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"Alone ... bad. Friend ... good."

Recently, BusinessWeek’s Stephen Baker, through various channels, has been exploring the nature of friendship in the age of social networking.  He’s interviewed a number of experts and analysts on the evolution of the term “friend” over the years, and how the proliferation of networks like Facebook has socially altered our collective definition of the word.    

I’d never really thought about it before, and I certainly can’t claim to be an expert on the matter, but it’s a fascinating discussion point.  Is how we view the concept of friendship different from how we viewed it 50 years ago?  10 years ago?  Why should it be any different?  Or maybe the better question is, why shouldn’t it be?

Right now I have 152 Facebook friends.  Bit of a shock to me, actually – I didn’t know I knew that many people.  They include folks I’ve encountered in all different walks of life – high school, college, work, church, etc.  I have clients, colleagues, my lovely girlfriend, current and former buddies, ex-roommates and people I haven’t spoken to “live” in 10 years on there.  And there’s not one of them that I’m ashamed to have on the list.  Well, except that one guy.  He knows who he is.

But do I consider them all friends?  More importantly, has having them as Facebook friends altered my definition of the word itself?  The answer to the first question, of course, is no.  Some I’d consider acquaintances, some family, others former friends with whom the years apart has eroded any sense of real friendship.  It’s kind of nice to know they’re around, though – sort of like a network reminding me of shared experiences. 

As for the second question, I don’t think it has.  The definition of friendship to me is like that of “obscenity” as defined by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart – I know it when I see it.  It’s fluid, amorphous.  I’m wondering if this might be the case for society too, and in that respect, I don’t think it’s changed much. 

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this.  Maybe I just wanted an excuse to title a blog post with a “Bride of Frankenstein” line.  Maybe the concept of friendship has never really been definable.  Regardless, it’s something to think about as we continue to navigate the new world of gods and monsters we call social networking. 

By Mark Van Hook

PR Pros and Job Hunters: The Bad Aren’t So Different

With the anti-PR rants from the likes of top technology journalists like Robert Scoble, Michael Arrington and Chris Anderson, it’s easy to see why PR gets a bad rap.  And it’s true.  There are plenty of mediocre – if not straight-out bad – people in the profession. 

Last week, I received an e-mail from an industry analyst friend of mine, who was a journalist for eWEEK more than five years ago.  Based on a single article he wrote for the publication six years ago, he received a pitch from a PR agency for some kind of widget just last week.  He pointed out that not only does this look bad for the agency, but also the client, when people don’t do their jobs and vet their contacts.  Just looking at his e-mail address should have been an indication that he had switched companies – and wasn’t even a journalist anymore!

It’s not just for PR pros – but job hunters too.  This week, Articulate posted an entry-level job opportunity and received more than 100 resumes.  Half of these were easy to weed out, but what differentiated the best from the rest was simple:  due diligence.  You don’t need an Ivy League education or scads of extra-curricular activities to get our attention – just show that you know what we do, care enough to check and target your “pitch” as a good fit for the agency.

Ultimately, that’s what good PR is all about – caring and due diligence. 

At the basic level, here’s what a good PR pro should do:

• Know your client’s business and understand its bottom-line objectives.
• Understand who you are targeting – not only publications and media outlets, but also journalists’ beats, likes and dislikes for receiving information, writing styles, etc.
• See if your pitch angle has already be covered.  Making it fresh and unique will get more results every time.
• Build synergistic relationships, positioning yourself and your clients as expert resources.
• Make every interaction count.

Now, going from good PR to great PR is a bit more difficult, but that’s what Articulate is all about.  So who’s up for the challenge?  If you think you are, submit your resume to jobs@articulatepr.com.

By Katy Zack

Basking in the Glow of My Wisdom

This week, I was asked by three college seniors for advice on getting a job after graduation.  When I’m asked for advice, I take it really seriously.  My brothers say that I love to “bask in the glow of my wisdom” and “impart life lessons” to those younger than me.  My 20s are coming to an end (only a few months left!) and, while I admit that I still have a lot to learn, I wish I had someone to give me brutally honest career advice (and life lessons!) when I graduated.

Entering into a bad economic climate must be very stressful for these seniors.  Since many job seekers often visit our blog before/after applying for positions here, I compiled my “wisdom” (ha!) into some helpful tips:   

Be Open to Internships
Post-college internships are a good way to get your foot in the door when there aren’t traditional entry-level positions available.  It shows that you’re a hard worker and eager to learn – and you’ll be top-of-mind when a position eventually does open up.  I graduated in 2002, another really tough time to get a job.  I ended up taking an internship and was hired as a full-time employee a few months later.  Yes, it’s not ideal from a salary perspective (although many more internships are now paid), but it’s worth the investment.

