Waxing UnLyrical

JULY 27, 2011

Guest post by Mikinzie Stuart. QR codes may be old news to digital marketers, but lately I’ve increasingly noticed that this hot little two-dimensional bar code is going mainstream. From giant billboards in Times Square to tiny boxes of Sun-Maid raisins, these little buggers are popping up everywhere. In fact, I counted at least seven advertisements with QR codes in May’s issue of Elle Magazine.

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Waxing UnLyrical

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Recently, I received an email from someone asking if I would be interested in providing PR services for a fundraising campaign he is embarking on. He is doing this because so far, at least, he’s been unsuccessful in securing funding to build a prototype for what sounds like an interesting invention in the energy field. So now he’s turning to crowd-funding.

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Waxing UnLyrical

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Facebook, my Facebook, wherefore art thou, Facebook? With Facebook having introduced quite a few changes to business pages, most of us are scratching our heads as to how to make the best use of them. Or “get up to speed,&# if you’d prefer buzzword bingo terminology. Image: Massimo Barbieri via Flickr, CC 2.0. While a lot has already been written about how to deal with Facebook’s latest changes, here are seven ideas on making your business page just a tad better and easier to us

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Waxing UnLyrical

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

It’s been a month since I embarked on redefining my life from the inside out – getting healthy and fit – with Grant Hill. One month since I’ve been getting up at 5 am every day (well, every weekday, I sometimes sleep in a little on the weekends) to get my butt kicked in what is aptly called #mybootcamp. Those of you who were kind enough to comment and cheer me on (thank you!

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Waxing UnLyrical

FEBRUARY 23, 2011

Sorry, couldn’t resist that. I felt a bit punny. What is HAPPO? Oh, how quickly one forgets! Here’s a reminder of how HAPPO started , but in a nutshell, it stands for “Help a PR Pro Out,&# and is an initiative that uses social media to connect public relations job seekers with those who could employ them. I’ve been part of the core group since Arik Hanson and Valerie Simon launched the initiative, and think it’s absolutely fab.

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Waxing UnLyrical

OCTOBER 12, 2011

“How do you become a social media expert?” That was one of the questions I was asked when I was in Lincoln, Neb., last week. I was speaking to several students at UNL, and while I didn’t get a chance to speak to each of them one-on-one, I could tell that they are serious about being the best professional communicators they can be (this was at the College of Journalism & Mass Communications).

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Waxing UnLyrical

MAY 20, 2011

There have been so many great resources coming my way lately, I just had to share. ‘Cos you know, that is what Iizallabout! So let’s get to them. 1. The daily PR & Marketing calendar of event hashtags. Time was there was a “season&# for conferences. Now, it seems there’s a conference pretty much every day of the week, sometimes more than one.

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Waxing UnLyrical

JANUARY 24, 2011

Waxing UnLyrical personal, possibly poetic, musings on public relations, media, communication, and everything in between About Shonali Four Free Digital Marketing Tools for Non-Profits January 24th, 2011 Tweet Guest post by Erica Holt These are frugal days, and everyone loves getting and writing about free stuff. (Wait for it…) Relax, I’m not going to re-list what’s already been written all over the Interwebz about affordable technology available to non-profits.

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Waxing UnLyrical

JULY 14, 2011

Guest post by Joe Hackman. If you’re a Netflix subscriber, you’ve probably already received a notice indicating the pricing and plan changes. If you haven’t, it can be summarized as a discount for streaming-only customers, and a huge price hike (up to 60%) for people who like to get DVDs from them in addition to the streaming. Our family happens to enjoy both, and evidently we’re not alone.

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Waxing UnLyrical

JUNE 14, 2011

Give… no, Take. You know that feeling when someone tells you they’ll give you something, you’re expecting it, and then they tell you they’ve changed their mind because you’re not worth it? I think it’s called “being punched in the stomach,&# or something like it. This is the exact email exchange between a PR “pro&# who pitched me on a food-related product that took place beginning last week and culminating yesterday.

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Waxing UnLyrical

DECEMBER 7, 2011

Guest post by Martin Waxman. I remember a time not too long ago when I knew how to do my job really well. I’d get up in the morning, scour the media and go to work, confident that when a client would call, I could help them out. I knew what worked by doing; that is, based on success. Soon I had a proven blueprint I could apply to virtually any situation that came my way, knowing that if I stayed with it, the results would be positive.

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Waxing UnLyrical

MARCH 18, 2011

Guest post by Brian Meeks. The universe is a rapidly expanding place. The great science minds of the world will continue to unravel its mysteries. They won’t be Americans. The fourth-graders in the United States ranked just behind Lithuania and in eleventh place overall in Sciences. I suspect the Lithuanians also dominated in the areas of art and possibly English.

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Waxing UnLyrical

AUGUST 31, 2011

There’s been a lot of chatter recently over conferences that have a voting component to their submissions. That’s because the “panel picker&# part of the 2012 South by SouthWest Interactive conference is currently in progress, ending on Friday, Sept. 2. I remember the first year I paid attention to SxSW. I wasn’t anywhere close to attending, but it was new to me, and I was in awe of people who were submitting proposals.

