By Courtney on June 19th, 2009 in General Thoughts | No Comments
As someone who has lived more than 2K miles away from her dad the last 6 years, Father’s Day is one of those holidays I don’t really get to celebrate. Don’t get me wrong, dear old dad got his gift (delicious vino courtesy of a recent wine tasting tour in Sonoma - lucky guy!), but I haven’t done the whole “Dad gets a day off from his chores to enjoy a BBQ” thing in quite a while.
In D.C., where everything revolves around President Obama (he’s to thank for making D.C. hip once again … or so they say), it looks like all eyes will be on America’s First Dad come Sunday. The President will grace the cover of Parade magazine with a special Father’s Day message. CBS will also run two profile pieces - first on Sunday Morning and another piece on Monday’s edition of the Early Show. Besides the obvious PR efforts, the Dad in Chief will devote almost his entire day to promoting an effort near and dear - responsible fatherhood and mentoring - by visiting a local nonprofit training young adults for careers, host a town hall on personal responsibility and will host local male students at the White House for some relaxation and, my guess, some mentoring too.
Father’s Day is not the first holiday the Obama administration has tied an effort or initiative to and from the looks of it, it certainly won’t be the last. The question is, will people (ahem, the media) continue to care as his term goes on (and D.C. inevitably becomes un-hip once again)? Or is this just a first-term thing?
And do Sasha and Malia get yelled at for not cleaning their rooms like I did? Just wondering …
Twitter Postpones Maintenance to Support Protestors in Iran
By Erin on June 17th, 2009 in General Thoughts PR+New Media 2.0 PR+New Media News | No Comments
Okay, so I’m not sure why I always find it interesting to write on Twitter, but I do. No wait, I know why… they are pretty smart cookies when it comes to word-of-mouth marketing and have a knack for doing just the right thing to get people talking (or perhaps tweeting might be more apropos).
At any rate, the microblogging service announced today plans to postpone the site’s scheduled maintenance Monday night after hearing from users and the State Department (yes, government types read Twitter too) that its service is being used by protesters communicating information about the election and aftermath in Iran. According to an article from Reuters, Twitter and Facebook have become the tools of choice used by many young people to coordinate protests over the election’s outcome.
In a blog post by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, they “recognize the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran.”
I can’t help but point out what I said before, which is that they probably also recognize that Iran is a super hot button issue in the news these days and this might be the perfect time to throw their name into the ring along with it to keep their service rolling in media and blog placements – GENIUS!
At any rate, the maintenance has been officially moved to Tuesday afternoon (which is in the early AM in Iran). Kudos to you Twitter for capitalizing on yet another news item!
New Faces for Helpful Places Update
By Julia on June 16th, 2009 in General Thoughts | No Comments
The Ace Hardware team at DBC is well on our way to completing our PR and event coordination support for Ace Hardware’s “New Faces for Helpful Places” initiative. This year’s 9th charity renovation took place today in Cincinnati, where DBC coordinated media coverage as well as the actual renovation for today’s makeover.
A success worth touting — all 4 major network affiliates in Cincinnati - NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX - attended and covered the renovation.
Many thanks to everyone in Cincinnati and particularly to Lou Manfredini - Ace’s Helpful Hardware Man - who planned and completed all of the projects and tasks completed today. Now on to the 10th and final renovation in Tennessee!
AOL Purchase Puts Local Content in the National Spotlight
By Melissa on June 12th, 2009 in General Thoughts | No Comments
Yesterday’s news of AOL purchasing two local content sites - Patch Media and Going Inc, suggests an emerging trend in the new media landscape: hyper, local, searchable information. This is no big surprise considering so many of the .com giants have implemented this strategy years ago. Take eBay and Craigs List as two prime examples. The ability to find merchandise and services specific to a region is not a ‘nice-to-have’ feature but critical to their success.
When applied to the media industry - this idea makes perfect sense. While there is still a need and value for National news, there is currently an abundance of overlap across the industry with a lot of time and money being wasted on providing the same information to consumers. While this made sense when you had to get your news from the stand, and access to information was much more limited –today there is a tremendous opportunity to offer much more diversified content. As online capabilities continue to expand with Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 tools readily available, media outlets can provide more valuable service to consumers enabling them to quickly find information that matters to them based on their location, interests and perhaps needs.
Dr. Oz to Spice Up Syndication Come September
By Julia on June 5th, 2009 in General Thoughts | No Comments
The Dr. Oz Show, featuring cardiothoracic surgeon Mehmet Oz - of The Oprah Winfrey Show and Equire magazine fame - will debut his own syndicated television show this fall. In partnership with Harpo Productions, Sony will distribute this new show, which many hope will be a boon to TV advertisements for the fall season. This highly anticipated program has generated significant buzz already among fans of Dr. Oz and entertainment industry insiders.
According to Ad Age - this new launch has strong chances for success since Dr. Oz’s popularity has steadily skyrocketed among viewers through appearances as the resident health expert on Oprah. Yet, despite this much anticipated debut, in the article “Syndication Market Looks to New Stars Next Season,” (http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=137123) Brian Steinbeg from Ad Age explains that the market will remain sluggish this summer since “executives estimate it will take all summer to complete syndication upfront buys.”
