Public Relations: It’s Not Kid’s Play

September 2nd, 2011 | Narciso Tovar | 14 Comments

As I was on a treadmill the other day (working to get back to my “fighter’s weight”) I found myself noticing the little things all around me.

This is what happens to me once the endorphins begin to kick in and I’m not breathing too heavily (I wasn’t in a boot camp session that day)…

  • a leg extension machine sticking
  • the frayed edges of a stair-stepper
  • some meathead staring at himself *way too long*
  • the syncopated rhythms of other runners on their treadmills
  • … and the photo at the start of this post

And then it hit me: this whole PR/Communication gig is not for the faint-hearted.

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The Hurricane No One Saw Coming

August 29th, 2011 | Shonali Burke | 14 Comments

gravestoneIn all the chatter over Hurricane Irene (which, thankfully, left everyone I know as well as myself more or less unscathed), a hurricane of its own tore through the public relations world on Friday: VMS (Video Monitoring Services of America, LP) has closed its doors.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, VMS was the dominant video monitoring service for years. And I mean years.

Now there are several, probably the most well-known of which is Critical Mention (I have friends who work/ed at both companies, have used VMS in the past, am a former Critical Mention customer, and have no vested interest in either.)

I don’t know if this can be called a hurricane, though, since it seems to have come about with very little warning. Maybe a hurricane waiting to happen?

This is the message that was posted on VMS’ website on Friday: Continue reading »

How to Best Work With a PR Pro

June 2nd, 2011 | Howie Goldfarb | 1 Comment

This is Part 2 of a two-post series

In my last post I discussed the interview process – from the brand side – that brings a PR professional on board for a specific client (upscale gourmet food/dessert B2C). Anyone who is on the brand side can hopefully relate; and if you are in PR, you may get insight that could help you land work you are a good fit for.

But the end result was that we chose a person who, in less than two months, lost our business.

Since then, the person who came in second during our initial interview process now has the work. It is going much better. Seeing as how things did not go smoothly the first time I worked directly with a PR pro, I found that while the person could be quite capable of handling the work, the situation was too late to save before even two months had gone by.

Some background

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