An Inside Look at the Person Behind PR at Sunrise

The following is a list of sad, but true facts about Andrew Worob..

–  I’ve been known to perform 90s rap songs during karaoke.

– Rollerblading is still a hobby of mine.

– I know every state capital. Even the hard ones.

– While I’m not a fan of how he represents himself off-camera, Tom Cruise is far and away (no pun intended) my favorite actor and Top Gun is the best movie ever made. Yes, you read that right.

– I’ve been teaching myself to play electric guitar for about four years. When I say “teaching” I mean playing a few notes to my favorite songs every now and then.

– My first job was at McDonald’s. Would you like fries with that?

– I used to wear an earring. A diamond in fact. I’ll thank you not to laugh at this embarrassing fact.

– My favorite bands/musicians are all from the 80s and 90s: Guns N’ Roses, Van Halen, Gin Blossoms, Bon Jovi, and Phil Collins.

– I’m a die-hard sports fan who has spent many long, hard years rooting for the Mets, Jets, Knicks, New York Rangers, and West Virginia Mountaineers.

– How do I choose topics to blog about? I look around online to see what’s happening in the world of PR, I’ll think about things that happen in everyday life and see if there’s a PR idea in there, etc.

– I had to sell my 2002 Pontiac Firebird (with T-tops, tints and 10 speaker sound system!) a few years ago when I moved into NYC.

– My favorite TV shows are Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

– I’ve lived in New York, West Virginia, and Florida.

Now it’s YOUR turn. Please leave comments below and let me know about who YOU are!

Free Speech and New Media

Think twice before posting content online, says Fritz Messere, Dean of the School of Communication, Media and the Arts at State University of New York at Oswego.

Hard to believe that five years ago Facebook was just beginning and Twitter is even 4-years-old.

As new technologies increase our ability to reach out and say what’s on our minds, we often think past the basics of how social responsibility should apply to our electronic speech. It’s amazing to read postings where people are called all sorts of unfriendly names, including some that would not be used in polite company.

Are people less concerned with what they post on the web or in a blog; perhaps writing things they would never say face-to-face to another person? Well, it’s good to remember that the web’s anonymity is not an electronic shield for libel action. In 1997, the Supreme Court said that the Internet allows individuals to become town criers, “with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox.”

Some experts argue that the net provides greater freedom than any other forms of media. But should it apply in all situations? The answer is not an easy one. Libel generally requires identification of the person being libeled and the person or persons doing the deed. And, libels that occur on the web can proceed just like any other defamation case.

On a blog it’s often difficult, but not impossible to know the name of the person posting the comment. Look at some facts: In most cases courts have dismissed lawsuits or have refused to make identification of anonymous critics, but there are some exceptions. In 2009, a Cook County (IL) judge ruled that the identity of an anonymous post to a newspaper’s website had to be released to a village trustee who believed she had been libeled. Similar rulings have taken place in North Carolina and elsewhere. In 2006, a Florida court awarded a plaintiff $11.3 million in a defamation lawsuit stemming from a web posting.

So, it is definitely possible to unmask an anonymous posting. However, Maryland’s highest court has probably established the bar for determining whether to unmask an anonymous poster. The court ruled that in order to unmask an unknown blogger, a person would have to establish all the facts for a case of defamation first. (Remember, too, that defamation differs from state to state as it is treated as a civil wrong.)

Probably most of us would argue that for the most egregious cases, the courts should provide victims with some way to right an injustice. But not all criticism is defamation. So, it’s one thing to call a person a fool but it’s quite another to call a person a crook.

A good rule of thumb is to never write something that you might want to take back tomorrow. Things posted on the web may have a long life.

Fritz Messere is the Dean of the School of Communication, Media and the Arts at State University of New York at Oswego. He holds the rank of Professor of Broadcasting and Telecommunications in the department of Communication Studies. Messere is the author of four books on media and media production including Broadcasting, Cable, the Internet and Beyond, (coauthored with Joe Dominick), McGraw-Hill, now in its 6th edition.

