Half-Day Webinar for Communicators at Food Manufacturers, Beverage Producers, Grocery Stores, Kitchen Suppliers, and Specialty Food Retailers.  Moderated by renowned social media expert, blogger, consultant and trainer, Sally Falkow, APR.

Use advanced social media marketing strategies to skyrocket visibility and sales— frontline practitioners reveal how to build loyalty, website traffic, press coverage, client satisfaction and sales

In just one-half day, you’ll cover:

• Best practices for using Twitter as a food and beverage marketing tool
• Key elements every food or beverage online newsroom must have to boost press coverage and Google search ranking
• Which social media promotions work best to boost trackable sales now?
• How to create communities of evangelists for your food or beverage
• How to track online conversations and mentions of your product—and how to respond when you don’t like what you hear
• How to create a cost-effective social media strategic plan “step-by-step”
• A bad review on food and beverage websites and blogs: What you can and should do about it
• Cultivating food and beverage bloggers and websites: What works and what doesn’t
• How to decide which social media are most valuable for your product . . . and which you can ignore
• What should your online messaging strategy be—and how can you communicate it in just 140 characters?
• To blog or not to blog: How to assess blogging costs vs. benefits
• How to build a large and loyal following on Facebook
• Most effective uses of online video—and what you need (and don’t need) to produce your own
• And many, many more tips, tricks, trends and inside approaches

Hear and confer with communicators from General Mills, Campbell Soup, and other food and beverage brands like yours, as well as other social media experts, who will share their “war stories” and valuable lessons learned.

Register Now (Early-Bird Discounts Available)

Localeze provides the standardization of local search listings needed to create a consistent anchor identity for businesses, including name, address and phone number (NAP), on local search and social platforms, including Twitter. Localeze’s process of managing and enhancing listings allows businesses to directly take control of their online identity by providing a new level of access, governance and consistency.

“Local search business listings are one of the foundational pieces of context adding insight to social media interaction as they give users critical information about nearby places,” said Jeff Beard, president, Localeze. “For exploding social platforms like Twitter, it is essential to share where conversations are taking place so that consumers can fully engage with local businesses.”

To access Twitter Places, users need to enable Twitter’s “tweet with your location” feature and click “add your location.” Selecting the location populates a list of nearby Twitter Places offered by Localeze.

Localeze currently provides 14 million local search business listings, including nearly 600,000 verified and managed by local businesses to more than 90 local search platform and application partners.

About Localeze
Localeze is the largest business listings identity management provider for local search.  As a trusted partner, Localeze maintains direct, authorized relationships with local search platforms, national and regional brands, channel partners and local businesses. The company provides businesses essential tools to verify, manage and enhance the identity of their local listings across the Web. Through these relationships and access to authoritative local business information, Localeze is the largest provider of trusted, enhanced online local business listings in the local search industry. Localeze is a privately held company headquartered in Vienna, Virginia. For more information visit www.localeze.com.

When:  Thursday, June 24, 2010
Time:  3-4:15 pm EDT
Where:  Online
Cost:  $209

It’s a new decade in a new century … surely strategic communication must have evolved over the past several years? Yes—and no. While the explosion of social media—and the critical role it plays in reaching our audiences—has added new powers to our communication programs and campaigns, many of us still put far too much emphasis on tactics. Strategy is still you thinking in the biggest way possible about your business, and you don’t need a social media networking poll to tell you that.

Join Shonali Burke, Principal of Shonali Burke Consulting, as she gives an overview of why strategy is still important and how to demystify it. You’ll learn how to frame your communication strategy with the end-results in mind, and tie that strategy to your organization’s business objectives which is, after all, the reason our profession exists.

You will learn:

• The difference between strategy and tactics
• How social media should fit into your overall communication strategy
• How to connect your efforts to your organization’s KPIs
• How the 5W’s and H of public relations can help you frame your strategy
• Why good measurement is critical to the success of your communication program
• And more!

Register Now

When:  Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Time:  3 – 4:15 pm EDT
Where: Online
Cost:   $99

Who makes the key decisions in a household? Women. They determine when their kids, aging parents or husband should see the doctor.

So how do you gain their attention? Social media. Studies show women are the dominant force in social networks like Facebook and Twitter. These networks present a prime opportunity to showcase your hospital’s services, events and patient care.

