Archive for December, 2010

50 Best Careers of 2011–PUBLICIST!!

U.S. News & World Report came out with a list of the best careers of 2011 this week and on a list that included financial analyst, commercial pilot and even biomedical engineer (so fancy), a little ol’ career of PUBLICIST made the list!!
Here are some of their reasons:
-The money is pretty good
-Tons of upward mobility
-You can be an extrovert and highly confident and not be pegged as arrogant

One of the reasons I really love my job is that I can make a difference in all of my clients’ businesses. I know that sounds cheesy, but I physically have the power to take a brand that no one knows about and get it on the pages of ‘O’ The Oprah Magazine or Lucky and all of the sudden, EVERYONE knows about it. Not only that, there is never a dull moment, and I mean NEVER. Sometimes, you’re in the office fielding calls or writing releases. Other times, you’re meeting with photographers and editors. My career is so dynamic and there is not one day that is the same.

So congrats to all of my PR gals and guys out there. We really are the best!!

~**Kendra**~

A good PR move for Zuckerberg?

Today, it was announced that Facebook CEO and wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg has pleged to donate half of his multi billion-dollar fortune (story via Business Week) to charities, as part of the Giving Pledge project. Giving Pledge is an initiative for billionaires started by the grandaddy of tech billionaires, Bill Gates, and the general grandaddy of ALL billionaires, Warren Buffett.

Zuckerberg, along with AOL honcho Steve Case, became the 16th and 17th American billionaires to make this pledge.

“People wait until late in their career to give back,” said Zuckerberg, who is worth $6.9 billion according to Forbes magazine. “But why wait when there is so much to be done?” (quote also via Business Week)

I have no doubt that Zuckerberg wants to help untold numbers of people with his pledge, however, as a publicist, I have to think about the media motives behind a move like this. Zuckerberg, during his meteoric rise to fame and fortune, has come off as prickly and combative in the past (see: the plot of The Social Network) – an emotionless automaton hell-bent on world domination through the considerable power of Facebook. Though Zuckerberg has donated generously in the past, including a large chunk to the Newark school system, this move is by far the most visible of his charitable efforts. It’s a move in a direction to make him seem warmer, cuddlier, nicer.

So today instead of discussing the various merits of yet another probably pointless Facebook redesign, we’re talking about Zuckerberg’s generosity. As they say on Mad Men, he “changed the conversation”. And kudos to him.

–Alison

End of an Era!

Aside from the usual awesomeness of the Konnect PR offices, today is a sad day – it’s my last day as a Konnect Intern! :( Yes, I still cannot believe the semester is over and so is my time here. I’m going to skip the sappy “what I learned and what I’m going to miss” long blog post, but I will say the experience has been incredibly entertaining. The Konnect girls are all unique in their own ways. I’m grateful to Kendra for expanding my musical tastes to long hip-hop albums (totally downloaded “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” this week), Monica for sharing the good ol’ days of Trojan football, Alison for being the ultimate pop culture junkie I aspire to be and Sabina for being brilliant yet completely indescribable.

Now that I’m moving on, I’m excited for the future and know I’m leaving Konnect a 1000x more qualified candidate.

-Susan

Rama Blogger Dinner

Last night, our client Rama Restaurant in LA was nice enough to host a dinner for local bloggers at their beautiful West Third St. location.

It was a great way to introduce a group of online food writers to a great restaurant, as well as debut some of Rama’s new menu items. In a city like LA, the opinions of food bloggers really matter – and they all know eachother and communicate often, so making sure a new restaurant is on their radar is important to the success of the establishment.

Thanks to all who attended!

–Alison

We love Alexandra St Clair, and so does Lipstick Diaries!

The charm bracelet fad is quickly gaining steam and everyone is RAGING about the latest pieces from Alexandra St Clair.
Check out these gorgeous pieces featured on the popular blog The Lipstick Diaries .

~**Kendra**~

Mobile PR

As a publicist, there is not one second of your day when you are not connected to the news, your clients, or the media. Our job is to always be a mobile source of information to best serve our clients and see where they fit into the continuous stream of news. The reason I bring this up is because for the last few days Sabina and I have been in Austin, Texas, conducting meetings with our clients based here and planning for 2011. While some may think that being in a different city, in a different state, out of the office, may lead to a disconnectedness with our work and clients, they would be wrong. In addition to the obvious BlackBerry and iPhone (which are hooked up to our e-mail and the internet) we have also set up a miniature satellite office in my hotel room, complete with laptops and iPad’s, and have carried on with the usual pitching, conference calls, interviews, etc. Today there is no reason to be disconnected and the fact that I am typing away on my laptop from a hotel room desk while Sabina is sitting on the bed, iPad in hand and currently on the phone is a testament to the fact that public relations is part of a non-stop work cycle… or at least it should be.

x Monica

 
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