Your PR Architect

"Let's put a big banner on the building we're going to implode to celebrate our new line of printers." I worked for the people who came up with that line of thinking. It was the demolition equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. There's no way igniting a few hundred pounds of explosives and leveling a giant brick manufacturing complex can be perceived as a celebration. You can PR spin a ribbon-cutting or a golden-shovel groundbreaking.  But, flying bits of concrete and debris? Building 9 implosion, (c) DKassnoff. It's rubble. It's the end of something. And if you view the video on the New York Times' website, it's anything but a celebration. John Baldoni's recent essay on Forbes.com reminded me of that day, not too many years ago, when we tried to put a pretty bow on a scene of destruction.  And we failed. Past and current employees gathered for the event on a sunny morning (June 30, 2007). Most of them cried w

Update on my Paper.li experiment: A few weeks ago, I set up an online newspaper called PR Nomad. This exercise was enabled by Paper.li, which allows users to select content sources that auto-generate a daily compilation of articles on a topic of interest. And then, I pretty much left it to seek its audience. I wanted to see how auto-generated content refreshed, and whether it remained compelling. Whether I received nasty-grams or, worse, cease-and-desist orders. That didn't happen. However... It's now a few weeks later, and I noticed few headlines repeating as lead stories: puffery about Electronic Post Office Corporation investigating the possibility of becoming a Public Company. CIO white papers. Stuff you wouldn't find interesting, because I didn't find it interesting. So, I've performed a little housekeeping. PR Nomad will continue as a daily opus. However, I've blacklisted CIO Whitepapers and repeated pseudo-news about Electronic Post Office Cor

No editor is going to pick up the following two news releases. But, I will -- although not for the reasons they'd prefer. Writing a news release is easy, if you believe web-based PR services that will post whatever you hand them. Writing a news release that editors will consider seriously? That's tougher. Look, for example, at "Slide Share Publishes News About Serial Entrepreneur Vince Thadani," found on MyPRGenie.com. This news release promises "interesting news about the legendary commercial figure Vince Thadani ." And it never delivers. For starters, the mechanics are wrong. You don't use your email address as a dateline. You don't use two cities -- New York and San Francisco -- as datelines. You should think twice about quoting a self-written SlideShare presentation as a news article. ( Hint: SlideShare.com doesn't post news. ) And billing yourself as a "serial" anything isn't a wise strategy, if what you're really do

When I'm on the road, I buy hot coffee at McDonald's. Until now. McDonald's Corp. is valued at $93 billion, but sales are declining. I'm part of the decline, and by the end of this tale, I hope you'll join me in dining elsewhere. By Ramon FVelasquez, via Wikimedia Commons Last week, the company -- still profitable, by any measure -- invited a band to play at their South by Southwest showcase. Without pay. In turn, the band Ex-Cops used social media to expose McDonald's cheapness. Rolling Stone and other online media picked up the story. This gave McDonald's unwanted PR exposure it doesn't need, with the SXSW-age audience it so desperately needs to reach. Worse? McDonald's media relations drone responded by essentially saying, "We're just paying artists the way other sponsors do." Except they aren't paying. Other SXSW sponsors pay their performers, says Ex Cops. And not with Happy Meals. If SXSW were a countr

Social media and public relations can work quite well together. If you know what you're doing. Trouble is, if Kelly Brady’s your expert on the topic, grab a parachute. Now. Your plane's on autopilot and you’re about to smack a mountaintop.  Howcast.com posted a 2013 video with Ms.Brady expounding on the value of social media in PR. And very little of it has any basis in how social media really works for most PR pros. Publicist Kelly Brady Note: Ms. Brady believes landing a story in the New York Post is a good PR hit. If that's your paper of record, then her advice might be worth following -- if your client loves Page Six. (Learn more about Ms. Brady here .) Here are excerpts of her pearls of wisdom: “Social media is relatively a new tool in public relations.” Sure, if you’ve been living the hard-partying life since 2009. By then, Facebook had more than 100 million users. Today, it’s close to 1.4 billion users. “Creating a buzz about the account