During this 60-minute webinar, you will learn how to:

• Formulate a social media strategy to reach women, including new moms
• Develop messages that speak to your target audience
• Publicize your hospital’s women-oriented events via social media
• Start a hospital Twitter feed geared to women
• Converse with mommy bloggers to understand their needs
• Integrate offline strategies to expand your social network for women
• Share data and studies with executive staff about this key demographic
• Find online communities for women, or start one at your hospital
• Generate ideas for engaging new and expectant mothers
• And more!

Your presenter, Corey Walker, will teach you how to tailor your social media message to this influential audience.

Register Now!

When:  Tuesday, June 22
Where:  Online
Cost:  $329 per site

As you know, engagement isn’t just a strategy–it is a new way of maintaining and even creating brands. In this one-of-a-kind Webinar, min gathers winners of its own 2010 Most Engaged Media Brands Awards–among them Cyndi Stivers of Entertainment Weekly–to share their insights on the meaning of “engagement” and on the many ways they have successfully achieved it with their print, online and on-air audiences.

Please join us on Tuesday, June 22, at 1:30 P.M. EST, as we learn how the leading magazine brands are defining, pursuing and achieving this elusive concept of engagement during the min Webinar:
“Rules of Engagement: Secrets of the Most Engaged Media Brands.”

Take just 90 minutes out of your day to learn:

• How magazines are following their audiences into the live events and venues they care most about
• How the new channels of email, Twitter, Facebook and blogs can be used to maintain an intimate connection with audiences
• How magazines are leveraging the Internet to create focus groups and test new ideas for their editorial teams and even for their advertisers
• How media companies are defining engagement for themselves and their ad clients, and measuring success
• How bringing the audience into a publication deepens relationships with readers
• How sales teams are leveraging their brand’s user engagement with advertisers to create new experiences for the consumer
• How your Web site can be used to retain the audience you have and recruit new brand loyalists
• How emerging platforms, including mobile, out-of home, in-store presence and retail partnerships, can make your brand a constant companion for your audience

For more information and to register, go to www.minonline.com/training/webinar-Engagement.html. Don’t forget, if you register by this Friday, June 18, you will receive a $15 Starbucks Gift Card!

I hope you’ll be able to attend. If you have any questions or need further information, contact Steve Goldstein, min’s Group Editorial Director directly.

When:     Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 1pm EDT (90 minutes)
Where:   Online
Cost:        $ 299

Are clients asking you to integrate social media with their existing PR programs—but you’re unsure how to tie it all together? You’re not alone. By now, most in PR have tackled in social media tools—and implemented social media campaigns and on-offs for clients on channels ranging from blogs and Wikipedia to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and beyond. Some have even launched proprietary networks for clients while others are still focused on online forums. Regardless your level of proficiency with various social media tools and tactics … chances are that your success has often been limited because these ad-hoc efforts typically lack a coherent strategy. What’s more: Clients and companies don’t pay for tactics—they pay for strategic counsel that moves the needle.

The good news: You can maximize your digital footprint across multiple social media platforms—and quadruple your results—by following this proven and practical program guaranteed to help you create an advanced social media strategy for all of your new media efforts. Designed to help your team create and execute successful social media campaigns and initiatives in seven easy steps, this strategic regimen will help you boost your Internet ROI, grow your online visibility or reputation and increase your search ranking for your company or clients. Join one of PR’s leading Web 2.0 gurus and best social media instructors for this intensive, interactive webinar to learn how it’s done. In just 90 information-packed minutes, she will give youstep-by-step practical guidelines for using all these social media tools in such a way that they complement each other and support your traditional PR program to drive organizational goals. If you are looking for apowerful social media strategy to help you build buzz, brand and the bottom line online, then this is one PR training event you and your team can’t afford to miss.

Key Takeaways:

