Essentials looks at the connection between social and search data, particularly SEO. Take the chart below, for example. This shows Social Visibility for individual blog posts from PRBreakfastClub.com. Social Visibility is defined as follows:

With a Facebook share or a Google plus-one users can vote on the quality of a site. Therefore, the aim is to motivate users to perform as many of these actions as possible. Social Visibility presents these results and prioritizes them according to the network and type of action.

What jumps out at you right away from this chart is how much social links and social visibility are tied to one another. It’s likely you already knew this (or had a strong feeling), but it’s cool to see it visualized.

Now let’s compare to SEO Visibility for the same time period.

This shows SEO Visibility over time, which can help us find trends and insights when compared to Social Visibility over time (I built this one):

Looking at these charts side-by-side, it’s easy to see that there is definitely a connection between social and SEO visibility. As you collect more data, more detailed trends may become visible. Maybe both your social visibility changes in March, but your SEO does not. Why is that?

A few caveats to this data, though. It’s unclear how often the social data is updated as I struggled to find data that was dated after August of this year. While this tool may be best for determining overall trends and not real-time monitoring, it’s best to have the most up-to-date data to assess these trends.

It’s also tricky to visualize the SEO and social data in the same view on the dashboard, so it’s hard to make easy comparisons and find correlations. I recommend exporting the data and manipulating it yourself for the best results. (Be careful, though. It appears there is a limit to how much you can download without an additional fee.)

What insights could you learn from this data? Would you find this tool helpful?

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

Seemingly overnight they changed the way we consumed movies with their near genius marketing strategies and business model leaving many people (*ahem* Blockbuster) twisting in the wind and kicking themselves that they didn’t have the foresight to see the paradigm shift in home movie delivery. But their communications strategy? Uh, hello – McFly?

The PR gaffes began in September 2010 when Netflix launched their service in Canada and hired actors to pose as customers, gushing about the service even going as far as to conduct media interviews to extol the virtues. In the wake of a clear breach of ethics, they apologized and we forgave them for their transparency ignorance. A slap on the wrist.

Then, in July of this year Netflix suddenly announced that prices of DVD and online movies were going up by 60%. Although it can be argued that a lot of folks were dismayed at the sudden price increase, I don’t think that in and of itself customers were as upset about this as they were with Netflix’s lack of response when thousands took to the social media airwaves to express their negativity about the sudden increase and the fact that most people heard about the increase through the media rather than Netflix themselves. Oh, but that’s right. Netflix did let us know about the price increase. Through an email. In the middle of the night.

Fast forward to September when Netflix suddenly decided to split their DVD rental business and online movie streaming service choosing the name “Qwikster” for the DVD side. One small problem. The name was already taken on social networks, most notably on Twitter by a guy who shall we say, has less than stellar social skills and taste in recreational activities. Hmmm, I guess I missed the field research to see how customers would react to splitting their service or the crowd sourcing campaign contest asking Netflix customers to chime in with their thoughts on what a good name would be for their DVD business.

There are so many lessons to be learned from Netflix’s dastardly communications strategy. I don’t have enough room to list all of them if I wrote a post every day for the next month, so let’s stick to the basics:

1. Listening – I know, I know, PR people like to talk. A lot. But at the heart of any successful PR campaign is the ability to close your mouth, open your eyes and ears and listen to your community. I can remember waaay back when in 2007 reading a post by Chris Brogan about the power of listening in social media when we were on the forefront of the social media explosion and thinking, “well that seems pretty easy.” For Netflix? Not so much. There are plenty of free tools out there to help you listen, so take advantage of them. It may just put the kibosh on a new initiative that you thought was the best thing to hit the market since string cheese.
2. Engaging – There is a reason that a community exists. They are your real time focus group. They can be evangelists to buoy your messages, or critics to initiate product or service changes and modifications. The one thing about communities though is that they need cultivation. Fertilize them by actively engaging for advice, feedback, suggestions and ideas. Stick your head in as often as possible and show people you care. It’s ok to make mistakes, just make sure you fail forward and learn from them. And for Pete’s sake, don’t plead ignorance when things go awry. No one will buy it.
3. Measuring – When I talk about measuring, I don’t necessarily mean it in the exact context of a wise post by Rebecca Denison reminding us that analytics are the bread and butter of a successful PR campaign. I am talking more about taking stock of your past communication campaigns from a sentiment perspective and learning what works and what doesn’t based on community and media reactions. In other words, taking an estimate of what is to be expected based on what you’ve already done. Few members of your community expect perfection. What they do expect is for you to learn from your mistakes. And not repeat them.

