This is a guest post from Yvette Pistorio of Cision.

Two shifts have dramatically changed the way media and public relations professionals interact over the past few years: the move away from email in favor of online social channels, and the emergence of versatile, freelance content creators who are as comfortable writing magazine articles as they are blogging for brands.

For PR pros, that means media outreach will soon be more likely to take the form of a Twitter conversation with a freelance writer than an email exchange with a full-time reporter. With these shifts in mind, Cision has created a space for today’s content creator…journalists, bloggers, and PR and marketing professionals.

For those wearing multiple hats, we don’t force you to choose your role.

True Community Takes the Lead

In mid-April, Cision launched Seek or Shout, a new online community for media and PR professionals.

We built it to help journalists, bloggers, public relations, marketing professionals and other professional communicators research and promote their content while connecting with each other in a productive, relevant way. It allows you to connect directly on what is most valuable to you whether it be a story, blog post, video, podcast, etc.

You don’t have to choose a role, you can be both. The site isn’t just a listserv or dashboard, but an interactive community with photos, live comments and direct collaboration. It appeals to social and real-time sensibilities.

Inside Seek or Shout you can…

• Seek products for review, experts to interview, and research materials for an upcoming news article or blog post. Choose to make your requests anonymously, or syndicate them to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for maximum response.
• Shout about your latest content, campaign or product. Users who follow you or the tags you place on your Shout will see them in their News Feed.
• Communicate privately with other users about exclusive inquiries and offers.
• Define your interests and find relevant messages from other users in your News Feed.
• Maintain a profile outlining your roles and background.
• Search editorial calendars, like CisionWire and PitchEngine, to spark content ideas.

Seek or Shout the Anti-Spam?

We hope the site helps alleviate the deluge of email pitches for journalists and bloggers. The “anti-spam” if you will.

Receiving pitches through the site provides a more manageable environment to work in allowing you to see pitches easily without other correspondence cluttering your view.

Since you choose the tags you’re interested in, you are deciding what you want to see on your homepage. They can be modified to narrow or broaden your feed. They can represent the industry you cover or just the news you want to read.

“As a freelance reporter covering health, caregiving, antiques, and other topics, I’m inundated each day with pitches from PR professionals who want me to incorporate their client’s product, service, expert, or angle into a story,” says Elizabeth Hanes, freelance writer and a sponsored Ambassador for Seek or Shout.

To help clear out her inbox, she began requesting that PR professionals only pitch her through Seek or Shout.

Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich and author of Spin Sucks, agrees. “I also really love that I can push pitches to come through there instead of to my inbox.”

More Than Just a PR and Blogger Tool

It’s been really great to see how members find new ways to use Seek or Shout and engage in ways we didn’t necessarily anticipate. There’s a diversity of users including book publishers and literary agents seeking experts and other writers.

We’ve also seen more universities and students signing up which is great since they are coming into the field and will be the new content creators. They need a tool like this because the marketplace is evolving, expects versatility from communication jobs, and helps craft a wide content experience to stay competitive.

“We’re fostering a relevant exchange between public relations professionals, journalists, and influencers who need to find sources and information quickly on deadline,” says Jay Krall, business development manager for Cision.

We want Seek or Shout to become a community, a valuable space for everyone to interact, build relationships and collaborate directly on stories, blog posts and any other project members are working on.

“It’s a lot easier to find an expert source to interview on short notice when you leverage the power of a strong community, rather than a few friends or colleagues on an email thread,” adds Krall.

About the author:
Yvette Pistorio is the social media manager for Cision, and a blogger for CisionBlog. She is a lover of cupcakes and HGTV, and enjoys a good laugh. You can find Yvette on Twitter tweeting on behalf of Cision.

Is Seek or Shout the Holy Grail for PR, Bloggers and the Disconnected Media? originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

It was sent in the hope of garnering some press for the company’s website, that helps students connect with potential employers. Great – nothing wrong with that, and here’s to more companies helping students get a great start in life.

