Deirdre Breakenridge

I traveled to Holland last week to present at the Coopr PR 2.0 launch event in Rotterdam.  It was an incredible trip and I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Ruud Bijl, the owner of Bijl PR and his PR team, and also spent time with @jodykoehler and @josgovaart who are driving force behind [...]

Years ago, before I started my own agency, I worked for a pharmaceutical consultant conducting business research and then later developing marketing and PR programs for his customers. At the time, one of my main responsibilities was a report that provided monitoring and surveillance for pharmaceutical brands. It was, and still is, a tough competitive landscape. We kept our clients abreast with a monthly snapshot of their industry, with respect to the drug product pipeline, stock market expectations, industry trends, market issues/concerns, and insight into latest information delivered at pharmaceutical industry conferences.

I think that the Vocus Virtual Conference is an example of social media learning at its best. The conference was about leveraging social media, it was promoted through social media and the attendees were provided with an interactive environment where they could network and collaborate together around a number of interesting topics.

There’s always a tremendous amount of discussion around the Social Media Release (SMR). I still have executives asking me about its value, whether is it necessary to use, if it the SMR should replace a traditional release and the list goes on. I remember in 2007 when I first interviewed Phil Gomes, SVP of Edelman Digital, in my book PR 2.0, New Media, New Tools, New Audiences, he knew that the SMR was a useful tool for all companies, not just technology firms. I agree with Phil and have been using the SMR with great results.

Wednesday night, I co-hosted a book signing event with Brian Solis and Tara Hunt, author of the Whuffie Factor.  We attracted over 70 people at our meetup and it was a great night.  I met so many smart and interesting people.  The conversations were dynamic and each one taught me something new.  One conversation in [...]

The PR person has a new and important role. At my company, PFS Marketwyse, the PR department is comprised of PR people who take on the role of Research Librarians to aid in monitoring and measurement. Brian and I mention in our book, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations that PR professionals take on many roles in the new social economy. However, one of the most important roles is the Research Librarian, who actively listens, observes and dissects the conversations that take place with customers, media, bloggers, and other stakeholders in web communities.

When Brian and I were writing our book, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, a large part of our focus was to identify the issues in PR, to motivate professionals to tackle challenges in the industry and to move forward with a new approach. As we sorted through our research and had numerous conversations with experts, both in our industry, in social media, the complaints were all similar. PR lost its credibility and it was time to build back the integrity and respected reputation of a 100+ year old industry. The more we talked to people and reviewed blog posts, tweets and comments surrounding the concerns in our industry, we realized that the problems existed for a long time. Today, social media along with the ability for anyone to become a content producer highlights these pressing PR issues and propels them into the spotlight.

This is my first video blog.  Please let me know what you think.  Thanks!