Do you suppose it’s any coincidence that Netflix stock has plummeted from a high of $298.73 on July 13^th to a low of $111 as of market close on October the 10^th?

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

For example, if you look at my profile topics, you could give me a +K if I have influenced you on social media measurement or public relations. Each user gets five +K’s each day, which means you have to be registered to give others feedback and cannot give unlimited feedback. You can also give a +K to each topic for a person once each week. So if I give you a +K for social media on Monday, then I cannot give you another +K for social media until the following Monday. And +K’s will not last forever, they have an expiration date.

Klout explains that influence can change over time. While there are plenty of people who are influential about SXSW in the first few months of the year, there is hardly anyone talking about it right now. So I may give you a +K for SXSW in March, but a +K for summer beers in June. Influence can be fleeting, and it can grow and shift over time, and Klout is trying to account for that.

You can also remove words and phrases from your own profile if you do not think they are fitting. I have noticed some odd words in my own profile before, so this feature may be useful for finding true contextual influencers.

While this does seem to add a layer of validation to the automated algorithm, it also brings into question the validity of the technology in the first place. Klout claims to measure your online influence. As we know, it’s not perfect, but asking for validation from peers makes me wonder about how accurate the algorithm is. Also, if I am able to remove topics I think are not relevant, doesn’t that defeat the purpose?

There have been a few who expressed fears about this becoming a popularity contest, and I have already seen some folks asking for +K’s on a certain topic for which they want to have influence. That’s not really influence. I can ask you to give me +K on New York City, for example, but if you know that I’ve never lived there or visited for an extended period of time, do you really find me influential on NYC? Probably not.

At this point you cannot search for people based on keywords or topics. The topics can only be viewed when someone visits your profile to explore your influence.

I respect what Klout is attempting to do, but they are not adding context or topical relevance to influence. They are not measuring your influence at all. They are using numerous numbers like your Twitter followers, Facebook friends, retweets and so on to determine how often folks online interact with or share your content.

Beyond the high barrier to entry for using +K, I don’t think it adds enough value to be worthwhile. I doubt many people will sign up for Klout just to give someone a small boost to their “social media” score which will only last about 48 hours anyway.

What do you think? Will you use +K?

Some of which will even be trending topics on Twitter including the funny glasses, hangovers, kissing at midnight and the ball dropping in Times Square, but those won’t make their way onto the page. Instead we’re going to take a look at some resolutions that will help us professionally as PR folks. So break out the Pepto because these resolutions may be a tough pill to swallow.

Keep it Clean – I am not sure about you, but I cannot keep my desk clean for the life of me.  I had a conversation about this with fellow PRBC staffer Christina Khoury the other day.  Perhaps the biggest reason for this is that we don’t ever stop to think about ourselves or our area during the day and are hyper-focused on the task at hand.  Set some time on your schedule to tidy your area at least once a week. It will show folks you take pride in how you present yourself and can go a long way with your bosses. Being messy can lead to questions about your work ethic and we all know what they say about cleanliness…

Make a Connection – We work in a cold industry.  It’s often filled with cold calls, fake networking events and blind emails.  Relationships with journalists are often frosty at best for PR folks, let’s try to change that.  In 2010, I made great connections with a slew of journalists and was better for it. I plan on meeting more during 2011 and challenge you to do the same.

