My Journey to Sterling

By On May 24, 2013 · Leave a Comment · In Film, Media, Public Relations, Technology

Unlike my coworkers, I didn’t gracefully land into PR. Instead, I stumbled and landed (on my face) into the world of public relations.

After deciding that law school wasn’t for me, a friend suggested that public relations might be an industry that would make me happy. The only thing I knew about [...]

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Wild Cards

By On May 16, 2013 · Leave a Comment · In Business, Public Relations

Here’s a small sampling of business cards, collected over the past couple of years, from Marianne O’Connor. They were all fished out of her desk as we remove the last vestiges of Sterling’s old furniture to make way for some exciting changes in our Silicon Valley headquarters. Most California employees will be working remotely [...]

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2013 Mid-Year Report: The Year’s 5 Buzziest Stories & Trends So Far

By On May 15, 2013 · Leave a Comment · In Crisis Communications, Current Affairs, Events, Public Relations, Social Media, Technology, Web/Tech

It’s hard to believe, but we’re already nearing the halfway point of 2013! As such, let’s take a look back at five topics that have caught our attention so far this year….

 

1.  Security breaches

Hacks and breaches are an unfortunate and all-too-common occurrence these days. While data security is critical [...]

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Hypotheses on Google Glass & PR

On May 10, 2013 By

Often times, when there is a new technology released, people don’t quite understand the kind of impact that technology will or won’t have.

Few might have predicted that the four-wheel motor vehicle would eventually become a technology owned by just about every family on the block in different colors, shapes, sizes and brands.

There’s been [...]

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On LinkedIn’s 10th birthday – 10 tips to optimize your page

On May 8, 2013 By

It’s hard to believe that everyone’s favorite professional networking site is celebrating its 10th birthday. But, unlike your probably awkward 10-year old tripping over their own feet and trying to figure out who they want to be when they grow up, LinkedIn –at 225 million users– has firmly established its place in the social media [...]

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What do you wanna be when you grow up?

On April 30, 2013 By

I’ve always been interested in influencing people.

Growing up in a business family, I was aware of the power of influence early on. It was often an active part of our dinner table conversations. As my Dad used to say, it’s all about the customer.

So what influences the customer? Where do [...]

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Redesigning the SPG Solar Website

On April 23, 2013 By

Since 2001, SPG Solar has been designing, engineering, building and maintaining high-quality solar power systems for large commercial, industrial, governmental and public energy users. In 2006, SPG Solar started manufacturing the SunSeeker single-axis tracker to generate up to 25% more solar power. In 2012, they began to sell [...]

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The Human Aspect of Social Media and Guidelines for Handling a Crisis

On April 18, 2013 By

Watching the aftermath of the Boston Marathon tragedy really hit home for me. Boston was  the place I called home for 11 years. I have family and close friends who live there. As a proud graduate of Boston University, I remember enjoying sunny afternoons on Patriots’ Day cheering on the valiant runners as [...]

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Responding to tragedy – What brands (and brand marketers) sometimes forget: social networks are communities, not just channels.

On April 16, 2013 By

In the immediate wake of yesterday’s bombing at the Boston Marathon, at least one prominent social media marketing expert, Chris Brogan, questioned the notion that brands should suspend or alter their social media activities when tragedy occurs. Striking a similar chord, tech blogger Chris Pirillo — who has built [...]

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Putting the ethics back in PR

On April 11, 2013 By

Let’s face it, PR doesn’t exactly have the reputation as being the most ethical of professions or having the most ethical workers. And, the profession that’s all about trying to influence public opinion hasn’t done much on its own behalf to change this. According to the Continue Reading →

Why buzzwords hurt us all

On April 9, 2013 By

Important: I would like to announce that this innovative blog post offers leading solutions that will impact the latest opportunities for global writing success. Are you paying attention now? Probably not. That’s because the opening line of this paragraph is fashioned almost entirely from the most commonly used words in press releases, [...]

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Roger Ebert and the Power of the People

On April 4, 2013 By

With Roger Ebert’s passing today, we’ve lost not only a legendary movie critic, but also a man who recognized that the power of the people, as much as his own reviews, could decide the fate of a movie – and even a product, company or person.

Many may not know, but Ebert [...]

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The Villain is the Hero of their Story: Multimedia Storytelling

On April 2, 2013 By

In the business of creating visual media, the hardest part is convincing a client that video is the way to go. Why? It’s expensive and putting together a strategy that’s going to get you the most bang for your buck is complex at best. So you’ve got your video and you’re wondering, [...]

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So, You Want Client Coverage?

On March 26, 2013 By

International Data Group (IDG) is the world’s leading technology media, events and research company. IDG’s brand reaches an audience of more than 280 million technology buyers in 97 countries. So when IDG’s managing news editor, Nancy Weil, offered insight into connecting with their influencers, you bet our ears perked up.

Read below [...]

