There's More To Life Than Twitter

By Samantha Evans, Intern (@samevans24)

Every time I browse the latest PR-related blog posts and articles, the one reoccurring theme throughout almost all of them is social media. After reading some, it seems that having a smart phone in hand and being Twitter savvy is all you need to succeed in PR. However, I did find a blog post, which of course spoke about traditional vs. social media, but also touched upon a subject that many PR pros seem to forget. It is not only about keeping up with the latest technologies, media outlets and trends, but holding on to strategies and values that were around in, dare I say it?, the old world of media.

Rohit Bhargava explains in his blog, Influential Marketing Blog, that one of the oldest and most important PR strategies is how a PR executive interacts with journalists and other members of the media. He makes it clear that just like print media, social media requires an interaction between a PR person and a journalist, editor, blogger, tweeter or whatever it may be. In Rohit’s blog post What All PR People Should Know About Journalists, he explains this interaction from a journalist’s perspective. He describes what journalists are really saying about PR and pitching.

The first and most blunt being: “Your BS is obvious.” The next and harsh reality is “Timing trumps all.” I have experienced the importance of timing first hand when contacting the media for story placement. Social media outlets help to almost eliminate this timing issue that, at times, seems to be a toss up. Most members of the media have Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn (many have all three), which allows for information about proper pitch timing.

With the help of the Fusion team and my own personal research, I am now able to understand and at times already know about the topics being discussed in blog posts and articles written by esteemed PR and marketing pros.

PR + Real Estate = Same Dilemma, Who Knew?

By Samantha Evans, Intern (@samevans24)

“If you're in the business of public relations, chances are that more than a few clients have said their first choice for story placement is the front page of The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. And chances are you tried to explain that very few companies get front-page play in these newspapers, let alone any coverage in them at all.”

Newsvetter’s piece Forget about The New York Times successfully describes a client’s goal when first entering and investing in the world of public relations. Of course, they want their product or service to receive coverage in the media. But there’s a catch: the coverage cannot be from just any old publication. They want the top of the top, and of course, in print and they think if they are truly lucky, front page.

As I explained in a previous post Never Forget the Past, during a weekly call, I heard a client ask, “I see all of the hits online, but where am I getting coverage in print?” I listened to Suzanne and Meghan’s response to this question and took a mental note of how to do so in the future. Instead of getting defensive, they explained the many successful hits they have received in the last few months, most of which were online, and that the best placement is not always in The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. Going further, Newsvetter states, “unless your client is a Fortune 100 company that simply wants exposure just for the sake of it, there are more effective (and realistic) ways to generate new business leads.”

Day after day I have learned about this dilemma. I know how to face this issue head on if it is ever presented to me by a client. I also know that due to plummeting print readership, thanks to online availability of almost every publication as well as social media outlets, print newspapers should no longer be the end all and be all. The same goes for other non-media related professions such as real estate. Even though every study has proven that the majority of house hunters browse for homes online; to this day, realtors continue to place advertisements for houses in newspapers. This is because realtor ads have always been found in print, and as PowerSites describes “Sellers expect to see their homes in the newspaper."

My response to all of this: Give up the goals and expectations of the past because the facts speak for themselves!

Stupid Question? No Such Thing

By Samantha Evans, Intern (@samevans24)

With less than three weeks to go, I wish I could stay at Fusion for much longer. It feels good to be able to say I am very confident and happy with the work I have done and will do in the coming weeks. I also find myself using my time at work successfully, even though I use most of it to ask questions. Blogging tends to be the only time I am not asking a question. I can continue to sit here and blog about the numerous reporters and members of the media I have reached out to, reports and research I have compiled and team meetings I have truly felt an integral part of. But who am I kidding, if you are following this blog, you know all of this already.

As I have said time and time again, from my first day, I knew this internship would be different. No more mindless filing and coffee runs, but true public relations. I could honestly say I have never asked so many questions in my life, but I have never been so happy I did. I am comfortable enough with my superiors here at Fusion to ask anything, even if it is the 100th question of the day, in order to learn something. The team morale leads everyone from account executives to account managers to senior vice presidents to the CEO, to feel comfortable asking question upon question. Questions lead to answers, and answers are what you come out of an experience learning and growing from.

In the past three weeks I have been involved with all of the preparations for two new clients to join the Fusion team, and therefore asking a million questions along the way. I not only experienced the new business process first hand once, but twice. This includes all of the preparatory meetings and brainstorm sessions, the new business meeting with the client and then finally the kick off meeting. Most interns and even account executives at larger firms and corporations have never met their clients in person. I am very grateful I was able to interact with two Fusion clients face-to-face, a concept that seems to be a rarity in the world of PR and most media professions with the advent of new technologies.