The problem is, the approach is all wrong and will probably put off every blogger they reached out to (and there were some big names in there). Here’s why:

• The message header and the opening line don’t gel. The message header is great – “I enjoy reading your blog” is always an ego-stroke guarantee for a click-through. But then you get the generic “Dear Blogger” salutation. Bah.
• Mass email, baby! As you can see, the email was sent to quite a few addresses and, better still, this was via open cc’d. This meant what should have (probably) been a private list now gave other people access to email addresses that the owner may not have want shared.
• Lack of relevance. At no point in the email (apart from the standard opening blurb about being useful for the blog) is there a cohesive point made on why the company’s site would be relevant for my readers (or that of the other bloggers that were emailed).
• A confidence-building domain… When I clicked through to the domain of the email sender, I was greeted with the image below.

Now, it may be that the coolest website on the planet is due to arrive at the domain – who knows, even cooler than Chuck Norris! But for now, it raises alarm bells as to who’s behind the email and how well they’d serve the students they’re looking to help.

Simply put, it adds the finishing touches to an email that means well but does pretty much everything that goes against a solid blogger outreach program.

What They Could Have Done

Now, it may be that it’s a small company looking to get awareness and a foothold in the space, and they feel that bloggers with a certain audience reach can help. Or, they’ve heard blogging is the new advertising and it costs less money too.

Nothing wrong with that – most bloggers love to help promote something that’s relevant to their audience. The problem here is that the pitch fell flat at the first hurdle due to the approach.

What they could (should) have done is:

• Ignore the mass email approach. Bloggers are generally busy people. If they feel a pitch isn’t truly targeted, they’ll ignore and move onto the next one. Try and really personalize the approach – use the blogger’s first name and a little overview of your understanding of the blog and audience. And, if you must use mass email, make it a BCC…
• Use examples of relevance throughout. You don’t need to suck up to the blogger to get their attention, but maybe drop in 2-3 references to past posts that correlate to your service. Each reference builds your case – build the case and your job’s almost done.
• Make sure you’re ready for investigation. Bloggers are successful because they’ve built trust with their audience. They won’t ruin that by not doing due diligence, and the first thing they’ll do is check you out. Make sure you’re ready for that – if your website isn’t built, don’t share your domain.

These are just really short suggestions based on this particular email and where it went wrong. You also need a great boss who can educate you on best practices, just in case Ann is a junior and she’s been told to send a pitch like this. If so, her boss should be ashamed.

To really run a great blogger outreach program needs a very cohesive approach. It also helps if you’ve been some part of the blogger’s audience beforehand – a tweet here, a blog comment there, etc.

Awareness of you means a better chance when it comes to sharing awareness of your product by the blogger in question.

Contrary to popular belief, bloggers do want to share your content – we just need a reason to do so.

Note: In his comment about this post, Frank Strong (who I respect immensely) questioned my outing of what may be a junior person at a PR agency. To clarify: this would never be a goal of mine.

If you try Google the name, nothing comes up. Nothing. Same with the company on LinkedIn. Which makes me think it’s a front for the “client” they’re pitching, which I did blur out.

Additionally, the blogger names that were on the email were all over the place. Two PR agencies; a sports blog; two tech blogs; a mobile phone blogger; a car forum and more. There was no rhyme or reason – it was just a blind pitch with a bunch of names thrown in for good measure.

With all that in mind, if someone is so indifferent that they don’t “exist” and are blasting out a generic message, then perhaps it makes no difference to blur or not.

If You Want to Pitch A Blogger Successfully, DON’T Do This originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Last week, I received an email pitch from a PR agency looking to feature their client on my blog. The pitch was friendly enough, but had one glaring error. Here’s the pitch:

Hi Danny,

Thanks to social giant Klout, Badgeville gamification customers can now associate a numeric score with social interactions.

Bottom line: companies will find it a whole lot easier to influence the behaviors of their customers.

