While starting a blog is a good way to separate a company from the competition, the amount of competition these days makes producing a successful (read: SEO enhancing) blog
challenging (and often futile). However, for those of us looking to simply generate awareness and prove our current events prowess, it’s not a bad thing.

According to the article, “blogging isn’t dead,” but the amount of blogs out there make it difficult to generate attention. The article suggests that time is better spent “cranking out well-targeted, well-crafted static landing pages, and promoting them through email newsletters when it’s warranted.”

We’re probably not abandoning our blog anytime soon, but we’re also not operating under the assumption it’s going to all of a sudden be a game changer either.

Blog on!

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 At around 6am every morning, I shuffle around a shared one bedroom apartment just outside of Downtown LA, to ensure that I’m out the door no later than 7am to avoid the worst parts of Interstate 405’s morning traffic jams —  all so I can arrive at the quaint, understated beachside location of The Barry Group PR. Sometimes, I think the hardest part of my day is just managing to get into the office; the fun starts as soon as I walk into the Victorian style building and start up the spiraled staircase to the sundrenched corridor where I usually sit and set up my laptop.

I am completely engulfed in the raw workings of a PR firm on a daily basis and I’d hardly consider myself just an assistant who goes on coffee runs. It’s a genuine feeling that I get when I work with the staff at TBG, everyone I work with is interested in advancing my knowledge of the industry and allowing me to get a taste of every avenue there is to explore. After just a few days I left the stereotypical idea behind that all boutique PR firms are filled with catty women who leave one’s ego battered and bruised. I indulge in the friendly, co-ed atmosphere where I’m constantly integrated into conversations and made to feel right at home.

While I’ll do mild organizing around the office and go on the occasional Staples run for office supplies or copies, that isn’t a typical day for me. Typical assignments include writing blog entries, sitting in on important conference calls to clients, writing press releases, and jumping into some of the infamous PR events that leave me feeling lucky to have landed this internship at all. 

If you’re wondering if my college experience has prepped me for such a position, the answer is a whopping N-O! Although the structure of documentation was instilled into the academic breakdown, such as the format of a press release and the definition of a pitch, it was hardly enough information to grasp the true experiences and responsibilities it takes to be a part of a successful firm.  I have learned more working hands on at an actual PR company in one week than I have learned in an entire semester at college.  Exposure to a work environment such as this is crucial if you’re choosing a career in public relations. My advice? Seek out an internship of your own in your junior or senior year, or sign up for a work study program to delve into both the academic and hands-on experience.

While we love this additional platform to help our clients achieve heightened exposure, it’s often challenging to keep up with all the new rules, strategies and successes. This Ragan list of “14 tips for a successful Facebook page” has some relevant insights, so we thought we’d pass it along.

Do we get bonus points for using social media to share social media innuendo?

1. Thursday is the best day of the week to get the most visibility for a Facebook post.

2. Release major stories in the early morning. If you post them between 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST, you risk your content getting unnoticed due to news feeds and other traffic.

3. When sharing stories, always include the full link; it’s 300 percent more likely to get clicked on than a shortened address.

4. Use both the like and send Facebook (and other social) buttons on your site.

5. The secret behind making it into your friends’ “top news” feed is based on an algorithm known as Edge Rank. Use words like “today,” “exclusive” and “limited-time only” to increase your Edge Rank.

6. According to a study from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, Facebook is among the leading drivers of traffic to 21 news websites. When sharing a good media story, don’t forget to plug it on the leading social network.

7. Want to know which words are most “shareable” on Facebook? Try “best,” “most,” and those that explain, such as “why” and “how.”

8. Facebook may be a better platform for making a video go viral than other platforms, probably because the site makes it easy to embed multimedia content into a post.

9. When posting a note, tag it. This will put your message on each of your tagged friends’ walls. However, you can only tag 30 people at a time, so limit your tagging to only those people who are interested in your announcement or they may view it as a spam.

10. If you post multiple notes, make sure to delete all posts but one from the news feed or you will look like a spammer when people see 15 identical notes on their wall. Alternatively, you can turn off your wall’s automatic feed.

11. Share a link (of high value) on your wall and ask your friends to share and like it. It’s simple but effective.

12. Encouraging interaction with your posts—likes and comments—will make them more visible in other people’s news feeds. That’s how Facebook’s EdgeRank (and Domino effect) algorithm works.

13. Facebook marketers suggest this idea: Keep AIDA in mind when posting to Facebook. That stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Your job is to stimulate desire and spark action, whether it’s increasing sells or engaging with your brand through contests, events, questions or content.

14. Engage followers in one-on-one conversation, create compelling contests, encourage check-ins and post cool status updates. All of these efforts will help boost your Facebook interactions.

The A&F release in part said, “We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans.”

Zoikes!

A PR stunt or a strategic brand positioning move? We don’t know if this will lead to positive coverage in the weeks to come, but if the Wall Street Journal is covering it, there’s a definite situation.

Once inside, guests were treated to fare from Baby Blues BBQ and The Churchill (an eatery opening later this year from the same guys responsible for The Hudson) and tunes from top DJs and local bands. It was a scenester’s paradise.

Partnering with the City of West Hollywood and the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, some of the event proceeds will help fund the West Hollywood Library.

Good food + good music + a good cause = a good Saturday!

Visit LA Weekly for more event photos.