University online pressrooms – best practice examples
University communicators – how is your online pressroom? Is it meeting journalists’ expectations? If your media site is like the average, then according to a new survey your site needs some revamping. A study led by Proactive Report and Press Feed found that only 15 percent of PR practitioners are delivering the information that media need. Some […]
Trust and higher education – lessons for academics, presidents and communicators
We all know how important trust is for any aspect of life: personal, work and education. Edelman, the global public relations firm, has been surveying the trust levels of the public for the last 14 years through the Edelman Trust Barometer. Their annual survey was released earlier this week – 33,000 people in 27 global […]
Public relations advice for Bashar al-Assad
Dear Mr. al-Assad, It is with the utmost sadness and frustration that I have been following the horrible war in your country over the years. I studied your Instagram account and other social media properties in detail on the same day that I learned about the destruction and grief that was brought upon your people by a […]
How to organize a media roundtable
Experts and public relations professionals interested in building media relationships + a group of targeted journalists + good food and drink = successful media roundtable. This above formula is a rather simplistic way to go about organizing a media roundtable. This past week at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, we used this approach in […]
Unpersonalized communication in our relational times
SPAM. Unsolicited emails. Unpersonalized invitations. Untargeted press releases. Odds are you received some of these types of communication in the last couple of hours. You may have received a message that might have the appearance of being personalized, yet a quick scan shows that it was the simple use of a mail merge. I receive […]
Communications advice from Mexico’s Tourism Secretary – “Focus on your Assets”
Let’s play word association – what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word Mexico? Do you think of Mexico’s beautiful beaches? Immigration? Danger? Or do you think about some other unique and positive attribute of Mexico? Gloria Guevara Manzo contemplates such questions as the country’s Tourism Secretary. She’s […]
Be a thought leader (and hence a continual learner)
If you are a professional, are you taking action to become a thought leader? If you are a student interested in a certain career path, are you communicating your learnings and building your expertise? If not, you should, says Gerard Corbett, chairman and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America. “Everybody has the opportunity […]
Experiential learning in the form of journalist / communicator conferences
Pick up a book on media relations or take a PR class and you will read lots of best practice. The course / book will cover topics such as press release writing, media pitching, the responsibilities of a journalist and the value of positive vs. negative press. There will probably very little mention about the value […]