Penn State PR - One Year Later Part III

Allison Kreider is a 2012 graduate of Penn State University and current intern at Lois Paul & Partners. This is the third part of a four-part series covering the many angles of the sex scandal at Penn State from a first-person account and PR perspective. From how the football team, the same football program that was at the heart of the scandal, surpassed all expectations during the 2012 season in light of a new coaching staff and shaken up starting...

A Picture of Health is Worth a Thousand Mumbles

Leave it to Boston's beloved Mayor Menino. In his 20th State of the City address last night he and his very smart handlers knew that, after a recent hospitalization and lengthy rehab period, the most important message that needed to be conveyed was visual -- the Mayor is healthy and he is back to work. Menino good-naturedly takes a lot of hits in Boston for his garbled speech patterns. He is not known as an orator and often gets names...

College Students Answer: Why Tech PR? Connecting with People, Love for Writing and Concern for the Environment

I recently attended Boston College’s career fair. The event was a great success with a huge turn-out of students. These students impressed me by coming fully prepared with printed resumes, knowledge of LPP’s history, good questions and they were dressed to impress (I’m a big fan of that!). As I had assumed, the majority (36 percent) of the students I met with were communication/marketing majors, but interestingly, 20 percent were economics majors – who would have thought!? I loved seeing...

Live vs. Digital Connections -- The Debate Rages On

Heading to work very early one recent morning to get a jump on a major project for a client, I listened on my car radio to the NPR report: "How Our Digital Devices are Affecting our Personal Relationships." I called my husband, who was still at home and I knew was still listening to NPR -- his morning ritual -- to ask what he thought of this report. "Well, I'm looking at the telephone screen so I can communicate with...

What's Going on With Our Heroes?

No surprise. Like I am sure is happening in many companies today, the conversation is hot and heavy around Lance Armstrong’s interview this evening with Oprah Winfrey and the brewing controversy around Manti Te’o’s fictional/non-fictional girlfriend. Like most companies, opinions, humor and fascination abound at LPP. Which led to this blog. “What’s going on with our 'heroes'?" I still fondly remember the summer of 1998, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were chasing the heralded Roger Maris home run record....

Search: Facebook Friends I Actually Like

Question: Do you ever find yourself staring at your Facebook news feed and see: 1.) A status from someone complaining about their love life or workday, or 2.) A wedding date countdown (for someone you most likely only met once, can’t remember how you know them, yet you are aware they are 10 pounds closer to their wedding goal weight?). And then you ultimately ask yourself– why am I connected to these people? And where are my friends? After all,...

Tide Rolls, ESPN Folds and Twittersphere Beholds Katherine Webb

The big story from this year's college football national championship was not Alabama's demolition of Notre Dame. Instead, it was ESPN broadcaster Brent Musburger's comments about Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron's girlfriend, Katherine Webb. When the current Miss Alabama was spotted for the first time by the camera, Musburger and his color man, Kirk Herbstreit, both gushed over the beauty. And while it did go on a bit too long, nothing untoward or disrespectful was said. I would guess that most...

A Schooling on Social Media and Digital PR

Recently, I was invited to speak on the topic of digital PR and social media at the Babson College MBA Entrepreneur Program, taught by adjunct professor and faculty advisory, Angelo Santinelli. I always look forward to these opportunities, as you can learn so much when you are in a room with 40 individuals who have dreams of creating and leading breakthrough companies. One of the toughest things in preparing for this session was determining the level of information to present...

The Big Questions Hiding Behind Google’s PR Stunts

The late – and forgive my enthusiastic cliché – very great Steve Jobs once told Google founder Larry Page to “Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up. It's now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest because they're dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft.” Years later, I can’t help but agree more than ever before. Self-driving cars, “Project Glass”, Android, Chrome, Google+,...

Boston's Startup Media Community is Buzzing

This week's launch of The Hive on Boston.com is further evidence of the thriving startup environment in Boston. As someone who has lived in the area and worked in technology for over 30 years, I've always felt that the media hasn't focused enough on emerging companies. By comparison, the media in Silicon Valley seem to take the opposite tack, always looking to put the spotlight on what's new, even if it isn't proved yet. I'm not going to dredge up...