• Why you should not go one more day without drafting a social media strategy
• How to sell a comprehensive social media strategy to skeptical management
• Understanding the role social media optimization (SMO) plays inonline reputation management (ORM) and search engine reputation management (SERM)—plus how PR can tap these tools to build a bigger digital footprint
• How to position PR and communications as a vital player in the internal conversation about leveraging your social media strategy and supporting new technologies
• A Seven Step Guide designed to help you create and execute measurable social media campaigns and programs for your client, company or brand, including:
  • How best to create a social media team to drive your strategy
  • New ideas to help you draft a social media policy that matches your organizational culture
  • New tools and techniques to help you build a listening program
  • How to establish goals and metrics for your social media program
  • Best ways to assign social media roles and responsibilities
  • Checklists to help you decide which social media tools and networks are best suited for your goals and audiences
  • How to monitor and adjust your social media program for greater results
• How to optimize your client or company’s web presence via social news buttons, blogging, Web video, online photo sharing, online social networks from Facebook to YouTube to Twitter…and beyond
• How online newsrooms and Social Media Releases can play an important role
• SEO Fundamentals: First steps for bringing your SEO tools and SERM techniques up to speed as part of your social media plan
• Social media strategy do’s and don’ts—plus warnings from brands that blew it
• Best Practices : Examples you can take to your execs to show how a social media strategy can help build brand and the bottom line
• How to track and measure the value of your social media program and prove it to management
• How to talk to the C-suite about your new social media strategy

YOUR PRESENTER:
Jennifer Cisney is the chief blogger and social media manager at Eastman Kodak. She has been with Eastman Kodak for twelve years, resulting in a broad knowledge of the various businesses and in depth experience with the corporate website, kodak.com. Her contributions to Kodak’s online experience have been inspirational photography, design expertise and creative content. She helped create and now manages the corporate blogs. After launching Kodak’s social media initiatives, she oversees Kodak’s presence on social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr. Jennifer has been a speaker at such social media conferences as BlogWorld, BlogHer, Marketing to Women, 140 Characters Conference and The Inbound Marketing Summit. Jennifer was also recognized as one of Advertising Age’s 2009 Women to Watch.

YOUR MODERATOR:
Brian Pittman is content director of Bulldog Reporter’s PR University and the weekly email newsletter Journalists Speak Out. Previously, Brian served as editorial director at Infocom Group, where he edited, reported for and launched titles such as Media Relations Insider, PR Agency Insider, Ad Agency Insider and Managing Partner. Prior to that, he served as editor of Utah Business magazine, among other titles. He is a seasoned reporter with extensive experience interviewing such personalities as Steve Forbes, Bob Edwards and Margaret Thatcher. Complete Bio

Crisis veteran Gerard Braud shares his inside response secrets.

Search “BP” online right now—and what do you find? It’s a nightmare, of course. Chances BP will suffer from today’s horrible online buzz for years and years to come, thanks to the “long tail” effect of the Internet.

So what do you do when your company, client, CEO or brand faces a crisis—online or off? How do you win the war on the Web when bad news, flat-out lies or rumors strike in social media? How do you stem the tide before the damage goes viral?

As you know, the key to crisis survival is preparation—the ability to develop messages and implement response plans immediately, before the 24/7 media bang down your door, before you’re “tweeted” to death.

Here’s some solid help: To make sure your organization’s crisis plan is current and robust, I urge you to listen in on PR University’s upcoming audio conference: “Social Media When “It” Hits the Fan: What PR Must Know about Online Crisis Communications to Win the War on the Web.”

In just 90 information packed minutes, crisis guru Gerard Braud will reveal proven crisis response strategies that are guaranteed to increase your competence and confidence when combating reputation or brand disasters in today’s multi-dimensional communications environment.

Gerard Braud is the founder of Braud Communications and author of “Don’t Talk to the Media”. He’s an international coach, trainer, author and speaker, who has worked with organizations on four continents. Known as the guy to call when “it” hits the fan, he is an expert on online crisis communications and new media issues.

For one low price—just $299—you and all your colleagues will learn all the fundamentals: How social media can foil you during a crisis, plus case studies, crisis communication plans and crisis management checklists . . . by simply gathering your team around your speaker phone for 90 minutes.

NOTE: If you don’t hear everything you need or want to know from the speakers’ comments, just email your questions directly to Gerard Braud or join in the discussion yourself when we open the phone lines for live Q&A.

Your audio conference entitles you to:

• A site license to attend the 90-minute web conference (and invite as many people as you can fit around your speakerphone, at no extra charge)
• PR University’s conference manual, which includes the instructors’ presentations and tip sheets
• A full transcript, emailed to you soon after the conference
• The opportunity to connect with the presenters during the interactive, audience Q&A
• With all the first-hand crisis experience and response strategies this crisis guru will be discussing and sharing, you’re sure to walk away from the conference with a notebook full of new ideas on how to fortify your current crisis plan.

