Deirdre Breakenridge

My daughter gets a vocabulary quiz every week in her English class. I vaguely remember having the same quizzes when I was her age. I think that communications professionals need a series of weekly quizzes to keep us all on our toes, up to date on social media and new technology, and to keep us “in the know” so we can properly advise our clients.

Almost daily, I find myself explaining and counseling on the differences between the Social Media Release (SMR) and the traditional news release. When I look at the SMR template and the traditional press release, I immediately notice the differences just based on the information in the SMR and the way it’s organized.  SMR’s are not [...]

My blog post was inspired by Kami Huyse’s post “When a Typo is the Difference between Life and Death.” Kami discussed how a simple typo resulted in a young man being hospitalized with a bullet in his liver. I commented on her blog admitting that I really didn’t think about the serious ramifications of a typo outside of my field. In healthcare, law enforcement and many other industries a typo means more than just your image or reputation. It could be someone’s future or their life.

I remember my mother telling me when I was younger, “The people you associate with affect your reputation.”  When I was 14, I’m not sure I believed her or cared.  However, now that I’m a Mom, and my daughter is social networking, I care! I try to be objective and not lecture her too much [...]

Last week I did a blog interview “Test Drive my job” with Amanda Miller Littlejohn at Mopwater PR & Media Notes .  I answered a series of questions about my job, what I do every day, what I like about my marketing agency and what I would want to see change. After she posted the [...]