Join Joseph Grove for “What Readers Want: Defining Techspeak to Verticals That Care” at the PRSA Technology Section HyperConnections Summit in Atlanta, Sept. 27-28.

I admit it. I can be a real jerk.

I don’t respond to your emails. I don’t return your voicemails. If your call happens to catch me at my desk, I’ll  know within the first five words that you’re a public relations person — maybe an intern — who is pimping a press release, I immediately I will begin to wonder how fast I can get to goodbye.

But I also have to say that some of you kind of deserve it. And for every editor who’d just as soon hit the delete button on your message than read or listen to the whole thing, there is a public relations professional who could use a few pointers on how to convey her message in such a way it might actually make the news.

Let’s face it: We need each other. I asked one of my editors how much daily news she gets from press releases and other forms of public relations. Two-thirds, she said. Among all our sites, we published 4,177 news items for the first six months of the year. Assuming her percentage holds true for our other editors, that’s 2,785 pieces of public relations we picked up. Was yours one of them?

Here are a few things you can do to make sure you are part of the next 4,177 we publish.

Continue reading " Five Ways to Become More Than Just a Necessary Evil "

We live in a hyperconnected world that moves forward into new realms every minute — like augmented virtual reality for business uses being explored on Georgia Institute of Technology’s campus in Atlanta, and that means even more consumption of news and data of all kinds, synthesized and scrubbed for your viewing. Hyperconnected is often described as a term for “people who feel they need to communicate virtually — via email, mobile phone or text — 24 hours a day.” Several recent research findings have shown that some hyperconnected individuals may even wake up during the night to check whether or not they have been contacted.  Companies like Ericsson have predicted that connected devices could outnumber connected people by a ratio of six to one by 2020, and the scramble to make sense of that shows up in sociology discussions.

The multi-channel, multi-device approach to communications is accelerating for all of us, and data actually supports predictions that by 2020, the next young adult generation will be wired differently. Jack Loechner’s March 2012 Research Brief from the Center for Media Research looked at “The Impact of Hyperconnectivity,” and discovered that more than 55 percent of those surveyed believe that this statement will be true:

“In 2020, the brains of multitasking teens and young adults are wired differently from those over age 35, and overall, it yields helpful results. They do not suffer notable cognitive shortcomings as they multitask and cycle quickly through personal and work-related tasks. Rather, they are learning more and they are more adept at finding answers to deep questions, in part because they can search effectively and access collective intelligence via the Internet.”

But other experts, such as David Ellis, director of communications studies at York University, disagree. He indicated that he sees the hyperconnectivity experience making them less productive, and adds that most of them do not understand the digital tools, according to the report.

As public relations practitioners, we really do not have time to debate what is upon us.  Statistics in a number of categories prove out this intensity of hyperconnections, from no “real” vacations away from phones and tablet devices, to the mushrooming of new social networks with new learning curves that start with expanding personal networks, such as Pinterest and Google’s Goggles, but will grow into even more important business toolsets as time goes on.

Continue reading " It’s Time to Examine the Multi-Channel, Multi-Device Approach for Clients in a Hyperconnected World "

Mark Weiner, CEO Americas, PRIME Research, presents Research 101: Learn to Create, Implement and Manage Research Programs Within Your Organization, on May 16, from 1–5 p.m. at the pre-conference session for the 2012 PRSA Health Academy Conference, held May 16–18 at The Inn at Penn in Philadelphia, PA. His session also allows attendees to bring their research questions and examples for review.

In this post, Weiner shares his insights on the changes and trends in, and value of effective research and evaluation, in public relations. Joyce Lofstrom, MS, APR, co-chair of the conference and director, corporate communications, HIMSS, posed these questions to him in an email interview.

Continue reading " Quality Research and Evaluation Matters: Q/A with Mark Weiner, PRSA Health Academy Pre-Conference Speaker "

Build on the latest strategies and tactics for senior-level communicators at the PRSA 2012 Counselors Academy Spring Conference, May 6-8, in New Orleans. The conference is designed to help your agency maximize profits, people and potential.  

I’ll never forget the day the Counselors Academy brochure arrived in the mail.

It was Jan 2009, and my public relations business was almost five years old. I had been growing it every year in double digits and had added an employee in 2008.

And then it all hit the fan and I lost about 40 percent of my business in one fell swoop, and let my one employee go.

It felt like I was back to square one.

I realized at the time I knew a lot about public relations, but I didn’t have a clue about running a public relations business.

That’s when I opened the Counselors Academy brochure — a conference for agency CEOs and leaders about the business side of the agency. I thought long and hard about it. At a time when I was to be implementing austerity measures, I was contemplating a fairly significant expense.

There are two reasons for this post:

1. I have drunk the Kool-Aid that is Counselors Academy and want to pass the glass around.
2. Whether Counselors is for you or not, the idea of taking a risk and investing in yourself and/or your business is an important one.

Continue reading " PRSA Counselors Academy: Austerity Measures and Raising the Bar Do Not Mix "

It is quite mystifying to think what life would be like if I hadn’t signed on that dotted line back in May of 2005.

I could have easily skipped my university’s first PRSSA meeting to do a number of things — intramurals with friends, hit the books to better understand the differences between minocyclines and tetracyclines or maybe update my profile on this new site called thefacebook.com.

Luckily for me, I went to that meeting and established my membership, which is now approaching seven years as a PRSA/PRSSA member.

PRSSA provided me with ample opportunities to establish my confidence as a leader within my Chapter and later, on a larger scale, as a National Committee member. It also provided me the opportunity to meet my eventual employer at the PRSSA National Conference in Philadelphia.

Once a graduate, I didn’t hesitate signing on that dotted line once more to establish my membership — this time as a PRSA member — and opportunities have continued to emerge. As a young professional in my PRSA Chapter, my membership has meant a few things to me.

Continue reading " PRSA Resolutions 2012 "