Guest post by Robert Herzog, chief financial officer at Harrison College.

You’ve been in this meeting.  I know you have.

“We can’t afford that. We’re not going to make our numbers this year, and this will only put us further out of reach.”  Or better yet, “Social media is for the college kids, it has no discernible impact on OUR business.”

Yes it came from the corner office, the one held by the chief financial officer. And if you heard those words, chances are your organization is already falling behind the competition. Continue Reading »

This first ran on Shonali Burke’s blog, Waxing Unlyrical. If you read it there, there is nothing new to see here. If you don’t know Shonali or her blog, I suggest high-tailing it over there. After you’ve read and commented on this piece first. Of course. Oh. And read the comments here. They’re new, too.

Week before last, TechCrunch took a stab at PR professional Timothy Johnson.

Actually, a stab is putting it mildly.

They called him a PR disaster and printed his emails to  Leena Rao, the “extremely sweet and mild-mannered colleague” of author  Robin Wauters.

Before you jump to a conclusion, let’s examine this from both sides: The side of reporter and writer Leena, and the side of PR pro Timothy. Continue Reading »

It’s Friday! On Wednesday Bill Prettyman emailed me about something we normally do on Thursdays and, when I told him it was only Wednesday, I think I took a few seconds of his life.

Bill! It’s Friday now!

We’re getting ready to launch beta 1.0 of Project Jack Bauer next week and soon you will know what the heck it is, what name we’ve chosen, and how you can get involved. Things are moving really quickly (too quickly) and we have only nine weeks left until launch. After the excitement of launching wears off, I’m mostly looking forward to sleeping.

It’s been kind of a slow news week this week, other than some New York Times blogger making me mad, but we still managed to find some goodies for you!

So, without further ado, the Gin and Topics for the week. Continue Reading »

Petya N. Georgieva is a PR specialist and a blogger who lives and works in Bulgaria. We asked her to blog for us today because we are going to begin exploring the similarities and differences of the communication industry in different countries. Thanks, Petya, for being the first from Bulgaria!

As I am the first Bulgarian PR pro to guest blog at Spin Sucks, I am not entirely sure what you would like to know about the PR industry in my home country of Bulgaria.

I may start with the fact that the profession is a young one and has been getting more popular during the past 10 years.

I may also say that the bigger part of society has the wrong perception on what is is that we do. This is because Bulgarian singers and fashion models pretend they work in the field because they organize parties and cocktails.

I may add that some of the clients that I have worked with have no idea how our industry functions, what its essence is, and how to evaluate success. Hence, I was very often asked the PR pros’ most hated questions, such as: ‘Can you tell the journalist to publish the article about us on the first pages?’. Continue Reading »

This first ran on Dec. 28, but we didn’t want you to miss it with the holiday time off. And it’s written for the hospitality industry, but we think the tips work well for any industry.

Guest post by Didi Lutz, an award-winning public relations professional specializing in the travel and hospitality industry.

I believe social media can help the hospitality industry through the Great Recession and give it a much needed communications makeover in the process.

The hospitality industry adopts late on most things new – especially technology. However, throughout 2010, we have seen a tremendous increase in hotels, both brand chains and independent properties, that have, at the very least, built Facebook and Twitter pages. Other hotels have chosen to join Foursquare and other rich media that make sense to them.

The publishing shakeout during the past couple of years that was fueled by the rise of social media provided hoteliers the opportunity to identify new areas where key messages can be shared and discussed in real time. From a PR perspective, the feedback gained from guests is priceless, but like any other communications vehicle, social media’s power must be harnessed to yield the most effective results.

Following are some tips for hotels to keep in mind in 2011 for social media PR: Continue Reading »

This first ran on Dec. 23, but we are re-running guest posts from the holidays to be sure you didn’t miss them!

Guest post by Doug Davidoff, founder and CEO of Imagine Business Development.

I am not a PR professional. I’ve been exposed to, and used, PR professionals in a variety of ways:

* As the owner of a growth-oriented business,
* As an author and speaker, and
* As a marketing and sales advisor to my clients.

I’ve seen the wonderful things PR people can do. However, there are very few that have earned “a seat at the table” with CEOs and senior executives.

In my experience there are three gaps that PR and social media professionals must bridge if they want a seat at the table and to be treated with the seriousness they deserve: Continue Reading »

Guest post by Maya Wasserman, a senior account executive at Bailey Gardiner.

The continued proliferation of social media has changed how the PR industry interacts with and pitches the media. These days, the media are flocking to Twitter in droves, and the platform presents a new opportunity for PR pros to connect with journalists and bloggers. However, pitching there has its own set of rules and best practices. Following are my tips on how to successfully pitch media on Twitter.

Continue Reading »

Guest post by Matthew Royse, author of Knowledge Enthusiast.

In today’s ultra-competitive PR world you need to find ways to stand out. Following are 10 things that continue to help me become a more successful PR pro. I hope they help you, too.

Do your homework. A mass pitch never amasses a lot of coverage. Before you pitch a journalist or blogger, know what they cover. Research their past stories and fine tune your pitch to appeal to their audience. Continue Reading »

Arment Dietrich is a boutique marketing and communications firm. There are a lot of really good boutique companies. From Canada to Sweden to the U.K. and throughout the U.S., I can easily name the top 10, but Edelman is not among them. Sure they’re a top 10 firm, easily, in the world of large companies, but boutique? I don’t care how you skin it, that is not the appropriate category. Continue Reading »