This you've got to see. It’s a bizarre interaction between a media relations pro and a TV reporter. It happens just before the four-minute mark in the video, when the spokesperson, who works for an embattled electric co-op in Florida, tells a reporter that her questions — which stem from customer gripes — are driving up electric rates. “I have other work that I should be doing … I do ask for other employees to support working with you, so that's taking them away from their jobs and it does drive the costs up,” she said. (Here’s a partial transcript of the conversation, and here’s a video with even more about the PR disaster.)
Blogging consultant Marko Saric adapted Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, one of the most useful books for writers, into 10 writing tips for bloggers.
Remember all that populist rage against Wall Street, banking, and automotive CEOs? Apparently, bygones have become bygones. “The number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of information about a company dropped by almost half, from 45 percent to 25 percent, since 2008,” reported Advertising Age, drawing upon information from Edelman's Trust Barometer. Meanwhile, the number of people who said they trusted CEOs increased to 26 percent from 17 percent.
A hospital received some negative comments on its Facebook page, “which concerned (read: freaked out) a few hospital leaders,” wrote Josh McColough, the marketing communications and PR manager at Sherman Health in Elgin, Ill., He shared the three-step process created for responding to negative Facebook comments.
Last week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs visited The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, with his iPad in tow. During the meeting with WSJ, Alan Murray, The Journal’s online executive editor, tweeted: “This tweet sent from an iPad. Does it look cool?” Murray deleted the message, after it allegedly enraged Jobs. Valleywag blog asked Murray about the incident. In one e-mail, he said, “I would love to talk about this, but can't.” In a later email, he added: “I will say that Apple's general paranoia about news coverage is truly extraordinary — but that's not telling you anything you didn't already know.”
The public relations department at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications is seeking a full-time, tenure-track position at the assistant/associate professor rank, beginning in fall 2010. Read more about this job.
PRNewser performed an unscientific poll to learn what PR professionals do when a prospective client or employer asks for a “free tactical plan” before deciding to hire them. The results: 55 percent said they would work up a generic plan; 30 percent said they would politely decline; 16 percent said they’d work up the best plan possible. (Numbers do not total 100 percent due to rounding.)
Ever heard of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA? Citing a recent FINRA decision, one company has forced its employees to suspend their LinkedIn profiles. “The finance industry is so far behind the curve on social media communications it may be a while before my profile is back,” an employee at the firm said. However, Tac Anderson, the digital consulting director at Waggener Edstrom’s Studio D group, said FINRA does not make the rules. “They provide guidance and the individual firms have to create rules based on those recommendations,” he blogged. “There’s a lot of room for interpretation.”
Fumble! The Virginian-Pilot newspaper ran this correction on its Web site Monday. “This morning's Virginian-Pilot Sports front featured a horrible error. We accidentally reversed the score of the Super Bowl. We're embarrassed, and we apologize to all our readers, especially Saints fans.” The Virginian-Pilot has slashed nearly 200 jobs — many of them newsroom positions — in about the last year.
We’re awash in ways to communicate with one another. There’s telephone, e-mail, Facebook, Skype, and — if absolutely necessary — face-to-face conversation (awyuck!). Author and blogger Soren Gordhamer explains five ways to communicate in this modern age.
Looks like Trivial Pursuit will have to update its question and answer cards. The Super Bowl on Sunday night attracted 106.5 million viewers, according to estimates from Nielsen. That was enough to beat the "M*A*S*H" finale, which had 105.97 million viewers when it ran in 1983 — a time the AP noted as “an era when there were fewer television sets.” Related The Wrap Did you see the Letterman-Oprah-Leno commercial during the Super Bowl? Turns out Letterman wanted Conan in there, too.
From The New York Times: “Newsstand sales for the 472 consumer titles in the United States measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations declined 9.1 percent, to 39.3 million, in the last half of 2009 versus the same period a year earlier, the organization reported this morning.” Related Advertising Age What will happen to journalism when all the media's billionaire sugar daddies die? Media columnist Simon Dumenco takes a closer look.
You know the tweet. Someone posts a message that's so self-congratulatory or maybe an obnoxious quote and you've had enough. Sorry, pal, you're unfollowed. What kind of tweets make you unfollow someone?
Graduation season is over, which means college grads are either in the workforce or looking for work (or maybe none of the above). What advice do you have for budding communicators in today's harsh hiring landscape?
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