Canned Meat – How long does it take you to write an email?  Five, 10, 20 minutes?  Since the time is minimal, why not spend some time customizing your pitches?  Keith Trivitt wrote a great post on PR automation the other day and it also was part impetus for this post.  We need to cut the <name> crap and get back to having a meaningful relationship with journalists.

Meet your Network – Show of hands, how many of you have met at least 1/10 of your social network in real life?  While it may be tough to do, IRL meetings important.  This year, I am looking forward to meeting Rebecca Denison, Danny Brown, Chris Barger, Arik Hanson and Michael Dolan.  Who are you going to meet?

Screw Your Brand – Now I am not sure if this is legal in the 50 states, but I will defer to the lawyers on the legality of it.  In all seriousness 2010 was the year of the personal brand.  Maybe I am just naïve or worked in sports for too long, but I firmly believe in the saying that you play for the name on the crest not the name on the back.  Unless you are the head of your firm, your job as a PR pro is to make your company or client look good.  Everyone knows that your job today will likely not be your last, but you shouldn’t use your current role to gain yourself notoriety.  If you want to build something up that is Brand U, do it 5-9 not on the company dime.  I predict that we’ll see more companies cracking down on this kind of self-promotional behavior.

You may be asking yourself where the other five resolutions are.  I am asking you the same thing.  You see, resolution lists  often feel empty to me and would be better  if they were created together. Please note this caveat is the reason for the asterisk in the title.

At the end of the day we’ve all got things that we need to be better at, but may not be ready to admit them, so let’s think of the comments below as a group therapy session where we can make the best resolution list for 2011 that we’ll create together as a definitive list.

There are no bad answers and we’ll give you credit in the final post

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

(CC) Courtesy akash_k

I recently returned from the PRSA International Conference in Washington, D.C. (full disclosure: I am employed by PRSA), where much of the focus was on social media and enhancing the strategic value of public relations. What struck me most about the sessions was how few of them were geared toward the once-hot topics of “Social Media is Great!,” or “This Social Media Thing is A Fad.” Instead, a majority focused on a similar theme: “Social media has revitalized the PR profession . . . now what do we do with all of this data?!

That strikes at the heart of the next great movement for public relations. The need to understand, analyze and utilize the vast array of data, sentiment analysis and other metrics gathered from social media.

This very question is what some of my smart buddies in the business—folks like Jeff Esposito and Rebecca Denison—are actively researching and experimenting with right now. Just how, exactly, do we efficiently make sense of and utilize this great new data about consumer sentiment, brand affinity and corporate reputation (much of it coming to us in real-time)?

It’s a question I certainly don’t have the answer to at the moment. While at the PRSA International Conference, I got a palpable sense that, while yes, there are still some who haven’t quite embraced the power of social media (and we have to accept that some never will), for most, their focus has now shifted toward making the most of this immensely powerful medium.

It’s why I predict that within the next three to five years, specialists who understand the role that data analysis can play in shaping and influencing consumer behavior will have a powerful and beneficial role in public relations.

Some in the field believe that we should all have a basic understanding of this type of data-meets-consumer-sentiment/influence analysis capabilities. And while I agree with that sentiment, I think we’re underestimating just how powerful and overwhelming this data will become, and how much influence—if used and understand properly—it will yield for companies.

For most of us, that requires an expertise and specialty that we simply can’t acquire unless we’re specifically trained to do so.

Much like the movement within journalism of having once-great programmers become digital journalists (see: Taylor Buley at Forbes and Nick Bilton at The New York Times), one of the best things that could come to public relations in the next five years would be a movement within agencies toward hiring and developing a new type of practitioner; one who is an expert in data analysis and also has a firm understanding in consumer behavior and the power of strategic communications.

And that shouldn’t necessarily come from even the best of today’s digital PR pros. This will require an entirely new breed of data-first, PR-second professionals.

What do you think? Am I off my rocker, or do you, too, foresee the need for new PR professionals, specifically trained in data analysis, in the profession?

