I was surprised (although not much) to read that Vocus, who owns PRWeb and many other media companies, was buying Help a Reporter Out, a website that connects companies with reporters. I’ve been using HARO for several years as a great tool to find media leads for my clients. I’ve been interviewed and had my [...]

Posted in Announcements, PR No Comments »

This is one of the posts based on the Small Business Trends list I’ll be blogging about this year. When you’re submersed in new and ever-changing technology, you often don’t look back to reflect on how much has changed in your industry. Today I want to look back at public relations and reflect on the [...]

Posted in PR 1 Comment »

I recently wrote a tongue-in-cheek post about how to get your pitch trashed. I decided I’d draft a reply email that I very well may send the next time I get a horrible pitch. Here goes. Dear [blank]: Thank you for your untargeted pitch. I can see you don’t read my blog about PR and [...]

Posted in PR, Press Releases 2 Comments »

I’ve been thinking about pitches lately. Probably because I get a lot of them. And most of them suck. I trash those. I get releases that are simply a cut/paste of a press release. That has nothing to do with my interests. Trash. I get endlessly long email pitches that take forever to get to [...]

Posted in PR, Press Releases 2 Comments »

Once upon a time, in a land not far away, reporters got the scoop. They received phone tips or faxes on hot stories. They drove to locations to interview people about these stories. Flash forward to today. Stories come in via Twitter, Facebook and AP RSS feeds. Journalists are now hybrid reporters/bloggers. Their content is [...]

Posted in PR, Social Media, Marketing & Networking 1 Comment »

I published this article on Mashable.com this week and it got great feedback. It’s clear that the public relations landscape is changing. No longer does emailing a journalist a press release always result in coverage on major news channels (there are exceptions, naturally, but the average business doesn’t get on Oprah). These days, journalists (and [...]

Posted in PR, Social Media, Marketing & Networking 4 Comments »

So as you know, I’ve been conferencing a lot lately. First I was at Type A Mom, a conference for mom bloggers. Then I went to IZEAFest last weekend. I’m excited to report back that there’s something in the air. No, it’s not Ted Murphy’s new bacon cologne. It’s a shift in how public relations [...]

Posted in PR, Social Media, Marketing & Networking No Comments »

Here’s another post I wrote for Bill Stoller’s Publicity Insider. If you have a blog, or have thought about starting one, you may only be thinking in terms of how your blog will help generate attention for your product or service. But have you considered working with other blogs to get publicity? If not, you’re [...]

Posted in Blogs, PR No Comments »