Your PR Architect

I read about a women's electric vehicle team at the Kate Gleason College of Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology. I thought it was interesting, and used Shareaholic to post it to Twitter and Facebook. Here's what appeared on my Facebook timeline: Notice anything? Facebook defaulted to the second image on the RIT news story, showing the men's team. The women's team (see the second screen shot below), while visible in the original story, wasn't promoted when shared via social media. Why did the second photo appear in my timeline, and not the first? There may be a coding trick or algorithm that easily explains this occurrence. I'd love to hear more about it. But from my side of the screen -- the side most of us see -- this feels a bit biased. Men in engineering? Run the image. Women in engineering? Not interested. Which is baloney. Especially if the women aren't getting equal recognition. If Facebook arbitrarily selects photos of peop...

Blame Paula Deen's implosion on a slow news cycle. And no PR strategy for dealing with criticism. The absence of legislative newsmakers this week -- the Supreme Court killed DOMA and left for the summer -- leaves an overabundance of unspent media wattage. Where did it turn? On TV food celebrity Paula Deen. In a few short days after the disclosure that Ms. Deen had used the "N" word, she's been ditched by Wal-Mart, Ballantine Books, The Food Network, and Smithfield Farms. And probably had her Exxon-Mobil card cancelled. (Curiously, you can still obtain Ms. Deen's recipes on the Food Network's website.) Here's a different perspective: Everyone over age 30 has used the "N" word. Everyone. Often in jest. View Mel Brooks' 1974 comedy "Blazing Saddles," and you quickly lose count of the number of times it's used. (Borrow a DVD; when it airs on cable, every potentially offensive word has been bleached from the film.) Ms...