PR’s Place in Strategic Communication

Content and community are both vital and inseparable, for both clients and agencies. Public relations professionals’ skills are perfectly tailored to understand and leverage this reality for the benefit of their respective organizations and agencies. Rather than comprising a department distinct from advertising, PR pros should create the branding glue that pervades all departments and … Continue reading →

Agencies Are Also Brands

Many in the advertising and public relations industry are now familiar with the manifesto “Content is King.” As several professionals pointed out at the 2012 PRSSA National Conference, if content is king, then community is queen. However, what many forget is that their own agencies are a part of this community, not just as agencies … Continue reading →

In Foggy California

I’ll get the mandatory, superficial reflections out of the way. San Francisco was nothing at all like the image I had painted of it in my head (largely courtesy of The Princess Diaries). Somehow in my 21 years, I missed the memo that not all of California is sunny, with roads lined by palm trees. … Continue reading →

The 10 Essentials for a Successful PR Career

With a title like that, you know a session is bound to be packed. Especially at a conference for PR nerds – this moi, included. This session’s presenter, Virgil Scudder, outlined these ten essentials for succeeding in a PR position: Writing skills As Scudder argued, everybody has to write something at some time; professionals must … Continue reading →

Social Media and the 2012 Election

Larry Parnell, a top PR professional and professor at George Washington University, and David Almacy, a former press director for President George W. Bush and a public affairs specialist at Edelman in D.C., led this session. Parnell began the session by establishing the context of social media, presenting the statistics of adoption and usage of … Continue reading →

Listen, Pause, Think & Speak

Dr. Joe Trahan, APR of Trahan and Associates began his session “Media Training” by outlining the 3 C’s of media relations: control, competence and concern.  He also reminded us multiple times to always listen, pause, think and speak when conversing with the media. Dr. Trahan then focused most of his presentation on preparing for interviews, news conferences, … Continue reading →