Nevertheless, DBC’s army of Oprah (and Dr. Oz) fans will be counting down for the show’s debut speculating about the content, style, and format as well as potential pitch angles for our many clients :)
Carving out a Niche: PR’s Fate in the Digital Age
By Andrea on June 3rd, 2009 in Blogs General Thoughts PR+New Media News | No Comments
With the ever-increasing demise of print publications, what are PR professionals to do? Pray for growth in online advertising rates and embrace online social media, that’s what! As the print medium continues to loose its grasp in a world more concentrated on spewing things out in 140 characters or less, PR professionals are scrambling to find ways to reach audiences and promote clients in the digital age.
For the moment, many in the industry are embracing the ‘monkey see, monkey do’ approach and grabbing on to any and every trendy, online social media networking site possible. With the Internet becoming the go-to medium, PR professionals now have to integrate social media tactics into their business plans and adapt to the current media environment of fade into the background.
According to PR Week article titled “PR’s Future in Digital On the Line, ‘PR is no longer about the volume of press coverage you can generate. It’s about digital relevance of the coverage.’
As the lines between public relations, advertising and marketing continue to blur, the public relations industry needs to find a niche in the communications field and set itself apart from the pack.
To read more about the fate of PR in the digital age see here.
Press Releases - what are they good for?
By Melissa on May 31st, 2009 in General Thoughts | No Comments
In my earlier days in PR, press releases were a staple in any PR flack’s tool box. Much has changed in the last 5 - 10 years, and today there is much discussion / disagreement about the value of press releases - and if there is value in them?
Some marketing folks (and even those at the various wire services - surprise!) have suggested that more is better because it helps boost search engine listings. And heck getting more ‘good’ news (press releases rarely have bad news) out about your company - what can be wrong with that?
While I can understand the rationale behind this - more is not necessarily better because
- Wrtiting and editing press releases takes time - so why invest time in something that has minimal to no news value to boost search engine listings - there are other vehicles / tools to accomplish that.
- Plus putting an abundance of press releases out creates clutter, dilutes your message and has a numbing effect on stakeholders you may try reach when you actually do have news.
When written well and timed properly, press releases can be an effective way to get news out, and a variety of social media tools available today that can be incorporated into press releases to make them even more powerful.
For a few other interesting posts about the role of press releases today see here and here.
By Andrea on May 27th, 2009 in General Thoughts | No Comments
One would think it impossible to turn an online social networking phenomenon into a television show, right? Unless you live under a rock or without a television, we all know that television executives will try to incorporate anything and everything new and trendy into something, especially when it comes to reality T.V.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen someone out there wants to incorporate the micorblogging site into an unscripted reality show. Due to the overwhelming and profitable success of such shows this idea might become ‘reality.’
However, the loyal twittering public have voiced, in 140 characters or less, there distaste for the bold move and this has rattled Twitter co-founders so much that they too have expressed their opinion about the decision.
To read more please follow this link: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=106719
More Than Just a 3-Day Weekend
By Courtney on May 22nd, 2009 in General Thoughts | No Comments
Ahhh … Memorial Day. The national holiday unofficially marks the kick off to summer across the country with inaugural BBQs, the opening of pools, the flock of travelers to beaches and here at DBC, the start of summer Fridays … what more can you ask for?
With all the hoopla its easy to forget why Memorial Day exists in the first place (and no, it wasn’t created by Hallmark or grill makers). The holiday, originally called Decoration Day, commemorates the men and women who died while serving this great nation.
As we head to the beach, hit the road or fire up the grill, we can all take time to reflect on just why this holiday exists in the first place. These cherished past times, along with everything else in our American way of life, wouldn’t exist without the bravery and sacrifice of the great men and women of our military.
A day of gratitude is truly the least we can do.
Twitter — Yup I’ve finally done it…
By Erinh on May 20th, 2009 in General Thoughts | No Comments
So I held out as long as I could, but I’ve finally bit the bullet and signed up for Twitter. Right now I’m just a passive user, as I’ve yet to “tweet” anything. But I’m really enjoying my updates from MSNBC, a few PR specific accounts, and even US Weekly (shh, don’t tell Dan :)). One question that I have, I signed up yesterday, and without tweeting anything, I already have a couple of followers — how does that happen? And why does it make me nervous?? Maybe I’m not 100% ready for this site….
When I was doing some research into twitter before I decided to join, I came across this concise list of rules to follow when tweeting. Its from a guy named Andy Piper who works from IBM. If I ever decide to become more active and actually tweet, I’ll definitely be sure to follow his rules. Here they are:
- never, EVER, split a single comment across multiple tweets – 140 chars is enough, or you’re saying too much at once.
- don’t be too verbose or noisy (I guess this amounts to “don’t Twitter too much”)
- don’t be broadcast-only, try to respond to comments and questions
- don’t use Twitter just for chatting (i.e. don’t spend too much time on @replies)