Related Articles

• Internet privacy not so private in court (ajc.com)
• Be Careful What You Write (blogher.com)
• Courtney Love Defamation Lawsuit Could Set Legal Precedent [Twitter] (gawker.com)

Don’t Waste Your Time (and others) By Publishing Crap

In terms of article titles, this is about as risque as I get. Perhaps I was inspired by a few of Danny Brown’s recent titles (especially since his blog, which is awesome, gets more traffic than mine!) or maybe I’m just using today’s as an experiment since it’s a bit out of character for me, but no other title I considered using for this post seemed to get to the point as appropriately as this one does.

We’ve all heard the expression “think before you speak” and I think the same can be said for posting content on a blog/YouTube channel/Facebook page/wherever. Whether for yourself or for a client, too often we move quickly to publish something because its been so many days since we last said anything. So what happens? You rush through the production and the content ends up taking a backseat. The result is something that provides nothing of value to the community simply because you wanted to get the job done and failed to consider whether or not what you had to say was actually going to help anyone.

How many of you have been in this position or have done this before? I know I have, and it’s wrong. For example, I try to stay on a schedule and post informative content at least two times a week on this blog. But there have been times that I’ve been up late at night struggling to try and decide what to post on this blog for the coming day, and often I get blogger’s block (the equivalent of writer’s block) and wonder what I’m going to do. Unfortunately, this had led to a few instances where I ended up posting something just for the sake of it and the result was a subpar article.

I’ve come to accept the fact that I’ve probably made some poor decisions at times and ended up posting content that probably didn’t help many people, but no longer will I make that mistake. I will especially take the lessons I’ve learned to help counsel clients and continue to stress to them that they “think before they publish” and not post anything that they aren’t 100 percent behind and proud of.

So the moral of the story is to slow down. Don’t get caught up in schedules and deadlines. Instead, wait until the time strikes, and it will, when you have an idea for a post that will benefit others. If you spend most of your time and energy worrying about frequency and getting the work over with instead of concentrating on the actual importance of the material being published, then not only are you wasting your time and that of your audience, but you are hurting yourself in the process because people will slowly stop listening to what you have to say.

Related Articles

• Why We Can’t Give Up (dannybrown.me)
• The Content Conundrum – Should Bloggers Use PLR Articles? (buildabetterblog.com)
• 7 Ways for Bloggers to Overcome Writer’s Block (bruceclay.com)

Are There Too Many PR Blogs And News Sites To Keep Up With? No!

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

PR pros and students should treat the plethora of news blogs and websites like a sponge and soak everything up

Originally, when I asked last week’s poll question asking all of you to vote for your favorite outlet to gather PR news and information, I thought it would be fun to find out which were the most popular. But I then realized that the poll was about a whole lot more than just what our favorite and least favorite outlets are. It should have been more of celebration of these great resources.

When I took a step back after releasing the poll, I realized just how many valuable news outlets and opinion pages exist and we should all embrace every single one of them. We are all going to have our favorite site,s and certainly some outlets provide more regular content than others, but I can’t say that I’ve ever read an article on a blog/outlet that didn’t make me think about something … that I didn’t learn from.

So what’s my point? My point is that we should soak up as much information as humanly possible. There are so many outlets that are providing unbelievably helpful information, FOR FREE, and they are designed to help us learn more and continually educate us on the happenings within our industry.

The poll should not have been written as a popularity contest. In this poll everyone was a winner. So I’d like to apologize on the way it was presented and instead say “THANK YOU” to every blog, outlet, site, etc. that provides information for PR pros and students alike. I will keep reading each and every one of them because they all help feed my hunger for knowledge and prepare me to do my job better.

Related Articles:

• Where Do PR Pros And Students Go For Their News? Take The Poll! (worob.com)
• PR Tools Round Up: Visible Technologies, Thomson Reuters, Converseon, and More (mediabistro.com)
• A Few Places to Catch Me This Week (dannybrown.me)

20 PR and Social Media Superstars Flying Under The Radar (updated 9/23)

A few weeks ago I asked the Twitter community to nominate PR and social media pros/students who provide insightful posts, but for some strange reason don’t have as big a following s as they probably deserve.