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Waxing UnLyrical

AUGUST 4, 2011

Guest post by Katrina Esco. Sometimes, a really great campaign gets noticed for the right reasons ( Starbucks’ “Pass the Cheer” campaign comes to mind.). Other times, despite our best intentions, we really step in it. Summer’s Eve has been in the hot seat for its talking vagina commercial series. The set of three commercials originally showed: a white woman who likes to use the product after the gym and says something about her BFFs, a Hispanic woman who has an accent and cries, “Ay-

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Insurance Price Campaign Flickr 240

Waxing UnLyrical

MARCH 10, 2011

Social media is an interesting animal. We talk often – myself included – about using it to build relationships , about getting to know one’s community, about deepening human interaction. Yet how much do we really know about the people behind the avatars? I was thinking about this yesterday, when I realized that someone whose path crosses mine quite often, has “another life&# I knew absolutely nothing about.

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Waxing UnLyrical

MAY 13, 2011

I remember the foul quite clearly. It was a Saturday morning and your Grinnell Tigers 8 th Grade Boys “B&# team was playing its hated rival, the South Tama Trojans. It was early in the 3rd quarter and the hero of this tale, yours truly, had just been called for a foul, and was protesting under his breath (because I didn’t want a technical.

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Waxing UnLyrical

AUGUST 23, 2011

This post has been sitting in my dashboard for quite a while. Before I started writing it, though, it was just a lonely title, somewhat like a bemused shepherd who’s waylaid his sheep, and is wistfully whistling for them to gather (hey, nothing wrong with a shepherd whistling, is there?). You see, I just couldn’t find the right hook for it.

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Waxing UnLyrical

JANUARY 14, 2011

Waxing UnLyrical personal, possibly poetic, musings on public relations, media, communication, and everything in between About Shonali 5 Ways To Spice Up Your WordPress Blog January 14th, 2011 Tweet Part of the Blogging for Grasshoppers series One of the things that I’ve been doing over the last couple of years, ever since I started this blog, was to play with plugins and ways in which it could look more visually appealing. ‘Cos it’s not just what you read, it’s how what

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Waxing UnLyrical

APRIL 12, 2011

Guest post by Andi Narvaez. During last week’s #pr20chat , Justin Goldsborough asked how PR professionals can best identify and cater to the needs of their target audience. My response was something only a current public relations graduate student, fresh out of taking her comprehensive written and oral examinations, and appropriately trained in methods by her “We mean business when we say research&# university would respond: The response led to a comment by Justin, who shared that the prac

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Waxing UnLyrical

AUGUST 3, 2011

Almost two years ago I went on a bit of a rant about how much I hate being added to email lists without my permission , especially by people I’ve “met&# on Twitter or while out and about at a conference. I ran a Twtpoll on this, as well as a follow-up post , and for the most part, those who participated in the admittedly unscientific poll said that, as a practice, this sucks.

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Waxing UnLyrical

FEBRUARY 26, 2011

Smarter social networking. A few nights ago, I was part of the “ Get Geeky &# panel that Social Media Club-DC had put together. Along with Alex Howard , Frank Gruber and Shana Glickfield , we talked about “ smarter social networking.&#. Much was discussed, but I’ve been thinking more about one of the questions that was asked: If you’re a good connector and/or networker offline, how do you take that online?

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Authentication Social Networking Flickr Meeting 230

Waxing UnLyrical

MARCH 21, 2011

Guest post by Erica Holt. How easy is it, really, to be authentic online? I’ve been thinking about this since Shonali’s thought-provoking post a few weeks back about how to social network smartly by being yourself online. She points out, “If you’re you online, you’ll be you offline.&#. I tend to agree with this assertion, but her post definitely got me wondering about online identity from a cyberpsychology perspective.

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Authentication Social Networking Flickr Examples 229

Waxing UnLyrical

AUGUST 26, 2011

Yesterday I had the honor – and it really was an honor – of introducing Dr. Donna Vincent Roa as she received the 2011 Matrix Award (that’s her on the left) from the Association for Women in Communication’s DC chapter , in recognition of her accomplishments in the global communication field. As I said in my remarks, long before I met Donna (who is IABC-accredited and a former IABC/DC Metro president, as I am), I bumped into her reputation.

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Waxing UnLyrical

MAY 24, 2011

Guest post by Richard Bagnall. Back in 2009, PR measurement professionals were cautious, to say the least. Fifty-four percent of AMEC (The International Association of Measurement and Evaluation of Communications) members were worried about the health of the industry, predicting worsening market conditions. So it’s great news that this week the same membership has reported a 14% growth in revenues during the previous 12 months.

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Social Media Metrics Flickr Industry 227

Waxing UnLyrical

JUNE 7, 2011

I first came across the folks at Traackr. when PRSA’s 2010 International Conference was held in DC last October. Actually, I didn’t come across them so much as they introduced themselves to me via Twitter and email, and asked to see if we could meet up since they’d be in town. As luck would have it, we weren’t able to meet in person, but we stayed in touch.

