Month: August 2008

Lessons from PR Week

Lessons from PR Week

I was lucky enough to talk to Tanya Lewis from PR Week a few weeks ago and to have my headshot and a few paragraphs appear in this week’s PR Week. The article profiles 4 “creatives” promoting greater understanding of social media in PR. Because of the Aug 4 timing, I was very excited to do this as I could discuss the work my team will be doing covering real long-tail athlete stories on the ground in Beijing over at http://summergames.lenovo.com and at www.twitter.com/lenovo2008.

The online article is behind a subscriber-only firewall and the print article is on Page 13 so, being new to PR, I pretty much assumed this would be the veritable tree falling in the forest. Not so. Here’s what I learned this week:

  • Print is alive and well in certain sectors – evidently, I have a lot of colleagues and friends who comb every page of PR Week.
  • News of print coverage travels fast online through social media. Change blogger and former colleague Qui Diaz was quick to tweet her congratulations and I have received emails from a range of folks I hadn’t heard from in a while.Small
  • But most interesting? Everyone who wants to be perceived as creative has their headshot done in front of a brick wall. ALL 4 individuals from the article had done this. I was lucky that mine looked slightly different as it was taken in front of a “Beware of the Dog” mural in an alley in Greenville (thank you Brains on Fire). Evidently, I’m going to have to think of something really nutty – swinging from a trapeze? – to set me apart from the rest of the “creative” PR set. Any suggestions?
Presidential “Word Cloud” in Print WashPo

Presidential “Word Cloud” in Print WashPo

Today’s Sunday Washington Post features a comparison of the “word clouds” created by John McCain and Barack Obama’s respective blogs. The immediate point is that Obama is the biggest topic for both blogs, but that’s not why I care. Tag CloudWe know that reporters use blogs for story ideas and leads on quotes, but seeing something as run of the mill in Web 2.0 as a tag cloud appearing in the Sunday print edition is a very visible example of convergence. Now if only I could somehow use the print terms to sort reading the rest of the zillion pages in the Sunday edition, we’d really be in e-business.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that these lovely clouds are the creation of Wordle.