(CC) flickr // benuski

Last week, the University of North Carolina rolled out a new social media. Instead of increasing access to student athletes, the policy has coaches and/or administrators serving as the social media director for their team (read more here & here). Seems a bit extreme pulling folks more astute with X’s and O’s and game planning to monitoring 140 character messages.

Aside from tapping our resident sports guys, we also tapped into the psyche of a pair of UNC alumni to see what they thought of this new plan. For those of you counting at home, there are four contributors to this post, a first for PRBC.

True Engagement
Rebecca Denison – Class of ’09

I spent four years walking around campus just hoping I’d get to catch a glimpse of guys like Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green. At Carolina, tests and presentations were often rescheduled because the team had made it to the next round of the tourney. I will forever bleed blue and cheer for Roy’s boys.

When guys like Marcus Ginyard started to join Twitter, I was thrilled because it was probably the best way for me to get to know UNC players and show the team support. Censoring and monitoring these guys only takes away the authentic interaction they have with fellow classmates who may not get the chance otherwise. Yeah, that sounds a bit lame, but wouldn’t you want to interact with a basketball legend one-on-one if you could?

Beyond this loss of authenticity, the spirit behind the new rules is also an issue. UNC’s undergraduate journalism program is considered one of the best in the country, and to have the school’s athletic department enact a policy like this is just plain embarrassing.

Unofficial Ambassadors
Aven James – UNC Class of ’06

UNC recently unveiled an updated social media policy that has been called “harsh” – and while the UNC alum in me might agree, the B2B PR pro has to admit the policy just makes good business sense.  And let’s be honest – isn’t college athletics really a business these days?

Though I admittedly haven’t seen the whole policy, it addresses a number of issues we’d advise a client to touch on:

●        Responsibility & Good Judgment: Student athletes, whether they like it or not, are representatives of their University.  As such, they need to exercise good judgment when posting on public forums and refrain from comments that could negatively impact the “organization.”  And the “organization” needs to pay attention to what’s being said.

●        Audience: Students and fans are an important audience for UNC athletics.  They’re the “consumer;” the buyer of UNC’s “product.”  Therefore, UNC has a responsibility to consider what posts/comments might alienate its fan base.  

●        Consequences: A sound social media policy should address the consequences for “bad behavior.”  UNC has experienced first-hand the risks associated with social media and they’ve created a policy that, they hope, will mitigate them.

All that being said, the devil is always in the details.  With the ability to monitor and even remove posts, UNC could take the policy too far – and if they do so, miss out on an opportunity to engage its fan base via social media.

Pro v. Student
Mike Schaffer

Congratulations, NCAA! The University of North Carolina has helped you further blur the line between enrolled student and paid employee. In Chapel Hill a coach or administrator will be monitoring players’ social media accounts for violations. Yes, that’s a public university chipping away at the students’ individual rights – sounds a little fishy to me.

How much control over a person does their university have over them? Should they have access to student-athletes’ social media accounts, as the policy demands?  And why just student athletes? What about student government, student media or student workers? Seems like the college is flexing their muscles to protect their revenue generating assets.

Do you actually think the star point guard will be judged on the same scale as the back-up women’s coxswain?

I’m all for educating players on how to be on their best behavior online, on the field and in daily life. However, the UNC plan, as it’s been presented, is all about “Big Brother Watching.”

Learning is Learning
Jeff Esposito

It may sound crazy, but this policy is a good thing. While my co-contributors raise some valid objections, they are missing the silver lining in this grey cloud. College is a place for kids to get an education and foundation for a future career. Sure some of the players affected by this new policy will play with balls for a living, but the vast majority of the student athletes will not.

Either way, they need to learn the professional implications of being a dumbass on social media. We’ve all heard horror stories of people getting fired and some of us even monitor what is being said about a company online and may see dumb things posted co-workers.

Sure getting to know these athletes may be cool, but they are representatives of a brand. How many brand reps do you know that really give 100% behind the scenes access? Twitter is big business and if that means some big brother so be it.

