Journalists transition to PR

As newspapers close their doors and magazines cease circulation, more and more journalists are stepping over to what many of them once considered the “dark side.” PR agencies are now populated with former journalists who bring their newsroom experience to the PR industry.
My concern with this is everyone seems to assume that every journalist is [...]

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Time to get away

Last week was supposed to be our company’s retreat, which had to be postponed because of a rash of influenza that spread throughout the agency’s halls. So instead of attending the retreat I’d rather take pause to talk about the purpose of it here.
It is good every once and a while to take a break [...]

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Being the social voice

My company is just jumping into the social arena with a new Facebook page, Twitter account and hopefully soon, a blog. As I’ve been watching it unfold and participating in the process when I can, I have noticed how easy it is for one person’s voice to become the voice of the organization. It is [...]

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4 beginning steps to taking charge of my career

Chris Brogan’s post last week “Take Charge of Your Career” made me start thinking about my own career. What can I do to help me grow as a professional? Here are a few things I’ve come up with. 
1. Mentor. By mentoring others I can learn so much more about myself and my career. Last week [...]

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Why is your Facebook page private?

I will be the first to admit that Facebook isn’t high on my priority list. I can distinctly remember everyone back in college jumping on board the social media outlet and me just hanging back. 
I am now a Facebook member– feel free to come friend me (search Melanie Thompson, San Antonio) — but as I [...]

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Blogging for seniors

  I’m waiting to see someone take the senior community by storm by creating a social media campaign that really reaches the older demographic. Yes, seniors are not known to be bloggers and rank the lowest in social media engagement studies. However, the demographic is growing.
If you think about it, there are many benefits to targeting seniors through [...]

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The BIG 2009 pitfall

We’re only three weeks into 2009, and I can already see the big pitfall facing PR professionals (and in some way all businesses) this year — social media. I know what you’re thinking. Social media has been listed on almost every list as the trend of 2009. But that is the problem. 
For every new client [...]

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Starting your post off right

RSS feeds are the primary way I read blogs. And what I’ve noticed is the lack of power in the first paragraph of posts. You see, many feeders only run the first paragraph, thus if you don’t make your point up front, your reader is going to miss out on all the great things you [...]

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Learning from a crisis

A crisis situation is never fun. When you get that call you feel it in the pit of your stomach. However, as a PR professional, that is what I am here for. To get my clients through the good times and bad.
I’m not going to go into details about the situation I faced last week [...]

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New name

If you are a regular follower you will notice a change in the name of this blog. Since I started it two months ago I’ve been trying to determine a name that better states the blog’s purpose. I’m still not 100 percent sold on PR Footprint, but it definitely is a step (pun intended) in [...]

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