Pro PR Tips from CNET’s Rafe Needleman on Twitter August 21, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Work.1 comment so far
CNET’s Rafe Needleman occasionally posts “Pro PR Tips” on his Twitter account. If you’re a PR person who’s pitching Rafe, or who might someday, it would be a swell idea to follow him. (UPDATE 8/27: Rafe’s official archive of his PR tips is at http://www.proprtips.com.)
Here’s what he’s Twittered so far (yes, there are two #6s):
- Pro PR tip #8: Speakerphones suck.
- Pro PR tip #7: Put your email address in your direct Twitters!
- Pro PR tip #6: If a product reviewer contacts you with a criticism of something you just pitched, asking for an explanation, respond asap.
- PR tip #6 Twitter pitch? Ok, but direct only, and provide link and reply email in the Tweet.
- Afterward he Twittered, “@TDefren points out that PR ppl can’t pitch via D msg if I’m not following them. Good!”
- Pro PR tip #5: A pitch on IM? Ugh. A least make sure I want to hear it before you start. Better yet: EMail (maybe this is just me).
- Pro PR tip #4: “Webinar?” Err, no.
- Pro PR Tip #3: You want me to do a 30-minute media audit on the phone? Bwahahaha.
- Pro PR tip: If you talk to me on the phone and I ask you to follow up by email, do so *immediately*, while our call is still on my mind.
- Pro PR tip: If you ask me what’s a good time to call, I will tell you a time when I know I am not available.
Another Tweet worth keeping in mind:
- Once again, on the prowl for actual *innovation* and *usefulness* in new Web apps.
Behold the horror of the “shorts suit” July 31, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Miscellany.Tags: casualfridays, fashion, menswear, shorts, suit, What
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When reading comic books, I was always fascinated by the villains who wanted to blow up the world. What sin of humanity could be so egregious as to make someone believe that the only solution was to bring about the end of the Earth?
Okay, yeah. I guess I sort of see their point.
(Via @gruber)
Is your town hotter than Hell? Have some chicken wings! June 30, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Miscellany.add a comment
In honor of the spicy, bold taste of the brand’s signature KFC Hot Wings, the world’s largest chicken chain announced today that Americans living in cities and towns that record temperatures hotter than those in Hell, Mich., have a chance to win free Hot Wings. The “Hotter than Hell” offer is for a five-day period beginning today and ending July 4.
Via Food Industry Market (Disclosure: KFC is a client of my agency)
WordPress theme for your evil business blog June 27, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Intarweb, Technology.Tags: web design, Wordpress
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This awesome WordPress theme makes me desperately want to start a business blog with the tagline “I am going to kill ALL OF YOU.”
Via Kung Fu Grippe.
Canada is preserving artifacts from my childhood June 23, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Miscellany.2 comments
During a recent business trip to Vancouver — my first visit to Canada — I stopped at a Safeway to see if I could find a boxed pastry that a Canadian friend of mine told me to look out for. I saw no Passion Flakies there, but when I took a turn through the cereal aisle I was seized with a sense of profound disorientation as I beheld something I haven’t seen since I was a kid in the 70s: Sugar Crisp cereal.
Sometime after 1979 (Lazyweb?) the cereal’s name was changed to “Super Golden Crisp” in the U.S. But not, apparently, in Canada.
Given how taboo the word “sugar” is in kid’s products now, the Canadian version felt kind of subversive to me. It opened a window onto an alternate world of strange possibilities, where the names of foods highlight their main ingredients instead of concealing them.
Player. June 15, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Geek.Tags: d&d, dungeonsanddragons, Games, gaming, phoenixgames
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Me with my new copy of the 4th Edition D&D Player’s Handbook. The last time I bought one was 1980.
New Writing For Pay - Christa Terry, author and pro blogger June 14, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Life.Tags: writingforpay
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I’ve posted my interviews with Christa Terry, aka “Never Teh Bride” at the blog Manolo For The Brides at Writing For Pay. Check it out!
The shows track the arc of her writing career to date thusly:
Part Two: Professional blogger
Because everything’s better with sac. May 16, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Miscellany, What.add a comment
Magnatune unveils two new subscription plans May 7, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Marketing, Music.Tags: drm, drmfree, magnatune, podsafe, proartist, procustomer, professorarmchair, royaltyfree
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Speaking of music subscription plans, Magnatune - which offers high quality DRM-free music downloads and podsafe licensing - announced two new ways to enjoy their music this morning:
Now available for the very first time, Magnatune Memberships allows you to hear Magnatune music without any announcements or interruptions between songs! Starting at just $9 a month, you can stream over 500 albums and mixes into iTunes or player of your choice. Listen online all day, every day wherever you are. For serious audiophiles, we recommend our Download Membership, an “all you can eat” plan that lets you download any of our music, whenever you like, as many times as you like, and in any format, including CD quality WAVs. BONUS: BOTH PLANS include access to our new two hour, talk-free podcasts.
I checked out the details of the two plans. For $9 a month you can stream the company’s entire catalog of music, and for $18 a month you can download the company’s entire catalog of music. Let me repeat that part: for $18 a month, you can download every album on the site to your computer. (Magnatune only asks that you not strain its servers by using a downloading robot.) You also get access to streaming audio and members-only music podcasts. Under both plans, 50% of your subscription fee goes to the musicians whose songs you downloaded and/or streamed. Pretty sweet.
I do not recognize a single one of the artists listed on the site. But what I do recognize is if I really want to expand my musical horizons, Magnatune is a great way to go - particularly if I want to explore baroque, classical, medieval, and electronic music. And there are some fascinating oddities, such as Professor Armchair and his “demented 19th century children’s music“.
I’ll have to think about whether membership is right for me, or whether I’d prefer to cherry-pick tracks that I like. But I’m really impressed with the company’s pro-customer, pro-artist policies.
eMusic rolls back the Stones: why you must own your music May 6, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Music, Technology.add a comment
Tech podcasts frequently debate the best model for consuming digital music via the Web. Is it buying and downloading songs and albums, as with Amazon and iTunes? Is it a subscription model with unlimited access to an entire catalog of songs as long as you pay a monthly fee? Or is it a hybrid such as eMusic, where you pay the service a fee in exchange for a certain number of monthly downloads?
Usually these discussions end with someone saying, “Well, the perfect setup would be a subscription service where you had unlimited access to all of the music that’s out there. It would supply you with music the way the water company supplies you with water. Then there would be no need to own anything.”
The sudden removal of the Rolling Stones catalog from eMusic less than a month after it was uploaded is a great example of why that proposed model gives me the heebie jeebies as a consumer: If I don’t own my music, then someone else does. And they can turn off the tap any time they please.
Thankfully I grabbed three Stones albums before eMusic’s deal with ABKCO went pear-shaped and it had to pull the entire catalog. Once again the message from the music industry is unmistakable: fans don’t matter anymore, lawyers do.
It’s getting to the point where I can’t buy music at all anymore without feeling bad about it. Like the joy has been sucked out of the whole thing.
Feh.
These Rolling Stones boys are pretty good, though.
