by on December 19, 2011 2 Comments

The Top 11 Journalistics Posts of 2011

best journalism posts 2011This is the third year I’ve written a “Top Journalistics Posts of the Year” post. The greatest hits meme is a little overdone, I know – but when you consider about half our readers are ‘new visitors’, a lot of these posts are new to them. I personally enjoy the exercise of reviewing our best posts from the year. Reflecting on my work from the past year gives me renewed focus for the coming year.

This couldn’t be more true this year. I took a look back at our Top 9 Posts of 2009 and Top 10 Posts of 2010 to see how the blog has changed over the past few years. The first thing that jumped out at me is how good the posts from 2009 were. Three or four of those first posts remain the most-viewed each year on the blog (I won’t reveal which ones they are, mainly because they’re great resources – but in desperate need of updating).

The popularity of these posts tells me two things:

1. Those posts were great – and well worth the effort that went into them (some of the more labor intensive posts to date)

2. If I was writing great content, posts from 2009 wouldn’t still be the most popular content in 2011

We have a lot of great content lined up for 2012. As always, we welcome your feedback. For now, without further adieu, here are the top posts of 2011: [Read more...]

Filed Under: facebook, journalistics, media relations, PR, tips and tricks, writing Tagged With: , ,
by on March 31, 2011 6 Comments

Four Lessons Military and Civilian PR Pros Can Teach Each Other

If you were going to stereotype military public affairs (PA) professionals, you would say that they lack creativity, obsess over planning and structure, and would jail their own mother if she proposed an outreach plan with any risk.

Civilian public relations (PR) professionals on the other hand obsess over the latest social media trends, fly by the seat of their pants, and tout experience over education. Over and over again.

Like all stereotypes, they are unfair to many. But there is often truth behind the broad brushstrokes. Both communities, to break free of their stereotypes, would do well to study and learn from each other. The field of public relations, despite lacking commonly accepted rules and best practices, does not lack for common sense behaviors or best practices. Recognizing these commonalities will ultimately lead to improved campaigns for all PA and PR professionals.

Today’s post will cover four lessons military PA pros can take away from the civilian world, and in a follow-up post, I’ll cover lessons civilian PR professionals can learn from observing the military. [Read more...]

Filed Under: PR, public affairs Tagged With: , , , , ,
by on December 7, 2010 11 Comments

8 Ways Your Newsroom Can Get More Out of Facebook

Being on Facebook is a bit like going to prom. Everyone’s going; no one is quite sure what to do when they get there. And while newsrooms have a huge advantage when it comes to building a Facebook following, very few stations truly have a defined idea of what they hope to gain from those users. Here are 8 tried and true ways to make sure your newsroom is getting the most out of each and every fan.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: PR, social media Tagged With: ,
by on October 8, 2010 9 Comments

PR is Essential in the Music Industry

Music has always been one of those few things in the world that has the power to bring together people from all walks of life. Some might say all you need is love. I say all you need is music. And beyond a little bit of talent, all musicians need is a great publicity team behind them. [Read more...]

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by on August 18, 2010 41 Comments

The Best PR Blogs Out There

While there is no shortage of “Best PR Blogs” posts out there, I’ve put together a list of my favorites based on what I’m reading these days. Along the way, I found a few I need to spend more time with (and shared them). As a bonus, I also included some non-PR blogs I think PR people should read. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

My Favorite PR Blogs

These are my ‘must have’, can’t live without PR blogs (in alphabetical order)…

  • A Shel of My Former Self – you’ll find Shel Holtz’s blog ‘at the intersection of communication and technology’. Shel knows his stuff, enough said.
  • Brian Solis – Brian offers so much more than “PR” knowledge these days, it’s almost unfair to put him on this list. That said, he’s one of the leading innovators in our industry and is somebody you should pay attention to when he posts (he’s also a pretty nice guy). If you want to know what people will be talking about next year, just read Brian’s blog today.
  • Dave Fleet – PR professional who explores the intersection of communications, marketing and social media. Always great, insightful content on his blog. Surprisingly, Dave is one of the few people on this list I have met. What’s up with that?
  • PRDaily – PRDaily does a great job at sifting through all the top PR news of the day and packaging it in one, nice and tidy digest. PRDaily has climbed to the top of the charts for me in 2010. They do a great job at pulling stories related to PR and social media as well.
  • PRNewser – this is MediaBistro’s best blog. If you want to keep tabs on what’s shakin’ in the PR world, you’ll learn about it first PRNewser (co-editors @jasonchupick and @joeciarallo are great at what they do).
  • PRSarahEvans.com – while I love Sarah’s blog, I find Commentz even more valuable (it’s awesome) – subscribe today, you won’t regret it. Then again, if you don’t know who Sarah Evans is yet, you’ve got some catching up to do (see also #journchat and MediaOnTwitter).
  • PR-Squared – Shift Communications’ blog about social media marketing and public relations (they were blogging about social media before it was cool).

Don’t miss my non-PR blogs PR pros should be reading list on the next page.

[Read more...]

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