There are Some Things Money Can’t Buy

By Sylvia Ogilvie, Intern (@sylviaillini)

I know everybody always says this, but where did the time go? As my eight weeks closes, I’m left with a lot of mixed emotions. I’m leaving a city that I absolutely love and want to live in forever and I’m leaving a company that has taught me so much and that I know could teach me more. When I first arrived here in May, I was afraid of so many things – from getting on the wrong subway to having my co-workers not like me – that, at first, it really skewed my ability to see the amazing opportunity I had in front of me. Not only did I end up knowing several subway routes by heart, but I added a fantastic group of connections to my network, and dare I say a few friends?

Additionally, I learned a set a of extremely important skills that I know will help me in the future regardless of what kind of industry I end up in. When I got to Fusion, I wasn’t even on Twitter; now not only do I have a Twitter account (which I use actively) but I also have a LinkedIn account – something I didn’t even know existed before this. I’ve also been really inspired to start my own blog, because as I’ve learned from Bennie Sham, my supervisor and account executive, you should never be afraid to voice what you feel or think, especially if you think what you’ve got to say could really be worth something.

Not only that, but successful blogging these days is like knowing a second language- it’s becoming increasingly useful and in some cases necessary in order to gain ground in the PR world. Essentially, if you want to be seen or heard you need a blog. I’ve mentioned several times in my previous blog posts the increasing importance of the everyday blogger and social network user. It seems this phenomenon will only grow in time, given the buzz over the death of traditional media and the emergence of the user-based media in which the line between consumers and producers is becoming more and more blurred every day.

As I leave, I feel like not only did I learn about the ever-so popular concept of participatory media, but also about how I can actually be a part of it if I just try. So along with my debt from the fine restaurants and boutiques of Manhattan, I also took home something extremely valuable that can’t be bought, which is knowledge – knowledge of not only what it’s like to live in New York and work at an amazing public relations firm, but also the knowledge of how I can use both of those things to take my future to the next level.

And you thought this day would never come

By Meghan O'Hara, Internship Program Coordinator (@meghan_ohara)

A report was recently released in which Matthew Robson, a 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern, provides insight on the teenage consumption of media. This report garnered a great deal of attention, being described as "one of the clearest and most thought provoking insights," generating more feedback than the team's usual reports.

But while the media loved it, the report also received less than flattering feedback. Some readers didn't see what was so groundbreaking about the thoughts of a 15-year-old. Others thought that the only reason it created a frenzy was because it had the Morgan Stanley logo all over it. No matter, it definitely caused quite a stir.

So what can you, as an intern, learn from Robson?

While you may be 'just an intern,' you do have a lot to offer your employer. Why else would you have been hired? Robson caught the attention of many senior executives by describing his friends' online behavior. While his document also received backlash, people paid attention to what he had to say.

As a college student, chances are, you spend a great deal of your time on social media sites. Does your manager have a Facebook page or LinkedIn profile? Perhaps you could discuss the benefits in creating one. Find the areas in which you excel and demonstrate that to your employer. You bring a new perspective to the table. Do not be afraid to speak up and share your knowledge. Gone are the days where no one listens to the youth. We are now living in an era where a 15-year-old's thoughts are front page news.

Social Media’s Impact on PR

By Samantha Evans, Intern (@samevans24)

Bob Geller, SVP, as well as social media wiz and avid blogger, held a very informative social media educational session. Prior to the session and my time at Fusion, I only knew the bare minimum about social media outlets. (I actually just created a personal Twitter account two days ago. As I have still not decided on a direction to take my Twitter postings, I did finally decide on a user name.) Thanks to my parents, my name is extremely common. So common that every single username combination was already taken. After about an hour, I ended up going with samevans24, which is equally (not) original. Now I can finally say: you can find me @samevans24!

Anyway, back to Bob’s educational session. What I found to be most interesting and relevant to my time and work at Fusion was Bob’s explanation of social media’s relationship with public relations. He described the inordinate amount of social media users and outlets today as creating a lot of “noise” in which “anyone has a megaphone.” He explained because anyone can post a blog or engage in social media, there is an increase in “noise,” which at times questions if PR remains a necessity.

PR professional’s role in the media spectrum continues to be extremely important because they are among the very few who are formally trained to understand the media and of course, social media. Their understanding leads to the successful story telling of a brand in these spectrums. This means, PR pros have not only perfected the way to tell a story, but when and where to pitch it, all depending on the subject, target audience, and other variables. Therefore, only without PR expertise, can content can drown in the “noise” of social media.