Badgeville will leverage Klout’s influence-ranking technology to help enterprise leaders increase online engagement. The partnership will allow businesses to pinpoint which customer/employee carries the most influence and provide key analytics to score social influence.

I’d be more than happy to put you in touch with Badgeville and/or Klout to discuss what this means for social business. Please let me know if you are interested.

Thanks and Happy Friday!

Like I said, the pitch is friendly enough and offers a quick, punchy overview of why I might be interested, which is always a bonus. It sure as hell beats some of the pitches I receive!

But, as I also said, there’s one glaring error – the sender of the email clearly isn’t aware that there’s no chance in hell I’ll write about Klout in any way that promotes them.

As I’ve mentioned a few times, my opinion of Klout is that they’re unethical, they ignore user concerns, and issue pat responses to criticism. Simply put, I think Klout is a joke.

Unfortunately, the fact I was sent the pitch demonstrates another example of how pitching needs to adapt, and PR agencies would do well to have either a blogger or someone that truly understands blogger outreach as a core promotional outlet versus just another medium.

Bloggers Aren’t Special, Just Different

It used to be really easy to promote a client’s story. Grab some quotes, some images, meld into a news release, and send out to the wires. Newspapers and trade publications would run features, and clients would be happy with the exposure.

NB: For my friend Gini, I know there’s a lot more to PR than news releases and publicity – I’m just using as an example here.

Then along came bloggers, and their taking over of the media as the perfect news channel. Since they weren’t (usually) limited by editorial, nor were they necessarily baised to brands or products, they offered a great alternative to traditional print media.

They also offered excellent SEO juice, as well as a captive and trusting audience in the blogger’s community of readers and subscribers. The problem was, the strengths and attraction of a blog were also its sore points, at least as far as PR agencies were concerned.

Because of the trust and non-bias bloggers could offer, they had to be approached differently.

Instead of blind pitching to a publication, where there were scores of journalists a pitch could be dispersed to, blogs are very often solo-driven. Sure, you have your Techcrunch’s and your Mashable’s but more often than not it’s individual bloggers with engaged communities that are approached.

And they need to be approached very differently.

Blogger Outreach – It’s Not That Hard, People

The difference in approach is exactly why you’ll hear good PR agencies (and marketers, and strategic advisors) talk about blogger outreach programs, and how they tailor their approaches and make sure the blogger is a fit for the client.

The reason for this is simple: a blogger’s key currency is their audience, and there’s no way a good blogger will ever risk that for a story that doesn’t fit and is clearly promotional.

If I suddenly started writing great things about Klout based on the pitch I received, my readers would call me out for double-standards, and rightly so. The same goes for any blogger, and emphasizes the point about the outreach hitting the right targets, which this one missed.

The thing is, blogger outreach is actually pretty easy – if you let it be:

Take the time to research the blogger.

Seriously. That’s all it takes. (Okay, it takes a wee bit more to build a great blogger program, and these six blogger outreach pointers from Monica O’Brien are great guidelines to help you with this.)

But as an example of knowing your target, all it would have taken was for the PR person that emailed me to use the search box in my sidebar, and type in Klout.

That would have shown my opinion of Klout and that I wouldn’t be interested, which would save the agency time and negate the need to tell the client why they didn’t get editorial placement on certain blogs.

Because, ironically enough, bloggers (mostly) do want to help PR agencies share their clients - especially if it helps benefit their community and let the blogger share early news about an awesome and relevant product or service in their niche.

So, PR folks. It’s simple. If you don’t have a blogger outreach specialist as part of your make-up, it’s becoming increasingly important that you do.

Blogs aren’t going away any time fast – but your clients might if the coverage isn’t there because your outreach wasn’t researched…

image: bamalibrarylady

The Clear and Continuing Need for Blogger Outreach Specialists at PR Agencies originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Nothing. Squat. Zilch. Nada. No, seriously – there is absolutely nothing wrong with the PR industry.

There’s plenty wrong with some of the people in it, but is that the industry’s fault? No – it’s the person’s fault for being an asshat.

