Thank You: Media Relations Class at American University (Resources Too!)

Gotta give a shout out to the AMAZING students in American University School of Communication's media relations class. I was invited to speak to the class last night about my experiences in public relations/communications and I had a BLAST! Thank you again for having me!

Below is a brief list of resources that I included at the end of my presentation. This is by no means an exhaustive list. My goal was to provide some high-level sources for the class to go to for information about the changing communications industry.

Here are just some of the resources I check everyday. Almost all have free newsletters, webinars, white papers, or other content to further our knowledge of the communications world:

• SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization)
• Marketing Profs
• Mashable 
• Media Post Publications
• BtoB Magazine
• DM News
• Social Media Today
• O'Dwyer's Public Relations
• PR Week
• Ragan Communications

I also strongly recommend signing up for Commentz, run by the wonderful Sarah Evans (@PRSarahEvans) and David Teicher (@Aerocles). It's free and a great resource for those who want to look at informative and important communications stories of the day.

Finally, Twitter! Thanks to Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge) for her excellent list of 100 PR People Worth Following on Twitter. If you are a communications pro looking to expand (or start) your list of people on Twitter, definitely start there. Also, I have to thank Meryl K. Evans (@merylkevans) for her excellent post of all the Twitter Chats that may be of interest to budding and veteran communication pros. She just updated the list yesterday so make sure you check it out. I most often attend #journchat on Monday evenings, but after looking at the list, I see that I will be joining a few more chats in the very near future!

Finally, here is a link to a post of some of my favorite job search sites. I also strongly encourage those looking for a job to use Twitter. I find #prjobs, #printerns #PRSA #IABC #PR are good hashtags for those looking for opportunities on Twitter.

Again, thank you to the media relations class at American University. I wish you all continued success in your studies and your budding communications careers. Do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of assistance to you in any way!

Nightmare Clients

No, not my clients! (I love you all!)

But I do have to give a shout out and acknowledge Richard Laermer at The Bad Pitch Blog for his Oct. 5th post (rant) on difficult PR clients.

Thank you, Richard for saying what many of us sometimes feel and highlighting what several of us have encountered over the years with difficult clients.

If you are a client looking for advice on how *not* to treat your agency or are wondering what constitutes bad client behavior, check out Richard's post.

And, yes for the record: I have had similar experiences to Richard's in the past. I would love to hear from clients and my fellow PR pros on what types of behavior and actions make-up a horrible client/agency relationship.

Hi USAA!

Just checked Google Analytics and found that 15 people from a USAA network location visited my site in the last 48 hours.

I LOVE USAA! I'm one of their biggest fans.  There's a reason that they are consistently ranked as having the best customer service in the the financial and insurance industry - they genuinely care about their members.  A lot of other companies could take a lesson from them!

A huge shout out to all the USAA people in San Antonio and across the U.S.!

Glad to see you are monitoring blogs for coverage of your company and brand! :)

WOW!

Wow! I've only been blogging a short time and I've already gotten such a great response!

HUGE shout out to Jennifer A. Jones at Speak Media Blog! Jennifer blogged about my Better Rules of Engagement post on Thursday!!! I've been reading Jennifer's blog for over a year and it is a must read for anyone in the MARCOMM/IMC world. Thank you Jennifer!

I've also gotten some great comments from SCA MarCom and Kevin! It's awesome to hear from you and thank you for introducing me to your blogs/points of view as well!

Thanks also to everyone who's e-mailed me directly with questions and comments. The feedback and insight you've provided is awesome. Feel free to post your comments and questions. Some of you are raising great issues and points about the current pitching system and I encourage you to post openly to encourage the discussion on this important topic.

Again, thank you all for such awesome feedback! Now back to PR!!!