Your Internship Could Last Forever

By Suzanne McGee, Internship Program Director (@mcgeepr)

You’ve successfully landed your first internship. You are preparing to head off to your first day with plans for learning and doing amazing things. Before you step foot into the office, think about your goals for the program, your learning and resume. What are your ethics? What stand will you take for your work?

Why the caution?

Recently a summer intern at The Gazette in Colorado Springs, Co, made the mistake of plagiarizing on the job. She wrote four articles that included text lifted from The New York Times. As this piece was published in the newspaper, the editor felt responsible for correcting this action and calling this out to his paper’s readers. Here’s his response: http://www.gazette.com/articles/gazette-58112-stories-four.html.

In an Internet age, her actions are now part of a permanent record for all future employers to see. When Googling her name, they’ll find not only that she plagiarized, but was then fired. Yes, people make mistakes or cut corners, but keep in mind that your career is a precious thing to grow and nourish.

As a follow up, many PR folks have taken a look at this and debated whether or not the editor should have called the intern out by name. Here’s a link (http://www.davidwmullen.com/2009/07/09/should-newspaper-have-outed-an-intern-for-plagiarism/) to a blog co-written by Dave Mullen and Lauren Fernandez and posted on Communications Catalyst. See what your peers and future bosses are saying.

What do you think?

PR for Dummies

By Sylvia Ogilvie, Intern (@sylviaillini)

As the battle between traditional media and social media heats up, a lot of questions are being raised about what effect the outcome of this contest will have on industries beyond the news media realm. One industry of particular relevance to this discussion is public relations.

In the past few weeks, a lot of terms such as “If I can create my own media, why do I even need a PR firm?” and “I could do this myself” have been thrown around. For the sake of Fusion and for my own future career path, I was eager to have some answers and ideas to combat these accusations.

Bob Geller, SVP, engaged both me and fellow intern Samantha Evans in an educational session concerning this very topic. So the question at hand is really this: what does PR bring to a client that the client could not get themselves? There are actually quite a few things, and while it may be true that clients could hypothetically do everything themselves, the level of quality would never even come close to that of a PR firm (or at least a good one, anyway).

First off, the amount of time and effort that goes into generating a buzz for a company and getting its name out there is immense – there are press releases, calls to publications, briefing documents, meetings, spreadsheet building (just to name a few). The PR industry exists for a reason – clients are too busy simply trying to run their companies and stay afloat to even think about how to promote themselves. Just because the option now exists to do it yourself, it does not make it any easier at all to do so.

So now let’s pretend that a company has taken a DIY approach and is going to be self-sufficient, what is the level of quality for that work going to look like? PR firms are completely based around the notion of promoting clients and spreading positive messages about them, in other words – they know their stuff and they know it very well. This talent and skill doesn’t just come with the territory, it takes a lot of time to get to that point of expertise and knowledge. On top of that, over the years PR firms often build relationships with certain reporters, editors and analysts that are essential to making things happen for their clients and getting out the good word.

Not only does it take time, but in order to be successful in PR it takes a certain kind of personality, and a passion for being influential and persuasive. Deciding one day to do your own PR for your company is akin to waking up and deciding to be an NBA player (well, you get the picture). Basically, it’s not the kind of thing that you decide to do and then you can automatically do it well, it really does take time, experience and, most importantly, the inherent ability to work in public relations. So before companies decide to pick up a ball and try to make a half court shot, they need to remember who the real pros are and what it takes to do that.

Never Forget the Past

By Samantha Evans, Intern (@samevans24)

Ibrey Woodall began her blog post, From old media to social media: Survey reveals the essential elements for today's newsroom by stating, “Traditionally, the term “media” referred to mainstream print publications and broadcast stations. However, the rise of social media has shifted perceptions and some now consider traditional media as “old” media.” Most people are claiming that these “old” media outlets will see the end very shortly. The Bad Pitch Blog even titled one of their newest blogs, Michael Jackson’s Dead: Now Comes the Mainstream Media’s Death. Many of us have foreseen the death of print media for a very long time. However, it is one thing to acknowledge the death of “old” media, and another to fully embrace the new social media spectrum.

It is a good thing Fusion PR teaches its interns about social media every day. Regardless of educational sessions and meetings about social media, the pure fact that I am even writing a weekly blog says enough. I am not only writing my own, but following others PR bloggers as well. Throughout my blogging experience I have learned more about the public relations field than I ever did in communication classes at college. I guess it is true what they say; you can never truly understand and learn about something, until you experience it personally.