The athletes who do turn pro will have stricter regulations from their respective leagues. Just as Chad Ochocinco how much a tweet can cost.

Well there you have our in-house experts’ perspectives. What do you think of the issue?

Aven James

Rebecca, Mike, and Jeff are PRBC regulars.  You can get their contact info and details, as always, right here.  Aven James, a first time PRBC contributor, is a Senior Account Executive at Bliss PR (yes, Elizabeth Sosnow’s firm – another PRBC regular) where she focuses on media relations in the B2B and professional services sector.

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

The looks of disbelief and folks asking what we do all day is irksome. So it baffles me when I read posts and hear people talking/positioning social media in a way that will only open it up to skepticism.  Things like “engagement,” “understanding the community,” “we need to be in the space” and “if we’re not there we lose ground with the competition,” are common statements. While I agree with many of them, without substance they breed skepticism.

If you are confused, let me clarify. Social networks are a powerful communications tool that should be managed by communications professionals, however unlike traditional PR, offer hard metrics to present to executive to show real value.

So how do you overcome this? By setting goals that you can tie back to the business. Now there is no right or wrong thing to track and measure that can be tracked back to your work. Some basic units to measure could be direct sales via a specific landing page or coupon brought into a store; or you can measure traffic coming to your site from social networks and tracking that back to registered leads.

Aside from those metrics, you can pull up equated net promoter scores, social influence marketing score and conversation share (I blogged about what each is here). Using these metrics along with the ones above can show the ebbs and flows of sales and traffic correlating to the social currency that you are building. If you don’t find value in these metrics or want some other measurement methods, check out some of the great insights from fellow PRBC writer Rebecca Denison.

If you don’t believe it can be done, look at the micro-industry that was build around personal brands like Peter Shankman, Chris Brogan and Perez Hilton. They have all made a living off of their usage in the social space – you can do the same for your company. Trust me, I work in the space every day and have seen results.

At the end of the day you will have to find what works best for you. Once found, stick with it and make it work, because at the end of the day, companies look at all ventures on a dollars and cents level.

So you have two choices, to position warm and fuzzy rainbows and unicorns or pull a Jerry Maguire. For me, I would rather be like Randy Moss – straight cash homey – than trying to sell a fairy tale. And if you can’t show value to your company in the space, they will find someone who can.

Also if you aren’t active in the social side of things, but are looking for relevant metrics on PR, I’d suggest checking out KD Paine’s measurement blog.

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

I am eager to see how this works out and whether many in the social media community contribute thoughts to this. We all claim to be experts and have opinions on just about everything we possibly can, and this is an amazing opportunity to come up with definitions that are not forced upon us but that we create ourselves.

This could be an incredible test of crowdsourcing and whether it’s actually valuable. Can we all rally around an important cause (defining social media measurement and metrics) and agree on broad concepts? Is this a futile effort?

I think that if WAA gets the word out there and can emphasize its importance, we could really accomplish something great. And those are both big “if’s” but definitely can be overcome. WAA has done a lot of the work for us already and proposed basic definitions, which will greatly help our efforts. It’s one thing to want to crowdsource definitions from scratch, but a whole different animal when a general framework is already in place.

Perhaps I have seemed wishy-washy by changing my mind about crowdsourcing in the past. But one thing has become clear to me recently. Crowdsourcing is only as valuable as the starting question. If you ask a simple question or a complex question with no sense of where you’re going, your crowdsourcing efforts will probably fall flat. But if you have a very specific idea in mind, and offer up suggestions or a broad framework to work in, then you’re likely to see amazing feedback.

So let’s do this, folks! Let’s all put in our two cents and figure out a way to come up with concrete and broadly applicable definitions and rules for social media measurement.

Who’s with me?

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

Measurement is tough, and measuring PR requires a great deal of thought. There are many, many factors to consider when deciding what metrics to use and what exactly it is that you want to measure. Sometimes when folks rush into measurement, they only focus on metrics or media sources that they think are going to yield the best results. Why? Because it’s easy to get budget for a measurement project that is going to give you a pat on the back.

