The Art of the PR Job Hunt

Last week I was invited to City College of New York to talk about “career paths in social media.” I ended up dwelling on career paths in public relations, under which social media most often resides. My co-presenter was the very capable Nadina Guglielmetti (say that three times fast!), who leads Wag-Ed’s digital consulting practice…… Continue reading The Art of the PR Job Hunt

Press Cred

I was checking out the speaker line-up for BlogWorld and New Media Expo after hearing all the Twitter chatter for the Oct. 16-17 confab in Las Vegas. It looks like a great event, and I’d certainly love to attend. After all, this blogger’s been at it a while, bowing in the spring of ’05 “in…… Continue reading Press Cred

“A Journeyman Campaign Flack “

Few will argue with the innovative communications strategy the Obama campaign’s PR consiglieres deployed to catapult him into the presidency. That success bred unanimous accolades, while his opponent’s PR shortcomings spurred general derision — at least from the usual punditry.One industry colleague recently quipped to me that it wasn’t social media and its ability to…… Continue reading “A Journeyman Campaign Flack “

The (Live) Camera Doesn’t Lie

Did you see the piece last week that talked about how YouTube is a favorite among the Al-Qaida crowd for hosting/posting terrorist propaganda video?And then today we have the terrorist release of some new footage — with the hatefully inciteful title “Holocaust of the Americas” — that purportedly shows a resurgent insurgent Taliban battling U.S.…… Continue reading The (Live) Camera Doesn’t Lie

Blue Jet

Who’s not following the problems wrought by the big Nor’easter that besieged the Middle Atlantic States this week, New York among them?And who couldn’t help but notice how the CEO of the nation’s most esteemed airline (is esteemed and airline an oxymoron?) taped a mea culpa as part of last night’s lead story on (the…… Continue reading Blue Jet

The Red Carpet Treatment

“We’re not here to create a show that panders to our celebrity-driven culture.”This is a quote from John Pavlik, spokesman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, who yesterday announced his retirement. The quote appeared in a February 2001 Wall Street Journal piece by Tom King. Shortly thereafter, Slate’s Tim Noah derided the…… Continue reading The Red Carpet Treatment

Bellyaching in Barcelona

Journalists can sometimes be a curmudgeonly bunch. Take this British chap covering the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona this week. Apparently, his inability to land an ethernet connection in the event’s press room produced a hissy fit and general castigation of the global telecon show: “3GSM -The most boring ever? Or just incompetent PR?”He even…… Continue reading Bellyaching in Barcelona

Content Providers

It’s just common sense that as journalism evolves, so must the practice of public relations. Of course, there are some who believe that the art/discipline of journalist engagement is inconsequential (or irrelevant) in PR 2.0.I’m not one, though admittedly the practice has grown more complex given the proliferation of outlets across multiple channels, not to…… Continue reading Content Providers

Part the Velvet Ropes

In my Sunday morning hoops game, the talk among the Advil-infused aging adversaries turned to the annual auction held the night before to benefit the local JCC. After spirited bidding, the top prize finally fetched $33,000. What was it? A Lexus? A round-the-world cruise? A diamond necklace? Noooo. It was a walk-on on the HBO…… Continue reading Part the Velvet Ropes

What Next

I’ve noticed of late that the self-proclaimed purveyor of “what’s next” has been touting in her blog a new book, and specifically a social media contest to generate some viral buzz for the book. How nice, I thought. B.L. Ochman (pictured at right) is giving some social media help to this author for her second…… Continue reading What Next