It’s been a bad few weeks for Burger King. First, horse meat was found in beef patties at European locations. And today, hackers took over the company’s Twitter account, tweeting lewd and inappropriate content and making it appear McDonald’s bought Burger King. Now, the @BurgerKing account is receiving more retweets than the Triple Whopper has calories. Many mainstream news outlets jumped on the story, including ABCNews.com and CNN.com. If I was a betting man, I’d say this story lands in the nighttime news broadcasts and…
Read MoreTo the disbelief of my coworkers, family, friends and just about everyone I meet, I work in the world of PR and social media and I have no cable or internet at my apartment. Maybe it was my lack of motivation in actually going through the set-up process, but it was mostly for the sanity of disconnecting for a couple of hours a day. Jacob Geiger of Work it, Richmond wrote an article last summer that spoke to vacations and the need to disconnect from…
Read MoreI don’t know about you but boy have I been apologized to a lot lately. The latest obviously came last night when Lance Armstrong admitted what most have known for a long time and apologized for single-handedly destroying a sport and the majority of the people involved in it. It got me thinking of who’s really to blame for all these public apologies. I didn’t have to look far. The public relations industry has pretty much nailed the formula for the perfect public apology. It is (mistake)…
Read MoreAfter reading John Reid Blackwell’s article about Millennials struggling to get their ideal job after graduating college, it got me thinking about the job hunt and wondering what students are doing correctly but more importantly, what they are doing wrong (or not doing at all) as they search. I’m fortunate to work at a company where not only do my bosses regularly give their time to students and recent grads but encourage the rest of us to do the same. Additionally, for the last few years…
Read More(Editor's note: BTW, I always refer to it as news release. The old TV guy in me. -JN) Late last month the intersection of technology, journalism and public relations was sent into a tizzy when a number of news sites fell for a phony press release posted to PRWeb in an apparent attempt to game the stock market. While other postulate whether this is a nail in the coffin of PR, journalism, Google News or all of the above (and what’s next), I wanted to…
Read MoreI really love Richmond. I’ve called it home for the past 27 years. As a Fan-dweller, I enjoy being able to walk to restaurants, parks and the ultimate Richmond destination: my friends’ porches. The 8-minute drive to The Hodges Partnership is also a perk. How people survive 45 minute commutes, I will never know. As a young professional, our agency has some great perks: flexible schedules, a fun environment, collaborative culture and other things like agency-wide pizza (and beer) brainstorms and an annual baseball outing….
Read MoreAs millions up and down the East Coast and inland states continue to recover from Superstorm Sandy, an iconic brand is under the microscope. The New York City Marathon is scheduled for Sunday, one week to the day when Sandy proved an unruly guest that took lives, knocked out power to millions and changed communities forever. Two days before the race, the decision whether or not to cancel the NYC Marathon is as heated as Obama v. Romney. On one hand, there’s the economic development…
Read More*For a refresher on Boolean algebra go here. Are mobile, social and web three separate entities anymore? Not when you consider the following: The number of smart-phone users, world-wide just crossed the 1 billion mark. In the U.S., approximately 87 percent use their phones to access the web and other apps (25 percent of whom, primarily use their mobile devices to access the web). More than half of Facebook’s 1 billion users access the platform through their mobile devices, while 18 percent of whom don’t…
Read More(Editor's Note: Sean is a long-time Hodger who played collegiate baseball and runs a college baseball website. He also is a high school head coach (Benedictine) and manages our growing number of sports-related clients.) The sporting world has taken a hit the past couple months in terms of public relations. Lance Armstrong, cycling’s hero, was given a ban for life. The NHL – which I must confess grabs my attention for about an hour a year – is in the midst of its second lockout…
Read More(Quick editor's note: There are few better at getting the word out about events than Cam. Great ingredient list below. -JN) I’m fortunate to work at an organization that encourages employees to volunteer and give back to the community. As a guy who loves to work with nonprofits, this makes me so happy. Throughout the year, in and outside of work, I help nonprofits publicize their events to the public. It’s not only an opportunity to fundraiser for a cause, it also gives the nonprofit…
Read MoreA belated congrats to everyone who contributed to the recent Outside Magazine story that declared Richmond as the Best River Town in America. This story has been literally years in the making and is tied into a broader strategy first embraced by groups like the Sports Backers and Venture Richmond. That strategy is to promote Richmond as a participatory sports town focusing on events like the Marathon and Riverrock and as a vibrant river community with events like the Folk Festival. The story is great,…
Read MoreI know I've been a bit of a slacker on the blog side recently. The truth is I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about the future and the direction of PR and how it fits in the social and digital universe. I've got some posts "written" in my brain and I will share them with you in the near future. I've also been thinking about the past since THP is celebrating its tenth anniversary this week. It's been a fun, wild ride so…
Read More