Be real and honest with yourself. Do you want to measure your PR programs, campaigns and events? Or do you want to discover new data that will make you look good? They’re not always one and the same.

I will admit that I am guilty of this, too, and it can be easy to seek out measurements that show yourself or your efforts in the best light. But I urge you to understand a few things before you jump into measurement:

1. You are not going to like all of the results that you find.
2. Even if you aren’t using every media channel to reach your customers, your customers are probably using them to talk about you.
3. You should do a trial run first. Get an idea of how much content you will be dealing with and how long it will take you to analyze it.
4. Be prepared for speed bumps and learning curves. If you have never done a measurement project before, you will make mistakes.
5. Devote the most amount of time to analysis of data and content. While collecting the right data is important, it should take you much longer to fully understand its implications.

For those of you who have experience with measurement, what are your best tips? I’ve found the most important thing to consider when diving in is to understand that not all the results will be pretty. It’s hard to face the music sometimes, but in order to get a true and complete picture, you must be willing to accept the whole picture. You must take the bad with the good.

In the end, understanding everything will do you more good than only focusing on the praise you already receive.  For those of you that have taken a dip in the measurement pool, what surprising results did you find?

After some thought, we’ve come to the realization that you, our devoted readers need more — more variety of specialty, experience, geographic diversity, and everything else that makes each of us, as a person and professional, unique.

And so we started taking particular note of the PR folks we find ourselves surrounded by on a day-to-day basis and sent out some invitations asking if they would do us the honor of joining our little family as bloggers. Nearly all of them (one got away because of time issues) paid us the highest praise by agreeing to come on board and add to our mix with their own special flavor.

(Short version: We’re adding new bloggers with different backgrounds, experiences, and locations.  We all think this is kinda cool).

And so, without further adieu, I’d like to introduce you to the newest PRBC bloggers.  Some familiar names in there I’m sure, and perhaps some new people you’ll get to know over the coming months.

Eric Berto
Eric is a PR and corporate communications specialist in the Seattle area. Eric’s background as an award-winning journalist and sociology brings a people-powered approach to community engagement for companies ranging from global software companies to growing enterprise software companies. Eric blogs semi-regularly at http://thegeekgiant.com and http://www.babyberto.com.

Danny Brown
Danny has been providing business branding and emerging media consultancy services to the consumer and commercial markets for more than 15 years, from small start-ups to Fortune 500 businesses.

He is currently the Social Media Strategist for Maritz Canada and founder of the 12for12k Challenge, a unique charity project using social media to connect globally and help locally.

Colleen Campbell
Colleen is an Account Director at Ogilvy Public Relations, Washington, D.C. Always curious, an insatiable desire to learn more about communications lead Colleen to a career in PR. Her background is in B2B, B2G (Business-to-Government), social marketing and government communications. She holds a B.A. in Political Communications from George Washington University and a M.A. in Communication, Culture and Technology from Georgetown University. You can connect with Colleen on her blog www.prsoapbox.com or on Twitter where she shares her personal views and opinions that do not necessarily reflect the views of Ogilvy Public Relations or its clients. When she’s not working hard for clients, Colleen enjoys hanging out with her awesome husband, Ed, doing Pilates, and cooking.

Rebecca Denison
Rebecca is a recent college graduate working as an assistant account executive at Edelman Digital in Chicago. As a biochemist-turned-PR-professional, Rebecca has a passion for measurement and social media which she brings to PRBreakfastClub. Rebecca also blogs about PR measurement on her own blog and bleeds Carolina blue, especially during the college basketball season.

Jeff Esposito
Jeff is a PR carpetbagger who has worked for a variety of professional sports teams along the east coast. He’s the PR manager at Vistaprint and also blogs at www.jeffesposito.com.

