Apparently a “palooza” is an “exaggerated event.”

A palomino is “a coat color in horses, consisting of a gold coat and white mane and tail.” In other words, something very unusual.

Image: Derrick Coetzee via Flickr, Creative Commons

Seems to me both are somewhat extraordinary, perhaps exaggerated and possibly exciting.

With this past week focusing (at least for me) on sharing the trials and tribulations of PR, here are seven posts that I wanted to share with you.

1. The PRapalooza recap (and show) from Joe Hackman’s Building Bridges podcast.

Why: Danny Brown, Gini Dietrich and I talk about PR, blogging, social media and cow manure. Do you really need another reason? I’ll give it to you: palooza!

2. How to not suck being a conference moderator or speaker, from TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog.

Why: Speaking engagements are one of the ways to build your thought leadership, a critical component of PR. I’ve been to enough conferences where the moderators/speakers sucked (and live in deathly fear of that being applied to me). The ever-brilliant Lee Odden gives you tips on how to avoid this pitfall.

Palomino wins this round.

3. How B2B companies use real-time blog posts to get trade media exposure, from David Meerman Scott‘s Web Ink Now.

Why: I’ve used David’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, for my classes at Johns Hopkins for the last two years. Because what he says is Just. So. Smart. I suspect his new book might have a new place on my syllabus.

Definitely a palomino.

4. How to: choose the right blog tool, from Arik Hanson‘s Communication Conversations.

Why: as I’ve started blogging for grasshoppers, I’ve been realizing how this kind of information is really helpful to new bloggers (like me). Arik lays it out nicely and neatly for you.

Hmm. Neither palooza nor palomina, but precious.

5. 5 takeaways on social media and politics, by Dave Fleet.

Why: As we in the U.S. recover from a pretty intense election cycle, this post is a great reminder that social media – and public relations – is not a universal panacea. Especially if your shit service is broken from within. And no, I’m not making any political comment; just a practical one.

The operative “p” here is practical.

6. Faulty media metrics make for a guessing game, by Mathew Ingram at GigaOm.

Why: Those of us who focus on PR and social media measurement often talk about how you can measure “everything” on the web. Turns out you can… but it might not be accurate.

This is definitely a palomino.

7. My name’s Sean, and I’m a media junkie, from Sean Williams‘ Communication AMMO!

Why: Being media junkies is what makes us both paloozas and palominos. Else why would we do what we do?