Admit it. You can’t resist it. Thanksgiving in the U.S. has, since I can remember, signaled the start of shopping and socializing. And no one is immune. Including you. Black Friday beckons to all and in the digital age never before has this siren sounded so loudly. And never before have so many of us answered her call, taking shopping and socializing traditions to new heights and new forms. (more…)

Note:  This post is courtesy of our guest contributor Sally Falkow, Social Media Strategist at Expansion Plus.

There were many sessions at the recent PRSA conference in San Diego that focused on the need for companies to get involved in social media. Discussions involved the need to move beyond the testing and experimenting phase and put together a social media strategy, the practice of new media relations and how to find the right influencers, the need to treat social media as an ongoing commitment instead of a campaign, and why measurement is so important.

I led a discussion (sponsored by Marketwire) and we took a somewhat different approach. (more…)

San Diego was the designated meeting place for members of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) during its annual conference, November 8-10, 2009, with the theme “Delivering Value.”

Seventy Professional Development Workshops were held, each covering a salient top in PR, marketing communications and/or media relations. Although I spent a good deal of time in the Exhibition Hall (more on that later), I was able to attend a few sessions and gleaned a few (paraphrased) sound bites: (more…)

As print media struggle to compete with other news sources such as blogs and online outlets, feature stories are growing in popularity because they attract and engage readers. Some newspapers are even writing news stories in “features style” to lend a human element to breaking events. And these ready-to-go stories are boons for overworked journalists, especially if they include photos and illustrations. (more…)