6 Media Training Tips for Former Presidents

Before one of them goes on a book tour to pitch a tome designed to fix their legacy, rewrite history or make themselves feel better, I respectfully suggest our former presidents commit to memory the following guidelines for media interviews: 1. If you are not good at broadcast interviews, don't do them. 2. Remember your mother's advice that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything. 3. You still represent the country, so always be gracious. 4....

5 Smart Communications Practices to Implement Right Now

The fourth and final question in the 4/4/4 Four Communications Issues. Four Perspectives. Four Weeks. Blog series, is the "Top Five Smart Communications Practices Companies Need to Implement Right Now." In keeping with the four week theme, it might have been cool to keep to four smart comms practices but "Top Five" is never a bad thing. From our perspective, it boils down to the following: Listen Actively As we've covered before, the new role of active and proactive listening...

Virtually in Dallas, A chat with Ovum's Tim Stammers on Citrix

I had a chance to catch up with Ovum Senior Analyst Tim Stammers after he attended a recent Citrix analyst event in Dallas, Texas. The following is a quick recap of the discussion. Tim, I understand there was considerable discussion it seemed coming out of the event about how relevant Citrix is in the virtual infrastructure, what’s your take? It’s difficult to credit Citrix with much influence over virtual infrastructure, aka public and private cloud building. Citrix’ XenServer is technically...

Is Zuckerberg’s PR Move Crafty or Just Bad Timing?

Like many of you out there, I am very much looking forward to seeing the movie coming out next Friday, The Social Network, or as my friends refer to it – "that Facebook movie." There is also another interesting movie coming out today, Waiting for Superman. Oddly enough, these two movies have something very interesting in common – Mark Zuckerberg. Obviously, the tech and social media folks appear to be ready to fill the seats to see The Social Network...

First day of Fall-ing

I was struck earlier this week, the first full day of Fall, by the number of interesting public relations issues surfacing in the news, how they’re being covered, addressed and crisis communications insights provided within the stories. Salmonella egg outbreak In reading the coverage in the Wall Street Journal (Egg Company Owner Apologizes For Ordeal), USA TODAY (Egg farm inspector linked to earlier case), and the Boston Globe (High-risk egg farms to get first inspections) all three stories covered the...

Check out first. THEN log your opinion.

There's an unbelievable story in the UK right now about a couple who were ousted from a seaside resort hotel by the manager who believed they posted a negative review of the hotel on TripAdvisor. Adding insult to injury, the hotel manager called the police to remove the couple. "Blackpool police confirmed that they had been called to the Golden Beach Hotel to remove a man who had not committed a crime. "No offense had been committed by the couple,...

What role should a PR agency play in a client’s social media?

This week's question, number three in the 4/4/4 series inspired by Steve Farnsworth, Lou Hoffman, Paul Roberts and Todd Defren is "What Role Should a Communications Agency Play in a Client's Social Media?" I'm sure this one may get a few differing opinions. Can you outsource social media activity to an agency? Can an agency ghost tweet? Can an agency help promote a client via social media without being open, authentic and transparent? Can an agency raise awareness around products...

Top 5 B2B social media blogs (Google vs. Technorati vs ?)

Google recently made a useful change to its blog search algorithm. The change makes Google a better resource for finding more than just individual blog posts about a topic query, but an entire blog itself. A question I posed when sharing this post via Twitter and Facebook was whether this makes Technorati more irrelevant than it has become over the years. And do the results provide more value? As a way to compare the differences between the two blog search...

Is there such a thing as a guarantee in PR?

It must be the unsettled economic times. Or perhaps it is the mid-term elections. More and more frequently these days we are hearing questions from otherwise savvy individuals in our client base regarding whether we can provide a guarantee if they follow our recommendations. The conversation goes something like this: Us: "We convinced that WSJ reporter to interview your customer about XXX." Client: "I'm not sure we're comfortable with letting them talk with our customer unless they will guarantee they...

What communications pros need to do to stay relevant

In the second installment of the "4/4/4 Four Communications Issues. Four Perspectives. Four Weeks. Blog Series," inspired by the creative minds of Steve Farnsworth, Paul Roberts, Lou Hoffman and Todd Defren, the question is "To Stay Relevant How Do Communications Professionals Need To Evolve?" Maintaining relevance is one of my personal favorite topics. It's something I discuss daily with colleagues and clients alike; however, mostly from the standpoint of what is going on in the market, with media, analysts, conversations...