Arik Hanson
As the principal of ACH Communications, a digital communications firm, Arik helps organizations across the country create tight-knit communities, build strong brand awareness and drive thought leadership through integrated PR, communications and digital programs. Arik is the chief blogger at Communications Conversations and co-founded the B2B Voices blog in 2009.

Kristen Massaro
Kristen was born and raised and is STILL living in NYC. She accidentally tripped into a career in public relations almost seven years ago and somehow the industry just can’t shake her. She has a mild obsession with social media, the New York Yankees and her shih-tzu puppy, Alfie.

Mike Schaffer
Mike is the Director of Social Media for Brotman-Winter Fried Communications, focusing on sports, entertainment, restaurants and museums. A former DJ and sportscaster, he has worked with MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAA, PGA and ATP teams, athletes and events, not to mention a few professional wrestling projects! He is the founder of the weekly #SportsPRChat on Twitter and runs http://thebuzzbymikeschaffer.com. He lives in Washington, DC, with his beautiful wife, Marisa, and their ridiculously awesome dog, Balki.

Amanda Sena
Amanda is a reformed television news reporter who now works for Xenophon Strategies, a Washington, DC, based public relations company. Despite being voted one of the “60 PR Experts to Follow on Twitter” in October 2009, don’t let her pleasant demeanor throw you off guard. At the young age of 17, Amanda enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for four years before going to journalism school at the University of Missouri for her Bachelors and Masters degrees. When Amanda isn’t working hard for her clients you can probably find her at the gym training for another marathon or triathlon. She is doing her first Half Ironman in May 2010 so take a minute to wish her luck! The postings on this site are her own and do not represent the viewpoints of Xenophon Strategies, its clients or the other writers for this site.

Elizabeth Sosnow
Elizabeth Sosnow is a Managing Director with BlissPR, a B2B based public relations firm in New York and Chicago. Elizabeth leads BlissPR’s social media strategy development, helping clients and colleagues assess and maximize customer engagement via evolving communications tools. You can also find her blogging at http://blog.blisspr.com/

Josh Sternberg
Josh is the owner/founder of Sternberg Strategic Communications, a communications firm helping clients get their messages to the right audiences. Prior to entering the field, Josh was an adjunct professor at two New Jersey universities. He also writes for The Huffington Post, Mashable and Mediate.

Alex Tan
Alex is a digital account supervisor in GolinHarris’ Dallas office. He also writes about his experiences in PR, social media and the world of technology over at The Human Application. Although he has said at least one smart thing in his life, the postings on this site are his own and do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of GolinHarris or those of GH clients.

Joseph Vasquez
After 12 years successfully managing PR programs in New York City, Joe decided to move to Austin to start his own shop, VASQ PR. Through the years, he has seen the best and worst practices in the industry, inspiring him to defend the integrity of the PR profession. According to his Twitter profile, he’s just a dude adding diversity to the industry.  You can learn more about his approach to PR at hissite or by following him on Twitter.

Heather Whaling
Heather is an award-winning, seasoned communicator, fusing strategic thinking, strong writing skills and creativity to deliver public relations, social media and marketing results. She recently launched Geben Communication to work more closely with nonprofit organizations and small businesses. Additionally, Heather co-moderates #pr20chat, a weekly exploration of social media’s influence on public relations. She loves social good, sports (especially the Yankees!), her iPhone and a good glass of wine. Connect with her on her blog, Twitter or via email at heather [at] gebencommunication.com.

Andrew Worob
Andrew Worob is a passionate and enthusiastic public relations professional with five years of journalism experience combined with four years of agency experience serving a broad range of clients. Andrew began his communications career as a journalist at publications such as MLB.com (FL), Rivals.com, the Journal News (White Plains, NY), and the Dominion Post (Morgantown, WV). He also has experience in broadcast media working at WDTV (CBS) (Clarksburg, WV) and U-92 Radio (Morgantown, WV).

He graduated from West Virginia University, where he received a B.S in journalism with a minor in history. He works in New York City and currently lives in Rockland County, NY.  His personal blog PR at Sunrise is updated every Monday and Thursday morning.

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had