And so it begins

As a communications professional, political campaigns always make me crazy. They are less about communicating than about mud-slinging. Nothing sickened me more than the last presidential campaign in which a war hero (like him or not, John Kerry was one) was attacked successfully by a candidate who dodged the draft. One would think that taking the high road when it comes to communications -- something we always counsel our clients to do in tough competitive fights -- would be the...

Great tips on successful corporate blogging

In our profession, it's invaluable to have clients that "get" PR and the benefits it brings. It's even more valuable - and rare - for an entire company to embrace social media for collective success. We deliberately stay away from discussing our clients on this blog, but in the rare cases we've done so, it's been to offer best practices and useful tips to all of our clients and prospective clients. One such company that we've had the good fortune...

Don't get Twitter? Don't get Mad

One of the joys of my life is the terrific AMC show "Mad Men". For those of you unfamiliar with it, it follows an advertising agency, Sterling Cooper, during the early 1960s. The show debuted last summer to stellar reviews and a cult audience (that's a nice way of saying small). It is now four shows into its second season and the audience and cult is growing. So much that a few fans took to Twitter earlier this week in...

The Elite Eight

It's the home stretch of the PR Week blog competition, and we're still standing along with seven other excellent opponents. Our current match-up is with Intake, a blog with a unique focus on internal communications from the folks at Insidedge. Given the competition from the original field of 32, we're grateful to have made it this far. We have you, the readers of our blog, to thank for that. We'd love your continued support, so please go here to vote...

Twitter, FriendFeed and political convention season

I'm dragging. I'll admit, I love the Olympics and the broadcasts until midnight are killing me. I thought last night how I'm happy they're almost done, until I quickly realized that I'll get no respite next week or the week after. Presidential convention season starts and the prime time broadcasts will be packed. But the season will be different for me this time around. My information consumption will go far beyond the networks' broadcasts, NPR and the like. I'm looking...

It's a Wonderful Career (With Apologies to Frank Capra)

George Bailey woke up not to his alarm, but to the persistent beeping of his cell phone. Mary was already up and downstairs, so he reluctantly rolled out of bed and found the offending phone. It was a text message from ZuZu. Can’t make it home this weekend. Sorry, Dad. Luv 2 Mom. Z College kids. George checked his blackberry, but there surprisingly was nothing new except for some spam. Ever since he was able to turn the Building and...

See You in September?

As we move into mid August, the inevitable question of whether it's a good or bad time to make an important announcement comes up. Historically, the approach has been to conduct business as usual through the second week of month, but to then defer anything important until after Labor Day. The thinking was always, who's going to be around to read it? Won't everyone that matters be on vacation? The question is still a good one to ask, but the...

The PR Paper Chase

One of the recent stories from the storage space was Asigra suing ROBObak for libel. The case stems from two press releases ROBObak issued recently. What interests me about this case is that ROBObak's PR firm was named. I only know about this case from some stories in the storage trade pubs, and do not know anyone at the agency or at the two companies. The case is a reminder of what a PR agency person needs to think about...

Brave New World of Communications; You're In or You're Out

We're pleased to share with you the first of an ongoing series of guest columns Lois is writing for O'Dwyer PR. This was published on August 7. It must have been extremely odd for the live actors of early radio and TV broadcasts when very few people had radios or TVs. It was like putting on a play for an empty theater. Unless they were performing before a studio audience, they would have no idea if they were playing to...

The Presidential Digital Divide Widens

Barack Obama and his campaign people have been sending me emails daily for a while now, keeping me informed of his movements and positions and asking me to donate. Now I learned through the blogosphere that I can be informed of his vice presidential running mate decision over email -- yet another indication of the enormous difference between the two presidential candidates, as well as the growth and importance of social media today. And if you're not an email person,...