An industry, by definition, is either a collection of businesses, or the building of an idea around something or someone. Not a living, breathing person – but a collective of many things.

So blaming a whole industry for crappy practices is like blaming the complete city garbage removal system because one of your bags got left behind. Shit happens – but it’s people that cause shit, not industries.

Yes, there are craptastic shysters in the PR industry. But that can be said about pretty much every single industry full stop.

Social media (though I’m not sold on tools being classed as an industry) has idiots.

Marketing has idiots.

Advertising has idiots.

My local pool has an idiot for a lifeguard.

Industries don’t create bad results; or shameful practices; or questionable ethics. People do.

Something to keep in mind when you decry a whole industry and take down the good people that are doing all they can to counter the clueless ones.

image: JKonig

You Know What’s Wrong With The PR Industry? originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

There’s an old saying that any publicity is good publicity – but is it?

Kenneth Cole might be questioning it, after the tweet in the image above – that tied his retail chain’s sale into the devastating events currently happening in Egypt – was picked up and discussed on various PR and marketing blogs and news sites.

I’ve also written on here before about examples of bad PR and PR that takes advantage of tragic or upsetting situations, and questioned the sense behind it.

True, a discussion about your company or business means that at least people are talking about you – but is there a limit as to how far this should go and be accepted as a good thing?

A client approached a well-known agency in New York to run a campaign about that client’s new start-up business. The business was technology-led, and the idea behind the campaign was to run a number of press releases and forum posts that implied the current technology on the market was doomed.

This was where the PR agency’s client would step in – by providing the new technology that would replace the “outdated” one, they would become the de facto standard for this piece of software.

Unfortunately, due to a number of reasons, this backfired spectacularly.

• First, the software wasn’t actually ready – it was still buggy and users kept having their systems frozen.

• Second, the target audience the client was going for were already fiercely loyal to the older technology. They came out fighting when the suggestion was made that they were the equivalent to schoolchildren if they didn’t upgrade to the new software, whose users would be the advanced students of that niche.

Cue forums and tech blogs lighting up with inflammatory statements and posts about this new upstart who was saying all these bad things about the user community. The PR agency swiftly put a damage limitation exercise into place, but it looks like it’s too little, too late.

Now it looks likely that when the software is ready, it’s going to have too much baggage attached to make any headway – which is a shame, as the technology in question is an excellent idea.

So who’s to blame – the client or the PR agency? It’s a little bit of both.

For a business that wanted to be the standard in its field, releasing a buggy product and not classifying it as a beta is one of the worst things it could have done.

For the agency’s part, they should have had more balls and advised their client that pissing off your target audience is not good PR. The client hired the agency for their expertise at getting the right media attention – so they should have enforced that and made the client realize the mistake they were about to make. After all, their reputation would be at stake as well.

In fairness to the PR agency in question, it seems that in this case the client wanted to drum up controversy to get people talking about their product. That certainly happened – but was the (potentially) final result worth it?

Maybe Kenneth Cole and the tech company can tell us in a few months time…

Kenneth Cole Is Just The Latest in a Long Line of Bad PR Decisions originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Entitled Why PR People Get Paid And You Don’t, it was a post by an anonymous PR professional (“Sarah”) who, in her own words, is “an actual employee at an actual PR company; one you’ve heard of if you’ve heard of any.”

Basically, the post was an “explanation” of why bloggers shouldn’t get too full of themselves and expect cushy blog promotions with companies that are represented by PR agencies.

Some of the gems of wisdom from Sarah include:

But you also aren’t getting hired. You’re writing a blog post. Let’s stop pretending your blog is a world-changing event and recognize it for what it is–something transient that may be gone tomorrow if you flake out or change your mind or your Uncle Vinny finds your blog and you realize you don’t really want him to know where you live because you still owe him money.

