May 17, 2012
A lot of folks struggle to understand the difference. I’ve seen many a PR pro, and not just newbies, flummoxed when asked to explain the process. PR Goals Say you’re a consumer company that wants a public relations agency to “move the needle” on sales for your new line of scented hair care products (with notes of cotton candy, cinnamon, cherry, and the like). Continue reading →
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Recently I attended a nonprofit fundraiser in the Seacoast, NH, area and received my much-anticipated “goodie bag.”
Don’t get too excited for me; the bag was not the kind you get at the Oscars—just a normal assortment of small stuff as a nice way of saying, “Thanks for attending; now please go buy something at our silent auction,” and offering the business sponsors yet one more way to present their brand to an appreciative audience.
Read More ›››May 10, 2012
I’m willing to bet it’s happened to you. You get a LinkedIn connection request in your email and don’t recognize the sender’s name. Maybe you have a few connections in common, or you work in the same industry—but, to your knowledge, you haven’t met. You open the message to look for clues, only to be met with this sterile line: “I’d like to add you to my professional network.” Is it me, or is this...
Read More ›››May 3, 2012
The Caped Crusader is at it again. If you’ve been on the Internet this week, you’ve likely watched (or heard about) the latest trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises,” the newest addition to the re-boot of the Batman franchise. It’s dark. It’s subdued. It’s collapsing bridges and simple, muted piano notes. It’s fear and terror with the briefest glimpse of a hero’s wavering courage. And I’m not even a superhero-movie kind of person. But there’s...
Read More ›››May 2, 2012
You hit the alarm and pull on your gym clothes and grab a health bar or a yogurt and wolf it down before getting in the car and hopping on the treadmill and quickly devouring a magazine and then you shower and put on work clothes and then go through the drive-through on the way to work where you check all your emails and Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and listen to your messages and map out...
Read More ›››May 1, 2012
Of course it is. All writing is writing. Investigative, creative, Web, narrative, prose; words marshaled into messages give us the art of writing at its elemental best and, sometimes, worse. My eight-year-old, a death grip on a gnawed pencil, writes every day, punctuation optional. And while her scripts go straight into the Homework Folder, business writers generally have the chance to proofread, edit, or rewrite client words before they hit the street, the send button,...
Read More ›››April 27, 2012
Here at Calypso we offer internships to college students who are interested in gaining real-world experience in public relations, marketing, and graphic design. At the culmination of the internship, we ask our interns to share what they’ve learned, and how the experience will help them in the future. With that, I’ll turn it over to Christina Higginbotham, our spring semester intern from Southern New Hampshire University…
April 23, 2012
These days, it can be much easier to shoot off an email or send a text than to pick up the phone. Talk to another human being? Eh, no thanks. Continue reading →
Read More ›››April 20, 2012
Let’s say you’re into marketing. You nurture your creative side. Mornings usually involve a few minutes of catching up on design blogs, social media trends, or PR updates—not financial news, stocks, or portfolios. Now let’s pretend you’re in graduate school and your next required course is described as “a survey of the mathematical, probabilistic, and statistical tools available for assisting in the operation and management of industrial organizations.” Hang on—did you just hear Charlie Brown’s teacher? ...
Read More ›››April 19, 2012
Change is never easy. I’ve talked to public relations leaders across the land about the shifting landscape of our profession, and the one constant is this: social media has changed everything. Some of us recognized this years ago and adapted. It was difficult, but the choice was rather simple: change or die. Others to this day cling to the hope that social media will run its course; that soon we’ll all be able to return...
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