Small Is Big: SmugMug, King of Shaves and More
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] The words “business” and “business leader” often conjure up Dow Jones–size companies and the big names who lead them. We’re almost as fascinated by stars of big business as by stars of the big screen. And why not? A recent Forbes article pleading “Bring Back the Celebrity CEO” makes the case [...]
Speak and Write
This is the sixth in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. As a CEO, you are not only responsible for profitability and productivity, but you’re also the top representative for the views and philosophies of the company you lead. Your company website no doubt has pages dedicated to what your [...]
One-Man (and One-Woman) Brands
What can we learn from people who have created a brilliant Brand Me? In today’s highly curated world of social networking, it’s more important than ever to let your personal brand beacon hit new heights. Your brand can incorporate everything from the hobbies you pursue in off-hours (as if that exists with the always-on, 24/7/365 [...]
Hetail Therapy
This is the third in a series of five. See Euro RSCG Worldwide PR’s latest white paper, “Male in U.S.A.,” for more analysis about the state of men in America today. As I continue to do some serious “CSI”-style forensics on gender roles, I’m discovering that—almost a decade after Euro RSCG Worldwide helped introduce metrosexuals [...]
Powerful Social Expressions: Social Life and Social Media
“Powerful Social Expressions” is a series showcasing some of ERWW PR’s most successful uses of social media in the past year. Social Life and Social Media Blog In order to showcase the impressive and innovative breadth and depth of social media expertise across the entire global Euro RSCG brand, PR agency President Marian Salzman and [...]
Powerful Social Expressions: Headstrong
“Powerful Social Expressions” is a series showcasing some of ERWW PR’s most successful uses of social media in the past year. Headstrong: A Four-Part Series Since agency president Marian Salzman’s successful brain tumor removal in July 2007, she has donated her time and PR expertise to Massachusetts General—the hospital where she had the operation—and to [...]
Voting Local Is the New Global
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. As a marketing and PR professional, I’m a strong advocate of the phrase “Local is the new global.” (I am not, however, a huge fan of the jargon-y term for that idea—”glocal”—even though I used to toss it around promiscuously in the late 1990s.) If you meet me at [...]
When Blogs Bite Back
This week, Facebook became the new “Letters to the Editor” when Marie Claire published an article that turned controversial. At the center of this argument are six health bloggers dubbed the Big Six. In Marie Claire’s article “The Hunger Diaries,” journalist Katie Drummond discusses how health writers might be promoting obsessive eating and exercising behaviors [...]
Young Love? Or a Made-for-TV Romance?
This week Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston announced that not only are they back together, but they are also (again) engaged to be married. Unlike most couples, Bristol and Levi didn’t relay the exciting news to their families first. Instead, they landed an Us Weekly cover and told the world. The news set off a [...]
The Intern Diaries, Part III
One thing I love about working with ERWW PR is the interaction I’m able to have with people every day. I am constantly finding new ways to build relationships with three types of people: clients, consumers and colleagues. During the course of my internship, I, along with other interns, have been using social media as [...]
Who’s Watching the Kids?
Many people breathed a huge sigh of relief when 16-year-old Abby Sunderland was rescued on the open seas. We immediately knew she was OK because when her quest to become the youngest person to sail around the world ended, the media covered it extensively—and Abby blogged about it…in real time. Was anyone surprised, then, at revelations that [...]
The Transformation of American Youth: From Teenager to Teenagent
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. Would it be an exaggeration to say teenagers are running popular culture? We don’t think so. And, if anything, we’re willing to up the bet. Take a look at teenagers today—their habits, their purchasing power, their mastery of media—and momentarily suspend your belief in the stereotypes or hollow assumptions [...]
Social Media in America
This is the fourth in a series of six. During the protracted health-care debate, it quickly became clear that the media put a premium on accessing information: Even C-SPAN, the cable industry’s nonstop outlet for televised government affairs, had to challenge the Obama administration to open the doors to the process. In the meantime, Americans [...]
Why Do Some Celebrities Rise Up?
I’m very proud that Euro PR counts Wyclef Jean and his nongovernmental organization, Yéle Haiti, among our clients. I’ve been fortunate to work with him on ongoing communications and when headdressed the delegates at the One Young World conference in London in February. As both a collaborator and an observer, I’m deeply impressed and inspired by [...]
Always On
It’s hard to find a bigger believer than me in the advances of the digital revolution and the power of the social Web. I was conducting online market research in the ’90s, and one of my early clients was America Online. More recently, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR has helped clients use Twitter to fundraise for [...]
Down the PR Measurement Rabbit Hole
Until someone identifies an innovative new way to put a hard dollar value on PR results, it is time to give the endless discussion about measurement a rest. There is nothing more to say. As PR professionals dive deeper and deeper into the swirling abyss that is the debate over measurement, we see all the [...]
In Health Care, Is Transparency Enough?
In his recent live exchange with Republican lawmakers, President Obama was criticized for failing to follow through on his promise to make the debate over health-care reform transparent by televising negotiations on C-SPAN. Though he did admit it was a “legitimate criticism,” President Obama also pointed out some of the logistical hurdles that can arise with efforts [...]
Bash, Bash and More Bash
I’ve been watching the trend of mobmedia for some time now—it’s one of my top 10 trends for 2010—but it really hit home for me last week. I got a vicious, hateful (hate being the operative word) phone call, possibly from someone I know. I’ve done a number of TV appearances in the past month, and it [...]
Social Media, Defined
In the PR business, our thoughts have turned to social marketing, social networks, the social Web and social media. That new line of thinking has happened so fast that we might not even know what the terms actually mean. Where does one end and another begin? As Trebor Scholz, assistant professor in the Department of [...]
