Word of mouth is an important part of today’s marketing and public relations efforts. How do we get people to become “walking brochures” to spread the word about our brand or client? Freelance writer Shira Levine provides three simple tips on how you can stimulate word of mouth. Levine’s first tip: “Hone and demonstrate a unique expertise.” — Matthew Royse
Cats and dogs. Sure, they can get along just fine — but sometimes things get, well, a little weird. Kind of like the relationship between PR professionals. and reporters. PR Fuel blog listed five things PR pros don’t like about journalists (“They don’t always ask for a comment before running a story”) and vice versa (“You don’t respect their time.”) Related Marketing Conversations Five things bloggers hate about PR pitches.
Gawker crunched some numbers on White House salaries the last two years and found that 74 percent of staffers got raises in 2010. It published a list of the top 20 raises, and 12 of the staffers receiving pay increases worked in communications . And why not? The Obama administration has done a bang-up job communicating to the public. Ahem.
Ever wanted to know which words are most commonly used by mummy bloggers? Sally Whittle, author of the U.K.’s No. 1 parenting blog, has done some research into the most used words on blogs like hers. Even “Twitter” made an appearance. Nice! — Adam Vincenzini
Here’s a list from the archives (unearthed recently by Inc. magazine). It’s a collection of actual out-of-office replies, compiled by Dave Duarte, a South African social media marketer. Here’s a doozy from the list: “Sorry to have missed you, but I am at the doctor’s having my brain removed so I can be promoted to our management team.” Nice.
Samsung Electronics America, in Ridgefield Park, N.J., is hiring a senior manager of public relations responsible for the reporting, strategy, and execution for both internal and external communications for the North American headquarters. Read more about this job.
This is what happens when you leave an old television set sitting by the side of the road — Tetris pieces, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man come alive and wreak havoc on the Big Apple. See for yourself in this clever 2-minute video.
With the hundreds of social media events going on around the country every month, each with a bevy of speakers, communications pro Arik Hanson wonders whether being a social media speaker is even a credibility builder any more. He also muses about being a subject matter expert — is it better than being an entertaining speaker. Know who his favorite speaker is? You may be surprised. — Claire Celsi
Despite all the gains women have made in the workplace, some professions continue to treat women unfairly. Newsweek put together a list of eight of these professionals . No. 1 on the list: journalism.
Talk about pushing the limits of creativity. You’ve got to see these 45 advertisements compiled last year by the folks at Web Design Ledger . They run the gamut of visually amazing to “oh jeez.” What are your favorites? — Susan Young
Finally, an award for writing we can get behind — and under, and on top of, and on the kitchen counter. Irish based author Rowan Sommerville took the annual Bad Sex in Fiction award, presented by Britain’s Literary Review, for his novel The Shape of Her . The Telegraph reported that judges for the prize, which honors the crudest of sexually vulgar excerpts in modern literature, said they were particularly taken by Sommerville’s sentence, “Like a lepidopterist mounting a toug…
PR and social media types like us tend to talk a lot about the large segment of the American population that’s crazy about the Internet and social media. But what about the estimated 20 percent that never log on? Some just don’t have Internet access; some don’t want to use a computer, although many have another Internet user in the house. — Claire Celsi
New York Institute of Technology seeks a staff writer/reporter for its media and public relations department. The responsibilities of this position includes — but are not limited to — developing story ideas for various print and online vehicles, including staff/faculty/student profiles; preparing internal/external research; staying abreast of current events; writing tactical speeches/talking points for the college’s president. Read more about this job.
The American Veterinary Medical Association is seeking a government relations communications manager to advocate for the association’s policies and positions on federal legislative and regulatory issues that influence animal and human health and advance the veterinary medical profession. Read more about this.
A recent survey of companies with fewer than 1,000 employees found that 9 percent plan to increase their PR budgets in 2011, while 41 percent plan to maintain their current PR spending for next year. A mere 3 percent said they plan decrease their PR budgets. Read more about the study.
