A Holiday Ode to Hustle and Bustle

We graced our new entryway just 12 months ago

It’s brought us new business, new faces and floods (yes floods)
It welcomes us each morning as we rush to see
What the nighttime has brought to respond to today
Long nights were spent waiting to see the big story
As we toiled away seeding great thoughts through social
We blogged, tweeted links, and liked all sort of things
While the “fan” took its place in the annals of “then”
Armed with our iPhones, Androids and iPads
We worked in the service of the almighty alert
To respond just this minute to the news of the day
Come new iPads, more Groupons, recession or M&A
We hustle and hurry to our holiday retreats
Looking forward to a few days without all that bustle
Silence mobile phones, IMs, Skype and email
We’re off to rest up so we can do it again

Oh Christmas Tree

Andy Rooney said that “The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature.” I think ours comes pretty close.

10 Words We Can Retire in 2011

Words, when wielded effectively, can carry great power. But that’s for another post. As we near the end of 2010, I’ve compiled a list of words that have simply lost their meaning from overuse. Many of these are perfectly good words that just need a time out.

The age of social media has placed an emphasis on easily digestible content and PR has followed by simplifying messaging and press releases accordingly.  While Woody Guthrie was talking about music when he said this, we should think about it in the context of how we communicate as marketers:

“Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.”

What PR Can Learn from the Tea Party

There is a lot we can learn from the Tea Party outside of election politics, but I will come back to this in a few paragraphs. A few months ago, I was honored when Business Insider asked me contribute posts from blog. A number of my posts have been syndicated now and one thing is true for all of them – my headlines always get changed. I don’t mind because as a PR person, I appreciate the value of a good headline. Inevitably, theirs are a bit more sensational and I believe that they have helped me get more readers than I would have otherwise. I’ll give you one example:

Mine: “Make Hay While the Sun Shines”

Business Insider’s: “10 Lessons I’ve Learned Since Quitting My Paying Job”

Conversation with Scott Kirsner, Part 2: Is the press release dead?

Contributed by Beth Monaghan

In part two of my series following a conversation with Scott Kirsner, the Innovation Economy columnist and blogger for the Boston Globe and Ross Levanto, SVP at Schwartz Communications, we talk about the future of the press release. Last week Ross posted a piece of that conversation about targeting your audience, which I encourage you to read.

The topic of the fate of the press release comes up often, most frequently from those who have embraced social media and view it as a relic from the past. Many of these entrepreneurs, CEOs and marketers are looking to use their blogs as the mouthpiece for their news.

Transmedia Lessons from the Catholic Church

I’ve been fortunate. For a few years I worked in Kendall Square and often found my way over to MIT for various events – mostly the MIT Communications Forum. In the course of these visits I got to hear Henry Jenkins discuss the idea of transmedia – that is various content types and channels being used to share elements of a narrative that strengthen and support the overall story. If you consume one channel you’ll get part of the picture but the more channels that are tapped into the richer the experience and the closer one is drawn to the core story.

Transmedia has started getting more attention recently. Steve Rubel did a post on it and the Producer’s Guilde of America has added Transmedia Producer as a new job title. But questions remain as to what exactly transmedia is and who’s doing it well.

How to Get the Attention of Broadcast Producers – A Lesson from a Seal Proposal

Contributed by Ericka Stachura

I was watching the local news yesterday and saw a bizarre story that made me think

1) it must have been a really slow news day in Boston and

2) what is it about this story that made it worthy of two minutes of TV coverage?

The segment featured a couple who got engaged at the New England Aquarium with the help of a ring-bearing seal. We are in the business of pitching hard news to TV producers on a regular basis so when a fluff piece shows up, it serves as a good reminder of what ultimately gets the attention of the assignment desks. After watching the segment back a few times, here is my best guess at how this story made it into the lineup.