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 September 7, 2011 7 Comments

10 Great iPad Apps for Journalists

When the iPad launched in April 2010, PR pros, journalists and marketers were buzzing about how the new device would benefit their job. Fast forward to today, just a year and a half later, and many of us can’t imagine our lives without one.

The hectic life a journalist, who is always on the go, can benefit greatly from an iPad. They are lighter and smaller than a computer, yet can do just about everything your laptop can do. But with thousands of Apps available, which ones are a must for journalists? Check out the ten below, and decide for yourself. [Read more...]

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by on April 8, 2011 12 Comments

8 Google Tools for Brainstorming

It’s not easy to come up with fresh ideas all the time. Beyond the books you read and the people you meet, you need other ways to brainstorm new ideas (and keep track of them) over time. There’s a lot of smart people at Google that come up with great ideas all the time.

Some of Google’s best ideas are found in the FREE products they offer – products I use everyday to help me stay on top of what’s going on around topics I care about, and to keep a steady supply of fresh ideas on hand. Here are 8 Google tools I use for brainstorming: [Read more...]

Filed Under: tips and tricks Tagged With: ,
by on June 23, 2010 13 Comments

How Not to Be Annoying on Twitter and Facebook

Where there are social networks, there will be people who abuse them ­— and you certainly don’t have to go far to find them. Just rewind back to Friday morning for example: Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff littered Twitter with tweets announcing the firing-squad execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner, which stirred up just as much controversy as the actual execution itself.

Social media missteps like this happen more frequently than we care to blog on, and in a time where communicators can’t get away with avoiding the conversation, there’s one question that’s going to keep surfacing (other than what’s going on with the World Cup): Where is the line drawn between interesting tidbits and overly annoying posts? So, in an effort to help answer this trending topic, I’ve pinpointed three of the most common ailments that strike social media newcomers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: social media, tips and tricks, twitter Tagged With: , ,
by on May 6, 2010 17 Comments

Do You Need An Internship to Get a Job in PR?

It’s the end of another school year for a lot of PR students. Most of you probably have internships lined up. The rest of you must be more interested in lounging by the pool this summer. Or maybe you’re wondering the same thing I am: do you really need an internship to get a job in PR?

It seems like you can’t get a job (let alone an interview) in PR without a couple of internships under your belt, yet many students opt to skip the internship process until the last minute, squeezing one in right after college in hopes of turning it into a full time job (or never interning at all).

Let’s answer the question – I’ll address both the “yes” and “no” options… [Read more...]

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by on April 14, 2010 39 Comments

Build a Stronger Network

How many people did you meet last week? How many people have you had a meaningful conversation with this week? Who have you helped this week? These are questions I ask myself all the time.

For me, relationships are the most valuable currency of business. It’s important to meet new people and keep up with my existing relationships. It’s cliche, but it’s true… sometimes it is who you know.

Look at any successful person and you’ll see a huge network of other successful people around them. While there’s no guarantee that a relationship will get you the deal, your next job or a cover story in BusinessWeek, they can help you get in the door (and that’s half the battle). If you don’t have a strong network, today is the day to start building one. [Read more...]

Filed Under: tips and tricks Tagged With:
by on January 7, 2010 25 Comments

How to Build a Better Online Newsroom

What makes a great online newsroom? For starters, news. If you have plenty of compelling, relevant, timely, engaging, exclusive or otherwise sensational news to share with the media on a regular basis, it probably doesn’t matter what your online newsroom looks like (just take a look at Twitter’s online newsroom if you don’t believe me).

Twitter doesn’t have an online newsroom – but try to find an outlet that hasn’t covered the company in the past year. Twitter is an anomaly. It can get away with it. After all, Twitter is the media and most journalists are only a tweet away.

But what if you’re organization is slightly less popular than Twitter? What can you do to make your online newsroom more compelling? What information should be in your online newsroom to improve your chances of scoring an interview with your favorite journalist or blogger?

Rather than provide you with a checklist of content you should add to your online newsroom, I decided to take a look at the online newsrooms for some other top-of-mind technology companies. My plan was to find some ideas you might be able to use for your online newsroom. I hope you find a couple of good nuggets you can use to build a better online newsroom for your organization. [Read more...]

Filed Under: pr tactics, tips and tricks Tagged With: ,
by on November 4, 2009 18 Comments

Online Apps and Tools to Make Your Life Easier

If you haven’t participated in a #journchat discussion yet, you’re missing out. The quality of the discussion is better than ever, as Sarah Evans has continued to build a strong, dedicated and passionate community around current topics in journalism, public relations and social media. If I had to give you one reason to swing by on Monday nights, I’d say you’re guaranteed to learn something new, make new connections and stay ahead of the curve on what’s going on in your industry today (is that one thing?).

One good example I’ll point out is from Question 5 of this week’s discussion, which asked participants to share the online applications, tools and resources that make their lives easier. I captured some of the most-common suggestions below, organized to the best of my ability, in hopes you find at least one resource useful in your daily work. [Read more...]

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by on May 29, 2009 18 Comments

Press Release Writing Tips (From Journalists)

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I’m not a huge fan of press releases. But let’s face it, they are a necessary evil for most of us working in public relations.

Why write about press release writing when there are already so many books, posts, tweets and about 29 million other resources on this topic? Have you seen some of the press releases floating around today? It’s clear there are still a few of us that could use some good old fashioned press release writing tips.

Rather than limiting the advice in this post to my personal experience, I thought it would be better to ask some journalists for their advice. After all, who knows better what makes a good press release than the people that have to read them every day. Whether you’re about to write your first release in your internship, or you’ve been writing press releases since I was in diapers, I hope you’ll find these tips useful for writing your next press release.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: press releases, tips and tricks Tagged With: ,
by on May 26, 2009 26 Comments

Social or Not, Are Press Releases Worth Your Time?

Is it really worth your time to write and distribute press releases? It really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. The most common reasons I see a companies send out a press releases are to generate awareness (in the form of publicity) or to drive traffic to their websites. Most companies are trying to do both. With this in mind, are press releases effective at doing either?

Everyone has an opinion on this question, but it’s better answered with research. Lucky for me, the folks at HubSpot just did all the work for me. I recently had an opportunity to sit in on one of their webinars, “How to Be Smarter Thank Your PR Agency: New Research on News Release Best Practices“, which revealed the results of their comprehensive research into the effectiveness of press releases and social media releases.

In their research, HubSpot estimated nearly 50,000 press releases are issued every month. Roughly one every 12 seconds. So on to the big question: is it worth it?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: press releases, tips and tricks Tagged With: ,