There is nothing I love more than eating out at a great restaurant in Detroit! The question is, how do I choose just one fabulous restaurant to review for the thousands of hungry public relations professionals that will be looking for a place to eat at the PRSA 2008 International Conference in Detroit?

From Greek to Cuban to Italian to American, you can find any type of restaurant in the D! They are all just a quick walk, People Mover ride, or taxi away from the Renaissance Center. As a matter of convenience for Conference attendees, I narrowed it down to one of the several amazing restaurants in the Ren Cen. Of those, my favorite is Seldom Blues.

Seldom Blues offers premier cuisine with superb live jazz music and an incredible view of the Detroit River. Located on Level 1 of Tower 400, Seldom Blues is the place to be for fine dining and music lovers!
…..Click here to read more

Blogging is so much more than just an important tool in the overall public relations counselor’s arsenal. Rather, it represents that rare opportunity in which we can not only provide counsel, but “live the experience” as well.

It was that intention to live the experience that first drove me to launch my own blog, Repman, two years ago. As is the case with any client I counsel, I was intent on first discovering what the “competition” was doing, what I could uniquely own and, critically, what fresh content I could generate to reinforce my desired positioning and point of view (POV).

The blog’s name, Repman, was a winner in terms of being a double entendre. It served as both an abbreviation for my subject area, reputation management, as well as becoming a “nickname” for me personally. I stayed laser-focused on my blogs. Each and every one dealt with image or reputation. Each and every one provided my POV on the good, the bad and the ugly. And, each and every one reflected my personality: edgy, irreverent, hopeful, and insightful.
…..Click here to read more

A colleague of mine, Andrea Canabal, introduced me to the wisdom of Penelope Trunk during one of our mentoring sessions (author of “Brazen Careerist: The New Rules of Success”). Because I oversee GM’s communications intern recruiting team, this astute young professional suggested I read Penelope’s book for insight into how Generation X and Y employees view their careers, which as we know, is very different. Consider the startling Department of Labor statistic Penelope cites in her book: By the time professionals reach age 32, they’ve had, on average, 8.6 jobs!

Andrea had read Penelope’s Yahoo! career column over the years and appreciated her no-nonsense career guidance. For every bit of sage advice I thought I was giving Andrea, she related it to a chapter in Penelope’s book. The short, meaningful chapter titles read like pithy maxims. Two of my favorites follow: “There are no bad bosses, only whiny employees,” and “Being likeable matters more than being competent.”  

Interestingly, Penelope has a lot to say about our Conference theme, connection. In one chapter, she talks about the importance of interpersonal communication. “In person, you get nonverbal information about someone that you can’t get through e-mail. And that person gets information about you, too. The connection is more informative just because it’s in person.” Duh!  We all know that, but how many hundreds of e-mails do we send in a week without calling someone or even walking over to meet in person?
…..Click here to read more

If you are like most of the marketing and communication professionals I talk to regularly, you are probably thinking about the impact of top social networking sites on your company, your projects and your job description.

How do you go from contemplating a plan of action to producing tangible results?

First, understand the difference between “broadcast” and “social” distribution. Broadcast is defined as any traditional media, such as TV and print and includes “central-to-many” online communication, such as corporate Web sites, blogs or e-mail newsletters. Social is a new term uniting and replacing concepts known as word-of-mouth, buzz and viral marketing.

Why a new term? Because top social networking sites are transforming into social network application platforms (SNAP), with Facebook leading the way. SNAP provides a structured environment for creating applications that spread through existing friend networks via member profiles and targeted messages. Distribution can be tracked and tuned at every step along the way. Minor tweaks can make a difference between a flatline and explosive growth.
…..Click here to read more

It was a pleasure to attend the recent PRSA Health Academy meeting in Chicago, the first time the Academy has held its annual get together outside of Washington, D.C. in 19 years, but it was well worth the wait and a terrific “social” gathering. The over-arching theme was “Boomers, Xers and Nexters — Communicating in a Cross-Generational/Cross-Cultural Landscape,” but the hottest topic of all was social media. Speakers like Ed Schipul talked about how we as health care communicators can ethically penetrate Internet-based communities, and he also explained to us neophytes how the newest social media application “Twitter” works. Dmitry Kruglyak, CEO of Trusted.MD, and one of the top experts on FaceBook, explained how Susan G. Komen used a “Pink Ribbon Application” to engage more than three million FaceBook members in supporting a cure for breast cancer.
…..Click here to read more