The Meaning of Definitions

Sometimes I think there's a little too much  'blah, blah, blah" in our world.  People talking or writing just to hear/see their voices.  Looks like the PR Society of America is also guilty of that according to an article in the New York Times.

I'm not sure that trying to crowd source a definition of  PR is the best of ideas.   Seriously if those at the helm of the only existing national group for PR professionals doesn't even know what they're supposed to be doing because of the influence of social media, maybe it's time for them to go into advertising?  what do you think?

Social Schedules

Mea Culpa my friends for ignoring my PR blog, but I've been in an art frenzy!  Since the end of September, I've been working on art for the Windows show at E Street Gallery in October and for the Center for Contemporary Art Sacramento's satellite gallery at Lumens Design for Living on K Street at 21st Street.  I've been hereat in Sacramento for the closing reception at E Street plus the opening and 2nd Saturday receptions at Lumens.

Now that the heavy lifting is over, time to refocus on other interests - namely PR Insights.  One of the most important things about a good PR campaign is to develop a good schedule and to stay on track.  Not only does that apply to the traditional PR outlets, but to social media as well.  However you really should revamp your schedule to include social media sites as described in this article from entrepreneur. com.

Social Media Branding Nirvana: Transparency

When I come across a phrase like that I have to steal it,  use it with attribution (Thanks Todd Wasserman).  I ran across it in an article from one of my most consistent sources - Mashable.  I think we all remember the Toyota snafu when millions of cars had to be recalled.  This shows a high level of awareness of remembering that a company must communicate, especially during bad times.  I never saw the interview mentioned in the article and it seems as if they engineered it to look more "transparent".

But that said, it shows that when bad things happen, one must be on the spot with releasing news to the public as much as one does when good things happen.  It's all about communication and being honest.  There's a new buzz word for honesty these days - authenticity.   You'll hear business folks go on ad nauseam about it.  If one is being authentic, one is being honest, right? 

But when good things do happen to you or your business, or you're involved in innovative projects, there's nothing like a good, old-fashioned news release sent out to media to draw interest in an article, in addition to getting your message out with social media.

Here are a couple of places where you too might be able to reach a small, but targeted audience in this article.

My, What Lovely Fox Paws !

Yes, here I am committing a faux pas, or committing bad humor.  Which do you think dear reader?  Nonetheless, the PR blunder is the topic for this month's second post.  For most groups, organizations and companies, it's a question of when rather than ever having committed a PR blunder.  A small slip of the tongue near an open microphone, a mis-Tweet or what someone thought was a funny post on Facebook can turn around to slap you right in the face.  Cheap Shot Alert - Unless of course you're Charlie Sheen.

So is dealing with those kinds of mistakes any different in cyber space than in the physical world?  In a word, no.  The same things you would do here, you carry over to the social media sphere.  As a matter of fact, I think it's easier to react quickly, honestly and with humor in social media.

Thanks to my friends at Mashable for sharing this link to AMEX's forum for small businesses about recovering from a social media fox paw.

Future for Google+?

It was interesting to start a small conversation on Facebook yesterday about Google+.  While some of my more adventuresome friends are there, others who are very tech savvy are not.  This surprised me until I asked why.  The response was to wait until more people go there.  But if the tech savvy folks are waiting, then who will be there?

This is the dilemma for PR and Marketing folks as well.  Especially since there is no advertising on Google+ right now.  But just because there aren't any ads now, doesn't mean that will always be the case, so say the folks over at Mashable.


For PR purposes, I can see Google+ as being a place where you can post links to news releases that have made it on other websites.  I just did that with a small release I got out there for a group art show I'm in later this month.

Google Plus ?

Do you get it?  I'm not sure I do.  But I'm there, having been thrown in certain circles by my good meaning gmail friends.  Guess I'm what you could call an early adopter.  I even got a new Android phone last week that I'm still trying to figure out.  But I will persevere and conquer it as I did the Blackberry before it.

But back to Google+, right now I only have 6 people in circles, but 14 have me in their circles.  The one thing was bothers me a bit about it is that I have my "real" email address attached to it.  On the FB side, I use a different email address so my inbox isn't clogged with stuff and to to that FB email every few days to clear things out of it.

But thanks to           I've have access to some information on Google+ that might be of use to you PR types out here.  But I couldn't have done it wthout the help of the good folks over at A Photo Editor.  Thanks for that link t his morning.  I knew that I needed to post here and was a trifle at sea about what to post.

My Pro Bono Work

Maybe I'm just a crazy lady, but I feel that everyone needs to help others - be it donating money to worthy causes, delivering meals on wheels to the elderly or in my case, helping groups and organizations with PR. 

Two years ago I was helping the artists who do the NadaDada Motel Art Festival in Reno, Nevada when I asked to see the news release so I could send it to my contacts.  Remember yesterday's post about going back to the basics - the 5 Ws?  That's what I did with the "release" that one of the artists sent me.  I just re-wrote in a more conventional journalistic style.  Then I thought, why not send it to the NY Times?  So I did and this time Fortuna smiled in my direction and we got a reporter out to the event and got a hit.

I don't know if I'll be as lucky (because really PR is just a toss of the die), but  hope I will for my next Pro Bono project for the Professional Women Photographers (PWP)  (http://www.facebook.com/ProfessionalWomenPhotographers) who is hosting a very interesting panel discussion at the School of Visual Arts in New York City that I hope I can attend.  I can't tell you much now, but some BIG name folks from the New Yorker magazine and the Yale School of Art are on tap.

If you're amazed that I've posted three times in one week, I'm flabbergasted!  But this post was triggered by an email from PWP trying to figure out a time for me to consult with them via speaker phone in the meeting.