I don’t know why the new service from Cision makes me want to play hide and seek. Perhaps because it’s named Seek or Shout? It makes me all juvenile.

But the service itself is not juvenile (apparently that’s just me).

For those of you who have been in the PR industry a long time, you likely know HARO, or Help a Reporter Out, created by Peter Shankman and then sold to Vocus in 2010.

Well, now Cision has a similar service, but it’s for journalists, bloggers, and PR pros. Continue Reading »

A couple of weeks ago, Steve Cody wrote “You Don’t Know Jack About Public Relations” in his Inc. column.

I know Steve. He and I both are cyclists and favor shipping our bikes to Counselors Academy every year so we can ride with a small group of friends.

I like him. A lot.

I respect the heck out of him for the agency he’s built in the last 16 years.

But he’s wrong about the difference between advertising and PR. Rather, he’s describing publicity, and that’s what is wrong with the perception of our industry.

We are not just publicists. It’s ONE tactic we use in an overall communication program.  Continue Reading »

I can hear the wind blowing outside and it sounds like it’s really cold. So I’m pulling together this blog post in bed.

I don’t want to get up!

In some places in the country, wind like this is called a tornado or a hurricane. In Chicago? It’s just par for the course. It is, after all, the Windy City.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t have Facebook question of the week (clap, clap, clap)! Continue Reading »

Bloggers’ roundtables have been around for a while. They’re especially popular for book clubs, with the Department of Defense, and among politicians. (One wag even asked John McCain if he knew the difference between YouTube and MySpace.)

Yet roundtables never really took off as a form of outreach. That’s too bad, because as a vehicle for companies to engage many customers at once, roundtables can be as effective, if not more, than their headline-grabbing cousins, Twitter and Facebook. Continue Reading »

Matthew Royse is the author of Knowledge Enthusiast.

Social media is a game changer for public relations.  It is bringing new challenges and opportunities to the profession and to savvy pros.  I have outlined seven ways that social media is changing PR.

1. Two-way conversation. PR pros can no longer blast out information about their brand or client and expect to succeed.  Consumers and journalists have come to expect that they won’t be “spammed” and will be answered quickly and in a personal manner. Timely, two-way communication is the “new normal.” Listening, engagement and thought leadership are now three areas that PR pros manage. 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 »

Guest post by Abbie S. Fink, vice president/general manager of HMA Public Relations. The recent New York Times article written about the problem with public relations, which was explored on Spin Sucks this morning, makes Abbie’s guest post even more relevant.

Late last month, Gini Dietrich wrote about what to consider when hiring a public relations firm.  She included a great checklist but talked mostly about evaluating expertise of the firm – the skill set and strategies they would bring to your organization.

If only having a checklist made the process easier.

I’ve been in the agency business a long time – reasons clients want to hire agencies vary. Their understanding of what we do and how we do it varies as well. And as those responsible for new business development and responding to the initial client requests, we need to ask some tough questions, too. 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 »

Guest post by Michael Shmarak, principal of Sidney Maxwell Public Relations.

OK, a quick show of hands – how many people got out of bed at some ungodly hour and stood in line for any number of Black Friday deals last month?

For those who raised hands, may I ask that you take that hand, form a cup with your other hand, and splash cold water on your faces? Sorry to rain on your parade, but you need a proverbial wake-up call. Your deal might have been good, but was it a deal at all?

I don’t know why the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, anymore. According to retail data, shopper patterns, and any number of measurement tools, it is not the busiest shopping day of the year. Black Friday is a myth. Continue Reading »