How to Avoid Getting Gronk'd

If you follow Beyond the Hype, it's clear that we have a few Boston sports fans at the agency. And because we're PR people, it's impossible for us not to have opinions on the multitude of "PR moments" our teams have offered up lately. During a spirited debate with my colleague, Mike Parker, about New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski's bye week PR blunder, we argued all angles of the story -- from "this is so not a big...

Ziff Davis Enterprise Goes All-Digital: Why It's a Good Thing for PR

Folks that have been in tech PR for 10 years or more may have intially met the news earlier this week that the Ziff Davis Enterprise publications, including the venerable eWEEK, are going all digital in 2012 with consternation. More fuel for the "PR is dead" fire, some may have thought. This is the exact wrong way to look at it. Here's why. Validating Pew's State of the Media Report In March, I blogged about Pew's must-read State of the...

A Lesson in Connecting and Controlling the Message: Theo's Farewell to Red Sox Nation

For those who follow them, the Boston Red Sox are a cross between an addiction, a religion and even a cult. Spurred by a combination of their tragic loser past and their vindicating championships in 2004 and 2007, that following has grown beyond New England into a "Red Sox Nation" with fan(atic)s across the country and even the world. That is why the Red Sox historic collapse this year -- the startling revelations about drinking during games, team disharmony, and...

Hey, Gamers, Let Journalists Do Their Jobs!

My son, Tyler, who is an avid "gamer," flagged an exchange between a gaming industry journalist who conducted a perfectly reasonable interview with the two developers of id Software's Rage game and was not only attacked by fans of the game, but may also be blacklisted by some corporate types for being too harsh in his questioning. Brandon Sheffield, the editor-in-chief of Game Developer Magazine and senior editor of the Gamasutra site, blogged about the experience: "A few weeks ago...

Calling All PR Pros...Be Bold!

Years ago, I had a CEO client who used to like to prod and poke, and wonder when his "story" would be on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, above the fold of course. He'd usually cap it off by saying, "will they need my picture for the pencil sketch, or do they send an artist to draw me?" All joking aside, I used to tell him that I could guarantee prominent treatment like that if he, like...

Why We Love Our Clients!

I know it's not November yet, but I'm already in the thankful mindset, which lately I've been trying to enforce more often than not. We hosted our annual Austin open house event last night at our office downtown. We had a great time visiting with old and new clients and hearing directly from colleagues about how they are doing. I feel lucky to have the clients that we do - we work with a talented and personable group, and I...

Social Media Strategy for B2B Technology Companies

We've cited Forrester's Social Technographics research several times on this blog. It's useful because it helps answer questions that should be asked as the VERY FIRST step in developing social media strategy: Who are my buyers and what are their personas? What sources of information influence their buying process and where does social media rank among those sources? What social computing behaviors do your buyers have? Over the summer, Forrester updated its Social Technographics research for business technology buyers (purchase...

Damage Control Lesson from Heidi Watney

It's been a rough couple of weeks if you're a die-hard Red Sox fan. The team's September collapse has been widely reported -- gleefully reported in markets that hate the Sox and the succession of victories of Boston sports teams in general in recent years. Fans feel angry, frustrated and betrayed. They want answers to what happened, why did it happen, and what is the management of the team going to do about it? That kind of pent up interest...

A Tribute to a Visionary, RIP Steve Jobs

This week the technology industry and the world lost the “Einstein” of today’s generation. Steve Jobs meant something different to all of us. He was a technology pioneer, innovator, “the guy who invented the iPod,” a colleague, friend, father and husband. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own...

BostonGlobe.com -- All the News That Fits You and Your Form Factor

This week I attended BusinessWire's 50th Annivesary Party at the Boston Harbor Hotel. I would like to congratulate my friends Sanford Paek, Jennifer Saragosa and everyone we work with at BusinessWire for this accomplishment. Fifty is quite a milestone and I commend them for continually adapting their business to the ever-shifting communications landscape, and for their commitment to great customer service. Sanford invited Christopher Mayer, the publisher of The Boston Globe to say a few words and the timing couldn't...