Valley PR Blog

Valley PR Blog’s Weekend Reading for 04-18-08

By Dan Wool on April 18th, 2008 In Weekend Reading

It’s Valley PR Blog’s weekly link list to interesting posts around the PR, marketing and social media blogosphere — on topic, off topic and the “snooze release” of the week. (As evidenced on our own blog Thursday, it was a cranky week for PR bloggers).

On Topic: Do flacks “get it” this week?

PR industry: Still grasping for a clue - Forget social media - just use links! Toronto Globe & Mail writer Mathew Ingram reacts to Mark Glaser at PBS Media Shift’s post The Social Press Release: Multimedia, Two-Way, Direct to the Public. Silicon Valley Watcher blogger Tom Foremski, the man who inspired the social media press release with his “Die! Press Release, Die!” post two years ago, had a similar response.

Chief among bad pitches: pitching the Editor-in-Chief -- We are always encouraging PR pros to do their homework (dammit!). Part of that is knowing the general makeup of a newsroom. The other part is actually reading the publication and reporter — not lazily pitching whatever search result came up in your listware. Kevin Dugan of Bad Pitch on a classic, profession-shaming — and somehow oft-repeated — PR mistake.

If this is PR, what’s that other stuff? Youngblood PR’s Michael Allison questions some practitioners understanding of the true meaning of PR - includes “greatest hits” list of bad pitch links and a couple other terrific references.

Five reasons I deleted your press release - Sally Whittle of Getting Ink counts the ways (and they’re all my favorites!). Additional commentary from Andrew Smith at Marcom Professional here.

Balki is the worst representative of public relations…ever! – HMA’s Alison Bailin blogs about former Perfect Strangers star Bronson Pinchot joining soap opera Young & the Restless as a hot shot PR pro. I liked him better in Risky Business and Beverly Hills Cop, myself.

Why I LOVE people who “don’t get it” – If you feel more excluded than included when you hear the term social media, Socialized’s Joel Postman has a reassuring post for you. (While we’re on the subject of TV, that’s a picture of Maynard G. Krebs, not Gilligan).

Off Topic: Graph fever!

Not an article this week but these two home-made graph blogs never fail to make me laugh.

Snooze Release: Houston, we have a dud

Houston PR Firm Approved as Accredited Member of the Better Business Bureau - This is what I like to call “news for news sake.” 6.5 Z’s out of 10.

If you have favorite blog posts for the week, saw the world’s most boring press release or read an interesting off-topic article, email it to us for a future Weekend Reading.

Comments

Thanks for linking to my post on “Why I LOVE people who ‘don’t get it’.” Of course it’s meant to be Maynard G. Krebs, whose character at the time might have been generically that of a hipster, but who most viewers quickly realized was also a buffoon. The goatee Maynard is sporting in the picture has been borrowed by many social media “gurus,” and, regrettably, I have one like it, too. I cannot, however, play the bongos.

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