Here’s exactly what you’ll cover on Thursday:

• The Generation Gap: Why young communicators want to Tweet and Facebook their way out of a crisis—and when an email blast to employees and a website post might be your best bet
• The Leadership Gap: Dangers within your leadership that will hurt your ability to respond to crisis in today’s 24/7 media landscape
• How employees using social media can actually sabotage a crisis and make it worse—and how to avoid such Web 2.0 no-no’s before they happen
• Shiny Object Syndrome: Why social media can fail you during a crisis—plus strategies outlining the correct ways to use social media during a crisis
• Case Studies: Real-world lessons from high profile crises like the BP blowout and Toyota recalls
• Social Media Game Changers: Twitpics, the “Miracle on the Hudson” and the impact the public has on communicating a crisis faster than the media or the corporation
• Monitoring, the need for speed and transparency—social media rules of engagement every communicator must know before jumping into the online conversation
• Planning and prep work: How to conduct a vulnerability assessment to determine the various types of crises you could face
• Superior crisis communications plans: How to create or update yours to incorporate social media where appropriate
• Crisis management checklists: Step-by-step guidelines to shepherd management through dramatically bad situations when bad news strikes
• How to use search engine optimization and savvy keyword usage when crisis situations unfold
• How (and when) to use blogs, YouTube, Twitter and other social media channels to get the word out about crisis related updates, notices or alerts
• Common crisis perils and bad news pitfalls to avoid at all costs—both online and off
• Remember: This webinar goes way beyond just teaching you the dos and don’ts—Gerard Braud will share actual mistakes and crisis triumphs that have made his clients stronger and emerge with a solid reputation and even increased public esteem.

Fortunately, registering for this event is simple (and very fast). Just use the online registration form or call 1-800-959-1059 and get personal registration service from one of PR University’s Client Satisfaction Representatives.

For some, the mix of social media with B2B marketing is a tough one to swallow.  While several business marketers were quick to jump onto web sites, the communications tended to be one-way (not interactive), with many web sites becoming little more than electronic brochures that were cheaper to produce and easier to distribute than their paper predecessors.

But with the ‘web came the promise of interactivity.  And that promise is now starting to mature in the form of social media (or Web 2.0).  But what’s a business to do if it sells, primarily, to other businesses?

Thanks to Brandon Bryce, President & CEO of Large Mouth Communications and an article that recently appeared on the Large Mouth web site entitled “Who’s afraid of the Web 2.0?”

Here is a summary of the five tips Brandon offers B2B marketers when it comes to taking advantage of social media marketing:

1. Remember that not all social media platforms are created equal.  Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Facebook all have their strengths and weaknesses.  Those need to be evaluated against your marketing objectives BEFORE jumping into a social media campaign.

2. Listen before you speak.  Web 2.0 is about interaction and the whole concept of interaction requires reaction to stimulus.  If you’re not paying attention to what your customers are saying to you, you can’t react appropriately and with the proper attention to detail.

3. Understand the difference between meaningful dialogue and SPAM.  There is a line that separates engagement from abuse.  Know where that line is.  Understand how close you can come and don’t dare step over.

4. Get personal – but keep it professional.  Web 2.0 requires a different kind of intimacy with the customer and the brand.  That takes some getting used to, but it’s well worth the discomfort.

5. Embrace transparency.  Honesty is the best policy … and no where is that more true than on the Internet.  Resist the temptations (available via technology) to create false cases, phony advocates or trumped up/exaggerated claims.  You WILL get found out and the fallout can be toxic.  Worse yet, nasty facts – especially if they’re true – can linger for years and be easily found thanks to online search tools like Google and Yahoo!  Keep it honest, open and clean.

Of course, this short summary is just the tip of the iceberg.  Brandon goes into much more detail.  The post is definitely worth the read.

Editor’s Note: This is the first guest post by a contributing writer to the Brand Central Station Blog.  Mary Ann Johnson is a member of Team Position2, experts in search and social media marketing and sent us this post on behalf of the team.  You can learn more about Position2 by visiting their web site.

by Team Position2

Social Media Monitoring has become a hot topic of discussion over recent times. A brand makes or breaks its name by its users.

With the huge outbreak in the online media and platforms like, blogs, forums, microblogs and different types of social networking sites people have an effective place to express their opinions and influence others. In the online world people own the brand. Social Media Monitoring is to keep track of all the conversations happening in the online world.

Social Media Monitoring is all about figuring on what the objectives are, listening, refining the talks, analyzing and taking action.

Social Media Monitoring and analysis can be used by a brand to improve a product, get feedbacks, customer service, market research or any marketing and communication.