With that in mind, below is a list of those people who nominated others, as well as their description as to why those identified should earn recognition. Note that almost all of the nominees have less than 1,000 Twitter followers. As always, if someone is not on the list then please leave a comment and let us know who else we should all be paying attention to!

1. Nominator: Alan Danzis @adanzis; Nominee: Laney Cohen @lanes0220

“My friend Laney Cohen is very active on Twitter engaging in monthly and weekly chats. She works in healthcare PR so its good she understands the importance of social media but recognizes the challenges in getting healthcare involved. She also writes a blog.”

2. Nominator: Lexie Kier @a0k; Nominees: Alan Danzis @adanzis, Mitch Kapler @mitchkapler

“Alan is a seasoned PR pro who seamlessly integrates his passion for gaming, gadgets, and geekery with industry news, humor, and anecdotes on city life. I’m kind of shocked he doesn’t have more followers yet. Or that he isn’t on tv for G4.”

“Mitch is a great conversationalist and a smart strategist but also a creative by nature, who curates wonderful art, music, news, and inspiring tidbits through twitter. He uses his social media sorcery for good with nonprofit Catchafire to match skilled people with worthy causes.”

3. Nominator: William Johnson @johnsonwilliam; Nominee: Elizabeth Cooke @ellebetz

“Perhaps the most interesting 22 year old with a two year old you’ll ever meet (or tweet), Elizabeth Cooke is the ultimate playful-professional, pushing the boundaries of conversation and engagement like it’s her job – partly because it is.  A community architect/manager at social media management company Soshal Group, she combines insight and wit in a way that’s alluringly unmatched.”

4. Nominators: Rachel Esterline @rachelesterline, Kairi Soosaar @kairisoosaar; Nominee: Mikinzie Stuart @Mikinzie

“Mikinzie’s tweets are filled with great information and personality. Her tweets reflect what she is like in real life. And, I love how she creates random hashtags that describe her thoughts at the moment.” – Rachel Esterline

“Having built her skill set through TPC, Mikinzie is a self-taught PR and social media PRO, whose talent is highly appreciated by many leaders in the profession as well as up-and-comers and students. She shares her insights on the industry in two of her blogs: PRepguide and PRGeekSpeak.” – Kairi Soosaar

5. Nominator: Matt LaCasse @MattLaCasse; Nominee: Colby Gergen @ColbyWG

“Colby is a senior at the University of Missouri this year. I find his tweets fall into one of three categories: Funny, Insightful, Thought Provoking. All three carry great value for me and I believe will be beneficial to others who aren’t currently following him.”

6. Nominator: Kairi Soosaar @kairisoosaar; Nominees: Brittany James @bitty_boop, Hana Yi @hanayi

“If Tweeting were a sport at the Olympic Games, Brittany would be representing the U.S.A. She was recently a Top 20 MTV Twitter Jockey finalist, and has her hands busy with working for CJP Communications in NYC. She is someone who gets noticed for her enthusiasm and passion for the industry, which have scored her great connections among the stars of the PR and social media world.”

“Hana has scored some serious PR experiences from the fashion world of Bloomingdales, nonprofit world of the Red Cross and she recently complemented her talent under the hand of the amazing Sarah Evans of Sevans Strategy, who called her a “true go-getter”. She is currently rocking the PR and social media land of the Chicago Tribune. She is a PR gal to watch out for!”