However, there are those who continue to reinforce the importance of “old” media and traditional PR. Just because social media is on the rise, does not mean we can completely count traditional media out. The Legend of Aerocles blog explains that a successful public relations strategy should include a balance of traditional and social media tactics.

The article For Social Media & PR -- Integration is Key… For Projects and Employees states, “Traditional marketing & PR tactics must be used in congruence with an online approach in order to capitalize on any successful social engagement on behalf of the brand or company.” Fusion focuses on all types of media, both online and print outlets. I have ordered numerous print hard copies of newspapers to send to clients. As a matter of fact, throughout most of the weekly client meetings, the client continually asks, “I see all of the hits online, but where am I getting coverage in print?” Fusion addresses the dilemma of traditional vs. social media head on, and no matter how big social media gets, they will never forget their roots.

The iPhone can do WHAT?

By Samantha Evans, Intern (@samevans24)

After five weeks at Fusion, I thought I finally knew a thing or two about the latest technologies. I have learned about products that I would have never heard of or understood before and can now define terms and phrases like biometric and internal data security. As far as smart phones go, I actually thought I was up to date with this phenomenon. I was convinced I knew everything there was to know because I own a smart phone, the Blackberry 8830. In actuality, I got my Blackberry long after everyone else and to be completely honest, I can never truly keep up with the newest applications and updates of Apple’s iPhone either.

Due to my inability to stay up to date with the always changing technology world, I have found myself using the ever so helpful NetVibes. NetVibes is an RSS feed equipped with almost every news outlet and even tabs that helpfully break down each news genre, ranging from general to technology to public relations news. In the public relations news tab, I found an interesting blog entitled Communications Conversations. This blog is written by Arik Hanson, president and owner of ACH Communications.

I found Arik’s most recent blog, 7 "must have" iPhone apps for PR pros, to be very informative and interesting. He describes the seven most useful iPhone applications for members of the public relations field to be: Facebook, Google and Wordpress, as well as four other applications I have never heard of. These four applications are Tweetdeck, Bump, Evernote and Stitcher. Tweetdeck helps a PR executive monitor their client’s Twitter accounts while being away from the desk.

Get ready for this one-- Bump, one of Apple’s newest applications, allows people to exchange contact information by simply having their iPhones touch. Evernote is an app that allows you to take notes or pictures or anything when outside of the office, sync it with your Mac, and it will be available on the computer the second you get back to work. The last app, Stitcher, is compared to Pandora because they both customize audio information. Stitcher does not do so with music, but customizes news programs such as, CNN, NPR, etc. Arik states in this blog, “Imagine creating a content stream of personalized audio (news and information specific to your organization/clients) you could listen to each day on your way into the office. How valuable would that be?”

It remains very clear that the days of internet access being the hippest feature on a cell phone are long gone. All of the iPhone applications are extremely interesting and useful, but at this rate, there will be no need for offices, desks, or any face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact for that matter. I am very curious to see what other applications Apple can come up with and it’s affect on the way we communicate with one another.

The Quick and the Dead

By Sylvia Ogilvie, Intern (@sylviaillini)

It seems like all the world can talk about these days is celebrity deaths and Twitter. While the whole Michael Jackson news was fascinating, I’m a lot more concerned about the impact this new form of social media has. Prior to Twitter’s creation, there was already quiet discussion of the impending death of traditional media and the birth of citizen journalists blogging about the news. Now that discussion has turned into a booming voice, and it’s hard not to listen.

In an article titled “TMZ Speed vs. CNN Credibility,” the debate over the superior form of media is discussed. While it is of course beneficial to be able to get quick and easy access to breaking events, what cost does that speed bring? By cutting corners to get a story out faster, new media has sacrificed important traditional practices, like fact-checking, testimony from experts, etc. In essence, new media is just well-broadcasted gossip, and Twitter is the ultimate rumor mill.


With a traditional media outlet, on the other hand, the credibility is the only thing it has to hold onto. In this day and age, people want everything done quickly -- they want the middle man cut out and they want to get directly to what they need, including the news. Unfortunately, this leaves traditional news out in the cold. But if what you’re getting isn’t actually what you need and, in fact, is just a sloppy version that might be entirely incorrect, then it’s a waste of time. Perhaps everybody just needs to accept the fact that some things – like the news – are sacred and should stay as they are, despite the lightning fast society we seem to be becoming.

If outlets like CNN and MSNBC could blend their authority and reliability with Twitter’s speed and ease, this discussion over the death of traditional media could finally end and we could go back to debating more important things – like how MJ died.