Midnight Oil Writing

Scheduling posts is tempting.  You can write a month’s worth of blog posts and just queue them up and forget about it.  Oh, so tempting.

But what if something happens between the scheduling and going live.  Say, for example, in early January 2009, you wrote a piece about the improbability of birds getting sucked in to both the engines of a plane.  Then comes the Miracle on the Hudson, and you have egg on your face.

Or maybe you had a nice, post-Thanksgiving blog on the greatness of Tiger Woods.  Hanging out in your turkey coma, you think…. now when is that post supposed to run?  Did it go live yesterday?

Recently, I had a night of fitful sleep.  Strange dreams.  Not very restful.  I was awake — trying to get back to sleep — at 5am.  OMG!  I realized I had a post scheduled for sometime that day.  And, due to some external events having nothing to do with me, but related to my content, the timing of that post could napalm some business relationships I’d been building.

I doubt I’ve ever bolted out of bed so fast.  Yup, the post was scheduled to go live at 11am that morning.

Don’t have a 5am panic attack.  Don’t schedule your posts.  Draft and save, but don’t schedule.  You’ll enjoy a solid night’s sleep.

Public relations is going through a massive transition.  The reasons are many, and frankly, I’m not going to delve into them here.  As the public relations industry, and its practitioners, evolve, they are starting to use different terms to describe what they do and who they are.  (more…)

Most public relations, marketing and advertising professionals have been there; pitching a great client prospect, only to realize you’ve revealed too much too soon.  And then maybe the next new business pitch results in you holding back too much.

Where’s the balance? (more…)

Some people (and companies) think marketing is like a great four star meal: pricey, and hopefully you get your money’s worth. 

I disagree.  Marketing is like pizza: there’s an option for everyone. (more…)

Many B2B and tech marketers recommend that companies should never talk about the competition.  In fact, as any tech analyst can tell you, companies frequenty say they don’t have any direct competitors, because, afterall, the features in their product/service are unique.  (more…)