7. Nominators: Harrison Kratz @KratzPR, Ashley Parker @fleuredeflorida, Lauren Gray @WCUPRSSA/@laurenkgray; Nominee: Ashley Funderburk @amfunderburk1

“I would like to recommend Ashley Funderburk.  She is my SM director for Kratz PR and is the VP for PRSSA at West Carolina University (WCU). She deserves more followers because she is someone who truly engages with other followers to communicate, learn from, share, and collaborate with. She has become well known among young PR students and professionals because she is so involved and active in social media.  She knows a great deal about this medium and she loves to share and use her talents to her professional advantage.” – Harrison Kratz

“I love Ashley’s blog! She’s a PR student a WCU & another great example of someone doing all the right things to get herself educated and out there- she’s very involved in student PR orgs and internships, but I think what I love about her is that you see who she is as a person through her tweets, and not everybody does this. For some it’s all about connections, RTs, etc…but she’s someone who comes across as a “real” person too.Thanks for doing this!” – Ashley Parker

“Ashley is an upcoming PR student and PRSSA Vice President and Catamount Communications, student-run PR firm, Firm Director who has a huge passion for social media and entertainment PR. She is very big into social media and tweets to engage others with very informational and exciting tweets.” – Lauren Gray

8. Nominator: Matt John @emjaydoespr; Nominee: Kris Allen @krisallenpr

“Kris (@krisallenpr) is has a really interesting position at the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation. He is helping integrate social media with traditional communications at a grassroots level. Kris has worked in the Gaming, Oil and Gas and Not-For-Profit sectors and is a really helpful guy with a great deal of experience to share.”

9. Nominator: Kris Allen @krisallenpr; Nominee: Matt John @emjaydoespr

“This guy is a recent PR grad like me, but was lucky enough to be headhunted by a national crisis communications agency in Calgary, Alberta. This guy was the social media resource for our entire graduating class. If it weren’t for this guy, I wouldn’t be on Twitter or writing guest blogs for people. Honestly, this guy knows his stuff.”

10. Nominator: Mariam Shahab @Mshahab; Nominee: Alicia Collins @buona_vita

“Aside from constantly engaging with her current followers, Alicia constantly provides insights to new “tweeps” in Twitter chats all week. She also consistently manages to bring out her personality through 140 characters.”

11. Nominator: Brittany James @bitty_boop; Nominee: Jessica Bayer @JessBayerDC

“During a #PRStudChat that I moderated, Jess was part of the HR panel that provided graduating seniors great information on what HR representatives are looking for in candidates. Jessica also reached out to students in other cities during the spring for internship/freelance opportunities to gain experience.”

12. Nominator: Ashley Parker fleuredeflorida; Nominees: Lauren Lorenzo @LaurenLrnz, Nicole Floetker @nicolefloetker

“Lauren is a new grad who just started her first job as an account coordinator, and she’s exciting to follow because she’s a great example of what post-college, new grad life is like, which I think gives other PR students inspiration. As a PR pro myself, I think it’s important for the next generations to have role models/people they can relate to, and she is one of those.”

“Nicole is still a student, but she’s definitely holding her own out there. She contacted me asking for advice regarding nonprofit PR, and I love that she’s really working social media connections to learn and improve herself for her future PR career. Another great example for other students/pros.”

13. Nominator: Lauren Gray @WCUPRSSA/@laurenkgray; Nominees: Amanda Peralta @aeperalta1, Kion Sanders @kionsanders

“Amanda is a new professional out in the PR real world who has successfully interned at Eric Mower and Associates PR firm and is currently interning at JSW Media Group. She has always been a great resource and mentor for other PR students, including @laurenkgray and @amfunderburk1, and is always willing to help out others.”

“Kion Sanders is a new professional and PRSA member working for Fahlgren Mortine PR firm. He is a great person to follow because he loves fashion, music, and all things entertainment and always has excellent tweets about the latest and upcoming fashion news and all things PR.”

14. Nominator: Ramona Zachariassen @ramonahz; Nominee: Petya Georgieva @pgeorgieva

“She (Petya) deserves more followers because she is passionate about PR and she regards her profession as a lifestyle – she spends most of her time keeping up to date and educating others. She is good at promoting other people, as well as conversing with them, on Twitter. She blogs about communication at www.higher-and-higher.com.”

15. Nominator: @jeff_nordstedt; Nominee: @alexandrakirsch

“She (Alexandra) deserves more followers because she is a wonderful online citizen. She has done a great job of community-building among book readers and reviewers.”