Listen: It is very important to “listen” to what people are talking about your brand, your competitors and the industry as a whole. People and their opinions influence your customers. Watch out for any complaints against you or your competitors, as it is the best opportunity to showcase your customer service to them and show that you care and value customers.
Potential customers also look for others opinions before they make the purchase decision.

Participate: It not about just listening, you need to get engaged and converse with people. If you respond timely to any of the questions it reassures the faith in your brand among the people. Even if your brand is not talked about its essential to know the key influencers and what are they talking about. Make a plan and start conversation at relevant places and establish your footprint so that you are equipped for any future talks of your brand.

Respond: When you are monitoring the conversations you know the happenings and can implement relevant responses. A proper response goes a long way in spreading the good about your brand in these times of the ripple effect like Twitter.

Tools: There are many paid and free tools to keep a tab on the conversations. It could be as simple as setting an alert through Google, Yahoo etc, searching for your brand name or the relevant keywords on Twitter, Social Media aggregators like Social Mention, Same Point, Backtype.

There are paid tools, which help in monitoring and analyzing the brand such as radian6, Collective intellect, TechrigySM2 to name a few.

About Position2
Position2 is a leading Search & Social Media Marketing firm that delivers continuous growth for its customers through its proprietary “Surround & Intent Marketing” methodology. The company’s adaptive technology solutions are customizable to customers’ evolving marketing needs. It delivers integrated Search & Social Media Marketing solutions that engages prospects at multiple touch-points in the online environment. For more details, Please visit http://www.position2.com

(Editor’s Note: This is one of my favorite blog posts – not just for the comments it generated but for the way it addressed a re-occuring theme: that, somehow, PR is dead and Social Media killed it.  C’mon people.  Get over it.)

I’m going to try and infuse something that’s been missing from this whole “Social Media is killing PR” meme that seems to be sweeping through the Blogosphere/Twitterverse lately. 

A little common sense.

This maelstrom has been whipped up, primarily, by PR’s and journalists/bloggers working in the technology space.  And the echo is practically deafening.

While there have been plenty of valid points raised about the nature of public relations, the profession’s current and future place in the enterprise, the role of blogging and other Web 2.0 apps in brand building, sales and CRM – I’ve come to one major conclusion:

Social media “experts” need to get over themselves and PR people need to stop looking over their shoulder to see who’s trying to do them in.

First, a little history
Thanks to Al Krueger and this post on his Comet Branding blog.  Al was actively pimping his online radio show via Twitter yesterday (listen to it here) by sending out about a dozen tweets to his followers (I’m one of them) including a re-tweet of a pimp from some other Twitterhead shilling the podcast.  While I’m not crazy about Al’s method, I was curious, so I checked out the podcast and an earlier post and podcast, from September, on the same subject (you’ll find the post here and the podcast here).

Al did a good job of linking to several posts by bloggers (Scoble, Calacanis, Ruebel and Arrington) and a journalist (ZDNet’s Jennifer Leggio) raising questions about the value provided by PR people who either don’t know how to pitch a story or, worse still, don’t know how to take “no” for an answer.  Look, it’s not vinyl siding sales folks, it’s public relations – show some discretion and restraint.

How “death” looks to the PR profession
All of these bloggers, journalists, PR folks and social media experts seemed to agree that the profession has some serious issues that need to be addressed.  The conversations on the podcasts seemed to sum up this way:

1. PR – as a “brand” – is going through a crisis of identity.  No one seems to know what it means, anymore.
2. The practice of pitching stories can’t continue today the way it was done years ago as a result of social media effectively removing the PR person as the filter between the journalist and the story.
3. Social media requires its own kind of “professional” in order to be effectively used on behalf of a company or brand.
4. There needs to be more professional education and standards in the PR profession that will help re-establish its credibility.
5. PR pros are often in a “no-win” situation when it comes to dealing with journalists who don’t need them nearly as much as they need the journalists.
6. Start-up companies with a dynamic CEO probably don’t need a PR person’s help.

Now a big part of the problem with this entire discussion is that most of the offending PR folks, complaining journalists and put-out bloggers deal in the tech industry.  This is an industry that adopts technologies (like social media) early and falls in and out of love with digital solutions in a never-ending quest to find the “next big thing.”  It’s not the real world.  It’s the echo-chamber of the tech world.