You don’t promise to say nice things about the company. The PR person does. They have to sell a product no matter what that product is, and they sell it with a smile even if it kicks puppies and makes babies cry. You don’t have this obligation. You have the freedom that comes with NOT having a paycheck to answer to.

You are not expected to show up at 8 a.m. dressed business casual and go to countless meetings.  You get to do and say whatever you want as long as you plop a disclaimer at the end.

Inspiring stuff, huh? It doesn’t stop there – in the comments, Sarah continues to dismiss a lot of valid responses that question her logic (she does also answer politely as well, to keep the balance). She also implies that the post was humorous in some of her comment replies, but I’m not too convinced.

But humour aside, Sarah does absolutely nothing for the case of PR understanding the importance of bloggers, and a lot for the mindset that PR sees bloggers as second-class media.

Bloggers Are Your Marketers

In Sarah’s post, she’s specifically writing about mommy bloggers, but it could be about any blogger from any niche. And Sarah’s implication – which, by default, is indicative of he employer – is that bloggers aren’t really meant to be taken seriously when it comes to PR needs.

So bloggers don’t have to say nice things about a client or their products? Bloggers are fairweather transients? Bloggers get to say and do whatever they want as long as they plop a disclaimer at the end?

Bullcrap.

It’s exactly because bloggers don’t have to be all fairy dust that they’re so valuable to brands (and the PR agencies that represent these brands). The problem with too many businesses is that they have PR Yes people crawling up their butt saying everything’s great, when it so clearly isn’t. And then they wonder why new Product A failed so miserably on launch.

Getting feedback – honest feedback – from bloggers and their readers is the best focus group a company can ever have, because it is so honest. Want to improve your product? Listen to the folks that matter – the people that use it.

As for being transient? It’s a well-known fact that the PR industry is one of those that has a particularly high turnover rate when it comes to jobs.

One-off projects and cutthroat practices mean a lot of people are left high and dry at the end of a project. Or burned out, from demands of the industry itself.

The saving grace for PR professionals is that this leads to a lot of job hopping, with agencies looking to fill spaces left by previous owners. Bloggers, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury of being able to job hop. The closest they come is getting a new Mac or PC, and possibly a new chair.

And Sarah’s point about not having to go to countless meetings? Perhaps not physically, but that view discounts all the Skype meetings, conference calls, email exchanges and IM chats that regularly happen as part of a blogger outreach program. And I guarantee you that many bloggers would LOVE to be able to sit in on client meetings to offer some more insights and gain a better understanding.

If you don’t like going to meetings, don’t work in a service-related industry.

Open Up and Smell the Bloggers

I look at the whole blogger and PR relationship from both sides. I have a PR background, and Bonsai Interactive offers PR services. Part of that is blogger relations and who should be used for individual campaigns.

I’m also a blogger, and I work with PR agencies now and again to promote their clients (always disclosed) so I get to see firsthand how bloggers are viewed by PR people.

Sarah’s viewpoint is disappointing. In one blog post, she’s basically implying that bloggers should be grateful for anything PR throws their way and that they should also know their place in the pecking order (again, Sarah’s words).

I don’t know if this is just her personal viewpoint, or reflective of the agency she works at, but either way it’s disheartening to see. I know a ton of amazing PR folks that truly value all that a blogger – any blogger – can bring to the promotional table.

People like Gini Dietrich, Shonali Burke, Dave Fleet, Rachel Kay, Arik Hanson and many more. These guys are bringing great successes for both their agencies and clients – all because they treat bloggers with respect and as a key part of any communications strategy.

Perhaps Sarah’s post was meant to be humorous. If so, she missed the funny boat. She also didn’t paint her employers in a great light, as the readers of Mom Blog Magazine made clear in a lot of their replies.

Perhaps bloggers don’t get paid the same way PR professionals do. But the minute a blogger is contracted to write a review of a product, or promote a new book for a PR agency’s client, that’s being hired. As such, you should extend the professional courtesy and dealings you give clients to the blogger.

After all, they’re the ones making you look sexy to the client when they get the jump in brand awareness or sales that a respected blogger can offer.

