The Gong Blog

The media tour is not dead…

I’ve written on this subject a couple of times over the last year or so and I keep on changing my opinion. My latest:  The classic media tour is not dead. As a PR professional, you just have to try a little harder and get a little more creative. As a firm, we at THP have (or are in the process of scheduling) scheduled three media tours for different clients over the last couple of months.  For the most part the targets have been in…

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Intro to Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla to pump up business

Okay, I’ll admit it, I get intrigued easily when a couple of people mention a new restaurant or store and tell me how great it is.  It makes me want to check it out so I can see what all the excitement is about. That’s why I’m very intrigued by the possible business uses (especially small business uses) that have and can emerge by the GPS-powered APPs like Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla. For those not familiar, these are APPs that you can download on your phone…

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An open letter to Aaron Kremer of Richmond Biz Sense…

Dear Aaron, First let me thank you for keeping an open mind on Twitter and other social media platforms.  Others would have simply ignored the folks who jeered them at a social media club meeting but you decided to use the opportunity to reexamine Twitter and its benefits to your and other businesses. I will preface my comments by saying that social media isn’t for everyone and far be it from me, or anyone else for that matter, to try to convince folks who see no…

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The Jets and Haiti?  Only on Twitter.  Please Donate.

Social media is an amazing thing.  One minute you’re looking up prices for Super Bowl tickets, the next minute you’re raising money to help people in Haiti. So here’s what happened to me last night.  I’m on StubHub looking up Super Bowl ticket prices on the off chance my beloved Jets get in the Super Bowl and the equally off chance that my wife and my business partner let me take the trip to Miami.  So I tweet something like this: “Just checked Super Bowl ticket prices…

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Haiti and social media

Only in the world of blogging can you give a link to a blog that provides a link to another article. But the people involved and the subject matter are important and timely. He’s a link to my pal Shonali Burke’s blog, to Geoff Livingston’s article for Mashable.com on the five social media lessons to be learned from the Haiti relief effort. Both Shonali and Geoff are leaders and passionate about social media and non-profits.     Shonali is the president of IABC/Washington, a social media measurement freak (in a good…

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My father must be smiling down on his Jets

For those of you who are regular readers of this space or who know me well, you know last year my dad lost his fight against a number of illnesses and passed away in August.  That obviously leaves a massive hole in the lives of those left behind.  As I have posted, Mel was a business mentor having run a very successful local furniture store in Jersey City, New Jersey from a very early age until his 60’s when he retired, then splitting his time between…

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It’s not “Meet the Mets,” but….

Growing up in New York as a Mets fan, there were two songs you needed to know if you were a National League baseball. First was the Rhinegold beer theme song as it was the cornerstone of the ad campaign of the team’s main beer sponsor.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vipOMZw7MIw&feature=related] The second of course was “Meet the Mets.”  A right of passage as a young fan was your ability to sing the song for friends or more importantly before the game as long-time organist Jane Jarvis played the song.  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN5FKaECFKs] Perhaps,…

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If you’re a (FB) fan of everything, are you really a fan of nothing?

I have a great business partner who rarely asks anything of me, so in those rare occasions when he does I try to deliver for him. So the other day we were talking about Facebook and he mentioned how difficult it was to keep up with all the requests he gets to become a "fan" of things.  Not only that, he asked, "and who really has the time to keep up with all those things that come your way in the feed after you do become…

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How has social media changed you?

Great column on Mashable.com today written by Mike Laurie from the UK today taking a look at “How Social Media Has Changed Us.” I know it has changed me, how I gather information and communicate, and how I do business. How has it changed you?  Please share with the class and comment.

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2010:  PR’s year for mobile

Today’s announcement from Google on its entry into the cellphone market with the Nexus One only reinforces my recent thoughts about cell phones becoming the new laptops. Over the holiday break I became the proud owner of a IPOD Touch (thanks again Hodgers), and a Motorola DROID.  Now instead of sitting at the desktop or laptop, I find myself in my favorite chair, curled up in a Snuggie, with both devices on the table sitting next to me.  I alternate using them to check email, Facebook,…

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Linkedin moves worth keeping eye on

When I talk in the office or to groups about social media platforms, I’m not real kind to Linkedin. I understand its applications in the business world, but I have seen it as nothing more than a clunky, online Rolodex and a way to do online introductions. With some news out today, I am reopening my mind to Linkedin (at least for the time being). Mashable.com reports today that Linkedin has finally opened its platform to outside developers.  For social media folks could mean that…

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