That’s why I was glad to see level-headed analysis from bloggers in the space like Jeremy Pepper get back to the basics of PR, discuss the value of social media as a tool for media relations and offer some basic rules for its use.

The report of PR’s death is an exaggeration (with apologies to Mark Twain)
Let’s take a look at each of these mortal symptoms and evaluate them in a little more detail. 

But before we do, it’s important to make one significant distinction between this screed and many (if not most) of the others you’ll read online: my perspective is that of a person who works with clients almost entirely outside of the technology space.  That’s where most of the people in this world live and work today and it’s to those businesses this blog (and this post) is directed.

First, PR’s identity crisis.  It’s nothing new.  If you’ve worked with PR people in the past you know the good ones are always a little paranoid – always worried about what other people think and if they’re doing everything they can to ensure a positive outcome.  That’s good. That’s what you want in a PR person.  Unfortunately, that trait also leads to a perpetual, professional self-esteem issue that’s maddening.

It’s this constant self-questioning of PR’s value as a discipline that leads the profession into episodes of mental masturbation over “advertising equivalency values” for story placements or obssesive arts and crafts projects that result in massive, three-ring binders full of clips.  I attended a presentation once where a senior PR person said “all we do is generate oceans of ink for our clients.” 

Yuk.

PR is more than that.  PR is about helping clients get their “story” right so it accurately conveys the essential qualities of their brand in a meaningful and engaging way.  And that story has to be told to several “publics” (hence the name Public Relations) which include employees, customers, shareholders, communities and other groups of vital interest to the client in addition to the press.

Second, the process of pitching stories has got to change.  I don’t disagree with that at all.  But the focus shouldn’t be on the pitching process (the number of calls made or the tools used) but rather on the quality and relevance of the story itself.  Not only are PR pro’s often guilty of being lazy and not finding the best angle to present to a reporter, blogger or editor – those same journalists are often unable or unwilling to consider well-crafted stories from brands they’ve never heard of or PR’s they don’t know.

If there’s a reason to take a closer look at the impact of social media, this is it.  Social media can put a journalist in direct contact with a source and eliminate the PR “filter” – there’s no arguing that.  But that same media channel can put the brand in direct contact with the consumer and eliminate the need for the journalist.

It’s already happening.  They’re called “bloggers” – maybe you’ve heard of them.

Many bloggers wear dual hats of journalistic hack and PR flack.  The debate of exactly who or what social media is killing should probably be expanded.

This gets me to the third point about the need for a social media “expert” or “professional” to effectively use the channel.  I don’t get this.  It seems that “social media” by its very definition should be usable by “society” – right?  Having to hire a social media expert seems a bit like having to hire a professional cocktail party gadfly to flit about telling people what needs to be told.

But who decides what needs to be told?  That’s where the value in the profesional relationship is, isn’t it.  Whether that’s the domain of a public relations professional, a marketing consultant, a wise dutch uncle or your consigliere – that’s a call made by the business, not by some professional standards board or association.

Which leads into our next item – and PR folks are famous for this – when all else fails, make a call for more professional standards training and pseudo-academic credentials.  Whether it’s an IABC credential or certification from PRSA, the only thing that establishes credibility is performance.  CPA, JD, MD, PhD after a name may mean something to some people.  But when your accountant, lawyer, doctor or professor screw up, you find another one and make the change.  Your opinion of that one “bad apple” doesn’t spoil the reputation of the entire profession.  Unless, of course, he’s a lawyer.

The fifth point is part of the age-old pity party PR folks throw for themselves when it comes to their relationship with journalists.  Social media (or its absence) won’t change that.  If PR folks do their real job (not just pitch stories willy-nilly), they’ll quickly realize their value with their client exists before they ever pick up a phone or send an e-mail to a journalist.  That self-confidence (and a well-crafted pitch) make the roller coaster ride of rejection and eventual acceptance by journalists easier to take.

PR flacks are going to get told “no” a lot.  They’ll get lied to frequently.  They won’t get their messages returned and they’ll occassionally get a scolding.  Deal with it.  It’s the job.

And finally, some companies don’t need a PR person or firm to help them.  A lot more think they don’t need a PR person or firm to help them.  Whether they’re right or wrong, it doesn’t matter.  You see, they’re the client and it’s their money and their problem.

PR people should work with clients who want to work with them.  This doesn’t mean these clients will understand what PR is, how it works for their business or what a PR person does.  But if the interest is there, that’s something you can work with.

And it won’t kill you.