The intense and growing interest in marketing among the leadership of colleges and universities has led to a merger of public relations and marketing in the minds of folks who have a superficial knowledge of the fields. These are two distinct functions that have a connection, but it is important to understand they also have [...]
Read more →Gleaned from a speech by incomparable public relations guru and speaker Patrick Jackson, here are his “nine ways PR affects the bottom line.” Builds awareness and interest. Builds morale and increases productivity. Anticipates issues. Discovers opportunities. Eliminates executive isolation. Handles crises. Advocates and effects change. Advocates social responsibility. Influences public policy.
Read more →This checklist is from a presentation on what actually belongs in a PR professional’s job description done while vice president for university relations at Carnegie Mellon University. Does your job description include: Building relationships with external and internal audiences, publics and stakeholders? Building partnerships with on-campus colleagues? Supporting the goals and objectives of your institution? [...]
Read more →Writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge noted a long, long time ago that enjoyment of fiction requires our “willing suspension of disbelief.” That, of course, was long before films and television hit the scene. This Internet list of “Things You Would Never Know Without the Movies” is proof of Coleridge’s adage. During all police investigations it will [...]
Read more →In its “credibility index,” the Public Relations Society of America Foundation found that investors believe a company’s annual report is the most credible source of information about that company. Unfortunately, only about 8 percent of those surveyed actually read an annual report, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Read more →Long-time friend Joe Biscontini, one of the funniest men we’ve met in the higher education PR business, has taught an upper-level undergraduate public relations course at Penn State University. As part of his introduction, he has used film clips from feature films and television to show his students how public relations people are typically portrayed [...]
Read more →A funny take on the academic pecking order shipped to us by Ann Curran, then editor of Carnegie Mellon Magazine. The Dean Leaps tall buildings in a single bound. Is more powerful than a locomotive. Is faster than a speeding bullet. Walks on water. Gives policy to God. The Department Head Leaps short buildings in [...]
Read more →Thanks to Steve Infanti, former PR pro at Penn State University, for shipping us “top 10 things your president thinks were said the last time you spoke with a reporter.” I don’t need to interview anyone else. When you say that’s the way it is, I believe you. Can I take you to lunch? I [...]
Read more →Right there with “flack” on the list of derogatory terms for publicists and PR professionals are “spin doctor” and “spinmeister.” Nationally regarded PR guy Robert Dilenschneider took this on in a June 1, 1998, op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal headlined “Spin Doctors Practice Public Relations Quackery.” “Spin is to public relations what pornography [...]
Read more →Big fan of “The Simpsons” television program and one of the highlights, as fans well know, is the opening scene in which Bart writes the same sentence on the chalk board over and over as punishment. We had to scarf this highly abridged compilation of the best of Bart off the Internet. I will not [...]
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