Shel Holtz says that blog monitoring is an emerging business service for PR, and why not? The skills that we are learning by engaging every day in blogs can translate to marketable business skills. It certainly is a value-added service for current clients. If you practice public relations in-house at your company, it certainly answers that “What have you done for me lately?” question at review time. Steve Rubel has already rolled out a monitoring service through Cooper Katz under his blog brand, Micro read more...

I am a fan of great big stuff. Heck, I live in Texas after all. Do you need a big pair of scissors for a ribbon-cutting? An 18-inch tall giant alarm clock that really works? A gavel as big as the your boss' ego? Giant boxing gloves for a "showdown" between management and their employees at the company picnic? A baseball hat big enough to sit on for read more...

As a follow-up to my press release about the demise of the press release, I have some closing thoughts. Talking about a tool, such as the press release, as if it is the crux of all PR woes, is misguided. In the end it is just that, a tool, and you either use it or don’t based on the situation. The core issues are the professionalism of those who practice PR, for which I think training and accreditation are good steps; and the other is the issue of distribution, as read more...

06-01-20-balancing Originally uploaded by hickoree23. A collegue of mine recently said, “I guess I see the value of blogging overall and for authors, speakers, etc., but [I] am interested to know how the ROI works for a consultant?” A good question and not simple to dissect; however, I am going to try and lay out a framework here to help you make a decision. I will use the principles of value-based thinking laid out by Ralph read more...

Yesterday, the Public Relations Society of America Advocacy Committee issued an statement about paid media endorsements, such as the one purported to have been made to Audrey Lewis (a freelance writer whose articles appeared in The Birmingham Times) by Richard M. Scrushy, the former chief executive of HealthSouth, through her public relations firm the Lewis Group. It says, among other things that: PRSA strongly objects to any paid endorsement that is not fully disclosed as such and is presented as objective news coverage. Such practices are clearly contrary to the PRSA Member Code of Ethics, which requires that public relations professionals read more...