And that’s got to be worth more than some outdated PR view that “it’s not a proper job”, no?

image: Whyatt
image: Zen Optic

When PR Has Its Head Up Its Ass originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

One of them was by Gini Dietrich and looked at how the PR industry is letting itself down when it comes to blogger outreach programs.

This post in particular has sparked a great debate in the comments section on good PR, poor PR and more. It’s a great read and well worth checking out.

Today, I want to share an example of a great blogger outreach program – perhaps one of the best I’ve seen. Why is it so good? Read on.

Knowing the Blogger

Last week I received an email from Alexandra Kirsch, Social Media Coordinator for Planned Television Arts. Alexandra was reaching out to bloggers about the upcoming Greg Verdino book, microMARKETING: Get Big Results by Acting and Thinking Small.

A little side-note here. I used to review books on this blog but I stopped last year, after getting tired of the same old copy/paste press releases and books that weren’t right for this blog’s readers.

Alexandra changed my mind.

Her email was personal and it was clear that she knew each blogger she was reaching out to (Greg’s book is being reviewed by various bloggers, a chapter at a time – you can find out more here).

A couple of examples from Alexandra’s email:

Hi Danny,

I’m working with Aaron Strout and Greg Verdino from Powered, Inc. on Greg’s new book, microMARKETING: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small, and they thought that you would be a perfect fit to do one of the chapter-by-chapter reviews.

Because of your experience using the Internet and new media to raise money, in addition to your work with large companies like IBM, FedEX, and RIM, Chapter 7, “From Reach to Relationships: Activating the Many by Resonating with the Right Few,” seemed like it would resonate well with your audience.

Why do I like this? Simple.

From the off, it’s personal and a clear explanation of why Alexandra is contacting me. Additionally, whether Alexandra follows my blog or not, she’s taken the time to do the research and find out about me and my readers.

She then ties that into a personalized approach, which is a huge breath of fresh air from the standard mass mailing one.

Connecting the Story

If you look at the opening paragraph of Alexandra’s email above, you’ll see reference to “chapter-by-chapter reviews”. This is a pretty cool approach by Greg and Planned Television Arts.

By reaching out to bloggers who are relevant for the different parts of the book, it offers a far better chance of getting a review from someone who knows what they’re talking about.

Additionally, the readers of that blogger are already interested in the review, since that’s what they’ve been reading about for however long they’ve been reading that blog. In Alexandra’s own words:

In essence, the chapter-by-chapter review process is a way for us to offer experts in each area the opportunity to review chapters that correlate directly with their area(s) of expertise and interest. We’re also taking this approach to avoid having several bloggers reviewing the book in a general way all at once. We know that is no fun for you. Hopefully this approach gives you a little exclusive room to flex your expertise.

So, not only is it a personalized approach, but the blogger outreach team really want to connect with the right audience and make it a win-win for everyone involved.

Continuing the Relationship

A few days after the original email, Alexandra realized that there was an error in the editorial calendar and needed to reach back out to the bloggers to confirm the chapter review dates.

The quickest way to do this was to send a mass email. Which, as we all know, can sometimes be impersonal depending on how it comes across.

Yet again, Alexandra quelled this with her own words:

Hi everyone,

So sorry for the mass e-mail, it’s usually not my mode of operation, but I made a small error on the calendar PDF. Attached, find a corrected calendar. Thanks so much. Hope you enjoy the book.

The first sentence immediately shows Alexandra isn’t a fan of mass emailing either, and the reason for it here is just to update everyone effectively.

Again, it’s a very personalized touch that enhances the relationship that’s been building from the initial contact.

Lessons to Learn

Bloggers are becoming an ever-important part of any promotional campaign, whether it be PR, marketing, advertising, product or book launches and more. Yet for some reason, many PR agencies and professionals don’t see bloggers as anything more than a second-class media outlet.