Create/Update Your LinkedIn Profile
It’s critical that your profile/resume be on LinkedIn.  This is something you should do immediately – even before you graduate.  Many companies go straight to LinkedIn after they receive a resume or job query to check out a prospect.  It’s also a great place to connect with people that could help you get a job down the line.  Just don’t request connections to people you don’t have relationships with – that can be annoying.  Be patient; your LinkedIn community will grow in time.     

Proof your Cover Letter!
Job seekers ask a lot of people to proof their resumes; it’s just second nature.  But many people neglect to do that with their cover letters.  We often encounter sloppy, misspelled cover letters, which look like they were thrown together in two minutes.  While having 20 people proof it isn’t necessary, make sure at least one person does.  Nothing will get your resume thrown into the “Not Interested” pile faster than a sloppy cover letter.   

Join Twitter
Just like LinkedIn, you need to create a Twitter handle.  When you’ve joined Twitter, a microblog that gives users 140 characters to communicate, follow PR pros (@meggarnett, @lauragrimmer), bloggers (@prblog, @skydiver, @PRCog), recruiters (@cvitello) and anyone else that’s involved in the industry.  Post things as well – talk about a project you’re working on, your need for a job, your upcoming graduation, etc.  It’s surprising how many connections you can make.

Read the News
Nothing impresses me more while interviewing a prospect than if he or she knows about our industry.  If a candidate reads up on tech and PR happenings and brings them up in conversation, I automatically know this person is smart and eager.  No matter what type of PR you want to do, make sure you know what’s happening in the space.  No one expects you to be an expert, but basic knowledge of current events and industry publications will make you stand out. 

Clean Up Facebook/MySpace Profiles 
Having a Facebook/MySpace page is 100-percent OK, just be sure to take down inappropriate pictures or anything (and I mean anything) that might be offensive.  This is something firms frequently look at when it comes to prospects.  Do you want a potential employer’s first visual image of you to be funneling a beer?  Dancing on a bar?  In costume?  I’m hoping that most of you would say no!

By Megan Garnett

So What Can We Control?

In these uncertain economic times, there are very few things that businesses can control.  We cannot decide what will happen on Wall Street or Main Street, but believe it or not, there are ways we can control the fate or our businesses.  Doing this requires the sensibility to follow three simple rules:

1. Reevaluate Your Marketing Program:  As budgets dwindle, the first thing that gets cut is usually marketing.  While this may seem like a reasonable strategy, trust me,  it is not.  If your first priority is sales, then you need to ensure the proper marketing of your products.  Use this downtime to take a look at your marketing program to see if there are new ways to reach out to customers.  This is the time to try cost-effective, innovative and fun strategies to capture the attention of potential clients.  Why not do a targeted Webcast or podcast for lead generation?  Or reach out to your existing customers to ramp up case study development?  Or explore social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook?  The possibilities are endless.  

2. Ensure Your Lines of Communication are Open:  It is especially crucial to make sure you are keeping the lines of communication open with your customers.  When new business slows, it's imperative to focus on client retention.  Having conversations with customers about pain points, difficulties or wants/needs can help innovate your product pipeline and keep your customers happy.  There are many benefits to conducting a customer-satisfaction survey.  You could leverage the results for customer-service tweaks and PR and marketing campaigns. 

3. Make Collaboration Key:  Collaboration with industry peers should be a very important focus during a financial downturn.  Chances are that others in your space are dealing with the same issues.  Why not elevate your company’s status by suggesting a collaborative project?  Why not drum up some attention by pooling together and hosting an industry event?  It could be an industry-influencer forum on how to best solve common problems in the space and give everyone the chance to share similar experiences. 

Take advantage of this time to realign corporate goals and to focus on what you can control – marketing efforts, customer satisfaction and industry collaboration.

By Kate Corcoran

Are Workers Really Less Productive in the Internet Age?

A new study on worker productivity conducted by the University of Melbourne has been making the Internet rounds this week.  Finding that workers who use the Internet for personal reasons, like watching YouTube videos and surfing Facebook, are 9 percent more productive than their all-business counterparts.  The study confounds expectations.

We’ve been participating in an informal study of our own this past week, estimating the amount of time we spend on the Internet during work hours for both work and personal reasons.  The idea behind the exercise is to identify how much time we’re really spend online vs. how much time we think we are.

What’s interesting about the study and our unofficial exercise is that, despite the inclusion of the Internet in the discussion, the findings aren’t really that new.  Before the Internet became a can’t-live-without utility, workers certainly had other ways of taking a break during work hours.  Maybe they nipped out for a cigarette instead of reading Gawker.com or gathered around the water cooler for a quick chat about a baseball game rather than checking out highlights on ESPN.com, but they certainly weren’t devoting all their time to work.

As a capitalistic, entrepreneurial nation, we’re constantly focused on the bottom line, especially when times are tough.  But as we have developed into a nation that is obsessed with ensuring the average worker has nothing to distract him or her from work objectives, are we shooting ourselves in the foot?  Is it that very distraction what makes the average worker more productive in the first place?

By Kate Reed