Your PR Architect

I love employee recognition. I despise 90 percent of the photos taken to recognize great employees. HR leaders love to talk about employee engagement. If they wish to do more than talk, they'll advocate for a communications person to strengthen internal communications.  One strategy: beef up employee recognition programs. Some organizations do employee recognition well. Hospitals and health care providers do a good job of honoring their employees. Colleges and corporations, less so.  Often, someone will line up a group of employees for a  recognition  photo that's destined for a local newspaper, company newsletter, or website. The photo itself? It's often rushed, unposed, and you wonder if the organization is recognizing people, or lining them up for a firing squad. Look at these actual employee recognition photos, and consider the following suggestions: 1. The Line-Up: a non-motion perp walk featuring a casual, backlit gaggle of employees who don't kn

A headline that failed: "have you embraced the new Instagram Hyperspace app yet?" By Braden Kowitz (Hugs!) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Seriously? Embraced ? First: you can call Instagram an app if you wish, but that's a misnomer. It's a thief. When you post an image, the metadata in your photo tells Instagram (and its corporate overlord, Facebook) where and when the image was created. Algorithms comb the image for clues about your buying habits and likes. The image's information becomes something InstaFacebook can re-sell to marketers. I don't embrace thieves. If anything, InstaFacebook has you in more than an embrace. It's got you in a headlock. Second, Hyperspace: compressed time-lapse videos that make the best footage look like it went through a cappuccino machine. I could do this with a $75 digital camera, but I prefer high-quality videos that lovingly showcase my scenes,

If Roger Goodell is still commissar -- er, commissioner -- of the National Football League by the time you read this, it's because he has 32 team owners who love him. And a legion of fans who'll buy anything with an NFL logo. Including balderdash. Roger Goodell,  By Staff Sgt. Bradley Lail, USAF [Public domain],  via Wikimedia Commons Last week, I led my public relations class through a discussion of the Ray Rice-hit-his-fiancee-now-wife episode. But I might as well have done the lecture in origami, because new details keep unfolding. Last Friday, Baltimore Ravens fans -- including many women -- were shown in USA Today wearing replicas of Rice's jersey in support of the banned running back. The story continues to change, but here's a reasonable snapshot of what's taken place. It's not pretty. Rice and his wife may be right in blaming the media for their woes, including his indefinite suspension. They both appear to have behaved with amazing stupidi

(c) DKassnoff, 2008 Next week (Sept. 18-19), hundreds of public relations pros will visit Rochester for the Public Relations Society of America's northeast regional conference. They'll talk about social media, SEO, media relations, and many other hot PR topics. They'll drink coffee. They'll multitask. They'll swap and lose business cards. But they won't talk about communicating with diverse audiences, or hiring diverse account executives. A colleague invited six diversity PR experts (including me) for a panel discussion. But it isn't taking place. Just one attendee registered for the panel, so it's been cancelled. That's disheartening for PRSA's Rochester chapter, which has had a very active diversity committee for about five years. A committee that has earned national recognition for a pioneering "Diversity Apprentice" initiative introducing high school students to public relations. That just one PR practitioner si

This is not asking about your marital status. It's about becoming an extraordinary PR pro. (c) DKassnoff, 2014 In my workplace, "WED" is more than a word on a calendar page. It's a personal reminder:  WRITE. EVERY. DAY. WED.  The surest way to become extraordinary at some skill is to practice it every day. That's how Derek Jeter, Mo'ne Davis, and Jimmie Johnson become legends in their sports. Jeter takes batting practice before every game. Johnson doesn't wait til race day to log hours at the wheel at 180 mph. Writing is the same. Do it every day. You'll get better at it. Even if you're not writing a news release or a speech script. An actual letter to a friend will do. (Caveat: texts and emails don't count. Use paper and ink, not your thumbs. Your writing will have a greater sense of permanence, and you'll impress whomever receives your letter.) Yes, we all know some PR people who don't write. They may be capable d