Alexandra Kirsch and Planned Television Arts know this isn’t the case. Their highly personalized approach has already won them fans (both Lucretia Pruitt and Ari Herzog have already praised them), and shows that, when done well, bloggers and PR folks can be a great team.

If you’re a PR person reading this now, think about how you want to share your client. Think about how the smallest difference in approach can be a huge one. Think about how it’s not all about the influence of the blogger, but the influence of that blogger’s community.

PR gets a hard time from a lot of areas. Sometimes it’s deserved; others not. Sometimes it brings it on itself.

But as Alexandra Kirsch proves, sometimes it can do everything right and more. And that’s all anyone can ask for, isn’t it?

Note: My chapter review will be published next Tuesday, September 28.

Alexandra Kirsch and the Perfect Blogger Pitch originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

I’m honoured to be part of the “team” that’s bringing HAPPO to Toronto, along with PR guy supreme Dave Fleet, of Thornley Fallis. Below you’ll find some current job listings in the Toronto and GTA area – please retweet on Twitter (there’s a dedicated #happo and #happoTO hashtag), share on Facebook and anywhere else you can (especially if you’re in the Toronto and GTA area), and let’s help connect everyone together!

- Note: If you’re an agency or PR company, or have a PR position open at your business, I have details of some great people for you – please feel free to email me for more information, or leave your details in the comments below. Same if you’re a jobseeker – feel free to leave your details in the comments and let’s see if we can help.

Thanks!

Listings (so far):

• PR Event Intern (Toronto – Remote Stylist)
• Corporate Comms Consultant (Mississauga – Purolator))
• Comms Specialist (Toronto – Lang Michener LLP)
• Manager, Corporate Comms (Toronto, one-year contract – Toronto Public Library)
• PR Manager (Burlington, one-year contract – IKEA Canada)
• PR Co-Ordinator (Toronto – Hays)
• PR Rep  (Toronto, one year-contract – Toyota Canada)
• PR Assistant (Toronto – Stivers)
• Media and Comms Co-Ordinator (Toronto – Cancer Care Ontario)
• Business Communications Associate (Toronto – Google Canada)
• Vice President, Consumer Comms (Toronto – Apex PR)
• Head of External Comms, Global Advisory (Toronto – KPMG)
• Senior Manager, Corporate and Public Affairs (Toronto – TD Bank)
• Communications Specialist (Toronto – Bombardier)
• Senior Corporate Comms Specialist (Mississauga – FedEx)
• Corporate Comms Manager (Brampton – DynaCare)
• Comms Manager – (Brampton – Loblaws)

Help a PR Pro Out Toronto – Job Listings #happo #happoTO originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

However, solid PR folks like David Mullen suggest it should be People Relations, as does online marketer and social media guy Ari Herzog in a post from earlier this year. Often it’s called Press Relations or Print Relations. I had a little look at the topic last year and there are plenty more views out there.

But you know what?

Who really cares? Let’s take the emphasis off the P, and concentrate on what’s left – the R, or relations, because this is surely the one constant out of all the PR acronyms. For, without relations (and the conversations that spring from these relations), is there any point left to any of the P, whether it’s public, press, people or similar?

S. Neil Vineberg, President of Vineberg Communications, offers his take in a series of excellent little video snippets. What’s yours?

Never Mind the P, Just Get the Relations Part Right originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

You may have thought so. You may have fooled your clients into thinking they were lucky to have you because everyone listens to you.

You may have blinded them with newspaper clippings and media endorsements.

But that could just mean you know one good contact at a publication or TV and radio station.

Your name very rarely belongs in a news release. Sometimes, but rarely. You do not belong in front of the camera. Hogging the microphone does not help your client. You may think so, but all that does is make people ask, “Who’s this story about?”

If you want to show off so much, make your client show off for you. Make their results your vindication. Put it up on your achievement page on your website, or in your company portfolio. Scream it from the rafters all you want from there.

But the story? That belongs to the client. Every time.

You do understand why, don’t you?

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

You Are Not The Story originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.