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Waxing UnLyrical

OCTOBER 4, 2011

It’s been just about a month since I told you WUL’s publishing schedule would be indefinitely halted. Well… I’m back! More or less, that is… Many of you have asked, so here is what happened and how the last month went. Remember I told you I had to undergo a laparotomy (that’s abdominal surgery, where they cut into your tummy, not fun) to have a mass on one of my ovaries removed.

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Waxing UnLyrical

OCTOBER 27, 2011

This is a real email I received a couple of days ago: Hi Shonali, I came across your company Shonali Burke Consulting and wanted to connect with you with regards to how you handle your issue/topic tracking in the media. Recently, I have worked with organizations who have needed help during issues or major events in their history to promote and protect their brand. <REDACTED> has worked with similar large organizations such as Disney and Burger King to support their efforts to effectivel

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Waxing UnLyrical

AUGUST 18, 2011

Yesterday, I came across a really interesting post by John Jantsch that posited “it’s time to purge the word entrepreneur&#. In part, John wrote, “The issue centers on the notion that if you’re an entrepreneur you care about high growth and if you’re a small business owner you’re somehow destined to struggle to make ends meet while working your fingers to the bone.&#. and. “You can view your business as an entrepreneurial high growth machine and still work your fingers to

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Waxing UnLyrical

JULY 11, 2011

Guest post by Erica Allison. Video Blog Posts. Vlogs. Everyone seems to be doing them now. But are they doing them in the best way they could? Are there some tips out in the blogosphere that can be shared in order to make your foray into vlogging a more enjoyable, productive experience? Image: BenSpark via Flickr, CC 2.0. I say, “Yes!”. In addition to the video embedded here in the post , I’ll offer some additional tips, guidelines and rules of thumb that I’ve found to be quite helpful in my

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Embedding Vimeo YouTube Flickr 225

Waxing UnLyrical

OCTOBER 13, 2011

If you are reading this blog, chances are you don’t need to be told about the merits of social media. It is ubiquitous. Most of the advice we received from early adopters years ago is hardwired into our brains: Listen first! Respect people’s time! Offer something that is relevant and valuable! Measure! Measure! Measure! This isn’t anything new. These are tactics you would apply to customer/client relations even if you worked in an old-time general store selling beans out of a bin.

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Waxing UnLyrical

DECEMBER 28, 2011

This post first ran on Jan. 27 of this year. It’s still the most popular Waxing UnLyrical post to date, so we re-run it, with minor edits to keep it updated, for your reading pleasure in case you missed it earlier. And because we’ve gone shoe shopping. Enjoy! In the genes? I don’t know if we PR pros have a faulty gene or what, but we make it so easy for other professionals to beat up on us.

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Press Release Flickr Newsletter Comparison 222

Waxing UnLyrical

MARCH 24, 2011

Guest post by Matt LaCasse. I hear a lot of people talking about networking. How to do it, what are the do’s and don’ts, how much booze can I drink at a conference, on and on and on the list goes. Image: takomabibelot via Flickr, CC 2.0. There’s a dirty little secret in the communications world though: Networking is a joke. I’ve come to this conclusion after really thinking about what “networking” means.

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Waxing UnLyrical

JUNE 30, 2011

This is a personal post. So if you have the patience to put up with it, I appreciate it. If not, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Today is my husband’s birthday. So rather than talk about you, or me, I’m going to talk about him today. And yes, referencing myself as a “myth&# is coming it a bit strong, since I’m neither the Goddess of Love , nor the Earth Goddess , nor the Mother Goddess.

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Waxing UnLyrical

JUNE 23, 2011

This is part of the Blogging for Grasshoppers series. I thought it had been a while since I’d done a BfG post, but I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that, in fact, I had… even if it was a redux. Better than nothing, right? Image: Craig Walkowicz via Flickr, CC 2.0. Here are some more cool plugins for you to try out on your WordPress blog.

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Waxing UnLyrical

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Earlier this year, National Australia Bank got Australia and the world talking with its very public ‘Break-Up’ campaign. Based on the idea that NAB were breaking up with the other leading Australian banks, the campaign combined new and traditional media and communications to achieve some stunning results for the bank, including winning the Cannes Grand Prix in PR.

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Waxing UnLyrical

JULY 28, 2011

Have you come across a social media bully lately? That’s the person who tells you they “will not do X if you do Y.&# Or, “Unless you stop doing X, I will not do Y.&#. It could be anything from not following you on Twitter unless you stop checking in on FourSquare … … to not following you on Twitter (because you make so much “noise&# ) but they’d like to connect on LinkedIn anyway, because that will benefit them ) … … to not commenting on your

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Waxing UnLyrical

JUNE 9, 2011

When I was at BlogWorld. a couple of weeks ago, I spent quite a bit of time walking around the exhibit hall. That’s where I met up with Jordan, Jeremy and Jenna of Livefyre (does your name have to start with a “J&# to work at there?), got my mugshot taken with “Go Granny&# and generally felt happy that I was there and a part of this whole blogging thing.

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