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Happy Birthday, Twitter! 7 Ways Twitter Has Changed PR…

On March 22, 2013 By

Yesterday marked the 7th anniversary of the first tweet. For a service that was initially met with much skepticism (why does the world care that I’m eating a sandwich?), Twitter has steadily become a necessary PR tool, taking its place alongside (or in some industries, ahead of) the traditional [...]

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Is the press release dead?

On March 19, 2013 By

Much like Mark Twain’s circumstance in 1897 at the hands of the New York Journal, the reports of the death of the press release are greatly exaggerated. Of course, the press release has evolved considerably since its debut in 1906, and today’s press releases are distributed electronically instead of in paper envelopes. [...]

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Carnival of horrors

On March 15, 2013 By

It’s been a bumpy ride for Carnival cruises for the last couple of years. The company has found itself in the news far too often — and it’s not because of its stellar performance on their part. Carnival Cruises Lines’ not so Triumphant, not so much Splendor and Costa Concordia (owned by [...]

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How does an aging brand stay hip?

On March 13, 2013 By

South by Southwest (SXSW) just turned 26. For most people, 26 is still a relatively youthful age — a time when idealistic folks are establishing careers, setting up independent lives, and deciding whom they want to become as adults. But for the Austin-based festival dedicated to the latest trends in [...]

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Certifications: Do they carry weight or are they fishy?

On March 7, 2013 By

Last month, I was listening to KQED while getting ready for work. Usually I tune into the weather and the traffic that doesn’t apply to me, but they played a segment that piqued my attention: Is Sustainable-Labeled Seafood Really Sustainable? In this segment, they explored the art of “greenwashing” – [...]

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My Top 5 Kickstarter Videos of February 2013

On March 5, 2013 By

Today, you can reach into your pocket with the sole intension of showing off a video on that new device of yours. It doesn’t take a professional to know a good video when they see one, but it only takes a split second for someone to realize that they are uninterested in what you are [...]

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Is it ever OK to publicly dispute a product review?

On February 28, 2013 By

When Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently and very publicly challenged the fairness and accuracy of an unflattering New York Times test drive of his company’s Model S electric sedan, a number of observers wondered aloud whether it was a wise move. As the old saw goes, “never pick a fight with someone [...]

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Is Social Media the New Fortune-Teller? Predicting Oscar Winners Based on Social Media Sentiment

On February 26, 2013 By

Look no further than social media to predict the winners of award shows – not to mention box office grosses, outcomes of sporting events, and more. For every uninformed social media user, there are many more experts weighing in on events and topics in social media, coming together to offer sound insights [...]

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It’s All in the Name

On February 22, 2013 By

A Look at What a Name Can Do For a Business, an Idea or a Product

You’re home watching television one night and an advertisement pops on following your favorite Food Network television show. It’s a bright sunny day and you find yourself surrounded by healthy, leafy cornfields in an idyllic Iowa [...]

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The Rise of Churnalism – Distinguishing between News and Fluff

On February 20, 2013 By

We all know that the journalism industry is amidst great change. Shrinking budgets, smaller workforces, and the 24-hour news cycle of a 2.0 world all add up to a higher pressure to deliver more with less.

While more content is created for our consumption, these circumstances can lead to shortcuts [...]

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Building a Website? Keep it Simple

On February 14, 2013 By

Creating, updating, or designing a website for yourself or a client can get to be a little hectic, especially when you begin to think about all the moving parts that are involved in the process.  The important rule to remember when it comes to web projects is to “keep it simple”.

In [...]

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A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter

On February 12, 2013 By

I’m still amazed at how many CEOs and executives are still not on social media. Even more shocking is the percentage of people who are on social media who have no idea how to use it. I found myself making social [...]

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Beyond the Five Ws

On February 7, 2013 By

My career in the newspaper business began like that of any other cub reporter, with the requisite no-nonsense editor who drilled into me the importance of the facts –just the facts – derived from a simple but powerful set of questions known as the five Ws. You’re familiar with them, I’m sure, [...]

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Lessons Learned from the Super Bowl: Knowing the WHY Behind a Campaign’s Success

On February 5, 2013 By

Anyone who watched Sunday’s Super Bowl doesn’t have to look much further than the power outage to find the WHY behind the Niners’ much-needed-but-not-quite-enough momentum. Yet, finding the WHY behind the advertising campaigns that worked requires a deeper look.

In Twitter We Trust

Sorry, O’Doyle, but Twitter rules! [...]

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Silicon Valley: Ideas “R” Us

On February 4, 2013 By

At the Sundance Film Festival last week, one of the most buzzed-about screenings was that of the new Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher. With a second Jobs movie in the planning [...]

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Where is that Great Perception-Changing Coverage?

On January 29, 2013 By

While flipping through the print edition of this month’s Esquire magazine I saw an interesting article about the new Corvette. The article caught my attention because it focused on Chevy’s choice to dial back the horsepower (at least a bit — the car is still powerful enough to give you whiplash) in [...]

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