Your PR Architect

Even in the off-season, the NFL's Buffalo Bills -- perennial pro football also-rans -- can't manage their operations. Buffalo Jills, Rich Stadium (c) David Kassnoff, 2012 Last week, five cheerleaders for the Buffalo Jills sued the Buffalo Bills organization, claiming they were under-compensated for their work on and off the field. And, they may have been sexually harassed in connection with their jobs. Their management company promptly cancelled the sideline entertainers'  2014-15 schedule. (Update: read this: http://nypost.com/2014/04/27/my-life-as-a-buffalo-jill/ ) I'm not a sports columnist. But this isn't about athletic success. This is about the damage to an organization's brand and reputation. The Bills are in trouble -- maybe more than any PR pro could fix. Besides the Jills fiasco, the Bills recently agreed to pay $5 million for sending too many promo messages to fans. Their head coach had a private cancer scare -- disclosed on the team's

A Monkee has taught me plenty about Facebook. And how we're viewing the social media juggernaut all wrong. We use it for product publicity. Or as an online chronicle of our everyday musings. And, we're missing the point. Facebook isn't a journal. It's not about news. It's about sifting information about you and selling it to Purveyors of Other Stuff. In exchange for allowing us to post recipes or fuzzy smartphone photos, Facebook sifts and parses our comments for clues about us. As we share our opinions or lunch menus, Facebook neatly packages that information and re-sells it to marketers. Maybe Facebook is a useful mechanism for public relations professionals who want their clients' views and products shared. On its own, Facebook isn't an all-inclusive PR strategy. Those "which rock musician are you" quizzes tend to muck up the sharing process. Your posts are arbitrarily ranked by Facebook's software, meaning they may not show up in your

We laugh or moan when we see people barely wearing their clothing. Jeans at or below one's derrière. Ultra short shorts. Or, in my region, teens wearing shorts and Chuck Taylors in 15-degree weather. By Ed Uthman from Houston, TX, USA (Rhodes 1970s D05.jpg) [CC-BY-SA-2.0  (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],  via Wikimedia Commons Mini-skirts, however, would send a very different message. In the 1970s, women wore them daily. But if I talked about mini-skirts today, you might think of me as a sexist pig. You'd be mistaken. When I think of the mini-skirt (which isn't often), it reminds me of some great writing advice. A former managing editor of the Olean (NY) Times-Herald taught a writing course at St. Bonaventure University. And his best writing adage used the mini-skirt as a metaphor.  "How long should a news story be?" a student asked. Prof. Stinger's response: "It should be as long as a woman's dress. Long enoug

Like Gibbs on TV's NCIS, I have a few rules. They do not involve serving as a Marine sniper, but they'll work in most public relations circumstances. Here's my top ten: Rule No. 1: Don't lie to the media.  Rules 2-10: Don't lie to the media.  Journalists have access to a printing press. A broadcast signal. A website. Social media. And, when wronged, reporters will not hesitate a moment to use them. Especially if reporters are lied to. Nothing says this better than the article at the following link, courtesy of PR entrepreneur Peter Shankman: http://www.longislandpress.com/2014/04/02/my-squashed-interview-with-steve-madden-shoe-guru-turned-ex-convict/ Lesson: if you're a PR person and your client asks you to lie, hand him/her your phone. Ask the client to do the fibbing. Maybe his reputation can handle it. Yours can't.