. But, once it's back functioning, won't that be nice?

It's not going away - so find your voice!

You may be tired of hearing about social media, the value of Twitter, the need to be social, etc. There is a reason to put effort into this arena, though: it's not going away. Even if it is not the BEST way to reach your target audience, it is a valuable avenue for reaching at least part of a segment.

As we've talked about before, it's all about who you follow and maintaining a consistent voice. You don't need to share the minute details of your day - especially if your audience is primarily clients. Know your audience and share something valuable.

Read this article about sharing valuable information - and how to make yourself re-tweetable.

How serious do you look?

For your reading pleasure, I recommend this Journalistics blog post entitled "Is social media the cause of the casual office?" I think it brings up great points about how social networking has changed the job of customer service and public relations - to a more friendly and casual style. Can you adequately represent your company in jeans and flip flops? Do you think you have to be in a suit to be taken seriously? Or is there a happy medium?

Think about it.

Think before you send

Here's a little piece to get you thinking about your media distribution list and strategy for distributing your news, and it will also refresh you on "pitching" stories.

The primary takeaway from the article is this: think before you send....easy enough, right?

Don't forget: our chapter now has a Delicious account to share and bookmark great articles!

Article focuses on finding the right mix

Brian Solis offers insight into the marketing and PR mix in this new article, "The Hybrid Theory Manifesto," part one of three.

Hybrid Theory |ˈhīˌbrid thee-uh-ree |: The fusion of creative and communications, combining earned and paid media to enliven ideas, unite communities, amplify stories and spark desired outcomes.

Read the article here

Another Gem from Journalistics

Jeremy Porter has yet another great post today about timing news releases. In a never ending news cycle, is there a "best time" to send a news release?

Read what Jeremy has to say.

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

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

Share the errors

Since copy editing is part of what we do on a regular basis, I find myself noticing errors in publications as well as websites I read. When I stumbled across these two sites, I found them fascinating:

• mediabugs.org - a site to report errors in the news (specifically in the California area)
• goosegrade.com - a site to start a dialogue between website readers and website content providers

Sometimes, it is who you know

Here's a great little article from Journalistics - it's full of tidbits to remind you about the importance and etiquette of networking.

Build a Stronger Network

How many people did you meet last week? How many people have you had a meaningful conversation with this week? Who have you helped this week? These are questions I ask myself all the time. For me, relationships are the most valuable currency of business. It’s important to meet new people and keep up with my existing relationships. It’s cliche, but it’s true… sometimes it is who you know.

Read the rest of the article

New stylebook coming this summer

I, for one, wouldn't be caught at work without my "AP Stylebook." But, a post on today's "PR Daily Newsfeed" from Ragan.com caught my attention.

Yahoo is publishing a styleguide for online writing in July. Here's the link to The Business Insider story. Amazon.com has it available for pre-order.

It's not ALL about the razzle dazzle

There is a constant struggle in all of our jobs to remain relevant, provide good information and stay updated with technology (social media, etc.). This article, "Memo To News Sites: There Is No Future In Digital Razzle Dazzle," tells us that journalists (as well as PR professionals providing news and information) need to not only think of the flashy new technology, but to remember your audience and your duty to provide solid information.

What we’re learning is that the key to building and keeping traffic is far more prosaic than multimedia and sharing buttons. It rests on overcoming a huge cultural barrier: evolving a serious, experienced, thoughtful newsroom into an audience-first organization. I use the term “evolving” because this is all about the present tense. Trying to understand our current and future audience is a work in progress that will continue for as long as we publish on the web.

Read the article here