Category Archives: Public Relations

Quantity of Information Begets Quality PR

In the PR business, you can never gather too much information. Now, choosing what to disseminate–and when, and to whom–those are areas where you want to be more selective. But out of quantity flows quality. Case in point: on Monday, I spent three hours with Scott McAdam, president of McAdam Landscaping I took still photos […]

Media Alert: It’s Never Too Late

My phone rang about 2:15 p.m. last Thursday. It was Christine O’Brien, the administrative assistant at Five Seasons Sports Club in Northbrook. Christine apologized for the late notice, but wanted to let me know that Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White was celebrating his birthday at the club the next evening. Was there any chance […]

All A-Twitter Over Social Media

Some things are easier to illustrate by doing than by trying to offer an explanation. Take social media, for instance. Just what is it? Sometimes, it feels like trying to explain where the wind comes from, and where in the world it’s headed. We know it’s all around us, and that it has an impact, […]

XS Energy Drink: Worst `Green’ PR Stunt Ever?

Chris Knape, a Grand Rapids Press reporter, on Monday posted some critical remarks about the Chicago Sun-Times’ tongue-in-cheek story about XS Energy Drink last week. “The idea is so incredibly stupid,” Knape blogged, “it gets my vote for worst “green” PR stunt ever.” Now, I don’t know how many green PR stunts he’s encountered—so I […]

PR: Slugging It Out…Even When It’s “Over”

With apologies to Yogi Berra, when it comes to generating publicity, “it ain’t over til it’s over” is barely touching the surface of your PR potential. It’s naive to think of a PR opportunity being an “event” with a fixed window of time. Yes, an event may be a key component of your publicity plan, […]

Happy Birthday To Me!

It’s my 40th birthday. More than any other birthday, I’ve viewed this one with a strange mania, for at least a year now. A variation on the mid-life crisis, though without the big boat, sports car and “what happens-here-stays here” trip to Vegas. It’s all really silly, of course, and is a product largely of […]

Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Stories

My wife Bridgett’s aunt, Carol, had a book launch party last night. Carol is a splendid writing coach, based in Chicago but accessible online, and couldn’t have crafted a better plot if she’d tried. By any measure, the event at Women & Children First bookstore, on Chicago’s North side, was a huge success. Nearly 100 […]

Developing Strong Story Ideas at Heart of Good PR

Working as a journalist for about 20 years, I learned that the best way to avoid getting assigned a lame story idea was to have a long list of cool stories I was already developing. “Hey, Mike, I really wish I could take on that macrame conference story assignment,” I might say, “but I’m already […]