Barack Blunders By Biden His Time

What was Barack Obama doing on Friday night? Was he simply Biden his time before pressing “send” on the Text Message Heard ‘Round the World? Sorry, couldn’t resist the wordplay with Sen. Joe Biden’s presumptive vice-presidential nomination. Cyber-memo to Barack’s handlers: next time you pull a text-stunt, have the common sense to actually pull it […]

My Recommended LinkedIn Route

At this writing, I have 94 connections on LinkedIn, the professional online networking site. But the figure that I’m more focused on is 35. That’s the number of my connections for whom I’ve written recommendations. In my observation, most folks have a recommendation rate of less than 10 percent, some recommend maybe 1 out of […]

Trib’s Text-ellent Obama VP Column

Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich today shares an on-target, tongue-in-cheek perspective of Barack Obama’s VP-announcement-by-texting maneuver. Her hilarious, and honest, headline: “Barack’s using me, but I’m in it for the text” Unlike Mary, as I noted in a post last week, I’ve opted to get that news flash at some point shortly after the Text […]

$100K Mistake Gets Wallet-Popped!

The Udelsons’ garage saga in Riverside, Illinois made it onto WalletPop today, with a piece by Geoff Williams. Bearing the headline “You CAN Fight City Hall…with the right blog,” the post offers praise to the online advocacy approach. Williams begins the post with these words: “It’s always interesting to see how people use the internet […]

Barack Obama’s PR Machine At It Again

Breathlessly, Barack Obama’s PR machine is offering to let Joe and Josephine Lunchbucket be the first to know of Obama’s VP choice. In a recent e-mail to supporters, David Plouffe, his campaign manager, wrote: “You are the ones who built this campaign, and Barack wants you to be the first to know who will join […]

Peter Shankman, One HARO-ic PR Force

A quick public service/public relations service message today: If you are in the PR business–or even if you’re not–you should know about Peter Shankman. You may recall a previous post in which I credited Shankman with inspiring my idea for the U.S. Department of XS Energy. This year, in particular, Shankman has shown why he […]

Hangin’ Out With Helen Karakoudas

Yesterday, during a lull in Helen Karakoudas’ deadline-packed day as managing editor of Wednesday Journal, Inc., I spent a few hours interviewing her for a story in Medill magazine.   Hers is a remarkable journalism journey. A highly coveted editor coming out of college 25 years ago, Helen worked for two years at the Charlotte […]

August: The Dog Days of Publicity

Quick note today: one of my clients, Downtown Oak Park, received nice coverage of the mass dog wedding slated for Oct. 4, in Neighbors magazine. The monthly publication gave the event front-page treatment, with a full-page story inside derived from the news release I developed in June. For more detail, go here. Related Posts: Inside […]

Repeat After Me: Less. Is. More.

More and more lately, I’ve found myself saying a simple phrase, over and over again. “Less is more. Less is more. Less is more.” That’s why I try–all too often in vain–to keep my blog posts brief. To edit text, in whatever context, so that it gets closer to its absolute essence. And why, recently, […]