Last week, the long-rumored Facebook phone came to life as Facebook Home. It’s not an actual phone, but a replacement home screen and app launcher for Android. (The HTC First, announced at the Facebook Home event, does offer tighter integration with Facebook Home.) That got me thinking: are we going to see other companies (not just social networks) following in Facebook’s footsteps to launch their own “phones”? Would that work? If, so how? I think the best first candidates for a customized Android “experience” are…
Read MoreFirst, disclaimers. As many readers of this blog know, I was born into a Rutgers family, I am a proud alum, I am a donor to Rutgers Athletics and because of that I know and am friends with Tim Pernetti and others in the Rutgers Athletic department. This has not been a good 24 hours for my alma mater. But as a PR person it was agonizing watching the institution and people you know and love struggle with the crisis. Personally, I truly believe that…
Read MoreLast week, Facebook profiles were a sea of red. After a call to action from the Human Rights Campaign, millions of users changed their profiles to show solidarity for marriage equality as the Supreme Court debated DOMA and Proposition 8. According to Facebook, profile photo uploads jumped 120 percent. In all, 2.7 million more users changed their photos than compared with the previous week. Even brands jumped on the meme and created their own red and pink logos, from men’s online retailer Bonobos to Bud…
Read MoreThanks again for the great turnout today at the PRSA Richmond lunch. It’s great to see so many people passionate about what we do, especially in the ever-evolving area of social med…opps, sorry, content management and public relations. Due to popular demand, here’s the presentation for you to use and share. Content Is King 3/27/13 #PRSARVA from jonnewman12 Thanks also for all the great questions at the end. It is always interesting to gauge the evolution of what we do and how we’re trying to…
Read MoreOK, another cheap attempt to tie blog content into March Madness, I know. But in this case I feel pretty justified. Ask anyone who works with me, ask my wife and kids. I’ve been obsessing over this #PRSARVA presentation on content I’m giving on March 27 (I hear tickets are going fast so register here). I actually wrote a first draft during the VCU-A10 finals yesterday. If that’s not madness I don’t know what is. Contributing to the madness is the fact that the recent…
Read MoreI must admit that when I was approached to present to PRSA Richmond a few months ago, I bristled. Not because I didn’t want to talk (who ever knew me to not want to talk) but because I was asked to talk about social media. I never wanted to be the “social media guy” especially now since social media as we knew it so different and THP as an agency doesn’t view it as a separate piece of the PR puzzle. It is as much a…
Read MoreIt’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 MoreSpeaking helps me think. Actually it forces me to think, especially given the fact that meetings, work and life sometimes doesn’t always allow me that luxury. By speaking I mean speaking opportunities and the research that goes into them. At the end of March I’m speaking to PRSA Richmond about “content.” So when VCU PR prof extraordinaire Bill Farrar asked me to speak to his social media class yesterday, I jumped at the opportunity since it helped me begin to form my thoughts and frame…
Read MoreUsually one of the first questions that comes up after a company or individual decides to commit to publishing a blog is where that blog should live. We’re talking not only the look and feel (and web address) of the blog, but also the underlying platform. There are lots of things to consider when starting up a blog, and some of them will help narrow down the choice of platform, such as whether the blog is tied to a business or an individual, and what…
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 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(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…
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